Thursday Dec 20/07 - Bangkok

At the temples in Chiang Mai

Nicola showing off her dishes at Cooking Class

Snackin' on Crickets at a local market....yummy

Temples at the Grand Palace

More pictures of the Grand Palace

Statues at the Grand Palace

The Giant Recline Buddha

Well this is likely to be the last blog for our trip across Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Thailand. A bitter-sweet moment for sure. We have been having an absolute blast on this trip and have learned and seen so much. On the other hand it's been months since we've seen most of our friends and our families and it will be great to come home, especially just in time for Christmas.

Since the last post we've spent 5 days in Thailand's Northern region in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is certainly a different place than the rest of Thailand, originally it was quite separated from the rest of the country, having it's own language and other characteristics. Today it is very much a part of Thailand, but retains it's own unique feel. The air was a little cleaner and the people were quite a bit more relaxed in Chiang Mai, enjoying the beautiful jungles and mountains as backdrops to the city. While in Chiang Mai we went on a city tour and a tour of the many famous temples. There are literally hundreds of Temples in Chiang Mai, but we went to see the most popular ones, and one high up in the mountain over looking the city. We also took in a cooking class at one of the local cooking schools. Our small group of 5 got to pick out 4 dishes from a cookbook and then we hit the local markets to buy all the fresh ingredients. After heading back to the school we prepared all the ingredients and then cooked each dish, ending the evening with a big feast of our creations. The cooking class was a lot of fun and I hope that I'll be able to recreate some of the dishes when I return home, though my history of Kraft Dinner cooking would tend to disagree.

After returning to Bangkok Nicola and I spent a whole day touring the Grand Palace, a group of extravagant Temples in the heart of Bangkok. We also visited the giant reclining Buddha, this thing is absolutely enormous, almost too big to fit in one picture. The level of detail in the temples here in Thailand is indescribable and unfortunately the pictures do no justice to the millions of little jewels and details carved into every square inch of these massive buildings. Besides that, Nicola and I will spend the last day here taking in some last massages and last minute shopping before heading to Singapore tomorrow and then home the next day. Thanks to everyone for following along and Merry Christmas!

Friday, Dec 14/07 - Chiang Mai, Thailand

"The Beach" from the Movie, actually called Maya Bay

Another shot of the beach...so many tourists :(

Long boat in Maya Bay

Nicola feeding the monkeys at Monkey Beach

Tropical fish pecking the bread right out of your hand

Nicola getting swarmed by hungry fish

Muay Thai Boxing match at Patong Stadium

Well it's been a little while since our last post on the blog. To be perfectly honest we really haven't been doing that much different everyday. A typical day for us in Patong Beach has been sleeping in, throwing on our bathing suits, heading down the beach, reading, tanning and swimming for the whole day, relaxing or going out in the evenings and then doing it all over again the next day. We literally did that every day for about 10 days. One of the nights we took in a Muay Thai fight at the local stadium which was really entertaining, better than the fights we saw in Bangkok. There were a lot of international fighters on the card and all the fights were very aggressive.

We also did a day tour out to the Koh Phi Phi islands. These are regarded as some of the most beautiful places in the world, and certainly in Thailand. As I mentioned in a previous post, the movie "The Beach" was set on the islands off Koh Samui but was actually filmed on a beach on one of the Phi Phi islands. We went to this beach, called Maya Bay, and were awestruck with just how perfect it was. Nestled in a very protected bay, surrounded by towering cliffs, a perfectly white sandy beach sits in the back of bay filled with crystal clear water thriving with tropical fish. The only downside to the area is that everyday thousands of tourists make the trip out there and the place has been perpetually busy since the 1999 release of the film displaying it's beauty. However, if you are able to look past all the boats and all the tourists it's easy to see this is one of the world's 'not so hidden' gems. After visiting that beach our tour boat took us around to many other places around the islands and for a buffet lunch on another very nice beach in a quieter area. We also visited an almost equally busy 'Monkey Beach' where the beach and surrounding trees are full of Monkeys ready and willing to accept bananas from the tourists in exchange for being photographed more than Paris Hilton or Britney Spears.

