nothing like some danish polony on your pizza
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
who wouldv'e thought that it was possible to sip a whole 'baron' through a straw?!
the wonders of 'gare de nord' after a few bevos
et voilà - la rue saint etienne du mont!
happy smiley people
one just has to profit the sun and the beach so it was a sunday picnic, before parting -
feeling hungry ? Pig nose / ears or maybe frogs for vegetarians...
Sage Saint Francis, profession: temple bouncer
monks at work in a temple -
we saw so many buddahs, in all shapes and sizes, that ultimately, we started seeing them in neon!
the monster +- 25m temple - even brighter and prouder than anything we had seen before. imagine, all that shimmering gold! (really, really)
this is one of our means of transport.
this is a 2nd class bus - not even the lowest of classes, my friends. a slight nightmare!
so thats pretty much a breif summary of our trip. on our last day, we ended up taking it easy and over-eating everything we started to love (ie: banana pancakes soaked in condensed milk, watermelon shakes, noodles with a veg called 'morning glory etc). i fell in love with an enormous brass bell - it happens after awhile.
we passed a market whilst walking around and there were just fish! loads of loads of them...AND they didnt really stink - clever thais!
life on an island named KOH TAO
what an opening photo! this monster (literally) had a little 'something something' going on with our bathroom and refused to leave! even when one splashed it with h2o, it merely lapped it up! animal! clearly, it is/ was well fed on mosis or some larger-than-life species -
happy and tanned! rare to be so brown these days -
koh tao is the smallest of three islands, west of chumphon. we stayed in a "dive resort" with a private beach (named freedom beach - let your imaginations run wild) around the corner. it was like a dream. every morning waking up to the sound of the (crystal clear) ocean and the sea breeze. no words can describe it and no pictures can do it justice. seb went diving twice and i dreamed the day away on the white sand. needless to say, one got quite excited by the sun (and its powerful rays) and got alittle too tanned alittle too quickly. tee hee.
and voilà; this is the view from out balcony. and around the corner was 'freedom beach'. many an sunset was admired with our sun downers of maekong and coke.
chiang mai
on our way to pai, we stopped off at chiang mai. it was really green (thanks to the daily rains) and pretty.
yet again, we were captivated by the night markets when little, dodgy alleys suddenly came to life and charmed us into eating there. brave.
in chiang mai, we saw loads of tourists so we hired a motorbike and explored for a day. it was an escape effort on out part. we even had a little accident which forced us to mingle even more with the locals - a special treat.
sukhothai was once known as the capital of thailand...back in the day. it is now frequented by the odd tourist, passing by visiting the historical park, which is really beautiful - no matter how many buddah statues ones sees! we caught the bus with this thai woman, not much of a looker but typically thai. at the park, we hired bicycles and cycled the day away and even had an encounter with a monsoon, which lasted about an hour. it was actually relief from the heat - a blessing in disguise, no doubt.
whilst strolling in the street after eating in the night market (and surviving!), we came across an elephant. yes, a real one. judging by the camera shake, we were rather excited - the night markets are incredible. they're buzzing with locals. not many spoke english but some had the basics which helped. (ie: no meat. how much? beer...) it was a real experience, a very, very good one at that.
north of thailand, one finds PAI. a tiny town completely hidden in the thai jungle, bordering burma. the population could be made up of "lost" foreigners and laid back thais. what a place! we spent 3 days there, 2 of which were spent rafting down the pai and kong rivers, and sleeping in a make-shift camp site (as seen in pic), frequented by passing locals. hence the pic of aru - an old guide that smoked too much opium and now is a fisherman for his village. a character that made the journey so worth while.
the last night in pai, we went jolling with some of the rafting crew at a cute restaurant called MAI'S KITCHEN, run by 2 thai woman, with mmm delicious chow.
