New Batch of Photos!

These photos are of our last couple weeks, including Bangkok, Sukhothai, Ayutthya, Pai, and a few from Mae Hong Son. Enjoy and let us know how you all are doing, either post a comment or email us at leerick@gmail.com or kellykrohn@gmail.com.

On a quick side note we are narrowing down our goals for work in the area. We have decided to concentrate on Environmental work and are open to Thailand, Cambodia, and Loas. If anyone knows of anybody working in SE Asia or who might have some contacts we would love to talk with them. Just shoot either one of us an email or have them contact us. Thanks in advance for any help!

Second half of March

It's been awhile, but here goes the catch-up

I suppose it might be the dispersal of novelty, or apathy due to heat, or perhaps just maybe too many amazing things in a short period of time. That said, I'm finally posting!

Rick's sister Jenny and her girlfriend Sam came out for a brief stint in Thailand, we were lucky enough to catch up with them for a few days in Bangkok and visit a few of the sites. It was really good to catch up and see familiar faces. It was way too short though, they wanted to hit the Southern beaches, and we were heading North. It was good to see you guys!

We headed North out of Bangkok to Ayuttaya, a historical city of temples hundreds of years old, but unfortunately many of which were destroyed by Burmese invaders, also hundreds of years ago. This is also where I got really nasty sick. On the train out of Bangkok I started feeling poorly, then like a ton of ancient ruins falling on me I got a high fever, pounding headache, nausea, the whole gambit. Luckily, somewhere in my delirious fits Rick would appear with a Slurpee from 7-11. Good travel mate. After about 2 days not leaving my bed, I finally felt well enough to venture into the ruins. (Check out the pics in our next posting on Picassa) We rented bicycles and cruised around, very pretty scenery.

After another 6 hour bus ride we arrived in Sukhothai, old capital of the empire. Amazing ruins, temples, and a world heritage site. Definitely more what you would imagine Khmer and Thai ruins to be, along with a good museum and friendly people. We enjoyed the laid back atmosphere tremendously.

We have now ventured onward, North of Chiang Mai to a town called Pai. More on it and our activities later, but it is an obscure town full of hippies, artists, and musicians.

Either Thais love festivals, or we're really lucky.....

We seem to keep running into celebrations! Ranong is a pretty little city, somewhat off the beaten tourist track except for its proximity to Burma which makes it a border run town. When we arrived they were closing off the main street for a celebration. All along the street hordes of people ate, drank, and watched the various performances: little kids dressed as bugs rhythmically spasming to Thai techno-pop, teenagers hammering out riffs mimicking 80's metal bands, low key bongo drums and steel sounding guitar that seemed more at home in Hawaii. We wandered and ate, ate and wandered. Ranong also has a natural hot spring, and people buy eggs raw and cook them in the water. All in all, a pretty laid back and happy scene.


We have since moved on to Prachuap Khiri Khan, another out of the way place, where by chance we pulled into town just in time for the "Prachuap seafood and Thai-sky festival" Hordes of skydivers from around the world have descended on this small fishing town to make jumps, drink lots of beer, and watch with wonder the multitude of Thai sports in the park. We were walking up the main drag, taking it all in when we ran into a huge crowd of people. A beautiful Thai woman smiled at us, handed us plates full of steamed mussels, grilled squid, and crab curry saying only "free for you". I noticed several smiles as Rick and I tried to negotiate the squid while trying to avoid eyes, guts, etc. All the other foreigners were with the skydiving group, and had eaten at the hotel, they also looked on smiling as we devoured our fare.

We spent the rest of the evening watching several Thai sports. The most awe-inspiring to watch was Takrow Lot Huang, a game where teams of 3 kick a small rattan ball over a volleyball like net, blocking and spiking with moves that look right out of a Bruce Lee flick. We watched the tournament for hours, getting into the different teams. I think the most amusing part was when foreigners would walk up, exclaiming "did you see that!?" or "holy ****" in utter amazement. There was also a full evening of Muay Thai, or Thai kickboxing, just down the street. 7 different 5-round fights, ranging from kiddies barely old enough to stand to the big boys.

Prachuap is also known for its spectacular Chedi (part of Buddhist temple) that sits on a cliff side overlooking the ocean and towns below. It is over 400 steps to the top, and a most perilous climb as the stairs are crawling with ill-tempered monkeys. Rick got into a stand-off with one of them on the way up, teeth bearing and all. Then, just as we though we were to be devoured by monkeys, came our savior. At the top of the stairs, just within the fortified monkey proofed walls of the Chedi, sat a golden robed monk, slingshot in hand. If any monkeys got sassy, or tried to get past the front door, he got a big surprise, monk style. We stayed there for hours, waiting for the sunset and enjoying the breezes. We must have let our guard down, being inside a holy place and all, and unfortunately, became the victims of a purse-snatcher. I got a good look at the perpetrator, but probably will not contact the police as he dropped the purse when Rick gave chase. He was about 20 lbs, brown-eyed, a foot and a half tall, large fangs, long tail, and hairy all over. Almost got away with wallets and passports. We felt especially lucky when leaving the Chedi, there was another scoundrel beating a golden medallion with a rock. Monkey Trouble.

New Photos!

Most Photos up till March 14th

This will link you to the web album that we set up with MOST of the pictures we have taken so far. Hopefully you enjoy, pace yourself and don't over do it because there are a lot. Sawatdee Kap! (Hello/Goodbye)

Blissfully recovering from Bangkok on Ko Phi Phi

We landed at midnight in Phuket and after Rick's wallet fiasco, a day full of tourist police, long flight delays, and crazed bus rides to Phuket town we decided to venture on to the beautiful island of Ko Phi Phi, a few hour boatride past the crazed hoards of sunburnt Germans and all night girly bars of Phuket. The island itself is absolutely gorgeous, limestone cliffs and thick vegetation plunging into crystal green waters. This makes it THE most popular island for tourists to visit, and as such the main town is laid out like this: dive shop, hotel, restaurant, dive shop, bar, hotel, bar, diveshop, etc. Luckily we had a recommendation to head to an unheard-of set of bungalows on the opposite side of the island. Of course, being the cheap asses that we are, opted to take the hour long trek through the jungle and over the hills instead of hiring a longboat water taxi. Of course every Thai that we asked the way to the trail laughed at us, shook their heads and stared at our packs. In fact it is almost unheard of to walk anywhere longer than a few meters, everyone here takes motorbikes or tuk-tuks. About half-way through our trek the sun went down, I imagine we must have been quite a site on arrival, drenched in sweat, looking around wide eyed after our narrow escape from the wilderness. Pom, who owns the guesthouse, had a giant smile for us, but was concerned because the resort was close to running out of water. Ah, who needs it when you have a stretch of deserted sand, a nice little bungalow, and plenty of beautiful reef to snorkel on. Surprisingly the reef looks healthy here, tons of diverse corals, fish and even a spotted eel. We don't want to leave To Koh beach, it seems this place attracts a certain type of traveller and we've made friends with several groups of people. Between snorkeling, beach volleyball, kick ass meals and a tiny bar run by a 24 year old ex-pat hippy from Missouri, we've landed in an elusive paradise. (And Cory....Ben the bartender went to Waukarusa 4 years in a row, small world after all) We will be moving on soon, we need a bit more reality and a bit less holiday, at it seems the only jobs here are in the myriad of dive operations and beach bars........
oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENEVA!!!!