Chillin' in Koh Lanta

We had a very relaxing day today in Koh Lanta. We rented a motorbike to tour the island then spent our afternoon relaxing at the pool, playing in the ocean, and finally getting a Thai massage each.

Michael driving us around Koh Lanta on our rented scooter.

Beachside Thai massages.

Sunset from our hotel (the best one we saw during our entire trip).

Tomorrow we head back to Koh Phi Phi for one last snorkel before catching the ferry to Phuket and flying home. We can't wait to eat fish tacos again!

Snorkeling and Scuba Diving in Koh Phi Phi

We've been having a wonderful time in Koh Phi Phi, enjoying the sun and warm water (so much nicer than San Diego)! Yesterday we spent the entire day snorkeling all around the islands (there are about 4 popular ones in a cluster). It was really fun, but there were a lot of people and a lot of boats. Also, the coral recently died due to the ocean temperature increasing (it's unknown if it's due to global warming or just a weather trend). We saw a lot of beautiful fish though!

But today absolutely made up for the lack of coral! We found a friendly Canadian diver working for one of the many diving companies on the island (there are dozens of diving companies setup around here!) and went out with his diving group today for a "discover scuba diving" course where we covered 5 basic safety tips and completed two 45 min - 1 hour dives. The dives were amazing! We picked the perfect day for it too, it rained most of the day but underwater it didn't matter :) There was colourful coral today and many more fish from yesterday. We also got to swim with a few sea turtles... well we did the swimming while they sat on the bottom and ate coral ;)







We've pretty much completed all of the big acitivities on Koh Phi Phi now and are excited to get out of the crowds for our last couple of days. So tomorrow we will likely be heading to Koh Lanta, a more intimate and relaxing island. Maybe we'll finally get a Thai massage before heading home.

Ao Nang and Koh Phi Phi

We took the 9am ferry to Koh Phi Phi this morning. It's beautiful but busy and we have a bit of a problem with our hotel which we have to deal with *right now* so pictures to come soon!

Bangkok

We had a great time but very busy so pictures to come soon.

Lanterns in Chiang Mai

We had a bit of a rough start in Chiang Mai after a very trying bus ride back from Pai to Chiang Mai, we thought Michael was suffering from motion sickness, but upon arriving at our guesthouse in Chiang Mai we quickly realized he was stricken with food poisoning. Luckily we had antibiotics with us, thanks to our travel clinic, and were able to get him on the mend quickly, but still not quickly enough. So our schedule got moved around a bit and I caught up in some chores and planning the last bit of our trip while Michael rested for a couple of days.

What made the entire visit worth it though, and the whole reason for us coming to Chiang Mai, was watching the thousands of fire lanterns (Khom Loi, mini hot air balloons) being launched simultaneously at a temple north of the city. We bought our own Khom Loi and launched it away with our wishes for better health this trip (so far so good :). This ceremony is performed by the monks to kick-off the Loy Krathong celebrations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_Krathong). Afterwards, we went into the city to enjoy the beginnings of the Loy Krathong festival. We had to miss the big celebrations in Chiang Mai on the night of November 21 so we could catch a night train to Ayuthaya and Bangkok.

Here are some of the highlights:
Monks performing a candle ceremony.

The crowd at the event.

Jennifer with our Khom Loi.

Krathong on the Mae Ping River in Chiang Mai.

Elephant Riding and Bamboo Rafting in Pai

Today we spent a few wonderful hours with our new friend Pa-nom, our elephant! We rode through some of the nearby jungle and farm fields before heading to the river to splash around with her.



We then headed back to the elephant camp for hot springs and lunch before heading out to go bamboo rafting.

In Thailand!

We met up with our friend Sang, who moved from San Diego to Korea, in Seoul during our 12 hour layover and had a great time exploring a small portion of the city.

We saw some temples, more temples, and then some more temples in Angkor Wat... it was incredible. The pictures don't do it justice but they are worth a thousand words (more photos to come:

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

Ta Prohm temple

Jennifer and I are now in Bangkok waiting to leave on the 1st class sleeper to Chiang Mai where we will head into the mountains and stay in Pai.

Stupid computer being a pain so quick update now and some details and photos to come.