Up about 9:00, I had another great sleep last night. Walked around town looking for breakfast, nothing happening in town yet, even at 9:30 am. Almost all the shops still closed, none of the restaurants open, and only a handful of tourists walking around. Went back to the Happy Lagoon restaurant for an expensive American breakfast, but it ended up being huge. I didn't need to eat again until later in the afternoon.

Walked back to town and rented a motorbike for 200 baht for 24 hours. Motorbike rentals are sooo cheap in Thailand, it's awesome.

Headed north of town and first stopped at the Tsunami Memorial Sculpture. Not really impressive, just a bunch of metal bars sticking out of the ground, designed by some dude who designs furniture. But I guess it's the thought that counts.

Then turned off to see Khuh Khak beach. Amazing beach, only one resort on the whole beach, the beach was almost deserted, just a few people sunbathing or swimming. There were huge waves crashing into the shore, so I decided to do some body surfing. One wave I surfed brought me right down into the sand on my stomach, and pushed me, on my stomach, along the sand. It hurt like hell, like someone was rubbing very coarse sand paper on my stomach really hard. When I finally stopped, I expected to see my stomach all scraped and maybe bleeding a bit, but it wasn't. However, my stomach was still hurting hours after that experience.

As I was leaving the beach, I stopped to take pictures of what looked like it was a very nice restaurant not too long ago, now broken and busted and abondoned, presumably a casualty of the tsunami. The tsunami wave was 10 metres high in this area.

Then headed up to Leam Pakarang (Pakarang Cape). Nothing here, just me and sand and palm trees. You can see resorts on either side, a kilometre away.

Then on to Sai Rung waterfall. It's dry season, so not too much water coming down. Some local kids were swimming in the waterfall, they wanted me to take their picture.

Turned around and headed south and stopped at Chong Fa waterfall. Very nice and picturesque. Went for a dip in the pool of the lower waterfall, then hiked up to the upper waterfall.

After that, stopped at the Tsunami International Museum. Just a small "museum" that has displays about the tsunami, how it happened, how it affected lives and the environment, the worlds response to the trategy, etc. Kind of a tear jerker.

Headed back to the room, and had pizza at a pizza/pasta place near my bungalow.

Then headed south of town to see Ton Pling waterfall and the pedestrian suspension bridge that goes nowhere.

Then stopped at Small Sanda Beach, a small national park that's, well, a small and sandy beach in a small bay, surrounded by rocky butresses on either side. Very nice. I went for quick swim. Because it's a national park, there's a 100 baht entrance fee, but because it was 4:00 in the afternoon, she let me in for free.

Then stopped at the Tsunami Volunteer Centre. It was the HQ for the volunteer efforts after the tsunami. Not too much there, a few locals.

Back to the room, showered and walked downtown, had a beer at Ska Bar, an outdoor bar downtown along the highway. Walked up to a bookstore and bought a new book. The new book was cheaper than the used book he had for sale. Go figure.

After being here for a few days, I don't care for Khao Lak. It has every amenity you could want, but it's too resort friendly, and there's nothing at all on the beach for average backpacker dude like me. And because the main highway runs right through the centre of town, it's crazy busy, with everything from motorbikes to big transport trucks rolling on through.

In the evening, sat on my verandah and wrote in my journal, chatted with an old lady in the room next to me for a bit.

Then went to the Happy Lagoon pub and had a couple of beers. As I sat there, I conducted a very scientific survey, and counted the groups of people that passed by and put them into three categories. 31 of the groups were families, 40 of the groups were old people and 14 were younger. And even many of the younger ones were iffy, almost all couples, maybe married, holding hands. That's what Khao Lak is like. :-)

Went to bed sometime after 10:00.

Up about 8:00, slept awesome. Walked over to Happy Lagoon Bungalows and took a look at the 600 baht rooms. I took one in the 6 unit motel style building, with a verandah out front. This room is even bigger than the one at Sri Guest House.

On the walk back to Sri to get my backpack, I stopped at a cafe for breakfast, then packed and checked out and took my stuff to my new place.

