Blog update - Dec. 30

Sorry we have not updated the blog in quite a while. We have just been too busy doing stuff here (I know at least some of you probably think we've been kidnapped by now). So here is what we did in the interim (minus photos, as they take WAY too long to load).:

Pattaya: Stayed one more night, hung out on the beach, went to some pretty marginal bars and bought fake Rolex watches from some guy selling them out of a briefcase.

Next day (driving on the way to Chiang Mai): Stopped in Lopburi, north of Bangkok, to see the monkeys. Got accosted by several dozen by the side of the street while trying to feed the "cute baby monkey" some bananas. This attracted the attention of many others loitering nearby. After trying to distract them with an entire bag of lychee nuts and some dried bean chips, we finally got our car back, and had all of them off the windshield. Monkeys are evil.

Then, we continued north to Sukhothai, where we spent 2 nights. On the second day, we went to see the ruins of the 14th century city that was the main capital city of the region at that time. Also drove into the mountains to a large fruit market.

Next day we went north to Chiang Mai and stayed there for 3 nights. Spent lots of time walking through the large night market/bazaar and bought more fake Rolex watches. Also bought lots of handmade silver beads and bawdy T-shirts (Greg). Julie and I went to a large shopping mall and looked around, and took a crazy 3-wheeled tuk-tuk taxi back to the hotel (those guys drive like crazy people).

Then we drove back towards Bangkok, stopping for 2 nights in Phitsonolak, where we just mainly walked around and drove around the streets. We went to the "Big C" there, which is basically like a "Big K" here. Except that it has 3 levels, including a video game arcade and food court.

And today, we drove down to Bangkok, and are staying at the Sheraton on the main river here. Greg and Julie are walking aimlessly through the streets, but as I was being continually admonished against continued shopping, I have returned to the hotel, and am heading over to the mall next door (with my credit cards).

Day 17: Back to Bangkok

We will drive back to Bangkok for the last couple of days.

Day 17: Hotel

Need reservation on the last day. This hotel looks nice and is only about two miles from the red light district.

Day 14: Heading South

We will head to the south on a different route. Once again not sure where we will be staying. We will be somewhere near: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=16.866694,99.133292&z=13&t=h&hl=en

Day 11: Further north to Chiang Mai

Now we are traving further north to Chiang Mai.

Day 11: Hotel

We have reservation at this hotel in the area. It is located at: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=18.783958,98.999641&z=17&t=h&hl=en

Day 10: Off to the remote mountains of Uttaradit

We will drive into the mountains and look for a nice place to spend the night. You can see the area here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=17.607255,100.1246&z=17&t=h&hl=en

Day 9: Moving to the North

Heading to the north, we will stop somewhere near Nakhon Sawan for a night.

Day 7 (Sunday)

Today we drove from the western side of the gulf of thailand over to the eastern side (near Cambodia). We drove to Chanthaburi to see the gemstone market. Read about it here: http://www.gemselect.com/other-info/gem-market.php

That is where I went to buy gemstones. Sorry no photos. Greg was too much in shock while I was sitting at the little table buying them to think to take photos. Julie was eagerly watching, but didn't buy any. Anyway, Greg is still in shock.....I now have enough blue topaz to encrust a crown, plus yellow sapphire, pink sapphire, garnet.......etc. Just don't ask.....

I don't think Greg will ever let me come to Thailand again.

And, I'm really glad I spent the previous night checking prices on ebay before showing up to buy.

So then, we headed up to Pattaya (about 2 hours back towards Bangkok along the coast). Pattaya looks a lot like Miami's South Beach. It does have one difference, in that the main tourist draw here is apparently not the beach itself. OK, I'm gonna try and explain this keeping in mind that this is a blog accessed by many at work.......there are lots of 40-60 year old overweight european guys here without their wives. That's all I'm gonna say. You guys can all google it if you want (although I wouldn't advise it from work). Needless to say we are only staying one more night, and Greg is not allowed outside the hotel without Julie or I escorting him.

Day 7: Moving to the East, not sure where!

