Reflection

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARCIE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

We are now here at the Bangkok airport awaiting our flight home. Since we have some time too burn, we thought we would reflect on the past month.

FAVOURITES

BEACH FOR HANGING OUT
M and D - Had Khaud (Bottle Beach) on Ko Phanghan

BEACH FOR SNORKELLING
M and D - Ao Leuk on Ko Tao

MEAL
M - tie - Pad Thai at Hat Rin and Fresh Seafood at Ko Tao
D - Rice with Green Curry

TOWN
M - Hat Rin on Ko Phanghan
D - Chawneg on Ko Samui

THAI PHRASE
M and D - Kharp Khun Krap

ACCOMODATION
M and D - Railay Bay Resort at Railay Bay

DRINK
M - Chang Beer (Large)
D - Coke (what else)

BEST DAY TRP
M - Boat Ttrip to An Thong National Park
D - Namuang Safari (elephant ride and moneky and alligator show)

COOLEST THING WE SAW
D - Jelly Fish and a sting on another guys arm from a Jelly Fish
M - Salt Water Lake (coolest Turquoise colour ever) in An Thong Park

BEST SUNET
M - Last night on Ko Phanghan
D - First night on Railay

That's it ! Got to go and Get on the plane now.

M and D

Ewww Bangkok again

So today is Thursday, and we have one more partial night here in Bangkok. It still smells just as bad as it did when were here the first time.
I am looking forward to normal temperatures ,my own bed with comfy blankets,not to mention my cat Miss Peems B.
Mike has pulled out his sweating rag again, for our time in Bangkok, and I have pulled out the tiger balm to put under my nose, to drown the stench.
Sydney, see you around 11am Friday morning at the airport with Keaton. Tell him we have a present for him when we arrive at the airport.
Just last minute souvenier shopping at a drag cabaret show, and then off to the airport for our 15 hour plane travel home.
See most of you on my birthday. (28) in case anyone forgot.

Love D & M

Railay Beach, Krabi

So...going back to right after the flood story. We caught a 6am taxi bus which took 45 minutes to get to the ferry port. Caught the ferry which was surprisingly similar to the Twas ferries, but much smaller. The ferry then took 1 1/2 hours to get to the landing area, at which point we then took a bus for another 4 hours to get to Krabi. We then caught a taxi to get to another port, where we caught the final long tail boat that took maybe 15 minutes to get to Railay Beach.

This beach and accomodation was ridulously expensive for Thailand but that's ok, because it was really our final destination of our honeymoon where it includes beaches. It was so beautiful, we were on the sunset side (west side) of the Peninsula. The peninsula is surrounded by huge limestone cliffs, which has a huge rock climbing draw. Our time was spent between the beach front pool, swimming in the warmest ocean water you will ever experience (because the bay is so shallow for quite a ways out)(you actually feel like you are sweating in the water), kayaking among the cliffs and surrounding bays, exploring caves with the most intense limestone stagaltites and stalagmites, getting burnt by the sun, enjoying the nightly sunsets and thunder storms, and of course eating delicious thai food and Chang Beer as always.
View from the Kayak.

NEWLYWEDS about to enjoy a tropical delight.

Looks like Darcie has had too much sun. She got some really funny looks.

This photo does not give justice to the way it actually looked. This was one of the limestone walls inside of the cave. It almost looked like bits of quartz were embeded into the wall, as it had this crazy sparkle to it.

Nudge-Nudge, Wink-Wink !

Mike and Darcie being Goofy with camera while waiting for Dinner to be served. The servers were laughing at us, but that didn't stop Darcie.

This is the raised walkway through the caves. You could walk about 100 meters into the cave. There were bats that were freaking Darcie out. Mike laughed.

"FORK!!!!!"
Darcie was lucky enough to catch this amazing picture of lightning on camera.

The afternoon monsoon storm coming in. By the looks of it, we were thinking holy crap it's gonna pour...it only rained a bit, but it thundered and lightninged like crazy. The waves got really big, about 1.5m high, and we enjoyed the thunder storm while swimming in the hot tub like ocean with a nice Kiwi Couple.

This was on our kayaking excursion. One bay around the peninsula from Railay was Phra-Nang. It had some of the most beautiful waters we have experienced yet. Because it was slightly deeper than Railay, it was cooler and much more refreshing. So clear. It was amazing.

Another picture from Phra-Nang beach.

Photo from our kayak. We ended up enjoying the shade from these towering islands. One must enjoy the shade, any chance they can get.

Another one of the beautiful sunsets.

Why does Darcie always want to Kiss Mike? Can you blame her though!

This is the view from our beach front, pool side lounge chairs, which we used on a daily basis.

Darcie loves cumulus clouds.

SUNSET

There are stray cats everywhere. These are two babies which lived at our resort with Momma cat. Every morning we would feed them chicken sausage from the breakfast buffet. I am pretty sure they loved us and will miss us forever.

Traditional Thai Toilet. Darcie loves them.

View No. 2.