Went to the internet and e-mailed Sunrise Divers telling them where I am staying, so I can get a pickup for the dive trip on the 25th. Then I did a search for my dive boat name (Dolphin Queen) and found out that the company that runs that boat is literally right beside Happy Lagoon. They're called Similan Diving Safaris. I stopped in, they had my name on the list, so I filled out all the paperwork and got all my questions answered. I also asked about underwater camera's, I'm thinking I'll want one. They have a regular film camera, and also an underwater digital camera designed for diving, it has a plastic houseing around it. Most "underwater" digital cameras are more designed for snorkelling, and not for diving depths. Alternatively, I can rent a camera on board the boat for 1500/day and I can also buy a DVD of the trip for 3000 baht. Presumably I could find other people on the boat to split the cost of a DVD and we could just make copies of the DVD.

After that, went to the beach and swam, layed (laid?) around, had lunch at a beach restaurant, swam, laid (layed?) around.

About 2:0, headed back to the room and showered. There was a white cat sleeping on my verandah underneath one of the chairs. After I got out of the shower, she had moved up onto one of the chairs. I patted her, and she became my new best friend, and wouldn't leave me alone. I ignored her and wrote in my journal.

Thunderstorm rolled in later in the afternoon, cool lightning and thunder.

Went to Happy Lagoon restaurant for supper.

There are soooo many families in Khao Lak. Families with infants, families with kids, families with teenagers, it's crazy. And 80% of the kids have blonde hair. Someone told me that there's a direct flight from Sweden (I think, might have been Denmark) to Krabi. That would explain all the blonde's in the area. And there's a lot of older people staying in the beach resorts.

Khao Lak is like the Cancun of Thailand. Huge resorts with big restaurants, swimming pools, bars, and all the other amenities provided so their guests don't even need to leave the resorts. I've not really seen this in any other place in Thailand.

Still super tired from two nights ago, and went to bed about 9:00.

Up at 6:45. Soooo tired. Not enough sleep. Laid in bed for a bit, had a quick shower. I'm moving pretty slowly. I'm not hung over, really, I may still be a bit drunk, but just mostly tired. As I was packing, my van came early to pick me up, 7:15. Finished packing and hopped in.

The van picked up a bunch of other tourists and a few locals. One other couple is going to Khao Lak, the rest to the airport in Krabi.

The ferry from Koh Lanta Noi to the mainland was very busy, we had a long wait before we could get on. The people going to the airport in Krabi thought they were going to miss their flight.

We got to Krabi, dropped their airport people off with an hour or more to spare, then on to the tour company. We had about 10 minutes to grab something to eat and get loaded into another van for the ride to Khao Lak. While at the tour company, buddy asked me if I had a place to stay in Khao Lak yet, I said no, he sold me a place called Sri Guest House. As I have no nothing about Khao Lak (it's not in my Let's Go travel book), I took it for one night, then get my bearings and see what else is available.

Once again, the area around Krabi astounds me. It's very quite spectacular, limestone mountains coming straight up out of the ground, lush, green jungle all around. I could live in Krabi, it has such natural beauty.

The drive to Khao Lak is quite nice. We drove through this area of mountains and valleys, the road twisting and turning through the thick jungle. I started talking to the couple that were on the van from Koh Lanta with me, they did a Similan Islands dive trip a number of years ago and loved it. They said I'd get to see lots of amazing things, including huge manta rays, like 5-6 metres in diameter. Cool!

I tried to sleep on the van, but it was useless.

Got to Khao Lak about 2:00, and I asked around for directions to Sri Guest House and made the 300 metre walk along the highway to it. My room is very nice, sparkling clean, huge, but location is not ideal. I'll see what I can find this afternoon for tomorow.

I walked to the nearest restaurant for lunch, very expensive Italian place. Very good, but expensive.

Khao Lak is a large area, but when people say Khao Lak, they usually are referring to the main town where most of the accomodations are. The highway runs right through the middle of the town, and almost all the shops and restaurants and guest houses run along the highway, so it's quite stretched out.

I went in search of a map for Khao Lak, but most of the tour agents were all out. Finally I found one and go my bearings. After a thunderstorm rolled through, about 4:00, I walked down to the beach, about a 20 minute walk from Sri Guest House.

Walked north on the beach, there's nothing but high-end resorts that have beach front property here. Pretty much what I had read on the internet about Khao Lak. The beaches are very lovely and the view around to the mountains in behind is quite nice.

