Still Here

The protesters have not been evicted from the airports and I'm still in Bangkok.
Quite exciting to be stuck in the middle of it all.

Around Bangkok all seems normal, the news keep publishing information on whats happening but we haven't personally noticed anything ourselves in our day to day lives here. I shall keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Extended stay

I have rebooked my flights for the 9th December. Assuming the airports are all go again by then I will fly home, until then I get another week and a half in Bangkok!

Bangkok Heat

Things are heating up here in Bangkok, with the situation at the airports very close to exploding. I think tomorrow will be key in revealing what will happen next. If I was to guess today I would have said coup for sure but now I'm on the fence. It could be that the Police/army steps in to try to remove the PAD from the airports and if that happens who knows how it will go or whether it will get bloody. Another factor is that pro government forces are threatening to take up arms if the military steps in to oust the current govt. This seems to be a major difference from the last coup which ousted former prime minister Thaksin who is now in exile having fled from corruption charges and potential jail time. Basically the way it looks to me is that either the army steps in risking major civil uprising or it does not and the stalemate continues and I am stuck here indefinitely. We shall see.

Bangkok Airport Closed

I'm supposed to leave Thailand tomorrow and fly to Auckland via Sydney but as of 2 hours ago the airport has been closed because anti government protesters stormed the airport. No mention when it will open again but I suspect I wont be flying home tomorrow.

In other news I had 2 suits made and tonight we ate at a buffet restaurant on the 82nd floor of the Baiyoke sky tower. Needless to say the view was kick ass.

Krabi town

We are sitting in swensons ice cream parlour in the vogue department
store in krabi town killing time at the moment. We were in the pizza
company eating tom yum goong pizza before this. Man that is a good
pizza. Im pretty full right now and the swensons ice cream i just ate
may have made me feel just a little sickly. We fly back to bangkok
tonight and our flight leaves at 9pm which is in 3.5 hours. Time to
wander around for a bit and then negotiate the extortionist taxi
drivers and get ourselves to the airport for a reasonable price. Good
luck to us..

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Lucky restaurant

And here we are, our last night in the islands and we find ourselves
eating at lucky restaurant at the far and of east railey beach. We
just ate a delicious curry pizza and drank mixed fruit shakes. Mmm.
Tomorrow we fly back to bangkok in the evening so we will spend the
morning here and the afternoon in krabi town.

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Not Feeling So Good

Today I are not feeling so good. Quite upset stomach it seems.
Feeling a bit better now that I've eaten buffet breakfast and had a noodle soup for lunch.

Ranjene went on a half day climbing course this morning and learned the basics so that now we can rent some gear and go climbing together.
So long as I'm feeling ok tomorrow we shall rent some gear and go climb.

Red curry in a coconut

After numerous hours this morning fixing and updating nutvs website
ranjene and i walked to phra nang beach for a swim, collecting take
away som tum salad in styrofoam containers to eat for lunch on the
beach. We grabbed fruit shakes on the way also.

After swimming and building sand sculptures we walked back to railey
east and grabbed dinner at yayas which was as the title of this post
suggests a red curry served in a coconut.

Now we are sitting in a nice restaurant on the beach on railey west.
Hans and larissa just ate a sticky rice with mango.

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Railey East

We Are now staying at a really nice place on Railey east that has buffet breakfasts and wifi so I'm happy ;)

We spent yesterday on the beach and went to a really nice restaurant for dinner.
We stayed in Andaman nature resort over on Tonsai the night before and we were pretty unhappy with the whole beach. I remembered the place with such fond memories but now its just so full of trash everywhere and the bungalows seem so run down. Weirdly disappointed.. oh well its pretty sweet over on Railey. (maybe I'm just getting old)

More photos on flickr (another 90 pics on the way up at the mo.)

On the way to krabi

We are now on a mini bus heading for krabi. We left samui this morning
via mini bus then ferry to the mainland. We ran into the usual scam
when we arrived in surat thani and had to change buses. We were told
the bus would not be arriving for 2 hours and they threw in a not so
convincing line about the journey taking 4 hours on the bus anyway so
we had better pay them to take us by mini van. All very amusing.
Anyways we are making our way to krabi slowly.

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Leaving samui

Its raining and it has been for days. Not just normal everyday rain
either. Heavy rain punctuated by Torrential downpours.

