Album: 04-28 Southern Thailand

Album:2015:04-28 Southern Thailand

After Chiang Mai we headed South. We based ourselves in the heavily touristy Phuket/Patong Beach only because we were having Arielle's wedding dress made! So we'd do some measurements/fittings in Patong, then we'd head out to an island/beach for a couple days, then come back and do it again.

My love journaling
on the plane South ( comments)

Wow. Floppy disk.
( comments)

These little chocolate cylinder snacks
are "American Style". Ever see *anything* like this in America? ( comments)

Riding a Tuk Tuk across Phuket
When we finally decided to base out of Patong instead of Phuket. ( comments)

For a children's ticket you must be
under this height. For an adult's ticket you must be under this... oh my god, what is that?? It's a MONSTER GIANT! ( comments)

One of our initial sketches
for Arielle's dress design.
Tailors found this very confusing and didn't want to deal with us. ( comments)

So we did some more sketches.
It didn't help. But we got to try out a bunch of design ideas between us. ( comments)

Taking a boat to Koh Yao Noi
( comments)

Hitchhiker
( comments)

Arielle on the truck/shuttle
( comments)

Our cabin at Sabai Corner Bungalows.
( comments)

And the bedroom.
( comments)

Our expansive front porch.
( comments)

Getting some work done.
( comments)

Mister Cow says hello.
( comments)

Koh Yao Noi ocean pan
( comments)

We head out to the pier..
( comments)

and there are kitties!
( comments)

Including this monster..
( comments)

..who was adorable.
We spent lots of time catching these guys. ( comments)

Sun setting over a pier
( comments)

Looking at the ocean
( comments)

Orange Sky
( comments)

Watching the sunset
( comments)

My love watches the sunset
( comments)

Looking out at the sunset.
( comments)

Sunset Spectacular!
( comments)

Dock/ocean Pan
( comments)

And back at Sabai Bungalows
are these little kitten monsters. ( comments)

And we steal them many times.
( comments)

The view from the bungalows
( comments)

The bar at the Bungalows
( comments)

DaveBungalow
( comments)

Remember how I said
we stole the kittens a number of times? ( comments)

They spent some time at our cabin.
( comments)

Slumbering in the cabin.
( comments)

Getting ready for bed.
( comments)

Sleepytime.
( comments)

We take a boat
and tour the islands near Koh Yao Noi ( comments)

Tiny beach and rock cliffs.
( comments)

Traversing into one of the "hong" islands,
islands that have a lagoon hidden inside of them. ( comments)

Inside the middle of an island.
( comments)

Looking back to the entrance
( comments)

Arielle points out that there's water.
( comments)

Time to swim!
( comments)

Looking back through
the "hong" entrance ( comments)

My love, after we realize
that the water is full of tiny jellyfish. Ouch. ( comments)

But still, the sun..
( comments)

Leaving the hong
( comments)

Some caves that have some
rare birds, and some monks that watch over them. ( comments)

My love, relaxing hard.
( comments)

The next hong.
( comments)

...Is also beautiful.
( comments)

My love.
Taking a break on a beach somewhere. ( comments)

Delicious
( comments)

But watch out for the jellyfish!
( comments)

These are not the jellyfish.
( comments)

Another "standing in water" pose.
They don't get old. ( comments)

Okay, last one.
( comments)

Now us.
( comments)

Walking through fish.
( comments)

I love this photo
but I can't justify putting it in the album. ( comments)

That little red blur
is the damn jellyfish. They are everywhere. ( comments)

Me and my woman.
( comments)

Looking out from a tiny cave.
( comments)

The boats.
( comments)

Coming up to an overhang.
( comments)

Arielle demonstrates her steadicam
(with a brief appearance of the "Left Side" song!) [Video, 9.6M] ( comments)

Being objectified by my woman.
( comments)

Objectifying my woman.
( comments)

Islands everywhere,
this one had an interesting top. ( comments)

And after we land
we discover that there is a path to the top that none of the other tourists are examining. ( comments)

Looking down at the beach
( comments)

Dave views his new domain.
( comments)

Arielle, queen of the island
( comments)

Boats zooming in and out
( comments)

Dave has an important
conference call. (Not true) ( comments)

Wide pan from the top of the island.
( comments)

Another Island top pan
( comments)

My supermodel, back on the beach.
( comments)

We return to Sabai,
but switch hotels for the night so we can get A/C. ( comments)

At the hotel with delicious A/C
(and delicious Arielle) ( comments)

And we find another kitten
to steal for the night. ( comments)

20150504 162335 jpg
( comments)

The first fitting of the dress!
Back in Patong. ( comments)

Patong has lots of "commerce".
Arielle demonstrates the main attraction. Ping pong! Ping pong! ( comments)