Walked back to Sri Guest House along the highway, used internet, and found that Happy Lagoon Bungalows is relatively cheap, it says 500 baht for fan room. And it's a short 100 metre walk to the beach. I walked by Happy Lagoon on the way to the beach, and remember looking at it thinking that that place looks expensive!

I walked to Happy Lagoon, their fan rooms are 600 baht now, but heck, I'll pay an extra 100 baht ($3) to be closer to everything. I'll move there tomorrow.

About 8:30 headed out to find something to eat, then back to my room and was in bed by 9:30.

Up about 8:00, went for a swim in the ocean. Refreshing.

Had breakfast at the bungalows and rented a motorbike for the day. Went to town to look around, it's soo busy. So many tourists in town, shopping, eating, having a shake or latte.

Stopped at a tour company and asked how much transport to Khao Lak was. 650 baht. Tried another tour agent. 700 baht. Went back to the first one to buy, but he wasn't around, so went to another one. 600 baht. Bought it from her. Pick up at my bungalow will be tomorrow at 7:30am. Mulled around downtown for quite a while and had an iced coffee at a cafe.

After a bit, headed south on the island and went to the Viewpoint Restaurant that has great views to the east of the island and the islands beyond. Court and I were here 5 years ago, and the only different now is the restaurant is crawling with tourists. Tons of them, unbelievable.

Headed further south to the waterfall. The paved road turned into a dirt road as you head south, very dusty, rutted and potholed. Took my time, I didn't want to crash!

Got to the waterfall parking lot and it was about a 45 minute jungle hike along and in the stream to the waterfall. Dry season right now, so not much of a waterfall, more of just a trickle coming down, but you can stand under it for a minute or two and get refreshed. The jungle trek is super nice, lush green jungle. Hiked up past the waterfall to see what I could see, nothing of interest, so hiked back to the motorbike. It's strange, we hiked to the waterfall 5 years ago, but I remember virtually nothing of it. Nothing seemed familiar to me.

Drove further south to check out the beaches. Koh Lanta has so many beaches. Went for a dip in Khlong Jak Bay, the beach and water was super nice there.

Headed back to the bungalow and got back about 4:30 and showered.

It seems there's way more tourists off the beaches than on the beaches here in Koh Lanta. How strange.

Motorbiked back into town to use internet for a while, then back to the bungalow after dark.

Walked to the same restaurant I went to last night and had their 150 baht fish BBQ again.

Walked down the beach and had a drink at a pub donig a fire show. At this bar, they have a distance sign post showing the distances to various cities around the world. While I was there, the bartender asked me where I was from, I told him Canada, he grabbed a distance sign from behind the bar that said Halifax, Canada, 14xxx kilometres (can't remember exact number). Another guy at the bar remarked that he didn't know there was a Halifax in Canada, now he knows of three Halifaxes in the world. A Brit bartender working there said he knows of four, Britain, Canada, the US and New Zealand all have places named Halifax.

Lightning all over the horizon tonight. Nothing over Koh Lanta though, but made for great watching over the ocean, sitting in a beach bar.

Moved up the beach some more and stopped at a pub with lots of women sitting around in pairs, having a drink and chatting. I decided to get a drink and sit by myself and wait for any of the girls in the pub to chat me up. I chose a strategic spot in the bow of a boat. It didn't take long for my devious plan to work! After 5 minutes, a girl from the stern of the boat came over and asked, in a British accent, if I was by myself, I said yes. She then asked me if I'd like to come and sit in with her and her friend. I accepted. They were both travelling alone, but had met on a snorkelling trip or something. Another guy joined for a bit, then he left, then two other chicks that the girls knew came along and sat with us. They had also met the guy and the other girls on the snorkelling trip. Anyway, the night turned into some mayhem, with lots of alcohol, card playing, dancing and more alcohol. We closed the place down at 3:15am. Yikes! I have to get up in a few hours for my van to Khao Lak.

My impressions of Koh Lanta 5 years later. It's still cool in my books. It's very busy, but the island is very large and spread out, so it's not crowded. The beach I was on was a backpacker beach, so had a cool vibe to it. Long Beach, is no longer the laid back, backpacker beach it was, it's definately more upscale now.

I think I got kinda screwed with my accomodation. The girls I partied with were at places right on the beach and paying the same as I was. Bugger! There's something to be said for not booking in advance, but just dealing with it when you get there. If I was staying longer, I would've moved to where the girls were staying probably.

