B&E Photography: February 2013

Private waiting lounge, unlimited drinks, spacious leg room, and restaurant style service in-flight; our first 1st class plane travel was a welcomed surprise!!!! Our flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and back was upgraded for free due to the smooth talking skills of my ever-so-clever wife! (Yes, that rhymes) She has been asking at every flight if there was ever an opening and this time she struck gold. It was Erica and I's first time flying this way and it was so nice!
We landed in Chiang Mai and went straight to another free upgrade; the Chiang Mai Four Seasons Resort for two nights. The staff wait on you hand and foot from the moment you get there until the moment you leave. This type of service doesn't come cheap, around $450-500 a night. Fortunately for us, Mr Terry Ryken of Santa Barbara was kind enough to give us such a special gift. We are so appreciative of your generosity and Terry, if you ever read this, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! At the resort they have their own private rice paddies, two gigantic water buffalo (which Erica and I just had to ride) to plow said rice paddy, and several lush, tropical foliage enclosing you in a soothing bubble of serenity.
After leaving heaven, ahem, I mean the Four Seasons Resort, we headed for downtown Chiang Mai to a very humble B&B more along our budget. During one of our days there we went to the Tiger Kingdom to play with real live Bengal tigers. It was so much fun! It isn't like an American zoo where you have to stay behind glass or a cage. Here you can get right in and even lay on the tigers, compare paw sizes to your own hand, and even see up close how much damage those teeth really could do. There are tigers that range from 3 weeks old, one year, and fully grown. We felt like "Life of Pi".
That evening we set out to experience the night markets. These markets are chock full of shopping and scrumptious food. On our way passing through a quite unsavory area, something moved from underneath a nearby food stand that caught our attention. When we poked our heads in to investigate, an animal shrieked and made a mad dash straight for us; a light quickly illuminated the biggest and ugliest rat we've ever seen. The beast was seemingly, at first, the size equivalent of The Princess Bride's ROUS's. (we later estimated it to be the size of a medium house cat) Frightened and caught off guard, a girlish squeak erupted from my lungs. I quickly placed Erica between myself and the ensuing Chernobyl-sized rodent before it darted once again underneath another food stand. So much for being Erica's knight in shining armor.
From Chiang Mai we took a return flight to Bangkok. This city took the cake on overcrowding, air pollution, and most people trying to swindle you in a two minute period. Don't get me wrong, it was fun too. Erica had to take oxygen and a breathing apparatus with her everywhere she went due to the insane amounts of shopping. Bangkok is home to the world's largest and most diverse outdoor market. You can purchase groceries, clothes, food, and yes, even pet squirrels that come on leashes. There is no limit to what the Thai people will sell here just to make a buck, excuse me, Baht. Sometimes makes you think and wonder what's really in that food...
After getting her shopping fix, I convinced Erica we should head to the floating markets two hours outside of Bangkok. This particular market was made famous for its intricate canals and waterways where the Thai people could easily trade and purchase food and clothing on the weekends. Great place for pictures but not easy on the nose: the 'essence' of Thailand was strong as the sun cooked the river water comprised mostly of human and animal water waste. Craziest thing was I saw a man washing his dishes from breakfast in the very same water: needless to say we didn't stop to eat nearby.
Our last day in Bangkok we tried to make a meeting at the local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses only to find, once again, that no one was there (happened in Chiang Mai too). We did, however, find two really nice girls from Scandinavia in the same boat as Erica and I: all dressed up with nowhere to go. After having got along so well at a quick lunch we decided to go out as well that evening. We ended up getting some cocktails at a posh hotel in downtown where you can dine or drink on the roof, 84 floors above the ground. It offered an unobtrusive view (by that I mean safety glass only reached 3.5 feet where most lawyers would have a field day) which took in every 360 degree of sparkle, illuminating the night's sky. We had a great time that night getting to know one another and we were so glad to have made new friends with the same faith from another part of the world that only 24 hours before we had never known.
Having started to get our footing in Thailand and gaining some mastery over the current conversion rates of the Thai Baht to the US dollar, we felt good about moving on to our next destination in this beautiful country: the island of Koh Tao.

