Southern Thailand: Land of Perpetual Spring Break.

Thailand. There are two very distinct worlds that exist side by side in this Southeast Asian country--the tourist world and the local. Thailand has a long history of tourism and is well equipped to accommodate its foreign guests. Our visit to Southern Thailand brought us primarily in contact with the tourist world. With all the British/Aussie beer guzzling gap year students to the bachelor party contingencies, we felt a little out of our element. (Gap year students pictured above.) We didn't care though....we came to dive. Our guide book was written just months after the Tsunami (Dec 2004) and described Ko Phi Phi island (our destination) as a devastated community trying to rebuild itself. Apparently they have succeeded. We arrived to find Ko Phi Phi alive with nightclubs, packed with guesthouse bungalows and supporting over 14 dive centers. Although we were happy to see that the island had recuperated from the disaster, the development free-for-all has left a huge scar across the face of this island's stunning natural beauty. In the rush to capitalize on the tourist trade, developers are destroying, and arguably have already destroyed any remnants of indigenous culture. Also, the booming sound systems and beach front bars completely prevent you from enjoying the natural surroundings of the area. Every accessible piece of coastline has been staked out by a bar or a resort. It was disgusting to see such a unique and gorgeous area being devoted to activities that could just as easily take place inside a warehouse in Patterson, New Jersey. However, you can't have a euro trash bar on the bottom of the ocean, so we were super stoked to go diving. On the boat and under water, it was a completely different experience that we loved. Enter Thailand....

Well, of course we had to get there first. We left Malaysia in the middle of the night and crossed over to the border town of Hat Yai. There we grabbed this mini van who is seen here picking up another "passenger," the outer body of a Honda Accord. This is the Southeast Asia we knew and loved.

We arrived in Krabi, a main launching point for the dramatic islands of the Andaman coast. Max was here back in '05 and highly recommends it as a rock climbing destination. Anxious to dive, we only stayed here for the night.

Here we are on super speed boat to Ko Phi Phi. Pronounced "pee-pee." We were surrounded by a massive group of gap-year students on this boat, sun tanning, smoking, and drinking beer at 9am. We guess that's what the British call "pre-gaming." Damn, England. You have a serious drinking problem. Kara was stoked to be in a tank top without a cover up after being in predominately Islamic Malaysia and Indonesia for the last couple of months. We were listening to Daft Punk's live album and Girl Talk for the duration of the ride. For some reason techno music and tropical sea-scapes work well together. At least on the speed boat.

Arriving on Ko Phi Phi.

More arriving on Ko Phi Phi. As soon as we stepped off the pier, we were accosted by the beer/chachkie/Thai pancake bazaar that IS the island. We had immediate thoughts about getting right back on the boat to Krabi, but decided to give the island the benefit of the doubt.

Another street scene. Drunk dudes considering tattoo designs. We were pleased that at least one of these dudes had the foresight to proclaim himself too drunk to get permanent body art. We salute you, drunk dude. Meanwhile, we had dropped off our bags and signed up for our dives. Our plan was to get in and get out. Realizing that there's nothing wrong with having a good time, we got off our high horses and attempted to do so that night.

An Iranian-Swedish sibling couple invited us to meet them at this bar, "Carpe Diem" for a fire show and a couple drinks on the beach. Naturally. Why not, we should have fun! The fire show was sloppy, but spirited, as were the drinks.

Yep, that's Max, drinking a BUCKET of alcohol. Kara's bucket photos have been censored from this blog. Never again, buckets. Never again... well at least not two in one night. Alcohol is pretty much exclusively sold in buckets on the island, much like the ones you would use to build a sandcastle as a child.

We realized half way in that drinking before diving the next day might be a bad idea, especially after being completely sober for months. However, the music was good, and yeah, we had a good time.

Until the morning. We don't think this picture needs further explanation. For some reason Kara was fine the next day. Max however, puked in his regulator. Maximilian: "If you find yourself in this stupid situation, which you should take all lengths to avoid, do not panic, vomit as per usual and give a strong exhalation. Everything will be fine."

They were beautiful dives. Fish everywhere.

This was our first official deep dive with a maximum depth of 30 meters. We had gone to this depth before in Indonesia, but this time we have the paperwork to prove it. It was also our first wreck dive, which was interesting but we are more into reefs. This is a ferry that used to transport cargo and vehicles from Phuket to Ko Phi Phi and is rumored to have been purposefully sunk by its captain for the insurance money. In the end, the government charged the boat captain for the relocation of the wreck which was crushing the coral reef. The whole thing sounds like a Thai morality tale.

