24 to 26 mar 2008, thaton

this statue looked real. sk and i had to touch it to be convinced that this is not real.

a view of Thaton from a hilltop temple

she probably belonged to the Akha tribe. she had wanted to sell us some of her handicrafts but ended up being invited to take a photo with us. she put on this hat for sk to make him look nicer in this picture.

he smiled after i dug out an oreo cookie for him

he cried when sk had only enough milo bars for his sisters...

collecting water from a public tap

this lady was extremely friendly as she gladly allowed us to take a few photos of her. she was weaving a cotton top, similar to what she was wearing. they do this all day to make a living.

they belong to a tribe called Long neck Karen, originating from Burma (Myanmar). some whom we talked to were living in Thailand for 1.5 years to 15 years. it was said that they get to receive a bit of money through the entrance fee.

we were greeted by this "Lahu" tribe ah ma to buy some scarves and bags from her. she kept saying 100块 100 块, which meant 100bhat 100 bhat.

Lahu tribe - they wear big earrings and are originated from Tibet.

walking down a paved road to the karen village...

on a sangtheaw to the karen village

one travel agent told us that Thaton is a good place to see long necked karen tribe as it is not as touristic as Mae Hong San. so we took a 4 hours public bus from chiang mai to get here. from here, it is easy to reach the karen village which is 16km away and the entrace fee is 250 bhat.

i like Thaton for it is a small quiet town, just about 1km long. we stayed in a guesthouse where we were the only guests there for both nights. according to the owner, Kwan, the peak season had ended and not many tourists come by here anyway. she will be closing the guesthouse after the songkran festival (mid april) till sep and then reopen from oct to mar. she only opens 6 months each time. such good fortune. hee...

anyway, over there, we experienced a big rain one day. it was raining big cubes of ice for a few minutes. i felt slight pain when it hit me. a monk offered us to take shelter in his place. many houses were damaged and the whole town was quiet at 8pm cos everyone closed their shops to stay home.

23 to 24 mar 2008, chiangmai

this girl resembled little yan yee

a beautiful path that leads to a hotel/resort

this monk was a great draw to the dogs

blind performers at the sunday night bazaar

buy or not to buy

work in progress

100% orange juice

an unusual wat (temple) made of bamboo.

took an overnight VIP bus to chiang mai. it was a double decker bus. the seats upstairs were full so we were seated downstairs just next to the toilet. so, we can always smell the urine stench from the toilet whenever the door opens. and it just so happened that many people were using it during the journey. haha...

chiangmai's weather was cool in the night. we were just in time for the sunday night bazaar. it was a long stretch of stalls (hundreds of them), thousands of people and so many things to see and buy. one will not see many repeats in the things that they sell (which is good cos it wont bore u so much) and u can just walk until midnight and still find the stalls interesting. i bought a hair band for 5 bhat (sgd 0.20) and a wooden handicraft bracelet for 29 bhat (sgd 1.50).

the guest house that we stayed with was not too bad, except there were bed bugs and i was bitten quite badly. :(

20 to 22 mar 2008, ayuthaya (the old city of ruins)

these guys were carefully inspecting the buddha pendants from a seller.

a busy market

devotees applying tiny strips of gold paper onto the buddha statue

one of the temple ruins in Ayuthaya

took 2 local buses to get to ayuthaya from kanchanaburi. it was a hot day and the same thing we did was to get a shower after we found a place to crash. Toto guesthouse is super clean. i cant even find an ant on the floor when i checked in.

we spent the whole day cycling around town yesterday to see the ruins. its the best way to see all the sights listed on the map and it only cost 30thb to rent the bicycle from morning till evening. i really enjoyed the whole cycling trip with sk though we had to make several U-turns as the road names on the map were not up to date.

now, sk and i are sun dried with reddish brown skin. one guy even asked if i am from the philippines! :p i could only remember the tasty sweet 7D mangoes and san miguel beer from there.

for my dad... i had some pineapples a few days ago and my, they tasted as sweet as before when i first came to chiangmai with you and bro some 14 years ago. you were the one who convinced me into trying, remember?

17 to 20 mar 2008, kanchanaburi

remnants of the death railway (thailand-burma)

tiger cubs

the war cemetry

a view from our raft house

3 hrs train ride from bangkok. wondered why we have to pay 100 thb for a ticket while the locals pay 25 thb.

anyway, kanchanaburi is another nice place for me. we checked into a rafthouse (150 thb per room) by the kwai river. it is very cheap i thought, compared to the hostels in europe. its a whole lot of price difference! :p

one day we went to the famous tiger temple to get close up photos with the tame tigers. the tigers were cared for by the monks since they were cubs. so there is no worry when one gets to sit next to the tigers for photo shooting. they were almost like pets instead of the notorious types that we have seen on animal planet. they might have been very well fed before they were brought out to meet the visitors. oh, if you want to enter this place, please bear in mind not to wear red, pink and orange or sleeveless shirts. otherwise, you will be asked to buy one of their t-shirts at the entrance for 300 thb.

the next day, we went to see the death railway (thailand-burma). as many as 100,000 POWs have died there trying to complete the 415km railway in 20 months with pre-historic tools. no machines at all. they were overworked up to 18 hours a day and underfed with rice and salted vegetables and the occasional maggot-filled meat. living conditions were just as bad.

16 mar 2008, bangkok

the famous Khao San road for party goers
the four faced buddha

thought this student is a beginner in saxophone, i can see that he put in lots of effort to play it well

took a 3 1/2 hrs ferry from koh tao to chumphorn and then took a night bus to bangkok.

went to chatuchak market and met Vuttisak for dinner. this time round, we stayed in a guesthouse in khao san road (said to be the foreigner's clubbing paradise). it was huge party at night. for those who like to drink and party, here is the place to come...

10 to 15 mar 2008, singapore-hatyai-koh tao

thanks to our neighbour who left us a float before they left... see sk floating on it?

relaxing with a game of texas holdem at the balcony of a rented bungalow on Sai Ree beach

the night ferry to koh tao

i dont know why but i just adore this little boy from far...

one fine day, sk and i decided to go golden mile to check up the price of bus tickets to hat yai. a one-way ticket to hat yai is SGD 35. with no idea when will be a good time to leave, we just randomly picked a date that allow us at least one week to inform our families and that was 10 march. we took the bus at 6pm and arrived hat yai at 8am the next day. the VIP coach was very comfortable with big seats.

after arrived at hat yai, we took a 7 hours train to surat thani (55thb pp) to take an overnight ferry (550thb pp) to koh tao. akari had told me good things about this island 3 years ago.

on the night ferry, there were slim and thin mattresses lined up for passengers to sleep on. sk and i fell asleep shortly after the boat set sail.

akari was right. koh tao was indeed beautiful. we got ourselves a bungalow (500thb per night) which is 5 walking steps aways from the sea. can you imagine that? i can hear the sound of the waves every day. we were happy to sun ourselves at the hottest time of the day and swim out a few metres to see corals and fishes.

side track a bit... i lost my one and only set of bikinis while they were put out to dry one day. wonder who had needed them more than i do... anyway, i got myself a new pair at half the expense of sk. :p

for now, koh tao has replaced phuket's rank in my heart... :p