Ryan Matthew in Thailand

Being gone for 2 months I am going to have to do some internet banking and bill paying. I was barely ok logging into the internet cafe computers for my gmail the last time I was in Thailand (I changed my password like 5 times over 3 weeks). I am not going to be ok logging into one of these computers to do my banking. I guess I know too much about packet sniffers and key loggers to feel comfortable about putting my info in some random computer. So I will be taking a laptop with me this time. (warning geek content) I will also be using a ssh connection to my server to proxy all my web traffic through. This will keep me safe from the shady internet cafes.

Another issue I didn’t have to deal with last time was a visa. When, as an American, you land in Thailand you get a 30 day visa. Well that is not going to be enough for me this time. They do have a 60 day tourist visa, but it must be obtained from an embassy before you arrive. So I will be sending my passport to the Thai embassy in Washington DC to get a visa.

I am debating what I want to do about voice communication this time. If you have read this blog then you know last time I had this cool setup where my verizon cell phone forwarded to voip number here in America that was then forwarded to a cell phone that I had in Thailand.

I am going to go through some of my options and maybe typing it out will make it more clear to me or even better yet maybe I will get some comments with ideas I never thought of.

Things that are for sure:
1. I will have a Thai cell phone that gets free incoming calls
2. I will have a laptop that I can use skype on (when I have a connection)
3. I can use skype to call home an unlimited amount for 3 bucks a month
4. Calling cards to call Thailand are cheap

So my thoughts are to suspend my verizon account for the 2 months that I am gone. Get a Thai cell phone. Buy a calling card for my mom to make her much needed check up on her son calls. And then use skype to call home with.

There are some other things I will need to do and I am sure I will make more posts about them before I go.

I ordered my ticket yesterday to return to Thailand on July 15th. I will be spending 2 months there this time and will return September 8th. I have a million and one things that I will need to do to get ready for this. I will try and make some posts about my trip planning, but I am planning on frequent updates after I arrive in Thailand.

I got back to Pittsburgh last night and got a ride up to my mom and dad’s house. I really was in no mood to get in the car for another 45 minutes so I stayed here last night. They left for vacation the same day I did. They don’t get back till Saturday so I mowed the grass for them today and after a dinner with my Grandma I will head home so that I can get back to work tomorrow.

I am in the middle of uploading all of my pictures right now. I will sort them and give them descriptions at some point,
but for right now I am just trying to get them uploaded.

Check them out here  www.ryanmatthew.com/thailand

It is hard to believe but I am leaving Thailand already in about 10 hours. We went to China town yesterday and it was crazy!! I really can’t explain it but there was more shopping and people crushed into was was a street (with cars) but should not be than I could have ever imagined. Jill went crazy buying earrings 12 for 90 baht (about 3 dollars). Next we headed to what is called Bangkok’s Time Square, Siam Square. I really was not impressed at all.
This morning we headed back to the weekend market yet again. We got there a little late and had to deal with way too many people in an environment  that was way too hot. We got most of the shopping that we wanted/needed to get done so it was a good day. Then we moved from Suk 11 www.suk11.com to the Buddy www.buddylodge.com on Koh San Road. Buddy Lodge is with out a doubt the most plush place I have stayed on my trip. The pool on the roof is the best. Koh San Road is the heart of backpacker central for all of South East Asia. It is super cool and setup for backpackers. You can get some of the best Pad Thai and Chicken on a stick that I have had in Thailand for 30 baht (1 dollar).
My plans for the rest of my time here in Bangkok are to do a bit more shopping, eat one last dinner (I am going to miss the food here), and hopefully find a movie to watch on the cable in the hotel.

Here are some pictures from the boat ride to China Town and China Town.

I found a place that has a keyboard that is actually a bit functional. The computer is dog slow, but at least I can actually type at a decent rate here.

