After
spending a week in Hong Kong, I traveled to Bangkok, Thailand.
I only made it one day in Bangkok before fleeing — the
pollution was horrible! So I ended up in the city of Phuket,
in Southern Thailand. I stayed away from the touristy beaches
and instead went hiking into the jungle, found secluded beaches,
and took in the beauty of the surrounding islands. Here are
a few pictures along the way.
If
you get past the hotel beaches in Phuket, you will find many
beautiful virtually untouched beaches with almost no one around.
Here is a typical view of one of those out-of-the-way beaches.
Another
view on another beach.
An
old wooden bridge leads to a small island.
I
hiked around the jungles as well as the beaches. You can see
the hanging vines at the top. There were many surprises, such
as this old temple-like structure along the hike.
On
a boating expedition to various islands, we passed under this
cave with the hanging stalactites.
One
of the most impressive sights are the islands that have eroded
away at the bottom, while the tops remain fairly intact. This
one is known as "James Bond Island" because a James
Bond episode was filmed on location with this rock. The boats
on the foreground are the boats we used to get there. I sat
on the rooftop with some other daring adventurers during the
boat ride to get a better view!
One
of the more intriguing sites along the way was this floating
city, a fully self-contained city including post office, schools,
and the temple you can see in the background of this shot,
entirely built on wooden pylons and planks. I was amazed to
see toddlers crawling along wooden planks without rails, and
the parents unconcerned about the the toddlers falling over
the edge. Most of the locals spend their entire lives on this
floating city.
Along
my travels, we stopped in an old cave that housed an ancient
Buddhist temple. Here are a few of the weathered statues inside.
This
is the inside of another Buddhist temple located on the outskirts
of Phuket, Thailand. You can see by the decorations that it
is still frequently visited and well-maintained.
A
final picturesque scene of a fishing boat along the many steep
islands near Phuket, Thailand.
That's
all! To see the previous set of vacation photos, click on the arrow
