Vietnam

Today was my fourth day in Vietnam and my best up to this point by far. Sleep deprivation, jet lag and overall culture shock has made almost all aspects of the trip a bit overwhelming until today. But last nights sleep got us about 12 hours in bed and at least 9 hours of sleep. I was very excited to wake up and have the sun shining.
We arrived in Hanoi Friday night, Oct. 19th after about 20 hours of travel. Our main flight from Seattle to Seoul was a bit over 12 hours and seemed to last days. We made the mistake of not bringing extra food or snacks with us and spent about half of the trip hungry. When we were finally fed, we found Vietnam Air cuisine mediocre at best. Shelby was able to sleep some, but I struggled, and planned to try to stay awake to help me sleep when we finally arrived in Hanoi. We watched multiple movies, played games on our phones, listened to music, walked around every few hours and tried to stretch our legs. Inside the plane, all the windows were closed and everyone tried to sleep, but opening a window would flood the whole cabin with bright light from outside. It was always a shock as you expected darkness outside.
When we finally landed in Seoul, we had plans to buy food for our 2nd leg of the journey to Hanoi, but we had to go through security and by the time we got through, we had to rush to our gate and quickly board our plane. This plane was not nearly as comfy and was a struggle to remain comfortable. Shelby managed to sleep again and I tried but only found myself in a daze of achey sleep and states of frustration. It was a rough 4.5 hour flight.
When we landed in Hanoi, we got through customs, got our stamps on our passports and exited... looking for our hotel driver who was waiting for us. When we finally found him in our confused tired state, he was a welcoming site. He was very friend and drove us calmly to our hotels - 45 minutes away into Hanoi's Old Quarter.
Our hotel was the Time Hotel in Hanoi. It was approaching midnight in Hanoi and everything was shutdown, we wanted food and our friendly host working the desk managed to get us some food and showed us two rooms of our choice. We chose the smaller one as it had a larger bed. We stretched our weary legs, ate our tasty beef and fried noodles, took showers and went to bed... but at this point we were both so overwhelmingly tired that we couldnt sleep. We both took half and Ambien and quickly passed out.
The next morning we awoke very early, took our first daylight look at Vietnam from our windows, got dressed and went to the top floor for our free breakfast. It was a charming layout, there was an enclosed and open section on the top floor that had tables to sit. We were happy to eat our western and vietnamese food in the sun, with great 360 views of the city.
My first thoughts of Hanoi was the architecture. I very much doubt that there are standards and codes here, and if there are, they are either not enforced or not very strict. Buildings are usually small in width, but go up several stories and they are stacked together in tight formations, usually with no space in between them. It seemed to me, that if you lived in Hanoi and owned one of these buildings, if you needed more space, you would simply just build another floor on top of the building. Also many of the buildings had nice little spaces on the roofs/top floors.
When we finally exited our hotel we were thrown immediately into the chaos that is Hanoi. The roads are trecherous. Even the little roads of Hanoi's Old Quarter are extremely intense. For every car there are probably 30 motor bikes. The rule of the road seems to be, do what you want, but dont STOP.... just keep going. I had read about this crazyness, but really nothing prepares you for it until you are walking in the middle of it. It is scary, intense and when mentally capable... often exciting. I found it very enjoyable... that is until I became too tired to deal with it...and during nights, I sometimes found it frightening as sleepyness made the lights all a blur.
This first day we started getting used to the Vietnamese Dong... 1 US Dollar = roughly 19000 VD. It is easier to round it to 20,000... so you keep track of it in your mind, 1 USD = 20k VD, or 5 USD = 100k VD.
Vietnam is cheap! Our first lunch in Hanoi was in an alley. A small space that was probably someones home during the night, turned kitchen during the day. They set out little plastic tables and chairs on the sidewalk/street. We ordered two bowls of Pho, totaly bill, 40,000 VD or $2 USD.
Communication in Vietname has been farely easy. Many people here speak at least some form of broken english. Otherwise a quick game of sherades can usually do the trick. Some of our best cherades so far, sleeping, puking (which we havent done yet), spiders, etc.
Our first day was exploring... walking walking walking. We did manage to get lost and totally turned around at one point, but quickly found that we were only a few blocks from our hotel, even though we were both convinced that we were nearly a mile away. Luckily, this only happened once.
We ended our first full day in Hanoi, eating at an extremely busy streetside spot, where they had probably 30-40 small plastic tables with seats. Seems the their best dish is roasted dove, but we chose chicken and beef instead.
Our second night we managed to fall asleep without phamiceutical assistence, but both of us were wide awake by 1am. We chatted for a while, checked emails, etc, then decided another half ambien was in order.
Jet lag has been a real struggle for us both. Good sleep has been hard to come by. You have moments of excitement and you feel pretty good, then a moment of sitting or relaxation can quickly put you in a state of frustration, agitation and extreme tiredness. We have both had moments of weakness where we could hardly speak. It is a day by day process as we slowly adjust.
Sunday morning we awoke, had our free breakfast on the pleasant terrace, hit the streets. We wanted to take it a bit easier this day and spent a couple hours on a rooftop coffeeshop. It was pleasant. We got our 2nd massage on the trip and got a 1 hour foot massage at a spa, total cost for both of us was around $20 USD.
Sunday night our hotel had got a driver for us to take us to the train station. We had an overnight train sleeper car booked for us to take us north to Lou Cai. Our final destination, Sapa.
The room in the train was small, 2 bunks on each side. We shared it with a nice couple from Austria who gave us extra earplugs... the train can be loud. I had a hard time stretching out in the bunks, but overall it was a comfy ride... though neither of us slept much. We arrived in Lou Cai at 5am. We had arranged a driver for us as apparently this is a location of many scams taking advantage of tired tourists. We had to wait for another train to arrive but finally our 45 minute ride to Sapa began. The views were amazing.
When we finally arrived in Sapa, we checked into our hotel, were shown our room which has an amazing view of the mountains.
I will try to write more tommorrow, as it is getting late, we need dinner and early bed. :)

Processing media:thumbnail in RSS feeds with php

Today I am creating a php file that will process various news RSS feeds.