Note the tub of water to the left of the toilet. This is for manual flushing and cleaning of both toilet, and personal areas. Yeah count me out of the washing with this water. I quickly got used to making a point of always carrying toilet paper with me at all times. Most places that catered to tourists, did however have "western" toilets, but most did not offer toilet paper as an amenity. I am done with the stench of nasty toilet paper in garbages, as you weren't suppose to throw it in the toilet. I looked on the bright side the whole time...At least they provided garbages!

Today we caught a long tail boat to a pier 40 minutes from Railay Beach to a place called Krabi. Here we will stay the night only to catch a 1 1/2 hour plane ride back up to Bangkok tomorrow, where we will complete our month long journey 2 days from now. We have saved enough money for knock off goods for everyone.

But before the plane ride back to Vancouver we are going to hit up a Transvestite Cabaret show, which was highly recommended by the nice Kiwi couple mentioned earlier. It should be interesting.

- Darcie and Mike

xoxoxoxoxoxo

PS - We knew Peems would come around. Just in time for us to return.

Wake-Up Call

"Turn on the light!" shouts Mike to Darcie.
"What!?!" says darcie in a daze.
"Turn on the light. There is a flood on the floor."
"There is blood on the floor?" asks darcie, still in a daze, wearing here earplugs.
"No. There is a flood. Just turn on the light".

This was how our day began, at 4:20 in the am. I was sleeping and woke up to a stange smell. I thought I was dreaming. It smelled like hot steamy garbage and Samui "toilet water". I think I fell back asleep for a few minutes. Then I woke up again, to the awefull smell. I tossed and turned, thinking the smell was from outside, and I was trying to igore it. Finally, I went to get out of bed to see exactly what was going on. That is when I stepped to the floor, to feel water at the foot of our bed. That is when the above conversation took place.

During our stay in Montien House the drain for the shower kept plugging. So last night after our walk about the town, we both had a shower, with the drain cover out. Opps Darcie was last to have her shower, and wouldn't you know she forgot to plug the goddamn drain. Not that it should matter anyways. So the floor drain backed up, filling the bathroom with about 6 inches ( 15 cm) of dirty sewer water, (there's a deep step into the bathroom, as in Thailand they have no such thing as a shower curtain). It quickly seeped into our living area, about 2cm deep and a running stream out the front door.

Mike quickly ran to get the secuity guard to tell him. The security gaurd says "what you have waterfall in your bungalow?" No, Mike says, a flood from the drain.

So after about 30 minutes of figuring things out they finally gave us a new bungalow to shit, shower and shave before our trek that began at 6am to Krabi.

The worst part was, Mike left his two bags on the floor, which are now carrying a rotten stench.

So the trek to Krabi went well and we went a little further and ended up in Railay, a cool little beach town. We our treating ourselves to a high class place, triple what we have been paying for the last 3 weeks. We thought we'd finish off our honeymoon high class styles.

More later. Dinner time.

Love Darcie and Mike xoxoxo

LESSON LEARED - NEVER LEAVE YOUR BAGS ON THE FLOOR !

Samui Good Times

So this is our last night on Ko Samui, and we are going to spend it drinking Chang Beer (well at least I am), and shopping (bartering with the street vendors) for knock-off goods. The 6 days here have been fantistic. Our bungalow was very nice, the beach here is excellent for swimming, the pool was too good, and we finally got to eat something other than Thai food. Not that we don't like Thai food...but after 2 weeks of rice and curry, it was nice to have something different. There is a big European scene here, so there are lots of Italian restaurants, British and Irish Pubs, plus several of the typical western chain restaurants.

As we are now done with the Gulf of Thailand islands, tomorrow we are heading by taxi-boat-bus-taxi-boat to the Adaman Coast side, to a small town called Railay. It is near the area which was hit by the tsunami. From Railay, we should be able to do day trips to some of the islands which were almost completed wiped out by the said tsunami.

Later All.

Here are some pictures of some friends we have made.

While on the beach, we were approached by one of the "hawkers" and asked to swap our canadian flag towel for one of his hammocks he sells. So we did.

This guy is a knock-off suit salesman around the corner from our bungalow. Everyday we see him and he really likes my goatee. Maybe it cause no Thai men have goatees. So he tried to grab it once.

Karp Khun Krap !!!

Ronald making the typical Thai gesture, upon saying "Thank-You"

Yesterday, we went of a day tour to Ang Thong National Park, which is a group of island about a 45 minute speed boat ride west of here. It was an awesome day. The islands are rock formations that protrude vertically from the turquoise waters. Pretty amazing to see. Water erodes away at the bottom of the rock making nice shady areas to hang in.



The day started off catching the mini van to the next beach over. From there it was a speed boat to the islands.



First it was snorkelling, with about 6 other boatfulls of people. It was good, but not as good as our adventures on Ko Tao.

Next we headed to one of the larger islands, which has stairs leading to a view point over all the islands as well as a salt water lake. It was one of the coolest things we have ever seen. Unfortunately, the camera battery died once we reached to viewpoint, so no pictures were to be had.