Beautiful soft coral.

Again, Max not doing so well on the boat. Max describes his current mental and physical state after the first dive. There are some Europeans in the back.

Going in to the water for another dive. Emerald limestone karsts emerge suddenly from the clear water. These unique limestone formations are the signature physical feature of the Andaman coast of Thailand. Remember Dr. No's lair? That was in one of these guys.

Fishes.

Nemos.

Moray eel.

Max feels better and jumps off the boat.

Lion fish.

Many fish.

Puffer Fish. The puffer fish blows himself up as a defensive mechanism and can only do it a couple of times in its life before the stress of this action takes a toll on its heart. So it is important not to wantonly scare the puffer fish for your own personal satisfaction. He looks puffy as it is.

As you can see, the novelty of taking photos underwater has not worn off yet. Kara loves taking pictures of Max so much and it translates even underwater. Max is happy amongst the fishes.

Everyone ok. That's what the ballerina gesture signifies to the boat after ascending to the surface. Pick us up, boat!

Back on the island, oof. Bamboo tattoos parlors are everywhere.

Sandwich Burger Pancake.

The next day we decided to chill out and decompress. Literally. Nothing like a little Ayn Rand to loosen the nerves.

We rented some snorkeling gear and walked out as far away from the bar front madness as possible.

The omnipresent King of Thailand. More on him later.

As we continued to walk to our snorkeling spot, we realized that the rainy season was upon us. AGAIN. We are following it throughout Southeast Asia.

Rain did not stop us from snorkeling.

Juvenile Harlequin clown fish. This fish grows up to look completely different, changing color and body shape dramatically.

Big ass clam.

Cold Kara Fox.

The next day it didn't rain. That was nice. Here is The Beach. That's right, capitalised. As in Leonardo Dicaprio, bohemian backpacker paradise, released in the year 2000 The Beach. The island (Ko Phi Phi Lay) is an hour boat ride away from Ko Phi Phi Don. You can camp here for the night but the island is a nature reserve and permanent dwellings are prohibited. The movie itself is shown every night in at least one bar on Ko Phi Phi. It is ironic to see people glued to a projection screen depicting Leonardo's escape from the very tourist infested party culture in which they are immersed.

Diving near Ko Phi Phi Lay. This is a cuddle fish and he changes colors. He's really big. Like the size of Kara or Max's torso depending on the fish. Both Kara and Max have sizeable torsos.

Sea Cucumber. Nudibranch is the official name. Max did a report on these animals in fourth grade and needs you to know that.

Angel fish.

Leopard shark. He was about 5 feet.

Lots of little fishies.

Kara swimming through an underwater cave.

The underbelly of this beautiful soft coral moves with the current.

Even though we talked a lot of shit about Ko Phi Phi, we are glad that we came. It was beautiful. Plus, we got to jump through a 10 foot flaming jump-rope for tequila shots.

To the North we go,

Kara and Maximilian

Coming Soon...

Hello Blog readers,

Thank you for your continued interest in the adventures of Kara and Max. We here at the World's Crustal Plates strive to keep our blog entertaining, informative, and timely as well. However, we are constantly on the move and sometimes it is difficult to devote the 3-5 hours necessary for editing, loading, and sorting the photos as well as providing captions and commentary. We will be unable to post a new entry until early July. Please be patient and come back at that time. We have not forgotten the blog, and will come back from our hiatus with fresh witticism and dazzling images that will quite frankly blow your mind. From now on you will see the world in terms of Before Hiatus and After Hiatus. Nothing you have ever seen on the World Wide Web will compare to the revelations that will be streaming almost daily from this new beacon of a weblog. Max is feeling a little drunk with power being the only one at the wheel of this great ship, plowing the oceans of cyber-ia unchecked, without his co-pilot, showing no restraint, letting his emotions pour free across the infinite plane of the ether that joins man woman and child from one side to the other of the spinning ball of rock and water we call planet earth. Kara is not present and takes no responsibility for the dramatic tone of this entry.

See you soon.

Max

Welcome to the Jungle.

