More Photos

Hi everyone,

Everything takes more time and more effort here. We were having trouble uploading photos and videos but figured out the photos (for now.) Here they are. Sorry there are so many; we don't have time (or the patience) to edit them now.

Tyson will hopefully figure out the video thing soon. The Thai computer gods appear to be very lazy and/or overworked.

Quick recap of where we have been and where we are: we left Khao Sok National Park, after spending a night at Chaew Lan Lake in the floating bungalows and one more night in the Nung House (we loved it there!) Yesterday, took a public bus to Khao Lok that was scheduled to leave at 12:30pm but didn't show up until 1:40pm. No seats when the bus arrived so we sat in the stairwell of the back door. Luxury travel.

Khao Lak is the jumping off point for the beautiful Similan Islands. But it is a strange place. Apparently, it was "discovered" by Scandanavians and so tourists from Scandanavia are everywhere. You can get schneitzel and bratwurst and designer eyeglasses that will help you see more grown men in speedos than you would ever hope to. It is also the place that was significantly impacted by the December 2004 tsnunami. We spoke with a Thai man who owns one of the resorts here and he showed us photos of the devastation. We also spent some time today in the Tsunami International Museum; a very somber and reflective experience for this tragic event. On a positive note, many places have been rebuilt and tourism seems to be booming here right now, especially tourists from Scandanavia.

We do feel like we have been on the tourist track and haven't had a ton of exposure to "real" Thai culture but are hoping to get more immersed as we head away from the beach areas and towards Chiang Mai. Tyson will post later about our experience at the "Angel Caberet," a slice of gender-bending entertainment....

Tomorrow, we leave for a 2 day/1night dive trip to the Similan Islands. We'll do 4 dives and spend a night camping on one of the park islands. The trip is quite pricey and we are finally feeling like we need to reel it in and start behaving less like flashpackers (a term we learned along the way) and more like backpackers. On the island we will be "chillaxin,"another term we picked up and will not use again after this post.

Sending lots of love home to all of you.