Flight to BKK..
The house of Curtis
At 4am in the morning, Bobby got woken up by a text message from Kevin - it said: “I’m in Bangkok, in a TAXI from Hell with no seatbelts” – to which Bobby answered back: GOOD! Thanx for waking me up! Bobby couldn’t get back to sleep after that. Bobby’s flight for this day was scheduled for 2pm, via JetStar, another low cost airline owned by Qantas. Curtis had to go to work around 9am so, Bobby had to say his Goodbyes early. He then went to the gym and worked out for a bit and left Curtis’s place by 10:30am (he had to take the train and skybus also). He got to the airport with plenty of time to shop around the retail stores inside Melbourne airport. He had to get rid of his Australian dollars, so he bought flip flops for the Krabi trip (beach heaven!). Boarding was a bit delayed since the plane had to wait for some transit Sydney passengers (these peeps were drinking at some bar in the Airport) that strayed away from the boarding gate, a lot of people were pissed. The plane took off 45 minutes behind scheduled. The JetStar flight crew were all manned by Thais, so the service was pretty good (After experiencing Airlines based in Asia and Australia – Airlines based in the U.S. can’t really hold a candle in terms of service to its Asian/Australian competitors! – no wonder that Northwest flight from MSP to Tokyo, some old Japanese man was yelling at a blond flight attendant that ‘her’ service was really bad!). Bobby arrived in Bangkok International Airport at 8:15pm. Customs was again a breeze. He took a taxi to the Courtyard Marriott hotel and got there by 9pm. Kevin met him at the lobby and right away he wanted to go out, have dinner and check out the bars. Bobby took a shower first since he was all grimy and sweaty, so Kevin had to stew for a bit. Kevin had planned everything we were going to do in Bangkok (he went for a run in the morning, work-out, did his bills, and planned what to see/do in Bangkok), including this night out. By 9:30pm we were out the door and headed out to the Silom area of Bangkok. We walked to the BTS (BKK’s Monorail) Ratchadamri Station two blocks from our hotel. We got out of the Sala Daeng Station and started towards Silom Road looking for Soi 10 (streets are called ‘Soi’) to a specific resto that Kevin read about: “Circle of Friends” (from National Geographic Thailand), however when we got there it was nowhere to be found. Kevin asked a Taxi driver and a maitre'de at a resto that was in the area “Silom Harbor” and they’ve never heard of Circle of Friends either. 
We debated whether to find CoF or check out Silom Harbor – We settled on Silom Harbor. Kevin ordered chicken curry while Bobby tried out the Pad Thai. The food wasn’t bad. After dinner, Kevin wanted to check out the gay bars, so we started to walk to Soi Thanon Patpong 2. Kevin had a list of gay bars he wanted to check out but we had a hard time finding them (we were still confused in regard to the street names). Bobby was so tired and wanted to go back and rest, so we grab a ride from a “Tuk-Tuk” (motorcycle taxi) back to our hotel. We got back to the hotel around midnight and watched T.V. for awhile mostly the Inauguration of President O’Bama. Bobby fell asleep, so he wasn’t able to watch the whole program.
*Pics: Our Hotel Room
21 Jan 09: Wednesday - Ayutthaya Excursion..
Kevin planned a whole day of ‘walking’ at the Ayutthaya Province, the ‘Old Royal Capital’ of Siamese Thailand before the Thais transferred its capital to Bangkok. This area has plenty of ‘old’ Wats (Temples) that were built in the 13th and 14th Centuries and are now in ruins (but some are preserved - see pic links below). We woke up around 7:30am and worked out at the Marriott gym. By 10am, we were ready to go. We took the BTS Monorail again at Ratchadamri Station to Silom Station to transfer to the Subway MRT, taking it to Bang Sue Station.
At Bang Sue station, we had to walk out of the subway and transfer to the National Railway of Thailand to go north for Ayutthaya. The train to Ayutthaya wasn’t due until 11:47am. we had a long wait and mostly hang around the area taking pics and observing the people around us. The trains used by the railway company must have been from the 1950’s. These things are old! A far cry from the modern Monorail and LRT trains in downtown Bangkok. We boarded the train around noon and met some nice business men sitting right next to us. One of them was an inspector of trains and has been to Europe and Japan. They gave us pointers on where to take the train upon coming back. 10 Stations later, we alighted at the Ayutthaya Station. It was already 1:45pm. To get to Ayutthaya central, we had to take a ferry across the river to get to the island where Ayutthaya is. We walked around the ‘wet market’ area and took some pictures of headless fishes, dried squids, etc. (see pic link). Kevin was assailed by some pleasant and some nasty ‘smells’. We found an alley with side-by-side restaurants and we chose one that had an English menu. Kevin ordered an omelet, while Bobby ordered chicken fried rice. We spotted a ‘mangy’ big rat next to the resto we were in and got the hee-bee-gee-bees. Two westerners came in and sat on the table across from us and we started talking to them. We found out that one of them was from Kansas and the other from London. They met randomly at a temple in Bangkok while taking a class in Transcendal Meditation. They were on their way out of Ayutthaya. They also gave us pointers about Ayuttha and told us where the ‘temple ruins’ where (they also saw the ‘big rat’ next door).