Our time in Patong beach was great, though we may not think of it like this we really converted from travelers to tourists for a week and a half but we definitely enjoyed the relaxation. I will certainly never argue with $6 for an hour long massage or $1 for three giant spring rolls delivered right to my beach chair while reading a book. Now that our time is up there, Nik has flown back to Bangkok to return home today and Nicola and I have flown to Chiang Mai, a city of about 200,000 in Northern Thailand. We will spend probably 5 nights up here, exploring the city and some of its many temples before returning to Bangkok for a few nights and then home for us too. Our itinerary includes one afternoon and night in Singapore on the way home so we'll get to explore that city a little bit more this time.

Monday - Dec 3/07 - Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand

Thailand Moped Gang Members

That takes guts

The snake hissed and snapped at him over and over

This guy was huge but basically harmless

Lots of time spent here by the pool at the Mermaid Bungalows

Our Speedboat for the Ang Thong day trip

Nicola and I on the beach at our first stop

The fisherman's village

Nicola chillin' at Patong beach

Patong Beach, where we will spend many afternoons

As I sit here and write this blog it's at least 30 degrees outside and the sun has been cooking us all day long, yet when I check the weather at home it's -5 and there's at least a foot of snow on the ground! Oh yeah?!!? It's December! It's hard to believe that it's already December and that soon we will be returning home to what is supposed to be a very chilly Canadian winter. That being said, I'm actually pretty jealous of everyone at home with all their snow and wish I could be playing around in it right now, despite the great weather here. Nicola is quite the opposite, she hates the snow with a passion and does not look forward to seeing any of it.


Since the last post we've gone from Koh Phan Ngan to Koh Samui, and have now moved on to Phuket where we are staying at Patong Beach. Koh Samui was a fun island to stay on. It was about a 45 minute ferry ride from Koh Phan Ngan and we stayed at some bungalows on the outside of the town of Chewang. Certainly more established and definitely more touristy this island was still a cheap place to stay where we got to soak up the sun and relax for a week. We spent a good amount of our time by the pool, relaxing and reading. Once again we rented some mopeds which allowed us to boogie around the island and into town when needed to pick up a new book or some frozen yogurt. Getting lost on the island's crazy and confusing, yet limited road system is always a good way to spend an afternoon. One afternoon we took in a crocodile and snake show at the local crocodile farm where we saw some stuff I never thought was possible. Some very daring Thai guys working extremely hard for their tips got dangerously close to being bit by King Cobras and Crocodiles.


Another one of our days on Koh Samui was spent doing a day trip to Ang Thong National Marine Park. For those who have seen the movie 'The Beach' with Leonardo DiCaprio, this is where the film was based. The weather for the day was unfortunately a little bit overcast, but we still had a great time. We went on a nice new speed boat with triple 225 horse Honda outboards out to the park, then used a three man kayak (which we capsized) to get to our lunch destination. The kayaks would take us to a secluded fisherman's village in the middle of nowhere. Here we had a traditional Thai lunch with our group and hopped back in the speed boat. From lunch we set out in open waters to our next stop to do some snorkeling, however the seas had gotten quite rough at this point. Facing nearly 6 foot swells we had a very rocky ride that got most on the boat very wet. After a stop to do some snorkeling we faced the ride back home, which was supposed to be 35 minutes long.....An hour and 45 minutes later we had finally made it back to Koh Samui. The seas had gotten extremely rough but we had no choice but to push through the large waves using the power of the outboards to their full extent. In the open front section of the boat one man hit his head on his knee after the boat came down hard from a large wave. Unfortunately he also jammed his back in the process and would have to be carried to the back of the boat to lie down. This also happened to be where I was sitting, Nicola was midship where she would stay relatively dry. I moved to the very front where Nik and a few other of the young passengers were. The ride back was extremely rough and we even took on water (and a fish) from the bow of the boat on a few occasions. Meanwhile in the back section of the boat, fear and nausea had taken over the group. The front group enjoyed the thrill ride back with no problems but when we arrived Nicola informed us that half a dozen of the folks in the back had thrown up (some out in the open) and many of the others were in tears. Needless to say some enjoyed the day more than others.

