Well – we’ve been back for a little over a week and I’ve been so sick with a nasty cold/flu that I’ve hardly had time to process many photos at all!
Thailand was absolutely mind-blowing and amazingly photogenic. We saw some of the best sunsets we could even imagine.
Bangkok was insanely big and even flying in to land at Suvanarbhumi airport doesn’t show you the sheer size of this city! The weather was superb, with temperatures around the 34 degree mark, with obviously very high humidity. We spent 5 days in and around Bangkok which incorporated Kanchanaburi, and visiting the POW Cemetery, the Bridge over the River Kwai, Hellfire Pass and The Tiger Temple.
We then took an Air Asia flight on to Phuket and transferred to Patong Beach for another 5 days. Needless to say our planned trip to Pattaya didn’t eventuate because we loved Patong/Phuket so much we stayed here longer. Some people don’t enjoy Patong because it is full of Aussies/Poms/Americans BUT we loved the laid-back vibe and how relaxed we ended up being.
We travelled to Ao Phang Nga Marine Park and visited about half a dozen islands and did some sea canoeing! The final part of this day trip included a visit to James Bond Island. Amazing!
Also while in Phuket we travelled to the Phi Phi Islands. Wow. If there was ever a place in the world that would blow me away, this was it. The scenery was just magnificent, and apart from the Great Barrier Reef, the best snorkelling we’ve ever done.
Another highlight in Phuket was a trip to Koh Panyee which also incorporates a Muslim Sea Gypsy village built on stilts by an island that was made up of a giant karst limestone rock protuding from the turquoise Andaman Sea.
Well, that’s a brief run-down of our trip, so keep tuned because images of some of what I’ve described will soon be appearing on Red Bubble.
The best part is – we fell in love with Thailand, the people, the culture and even the language (yes we managed to perfect a few sentences/phrases!), so much so that we are going back!
Not for quite some time but in 2009 we’ll be travelling back to Bangkok and travelling overland south through Thailand, into Malaysia and then on to Singapore! After a few days in Singapore we’ll then be flying to Hong Kong to 5 days and hopefully a quick trip to mainland China!
We are very excited and the fact that it’s a fair way away won’t diminish our excitement and will definitely give me plenty of time to investigate the absolute BEST photographic opportunities I’ll face on my next jaunt overseas..
Robert Mullner
Ahh Sawadicup Kelly….sounds like you had a great trip…look forward to seeing some shots from here…it will bring it all back for me as we visited earlier this year as well.
cheers, Rob…
Stuart Chapman
You jet setters you :)
Glad to hear you had such a fantastic time. The James Bond Island was the one renamed after “The Man With A Golden Gun” wasn’t it?
Kelly McGill:
That’s it, Stuart. I’ve not seen the movie though.. slack eh!
NickMonk
Come on Kel, we all know the drug trade is lucrative, no need to wind us up with some story about how much you liked the place and stuff.
:-)
Kelly McGill:
Haha good one Nick! We were so paranoid about that, we barely took Panadol out of the fear of spending eternity in the ‘Bangkok Hilton’.
Frank Yuwono
Did you get to see the Fotofile shop at MBK? I met Steve there and had coffee at Starbucks. I didn’t get much chance to go sightseeing. Most of my photography had been around the hotel and places the family took us to!
BTW shopping was cheaper than sightseeing :)
Franklin Lindsey
Welcome back Kelly! Good to hear the trip was awesome and didn’t fall short of expectations. Please share with us soon any wonderful shots you took soon!