We arrived in Koh Phangang, took a taxi which took us to a dock from where we caught a longtail boat to Bottle Beach. We checked in at Bottle Beach 2 resort, but after walking around and exploring the various resorts, we found Bottle Beach 1 resort (which was much much nicer and usually a lot more expensive) and checked in there for 50 Baht a night less. The bungalow was much bigger and nicer but because it was low season, they offered some significant discounts. We didn’t really do much at Bottle Beach, but it was a hard change from being really busy on Koh Tao to having absolutely nothing to do. We kept looking for things to do. I decided I needed to catch up on our blog but Andrew was pretty much at a loss. He even started reading to kill the time. After trying to kill some time with a massage on the beach and just hanging out and reading, we decided it was time to head to a less secluded beach on Koh Phangan. We took a longtail back to port and grabbed a taxi to Had Yao, where we had stayed the first time we were here. We spent a day just riding around on the rented motorbike, another day laying on the beach and getting another massage, and yet another day just driving around, stopping at places along the way to drink coffee. The last night we spent in Thong Sala, which is the main town on the island, as we were taking the 7am ferry to Suratthani and from there a bus to Hat Yai, and another bus from there to Kuala Lumpur. This was really our last few days in Asia, as we were flying from KL to Paris. It was very bitter sweet. On one hand we’re ready to leave but on the other hand it’s hard to realize the life we have been living for the past year is coming to a close. But we are also very excited to see our family in Poland. Although we spent a lot of time with family in Australia, we haven’t seen any immediate family for a year now and we will get to see Andrew’s brother in Poland. We still have 2 months before we come back to Canada but it feels like the adventure is over. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as I think we’re ready to head back to real life, but I’m sure everyone can relate to the feeling of coming back home from vacation. You’re glad to be back but wish you could still be sitting on the beach. Well times that by 10 and that’s how we feel. But we are happy to be heading in the direction of home and I can’t wait to see everyone!
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Kuala Lumpur and Back to Thailand
We arrived in KL late in the evening. We grabbed some food and went to sleep. The next day it was Andrew’s Birthday and we just used the day to sleep in and bum around the city for a bit. We then went for a nice dinner at a nice restaurant. We spent 2 days worth of our budget on the dinner but it was delicious. We had pizza, we had salad (vegetables! How we missed those!) and lots and lots of alcohol. We were very happy leaving that restaurant. The next day we caught our flight to Phuket, Thailand. We didn’t have any time to spend there however, and we had the taxi drop us off at the bus station. We took the overnight bus to Chumphon from where we would catch the ferry to Koh Tao. The main difference between Thai bus schedules and Indonesian bus schedules: In Indonesia they tell you it will take 12 hours but it really takes 17 hours. In Thailand they tell you it will take 7 hours but it really takes 5. That is how we arrived at the Chumphon bus station 2 hours ahead of schedule. It was 1am and we didn’t really know what to do from there. A lady that had a shop at the bus station kept trying to get us a taxi but we didn’t know where we were going. Finally, after sitting around for an hour she told us to go to the train station and that we would have more options there. We agreed but now there were not taxies around. She told us to wait a few minutes. She closed her shop down and her and husband drove us to the train station. There we had a 4 hour wait for the ferry offices to open. We then bought our tickets and the bus finally came to pick us up at 6am. From there it was another hour bus ride to the ferry terminal, and then an hour and a half ferry ride to Koh Tao.
When we finally arrived on Koh Tao (without any scary ferry incidents!) we were really tired but happy to be back. We checked in at Big Blue and started filling out our paperwork for the Rescue Diver course we wanted to take with them. But as we started talking with them, all the discounts which had been promised to us as returning customers (we had done our Advance Open Water course there last year) all of a sudden weren’t available. They told us only Open water and Advance Open Water courses were subject to discounts. That wasn’t what we were told last year nor what their rep had told us on the ferry ride over that morning. We decided to check in anyway but this wasn’t sitting well with Andrew. We had some lunch, and even though we were exhausted after a night of not sleeping, we decided to walk around and explore other options. We found Crystal Dive shop (they receive very good reviews along with Big Blue) and Steve walked us through everything and offered us the same discounts we had been promised with Big Blue, even though we had just walked off the street and had never been diving with them before. We had already registered with Big Blue for the Emergency First Responder (EFR) course that is mandatory before the Rescue Course for the next day, but we wanted to see if we could get out of it. We arrived back and Big Blue, and of course they wanted to know why we didn’t want to do it anymore but we didn’t really want to get into a discussion with them so we didn’t really provide a reason. Then we were told if we weren’t diving with them we should check out because they needed the rooms for divers. Which we happily did. As we were packing our bags one of the guys came by and started asking why we’re leaving etc. and we told him. He started explaining the discount policy to us but ultimately we told him it’s not up to us to know all the fine print of their discounts, and besides, their own rep assured us we were eligible for the discount, and it even says so in the brochures they hand out. It was simply a case of false advertising. We told him we didn’t want to make a scene and it was just some constructive feedback for them. We were leaving the resort and the same guy came back and now offered us the discount. But the damage had already been done. We had had to do the leg work and find the price they had advertised so what was the point of now staying. We felt we were being loyal coming back to a dive shop we had had a good experience with and that our loyalty would be rewarded (as advertised) but it wasn’t so we decided to go try a new place. And we weren’t disappointed.
We did our EFR course the next day with the Sam, who would also be our instructor for the Rescue Dive course, and she is awesome. We weren’t really sure what to expect when we came over to Crystal, but we really weren’t disappointed. Sam was very knowledgeable, friendly and approachable. She is close to our age and right away I got a great vibe from her. I have to say, she is what made our experience as good as it was. There were a few other people that would be joining us for our Rescue course in a few days, so while we waited for them we did some dives. The Rescue course itself was probably the hardest thing (physically) I have ever had to do in my life. Between towing people in the water to the boat, exiting them from the water on to the boat via a ladder (read: you have to carry them up) and various scenarios that were thrown at us without warning (with fake drowning people), after day 2 my muscles were so sore I couldn’t bring my arm up to brush my teeth. And it was psychologically draining on me too. One of the things you learn in the course is that sometimes you can’t help people, and that if the person is bigger than you, you won’t be able to get them out of the water on your own. But part of the course is you have to be able to get a person out of the water on to a boat on your own, and I failed…4 times out of 6. Looking back, it probably wasn’t the best idea for the assistant instructor (not Sam) to get me to lift a 200lb guy out of the water, but when I couldn’t do it, it had a very strong psychological effect on me. All of a sudden I started thinking, why am I doing this? Do I have what it takes? At the end of day 2, I didn’t even know if I should be doing this. But on the morning of day 3, I woke up feeling much better. That morning we had our written exam and I passed with 100%. In the afternoon we had our scenario day where 4 “victims” would randomly create a scenario for us and we needed to respond appropriately. It was exhausting. We had to get in and out of our gear after each scenario. Each time it had to be as if we weren’t expecting it. At the end of the day we were exhausted but we had all passed. When we got back we all had a beer to celebrate. That evening we all met at a bar to have some drinks but we were all so tired none of us lasted long. I spent most of the night chatting with Sam. We had a lot more in common than we thought but unfortunately we were leaving before she would be back at work so we promised to stay in touch via facebook.
