Kho Surin

This place was what I've been looking forward to since we left Wellington. We booked a 3 day/2 night trip here, mainly to snorkel but also just see the place. It did not disappoint!

One of the highlights for me was definitely the mangroves...

and the Mudskippers!!!

Unlike the ones in Ronong which were living in what was probably sewerage, these guys were in good old clean mud, so we could get up close and personal :D

One of the Longtail Boats we went in, being manned by a 14 year old!

Lots of land Hermit Crabs all over the island. We named this one Bowser

Too many awesome fish to name or show you pics of!

Tube worms! So many colours, but I liked the blue ones best :)

Lots of Clown Fish

Clown Fish from PushToCharge on Vimeo.

Flying Fish!!! Not easy to take photos of, especially with the crap zoom on my camera. They were amazing to watch though and made the trip back to Khao Lak very cool indeed :)

Also these are the last images my camera will ever take... I took it too deep I think, and now it's got water inside and it's giving me electric shocks!

Oh well, it was worth it :P

Bangkok to Khau Lak

After a day of sickness in Bangkok (with some sort of fever so not just alcohol related before you say it!) we got the last of the things done as quick as we could so we could leave!

One of these was of course the Grand Palace

All very impressive, but it must be said I did find it all a bit tacky some how...

Everything was coated in reflective bits of mirror and gold paint, I'm not sure how to explain it but it didn't feel like a truly spiritual place to me... I think I'm more of an Angkor Wat type of guy! Nick just pointed out that some of it is gold leaf...

Lots of yellow flags about to show support for the King.

There are little water features EVERYWHERE in Thailand, most containing water lilies or lotuses

It was a cool place and I'm very glad we went, I was just even more glad to get in of Bangkok :D

Then we headed to Ronong (See iphone post). I was really not a fan of this place! Even so there were a few things about it I liked. The first was the Mud skippers! It was the first time I've seen them in the wild :) I couldn't get any closer and my cameras poor zoom didn't do so well. If there was a shower close by I would have gone after them but I have a feeling the mud they were living in comprised mainly of the towns sewerage!

2nd, the Fiddler Crabs

Mudskippers from PushToCharge on Vimeo.

The 3rd was these cool massive sea louse things which I kid you not were a good 6cm long!! They seemed to be crawling all over the place in this fishy town... Leaving was such a relief!

We got to Khau Lak in time to find somewhere to stay, and have something to eat, and then it REALLY started to rain. It was a real tropical storm with thunder and lightning too, and we headed down to the beach to enjoy it! The water was SOOO WARM, but we decided that we shouldn't stay out in the open cause the lightning was getting closer...

Cath looked great in her bag...

Nick and I just got wet, and the streets flooded

Then we had Pina Coladas in the rain outside our hotel!

Today it's much drier. We had another swim in the sea but it's very sandy and the water isn't so clear (maybe due to the storm too) so we had a few drinks instead!

Tomorrow we leave to the Surin Islands for 3 days. This is the part of the trip I've most been looking forward to, it's going to be so awesome!!

Ronong

Just a few pics from the iPhone while we wait for Cath to do her visa run accross to Myanmar...

We've just arrived here after a 9 hour overnight bus from Bangkok, we feel like crap!


This place is pretty intense. It seems to be a major fishing port with trawlers going past loaded with random seafood. Thankfully the place it's being processed is slightly downwind from where we're sitting :)


Lots of Longboats too, along with the noise of their not so finely tuned engines

Chiang Mai - Bangkok

I've missed out a bit sorry and pics aren't on me now - including something we did called Jungle Flight where we zip lined around the canopy in the forest - the longest one was 300m!

Leaving Chiang Mai - it was an awesome place I'd love to go back one day

On the way to Bangkok we stopped off at Doi Khun Tan which is a National Park and is pretty un-touristy. Its just over an hour south of Chiang Mai on the train we were already getting to head south. It turns out it was so un-touristy that (apart from some Germans who appeared to be living in Thailand) we were the only westerners, which was pretty cool :)

The park is famous for it's butterflies, we saw heaps

lots of cool other animals, from tiny spiders to a big tarantula and MILLIONS of ants

And wild poinsettias too!
The name means 'Doi': mountain, 'Khun Tan': many watersheds

So we walked up the mountain, the view from the top, nearly 1400m up

Us at the top :)
After our long walk we settled in back at the tent with out drinks and onion soup dip which we'd brought from NZ for Cath
The next morning we headed down to the train to Bangkok. It was very hot, had extremely uncomfortable seats and took 12 hours, but did only cost about NZ$7 per person!

Nick and I had out first 'bucket' - a large and cheep (NZ$10) very alcoholic drink. Cath got some very stylish glasses... we didn't!



The view down Khao San Rd where we were, SOOO busy and it was a bit of a mess by the end of the night :S




The evening got messy, but not too bad thankfully :)




It's so hot and humid here, I'm looking forward to getting the must-do's of Bangkok (Grand Palace etc) out of the way so we can head to the coast :)

That'll do for now, byeeeeeee

More Chiang Mai

More pics than words cause I don't have long, but you can see some of the things we've been up to!

Nick & Cath on one of our Elephants
Getting wet!


Suits on their way!
SOOO many cool insects!
Waterfall swim
Down the river on boats

Heaps more, so much to do!!

Chiang Mai

Wow, this place is amazing!

Done HEAPS already, but here are a few pics of some things so far...

Our first tuk-tuk ride

Cath and me having a 'Fish Spa'. They eat all of the dead stuff off our feet and it tickles!

Almost every shop seems to have some sort of water feature, normally containing lilies, LOVE IT!

HEAPS of temples

REALLY good food, which is of course so cheap!

Tomorrow we're doing a day of Thai Cooking School, learning 7 dishes. All for NZ$35 each :)

Then a 2 day trekking tour into the rain forest, which I'm really looking forward too :D