Red Shirts... go away!

Sorry the blog hasn't been updated in a while but here are the latest from the red shirt protests that have been going on in Thailand. These photos were all taken on my way to work via motorbike. My school is currently closed because it is in the "red zone" the area which all of the red shirts have been camping out during the last SIX yes SIX weeks! I don't have any violent photos because I haven't come into contact with that myself, but I'm sure you have seen from news sources around the world about the uprising violence and protesting happening in Bangkok.

The above photo is one of the barricades made from the red shirts right below the sky-train station closest to my school.

The photos below are both from the same barricades outside of the Chit Lom sky-train station, which is also the main shopping area of Bangkok, filled with massive upscale malls ...definitely an unfortunate situation for the economy

As you can see, from these photos, the annoyance the red shirts have caused the citizens of Bangkok. Sukhumvit, one of the main roads and in fact the longest road in the world, has become completely off limits in certain, usually densely populated areas. This has caused major disruption in an already traffically challenged city. Citizens have to completely re-arrange their driving routes to and from work and home.

But, fortunately as mentioned I have not encountered any violence first hand. I have ordered coffee from a red shirt vendor, only out of desperation because the usual vendors are not around as they have been forced to move as well because of the red shirts. Needless to say, everyone in Bangkok, Thailand, and seemingly the world in general want this to end now. For the latest news on the situation happening in Thailand check out www.bangkokpost.com or http://www.nationmultimedia.com/

Dairy of a full moon party aka world backpacker meeting point to get crazy like 2999

We began our trip to the infamous full moon party

With a nice flight from BKK to Surat Thani. The cheapest airport closest to Kho Pengang (KP the island where full moon party is). We knew we'd be taking the night boat from Surat Thani to KP but were unsure of it's conditions... We saw beds from afar and were excited! Yippie! But when we got on the boat all that was left was bamboo mats on the lower level, awesome. So we left our backpacks there and went out to grab a beer before the boat departed. Lucky for us, when we got back on the boat for out departure, our awesome bamboo mat beds had been taken over by hordes of pineapples... Needless to say the 3 of us attempted perhaps the most uncomfortable 5 hours of sleep ever.

Ok soo we got to KP at 6am and took a nap... We woke up and realized how beautiful the beach was by our bungalow and layed out all day staring at Koh Samui's mountains (neighboring island) in the distance.

Watched an amazing sunset...

then the partying began...

We went to Hat Rin the main beach ate dinner on the beach and drank buckets... Vodka & red bull in a bucket, very healthy! After we went to a pool party where everyone was dancing on the tables, in the pool, everywhere! Some were swimming in the ocean this lasted almost until sunrise...

The next day we took a stupidly crowded boat tour around the island. The best part was the sunshower at the end and this gorgeous rainbow crossing the island.

That night was the real full moon party. So here's a bit of a play by play:

9pm get to the massive beach where everyone is drinking buckets, watching fire twirlers

9:30 go to this bar on the top of a hill overlooking the beach, dance with crazy people from all over the world
10:30 decide it's time to get painted, we all get glow in the dark body paint, Christy got a flower, Nichole a lizard, me a Brazilian flag
11:00 we watch the fire dancers, our friend suddenly shows us by randomly stepping into the middle of the crowd, that he can fire twirl too (he's the only white guy doing this)
11:30 watch crazy people climb up this huge metal tower and dance... Highly safe!
12 socialize/dance party on the beach with more crazies from all over
1am make it back to the first bar we went too that overlooked the party
2am dance on the beach
3am dance at a bar
4am dance on the beach... Pattern continues until we all go home near sunrise... What a night!

Sunday we miss the ferry to Surat Tani but lucky for us (completely joking here...) we began our miserable journey back to Bangkok.
1 hour ferry to koh samui (this ferry was packed... people were laying everywhere bc there were no seats) 1 hour cab ride to another dock on samui, 3 hour ferry back to Surat Tani, 1 hour cab ride to airport, barely make our 1 hour flight and finally cab back home, whew!!!

But the full moon party was pretty awesome and we all had a great time, something to cross off the bucket list :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Koh Chang A.K.A Elephant Island

After traveling around Cambodia for a couple of days on our way back to Bangkok we decided to stop at one of Thailand's eastern islands. Koh Chang is Thailand's second largest island just after Phuket, and the ferry dock to reach this island is only 2 hours from the Cambodian border. It is a beautiful island full of lush jungles and beautiful mountains.

Crossing the Cambodia - Thailand Border

We stayed almost at the tip of the island at a beach called Lonely Beach. This beach is well known in the backpackers world and is full of beach bars and cheap bungalows.

Our first day in Koh Chang we went to an Elephant camp where we got to swim and "wash" the elephants. Washing the elephants really consisted of just be able to pose with them in water. Mark was lucky enough to go second and one of the elephants took a huge dump in the water while he was on it. On his way out of the water he had to swim out through it...haha

After the elephant's baths we took them for about an hour long trek in the jungle where we all had the opportunity to ride the elephants mahout style. A mahout is the person who drives the elephant and usually rides on the neck of the elephant.

The entire trek was absolutely beautiful. As if it wasn't enough we were riding on elephants, but we were surrounded by mountains and even went through a rubber tree forest.