*Pics: Bang Sue Train Station and Train Ride to Ayutthaya; **Central Ayutthaya/Wet Market
Wats, Chedis, and Prangs Oh My!
We walked to the Historical Society of Ayutthaya to get some 411 on the ruined temples and of the province. We found out that Ayutthaya was a Khmer outpost at first, before becoming the Royal Capital of Siam from 1350 – 1767. Inside the Historical Society, they had miniature models of what Ayutthaya was like during its heyday, with life dioramas, temples, royal palaces, etc. (we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside). We had to pay 200 Bhat to get in and spent about an hour inside. After the Histo museum we decided to check out the 'Wats'. The first “Wat” (temple) we visited was WAT PHRA RAM. It had a sturdy “PRANG” (phallic obelisk). Not much to see, it was in total ruins and we didn't want to pay to get in. We then walked towards WAT PHRA SI SANPHET (we paid 50 Bhat to get in). According to Lonely planet this was the most photographed WAT in Thailand with very picturesque ruins and it had perfectly formed ‘Chidi’s’ (Stupas). Also, Lonely Planet mentioned that “it was originally used for important royal ceremonies and once contained a towering 16m-high standing Buddha covered with 250kg of gold which was then melted down by the Burmese conquerors” (it seems Thailand in the old days were fighting with the Khmers from Cambodia and with the Burmese). Right next door was the WIHAAN MONGKHON BOPHIT.
It is a modern day Buddha temple, housing a 15th-century Buddha bronze casting, one of Thailand’s largest. The temple was closing for the day when we got there, so we only had a couple of moments to take pictures and explore the area. We then headed east and walked towards WAT THUMMIKARAT, not as famous as the other ones but still a nice place to visit. It had prominent ‘Singhas’ (guardian lions) sculptures (see pic link). We took a rest there for a bit before continuing our eastward walk (we were followed by a dog with a blue t-shirt all the way at the intersection). We visited two Wats right across from each other on the intersection of Thanon Naresuan Road and Thanon Chee Kun Road. The first of the two Wats at the intersection was WAT PHRA MAHA THAT, this was another paid visit for 50 Baht ($1.15), per Lonely planet, it was the center of the old Ayutthaya sacred city. It had the temple's most famous image, a Buddha head embedded in twisted tree roots. After WPM, we went across the street to WAT RATCHA BURANA, where it had the most preserved ‘Prang’ (Phallic Obelisk) in the Island. Per Lonely Planet, it was built by King Borom Rachathirat II, a cremation site for his two brothers who fought and died against each other in hopes of assuming the kingdom's throne. We watched the sun set at this temple and it was an awesome sight. By this time it was already 5pm. The last train back to Bangkok was scheduled to be at Ayutthaya Station by 7:14pm. We needed to be at the train station by 6:30pm to buy tickets.
*Pics: **Ayutthaya Historical Society; **Wat Phra Ram; **Wat Phra Si Sanphet; **Wihann Mongkhon Bhopit; **Wat Thummikarat; **Wat Phra Maha That; **Wat Ratcha Burana
Standing By...
It was a long walk back to the ferry boat to get across to the train station. We didn’t know there was an express train at 6:47pm, lucky for us we were able to get tickets on that train. At the station there were lots of passengers: foreigners and locals alike waiting for that same train, so when it finally rolled in and came to a stop, there was a mad dash to get in, unfortunately for us, the train was already full of passengers from stops previous to Ayutthaya station. This train had twelve cars, we went in at the first car and walked back to the 12th and last one and there were still no seats available. We had to stand for a while among the other passengers that got on. Kevin sat on an armrest by a group of 3 women. After a while they offered him a seat. One of the women started talking to Kevin (before that they were whispering among themselves looking at Kevin and giggling like little girls) mainly in broken English. Kevin, being a social butterfly - was delighted that the locals were trying to communicate with him. The women asked what his name was and they had difficulty pronouncing ‘Kevin’, so they asked him his nickname - Kev was easy for them to pronounce. The women were definitely flirting with Kevin. They were saying some things in Thai loudly, that part of the section of our train cab started to listen in and was laughing. The women asked Kevin if Bobby was Thai (on a side note: The very first time/day Bobby landed in Thailand, the Thai folk thought he’s Thai - so they would speak him to him in Thai and he’ll get this ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look and he’d say ‘he don’t speak Thai’, the Thais would then smile and apologize and then asked him where he was from..) Kev said, 'no' and said that Bobby was Filipino. The women said something in Thai again, eliciting laughter from the listening train crowd. Bobby just smiled, in the meantime thinking that he must have been made fun off. One of the women named ‘Doi’ offered Kevin some cooked rice housed in a little basket. Kevin declined the offer, saying he was full but Doi didn’t understand, so Kevin had to make a gesture: rubbing his stomach. The women laughed at him again. Kevin pulled out the Lonely Planet book (that we borrowed from Jeff Duffin and Andy Groves – thanks Guys!) and it had phrases on it in Thai at the back page. Kevin was able to communicate somewhat to the women. At one point, Kevin read a phrase from Lonely Planet: ‘ja rang-kiat mai hai nom luuk thii nii’ loudly, the whole section of our train burst out laughing. The translation: DO YOU MIND IF I BREAST FEED HERE?, with that, the women were practically ga-ga over Kevin. At some point, ‘Doi’ said ‘I love you’ to Kevin and he gave her a thumbs up sign. Fun times. Unfortunately, the women had to get off the train before Bangkok. We said our goodbyes to them and finally Bobby was able to sit down.
