Railay

Well we made it to Railay, an awesome beach community cut off from mainstream tourist thailand. No road can reach Railay due to some huge limestone cliffs cutting it off from the nearby cities, so longboats are the only option. This was great because it cut down on crowds and made the whole place feel like another world. I just finished reading "Jurrassic Park - the lost world" so we half expected to see a couple dinosaurs pop out of the jungle. Sadly this never happend... But we did get to see plent of very original haircuts. Railay is a popular spot for rock climbing, with its huge limestone cliffs and ocean views. This attracts quite the large hippie climber population, and with the hippies came the dreads and wild hair. Something I had never seen, is the rat tail dread. Imagine a full head of dreads, then shave everything but one or two that come out of the back of the head, or the dread mullet was also a favorite.... we decided that the local climbers got the hair cuts to prove that they were locals, what tourist/anyone else would get that style unless you were planning on sticking around in a community cut off from the outside world.

A view of railay from above.

A cool swim through we did when the high tide covered the whole tube.

TonSai beach, Railay (some night climing happening in the background)

On Ton sai beach we got lucky and happened to be there when a thai reggae group was playing at one of the beach venues. They were great and did a bunch of covers and originals (atleast a 4 hour set. The fire dancers came out with the band too.

We also did some hiking around Railay and heard that there was a lagoon on the center of the pennisula. It was surrounded on all sides by couple hundred foot walls and the only way into the arena was up and down one of the steepest trails I have ever hiked/mostly climbed. (Also note: hiking in thailand is the best way completely drenched in minutes) The Lagoon was beautiful and was totally worth the trek.

We are now on our way to Koh Samui to get our visas extended and do some more diving!

Koh Lanta / Mantas

After leaving the Phi Phi Islands we headed south by boat to Koh Lanta. We arrived to find empty beaches, great food, cheap lodging and plenty more of Thailand to explore.

We spent about a week in Koh Lanta soaking up the sun and the salt. A couple of the days we rented a scooter (only about 7 dollars a day) to explore the large island. We found some great snorkeling and some cool underwater swim through.

We also came across a couple Elephants and Caitlin got to feed them!

I decided to dive again and ended up going with a Scandinavian company called Lanta Diver. They ran a tight ship and had much better prices than on the Phi Phi islands. I decided to do two of the most famous sites in Thailand, Hin Daeng and Hin Muaeng. These sites are 2 undersea coral pinnacles about a 4 hour boat ride south of koh lanta, and were supposedly the best places to see manta rays and whale sharks. They use the pinnacles of underwater cleaning stations. I got very lucky and on both dives got to see a 5 meter wide manta for close to 20 minutes on my first dive at hin daeng and then for the last 5 minutes on hin muaeng. It was amazing to see such a large animal underwater, very other worldly. It seemed that the mantas liked to show off and play with the divers and were not spooked at all. At one point I was only a couple meters away, breathtaking.

We stuck around for the rest of the week to see a couple other beaches and enjoy the inexpensive living for a couple more days. Koh Lanta has definitely been my favorite place so far!

Well up next is Railey, a boat only access beach town, known for its rock climbing and caves!

Kata beach, Phuket to diving in the Phi Phi Islands

Hey since the last post Caitlin and I have covered a lot of ground. We left Khoa Lak for Phuket riding a much less air conditioned bus we managed to hail from the side of the road. we arrived midday in "phuket town" a grimy commuter city nowhere near the beach. we needed a place to dump our packs so we found a super cheap room and rented a scooter (only about 7 dollars for 24hours!) to go exploring. we toured a couple beaches and decided to stay in Kata, a smaller town righ on an awesome beach. We got lucky with an awesome guest house to stay in for about 5 dollars each and spent the next 4 days swimming, snorkeling and sampling the local fare.


After a couple days in Kata we caught a boat to the nearby Phi Phi islands. One of the more beautiful places in all of Thailand, but sadly the most tourist overrun. Their are no roads so all transport is done in longboats around the island.

All driving is done standing and seeing the locals muscle around converted car engines with 15 ft props seemed like quite the feat!


I heard that the phi phi islands were rated in the top 10 dive sites around the world so i decided to give them a try even though the dive trips are a bit more spendy than the rest of the country... I did a 2 dive boat trip with an outfit called Viking Divers to the 2 small islands just to the south of the main islands. All i can say is the reefs were amazing! I got to see a sea turtle, multiple rays and the larges schools of fish I have ever seen, im talking 5-7000 fish schools. Truly incredible!

Awesome shirt.


One of the days staying on phi phi island we decided to go snorkeling at a place called sharks point. It seemed like a long shot but i had heard that it was quite common to see small black tipped reef sharks early in the morning in a rocky cove just to the left on the beach from the place we were staying. I convinced Caitlin to come with and we swam out to the point around 9 am. After snorkelling about for 40 minutes i finally saw a small 2 ft long black tip slowly swimming by. We followed the shark for a while until it finally outpaced us. We surfaced and decided to head back for breakfast. Only to find that after swiming maybe 20 yards we came across another shark, this one nearly 5 feet long. we watched patiently as is meandered along. Then another showed up about the same size! then another even larger about 6ft long.... then another.... to our nervous amazement we soon had 4 differed sharks swiming within eye sight! We turned slowly in the water taking in this amazing sight. At one point one of the smaller sharks got curious and came straight for me only to turn away about 5 feet from my face. We decided we had had enough when we noticed the sharks begining to circle us. wild.

