Jim Thompson's House (Bangkok)

Jim Thompson was an American in love with Thai silk. He is credited with revitalising a dying industry. He lived in Bangkok for 22 years, started his Thai Silk Company, and strangely enough disappeared on an afternoon walk in 1967 in Cambodia, where despite an extensive search -- not a trace of him, his body or anything related to him at all was ever found. His house is now a museum in Bangkok. And boy is it cool. He was a student architecture before joining the army and before moving to Thailand. Thus, when it came time for him to b his home, he bought houses from all over Thailand (6 in total) and had them brought to Bangkok and assembled as one house.

His eye for design and antiquities is demonstrated throughout the grounds. There is also a lovely garden, which he called a jungle in a letter to his sister. I can say that not one detail was overlooked and despite a small issue as the lack of air conditioning (! Ha!) it was a house I would move into today. Its just that cool. He did the most cool things -- like reversing the walls of the house, because Thai design puts all the carved wood on the outside and he wanted to see it when he was in the house!

This is the area underneath the house.

This is a close up on the teak panel used to dye the silks. Its actually Chinese in origin but liked that the pieces of the animals were removable thus allowing the dye to placed in many colours. It also has a ruler across the top for measuring the size of the fabrics.

The "jungle" garden facing the rice storage house.

Welcome to Bangkok.

Here is a quick peak at our funky hotel room. We are staying at a design hotel, which thought could go either way. Turns out -- its wonderful. The art, the design and the furniture are incredible cool. We also took at quick video out the window of our hotel room. We are staying on the 24th floor. The video is shot look towards the river and as far as we can tell, looking away from the downtown area. Bangkok is such an enormously spread out city that its hard to define a downtown. Either way, its still a unique city!

Our last night. (Samui, Thailand)

As all good things must come to an end -- it was our last night in Samui. We were lucky though, the hotel had arranged for a Royal Thai dinner and show just for us. Okay, so the show was for everyone at the hotel, but it was still lovely! Here are a couple of pictures pre-show. It was buy one, get one free happy hour at the beach bar, so were getting silly with our photos. :)

Jason's tequila sunrise!

Here is a quick video of the Thai dancing show. Yes, its incredibly silly as it was in our hotel -- but we really enjoyed watching the show. The women (and man) were incredibly fluid in their dancing, bending in ways that I so cannot!

Big Buddha. (Samui, Thailand)

We rode the scooter to the north end of the island -- our hotel was at the far south end. We were enjoying ourselves, the breeze from the ride and our freedom immensely!

With no destination in mind, we stumbled upon this "Big Buddha". It was so hot though that we couldn't really be bothered to climb to the top of it, so we took pictures from the bottom. We were pleased though to be able to purchase a brick and sign our names to the brick that will be used to the build the temple next to the Big Buddha. Cheesy? Yes, but I'm a sucker for that stuff!

Here are the photos from the Big Buddha. We aren't in any of them because frankly we were disgusting with sweat and road grit at this point, and well, I have some standards in the photos I publish on this blog.

Riding our hog.

We rented a scooter to get about the island. Given that Koh Samui has one of the highest rates of road accidents in all of Thailand, the woman who rented us the scooter insisted we wear helmets. For our safety. Certainly not for our vanity as we looked like total and complete morons. As can be seen in the picture of Jason below. Mind you, I am not making fun of Jason, as you see, my picture isn't here because where Jason just looks a bit silly, I looked ridiculous. (Also, my germ/sweat phobia reared its head regarding the helmet, so as you can see in the video, I am wearing my ultra-cool/protective bandanna -- adding to the ridiculousness of my outfit.

This is me.

In case you were wondering. This is me -- right now. We are in the biz lounge in the hotel enjoying free wireless and saying hello! We just watched the monsoon (evening) rain engulf the city and pass us by. It was an amazing sight. The lightening ignites the sky, whilst the rain continues to fall -- this is rain like nowhere else in the world. Hot and oppressive -- it takes all your energy. Well, all my western energy -- the natives are faring far better than I. In fact, they aren't phased by it.

A couple of other comments -- the humidity is so incredible that I have the world's straightest hair (long before it was a fad), and my hair is curling here. Go figure.

My friend Lauren sent me an email telling me that jungle heat on the beach is nothing like city jungle heat -- she's in Washington DC and wears a suit to work and finds the whole process awful. Well, its still jungle hot in Bangkok and now there are buses, taxis, cars and all manner of sweaty, polluted hot. True, we aren't wearing suits, but it still sucks! :)

Enough of the hard work!

Let's get back to what we do best -- relaxing!

Ang Thong -- Climbing

First order of business -- climb to the top of a hill overlooking a hidden salt water lake.

The park has nicely put in a bunch of stairs to the top of the hill. When I say stairs you may think of a casual climb to the top of the hill. When in fact, let's actually say ladders. No doubt it was worth it, but whew! When she said we would work for lunch -- she meant it!

