Marc's Public Blog

Nice boat:

Here is our trip:

The views from the boat, from islands to sunsets, were spectacular, of course:

We went to land a couple of times, and one was unscheduled. Unfortunately Thailand has some amount of restrictions on when we were able to dive or which beaches we could set foot, on. The first stop was going back to port after an electrical problem prevented the compressors from working, making diving hard if you can't refill tanks. We missed one dive that day, but to the boat's credit, they got people lined up at night to come on the boat and fix the issue within hours of our arrival. During that time, we went to celebrate halloween in local bars on land, so it wasn't so bad :)

by random luck, I had my LED outfit with me, I don't normally bring it on dive boats :)

The second stop was Similan National Park, a nice 1.5H stop:

yeah, it was hard to carry that rock up there and balance it just right :)

Nice wildlife:

rare colorful pigeon

probably a water monitor

Anyway, we were there for divng :) Unfortunately this season was a bit unusual, and the amount of bigger critters was much lower than normal. We didn't get to see a single manta, shark, or more elusive whaleshark unfortunately. That said, there were still things to see:

plenty of small fishes

nice banded sea snake

nice manta shrimp, so colorful as always

cool fish :)

clown triggerfish are always fun :)

what a beautie

another unusual fish

the only sharks I saw, but they were cute and sleeping in a hole

fantastic camouflage

several cool caves

One really weird thing I saw on a safety stop, was this thing, with a small fish still alive, swimming inside its stomach:

The soft corals were pretty:

More pictures:

We had a 4 dives a day, including a daily dusk or night dive. I was able to use my new video light which had a cool blue/ultraviolet mode:

My favorite videos;

Dive Log:

Thanks to the crew for their hard work, and I hope to be able to come back in the future (apparently April would have higher odds of nice critters):

lots of cool islands

Phuket is mostly a beach area with day tours to islands I had already seen from the dive boat, so it wasn't too obvious what to do during the time, but after enough research (most pointing to the same island tours that were not that interesting to me). I did some research and mostly found the same island tours taht were not that interesting to me, but eventually found enough fun things to fill the 48H and settled on a private driver to get me around and keep my luggage, which was convenient (it's cheap enough that it was worth it).

I started with 2 aquariums:

After going to the two aquariums, we went to Monkey Hill Viewpoint. The monkeys were reasonably well behaved :)2103*

sex is both a greeting and a currency. Something for us to learn? :)

I first started walking up to the viewpoint, but in the end it was a long walk that would have burnt too much time (driving was not allowed), so I got this small view and went back down:

Next, I went to Phuket Bird Park because birds can always be fun:

cute little fellow

my favorite, sulphur crested cockatoo

not bird related, but rabbits!

bird race

pretend math

I always have bird seeds when I travel abroad, and this is why :) they were a bit pissed because they were sellnig seeds and I had my own :)

Next was Chaithararam Temple - Wat Chalong, one of the nicest temples in Phuket:

From there, walked around Phuket Old Town:

The driver then dropped me by my hotel and I had a bit of time for a walk outside to see the nightlife in Patong Beach:

For Day #2, my driver helped me find the right elephant sanctuary where the elephants were rescued and abused elephants (which includes riding them, and that's quite bad for their back and neck):

I then got help put mud on an elephant (they like it)

then got to wash it

got a thank you ;)

I'm normally wary of things where you can drive quads, because drivers and groups are always way too slow, but I asked them if they could give me a real tour that wouldn't suck, and they nicely obliged me. The guide did his best to lose me, including during very tight turns last second, and sure gave me a workout ;)

Next door was a karting track. Normally I'm also warry of those as they often have speed limited shit tracks: [rigimg:1024:3289*|they actually had "maximum fast" karts, so that's what I took :)]

eh, you can damage them and you know what to pay

Next stop was the big buddha with good views from the top:

Then it was time for dinner and a show at Phuket FantaSea, which I only fount out about at the last minute:

For next time, I can go see the other show, carnival magic:

The next morning, I only time for a very quick walk before going to the airport for flight home through Vietnam:

medical care :)

And I finished with Phuket Up 2 You Cat Cafe

Damnoen Floating Market is over 1H away from Bangkok, and an interesting tourist attraction. You get a private boat that takes you around the market, and pick things up as you float/motor along.

interesting motors, they use car engines, this one even with a turbo

it was hard to pick between the colors

I got suckered into getting that cute litte thing :)

poor little thing looked terrified

Had a quick stop at another temple:

After the market, my package included some shows:

crocodile show :)

I would totally not do that :)

There was a fun garden :)

Then the monkey show:

