Ang Thong Marine Park

After Koh Tao, we took the ferry back to Koh Samui and relaxed for a few days on the beach.  We also took a tour of the Ang Thong Marine Park, which was created in the 1980's as a marine preserve.

We went with one of the cheaper tour companies, and once we saw the boat we realized why it was so much cheaper -- there were huge holes in the bow and side of the boat.

Our first stop was an extremely crowded snorkeling spot called Koh Wao.  There must have been 300 people in the water, and everyone was bumping into each other and kicking each other.  Too crowded!

After snorkeling, we piled back into the boat to move on to the next island.  On the way we saw some beautiful scenery, like this beach with a natural arch...

... and this island that is shaped like a monkey; his face is in profile looking off to the right.

Our next stop was Mae Koh island, where you can hike up to the top to view the lagoon in the center of the island.  This was the lagoon used in the Leonardo Di Caprio movie "The Beach".

We also had a great view of the smaller islands all around us.  There are 42 islands in all in the Ang Thong marine park.

The wind and sea have eroded many of the smaller islands into towering formations.

There weren't as many people on this stop, just a few other speedboat groups and one or two longtail boats.

In the afternoon, our boat stopped at another island where our group had the beach to ourselves.

It rained for a little while forcing people to take shelter wherever they could find it.

When the rain let up, everyone had one last dip in the water before heading back to Koh Samui.

Koh Tao Pub Crawl

We flew from Chiang Mai to the island of Koh Samui, and from there took a ferry to a smaller island called Koh Tao.  In Thai, koh means "island" and tao means "turtle"; several species of turtle come to the island's beaches to breed.

Here is a view around the harbor near Sairee Beach.  The island's primary industries are tourism and fishing.

Here is a view of the island from the ferry.  Very green and tropical.

We came here mostly for scuba diving.  We did four dives over the course of two days, and saw some interesting corals and fish as well as giant clams.  But of course we left our underwater housing for our camera at home, so there are no photos.  We do, however, have photos of a pub crawl we did on our last night.  After dinner in town, we made our way back to our hotel bar which had a DJ playing techno music for a mostly empty room.

My Mai Tai came in a glass shaped like a woman.

After a couple of fruity drinks, we headed to Lotus beach bar.  It is right on the ocean, and has mats on the beach where patrons can lounge while sipping cocktails.

It was a very comfortable place to sit and watch the three firedancers who started performing around 9 o'clock.

They would dip either batons or poi (a wick on a chain) into a large container of kerosene and then light it and begin twirling.  In a little while, the whole place smelled like diesel.  



At times they came awfully close to the people sitting down, but they seemed to know what they were doing.

We were mesmerized for at least two hours, but they showed no signs of stopping.

But finally we had to tear ourselves away so we could head to the last bar on our itinerary, the Queen's Cabaret. 

The cabaret show had started several hours earlier, but we arrived just as they were lip-synching to "It's Raining Men".



I think it must be a requirement for these shows to include at least one version of "Lady Marmalade".  This "lady" was clearly channeling the Christina Aguilera version.



The "singer" for Aqua's "Barbie Girl" was very pretty...



But not nearly as sparkly as the "lady" performing the Abba medley.



Afterwards the performers came around and took photos.  I'm not sure who's face is scarier -- mine with no makeup or "hers" with so much makeup!

Chiang Mai Walking Street and Muay Thai Fights

Earlier this week we went to the fun but very tourisy Night Bazaar here in Chiang Mai.  Tonight is Saturday night, when they hold the weekly "Walking Street" market.  It seemed to us to be more of a fun local thing to do on a Saturday night; we saw lots of families out and about and there were definitely fewer obvious tourists.

There were lots of musicians playing everything from traditional music to singing karaoke on portable machines.  This little girl was very talented.  I think she is playing a khim, which is a hammered dulcimer.

We enjoyed walking up and down the street, checking out all the booths.  But the main reason we came here was for dinner, to try some local foods.  Of course we started off sharing an order of phad thai.

Then Kevin had a local sausage (kind of like the ones shown here, but shaped differently and from a different stall).

This lady sold all kinds of good-looking things; we bought a delicious grilled banana skewer to share.

And for dessert there was a tasty ice cream square.

There were a few delicacies that we just weren't adventurous enough to try.  Normally, Kevin loves calamari, but this squid on a stick just didn't appeal for some reason.

And not even the low, low price of 20 baht (about 65 cents) was enough to tempt us to try these fried insects.

