It's a jungle out there!

Khao Sok rainforest is in fact a remnant of a 160-million-year-old forest ecosystem that is much older and richer than the forests of the Amazon and central African regions.

Yesterday, we went to a monkey watering hole. The monkeys come down from the jungle at 5 pm every evening, and if you've got some bananas, they're happy to take them from you. Today, we went for a hike in the National Park, and there were monkeys walking down the trail. They stopped to check us out, but since we didn't have any bananas, they just kept on trucking.

Festival in Chumphon

Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November.

Loi" means "to float" and a "krathong" is traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk, and decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles and incense sticks. During the night of the full moon, Thais will float their krathong on a river, canal or a pond lake. The festival is believed to originate in an ancient practice of paying respect to the spirit of the waters.

The Loi Krathong ritual is a simple one. One needs only to light the candles and the joss sticks, make one's wishes and let it float away with the current of a river or a canal.

my krathong

Loi Krathong coincides with the Lanna(northern Thai) festival known as "Yi Peng". A multitude ofLanna-stylesky lanterns(khom loi ), literally: "floating lanterns") are launched into the air. The festival is meant as a time for tham bun , to make merit. People usually make khom loi from a thin fabric, such as rice paper, to which a candle or fuel cell is attached. When the fuel cell is lit, the resulting hot air which is trapped inside the lantern creates enough lift for the khom loi to float up in to the sky.

Paradise found....

Koh Tao- an incredibly beautiful island.

Siam Niramit

Big stage production- before the show, the actors/dancers (including the elephants!) were mingling with the crowd...

So, where are we anyway?

We started in Bangkok. After 6 fun filled days, we headed north on an overnight train to Chiang Mai. Spent 6 days loving Chiang Mai then back through Bangkok on an overnight bus. (Train was alot more fun than the bus) Spent another couple of days in Bangkok because it's hard to leave (so much to see- plus our hotel had such a great buffet breakfast!) Finally we headed south by bus to Hua Hin (not too much there), then a train to Chumphon, our jumping off point to the islands off the east coast. Tomorrow we take a ferry to Koh Tao- an island off the coast of Chumphon (not on this map).

Exercise in the park

Every morning in Lumphini Park in Bangkok, people gather to exercise before going to work. There are groups doing aerobics, Tai Chi, martial arts practice, and stretching, as well as the more typical joggers around the park. Anyone can join any group (and we joined a few- we even got private instruction in the self defense group, when they noticed us attempting to keep up).

Everyone was ready with a smile, and happy to have the farang join in.

Khan Toke

Khan Toke-

The meal is served on a wooden pedestral tray call "Khantoke", and the dishes are all authentic northern Thai delicacies. While guests enjoy the meal, there are performances of dance and music. The distinct identities of tradition and the hill tribe groups is the entertainment theme during the Khantoke Dinner.