Checking in at the Four Seasons

These intricate flower arrangements were everywhere in the hotel and each one unique

Our Four Season's Bedroom that came complete with our own private sun and observation deck

Most important staff member: the drink man

Erica enjoying a coconut filled Mai Tai

Pano of the lower pool deck at Four Seasons

Pano of the rice paddies at Four Seasons

So many names have Porn somewhere in it; the best was Seeporn

Conquering the mighty water buffalo in style

Erica looking beautiful as always

Trying to make meeting; unbeknownst to us it was cancelled

International symbol for male bathroom

Such a great time visiting these huge cats

Yawning

The camera can't really capture the colors of this remarkable animal

Erica getting awfully brave

Erica's best friend

Hard day's work

Best Pita Wrap from our favorite Turkish man

Tuk-Tuk Limo

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 1

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 2

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 3

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 4

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 5 (freshly washed dishes, yuk!)

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 6

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 7

Time lapse of the Floating Market

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 8, Britney Spears ain't got nothing on me

Bangkok Floating Market Pic 9 (40lbs of snake stretched out across 15 feet, Erica's pretty buff!)

Meeting attempt #2, the saying of continually trying something hoping for a different outcome is beginning to enter our minds, at least we met two really nice Scandinavian friends

Top of the World in Bangkok

Lady's night!

Pano of Bangkok 840 feet high

After Baron and Susanne had left it was just Erica and I again to set out on our next destination on Bali. But first, I needed a shave.
I hadn't shaved in over 5 weeks. I was beginning to look like Grizzly Adams. It was a bit freaky but I managed to let someone else shave my face. However, just before that Erica talked me into getting my feet cleaned by what seemed like a thousand tiny fish all nibbling at dead skin cells. I have never been tickled that well before and I was crying-laughing. Erica managed to sneak in a quick wash and blow dry for herself.
We were then set to go to the 'Rock Temple' on the west side of the island. There's a more formal name, but it's long and complicated and the locals understand Rock Temple just fine. From a purely aesthetic point of view it was beautiful but completely overcrowded. There must have been close to a thousand people! So much for a great picture! We went to grab a quick bite to eat before the sun set over the Rock Temple when out of nowhere the heaviest rains we've seen by far unleashed all their fury. Erica and I saw our opportunity to get to the Rock Temple to take pictures knowing no one else would dare venture out. It was perfect. Well, not perfect. We got soaked but it was definitely fun as we quickly purchased two ultra cheap umbrellas for $5 (referring to cheap meant not just money, but quality). We got our photos, but not without having traverse'd over street streams that were shin deep in some parts and our cheap umbrellas turned inside out.
After the temple we took a long drive to Candidasa which is completely on the opposite side of the island. It was a time to relax and enjoy a quieter side of the island, resting by the pool and taking in greens, blues, and salt flavored air. Having rested one day, the next we took a day trip to a WWII shipwreck that was torpedoed by a Japanese sub. That wreck had turned itself into a artificial reef where Erica and I have never seen so many types of fish from sizes to colors. There were fish with deep blues, others with fluorescent green, and others with fiery red. The thing that made it most exciting was that the fish had no problem with us humans being there. They let us touch them on several occasions and Erica swam through a school of fish that could not have been shy of a thousand, 1.5 foot long silver fish. It was spectacular and a moment we would never forget.
From Candidasa, we went and spent our final two nights at Uluwatu. It is a famous surf spot that even the most amateur of surfers is knowledgeable about. I was fortunate enough to catch two feet overhead surf in the "off" season where the water was a balmy 81 degrees. It was so much fun and the only thing that would have made it better would to have my brothers, my father, and my father-in-law there with me.
Our trip to Bali came to a close and we found ourselves back at the airport that only seemed like yesterday we had flown into. We checked in our bags, said goodbye to Bali, and headed out to our next destination: Thailand.