Ko Lipe

Ko Lipe beach

Happy New Years!!!  From Koh Kradan we took a boat further south to the island of Koh Lipe. Our Lonely Planet guide book said that Koh Lipe was a ‘hidden gem’ and an undiscovered tropical paradise, but since everyone uses Lonely Planet guidebooks, there was nothing hidden or unknown about it.  The island was packed with vacationing Europeans (mostly Scandinavians escaping icy winter), thus the food and lodging was insanely expensive (the seafood cost more than in the United States!).  Since we visited around the time of New Years, most of the lodging was full.  We spent a day looking for accommodation, then decided it was best to leave when we realized everything in our price range was full.  There is a major boat service that links the major tourist destinations of Phuket-Koh Phi Phi-Koh Lanta-Koh Lipe-Langkawi (Maylasia) in one big fast-boat, so any almost any person sober enough to stand upright can get to Koh Lipe.

Christmas on Ko Kradan

Ko Kradan beach

We spent Christmas on the island of Ko (island, in Thai) Kradan.   Ko Kradan is located further south from the popular islands of Ko Phi Phi and Ko Lanta, and has only four or five places to stay and eat.  The islands and water are beautiful, with colors right out of a postcard, with all different hues of blue in the sky and in the water.  There is also great snorkeling right off the beach.  The food is really expensive, and the lodging wasn’t cheap (but that is mostly because it is high season).

Krabi

Railay Beach

We are now in the paradise land of Krabi in the Andaman Sea. This area was hit by the 2004 tsunami, but it is now back in swing with many sun worshipers coming to visit the beautiful beaches, see the gorgeous rock formations and participate in great snorkeling and diving. The only leftover signs from the tragedy are the new “tsunami evacuation route” signs found everywhere in case there is another tsunami.

Return to Chiang Mai and on to Krabi

Chiang Mai

We came back to Chiang Mai to visit a few more temples, buy some last minute things at the night market and take a cooking class before our short flight down south to the beaches and islands in southern Thailand.  We took a class from the Thai Farm Cooking school, which is located at an organic farm outside of Chiang Mai.  The class was great and we are now ready to head to the ocean!

Pai

 

Pai

 

Pai is a hippy mecca reminiscent of the glory decade of the 1970s on the Kathmandu-Kabul-and-Beyond hippy circuit.  Many years ago, Pai was an edgy village in the Thai highlands -the Golden Triangle- with a brisk and dangerous opium trade.  Today, the beautiful countryside and romance of the dangerous opium days of the past lure hordes of tourists in.  The center is full of shops with signs in English, but we really came here for the beautiful surrounding areas. 

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai Wat

We left Luang Nam Tha in Laos and headed for the Thai border at the Mekong River.  We left around 9:00 a.m. by bus for a relatively quick trip to Houei Xai and crossed the river into Thailand.  We caught a 5:00 p.m. bus to Chiang Rai, and arrived later in the evening.  Thailand has much more money than Laos, and we noticed immediately the fancier vehicles and roads in Thailand.  Chiang Rai has a nice central market that uses traditional Thai architecture to create a vibrant public space with a large open air food court and a large stage for live music.  We were only here for the night and did not see much else of the city (which offers many things, but we kept moving on).

Goodbye Bangkok

Sukhumvit culture mix

We recieved our China visas and plane tickets , so we will be leaving Bangkok later tonight for Beijing.  We have taken care of our logistical things (sending packages home, downloading photos, making reservations, getting tickets, etc.) and spent more than enough time here in the bustling city of Bangkok.  Aside from the noticeable seedy reasons that many foreigners visit Bangkok, the city is nonetheless pretty interesting, but we are glad to be moving on. 

Birthday in Bangkok

B-day dinner

Alexa’s birthday came up while we were in Bangkok, so we treated ourselves to two nights in nice hotel and a fancy birthday dinner at a trendy restaurant called Basil. We had a delicious appetizer plate with many different types of well-prepared food. We also moved to the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok, which is in the modern city center.

Bangkok: the standard tourist sites

Wat Phra Kaew

We continued our visa wait (we paid for the standard four day turn-around time through the travel agency) by venturing out to see the standard tourist sites of Bangkok. The convenient thing about the Khoa San Road area is that is close to the impressive Grand Palace and Wat (wat means temple) Phra Kaew complex, which is a very beautiful architectural site, in addition to being an important spiritual center for the Thai people.

Out in Bangkok

Flower market

Our visa applications have been submitted and now we are venturing out into the city. Right now it is very hot and humid in Bangkok (which is why we plan to spend more time here in the fall, when it is cooler and less humid), and we need to constantly drink water to keep from getting exhausted.