The train arrived in Bangkok at 8pm. We walked to the Subway MRT at Hua Lampong Station, and then took the subway to Silom Station to connect to the Monorail back to Ratchadamri Station where our hotel was (whew!). We arrived at the hotel by 9:30pm. We showered and headed out to get some dinner. Kevin picked the Sphinx restaurant located around Silom road, in an alley along with Bangkok’s Gay bars/clubs. It was relatively easy getting there since we were more familiar with Silom Road. The street was teaming with hawkers and vendors with faux Brand names and pirated DVDs. We got seated outside the Sphinx, ordered our drinks and food. Kevin ordered chicken curry (again) while Bobby ordered a seafood platter with fried rice. Kevin asked the waiter (who was very helpful and probably had a crush on Kevin) the best places to go dancing and where to just chill. We got the info regarding where places are to check out for the next night. After eating, we decided to check out the street vendors and bought two T-shirts around $5 each. Moseyed to our hotel around 11pm.
*Pics: Ayutthaya Train Station and Alighting at Bangkok Train Station
*Sphinx resto pics*
22 Jan 09: Thursday
Bangkok Walk About…
Up at 6:30am to use the gym for a cardio work out. The plan was to walk around Chinatown, check out the city Wats and get a boat ride along the Chao Phraya River. By 9am, we took a taxi out to Chinatown. We walked around the area, checked out the ‘wet and dry markets’ with fish and meat vendors, flowers, fruit stands, and other foods, textiles, Buddha replicates, and ceramic bowls. We didn’t have breakfast so we decided to just munch on things. Bobby saw some grilled bananas and wanted to try it (Kevin liked it too). Kevin had some cherry tomatoes to munch on (he had to ‘haggle’ for ¼ of a kilogram - Kevin is good at haggling!) We walked all the markets in Chinatown: Sampeng Market, Pahurat Market, and Pak Klong Talad Market. We saw the Wat Pra Chetuphon (Wat Pho) at a distance (which we visited later in the day). We then took a ferry across the river at Pier #8 to WAT ARUN RATCHA WARARAM. This Wat had a lot of small buddhas inside its temple. We took some pics. At the WAT ARUN area, there is a long tail river boat tour kiosk. Kevin had a talk with one of the tour operator and he purchased a one hour river tour (Chao Phraya River) which encompasses some of bangkok’s canals with houses on its edge (See pics). We were able to have a glimpse of what the denizen of Bangkok’s life in the river is all about – Rich and poor (as you can see from the pics). At one point during the river tour, the boat driver stopped for a woman in a canoe who was plying her trade of snacks and alcoholic drinks. Kevin bought two beers, one for himself and the other for our boat driver.
*Pics: **Walking around Chinatown; **Area around Wat Po; **Area and Around Wat Arun; **Bangkok River Tour
Walking and Walking....
We got dropped at Pier #9 to walk to WAT PHRA Chetuphone (WAT PO). This Wat held one of the largest golden Reclining Buddha, about 46m in length and 15m in height. There were lots of visitors this day. We spent about half an hour walking the grounds and taking pics. We then headed east to the Grand Royal palace. We took pictures of the Entrance Palace Guard. Since we were wearing shorts, they told us to queue for appropriate attire (which the Palace provides to tourists) - they were handing out long pants, but the line was very long and we decided to just skip going inside the Palace. We left the Grand Palace and headed Northwest to go see WAT MAHATHAT, passing Thammasat University, The National Museum and The National Art Gallery. There were street vendors selling junk things, including wooden phalluses (see pics – speaking of Phalluses, there’s an Island by the Phi Phi Islands where people actually worship the ‘Penis’ – in a Cave with lots of statues and carvings of the said appendage). We continued walking along Ratchadmaonen Klang Road to go see the Democracy Monument, a big edifice on a roundabout. LOHA PRASAT (another Temple) was in the area, so we went in to explore. This temple was undergoing renovation, but you could still go in and see (and it was free to get in). We went to the top using its wooded winding staircase (See pics). We then headed out to see the ‘Giant Swing’ (Sao Ching Choa), passing the ‘Golden Mount’ and ‘Monks Bowl Village’ (where bowls for monks are made – tourists support this trade). We met Erin along the way – she was from Toronto, Canada and was on a Job assignment in BKK. We talked and walked with her for a while since she was by herself. She was also on the way to go see the ‘Giant Swing’. She took photos of us at the ‘Giant Swing’. Unfortunately, our DigiCam was running out of batteries, so we only had a few shots. Erin was continuing on to see more sites that were not on our list, so we headed our separate ways. We decided to ditch the other sites on our list - it was really late and we were tired from the heat and from walking around. We headed back to Pier #8 to catch the ferry back to Sathorn (Central) Pier. We got off at the Central pier and took the monorail back to our hotel. We chilled at the hotel for a bit, then showered and got ready for dinner. We had dinner reservations at 8pm at a resto in downtown BKK.
