I’ve uploaded six new photo albums from my visit to Penang, Malaysia, including the following:

Georgetown
Food in Penang
Jewish Cemetery in Penang
Driving to Penang Hill
Penang Botanical Garden
Penang by Night

Some of you may have noticed that we had a technical problem with the video we shot at Koh Mak Seafood and included in our post, Koh Mak Seafood: A Taste of the Island and Its History. The problem was due to YouTube not processing the video we uploaded and the video appeared to be unavailable.

We’ve re-uploaded the video which includes a feline friend who helped us to pick out a crab for lunch and eat it too!

Tin Tin Up Close

Going to the north of Thailand without riding an elephant is a little like going to Vegas without gambling. Yesterday, on our first full day in Pai, we decided to go elephant riding in the afternoon. For our journey, we got “Tin Tin”, a huge female elephant who doesn’t look a day older than 412. Tin Tin, as we learned moments later, is a moody girl with a serious gas problem (the two are related, I suspect).
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One of the many dirt roads around Koh Mak

We decided to end our week long stay on the islands by spending two nights in Koh Mak – a smaller island off of Koh Chang. We took a slow boat from Koh Chang’s fisherman’s village and an hour later we were on a gorgeous new island. Even before getting off the boat, I could already see that the water was crystal clean turquoise and the scenery resembled one of those posters you see in a tour agency. Koh Mak is definitely less touristy than Koh Chang with far less resorts, restaurants and activities. There are stretches of land where you see nothing but trees (and dogs). It is very quiet and somewhat secluded, a perfect romantic getaway.
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Crab with garlic and pepper

When we arrived on the small island of Koh Mak we were already hungry from the long but beautiful ride by “slow boat” from Koh Chang. After checking into our resort, Monkey Island, we asked the receptionist for a recommendation for local seafood. He said he knew of a restaurant that was open and after one phone call they were on their way to pick us up from the resort!

After about 20 minutes we were picked up by a middle aged Thai woman in a taxi which on these islands is always a covered pickup truck with 2 benches to sit on in the back. She drove us to the restaurant and the ride turned out to be a freebie (to and from the resort). Not only that, but after bringing us to the restaurant the driver then put on a smock and went back to cooking for the other customers already seated at the restaurant.
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We’ve added a new video of the friendly animals (pigs, cat, dogs) from the Coral Resort at Kaibe Beach in Koh Chang, Thailand. Everyone mostly gets along although I’m not sure there’s a lot of love there. But we loved these guys!

The Pool at the Coral Resort, Kaibe Beach

We stayed a total of seven nights on the island of Koh Chang and four of those were at a very nice resort, the Coral Resort, located at the northern end of Kaibe Beach. This is not a huge resort or even a fancy resort like the ones a bit further North at Klong Prao Beach. But this resort had what we needed and more.

We opted for a private cabin with air-conditioning which ran us 2,000 Thai Baht ($53) a night. Identical cabins with a sea view were 2,500 but from our cabin the sea was still visible between the neighboring “sea-view cabins”. Walking about 20 meters brought us to the edge of the sea for an unobstructed view.
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Pancake & Dewey

A few days ago, while riding around Koh Chang, Kevin and I stopped to ask for directions and discovered a charming little cafe called “Lanna’s Cafe”. It is located at the southern tip of Kai Be beach, right before the road becomes steep and winding leading to Lonely Beach. The place is run by a Thai-Japanese couple who offer organic Arabic coffee grown in the North of Thailand. All the coffees and teas served can be bought in beautifully designed packages. Due to some inexplicable health streak we’re on, we opted for organic tea instead of coffee and it was excellent!

The cafe is a very cute spot for chillin’ in the afternoon. We stayed for drinks and a chat with Uta (one of the owners) about life in Koh Chang. Uta and her husband also have a cute kitty named Pancake (I suspect he got that nickname since his daily regiment consists of 22hrs laying flat on his belly, 2 hrs for eating). Pancake happens to look a lot like Dewey, the hero of a book I got as a gift from a friend for this trip. I just had to take a picture of the two of them!

Hiking up the Mountain in Koh Chang

The only part of my body that doesn’t actually ache at the moment is my fingers which is why I am able to type this post. This morning Kevin and I got picked up at our resort and drove to the northern tip of the island for a full day of trekking in the jungle. We sat in a back of a pickup truck while the driver took us through steep mountain roads. As we were driving north, we had a chance to meet the other members of our small group (a French couple and a Scottish couple) and I noticed that all but me were wearing professional trekking shoes. Hmm. I definitely have a pair somewhere at home in New York where I will never ever need to use them.
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Floating Market, Can Tho

This is my third visit to Vietnam, I have seen many of the wonderful sights all along the country but have never visited the Mekong Delta before. I have always wanted to go and see the southwest of Vietnam where the Mekong river ends its long journey from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

This past weekend I went to visit my friend Thi Bay in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta. After a 5hr bus ride from HCMC through rice fields, villages and towns, I was finally at the campus where Thi Bay lives. Six months ago, Thi Bay left NY for a teaching position at Can Tho University and a chance to reconnect with her Vietnamese roots (her grandfather was Vietnamese, a fact she has to repeat 5 times a day on average). In a short time, Thi Bay has become somewhat of a local star in a city that has very few foreigners. From students walking by to the Xe Om drivers outside the gate, everybody knows her and wants to have a little chat.
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