Up about 7:45, showered and had breakfast.

As I was waiting for my ferry pickup to get to Koh lanta, I did some research on Khao Lak, where my Similan Islands dive trip leaves from. Khao Lak is the area north of Phuket island, on the mainland. Khao Lak took the brunt of the tsunami wave, in some parts, the wave swept over 4km inland! (Think about that for a minute!) The confirmed death total for Thailand from the tsunami was 5395. 4225 of those deaths were in Khao Lak.

My ferry pickup came about 10:15, and got to the pier about 10:30. I stood around with a dumb look on my face (something I pull of quite easily), and one of the tourist office girls asked me where I was going. I told her Koh Lanta, she asked me if I had accomodation yet, I told her no, but I want something cheap. She pulled out a brochure for Arena Bungalows, 400 baht/night, just south of Long Beach, about half way down the island. They are beach bungalows with a fan and private bath, so I took it.

I waited around for the boat to leave at 11:30. Boat came and we arrived at the pier in Saladan (the main town on Koh Lanta) a few hours later. The Arena Bungalows dude was waiting, holding up a sign for his bungalows, so I hopped in the brand new Isuzu truck with him, and we headed off.

Wow, the town is soooo busy now, I can't believe it. Packed full of people and vehicles. And the town has expanded way down the main highway for more than a kilometre. In fact, the whole drive, there were so many buildings, shops, hotels, restaurants, etc., all the way down. None of that existed 5 years ago! And there's so many tourists milling around everywhere.

On the drive down, I told the driver i was on Koh Lanta 5 years ago, and stayed at Lanta Sand Resort. As we passed it, he pointed it out. It's now the Lanta Sand Resort and Spa. I told him I paid 500 baht/night 5 years ago, he laughed and said "no more", meaning I would never get it for that price now.

Got to Arena bungalows. It's ok, but not on the beach. It's about a minute walk to the beach. It's stuck behind a smallish, but obviously expensive, motel with a swimming pool. The beach along here is nice, white sand, but the water isn't suitable for swimming, cus it's mostly rocks all over. I decided to walk up to Long Beach to see the Lanta Sand Resort and Deep Forest Bungalows, where I stayed 5 years ago.

On the walk up, I had to cross two small beaches. On one of them, someone had written in the sand "Exhibitionist Bay, March 20". The beach was almost empty, except at the other end, someone was sitting on a log. As I got closer, I could see that it was an older man, and he was buck naked. At the back edge of the beach, was a little shelter with a tarp over it and a dog laying under the shelter. As I walked by the guy (behind him, I didn't want to make eye contact, nor see him from the front), he said "Hi" to me. I grunted Hi back and kept walking, not looking at him. Now I know why someone had named it Exhibitionist Bay, obviously a joke because of buddy. After I passed him, another guy had just climbed over the headland, heading in the opposite direction as me. When I got to the end of the beach, the old, naked guy had started a conversation with this other guy. lol.

Made my way up to the Lanta Sand Resort. The bungalows look newer, and there's more of them, but it looks pretty much the same as when I was there. I asked at reception how much they were, she said 3000 baht ($100 CDN....5 years ago, less than $20 CDN!) Then walked to Deep Forest Bungalows, which was right beside Lanta Sand Resort. It's simply deserted now, the sign is laying on the ground, the huts are all falling down and caving in. And garbage piled up everywhere.

On the walk back to Arena, stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch.

As I walked past exhibitionist bay, the old naked guy was dragging driftwood down the beach toward his shelter. He's obviously living on the beach with the dog. When I got to the spot where someone had put Exhibitionist Bay, March 20 into the sand, he had wiped it out with his foot, obviously he didn't think it was funny.

Got back to Arena, showered, had a Coke and wrote in journal. This place is run bu a Muslim man and woman (she covers her head), there's no beer for sale here. There are a number of beach bars nearby, however.

About 6:30, walked to the beach, saw the sunset, pretty nice (most beaches on Koh Lanta face west, making for great sunsets). Walked down the beach, scoping out the restaurants and beach bars south of Arena. Had a beer at one place, then had supper at another restaurant that had a bbq happening. I got a BBQ fish fillet, baked potatoe, salad, fruit salad and Chang beer for 150 baht. Can't go wrong with that! It was awesome.