I was on such a high after passing my Rescue course, I signed up for the morning dives for the following morning. Of course the following morning I regretted it as I was exhausted but I made myself go. Andrew didn’t bother getting out of bed as he was too tired. When I got back, even though he had just gotten out of bed, we went for a nap. It’s amazing what a toll the course had taken on us. It took us the rest of the day to recuperate. The next morning we did a couple more dives and checked out the following day. Overall we spent 9 days on Koh Tao but I can honestly say it felt like 2. I have no idea where the time went. We were so busy while there that time just flew by. From Koh Tao we took a ferry to Koh Phangan where we were looking forward to a few days of rest before heading back to KL.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Railay
The ferry ride at first was uneventful (which is how I like it) but about half way through the sea started to get very rough and the spray from the waves was spraying the whole boat. I went inside just in time because by the time everyone else came in they were soaked. Then it started to rain. Pouring rain. The boat was rocking side to side. The bags on the deck were getting soaked (including ours) and the crew was trying to cover them with a tarp. Unfortunately the waves were so large the tarp just kept getting swept off. I didn’t hold much hope that our bags would remain dry through all of this. Then all of a sudden the engine stopped. I of course was already freaked out and this did not help matters much. The boat was rocking even more heavily now that we were stopped and we were in the middle of the ocean. It turned out the captain was just trying to help the guys put the tarps on. I was again thinking “why me???? Seriously!” Eventually we arrived in Railey (sooner than I anticipated) but it turned out they don’t have a dock so we had to wait for smaller boats to come and get us. It was still pouring rain so that by the time we were dropped off on the beach we were soaked. Andrew left me to go look for a place to stay. Railay is also an expensive place to stay. Although it’s on the mainland, there are no roads and you can only get there by boat. When Andrew came back I was glad to hear he had found a place for 500 BHT a night. The downfall was that it was again another 10 minute walk and this time it was up hill. The upside was that it was far away from the sea and up a hill so even if there was a Tsunami (you never know with my luck) we wouldn’t have to run far. The bungalow we rented was very basic but it was set in a very beautiful place. We were in a small valley surrounded by large beautiful karsts. Even though it was raining the view was still spectacular as the clouds were low and they were gathering around the karsts.
The next day we explored Railay and the different beaches it offered. There was one particular beach which had a huge karst sticking right out of it and during low tide you could just walk over and explore a small cave. It also had a bunch of monkeys but again they were evil. They would try to grab everyone’s bag and if you tried to shoo them away they would hiss at you. We spent a good part of the day just walking around and then relaxing on our porch when it would rain. In the afternoon we found a cute little coffee shop where we spent a few hours just reading and relaxing while a huge rainstorm came. It was a very nice peaceful day and I really didn’t mind the rain. However by the evening Andrew started getting restless and he wanted to see the other side of Railay. It was supposed to be a 20 minute walk through some forest as the other beach was supposed to be 800m on a trail. I honestly don’t know who calculated the distance but it’s more like 3km and it took us 45 minutes. Not only was this not a trail but most of it was uphill over some very slippery rocks (someone had at least attached some climbing ropes to it) through the jungle. At least we reached the other side and it was a lot cheaper than our side. The vibe was completely different too, as it had more of a hobo vibe. We wanted to stay and eat at a restaurant that was serving grilled chicken but by the time we ordered they were out of chicken, and then it started to rain and it got dark so we decided to head back. It was twice as exciting walking back because now it was dark. Thank god we had 1 small head lamp between the two of us. The walk wasn’t too bad and neither one of us got hurt but obviously Andrew thought it was “kind of cool” to trek through the jungle at night. We ended up eating at a resort restaurant that had grilled fish with a salad buffet that served bruschetta (among other things) and baked potatoes with our meal (which we hadn’t had for 3 months at this point). The meal was delicious.
The next day Andrew decided to try rock climbing. Although he didn’t forget it was my birthday he didn’t exactly make a big deal of it either. A fact I did not let him live down easily. So the first 4 hours of my birthday were spent watching Andrew learn how to rock climb. The two other people in his group were a couple who had been rock climbing for 10 years so they were obviously pretty good and it turned out the instructor wasn’t instructing them at all but just belaying them up and down. No one was really sure why Andrew had been placed in that group but apparently he was doing really well because he was climbing at their level, a level even the instructor didn’t climb anymore. I don’t know much about rock climbing but apparently each section is rated just like a ski hill. So it was no wonder by the end Andrew’s hands didn’t have any more strength to hold on anymore. But even I was impressed with his endurance.
After the rock climbing session I made it clear to Andrew that it was my birthday and we would do whatever I pleased. So we went to the beach. The beautiful one with the karsts sticking out and the crazy monkeys. After swimming we went to the coffee shop and spent a few hours reading the newspaper and drinking some coffee. Then we changed for dinner and headed back to the same place as the night before. On the way there we met up with the couple from rock climbing and arranged to meet up later at a bar for drinks.
After dinner we headed over to the bar near our guesthouse and I ordered some red wine…which was a special treat for me since wine costs 5x as much as beer. It turned out to be nothing more than grape juice with some alcohol in it but I drank it anyway and was more than just a little drunk by the end of the night. I woke up the next day with a hangover but I didn’t have time to dwell since we were leaving for Kuala Lumpur.
The next day we explored Railay and the different beaches it offered. There was one particular beach which had a huge karst sticking right out of it and during low tide you could just walk over and explore a small cave. It also had a bunch of monkeys but again they were evil. They would try to grab everyone’s bag and if you tried to shoo them away they would hiss at you. We spent a good part of the day just walking around and then relaxing on our porch when it would rain. In the afternoon we found a cute little coffee shop where we spent a few hours just reading and relaxing while a huge rainstorm came. It was a very nice peaceful day and I really didn’t mind the rain. However by the evening Andrew started getting restless and he wanted to see the other side of Railay. It was supposed to be a 20 minute walk through some forest as the other beach was supposed to be 800m on a trail. I honestly don’t know who calculated the distance but it’s more like 3km and it took us 45 minutes. Not only was this not a trail but most of it was uphill over some very slippery rocks (someone had at least attached some climbing ropes to it) through the jungle. At least we reached the other side and it was a lot cheaper than our side. The vibe was completely different too, as it had more of a hobo vibe. We wanted to stay and eat at a restaurant that was serving grilled chicken but by the time we ordered they were out of chicken, and then it started to rain and it got dark so we decided to head back. It was twice as exciting walking back because now it was dark. Thank god we had 1 small head lamp between the two of us. The walk wasn’t too bad and neither one of us got hurt but obviously Andrew thought it was “kind of cool” to trek through the jungle at night. We ended up eating at a resort restaurant that had grilled fish with a salad buffet that served bruschetta (among other things) and baked potatoes with our meal (which we hadn’t had for 3 months at this point). The meal was delicious.
The next day Andrew decided to try rock climbing. Although he didn’t forget it was my birthday he didn’t exactly make a big deal of it either. A fact I did not let him live down easily. So the first 4 hours of my birthday were spent watching Andrew learn how to rock climb. The two other people in his group were a couple who had been rock climbing for 10 years so they were obviously pretty good and it turned out the instructor wasn’t instructing them at all but just belaying them up and down. No one was really sure why Andrew had been placed in that group but apparently he was doing really well because he was climbing at their level, a level even the instructor didn’t climb anymore. I don’t know much about rock climbing but apparently each section is rated just like a ski hill. So it was no wonder by the end Andrew’s hands didn’t have any more strength to hold on anymore. But even I was impressed with his endurance.
