Koh Tao, Thailand

Koh Yang Nuan

Koh Tao and Koh Yang Nuan are islands were you can do some diving and snorkeling in the Gulf of Thailand. If you’re trying to get to these islands, your best option is to take a trip from the island of Koh Samui to get there. Koh Tao is one of the areas in Thailand where you can possibly see whale sharks (and regular ones!), and you will see lots of brightly colored tropical fish in the shallower snorkeling areas.

Given the recent announcement that the Thai government is considering restricting access to Koh Surin and The Similan Islands, it will be interesting to see if similar steps are taken to protect the coral for human development and other environmental pressures in other aquatic marine parks.

My first trip to Thailand included trips to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Koh Samui. When I was staying at the Amari on Chaweng Beach, I looked out and saw the trainer taking this young elephant out for an afternoon dip at the beach (if you end up going to nearly any of the high-end resorts in Thailand, it is quite likely that the hotel will have a resident elephant to entertain the guests during certain times of the day).

One of the reasons elephants are so involved in the tourist trade in Thailand, for better or worse, is that logging activities in Thailand have been greatly diminished to help preserve the little rainforest that is left. As the elephants and trainers still need to eat and work, you will find numerous places where you can take the elephant out for a jungle trek (the best jungle trek I’ve done has been in Chiang Mai).

Kind of bored today, with not too much to say about this particular picture. I will just say it is another stunning example of one of the many species of orchid that can be found in Southeast Asia;-)

This picture of an orchid was taken in Sukhothai, Thailand before visiting my wife’s family. While probably far from my best picture of an orchid, I do like the colors of the orchid very much. Before visiting SouthEast Asia for the first time years ago, I didn’t know that there are more than 20,000 types of orchids that are widely accepted.

You will find no shortage of orchid farms in Thailand, so I highly recommend visiting the many you will find in all of the major tourist areas. I’ve been to ones in Chiang Mai, Nong Khai & Phuket that were very cool to go to, and they are definitely great places for accomplished macrophotographers to take some pictures of these amazing flowers.

Note: Sukhothai is still one of my favorite places to take pictures in Thailand. While the temples don’t have quite the same splendor as the temples of Angkor Wat, you could spend a few quality days checking out one of the original kingdoms of Thailand during your stay.

No, I am not using the word “Queen” in a derogatory sense. The Simon Cabaret in Phuket is generally considered one of the Top Ten activities in Phuket, at least for older visitors (not recommended for children), and the costumes worn by the kathoeys are quite spectacular.

The Simon Cabaret itself, while located in Patong, is a little ways out from the main drag around Soi Bang La. If you’re going to catch the show, your hotel can arrange for pickup and transfer to/from the show; you can also catch a taxi or tuk-tuk to get to the show that you will have to negotiate a price with the driver. Depending on location, a tuk-tuk will probably cost at least 150 baht up, whereas a taxi driver will probably be at least 300 baht (taxis are not cheap in Phuket, and you can pretty much forget about any of them using the meter).

I would consider catching the first showing at Simon Cabaret, which will give you time to get back to Soi Bang La for a night of partying. You will also see most of the performers from the show later in the night dancing around Soi Kathoey.

One of the interesting things about having your pictures hosted at Flickr is that some of the pictures you may personally not like that much tend to be very popular with general viewers. I personally don’t think that this picture of a white tiger is very spectacular, but this picture is one of my most viewed items at my Flickr account.

The Singapore Zoo is the best zoo I’ve been to during my infrequent travels, so I would highly recommend it to any visitors to Southeast Asia. The animal enclosures are fantastic, the zoo is fairly large, and I feel very comfortable visiting animals that probably aren’t too thrilled to be “in a zoo”.

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My wife and I stayed at the Koh Libong Nature Beach Resort when we stayed here over Songkran, 2010. While the amenities at the resort were not five-star, which was a nice change of pace from many of the places we stay at, the view and ambience was definitely five stars. The staff working there was largely family, with the wife running the restaurant and the husband running the long-tail boat, and there were tons of little kids running around. The family was also kind enough to run little errands for us to the local convenience store, which was a harrying adventure on motorbike.