We drivig back through Bangkok to the east. We are not sure if we will be staying on the beach or in the city. We will be somewhere near: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=12.562302,101.9129&z=16&t=h&hl=en

Days 5 & 6 (Friday and Saturday)

These stupid 5 star hotels keep trying to charge me for internet access, so I'm reducing the number of posts!!! I think we are the only ones staying at these places for free (Sheraton points). Everyone else here does not seem to be shocked by the $10 cocktails and $20 per day internet fees. I guess we are cheap. We keep stopping at fruit stands and picking up weird local fruits to eat for breakfast. They have the smallest bananas I have ever seen!

No photos today. Friday we spent driving up here to Hua Hin. Yesterday (Sat) we went shopping a little at a market, ate lunch, and then went to a dinner show at the hotel (amazingly the dinner show was only $70 per person, which we thought reasonable given the other prices here).

Of course, everything outside the 5 star resort is dirt cheap....

Today (Sunday morning), we are driving over to Chanthaburi (the far eastern part of Thailand by the gulf), where hopefully we'll be able to buy cut gemstones (at least I hope - Greg probably hopes that we get lost on the way). Actually, he'll probably go crazy about halfway through the drive. He can't take the Thai radio stations any longer, and he's just about memorized the "Thai Grammy Award Winners" CD that I bought the first day. Every 15 minutes he chastizes me for forgetting the ipod input jack for the car stereo. I of course have no problem with the Thai radio stations.....

Day 5 Moving on to the next beach

We are moving from one beach to the next. This beach is on the Gulf of Thailand. This is about 400km to the north.

Day 5: Hotel

Staying at a nice beach resort. This place is a bit different than the last one.

Day 4 (Thursday)

Today we went to the tsunami museum just down the shore. Below is a photo of the navy ship that was swept 2km inland (the photo below is facing the water, which you cannot even see because it is 2km away).

Much of the tsunami damage remains, even years later. We came across these boats, and others like them, in the brush along the coast. Although there is a lot of rebuilding, there are many areas with houses not repaired, but in use.

After the museum, we went to a restaurant on the beach (above).

Day 3 (Wednesday)

Today we went to the Khao Sok national park. This is the place we passed on the drive down from Bangkok that had all the cool limestone formations. Supposedly there are tigers, snakes, etc in the park, which is the largest in this part of the asian subcontinent. We saw one lizard....

Greg and Julie went on a long hike to some not so spectacular falls (rapids shown below). I pooped out after 2.5k of dodging stones, roots, etc, and hung out at the gift shop (big surprise).

While at the gift shop, one of the workers let me look at a book on the park that described its formation (OK, I'm trying to do this from memory, so bear with me...). Back in the carboniferous era (several hundred million years ago), the whole area was a big delta like the Mississippi, so lots of silty, sandy sediments washed down into a valley. About 100 million years later, that was forming a huge coral reef that stretched up to China and was much larger than the great barrier reef is today. Then, granitic magma began intruding from below, which cracked and faulted the limestone (what used to be the reef), above, and it also uplifted portins of it. Then, that all got compressed by many overlying sediments in the next 100 million years or so, during which time water dissolved and eroded a lot of the limestone through the cracks and faults that had formed.

So anyway, all we could get are some sandstone samples from the old river delta layer, because the limestone caves we tried to access were cut off by barbed wire fences... (sorry Gerry and Yong). Photo of karst below:

We went to lunch at a very nice river resort in the vicinity fo $30 for all 3 of us. Greg had red chicken curry, Julie had tuna salad (for which we severely berated her), and I had a large fried sweet and sour fish.

Have more photos of the limestone mountains, but this stupid photo uploader is acting up now....

Greg and Julie went down to a nearby bar on the beach at night, and reported it was much cheaper than the hotel (of course that doesn't say much...).

Day 2 (Tuesday)

Today we drove down the coast to Phuket. Talk about a really tourist infested area! Greg and I have often said that some countries seem to concentrate all of the tourists in one spot, call it "paradise", and then make it look like a slightly exotic Miami Beach. I'm not sure most of them know they've left the USA. I guess the Thais are pretty smart - keep the best beaches to themselves and keep all the tourists in one area....