The typical story RSS item looks like this:

<title>Mini-stroke care 'risking lives'</title>
<description>Many patients at high risk of stroke are not getting the specialist treatment they need, an audit finds.</description>
<link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10713946</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10713946</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:20:34 +0000</pubDate>
<media:thumbnail width="66" height="49" url="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48443000/jpg/_48443005_stroke1.jpg"/>
</item>

Problem here is trying to get the url attribute from media:thumbnail.

You can not simply call:
$item->media:thumbnail
or
$item['media:thumbnail']

The solution that I found works best simply loads the xml file as a string, then find and replace 'media:thumbnail' with a correctly formatted 'thumbnail' and lastly convert it back to xml with simplexml_load_string:

$xSource = 'http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml';
$xsourcefile = file_get_contents( $xSource );

$xsourcefile = str_replace("media:thumbnail","thumbnail",$xsourcefile);
$xml = simplexml_load_string( $xsourcefile );
echo $row['xtitle'] . '<BR>';

foreach ($xml->channel->item as $item) {
echo ':' . $item->title . '<BR>';
echo ':' . $item->thumbnail['url'] . '<BR>';
}

Not nearly as easy as I could find but so far the best solution I could come up with. If anyone finds a better solution, please post it here.

One night in Bangkok

Caught a nice fancy bus to Bangkok (53 baht) today after seeing many sites. I will upload photos soon. Really cool bhuddist wats (temples). Lots of history. Good photos. :)
Turns out rooms are farely expensive here (400 baht with shared bathroom)... or I am just getting cheaper by the moment. We got a room though and its nice enough.
Tonight we are out on the town having drinks. I found a glass of Jamesons and now we have some Singha beers while at an internet cafe. SOOOOO many white foreigners here its crazy.



Hard to tell if I would like this town long term or not. Its sorta crazy.
Also of note, the Thai parliament voted in their new prime minister today. Some demonstrations concentrated near government buildings but overall city is calm. Doubt there will be any trouble but if there is, I have my camera. :)
Tomorrow we will travel around and see some sights and then I will head to the airport tomorrow evening. My trip is coming to an end. :(
Also of note, it snowed in portland today (which is rare).

Ayutthaya

Yesterday (Sunday) we checked out of our comfy room, called our friend Amy in Portland (Happy birthday Amy!) and caught a motorcycle taxi to the local bus station.
There are many forms one can travel in Thailand besides airplane and train. The top of the tier (and most expensive) are the VIP buses, which are the double decker buses. They come with almost fully reclining seats, air, curtains, tv's and even little personal rooms. I haven't (and probably wont) tried one of these yet but I wanted to. After that you have the minivans, which include very tight seats and insanely fast driving. After that you have the local bus, which is dirt cheap but slow. Usually there are fans mounted on the ceiling and the bus sounds like it could fall apart any second. Also there are many stops along the way and you get to get comfy with the locals. Even cheaper then that are the open air trucks, which is basically a truck with seats and cover in the back. Taxis, motorcycle taxis and rickshaws.
We took the local bus and started off towards Ayutthaya. Unfortunately a bus doesn't run direct so we had to take a bus to another town first, then catch the bus to Ayutthaya from there. Mileage wise, this shouldn't have taken too long. But it did. It took about 5 hours. In all it cost us about 100 baht each.
When we finally arrived Ayutthaya we were both grumpy and tired from our loud bouncy smoky (from exhaust) ride. We hiked over to a guest house that was recommended in my Thai book, ate, had a couple beers and crashed hard. The guest house (Toni's) is decently comfy in the common areas, but the room leaves much to be desired and is relatively not cheap (500 baht).
Ayutthaya was the capitol of Thailand (Siam) for roughly 400 years with almost 60 kings ruling from here. There are temples and wats here that are over 500 years old. So lots of history to see. So today we plan to do a hike through the city and check out some of the sights. Then we are thinking of heading into Bangkok to check out the city for the last couple nights.
One thing to consider... Thailand's parliament is voting for a new prime minister right this minute. The Thai's here all watching. I was speaking with an Indian born Thai who says this could lead to more troubles. Hopefully there wont be many issues.

Born to Ride

Rented the motor bike Saturday morning from an Irish bar. We had stopped by the bar Friday night because I was in a frantic search for some Jameson's whiskey and that was my last resort. No luck. But the Irish expat owner gave us his best bottle of whiskey and we sat and had a few drinks. He married a Thai women and can now retire here and has started a bar. He rented us the motor bike for 200 baht. Needless to say, I looked cool on it. An easy rider for sure! :)
So Saturday morning we got up, moved to a nicer guesthouse (the room and view from room below) down the road a bit (450 baht with TV and a real nice bathroom with HOT WATER!) and picked up our motorbike.




So to be honest, I am of the age where I definitely do NOT feel immortal. As a matter of fact I am quite aware of my mortality! In my 2.5 weeks here in Thailand I have seen some crazy driving, been in a bus that ran over a motorcycle and seen the general chaos of the roads. So I realized that this might be a bit crazy. But it sounded like fun... but it doesn't mean that I wasn't a bit nervous about the idea. Not to mention I have not driven a motor bike in say 20 years. So, upon picking up this sporty bike I sat on it and drove off, the whole time saying to myself 'stay on the left side... stay on the left side'... I was a bit shaky in my driving.





We got some gas and off we went. We were driving to Erawan waterfall, some 65 kilometers north of us. Immediately we hit a big road with lots of traffic. I just stayed 'on the left side' and tried to find another person on a motorbike and follow them and their speed.
Eventually we got out of the city and the beautiful country where cows graze openly along side the road, stray dogs run randomly into the road and elephant crossing signs are common (though we saw none). We stopped about 40 km into the ride and rested for a bit. Once back on the road we were passed by a series of three double-decker (two story) buses. This was the scariest part of the trip. I could see them coming up behind us and would have pulled over if I had the chance. They were moving fast and each one passed by us quickly (about what seemed at arms length away) and the wind from it sort of blew us all over the place. This was scary enough in itself except that I knew another bus was right behind us coming up quick. Luckily, my awesome 'hells angel' like driving skills got us through this brush with death! But no doubt, it scared the shit out of me! :)

I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when we arrived at Erawan. We had heard about it in town. A series of waterfalls and pools. We were told there were large fish in each pool that would eat from your hand and nibble at your legs. It was stunning. Unlike anything I had seen before. The water was a clear whitish blue.