*Pics: **Inside Wat Po grounds; **Passing The Grand Royal Palace; **Democracy Monument and Loha Prassat grounds; **On the way to the Giant Swing
Weird Resto name...
We were ready by 7:30pm, headed out to the monorail and took it to connect to the subway and got off at SUKHUMVIT Station. We walked towards Sukhumvit Soi 12 where the resto – ‘Cabbages and Condoms’ was located (yea, very weird name for a resto but the place is actually pretty cool and festive). All the decorations have condoms, either incorporated into it or made by it (see pics). Also, a portion of their profits goes towards HIV prevention in Thailand. Food was good. Kevin again had some type of chicken potato curry, while Bobby had a rice crispy noodle dish with shrimp. Dessert was fried bananas with honey dip (yum!).
*Pics: C & C resto pics
*Outside of C & C Pics*
X 'pedition alleyways...
After dinner, we headed back to the subway to Silom Station near the G-rated gay bars. We got off Silom Road and walked towards the bars. Our first stop was Club 9 (The Sphinx Resto waitstaff recommended it the night before for their ‘Cabaret’ show) where we meet NAAM, a Thai fellow who works there. We wanted to know when the ‘Cabaret’ show would start and Naam told us that it was still too early (The show starts @ midnight). So, we asked Naam what other places see besides the bars nearby. Naam mentioned G.O.D (Guys on Display) and DJ Station, but he said those don’t get hoppin after 1 or 2 am. Kevin whipped out his list of the other gay bars in BKK and asked Naam where ‘Tawan Club’ (Dreamboy Club) was. Naam directed us to go to ‘Soi 6’. We told Naam that we would be back later for the Cabaret show and we went to go find TAWAN CLUB. But on the way there, we passed the X-rated areas of BKK - for the heteros’s and gay men. The hetero X bars were quite tame. The girls that were ‘employed’ by the bars had costumes on, e.g. school girls, flight attendants, Glam etc. You could find one what you were looking for. They were polite and didn’t bother us much and only asked us if we wanted to go in at their respective bars. Unfortunately for us, when we walked past the X rated gay establishments, things got a bit hairy. Those boys were aggressive. They didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Most of them were grabbing us by the arm towards their bars asking if we wanted to see a ‘Sex show’ and we kept saying “NO” but none of them paid any heed and were actually getting possessive – they were pulling and holding onto our arms. Bobby had 4 guys dragging him, while Kevin was making bowing gestures with his hands clasps in front him and saying 'No'. Finally, Bobby resorted to a mini-violent outburst of shouting “NO” and he pushed away at the guys that were holding him. He was ready to rumble, that’s when all of them ‘let go’. We bolted outta there quickly and had a sigh of relief rounding a corner on a quiet street. We finally found Soi 6 and had some gentleman escort us to TAWAN CLUB (he knew the Manager). The club was okey. It was a club for muscle heads and they had a strip show going at the stage. We only stayed for one drink and decided to head back to Club 9. On the way back to Club 9, we avoided the street where we were ‘accosted’ - taking the long way. We arrived at Club 9 by 11pm. It was still very early for the Cabaret show since we were the only ones there. We ordered drinks and Naam talked to us for a bit. People were starting to come in. Midnight rolls around and the Club 9 Cabaret show started promptly. The show was actually fun to watch. We didn’t have our big DigiCam to take pics this night but brought our little Fuji cam who takes very bad pics. The Cabaret was mostly performed by Thai drag queens lyp synching songs with choreography, had dancers and had great outfits. They did a comedy sketch but were speaking in Thai so we really didn't understand much. The physical actions relayed the message though, so we kinda got the gist and laughed with the rest of the audience. At the end of the show, the performers had some tete-a-tete with the patrons at the club and the main diva drag queen zeroed in on Kevin. She asked Kevin where he was from and he answered ‘from the Land of Barack Obama’, she then countered that she didn’t know that there was a country named ‘Barack Obama’ – everybody laughed.
*SnapVid of one of the Performers*
DJ G.O.D….
After the show, Naam introduced us to his other friends that was chilling two bars down from Club 9 (one of them was a young Italian owner of the bar – we forgot his name and the name of his bar). Naam sister was among this group. There were also another gay couple (we forgot their names as well, one was Thai and the other Swiss). Another guy named ‘BeeBee’ was there also. They all wanted to go to G.O.D. (Guys on Display) Club, so we headed that way - it was only a 15 minute walk. BeeBee knew the owner and bouncers at the club, so he got us in for free. G.O.D. is mostly a dance club. They had dancers on the stage. There was no crowd yet since it was still early. The only weird thing about this club is that when you go to the rest room, there are attendants up there that gives you a 'surprise' massage. Kevin had a back massage while peeing at the urinal. He had no choice but to let it happen while he pee’d! (LoL) Bobby also decided to use the restroom since he couldn't hold his pee any longer. He thought he outsmarted those touchy-feely attendants when he went into the only stall in the toilet to pee - but no such luck. They got him when he came out of the stall to wash his hands at the sink. The faucet had no water pressure, so the water coming out of the faucet was slow - almost like a drip. Both of us paid 20 Bhats each for the experience. Naam wanted to bring us to another club in the area called ‘DJ Station’ where everyone there knows his name. So, we left his other friends at G.O.D and headed out to DJ Station. Naam got us in via the VIP line and also got us in for free. This club was more packed and hopping with foreigner expats and locals. It had an upstairs and downstairs area. We hit the floor to dance but it was so packed and it was difficult to move around, so Naam drag us up at the ‘stage’ which was good, it had plenty of dance area. Since, we were flying early to Krabi the next morning, we had to cut our merry making and said our Goodbye’s to Naam and got his contact info for correspondence. We got back to our hotel around 2:30am. Long day!
