Catch up!

     Greetings from Koh Phangan Thailand. We are lounging here at Laid Back Resort. Right on the beach on the sunset side of Haad Rin. Dont bother to look for it online it isn't there. Cool place mellow but 5 minutes from absolute madness. Well for three days during full moon. Otherwise absolutely dead.

     More about Full Moon Party. Lets see 2nd one, even crazier than the first. So many people. Too many to be honest. It was more fun when you didn't have to fight your way through people at every step. Still its one of the best parties you could ever think about going to. If you are 21. A bit much for me.

     So the reason I haven't posted anything for a while is my laptop mysteriously broke one day. No idea what happened. But my friend Scott hooked me up, was able to take it to Baan Computers and they fixed it in 4 days. Awesome back in business for 3000 baht. ($100). Worth it. Havent been able to get pictures on the computer yet it just showed up but they will be coming soon.

     So travel plans have changed quite a bit since my last post. Tomorrow I will be heading over to Krabi for one night then a quick flight to Kuala Lumpur for one night as well. Then Its off to Ho Chi Minh city or Saigon if you rather. You will notice that I said I. Yup Blake is sitting this one out. He is going to stay on Koh Phangan. I'm off to wander solo. I must say I'm excited. Also a fair bit of nervousness I might add. That just adds to the fun. Any way Im off, love you all. Wish me luck, or break a leg, or just don't get arrested...
      

New Years Eve

Howdy every body!

Sorry its been so long since I've posted. Internet is not really all that reliable sometimes. Blake and I have been in Koh Lanta Thailand since Leah left. Well minus a short trip to Penang Malaysia to get our visas.

     Koh Lanta, so far so good. We really like it here, super laid back. Nobody trying to sell you a suit or a tuk tuk or damn massage. Beautiful sunsets, really nice people, and no real crowds. I mean through xmas there were not that many people here.

       So the trip to Penang! Holy crap that ride sucks! Miserable packed into a mini bus with 15 complete strangers for 12+ hours. When we booked it we were under the impression it was the VIP bus, ad when we got to Hat Yai they pulled the switcheroo to a mini bus. Not that bad though since it was a ten passenger instead of the 15. Same thing for the way back expect they piled luggage damn near over our heads. Oh and the driver just dropped us off in Ban Saladan and left. About 15 minutes drive from our hotel. Not for the luxury minded traveler.

            Penang was actually really not that bad for a pretty large city. Very clean, nice buildings, skyscrapers and all. Definitely not what I was expecting. Don't, whatever you do, go out drinking in Malaysia. It is more expensive than the States. Also I wouldn't recommend Subway in a muslim country. Bacon and ham not so good lol.

    So we get back to Lanta finally and it turns out that our reservation we made through a local agent has been sold out from under us two hours before we told him we would get back. 9 p.m. two nights before New Years Eve on an island in Thailand without a room. Awesome. Well the guys at Casa Mi Bar rallied through for us and managed to get us a room that night and miraculously i found another. The next day we managed to get a pretty nice big bungalow with two beds no A/C for 1550 baht a night. More than twice what its worth but no other choice. So that is the catch up. Looks like we will be in thailand until the 20th and then on to the next adventure. Ho Chi Minh City otherwise known as Saigon. Wish us luck. Happy New Years!!!!!!!!

Lanta Just Come is the hotel Murph!!

Lanta Just Come is the hotel

Touring from Phuket to Ao Nang

Huh?

He even wins in Thailand damn it

Damn near walked into this trying to get out of the way of a crazy tractor carrying 4 guys. Not really much zoom.

Bar?

Go Thailand!

I have a pillow stuffed in my shirt I swear.

         So sitting here at the Vogue resort in Ao Nang Krabi Thailand. Amazing place. Ao Nang? well its better than Phuket. Cleaner and smaller less crazy. Wouldn't go out of my way to see it. Let's see..

         It's been a long and crazy week here in sunny(finally) Thailand. It's great to be able to share this with Leah. Im so glad she made it out here. Phuket well Bangla road. wow. enough said. We  went on a big boat tour to Phang Nga Bay. Amazing limestone islands shooting straight up out the water, kayaked through some awesome caves, went to these epic white sand beaches, and to James Bond Island. And of course I'm a huge Bond geek, too many people but I'm glad to have seen it. All in all a cool trip would do it again on a sunny day. We spent a day learning to cook, well eat Thai food. Alot of fun. We also hired a taxi to take us to Promthep cape for the sunset. Hell of a day, stopped at all the spots along the way like Karon beach, Naiharn beach, and one cool viewpoint where Blake and I got to hold eagles. Coolest thing, couldn't stop grinning as the picture shows.

