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:

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):