After the rock climbing session I made it clear to Andrew that it was my birthday and we would do whatever I pleased. So we went to the beach. The beautiful one with the karsts sticking out and the crazy monkeys. After swimming we went to the coffee shop and spent a few hours reading the newspaper and drinking some coffee. Then we changed for dinner and headed back to the same place as the night before. On the way there we met up with the couple from rock climbing and arranged to meet up later at a bar for drinks.
After dinner we headed over to the bar near our guesthouse and I ordered some red wine…which was a special treat for me since wine costs 5x as much as beer. It turned out to be nothing more than grape juice with some alcohol in it but I drank it anyway and was more than just a little drunk by the end of the night. I woke up the next day with a hangover but I didn’t have time to dwell since we were leaving for Kuala Lumpur.
Koh Phi Phi
We took a ferry from Phuket to Phi Phi the next day. Travelling had become a lot more difficult since we picked up that extra bag from Bobby in Bangkok. We were now travelling with 2 big back packs, 2 days packs and a duffel bag. We had way too much stuff but there was nothing we could do about it. We need most of it for Australia and New Zealand. We packed all our bags onto the ferry and were off. A couple of hours later we arrived in Koh Phi Phi. It was hot and the water was amazing, but still not as beautiful as the Similan Islands.
Koh Phi Phi is actually part of a national park and there are 2 islands there called Koh Phi Phi. The larger, and the populated one is called Koh Phi Phi Don (that is where we were staying) and the smaller one (the once containing Maya Beach from the movie “The Beach”) is called Koh Phi Phi Leh. Koh Phi Phi Leh is not populated at all and all developments are banned on that island. It’s a good thing too because if we didn’t have Koh Phi Phi Leh to go visit for day trips, there wouldn’t be too much to do on Koh Phi Phi.
The first thing I noticed as soon as we got off the boat was how densely populated Phi Phi is. There are not cars allowed on the island and all roads are pedestrian only and any space imaginable is occupied by either some sort of store (typically dive shop, café, restaurant or souvenir shop) or a hotel/hostel/guest house. I just couldn’t believe how tight and crowded it was. Since we had the 5 bags we had to carry, we dropped 3 of the off at a local dive shop and went in search of a guest house. We were worried about the prices we would find as anything we had found online or in the lonely planet guide book said it would be impossible to get anything under 1000 Baht per night (around $30). We managed to find a small cute guest house for 750 Baht per night ($25). Maaybe not a huge difference but it was still cheaper than anywhere else we were able to find. In addition to the price, we were also happy with the location. It was right in between the two beaches but far enough from each that you didn’t hear the loud music pumping all night long. The only downfall was that it was about a 15 minute walk from where we left our bags. We had to return to the dive shop, get our bags and bring them to the guest house. It was so hot outside and by the time we returned to the guest house we needed a shower! Of course a cold one because we didn’t have hot water.
We took a walk to the beach to explore the island a little bit, and then grabbed some food at a place that had wi-fi so we were able to synch our ipods. After that we went for a hike to the top of the mountain and had an amazing view of the island, and we were able to see both beaches. Unfortunately it was getting dark so the photos were not as great as we would have liked and the mosquitoes were out with a vengeance. We quickly went back down. We booked an all day snorkeling trip for the following day.
We left for snorkeling around 9am on a long tail boat and the first stop was shark point, and it was just at the end of the bay. We got in the water but were immediately disappointed because the visibility left a lot to be desired. We had 20 minutes to snorkel this site so we were swimming around but very quickly Andrew and I noticed the current and how quickly it was taking us away from the boat. We both decided it was best to start swimming back. It was a hard swim and we were quite tired after it but we made it back. Some people must have noticed the same thing because they were swimming back but one guy started calling for help. He had been taken out quite far. Our boat was collecting other swimmers but luckily another boat was nearby and they picked him up and brought him back to us. So our first snorkeling site ended up being just 10 minutes instead of 20. After the first site we went to another small island which was about a 30 minute boat ride away, called Bamboo Island. The boat dropped us off on the island and we had an hour and a half to relax. The water was stunning. It crystal clear and it was complemented by a soft powdery beach. It was true paradise. The island was small and uninhabited so the only people on the beach were visitors like us. There were plenty of visitors but it didn’t feel crowded at any time. We swam and tanned on the beach and then we were served our lunch. Fried rice. After Bamboo Island our next stop was Mosquito Island. On our way there however all of a sudden the engine made a funny noise and all of a sudden the boat stopped. The engine kept running but the boat was not moving. It turned out that the rotor had fallen off. We were in the middle of the ocean between two islands. All I kept thinking was, “why does this happen to me?” I don’t like boats to begin and you would think 1 adventure on a boat would be enough for our trip but it seems like fate is out to get me. Thankfully our “captains” cell phone still had reception so he called one of his boat buddies to come and get us. But we had at least 30 minutes to kill so our captain said “Snorkel!” So we all jumped in the water and went snorkeling. Since we were in between two islands and nowhere near any coral, there wasn’t much to see but it was better than sitting on the boat. After 30 minutes the other boat came and got us but it was full of other tourists so we had to squeeze in. They were not happy to share their boat with us. We received so many dirty looks, but there wasn’t much we could do. The other boat took us back to another part of Phi Phi, a beach called Monkey beach. You can probably guess why it’s called that but I’ll tell you anyway…it had monkeys on it. We spent about 40 minutes on this beach, but since we had been in Malaysia a few years back and had had our fill of monkeys we weren’t that excited. One things was the same though, the monkey were just as vicious as they were in Malaysia. From here we were separated into different boats. I’m not sure if it was because the other passengers complained or because the boat was too full. Either way Andrew and I were transferred to another boat while the others were also transferred to other boat.
The highlight of the trip was to be Maya Bay. I couldn’t wait to get there because it looked so amazing in the movie. But before we could go there we stopped at another bay which was surrounded by karsts and we could go swimming. Unfortunately it was getting late in the day and it wasn’t as warm in the shade created by the karsts as it was in the sun so we didn’t stay there too long. From there we went to Maya bay and I was utterly disappointed to see it was all in shade. Although the sun hadn’t set yet, the karsts surrounding the beach cast a big shadow so the magical effect I was waiting for did not happen. The 1 million other boats and tourists also killed the moment. We walked around the beach and sat around waiting for the hour of sightseeing to be over. During this time we were entertained by an obviously rich guy who was photographing his girlfriend. I say obviously rich because he had a top of the line camera which apparently costs $40,000 (source: Andrew) but I’m not sure what type of camera it was. The entertaining part however were the poses she was making. It was almost as if she was posing for an 80’s photo shoot. It’s almost as if no one had told her the 80’s were over. Add to this another young guy who obviously had a brand new camera (again I say obviously because it was the same camera that I bought for Andrew with the same lens that comes as part of a kit) and he was trying to make his girlfriend pose for his photos too but she just wasn’t as into it as he was, but he kept running around trying to find the “perfect” spot. It was especially entertaining for me because it was like I was seeing Andrew 5 years ago: completely engrossed in his camera and completely oblivious to everything else around him.