Next it was to the main island, where we were served a gourmet Thai lunch of rice, curried chicken, fish balls and more curried veggies, along with fresh fruit of pineapple and watermellon.

After lunch it was kayaking around the smaller islands, where we got very sunburned again. No matter how much sunscreen one puts on, it is no match for the itenseness of the Thiland rays.


Anyways....I feel like I am rambling, so that is it for now.


- Mike and Darcie Walz

Ko Samui and the Namuang Safari

The trek to Ko Samui....started when the Lomprayah high speed catamaran docked onto the sand. It was definately interesting. Then took truck taxi through the traffic, with the crazy driver weaving in and out of traffic, coming hmmm maybe 2-3 cm from killing several motorcyclists not wearing helmets, and us had no seat belts provided. We finally arrive to our hotel. That was the night of a mass thunder and lightning show and monsoon rains. To bad.. didn't get any video of it because of the rain. Last night we were walking down the main street on Chewang Beach where there hundreds of stores selling knock off name brands. So yes that is what your souveniors will be. Knock off everything. Dolce and Gabbana, Quiksilver, Nike, Billabong, Versace you name it they have it. I think they even have knock of Coke. And they sell Marijuana on the beach, but it's probably a cop wishing to catch you so they can rip you off, all you have to do is bribe them.

To finish off about last night.. sorry I got side tracked talking about knock offs. So anyways.. we were just minding our own business walking down the street looking at the side walk sales when all of a sudden a Thai Man puts a real monkey into my arms. The monkey took my water bottle and started to chew on the lid. It was so soft, and very light. It was probably the coolest thing I've ever held in my life.... yes he wanted money. He says 200 baht I take picture for you. No thanks we said (I already got to experience holding a monkey for free!!!)

- Darcie

Today we went on a safari trek To Namuaung Jungle. It was a half day trip which included an elephant ride jungle trek, alligator show, monkey show and a hike to the waterfalls for a swim. We kinda figured it would be a bit cheezy (Tom-Like the circus we went to in Mexico), but figured it would be an interesting way to pass the afternoon.

I think we were right...pretty beatens! The jungle trek on the elephants was pretty cool and I even got to ride right on it's neck as the "driver". The alligator show was OK, but the monkey show was too funny. All it was was a monkey which climbed a coconut tree and pulled down two coconuts. That was it...then the show host shooed us away said in a stern voice .."all done. you go see waterfall now". So we did. A quick ten minute hike to a small waterfall with a nice swimming hole. Nice and refreshing.

So here are some photos of today journey. Enjoi !

Monkey !

Mike steering the elephant with his Wife on the saddle !

Alligator !

This was pretty funny. Monkey and his friend the dog. The Monkey was picking and cleaning the dogs fur. The dog was OK with this for only so long. Then the dog playfully snapped at the Monkey and tried to get away, but the Monkey was too quick and grabbed his leg.

Mike at the Waterfall !

That's all for now .

PS - Mom Walz - Hope you are still feeding Peems the Cat and cleaning her litter box. If not, she is probably pretty hungary and our house stinks like poo. Darcie wants you to tell Peems that she is missed very much.

Ko Samui Update and Random Photos

So here we are at Chewang Beach on Ko Samui. Besides Bangkok, this is the biggest town we have been to. Still not that big. Nice beach here and our bungalow even has a pool. Nice to swim and cool down in a pool rather than the salty ocean for a change. But also nice to still have a beach to swim in the ocean when we want to. Been here for several days now and been mostly just relaxing. Reading by the pool, playing Sudoku, swimming and eating fresh pineapple from the beach vendors. Ice cream, not pineapple for my beautiful wife.

-Mike

Also, here are some random photos of the last week. Enjoi !

And this is the view from the beach chairs that get alot of use. Nice view of the beach. This was in the morning, before anyone was out of bed yet.


This is the pool at our hotel. We swim in it and splash like little kids. Wait...we are little kids.


This is our current bungalow in Ko Samui. It is a jungle outside our door. The brick path leads to the pool and beach.

Husband and Wife !

These flying grasshoppers make so much noise at all hours of the day. It can be silent on second, and the next, thousands of them start talking to each other. They are huge, the size of your biggest finger.

This was at the beach we stayed at on Ko Tao. This pier walkway lead to a fine restaurant over the ocean, which I ate "Travelly Whole" at. It was the seafood special which turned out to be a whole "Travelly" fish....eyes and all. It was freaky, the eyes starring at me as I was trying to eat. So I ate the eyes first.

This was the beach in front of our bungalow on Ko Tao. When the tide was in, it looked like this..quite nice to swim in. When the tide was out...a little pooey.

Mike...Fine Lookin Fella !

Here is me with my new knock off Alligator brand tank top. As well as bottled water that we spend so much time drinking during the day. It is cheap.. only 30 cents our money per bottle.

Here is what Mike can expect if I spend to much time sunbathing instead of eating. My muscle and fat will deteriorate and my bones will start to stick out more then they already do. This ladies name is "Bag o Bones", and we saw her several times walking around smoking in Ko Phanagan.