Chaing Mai-Trekking

Hello!  We are in a big hurry and can't comment on any of these pictures.  They are from our trek in Chiang Mai.  We will add comments and explain when we blog again.  Going to Laos tonight with two of our friends. Love you all and Happy Halloween!

Blog from Chiang Mai

Hello Everyone, it's Brian again.  Kelly took the reigns on the blogging for a while because she is much more patient than I am.  The pix look good, I think, but remember there are hours of video and hundreds of pix on our other camera.  As soon as we figure that stuff out, this blog (and our facebook pages) could get even more interesting.  We arrived in Chiang Mai today and I am extremely excited, because tomorrow morning we walk into the jungle with minimal equipment for three days and nights.  We do have a guide and a few other travelers going with us, let's hope they all make it back with us.  Just kidding, it's really safe.  We've already come across rats, fire ants, snakes, elephants, and tigers.  What else could be waiting for us?  Oh yeah, we are staying with mountain tribes in the jungle of Pai, who have little contact with tourists, or anyone for that matter.  No electricity, no bikes, no ATV's, all on foot.  The only way to see the jungle as far as I am concerned.  Kelly is really excited too.  Me Tarzan, she Tarzanette.  There is no Jane here!  Much love to all, don't worry.  We will blog some really cool pictures in three days time, but then we have to make a run into Burma to renew our visas.  That's a pretty cool trip too!  We'll blog soon, stay classy San Diego!

Bangkok, Thailand...second time

Making offerings at a Buddhist Temple.  Notice the scarf covering my shoulders. It is considered very disrespectful for women to show their shoulders and knees at Temple.  Also, women are forbidden to touch any monks, though men are allowed

More offerings to a large Buddha statue, asking for blessings of  safe travels
A monk...the are tons of Chinese tourists outside this window snapping pictures of him. This is his pose
The monk and Buddha
The pool table and restaurant at the D & D Hotel.  This is our second stay at this place...I believe the last picture here included some Irish lads who got a bit rowdy by the end of the night
The pool at our hotel
The view of Bangkok from the pool
Khao San Road, where our hotel was located.  This place is crazy...people trying to sell you things every second
Another temple 

Thai's giving their offerings
This is a place to give offerings that was actually outside a 7-11.  Oddly enough there are 7-11's all over Thailand.  These structures are in many houses and outside businesses.  Notice the offerings of food and drink under it

Koh Phi Phi Don 

Me in Phi Phi
The island as we were leaving to head back to the mainland
Brian on our get away boat.  Notice his beard no longer fits in the picture

The beach I spent most my time (when it wasn't raining).  This is a Westerner with his rent-a-girlfriend, aka prostitute.  The rules are different here.  It's not just a one night thing.  It could be weeks or months.

Brian and his umbrella.  He's been carrying that thing around since Nice.  We finally ditched it....passing it along to some of our girlfriends.
Stacy and Tash, the umbrella recipients.  Our friends we first met in Koh Phangan from Tazmania (or Tasmania to everyone else).  We had a hell of a time this night.  Good to see you girls!  Much love and see you in Melbourne.

Love you guys!

Hello!  We are now on the beautiful Koh Phi Phi.  This area was hit hard by the tsunami, so there is still a lot of rebuilding.  The place is absolutely gorgeous!  We had a great time in Koh Phangan and met some really great people.  Actually, two of our friends, Tash and Stacy from Tazmania, who we met in Koh Phangan, are coming here tomorrow.  We are excited to get to hang with them again. It was very nice to get to Railay, where we stayed in a really nice place which came equipped with a TV, western toilet, AC, and a fridge!  It was really living in luxury for us!  I spent a lot of time in the sun and Bri spent a lot of time writing.  We also had a great day of hiking which was absolutely amazing!  We finally have wi-fi in our room (which is not as expensive as Railay but still really nice...no rats) so we will be able to email and blog (and facebook) a lot in the next couple of days. Next we are heading to Chiang Mai and then to Laos.  We have to be out of Thailand by the 30th since that is the date stamped in our passports.  You are only allowed 30 days but then you can come back in no problem.  We are still waiting to hear back from the orphanage...starting to get the feeling they don't want us!  We can make more plans once we find out about that for sure.   That's it for now...love and miss you all so much!  Thanks so much to everyone that commented on the last blog-Momma C & G, Bruce, Court, Stacia, and the Schueller's...you don't know how much we like to hear from you.  We are dorks, but it really did make our day! Much love to you all and hope everyone is well!

Koh Phangan and mostly Railay Beach

Railay, Krabi Province, Thailand

This was actually taken in the longboat on the way to Koh Phi Phi.  It is the island they used as the backdrop for the movie "The Beach"

Beautiful Railay, a rock climber's dream

Brian and I doing a bit of our own climbing.  It doesn't look like much, there were ropes which were very useful, however, it was quite difficult
Brian admiring the Secret Princess Lagoon.  This place was amazing and very hard to get to...Bri almost didn't let me do it because he thought it was too dangerous.  Needless to say, we were very sweaty and muddy after the climb down
Looking up from the lagoon. 
We had the place all to ourselves.  Not many people take the climb down.  It was so worth it and the climb up was a piece of cake.
The viewpoint of Railay

You can see Railay West on the left where we stayed and Railay East is on the right.  The tide goes out so far that both bodies of water are just sand at night
Yup, we're going up.  This was the beginning of the hike.  
Railay...don't mind the man in the banana hammock, he's just part of the scenery


Our fabulous little hut.  We splurged a bit.  After living with ants and rats for a couple of weeks, we needed it.  It was like our little honeymoon inside our big honeymoon!
The sunset over Railay West...it could be a postcard, couldn't it?

On our way by longbooat from Koh Phangan to Railay after many other modes of transportation
The boat/floating hostel dorm room that took us from Koh Phangan to the mainland in 7 hours.  This was our room for the night, talk about getting to know your neighbors!

Koh Phangan

Our one and only picture from Koh Phangan (with the iphone).  I have more on my digital.  This was before the full moon party.  Imagine this beach with 8,000 drunk people on it dancing and drinking buckets full of vodka and red bull. Fun but absolutely crazy! I think we are getting old.