Thailand
December 2001

 

Robyn and I flew to Bangkok just before Christmas. We stayed near KohSan road and spent a few days seeing the major Wats (temples), the National Museum, Thai boxing, etc.. I was reminded of why everyone always loves Thailand- it's clean, beautiful, cheap, easy, exotic and many people speak English - it's easy to love!

After Bangkok we spent about a week on beaches in southern Thailand, first in Khao Lak on the peninsula, and then on the remote end of the island of Ko Lanta, where we celebrated New Years. The beach was beautiful, the days were slow and everything was great except when we wrecked a rented scooter while trying to get into the closest town (no-one was hurt - only the scooter and keir's pride!).

We rounded off our short trip with 3 days in the National Park of Khao Sok. The park had fantastic tree top bungalows amidst beautiful jungle. The sounds of the jungle at night were wonderful. Our bungalow operation had it's restaurant over a natural swimming hole that was backed by a cliff and often frequented by gibbons who occasionally made "monkey love" to the ammusement of the restaurant guests!. We did an overnight trip into the park which involved a lot of long tail boat rides, hiking and staying in some floating bungalows called raft houses.

 

The hotel we always stay at in Hong Kong costs only $20 a night and is in the slum building of Chungking Mansions, but if you lean out the window you can just barely get this high class view of Victoria Harbor!
  We ran with the local H3 club in Bangkok.
Thai boxing was quite a spectacle!
The view from our beach on Ko Lanta.
One of our bungalows on Ko Lanta.
The raft houses we stayed in in Khao Sok National Park.
 
Clutching my money belt in front of the guest house on Koh San Road where I had my money belt (incl. all money and identification) stolen from me twelve years ago!
 

Created: January 9, 2002
Maintainer: Keir Paesel