23 Jan 09: Friday
Krabi baby!
We were up by 10am, showered, packed our bags, checked out, and took a taxi to the airport. We got to the airport around 11:45am. Checked in our bags with Thai Air Asia for a 1:50pm flight to Krabi, this flight was full - good thing we bought ‘Express boarding’, we had first dibs on the seats (Thai Air Asia don’t do assigned seating). We bought snacks on the plane since we didn’t pre-pay for ‘meals’. The flight only lasted one hour and we landed at Krabi International Airport around 2:30pm. We got our bags and paid for a car service from Andaman Limousine to our destination: Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort at Kloung Moung beach. We paid 700 Bhat for the ride and our driver, Mr. Wassama gave his card to us in case we want to use him again for the return trip back to the airport. The ride to Sheraton was about half an hour. The lobby personnel had got us seated at their anteroom and gave us some lemon water – very nice! We got checked in promptly then driven to our suite by a golf cart with the concierge in tow to show us the room amenities. The resort was big. It had 4 restos, a spa, two outdoor infinity swimming pools with bars, a private beach, a full 24 hour gym and Baba Ra-Ra: the resident adolescent pachyderm. As soon as we put away our luggage, we walked around the resort, took pictures and watched the sunset at the beach. Kevin bought some flip-flops at the gift store. 
We were hungry and decided to explore outside the gates of the resort. We went into a resto just across the street from Sheraton named ‘The Terrace’, where they served fine Thai Cuisine. Kevin ordered ‘Chicken w/ CASSEWNUTS and Bobby had some shrimp dish over crispy rice noodles. We ordered drinks based on our Zodiac signs, ‘the Cancer’ for Kevin and ‘the Scorpio’ for Bobby. T’was very good! We then shared Green Tea Ice Cream, which Bobby liked and Kevin not so much. After dinner, we went back to the hotel to get our Laundry done (we needed fresh clean clothes by this time!). Sheraton’s laundry prices were up the ying-yang, so we decided to hit out the ones outside the hotel. We also wanted ‘quotes’ for all the ‘tours’ in the area. We dropped off the laundry at a place right across from Sheraton (next to the Terrace resto), this place could do laundry for 40 Bhat per kilogram. As for the ‘tours’, we went to Sheraton first, then to Mr. Sohm’s business (he also owns the Laundry place we used and Thai Massage business - all in one place), and lastly down at the Kloung Moung Plaza, 2 blocks down the road of Sheraton. We double checked the prizes at the internet and were satisfied on who we should pick for the ‘tours’ we were going to do while in the area. We decided that the next day would be just to chil-lax out at the resort and not do anything. We went to bed by 10pm.
*Pics: **On the Way to Sheraton Beach Resort; **Sheraton Beach Resort; **The Terrace Resto
24 Jan 09: Saturday
Burn Baby Burn…
We woke up around 8am and we went to the gym to work out. For our cardio, we decided to run up and down Sheraton's beach for 3 miles. We saw locals cleaning fish, gutting out its entrails and heads and throwing it at the beach area. It was pretty smelly running around that part of the beach, though it was only about 3 blocks long. Afterwards, we had lunch at one of Sheraton’s resto’s called ‘Mangoosteens’. We had great service and great food. There were only two other couples in the resto maybe that's why they were attentive! After lunch, we headed out to the bigger pool called ‘Malati’, got ourselves two lounge chairs with an umbrealla and we just frolic, drank alcohol, and sunbaked there for hours until 5pm. We didn’t slather enough suntan lotion on, which was a big mistake: both of us got ‘sun burned’! We got back to our room to shower and ordered some wine bubbly and some apps before heading out to dinner. Nice! We showered and by 8pm went outside the resort to walk over to the ‘Kloung Moung’ Plaza. 
We chose ‘La Café’ – another Thai restaurant. Bobby ordered some seafood combo fried rice (with squid, shrimp and scallops) with fresh ‘black’ pepper (they are actually GREEN in color when not dried up) – awesome spice! Kevin had orange chicken curry again. For dessert, we split fried tempura Ice Cream (we shouldn't have eaten it but it was yummylicious) After dinner, we headed back to “Mr. Sohm’s” (not sure how to spell his name, could be ‘Soam’) business to order some ‘tours’ for the next two days. Paid him the monies and got all the schedule ironed out. We also picked up our clean laundry from the place and inquired about the Thai foot/facial massages from the woman who did our laundry (yea, she washes clothes and does massages!). We went back into the resort (they have security guards that salutes everyone coming and going into the resort) and got greeted by everyone by ‘Sawatdee’ khrap/kha (Khrap if it was said by a male and kha if it was said by a female) – which means ‘hello’ in Thai (Minneapolis has a chain of Thai restos named ‘Sawatdee’ – now we know what it meant!). We think we were the only ‘Gay’ couple in the resort since we get ‘knowing’ smiles from everyone. We went to bed by midnight.
