baby muay thai

I've taken a few videos in the last couple weeks. Below are some of the highlights... Well mainly it's the baby Muay Thai fights Lan and I saw in Ko Phi Phi. Hopefully you all have a sense of humor and can appreciate this very amusing fight. These were the real Muay Thai fighters' sons, and will surely grow up to be show fighters and they were already good actors. Also included is an elephant dance from up in Chiang Mai.

Round 1


Want more? Round 2


Round 3... And the winner is...


And now for all you PETA activists

back to the land of the khmers

Didn't think I'd make it back to Angkor Wat so soon, but I'm glad that I did. I came here just under four years ago the first time I visited Asia and I still think it's one of the - if not the - most beautiful and awe inspiring places on earth. Second time around was just as amazing as the first. Pictures can't possibly do it justice, but I tried. First day included visits to Angkor Thom, Bayon, Angkor Wat, Baphuon, Elephant Terraces, and a couple of the other smaller temples. More pictures to come from day two. Simply amazing :)

atop of thailand

Sorry I’ve been slacking on the blog… been rather busy, I have a ton of pictures to sort through, and I’ve had some lousy internet connections. Spent last week in Chiang Mai - this time around with the family, and it was just as enjoyable as the first time. We had a bit more time on our hands than when I was with Nate, Lisa and Lan, so after visiting the temple atop Doi Suthep and riding elephants again, we took a Thai cooking class, a trip to Doi Ithanon National Park and spent a bit more time exploring the temples of Chiang Mai. The cooking class was a bit on the basic side, but fun nonetheless. We cooked up some delicious pad thai, tom yum kung, sticky rice with mango, various curries and a couple other dishes. We basically cooked and ate all day long. Doi Ithanon National Park, which boasts Thailands highest peak at 8400-some feet, and the King’s and Queen’s Pagodas also made for a worthwhile day trip. We climbed to the top of the peak with our trusty taxi driver Pongsak, who drove us around all week, and taught us a few words of Thai in the process. Now we’re in Siem Reap, near Angkor Wat for the weekend before spending most of next week in and around Bangkok. I already have a ton of pics from Angkor, but still have to sort through them. All in all, not a bad way to round off 2009.

street food

Waiting for the family to arrive in Chiang Mai after what appears to have been a long and delayed-filled trip, I decided to take a stroll through the food stalls at the Saturday night street market and snap some pics. Couldn't tell you what half of the stuff is, but I'll try to get Picassa descriptions where I can identify things. I ended up eating crispy pork and rice for a grand total of $0.75. Oh, and yes, this is the stuff all those retarded travel doctors tell you to avoid.

ko phi phi

I’ve spent the last couple days in Ko Phi Phi - a small set of islands about an hour and a half from Phuket – with Lan. It’s a gorgeous little rocky island which has been turned into backpacker heaven. There are no cars or motorcycles, just push carts, a zillion backpackers and a lot of bars. It’s not exactly authentically Thai, but then again I don’t think there are too many places like this in the world. Yesterday we took a snorkeling boat tour over to Phi Phi Le, which is the smaller uninhabited island south of Phi Phi Don, which is where we’re staying. We were supposed to catch the sunset from the boat but it started pouring just as the sun went down. Nevertheless, it made for some spectacular scenery. At night we went to Reggae Bar which featured a Mui Thai ring with fights catered exclusively to the young crowd. We saw, babies, and drunken male and female backpackers get in the ring (not at the same time) to duke it out, as well as a couple “real” fights with Thai boxers. Unfortunately, even those resembled a WWE fight more than anything else. A good time was had. Now I’m headed back north to Chiang Mai to meet up with my parents and sisters.

day at the beach

Made it down to Phuket and have been enjoying the sun and sand since our arrival. We're staying on a quieter part of the island which seems filled with Europeans - primarily older slightly obese Scandinavians... The beach is beautiful though and the waves are fun to play in. Not surprisingly, I got a pretty sweet sunburn and I'm exhausted. Also not surprising is that we continued to eat a lot. We started the day with a spicy pork noodle soup (see pictures), drank at least three coconuts each (among other things) and finished the day with a big send off meal for Nate & Lisa. Deep fried fish, roasted chicken, two soups and green papaya salad were all enjoyed - as was the finale of a Thai drama which the staff was watching on TV. Tomorrow Lan and I make our way to Ko Phi Phi while Nate & Lisa begin their long ride back to Boston.

day eating with the fifty

Yesterday we continued to eat our way across Chiang Mai. We basically did nothing but wander from market to market, eating, getting massages and occasionally stopping to relax too :) I had the 50mm lens on all day, so it made for some good food pictures at the night market. And yes, we tried some of the tasty little fried worms... Today we fly down south to the Andaman Sea.

back to asia...

So I'm back in Asia... I landed in Bangkok late Tuesday night and have been gently adjusting since then. Bangkok is pretty much as crazy, immense and hectic as I remember it. There's a zillion people - and they're out late each and every night - eating, partying, bargaining, etc... Traffic remains as bad as anywhere I've ever seen, but at least the public transportation system works pretty well. The food - and especially the street food - has been pretty good. I've definitely enjoyed a bunch of soups and curries though half the time I couldn't tell you exactly what I'm eating.

I ended up walking about eight miles through town on Thursday which was rather exhausting - there really isn't much in the way of green areas aside from a couple large parks. I hit the Chinatown street market which is a network of passageways with all sorts of vendors cramped into the tiny alleys. Definitely not for the claustrophobic. I also stumbled into a rally being held by the red shirts - the opposition party, though it all seemed rather tame and peaceful. Along the way, I had a plate of chicken rice from a street vendor that wasn't half bad. It's quite literally just boiled chicken and rice, but it tastes so much better than it sounds. The rice was perfectly cooked, and the chicken is boiled to perfection in chicken broth. Then you top the whole thing with any number of Thai condiments that accompany meals.

Now I'm in Chiang Mai with Lan, Nate and Lisa and we've been enjoying the laid back atmosphere and cooler mountain weather. Lot's of street food has been consumed, with everything from pad thai to random grilled meat products. Saturday we spent a majority of the day at an Elephant park, riding and feeding the giant animals and laughing quite a bit along the way. We ended the day visiting a tiger petting zoo (seriously...) and the temple atop Doi Suthep, the peak which overlooks the city. It's one of the nicer temples I've been to, and I really enjoyed revisiting it.

In store today is a lot of food and relaxation, then off to Phuket tomorrow for well... more food and relaxation. It's a tough life. Pictures below are mostly from Chiang Mai, nothing from Bangkok yet...

the adventure continues...

Rather than starting a whole new blog, I figured it would be easier to just kick this one back into gear. In case I haven't told you yet, and that seems unlikely if you're reading this, I'll be returning to Asia in December - this time as part of a study abroad program. I'll be based out of Bangkok at the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, and so will be spending most of the time enjoying everything Thailand has to offer. Other things I have on tap for this trip include another two week stint in Japan and hopefully several excursions to nearby countries - Laos, Sri Lanka, the Philippines all rank high on my list. I'll try to keep the blog updates similar to those from my previous trip, though I think there will be an added emphasis on food and photography rather than travel. In addition I'll have plenty of friends and family join me for parts of this trip, so if you're looking for yet another distraction from work over the winter, stay tuned.