Koh Phagnan While we were in Chiang Mai we decided we wanted to spend our last week experiencing one of the famous Thailand beaches.We researched online for a place we thought might be suitable for the kids and ourselves and chose Koh Phangan.It is a small island located within the bay of Thailand just north of the more popular Koh Samui island.However, Koh Phangan has gained popularity, with at least the backpacker crowd, because of its full moon party held dur...

River Kwai- Kanchanaburi Before we made our way to Koh Phangnan we decided to explore a historical area in a small town north of Bangkok called Kanchanaburi.This is the location of the Bridge on the River Kwai.Some may recall an award winning movie starring William Holden and Alec Guiness filmed about WWII and the famous bridge. We took the train from Bangkok for a three hour ride to Kanchanaburi.We saw the countryside along the way looking out of our wood paned...

Working for Food December 13th, two days before we left Chiang Mai, we worked for our food.We have been staying in an apartment like residence here in Chiang Mai for a month.We have a little restaurant where the sweetest 26 year old girl named Bow (pronounced Boe) works pretty much every day cooking, serving and busing the tables.We have gotten to know her a little even though there is quite a language barrier.This morning we went down to get some breakfast and ...

Thailand- Chiang Mai We arrived safely in Bangkok on November 9th after a long flight from Johannesburg.We made sure to get to the J. Burg airport about four hours early.We are once bitten twice shy when it comes to missing our flights now.We decided to fly to Chiang Mai, northwest region of Thailand, the same day. We had a 9 hour layover and didn't even walk out of the airport.It was a grueling 9 hours.We had to stay with all of our luggage until we could chec...

Graskop We arrived at the Thabe Tsweni Lodge around 4:00 and it was perfect.Thabe Tsweni means "baboons on rocks"The cost for a two bedroom chalet with full kitchen is 630 rand ($63/night).That's about medium on the price range.It's also only 9km away from Graskop where we can grocery shop, gift shop and eat at a variety of restaurants.We are in the Mpumalanga province of South Arica in the Drakensberg escarpment and Blyde River Canyon area. The area i...