We climbed up to the 5th pool (which we had heard was the best) and swam there. The fish would peck and bite at your legs if you stayed still ... which would always make you jump in surprise. After swimming for an hour we slowly made our way down and back to the motor bike... always conscious that we did NOT want to be driving in the dark.

We jumped on our bike and started heading back. About 30km into the drive we stopped for a break. While there we witnessed another aggressive dog fight. Seems they are common here. Soon enough we started off again. After a few minutes of speedy travel, we ran out of gas!

One would think a motor bike would easily make 65km and back. Not the case with this motor bike. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. Sad thing is, there was gas at the last stop, now some 4 kms back. By chance there was a large truck with several men just waiting on the side of the road some 50 yards in front of us. We walked up to them and told them 'no petrol'... they laughed and spoke to us in Thai. They knew no English. A few of them walked up and looked at our bike and seemed amused. They tried to tell us things and eventually we figured they had made a call on their mobile and wanted us to push the motor bike up to their truck. One of them came up to us and showed us two VERY LARGE tarantulas in his hand. I think they were dead. He motioned for us to try and eat one of the legs. We declined. They all got a good laugh as we both shuttered. But they did get us to touch their harry bodies. These things were HUGE... the body made of two large round parts about the size of a large marble. Another showed us how they were catching them. Apparently they live in holes in the ground and they take sticks and push them down the holes and twist them around...eventually bringing up one. I guess they eat them!

After a few minutes another guy showed up on a motorbike and drove Avery off for petrol. 10 minutes later she was back and we filled put some in our tank. Before we could get away a truck pulled up with lots of petrol... not for us, but for the truck. Seems the guys in the truck had also run out of petrol. We all got a good laugh out of this one. The whole experience once again proved my like for the thai people. Everyone was very friendly.

We drove the rest of the way without incident. Last night we got a couple beers and went to a night market. Both of us were too beat to stay out too late though.

Today we plan to take a local bus to ... hmm, i forgot the name of the city. Its about an hour north of Bangkok. Its the historical capitol of Thailand and is full of ruins inside the city. From what I read, Elephants are a common means of travel inside the city. Sounds interesting. We plan to stay two night there, then I plan to take a bus to the Bangkok airport for my flight. My trip is almost done!

Kanchanaburi and the River Kwai

Caught the train last night in Surat Thani at about 7pm.
We had a top and bottom bunk that fold up into seats. People immediately around us started crashing in their bunks but me and Avery were up chatting till about 10pm. We broke down the beds and I crashed on the top bunk. It was comfy but the train was loud and jarring and often stopping. Avery woke me up at about 6:30am as we crawled into Bangkok. It was hard for me to wake up. We grabbed our stuff and exited the train. We checked for tickets north to Kanchanaburi but none left from that station. So we decided to take a city bus to the main bus station and catch a bus to Kanchanaburi.
We walked a bit and waited at a bus stop for 30 minutes before the 807 bus picked us up (15 baht). Got to the bus station and bought two tickets for 83 baht each. CHEAP!
Our bus head out almost immediately. It was a large old bus that bounced and banged with each bump. Avery and I both fell asleep... only to be awakened by screams. The bus was jarring back and forth and was traveling over the raised median of the road. It almost seemed the bus could tip over and I could feel things going under the bus. I was just grabbing hold of my seat as everyone looked to the sides as something went past. Clearly our bus had hit something and ran over it. We came to a stop and everyone was in shock.
I could see a motorcycle torn up on the ground underneath the bus.
Avery said she saw a guy rolling on her side of the bus.
Turns out a guy on a motorbike lost control and crashed right in front of our giant speeding bus. The driver swerved onto the center median (elevated with grass and plants) to avoid running over the tumbling man. His bike was not so lucky and went under our bus.



The man was very lucky. Though he had to be taken away in an ambulance (or something like it) he was ok and could walk.
We had to wait around for 30 minutes until a new bus could take us. That was our excitement for the day.

OMG, I just now witnessed the worst dog fight I have ever seen. One dog was attacking the other outside the internet cafe here and was biting and tearing at the others face as it screamed. Nobody was doing anything. I considered trying to break them apart but i am in sandals. Finally two people came up and after several very hard kicks and hits with a board, the attacking dog finally broke off screaming for minutes. Being a dog lover, I found the whole thing EXTREMELY unsettling. I miss Kutya. Dogs and cats in Thailand suffer.

ANYHOW... we arrived in Kanchanaburi and are taking it easy today. We have rented a motor bike (200 baht for 24 hours) for tomorrow and plan to head to an amazing waterfall swimming area in the morning. We will be driving over the Bridge over river Kwai. Might also head to a hot springs. Should be fun. We booked a nice room over the water for 450 baht (shown below). Its comfy and has a great shower with hot water but the walls are paper thin and people are loud. Things are cheaper here.



Im going to take a shower and I think me and Avery are going to go get a massage. My first on the trip. 150 baht for one hour. Not bad.

Saturday UPDATE: Got the massage. It was great. Think I will get another before we leave this town. Also had a big reminder last night that you need to always pay attention while walking in Thailand. Sidewalks will have random holes or steps or whatever. I was getting up from my chair last night after a tasty fire cooked pizza (my 2nd on the trip) and did not see a random 1ft tall concrete wall that has no reason to exist except to trip people like me. I tripped and cut my elbow and ankle. Smooth. Avery found it rather amusing. :) It is pretty clear that Thailand does not waste much time worrying about liability lawsuits and such. Best not to get injured here I guess. There are more Americans here then any other place I have been. Ive met probably 10 in the past 24 hours. Before that, I had met none (besides on my plane).

Saturday Night UPDATE: Back from long ride to the waterfall. Made it safely but internet is shutting down. Will post tomorrow.

