Goodbye to Saris and North Face Gear, Hello to Board Shorts and Bikinis!

Krabi, Thailand
It's been a while since our last real post, so we're turning the clock back a week or so to when we were still in Kathmandu. After we got back from Chitwan, we did a walking tour of the city, passing numerous shrines and temples that were unceremoniously tucked in among the crowded buildings, narrow alleys and various street venders. Each Hindu shrine is typically dedicated to a single god, such as Ganesh (the half elephant) or Vishnu. There were numerous Buddhist temples as well, and some sites had significance in both religions. The monuments were fantastic, especially considering they mostly date to the middle ages, but their surroundings tended to encroach, and their general filthyness took away from the magic. We found the same to be true of the famed Durbar square, where the Kings coronation takes place. It was an interesting experience in any case.

In the afternoon, we headed up to the Garden of Dreams, a formal royal sanctuary, that fell into disrepair and was recently restored and opened to visitors. They did a great job, (even providing mats for lying on the grass) and we found it to be a nice break from the chaos of Kathmandu, that raged on outside the walls.

On our last full day in Kathmandu, we rented a couple of mountain bikes and headed for the hills to the North of the city. It wasn't real mountain biking or anything, but it was nice to get out of the smog and see the countryside around the city. We soon discovered one thing that Kathmandu doesn't have: suburbs. You ride past the city limits and pretty much find yourself immediately on the farm. It was a little unexpected, but pretty cool. Our map quickly became useless as we wound in and out of villages on dirt paths. We had to ask for directions about a hundred times, but eventually made it to our lunch goal (Tokah) and then back to Kathmandu.

We arrived in Thailand late last week, excited for beaches, but first we had to brave Bangkok for a few days to organize ourselves. Though possibly a bit overwhelming and grimy by western standards, we found Bangkok to be a releif in terms organization and sanitation. We had a number of errands to run, including getting our visas for Vietnam was quite a process. We also had to figure out just how to make it south. We settled on an overnight bus, and after a 13 hour ride we made it to Krabi Town. We got a guest room and immediately drove to Ao Nang Beach, where we boarded a longtail boat (the long tail refers to the very long, straight shaft that the propellor is attached to) and went out to Railay Beach. This is a spectacular beach with limestone cliffs on two sides (popular among rock-climbers) and restaurants along the sand. The cliffs are covered with stalactites that make them appear to be melting in the heat. We stayed there for a sunset dinner and had to negotiate a ride home since the boats had already stopped running.

Today we went on a kayaking trip into a canyon lined with limestone cliffs and mangrove trees, located near Ao Thalane (Muddy Bay). The trees grow in the muddy banks along the river with spider-like roots branching out well above the ground for stability. Monkeys run overhead and supposedly jump on your boat if they spot any food. We waited to have our snack until we were out of the canyon because we did not want to share. To help restore the mangrove tree population (decimated from harvesting them to make charcoal) we got the chance to plnt a seedling before heading back to the pier. Then we went back to the beach for the afternoon.