Thaislands

a friend of mine came from southern california and we flew to some islands in the south. snorkeled, swam, relaxed on the beach, took an elephant trek, kayaked, went to a national park... fun times.


































































































roots


cave in the back










we rented kayaks and went on our own down a river near the sea. with all the fingers of the river, the place was like a mangrove maze. we went exploring a bit and found some cool spots. caves with prehistoric paintings, hidden lagoons...







one long tunnel that leads to another part of the river



inside




a cave we got out and walked around in. it had two prehistoric painting high on the walls.













this is part of what the rivers wound through. the sea is off in the distance



tunnel entrance to a hidden lagoon type thing. once through the tunnel it opens up with no ceiling, just a large area surrounded by extremely steep jungled walls.


inside


















the main river



lunch










phi phi don

Where I go to read:

as with all of the pictures on this blog, click to enlarge...

awesome

my roommate and i just laid siege on the building across from us. let the snow battles begin.





my new place

Vietnam

flew out of thailand for a few days to see some family friends and have my visa extended by another 30 days.

i grew up pretty close with the family when i was much younger in southern california. the parents relocated to vietnam for work and their kids (around my age) were visiting for xmas so it worked out perfectly and i got to see everybody.





Took a day trip with the family friends to a place north of Ho Chi Minh to see an area where the viet cong had set up. It was crazy, and entire underground complex. Little tunnels connecting everything, kitchens, military planning rooms, the works... I hadn't realized this before but in Vietnam they call what happened there the American War. I thought that was interesting.





an american tank that was brought down. -looks like it caught a bullet on the snout.


the tunnels were actually enlarged so that tourists could explore the place


Veggie Pho in Vietnam. Helen is jealous.





dinning area with tunnel entryway



we took some paths that kinda got us freaked out, bats and stuff


drying rice paper


inside the roof - those are leaves folded over the poles of wood


outside of roof


traps - used to catch animals for eating until the war













the tunnel that goes to the river seemed pretty crazy to me


x-mas dinner! american style food (hadn't had that in a while)


one of maybe two skateparks in vietnam. this one, oddly enough was inside a guarded private residence, so it took a lot of attempts / craftiness and more than an hour to finally skate it.









they seemed pretty into celebrating christmas considering they are mostly buddhists and probably not very familiar with the tradition...