Surat Thani

Yesterday I was shocked/electrocuted 3 times! Twice on the computer that I posted yesterdays blog post on and then in the bungalow during the night (while I was trying to turn on the light). So, today I have avoided all powerlines and such. :)
Up early this morning. Monkeys came to our bungalow this morning and welcomed us into the day by stealing a bag of goodies from our room (crackers and pineapple juice). Avery booked us a mini-van ride from the Park to Surat Thani, a city 2 hours east of the Park. We were picked up at our resort and all of a sudden it was stage 3 of DeathRace 2008... but this guy was a bit more subdued in his crazy driving.
We arrived Surat Thani and had them drop us off at the train station, where we dropped off our bags and booked a train ticket to Bangkok for this evening... we got sleeper cars for about 700 baht each (all they had left were air conditioned sleepers, which we dont need). Fan sleepers were sold out. :(
We then took a bus to downtown Surat Thani to look for some food and see some sights. Turns out there are very little western restaurants and we seriously walked for 4 hours before we found a place that we felt would be OK to eat at. We had some beers and ate 4 main dishes between the two of us. It was a fun walk though. We got lost in various neighborhoods and kept running into very nice Thai people who tried to help get us back on track.
We just caught the bus back to the train station (15 baht) and our train leaves in 1 hour. Checking internet, plan to buy some snacks and whiskey and then off to our train.
Everything is VERY cheap in this town. Avery bought a shirt for 60 baht. We only saw 3 other foreigners in the 5 hours we were walking. It was nice to be away from the touristy stuff... and the tourists.
But, on the other hand, we could have used some 'western' restaurants. We saw plenty of places to eat, but they all had precooked dishes sitting in bowl and plates with flies around them and whatnot. Neither of us want a serious case of food poisoning and were too paranoid to dig in at those places.
Our plan now is to take the overnight train to Bangkok. We will arrive there around 7am. Then we will book another train to Kanchanaburi in western-central Thailand. Its on the River Kwai and is where 'Bridge over the River Kwai' is based. I have seen the movie. 18000 POWs and 90,000 asians apparently died building the bridge under japanese occupation during WW2. Its supposed to be a charming town and both Avery and I are excited to get there. So I will see Bangkok tomorrow morning from the train station only.
Excited to be on the train. Hope it lives up to my expectations. If not, i have whiskey! :)
Only 5 more days of my trip left!!!!!!
We better go if we want to catch our train.

Khao Sok

Yesterday I woke up in Krabi, packed my stuff and bought two tickets to Khao Sok, a National Park in southern Thailand.
Avery met me at my hotel at about 10:30, we grabbed some eggs for breakfast and jumped on our minivan to the park. Cost 350 baht per person. About 2 hour drive.
And so the great Death Race 2008 started once again. Man, the Thai people drive crazy. Everyone in the van was fearing for their lives. Its not uncommon for a motor bike to be on the side of the road driving slowly, while a slow car passes it, while our minivan (traveling about 85) passes the car that is passing the motorbike. At the same moment a large fuel tanker might be heading towards us in a game of chicken. Luckily the fuel tanker would move off the side of the road to save all our lives.
I think if I held a gun to the head of the driver and said get us there in 5 minutes or die... he would drive no different.



Luckily we made it alive. Khao Suk is a jungle with waterfalls and rainforest and rivers and lakes. Ive seen only a little so far.
Our bungalow is on the river and is very charming and clean. The shower is a waterfall.



There are families of monkeys all over the place. At first I thought they were soo cute but my mind quickly changed. As I was photographing them they started coming towards me... like 12 of them circled me and started moving in for the kill. Like children of the corn! All these small hairy people coming to kill me.
I was able to escape to the bungalow. They followed. They solidified my anger by grabbing my All is Quiet on the Western Front book and carrying it off to the trees and proceeding to rip it into shreds!!! Little bastard!
I finally was able to get them away from the bungalow with a bag of peanuts.
Avery was napping in the bungalow at the time and later awoke to one in the room, on the rafters stairing down at her.
Last night, I awoke with a large thumb sized beetle in my bug net. No surprises there!
This morning we slept a bit late (might have something to do with the thai whiskey) and I got up and got some eggs and coffee. Found a decent little internet shop (the the computer shocked me!) and plan to rent a motor bike and drive us around all day to the sights. This is of course, only if the roads here are less busy. I dont have a deathwish.
Tomorrow I think we head further north.

Thailand

People here work LONG shifts. Like everyday, all day. At the places where i have rented rooms/bungalows. I wake up early and the same person that was working the desk the night before is still there. Seems like they put in 80 hours a week... easy. Also, its not uncommon to be served a drink by a kid. One of the bars on Phi Phi had a teenager mixing the drinks who also served as a fire baton twirler! Yesterday for lunch a child was my waiter. I tipped him well.
Overall I am finding the Thai people very happy and friendly.
Copyright laws do not apply here. It is not uncommon to see a shop that has nothing but pirated movies for sale.
Knock-off wrist watches and sunglasses are common here too. I saw a Rolex for 350 baht the other day in Phuket. It was advertised as a 'quality fake'. I might get one cause I am such a sophisticated chap!
As for the other tourists/farangs. I have yet to meet another American on my trip since arriving in Thailand. I have met many Canadians, Aussies and Brits. I hear many Europeans speaking French, German, etc. But not one American. Seems strange to me. I have heard that the United States has issued less passports to it's citizens on average then almost any other modern country. Possibly because the US is so large, there is so much to see in our own country. I think people from other countries tend to be more 'worldly' though. Like they are part of a world community.
I am not sure Americans feel that way. Just watch any of our national news channels. Most of the news focuses on US news only. But when I watch BBC news, its amazing how much of it is international. Would be interesting to see this broken down into percentages.
Many of the western restaurants play current or recently released movies on their tv's. Last night I went to one of these places. Ordered my nightly curry and watched 'You Don't Mess with the Zohan' which was actually much more enjoyable then I had thought it was going to be. The place was full of farangs. I shared my table with one - a french guy named Jon Paul - who works several months out of the year on a yacht sailing he world. He has been sailing and traveling for 10 years and has explored almost every corner of the planet except North America. I told him to make sure he goes to Portland when he does! :)
I haven't had any western food (besides breakfast) since I arrived but am tempted to get a European pizza tonight for dinner. Only so much Curry you can have.
I got my laundry done today as well. It was way overdue. Got a 'hot and spicy' chicken soup for lunch. It was easily one of the spiciest meals I have eaten. It made me cough a couple times and my nose was running by the time I was finished. I made the mistake of asking the guy to make it just chicken with NO PRAWNS... when i got it, of course there were lots of prawns. I cant escape them. I do manage to get them down if I eat them in small pieces with other stuff.
Tomorrow Avery is meeting me here in Krabi early. We will then catch an 11:30am bus to Khao Suk. A park north of hear 100 miles or so. Some of the pictures made it look amazing. Need to remember to recharge my camera battery tonight.