After our street-food dinner, we took a tuk-tuk to the Thai boxing stadium.  Our driver was a lady, which I thought was pretty cool.  We haven't seen any female tuk-tuk drivers here.  She also had the most tricked out tuk-tuk in town.  The rear passenger seat sat on top of a thumping bass, and the ride was equipped with speakers that could be heard down the block. Very fun!

We arrived at the Thapae Boxing Stadium just in time for the start of the fights.

Muay Thai is a style of boxing/fighting that originated in Thailand.  It is nicknamed the "Art of Eight Limbs" because fighters are permitted to use fists, elbows, feet, and knees.

The stadium had an interesting setup.  Most of the spectators were farangs (foreigners) although there was one section full of Thai people, most likely friends and families of the fighters.  There were several bars selling overpriced beers.

Bookies competed with each other to convince the foreigners to wager on each fight.  Here are a group of tourists placing bets.

Traditional music accompanies each fight, getting faster as the rounds progress.  The clarinet-style instrument is called a Pi Muay, Pi Java, or Pi Kaek.



One of the fights we saw was a championship fight for the 85 lb weight class.  These were some tough kids!

For intermission, they also had a "special fight" -- five guys blindfolded and forced to duke it out with each other (no kicking allowed).  Things got interesting whenever they mistook the referee for a combatant.



Afterwards, the blindfolded guys came around asking for contributions and taking photos with the spectators.

Doi Inthanon National Park

Doi Inthanon is part of a mountain range located in northern Thailand, at the border between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar).  Only an hour or so from Chiang Mai, it is the tallest mountain in Thailand (2565 meters) and is part of a national park.  The summit is usually enshrouded in mist, but supposedly on a clear day you can see the whole valley including the city of Chiang Mai. 

We did an all-day excursion to the park.  Inside the park we visited two waterfalls, the impressive Wachirathan waterfall...

...and the smaller Sirithan waterfall.

The walk through the rainforest was great.  It was drizzling slightly, and the temperature was about 20 degrees cooler than in Bangkok.  We were actually cold at times, which felt nice.

Very near the summit are the Naphamethanidon chedi.

Twin stupas were erected by the Royal Thai Air Force to commemorate King Bhumibol's 60th birthday in 1987, and Queen Sirikit's 60th in 1992.

They are Buddhist places of worship.  The King's stupa (called Phra Mahathat Chedi Naphamethanidon) is a copper color.

The outside of this stupa is decorated with bas-reliefs and copper-colored mosaic tiles.

The interior has a yellow and blue motif (the colors of Thailand's royalty -- the king's flag is yellow, blue for the queen) and a large seated Buddha figure.  The history of the Buddha's life is inscribed on the walls in Thai and in English.

In contrast is the Queen's stupa, called Phra Mahathat Chedi Naphabolbhumisiri.  It is lilac in color and it's exterior is decorated with purple mosaic tiles and delicate tile frescoes portraying Buddhist themes.

Inside is a standing Buddha and the colorful mosaic ceiling tiles depict the Buddha's teachings.

Beside the Queen's stupa is a lush garden.  All the grounds are beautifully manicured.

There were also a few whimsical touches here and there, like these playful elephants and the heart-shaped flower beds.

After visiting the national park, we stopped at a Karen hill tribe village nearby.  The Karen people live in small farming communities.  Their houses are built on stilts and some use the traditional roofing material of teak leaves, which need to be replaced every few years.  Corrugated tin is a modern alternative.

Rice is one of the primary crops grown by the Karen tribe.  They are generally environmental conscious and practice crop rotation to minimize the need for clearing new swaths of forest (unlike some farmers who use slash-and-burn techniques).  Here, rice grows in terraced fields.

There are several divisions within the Karen tribe, the villagers we visited are known as White Karen.  Unlike other subdivisions of the Karen tribe, the women in this tribe do not wear the neck rings that unnaturally elongate the neck.  They are called White Karen because the unmarried women of the tribe wear white woven tunics until they are married.

The women are skilled weavers, using back-strap looms to create colorful fabrics.  This woman is weaving two scarves on the same loom.

She finished just a few minutes later.  It takes about four days to complete each pair of scarves.  A single scarf sells for 250 baht (about $8.33).  When the scarves are sold, each one bears a sticker with the weaver's name on it.  The weaver earns 200 baht per scarf, the remaining 50 baht goes into a collective pool to buy weaving supplies for all the women to use.

This blanket was made by five women.  Each one wove a panel which was then stitched together to make the blanket.

We were so pleased that we were able to visit the national park area while we were in Chiang Mai.  It was a truly memorable experience.  When we got back to the hotel, a surprise was waiting for Kevin from the hotel staff.  It was certainly a birthday to remember!