*Sharing a Bubbly/Newspaper Advert*
*Pics: On the Sheraton Malati Pool
25 Jan 09: Sunday
Crouching Monkey, Hidden Tiger, Emerald Hot Springs!
8am wake up time. Kevin worked out (he did a leg workout – which wasn’t a good thing to do for this day) while Bobby just did the treadmill (also wasn’t a smart thing to do…you’ll read later why). Showered and got picked up by Mr. Sohm for our ‘tour’ at 10am. This day, we were doing the ‘Unseen Jungle Trip’ by ourselves instead of a group of people with a tour guide… we hired Mr. Sohm as our driver (we had to pay for lunch and entrance fees) and basically go where we wanted to go with no set time (hence the late start instead of the 8am start for the group tour) which was way cheaper than the group rate…Our first destination was to go see ‘WAT THAM SUA/SEUA’ (this temple is high up in a mountain or was it a really high hill? not sure) where its monks live around the area in micro/mini houses around mazes of natural caves. This area is also known as ‘Tiger Caves’. Its main attraction however is the climb at the top of the Wat complex/limestone tower with 1,272 steps. The drive to the area took about 30 minutes. As we saw the top of the Wat with a Buddha high up, we immediately regretted doing the work out earlier. Mr. Sohm told us to go ahead and pick which site to go first either the ‘caves’ or ‘climbing’ those steps. We decided to tackle those steps first. We took pictures at the base Hindu temple (strange to be mixing two religious groups in one area: Buddhist and Hindu temples side by side) with those little Buddhas (kinda like the cherubs) and Monkeys!
They had signs to beware of the monkeys stealing your things. We finally started to climb those steps and yea, these steps weren’t easy! Some actually were knee high and narrow and some are so steep you literally have to hold onto something. We had to stop for breaks in between (See the pics to which steps) to catch our breaths and rest our legs. The climb was about 30-40 minutes. Once at the top though, you can virtually see a 360 degree view of Krabi province – awesome scenic view for sure. We took pics at the top and of the scenes around us (see pics). Climbing down was a bit easier but still, our legs were wobbly by the time we got down to the base. We had to rest again. We then headed out to the ‘Tiger Caves’. Along the way, we passed some mini/micro houses that the Buddhist Monks in the area lives in (some actually use the caves as their homes). We saw another big Buddha temple where they had some picture exhibit of the Tsunami victims with maggots and everything in it. T'was very gruesome. We then meandered to what we thought was ‘the Big Tree’ since there were signs pointing to it…it wasn’t really that big…(see pics). We then headed back to the base temple of the Hindus to get Mr. Sohm for our next drive.
*Pics: **Wat base area; **Climbing the steps and view at top; **Tiger Cave/Big Tree areas
*Vids: **At the top of Wat Tham Sue; **Tiger Cave area; **Family of Monkeys
Emerald Pool and Hot Spring.
It was another 30 minutes to get to the next site we've chosen: the Emerald Pool (or Crystal Pool). This pool is right in the middle of a jungle forest filled by clear natural spring water. Krabi Emerald Pool is situated in Khao Phra Bang Khram Nature Reserve. Since we haven’t had anything to eat (yea, nothing since the start of our work out at the gym) and after taking those steps (2 x 1,272), we told Mr. Sohm that before venturing into the Emerald pool that we should get some lunch - we were so famished. It was a good thing that - at the entrance to the park, there were lots of make shift restos (with dirt as their floors). We chose one that Mr. Sohm told us to go, since it looked more presentable and actually had nice tables. Bobby had some very weird ‘sticky’ Pad Thai (he didn’t really care at this point – he wolfed down the food) and Kevin had some chicken stir fry with ‘CASSHWUEW’ nuts. After eating, we paid the park rangers 200 Bhat (Bobby got asked again if he was ‘Thai’ and could have gotten in for free if he’d said yes…but he didn’t want to chance it…) and walked down about 800 meters to the pool. Since this week was still a holiday in the lunar Chinese New Year, a lot of locals were on vacation and were flocking to the Emerald Pool (and of course along with those pesky European tourists). We took turns swimming and watching our stuff. The pool’s cool water was actually a welcome relief from the day’s hot temps and the earlier steps climb. It also soothed our sunburned skin from the previous day. We spent about an hour and a half swimming. We went back to get Mr. Sohm to drive us to our final destination for the day, the Natural Hot Spring at Khao Phra Bang Kram Nature reserve. Basically, a natural ‘hot-tub’ and the water contains Mineral Salts (see pic for Mineral Content).