Krabi

Early this morning I woke up to complete darkness... i mean I couldnt see a speck of light. It startled me and the thought that I might be blind crossed my mind! Once I realized that the electricity was probably just off on my beach I started to relax. Just as I was falling asleep again I felt something on my chest. I grabbed something crunchy about the size of my thumb and threw it. I think it made a sound. Problem with throwing it is I was sleeping in a bug net on a bed, in my bungalow.
I considered getting up and getting my phone and using that light to look for this 'bug'... but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that it probably wasnt a bug. The net did a pretty good job of keeping them out. Not to mention that I never see large bugs in the bungalow. So i tried to fall back to sleep but the thought of a large crunchy bug in my net filled my thoughts. Eventually I fell back to sleep.
I woke up a bit after sunrise and decided to start out early. My plan was to pack up my stuff, take a BADLY needed shower and climb with my bag over the hill to the main beach, then to the pier and then catch a 9am ferry to Krabi. So I jumped out of bed, climbed out the back to my toilet and shower (which is mostly exposed to the outside except for a stone wall that goes up about 4-5 feet).
Shower doesnt work... no water... I REALLY needed to wash my hair.
By the toilet was a bucket of water that is used to 'flush' your toilet. You would cup up some water and pour it in and that would help flush it out. I moved the bucket and turned on the water that would go in the bucket and started rinsing my hair. After thoroughly soaking my head i stand up and look that the water coming out of the pipe is mud red. I worry that its sewage, but upon smelling it, it wasnt. Turns out i was just emptying this pipe too...no water. So i grab my water bottle and rinse my head and shampoo with that. Bottled water to rinse.
Pack up my stuff and manage to hit my head hard twice on the doorway. Good start to the day!
Eventually I pack up my stuff and say goodbye to my remote beach and head up the hill. This little hike gets tougher every time I do it! Course now i had a heavy backpack on.
I make it to the pier and pay 450 baht for a ferry ticket to Krabi. Jump on the ferry and enjoy a 2 hour sunny, windy, comfy ride to Krabi. The pier was not close to town so I grabbed a taxi for 200 baht into the town center.
I am definitely starting to adjust to my travels again as it feels good to be in a real city that isnt fully defined by tourism. First off I see much less farangs. Rooms are MUCH cheaper and food and markets look greatly authentic.
I checked into the City Hotel - which at first I thought looked to modern to afford. 450 baht for a nice sized room, western bathroom and shower and a fan to cool me off. Not to mention a color tv!
At this point I plan to keep exploring the city, get some food and have fun. I might even buy some things!
I should be meeting Avery tomorrow or Tuesday. She told me I need to see more then beaches while I am here and after arriving at Krabi, I agree. I think im all beached out for now (did i just say that)... or not...
I am feeling healthy and good, but about as attractive as a frog! Every day adds new bumps and spots to my body... who knows where they come from (bed bugs, mosquitoes, etc). My face tends to get pink cheeks and nose by the end of every day that makes me look sorta clownish. And I still have a fever blister. Im the elephant man!!! :)
Also, after the ferry ride my hair is sticking straight up in about all directions. I think I look a bit scary to the locals... the crazy farang!
Oh well... I keep a smile on my face and speak as much thai as I can.
Some interesting mosques and temples in this town. I think i will go explore!

UPDATE: Found the 'touristy' area of Krabi. Its actually charming. Also, I need to stop hitting my head in the doorways here... i guess I am taller then the average thai. Bought some lunch at a family owned restaurant. Was a bit hard for me to eat as it had some processed fish in it. Also there is a great street market across from my room with all sorts of fruit and things. I bought a small cup of peanuts that are cooked in their shell in a way that makes them moist and soft. I think I like them the way I am used to them better.

UPDATE 2: Really smacked my head again in my room. My head is getting sore!

Rantee Beach

I arrived Rantee Beach yesterday by long boat. 300 baht for the trip.
Bungalows were still set at 300 baht per night. I booked for 2 nights.
Once in my bungalow, I found it to be much superior to the bungalows on Long Beach that I had rented for 800 baht per night. Much cleaner and brighter. Not to mentioned, much closer to the beach. I unpacked and settled in. Started reading Alls Quiet on the Western Front. About halfway through it. Enjoying it, but the area I am staying has a stash of books to read, I found one in English called Skeleton Coast (at least i think) and started reading that to save my other for later. Its a good read.
Was all ready to hike up over the hill to the main beach to check internet but found that a small resort on a nearby beach has internet. A 10 minute walk on the beach and through rocks to the closest beach south of Rantee. I was glad, as I did not look forward to the intense 30 minute hike straight up then straight down just to get to the other side and then have to repeat it to get back before the heat comes. So here I am. Unfortunately the connection is VERY slow... 5 minutes for one page, if then.
Enjoying my stay here. Might even stay another night.
Avery sent me a note and said she is in bangkok and heading south. I think flying. So she could be in Phuket today. She has friends there and so she said she might stay there till Tuesday. I am sure I will be ready to leave Phi Phi by then. Possibly we will meet in Krabi (where I might be by then already).
Other then that, my trip is very uneventful. Sitting on the beach, reading. Misquitoes are intense and I have a new series of probably 50 bites on my body. Though I am convinced most come from bed bugs from my last stay in Long Beach. The bed there was questionable. There are bug nets on the beds though and found they work well and are fairly comfy. I slept well last night.
Might brave the sun a bit today finally and snorkel on Rantee. Reef can be seen just yards off the beach.

