Chiang Mai

     So far Chiang Mai is a lot different than Phuket. Not as hot (which is good because there's no beaches here) and more city-like. We have a friend that lives here who has hooked us up with a local girl that speaks good English to take us around and show us what's good in Chiang Mai. So far we've seen some really cool waterfalls, and hiked to the tallest point in all of Thailand. Really amazing views up there. Check out some of the pictures I got!

1000x more beautiful in person

Phi Phi Islands

     Yesterday we did a tour of the Phi Phi Islands and words can't explain how beautiful they are. We went snorkling off shore and swam with tropical fish, through a coral reef and visited some amazing beaches. I never thought snorkling would be fun but I could have done it for hours. So many cool things to see under the sea. After stopping at Monkey Beach (small beach on a small island with lots of friendly mokeys to feed), and then some snorkling, we were taken into a cove of an island surounded by huge cliffs. As we came around one of the cliffs, a beautiful secluded beach appeared. There was a lot of other tours there as well but it didn't take away from the beauty of where we were.

     The tour took all day, and I only ended up taking a few photo's but is was an amazing tour. Don't come to Phuket and not go see the Phi Phi Islands, you'll regret it.

Here's the photo's that I did get:

Just beautiful

Rum and Coke Relaxing on the Beach

Colourful Umbrellas

Some of this sights we saw

  

The most beautiful beach I will have ever been on

Extra Photo's

     Here are some extra photo's from yesterdays adventure. Just so you know, all of the photo's on this blog are my original photo's, taken by me, and cannot be used by anyone else without my permision. If anyone is interested in a print, you can contact me at info.bensphotos@gmail.com. Thanks, and enjoy!

As always, you can click to see the full size image or check out my Flickr to see full resolution copy's.

Broken Phone

Baby at the Market in a Bucket

A very small taste of the Sunday Market

More Food

Phuket Museum

Sunset on a Thai Street

Out of the Normal

     The roads here are 90% motor bikes and mopeds and 10% cars. So naturally, we had to rent some bikes. It took some convincing, as my dad was quite nervous. Driving on the left side of the road, in a foriegn country with insane traffic, might be a little confusing. After I finally convinced him that everything would be ok, we planned a trip half way across Phuket to Old Phuket Town to check out the Sunday Market (about a 25km trip one way). Check out my sweet ride:

125cc Honda Street Bike

     After about a 30 minute talk with the hotel staff mapping out our route to Old Phuket town, we were finally on our way. There were no posted speed limits but we were going at an average speed of about 60km/hr. We only had to stop for directions once (and we were about 3 mins from where we were going). Trying to explain where you're going to someone who speaks no more than 5 words of English is very tough. Understanding the directions they give you is almost impossible. But I knew we could handle it, and we got there with no issues.

     We first stopped right in Old Phuket Town and stumbled upon this awesome market place with people playing live music, tons of food,  and shops and stands selling everything you could need. What seemed to be the main downtown street is where it was taking place. It was packed with people and shops and everything. It was hard just to make your way through it all, let alone actually have enough space to see everything. We tried some food as we were walking through. The sun was setting around this time as well.

     

A lot of  people...

     While walking through the market here, we came upon some really sweet old Volkswagens. My dad is a huge fan of the old vans and bugs and it made his night. They were really cool to see and totally random! Very clean, nice looking cars too.

     

     After around 40 minutes spent at this market we decided to head out to the main event of the night, The Sunday Market. About 10 minutes from Old Phuket Town there is a world famous market that is huge. When I say huge, I mean like bigger than the Quinte mall (no exaggeration). Its so big that I literally couldn't capture it in a photo.. But the food was amazing, the shops were amazing and the heat was amazing. It felt like it was 50 degrees in the main tent. We thought we were gonna melt.

     All in all, the both markets were an amazing experience. Packed with people, authentic food, and tons of little shops within. The whole adventure of renting the bikes, and then traveling all the way there through crazy Thailand traffic was just awesome. I was definitely up for it the entire time but my dad really broke out of his comfort zone for this, and it was more than worth it. We felt like we were on top of the world when we finally got back to our hotel at around 10 pm. It was like we conqured Thailand. Shout out to dad for being super awesome with everything today.

We had to celebrate with a beer!

I'll be posting ASAP about our tour of the Phi Phi Islnads! Amazing beaches and snorkling.

As always, you can click to see the full size image or check out my Flickr to see full resolution copy's.

Finally!

     After eating dinner last night we were wandering through a market and while passing a stall, a man was offering us food. We were not hungry as we had just eaten, but his food looked amazing. Cooked to order with two sides, and a good price! So when dinner time came around today, we had to go back. My dad got fresh fish (Red Snapper) with noodles, and I ordered fried rice with beef.

Our Chef for the night

   
     Both dishes were delicious. There was a choice of

spice degree; no spice, 10% spice, 30% spice and 50%.

We both got 10% spice to be safe. Now I'm not one for

spicy food, and this was spicy! My dad enjoyed it and

said he could have gone for 30% spice but I was

sweating. We each got another Chang beer but my

mouth was burning even after that was gone. So I

stepped over to the fruit shake stand from last night and

got a cold mango shake to cool me down. Man those

shakes are delicious.
   

Ice cold mango smoothie

  It was exciting to finally eat a meal that felt like it was

authentic Thai food. Spicy and flavourful is what we

were looking for and we found it. Success! Looking

forward to what tomorrow brings!

Chang beer has a great slogan!

.

 As always, you can click to see the full size image or check out my Flickr to see full resolution copy's. 

