Maya Bay, Phuket, & Kanchanaburi

Im' OK! Right now I am sitting in an Internet cafe in Kanchanaburi. Kanchanaburi is maybe 2 hours outside of Bangkok and I have yet to have a problem. Honestly, I didnt realize that anything was even going on until 3 days ago when I was trying to leaving Ko Phi Phi to get to Phuket. When I got on the ferry to head off the island the ticket collector made sure I wasnt going to the airport because the three in the southern part of the country had been closed by protesters. And I think the protests in Bangkok had been going on for maybe 3-4 days by that point. I honestly, believe that 99% of the Western people on that island had no idea what was going on outside of it, because noone was talking about it. In hindsight, I vaguely remember seeing some Thai people gathered round TVs watching someone yelling in Thai but I didnt make much of it at the time.

In all honestly though, I do feel perfectly safe. All of the Thai people seem very calm as well as the Westerners around. This morning I arrived into the Bangkok bus station, which is just outside of town, for maybe 10 minutes and there werent any signs of trouble there. The only way I have bee affected by this whole thing is when it came to buying my bus ticket. The Railroad and airport foreclosure just made me pay up for my bus ticket from Phuket to Bangkok. It's funny; just to show how polite the Thai are, when I bought my bus ticket the guy apologized for their being no trains to Bangkok and any inconvenience the unrest may have caused. I thought it was cute, he should have apologized for the bad weather while he was at it.

Tomorrow, I plan to head into Bangkok city for half a day to catch a couple more sights then catch a night train if possible to Chang Mai, if not then a bus the next morning. Ill have a much better idea of the situation then but Im not expecting much. There have been a couple people killed and I heard there was a couple of bomb explosion two mornings ago, but besides that I think things have been fairly tame, if that is possible to say. Things do seem to be stuck in a stalemate though. The PAD isnt going to leave the Government House and is trying to rally all the unions they can to shut down government and police centers. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister refuses to step down, which is the PAD's objective. Simultaneously, the military refuses to turn on the people or back the PM's call for military intervention. So it should be interesting to see who gives in first.

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Ko Phi Phi



As for Maya Bay, the trip was definitely worth it. There were five stops on the trip, Monkey Beach, Cliff Diving, Shark Snorkeling, Snorkeling II, and Camping at Maya Beach. The trip started off right with a couple of Germans being terrorized by Monkeys at Monkey Beach. The Monkeys apparently just charged these two German guys forcing them to leave behind there Camera bags. The monkeys just surrounded there bags and stole a couple of batteries from them before our Thai guide charged at them with a huge stick to retrieve the guys stuff.


Next, was the Cliff Diving. Unfortunately I am going to disappoint here. I didnt get to jump from 20m. The highest I went was 12m, 40 ft. If you look at the picture below the 12m jump is right next to the tree. It about 3 meters above the person you see in the middle there. On my second jump, not sure why, I grabbed a tree limb on my way down which made me land kind of weird. Long story short, I ended up 'tweaking' my neck and it messed with my form for the other jumps. And before you get to go on the 20 m jump the Thai guide has to approve your jumping form and I didnt make the cut. Anyway, to compensate, in my mind at least, when we got to the Shark snorkeling site, I was the first in the water.


This is the view of Maya Bay, as seen in the Movie ' The Beach.' It really was a beautiful place. The beach itself is a National Park. Only those who go on the tour I went on get to camp overnight there, so it was cool to be alone on the island with about 25 other people. We were all forced to sleep in a large open air tent because it rained most of the night. It didnt matter much though because most people stayed up drinking anyway and just passed out where they stood. But I did get to go swimming in the Bay at night and the see little neon water bugs light up as you moved around just like in the film.


Being hungover on a boat really tests your sea legs. The guy on the right doesnt have them. I think he was one of four people total to lose their cookies on that ride off the island.


Sunset on Phuket.


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Are you ready for this?

Tiger Temple: 2 go in; 1 comes out!


Today, I got to hit the Tiger Temple and the Bridge over the River Kwai. The Tiger Temple is an animal sanctuary run by monks. It started with the Monks taking care of one sickly tiger that wandered through their complex then just grew to the 18 they currently have. All of the Tiger are chained to the ground by their necks but arent drugged so they still have the potential to turn around and grab you if they really wanted. But the Tigers are suppose to have been around people from their birth so are pretty use to obnoxious tourists by now.


The baby Tiger below was the softest animal fur I've ever touched.

Bridge over the River Kwai below. Earlier, I got to see the JEATH museum dedicated to remembering the horrible conditions and torture the POWs underwent while building it. Pretty Gruesome Stuff!.