Why is this ladder in our room?
( comments)

Mango with Sticky Rice!
( comments)

Second fitting of the dress!
( comments)

It's starting to make sense.
Arielle is pleased. ( comments)

And it's time to get Dave
some fitted shirts. I only wish I had gotten many more. ( comments)

The amazing view
from a great B&B that we stayed at when we drove over Phang Nga Bay. [Home Phang Nga Guesthouse]. We end up staying here on the way back as well. ( comments)

And now it's time to head out..
( comments)

To James Bond Island!
( comments)

I get to drive the long boat!
( comments)

Relaxing on the water.
( comments)

Incredible rock
( comments)

Incredible colors..
( comments)

Driving past
the fishing village. ( comments)

Kayakers go under the rocks.
( comments)

Kayaks on the water
( comments)

We sneak around the side.
( comments)

Captain of the longboat
( comments)

Arielle on a cruise.
( comments)

Driving through a cave
[Video, 9.4M] ( comments)

This didn't get mic'd properly,
but this rock was hollow and made an amazing sound when hit. [Video, 4.8M] ( comments)

I go on a side expedition
on our way towards the James Bond rock. ( comments)

James Bond once had a rock like this!
( comments)

Dave brings the rock home.
( comments)

Walking through caves.
( comments)

"You go James Bond Island!?"
( comments)

Part of the island sheared off.
( comments)

Slice!
( comments)

Dave and rock.
( comments)

Looking down into the caves.
( comments)

Taking pictures so I can use the flash
to see. Mental note, bring headlamp to Thailand next time. ( comments)

Arielle in the caves.
( comments)

Back to the fishing village
( comments)

Back to the fishing village,
"Koh Panyee" which is something like 5 families who initially built on the side of an island, this is many generations later. [Video, 9.1M] ( comments)

On the dock.
( comments)

Boats.
( comments)

Goat on trash
( comments)

The famous soccer field
(look it up) on a back pier behind the village. ( comments)

We find a happy little cat.
( comments)

I was wondering if I'd find
the little grey kitten from 2011, but it wasn't him. ( comments)

..he was cute, though, and very sweet.
( comments)

..And he started to follow us.
( comments)

The view of the village
from the end of the pier. ( comments)

Somewhat disappointing to discover
(if you know the legend of soccer at Koh Pannyi), that they have a soccer field in the school. Maybe it came later. ( comments)

Houses
( comments)

The new suburbs.
( comments)

And this grey monster,
who I suppose could be the little grey kitten, but his eyes would have changed color (which happens with kitties) ( comments)

An amazing little cafe
in the middle of the docks. ( comments)

Looking up the side
towards the mountain ( comments)

We boat off,
and watch the sun set on the islands. ( comments)

Driving back to our B&B,
we stop at a market for food. ( comments)

We stay at the "Krabi Discovery Resort"
for a night, and we rent a kayak to go in a trip around one of the bays.
That was the plan. ( comments)

Cue "Gilligan's Island Music"
(we got severely lost) ( comments)

We almost had to eat each other
to stay alive. ( comments)

But the start of it seemed nice enough.
It's just that we went left here when we should have gone right. ( comments)

At least it was peaceful
[Video, 17M] ( comments)

But my damn phone
kept jumping around in the GPS.
Turns out that it seemed to be never right, jumping from random spots to the middle of nowhere. Turns out we were in the middle of nowhere. ( comments)

As we kayak, I spot
a glimmer of light. I duck down and realize you can see something on the other end of this massive rock wall. It's the beginning of many caves for us. We start to lie down and take the kayak under, but then I realize we won't fit comfortably, and there are bats in caves in Thailand. ( comments)

Then we kayak into the set
of Jurassic Park. ( comments)

And I notice another cave!
( comments)

I disembark and climb up
a bit so I can look in. ( comments)

And you can see through it.
But without light to check the walls/ceiling, I chicken out from going through. Seriously, bats freak me out.
Hours later we find what I think is this window when we kayak entirely around these mountains. ( comments)

Then we find more caves,...
( comments)

..and they are amazing.
( comments)

But they oddly seem like
nobody has ever visited them. It's very difficult and sticky to portage, and there's no sign of human visitation. This is the first clue that something is wrong. ( comments)

But the caves are enormous..
( comments)

..and they go very deep
(a few hundred feet past here, we find the other side later). ( comments)

Amazing cave rock
( comments)

Looking into a cave,
amazed that this isn't touristy. ( comments)

Dave examines more.
We saw some incredible life in the jungle, a bunch of monkeys, some crabs and some enormous lizard plopped into the water right in front of us. ( comments)

We find the back of one of the big caves
and it has this rickety dock on it, but it's literally cracking under our weight ( comments)

