Almost poster-worthy

Sunset + Beer = Awesome

Ko Phi Phi (pronounced Pee-Pee) is one of those places that comes to mind when words like "pristine," "breathtaking," and "enchanting" are tossed around. The landscape of the Andaman coast is truly beautiful - limestone cliffs jutting out of crystal blue, warm waters that lap against sandy shores lined with palm trees.

Bamboo Island

Sunset with cool rocks

We arrived via ferry from Phuket and walked (there are no cars / scooters on Phi Phi) to our Guesthouse. We settled in and enjoyed the sunset on the main beach. Our Guesthouse there was pretty dingy (our room was RIGHT next to the septic system and we saw cockroach and her child crawling skittering around our floor a couple times). No matter - we spent very little time here, because everything is outside in Phi Phi.

Maya Bay - Location of "The Beach"

Monkey Beach

Ahhhh, the beach (Maya Bay)

SWEET - Bamboo Island

Sunset on a Boat

There are a lot of young tourists / backpackers around Phi Phi and thus lots of nightlife to keep us satiated. Eventually, late into the night, the crowds wander down to the beach where makeshift bars / clubs / discos offer specials on "drink buckets." They are also big on "fire-shows" on the islands - professional fire jugglers perform and they get the drunken tourists involved with "fire limbo" and jumping through fire-hoops. (No pictures of this have been found yet...)

The next day we left Phi Phi and took a ferry to Krabi, which is on the mainland of Thailand. Again, we were greeted with stunning beaches, but this time with less of a crowd, and huge cliffs.

Speaking of tomorrow - we will be switching to the east coast of the peninsula - The Gulf of Thailand. First stop is Ko Tao where will be getting our SCUBA certifications. More later!

written by  bhkann on July 3, 2009 from Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Ben's SE Asia Voyage
tagged KoPhiPhi and Krabi
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At the pier in Chumpon, east coast

Ko Tao (which means "Turtle Island" in Thai) is the smallest and least developed of the chain of three islands in the gulf of Thailand (Koh Samui and Koh Phangnan are the other two - see the map). It is known for its laid-back atmosphere and its multitude of scuba dive-shops. In fact, Ko Tao is the second-most popular place in the world for getting scuba certifications, apparently.

We enrolled in a 4-day course to get our open-water scuba certs. The course was a ton of fun.

Scuba Junction - Our training spot

The team! (with our awesome instructor, Sandra)

Aside from diving, Ko Tao is great. Again, it is an island with very few cars, and although the scenery isn't as breathtaking as the Andaman coast, it is still one of the most beautiful islands I've seen.

Sunset over Sairee beach, Ko Tao

Sairee beach, Ko Tao

Fresh off our diving certifications, we took the ferry south to the island of Ko Samui. Ko Samui is a less developed version of Phuket, but still way more developed tahn the typical backpacker destination. There are many tourists here of all shapes and sizes. There are more families and older couples, perhaps due to the abundance of midrange-to-luxury accomodations. The, or maybe it's all the McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Subways squeezed together. We were able to find a decently priced guesthouse called Embassy that was great. We met up with our friend Ash, from Tufts who currently lives in Hong Kong, and two of his friends. The nightlife in Samui is strong - lots of beach bars and clubs. Turns out our hostel was next to a great, 24 hour thai food place - great for the late night pad thai cravings.

Ash was staying at a really nice hotel on the beach, so the next day we went over there to relax by the pool and rest up for he full moon party.

The party takes place on an island called Koh Phangnan, which is sandwiched in between Ko Tao and Ko Saui. During the night of the party, speedboats are run constantly from Samui to Phangnan, so we hopped on one at night, and set off to the party spot.

Arriving in Ko Phangnan was something like stepping into a hedonistic/bohemian/teenage wasted-land. Locals were selling 'buckets'of drinks being gulpd down by the masses. Some people were shirtless and most had neon paint splattered over themselves in trippy-hippy patterns or slogans. We decided to blend right in and got neon-ed up (In case your were wondering - at the advice of many people, I did not take a camera with me and currently have no pictures of this madness - maybe that is for the best, however, Ash's friend brought her's and is going to give them to me next week, so I'll post a couple then). We entered the beach and were greeted by thousands of people on the sand, up on platforms, on roofs, dancing to blaring techno music. There were fire jugglers and torches all over the place. It had a kind of tribal feel to it.