We left Maya bay and parked the boat in between the two islands to watch the sun set. It was beautiful but not as romantic as you would think since there were 10 other people on the boat with us. We returned to the island after sunset, grabbed some food and headed for the beach. Although the party scene is strong on Phi Phi we were watching our budget so we bought some beers at the 7/11 and sat on the beach. We received the same entertainment watching the fire shows as those in the bars but at a ¼ of the price.
The next day we went for the diving trip we had booked the night before. We booked only 2 dives as I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to dive or not. This time I wasn’t leaving anything to chance and took 1 decongestant pill as soon as I woke up and then 2 more right before the dive. When I went under I felt fantastic. I finally felt as if I was back to normal. We were swimming around and we saw a leopard shark (it swam right by us!) and near the end of the dive we also saw a few black tip sharks. It was probably the best dive I had ever had (in terms of the different marine life we had seen). Unfortunately I started having problems with equalizing near the middle of the dive. At first I didn’t think too much of it but by the end of the dive I had a pounding headache. I thought it would go away once I surface but it didn’t. It was so bad that I had sit with my eyes closed and I didn’t want to talk to anyone or eat anything. There was no way I was going for the next dive. Andrew went by himself. As soon as they left I lay down and went to sleep. By the time they surfaced I was feeling a little better but not much. As soon as we got back to our guest house I just went right to sleep. When I woke up a few hours later I was feeling much better but still woozy. By the next morning I was completely fine. I have to admit that it did scare me a little because I hadn’t experienced anything like that before.
Since I didn’t dive one of the dives the day before, the dive shop offered Andrew a discount to dive with them again so he went for another 2 dives. I was thrilled because I had a few hours to myself. I actually spent most of it in a café with an internet connection updating the blog. Once Andrew came back we went swimming at the beach but found the water to be very murky and a bunch of things (algae? Waste from the “waste garden”?) so we went to the other side where the water was clean but we were surrounded by boats. We just couldn’t win. I would say that although Phi Phi is beautiful, because it’s so commercialized and the party scene is so strong, it’s not really a good spot to relax. One side of the island is almost like a large boat yard, while the other side is full of beach bars and the beach is not maintained as well as it could be.
The following day we were catching a ferry to Railay but because the ferry didn’t leave until 3:30pm and we had to check out of our guest house by 11am we again left our bags at the dive shop and spent the day at the café with the wi-fi connection updating our blog. We then grabbed some food and hopped on to the ferry.
Koh Phi Phi is actually part of a national park and there are 2 islands there called Koh Phi Phi. The larger, and the populated one is called Koh Phi Phi Don (that is where we were staying) and the smaller one (the once containing Maya Beach from the movie “The Beach”) is called Koh Phi Phi Leh. Koh Phi Phi Leh is not populated at all and all developments are banned on that island. It’s a good thing too because if we didn’t have Koh Phi Phi Leh to go visit for day trips, there wouldn’t be too much to do on Koh Phi Phi.
The first thing I noticed as soon as we got off the boat was how densely populated Phi Phi is. There are not cars allowed on the island and all roads are pedestrian only and any space imaginable is occupied by either some sort of store (typically dive shop, café, restaurant or souvenir shop) or a hotel/hostel/guest house. I just couldn’t believe how tight and crowded it was. Since we had the 5 bags we had to carry, we dropped 3 of the off at a local dive shop and went in search of a guest house. We were worried about the prices we would find as anything we had found online or in the lonely planet guide book said it would be impossible to get anything under 1000 Baht per night (around $30). We managed to find a small cute guest house for 750 Baht per night ($25). Maaybe not a huge difference but it was still cheaper than anywhere else we were able to find. In addition to the price, we were also happy with the location. It was right in between the two beaches but far enough from each that you didn’t hear the loud music pumping all night long. The only downfall was that it was about a 15 minute walk from where we left our bags. We had to return to the dive shop, get our bags and bring them to the guest house. It was so hot outside and by the time we returned to the guest house we needed a shower! Of course a cold one because we didn’t have hot water.
We took a walk to the beach to explore the island a little bit, and then grabbed some food at a place that had wi-fi so we were able to synch our ipods. After that we went for a hike to the top of the mountain and had an amazing view of the island, and we were able to see both beaches. Unfortunately it was getting dark so the photos were not as great as we would have liked and the mosquitoes were out with a vengeance. We quickly went back down. We booked an all day snorkeling trip for the following day.
We left for snorkeling around 9am on a long tail boat and the first stop was shark point, and it was just at the end of the bay. We got in the water but were immediately disappointed because the visibility left a lot to be desired. We had 20 minutes to snorkel this site so we were swimming around but very quickly Andrew and I noticed the current and how quickly it was taking us away from the boat. We both decided it was best to start swimming back. It was a hard swim and we were quite tired after it but we made it back. Some people must have noticed the same thing because they were swimming back but one guy started calling for help. He had been taken out quite far. Our boat was collecting other swimmers but luckily another boat was nearby and they picked him up and brought him back to us. So our first snorkeling site ended up being just 10 minutes instead of 20. After the first site we went to another small island which was about a 30 minute boat ride away, called Bamboo Island. The boat dropped us off on the island and we had an hour and a half to relax. The water was stunning. It crystal clear and it was complemented by a soft powdery beach. It was true paradise. The island was small and uninhabited so the only people on the beach were visitors like us. There were plenty of visitors but it didn’t feel crowded at any time. We swam and tanned on the beach and then we were served our lunch. Fried rice. After Bamboo Island our next stop was Mosquito Island. On our way there however all of a sudden the engine made a funny noise and all of a sudden the boat stopped. The engine kept running but the boat was not moving. It turned out that the rotor had fallen off. We were in the middle of the ocean between two islands. All I kept thinking was, “why does this happen to me?” I don’t like boats to begin and you would think 1 adventure on a boat would be enough for our trip but it seems like fate is out to get me. Thankfully our “captains” cell phone still had reception so he called one of his boat buddies to come and get us. But we had at least 30 minutes to kill so our captain said “Snorkel!” So we all jumped in the water and went snorkeling. Since we were in between two islands and nowhere near any coral, there wasn’t much to see but it was better than sitting on the boat. After 30 minutes the other boat came and got us but it was full of other tourists so we had to squeeze in. They were not happy to share their boat with us. We received so many dirty looks, but there wasn’t much we could do. The other boat took us back to another part of Phi Phi, a beach called Monkey beach. You can probably guess why it’s called that but I’ll tell you anyway…it had monkeys on it. We spent about 40 minutes on this beach, but since we had been in Malaysia a few years back and had had our fill of monkeys we weren’t that excited. One things was the same though, the monkey were just as vicious as they were in Malaysia. From here we were separated into different boats. I’m not sure if it was because the other passengers complained or because the boat was too full. Either way Andrew and I were transferred to another boat while the others were also transferred to other boat.