As I mentioned earlier, we just recently took the bus and boat from Koh Samui to Phuket where we've found a great hotel near Patong Beach. The area is very touristy but also very nice and there is a lot to do around here (besides the beach which is reason enough to spend a couple weeks here). With tourism come the Lady-Boys and sexy massage ladies, in true Thailand fashion. Walking down certain streets, like the one we have to walk to get from the hotel to the beach, means that lone men will literally be draped with ladies and lady-boys stroking them and attempting to lure them into their massage parlours. Without exaggeration you literally need to push them away from you. Thankfully I have Nicola on my arm most of the time so they stay away from me, but 6'5" Nik is a prime target in this area, "Sexy man! you very tall! you come here I give you massage!" Tonight we will sort out some of our plans for the next little while which should hopefully include some fishing, snorkeling and trips out to Koh Phi Phi, an island renowned for its beauty off the coast of Phuket.

Saturday, Nov 24/07 - Koh Phan Ngan, Thailand

Khao San Road, Bangkok

Nice wiring job eh?

Tuk Tuk

The view from our room on Koh Phan Ngan

Our place is on the right

Swimming at the waterfalls with our Safari group

Elephant Trekking

Nicola holding a baby Lemur

As we expected, Thailand is a completely different world. Arriving into Bangkok we were floored at how completely different everything is here. Very few people speak English here and the ones that do are very difficult to understand. The ideas of anything regarding safety, regulations, licences, taxes, or any of the first world ideals we are so used to simply don't exist here. Walking down Khao San Road you will be asked by literally dozens of people if you want a taxi, a tuk tuk, a new suit, some food, or as the case is in the evenings anything to do with 'ladies', I think we all get the picture here. It is so busy literally everywhere you go, escaping back to your hotel room is your only chance to really catch your breath and stop for a moment. We spent most of our time in Bangkok just walking around and soaking in the completely different way of life here. On our way back through Bangkok we will spend more time checking out the temples. Nik and I did go to a Muay Thai kickboxing match one evening, where we had front row, ringside seats and were treated like kings. Despite where you go and how much money you spend it is painfully obvious that you are in a very poor country, everywhere you go. There is a certain 'every man for himself' mentality which runs across all elements of society. Also as I mentioned before a total lack of regulation means that things flow quickly with a certain lack of bureaucracy but also with a total lack of safety or assurance in anything you do. A few examples; we are driving ATV's down the main roads with no drivers licence required, when I asked for a helmet the guy just laughed, when I asked if we needed a licence to fish, or insurance for our mopeds I heard that same laugh, our hotel is playing movies on the movie channel which have clearly been videotaped in a movie theatre, any legal concerns? only the tourist police will even talk to you however they've all been paid off by someone anyways. I'm sure returning to Canada will be a bit of a shock for all us. Maybe we'll all get strange looks when we are caught bartering the price of a donut at Tim Hortons. "80 cent!? no no, 40 cent 40 cent"

We are currently on the island of Koh Phan Ngan and we are absolutely loving it here. We took the most expensive (assuming it was the safest) option of getting here. We had a 6.5 hour bus ride on a nice newer bus followed by a 4 hour ride on a high speed catamaran similar to the Harbour Lynx, it cost us $21 each. The small island has about 12,000 permanent residents but is swarmed by hundreds of thousands over the year to come to the world famous 'Full Moon Party'. Started in the late 1980's this party can attract well in excess of 10,000 partying backpackers onto one beach in Haad Rin on the island. The beach is lined with DJs playing different music and lots of bars. The party does not stop until well into the morning. The full moon is tonight so we will be down at the beach partying with the rest of them. However, I'm sure we will be quite cautious and even sober compared to some of the people we've met and seen around this island. We've been enjoying the beaches and scenery as well as the amazing food as compared to getting blackout drunk every single night as it seems most young English travellers here are doing. We rented some mopeds to get us around the island for the first few days, doing some exploring of our own and driving down to Haad Rin and Thong Sala, the two main towns. We are staying at a beach called Ban Kai which is about 3km from Haad Rin, other travellers we met in Australia recommended this so we can escape the craziness (and theft) that occurs in the Haad Rin area on the full moon night. We've also rented some sea-doos at the beach and now have rented some ATV's to really explore the extremely rugged inland roads which have also recently been ravaged by floods. Yesterday we went on a Safari tour of the island which included Nicola, Nik and I plus 4 Swedish girls guided by two Thia guys in a Land Rover. They took us around the island showing us many of the beaches and sights to see. We went on a few jungle treks to some waterfalls, went on an elephant trek, and attempted some snorkeling but the water was not clear enough. Monday, after we've recovered from the full moon party we will make our way down to Koh Samui, a larger more commercialized island to the south. We're not really sure how long we'll stay there but we've got a few places in mind of where to stay so we'll just play it by ear.