The drive there took us another 30-40 minutes. The park entrance was more expensive than the Emerald pool. We paid 400 Bhat (The tour costs us only 2600 Bhat – not bad). The park's walkway to the hot spring was paved cement. Again, there were plenty of people dipping at the hot spring: locals and Europeans. Kevin spent the most time soaking at the hot spring and at the much cooler pool down below. Bobby’s sunburned skin was sensitive to the hot water so he didn’t really spend a whole lot of time at the hot springs. He did swam at the cooler pool below and he mostly watched their bag and was taking pics of Kevin. Kevin made friends with the local kids. They wanted to talk to him even though they didn’t speak one iota of English - very cute! We stayed about an hour and left when a bunch of rowdy Germans came in. It was getting crowded and we were getting tired. It was 5:30pm at this time and we wanted a dip at the swimming pool at our hotel. The trip back to our hotel took about one hour. By 7pm, we went to the swimming pool – unfortunately we didn’t know that Sheraton closes its two pools by 7pm, Darn! We headed back to our room and got ready to go to dinner. We chose a resto recommended by Mr. Sohm across from Kloung Moung Plaza named ‘Chor Morlee’, fine Thai Dining and European Cuisine. Kevin had another curry flavored dish: Chicken and potato! Bobby had the fried Squid with garlic with those awesome fresh 'black' (actually green!) pepper. We shared a liter carafe of white wine and a banana split with 3 flavors of Ice Cream for dessert. This resto didn’t take credit cards (we had no clue) and we didn’t have enough Bhats to cover for our dinner. Bobby had to run to the ATM to get cash out while Kevin stayed at the resto to talk to their German hired interpreter (This resto had a lot of Germans for Patrons) to pass the time. We were the last one to leave that night.
*Pics: **Emerald Pool pics; **Hot Spring and back to hotel pics
*Vids: **On the way to Emerald Pool; **Ear Piercing Jungle sounds on the way to Emerald Pool (freaky!); **Emerald Pool Entrance
26 Jan 09: Monday.
Phi Phi Island Adventures….
We had to wake up early this day since we arranged for a group tour to one of the famous Islands of Thailand: Phi Phi Islands. Mr. Sohm told us to be at the outside of the Sheraton lobby by 8am for a transport pick up. However, we waited for about 15 minutes and got worried since we were the only ones left at the lobby – most of the groups were gone. Kevin walked over to Mr. Sohm’s business to inquire what was up. Kevin texted Bobby 10 minutes later to be ready to get picked up. The car that was used the other day came rolling by the Sheraton driveway, it was driven by the lady who did our Laundry two days ago (and who does massages) with Kevin at the back seat. She drove us to the Noppharat beach area where the rest of our group from ‘Nattaca Tour’ was waiting. The tour operator was supposed to pick us up last since we were only 15 minutes away, but we didn’t know – it all worked out at the end. We were the only ones from Sheraton and the other 18 people (there were 20 total) were from various hotels in Krabi. We still waited for 7 more people. At exactly 9am, the group got all accounted for and we all headed to the speed boat that would take us on the Island hopping tour.
*Pics: Noppharat beach/On the way to Phi Phi
Island Adventures
Our first stop was Tup Island. This wasn’t part of the package tour but the guys driving the speed boat said that it was too good to miss up on high tide (see pics of us jumping) – we could only stay for 15 minutes though. We then speed through to Bamboo Island for a beach stay and for some snorkeling – not a great snorkeling site since there were no corals to explore though there were plenty of fish to see. Per Kevin, it was his first ‘real’ open sea snorkeling experience besides doing it at his parent’s swimming pool. We were only there for 45 minutes. Next stop is Hin Klarng, Phi Phi’s number one snorkeling reef in an open sea where the most fish are to be found. The tour drivers brought in some moldy bread to feed to the fishes. They told us to start snorkeling and have fun, they then tossed those moldy breads around us and the fish started to feed….very exciting! (see vids). The next stop was Monkey Beach/Bay for more snorkeling and feeding the fishes. Bobby didn’t dive since he wanted to soak in the scenery (Monkey Beach/Bay is sheltered by lots of out cropping Islands) and was content to do people-watch. We were only allowed 30 minutes at the area. Our next stop was a sightseeing one and this was the Viking Caves with ancient bird paintings and where birds nest where collected for soups (weren’t allowed to actually land on the Island). We then speed to Don Phi Phi at Tonsai Bay for our lunch, where it was waiting for us at a beachside resto (included in the tour). We sat with another couple who were from Hong Kong. They were on vacation along with their extended family (also in our group). They said that they come to Thailand every Chinese New Year for their getaway from the work grind. The food was nice, mostly Thai cuisine but had one spaghetti dish. Lunch had one hour of allocation for the tour. 
After lunch we then speed to Pi Leh Bay, a hidden sea lagoon with limestone cliffs all around. We then headed out for Loshamah Bay for another colorful snorkeling event surrounded by calm and shallow waters just off a small quite beach, allocation time was another 30 minutes of snorkeling. Next stop was Maya Bay. This bay was the location of Leonardo DiCaprio’s awful movie (per Bobby) ‘The Beach’. It did have remarkable scenery: emerald waters, limestone cliffs, had beach bars, and eye candy! We spent about one hour and 20 minutes there. Since we still had time to waste, the tour drivers made another bonus stop at Poda Island with picturesque scenery bordered with long beautiful beaches, we only had 20 minutes though. We then passed by Tup Island again on low tide. We could see the beach/sand exposed thereby abling people to cross one Island to the opposite Island. On the way back to Noppharat beach, one of the group's life jacket got loose and was lost to sea. It belonged to the small boy from the Hong Kong family that we met at lunch. They all waved ‘bye-bye’ to the life jacket. We got driven back to Sheraton by 5pm.
