Why Bangkok?

Sweets in the food court! Gourmet!

Shark in the underwater pathway

I found Nemo! Lot's of them!

Underwater pathway

A sea turtle just like the one I saw snorkeling off of Gili Trawanga in Indonesia.

A lion fish like the one I saw snorkeling off of Krabi, Thailand.

Well I am headed to Northern Laos and I was told the best way is to go thru Thailand and head south so here I am in Bangkok again making my way to the north!

Started with taking the sleeper train (still not sure why they call it that). It was only 100 minutes late this time and finally were off at 9:30pm. We were originally to arrive at 8am so when the porter started yelling at me at 5:45am to get up I was confused and kept telling him not this stop, Bangkok. Finally the locals motioned to me that I had to get off too. I found out later from an Aussie guy that there had been a train accident further up as we got hearded in mass chaos onto buses for the rest of the journey. Finally got to Bangkok and found a place by 10:30am. Decided to stay close to the train station so I wouldn't have to deal with the taxi drivers, only tuk tuk drivers. Walked around and found out I am in one of the many Gold/Silver/Gem shops area and being Sunday they were all closed. Darn, no shopping for jewels today.....so I hopped on the Sky train to go to Siam Center. It's a huge, and I mean huge, (makes West Ed Mall pale in comparision) World Class Retail Environment Phenomenon- quote/unquote. This was after a tuk tuk driver tried to tell me that 75% of stores would be closed there and he would take me to other 'shopping places'- hah, I read the guide books and politely said, 'no thanks' and walked away as he scowled at me.

On the map I found that Siam Center has an Ocean World and then I was really excited! Turned out to be the most impressive and amazing aquarium I have ever seen with over 20,000 species of marine life and an underwater walkway as well as a rainforest. I saw close up, sea horses, shrimp, sharks, rays and I even found a tank full of Nemos! This was way beyond my expectations of what I would see and there was even a 4D Xventure show that was done amazing well and so funny! After hours spent there I went to check out some more of the area. Endless food courts and restaurants, high end shops for everything imaginable (and they were all open!) After trying out a few different tastes at the food court I headed up to the Paragon Cineplex and to my delight there was an American movie playing called Revolutionary Road with Leonardo Dicapriano and Kate Winslet (together again). The movie cost me 160 Baht ($5.50) and I got to prepick my seat.

After the movie it was 10pm and I was exhausted so decided to take a tuk tuk home. Chaos outside of the Centre so I found one who said he'd take me for 50 Baht and once we got down the road he pulled over and asked me again where we were going. So I showed him on the map and he started to complain it was too far away. He wanted to ditch me there and I was too tired to argue so I just sat there as he jumped around outside of the tuk tuk. I told him it's not fair he take me away and leave me middle of no where (it wasn't really but on the side of the street with no buildings or stores) and he kept saying take a taxi so I told him to find me one. Finally he said he'd take me for 80 Baht and I argued a bit more with him and we settled on 70 Baht just out of fairness I thought as it was a fair distance. I can be very stubborn and cranky (for those of you who don't know me real well....) when I am tired!

Well next thing I knew we were in the Indy 500, I didn't know Tuk Tuks could go so fast. Racing across traffic, zipping in and out and around cars, burning rubber, horn beeping constantly. Not sure if he was pissed off or what but I hung on for my life and braced my feet and yelled at him that's he not going to get any money if he kills me! Finally reached my hotel and I laughed and thanked him for the wildest ride of my life as I paid him his money. Then jumped out and almost kissed the filthy dirty ground!

All in all I had a great day but am happy to say again, Good Bye Bangkok!

Last day In Khao Sok :(

Trail thru the forest

Beautiful as the sun was rising.

Lush and green and very alone feeling....... just me and an elephant somewhere.....

YIKES! I wanted to peel off the paper and see what was underneath it before but I refrained

Woke up early and decided to tour some more of the park and go on a hike to San Yang Roi. Lots of stairs, yay, I did say I wanted exercise!

At the beginning of the trail there was a sign that warned me of a wild Elephant in the area. I paused for a second and thought is this safe to do all alone?! Can't be worse than some of the situations I manage to get myself into so off I ventured, trying to think with all my wilderness survival tips from Canada what would I do if I saw a wild Elephant?! The best I could come up with is to hide (well try to) behind the tree with the thickest trunk in the forest that hopefully he wouldn't plow it over. Luckily as much as it would have been so amazing to run across the elephant I didn't have to worry as the only animal I actually saw was a squirrel. I heard lots of noises and knowing how gentle and quiet they can be I still think I would have spotted him even with my bad eyes if he had been close in the area. So my walk was good exercise and little adventure, that's okay with me cause next stop is Bangkok again!

Too Much Fresh Air?!

Sunset on the lake on our way home after a fabulous day

My German friend, Ollie and I under a staligtight in the cave

View looking out of the cave

Trekking on the way up to the caves

Smooth as glass

Raft houses on the lake

The gang on the hour long scenic ride on a long tail boat.

Cheese! I hate having my picture taken, just so you know I was really there!

The race is on with the other long tail boat

One night in Khoa Sok I had the weirdest dreams and I can remember them which is really strange.....the first one was I was getting married! On my way to the ceremony in my white dress and got to a point where people told me that I had to swim the rest of the way thru this lake/river. So I just shrugged and said 'OK' and jumped in and swam past all my guests including my family, who have been so great and supportive, were sitting on the banks and waving and maybe looking at me like she's really gone overboard now. So you dream interpreters tell me your thoughts on this, I would love to know! haha

The other dream was that I was back home in Canada and I realized I forgot my passport at the office and woke up paniced because I could not remember where I was last in SE Asia and had to find my 'guide' book to figure it out! I have been hauling around this huge book on SE Asia on a Shoestring, it's been a great reference. What a relief once I woke up and looked around and thoguht 'whew, I'm still here!' Just when I thought I was homesick....

