KSRipman

It's been over since we last posted, and a lot has happened since. So I thought I'd fill you all in. Seth and I spent a week in the city of Hua Hin. We stayed at a “cozy” hotel in the center of the city, down the street from the Night Market. At this point, we've seen many, many markets. Local markets where mountains of curry pastes are sold alongside row after row of fish on ice. We've goggled at the hundreds of kinds of fish, squid, eels, crabs, cockles, prawns, lobster, rays, and even horseshoe crabs being sold. We've passed tottering Jenga piles of coconuts 20 feet high. We (meaning Seth), have sampled chili pastes of all kinds. We've strolled through night markets and ambled down day markets with foods unlike we'd ever seen before ... read more

Well, we've left the cozy jungles and lazy beach bars of Koh Lanta for the crowded jungles and packed beach bars of Ao Nang. Packing up at the abysmally early hour of 10 AM, we piled onto a songthaew and then watched as one, two, and eventually eight other backpackers tried to cram themselves and their massive luggages onto the tiny benches bolted onto the truck's bed. New friends, German and Dutch and French and English, accompanied us all the way to our hotels in Ao Nang. The familiar complaints about sketchy travel agencies, higher prices for farangs, and the difficulty of finding a language we all could comprehend provided an easy basis for casual conversation. We left the songthaew, clambered onto a battered ferry crewed entirely by fifteen year olds, and began put-putting for four ... read more

Seth and I are sitting outside by the pool, waiting while our room is cleaned by hotel staff, so I figured I might as well use this time to write a blog post. For the first time I've forgotten to put on sunscreen before we left our room (the cleaning team arrived earlier than normal so we were caught unprepared). While Seth sits and finalizes details for the next step of our trip, I hide in the ever-shrinking spot of shade. After about 3 ½ weeks of island living, we are preparing to move off to our next location, Krabi. We passed through the town on our way to Koh Lanta, as the island is a part of the Krabi Province. Krabi itself is on the mainland, and is home to national forests, hot springs, and ... read more

While Kendall spends her days in the shade, drawing and scratching and painting all the beautiful wildlife and vegetation of Koh Lanta, I have been getting my ass kicked once a day at the Lanta Muay Thai Gym. Owned by Mr. Williams who was once a stadium champion, the gym is a corrugated metal roof over two large rings and a long hall filled with bags of every flavor. Little children run around while shriveled old thai men observe the young fighters in training. The smell of weed and thai liniment oil is everywhere, and at 4 pm, the temperature sits at 98 degrees with 80% humidity. The metal roof turns the whole matted area into a giant sauna. I have never been so hot in my life! But there is an upside - when the ... read more

So we didn't end up finding those fights. As the season changes, the tourist money dries up, restaurants and inns close, and the local Muay Thai stadiums shut down. Instead we walked along the beach at night and found a bar with a fire-dancing amateur hour. We sat and drank cocktails by the ocean watching drunk foreigners scorch themselves with spinning balls of fire. A delightful end to our night. Since we last wrote, Seth and I have been going around and more fully exploring the island. There are several beaches here, each more beautiful than the last. Our first week here we stayed at Banana Beach Resort on Klong Dao beach, where the resorts cater to Swedish / northern European families instead of backpackers and beach bums like us. The next beach over is Long ... read more