Fun on the Thai beaches

This picture pretty much describes what we've been doing for the past two weeks. Clay and Trista finished their SCUBA diving course and I was happy to finally have someone to build sandcastles with.

We worked well into the night and it was quite a sight when it was done. In the morning I noticed some of the local stray dogs had marked my fortress as their territory. At least the tide hadn't come in yet.We found a little friend who helped us. We named him 'Oreo' (or Double-stuffed as a nickname) and he was so cute and friendly!

One day we rented motorbikes and rode up to the top of Koh Tao Island and found a lookout point where we could see the nearby island of Nangyuan. It is a protected park so you have to pay 100 baht ($3.00) to enter.
Then somebody had the crazy idea to put our swimsuits on and swim out to it so we wouldn't have to pay.

It was a long swim but one of the coolest beaches I've ever seen. The snorkelling was awesome, too. We couldn't swim with the camera so we don't have any pictures of it.
This is a view from above but it doesn't do it justice. We loved Koh Tao and you can see why when you see the view from our beach bungalows.

Then we were off to another beach on the other side of Thailand. We took a boat to the mainland, then a bus across the Malay penninsula over to Krabi where we got a longtail boat out to Railay beach.

I thought I had already found the perfect beach, but I was wrong.
It's OK to be wrong about some things. I didn't mind finding another awesome beach.

Of course it's not the perfect beach unless you can make a really good sandcastle. Clay tested the waters (or the sand, rather) and decided to be creative. Can you guess what they are?

The Salt Lake Temple, Balanced Rock, and Clay and I after we got distracted by the beautiful sunset.

There was a thunder and lightning storm that night and I had lots of room to build my sandcastle when the beach cleared out as it started raining.

This was the final product. We even had a few curious spectators.

We eventually moved on from Railay and went over to Phuket island. It wasn't as pretty, but the first couple of days it rained anyway. When it stopped we decided to try boogie boarding.

This one didn't work out so well . . .Clay and Trista went SCUBA diving out on Koh Phi Phi and said it was beautiful so we took the ferry out there. And suddenly we entered the kingdom of Floren and were faced with the cliffs of insanity! Inconceivable!

Koh Phi Phi got hit pretty hard by the tsunami, but there is no sign of it now. It is another perfect beach in a long line of contestants.And the runners up are:

Monkey Bay

Koh Phi Phi Ley
and Maya Bay
Yay! We have a winner! Maya bay was where the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed.

And it really was beautiful . . . .

We saw all this on a sunset tour and dinner was included. We also got to snorkel and kayak all for about $16.00 It was a fun day!

And now I'm off to find the next perfect beach . . . .

(Actually we are off to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore next. So we'll say goodbye to the beach for another week or so . . . .)

Paddies, Prayers, and Paradise

I thought I'd better put in a couple of pictures of my own from the last entry now that I have them. Ayutthaya was the ancient capital of Siam and the ruins are very cool to wander around.

I've been trying to work on getting more artistic shots of places and I thought this one turned out alright.

This was the day we rented bicycles and Trista and I tried to race the elephants. (We won!)

We finally got out of the big dirty city of Bangkok and took a night train up north to Chiang Mai. Clay decided to sit by the monks before seeing the sign that said "Reserved for disabled people and monks." I don't think foreigners count as disabled people but the monks didn't mind.

We made it to Chiang Mai after a 14 hour overnight train ride in a sleeper car. We didn't sleep as well as we should have because Clay realized he had left his iphone charging in the wall back in Bangkok. As soon as we arrived we called the hotel and they held it for him until he came back. It was a lucky way to learn the important lesson of keeping a tight watch on your valuables.

We found a place to stay and then booked an overnight trek into the mountain villages for the next day. We were quite pleased when we secretly discovered we had paid less than everybody else (it pays to shop around among the many travel agencies). We didn't trek very long before we reached the remote Karen tribe village where we would be staying the night.

We had dinner and a campfire and of course got the chance to buy some jewelry from the women (one of their few sources of income) and then it was off to bed. There is no electricity in the village so it got dark fast and then we all shared the same alarm clock . . . . .

The next day we trekked along the rice paddies further into the mountains . It was so beautiful to see in the morning.

It's rice harvest season so all the villagers are out working. Some cut the rice stalks down with a sickle while others slap the stalks on a piece of wood to get the seeds off. Our guide let some of us try it but nobody could do it as well as these women and children.

The beauty of the rice paddies was incredible, and one of my favorite parts of the trek.

