Hello everyone!
Still alive out here and coping with Deanna leaving me for Thanksgiving. Julian has arrived and we've had a great time exploring Bangkok and making, breaking, re-making travel plans as a tropical storm hit Thailand.
First things first...Bangkok. Something for everyone. And we tried to see all of it. The Grand Palace is an absolutely breathtaking view, as the temple on site is vast and everything is covered in gold. Julian and I sweated our way through the audioguide tour - you can't wear shorts to the best sites - and around every corner was something more incredible.
It's been a little hard to communicate here. Every time we get in the cab, it seems that we have to show the driver how it's spelled. The other day, we got in the cab and asked to go to Radjamoen for Muy Thai Boxing. He didn't understand one word we said...and we had asked the hotel clerk exactly what and how to say it (apparently not well enough). I think we finally got the message across when Julian and I held up fists and pretended to box. At that point, the driver got very excited..."MUY THAI! BOXING! BOXING! MUY THAI!" He either a. loved boxing, b. was excited to figure out what the hell we wanted or c. thought we were about to mug him.
The other interesting thing was going to "red light" district of Patpong...I guess you have to go to see it as this is the sin city of Asia. Imagine a show with every sex thing you could think of, take all the class and energy out of it, add drinks that are 6 times the cost of regular bars and very, very insistent "bar girls" and you have the picture. It was actually really disappointing but just something you have to see while here.
What was MUCH more fun was the beer festival downtown. Julian and I happened to sit in the perfect spot - we had the cutest server and we were her only table. The interesting thing was when she poured the beers from the pitcher, it took literally one full minute of continous pouring for one beer...not a speck of foam. She didn't speak a word of English but somehow still managed to refuse our invitation to sit down with us...unfortunate. Julian did get a great picture (for me) of me and the girl with her "Beer Chang" hat, "Beer Chang" pin, in front of the "Beer Chang" pavilion. I loved it and love Thailand. I think I'm going to move here.
From Bangkok, we attempted to go to Ko Samui for the full moon party. After some very interesting times with a very funny travel agent, we schedule flights to Ko Samui and then onwards to Siem Riep in Cambodia. We thought everything had been "confirmed" - but upon arriving at the airport, the flight to Ko Samui had been cancelled. We reschedule for the next morning and headed to an airport hotel (not so nice) to spend the evening. While I was in the lobby, I picked up the Bangkok Post and the top story was "Tropical Storm threatens Coast"...so I sat there and read about how they were EVACUATING parts of Southern Thailand including parts of Ko Samui. Of course, by that time, the ticketing desk was closed...so we had to get up and change the flight at 5am in the morning...minutes before the plane left. So back in Phuket now.
Life on Phuket is great. Julian pulled the "I don't think I need sunscreen if we're just out here for a little while" thing. Just like Deanna and I did on our first day on the beach. Let's just say I think he'll be wearing sunscreen for the rest of the trip.
We're also here during the Loy Krathong festival (and the full moon) so there's a little town fair and Friday night everything was absolutely PACKED. Patong Beach has tons of great bars and Julian and I have determined that we have to check out every one of them.
Okay...on to Siem Riep tomorrow. We did a little research last night watching Tomb Raider 2 (filmed in Cambodia) and are still going despite what a putrid movie that was.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
11/22/04: From Phuket to Bangkok
Hello everyone...
Hope that you're doing well. I'm in Bangkok right now and our friend Julian is arriving tonight around midnight...perfect timing as Deanna leaves tomorrow for a short break (from me mostly) in Perth.
Had a wonderful time in Phuket, Thailand. It is crowded with a lot of tourists (like many people told us), but we stayed on Ao Karon rather than the super-popular Ao Patong and had a wonderful time. We stayed at a Nordic place called "The Little Mermaid" which was nice after ourstay on Phi Phi because we had hot water and air conditioning both (and a TV!)...the life of luxury.
We took a daytrip from Phuket which was a real adventure. Obstensibly the trip was sea kayaking on several different islands. It was incredible - they actually paddle for you (which was nice for Deanna as i would have made her paddle) and you have to actually go at low tide and duck to get through caves and into secret lagoons - which are completely inaccessible at high tide so they're still very isolated and serene. Very beautiful...make sure you check out the pictures labeled Phuket when I get them uploaded (this week). More entertainment came from a very fat Scotsman, who also happened to be very drunk, having screaming matches with his Thai girlfriend(?) and then come to physical blows with another passenger (German). It was quite exciting.
