hey all the slightly cynical writing is below the pics, i recommend reading first to understand some of the pictures, such as this first one of a guy sucking his friend's injured toe

btw, it was weird.
the beach from "The Beach" on Ko Phi Phi Ley
and me at the beach, it looks like im dancing but im trying not to fall off that large and jagged rock and die.
dave's bday in KL

further along, with the infamous Al Ottaway, pre-lost shoe.
the bat cave from hell.

a little kid fire twirling in railay beach.

his dad went after him and embarrassed him, it was unreal.
the amazing railay beach.

the other side of railay beach
our canadian friends.
railay beach
thailand, a photographer's paradise, just ask these 3
sunset on ko phi phi

poolside at our resort on ko phi phi



fishing boats have weird raver lights here

fishing boat in front phi phi ley
the view from our deck on phi phi
phi phi
phi phi
phi phi

darc, christian and beck you may recognize this eh

phi phi ley (the small one)
phi phi ley
phi phi ley (The Beach)



a village in taman negara, in malaysia

our boat ride to taman negara, so fun...for the first 3 hours
the view from our deck on ko phi phi
the view from our pool on phi phi


taman negara, 4300 sp. km, such an amazing forest

the canopy walkway, 45m above ground.
the canopy walkway, from the ground.
taman negara
KL

2 constants in Kuala Lumpur, Patronas Towers and Asian tourists in front of Patronas Towers.
boat ride in Taman Negara

Ko phi phi has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. The island seemingly rises out of nowhere as you approach it by boat. Sheer limestone cliffs provide the backdrop to perfect turquoise water and amazing white sand. We found a great place up the hill that overlooks the whole bay with the positive that it was missed by the tsunami and the negative that it takes about 10 minutes of ridiculous climbing to reach it. It is really bizarre being here just a few short years after the tsunami killed so many here. There is still a lot of building going on around the island and unsightly piles of rubbish everywhere (although this may have nothing to do with the tsunami). To be able to compare just how high the wave was and see little memorials made by family members, it is chilling. Just a few kilometres off of ko phi phi is phi phi leh, which you may know as the beach from The Beach. Nobody is allowed to stay on that island, apparently because it hosts a much more lucrative business of producing special medicines, but you can visit it for a few hours. It is packed with tourists, which is often really frustrating to deal with. But, for some reason, when it comes to a place as beautiful as this, it is OK because it almost feels like everyone should come see it.

The other major draw of ko phi phi is the ridiculous partying, which, after the desolation of Myanmar, has been one hell of a shock. The characters you find here are numerous. For example, take the pair of British best mates, one about 6 foot 6 and the other about 5 foot 5. One night the big one stepped on some glass and was bleeding profusely, which forced the tiny one into a major rant about "how he had to help his best fuckin mate, baaaah." The next thing we knew, he was sucking on his friend's bloody toe to get the glass out, which was followed by him screaming about the taste of disgusting blood in his mouth aand the pain of glass in his mouth. He followed up this performance by running down the beach screaming and was not to be heard from again for the rest of the night. And, as it is in Thailand, Ko phi phi also has its fair share of ladyboys. Pretty much every night we would be walking home and come across a poor and alone young traveller with a white face who would warn us "DO NOT GO THAT WAY!" In fact, Dave was that poor and alone traveller one night.

Actually, I should catch you up on what we've been doing since we returned from the great frontier of Myanmar. We went straight to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to meet up with the great humanitarian Allan Ottaway. We had a few crazy nights out on the town there with Al and had an amazing time watching his 6 foot 5 Malaysian, apparently terrible Muslim, friend Vijay who attempted and nearly succeeded in covering the city in vomit. We did a little bit of tourist stuff, including going up the KL Tower, around the city. In the viewing area on top of the tower they have a picture of the CN Tower, which is the tower is strives to be and fails. We also had Dave's birthday dinner in the revolving restaurant on top of KL tower, which was obviously amazing.

