Pictures, videos, and more pictures

That's been my day: uploading, editing, and sharing. Honestly, it's somewhat exhausting sorting through vacation pictures, if you also want to edit them, upload them to Facebook, comment on them, tag people, and mark where they were taken. This is especially true if, as today, Facebook tells you with some regularity that you don't have permission to edit your own albums, for some bizarre reason.

Anyway, here's the fruits of my labor, in the form of my first Thailand album and the link to my Youtube page, where you can find my videos chronicling dancing elephants and elephant ridie in Chiang Mai, and hundreds of thousands of terrified crabs and a gorgeous sunset with the sound of a muezzin call at Krabi.

Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2644331434819.2114580.1451610020&type=1&l=04c4bfe453

and video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/grahamcrackersarecoo?blend=1&ob=0

More pictures are forthcoming.

But also, today's one new thing!

Thing 10:
I ventured outside my restaurant comfort zone today and began my exploration of the streets behind my apartment. Today, that meant a nice stroll along the backside of the street reading menus until I got to the oven-baked pizza place which throws its garlic-and-cheese smell out into the street for all to covet. Once there, I was able to ask in Chinese whether or not they could do take-out (they could) and then used my standard point-and-say method to order myself a Margherita pizza, one of my all-time favorites, before sitting down to await it. I was the only person in the shop when I went in, but I seem to have brought the customers with me, as two or three people trickled in as I sat there. Interesting phenomenon...going to have to keep an eye on it.

Armed with my pizza, I walked back by way of a busy little restaurant I've been eying for a while now, for its juice stand section. (My favorite juice stand went out of business a few months ago.) So I stopped in and ordered a watermelon juice, only to discover that the staff is all but surly, and there is absolutely nowhere to stand in that restaurant without being in someone's way, especially while holding a pizza box. Maybe I'll try again--it is the only juice stand I know of nearby--but it was supremely awkward. At least the juice was tasty.

When I got home, I discovered that my pizza was not, in fact, Margherita, but something else altogether, with shredded cheese, sliced cherry tomatoes, and not a basil leaf in sight. Very sad, and odd since I heard the waitress repeat my order twice, both to me and to the pizza maker, yet he somehow still made it wrong. Oh well, it was still decent, just not terribly awe- or trust-inspiring for this particular shop.

Anyway, here's what I got for my adventures in dinnertime. You win some, you lose some.

Krabi Jungle, Phi Phi Resort

Well, for the second night in a row I'm working with slow internet which I am being charged for by the minute, and the rate today is 4 times what it was yesterday, and they're closing in 10 minutes, so I REALLY have to be brief.

Highlights:
Krabi is amazing. I drove on the left and swam in a waterfall, and missed out on kayaking through mangroves but saw them anyway. Glorious hostel with animals and thatched huts and delicious food.

PhiPhi is gorgeous, but SPENDY. I knew the room was pricey but didn't expect the 3 times price hike on everything else. Going snorkeling tomorrow and laying out on the beach, then it's back to Taiwan! When I'll update more, retroactively.

RETROACTIVE ADDING, FEB. 3:

Picture-and-video time. Here's Krabi!

Wax apple on the ferry!

Kita!

Also, a video of us at the waterfall:

Krabi retrospective

Today is actually Feb. 2. However, on January 27th I was settling into a new hostel which, so far as I knew then, had no Internet. I later discovered this was wrong, but also discovered the baht-per-minute charge and snail-like pacing, so blogging took a backseat.

Also, here's us waiting for the bus at Patong beach, just because I like these pictures and want to post them:

Besides, by waiting and posting retrospectively, you now have the benefit of more than mere words on my blog! See, our first day in Krabi (after the insanely long bus-and-minibus journey from Patong beach to Phuket Town, and then Phuket Town to Krabi Town, and then the involved negotiation for a cab from Krabi Town to our hostel, a good 25 minutes outside town), was glorious.

First off, here's what the hostel looks like:

(food/internet/hammocks to the right; ocean straight ahead; huts behind)

 

The rooms. :)

Then there's the part where we got there just in time for dinner (DELICIOUS curry and fresh coconut for me):

And, after dinner, the sunset. And I really can't even begin to post all the amazing pictures we took there on here. I'll just throw up a few, and a few videos; give me a few days, and I'll put the link to my Facebook album on here. We must have taken over 200 pictures just in that one evening...absolutely GORGEOUS!

Okay, a few more than a couple. Can't help myself. Anyway, here is the more experiential version of the evening, via video:

So now the lost day is fully exposed, and, I feel (and you you agree), well worth the wait.

Relax....then go to Phuket

As I write this, it's almost 2am and we're in Phuket Town, here in the south of Thailand. Outside, life is still going on like crazy; Jack Johnson songs are drifting upward from the downstairs restaurant/bar area of our hostel. It's cool for a single night, but I'm glad we're headed to the more remote islands tomorrow, away from what I've mentally classified as the Las Vegas of Thailand.

Today was relaxation. We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, strolled around Mel and Mar's house and watered their flowers, then packed our stuff and went to the mall to sample more Thai food, buy me some flipflops for the beach, get a Thai foot massage (Mar and I), and meet with Mel and Mar's friends from growing up, Maxine and Grace. Being with Melanie and Marissa in their home town felt like being home again and, in addition to the dry heat and leisurely pace, it was truly paradise. We were sorry to go.

But we did, and now we're in Phuket! Tomorrow we're off to Krabi, where we'll hopefully be roughing it a bit more; that is, there won't be a bar and internet cafe on every corner. Hopefully, there won't be corners, just more trees and rocks.

Wow, that last line sounds like Pride and Prejudice: "What are men compared to rocks and mountains?"

It's late, and Karina's beside me yelling at the malfunctioning hostel computer she's using, so I'd best get off and let her have a chance with a computer that works.