Sadly, my package included an elephant ride I wasn't able to get out:

And then got to visit a village of long neck people:

After that, just across the street was tiger world. Apparently those tigers were not drugged and multiple handlers were there to keep them entertained away from trying to play with me :)

After that, Maeklong was nearby and has an unusual railway market that is basically on the train tracks and collapses as the train comes, and rebuilds behind it. Both cool and spooky :)

then the train comes :)

Here is the train coming by:

After that, a long drive back to Bangkok:

We started with the palace:

Then we went to all the temples, many they had:

After we were done with the main temples, we went to a lesser known one off the beaten path:

And then I took my guide to a nice local restaurant before heading back to Bangkok:

Sunday night, the day after Transmission and the first after party that ended around sunrise (or 04:00 for me, because I'm a quitter, haha), there was another after party at Portal. Portal was a night club at the top of a building, with a very nice view, and a really decked out LED setup, it was very nicely done.

It went from 20:00 to 02:00, with more beautiful trance thanks to transmisison artists that stayed an extra day to play for us, thank you.

First time meeting Stoneface and Terminal, great set it was

Video Summary:

I had only done one Transmission so far, and it was Transmission Prague 2019 in O2 Arena. I was beyond Epic!, so that set the bar high because it literally was the best indoor show I had ever seen.
The location felt a bit weird, inside a convention center, and at first, I was going to go to the wrong room with another show:

wrong place :)

After walking around the building, got to the right place. The show started at 15:00, but since it was indoors, it was dark enough for me:

swee lineup

Security was fairly thorough, and very intent on taking your unopened water so that you were forced to buy theirs inside, which is annoying to say the least. And not just that, but they also used some stpuid fake money rechargeable wristband system and they kept all the unused credits at the end. I honestly find that petty and insulting :(

WTF, guys, please stop this fake money BS

Thankfully they were not worried about my outfit, and I was able to secure a special wristband, just in case :)

Another local thing I saw in Thailand was VIP is for peasants. They have Very VIP, and Super Very VIP :)

Glad to run into friends and make new ones as always:

thanks Marie for getting me to come here

Anthony was surprised to hear my voice on this side of the world :)

And the best for last, Blastoyz!

The show production value was very good for what was otherwise a big empty room. Not to the level of the O2 Arena hat was much better equipped for this, but still about as good as you can make a show within such a space.

lots of phones were watching the show :)

The show started with Jonny B, a local who played nice trance at all the events I went to:

Daxon was next, I met him at Untold, and he did great for both shows:

Next Xijaro and Pitch played another great set with lovely remixes:

Stoneface & Terminal came next:

Cosmic Gate also did a nice set, different from their usual one:

After that, we got Ferry Corsten as SystemF, a great trip back in memory lane:

Marlo Tech Energy was a fun set, zero fucks given, and nice back and forth journey between Trance and Techno:

look at all the phones :)

did we have enough lasers? :)

nice fan club :)

After that, was Will Atkinson:

going to the front was challenging, but went from time to time

And saving the best for last, Blastoyz got to finish the show, just last transmission Prague, and we got to enjoy his high energy beats and triplets. So much fun as always:

And that was it, 9 hours, 15:00 to 00:00, lots of fun again.

Video Summary:

Should you go? Would I go Back?

Back to transmission:

Conclusion

Getting to Amnesia without public transport was a bit challenging, and the best way was to pay overpriced taxis that were negotiating very inflated set prices if you wanted to get out that night. Oh well.

With "Amnesia", I was thinking about the Ibiza club I had seen, but it really only had the name. It was a pretty packed small club on mutiple levels, including levels behind a "don't go there" door :)
Despite the packed rooms, we had good trance, good vibes and good fun :)

Video Summary:

Space Plus is a big club in at the top of a shopping mall seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I was very impressed by the size and facilities. By the time I arrived, it was kind of full already, but I guess thanks to my LED outfit I lugged all the way there, they nicely let me in.

happy to be in

Definitely different, including the levels of VIP, Super VIP, and Super Very Very IP :) You could even get your name on the main screen:

SVIP tables got cakes, visits from an LED Dragon, and more :)

Soon before I arrived was time for Cosmic Gate:

I was ready, of course :)

I even had a nice BD girl who gave me a piece of cake :)

lots of partying going on

Don't ask :)

Then, Jonnie B took over and played some nice trance:

And it ended around 01:30, nice warmup for transmission the next day:

Video Summary:

The rest of the palace was very pretty too:

Don't mix up shoes with locals, oops:

I had never been in Thailand, and a combination of Transmission Bangkok Festival and Diving The West Coast of Thailand on the Phinisi was enough an excuse to spend the many miles to fly to Thailand and do both

Even though the flight from Singapore to Bangkok was short, it was a nice plane, even with food despite it being just 2H:

Arrived in Nana area, didn't do much the first half day, way too tired.

