Happy New Year!

Hey Everyone,

I'm back from a great trip to Thailand.  Actually I was on a very long road trip starting with 4 days in England, 8 days in Istanbul, and 8 days in Thailand.  The first two trips were for work, though, as you saw, I did get some sightseening done over the weekend in Istanbul (see earlier posts).   But now I'm back in snowy Belgrade.  I can't say that I'm glad to be back.  I had an absolutely amazing time in Thailand.  It was exactly what I needed to refresh, recharge, and to get my confidence back after a stressful period at work.

I landed in Bangkok on Christmas Day in the early evening.  Here are the remnants of my Christmas dinner.  It was some kind of clam curry.  Delicious!  I ate many wonderful Thai foods, and next time I go to Thailand, I hope to have time for a cooking class.

I spent most of the week in Koh Samui, which is an island in the Gulf of Thailand.  It was a little like MTV Spring Break, a little like zen paradise, and 100% amazing.  I stayed in North Chaweng Beach, so I was not directly in the craziness of Chaweng, but could still walk into town if I wanted a night out.

Here is the hotel pool.  I spent most of my time in the Gulf, but it was nice to have the pool, especially for the families that were staying with small children.

Here are the views from "my beach".

On Monday, I took a day-long tour that went out to Angthong Marine Park.  This park has 42 different islands that are all protected by the Thai government.  The tour took us out to a few of the islands and we passed through many more.  The group picked me up at my hotel in the early morning and drove out to Nathon Pier.  We loaded up the boat, and there were about 40 of us.  It was great, because I got to meet people from everywhere, including Brazil, Sweden, Australia, and Thailand.  It took about 40 min to get out to the first stop, and the scenery was amazing.

I made friends with a girl from Bangkok. She was there alone too, and we decided to be kayak partners. A guy from Austrailia also joined us. Because there were so many people that were going kayaking, our group went on a small hike to see this blue lagoon first.

This is a sea urchin that is in the lagoon.  The lagoon is protected and it is where fish from the Gulf of Thailand go to reproduce.  We also saw two fish that were snuggling, but I couldn't get a picture.  It was very cute.

After the lagoon, we went kayaking.  We got to explore a sea cave.  Since the tide was up, there was only about 1 meter from the sea to the top of the cave and we had to duck low in the kayak to make it under the cave top.  I didn't get any pics because I didn't want to get my camera wet, but it was very cool.  We then kayaked underneath some large rocks on small islands.  We went back to the boat for a delicious Thai lunch.

After lunch, we had free time for 2 hours.  My new friends and I decided to hike up a small mountain.  It was a very strenuous climb.  Here we are at 100m.

100 meters

250 meters - half way up!

And finally, from the top with my new friends!

It was a great day!  We even got to see a monkey.

The other fun thing was New Year's Eve.  The hotel had a Gala dinner that all guests were invited and I went.  The food was ok, but the entertainment was really interesting.  First, there was a really terrible band singing along with someone's iTune list.  Then it got really good.  Thai Caberet, complete with Thai Lady Boys.  I didn't have my camera at first, so I had to run up to the room to get it.  Here are some Thai dancers.  I don't think these were Lady Boys though.

At midnight, everyone along the beach started shooting off fireworks.  It was very cool to see them all around the bay.

To add to the excitement, there was a small tree fire when some people set off a lantern and it went into the tree.  Luckily, everything was ok.

It was even a full moon.  There are big Full Moon Parties, but I decided to be more low-key and stay at the hotel.

And then I had One Night in Bangkok before coming back to Serbia.  By this point in the trip, I was pretty tired and hot, but did manage to walk around some before I had to head to the airport.

This was in front of the National Museum.

A cock in Bangkok.  Not sure what this park was, but there were lots of similar statues.  Because it was so hot in Bangkok, I did a lot of walking followed by a lot of sitting.  After sweltering in the 90+ heat with 85+ humidity, I boarded a plane at 23:45 and flew for 12 hours back to freezing cold Europe.

Here is what greeted me in Belgrade:

So it is back to work, back to winter.  Happy New Year everyone!