worldtrip

Well, it’s been awhile since my last post, partly due to lack of internet faciliities, and also to some technical problems. I’m in N. Thailand now, in Chiang Mai.  South Thailand  was great and I did some nice snorkelling and diving there. The photos show various fish and inverts (there is one leopard shark photo). 

During my entire trip down there I was immersed in a giant migration of “20-something” backpackers, who had attended the full moon party on Kho Pha Ngan, and were then moving throughout the islands.  I heard estimates of up to 5,000 people at the party, and I wouldn’t doubt it based on the volume of people on ferrys, buses etc., but I think I’ve finally left them behind.  Chiang Mai is much more chilled out – really a great place.  Another traveller told me about a guesthouse here, and I really love it.  I went bicycling around town yesterday, looking at various temples.  My guesthouse is right in the middle of some beautiful ones,  and one of them had a large celebration yesterday – I wasn’t really sure what was  going on, so I took a lot of pictures hoping to figure it out later.  Sorry there are no captions to these photos – believe me it’s hard enough just downloading them to this site.  My facebook site is 10 times easier, but I think I’ve solved the image size problem.  I’m planning on going on a 3 day hill tribe trek in a couple of days, including some rafting, elephant riding (not sure about that one) and other activities.  Well, think I’ll go get a massage now – my body is really starting to feel my age these days (oh, to be 20-something again!).

I didn’t think it would happen, but somehow it did.  I went out this morning on a boat packed  full of student divers.  There were about 5 dive boats on the site when we arrived, and someone in the water yelled “whale shark”.  Of course I wanted to jump in immediately before it was frightened away, but we had to let the students in first.  I was sure it must have swam away, but about 10 min into the dive I turned to my left and 10 feet away there was a 6 m shark! It was incredibly easy to approach – didn’t seem phased at all by all the gawking divers.  I took many photos, and have included some other reef and land shots.  Tomorrow I plan on renting a scooter and going snorkelling.  There is also a huge party here tonight, so this island is definitely getting interesting by the day.