To Rantee Beach

Up this morning to find i have a major fever blister on my lip. Feels like an apple on my face! :)
Oh well. Im not lookin to spiffy these days anyhow. My clothes are constantly moist, wrinkled and a bit smelly, im burned and discolored, skin flaking off in all places and bites and bumps everywhere! My health is good so i guess i have no complaints.
Catching a water taxi (long boat) to Rantee beach where I plan to stay for a couple days at least.
Heard from my friend Avery. She is heading this way so I might have a travel buddy again by end of this weekend. Would be good as my only companions the past few days are books. I have done nothing but sit and read on the beach... in the shade. But I still manage to get LOTS of sun in the shade.
I plan to continue this routine while on Rantee. But for the first time, I am feeling ready to head towards Krabi. I think a couple days or so after Rantee.
Also, I think I am officially half way through my trip. I feel fine with this too... seeing how the first half lasted months it seems.
Finished The Good Earth this morning. Probably the fastest I have ever read a book before in my life. Wang Lung was an interesting guy, but he should have been nicer to O-lan. :)
Today I start my second book, Alls Quiet on the Western Front. I guess i am officially hitting up some of the classics.
Time to go, im paying HUGE for this... 3 baht a minute! Much more then the 2 baht on the rest of the island and the 1 baht back on Phuket.
More lazy reading for me!

What day is today?

Serously, I have no idea what day it is. I would guess Thursday.
Long beach is nice. I am staying at a rough little bungalow for 800 baht. Its nice enough and I slept well last night... especially after a few Singha's.
My sunburn is fading but I still have some sore spots on my upper back.
Yesterday, once I got moved and situated in my new spot. I rented a chair on the beach (50 baht) and sat there and read all day. I got through more then half of my book! Thats alot for me, considering I am a slow reader. I am really enjoying it!
Even though I was in the shade, I still got a pink belly... crazy sun here!
So I have realized that Thailand has made me a tight wad!
Yesterday I was fretting about how much this bungalow was. I was thinking "If only I can talk him down to 700 baht"!!! Like that extra $2.50 is going to break my budget. Money on the island is strange. Room and board and food is relatively cheap, but things like sun block and towels are farely expensive... even for US standards.
I am eating very healthy while I am here. I usually get a 'western' style breakfast of eggs and toast with some bacon and ham (I know, that doesnt sound too healthy).. and I skip lunch for a thai chicken curry. Sometimes Green curry, sometimes red and sometimes yellow. I love it!
With all my hiking around and sweating, no doubt I am burning off any caleries I take in. And I drink TONS of water. I constantly have a bottle and probably go through 5-6 a day.
Not sure exactly what my plans are in the next few days. Considering buying another book because I will be done with my current one probably later today. Still want to head to Kantee Beach and head to Krabi afterwards.
OK, well running out of time. Have to buy a book and get back to my beach (i am on the main beach right now cause internet is cheaper) before check out!
If I end up taking a long boat to Kantee tomorrow, I might not post again for a couple days so dont stress out if i dont (-mom!-) ;)

On the move

Today I woke up with a cloudy/aching head. Not sure if it is feverish or not in this heat. Also a nice little line of blisters on my back. I feel like a vampire, avoiding the sun at all costs for now. :)
Getting ready to leave my current bungalow.
Due to the not feeling 100%, i think i will hold off on the remote Rantee beach bungalow for a day or two and take a 800 baht bungalow on Long Beach. Its a bit more remote and quieter crowd then here. The bungalows are 50 yards at most from the beach but look a bit stuffy and dark compared to those on Rantee. But I will be closer to more accommodations, pharmacies, etc. in case my health goes south.
Bought a book today, "the Good Earth" for 180 baht. Plan to sit in shade and read today... be lazy.
My roommate Kate has told me that my car damage is very minimal, limited possibly to just one of the headlights. Also that our 'landlord' is being very cooperative in trying to rescue our apartment situation.
OK, i am off to pack my stuff... which REALLY needs to be washed. Check out time is in 30 minutes.

Last night at current bungalow

Lots of hiking today (in the shade).
Burn is starting to not hurt as bad. Think I will avoid blisters, but i kept out of the sun today. I hiked to Rantee beach again this morning to meet my Canadian friends. They crashed there last night. Turns out they were planning on just sleeping on the beach but the family that runs the bungalows over there (the ones I had posted earlier about for 500 baht) ended up giving them a bungalow for free. My friends said they gave them food and candles and helped them build a big fire. THey had a great time. The family also said that because of the riots they have lost about 80% of their business. None of their bungalows are rented as far as I can see. I guess people want to be close to the party of the main beach. The Canadians said that the bungalows are VERY comfy.
As we were talking, they lowered the price of the bungalows on the chalk board to 300 baht per night! So, I am almost certain that tomorrow I will be staying there. It will be a very tough hike with my backpack though. Might take a long boat there for 100 baht.
Also thinking of buying a book, beach towel and some fruit to take with me. POssibly some incense.
Just found out the riots in Bangkok are over. The thais here seem very happy about this. Looks like i will be going out of Bangkok afterall on the 17th.
This evening I hike out to Long Beach today as well. So lots of hiking.
Internet is giving me major problems tonight so i think i will wrap this up. I have tried sending emails and facebook messages, but everythign at every internet shop seems to be having issues.

Terrible sunburn and bad news from home

So last night my sun burn continued to get worse by the minute.
By the time I got comfy back at my place i had some legit concerns that I had a severe burn. It was painful.
I have applied aloe probably 20 times over the night and today it is feeling better.
Strange, it hasn't been really sunny here yet on my whole trip. Always overcast but nice. I have been in the sun all day many days and only got minor sun. Yesterday, though it had short moments of sun, I got FRIED.
I thought I would be ok.
Anyhow its not severe but i might have some blisters on my back in a day or two but none yet. I have SPF50 lotion and plan to use it ALOT.
Today, as luck would have it, is the first VERY sunny day of my trip. :)
I got up and got some breakfast and checked the internet to find out 3 bad things going on back home in Portland. Kutya has worms (Kates dog has them too). Not too big of a deal. Someone hit my parked truck and left a note. SUCKS! And we have been evicted from our apartment!!! REALLY REALLY REALLY SUCKS
There is a chance they will want us out by dec 15th. I will still be here in Thailand!
Apparently there is a new tenant in an apartment next to us. He complained about kutya barking. Management called Kate's number and left a message. Story here is we are just subleasing from the current tenant Mide. Technically he is not supposed to sublease. Mide had changed the contact number to Kate's phone and it would appear he never paid the dog deposits. The eviction notice mentions unapproved dogs or something like that, even though we paid $500 to Mide to have them there. Realistically we will probably have to move out 1-1-09. This just raises a bunch of concerns. Obviously if they kick us out on the 15th, that will be a big problem, seeing how i will be here. And we are unsure how Mide will react to this. He has a farely large deposit from us.
Eitherway, that means I will be looking for a new home when i get back and will have at best 13 days to find one. :(
So this is just a bad day. Not much i can do about it here anyhow.
Think I will put no 4 layers of sunblock and start hiking in the hills and see if i can find some of those remote beaches I saw yesterday on the long boat.

