Korea's got Seoul

Bangkok's International Terminal (Suva)

Korea: Today's stop on the Asia tour brought us to the very modern and trendy Seoul, Korea. We managed to squeeze in a quick tour of a few palaces in the downtown area. These were here in the 15th century until the Japanese colonized Korea and the palaces were burned down. Since then, they've been reconstructed and walking through the grounds feels a little bit like walking onto the set of the Last Samurai (so says my chapina prima). The Japanese influence is present in the food, the written and spoken language and the culture. We liked the city's modern feel, cleanliness and ease with which you can get around. Wasn't as humid as Thailand either.

I bid you adieu for now, my plane to SFO is boarding. See ya'll soon.

Our last day in paradise...

Here's the view from the sky bar 'lebua' in downtown Bangkok (the State Building). The view is from the 64th story of this building that sticks up out of the Bangkok skyline. Check out the haphazard
development, apparently there is no city planning department here.
Ko Samui was our final beach stop on our way to Bangkok and onto our final stop on the Asia tour before heading home. Served by its own boutique airline, Bangkok Airways, our travel was relatively simple and painless, unlike moving from island to island on the Andaman coast. Anyhow, check these photos out...we left Bangkok in style. Until we meet again!

This one's for you sis

Kho Phang Ngang, Thailand.

It's Beachin'

The view from the pool onto the beach at Yah Hao on Ko Phang Ngan at sunset.

A desolate beach on the other side of the world (shortly after 6 a.m.).

We went from the jungles and mountains in the North to the warm sunny beaches along the gulf coast in the South. Enjoy the photos from our stops at Ko Phi Phi, Krabi, and finally to Ko Phang Ngang- more famous for its full moon parties than for the beaches, but we found a nice quiet stretch to rest our weary traveling selves.

Hat Yao is the little town we ended up crashing on for two whole glorious days. Our biggest dilemma is whether or not to lounge by the pool or ten paces away on the beach. Right now we're trying to figure out if we want beer or cocktails. Life is rough.

The beach sports blue-green water perfect for swimming and snorkeling given the promontory on the east that protects us from ocean waves. The sandy and desolate beach has very white sand and bath temperature water. you can walk out for at least 100 yards and still be only waist deep in water. It's, to put it simply, perfect. Like in the Corona commercials. Ahem.

Bazaar Life- Chiang Mai's Markets

Chiang Mai's markets were fun to explore, although exhausting. I used my free day in town to explore the biggest markets. The shots here show the variety of goods available to the consumer including authentically crafted home decor, gardening supplies like the statue here and colored stones for immaculate gardens.

The Warorot Market in the city is second to none during the day but really comes alive at night. When I get home, I'll post more pics of the Night Bazaar- truly Thailand's best and liveliest market offering affordable handmade crafts, jewelry and a great selection of antiques- both real and replicas. Thailand is truly a sensory place, as you shop, you smell the variety of food being prepared at the hundreds of food stalls that line the streets, ready to cook you up an authentic dish, right there while you watch. Enjoy the photos. More to come when I get back to the states.

Warorot Market, Chiang Mai. Four stories of dry and fresh goods. Very Thai place, I was the only tourist there on a Wednesday morning, despite this I felt very welcome and was even able to pick up a few hair products before I went and got my hair done...yes, I am changing it up once again...you'll see when I get back. Back to black.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, two meztizas sleep tonight...

Yeah, so the two-day trek almost kicked our Chapina asses. We literally climbed a fucking mountain. But the sights were freakin' amazing along the way, we clambered through rainforests, rice patties, bamboo trees and bugs the size of birds. All the while I kept thinking, is this what I took two weeks of work off to do? Hell yes!

Dinner with the Karen hill-tribe people in the village was non descript. I felt a little voyeuristic watching the villagers go about their routine. Life on a rock is tough. The funny thing is that here we walked an entire day to get to their mountaintop and they own motorbikes to get up and down from the city. Damn! Anyhow, the hill tribe peoples have come to rely on tourism to stay relevant in an increasingly modernized world. The simple life a hill tribe village offers is often boring to the next generation, exposed to modern comforts such as satellite television, cell phones, motorbikes and- tourists. Despite all this, we still wanted to see what's left of Thai village culture and all I can say is the smiles and warmth translate better than language ever can.

Planes, trains, and automobiles...and elephants too!

Transportation throughout Thailand is varied, cheap and easy- not unlike the women foreign men are picking up at the bars- but I digress.

On our travel adventure, we've mastered the art of negotiating cheap rides from our drivers, particularly in rural Chiang Mai. Tuk-tuks are the fastest, most direct form of transpo- these can best be described as three-wheeled motorbikes, outfitted with a tarp-covered metal cart with a bench seat for our comfort of course. These are ubiquitous and quite noisy (hence the name tuk-tuk for the sound they make). Riding in style isn't always sustainable so sometimes we opted to ride the 'bus'- or song tao which literally means 'two benches' because these pick-up trucks are outfitted with two long benches and a covered roof to hold luggage, sacks of rice and other cargo (sometimes even people). These are the main form of transit for city folks and budget conscious tourists (like us).

Province transportation is another story completely. For our trip to the limestone caves in the Chiang Dao province (about 1.5 hours north of Chiang Mai) we rode the Thai version of a 'chicken bus'- these look like school buses with rows of seats that seat three Thais, not two fat Americans.

In Chiang Dao, after our cave crawling adventure, we were suddenly hit by monsoon rain and hired a young woman to take us on her motor bike back to town to catch the last chicken bus back to the city. Here, it's quite common to see entire families riding around on scooters and motorbikes. Here we are riding around in the rain with three people on a motorcycle with a Thai woman half my size driving- no helmets- and in the states I won't drive to the grocery store without my seatbelt on...what can I say- you only live once, why not die having a blast?

Other forms of transportation we've ridden:

• Bamboo raft- wet, but fun!


• Elephant- these creatures are lovely, friendly and incredibly intelligent and gentle. Although I asked myself, how do you stop an elephant that doesn't want to be? Ahem.


• Longtail boat- this one took us snorkeling in the clearest blue-green water I've ever seen.


• Chartered mini van- with air conditioning. I felt like splurging.


• Ferry boat- this was quite stunning as we approached Ko Phi Phi. Check out the photos on my next post.

There's not much left to try I think except maybe rickshaw? Somehow I think we might have trouble with that in the city.