Some tough decisions

Well Debbie and I have been on the island of Koh Chang for the past 3 days and seriously we are quite stressed. It has been 4 days of some serious decision making. My previous project management skills came into serious play. First we had to decide if we were going to stay in Thailand longer because it meant extending our visa. We decided to stay. Decision #1 out of the way.

Then we had to decide where we were going to go for 10 days. Should we head south to the islands down there and the Andaman Sea or should we go east to some islands we have yet to explore. We decided to go east. Whew, decision #2 made. Decisions 3, 4 and 5 came at us in a flurry. What day did we want to take the bus (3), when did we want to return to Bangkok (4) and then when did we want to go to Cambodia (5). Then came some seriously taxing decisions about bus vs. plane.

Now we are in Koh Chang staying in a pretty cute place with a pool right on the ocean paying $22/night and we have found a really nice place that will give us a wicked room for something like $38/night. So we have to make a very important decision tonight about whether we should treat ourselves or just stay where we are. I tell you...sometimes this life of travel is so taxing. I personally think the only thing we can do is go get a foot massage, have some pad thai and a beer and do some serious thinking about it.

keep on keepin' on

found some more

more thailand

more Thailand

And now for Thailand

Myanmar continues

More myanmar photos

One day and counting

So three weeks with mamacita have gone by very quickly. Tomorrow she leaves and it will just be Deb and I once again. We are in Bangkok now and even though the papers are talking about the increased military presence because of the coup...it all seems rather peaceful. Apparantly at the Royal House there are over 20 tanks lined up and it has turned into a bit of a fair with vendors, people selling balloons, etc. So nothing to fear at all.

Deb and I are next headed to Ko Samet for another week of relaxation on yet another of Thailands beautiful islands and then our travels will take us over to Cambodia.

I am posting some more photos...some more of Myanmar and some of our time here in Thailand with mom.

Modes of transportation

Since mom has left Calgary, the following are the different modes of transportation she has taken in the last 2 weeks.

airplane (obvious)
taxi
skytrain
subway
overnight bus
longtail boat
back of a pick up
speed boat
sea kayak
elephant (my personal favourite)
tuk tuk
tri shaw
train
scooter (with me driving for 120km)
swan boat (in a park in Bangkok)
ferris wheel (not really transportation, but it goes round and round)

Not bad for a 70 year old, eh?

Just another day in paradise

The past 5 days were spent on Ko Phi Phi Island in Southern Thailand, just off the coast of Krabi. Beautiful little island that is small enough that there are no roads or vehicles and you can walk everywhere which gives it a real laid back feeling. We lounged on the beach one day, went kayaking in the morning on another day...which was a bit of a laugh as the kayak was made for 2 and we rammed mom on there with us. Deb and I went snorkelling in this amazing lagoon on Ko Phi Phi Lay (a small island off of Ko Phi Phi). We went there around 3pm and there were only 2 other boats in the lagoon...it was surrounded by high cliff walls and the water was the bluest I have ever seen. The snorkelling was amazing...as soon as we jumped off the boat we were surrounded by these yellow and blue fish. There were hundreds of them and they are so brave, they would swim right up to your goggles and just check you out. It was amazing. We were told that if we went snorkelling off of long beach that we would see reef sharks, but that thought makes my throat constrict so we just stuck to the areas with the pretty coloured fishies.

Considering it is monsoon season here, we had some pretty great weather. It rained a couple of afternoons but we had already been up since 7am, spent the morning on the beach so it rained during our nap time, which really wasn't a problem.

Now we are just waiting for our bus to depart...we are travelling back up north making our way back to Bangkok slowly. It has been great having mom here, she is such a trooper, up for anything that we want to do. She makes me laugh really. I will be very sad to see her leave.

The cookies she brought us disappeared a lot faster than I would have liked. Already I am suffering withdrawal.

Krabi, Thailand

Well we spent a few days knocking about Bangkok with mom and then we jumped on a bus and headed south to Krabi, Thailand. It was over a 12 hour journey and our mom the trooper just rolled right along with the punches. We are just outside of Krabi town on a beach called Ao Nang...cute little place. Yesterday we took a longtail boat over to Railay Beach had some lunch and then walked to the cave. One of the rocks on Railay Beach resembles a penis, so the belief is that if you go into the cave and pray or perhaps just float in the water too long it is supposed to help with fertility. So if mom comes home with a bun in the oven you all know what happened. Ha! It was a beautiful place...nice white sand and crystal blue waters. We think we will be back here at Christmas time, so we stopped in a few resorts to see their prices at that time. This one place we looked at, you get your own hydro pool and a yard. It was gorgeous and would set us back a mere $1600/night over the Christmas period. Needless to say we did not book a room.

This morning, we woke up, had some breakfast (for some reason they never seem to want to bring my toast...this is the 2nd morning in a row) and then we headed out about 20 minutes outside of town and went elephant trekking. Mom and Deb rode a giant male elephant named Pep and I was alone on a female elephant...I can't remember her name in Thai...I think it was Mali, in English Gardenia. It was pretty cool sitting on top of an elephant walking through the jungle. Highly recommend it. After the hike we fed the elephants some bananas. Gardenia was a little pig. You could barely break a banana off and she was up there with her trunk sniffing around. I honestly think feeding them was my favourite part. It was like being surrounded by giant snakes all reaching out towards you. Deb got to sit on her elephants head for a while and ride around that way.

Tomorrow we are going on an island tour in the morning and then we will go to Ko Phi Phi for a few days rest.

Oh and for those of you that know mom...guess what? She bought a ring. It is beautiful. Designed and made here in Ao Nang. Never seen anything like it before....really beautiful.

and on and on she goes

keep on looking

A few last minute entries

Just polished off 2 pints of beer with lunch...hey they were 2 for 1, what did you expect me to do...walk away?

Deb has gone back to the room to sleep, such a lightweight, and I have decided to update the blog once again with more photos. My work ethic amazes even me at times.

Over lunch as we swilled beers Deb and I were talking about our trip and all of the wonderful experiences we have had. The most recent that seems to stick out in my head is Bagan, Myanmar. I know I have said how beautiful it is, but I don't think I have done it justice. IT was such a sleepy little town and our ponycart driver Jo Jo would pick us up and drive us up to these amazing temples and pagodas that were so beautiful...we felt like Cinderella arriving at the ball (of course in this instance deb is one of the wicked step sisters). We must have seen about 40 temples over 3 days...and in each of these temples there were on average about 5 different buddha's. You would think you would grow tired of seeing endless Buddha's. But we were in one temple...and if I could tell you the name I would but they all kind of blurred into one another. For some reason I just found this one particular Buddha so peaceful and it got me thinking. I grew up Catholic and I have no ral affinity to catholicism. I neither believe strongly or disbelieve in God. But sitting there kneeled before Buddha looking up at its image, it kind of struck me. HEre is this peaceful being, sitting cross legged, hands held so peacefully on its lap....it just evokes this sense of calm. I could have sat there for hours and it actually made me feel like praying. Whereas in church I have always felt the image of Christ on the cross suffering has made me feel rather oppressed and like I should feel guilty for enjoying life.

I guess all I am saying is it got me thinking. So on that note...more photos.