Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Holy crap.
11 wineries.
9 hours.
6 idiots.
And we still have tomorrow.
Crapjacks.
David's Gatlog
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Monday, February 8th, 2010
After our retreat on Ko Chang, we headed back to the density of Bangkok. We unwound over the next few days, and while we crammed in an amazing amount of shopping, massages, and general sightseeing around the city, we also made our way an hour north to the ancient city of Ayutthaya.
Thailand’s version of Angkor Wat, Ayutthaya is a vast, sprawling collection of ancient temple ruins. Massive Buddahs, Temple structures, and crazy tuk tuk drivers flying around the city at mach 7.
Again, we opted for the self guided tour of the ruins and let our brief Lonely Planet description guide us on our way. But really, I think our brief little stay in the ancient city was more a way of decompressing from our adventures and finding some of the real, hidden beauty in the Thai culture.
We found ourselves exploring this sleepy, ancient city with about 300 local school children. The boys above found an exhausted Jessica and Melinda more than fascinating and almost sprained each of their necks doing double and triple takes as they walked by.
The flowers in Thailand are in a perpetual state of in bloom, and the heat is in a perpetual state of blisteringly stupid hot.
Apparently this used to be the Thailand capitol. I’d like to imagine that this building was the DMV…or perhaps the post office. 
Thai school girls on a field trip. It was weird, both the boys and girls school uniforms were identical to American Boy Scout and Girl Scout uniforms, down to the last detail… I suppose they could very well have been boy scouts and girl scouts as opposed to school children like I assumed…but then that wouldn’t make for as interesting a story…now would it?
Apparently, judging by his omni-presence in the form of statue… Buddah was, and may still be, bigger than Hello Kitty…but just barely.
Its funny looking back at this photo. We spent a good portion of our time in Bangkok reading the various travel books we had collected, looking for things to do that day. A tiny little thumbnail of this photo lead us on a hour and a half cab ride to this city and we wound up spending an incredible day they wandering through the ruins. It’s amazingly liberating having no plans, and exploring on a whim.
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
The small island of Ko Yuak can be seen directly above the boat in this photo (above). It’s funny, looking back at this photo it actually looks quite far away. But I can assure you, when standing on the white sandy beach with your feet in the 80 degree water, nothing looks THAT far away. None of us questioned the distance we were about to attempt prior to setting out… in fact, just the day before, after riding elephants, we capped the day by enjoying a nice evening paddle out to the closest island and it was really quite easy (below)
When driving into our little beach community, you could see this island from the roadway. And smack dab in the middle of it was a perfect little secluded beach. Given that anyone looking could see this from the road, combined with it’s proximity to the main shoreline, this place wound up getting more visitors than any secluded beach ever should.
So many visitors in fact, that we only stayed a short while here, and then decided our time would be far better spent exploring the rest of the island by kayak. This was easily some of the worlds best kayaking, we paddled through mangrove reefs, in and out of caves, and over crystal clear teal blue waters…incredible.
Gotta love all day “tri-yak” rentals for $3 dollars.
Mimi and Clay rocking the Yak.
This place was so close to our hotel that on our paddle back to the resort, we passed 3, less than sober, guys swimming out to the island to stay the night on the beach. Apparently they had all chipped in on an inflatable mattress and used it as a quasi raft to make there way to the little beach. Straight out of the Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The Beach”, these guys had a great idea…but once they found they’re soon to be beds shared with sand crabs, mice, and whatever else lives on tropical islands…I’m sure they weren’t as happy with their drunken decision of excellence.
Anyhow, this “seclusion” was a little too easy for me.
The next day we had to paddle to more distant islands…”grand rewards must await those who dare attempt such endeavors…” I remember thinking to myself. My enthusiasm caught on…and we made plans to spend the following day island kayak hopping.
And so we found our self titled island… “Mobile Island”. Although, not without some serious doubts on our part. First off, there are 3 islands off the coast (seen in the top photo) the left most being closest, the right most being furthest. Mobile Island (ko yuak; above) being the furthest. For those of you that have paddled an “ocean mile” in a 2 person kayak, you know that things tend to be about twice as far as predicted. And generally, as a rule, you only figure this out once you’re half way…stranded in the middle of open, shark infested, ocean….good times.
When we finally made it to the first island…we were all exhausted from the paddling, and the sun, and ready to take refuge on some pristine sandy beach.
…that was until we realized no such beach exists on island no. 1.
Off to island number 2.
More of the same…craggy, rocky shore line. Even if we wanted to take a break, landing the kayaks would have been disastrous.
So island number 3 was our only hope…and seriously…we needed it… I’m pretty sure were there no beach there, we would have found anything resembling shade and just laid in the kayak, afloat, for an hour resting adrift in the ocean.
Paydirt! Ko Yuak had a beach…err….shelly, coral shard infested beachlike beach. But we didn’t care…at this point those jagged little daggers of coral and shells looked like a bed of down feathers. So we beached the Yaks and explored our new home for the day.
Hanging from the tree here you can see some of the shell Mobiles visitors to the island had left behind.
Ko Yuak landing.
Looking back at island no. 2. The beachless temptress.
Looking out over the reef of Ko Yuak. Apparently this is some of the best snorkeling in Ko Chang, but the currents had really picked up and the water visibility was only like 5-10 feet. Free diving in strong currents and crappy visibility, mixed with tropical reefs bearing all kinds of pokey, stabby, corally daggers of fun, makes snorkeling a little less enjoyable…but still I spent a good hour inspecting said playgrounds of death.
Jessica and Clayton even braved the impending punctures to the feet for some snorkeling with me
Jessica standing with her “trash mobile” both art and recycling. Jessica made quite the political statement and managed to strike a pose while doing it.
This concluded our stay on Ko Chang nicely. After a few hours on the island, we paddled back to the main shoreline and spent our last night enjoying some smoking hot green curry and Chang Beers. I even helped Melinda brave the dreaded “beach bartering” and helped her score a sweet smash ball set from one of the vendors on the beach. Mimi even let me casually talk the sweet woman down about 3 dollars before giving in and paying whatever she wanted…
I have some more photos of the island here: http://www.davidhgatley.com/gatlog/?p=536