Not too much happening, along the beach, few of the beach bars and restaurants have customers, it seems to be pretty low key.

Went to bed sometime after 10:00.

Got to Surat Thani about 5:10am, then had to wait until 8:00am for the bus to Krabi. I slept off and on all night.

As I waited, met up with two girls, one from the U.S. (Kristie) and the other from Denmark (Christina).

The bus to Krabi wasn't even half full. I got two full seats to myself.

We got to Krabi about 10:30, and me and the girls walked to Chan Cha Lay Guest House, Courtney and mine's old haunt 5 years ago. Kristie had a reservation at B & B Guest House, but she didn't know where it was, so her and Christina also took a room at the Chan Cha Lay. 250 baht/night.

I got laundry done, and booked a boat to Koh Lanta for tomorrow. Then me, Kristie and Christina had lunch and then went to Wat Tham Sua, where the Tiger Cave is. Supposedly, a large tiger once lived in the cave, now it's a Buddhist temple and monastery. I didn't quite get why the tiger cave was so special, there's nothing behind the bars, except a place where people throw money, and presumably make a wish. We then walked along a jungle path to see some cool caves, and I took a side jungle path to seea "big tree". Didn't see the "big tree", or maybe I did, but couldn't pick it out from all the other big trees. I did, however, find a turtle hanging out on the hiking path. He retreated into his shell when I came along.

About 2:15, we caught a ongthaew back to Krabi, we stopped at a bakery and I bought a brownie. I haven't really had anything like this since coming here. We went back to the guest houe, I wrote in my journal and used internet for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile the girls went to their room and crashed. I went to a restaurant/pub and had a couple of beers, then after 6:00, went to the restaurant the girls wanted to eat at, and had supper with them. I had a grilled cheese sandwich with fries, it was so delicious, I had a second one. As we were eating, a rain shower came in.

After supper and the rain, we walked to the night shopping market, but it wasn't happening tonight, so we walked to the night food market, I had handmade ice cream (coconut and chocolate) and Kristy had a banana and Nutella pancake.

We walked around a while more, then back to the guest house. I read the Bangkok Post, and started falling asleep, and went to bed about 9:00, so tired.

Up about 8:30, showered, packed, checked out and walked to the Thai Cozy House and dad checked in. I got a bus ticket for a night bus to Krabi (700 baht), it leaves at 5:30 this afternoon. Dad used the internet, and he found out he has two inurance options. Most inurance companies won't provide insurance once you started travelling, but he can get insurance from the Co-operators, back charged to when his other insurance ended (March 7). They just need him to call Co-operators in Canada and talk to them in his own voice, to make sure he's not in a vegetable. The other option, suggested by GMS, was that he buy special insurance here in Thailand, and they told him the type he needs. He's going to evaluate the options and also wait on whether he can get a quick flight back to Canada.

We had breakfast at Thai Cozy House.

After visiting Myanmar (or Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam), it feels so good to get back to Thailand. Those other countries make Thailand feel like a fully developed country!!! It seriously feels like coming "home".

After breakfast, dad and I went on a journey to find the Eva Airways office (the airline he flew). We took the river boat to the Skytrain, then the Skytrain to where it intersects with the subway, then took the subway to the general area where the office should be. It's in a tower called "Green Tower", so we came up out of the subway and looked around for a tower that was green. No green towers here.

At all entrances to the subways, Bangkok has officers doing security, checking bags a people go in. So dad asked the officer for help. He wasn't quite sure where Green Tower was, but he radioed someone else and then told us to turn left once we got to the street. He also suggested getting a taxi, apparently it's still a fair distance. Incidentally, the subway in Bangkok is awesome. Just like a subway you'd find in any first world city (London, Sydney, etc.), it's super clean, high tech, and the tracks are enclosed by glass, so no one can accidentally (or on purpose) fall onto the tracks. When the train comes, doors in the glass open up in the same spot a the doors on the train. Very modern, very impressive.

We got to the street and started walking in the direction the officer told us. We walked for 5 minutes and couldn't see anything that could be it, and it was hot, so we waved down a taxi. He wasn't sure where it was either, but he called the Eva Airways office in his cell phone to get directions. Once he knew, it was a failry short drive to Green Tower, which is indeed a tall tower, with much green on it. We could've walked it, but it would have taken a while.