The other highlight of that trip was paying a visit to "James Bond" island where "Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed. Remember the last scene where Bond storms the island fortress and has the duel with the owner of the Golden Gun? Right...I must be the only one. Deanna thinks I'm crazy because I got very excited and ran around the island and had her take pictures of me doing James Bond poses and pretending to sneak around.
From there, another bus ride. You would think I would FINALLY learn about these. But no. This time we were pretty careful to ask about how many seats, do they recline, is it air conditioned, etc... So we take a minibus (reasonably comfortable) for three hours to Surat Thani bus stop. Then we wait until there's enough people to send a bus to Bangkok. In our case, we arrived around 4:30 and there weren't enough people...so we waited. We were actually going to have to wait until 8pm to leave, but it just happened another bus had a few open "spaces" on the bus. We just wanted to get to Bangkok, so we opted on.
I found myself sitting in the "lounge" area of the double decker bus rather than an actual seat. It didn't recline and I sat in a small semi-circle with 5 people who were destined to become my best friends given how close together we were sitting. The bathroom was right next door...first a good thing...then a bad thing...then a very bad thing as the girl across from me had a bout of stomach flu and had to continually run to the bathroom. Did I mention the in-transit movie was "DinoCroc" by Roger Corman? Ugh. The most insulting thing about it was that DVD's are 100Baht ($2.50) here and everyone on that bus was probably carrying better DVD's. I think it's the Thai way of saying FU.
Bangkok has been awesome so far. We're staying near the Khao Sahn area and it's a real trip. Lots of backpackers, lots of interesting people and things. We literally arrived into town at 5AM from our bus ride from hell and at Deanna's urging went to the Weekend Market. For shoppers, it's 15,000 stalls in 28 sections of pure bargain merchandise heaven. I think we covered at least 12,000. For someone (me) who doesn't really buy anything, it was tough. I just hung out in the 'pet' section and petted dogs and squirrels and watched the cockfighting (they didn't fight, but they were selling them for that purpose).
But I actually did buy a CD player on Khao Sahn. We've been thinking about getting some music on this trip, and it seemed like the place to buy. I "negotiated" a great deal by charming a Thai girl and got the player for probably twice the value I should have paid. Honestly, I'm a horrible bargainer...and she was cute...and she kept saying"Mister...I give you best price." and then giggling. Oh well. I was such a good negotiator that I actually gave her the box back so she could repack stuff in it and sell to some other schlep. It was only later that I realized that the deal didn't include the actual rechargable batteries even though I had bought the charger. The sad thing is, I'm thinking about going back to her to buy the batteries. Somebody stop me.
Last thing...I'll leave you with a teaser. Deanna got her nose pierced and I have all the pictures. Wait for it...
Best to everyone...
Hope that you're doing well. I'm in Bangkok right now and our friend Julian is arriving tonight around midnight...perfect timing as Deanna leaves tomorrow for a short break (from me mostly) in Perth.
Had a wonderful time in Phuket, Thailand. It is crowded with a lot of tourists (like many people told us), but we stayed on Ao Karon rather than the super-popular Ao Patong and had a wonderful time. We stayed at a Nordic place called "The Little Mermaid" which was nice after ourstay on Phi Phi because we had hot water and air conditioning both (and a TV!)...the life of luxury.
We took a daytrip from Phuket which was a real adventure. Obstensibly the trip was sea kayaking on several different islands. It was incredible - they actually paddle for you (which was nice for Deanna as i would have made her paddle) and you have to actually go at low tide and duck to get through caves and into secret lagoons - which are completely inaccessible at high tide so they're still very isolated and serene. Very beautiful...make sure you check out the pictures labeled Phuket when I get them uploaded (this week). More entertainment came from a very fat Scotsman, who also happened to be very drunk, having screaming matches with his Thai girlfriend(?) and then come to physical blows with another passenger (German). It was quite exciting.
The other highlight of that trip was paying a visit to "James Bond" island where "Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed. Remember the last scene where Bond storms the island fortress and has the duel with the owner of the Golden Gun? Right...I must be the only one. Deanna thinks I'm crazy because I got very excited and ran around the island and had her take pictures of me doing James Bond poses and pretending to sneak around.
