sábado, 30 de octubre de 2010

Back to Thailand and the beautiful islands... you can't get much closer to paradise!!

 This is just one of the many many views from the beaches that surround the various islands.
 Exercising with the hula hop! under our private bungalow in Ko Phangan
 Trecking to a cascade in Phangan island. Ko Phagnan is an island on the east side of Thailand, and is very famous for the full moon parties. There is a specific beach where the full moon seems to be amazingly beautiful, and nowadays thousands of people make their way to Phangan once a month just to enjoy the crazy parties over there!. We did not have the chance of staying that long, and the weather wasn't fantastic either so we only stayed there for 3 or 4 days, enjoying other bits if the 'party island'.
(By the way the fact that all the islands have the word Ko before their name is because... Ko means Island! je je...)








Cold waters in the beautiful cascade :)













Making 'little friends' while resting a bit ...













As you can see on the background the clouds were all over us, so here we are in the morning boat towards Suratthani, were we took a bus and another boat to the other side of Thailand (west coast) on the way to the famous Ko Phi Phi (the island of the movie The Island) how original... :)



 Here is the other bus, quite a relic!
 So! we did miss the full moon party in Phangan, but!! Phi Phi island is always ready to have you boogie and getting very very pissed for less that you ever imagine!. Here we were at the half moon party, where fire shows, drinking games and loads of dancing take place until early hours...
 A sample of the famous 'buckets' now imagine, that amount of vodka red bull for FREE ... just to stay at that particular bar...
Another key element of this parties is to cover yourself in neon paint. Since Eddie's t-shirt was completely destroyed in one of our misadventures with Nepalese laundries... we decided to revive it with some new creations!.
I'm on FIIIIIIIIRE!!
In 2004 Phi Phi Island was one of the places badly hit by the devastating Tsunami, destroying many places and lives of many  people. They now have these signs in case another massive wave hits the island again, and it indicates the different routes you should take towards safety.

The most beautiful cat in the world (well after Yuca of course!)
Monkey island. First stop of an island hopping day. We did some amazing snorkeling where neon fishes and colourful corals shinned under us. Then, we went to Maya beach island (where The Beach) was filmed, and finally we got the chance of seeing the sunset from our boat, a remarkable day :)







Monkey storing food under his mouth :) (we now know loads about monkeys after our long session in Nepal when Eddie had his dreadlocks done!)
Thai fisherman boat, always with flags and fresh flowers at the front to have the sea blessings with us!
Our bungalow in Phi Phi, very cheap and luckily without bedbugs (as our neighbours had plenty apparently!) .It was so tiny that Eddie had to shrink to fit in!.
From Phi Phi to Ko Lanta. Here we are having breakfats (very fats indeed!) in our resort, the most amazing room for the cheapest price!. We absolutely LOVED this island!!!.
Swinging in the palm trees!.












NATURAL STONE(D) FACES

Far far away from home ....
Excellent bar specially at night with the magic lights and the sound of the sea under it!.

Not as cool as the Harley from Nepal, but very practical to discover some hidden beaches and interesting spots around the islands. Broom Brooom!!!
Artistic view of Eduardito ...
Leo, remember Floripa's kayaking?? well, something similar ... :) 

lunes, 25 de octubre de 2010

Angkor Temples, Siem Reap city, Cambodia.



This pictures speak for themselves, if you like to know more about the Angkor VAST empire and history (very impressive actually!), feel free to check it yourself on wikipedia :P




Letting the nature follow it's course ....


 Enjoying a Doctor Fish massage after a long day walking in the Temples :) These fishes are brought from Indonesia and apparently they like eating dead skin, so! you only have to relax and enjoy the biting feeling (very ticklish at the beginning!) and let them eat till your feet look beautiful again! :)
 Close look of Edu's feet.
 Some of the Cambodian delicacies. This particular restaurant in Siem Reap had a small fireplace in the center of the table where you can have a degustation menu and try from kangaroo to crocodile meet!. Our favorite was Kangaroo!








The meat itself, and egg yolk for the meat not to stick to the barbecue.

Cambodian lifestyle


In Phnom Penh city, another glorious offer to the Gods to keep them happy and safeguarding. Look closer to the money and the delicious food... quite a feast!













As if from an Asterix and Obelix film, they even offered this huge pork.







The Genocide Museum TUOL SLENG. Here is the sample of the rules imposed to those detainees from the Khmer Rouge regime. It is an awful spooky place which still preserves such a heavy unresolved history. This building was originally a secondary school in Phnom Penh, but in 1977, the government lead by Pol Pot, converted it into a building for torturing and killing those meant to oppose this Cambodian new communist government. Such were the atrocities that even people was killed just because they wore glasses and they were seen as too intelligent and therefore a possible enemy for their own country.  Only illiterate people was regarded as 'good' people and everybody else (teachers, doctors, engineers etc) were obliged to labour in the concentration camps. As part of the communist regime, everybody in the country had to wear a black shirt with pants, and the same hair cut. It is important to learn from the past not to have the same mistakes happening again.

 Back from the chills of history, here we reached the city of Sihanouk Ville, south west of Cambodia. (Eddies feet before... well keep looking to find out what happens next!)
Stressful times... very much indeed... :)
 These two! they keep following us everywhere we go! ...

        A room with a view ... Here is the terrace from our amazing bungalow, with hammocks and cocktails included.


 Voila!! Here is Eddie enjoying fully a personalized pedicure. Now this is a very common sight in Cambodian beaches, as there are many ladies offering you all kinds of beauty treatments. Up to there is fine, but when they start inspecting every inch of your legs, underarms looking for unwanted hair to be waxed, it can get a bit annoying... a bit?? A LOT!!

Posing in Victoria beach, white sand beaches, cristal clear waters, seafood, shakes... I think we could do with this life for much, much longer...





domingo, 17 de octubre de 2010

 From Halong Bay to
Hoi Chi Minh, another sleeping bus, but this one much more comfy than the Indian one :) with single beds!
 Since we had more than 20 hours, we broke down the trip in the city if Danang, here I am in the station.
 Eddie practicing some reiki in this poor abandoned fish :)
 Fish enjoying the reiki session.
 Here are some of the confusing notes from Vietnam. As you can see the notes look very similar, but the values are completely different. As they say in here 'Same same but different'
 Panoramic view of the Danag river (by Edu)
 We, crazy humans, never happy with what we are given, are we? Here in Asia, having brown nipples is seemed as ugly, so! they have created a product that apparently helps suddenly change the colour to beautiful pink... Mad world....
 Crossing the boarder from Vietnam to the Kingdom of Cambodia (with our beloved clouds, as always)
 This picture is for Deborah, la facultad de Farmacia en Phnom Penh and the beautiful Cambodian script!

Street POP ART (by Ali)

View of the central market in Phnom Penh, a beautiful building full of beautiful things to buy :) (if you have the money to do it!)
Eddie posing in the entrance to the market, guapo!
 Being blessed. This nice old man (we are not sure whether he was a monk..) invited us to enter this small temple and he did a ritual on us (video will be uploaded soon!)

The Royal palace of Cambodia.