The highlight of the trip was to be Maya Bay. I couldn’t wait to get there because it looked so amazing in the movie. But before we could go there we stopped at another bay which was surrounded by karsts and we could go swimming. Unfortunately it was getting late in the day and it wasn’t as warm in the shade created by the karsts as it was in the sun so we didn’t stay there too long. From there we went to Maya bay and I was utterly disappointed to see it was all in shade. Although the sun hadn’t set yet, the karsts surrounding the beach cast a big shadow so the magical effect I was waiting for did not happen. The 1 million other boats and tourists also killed the moment. We walked around the beach and sat around waiting for the hour of sightseeing to be over. During this time we were entertained by an obviously rich guy who was photographing his girlfriend. I say obviously rich because he had a top of the line camera which apparently costs $40,000 (source: Andrew) but I’m not sure what type of camera it was. The entertaining part however were the poses she was making. It was almost as if she was posing for an 80’s photo shoot. It’s almost as if no one had told her the 80’s were over. Add to this another young guy who obviously had a brand new camera (again I say obviously because it was the same camera that I bought for Andrew with the same lens that comes as part of a kit) and he was trying to make his girlfriend pose for his photos too but she just wasn’t as into it as he was, but he kept running around trying to find the “perfect” spot. It was especially entertaining for me because it was like I was seeing Andrew 5 years ago: completely engrossed in his camera and completely oblivious to everything else around him.
We left Maya bay and parked the boat in between the two islands to watch the sun set. It was beautiful but not as romantic as you would think since there were 10 other people on the boat with us. We returned to the island after sunset, grabbed some food and headed for the beach. Although the party scene is strong on Phi Phi we were watching our budget so we bought some beers at the 7/11 and sat on the beach. We received the same entertainment watching the fire shows as those in the bars but at a ¼ of the price.
The next day we went for the diving trip we had booked the night before. We booked only 2 dives as I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to dive or not. This time I wasn’t leaving anything to chance and took 1 decongestant pill as soon as I woke up and then 2 more right before the dive. When I went under I felt fantastic. I finally felt as if I was back to normal. We were swimming around and we saw a leopard shark (it swam right by us!) and near the end of the dive we also saw a few black tip sharks. It was probably the best dive I had ever had (in terms of the different marine life we had seen). Unfortunately I started having problems with equalizing near the middle of the dive. At first I didn’t think too much of it but by the end of the dive I had a pounding headache. I thought it would go away once I surface but it didn’t. It was so bad that I had sit with my eyes closed and I didn’t want to talk to anyone or eat anything. There was no way I was going for the next dive. Andrew went by himself. As soon as they left I lay down and went to sleep. By the time they surfaced I was feeling a little better but not much. As soon as we got back to our guest house I just went right to sleep. When I woke up a few hours later I was feeling much better but still woozy. By the next morning I was completely fine. I have to admit that it did scare me a little because I hadn’t experienced anything like that before.
Since I didn’t dive one of the dives the day before, the dive shop offered Andrew a discount to dive with them again so he went for another 2 dives. I was thrilled because I had a few hours to myself. I actually spent most of it in a café with an internet connection updating the blog. Once Andrew came back we went swimming at the beach but found the water to be very murky and a bunch of things (algae? Waste from the “waste garden”?) so we went to the other side where the water was clean but we were surrounded by boats. We just couldn’t win. I would say that although Phi Phi is beautiful, because it’s so commercialized and the party scene is so strong, it’s not really a good spot to relax. One side of the island is almost like a large boat yard, while the other side is full of beach bars and the beach is not maintained as well as it could be.
The following day we were catching a ferry to Railay but because the ferry didn’t leave until 3:30pm and we had to check out of our guest house by 11am we again left our bags at the dive shop and spent the day at the café with the wi-fi connection updating our blog. We then grabbed some food and hopped on to the ferry.
Phuket
We arrived in Phuket late in the afternoon, and we decided to stay in Phuket Town, rather than one of the beaches. Mainly because of budget. All the beaches in Phuket are beautiful but also very expensive. Phuket receives 5.8 million visitors a year and they are not afraid to spend money. We didn’t want to spend money on a taxi to get to the hotel so we decided to walk. It looked close on the map. The walk wasn’t that far but since we had picked up our bag from Bobby in Bangkok we had 1 more bag to carry and it was very annoying. When we arrived at the hotel we found out it was full so we had to walk to a different hotel. It was so humid outside that we were sweating. At least the second hotel we went to had vacancies and had a reasonable price, for Phuket. And it had free Wi-Fi so we were able to skype with friends and family straight from our room.
The next day we rented a scooter and went to explore the island. The island of Phuket is quite large and there are a lot of different parts and beaches and we spent the whole day riding around. Our first stop was Patong beach and we were a little disappointed because although the beach is big and beautiful and the water is crystal clear, it is filled with beach chairs which you can rent for $3 a day, and the water is full of seados and boats. It’s like wasaga on steroids. After coming back from “The Island” where we had the beach almost to ourselves it was a shock. We left very quickly. A lot of the island has mountains so when you’re driving around you get some magnificent views. In addition to the views you also see some very beautiful villas and condos. It’s really a playground for the rich or for people who come here just for a 2 week holiday. That’s really the only way it would be affordable. We rode around the whole day exploring the island and talking with different dive shops to see what kind of diving options we had. We hadn’t been diving in a while and were eager to go again. Unfortunately that evening I found out my grandmother passed away in Poland and I was shocked. My father was very upset and kept saying he wished I was home. It was a hard time and it made me feel guilty for not being at home and for being in this beautiful place while he mourned. I was upset that my grandmother had died of course but I was really more worried for him. We spent the night calling and skyping back and forth with my parents and my brother and helping my parents book tickets to fly to Poland. It was a long night and I was emotionally drained.
We had booked a trip the day before to go kayaking and see the “James Bond Island”. I felt terrible continuing my trip while my parents were home dealing with the death of my grandma. But after talking to my parents (multiple times) they absolutely did not want me flying back home or to Poland. I still felt low on our day trip but I also figured nothing could be gained by sulking around during a trip we had paid for. Plus there wasn’t much more I could do to help my parents.
We were picked up at 7:30am to be taken to the boat we would be on for the day. Usually we are picked up in a large minibus but this time we were picked up in a souped up Honda that was rebranded as a Lexus. It was the drivers personal car and he was obviously really proud of it. He had a large radio/tv in the front and kept playing different reggae music videos. The funny thing is he had a head full of dreads tied back with a bandana and actually looked Jamaican, even though he was Thai. I was sitting in the front with him and he was telling me about the band that was playing and that it was his friend’s band and that he used to be in the band but then moved to Phuket. He drove us to the pier and told us all about the Tsunami of 2004 and how people mistakenly thought Phuket was affected most because of the media coverage, when in reality it was Koh Phi Phi.
