Thursday, January 28, 2010

XX and The Temple

The XX 

I just wanted to share that the soundtrack to my trip so far has been The XX.  They’re from London and what I would classify as Moby meets indie.  Thumbs up to Carli for recommending them, as well as the Floating market.  And an extra thumbs down to Cindy for recommending the Ping Pong show.  Although I’m sure Sebastien loves you for it!

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Here’s a photo of the washroom in Secret Garden off Khao San.  It has a minimal style which I really like and is hard to find in Thailand.  Well for my budget anyways.

One of my favorite things to do lately is to find a quiet place in a corner somewhere to study my camera functions and take practice shots.  This is at Starbucks where  I’m practicing the self timer function.

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More of my Starbucks shots.

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Thai people are so friendly.  They will so willingly pose for your photos.  This guy was selling faux tattoo arm sleeves.  Tattoo culture is pretty big out here in Thailand.  However, the traditional thai women will not get them unless they are street workers.

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This is my friend Paulo.  He is a photographer/D.J./ Promoter.   We had a lovely photo date, as he took me through local Thailand.  We went to the temple, the night market, and then believe it or not the German Beer Garden where the locals hang out.

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Two of my favorite temple shots so far.  I especially like the two of the monks.  Interesting tidbit about monks – is that they are not allowed to touch women.  So in Bangkok you have to take special care not to accidently touch them.  The monk that did Angelina Jolie’s tattoo is actually not a practicing monk anymore which is why he was able to tattoo her.  He now no longer tattoos people anymore but has 4 apprentices that work under him.

 

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Here’s a shot taken with Paolo’s wide angle lens.  Which I liked using a lot.  It’s too bad that it is just a little bit blurry.  Funny thing about temples is that if you are Thai you get to access the temples for free but if you are a tourist you have to pay.  Because I look enough like a Thai, I was able to enter this one for free and I was with a local.  I did go to see the reclining buddha today, but for some reason, I felt wrong cheating the system….

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I have no idea what this beautiful lit up structure is.  I think it’s the grand palace.  But this was the view from where we went for drinks.

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Here’s Paulo with 2 vinyls he bought from the market.

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This I found particularly funny.  You know you are in an Asian bar when …  There is a sink for vomitting.  With a flush and everything!

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The cool thing about this beer garden we went to was that they served beer by the litre.  Good german beer by the way but also the live traditional thai acts performed on stage. 

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Here’s the dance floor.  All Thais!

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Here’s a tattoo artist close to my hotel who took off his shirt for my photograph while he was smoking without me even asking.

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Very cool!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

happy begending

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So my travels with Sebastien and I’s trip as a unit are over, and the beginning of my solo trip has begun.  I am just overcome with gratitude that Seb is so supportive.  I cherish our time together, and am so glad we had the opportunity to create those special moments together.  If anything this experience has unveiled that we worry about so many trivial things on a day to day basis. 

The above photos were taken at Fotofile by the owner of the photo shop in MBK – Thailand’s renowned shopping centre.  The selection was dazzling, if you go, you must be prepared to commit to spending time there. 

Did I mention that I had lost my brand new camera that I had bought on this trip?  It was an Olympus Tough 4000, basically an amazing camera that will survive anything and everything… except getting lost!  But you know it was a blessing in disguise – I ended up purchasing a camera that I am so in love with the Canon 1000D.  It’s so light that it weighs about 1.3 lbs, so it’s easy to carry.  I basically devoured the manual today.  You may be seeing some difference in the photos posted here.

Places Phyllis stays at when she’s travelling with Sebastien

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Here’s the view from the hotel we stayed at for our last night – The Sakurn Grace which is in the Sukamwit.  It was a splurge, but totally worth it.  It’s a boutique hotel, with a pool, a gym and hot water.  It’s far from the backpacking area, but we chose it because it was close to the mall.

 

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The only gym I’ve been to since I arrived in Thailand.  Working out on the top of a building is underrated.

Places Phyllis stays when she’s travelling alone

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This is the place I checked into after Sebastien left!

Welcome to my humble abode.  This is the Taewez House, a nice clean guest house just a fifteen minute walk away from Kho Saon and they even have free wi fi! The only problem is that the cab drivers usually have no idea where it is, so we spend time calling the front desk, even though there’s a map on the back of the card I always carry.  The bonus though is that it only costs $250 THB which is the equivalent of about $8. 

I spent most of my first day alone, and  settling in.  At night, I met up with a friend, Joeki who was introduced to me via facebook friend suggestion (go figure) through my buddy, Steve G.  We hit up club 808, and I actually got to see Diplo play a wicked set well minus the hip hop.  

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Street Graffiti on my walk to Khao San Road. 