Found out weed is legal though ;)

Day 1: Downtown temples

this is when I found out that they use car engines on boats :)

Took way too long (1h wasted) but eventually got to the Golden Buddha:

Very nice ceiling inside:

Good view from there

Back to the boat, and I jumped out half way to get to Wat Arun, the next temple I wanted to see:

Then the royal palace (follow link) was next:

After that, Wat Phra has the big leaning Buddha:

nice feet :)

Down the street was Museum Siam, which talked about what it is to be Thai:

From there, I tried the subway to chinatown, and found out they have metal detectors and security gates because of mulsim terrorists, sigh...

Chinatown was scenic indeed:

fun cabling :)

From there, I left a little bit too late for Golden Mount and missed sunset, but still got nice views:

the night I spent at Space Plus Bangkok for Cosmic Gate, very nice club:

Day 2: Aquarium and Madame Tussauds

So I went to check out the nearby Sea Life Aquarium

nice mall

ended up stopping for Wagiu Beef Shabu Shabu, yum!

And then Bangkok Mme Tussauds

After that, was Transmission Bangkok Festival

took the elevated train to Bitec Convention center for Transmission

And Transmission Bangkok Afterparty at Amnesia

Day 3: Bangkok National Museum

On the way back, walked through Rocco Khao San which is supposed to be a tourist street:

That night, I went to my last party, Transmission Bangkok Afterparty Portal

Day 4: Ayutthaya Day Trip

Day 5: Damnoen Floating Market, Tiger World and Train Market

Day 6: Half Day: Google Bangkok Visit and National Coin Museum

Then I stopped by the bangkok google office, which was very nice:

I was planning on seeing what google maps had as another National Museum, but it didn't actually exist, so I ended up going to the national coin museum, not expecting much, but it was actually surprisingly good.

sea shells used to be money

I then had just a bit of extra time to stop by a last temple on the way out to the airport

And that was it for Bangkok, nice place to visit. Farewell pictures:

long ass flight to Singapore :)

never been a better time to start drinking :)

After landing, one cool thing I saw were the self driving handicap karts that followed one another and the person in front:

If you have enough of a layover, there is a hotel inside the airport, and they have city tours you can join:

Taking the connecting trams is a good way to get around:

I couldn't get into jewel without immigrating which I wasn't wanting to do, but you could see it from the tram:

Fun attractions I had seen before and happy to see again:

The one very annoying thing in that airport is that the transit zone is not secure, so you have to go back through security before boarding your plane, and they take all your liquids, including the ones you bought in the transit zone. That is a terrible design and I can't believe they thought it was a good idea. On top of that the gate security was untrained and missed a lot of stuff I had (thankfully in my favor):

haha, nice boots :)

It was nice to run into a few friends:

Then, night came, which is my time to shine :)

Unfortunately, likely due to sound restrictions, the festival has to end at 20:00, so it was only one hour of darkness, but still better than none :)

Quick video:

Good time was had, looking forward to a future one.

We had a quick meetup after How Weird Street Faire at 20:00, to chat until it was time to head out to Midway:

Midway opened at 22:00, and we got to enjoy four anjunabeats DJs:

Glad to run into friends, as always:

Alpha9 closed the night with some great trance

obligatory picture :)

Quick video summary:

Here are a few shots:

not bad for a start

kind of nice with the clouds in the way

getting close to being over

one tiny sliver left

I remembered how much of a clusterfudge it was to drive there and park last time, so I didn't try too hard to get closeby parking, and after picking up Ralf who was happy to join me for the show, parked fairly far from the waterfront, but with the bikes, it was a quick enough ride, even if I was kind of loaded with the big foldable chairs :)

this time went directly for an advance front row seat

cookies help :)

nice water cops came to chase the jetskis that weren't bothering anyone, yeah to silly laws

we were in time for the show this time

good climb power without passengers :)

pelicans tried to compete :)

that's some low flying

the middle plane is facing the wrong way :)

more competition :)

And finally came time for the F35-B Demo:

slowing down for hover

Then it went back into forward flight:

More planes and demos:

Last, but not least, the thunderbirds came back:

oh noes, two of them are out of order :)

Nice show overall, even if quite similar to the one 2 years ago, weather was perfect (not so much the day after), glad I was able to go despite the crappy SF traffic and parking. Thanks to Ralf for joining me.