Rain

Welcome to another day of rain, although today i put a grocery bag
over my camera and went out and took a few photo's and video's down by the beach, we're really looking forward to some clear skies to go out on a longboat and visit some small surrounding islands for the day and do some snorkeling. Good news is there is a Subway here, and it's nice to have something that reminds you of home. although the sandwich
artist lack the skills they have in victoria...it's nice to have a
healthy fast food...

Today consisted of....

Rain....

Ao-Nang

After a brutal 15 hour overnight bus ride from Bangkok to Krabi Town,
we're finally here. With only an hour sleep the whole night due to
dripping water hitting me because there was a violent storm for most
of the trip (and the bus leaked all over) i was not happy all night,
but i've enjoyed a bit of a nap after we got to a Hotel at Ao-Nang
beach (just outside Krabi Town). The weather here is overcast, but
still hot and muggy...just instant sweat when you head outside. Who
know's how long we'll spend here, maybe a few day trips to the smaller
island around, some snorkeling (test my underwater camera bag),
kayaking, or scootering around (cheap to rent for the day...$5)..then
when we feel like it we're going to head to the island of Ko Phi
Phi...time to slow life down after the hustle and bustle of Bangkok...

A Day Late

After some procrastination on our part, and no set schedule for us,
we're leaving Bangkok today (a day after we planned to leave) on an
overnight bus south to Krabi, and then after a few days onwards to Ko
Phi Phi island for some relaxing time on the beach.

Heading South Tomorrow

Tomorrow we're leaving and heading south towards either Phuket or
Krabi (we still have to decide tonight which one first), and onwards
to the island of Ko Phi phi, and other smaller surrounding islands.
Thats about as vague and as far planned as we have things at the
moment, with no time table whatsoever we're just going to go with flow
and see where we end up. Hopefully the weather starts cooperating with
us, we've had rain on and off here in Bangkok, and watching tv it
looks like the south is having it's share as well, at least we're not
any farther north right now, they're having the worst flooding in 50
years...

As for my thoughts and opinions on Bangkok as a city, it's clean and
beautiful, the people are so welcoming and nice. The sex trade and
amount of "ladyboys" are everywhere (people watching goes into
overdrive here). With sex tourism growing from an influx of old
western men, it's sad to see a country lose so much culture to such
weird things like that. But having said that there is a really healthy
and vibrant heart to the city from a majority of wonderful Thai's and
travelers alike, and by coming to see such a wonderful country and not
adding to it's problems, you're being part of it's solution to fix
things.

Jason is keen on trying some fried bugs (a delicacy here), he tried
grasshopper when he was here last time, i however i'm not that brave,
but i'll make sure to take some video's/picture's when he does it.
Yuck....

Where's his wheelchair?

I laughed when i saw this...i know that sounds bad, but i
just found it funny....the dog was incredibly happy though

Attempt at the Floating Market

Blame it on the sleep in, or maybe the fact it's sunday, but the
bustling floating market was no where to be found today...tomorrow
we'll take another stab at it, i'm sure we'll have some luck...

We also had one of the most animated tuc tuc drivers to date, he was
hilarious...he took us for free to some places but stopped at some
suit stores to get him some free gas cards for us looking for 5
minutes...

The picture of all the power lines on Koh San road is so typical in
the east, India was the same...no rolling power outages here though,
which is nice when your worried about shorting your electronics...

As well i included a picture of some shorts i bought today...the ones
on the left (white) were $13CAD today....the ones on the right(black)
i bought in Seville, Spain back in July for $100CAD.....fake stuff is
way better...

I dont know what to title this post.

Though i'd share a picture of the last night we were in Goa, it's from
our little patio looking out into the ocean as the rain pelted down,
and actually was blowing sideways, so my camera got soaked, and
actually started giving me error messages which freaked me out, but
after getting it dry the problem has gone away, could have been a very
expensive mistake....

The second picture of the pylons is at the Goa'n airport, after Eric's
flight left Jason and i were waiting for the other terminal we flew
out of to open, so we set up these pylons in one lane to block it off,
and then in the other lane 25ft ahead to cause some traffic chaos in
the morning...in true indian style no one questioned why they were
there, even the india military at the airport, so cars started coming
and getting backed up from other cars parking to drop off their loved
ones, or delivery trucks stopping in the middle..it was pretty amusing
for the 2 hours we had to wait before check in...

As for the airport sleeping pictures, i have a hard time sleeping in
the airport, planes however, i can sleep during take-off and landings
now...

Since the Beginning

All 4 video's i've done so far, the "on the road" version here is on Vimeo (as with the rest of them), and better quality than the one on Youtube...

Thailand

Left our place in Goa at midnight last night and we've finally arrived
in Bangkok at 7pm local time, running on a few hours of airport/
airplane sleep, it's been a long day to say the least... Beautiful
sunset at 35,000ft and there was lightning off in the distance as we
landed in Bangkok...seems like a lively and happening city, heading
out for some well needed food, airplane food is hit or miss, and today
was a miss...