We left Singapore bound for Malaysia's national park, Taman Negara. After yet another pit stop in Kuala Lumpur, we boarded a bus for the center of peninsular Malaysia. Though the capital city has many opportunities to see the (captive) wildlife, flora, and fauna that can be found throughout the forests and jungles of Malaysia, we decided that after the Singapore Zoo we would try our luck at finding these animals in their natural habitat. Also, we heard there was great and affordable treks in the park. Taman Negara is massive. It was originally established during colonial times as a gaming preserve and is one of the oldest rainforests in the world. It is now protected from hunters and poachers. Though no Malays live in the park itself, there are nomadic people who still inhabit this land-- the "Orang Asli." Many packaged day trips through the park include a stop in a "traditional Orang Asli settlement," where activities include blow dart demonstrations and gawking and photographing "the natives." Against this type of voyeuristic tourism, we decided to trek on our own. We did come across an Orang Asli in the middle of the jungle as well as some abandoned bamboo platforms where we presume people used to live. Orang Asli have a separate migratory history than Malays and do not speak the national language. Like many indigenous communities that we have encountered on this trip, they are exploited as a tourist attraction and receive the short end of the profit earned from this tourism. We wonder how many Orang Asli chose to maintain their traditional way of life and how many are products of discriminatory government policies and conscious efforts to keep them in the jungle. Though the answer to this question is often complicated, our instinct tells us that this type of tourism is wrong, so we choose not to support it. We had a wonderful, hot, and exhausting couple of days of trekking in Taman Negara that proved to be exactly the type of tour that we wanted.

Waiting for the bus to take us from Jeruntut to Taman Negara National Park. Jeruntut is a sleepy transportation hub in the center of Malaysia.

From Jeruntut it takes about 3 hours on public bus to get inside the park. Across this tiny river lies the entrance to the park. On this side of the river, you can find very cheap guesthouses and dorms to base yourself from if you are just doing day treks in the park. There is one resort located at the entrance of the park which has the feeling of a Catskills summer camp. We saw many international students and families staying here. Those two shacks on the river are floating restaurants, the only place to eat here. Also, if you are going here, bring money. We forgot to do this, assuming there would be an ATM or money changer near the park. We ended up having to stretch a typical day's budget out for four days. Ooof. Good thing we had cliff bars and didn't mind eating plain rice.

There are three houses on stilts, called "hides" throughout the park. The idea is that you hike out to a quiet area in the jungle and hide from the animals with hopes of seeing one. The hide we decided to trek to was 11 km away and offered the best chance of seeing an animal. We started our two day journey with 4 liters of water, 4 packets of rice, and 4 cliff bars. It was a hardcore hike, and we were ill prepared as far as rations, however, we greatly enjoyed walking around this beautiful jungle forest. On the first day of the trip, we met this guy Andrew from Canada who wanted to join us.

We were happy to have a new friend for about the first hour of our 7 hour hiking day. He was such a bro and was more intent on finishing the hike then experiencing the forest. We had fun tuning him out and enjoying our day. He also kept us on pace so that we made it to the hide before dark. So that was good.
This jungle forest is CRAZY! It is a real live jungle with strange noises, huge insects, and exotic plants galore. It also has real live leeches. Max met his first dozen on this trip.

Giant trees. You can see a vine hitching a ride to the sunlight on its mammoth neighbor.

Really giant trees.

Here is the view from our "hide." We made it there feeling exhausted but accomplished. Animals are supposed to wander through this clearing attracted by the salt licks placed beneath the hide. We didn't see any animals, but we didn't mind. Apparently the inhabitants of this forest are smart enough not to come wandering through an unprotected clearing in the forest towards a group of loud humans. We enjoyed sleeping here-- though it wasn't camping, it was the closest we could get.

The next day we headed back. We lost Andrew along the way as we kept stopping to look at the amazing foliage while he was on a mission to get back to "town."

This spiky tree seemed to attack Kara a lot. She still believes it can move quickly. But seriously, these needles are sharp. Max found one embedded in his scalp in the shower after our trek.

A large root system lives us to our expectations of exotic jungle wildlife.

So many different fungi live here.

Almost home, the dirt path turns into a raised plastic walkway for day trekkers and school groups. We're not safe yet, we still get lost once more less than 1 km away from our destination.

We made it though. We had run out of water quite some time before seeing this sign and were delighted to be done for the day.

The next day we decided to take it easy and head to the main tourist attraction of the park, the Canopy Walk. This is a 400 meter man-made bridge, suspended 25 to 40 meters above the ground and is the "longest canopy walk of its kind." We're not really sure what that means, but it's very tall, man-made, and long.