One Week

Today marks the finish of my first week of traveling. Its been a long week! Two more to go.
This morning I got up and met my Canadian friends for breakfast and then we went to the pier to be picked up for snorkeling. We found our guide and his long boat and headed out towards the island Phi Phi Lay, the island where they filmed scenes from the move The Beach.
It was an overcast day once again so I wasn't too worried about sunburn. The cost for renting our own long boat totaled 450 baht per person, including water and equipment.





Its hard to explain this island. It just juts out of the ocean with spidery cliffs (above). The island itself has two areas in its interior that open up. The first one we stopped and swam for 20 minutes. It was just a little bay surrounded by large sheer cliffs.














We then head to the other side of the island to 'The Beach' (in photo below) and snorkeled for a couple hours. We did not go to 'The Beach' as they charge you 200 baht. And there were plenty of other amazing little beaches on this island. Small little havens among the cliffs.



After snorkeling we started back towards the main island to Ratee Beach. My friends plan to sleep on the beach over there tonight. Could be a rough night for them. I lounged around lazily for a while, started reading a book and started to feel my sunburn for the first time. Turns out I am BURNED!
So I gathered my things and started up the trail back past View Point and down to my side of the island. I quickly realized I was exhausted! It was much harder then yesterday. By the time I reached my bungalow I was beat.
A quick shower, lots of water and I started out for dinner. Great curry meal again.
Just bought some cooling aloe.
Now I am heading back to my room and will rest and probably fall asleep.
Too tired to post more. :)
Also, obviously you see I can post photos. I found faster internet connections at different internet cafes.
Tomorrow, I will meet my friends at Ratee for remote beach relaxation! :)

Remote beach!

So last night I had a couple beers, went back to my bungalow and immediately fell asleep. Woke up around 3am wide awake. Took an Ambien (thanks lisa!) and fell right back to sleep until around 8am.
While eating dinner last night an old thai women sat with me and started asking me about where i was from and questions about obama. She has lived here her whole life. She told me about the tsunami. Now she is working at this restaurant. She was very nice and told me I should take a hike to the View Point. She said to do it early or late to avoid the heat. As I was laying in bed this morning I decided to go for a hike and find this View Point. I looked in my book and saw a marker for it, also some trails that would lead to the other side of the island. Packed light and took off. Had to ask a few directions to find it but I quickly found the path... straight up. Took about 20 minutes but it was worth it. The island is shaped like a dumbell. Two large sides connected by a thin middle thats probably only a quarter of a mile wide. You could see the whole thing. I took some photos and will try to get them online soon. (below is the view)



Once I got to the viewpoint I found another side path that mentioned Ratee beach over the peak of the mountain(hill). I had marked this on my map and thought I would explore so I started down that. It goes through some dense jungle/forest and a steep decline. Though the island is small and getting lost is very unlikely, I considered the idea. Also, many of the areas looked like a natural setting for a tiger to jump out. Am pretty sure there arent any of those running around on this tiny island either.
I was very curious as to what I would find on the other side. Possibly my own remote beach, possibly a thai village... possibly a tourist filled bar. Eventually I started hearing waves and noises. When I finally broke through it was a charming little beach with all these rough bungalows right on the beach (20 yards if that). A little bar, a hommock and a couple long boats were all that was there. It was exactly what i was wanting to find. 3 ferangs were swimming in the ocean. I went to the bar and asked how much for the bungalows. 500 baht. Guess where I am staying when my 3 days are up at my current spot!





I decided to take a swim on the little beach and the 3 other ferangs quickly introduced themselves. 3 Canadians... two girls and a boyfriend of one. They too had just found this spot and were happy to be away from the party scene of Phi Phi beach.
We all ended up chatting for a couple hours at the bar and decided to continue hiking to other remote parts. We climbed back up our trail and took another route. We were looking for Long Beach. We probably traveled 30 minutes on trails before we found a paved path. We felt like we were close. Finally, we got there. I was disappointed. It looked like Phi Phi beach. Not remote at all like my friend Lisa (who had traveled here this july) had said. As we walked we started realizing that it was a bit too much like Phi Phi beach... like, actually that it WAS Phi Phi beach! Somehow I guess we took a wrong turn and instead of being on the other side of the mountain, we were back where we all started from. We got a good laugh out of that one.
It was past lunch time so we found a very authentic thai place to eat. Basically there was a sign down an alley... you go down and there are women cooking in what might have been their home. They were all eating. We joined them for 40 baht each. A delicious soup with noodles, chicken and fish (i skipped the fish).
Afterwards we swam for a bit on the main beach and then I skipped out back to my bungalow.
We have plans to meet tonight for dinner and drinks... and tomorrow at 10am we have already made arrangements for the 4 of us to go snorkeling. We rented our own longboat driver to take us out for 4 hours. Should be a lot of fun!
So, as I have left a friend yesterday in Phuket, I have made 3 new ones today.
My health is improving. No more itchy throat or zombie brain from lack of sleep. I am starting to feel good and the exercise today helped. I did yoga in my room a bit ago as well (i needed it bad!)
Funny though... something is biting the ferangs here like crazy. I have some red bumps on my body. They dont itch. Not sure if it is bed bugs or beach mites or... whatever. Everyone has something on their skin. Some look terrible. So far I feel pretty lucky.
The thai's here are VERY friendly. All smiles. Even while they are working. There were about 30 of them shoveling sand on the beach (not sure why) and they were having the best time! As I was walking down to the bar a group of like 5 locals asked me to join them in a game of hackee sack (except the ball was larger and plastic). I felt I held my own. :)
There is a lot of construction going on on the island as well. Some of the construction sites look dangerous. They seem to lack modern construction tools here.
The party that i missed last night sounded terrible. Its a loud thump thump thump kind of music. Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy good dance music, but this was just BAD... unfortunately it could be heard clearly... even at 3am.
My new friends are of the same mindset as me on the party scene here. They are done with their current place after tonight and plan to stay at the Katee beach bungalows tomorrow night. Lucky them. If they are still around long enough, I hope to join them there in 3 nights. The girls are traveling for 6 months. They just got to thailand from India. The boyfriend is here for two weeks joining them.
Well thats all for now. Good day. Excited about tomorrow.
chris

NOTE: I probably will NOT upload my photos for this trip online like I did last year in Europe... especially to my flickr account. My images are all at least 1 meg in size and it seems most of the internet here is SLOOW... Takes about 5 minutes to upload ONE photo. So I will be posting some images here on my blog (not through flickr). But it will be limited. When I get home, i will post them all in order on Flickr.