Next day was the Lake Program which was highly recommended by everyone so off I went with Ollie another Morning Mist customer and we met up with some French Canadians, more Londoners and Europeans too. We hopped onto a long tail boat that took us across the lake for about an hour or so to a beautiful spot with raft houses. Here we stopped and went for a swim and had some lunch before starting off on our 1 1/2 hour trek up to the caves. We saw stalimites/tights, bats and other critters which I didn't focus my headlamp on for very long! Then we started trekking thru the cave climbing over rocks and thru the rivers which where at times ankle deep and other times as high as my chest (especially once when I tripped and fell....) but it was refreshing. We then had a 1/2 trek back to the lake for another swim and snacks before heading back after a full day.

Finished the day with dinner with the gang and then a Thai massage for 200 Baht ($7) and hit the sack! No wild dreams that night, too tired I guess!

Canoe or Kayak?

Woman fishing in the river. Her daughter just dove under with a net, camera shy or hard worker?!

View as we were 'relaxing' down the river

Very lush and green

Me taking over the paddle- hah!

The other boat

Canoing down the river in Khao Sok park sounded like great fun and exercise so a San Francisoite friend, Drea and I decided to sign up. We got to the river with our 'guide' waiting for us and one kayak paddle in a canoe type vessel.

We were told we get to 'relax' (like I haven't done enough of that) and take pictures on the trip down the river, that sucked! So after we got on our way I nicely asked our guide if I could paddle. He laughed and handed me the paddle and then was shocked I could paddle so well and so strong but he still felt the need to paddle with his hands and arms.

All in all was a fun and scenic trip, saw various birds including the kingfisher and some lizards too.

I Found Paradise!

Mountains in the area

The gardens, they would gather fallen flowers early in the morning to decorate our drinks in the restaurants

View of the mountain from my hammock on the veranda


The Hammock :)

The huge bathroom with hot water and shelves and hooks!

Sleeeeep.....

After spending about 1/2 hour or more of writing this and adding lots of pictures it got blown away.....I will update this again soon hopefully! :(

Just to keep you in suspense.....sorry!

Here's a few pics for now...it's a Khoa Sok National Park located in the western part of the Surithanyi province of Thailand. Absolutely beautiful, it covers over 738 sq kms.

Ok here goes again, fingers crossed!

I arrived in this peaceful little town and found this absolutely gorgeous place to stay called Morning Mist. It's located along the rivers and my room had a mountain view. One of the most peaceful, serene places I've seen here in Thailand besides the hill tribe area in the Northern area.

Just what I needed to 'detox' my body, eat healthy (their food was amazing), and catch up on some sleep even though all the birds and little critters were quite busily nattering and scampering around all thru the night.

Too Much of the Beach Life!?!

The ex-pats at thier new condo home in Long Beach, Koh Lanta...my 'going away' party haha

View from Lanta Family Resort, at night the tide went out and showed the rocks, then morning was beautiful blue ocean with no rocks showing.

The beach with the river at Thai Beach House Resort, Kim and Graham's place

Nui and Maimi lighting up a lantern and then it floats off into the sky.

The 'lilo' girl- Rach and the Muay Thai boxer- Andrew on their scooter after a day at the beach

I can't believe it but I finally got tired of the beach life! Partly because with the beach life in Koh Lanta comes the night life which 99% of the time involves alcohol. Those ex-pats can party, look for the Irish pubs! Koh Lanta was 8 days of sun and fun and I will miss all my dear friends there. From Nui and his Finnish girlfriend, Maimi to the crazy Americans as well as at my one 'resort' the Italian cook/fire dancer- Bobbie! Lasagna night was delicio!

Koh Lanta Island, Thailand

Children from Malaysia on holidays, playing a game on the beach. They explained it to me and asked me to play. Very sweet!

Tuk Tuk ride home late one night. It's a tiny cart attached to a motorbike that we squished into! Notice the lovely wind blown hair do!

View looking at our resort from the beach. Little platforms with cushions to sit on, very cozy and relaxing!

Sign for our bar- the Chocolate Bar

Another sunset

Nui, the owner, climbed up the tree to get us coconuts! What service sure wouldn't get that in a 5 star resort!

Just enjoying relaxing on the beach, visiting and talking with people from all over Europe and some Americans too! It's like a family here, nice people running it and very chilled place to be for a while. Staying in a very rustic, tiny hut with see thru bamboo walls, roughing it again!

Not much to write, just relaxing, trying to organize my trip up towards Cambodia, trying to find a place to do something worthwhile and volunteer for a bit and not have to pay $$, had a massage on the beach, sort out my Telus bill.....busy busy busy.

I was busy drinking my Mango Lassie, which is a fruit drink with yogurt, at a little roadside cafe and read this interesting little story I thought I would share with you.

A Buddhist monk was on the beach with his apprentice after a fierce storm. Thousands of starfish had been washed up and were stranded on the shore. Stooping down the monk carefully lifted a creature and returned him to the sea. His young disciple wondered aloud why his master bothered to do this when it made little difference to the mass of helpless creatures. As they walked along, the monk picked up another single starfish and gently replied "It makes a difference to this one'. as he returned it to the sea.

Walking along the beach last night, I came across some families from Panang, Malaysia that are on holidays for the Chinese New Years. They are touring the islands around here for almost a week. The mom told me that the New Years celebrations last for 15 days here as each country or territory has their own specific day. Such nice, friendly people they introduced me all around and told me about her family and children. One of the girls there was leaving next week for Australia to go to school to become a psychologist. She's 19 and was quite excited to hear I had a 19 year old daughter traveling around Australia.

Thanks again for reading! Try to update much sooner next time!!