After my last post about arriving in Koh Pha-ngan Jill and I laid around on the beach all afternoon and then rented kayaks and kayaked for almost a hour just as the sun was setting. A great day just to say the least. That day we also found the best place that we have stayed at the whole time. It was this little bungalow place called Candle Hut Bungalow www.candlehutbungalow.com with the friendliest woman ever. We ended up staying there our last day in Koh Pha-ngan. We were right on the beach and it without a doubt was breathtaking to wake up and look out the glass doors and see the sunrise.

Our last day in Koh Pha-ngan we did a small trek through the jungle to see a waterfall. Well it turns out that right now there really is not much water cause it is the dry season so the waterfall was not all that impressive. After that we spent a few hours on the beach before we headed out to do some fishing. I caught two little fish both well under 6 or 7 inches. Jill didn’t end up catching anything. Our guide (who didn’t really speak much English) caught 3 fish and one of the was sorta big. He said in very broken English that the fish were not hungry.

Last night here in Bangkok we went out and had a really nice dinner and then headed back to the room to get some rest. It took almost 8 hours to get back to Bangkok including riding in the back of a truck, a ferry, a bus, a plane, and a taxi.

This morning we went to the weekend market for a little while and now we are getting ready to head to China Town and then Bangkok’s version of Time Square.

I am back in Bangkok now. We got back last night. I will write more about the last  bit of time in the Islands when I get to a proper internet station. The one I am using now is not very good  to say the least.

Sadly I left Koh Tao yesterday afternoon and made the hour long boat trip to Koh Pha-ngan. we are staying on the North side of the Island on a pretty secluded beach. The ride from the south of the Island where our boat landed to the North was amazing. We were up and down all the mountains in the middle of the jungle.

The beach we are on is super chilled out and relaxed. And that is a great thing after last night. We took a long tail boat from our beach down to the full moon party. Let me start with the boat ride…It was a half hour of getting soaked. I had no idea that you got so wet riding in a long tail boat. Now the party was pretty insane. There were 8 bars along the beach all with different DJs playing mostly hard trance with with a couple playing hip hop and club hits. I would think there was around 10,000 people there….but who can count when you get to that number. It was a lot. Thankfully a French couple that was on the boat to come home had an extra rain coat. Jill and I hid under it the half hour boat ride home.

Nothing big or exciting planned for today. It is going to just be a nice relaxing day on the beach.

I finished up the deep diving course today. Yet another amazing day of diving. I am really wishing I had another few days to spend on Koh Tao and I would get another certification before I left. Today we got to see a sea turtle and just some really cool coral and rocks. Here is a pic of me from the dive today.

After finishing up my certification yesterday I just had to have more. Today I started getting certified to dive to 39 meters (I was just to 18 meters). So that consisted of 2 more dives today and two more tomorrow.

The first dive I went on today was just so amazing. There was a huge rock that went from the ocean floor to about 16 feet (5 meters) below the surface. We dove down to the bottom of it the total depth that we went was about 100 feet (32 meters). I saw  couple Black tipped sharks that were maybe 4 feet long. They don’t like divers so they were not very close, but I could still see them. We saw a ton of barracuda and a few tuna. And to top it off there was a family of clown fish, two adults and a baby.

The second dive was also really cool. We ended up only going down to about 75 feet (23 meters) but it was also a dive site with huge rocks under the water. There was a ton of coral and lots of little fish. The great thing about this dive was there are two places where a couple of the rocks form a tunnel and you can swim through it. They are only 10 or 15 feet long but it still feels like you are going into a cave.

I found a video on youtube for the school that I used.

Matee's Open Water course - Koh Tao

The last two days have been mind blowing. I always knew I would enjoy diving, but I had no idea how fantastic it would be. Yesterday I swam into a school of fish that was huge like 20 feet by 20 feet. Every way I looked all I saw was fish moving. Then today we dove at this place where there were all kinds of huge rocks ( about 30-50 feet high) covered by coral and there was a lot of fish around too. My teacher Neil Farmer for Phoenix Divers www.phoenix-divers.com for the class was so great…he is actually a course teacher so he is certified to teach people to be dive instructors.

Last night we headed down to the south tip of the Island for dinner. Here is a pic of the view we had for dinner…I have been pretty busy with diving so there is not a whole lot more to write about at this point.