May 26th, 2006 - From Island to Island!

The island of Koh Phi Phi was beautiful. Located on the west side of Thailand this is one of the main islands that got hit by the tsunami. The devestation left by the tsunami is very visable. There is a lot of rebuilding being done by the locals day and night as well as a lot of flooding on many parts of the island. Although they seem to be putting their lives back together, talking to the locals about the morning that the tsunami is still fresh in their minds and won't soon be forgotten.

Throughout our five days on this island it rained the majority of the time. During one of the rainy days we all decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to get our bamboo tatoos done. This was however, decided before our trip and was not just a spur of the moment thing!


On one of the sunnier days, we took a boat ride to the sister island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Words cannot describe how incredibly beautiful this island is. We spent a few hours on the island exploring, suntanning and couldn't help but take cheesy pictures in front of the well known background of the island made famous by the movie.


During our evenings we checked out westerners fight each other in a boxing ring at a bar for free buckets of alcohol and coke! It was totally entertaining to see these people fighting even their own friends for free drinks (and I'm talking $6 worth of booze), even girls were getting up there, unreal! Cameron got up there with an australian guy he met, but it was all in good fun. They did some wrestling moves and put on quite a show for everyone.

Another bar we often checked out was a bar called "Apache bar". This bar is filled with tourists just looking to get hammered and dance all night. I must admid that I may have been one of those tourists one night, but not something I could do every night, after all I'm not 19 anymore....not to say that it does have it's moments though..............

May 29th, 2006 - Koh Samet

After Koh Phi Phi, Walter and I decided we needed some serious sun, seeing how the weather wasn't the greatest in Koh Phi Phi and our tan seemed to be fading. While the rest of the crew went to Bangkok, we decided to take off to another island for a few days that wasn't going through the 'monsoon season'. The island we chose was Koh Samet. This island is on the east side of Thailand and is a little less crowded with tourists.

With picturesque scenery and white sand beaches this was quite a relaxing change from the busy beaches we're used to. Many of the restaurants here have a very cozy atomosphere for their dining experience...you're basically eating on the beach while watching the waves crashing to the shore.

During the day, lounging on the beach is the extent of our day. Frequently getting asked by the local thai women for massages and thai men for fresh fruit are our only interuptions - can't complain!

The night life however, isn't as happening as the other islands and seems to be a little more pricey, but we can't complain for only a couple of days, it's totally gorgeous here.

May 18th, 2006 - Out of the Jungle

We've officially left the jungle. We stayed in a jungle in bungalows about 2 hours outside of Surat Tahni. The bungalows were owned by a really nice Thai family who were very welcoming and extremely generous to us all. The owner, 'Towey', drove us wherever we wanted to go free of charge (this was however in the back of a wagon type truck, which is esentially a pick-up truck with benches in the back and a roof, nothing unusual here). It's amazing how kind and friendly everyone is here.

The jungle was a little bit scary the first night. It took some getting used to hearing all the sounds of the bugs and god only knows what else while we were trying to sleep.

The first morning there we decided to go on a trek through the jungle, without a guide. It was just us and a map! We tucked our pants into our socks and went on our way. We were told to watch out for leeches that are quite common in the jungle.

After about an hour or two into the trek it started to rain, and then POUR! This went on for the entire trek, which was 5 hours in total. We didn't let the rain stop us so we did what we planned to do on the trek. We found a river in the jungle, in the pouring rain, and went for a swim with our bathing suits and running shoes on (though we could've just left our clothes on, that's how soaked they were). It was pretty awesome swiming in a river in the jungle! Our lunch was soaked, but it didn't matter. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we didn't see any snakes or monkeys though. We weren't able to take pictures either because of the rain.

The following day in the jungle we decided to go on a tubing trip. This was about two hours of just tubing through the river. It was pretty cool, but a little bit long. We had two guides that came with us to make sure we didn't scrape against any branches and that we stayed out of trouble. I think there was something else they were worried about, but just didn't tell us! Walter had a bit of a bumpy ride, smashing into bamboo trees overturning his tube. The rest of us were pretty much okay, we had our running shoes on.