      Next we went out to Koh Phi Phi island. Beautiful, Much less pushy than elsewhere, but still packed with people. Expensive there, not for the budget traveller. Worth every penny. Took the tour of the islands on a long tail boat. Awesome experience the boat died twice crazy swells but over all turned out cool as hell. On to Railey beach favorite so far, no cars, no tuk tuks no one tries to sell you anything and some of the best beaches we've seen. Coming back for sure. Then to Ao Nang where we are now. Happy Birthday Leah!!!!!! We rode elephants today, yup elephants it was cool.

Im out!

Pat's Home Cooking Class and Phuket Town

One of the "definitely" items on my list was a cooking class, which of course the guys were in for as well since they, well, make their living from food. I initially thought about finding one in Bangkok since I knew the options would surely be limitless, but then opted for Pat's Home Cooking Class in Phuket based on some great reviews and the thought of having some mellower activities on the agenda for my first couple of days in case the jet lag knocked me on the floor.

Pat's class starts with a tour through the local market just around the corner from her house, where she clearly spends a good deal of time as everyone was warm and happy to see her. She walked us through the market, pointing out key ingredients to Thai cooking and explaining the differences between certain kinds of chilis, fruits etc. Yum!

After the market, we meandered back to Pat's house, a beautiful spot nestled in trees where she has a cooking class kitchen set up just outside. Our class was Blake, Bryan and I, plus a nice Aussie couple who had left their kids at the hotel's kids camp for the morning to enjoy a little time away.

We made 4 dishes (which I will of course have to call by their proper names later, but we'll take the easy route for today) - spring rolls, a sweet/hot/sour soup, green curry, and papaya salad, while Pat also walked us through the amazingly simple steps of making bananas in coconut milk for dessert.

Following the class, we spent a couple of hours walking through Old Phuket town to see some of the old Sino-Portuguese architecture that comprises much of the area. we didn't make it too far but you could definitely see the potential there!

(Yes, I am pathetically trying to imitate the dragon here...)

Beaches of Phuket

While on Ko Phuket, we are staying in what appears to be the best known area of the island, as well as the hands down busiest. To be entirely honest, its beautiful and has a lot to offer as far as entertainment goes but isn't quite my cup of tea - I'm definitely more of a laid back beach kind of kid, reminiscent of growing up on the Oregon coast where it is always too cold to actually lay out on the beach!

We did venture south a bit to check out a few other spots along the western coast of Phuket, as well as the to take in the sunset on the southern tip of the island, Phrom Thep Cape.

Patong: A crazy mash of umbrellas, beach bars, towering hotels, throngs of people of all shapes, sizes, nationality and attire (oh, the attire!) and peddlers selling everything you could imagine, Patong Beach is exactly what one would expect from a popular resort beach. Beautiful, but busy to the extreme.

Karon: A few miles south of Patong and things start to mellow out a bit. Still an umbrella clad resort beach, but with a somewhat quite and laid back feel.

Karon Viewpoint: A tiny bit further south is the Karon Viewpoint, giving tremendous views of the several beaches to its north. There were also some folks there with a sea hawk and a sea eagle that you could pay 100 THB (a tiny bit over $3) to hold and take your photo with. Based on Bryan's grin, I'm pretty sure he just hated that experience!

Nai Harn: Of the Phuket beaches and their towns that we visited, I'm fairly certain Nai Harn is the one I would enjoy best. Much smaller and laid back, with a small handful of food carts and open air restaurants set back from the beach among the trees. Definitely more my kind of pace. Just south of that was another very small beach with a great rock outcropping and little cove, where I could easily lose a day in.

Phrom Thep Cape: The southern tip of Ko Phuket, it was clearly a hot spot for sunsets based on the large numbers of both people and vendors, though understandably so. Unfortunately it was too cloudy for us the get that epic sunset that everyone hopes for, but it was still plain that the potential is there. They had a large promenade next to the lighthouse (that I'm guessing is more for show than anything, as it is far too small and set so far back from the actual shore that I can't imagine it working a lighthouse normally would).