The power at the resort went out at around 8pm or so, which meant that you had nothing but quiet after sunset around 7pm. No lights after 7p made for an interesting experience for a Westerner:)

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Yeah, I know I’ve posted a few pictures of the Padaung Karen Hill Tribe people before. Even though I’ve only visited them a few times during my travels in Thailand, I admit to being fascinated by the reasons why they wear the rings around their neck and arms. In addition to the perceived added beauty of the rings, they told my wife that they also wear the rings to protect themselves from tiger bites (don’t know if this is really true or not).

One of the moral dilemmas I’ve run into is that some people claimed that some of the participants are forced to wear the rings for the benefit of tourists, something that would make me very upset.

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Koh Yao Yai (and neighboring Koh Yao Noi) are islands that are reachable within about 45 minutes from the island of Phuket. The island lifestyle is probably very much like other parts of Thailand were 20 years ago, with just a bunch of relaxed villagers getting by on just a little bit of money and living off of the sea. Things have changed a little bit these days, largely due to the recent addition of some luxury resorts, but you definitely won’t find the craziness of Phuket on the island.

As you can see from this picture, it is almost possible to walk between the islands during low tide. Given that I am not the greatest swimmer, however, I decided not to chance it.

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My wife and I were at Wat That Luang in Vientiane, Laos when these kids kept getting the attention of the tourists making the rounds. The kids thought it was hilarious that they could peak through the holes to get our attention.

Even though neighboring Thailand has pockets of poverty still, there is no question that Thailand is a much wealthier country than Laos. My wife, who grew up in the poor section of Northeastern Thailand, felt very fortunate that they were never *that poor* & felt bad that so many of the children were living in very poor living conditions.

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Many of the tourists that go to Phuket go there because there are some world-class spots (Similan Islands, Koh Surin & Koh Phi Phi) to go diving and snorkeling around there. If you’re doing a short trip to Phuket, or traveling with family and small kids, the good news is that there are tons of little day tours around Phuket that you can take to smaller islands. My lovely wife and I took a half-day trip to some of the smaller islands around Phuket, including Khai Nok, to simply check some fish out.

Some of the islands are only fifteen minutes from Phuket, which makes for a great half-day tour if you’re on a quick jaunt.

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Some of the hidden beach gems of Thailand can be found in Trang province, an area that isn’t frequented by as many tourists as Phuket or Koh Samui (in the region you will find the islands of Koh Mook, Koh Libong and Koh Kradan). My wife and I took a five-hour ride from Phuket to get to the islands, and we were amazed at how much different is was than Phuket; it was almost like stepping back twenty years to what Phuket must have been like in the 1980′s.

One of the real treats of the trip was seeing some dolphins and dugongs in the water, which our boat captain said was a pretty rare experience these days. Overfishing in Thailand means that many of the larger sea animals are not seen as frequently.

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Nai Yang Beach is the beach closest to the Phuket Airport, which you will fly over when you land in Phuket. A couple of really cool things about Nai Yang Beach:

1. Not nearly as crowded as the beaches in Patong.

2. There are a number of decent restaurants along the beach (my wife recently told me that this may not be the case now, however, because some of the locals may have had some conflicts with the local government).

3 You can go snorkeling at Koh Wei, located only about twenty minutes off-shore by long-tail boat, and check some tropical fish out.

4. The Beach Club is a really chill place to party or just hang out. The Beach Club is pretty slow during slow season, so you can expect to have the place almost all to yourself in the early evening hours.

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My wife and I went to Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2007 to go see the “real Thailand”. During the course of our trip to Chiang Mai, we had a chance to see a Thai cultural show over a traditional Khantoke dinner, complete with women dancers, men playing with swords, and men playing with fire.

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The orangutan is slowly becoming my favorite primate because of their facial expressions.  When I see a picture like this, it is hard not to wonder what the orangutan was thinking about at that particular time (“Am I going to get out of Singapore Zoo?”, “What’s for lunch?”).

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