Went inside Eva Airways office, and dad explained the situation, and she checked all the flights through to the end of March, but everything is booked solid. She has put him on standby for the next two flights, and he is to call her at 5:00 on the day before the flights. There's a flight tomorrow, so he is supposed to call her today at 5:00 to see if he can get a seat. She has his request flagged as an emergency, so that preumably puts him at or near the front of the queue.

We caught a taxi back to the subway, then subway->Skytrain->boat->guest house about 3:30. I used the internet, trying to get caught up on all my journal entries, and reading all the emails I ignored because of the crappy internet in Myanmar.

At 5:00, went up to dads room and showered and then dad and I waited downstairs for my bus pickup. Buddy came shortly after 5:30, took a minibus to a small park beside a major road, where me and a whole bunch of other backpackers waited for an hour for the big bus to come. When we got there, there were already two busses there and a bunch of taxi's. One of the busses was loading up other backpackers for a trip somewhere else, and a traffic cop came along. Both busses suddenly vanished, and the traffic cop gave tickets to the taxi'. LOL. I don't think the busses are supposed to be using this park as a bus depot! After the traffic cop left, the bus that was loading up backpacker returned a short time later, and loaded up the rest of the backpackers.

I feel bad for dad, leaving him in Bangkok. But what am I to do? I can't sit around Bangkok with him, while he waits for flights back to Canada. He is used to Bangkok now, and knows how to get around, and he has everything he needs, a tv, fridge, internet, bed, free breakfasts, but still. I would have felt better if I even knew that he did have a confirmed flight, but for all he and I know, he might be sitting in Bangkok for another 10 days before he can finally get out!

Anyway, our bus came at 6:15, and left about 7:00pm. The busses hear at like limo's compared to Myanmar! No more complaints when I have to take a night bus in Thailand.

They tried to play a movie on the bus, but there was something wrong with the video system. I tried to stay awake as long as I could, then started to get sleepy around 10:30......

Considering the seat, I did get ome sleep on the bus. Dad said that it was the worst night of his life!

We got to Yangon about 7:00am, then got a shared taxi to the airport for $5. Now, we have a 12 hour wait until our flight leaves! Before going through security, we walked across the street from the airport and had breakfast at an open air restaurant, then we headed back to the airport and went through security. Unfortunately, we couldn't check our bag until after 5:00pm, so we sat around most of the day with our packs, me reading and dad doing crosswords. Every once in a while, we'd get up to walk around a bit, but it was a long day.

Lots of men at the airport chew on betel, and they spit it in the garbage cans in the airport.

The baggage check for our flight opened up about 5:45. We checked our bags and hurried through customs, then to the airport departure area, expecting to find a restaurant, we were so hungry. Nothing, no food, no shops, nothing. Not much of an international airport.

The flight left early, about 7:45. Nice new aircraft, only about 3/4 full. We even got a meal served to us, chicken sandwich, it was very good.

We arrived in Bangkok, and went through customs. Customs wasn't nearly as crazy this time as it was when we first got to Bangkok. Really no lineup to speak of this time, so we passed through quickly. We got our bags, and took a public metered taxi to Koh San Road. We walked to Thai Cozy House, and they were full. We didn't make a reservation. When we were there, they suggested another place, 5 minutes walk away, so we followed buddy to it. Not a very good deal, no TV or fridge, no breakfast for 900 baht. But it's 11:00pm at night, and we don't much feel like walking around trying to find another place.

Dad ued the internet and found out he has no medical coverage, and my Gram in Nova Scotia is not doing too well, so he is going to try to get back to Canada early.

We went to McDonalds for supper. As we walked down Koh San Road, someone had a baby elephant on Koh San Road. Great, the one and only time when I didn't bring my camera!

After McDonalds, we walked back to Thai Cozy House so dad could book a room for himself for tomorrow night. I'm going to head down to Krabi tomorrow night.

To bed about 12:30.

Up about 8:00. Dad got up early to eat and go use internet to try and get back to Canada early.

I soaked in bed, got up, showered and had breakfast about 9:00, then back to room and read and waited for dad. Power went out as I was waiting, so dad will probably be back fairly soon. He returned a short time later, and about 20 minutes, the power came back on. He packed his bag and just as he was going to head back to the internet, the power went off again. He waited, and about 10 minutes later, it was back on. He quickly headed to the internet.

