A hoy hoy ! whats happenin ? hope your all smiles . Been a bit slack with the storys but have been postin some photos so be sure to check them out as they come with free descriptions ... yep free ... now thats bruddy good noos .
A lot has obviously happened in the last 2 weeks or so so will do my best to quickly sum it all up .
After leaving Krabi the other week it was off to the island of Ko Phi Phi. As the photos will show the place is visually amazing . Some people would disagree but i stand firm in saying the water is as good if not more beautiful then Whitehaven beach in North QLD. Ok over the top , but it is an extremely beautiful place with its pristine water , whiter than white beaches and captivating limestone cliffs . The island was heavily hit by the tsunami in 2004 and has since been rebuilt with western culture and tourism in mind and at the forefront of its reconstruction. If you like to party it makes for a great place to live a bit of island culture , kick your shoes off and let loose in a cool environment . Lots of bars showing all the football , lots of good food , fantasic diving , tattoo places and even a Muay Thai boxing stadium. It of course comes at a price with it being more expensive than antwhere else visited so far but it was a treat to experience such beauty for a couple of days .
After leaving Phi Phi it was off to Phuket which was straight back into a bit of Thai culture ( as it was almost non existent on Phi Phi ). Staying in town it was very rare to see a westerner which was cool . Visiting the night market was quit the experience seeing fish and all sorts of meat layed out on wooden tables sometimes crawling with flies . On the flipside the fruit is quite amazing with its colours and it tastes bruddy goood too . Tried some interesting things like some sort of potato and spinach patty , something that was sort of like balls of dough battered and deep fried ( Thai people eat so much deep fried food it just aint funny ) and the winner was quite easily the mini coconut pancakes . So good that i look forward to gettin back in the kitchen and havin a crack myself. Oh and how could i forget the corn ! ( manu you will know what i am talkin about )everybody do yourself a favour , by yourself a few corn cobs , crack on your barbee grill , strip the leaves off , grease em up ... and char grill em ! oh yeah ... then crack the butter out , dowse em some more then hit em with a pinch of salt ... bruddy good tucka !
Enough about food for the moment , Phukets beaches were quite extrordinary (see the photo) some of the beaches must have been at least 3km long and they had rows of umbrellas top to toe at least 3 rows deep ! no beach cricket here ... or frisby ... just a lot of tourists hangin out under their umbrellas they hired for the day . what was surprising was that there was a nice offshore breeze blowing on to a good 3 foot swell which made for some nice waves . Nice place just very crowded .
Leaving Phuket it was off to the mighty Bangkok ! Big busy city sprawled out in every direction . Hung in out here for a couplo days plodding around just checkin the place out , didnt really do much for me.
From Bangkok it was off to Kanchanarburi , a couple of hours west of Bankok. I like 'Kan' as the locals call it . Small town that sits on the mighty Kwai river which for those who did not know is a significant part of the WW11 story where the Japenese army who used Dutch, American , British and Australian prisoners of war to build a railway from Thailand thousands of miles into the capital of Burma . It would have usually taken 5 years but with the help of the POW's it was completed in only 16 months . In town there is a large cemetary which is extremely well maintained by the commonwealth (see photos) that is a gift from the Thai people to all the soldiers who lost their lives and their familys . Visited the tiger temple yesterday which was quite an experience , unfortunately of the less positive side ( see photos ) It was amazing to get that close to full grown tigers and i hope that i never come that close again as i would now only chose to see them in the wild if i had the choice. I admit that i paid my money and chose to participate. They are such beautiful creatures up close but it was sad to see the state they were in ( Mum and manu will understand when i say it reminded me of seeing the pandas in china ). Breathing very fast they were obviously given something to makr it safe for people to get so close. Fortunately they were lying down and being able to pat them they seemed far from under nourished . The visit was to the temple was given a much lighter note when the 'stallion' and his partner debbie decided to get their groove on for the masses . Tidy performance .
Its actually raining here today which as you can imagine is quite refreshing after the humidity that SE asia is so known for .The best part nothing planned for today just some pure concentrated kickback .
Leaving 'Kan' tomorrow to go back to Bangkok and then out the otherside down the east coast to visit the island of Ko Samet before crossing the border into Cambodia .
Signing off for now i can assure you that life is ever so peachy and fullfilling my dreams and injecting some culture into my mind is quite a reality . Not to mention sharing smiles with the world .
I hope the sun is shining ever so brightly on you all and that life is lookin after you in all its glory . Heres cheers to sunshine and goodtimes !
Till next time ... ciao for now
