Angkor

Emerge from a cold to bright views, crumbling temples in the singing jungle, friezes of elephants and cheeky apsaras.

Bangkok, part 2, Chinatown

endless lively bustle and crush, and then emerging from the vast halls of fabric shops and plastic tat shops, to a temple:


some food stalls, here a huge choice of seafood - any size you like

Bangkok part 1

Hiding away some five minutes walk from the grotty horrors of Khao San Road, life goes on along a klorng (canal);

Snorkelling in the Similans

with several sets of rather insular swedes...

no underwater pictures, but a few of peachy islands and beaches, and one of me. I swam with a turtle, saw all sorts of fishes and coral including giant triggerfish, rabbitfish, oriental sweetlips, parrotfish, angelfish, snapper, needlefish, moray eel, and a black and white seasnake that is supposed to have one of the most poisonous venoms in the world. The sand is so incredibly fine on the beaches, apparently as a result of a parrotfish eating the coral and processing it out as fine sand. photos are of the viewpoint on similan island no 8, above, then views FROM that viewpoint: one of the beach as swedish girl steps into picture; one of sunset; and finally, on the last day, Jonny wins wet t-shirt comp.

Jungle Explorer part 2

the best bit was scrambling up the side of the waterfall to get to the top. Here you can see how intrepid I was, with the shot up a near vertical path, pulling myself up with lianas and roots. I did imagine myself as some 19th century type - for a minute or two, at least. Then the view from the top level of the falls...I say the top but a rushing torrent went still further up the mountainside, winding without any obvious path through the jungle and already pretty knackered I logged my botanical finds, by which I mean....can you spot the big spider in the picture below?



my next entry will be snorkelling and living aboard a boat in the similan islands

Jungle Explorer

I rented a motorbike - thankfully no pictures of me looking all camp in my lovely helmet - and zoomed around. Happened by Lampi Waterfall, and here are the pictures...

Khao Lak

I shall mainly skip over the next day in Ao Nang, which wasn't very exciting except for the som tam - spicy papaya salad - which I had from a genuine local stall to escape the tourist traps and which really blew my taste buds it was so hot - I downed a litre and a half of water to no avail and the only thing that stopped me trembling was a whole stick of sweetcorn - good though.







On to Khao Lak, where I was to do my snorkelling, and the pretty location of Poseidon bungalows, with a bungalow that gave me an initial shock (only a week after the Grand Copthorne Waterfront) but was surprisingly comfy and insect free, with lovely sounds of the forest, and once walking by at night, saw a colossal crab about 40 cm wide with its legs topple back down the slope as it detected my arrival.

Green Curry and Sunset

My first good meal, still on Phi Phi, a green curry with some strange fruits that I was later told are essential to a green curry - described by the waiter as aubergine (like aubergine?); the larger one could correspond to that, the smaller like a slightly sour berry. and then a [photo of the sunset

Coconut

Coconut to follow - as I was about to do it got a big electric shock from the camera/linked up to the computer, so am going off to recover. The owner of the internet cafe told me I should have been wearing my shoes!

Southern Thailand

on my second day in Thailand, I did what the book said I shouldn't and turned up in Phi Phi without a booking. In a taxi on the way to the ferry on the Phuket side, the taxi driver had managed to freak me out about doing this; up to then I'd been blase, but his words started me worrying, and when I arrived at the pier and saw not one but four large ferries crammed to the gills with backpackers, I had images of myself lugging my pack across a hot island, begging for a space. Talking to a French couple calmed me down; they'd already arrived once in phi phi without a booking two weeks before and were doing the same thing again. So I followed them out to Long Beach, which is a hop in a long tail boat out and away from the main 'village', and ended up with the bungalow and the view of Phi Phi Leh above.

in the evening it all got a bit quiet so I headed back into the village. Sadly no pictures of me getting thoroughly drunk at a beach party on a bucket of cheap rum or something, dancing up on a platform and chatting to all sorts of people and even smoking a couple of cigarettes! Here instead is a picture of a coconut that has just landed on the ground and has begun to grow.