We left KL and headed to a massive national park called Taman Negara for a few days. It is approximately 4300 square kilometres and absolutely gorgeous. You step into the forest and it is deafening. It has the highest jungle canopy walkway in the world, at about 45 metres above ground and a bunch of great viewpoints, etc... The funnest thing we did was go on a great jungle hike through the...jungle, to find a bat cave. Unfortunately for us, we found the bat cave. There were ALOT of bats. In fact, there were so many bats that it was windy inside the cave. It was one of those moments when you find yourself crouching in a tiny cave kneeling on a whole lot of guado while bats add more guado to you and a large albino snake slithers past and a teenage mutant ninja toad walks by and you start to wonder why this was a good idea and why you arent on a beach somewhere instead. you know, one of those moments.

We also went down to Singapore, mostly I guess just to say we did but also to catch a flight into Phuket. As you may know, laws are a little strict in this small city-nation, with large fines and/or arrests for such offenses as spitting and littering. Now, with this knowledge in mind, imagine the look on Dave's face when customs caught him bringing in an undeclared hand-forged sword from Inle Lake in Myanmar. Haha, he went off with a warning to "not take his sword out in Singapore" and the best part was that they never found mine. We also went to the infamous Raffles Hotel to have an infamous 15 dollar Singapore Sling. The best part about this was that we got asked by a waiter to join a lonely 30 year old American Express executive for a drink. She paid for our drinks, but we refused to fill our part of the bargain by dancing with us, which upset her. We heard her talking to two Europeans at the bar, complaining to them that we would dance. They asked, "Are they gay?" "No, Canadian."

I was getting annoyed because I still hadn't run into anyone I knew anywhere, which I was expecting for some reason. On our first night in Ko Phi Phi, we were lost in the forest trying to find our way somewhere, so we barged into someones hostel room to ask them if they knew. It was four girls, who happened to be...Canadian...from London...graduated from Lucas highschool...in 2002...and yes, know blake anderson and dave levin. hilarious, it is kate and amina, in case you are wondering lev (how's the biking going big guy? for those of you who don't know, dave levin is biking across canada for charity and is possibly the most impressive/ridiculous humanbeing on earth). anyways, we then ran into a friend of ours from queens, sarah murray, who also happens to have been travelling with those girls. AND, humps and sioned, your housemate laura something was also with them, but i didnt put that together in time. small world.

One of the funniest things about travelling is that you get to see how so many national stereotypes are actually very justified. The Dutch are cheap; Asians really do do the peace sign in every single picture; the French are assholes; and the Irish drink themselves to the point of near-death every single night. It reminds me of a family guy flashback that shows Ireland in the Dark Ages, with a bunch of scientists in a hightech lab discussing quantum physics or something, when a guy walks up with this whiskey that's just been invented and and they get wasted, start fighting and everything goes to shit. It really is true. You talk to an Irish guy during the day and he is really bright and has a lot to say. You talk to him at 3am and he truly believes he owns the bar you are partying in and is kicking people out who he believes are acting inappropriately while he himself can barely speak and has a bloody nose.

We spent two days hanging out on the majestic Railay Beach in Krabi. It is right near where "The Man With The Golden Gun" was filmed and has some of the best rockclimbing in the world. The beach is flanked on either side with limestone cliffs, the locals are always playing soccer and the rastas dominate the scene. Unfortunately we had to move on quickly and spent the better part of the day on successive boats and buses to make are way to koh tao. Unfortunately the better part of this day was spent with a stage 5 clinger from england named adam who never shut up about bricklaying, ham and cheese sandwiches or the hooker he purchased for a week in phuket (on that note, if you ever wish to spend time with more degenerates and german pedophiles than you can shake a stick at, thailand is the place for you...not to say we dont really think this is a great country and there are lots of good people and we have enjoyed it alot, but what is it about this country that makes all the boys become ladyboys and all that other stuff). So, we have now left the diving mecca of Thailand and have arrived in the diving mecca. Koh Tao is yet another gorgeous island, and I'm a day into my scuba course and loving it so far.

Thanks for emails and such, hope everyones well, sorry for lack of updates. good luck beck and darcy! go with the name gunnbjorn, girl or boy, it's revolutionary.