Unfortunatly it was Clay and Trista's least favorite part because of the leeches. Everytime we stopped or brushed up against certain plants they would attach to the skin and start sucking. I was glad for my long pants and tennis shoes that day.

We made it down the mountain after successfully getting rid of all the leeches and waited with excitement for the elephant ride. Last time I was in Thailand I rode on the neck of the elephant so I volunteered to do it again. Once he knew we had a sack of bananas to feed him with, this elephant wouldn't leave me alone. Every 30 seconds I felt his suction cup nose worming it's way around my hands sniffing for something to eat. Fabiola (from Germany) and I ran out of bananas really fast. After the ride we went down the river and got on bamboo rafts. Our guide had one English phrase he used a lot - "No wet, no fun!" He pushed Clay in and we got back at him by capsizing the raft when he wasn't looking. (We couldn't take cameras so this picture actually isn't mine - sorry)It was a great trek and we got back to Chiang Mai tired and ready for a shower. The next day we hired a guy to take us to my school where I'll be doing the CELTA course in January. I left my extra luggage and got to talk to some girls who were in the middle of their course. It looks like a peaceful place and I'm glad I chose the reletive coolness of the mountains to do my course. We also paid the driver to take us up to the temple of Doi Suthep. This temple houses some Buddhist relics but also has a great view of Chiang Mai.

In one little room we found monks blessing the people so we went in and knelt down. Then the monks tied white string around our wrists to bless us to have a safe journey. Some believe that cutting the string off brings bad luck - it must fall off naturally.

The day after that was Sunday so we walked to church. Luckily we had met some members in Bangkok who told us where it was. They had headsets that the missionaries translated into so the English speaking members could understand.

Before we left we looked online and found a cheap flight to Bangkok so we didn't have to do a night train since we would already be doing a night bus down to the southern islands. (A flight all the way down to the islands was a bit out of our price range.) So after an hour flight we retrieved Clay's iphone and got on the bus. Early in the morning we were dropped off at a pier where we took another hour and a half catamaran ride out to the island of Koh Tao. The island is famous for SCUBA diving and snorkelling so Clay and Trista are getting PADI certified. Since SCUBA diving for a clausterphobic person is just torture, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself on the surface. They even let me hop on the boat with the divers for free on the day they do shallow dives.

It's been great so far and we still have another two weeks of island hopping to go!

One Night in Bangkok

You know how the song goes: "One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble . . . " I have been amazed that a seasoned traveler like myself got hit so hard with jet lag. I must be getting older . . . .
We (Clay, Trista, and I) arrived at about 1:00 in the morning and the taxi driver couldn't find the hotel we wanted to stay at so we ended up just staying on Khao San Road (the headquarters of budget hippie backpacker-ville). We took the first place we could find to crash for a few hours before the time difference woke us all up at 5:00 am. Eventually (after some delicious banana pancakes) we went and found the Bamboo Guest House which was much nicer and quieter.

The first day we did nothing but relax, explore the wonders of Asian street food (probably not the best thing for Trista's first proper day outside the U.S.), and go to a place where they fold you up like a pretzel and step on you (also known as a Thai massage).

It was wonderful. The next day I had set up an interview with IH Bangkok - the school where I will be doing a certificate course in January.

I'll be getting the CELTA in Chiang Mai (a town in the north) which is a Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults and will help me be a better English teacher. I passed the interview and was accepted into the program. Yipee!

After that it was time for some actual sightseeing so we went to Wat Phra Kaew - the temple (wat) next to the main government building. It was just as amazing as I remember in 2004.

The next day (Saturday) we took a short train ride to Ayutthaya - the ancient kingdom's capitol - and saw some cool ruins.

We rented bicycles and had fun riding around the town. There was a big park with ponds and bridges that was perfect for riding around. We also saw a Gila monster under one of the bridges.

A nearby building houses a giant (I mean GIANT) Buddha. I couldn't find pictures of the inside but the statue fills the building.

We meandered back to where we had rented the bicycles and then found a restaurant that had recognizable food. Thai food is great but sometimes you just appreciate a nice cheeseburger and fries. The restaurant was owned by a British expat who worked at the nearby elephant kraal. All of the artwork in the restaurant was painted by elephants. His next plan was to bring in a baby elephant to paint the walls.

Tomorrow we are off to Chiang Mai in the north. I'm anxious to visit the school I'll be attending in January, and we are all anxious to do a trek into the hilltribe areas and ride elephants and bamboo rafts. Until then we are stuck with riding tuk-tuks in the city.

p.s. I'm sorry the pictures are small and none of them are my own - I'm still trying to work out some problems I've been having with my camera.