As Seen by TV

…the moon treated us to some wonderful nightscapes…
(could not have asked more from a leap-year day)

Motorbike cruisin’ through the hills and beaches of south-eastern Phuket.   Stopping by Rawai beach and Nai Ham, while concluding with a beautiful sunset (sort of) at Phromthep Cape (“God’s Cape”), which was made quite spectacular by in a very brief incoming storm.

Well.  After over a decade of hesitation, finally on December 23, 2011 I got my cojones together and decided to visit the #1 country on my list… Thailand.  Something had been holding me back for several years… nasty images of tourist-cluttered beaches and young Thai girls with super-old European men, ah yes… the infamous seedy sex-trade.  Both were expected, but I could only wonder how much.

Yes, some areas were indeed packed with pot-bellied tourists being obnoxious and begging the question, why on earth would you fly severalteen hours to lie down on a crowded beach filled with foreigners like yourself!? (Actually, I could give you a couple reasons… one rhymes with “no-no car”).

Luckily, I’m not into the “beach scene” (or the sex trade for that matter) as many others are, and right off the boat hired a motorbike and ventured off into the unknown.  My hotel wasn’t even located in Patong or Karon, or even Kata… but in Phuket Town, with the locals and far enough away from the loud Germans and Russians (no offense to either nationality, but these two groups were the loudest and outnummbered the rest 5 to 1… either by their sheer numbers or noise pollution alone).
But much more on all of this in the upcoming posts…

Two weeks o’ Thai comin’ right up!  Phuket, Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, Surat Thani, Pattaya, Bangkok and some hidden gems inbetween… BLAMMO!
Enjoy.

Our first full day in Hoi An, and we were somewhat dissaspointed with the rain, but at the same time somewhat relieved because the rain stemmed from a typhoon that hit the Vietnamese coast just north of us.  So we rented a motorbike, bought 20 cent raincoats, rocked the flip-flops and did some market shopping… after lunch, we decided to go check out the beach, a short 10min drive away… not really knowing what to expect, but we were in for a treat… a completely deserted beach saturated in lush post-typhoon colors.  The waves were menacing to say the least, but gladly it seemed the worst was over.  That evening we decided to come back the next day with out same gear, with the addition of our swimsuits.

We took a walk (luckily it had stopped raining when we arrived, and just started again as we were driving back) down the beach, while the night shots are taken from a bridge inbetween Hoi An town and the beach area…. the fishermen pictured are actually “fishing” for snakes!