From there, another bus ride. You would think I would FINALLY learn about these. But no. This time we were pretty careful to ask about how many seats, do they recline, is it air conditioned, etc... So we take a minibus (reasonably comfortable) for three hours to Surat Thani bus stop. Then we wait until there's enough people to send a bus to Bangkok. In our case, we arrived around 4:30 and there weren't enough people...so we waited. We were actually going to have to wait until 8pm to leave, but it just happened another bus had a few open "spaces" on the bus. We just wanted to get to Bangkok, so we opted on.
I found myself sitting in the "lounge" area of the double decker bus rather than an actual seat. It didn't recline and I sat in a small semi-circle with 5 people who were destined to become my best friends given how close together we were sitting. The bathroom was right next door...first a good thing...then a bad thing...then a very bad thing as the girl across from me had a bout of stomach flu and had to continually run to the bathroom. Did I mention the in-transit movie was "DinoCroc" by Roger Corman? Ugh. The most insulting thing about it was that DVD's are 100Baht ($2.50) here and everyone on that bus was probably carrying better DVD's. I think it's the Thai way of saying FU.
Bangkok has been awesome so far. We're staying near the Khao Sahn area and it's a real trip. Lots of backpackers, lots of interesting people and things. We literally arrived into town at 5AM from our bus ride from hell and at Deanna's urging went to the Weekend Market. For shoppers, it's 15,000 stalls in 28 sections of pure bargain merchandise heaven. I think we covered at least 12,000. For someone (me) who doesn't really buy anything, it was tough. I just hung out in the 'pet' section and petted dogs and squirrels and watched the cockfighting (they didn't fight, but they were selling them for that purpose).
But I actually did buy a CD player on Khao Sahn. We've been thinking about getting some music on this trip, and it seemed like the place to buy. I "negotiated" a great deal by charming a Thai girl and got the player for probably twice the value I should have paid. Honestly, I'm a horrible bargainer...and she was cute...and she kept saying"Mister...I give you best price." and then giggling. Oh well. I was such a good negotiator that I actually gave her the box back so she could repack stuff in it and sell to some other schlep. It was only later that I realized that the deal didn't include the actual rechargable batteries even though I had bought the charger. The sad thing is, I'm thinking about going back to her to buy the batteries. Somebody stop me.
Last thing...I'll leave you with a teaser. Deanna got her nose pierced and I have all the pictures. Wait for it...
Best to everyone...
Sunday, November 14, 2004
11/14/04: Into Thailand...following Leo's Trail
Hello everyone -
The time between updates increases as I am beginning to lose motor coordination and the ability to actually form sentences with both subject and predicate.
When last we spoke, I believe we were in Langkawi, Malaysia...just a few more thoughts on that. First, there is GREAT snorkeling on Langkawi...they have a national park which is actually just one of the 99 islands that make up the area. After my initial difficulties with the basic concept that you CANNOT breathe in through your nose while snorkeling (I've never been before)...I settled in. There was TONS of fish and great coral and even got to see sand sharks (must've been 15 or so). It was amazing - and actually better than what we've experience in Thailand around Ko Phi Phi. The "guides" actually bring bait fish and slap the water with it about 5 feet from shore - and the sharks actually come and when they turn their tails are out of the water. It was amazing and a bit scary how casual these guys were holding the fish for the sharks. The only downside was getting bitten by these tiny light pink fish. The actual injury caused (none) was far less than the humiliation of getting chased out of the water by a fish half the size of my hand.
The other cool thing on Langkawi was renting a scooter. Thanks to my really great parents, I've never actually had the pleasure of learning to drive a motorscooter or motorcycle. We picked Langkawi because it seemed to be the only place where we could manage the driving on the left side and unfamiliarity of the bike without dealing with really heavy traffic or the "middle lane" being a two-way lane. As it turns out, Deanna is quite an excellent biker...I was passable. I think I've gotten the urge out of my system but in my new enlightenment I will no longer try to open my car door on the highway as bikes "share" my lane.
From Langkawi, we moved on to Krabi in Thailand...enduring yet another ferry and bus ride where we had NO idea what was going on. "Traveling by instinct" is probably accurate. The tough thing about Thailand is that the alphabet is different...a bit like Arabic to my untrained eye. Luckily, I walk around with such a dumbfounded look on my face (think George W) that no one tries to speak to me in Thai.
Best thing about Krabi. The food. Awesome. There is a night market in Krabi Town and I was in fried food heaven (one of my many, many weaknesses). They have tons of stands where you just point to what you want deepfried and they deep fry, dip in chili sauce, and provide to you in a little plastic bag. Genius. Simply genius.