The people watching is great in Thailand, with tourists coming from all over the world. Caitlin and I have enjoyed watching the very posed photographs the most and have tried capturing some of the best. (and then recreating...)


Hope all is well at home!


Some wild wiring in kata...looks pretty safe. It also emits a nice hummm 24/7...

From Bangkok to the Beach

I have spent the last week trying to find some interwebz that were fast enought to upload pictures and everytime I thought I had the connection would fail. One computer even gave me a bit of an electrical shock when I plugged caitlin's camera into the usb port (luckily all the pictures are still on its memory and my heart is still beating). So im guessing that while im typing this, the connection is going to slow and you may end up with only one or two picture. I guess we will see... (edit guess not)


Anyways, since the last post Caitlin and I have definitely covered a lot of ground, ate a ton of tasty thai food, enjoyed some amazing beaches and watched some of the best sunsets i have ever seen...The night before we left Bangkok we decided to go out on a limb and head into the downtown area to a place called the Moon Bar. It turned out to be an open air restaurant on the 59(top) floor of a very swanky hotel. I was in a tanktop and swim trunks, barely surviving the heat and Caitlin was in a summer dress and flip flops. We took the elevator to the the top only to find there was a dress code.... Lukily I had pants and a tshirt and they had clogs to loan to Caitlin. so we were in. The views of Bangkok were great and really showed the size of the city.



We left bangkok the following evening for the beach and decided on a bus to be the best option. It cost only around 500 baht for a 12 hour ride to Khoa Lak and it would save us one nights lodging. At least it sounded great ahead of time... The bus was kept at near freezing temps (everyone was dressed for winter with blankets) and the TV was blasting even though not one person was watching. So much for sleeping... but, after a long cold night we made it and after finally settling in could finally enjoy the beach.


Over the next couple days we explored the small town and even rented a scooter to visit some remote beaches and a nice waterfall outside of town.



As of now we have traveled further south to Phuket and settled on Kata beach. however its off to the beach for me now so writing will have to wait.

PS (madeline and daniel) The Thai bus service does do one thing right. They remove the crust from their sandwiches. Please add one to my tally.

Bangkok - The City That Never Sleeps

As the jet lag fades we have slowly been adjusting to the fastpaced and wild life bangkok brings with it. We have been eating our way down streets and alleyways trying as many types of local fare as possible. From the street vendors selling pineapple on a stick, fruit smoothies and banana-nutella crepes to the green-red-yellow-musaman-panag curries. The latter followed quickly by flavored yogurt drink to combat what we have heard is bangkok belly (an overload of spicy food...) We also got a traditional thai style massage (traditional massage mixed with yoga..), for only 4 dollars for one hour. Definitely a great way to relax after a couple days in flight.

Last night we woke up at 4am (I guess jet lag does take a couple days to go away...) and decided to take a stoll to get some snacks and some water. Thinking the city would be alseep, we were surprised to see the party still going with the local streets still packed with forieners and thais alike. wild.

We woke again today to another very tasty curry and rice breakfast from a nearby street vendor. As we were sitting, we watch tuk-tuks carrying too many passengers rip down narrow streets and scooters loaded down with multiple propane bottles weave through unsuspecting bystanders. (I wonder what the injury/death rate is for scooter drivers delivering flammables?)

Today we finally got around to some planning for the next couple weeks and spent most of the day relaxing as our sleep schedule still is in need of some tuning. I couldnt get the pictures to upload tonight but will try again later.

After blogging last night we went out on the town to see some more of the thai nightlife. We happened across a impromptu break dance performance from a group of young thai in the street. What followed amazed us.... from standing backflips to the balance moves these kids had amazing talent. Definitely the highlight of the trip so far!

This thai kid couldnt have been more than 11 years old... killin it!

Thailand Trip

Hope all is well at home in that states. I am currently nearing the end of a 12 hour layover in Incheon airport, South Korea. Our original plan was to make it into Seoul (the capital) for the day, but I didnt get the memo on the sub freezing temperatures (18degrees when we landed) and snow on the ground. SO shorts and a t-shirt were not going to cut it. Caitlin and I managed to catch a couple hours of sleep this morning in the kids play place here at the airport. We were the only ones in the play place when we fell asleep at 5am, but when we woke up a couple hours later 3 other koreans had caught on... After the great nights rest we found out we could get a hot shower and use an internet cafe for free, who knew korean air was so hospitable... our flight leaves at 5 pm and we are definitely looking forward to getting on our way!

I will try to update the blog at least once a week, if not more to share stories, pictures and the experiences during our trip in thailand. I hope to hear from all of you and keep in touch during the trip.

Next time I post I hopefully will have made it to Bangkok, Thailand.