We find the back of one of the big caves
and it has this rickety dock on it, but it's literally cracking under our weight. Nobody has been here in ages and everything is crumbling. We're not in the right place. ( comments)

As we get deeper, the path becomes
less clear. And the water level is sinking and we are hours away from shore, and I start to realize that if the tide goes out much more we'll be beached here and either trying to climb across the tree trunks or else sleeping here for the night. (though this photo is actually from earlier in the trip - imagine this with less water and more mud) ( comments)

So we gave up trying to find the end
of the loop we were on, and paddled like mad all the way backwards. We barely got out, and discovered we had gone entirely the wrong way and were deep in the wrong jungle. ( comments)

We get back to civilization,
( comments)

..and a huge pack of monkeys
are waiting by the street to greet us. ( comments)

Okay, maybe not the
friendliest greeting. ( comments)

Monkeys everywhere
( comments)

Dave communes with
his monkey friends. ( comments)

Monkeys on a rock.
( comments)

Haircut!
( comments)

Arielle also
does some communing. ( comments)

Arielle and the monkey.
( comments)

Dave waiting by the scooter.
( comments)

MonkeyPan
( comments)

Driving by Phang Nga bay
( comments)

Tonsai Beach
is a paradise. We take a boat there. ( comments)

Up close to the end of the beach
( comments)

Stopping at a restaurant on the beach
( comments)

...we find another kitten.
( comments)

He finds a big rock..
( comments)

With a kitten sized hole in it.
( comments)

And commences
kitten-like activities. ( comments)

Cat in rock!
( comments)

Seriously.
( comments)

The beach is a small paradise,
and is generally only reachable by boat. ( comments)

It's been bought by some developers,
but fortunately they've only started construction, so it's still a little paradise. ( comments)

The rock cliffs are interwoven
with caves,.. ( comments)

..of the very narrow variety.
( comments)

Walking back into the village.
( comments)

Past the village I go on
an expedition back into the forest. ( comments)

And find a climbing area,..
( comments)

But there's nobody around!
[Video] ( comments)

Checking out the massive ladder,
at the top it becomes unsafe without gear. ( comments)

Looking up the cliffs.
( comments)

Such great rock.
( comments)

I come back down to Arielle
and discover that she's found a hula hoop. ( comments)

My sexy little hula hoop queen
[Video] ( comments)

My hoopy girl
( comments)

Hula butt
( comments)

Walking the beach
( comments)

Looking at the rocks
( comments)

My goddess,
looking at the Bay ( comments)

The boats, awaiting passengers
( comments)

There were monkeys on one end of the beach
( comments)

They were actually
pretty aggressive. ( comments)

Looking out the rock at the boats
( comments)

Watched by a monkey.
( comments)

My queen
( comments)

runs into the water
( comments)

Wide pan of the beach
( comments)

Pan looking out at the bay
( comments)

We get back from Tonsai,
this is the beach at Krabi, with people and tourists again. ( comments)

The construction debris
from sand crabs building homes on the beach. ( comments)

And of course, the hotel has a cat.
[Ao Nang Mountain View Resort in Krabi] ( comments)

Who very much needs love.
( comments)

On the way home, a flat tire.
Late at night our rear blows out in the middle of nowhere. We manage to find a mechanic. ( comments)

Of course, he has a cat.
( comments)

His whole family comes out to watch,
we are quite a spectacle. ( comments)

It's an hour of work,
since it's the rear wheel. Total cost of labor and the new tube, something like $3. I give him a few dollars more. We end up having another flat tire and also get caught in some severe rainstorms on the way back. It's an interesting trip. ( comments)

We stop at the monke..ve (Wat Suwannakuha)
The monkeys are happy to tell you what they want. ( comments)

Monkey eater.
And baby. ( comments)

Monkeys come up
and eat out of your hand. ( comments)

Monkey eaters.
( comments)

Feeding
( comments)

Little monkey and banana
( comments)

Dave is swarmed
( comments)

Momma and baby
( comments)

Into the cave temple
( comments)

There is a Buddhist dog
( comments)

Walking up to the second cave
( comments)

Entering the back cave
( comments)

Arielle climbs up
( comments)

Cave panorama
(I need to work on rotating around the camera instead of my head, too much parallax!) ( comments)

Looking down
( comments)

We meet a proud (buddhist) cat
on the way back out ( comments)

The next fitting!
( comments)

We stop at a restaurant
near Bangla street late at night, they screw up my order and I go hungry, but not for silliness, thanks to Arielle. ( comments)

A goof again.
I manage to convince Arielle to do some go-kart racing. ( comments)

Because the go-karts
are pretty serious. But so is the track, and we get soaked with mud water. I save my phone just in time. ( comments)