*Pics: **Top Island pics; **Snorkeling Adventures/Lunch Area; **Viking Caves Birds Nest and sorrounding areas; **The bays; **Maya Bay area; **Pod Island/On the way back to Noppharat beach
*Vids: **Speeding to Phi Phi Islands; **Kevin snorkeling with the fishes; **Bobby snorkeling with the fishes; **Viking Caves Bird nests and fishes in the area; **Monkey Beach/Bay; **Maya Bay
Dragon Feather, Umbrella Kung Fu Dinner Style!
Sheraton puts on a high style dinner buffet gala every Chinese New Year. Since we happened to be there, we decided to buy the tickets to see what it was all about (A bit expensive, but what the hell, when in Rome right? – besides, it was a buffet with entertainment!). The program agenda said that things would start at 7pm, so we had plenty of time to get ready when we got back from our jaunts. We took a quick nap and woke up by 6pm, showered and was on the way to the shindig by 7pm. We got seated at our table (we got assigned seating when we bought the tix) with our opposite counterparts, an older German couple who couldn’t speak English. The festivities started promptly with the ‘Lion Dance’ and fire cracker lighting. The performance was okey – nothing to write home about. They lighted up the firecrackers and after it all got burned out…
two Emcees came out and started talking about what the Chinese New Year was all about and its representative animal, the OX’s characteristics etc. They then introduced the mainstay Sheraton band (two vocal ladies, one guitar/bass player and a keyboardist) to play some songs and told us and the rests of the paying guests to get up and start queuing up for the food buffet. Sheraton did an excellent job in presenting the buffet tables – lots of food to choose from. They had a sushi and sashimi table, a hot seafood table (fish – big red snappers with heads still attached, squids, scallops, mussels etc.), a protein table (chicken, pork, beef) and the dessert table with fried bananas, cakes in all flavors, ice creams, fruits, custards and lots of Chinese desserts. We sampled it all in little bits. There were other performances us well in the stage, mostly done by the wait staffs of the 4 restos at Sheraton. They did an ‘Umbrella Dance’ and a ‘Fan Dance’. Two male staff performed some ‘Kung Fu’ exhibition with background music, the ‘Kung-Fu’ Fighting song. We gorged ourselves with all the food – 4 helpings in all! The band played songs from ABBA, Neil Diamond, Cha-Cha music and light Jazz. They were actually pretty good. The shindig lasted till 10pm.
*Pics: Sheraton Chinese New Year Celebration and Buffet
*Vids: **Lion Dance; **Fireworks; **The Band
27 Jan 09: Sunday – Departure for a night in Hong-Kong
Baba Ra-Ra the pachyderm…
We kept missing Baba Ra-Ra at Sheraton for her twice daily appearance by the beach and pool areas because we were never there when she comes out. She usually comes out to play at 10am and at 3pm on her daily exercises and appearances to the guests. Since this was the day that we had to leave the resort, we made sure that we (or at least one of us) would be at the beach area by 10am to see her. We were up around 8am and Kevin called Mr. Wassaman (the man who drove us the first time from the Airport to Sheraton) from Andaman Limousine to come pick us up by 10:30am. Our flight back to Bangkok wasn’t till 12:45pm. Kevin had to get his cardio work out on, because he felt he ate too much from the Chinese New Year celebration the previous night. Bobby was too lazy to run and didn't want to do anything. He still had some damp clothes though, so he was forced to dry it out by ‘ironing’ them. It took an hour to do 3 pieces of wet clothing, but it worked – the hot iron steamed out the water. We were all packed by 9:59am. Kevin headed out to the lobby to check out and Bobby headed to the beach area to see Ra-Ra.
Bobby had to search for Ra-Ra because she wasn’t at the specified location. He later found out that Ra-Ra came out early at 9am this day. Bobby was disappointed until he saw some commotion over at the Malati pool – kids were screaming with delight. He ran over figuring it must be the pachyderm. He was right. Baba Ra-Ra was on her way back to her stable and happened to pass by again. Bobby got his chance to pet the gentle baby beast and got vids and pics. Kevin wasn’t able to see Ra-Ra because he was busy at the check out counter. The limousine arrived around 10:25am and by 10:30am we were on the way back to Krabi International Airport for our flight to Bangkok International. There was a bit of a hassle at the Air Asia counter since our bags were over the required limit of 15kg (33 lbs). We had a mad rush of taking out random things off our luggage and putting it on our carry-on bags. Several weigh-ins later, we got it down to 15kgs, whew! We arrived in Bangkok international airport on time at 2:30pm. Our flight to Hong Kong was scheduled around 4:45pm, so we had plenty of time to check out the airport. We were hungry and also we needed to get rid of our Thai money, so we parked ourselves at a Japanese-Mediterranean fast food joint, Bobby ordered some shrimp tempura and garlic fried rice while Kevin ordered some hummus and a chicken burger. Good food for an airport resto. We arrived in Hong-Hong at 8pm for an overnight stay. We took the SkyCity Marriott airport shuttle to the hotel. The hotel staff was very helpful everyone ask us if they could be of any service. We told them that we were just gonna stay for a night and leave the next morning to Shanghai they were quite disappointed. We just decided to stay in at our nicely furnished hotel room since it was already late and we did have to fly out real early the next morning.
Next: Shanghai Surprise!