In the spirit of food, Deanna and I took a day long cooking class. Our instructor "Ya" had an amazing history and also showed us fool-proof (hah! she hasn't seen this fool in the kitchen) methods to cook four different curries, stir fry, soups - all really starting from the same basic ingredient preparation. Yes...2005 will be the year of Mike Chiang, Master Thai Chef. Or at least I have a nice book of Thai recipes to look at before I go to McDonald's.
To celebrate our graduation from class, Deanna and I went to a local fair where we watched 9 year old girls dance "in-sync" to Thai music, browsed for knock-off everything, and ate deep-fried crickets...carefully selected from a stand offering silk worms (recommended by a passing pedestrian laughing at us), some other type of worm, large beetles, and a few other creepy-crawlies. Crickets do NOT taste like chicken...don't actually taste like much. Good with beer. Like everything.
From Krabi Town, we moved on to Ao Nang beach in the Krabi area. Wonderful. Had a Thai massage there and really learned what it is to hurt. The massage was administered by a Thai gentleman named "Mork"...yes really. I didn't think it was possible that he was strong enough to hurt me. I was wrong. The other excitement was getting a haircut. Adding to the experience was:
a. I don't speak Thai
b. The barber didn't speak English
c. The owner of the shop spoke just enough English to get by...27 words or so by my estimation.
In the end, I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best. And actually it ended up fine. Good for me...bad for this story.
Anyway, we are on Ko Phi Phi for the last few days. Yesterday we took a trip to some incredibly beautiful islands (Bamboo Island, Ko Phi Phi Ley). The importance of course of Ko Phi Phi Ley is it's the island where they filmed the immortal, beloved film (here) "The Beach". To all of you that avoid Leonardo DiCaprio on principle, I commend you. But we are looking to watch the movie to compare to our pictures...it won't be easy, but probably easier than watching the crap I normally do (no WB over here unfortunately). DVD's here are 150B...same price as video games. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was sold out, but I did pickup a few others. I think I'll offer my expertise to help them make the games look more legitimate ("you see sir, you need to put the Nintendo Official seal above the DOL code"). They could start by spelling "Activision" correctly.
Best to everyone. We're off to Phuket next. And then Bangkok where Deanna will make a side-trip to Perth to visit a friend and hopefully Julian will arrive for his visit.
The time between updates increases as I am beginning to lose motor coordination and the ability to actually form sentences with both subject and predicate.
When last we spoke, I believe we were in Langkawi, Malaysia...just a few more thoughts on that. First, there is GREAT snorkeling on Langkawi...they have a national park which is actually just one of the 99 islands that make up the area. After my initial difficulties with the basic concept that you CANNOT breathe in through your nose while snorkeling (I've never been before)...I settled in. There was TONS of fish and great coral and even got to see sand sharks (must've been 15 or so). It was amazing - and actually better than what we've experience in Thailand around Ko Phi Phi. The "guides" actually bring bait fish and slap the water with it about 5 feet from shore - and the sharks actually come and when they turn their tails are out of the water. It was amazing and a bit scary how casual these guys were holding the fish for the sharks. The only downside was getting bitten by these tiny light pink fish. The actual injury caused (none) was far less than the humiliation of getting chased out of the water by a fish half the size of my hand.
The other cool thing on Langkawi was renting a scooter. Thanks to my really great parents, I've never actually had the pleasure of learning to drive a motorscooter or motorcycle. We picked Langkawi because it seemed to be the only place where we could manage the driving on the left side and unfamiliarity of the bike without dealing with really heavy traffic or the "middle lane" being a two-way lane. As it turns out, Deanna is quite an excellent biker...I was passable. I think I've gotten the urge out of my system but in my new enlightenment I will no longer try to open my car door on the highway as bikes "share" my lane.
From Langkawi, we moved on to Krabi in Thailand...enduring yet another ferry and bus ride where we had NO idea what was going on. "Traveling by instinct" is probably accurate. The tough thing about Thailand is that the alphabet is different...a bit like Arabic to my untrained eye. Luckily, I walk around with such a dumbfounded look on my face (think George W) that no one tries to speak to me in Thai.
Best thing about Krabi. The food. Awesome. There is a night market in Krabi Town and I was in fried food heaven (one of my many, many weaknesses). They have tons of stands where you just point to what you want deepfried and they deep fry, dip in chili sauce, and provide to you in a little plastic bag. Genius. Simply genius.
