Traveling the World

I first have to thank my Australian friend Matt for taking the time to take each photo and run it through a computer program that stitches each photo together to create a panoramic view. Unfortunately, my website’s width isn’t great enough to see the width of the full photo, so what you see is a compressed version.

Once we arrived in a beach area called Ao Nang near Krabi town in the south of Thailand, we decided to rent scooters for two days in order to ride around the area for ourselves. The first day it rained, but we didn’t let that stop us. At one point we got partially lost, and in doing so found the Thalen Bay. The rain formed a beautiful mist coming over the small mountain, creating an eerie atmosphere.

Soaked to the core, a local man unable to speak English approached us and stared. He generously took a few photos of all of us, and quickly retreated home upon the completion of his task.

I was in a small forest heading towards a cave, which on the map was meant to be something beautiful for visitors to see. The map failed to mention that the only way to reach it was to get into the water and swim across, something none of us wanted to do. To reach the end of the forest that touches the lake, we walked on the boardwalk, and were fortunate enough to see wild animals like this monkey. There was a group of 6 hanging out in a tree, and they were quite curious about us, even though I’m sure they’re used to seeing humans.

Fey was scared of them, but I approached them to take pictures and observe them. They sat in the tree and stared at us, except for this one that jumped down in front of us and stared even harder. I think he was trying to tell us to get lost, but we ignored him and walked on, to which he jumped back in the tree to continue playing.

Upon leaving the forest, I got into an accident on my rented scooter, jumping the ramp and hitting a tree. I caused a few hundred American dollars worth of damage to the bike. A truck driver saw the accident happen and quickly stopped. He picked me up and helped me into his car and drove me to the hospital. The hospital cleaned me up and gave me drugs. The best thing about the hospital was the guy handcuffed to the bed next to me with stomach injuries. The police were hitting him with their sticks, but he wouldn’t say anything.

This photo was taken on a tiny beach in the southern Thai area of Ao Nang, near Krabi town. You can see the boats moving with the waves as their owners are behind me taking a break from work to enjoy a nice meal. During the day, they act as flat-fee taxis, bringing people from one tiny beach to another upon request. It doesn’t pay well, but if you can pack people onto your longboat, you could earn probably $20 usd a day.

That is what life in southern Thailand is like: slow and poor. You make all your money when the tourists come around, and survive on that until the next season. They don’t show signs of weariness, as their work isn’t so hard or complicated. I think they might just enjoy that kind of life.

The Victory Monument located in the center of Bangkok was erected in 1941 to honor the glorious Thai win over the French in Indochina that gave them back land ceded in the late 19th century. This small-scale war lasted only a month, and resulted in few casualties. Nonetheless, the Thai military commander was so enthralled with getting the land back that he had the monument built.

The reality is that the Japanese forced them to end the war, as France and Thailand were both it’s allies, and it was preparing to fight in the Second World War. Having its allies fight each other meant they would be unable to help them.

This is one of the most famous Wats in Thailand, located in Ayuthaya. If you wish to see the rest of the pictures from this Wat, you can go to my Photos page.

As you can see from the sky, it began to storm as soon as we arrived, but we didn’t let this deter us. Walking inside this area was amazing because these structures are hundreds of years old and very well preserved, unlike most of what I’ve seen in China. The space is humongous, with plenty of grass to fill the void. It’s definitely something the whole family can enjoy, especially because climbing to the top of the structures isn’t prohibited! Be careful if you do climb up, as the stairs are extremely small and narrow!