Kho Phi Phi

I have arrived at Phi Phi island and already I am VERY happy I have left Phuket. Though in the few hours I have already been here, it is obvious that its a fake and touristy area, but it still has a wonderful charm about it. Not to mention the natural beauty. Its a tiny island that violently juts out from the ocean with beautiful cliffs, ravines and cravasses. Also, I have yet to see a car... all foot traffic. Just my speed.



The ferry ride was a great treat as well. I got to know several of the other passengers. Ryan is a young aussie who has set out for 2 years of travel after finishing college. He just set out and on his first night in Phuket and met a very nice vietnamese prostitute (above). They have been traveling together the past few days. He had done some traveling in chiange mai and was happy to tell me how great it was there. They were a fun 'couple' and made the ferry ride very enjoyable. I also had my first drink of alcohol with them on the ferry (hard to believe I made it that long but i wasnt feelng too well). I hope to run into them again.
I can not go on enough about how beautiful this place is. I have already taken more photos here then my 2 full days in Phuket. I will try to post them soon.



Once we landed at the port (even the port was beautiful) I walked off to a sea of thais trying to 'help' you find accommidations. Being of a bit more sound mind then when i arrived at the phuket airport, I decided to take one up on his offers. (they were much more friendly here anyhow)... My new friend took me to his office and we found some accomidations. I now have a bungalow on the east end of the beach for 4 days. Pricetag: 1650 baht per night or 6600 baht. Yep, i have increased my standard of living. I can actually see the beach from it... though you have to sort of look off to the side of the view. :)
It has air, tv, western toilet, nice shower, fridge, etc. All an american could want. I even spent some time watching tv after I arrived.
If I had any complaints about Phi Phi so far (besides the strong but comfy touristy feel) is that it also feels a bit like spring break. I kind of feel old here. I would guess average age of travelers here is 23. There are a few older farts like me around though. Possibly I will lie about my age if asked! :)
Tonight I also had my 2nd authentic Thai meal. Splendidly spicy. No doubt that my last two meals are far superior to any thai I have ever had. I had two Singhai with my meal and plan to grab a few more tonight.
Ive also heard word that there is a party on the beach tonight. I might wonder that way.
So 4 days to go on Phi Phi island. I am going to be lazy, get some sun, swim and be lazy.. oh and did i say be lazy? :)

Kho Phi Phi bound

I have decided to stay in southern Thailand.
I wanted to meet my friend in Chiange Mai area of northern Thailand, but thats probably 1000 miles from here. So 18 more days of sunny beach perfection. Not a poor choice I guess, but i was very interested in seeing northern Thailand. I think I will manage though... somehow.
News on the street here is that things could wrap up one way or another in Bangkok in the next few days. Apparently the police are now warning the protestors that they have like 48 hours to leave. Hope it doesnt get bloody.
Andy is determined to get to her orphanage (where she had planned to volunteer at for 2 weeks in northeastern thailand) and plans to take a 12 hour bus to bangkok and then hopes to get another bus to the orphanage. Hope she makes it ok. So today i travel alone for the first time.
For breakfast we went to a resort and got a breakfast buffet for 180 baht. It was decent enough. The place was full of europeans and the ones sitting next to us are from England. Nice older couple and a women they had met there. All were stranded! They said that their airlines would not accomidate them and that they could buy new tickets for $1700 to get them back to England. Also, they were all kicked out of their hotels because they are all booked full. I had thought that the riots and economy would keep these places farely empty, but i was wrong. Phuket is at capacity and now i am happy that i have the little dump that I have.
Speaking of our hotel. I had them do my laundry for me for 100 baht yesterday morning. Me and Andy soaked up sun all day and when I returned I asked if my laundry was done and the lady pointed and said it was still going. I looked at what she pointed to, it was my shirt hanging over a grill. I guess thats how they dry it here. Unfortunately I did not get my clothes until THIS MORNING... so i basicallly had nothing but my bathing suit and a dirty shirt all day. Also, looks like our hotel is a hotspot for prostitutes because they swarm in and out of that place like crazy. Its not too bad I guess for $7US each a night.
Last night me and Andy had plans to get some drinks for dinner but by the end of the day we both crashed early and didnt get up. I managed to get out and get the best thai curry i have ever had. Great dinner for 150 baht.
This morning i got up before sunrise and went for a run. Well a short run. Even at just past sunrise it was too hot for me to go too far. I did get some photos, which i hope to get some uploaded soon and i made some decisoins on my future travels.
I am going to catch a ferry today and head to the island of Kho Phi Phi (where they filmed the beach). My friend Lisa in Portland suggested I head to Long Beach afterward, i think its on another island. She described it as very remote and that sounds good to me. Eventually I will probably head further east to Krabi Beach.
Its 11am right now and i just bought my ticket to Phi Phi. 450 baht. Not too bad. I leave in 2 hours and should get there by 3pm. A shuttle picks me up at my hotel, then to the port (15 minutes), then ferry to the island (2 hours). The lady who sold me the ticket at the travel office said Phi Phi is busy right now too. So I might have to start spending more then $7US a night and raise my standards for a couple nights. Actually I am quite prepared to spend much more tonight as it will be the first room i have had alone and ... well i am just ready to for a decent place to spoil myself for a night or two.
I havent mentioned the weather yet. Yesterday was very overcast but still very warm. Today the sun is out in full force. The number of people on the beach has tripled since yesterday. I ALWAYS have water on me and constantly drink, even at night. Its very easy to get overheated.
I am excited to get to Phi Phi... and to leave Phuket. I always knew Phuket would not suite me too much. Not sure Phi Phi is the answer either but I am on the move. Honestly i think as remote as possible. Give me a hut on the beach, i dont even need electricity... though, i do like the western toilet!