In the spirit of food, Deanna and I took a day long cooking class. Our instructor "Ya" had an amazing history and also showed us fool-proof (hah! she hasn't seen this fool in the kitchen) methods to cook four different curries, stir fry, soups - all really starting from the same basic ingredient preparation. Yes...2005 will be the year of Mike Chiang, Master Thai Chef. Or at least I have a nice book of Thai recipes to look at before I go to McDonald's.
To celebrate our graduation from class, Deanna and I went to a local fair where we watched 9 year old girls dance "in-sync" to Thai music, browsed for knock-off everything, and ate deep-fried crickets...carefully selected from a stand offering silk worms (recommended by a passing pedestrian laughing at us), some other type of worm, large beetles, and a few other creepy-crawlies. Crickets do NOT taste like chicken...don't actually taste like much. Good with beer. Like everything.
From Krabi Town, we moved on to Ao Nang beach in the Krabi area. Wonderful. Had a Thai massage there and really learned what it is to hurt. The massage was administered by a Thai gentleman named "Mork"...yes really. I didn't think it was possible that he was strong enough to hurt me. I was wrong. The other excitement was getting a haircut. Adding to the experience was:
a. I don't speak Thai
b. The barber didn't speak English
c. The owner of the shop spoke just enough English to get by...27 words or so by my estimation.
In the end, I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best. And actually it ended up fine. Good for me...bad for this story.
Anyway, we are on Ko Phi Phi for the last few days. Yesterday we took a trip to some incredibly beautiful islands (Bamboo Island, Ko Phi Phi Ley). The importance of course of Ko Phi Phi Ley is it's the island where they filmed the immortal, beloved film (here) "The Beach". To all of you that avoid Leonardo DiCaprio on principle, I commend you. But we are looking to watch the movie to compare to our pictures...it won't be easy, but probably easier than watching the crap I normally do (no WB over here unfortunately). DVD's here are 150B...same price as video games. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was sold out, but I did pickup a few others. I think I'll offer my expertise to help them make the games look more legitimate ("you see sir, you need to put the Nintendo Official seal above the DOL code"). They could start by spelling "Activision" correctly.
Best to everyone. We're off to Phuket next. And then Bangkok where Deanna will make a side-trip to Perth to visit a friend and hopefully Julian will arrive for his visit.
Friday, November 05, 2004
11/05/04: Penang and Langkawi, Malaysia
Hello everyone -
Hope that everyone is doing well...Monday is four weeks that we've been on this trip and it really helps to "talk" to people from home. I think the election really brought us back to thinking about home - it's been a lot of the talk around here (and none of it good). We actually watched the election coverage in an Indian buffet in Penang,Malaysia...it was the only place with CNN - so it was Indian breakfast (Roti - a very nice bread), Indian lunch (lamb is always good...it's just a fact), and we didn't quite make Indian dinner - and the owner was quite sick of us at that point.
Penang is/was fantastic. We started the city by taking a tour of Cheong Fatt Tze's home - one of the last Mandarins of China. He built a phenomenal house or as the tour leader said it "perfectly balanced feng shui"...and it's completely rentable for special occassions...each of the 16 rooms has a different theme and the room we saw was pretty phenomenal. This guy had 8 wives and 8 houses...a model citizen that I will attempt to emulate in the future. http://www.cheongfatttzemansion.com/
Other fun things in Penang were taking a bicycle taxi - very, very scary and the driver doesn't actually seem to watch where he's going...and it's the typical 5 lanes in 2 type driving around here. We had thought about renting scooters but thought better of it...something about health insurance running out after I quit working.
The other big to do was trying the fruit "Durian" - and Mom, I just don't like it. We were walking by an older French couple and Deanna somehow psychically indicated that we would like to try. Next thing you know, they're speaking French, looking at me and laughing (hmm...), and then the man breaks open his bag and offers us Durian. The durian is a fruit that's supposed to be incredibly stinky (check) and apparently many buses, public places, etc... have banned people from eating the fruit within their premises. The fruit is also supposed to be very, very flavorful (not so sure about this). Deanna and I agreed that it had an avocado texture, couldn't agree on what exactly it tasted like (like fruit mixed with cheese), but did agree there was a distinct onion afterflavor (and not a good one just in case the statement is noncommittal).