Friday November 16/07 - Bangkok, Thailand

Just a quick note to say that we made it to Thailand in one piece. Our flight here from Singapore was actually cancelled last night so Singapore Air put us up in a hotel that made us blush after months of cheap hostel accomodation. Today we've made it to Bangkok and are staying at quite a nice hotel on Khoa San Road (the place where all the foreigners go), it is about $25 a night for a very nice room. Tomorrow we will meet Nik at the airport and then the fun will really begin as we head south in search of beaches and good times. We'll put up another blog post once we've taken some pictures and explored around Bangkok some more and know more about our plans for the next 5 weeks.

Wednesday Nov/07 - Sydney

Port Arthur Historic Prison Site

Wineglass Bay

Nicola gettin' smoochy with a Wallaby

Beach at the Bay of Fires

Nice walk through the rain forest at St. Columba Falls

Nicola and I at Cradle Mountain

Mommy Wallaby with her baby in the pouch

Tasmanian traffic jam

Goodbye Sydney!

Well tomorrow we will yet again say goodbye to another country and move on, this time to Thailand. Our last week in Australia was spent in Tasmania, the big rock south of Australia, rarely visited by many backpackers or even Australians. It was very difficult to find out any information on what we should do while in Tasmania as we couldn't find anybody who'd ever been there. I asked every single travel agent we went to and not a single one had ever been, in addition we weren't able to find any other backpackers in the hostels that had been.

We rented a car in Hobart which is the capital city, with a population of about 200,000 and went to a tourist info centre to map out our time on the island. We picked a route which would take us up the east coast visiting the Port Arthur Historic Prison Site, Wineglass Bay, and the Bay of Fires, leading us to Launceston in the north of the island. From here we went to Cradle Mountain National Park and then worked our way down to Hobart again.

The Port Arthur Site was very interesting. Australia and Tasmania were where criminals in Britain were sent in the 1800's. When these criminals misbehaved, as well as really bad criminals from the UK, they were sent to Port Arthur. The prison was seen as an experiment in its time, incorporating mental and physical 'torture', with education and rehabilitation. It was open for approximately 30 years in the mid 1800's and was built entirely by the convicts themselves as part of their work duties. Because of the geography of the site there are no prison walls, it's just a site in the middle of the forest on the water's edge, escape was virtually impossible. We went on a day tour of the entire site, exploring the many buildings whose remnants still stand today, taking in the very rich history of the site. At night we did ghost tour of the site which was pretty creepy. The site is home to many legends and ghostly tales of its horrific and tragic history. Too add to its infamous history of death and despair the site was also home to Australia's worst massacre. In 1996 a local man only 28 years of age went to the cafeteria of the tourist attraction and used semi-automatic guns to commit a hideous act of violence. 35 locals, tourists, and employees of the site died that day as the man shot people at the site and continued his rampage onto a local resort, holding himself up for an eventual police shootout. It was a tragedy of vast proportions that many had trouble even fathoming. Today the massacre is not mentioned on the tours as it simply too fresh in the minds of employees who lost family and friends in the shooting.

After Port Arthur we headed up to Wineglass bay halfway up on the east coast. We did a one hour hike up to a lookout point which gives you a beautiful view of this perfect crescent shaped beach. The scenery is incredible from the lookout point and you feel like staying up there for the whole day and just staring off at the horizon.