Big Buddha

     Waking up to the sun shining, we headed downstairs to start day number two with some breakfast. With the help of the internet, we decided that we would go visit the Big Buddha. 1100 Baht (about $42 CAD) and a 30 minute taxi ride up the mountain later, we arrived. We could see the Big Buddha's head from our hotel but didn't realize how big it really was until we were right in front of it.

Big Buddha

     

     

     The taxi driver, for that same price, even waited for us to do what we wanted up there and then took us right back to our hotel. That little excursion took us into the afternoon which is when we realized how hot it was outside. After getting lost a few times, we finally found our way to the much nicer Karon Beach. It took us about 25 minutes to walk there but it was well worth it. The beach was beautiful and the water was salty. We took a very refreshing swim, and headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

     On the walk back we came across a Starbucks and we just had to go in. Inside looked just like any Starbucks you'd see at home (english menus and all). The only difference was the prices.. I got myself a tall Caramel Cream frappuccino which ended up costing about $6.. I guess that's Starbucks for ya. 

       

Karon Beach

No shirt no shoes no service?

     Instead of going to a restaurant we dicided to get dinner from a stall in one of the near by night markets. A serving of stir fry and a fresh fruit shake cost under $4 each. Much cheaper than the restaurant we ate at the night before and it tasted a little more authentic. Great food for a great price.

Freshly blended mango fruit shake

Here's a few extra photo's from todays adventures:  

Young Monks at the Big Buddha

Busy Thai Street

    

As always, you can click to see the full size image or check out my Flickr to see full resolution copy's.

First Impression

     So far, Phuket is a very interesting place. We (I'm here with my dad) decided to sleep for a few hours when we first arrived and then went to explore a little as the sun was setting. There's a beach about a 10-15 min walk from our hotel. The area we are in is filled with an unlimited selection of bars and restaurants. After finally choosing where to eat, we got some traditional Pad Thai and had to try the local beer (Change Beer). The food was good but nothing too special. The beer on the other hand.. The bottles here are twice the size of our Canadian bottle and the alcohol percentage was a little higher too (6%).

Waiting for our Pad Thai to arrive

So in turn, my dad and I each had one bottle

which was really more like 3.5-4 bottles at

home. Needless to say it was a little bit of a

tipsy walk back to our room. All in all, it was a

tasty beer.




     On our way back to our room after dinner we stopped to check out a few of the markets. People were selling food, sunglasses, shirts, jewellery etc. and we even got our bargaining game on. I found a cool Volkswagen shirt that I knew my dad would like (which he did), and after trying it on we found out it was selling for 350 Baht and we managed to get the price down to 280 Baht, scoring a good deal. The main street was a very buys place and there was tons of things going on left and right. We even came upon a baby elephant hanging out in the street.

Attracting attention for the nearby restaurants

    

Out too late or just a having a nap?

As always, you can click to see the full size or check out my Flickr to see full resolution copy's.

Hong Kong International (HKG)

     Shot a few photo's while on my layover at the Hong Kong airport. As always, you can click to see the full size or check out my Flickr to see full resolution copy's.

This was something I found interesting.. A small 'Smoking' room.

Busy Hallway

Waiting

Touch Down in Hong Kong!

     Finally off of that 15 hour long flight.. I did get to see an awesome sunrise over the Northern Canadian Arctic, I was taking some pics and then I realized that I recorded a 3 second video by accident as well... Looks cool though!

     Currently sitting in the Hong Kong International Airport waiting for our flight in to Phuket, Thailand. Thankfully this flight will only be a few hours long. Waiting isn't bad either. This airport is fairly empty (it's 5 am here), and  very clean. The McDonald's breakfast menu looks very similar to ours but with real bacon. Anyway, I had wifi and some time to kill so I thought I'd give you guys a little update!

Check back soon!

Ready to go!

All Packed!

     Hey guys guess what! I'm going to Thailand! I've been on lots of crazy adventures with my friends in the past, but this will be my first big trip. I'm super excited to experience another culture and even more excited to be shooting photos there as well! Me and my dad planned this trip in just under two months and it came together very fast. We don't have any particular plans while we're there other than exploring and seeing what Thailand is all about. 

     We're flying out of Toronto at 1 am Wednesday morning, spending a few hours in Hong Kong, then a short flight to Phuket, Thailand (close to 20 hours total of flying), After spending a few days in Phuket, we'll be flying north to Chiang Mai. Phuket has lots of tropical beaches and resort-type things to do while Chiang Mai is a more rugged and mountainous area. We didn't want to spend our 15 days in one place so we decided to see both parts of the country! 

     Anyway. just thought I'd let you guys in on what I'll be up to for the next two weeks! Not sure what the wifi situation in the hotels down there is like but I'll do my best to post more while I'm gone. Check back to see some photos and read about the things I'll be seeing and doing. Go out and live!

Ps. 

Full resolution versions of my photos will all be on my Flickr account.

Welcome!

     Hello everyone! Welcome to the new place where I'll be sharing my adventures, photos and thoughts. If you don't know who I am, I'm just an adventurous young person who isn't going to sit around and watch life pass by. I love photography and I'll be sharing many of my photo's here for you guys to see! I just decided to create a place where I can write about the things I see and do where I won't be spamming your newsfeed on social media sites (plus they give me more than 140 characters here). So welcome to my blog, sit back, and enjoy! I'll be posting as often as I can so keep checking back for updates!

Here is a shot of the sunrise on Salerno lake that I shot last summer while at a friends cottage!