We've been eating really well in Malaysia - we were staying in the Chinatown area and ate dim sum every morning. And the bill each day was about 15RM - or $4. Incredible. I love everything about Asia. Actually, everything but the toilets. And the humidity. And some other things.
We're on Langkawi Island on the Malaysian side of the Thai border right now. It's great. We have a bungalow RIGHT on the beach and Langkawi is a DUTY FREE zone! The problem with Malaysia is that alcohol is expensive (relatively)...but here...40 cents a beer (Tiger). Needless to say, Langkawi has been fun and we've met some cool people (of course at the Irish pub - you were right Chuck...there's one everywhere, but no Raiders jerseys). The most amazing drinking, however, has been how much water Deanna drinks. We picked up a 5 or 6 L just last night after dinner and it was gone by 3pm today - and I swear I didn't drink a drop of it. Granted it is 90% humidity, 95 degrees, but still.
Next up, we're spending a few more days here on Langkawi...then on to Krabi in Thailand. We did get the pictures uploaded on Ofoto - so see the links below. Deanna has captioned quite a few - but there's alot...you've been warned.
Also - Deanna has been posting a web-blog. It has all of my emails and her own "column". Check it out at: www.offandaway.blogspot.com Her account is more entertaining and far more truthful.
Everyone take care.
Hope that everyone is doing well...Monday is four weeks that we've been on this trip and it really helps to "talk" to people from home. I think the election really brought us back to thinking about home - it's been a lot of the talk around here (and none of it good). We actually watched the election coverage in an Indian buffet in Penang,Malaysia...it was the only place with CNN - so it was Indian breakfast (Roti - a very nice bread), Indian lunch (lamb is always good...it's just a fact), and we didn't quite make Indian dinner - and the owner was quite sick of us at that point.
Penang is/was fantastic. We started the city by taking a tour of Cheong Fatt Tze's home - one of the last Mandarins of China. He built a phenomenal house or as the tour leader said it "perfectly balanced feng shui"...and it's completely rentable for special occassions...each of the 16 rooms has a different theme and the room we saw was pretty phenomenal. This guy had 8 wives and 8 houses...a model citizen that I will attempt to emulate in the future. http://www.cheongfatttzemansion.com/
Other fun things in Penang were taking a bicycle taxi - very, very scary and the driver doesn't actually seem to watch where he's going...and it's the typical 5 lanes in 2 type driving around here. We had thought about renting scooters but thought better of it...something about health insurance running out after I quit working.
The other big to do was trying the fruit "Durian" - and Mom, I just don't like it. We were walking by an older French couple and Deanna somehow psychically indicated that we would like to try. Next thing you know, they're speaking French, looking at me and laughing (hmm...), and then the man breaks open his bag and offers us Durian. The durian is a fruit that's supposed to be incredibly stinky (check) and apparently many buses, public places, etc... have banned people from eating the fruit within their premises. The fruit is also supposed to be very, very flavorful (not so sure about this). Deanna and I agreed that it had an avocado texture, couldn't agree on what exactly it tasted like (like fruit mixed with cheese), but did agree there was a distinct onion afterflavor (and not a good one just in case the statement is noncommittal).
We've been eating really well in Malaysia - we were staying in the Chinatown area and ate dim sum every morning. And the bill each day was about 15RM - or $4. Incredible. I love everything about Asia. Actually, everything but the toilets. And the humidity. And some other things.
We're on Langkawi Island on the Malaysian side of the Thai border right now. It's great. We have a bungalow RIGHT on the beach and Langkawi is a DUTY FREE zone! The problem with Malaysia is that alcohol is expensive (relatively)...but here...40 cents a beer (Tiger). Needless to say, Langkawi has been fun and we've met some cool people (of course at the Irish pub - you were right Chuck...there's one everywhere, but no Raiders jerseys). The most amazing drinking, however, has been how much water Deanna drinks. We picked up a 5 or 6 L just last night after dinner and it was gone by 3pm today - and I swear I didn't drink a drop of it. Granted it is 90% humidity, 95 degrees, but still.
Next up, we're spending a few more days here on Langkawi...then on to Krabi in Thailand. We did get the pictures uploaded on Ofoto - so see the links below. Deanna has captioned quite a few - but there's alot...you've been warned.
Also - Deanna has been posting a web-blog. It has all of my emails and her own "column". Check it out at: www.offandaway.blogspot.com Her account is more entertaining and far more truthful.
Everyone take care.
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