Hot Women, and me

Traveling: ferry boat, bus, trains, planes, and always just me, and two beautiful blond women.  How does one get this lucky you might ask.  Simple, marry one of them, then invite her mother to travel with you.  Janet is still with us and she is tough.  We run her, swim her, and walk her, and most evenings end with me asleep and the ladies still out doing something.  What are the somethings we have been doing since our last blog you might ask.

Goodbye Koh Tao: we did it, we left with both our Advanced Open Water SCUBA certification and took the ferry/bus to Krabi.  There we enjoyed a street stall dinner and didn't get ill (last time we fell ill was March I think so lets keep it that way!).  From Krabi we jumped a morning Ferry to Koh Phi Phi ( the pic below, check out the Man with the Golden Gun, or The Beach for films made on the island). We snorkeled for the first time in a week, seeing sea snakes, fish, and a turtle. 

Then a quick ferry to Phucket, were Janet got her first Thai massage, we all three got tipsy, and we watched 100 dancers and 15 (or so) elephants dance on stage. 








Hello Singapore: In an effort to head off another visa run to Burma (not that we didn't love it)  We next hopped a plane to Singapore.  We moved into "little India" and are spending our days, eating, and ducking out of the rain (Monsoon season is going on).  Yesterday was the zoo, but not just any zoo, the zoo that all zoo's should strive to be.  It is big and getting bigger, with lots of room for the animals to enjoy, and many of the animals able to roam free range. There was even a Tropical crop exhibit.  Check out the picture with me and the wild pineapple!

Looking back over this blog, you may note that it was lots of travel.  It was!  But so much fun, and so easy with these two amazing ladies to travel with.  Sadly Janet leaves in 4 days, but we have lots to do back in Bangkok, so stay tuned.

Give me back my passport

So we get to the boarder. Standing in Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) is just over that stretch of river. A guy in jeans and a T-shirt takes our passports and ten bucks, then tells us to get on the boat. So let me get this straight, we are going to Myanmar without a passport? Yep, welcome to "a visa run." You start by running out of time on your Thai visa. Next you pay 50 US dollars and spend the night "sleeping" on "the night boat." Wake up, get in a mini bus and head to the boarder. Where the random looking man takes your money and your passport and you head to Myanmar for a visit. Our visit was about 30 minutes in a boat and 10 minutes at immigration. You are offered cigarettes, whiskey, and of course opium. Back in Thailand you get a stamp and YEAHHH you have 15 days before you have to do it again.

But prior to all this madness, tons of stuff happened as you shall soon see and read.


The baby elephant performing a show for just the 4 of us!

We went on a tour of the Samui Archipelago. This Archipelago is made of up 3 inhabited Islands, Ko Tao, Ko Pang yang, and Ko Samui. Plus a Marine National park with lots of small islands sticking up out of the sea like "crocodile teeth" says Lonely Planet. So we systematically tour the islands one by one. Ko Tao is where we have spent the bulk of our time and where we are currently, getting our SCUBA open water and advanced certifications. After 4 days of Snorkeling the four of us, Mom, Jill, Rob, and I head for the larger Island of Ko Pang yang.

We went elephant trekking and took a day trip to the Marine National Park. All was going well until we made the horrible mistake of renting motor bikes. Rob and I were on one while Jill and mom on the other. We made a wrong turn down a road under partial construction and lots of sand. Never a good combination. And yes mom and Jill ended up on the pavement. A few bloody scrapes and a big bruise later we were ready to return the bikes. We should have know it was a bad sign when we filled our tanks with gasoline from a Vodka bottle.  But we weren't good at listening to signs!

On our next island Ko Samui we took a wonderful cooking class and the 4 of us made enough food to feed at least 16 people. Not sure how they expected us to eat it all. We learned to make our own curry paste and we got really comfortable pounding the chillies since it took almost 10 min to get them to the correct consistancy! By now it was time to say good bye to Jill and the remaining three headed back to Ko Tao. (we miss you Jill)

"Under the sea.  Under the sea.  Darling it's better, down were it's wetter, take it from meeeee..." You know the song, sing along.  Four days, one visa run, and 5 dives later, we are now PADI certified divers.  Today we stayed 30-60 feet under water for over an hour, and got to spend quality time with a baby turtle (about the size of a truck tire).  Still want more?  Us too, we start the advanced course tomorrow at 7:30 AM.  But that will have to wait for our next blog.

Indiana invades Thailand

We now have two lovely new traveling companions to share our adventure with. My mom, Janet, who saved the day and brought us a camera, and Jill, our neighbor.

We started off with a world wind one day tour of Bangkok. The tension in the air that we experienced last time in Bangkok is gone and the city is getting back to normal, shops are open and the people are smiling. We started our day off with the Grand Palace. Our tour guide said that normally in one day there are 1500 visitors and since the distress in Bangkok only about 200 are coming a day. So we had the place practically to ourselves. Our guide was a spunky little woman in a full flannel long sleeve shirt and cameo pants. (Keep in mind it is near 100 degrees out) We are still not sure how she didn't overheat, but she was cheery even with sweat dripping down her face. She was not alone in that though. We were all working hard to stay cool. The Grand Palace itself was beautiful with gold plated temples and amazing ceramic tiles for rooftops and decoration. In the end we were able to see the prize possession, the Emerald Buddha, carved out of one piece of Jade. The prince changes the cloths of the two foot tall green statue in accordance with the season. This used to be the King's job but the Buddha is on a high ornate pyramid and he is now too old to climb the latter to get to the Buddha. We saw the Buddha in his hot weather attire, each outfit cost an incredible amount of money since it is made out of gold. We were not allowed to take a picture of this so you will have to use your imagination.

After the Grand palace we took our own private speed boat down the canals of Bangkok or as some say the Asian Venice. There were not any grand sites to be seen, just every day living and houses along the canal. It was a different view of the city and it was fun to be so up close and intimate with the way of life.

Next we climbed practically vertical steps up a beautifully carved and decorated spike called Wat Poh.

Then off to the reclining Buddha which we all four agree was our favorite site. The Buddha is so large it can only be really appreciated in real life. However, we did snap some photos so you can try to take it the scope of it all.

We all hopped on a night train to head down back to Koh Tao and cool off in the water.

We are in front of one of the best diving places in the world. It is called the Japanese Garden. It is a small island, Nang Yuan, that has a sand bar connecting two rocky outcrops. We will be here for the next few weeks so expect more ocean going tales.

Rob says: Send HELP, these ladies are kicking our butts. The wake up at 6-7 AM and keep going until 10-11 at night. Janet and Jill are truely amazing and are teaching Leah and I what it is to be tough. Sadly, only 5 days remain then Jill goes home (and we can sleep). In the 5 days we have been together so far, we have seen more, done more, and been more places, then Leah and I did in 6 weeks.

Here is a short clip of our canal ride in Bangkok.