We stayed out until sunrise (the place was still packed by then), and took a longtail boat back to Samui around 7am for some much needed zzzzzs. We relaxed by the pool later that day, and stayed one more night (only thing notable here was getting locked out my hostel, having to track down a place to sleep at 3am - it all worked out fine though. That, and Corey and I have finally come down with a bit of stomach problems). Today, we sadly leave Thailand and head to Cambodia to see, among other things, Angkor Wat. More later!

written by  bhkann on July 11, 2009 from Ko Samui, Thailand
from the travel blog: Ben's SE Asia Voyage
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Welcome to Cambodia

Despite having gone through so much hardship (from the Khmer Rouge genocide which claimed over 2 million lives in the late 70s to the brutal Vietnamese occupation to the recent communist party takeover) along with being an incredibly poor population (average income is a couple dollars a day), the Cambodian people we encountered were all extremely nice, gracious, and had a certain pride for their country - an eagerness to show-off what Cambodia has to offer (I should note that we were only in Siem Reap, where most Cambodians we encountered were affiliated with the tourist industry - our view may be slightly skewed). By the end of our time there I really came to admire them.

I learned more from our taxi driver in a few days than I learned about Thailand our entire trip.

We were picked up by our driver and agreed to let him take us around the Angkor temples over the next 2 days. He had an incredible, tragic story that I get the feeling is similar to that of many other Cambodians: His father, a teacher, was murdered by the Khmer Rouge when he was seven. His brother was killed by a Vietnamese-planted landmine in later years (Cambodia is on of the most heavily mined countries in the world - 4 to 6 million still remain). He explained the current plight of his family and many other Cambodians: Education is not encouraged or supported by Cambodia's government. There is only one public university in the country and even that one costs around $500 a year. On a salary of a few dollars a day, hardly anyone can afford that, and thus, the population stays uneducated. Meanwhile, while elections are held in name every few years, the communist party controls the police and the army, and is unwilling to give up any power. Thus reforms, like funding for education and medical care, are impossible to implement. There is no freedom of speech, and any denouncing of the prime minister can result in harrassment or arrest. It seems Cambodians are forced to deal with a government that's goal is the suppression of its people - keep them uneducated and unconnected in order to stay in power.

That said, the people seem to maintain a cautious optimism that someday things might change, though without heavy international pressure, I'm not so sure.

I could go on and on, but nowwww, back to our trip!

We settled into our guesthouse (which was VERY nice for a price of $6 /night per person). The next morning our driver picked us and we started our tour of the Angkor temples.

Street outside our guesthouse

Bayon Temple - Happy faces

Outside Bayon

Bayon Temple

Bayon Temple

Bayon Temple

Angkor Thom

We then visited a few other temples including my favorite - Ta Prohm. This one was overgrown with these amazing, huge trees. I felt like I was on the set of an Indiana Jones movie. Actually, it was used as the movie set for a recent temple hunting movie, Tomb Raider.

Temple hunting in Ta Prohm

Angkor Thom

Ta Prohm

Sweet - Ta Prohm

After a few more temples and palaces in Angkor Thom, we had lunch, and made our way over to the main event - Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world, and damn is it large...Again, the pictures here don't do it justice, go yourself.

The Big One - Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat with some kiddies

Angkor Wat carvings

Inside Angkor Wat

Inside Angkor Wat

Fish Amok with assorted side dishes

The next morning we set out for the second half of our Angkor temples explorations (there are tons and tons of temples everywhere, and apparently some people spend up to a week and beyond exploring them). This time we drove out through the countryside where it is rice-paddy dominated.

Watch out for the ox-carts

Rice farmers

Rice farmer

2nd day temples

Banteay Srei, i think?

Boo!

Roulos

Kid dosing under elephant - Roulos

Towers in Roulos Group

Holy Cow

First glimpses of Hanoi

Corey attempting to cross the street at night

We arrived at our hostel to find that it had been fully booked for the night - no worries - we were hooked up with a free upgrade to the owner's hotel a few minutes away. The hotel was extremely nice - we even had our own computer with internet in the room (for a total of $16 US / night).

For dinner we had Pho, a Vietnamese specialty that is a chicken noodle broth with various spices - kinda like Ramen.

The next morning we walked around Hanoi in the blistering heat. The city is chaotic and noisy, but in a cool, culturally interesting way.

Crazy Hanoi at night

Sweet beer-hall

Ha Long Bay

Our boat

Cave at Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay

We stopped at a large karst formation and walked through a few of its caves. We continued on through the bays, stopping at a fishing village where they had on display a virtual aquarium of different types of fish and sea creatures. Finally, we parked for the night and were given time to jump off the boat's deck and swim.

Ha Long Bay

Jumping...

...into the water - Halong Bay

Chillen on the boat