Watch it here on Youtube in High Def

Egypt, Jordan and India...Enjoy

Goa

Some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Goa boasts more than
60 pristine beaches along it's massive coastline on the west of India.
Made popular by in the 60's by drug seeking hippies the previous
reputation of the small indian state is all but faded into memories of
days gone by...you still get the occasional person asking if you're
looking for drugs, but the tourist scene is dominated by sun seeking
foreigners and India's alike...there still is a really big hippy vibe
on the beach of Anjuna, and surprisingly alot of solo travelers who
spend weeks here relaxing, we've missed the high season by a month, so not only are there not alot of people here, but the weather isn't the best, rain, sun, thunder and lightning, and overcast sky's all dominate different parts of the day, still a relaxing 5 days here.

As you can see the updates on here are few and far between, i found an
internet cafe that has WiFi so i can use my laptop, hence why you're
getting the pictures from the past 5 days all at once. I'm also
uploading another 6 minute video that gives a quick look back at the
last month in Egypt, Jordan and India, it should be uploaded soon and
ready to post later tonight (if i can get to a computer with internet
that is).

Tonight we leave Anjuna Beach and head to the Goa'n airport departing
for Bangkok,Thailand via Mumbai(Bombay). Unfortunately we all couldn't
get on the same flight, so Eric leaves at 5am and Jason and fly out at
8am, we both have layovers in Mumbai and land in Bangkok later
tomorrow night, only 10 minutes apart from each other.

The reason we're leaving India a bit early is to try and catch some
sunshine, we're aware Thailand is having it's share of weather problems
from a cyclone nearby, but the forecast for Goa doesn't look much
better.

The last night picture i've included is of our place we're staying
here in Goa, it's right on the beach, and a really relaxing place to
have a beer and watch the sunset, or just lounge around all day..i
think it's cost us $5 each a night...and normal sized beers are $1,
double sized ones are $1.60....

Hopefully the WiFi situation is better in Thailand so i can update
this with a little more consistency.

Waking up on the Train to Goa

The terrain changed a lot overnight on the train to Goa, dense lush
green forests with huge rivers carving through the landscape. The end
of the monsoon season was apparent with everything still soaking wet
from the nights rainfall, we arrived in Goa welcomed by Thunder and
lighting with an unbelievable downpour.

The Train to Goa

Sunset during the 27 hour train ride from Delhi to Goa.

Goa

Wireless internet is no where to be found here but arrived safe and sound in Goa, we were greeted with rain and thunder and lighting the first day, and overcast skies today with a few sprinkles today...defintely an amazing place to relax with beautiful beaches, just an incredible sense of calm here. We're on Anjuna Beach, just 20m from the ocean, hopefully the sun comes through in the next couple of days or we'll cut India short and fly to Thailand is search of some sun...

Our 27 hour train ride was long, and as soon as i can find some WiFi i'll share them all with you, we'll probably switch beaches on thursday and see if we can find somewhere else really nice to stay, keep things interesting, again all this if the sun pulls through for us.. either way, a relaxing couple of days so far...

Jordan Video

Enjoy this Video I threw together from a day in Jordan.... :)

PLUS!

I got rid of my disgusting beard....

The Taj Mahal

Some might think seeing the Taj Mahal would be spectacular....our
experience really wasn't that amazing...The morning started off waking
up on the train after a short and rough nights sleep, Indian train
go'ers seem to like to look into your compartment while you
sleep.....however the sunrise was beautiful...when we got to the Taj
Mahal we were greeted with the most disrespectful hagglers we've
met this trip, at the pyramids there in your face, but when you tell
them to go away they do, in petra they're so polite and hospitable,
you just want to listen to what they're trying to sell you, but in
India, at the Taj Mahal, they're in your face, and when you tell them
politely "no" they try harder, and after telling them 5 times politely
"no" they follow you and keep hassling you, and finally when you're
rude and tell them where to go....they continue to follow you and
bother you to buy something you don't want...we felt overwhelmed and
we're 3 big guys, i couldn't even imagine being a solo young women
walking that gauntlet..

The Taj Mahal itself was grand, and beautiful from the outside, but
inside it lacked the same beauty and grandeur. Pictures were
prohibited from being taken inside, but that didn't stop most of the
Indian tourists, i didn't have the guts to risk getting caught...

Tomorrow we're off to Goa on a 27 hour (gross i know) overnight
train...these beaches for 10 days are going to be relaxing after the
chaos of the last 3 weeks, time to slow down and take life in...

Temple

Went to check out a temple on the outskirts of Varanasi on our last
day, beyond it being a beautiful little building with peaceful
surroundings, it was home to more beggars than we've experienced this
whole trip...crying children, weeping women, and enough poverty around
to break your heart....hard to see such suffering...makes our culture
of consumerism seem so selfish...the last picture of the lady on the ground is from the train station, there are literally hundreds of people sleeping everywhere there, not sure if they're all alive either...people come to Varanasi to die, alot of them, so they can be burned on the river of the Ganges...there are so many things in India that will shock you, that's one of them...