We arrived at the pier and had to wait for another hour before we could board the boat. For a while we were the only ones there waiting but then all the minibuses started arriving and I’m not kidding, the only people who were dropped off were Russians. There were at least 1000 people and almost all were Russian. I guess Phuket is popular with the Russians. We boarded the boat and were off. After an hour we arrived at the first spot where we would be kayaking. I say we but we actually had a person kayaking us. The plan was to kayak through a cave, but the first glitch came as soon as we arrived at the cave entrance, which was only 20ft from the boat. That’s when our guide told us to get out, he parked our kayak and started leading us through the cave, since the tide was too low to kayak. It was pitch black and in some parts we were thigh high in water. I was not too thrilled to be walking in a pitch black cave not knowing where we are going but the tour guide was holding on to my arm and kept pushing me forward. After a few minutes we turned a corner and I saw the light! We walked out into a lagoon surrounded by mountains and with lots of mangrove trees. The tide was out so we were able to walk around. I guess if we had arrived while the tide was high we would have been able to kayak inside. It was nice place but then we had to head back, through the cave, then into the kayak and back on the boat. We were then taken to another set of carsts 15minutes away where our guide would kayak us around. This time we spent 20 minutes in the kayak and it was beautiful. We kayaked through karsts into beautiful lagoons surrounded by turquoise water. Unfortunately we got stuck in a traffic jam with other kayakers coming in and out of the lagoon, as other tours had arrived before us, and it killed a bit of the isolated experience. We stopped to take some pictures and were taken back to the boat. Of course before we went on this part of the tour we were told this would be the last time our tour guide would be taking us out so if wanted to tip him, now was the time to do it. Andrew and I didn’t have a lot of money on us and once we arrived back at the boat I gave him 20 Baht (which is not very much but considering we didn’t spend a lot of time in the kayak as promised I didn’t feel too bad). As soon as he saw coins and not paper money, he said no no no. At first I thought he was just being modest and didn’t want to take the money but then I realized what the problem was but I played dumb, handed him the money and left. I was so pissed off that he would refuse our tip. I wasn’t trying to tell him he didn’t perform a good service but at the same time we’re backpackers and don’t have a lot of money to start with. We even debated whether we should be going on this tour, because of money. I spent the lunch hour brooding over him refusing our tip but I got over it pretty quickly. If he was used to getting better tips then he can’t be too badly off. After lunch we took a speedboat to James Bond Island, which was the whole highlight of the trip. When booking we were told we would have 1hour to spend on the island so we can swim, relax and take pictures. Once we arrived we were told we had 30 minutes. At first I was going to argue but then I saw how commercialized the island was and how many tourists were there and I knew we wouldn’t do very much relaxing there. I was still looking forward to some swimming but as soon as we went in the water I realized it was a very muddy bottom and swimming would not be enjoyable at all so we spent the 30 minutes taking lots of pictures. We headed back to the boat and were then dropped off at the pier. Our rasta driver was waiting to take us back to Phuket Town.
As soon as we got back to our hotel room Andrew hopped on our scooter and went to book a trip to the Similan Islands for the following day, and I went to take a shower. As soon as I got out of the shower I saw a HUGE puddle in the middle of our room! And one of our bags was right in the middle of it. While I was taking a shower the drain wasn’t working properly. I didn’t think much of it but it had all drained into our room! Very quickly I picked up the bag and anything else that was lying on the floor and put it away from the water. I then got dressed and went downstairs to tell front desk. I’m not sure how much she understood but she followed me upstairs and then understood very quickly. She said “You take shower…you put water in room”. I said “Yes I take shower, but shower broken and water go inside room”. There was no way I was taking the blame for the flood. She said she would get someone to come up and fix it. While I waited I took everything out of the bag and thankfully only a few pieces of clothes were wet, and no electronics were affected. I hung up the wet stuff to dry and then a guy came. He checked the bathroom and saw the drain was clogged and proceeded to unclog it. After he was done he used a towel to wipe up the floor. He wanted to leave but there was still water on the floor so I made him stay and finish cleaning it up. Once he left I went to check on the bathroom and noticed that he left the drain cover in my sink. It was disgustingly dirty and there was no way I was going to touch it. I was waiting for Andrew to come home and clean it up By the time Andrew got back I had cleaned up most of the mess and all he had to do was throw out the drain cover.
The following morning we were picked up at 5:30am as we were going to the Similan Islands, which are about 1.5 hours north of Phuket by car, and then another 1.5 hours by speed boat. We had booked a 2 day 1 night diving trip, with a total of 7 dives over 2 days. We would be spending the night on the boat. After the long trip out to the island we arrived in one of the most beautiful spots I had ever been to in the world. The water was crystal clear and the islands were stunning. The Similan Islands are comprised of 9 Islands, 3 of which are a protected park and no one is allowed to go there. Not even to dive. We boarded the boat and within a few minutes we were getting ready for our first dive. We geared up and went under. The visibility was amazing! And there were a lot of smaller fish around us. Unfortunately as soon as I went under I noticed a problem equalizing. That was weird because I had never had a problem before. I had had a cold a few weeks back but I thought I was fine. Apparently not. I felt so much pressure in my head and I had to keep trying to equalize. I had never experienced so many problems. I lasted through the dive and came up but I was feeling as if I had a very bad cold. We had an hour and a half before the next dive so I was just going to see how I felt. We had lunch and chilled out on the top deck. I started to feel better so I decided to go for the next dive. Again as soon as I got into the water again I started having problems. It seemed like this time it was worse because my tooth started hurting too. I struggled through the whole dive. I came up after the dive and again I was feeling sick. I decided not to go for the final dive of the day, which was a night dive. Andrew ended up going for the night dive by himself with just the dive master. I was disappointed because I hadn’t really seen any amazing things yet and I thought I was missing out big time, but apparently Andrew didn’t see anything spectacular on the night dive either so I wasn’t too upset. I was a little surprised however, since the Similan Islands are supposed to be the #1 dive spot in Thailand. During dinner I raised this with our dive masters and instructors and they said “Yeah, you should have been here last year. It was a lot better. The water was really warm this year so a lot of the fish have stayed away.” I found this to be a very negative comment and was a little annoyed that they would be this negative. They could have put this a little more eloquently and made me feel better about the $700 (for both of us) we just spent to go diving with them. But we had only done 3 dives that day and I still had hope we would see something the next day. That night we climbed up to the top deck and laid down to look at the stars. It was amazing. The weather was warm, the boat was gently rocking in the water and we were looking up at a cloudless sky and a full moon. It was so peaceful.
I woke up the next day and I felt like someone punched me in the face. My sinuses were completely stuffed up and we only had a half hour before the first dive. As soon as my dive master heard me talking he told me I shouldn’t be diving because I could damage my sinuses. I was so disappointed but I didn’t want to risk it and I thought I would get better throughout the day. So while Andrew went diving I went up to the top deck and warmed myself in the rising sun. Andrew came back from his dive and although he enjoyed it as there were some very large boulders in the water, again he didn’t see too much marine life. Andrew completed two more dives but I still wasn’t feeling better. I was so disappointed because I definitely wasn’t getting my money’s worth. This was a trip we had splurged on and I couldn’t dive. I decided that for the next dive I would try anyway. I told the dive master my decision but he said if I would have to surface we would all have to surface, and ultimately I didn’t want to keep everyone from diving, so I didn’t go. Seeing them all go in the water was so disappointing for me. I really wanted to go too but I couldn’t. It was so hot outside that I went down to the dive deck and just sat on the ladder while the boat bobbed in and out of the water. Once everyone came back from the dive, the speed boat came and picked us up and took us back to Phuket.
The next day we rented a scooter again and went to a small beach we had found a few days before, called Leam Sing Beach. You had to walk down these steep stairs to get to it, but it was small and cozy. It was not deserted by any means, but at least it wasn’t as packed as the rest of the beaches. We refused to pay the $3 for a beach chair rental but we found a nice spot in the shade on the rocks for free. We hung out there relaxing for the rest of the day.
