My first photo in 3D!

At the Oscars party and Avatar has just won 3 :D

Nick and I also just had our photo taken, you can't tell from this out-of-focus photo from my phone, but the image of us on this camera is in 3D and you don't even need glasses to see it!!! Wow!! technology is moving fast... In 5 years time this is going to be awesome!

Skydiving

Thanks to Nick's Christmas present I jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet yesterday :D

Absolutely loved it and I'll be going back again soon! I had awesome views of the north and south islands, and the over 50 seconds of free-fall was a novel way of enjoying it!

White Rata

I've been watching this rata for a while... It's in a wind-swept tree out on the windfarm and I always go and check it out when we're doing are mortality searches to make sure it's doing ok!

When i went to see it yesterday it was finally flowing and, as it turns out, it's white! I was expecting it to be red and thought white ones were just hybrids developed for gardens... As they say, you learn something new everyday :)

Thanks to Andrew - this is a Metrosideros perforata

I love our new house

What a sunset!

Solar halo

I just saw an awesome Solar Halo at work, best I've ever seen!

Here's another pic with an Akeake hiding the sun...

Good bye Singapore

We're at the airport now, waiting for our plane home. I can't believe it's gone so fast!

Along with wasting the last of our Singapore dollars on Thai food and buying way too much alcohol in duty free, we've just been through the butteryfly garden which is part of the terminal and actually pretty awesome!


It's pretty big and even has a waterfall


Saw some nice butterflies


And they also have lots of pitcher plants :)


Alrighty, bring on the free Singapore Slings on the plane!!

KL

Well, we've finally made it to KL. It's been a long journey since we arrived in Chiang Mai, and an even longer one for Cath since she left London, but tomorrow we'll be getting on a plane to start heading home...


Thank you so much to Arnaz and his family for looking after us in KL, it's been great! We've done heaps but I'm not going to waste anymore time in a net cafe so just doing this quick post from the iPhone and I'll do a proper one once we're home on Friday :)

Still to come is our 24 hours in Singapore which is going to be frecken awesome, so come back soon to find out how it goes!

Langkawi

Leaving Lanta we went back to the mangrovey part of the island to catch our boat. The tide was in and I saw this interesting old boat complete with mangrove seedlings

Our trip south took 9 hours on 4 different boats. There were lots of nice views and it was a nice change from a bus. Saying that the last hour on a VERY bumpy speed boat required massages after!

We got to Langkawi (in Malaysia) at about 6pm, and found a place to stay with no problems.

The next day was our only full day on the island so we hired scooters again so we could get about on our own and see what we wanted to...

The main aim was to go up the cable car, but when we got to the base it was closed because it was too windy. Thankfully there were lots of other things to keep us busy -



I got to hold two pythons which were much more cared for then the ones we saw on Lanta. These guys were happy to chill on me while I had a good look at them :)

We also had a go on Segways. Cath said they were 'super geeky' but she did it anyway - what does that tell you?! It was a lot of fun and after 5 seconds of learning to lean it seemed perfectly natural

EVERYTHING being sold on Langkawi seemed to be Langkawi branded. All of these items (shirts, mugs, picture frames) had Sea Eagles on, which seemed to be the emblem for the island. Most of these items were really REALLY tacky... and the only white people we saw wearing the clothing were fat Americans :P

To kill more time waiting for the cable car we went for a ride back to a marina we had passed. Outside we had our first close contact with Water Buffalo which were pretty awesome. No massive bulls but they were friendly (ish) so that was the main thing :)

After a late lunch we found this rather different bar on a beach

And then noticed that the cable cars (up on the hill) were running again so nipped back to the scooters and back to the base...

Cath and I had found this place online back when we were on Phi Phi, and it was the main reason for including Langkawi on our itinerary...

According to the info the cable car is an "Unforgettable thrill" so we were very excited!

It really is very impressive! The longest span between towers is 950m and the steepest gradient is 42 degrees!