Because of this we have decided to abandon samui and this side of
thailand in favour of potentially better weather on the krabi / phuket
side.

Muesli fruit and yogurt and then we hit the road!

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Testing out video embedding from nutv.ca

So recently I have been working on a new webpage for NUTV. It is basically a page for showing all their video content. Below is me testing out one of the new features which allows people to embed the video from nutv.ca in their own blogs or websites.
You can take a look at one of their new shows "Dino_Myte" embedded below if you like.

Jungle Club

We have been staying at the Jungle club resort on Samui for the past couple days, its been raining a lot so almost no beach time so far which is unfortuneate but oh well.

Internet speeds haven't been the greatest so I'm struggling to keep up with uploading my pictures that I've been taking, got a few uploaded today at an internet cafe in Chaweng noi beach.

Mmmm fruit shakes...

Koh Samui

Yesterday we flew from Bangkok to Ko Samui, the largest of 3 islands off the east coast of Thailand near the mainland town of Surat Thani.

We are staying in a pretty nice place up on top of the hills above chaweng noi beach. The view is stunning, they have a pool, one of those ones that has no proper edge where the view is so the water from the pool meets the water of the ocean way in the distance when you are in it. Very nice. We have to get here and back by 4wd which they provide. Food has been delicious.

We slept to a thundering rain storm last night which was awesome to sleep to being that the hut we sleep in is so basic.

I have internet whenever I need it via my phone so I check my email many times per day as usual and I don't need to face my internet addiction ;)

Border Run Part 4, the final chapter

I'm now back at Nonsi residence in Bangkok. Up reaaaally early in the morning to fly to Samui, beaches!!

Border Run Part 3

So this is the 3rd time I've tried to write this post but have been thwarted the previous 2 attempts. 3rd times a charm.

I have just been "processed" at the border and am now back on the bus. A pretty painless process really. 30 mins turn around time I think. Another 4 hours and i'll be back in Bangkok.

It's always a kinda weird feeling to be stared at by locals in a place where you couldn't be more out of place. It's not uncomfortable, not like being a shitey walking around the streets of Harlem, NYC... just weird.

The process of the border run was somewhat interesting in itself too, nothing new for me, I had to do it a few times back in 2003 when I was here last. They have it down to an art also. The company I paid for the service takes you on a bus to the border and ferrys you through the process. You check out of Thailand, check into Cambodia, check out of Cambodia and then check back into Thailand. To make this easier all you actually have to do is check out of thailand and then hand your passport over to the company who then riuns the passports in and out of Cambodia for you so you can then check back into Thailand.

Anyways, heading back to Bangkok now and will be updating the map with my location along the way.

To Cambodia and Back (border run part 2.)

So we just had our first stop, used the facilities, jumped back on the bus and were given fried rice for lunch which, if I may, I shall talk about for a moment.

Thai fried rice is not quite like my experiences with chinese fried rice. It is somehow lighter and tastier and laced with things like cilantro and fresh tomato and cucumber. Very tasty. Mine had shrimp.

So that said, before I close this post for now, I might just say that its pretty kick ass that I'm writing this from a bus burning through the countryside in Thailand. It may not be the fastest internet but it is good enough for email and such and its only costing me 1 baht / minute which is around $3/hour canadian and because I can turn internet on, connect to my email, turn it off and write and read emails and then turn it back on to send / update it costs very little to keep myself connected like the internet junkie that I am. So far I've had coverage the whole way. I can only hope the same applies when we head to the islands tomorrow.

Oh, and in terms of how I'm doing it, I have my cell phone sitting in my bag beside me and I can use it to connect and disconnect to the internet as needed through bluetooth (a wireless protocol)

More to come...

Visa run. Part 1.

I have to get to the cambodian border and get a new visa today. So far
progress is good. I have made it to the rally point, handed over my
passport and photos and paid my fee for the trip. Ready to get on the
bus

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Bangkok bank

Ranjene is opening a bank account at a bangkok bank branch near nana
sky train. As she does so i thought i might write a quick blog post.
We are heading first for ko samui by plane on the day after tomorrow.
Tomorrow though, i have to head for the cambodian border to refresh my
visa and give myself another 30 in the country. Joy. Once we hit samui
we will make some decisions about where to go and what to do in the
islands. Ill keep ya posted.

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