The next day we rented a scooter and went to explore the island. The island of Phuket is quite large and there are a lot of different parts and beaches and we spent the whole day riding around. Our first stop was Patong beach and we were a little disappointed because although the beach is big and beautiful and the water is crystal clear, it is filled with beach chairs which you can rent for $3 a day, and the water is full of seados and boats. It’s like wasaga on steroids. After coming back from “The Island” where we had the beach almost to ourselves it was a shock. We left very quickly. A lot of the island has mountains so when you’re driving around you get some magnificent views. In addition to the views you also see some very beautiful villas and condos. It’s really a playground for the rich or for people who come here just for a 2 week holiday. That’s really the only way it would be affordable. We rode around the whole day exploring the island and talking with different dive shops to see what kind of diving options we had. We hadn’t been diving in a while and were eager to go again. Unfortunately that evening I found out my grandmother passed away in Poland and I was shocked. My father was very upset and kept saying he wished I was home. It was a hard time and it made me feel guilty for not being at home and for being in this beautiful place while he mourned. I was upset that my grandmother had died of course but I was really more worried for him. We spent the night calling and skyping back and forth with my parents and my brother and helping my parents book tickets to fly to Poland. It was a long night and I was emotionally drained.
We had booked a trip the day before to go kayaking and see the “James Bond Island”. I felt terrible continuing my trip while my parents were home dealing with the death of my grandma. But after talking to my parents (multiple times) they absolutely did not want me flying back home or to Poland. I still felt low on our day trip but I also figured nothing could be gained by sulking around during a trip we had paid for. Plus there wasn’t much more I could do to help my parents.
We were picked up at 7:30am to be taken to the boat we would be on for the day. Usually we are picked up in a large minibus but this time we were picked up in a souped up Honda that was rebranded as a Lexus. It was the drivers personal car and he was obviously really proud of it. He had a large radio/tv in the front and kept playing different reggae music videos. The funny thing is he had a head full of dreads tied back with a bandana and actually looked Jamaican, even though he was Thai. I was sitting in the front with him and he was telling me about the band that was playing and that it was his friend’s band and that he used to be in the band but then moved to Phuket. He drove us to the pier and told us all about the Tsunami of 2004 and how people mistakenly thought Phuket was affected most because of the media coverage, when in reality it was Koh Phi Phi.
We arrived at the pier and had to wait for another hour before we could board the boat. For a while we were the only ones there waiting but then all the minibuses started arriving and I’m not kidding, the only people who were dropped off were Russians. There were at least 1000 people and almost all were Russian. I guess Phuket is popular with the Russians. We boarded the boat and were off. After an hour we arrived at the first spot where we would be kayaking. I say we but we actually had a person kayaking us. The plan was to kayak through a cave, but the first glitch came as soon as we arrived at the cave entrance, which was only 20ft from the boat. That’s when our guide told us to get out, he parked our kayak and started leading us through the cave, since the tide was too low to kayak. It was pitch black and in some parts we were thigh high in water. I was not too thrilled to be walking in a pitch black cave not knowing where we are going but the tour guide was holding on to my arm and kept pushing me forward. After a few minutes we turned a corner and I saw the light! We walked out into a lagoon surrounded by mountains and with lots of mangrove trees. The tide was out so we were able to walk around. I guess if we had arrived while the tide was high we would have been able to kayak inside. It was nice place but then we had to head back, through the cave, then into the kayak and back on the boat. We were then taken to another set of carsts 15minutes away where our guide would kayak us around. This time we spent 20 minutes in the kayak and it was beautiful. We kayaked through karsts into beautiful lagoons surrounded by turquoise water. Unfortunately we got stuck in a traffic jam with other kayakers coming in and out of the lagoon, as other tours had arrived before us, and it killed a bit of the isolated experience. We stopped to take some pictures and were taken back to the boat. Of course before we went on this part of the tour we were told this would be the last time our tour guide would be taking us out so if wanted to tip him, now was the time to do it. Andrew and I didn’t have a lot of money on us and once we arrived back at the boat I gave him 20 Baht (which is not very much but considering we didn’t spend a lot of time in the kayak as promised I didn’t feel too bad). As soon as he saw coins and not paper money, he said no no no. At first I thought he was just being modest and didn’t want to take the money but then I realized what the problem was but I played dumb, handed him the money and left. I was so pissed off that he would refuse our tip. I wasn’t trying to tell him he didn’t perform a good service but at the same time we’re backpackers and don’t have a lot of money to start with. We even debated whether we should be going on this tour, because of money. I spent the lunch hour brooding over him refusing our tip but I got over it pretty quickly. If he was used to getting better tips then he can’t be too badly off. After lunch we took a speedboat to James Bond Island, which was the whole highlight of the trip. When booking we were told we would have 1hour to spend on the island so we can swim, relax and take pictures. Once we arrived we were told we had 30 minutes. At first I was going to argue but then I saw how commercialized the island was and how many tourists were there and I knew we wouldn’t do very much relaxing there. I was still looking forward to some swimming but as soon as we went in the water I realized it was a very muddy bottom and swimming would not be enjoyable at all so we spent the 30 minutes taking lots of pictures. We headed back to the boat and were then dropped off at the pier. Our rasta driver was waiting to take us back to Phuket Town.
As soon as we got back to our hotel room Andrew hopped on our scooter and went to book a trip to the Similan Islands for the following day, and I went to take a shower. As soon as I got out of the shower I saw a HUGE puddle in the middle of our room! And one of our bags was right in the middle of it. While I was taking a shower the drain wasn’t working properly. I didn’t think much of it but it had all drained into our room! Very quickly I picked up the bag and anything else that was lying on the floor and put it away from the water. I then got dressed and went downstairs to tell front desk. I’m not sure how much she understood but she followed me upstairs and then understood very quickly. She said “You take shower…you put water in room”. I said “Yes I take shower, but shower broken and water go inside room”. There was no way I was taking the blame for the flood. She said she would get someone to come up and fix it. While I waited I took everything out of the bag and thankfully only a few pieces of clothes were wet, and no electronics were affected. I hung up the wet stuff to dry and then a guy came. He checked the bathroom and saw the drain was clogged and proceeded to unclog it. After he was done he used a towel to wipe up the floor. He wanted to leave but there was still water on the floor so I made him stay and finish cleaning it up. Once he left I went to check on the bathroom and noticed that he left the drain cover in my sink. It was disgustingly dirty and there was no way I was going to touch it. I was waiting for Andrew to come home and clean it up By the time Andrew got back I had cleaned up most of the mess and all he had to do was throw out the drain cover.