At the top there is very cool suspension bridge, which is curved and has great views of untouched forest down to the sea, and even back to Thailand

The view over Langkawi was great (710m above sea level), and as it was getting late into the arvo the sun was casting interesting shadows over the landscape

Just before we headed down we saw this very impressive yacht out on the water. You can see the size of it from the local boat it was overtaking!

On the way back to the beach we stopped off to see yet another kick-ass sunset :D

The next morning was up at 6am to start the final push, to KL...

Koh Lanta

For our full day on Lanta we hired scooters to get us around. Nick's first time and he liked it... lots!

Classic Thailand longboat, complete with patriotic flags

We found a snake farm on our travels. It was the first time we'd seen snakes up close to decided to check it out. Unfortunately the guys running it were more obsessed about saying "Teeth and poison, yes" than actually treating their animals well.

"Poison yes" was repeated a few times as they milked a cobra for us to see

And they also draped a very large python across us. He wasn't impressed about being passed around like a toy, so I'm glad they held onto his head... Although again a bit sad he wasn't friendly enough to hold properly.

Another, smaller python, very beautiful markings :)

They also had a monkey called Joey. He liked banana cake and Cath's bracelet.

The east of the Island has lots of mangrove swaps so we had a look around

Time for a classic example of a sign written in 'English'. It's nearly as bad as mine :P

More Mudskippers

I got a video of one doing it's thing too :)

Mudskipper from PushToCharge on Vimeo.

We also saw Archer Fish for the first time. These dudes shoot flies out of the air and into the water with near perfect accuracy and Cath even saw it happen :)

In both Phi Phi and Lanta storm clouds seem to follow the setting sun and pour down for 15 mins every night. The clouds were always very impressive and once you get used to the timing of it not much of an issue :)

Our last sunset on Lanta was yet another good one. A bit more cloud but still very scenic :) We had a quick ride home on the bikes after watching it go down, to get back before the rain!

In the morning it was time to head south again, to Langkawi in Malaysia.

Good bye Thailand, it was nice to meet you!

Koh Phi Phi to Koh Lanta

Phi Phi is a very tropical place!

Lots of cool insects including some very large millipeeds

And loads of species of ants, and these termites which seemed to be moving home - we didn't find the end of their line

Termites from PushToCharge on Vimeo.

This is the hut we stayed in, it was pretty cool but the showers were the grottiest I've seen in my life :S
Relaxing
The view over Phi Phi on our final morning there

We headed south to Koh Lanta by boat. Great views along the way and a much more enjoyable way to travel than bus :)

We got there in time to find somewhere to stay, have a few Pina Coladas and enjoy the sunset

Lanta is great, even if its just for the reason that the beaches are so much quieter!

Koh Phi Phi

We've now been in Phi Phi for just over two days and have done heaps already. We got here by travelling south, to Krabi in a mini bus and then down on a ferry. It's a pretty happening place with lots to do and a famous nightlife with lots happening and lots of buckets flowing...

On our first full day we did a big boat trip from 11am to sunset. It was a great way to have a good look at the different islands and see what was about. Keep in mind all photos are now from Nick's camera cause I managed to drown mine... so no underwater pics anymore unfortunately :(

The rocks around Phi Phi are VERY cool. Massive limestone cliffs

Lots of monkeys too, lots of them overfed by tourists...

We found a boat with Cath's name on it

And also went to Maya Bay which is where they shot The Beach

We had about an hour to hang out here waiting for the sun to start to go down...

You can see how big the cliffs are from the size of the Longboat at the bottom - HUGE!

It was a very nice sunset...

That night it was cocktails and watching the fire poi guys

Very impressive!

Today we hired kayaks and did our own thing. This meant we could go to beaches that were really quiet, including Loh Lana Bay

I made an awesome Hermit Crab Assault Course to test them out. Stages included the thin wall they had to break through, the scree slope, the uneven terrain section and the cliff!

This guy was the biggest yet...

They leave very cool tracks all over the beaches

We're heading further south tomorrow towards Malaysia. The plan is to island hop as far as we can, but no exact plans yet so you'll have to come back to see what we actually do!