So on the way back (no, we didn't bother to stop in Phuket for photos. So crowded we couldn't even park...), we stopped at this awesome seafood restaurant by a river. When I say REALLY nice, I mean $40 for the 3 of us. I had oysters (with about 8 little pots of spices to put with them), and horseshoe crab egg salad (below). Yes, made with the eggs of horseshoe crabs.
this was hands-down the best thing I've had so far!










Julie and Greg both had different fried fishes.







Then went back to the hotel and laid on the beach (yes, this is the tough life)...

While Greg tried wind surfing (and tried, and tried, and tried....).

After, we went to a free cocktail and appetizer thing at the hotel and got to release lighted laterns into the sky over the water (sorry no photos....can't lug my camera everywhere). Then, I was thinking of going to the spa for a facial until I found out it was $75 (remember this is an overpriced resort). So we went cheap and used two dollar store facial kits in the hotel room:

Day 1 (Monday):

Really long set of flights here through Tokyo. Then picked up rental car (had to stand in line behind some idiot who had not brought a map or GPS with him - just a set of google maps - who was trying to ask the rental car guy how to get to his resort and complaining about the poor quality of the rental car maps and warning me not to use them.....I said we had GPS and a road atlas, and he could alway rent a GPS from Avis. He was worried about us and asked how we were getting all the way to our hotel, which was 10 hours from Bangkok (his was 4). I said we've been all over the world, don't worry. He said so had he (to which I was thinking...yeah, but you obviously still have problems getting around....). So hopefully HE made it to his resort. I was sort of worried about him, y'know....

So, VERY long drive down the coast (and Greg drove all the way by himself!!). We stopped for breakfast alongside the road here:

Good food, only cost us $7 for all 3 of us. Noone but locals eating there (of course, they did not speak English).

Continued on, and stopped to look at the beautiful limestone mountains (caves everywhere!) bout 1 hour NE of our resort (Gerry and Yong, I'll try and get some karst samples for you, but it's a national park, so hopefully I won't be arrested. The mountains are really steep - this photo is from farther away:

Arrived at hotel. Hotel is REALLY nice - so nice that breakfast costs $20 (because we paid with points, we don't get free breakfast like everyone else - although Julie does get free breakfast because we had to pay for her rollaway, which includes breakfast). So Greg and I are eating all the strange fruit we bought along the way (dragonfruit, giant citruses, and some small prickly thing that tastes like brandy).

Drove down the coast about 10 minutes to get to market and see the Thai navy ship that was driven about 2km inland during the tsunami. Below are abandoned houses that haven't been rebuilt yet about 1km from the coast.

Most of the stuff is all new here - redone after the tsunami. So then we went to the market - had vegetables, fruit, clothes, junk and just about every kind of cooked thing on a stick you can imagine. I had large squid on a stick with spicy sauce and some kind of chicken ball thing. July tried pork and rice sausage on a stick, but reported it ws mostly rice and so fed it to a dog....

Went to dinner (squid not very filling) at a restaurant on a cliff overlooking the bay. Let me just say that Thai food here is much more spicy than in the USA, so we had to keep adding rice to our stuf to be able to eat it easily.....or in Greg's case, he just drank more beer with it!

Late report from early in the morning, day 2: Never plug a 110V power strip into a 220 outlet, even if the plug fits, and definitely do not do this in the middle of the night when the resounding POW and burning smell will wake everyone up. This is especially unadvised, and unneeded when all electronics you own are made in Japan and can take 110 or 220 anyway......

Day 1: Hotel

You can see a satalite picture of the hotel at: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=8.743383,98.253036&z=16&t=h&hl=en

Day 1: Travel from Airport to Khao Lak

We are flying into Bangkok on 12/13 at 11:50PM. From the airport we will drive about 800km to our first hotel. Yes we have a reservation at this hotel. The hotel is at: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=8.743383,98.253036&z=16&t=h&hl=en

Getting Ready for Thailand

We are getting ready for Thailand by buying a Garmin GPS and Thailand mapping software. Then I spent the weekend programming our possible locations.