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Workers walking on little pipes and ledges to get around the building.

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Tuk Tuk’s and Taxi’s

 

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I love used bookstores.  The more cluttered they are, the more treasures they usually have.  I have been having the most difficult time tracking down the suggested reading for my teacher training.   I’ve been to at least ten bookstores, new and used, and I got nuthin’.  I guess Yoga is not a huge topic of interest in these parts.

 

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Today I finally got myself to go down and get me a visa to enter Vietnam.  For some reason, I am getting antsy to leave the busyness and chaos that is Bangkok.  And then when I got to the Visa, I was kicking myself – damn it – I have to wait 3 business days?  But I want to leave now!

Anyway, it was alright – I made a new friend who is staying at the Secret Garden.  Aba is a 56 year old Israeli guy who is well connected with the guest house.  He has been travelling for over 20 years, and he had all kinds of fabulous advice for a newbie like me.  I am seriously considering moving over to the Secret Garden, it’s a really cool spot with tonnes of great chill areas.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Safari Boat – One day trip in paradise

 

 

We decided to break up our routine of lazing about the beach by actually getting out and seeing something.  So we decided to join this tour:  Safari "Not a boat at all!" Tour

 

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   It was a rocky start since it has been raining the past couple of days making it really hard to leave Haad Yuan.  We had to wake up at 7:00 AM to catch a long tail taxi boat, but there was no one leaving from the Peace & Love bar.  The driver there had hurt his hand in the rocky currents.  We ended up having to ask a few people, and made it just in time for our departure but at a premium price.

By chance, we happened to stumble upon this hotel that does travel tours out of Haad Drin.  The ticket price for the tour was $1,200 Thai Baht, but because we booked through this fancy hotel at the end of the beach we were able to save $200 Baht each.

We started at the elephant camp where we fed the elephants bananas, and watched them smash coconuts.

Fun Facts about Elephants:

  • Recognize their name when called
  • Sharpen their own tusks
  • Find sharp sticks or rocks to scratch themselves when they’re itchy – they’re pretty thick skinned
  • Can live up to 120 years
  • Recognize their trainers
  • Eat 3 kilos a day
  • Fully grown weigh 2 tonnes – the equivalent of 2 pick up trucks

Then we saw how the Thais collect coconuts.  The most efficient way for them is to use monkeys.  These monkeys they send off to a “monkey school” when they are young because they are the most agile.  They are trained to climb the coconut trees, collect them and throw them down.  They are able to collect like 300 coconuts in 4 hours.  And they can jump down, which makes them so much more efficient than humans.  The funny thing though is that they don’t even eat coconuts.  All they eat there is boiled eggs and rice.

They are ferocious though, the only person that can come close to them is their trainer.  They said that they can train them to be nice, but then they won’t want to work anymore.  Once they are past the first ten years of their life, they will go off to work doing tricks and such. 

After that we hiked up the mountain to visit the waterfall, and the tourist view point.  It was really nice and we got to meet other travellers from the States, Denmark and Rotterdaam.  What a strange assortment of people.

We visited some really gorgeous beaches, and then went to the Chinese temple – Chaloklum.  It’s a cool story, the temple was commissioned for them by this Chinese woman. 

The Thai’s believe that there are only four necessities of life:

1) Food to Eat

2) Clothes to wear

3) Medicine when you get sick

4) Phone to call

Our guide explained that sometimes when you life a simpler life you are more happy.  That sometimes people living in the city get caught up in work, and that they will step on other people to get ahead and that’s not right.  That it’s not necessary to always want better, nicer things, smarter cell phones or cameras.  Because you are always caught up wanting more.

I wanted to share that with you because I thought it was pretty cool and it left me feeling pretty peaceful.  

Saturday, January 16, 2010

More Photos

Roxanne and Patrick
Here’s us with our friends Patrick and Roxanne.  Patrick is one of Sebastien’s best friend and we’re at Bamboo before a crazy night of partying at Guy’s Bar.

View from the top
This is me during our hike to the neighbouring beach – Haad Tien.
Seb and the little one

Morning Boat The sky looks so incredible in the morning.
Happy Shakes Here we are drinking Happy Shakes with our friends Tom and Maria from Ireland at Eden.
 District 9 in Thailand
Seb goofing around.  District 9 in Thailand!011

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Waiting for our Long Tail boat to take us to Haad Drin.

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Sun Salutation!
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Until next time!

Big Bird and The Eclipse

 

Flying Bird

Today we had a friendly visitor in the form of a large black exotic bird from the rainforest. According to the friendly staff at Big Blue, which is where we are staying, this bird never comes to this Big Birdpart of the island. They speculate that it must be sick or lost or abandoned. But it is so beautiful and so friendly and not at all afraid of people.