About 11:30, I checked us out, took our bags downstairs and waited downstairs for him. He returned about noon.

We decided to walk down some of the back streets of town to see what we could see. The houses here are not too bad. Just bamboo housing, but seem in good shape, and fairly large. We eventually got lost and found ourselves at the local market, where locals sell fish, veggies, eggs, cloth, household items, etc. The market is HUGE. One of the fabric shops saw us coming and ran up to us with Myanmar local dress that guys wear, called a sarong. They dressed both of us up in sarongs and white button up shirts, and I took a picture of dad. Of course, they wanted to sell, dad asked how much for his outfit, they came up with a price of $23 for sarong and shirt. Too high, they dropped to $18. Dad said he just wanted the sarong, not the shirt, they said $12. Dad offered $10, and a deal was struck. I told them I didn't want to buy, but ended up buying a t-shirt with the Burmese alphabet for $2. The market was awesome, highly recommended.

We walked some more, were lost, so took a trishaw back to the guest house about 1:30. Want to San Kabar Italian restaurant for lunch.

Back to the guest house, about 2:40 and waited for the bus.

I think my diahhroea is done. Yay!

Bus came at 3:15 and we were off.

The roads here in Myanmar are terrible, like Laos or Cambodia. Riding through the countryside, we came across a part of Myanmar with hundreds of oil wells.

The bus stopped for supper about 8:00pm. Dad and me not very hungry, and had oranges. I'm also afraid to eat in case I do still have diahhroea.

We had the worst seats on the bus, raised up from the previous seats, so our feet couldn't touch the floor, they just dangled. And because we were so high up, we didn't have much room when the people in front decided to lower the back of their seat. And, we couldn't stretch our feet out underneath the seats in front of us.

The bus played Myanmar music videos (with karaoke lyrics) and then a Myanmar comedy movie. The music in Myanmar is quite modern, including rap and hip/hop artists, but much of it is love songs of various sorts. Not sure what they're singing about.

Stopped for a toilet break shortly after midnight.

Up at 7:00, quick shower, breakfast and waited for mini-van to pick us up at 8:00. I took another Imodium today, after yesterdays episodes.

After picking us up, we picked up three Israeli's and started to Mount Popa.

Stopped at a "sugar factory", where they take palm tree oil and make liquid sugar out of it, and make candy and alcohol. It's just run by a family, and housed under some bamboo, not so much a factory, but a home brew system. They even have a distillery there. Also had a five section stove where they boil the palm oil, gradually heating it to a rapid boil to make candy or something. I didn't quite understand the whole flow of the operation, but it was very fascinating.

As we got closer to Mt. Popa, we climbed into the higher elevations and the air got cooler.

Mt. Popa looks cool from a distance, but hiking to the top is very uninteresting. Not really worth it, can't see much, and ther's no grand temple at the top. We left early, and met up with the Israeli's, who were quite disappointed too. As we were waiting for our taxi dude, dad and me stopped at a restaurant, and I ordered some tea. It came, and it was black, like tar. I filld it with sugar, and drank most of it, then I broke out in a sweat and started feeling nauseous. I ran to the toilet and the tea came back up. So much for that!

Incidentally, the Israeli guys had just come back from Laos. One of them was saying how expensive it is now, it cost them more to travel in Laos than Thailand. (Incidentally, more recently, I read in Lonely Planet that the US has lifted a trade embargo that it had for Laos since 1970, and Laos is now a "normal trading partner" with the US. This probably has something to do with why it suddenly got expensive.)

We got back to the guest house about 1:00 and went to an Italian place for lunch, I had ravioli and dad had lasagna. Very good.

Back to room, government power was out, so no A/C, and they haven't turned their generator on, so no fan. Dad slept and I did crossword puzzles, wrote in journal and read.

About 6:30, took a trishaw to Restaurant Row for $1, used internet, I paid for my Similan Islands diving trip, then we went to Aroma 2 restaurant for Indian food. It's voted as one of the best 5 restaurants in Myanmar. We ate traditional style, off of a banana leaf!

We walked back to the hotel, got their about 9:00, I wrote in my journal some more, read and went to bed after 10:00. Dad keeps crashing early, I think the heat gets to him, because it is frickin hot here in Myanmar.