From Wineglass Bay we moved up the coast to the Bay of Fires. This area is an incredible set of magnificent white beaches accented with turquoise waters. The beaches are all lined up one after another, so after visiting one you just hop in the car and drive up the road 5 minutes to the next, it was very picturesque. Driving west from the Bay of Fires to Launceston was without doubt the most fun I've ever had in a car. We had a new model rental Toyota Camry which was pretty decent to drive, but the road made the trip so much fun. Tasmanian roads are basically all extremely windy, and this section was no exception. The road begs to be used for a WRC rally course, it winds back and forth through a spectacular rain forest. The curves, dips, hills and bends are relentless and the road is terrifically entertaining to drive. In addition to that, Tasmanian roads are almost all 100 km/h, even though that is virtually impossible on this entire 165 km section of road. I will never forget that afternoon drive through the rain forest, however it had me missing my motorbike the entire time.

We spent two nights in Launceston at a pretty sleezy backpackers place which was basically an old run down motel surrounded by bars and live entertainment venues playing loud music until 4 in the morning. We just used Launceston as a gateway to Cradle Mountain National Park, where we did a 6 km walk around Dove Lake at the base of the Mountain, once again a very beautiful area. We also had a chance to check out St. Columba Falls, the tallest waterfalls in Australia at about 300 feet, this was a really nice stroll through a rain forest.

Now we are in Sydney, Jen left this morning and we take off tomorrow afternoon for Bangkok. We are thoroughly looking forward to some more affordable accommodation and food as Australia has really become an expensive place to be. A very stark room in a backpackers hostel in Sydney is costing $105 a night for 3 people, this should get us over a week in Thailand.

Wednesday Nov 7/07 - Sydney

Nicola and I with the Opera House in the background

Opera House with the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Great view of the city from the Zoo

Baby Koala, called a Joey, at the Zoo

Baby Gorilla hanging on for dear life at feeding time

Starin' right at you

Californian Seal doing a double backflip - very impressive


Okay obviously we had to put a Kangaroo on here

How Rude!

Well Sydney is sure a change of scenery for all of us here. A city of over 4 million people which is absolutely massive. To think of even covering off a fraction of what there is to see and do in Sydney in 4 days is ridiculous. However, we've been spending our time here pounding the pavement of the downtown streets walking everywhere we possibly could. Our hostel is a short 30 minute walk to the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge as well as most of the downtown core. On our first day here the weather was great, the sun was shining and it was nice and warm so we took in the Sunday Market in the "Rocks" district and walked around to see what Sydney was all about. Since then the weather has been going downhill everyday, it has been cloudy and raining on and off for the rest of the time here. Despite the weather we spent an entire day at the Tangora Zoo across the Sydney Harbour and have still managed to spend a lot of time outside.

The Zoo was great, it gave us a chance to actually see some Kangaroos and Koalas, which we obviously couldn't have come to Australia without seeing. They actually had an incredible range of animals, birds, and reptiles at the zoo. At 10 mintues to close we were literally running to see the last of the exhibits that we had missed, Tangora is huge! The Koalas were clearly a favorite with the ladies, while I especially enjoyed the giant turtle and the Komodo dragon.

Besides the zoo we've had a lot of time walking around Sydney seeing the great parks, shops, and buildings. I must say that I've really enjoyed Sydney and I'm pretty impressed with the city. There are really nice public parks where you can get excellent views of the harbour, and the city itself is very clean and feels very safe. The shopping downtown is insane. There are unlimited stores of any kind that you could imagine. Today I got lost in an 8 storey department store looking for a birthday gift for Nicola. It is very easy to wind up in an underground shopping mall and pop up to street level blocks away without the slightest clue where you are. Similar to Auckland in New Zealand it seems like the downtown core is more highly occupied with retail and business space as apposed to actual living space like all the condos in cities like Vancouver.

From here we are flying to Hobart in Tasmania tommorow morning. There is no Greyhound bus service in Tasmania and the guided tours are very expensive so we've opted to rent a car and split the costs. It only takes three days to drive a loop around Tasmania and we have 4 full days and 2 half days so we should be able to take in the major sights. It will probably take the collective effort of all three of us to make sure I'm driving of the 'left' side of the road at all times, I'm sure we'll be alright though. After that we will fly back to Sydney where we will say goodbye to Jen and we will take off to Thailand.