Quick post that I’ve uploaded a panorama photo I stitched together of the airstrip in Vang Vieng. You can see it here. Don’t have a thumbnail to show here, but strongly recommend taking a look at the page. It’s a stunning view. :-)

For those of you interested, I took the photos myself with my Fuji and no tripod. I just stood there and rotated myself, keeping an eye on where the centre of each photo would be in relation to the previous shot. In total there are 15 photos used therein. There are some obvious stitching issues, to the trained eye. But for the most part the photos went together quite well. The images were of a better quality than even I had hoped. :-)

For those who want access to a full resolution version, you can see it here.

I’ve arrived safe and sound in Laos, after a deadly early flight and an uneventful transit across the border. Strangely enough, since Oct 1 2006 they have different visa fees for different nationals now, with… and get this… Canada at the top as the most expensive! I had to pay $42 US for a VOA. The next closest was like $40, and then lots of others at $35 with the lowest being $30 – which was the old fee. I have no idea how they came up with Canada at the top. Maybe to take advantage of all the Quebecois travellers plaguing their country-side?!? I doubt it, but it’s a funny image anyway. ;-) It’s great travelling with Kaywood. So much better to travel with a friend. Also met up with a nice American bloke up from Singapore. Good to be hanging around meeting other tourists. lol. More soon. :-D

So I spent this last weekend (Wednesday to Sunday really) on Koh Samet. It was the usual enjoyable time, with beaches, swimming, partying and dancing. :-D And I have photos to prove it! ;-) It was Kris’ birthday party weekend, so there was a small group of us. Mostly BKK regulars, but Kris’ main squeeze Arjan (pronounced ar-ee-an) was there also. Arjan is a gas, really fun to hang out with. But he’s Dutch, so no wonder. :-) It felt really nice to be on Samet and know I didn’t have to go to work as soon as I got back to BKK. I’m beginning to enjoy this time between jobs. ;-) I won’t go into a day by day breakdown of the trip, but I will touch on a few highlights.

The first night was quite, quite fun. I had enough energy to keep up a really good pace, so there was some dancing and fun had by all. It was interesting to be there during the week at the start of the tourist season. It was nominally a long holiday in Thailand (King’s birthday tomorrow) but only some people had Monday off. So there weren’t too many Thai people on the island as would be usual on a typical holiday weekend. As such most of the people there were farang tourists. Kris and Arjan are both quite friendly, so I got to meet more of the locals and some of the long-term tourists while there as well. The second night I went home early intentionally to get some rest. A side benefit of which was that I was up relatively early the next morning and got some wicked good shots of the beaches. I laughingly think of these as my tourist magazine/poster shots. ;-) The light is typically so bright and glaring during the day, that early and late are the only times to get good photos. Quite a few of which (of the landscape shots) in this set were taken at those times. Here’s two shots from mid-early morning of Ao Phai beach.

Here’s some more shots of the general beach landscape, these taken near sunset.

The third (or fourth, I can’t keep track of these things) day down there, fellow Canadian Lisa went for some muay thai fighting exercise training at the little muay thai gym at Naga, Larpsin Gym, run by big and buff Gary. I followed along and took a number of snapshots. The gym is located on a hillrise and has a great view out over the water. The late afternoon sun was great light for the colours.

And here’s Lisa getting her work on.

There was also, of course, much partying and going on. Here’s a shot of noble Arjan contemplating the cosmos late one evening.

As well as Arjan with Kris, Amy and Lisa at Ploy Bar. Phillipino bands must be the biggest export from the Phillipines, I tell you!

As I said in my previous post, my phone died on my first night on Samet. It was, what is apparently called, the ‘white screen of death’ – a known issue for certain Sony Ericsson phones that can happen with frequent use of the USB cable connector for the computer. Basically my firmware got corrupt, and though I could turn my phone on I could not use it for anything. I got it flashed Monday at MBK thankfully and I’ve been back to normal now since. The bluetooth on my laptop stopped working a long time ago, so I’ll probably get a PCMCIA bluetooth card if I can get one cheap enough and just use that to connect my phone to my computer. I wonder each time I unplug the USB cable now how long it will go until it gets corrupt again. :-S

Regardless, I spent all Thursday evening online in an internet cafe at Naga, which worked out well. I made my fellow MA DPrac student Louise jealous from the thought of beaches and sunshine. ;-) I made special extra effort to take good photos of Samet this time around so she would have pictures to keep her warm in the Newcastle wet and cold. Here’s to you Louise!