After the trek we were able to take photos with our elephants and feed them bananas.

On day two in Koh Chang we rented kayaks and explored some of the near by deserted islands, went kayak surfing, and relaxed at the beach.

After a fun day at the beach we headed to this mountain side restaurant to catch the last little bit of the sunset before eating dinner.

Overall I think Mark and Cameron had a great time in Thailand and Cambodia. I am so happy I was able to share my love for Thailand with them, and that we were all able to experience a new country together.

xoxo,

The Explores Club

Cambodian Motorbikes

While traveling in Cambodia we saw multiple uses for motorbikes, and we thought some of the photos were worthy of sharing on the blog. Please enjoy the photos below:

nice comfortable ride

carrying bike rims

a mattress

dead chickens

live pigs

Xoxo,

Nichole and Christy

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The four of us took another taxi early Tuesday morning to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. The taxi ride was about 5 1/2 hours and only 65 USD (btw..everything is in USD, even the ATMs dispense it). I am pretty sure we had the most aggressive driver possible. I don't think he took his hand off the horn the entire drive. We all intended on sleeping during the drive, but between his honking and weaving around motorbikes, cars, buses, cows, and bicycles none of us really got much sleep.

Phnom Penh is a beautiful city of 1.5 million people with a very dark history. It was a French Colony from about 1884 till 1953 causing it to still have a large community of French expats. In 1975 till January 1979 Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia forcing people into slavery and performed mass executions on anyone that refused or tried to rebel.

We started our day at the Tuol Sleng Museum to learn more about the history behind the genocide. The museum was originally a school, but when the Khmer Rouge took over they converted it into a prison. It looks the way it did when it was a prison with barbwire covering the front of the buildings, bars covering the windows, and in some of the rooms they still have the torture devices they used along with photos. The most intense part of the museum by far was the hundreds or thousands of headshots of the prisoners. The expressions on their faces were just so intense that I can't even begin to imagine their thoughts at that moment.

After the museum we headed to the killing fields, which is where they took people to be executed during the Khmer regiment.

After paying our respects for this terrible genocide we headed back into town to meet up with our friend Richie with hopes to lift the mood by doing a little shopping at the Russian Market and catch the sunset at Wat Phnom. We accomplished the shopping (of course), but just missed the sunset.

That night we met up with Mathieu, a friend of a friend who is French and has lived in Phnom Penh for the last 5 years. He took us to great spot right on the river where we of course danced the night away!

Overall I really enjoyed my short visit to Cambodia. It is definitely one of the poorest countries I have visited, but even though these people have so little they are still so happy and extremely friendly.

The beggars and hagglers are more abundant and annoying here compared to any of the other Southeastern Asian countries we have visited, but with a history as dark as Cambodia you can't really blame them.

Xoxo,

The Explores Club

The Explores Club takes on Angkor Wat

Our good friend Mark, from the states, recently came to visit and joined us along with another friend Cameron, who is currently traveling around the world, on our adventure to Cambodia. The journey to Ankgor Wat from Bangkok began Sunday afternoon on a bus with a very broken A/C for 5 hours to the border town Aranya Prathet.

After walking across the border into Poipet, Cambodia we grabbed a taxi to Siem Reap.

The taxi ride was 3 hours and only cost 48 USD (so cheap considering the distance and time). Once we finally arrived in Siem Reap we grabbed some food, found a place to stay, and secured a tuk tuk to take us around Angkor Wat the next day. We some how managed to find the guy with the most pimped out tuk tuk. Our driver, Mr. Batman, had completely decked out his tuk tuk, rims included, batman style and called it the Batmobile.

At 9 am sharp Mr. Batman arrived with his batmobile ready to show us the temples of Angkor. We started on the East side at the temple Banteay Kdei a Buddhist temple that was constructed in late 12th and early 13th century.

The second stop of the day was Ta Prohm. This temple was originally constructed as a Buddhist monastery in the mid 12th - early 13th century. Today the temple has only been partially restored from the jungle overgrowth making it a very picturesque place with huge fig and silk cotton trees growing on it. This temple is one of the more famous ones thanks to Lara Croft and the Tomb Raiders movie.

The third stop of the day was Angkor Thom, which is a 3 km2 walled and moated royal city. It was the last capital of the Angkorian Empire, and was constructed in the late 12th - early 13th century. Inside this ancient city is Bayon a spectacular Buddhist temple with 37 towers. Most of the towers have 4 huge faces carved in them, but whom the faces represent seems to still be somewhat of a mystery.

Eastern entrance to Angkor Thom

Bayon

Face on the towers of Bayon

The fourth stop of the day was the long awaited Angkor Wat. It was built in the early - mid 12th century for the Hindu God, Vishnu. It is absolutely enormous measuring 1 km square, and was one of the most breathtaking sites of the day.

In front of Angkor Wat

Inside of Angkor Wat

Inside Angkor Wat

Leaving Angkor Wat

The fifth and final stop of the day was at Phnom Bakheng, the first major temple to be constructed in the area during the late 9th - early 10th century. It was the perfect spot to enjoy beers during the sunset with views of Angkor Wat in the distance.

Angkor beers at the temples of Angkor

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng

Angkor Wat in the distance

Xoxo,

The Explores Club