The lake was so gorgeous!

But now we are super, super hot and ready for the second trip of the day! Kayaking!

Ang Thong -- Kayaking

Second order of business -- sea kayaking. Jason and I selected a two person kayak, and set out. We (everyone) followed the coast line around a few islands. The water has eroded the rock in such a way that there are loads of underwater caves, nook and crannies. Its a very peaceful ride!

This is the first cave. I am looking up out of the cave.

Same cave -- only now I am looking back at the way we came in!

Heading through one of the nooks around the islands -- and the slight traffic jam in front of us!

I turned around as fast as I could to take this picture of Jason before capsizing our boat!

Ang Thong National Marine Park

Enough of all this relaxation! Get to work! As my dad would say -- or in our case, go climbing! Go kayaking!

The park is behind Jason. The park consists of something like 40 islands that are uninhabited around Koh Samui. Its basically a nature park with limited access for tours. Lucky for us, we were on one of these tours!

Our little heaven in Koh Samui!

This is the entrance of our front gate. The steps lead up to our bungalow.

This is our private pool! Its fantastic but freezing!!

This is a lounger bed/sun chair. We had many a nap here!

Main bedroom.

Our view. Behind that building is the ocean.

Why it was all worth it! (Thailand)

Look how pleased we are to be looking at this scenery knowing we are heading to Koh Samui, where a week of relaxation awaits us!

We are the ferry crossing to the island. I couldn't be happier that the end is finally near! Beach time here I come!

Jungle Hot (Thailand)

After waiting 3 hours in Hat Yai, we boarded the train for Surat Thani. We were stunned to see the train conditions. No air, big windows, vinyl seats and ceiling fans. We were dying. Our Western bodies unable to cope with the heat and humidity. In these pictures, you can refer to my post without pictures to get a sense of the heat. Or look at me. I am so hot! :)

The sunset and the scenery were amazing, so it was worth it. But 8 or so hours to go about 150-175 miles -- whew -- slow, slow, slow train. Once in lifetime about sums that up!

Sleeper Trains.

The sleeper train to Thailand is seriously a bit like camping. Its old and frankly reminded Jason and I of a camper van from the 1960's. It was lovely in its prime, but now its just a reminder of what used to be. That's not to say we we're smitten with the experience. We snacked, played dominos and giggled for a long time about the entire experience.

I slept on the bottom bunk, which turned out to be the better deal. The cushioning behind me held me snug in the bed whereas Jason was thrown all over on the top bunk. We giggled taking these pictures about the seat belts hanging from the ceiling to keep you in -- little did we know just how important those belts would be!

On our little table, playing dominos. Also so not 1960's -- my iPod and a last minute set of speakers my mom gave me before we left. I was hesitant aboout taking them -- but we have used them quite a bit.

Total train time -- 15 hours. At least we were comfy!

At Last...The Petronas Tower and How Small You Really Are.

What else do you do on a layover in Kuala Lumpur? See the Petronas Towers, of course! One thing that instantly struck both Jason and I -- KL isn't that tall of a city. When we were on the train I was thinking of Hong Kong. Something incredible and tall. I mean, isn't that what the city should look like, especially wehn boasting of these magnificent towers? But no. They are a sight to see, but only because they stick out so much. There is nothing in the city (minus a communications tower) that is even remotely that high. And that's not to say there aren't a lot of tall buildings, there are just none that can compete.

I am smiling in this photo because right behind me is an entrance to the very air conditioned and incredibly chic shopping centre under the towers. Once this photo is taken -- I'm in!

Time to Leave Singapore!

We opted for first class seats – and don't they look nice? The steward was kind enough to bring us bottles of water as well. Total journey time to Kuala Lumpur? 7 hours or maybe 8 -- depends on which employee you ask!

We are ready to depart!

For Lisa.

For Lisa, who loves being mentioned in my blog. Singapore slings. The guidebook says that every tourist in Singapore comes to the Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling. Oh, and you can throw peanut shells on the floor. Which ordinarily, I admit, isn't that big of a deal, but in Singapore it is advertised as the one place where littering is encouraged and not fined! The guidebook failed to mention that said famous Sling would be the most expensive drink we have ever bought. But it was good, and more importantly, the gentleman at the table next to us offered to take our picture. How lovely is that?

What to do at night in Singapore!

We loved dinner and drinks in Singapore. Around every corner is a restaurant or more likely a group of them. Our first night we headed to Boat Quay – and joined all the business workers out for a pint or two after work.

Jason took this picture of me, which I like so here it is.

Here is what we were really looking at during dinner. Its the Fullerton Hotel and its what's actually over my shoulder in the picture above.

These are both night shots around the quay. Between the lights, the warmth, the atmosphere and the people – it just has to be a great night out!