Baan Thai Resort Takua Pa

... 2 days off which is good for my computer but leaves me a little bored

What would a blog be without one of my patented rant sessions right? The boats that I work on are live aboards meaning that you stay on the boat for multiple days and just dive. This environment is great for friends and couples but as you can imagine we don’t get families…until this week. A family of 4….mom, dad and their 3 year old son and infant daughter booked ...

... relationships because my current method of dating doesn’t seem to be working out all that well.

I finally got into the water for recreational purposes and had 2 nice dives on an old wreck that is about 30 minutes off the coast here. It’s more of a debris field because it was completely torn apart by the tsunami but there is so much life in this area it is absolutely amazing. I came across a few cuttle fish that were actually more curious then ...

... rainforest which is older and more diverse than the Amazon Rainforest.

We arrived at night in the park and easily found a bungalow to stay for 3 nights. Then we headed to the resort's restaurant to try to book some trekks for the next days. There's no need to negociate the prices that much, it seems that all resorts have almost the same prices and I'm not the one who will go alone in the jungle (really, really afraid ...

... it had been raining so hard the trek was really difficult on the way back. First of all I was trying not to step in any puddles because the leeches were out because of the rain and my shoes have openings and second of all the path was wet and the rocks were sliding out from under my feet. I managed to make it up hill without falling and without any leeches but once we started downhill I started having trouble. By then the rain had returned. On the way ...

I note that there are nearly as many journals for our three weeks in Thailand as there were for three months in Oz - something to do with access and price! Anyway, having recovered from durian indigestion (this fruit is rubbery...) we went on a long-tail boat day trip to Raileh, which is a peninsula near Krabi and only accessible by boat due to great big lumps of limestone.

The scenery was indeed spectacular but the place is a mix of building site and huge posh resorts, so ...

My next destination was Khao Sok National Park south of Bangkok on the peninsula. I wanted to take the train again but unfortunately all the sleepers were sold so I went coach. It was a long long night because I had zero legroom and the seat barely reclined. Oh well. At Surat Thani I got off the train and found the bus west. At the turn-off to the national park the bus is met by various trucks and vans ...

... preferees. Les parrotfish tout d'abord, mangent le corail avec leur bec, et leur caca qui en resulte est a l'origine du sable blanc dont sont faites les plages. Desormais, nous ne dirons plus plages de sable blanc mais plages de caca de poissons perroquet. Les Boxfish ensuite, parce qu'ils ont une forme de boite, avec des grands yeux et une petites queue en forme de trompette (Jeremy qui est a cote de moi precise : pas comme lui ...

... de kms des petits restos de fruits de mer en bord de mer et une plage superbe, bande de sable fin comme la farine longue de 14kms, bordee d'une foret bien preservee. Un jour de l'An tres calme et finalement reussi grace a un restaurant de fruits de mer trouve in extremis, la compagnie de Flo, Jean-No et Virginie et une constellation de lanternes flottantes lachees dans le ciel a minuit. Mignon.

15 Dicembre 2007 Khao Lak Ci siamo finalmente spostati ieri dalla piccola isola di Kho Tao per Khao Lak, piccola localita' turistica che si affaccia sul mare delle Andamane cento chilometri, o poco piu',a Nord di Phuket. Abbiamo dovuto ragionare molto prima di abbandonare Kho Tao dal momento che sembrava il luogo ideale per fare immersioni e in particolare la nostra formazione. Il solo problema consisteva in una visibilita' subacquea che lasciava veramente molto a ...

... summer in the midwest that qualify). Today I discovered a fourth category: Laughably Ridiculous Humidity ("I don't remember jumping in a river... why am I soaking wet?") I went for a hike in Kho Sok national park this morning. It was fairly cool temperature-wise when I left - at about 8:30 it was only 75 or 80. The first waterfall I hiked to was just over two miles from my guesthouse, along a fairly flat road. When I got there, I was ...