The restaurant staff have been feeding it papaya, and the bird tried to pass me a piece in with it’s large beak.

This is the same day, we were lucky enough to see an eclipse in the middle of the afternoon.  The bungalow owners brought out what looked like a welding mask so that we could see it, and it was just incredible!

The view from our bungalows is just lovely.  Here is a shot of Sebastien helping the locals push a boat back to shore early in the morning.  The sky looks incredible, and the weather is so warm.

 

Seb and The BoatThe Pagoda

Oh yes, I forgot to mention we also have these amazing tropical birds, and even bunny rabbits at The Big Blue.  They are so friendly, and every morning I see these gorgeous butterflies with beautiful colorings I’ve never seen before.

 

Blowing Kisses to my friend

Please bear with me, as I am still figuring out how to blog.

There’s so much that happens everyday that I could go on forever!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Welcome to Paradise!

It didn't take me and Seb long to settle in here. We are situated on a lovely beach called Haad Yuan, and we couldn't have chosen a better spot. This secluded beach has a steady flow of interesting, spiritual travellers coming through mostly due to the health spa - The Sanctuary, and the Blooming Lotus studio. The laws are lax here, because it takes a boat to get the police here, and apparently they don't come down this route much. In fact I haven't seen one cop down here yet.

The oceans are turquoise, and the music is amazing. The people are really friendly, and Seb and I have met a wicked couple from Ireland who just may be my travel companions to Laos, vietnam and cambodia. We are the only Canadians here, and a lot of the travellers we've met have been coming here for years!

The night that we landed there was a huge gay wedding going at at the Sanctuary. These guys had a huge Vegas style wedding with everyone decked out in neon colors, sparkles, glitter and gorgeous accoutrements. We went to check it out, and they had a d.j. playing, with a dance stage right on the beach. It reminded us of one of the beach stages at Soundwave last summer.

The music was bumpin'. Then we met this dude who made us promise to go to Geys Bar. He was wearing these awesome glittery red pants - and so of course we trek through the forest about ten minutes to get there, and it was a full on club night. Usually the beach is a lot quieter than it was when we arrived. But because of the wedding, it had a surreal atmosphere. Needless to say - it was such a blast.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Settled in Koh Phangnan

I can finally say that the fun part of the travellers holiday has begun!
Sebastien and I had a really rocky start at the beginning of our trip. In four words: major Chinese Visa issues. Because we were flying into Shanghai, we are allowed a 48 hour tourist visa upon arrival. But we had a 3 hour layover in Beijing here the rules are different - you are only allowed a 24 hour tourist visa here. And because we passed through here, this is where our time count down began.

To make a long story short, we were held at customs for 2 hours, not understanding a word of he language and under the threat of deportation back to Canada! Finally it got straightened out by Air Canada, who changed our flights so we would be out of the county within 24 hours which meant cutting our trip to Shanghai and our visit with my cousin Derek super short.

But oh no, this is not the end of it. We had to board the 6:30 flight that evening in order to catch all our connector flights, and all the flights leaving Beijing that day were cancelled due to a huge snow storm. The biggest one in ten decades! Because of this storm, there was a train that was trapped in the snow for like 12 hours and had to be dug out. The airport was mad chaos and we were stuck in the middle of it with the fear of chinese government looming over our heads.

The line ups were crazy, did you know that queuing is a fairly new concept in China? We were in lineups of 100 people plus, and at the end of each one we were prety much directed to another one. From 6:30 PM - 1:30 in the morning we were in lineups to change our ticket, find our lost bag, get put up in a hotel, etc. etc.

Finally they put us up in a fairly decent 3 star hotel, which as great because we really hadn't slept much on New Years, and the overnight flight. But part of the line up went outside where we had to wait for about an hour in -20 degree weather!

Everything ended up fine, and thankfully we didn't get deported!

We had a great visit with my cousin in Shanghai. He took really good care of us, he partly owns a New York Deli in Pudong, and it was this huge new business with pool tables, full bar, flat screen t.v. This is where we decompressed and made our own sandwiches. He was nice enough to come pick us up in a taxi, and have us crash at his place. Too bad it was so short!

Finally we are here in a beach/ yoga town where I am planning on taking my yoga course at The Blooming Lotus. It is so beautiful here, it's like a traveller's paradise. Going to Thailand is definitely a culinary experience, there isn't one thing I've eaten here that I haven't liked. We are staying in a beachside bungalow called the Barcelona for the equivalent of $15 a night, and tommorrow we are moving into an even cuter one called the big blue for $10.

No complaints here. White sand beaches, turquoise water, and the friendliest people you will ever meet!

Hope everyone is doing well - pictures to follow soon I promise!