Entrance feature to one of the hotels
Sea of parked motorcycles
Thai Beach Dog, What a life
Dragonfly
Friday, January 28, 2011
Phuket
After our wonderful stay on the island of Koh Samui we were off to the other famous island escape of Thailand the island of Phuket. A lot larger than Koh Samui and considerably more developed but a wonderful Thai island with its own charm for sure. Situated on the east coast of the country in the Andaman Sea the island has some wonderful sandy beaches with shear mountain cliffs that touchdown in crystal blue water, making it a true island fantasy.
Here we spent our days laying on one of the countless chairs that dot the beach of Patong, drinking in the scenery, drinking our Singha beer and wading in the bath warm water of the Patong Bay. We truly were grabbing every minute of beach time we could before heading on with our journey as this was our last beach stop until we hit Waikiki in March. And if it is at all possible Laurence has gotten darker than most of the native people here and has turned nearly black. After watching the amazing sunsets it was off to explore this very active town, with its countless bars and restaurants and its famous Bangalore Walk (or as we call it bang –la- bang) street with its seedy establishments and questionable forms of entertainment (there are only so many things you can use a ping pong for).
We took a day excursion to the famous Phi Phi islands. I had been to Phi Phi Lah fifteen years ago with Etienne and I remember its tranquil beaches and that we were one of only a handful of tourists. But since the movie the Beach was filmed with Leonardo de Caprio the island is now over run with tour boats, but it is still a magnificent island to see with its aqua marine colour bay and shear mountain cliffs. And then off to Phi Phi Don which was completely devastated by the Tsunami several years ago and has been completely rebuilt and is still a magnificent island to visit and enjoy the wonderful Thai beach culture. We ended our day by laying on the beach of Khai Island on our way back to the island of Phuket. It was a great day out on the water in the speed boat and Laurence got to make lots of new friends from Norway and Hungry.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Kuala Lumpur
Petronas Twin Towers
Top of Tower
Bottom of Tower
As we had limited time visiting the country, as our plans were already set for the remainder of the Asia portion of the leg of our adventure, we only had less than a day to visit. So after flying into the very new Kuala Lumpur International Airport, we caught the KLIA Ekspress train (a high speed train service) and went straight into this very modern Asian city. Here in the centre of the city we were greeted by very large modern sky scrapers, most notably the very impressive Petronas Twin Towers. These matching stainless steel clad iconic structures dominate the Kuala Lumpur skyline from every angle. These twin towers stand an impressive 450 metres (over 88 stories in heights) and were the world’s tallest structures from 1998 to 2004 when they were surpassed by the Taipei 101 structure. Now the third tallest structures in the world they are still an impressive sight, and truly are an architectural marvel. Around the base of the towers are a massive shopping mall complex and very impressive park area all called KLCC. So we played tourist and toured the area and took in some great shots of the towers, shopped and watched the impressive waterfall show. This truly is an ultra modern centre here in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.
Lobby ceiling
Detail of Lobby Light
Different views of Petronas Twin Towers
But since this was only an overnight stop we did not get too much time to tour the city and discover the heart of this city. What we did discover in the short visit was a modern, very friendly city and that truly does need a second visit, on our next trip through this part of the world.
Whale Sculptures at bottom of twin towers
Interesting dog like cloud
Clouds beside Petronas Twin Towers
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