Around the world

After Koh Phi Phi island, I returned to Bangkok to get ready for my trip to Myanmar. My visa to Myanmar took a couple of days to procure which gave me time to further explore Bangkok and the areas surrounding the city. After meeting up a friend, we decided to check out the area around the city of Kanchanaburi. Kanchanaburi is about a three hour drive east of Bangkok and is the famous location of the Bridge of the River Kwai. Along with being the home to bridge, the area surrounding Kanchanaburi is filled with waterfalls, majestic rivers, elephants (not wild), and a national park. The first day of our trip we took a train ride and saw the beautiful land surrounding Kanchanaburi, walked across the new bridge spanning the River Kwai and chilled at a small waterfall for a couple of hours. We spent the night on a houseboat on the Mae Nam Khwae River and hung out with other travelers. On our second day, we went elephant trekking, rode a bamboo raft, visited a memorial and musuem for railroad that was part of the River Kwai, and visited a tiger sanctuary. The elephant trekking was actually pretty fun compared to my Chiang Mai experience so I think now there is about 50% chance of me going on another elephant trek. The tiger sanctuany was pretty interesting. We got to touch and take pictures with the tigers but they seemed to be heavily sedated and asleep. The tigers are taken care of by a group of monks. My trip to Kanchanburi was great. I met alot of cool people and I was able to escape the hustle and bustle of city of Bangkok.

For rest of my time in Bangkok I visited the famous Bangkok weekend market and hungout with my friends that I met on the trek and during my trip. One of the friend's that I hungout with I first met in Vietnam, bumped into him Cambodia, bumped into in Krabi and finally bumped into him on Khao San Road. It was his last night in Bangkok and he was heading home after eight months of traveling. We grabbed some beers and exchanged travel stories, not too shabby.

After Chiang Mai and the north of Thailand, it was time to move on the islands of the Thailand. My first stop was to Koh Pha Ngan island which lies on the east coast of Thailand. My two main highlights while I stayed on Koh Pha Ngan was celebrating the Songkran Festival and going to the full moon party. Songkran is a festival to celebrate the Thai New Year. The Thai's celebrate by having a huge watergun fight. In some parts of Thailand the festival lasts for seven days but on Koh Pha Ngan it was only celebrated for one day but it was awesome. My friends and I ventured to city of Thong Sala and partook in the celebration of Songkran. Now, imagine the biggest waterfight that you have ever been in, add about 1,000 people and make everyone a target - pedestrians, cars filled with people, police officers, good times, good times. It was an awesome festival which never got old. After celebrating the Songkran, that night was the Full Moon Party. Koh Pha Ngan is famous for it's Full Moon Party. The party was on Had Rin beach on the south end of the island. There are about a dozen clubs playing every variety of music and about 8,000 people dancing and drinking on the beach. It was a pretty intense and very festive event. The rest of my stay on Koh Pha Ngan involved chilling on the beach and hanging out with my friends.

My next stop was to Koh Phi Phi Island with an overnight stop in the city of Krabi. While I was in Krabi, I went on kayaking trip where we paddled into mangroves and visited a small island where our group was nearly attacked by wild monkeys. Suffice to say, I don't like wild monkeys.

Koh Phi Phi is on the West coast of Thailand and was one of the islands that was hit by the Tsunami. Koh Phi Phi has slowly recovered from the Tsunami but there are still signs from the devastation like cement slabs where bungalows once stood and shells of stores that have not been rebuilt. With that being said, Koh Phi Phi offers white sand beaches with warm tropical water, a bevy of activities like snorkeling, diving and cliff jumpning and a variety of food and bars to suit almost anyones tastes. Most of my time on the island I spent at the beach where I tossed the disc aka the frisbee and enjoyed the ambiance.

Also, just off Koh Phi Phi lies the small island of Koh Phi Phi Ley. Phi Phi Ley is most known for being the beach where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. My friends and I took a boat to the island where we snorkeled in the small coves filled with vibrant colored fishes, swam to a deserted beach and of course, we visit Ao Maya or "The Beach". Not a bad experience.

My first stop in Thailand after leaving Lao was Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is situated in the Northern part of Thailand and offers a more laid-back Thai experience. The city of Chiang Mai and the area surrounding it offer a variety of things to do. You can visit the numerous Wats, take a Thai cooking class, practice Muy Thai (Thai boxing), take a Trek to the local hill tribes or just hike in the mountains.

I was in Chiang Mai for 5 days and while I was there I stayed at a cool guesthouse named Julie's Guesthouse. Julie's offered good accommodations, cheap food and a chill common area which made meeting people really easy. It seemed like all the people that I met there had been staying in Julie's and Chiang Mai for at least a couple of weeks. I think the allure of Chiang Mai was that it offered the best of both worlds - the hustle and bustle of the city and the outdoor activities of the mountains surrounding it. While I was in Chiang Mai I visited a local disco and I heard Thai versions of songs by popular American hip-hop bands like the Black Eyed Peas, pretty funny. Also, I went on a one day trek into the mountains that were south of Chiang Mai. Along with visiting the local hill tribes and swimming in a waterfall, the two main highlights of the trek was riding an elephant and bamboo rafting. I was looking forward to riding an elephant but the experience was only okay. The elephant didn't seem too happy and I realized that if the elephant fell over which almost happened, I would be smashed flatter than a pancake. I have to say there is about a 72% that I will not ride an elephant again but you never know. On the otherhand, bamboo rafting was a blast. The raft was made out of about 10 long bamboo poles and four of us navigated down the river. At the end of our rafting, we got into a massive water fight with about 30 kids and we lost miserably but it was good times.