The walk is made up of bridges suspended between trees like this one. It allows you to see the forest from the vantage point of the trees. Much like a coral reef, the life forms are very different at various levels of the forest. Being up so high allowed us to see these changes very easily. It was great to spend some time hiking back in nature after having been in cities for the last couple of weeks. Max wishes we had more pictures but we were too busy experiencing the scenery to record it. We highly recommend Taman Negara. It was a good place to get lost in the jungle.

We left Taman Negara for the hill station of Cameroon Highlands. Naturally we had to go through Kuala Lumpur, for the 5th time. A couple of dosas later, and we were on a bus headed to the mountains most famous for its tea production. The Cameroon Highlands, like many hill stations, was a retreat for the British colonists from the heat of the lowlands. Now it serves the same purpose for domestic tourists. We would compare it in some ways to Dalat, the hill station we visited in Vietnam. It is a mecca for agricultural tourism and kitchy souvenirs such as stuffed plush strawberries. The Cameroon Highlands also has some great treks and hikes that are easily accessed from the three main settlements here. Another added bonus of staying up here was hot water was standard in every guesthouse. Usually you have to pay around $1-2 extra for this luxury. We were psyched.

Fun trivia: the Cameroon Highlands is home to the most Land Rovers in the world other than the garrison of the British Army.

Looking out from the second highest peak in the area. You can see the towns of Brinchang and Ringlet nestled in the mountains below.

Hanging out above the greenhouses.

Inside the greenhouses.


We told you it was kitchy.


Growing lettuce draws a crowd in this town.


If anyone knows how much Kara loves salad, they will understand this photo. It's hard to find fresh clean lettuce in these parts, meaning SE Asia.

This area is also home to the "pitcher plant." The pitcher plant eats flies and other small insects, trapping them inside their cylindrical shaped appendage. Max was almost eaten alive that day. Kara documented before stepping in to save her love's finger from plant destruction. Kara really likes these plants because she feels its the plant world's strike-ing back towards its animal oppressors. "Go get 'em carnivorous plants!"


After checking out the greenhouses, we decided to go for a hike through the jungle. 0.72 km might not seem far, but it took us almost 2 hours to hike through this madness. It was straight up climbing, then straight down descending the entire time.


Kara doesn't remember smiling on this trek, but apparently she liked it.


After finishing our hike, we took the winding main road back down to our guesthouse in town. The three main cities of this area are connected by this well paved road. Each town has its own selection of strawberry farms, guesthouses, and restaurants.


We picked the budget choice, a small room in the attic of our guesthouse. We couldn't stand up without hitting our head but it was cheap and cozy. Besides who wants to stand around in a room..
...when there are sights like this? The main tourist draw in the Cameroon Highlands are the sprawling tea plantations that cover the hills like a deep green shag carpet.

You can hike through these plantations which are really huge. The cycle for cultivating tea is only three weeks.

Workers with huge tea clippers snip the top leaves and toss them into the baskets they carry on their backs before the tea can be brought to the factories. The work is incredibly labor intensive. Just walking up these hills alone is a challenge. Max tried to pick up a basket load without success.

The BOH Tea Plantation is the most famous in the area and is one of the most popular teas in Malaysia. They have clearly figured it out that people want to see their tea plantation. On top of the free guided tour that takes you through the tea making process, they have a lovely tea house and snack area that overlooks the plantation. You can try any of the many varieties of tea they produce here. We tried a "tea-chino" which was confusing but good. Our favorite is still the lychee rose green tea.

We met this guy while we were trekking earlier in the day and walked with him for many hours, first to the plantation, and then back to the town. He was cool.

View from the BOH Tea Factory.

Kara really liked this plant on the way home and wanted to take a picture with it. That's all. Max thinks its a century plant.

This is just funny. In a bathroom somewhere on Kara's walk one afternoon.

At first Max thought Kara was joking when she wanted to buy this hat for him. Now he wears it almost every day. Kara has it in white, but doesn't like to wear it at the same time.

Our stay in the Cameroon Highlands solidified our love for hill stations: we ate salad, we hiked, we slept under blankets, and we got cold... well kind of. Cold enough to appreciate warm showers. After a few days of chilling out we were ready to move on from the Cameroon Highlands and Malaysia itself. This was our last adventure in Malaysia. Once again, truly Asia.

See you on the beach....

Kara and Maximilian