Thailand, Bangkok, Patong and on and on

Hideeho neighbor! We've been in Thailand for oh about a week or so. I lost track of the calendar after about 48 hours. We've seen a bit of Bangkok -- Wat Pho, several others, the Bangkok zoo, a canal tour, even Khao San Road and IT City (6 stories of gadgets and geek-dom). Bangkok's a cool city, but being hounded by tuk-tuk drivers every 10m or so is draining. I'm writing from Patong Beach which, according to the Lonely Planet guide is the "epicenter of the tourist earthquake." Of course, those words were written pre-tsunami, so perhaps they will be striken from the next edition. There's really no evidence of the damage done. Everything seems to up and running. Comments from returnees is that the prices are much higher this year.

We went on a river rafting / wat in a cave / elephant ride package. As cheezy as it sounds, it was fun to get out of noisy, smelly sexpat Patong. We had a nice swim by a waterfall about halfway through the day. Both Amy and I felt like the trip has finally gotten started.


Yesterday we went on a dive with West Coast Divers. We spent the day a Racha Yai. The water was warm, but Bungalow Bay was very, very crowded. Being the typical jaded dive instructor that I am, I lost track of the dive guide after about 30 seconds and then Amy and I did our own thing for the rest of the dive. We saw a banded sea snake, a spotfin lionfish and a lot of the usual suspects from Hawaii.

Today we are just chillin' until the van picks us up to take us the M/V Queen Scuba. We're off to the Similans for 4 days. We'll let you know how it goes once we get back.

As a postscript; just a day or so after landing in Bangkok we heard that we lost a friend back home. Jansen was just 18, just a kid, and we are struck sad by the his death. We talk about him daily, and we remind ourselves how precious and short life can be. We wish we could have been back home to pay our respects and celebrate his life with friends and family. We'll miss him.