Tag Archives: thailand

Thirty in Thailand!

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I’m currently dealing with jet-lag once again back here in London after spending two weeks in Thailand! Martin and I decided to go there for my 30th birthday and I’m really glad we did. We went to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Lanta, and Phi Phi Don. I have a ton of photos so I’ll get started:

First meal out with my friend Phil from high school! He’s living in Bangkok now and we got to stay with him a few nights while we were there. He’s pretty much the perfect host.

The view from Phil’s roof. It was pretty foggy when we first arrived.

About to get on the sky train in Bangkok.

Martin wanted to take the train out to Ayutthaya where there are temples and ruins. So we did.

Tuk tuk!

Khao San Road. Martin really likes the movie “The Beach” so we had to find all of the places mentioned in the movie…he was pretty let down with this location.

Now on to Chiang Mai! I had to deal with a total of 8 take-offs and landings this trip. Ugh.

Our hostel from the outside..

…and from the inside. We stayed at the Mojito Garden, it was a really great hostel. Good food and nice staff!

Of course we had to rent a scooter.

Chiang Mai. We rode up the mountain, which of course was terrifying for me.

We stopped here for coffee at Nicole’s recommendation, she rode her bike to the same spot when she was here!

Came across this spot to stop and have a snack :)

Fried frog.

Day two on the bikes. We found a ship in a field.

Found myself some puffy pants, which are sold everywhere in Thailand; all the tourists wear them and none of the locals ever do.

The countryside :)

Elephant sighting!

On to Koh Lanta, where we stayed at the Rawi Warin Resort for my birthday. Could have been worse.

My cake!

I had a nice birthday! Beach, sun, reading, swimming, and everything I wanted to eat :)

Next up, we took the ferry to Koh Phi Phi Don. I am sunburnt at this point.

The first night here we wound up having a lot of fun playing with a slow shutter speed and the iphone out on the water.

Long boats. These things are everywhere.

Fire show! It gets pretty rowdy on the beach here at night and there are fire spectacles everywhere, I don’t know how people don’t constantly catch on fire here.

Crazy.

One of my favorite photos of us so far!

The next day we walked to Long Beach, which is where I would stay if I came back to Phi Phi Don. Much quieter, perfect snorkeling, and cleaner.

Long Beach.

From the Viewpoint.

On our way to snorkel at Maya Bay!

Maya Bay, where “The Beach” was filmed. It really would be perfect here if you could get rid of all the people and camp out overnight. But you can’t.

We spent our last night before flying back to London in Bangkok again, and we went to Chinatown for dinner.

Too steamy for him!

Needless to say, we had a really great time! I definitely see us going back and seeing more of the north, not to mention the surrounding countries in southeast Asia.
I have about a week to get back in the swing of things in London before I leave for Argentina (work trip this time). I haven’t been to South America yet so this will be a first. Excited! I have a few countries on my list this year that I really want to see…Madagascar, South Africa, Japan, and Russia are at the top right now. I’d also really like to go back to Iceland this year, and I’ll be in Hawaii in June for a little bit, then in Atlanta for weddings/holidays in September-November. If anyone wants to go somewhere let me know :)

Almost forgot, here are a few photos we took with Martin’s underwater camera!

Round the world (the beginning)

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So Nicole and I have made the first official step towards our round the world trip, which will take place beginning in March of 2012 (just four and a half short months away!!). We purchased the plane tickets for the first leg of the trip! Here is our itinerary thus far:

(doodling while talking to Sarah, our awesome travel agent at Airtreks)

March 1st we leave Atlanta and fly to Nadi, Fiji (with a brief layover in LA). After about 5 days in Fiji we hop a flight to Auckland, New Zealand, where we will spend about 3 weeks doing whatever we see fit, eventually making our way overland down to Christchurch. From Christchurch we fly to Sydney, Australia, and again spend 3 weeks wandering around getting lost and most likely sunburned. We’ll make our way overland to Cairns, flying from there to Bali, Indonesia. Again, 3 weeks to explore and then explore some more. Overland to Jakarta, then hop another flight to Singapore. From that point on, we are planning to travel overland up through Malaysia to Thailand and then will run all over the place there (including diverting over to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia). Trains, buses, animals, whatever.

We don’t have too much of a clue as to what we are going to do in all of these places just yet, but I’m fairly certain we will figure it out at some point. There will be some planning, and probably a whole lot of “winging it.” Time for more research and advice from friends/fellow travelers. We’re looking into all kinds of online travel communities (couchsurfing.com, workaway.info, wwoof.org) and I seem to be watching The Darjeeling Limited (India is later) a couple of times a week, so we should be good. Throw a few malaria pills in there and we’re set. I’ve got a house to move out of, stuff to get rid of, and last minute funds to procure. Let the countdown begin!