January 5 proved to be a lay-on-the-beach kinda day. I got a lot of reading done of Nelson Mandela's autobiography. Am really trying to finish this monolith of a book so that I don't have to carry the weight back home. Getting close, only another 200 pages to go. I walk into town for dinner and decide on a place that had chickens roasting on a spit. I order 1/2 a chicken and stir fried vegetables. Seven Russians come in for dinner. They bring their own bo...

I guess it's been 4 days now since I was at the other end of the Island around the Bai Lan Bay Area. New Year's Eve was quite a raucous affair in the area and fireworks were being let off starting around 9:0 PM carrying on until 2014 came into being. My guest house, Lazy Republique got into the party spirit and I was awakened before midnight by Madonna's "Holiday". The music continued loudly until 1:30 AM... it was all good as the owner's musical tastes were r...

Posted a few pics for those of you who are not on Facebook. I've posted a few hundred on Facebook... but this is a wee snapshot of some of the things I've seen and done so far. I'll have lots and lots of photo organizing to do when I return home. I'm up over 1,000 photos so far and I'm only 1/2 way through my trip but I expect the photo-ops will thin out now that I'm staying put for 6 days and then 4 days in Bangkok.

The shuttle from Trat arrives on Koh Chang and within a minute we are chugging up a huge mountainous switchback behind a bunch of tourist vans. I can't believe the roads, thinking surely there could be no other road worse for hills and switchbacks than that between Pai to Mae Hon Son. I'm mistaken! Now I know why I had read that if you are not highly experienced riding a motorcycle or scooter, Koh Chang is not the island to attempt it. The road looked so smoo...