Today we rented a longtail boat for the morning so we could get out to explore Phi Phi Ley. We were hoping to get to Maya Bay before all of the day-trippers from Phuket and Krabi arrived. The beach itself is quite small and fills up with people and boats rather quickly. We ended up getting there about 10 minutes before the crowds. As a result, some of our pictures show a quiet beach while the rest show more of a zoo. Either way it was fun. Phi Phi Ley is so scenic. We explored the area and snorkled further out in the bay. Our driver took us completely around the island so we could see the other bay (LoSama) which is more fully enclosed with limestone cliffs than Maya Bay, but which lacks a real ... read more

Our final full day at Ao Nang proved to be just another day of fun in the sun. We toured several local islands and did some snorkling along the way. It is amazing how clear and warm the water is here and the sand is like powder. For the record, we visited Pranang Beach (we saw this beach yesterday),Tup island, Chicken Island (aptly named - see photo), and Poda island. Krabi is such a tropical paradise! Tomorrow we are off to Phi Phi island for another three days of snorkling and exploring. Steven and I spent a day on Phi Phi last year and decided then that we would have to come back during our next trip to Thailand. We can't wait! Here are today's pictures...... read more

Just a quick note... We are in Taipei airport at the moment. After 14 hours on the plane, it is nice to be able to walk around the airport. Our next flight is from Taipei to Bangkok and then on to Krabi, Thailand our first destination. No pictures yet... Our next update will be in Krabi. Later... Steven & Ken... read more

Well, we are finishing up these last blog entries from back home in San Diego. It was hard to find the time to update the blog during the final days of our trip since we bounced around from city to city. Nonetheless, for completeness, here is a synopsys of the final days of our trip. Vientiane, Laos - December 17th to December 18th We left Luang Prabang and headed for the Laotian capital of Vientiane. Vientaine struck me as just another prototypical Asian city. It wasn great, it wasn horrible, it just...was. We visited a few sites in Vientiane such as Wat Sisaket, Wat Ho Phra Keo, That Luang (Royal Stupa - now it used as a symbol of Laos), Patuxai (Anousavary - Victory Monument) and Wat Xieng Khouang (Budda Park) which was about 45 minutes ... read more

Day 9 & 10 December 14th, 2007 to December 15th, 2007 After the short flight from Bangkok, we touched down in Chiang Mai and caught a cab to our hotel Yang Come Village. The hotel itself was very beautiful with very lush landscaping and lighting. The other nice thing about this hotel is that it is right around the corner from Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar. The downside to our particular room was that it was full of mosquitoes. Each night we spend about an hour mosquito hunting before going to bed. We couldn’t figure out how they were getting into the room until we were about to check out when I noticed the bathroom vent did not have a screen on the outside. Anytime the bathroom light was turned on, the fan would also come on ... read more