Siem Reap - Cambodia

We caught a flight from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur and stayed in the same hotel as the last time we were here. With only one night in KL, we headed straight out to hunt for cameras, then had dinner in Jalon Alor; a famous hawker food market, which we frequented last time. Had a great meal and then headed back to our hotel for an early night, as we had to be up at 03.30am to catch our flight to Siem Reap - Cambodia.

Now..... Love them or loathe them (we love them!), we have booked ourselves in for 3 days of Temple exploring in Angkor.

These 1st pictures are of a Temple called "Bayon" The Temple Of Smiles, see if you can tell why?!. Over 900 years old, all carved in sandstone, lost and rediscovered in the 20th century.

Words cannot describe, so we'll let the pictures do the talking..........

Krabi - 5 Nights in Paradise

Krabi is a place you could easily call paradise.
We spent 5 days relaxing, swimming and eating. The weather wasn't great while we were there, but it didn't spoil our determination to chill.
We did one day trip out on a speed boat to visit all the islands in the vicinity, including the one where "The Beach" was filmed and the James Bond film "Man With The Golden Gun" was also shot. We also visited Monkey Island, where you guessed it! There are lots of monkeys, including ones that drink coca cola!
Disaster struck though, when Shivani accidentally dipped the camera in the sea, whilst trying to get back to our speed boat. She slipped on a rock under the water; luckily she came to no more harm than small cut on her foot, but the camera did not fair so well. Therefore, these are the last photos you will see of Krabi and we will pick up another new camera once back in Kuala Lumpur. Hopefully, 3rd time lucky and we'll not lose or break this one!

Krabi - Thailand

We boarded a plane and flew south to Krabi, then caught a water taxi to Railay Bay; our next stop for 5 nights. After the smog and hustle bustle of Bangkok it would be nice to relax for a while. Krabi is on the southern tip of Thailand and plays host to a number of beaches as well as numerous islands. We are here off peak, so the skys are not as clear as we'd have liked and there is a bit of rain every now and then, but it is cheaper than at peak and almost as beautiful.
Check out the shot of our 1st sunset in Railay Bay...... Technically we arrived to the beach a little late and missed the sun actually setting. This is the moment after and we have not edited the photo in any way. It really was that cool blue colour!

Farewell to Bangkok

This is our last post of Bangkok and we were very sad to leave. On our last day we went for a walk through the narrow lanes of China Town, which was an experience, especially when someone tried to wheel a barrow down selling drinks or food. Personal space is an alien concept in this part of town!
To finish off we have posted a few pics capturing special moments from our time with the guys from our hotel. Which is befitting, as they are a large part of what made our time in Bangkok so memorable.

Time for some culture

So with Nick gone we decided to take in some more of the Thai culture....
We walked to a place called The Golden Mount, which is where the 1st 2 pics were taken. As you can see it had some cool bells and a great view of smoggy Bangkok!

The 3rd photo is of some more temples that we passed on a walk of Bangkok.

We were invited to an art gallery in downtown Bangkok to watch one of our friends from our hotel perform. She's the lady in the yellow oufit and her name is Tuk Tah, although we've probably spelt that wrong. The performance was a comedy and although it was all in Thai, it was very slapstick and still had us in fits of laughter.

Farewell to Nick

We went out to The Suan Luan Night Bazaar with a couple of the staff from our hotel, which is the two girls you see in the photos. One is called Ann and the other is Pook; both are extremely nice and have been looking after us in Bangkok.

We have been busy going to restaurants such as a seafood one and one named Cabbages and Condoms. Which is where Nick bumped into Father Christmas, but take a close look and you'll see he's made out of condoms (Father Christmas that is!).

We have put a random photo in of Bangkok's nightmare traffic, which combined with the humidity, can make it a very unpleasant place to walk.

Finally you can us wave Nick off, as he heads back to sunny England and work!

We're going to miss you mate and remember you are the original Nak Suek Kaao! (Sorry, it's an in joke, that you have to speak Thai, or have watched the film "Kickboxer" to understand)

Back To Bangkok

After having lots of fun in Chiang Mai we waved goodbye to our hosts at Fern Paradise, caught a flight back to Bangkok and the hotel we were staying in before.
Once back in Bangkok we visited The Jim Thompson house, which funnily enough used to belong to a guy called "Jim Thompson", before he went out for an after dinner walk in Cameron Highlands and never came back. He is the man responsible for building up the Thai Silk Trade and bringing it to the rest of the world. Anyway..... He had a cool house made of teak!
We've put in a typical street shot of Old Bangkok and one of the many canals that intersect the city.

Walking Steet Market

Chiang Mai is famous for its "Walking Market", held on a Sunday, they pedestrianise the road and have hundreds of stalls selling local crafts. We came across lots of cool stuff, including a puppet show, dancers and various other street performers.
Andrew got a chance to practice his Thai and bargaining skills.
Enlarge the last photo and decide for yourselves whether you'd make a purchase from this stall?!

Thai Cooking Classes

We'd eaten all this delicious Thai food and decided it was time we learnt to cook it for ourselves. So we booked into a cooking class run by Gay, who started off by taking us to the local market to buy all our ingredients fresh.
We learnt how to make:
Spring rolls, Papaya Salad, Phad Thai, Green Curry, Red Curry, Panang Curry, Massamen Curry and Jungle Curry. Of course we had to eat them all as well, which as you can imagine was a real bind!
Check out our photos on Gays website by clicking on the link: www.asiascenic.com