When we weren't busy on treks and other activities we were hanging out with the locals at the main house playing cards and drinking whiskey.

There was one afternoon that we went to feed the monkeys, but not all of them came out of the trees to see us 'cause it was a little bit rainy.


Well two days in the jungle was enough for us, especially when on the last day we found a snake in our room underneath our clothes! See ya!!!!

May 13th, 2006

I'm having an amazing time on this island!! It's packed with tourists just waiting for the full moon party. On the 11th we went on a tour of the islands, which was awesome. It's so beautiful here, everything is such a photo opportunity! On our tour we did some snorkelling, docked on a few islands (which are much more tame than ours, and somewhat secluded). On one of the islands we all hopped in a pick-up truck (just pilled in and sat on the edges!) and it took us to a wooded area. We followed the guide, a local thai guy, through a trail that led to a waterfall. We did a little bit of rock climbing to get to the top and then from there those who wanted to grab hold of the vines and jump in could!! Pretty awesome, not to mention the fact that the water was actually cold, unlike the sea water which is lukewarm and sometimes even hot!!! It was also cool to meet people from different parts of the world.
On the boat with us was a couple from Sanfranciso, and another couple from England, there was also a french Canadian girl.....but if I don't have anything nice to say about her I won't say anything at all :)


As far as food goes there is a lot of Western food here which I did not expect them to have a lot of, or any for that matter! But I am trying to stick to the local food as much as possible. I just cannot get enough of Pad Thai, and am on a search for a delicious spicy thai soup, which surprisingly I have yet to find!!!

Here we are on top of a cliff watching the sunset. We had to do some rock climbing to get here, but we made it. (yes, we do look like the 90210 gang!)

May 9th, 2006

Well we've finally left the city of Bangkok!! Not soon enough though. That city is way too busy and far too polluted for my liking!! Markets were great and the people are very hospitable, but it was a little too dirty for me. We did decide to go on a canal tour before we left and also visited a snake farm. Cam, Jess, Gabe and even Walter took turns holding the snake, I however was not too thrilled with the idea. Eventually the man who was "in charge" convinced me to pet the snake, and then said he'd hold it with me - yeah right!! As soon as I went under the tail end of the snake the man disappeared and i was left holding the thing! (Of course he would get $20baht out of it if i held it myself! - which works out to be less then a dollar Canadian). My mom might have a heart attack, but i have to show the picture, so here it is.

Well finally we've arrived on the island of Ko Phan-gnan yesterday and are just loving it here!!! It's absolutely gorgeous and so very, very HOT that words cannot describe it. Walter is walking around like one big sweat bead, it's pretty funny! This island is just full of backpackers, bars and cute restaurants.
Shopping here is ridiculously cheap, so i just want to buy everything!! Most of the stuff is hand made so it's one of a kind, you won't find anything like it in T.O that's for sure.

Last night we chilled out on the beach and watched a fire show put on by some of the local thai guys which was really cool. They had the beach all set up with towel-like settings and candles for people to chill out on and enjoy the show. They also had bukets ,yes plastic beach buckets that they filled with your choice of liquor and mix! Throw a few straws in there and you're good to go!

MAY 5TH, 2006
Me in the City of Bangkok In a bar in Bangkok with Jess and Cameron


Well we finally made it here and it only took 30 hours!!! (Tired, and a little crabby- I won't mention any names- but we made it!)

Right now we're staying in Bankok at a hostel. There are tons of tourists, many who are Canadian as well.


The wheather is very, very HOT, but you get used to it (sort of). Our first night here we settled in and went to explore the streets of Bankok, where we found an elephant walking around and young prostitues hanging out! No big whop! It was very busy and pretty crazy, but all pretty exciting.

Today we went to the market and got a thai massage for $3 for a half hour!!!