honeymoon recap
i know, i know, it's been 4 months since the wedding and honeymoon. but this summer has disappeared into a great big wormhole, and i'm only now getting around to making pictures available for public consumption.
since i uploaded 119 pictures, i won't be including them all here. to see all the uploaded pictures, see the links at the bottom of this post.
we arrived in phuket at night, after 20+ hours in transit. our first lodging was a splurge - it was our honeymoon, after all. plus, it marked the first time (other than arranged weekends like destination weddings) in our travels where we booked a hotel in advance. this is what we were greeted with upon checking in:
phuket. this beach was a short trail away from our cabin.
the pool was fancy:
regarding phuket:
we really felt it was the low season down south. normally, phuket would be too teeming & crazy for our tastes, but with our jet lag (it's an 11-hour time difference) and all, we ended up on the main market street in phuket looking for food and sundries, as other places seemed pretty closed up. we had no real interest in checking out the sex shows that they try to entice all the tourists into, but they walk around with these little laminated signs listing the various acts. when i saw "knitting show" listed, i was tempted! we skipped it, though, so if anyone knows what they may do at those sex shows involving knitting, please enlighten me.
a few days into our trip, we moved on to the next province: krabi. we took a daytrip to our first temple: a forest wat. i took all the writings in our guidebook about dressing respectfully at temples to heart, so we were waaaaaay overdressed for the hot, humid thailand weather. especially since there's a 2,000+ step climb to see the buddha statues.
start of the climb:
view part-way up the climb:
it was an amazing views (and nice and breezy) on top. see how red my face is? that's from heat and exertion. after noticing how everyone in thailand wears flips flops/shoes that are easy to remove becuase of all the shoe-removal going on at holy sights, we amended our interpretation of dressing respectfully to account for the extreme heat.
i love how the statues often get clothes wrapped around them.
base of one of the buddhas:
i had read that a troop of monkeys hangs out at this temple. on our way down, we encountered them. they were great. as everyone knows, i love primates.
after we came down all those steps, we explored laterally. there were some cave dwellings where some monks live. this was my favorite temple, becuase, hey - monks and monkeys! i loved seeing all the monks in their saffron and orange robes. their living situation was an interesting mix of modren and ascetic. note the ceiling fans embedded in the cave.
monks' laundry hanging:
okay, what else? i was intyroduced to this fasinating fruit that looks like an alien pod. it is called "rambutan".
inside, it looks and tastes similar to lychee:
energy drinks in small glass bottles are very popular. this particular brand caught my eye. for the record, they all taste the same - like red bull without carbonation.
as far as street food, we ate a lot of kebabs. we would just point. a lot of it was fish balls or some such.
there were orchids everywhere. a nice tie-in to the wedding, because i used orchids, for the most part, for the wedding party.
i loved all the buddha statues and such, but you may get tired of seeing them all here, so i leave you with this one.
if you'd rather just see the flickr-sets i created, go here:
thailand - people
thailand - fauna
thailand - flora
thailand - flora
thailand - food
thailand - scenic
thailand - temples & statues
and a few movies we made on the camera:
monkey in forest temple
rainy temple (don't forget - we were there during the beginning of the monsoon season)
parade in market
mopeds in bangkok
since i uploaded 119 pictures, i won't be including them all here. to see all the uploaded pictures, see the links at the bottom of this post.
we arrived in phuket at night, after 20+ hours in transit. our first lodging was a splurge - it was our honeymoon, after all. plus, it marked the first time (other than arranged weekends like destination weddings) in our travels where we booked a hotel in advance. this is what we were greeted with upon checking in:
phuket. this beach was a short trail away from our cabin.
the pool was fancy:
regarding phuket:
we really felt it was the low season down south. normally, phuket would be too teeming & crazy for our tastes, but with our jet lag (it's an 11-hour time difference) and all, we ended up on the main market street in phuket looking for food and sundries, as other places seemed pretty closed up. we had no real interest in checking out the sex shows that they try to entice all the tourists into, but they walk around with these little laminated signs listing the various acts. when i saw "knitting show" listed, i was tempted! we skipped it, though, so if anyone knows what they may do at those sex shows involving knitting, please enlighten me.
a few days into our trip, we moved on to the next province: krabi. we took a daytrip to our first temple: a forest wat. i took all the writings in our guidebook about dressing respectfully at temples to heart, so we were waaaaaay overdressed for the hot, humid thailand weather. especially since there's a 2,000+ step climb to see the buddha statues.
start of the climb:
view part-way up the climb:
it was an amazing views (and nice and breezy) on top. see how red my face is? that's from heat and exertion. after noticing how everyone in thailand wears flips flops/shoes that are easy to remove becuase of all the shoe-removal going on at holy sights, we amended our interpretation of dressing respectfully to account for the extreme heat.
i love how the statues often get clothes wrapped around them.
base of one of the buddhas:
i had read that a troop of monkeys hangs out at this temple. on our way down, we encountered them. they were great. as everyone knows, i love primates.
after we came down all those steps, we explored laterally. there were some cave dwellings where some monks live. this was my favorite temple, becuase, hey - monks and monkeys! i loved seeing all the monks in their saffron and orange robes. their living situation was an interesting mix of modren and ascetic. note the ceiling fans embedded in the cave.
monks' laundry hanging:
okay, what else? i was intyroduced to this fasinating fruit that looks like an alien pod. it is called "rambutan".
inside, it looks and tastes similar to lychee:
energy drinks in small glass bottles are very popular. this particular brand caught my eye. for the record, they all taste the same - like red bull without carbonation.
as far as street food, we ate a lot of kebabs. we would just point. a lot of it was fish balls or some such.
there were orchids everywhere. a nice tie-in to the wedding, because i used orchids, for the most part, for the wedding party.
i loved all the buddha statues and such, but you may get tired of seeing them all here, so i leave you with this one.
if you'd rather just see the flickr-sets i created, go here:
thailand - people
thailand - fauna
thailand - flora
thailand - flora
thailand - food
thailand - scenic
thailand - temples & statues
and a few movies we made on the camera:
monkey in forest temple
rainy temple (don't forget - we were there during the beginning of the monsoon season)
parade in market
mopeds in bangkok