Summer in Asia

Phi Phi Islands

2008-06-05T19:30:00.008+09:00

Today we traveled south east of phuket to the phi phi islands. the islands where leonardo went to in "the beach", i didnt see it either but i remember the movie coming out. it was unbelieveably beautiful. water color ive never seen before. swimming in the water was somewhere between regular ocean water and jell-o. very salty and thick but warm. we drove around in our private boat for 5 hours and visited all 6 major islands and some smaller ones. now were back at the resort. such a cool place. ill put up pictures of it later. but now.. the beach! (click on the photos to see the real colors, the minis dont look as good)

bye bye bangkok helllooooooooo phuket

2008-06-05T18:59:00.004+09:00

so our last day of bangkok we went to the movies. we say indy again (i closed my eyes during the waterfalls, tarzan, and alien parts, made for a much more enjoyable movie) but the main reason we went was to sit in these seats. they are like first class airplane seats and they give you blankets and pillows. before the film you wait in the "lobby" which had the look of some vip club. it was amazing.

i think what ended up bring my favorite part about bangkok was our water taxi that took us to the other side of the river. it looked straight from disneyland and i never wanted to get off.

now im done with bangkok. it was dirty. it was funny. it was definitly a place to visit.

phuket couldnt be more of the exact opposite.

bangkok

2008-06-05T10:48:00.000+09:00

ive finally found time to start this. i dont know if ill actually keep using it but who knows. all my photos will be up at http://gallery.mac.com/xpdonahue so you can look at that.
i arrived in bangkok early saturday morning and was driven in the mercedes to the peninsula hotel. right when they opened the car door i was taken directly to my room. no check in. no waiting till 3pm for an available room. pretty nice. my room has a tv over the tub and view of the river. pretty swanky. everything is so cheap in thailand. bottles of water at mcdonalds are 15 bhat (46 cents) and a huge buffet breakfast at the hotel is around $25. the city is insanely dirty and no one seems to notice. driving along the freeway you see these 40 story building just completely vacant and rotting away with no windows. in the US they would be torn down right away but i guess its to costly here. everyone is very poor and when you drive along the river you see guys just sitting around doing nothing all day. its a very strange place. the malls are awesome, the size of 3 south coasts stacked ontop of each other and their are three giant structures next to each other. extremely easy to get lost but the food courts are amazing. ill write more to this but if i didnt get it started i felt then i never would. here are pictures from the current Grand Palace, the kings summer home, the bridge over the river kwai, and Ayutthaya the capital of thailand from 1300 to 1700.

our guide nara

"heavenly waffles"
lobster lays