The following morning we were picked up at 5:30am as we were going to the Similan Islands, which are about 1.5 hours north of Phuket by car, and then another 1.5 hours by speed boat. We had booked a 2 day 1 night diving trip, with a total of 7 dives over 2 days. We would be spending the night on the boat. After the long trip out to the island we arrived in one of the most beautiful spots I had ever been to in the world. The water was crystal clear and the islands were stunning. The Similan Islands are comprised of 9 Islands, 3 of which are a protected park and no one is allowed to go there. Not even to dive. We boarded the boat and within a few minutes we were getting ready for our first dive. We geared up and went under. The visibility was amazing! And there were a lot of smaller fish around us. Unfortunately as soon as I went under I noticed a problem equalizing. That was weird because I had never had a problem before. I had had a cold a few weeks back but I thought I was fine. Apparently not. I felt so much pressure in my head and I had to keep trying to equalize. I had never experienced so many problems. I lasted through the dive and came up but I was feeling as if I had a very bad cold. We had an hour and a half before the next dive so I was just going to see how I felt. We had lunch and chilled out on the top deck. I started to feel better so I decided to go for the next dive. Again as soon as I got into the water again I started having problems. It seemed like this time it was worse because my tooth started hurting too. I struggled through the whole dive. I came up after the dive and again I was feeling sick. I decided not to go for the final dive of the day, which was a night dive. Andrew ended up going for the night dive by himself with just the dive master. I was disappointed because I hadn’t really seen any amazing things yet and I thought I was missing out big time, but apparently Andrew didn’t see anything spectacular on the night dive either so I wasn’t too upset. I was a little surprised however, since the Similan Islands are supposed to be the #1 dive spot in Thailand. During dinner I raised this with our dive masters and instructors and they said “Yeah, you should have been here last year. It was a lot better. The water was really warm this year so a lot of the fish have stayed away.” I found this to be a very negative comment and was a little annoyed that they would be this negative. They could have put this a little more eloquently and made me feel better about the $700 (for both of us) we just spent to go diving with them. But we had only done 3 dives that day and I still had hope we would see something the next day. That night we climbed up to the top deck and laid down to look at the stars. It was amazing. The weather was warm, the boat was gently rocking in the water and we were looking up at a cloudless sky and a full moon. It was so peaceful.
I woke up the next day and I felt like someone punched me in the face. My sinuses were completely stuffed up and we only had a half hour before the first dive. As soon as my dive master heard me talking he told me I shouldn’t be diving because I could damage my sinuses. I was so disappointed but I didn’t want to risk it and I thought I would get better throughout the day. So while Andrew went diving I went up to the top deck and warmed myself in the rising sun. Andrew came back from his dive and although he enjoyed it as there were some very large boulders in the water, again he didn’t see too much marine life. Andrew completed two more dives but I still wasn’t feeling better. I was so disappointed because I definitely wasn’t getting my money’s worth. This was a trip we had splurged on and I couldn’t dive. I decided that for the next dive I would try anyway. I told the dive master my decision but he said if I would have to surface we would all have to surface, and ultimately I didn’t want to keep everyone from diving, so I didn’t go. Seeing them all go in the water was so disappointing for me. I really wanted to go too but I couldn’t. It was so hot outside that I went down to the dive deck and just sat on the ladder while the boat bobbed in and out of the water. Once everyone came back from the dive, the speed boat came and picked us up and took us back to Phuket.
The next day we rented a scooter again and went to a small beach we had found a few days before, called Leam Sing Beach. You had to walk down these steep stairs to get to it, but it was small and cozy. It was not deserted by any means, but at least it wasn’t as packed as the rest of the beaches. We refused to pay the $3 for a beach chair rental but we found a nice spot in the shade on the rocks for free. We hung out there relaxing for the rest of the day.
"The Island"
The bus was scheduled to arrive at 6am in Ranang but of course it arrived early…an hour and a half early. Of course a tuk tuk was waiting to take us to the ferry terminal. Once at the ferry terminal we had to wait until 9:30am for the ferry. We have been debating about whether we should name the island we went to or not and have decided to leave it at just “the island”. Mainly because this island is not developed, doesn’t have electricity and not a lot of tourists. This might not appeal to some but for us it was paradise and we don’t want to encourage too many people to go there and spoil it for the rest of us. Sorry. But if you really are interested in going somewhere good, contact me individually and I might help you out…for a price. We arrived on the island around noon. There is no ferry terminal on the island so the boat pulls up to the beach as close as possible and you jump out and they pass you your bags. Everyone gets dropped off individually and since our guest house was the last one on the island, we were the last to get dropped off. Once we finally arrived, we were not disappointed. Our part of the island was a small cove with only 3 guest houses on it, and ours was the best one. We had called ahead and made reservations, which turned out to be a good thing because another couple that got off with us wanted to stay there too but they couldn’t, because they didn’t have reservations. Our bungalow was ocean front, about 20ft up on the cliff. The view was amazing and the sound of the waves would lull us to sleep every night. The beach was big and beautiful but not in the traditional sense. It’s a marble beach which means it’s a mix of black and white sand, and the black sand weighs less than the white sand and it leaves a beautiful marble effect when the waves roll in and out. The water looked cloudy due to the black sand, but in fact it was crystal clear. The sun was shining and it was hot! The first thing after checking in we headed to the beach of course. We spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing in the hammocks on the porch in our bungalow. It was very peaceful and quiet. As I mentioned there is no electricity on the island but they do have generators that run between 6pm – 10pm, but after that again it’s lights out. This meant an early night for us every day but that’s okay as we were very tired from not doing anything.
The next day I spent some time on the beach while Andrew went to explore the rest of the island. He found a bakery which bakes fresh goodies every day. The next day we went there for breakfast and had a wonderful breakfast of homemade fresh bread, homemade jam and fresh coffee. It was delicious. Again, we spent the rest of the day swimming and on the beach. We stayed on the island for 4 days but it really flew by. The past few months had been fairly hectic and it was nice just to hang out and enjoy the sun and the beach. This is definitely a place we want to go back to. From there we took a ferry back and booked a bus to Phuket.
The next day I spent some time on the beach while Andrew went to explore the rest of the island. He found a bakery which bakes fresh goodies every day. The next day we went there for breakfast and had a wonderful breakfast of homemade fresh bread, homemade jam and fresh coffee. It was delicious. Again, we spent the rest of the day swimming and on the beach. We stayed on the island for 4 days but it really flew by. The past few months had been fairly hectic and it was nice just to hang out and enjoy the sun and the beach. This is definitely a place we want to go back to. From there we took a ferry back and booked a bus to Phuket.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Back in Bangkok
We landed back in Bangkok and went to find a hostel. We found it without any problems, and I’m ashamed to admit the first thing we did after that was go to McDonald’s. I had missed “normal” food! We then met up with Andrew’s friend Bobby and picked up the bag we had left with him as we wouldn’t be coming back to Bangkok before flying out to Australia. The next day we caught a bus to Ranang, from where we would be taking a boat to a small island off the Andaman coast.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Pai & Beyond
The night before we were to do the visa run, we went out to dinner and found a fabulous place! It’s called the Curry Shack and it’s literally attached to the people’s house with a corrugated tin roof (it’s literally a shack). But the food is amazing! It was the best curry we have had so far. The owner started asking us where are we from and when we told him from Toronto, he said his sister runs a restaurant on Parliament street. We promised him we would go visit her once we got back. Of course we asked if she’s as good a cook as he is, and with a wicked smile he said “Noooo”.
We woke up at 4:30am so we could catch the bus at 5:30am to do the visa run. We were travelling from Pai to a border town with Myanmar. The bus was actually a large minivan, and it was pack full with 13 people. The trip from Pai to the border took around 8 hours as they forgot someone at one point and we had to turn around and go back. We crossed the border with no problems, after paying around $30 to get into Myanmar. We walked around for a bit and then turned right back around as we only had an hour for the whole process and to meet the bus. On re-entry into Thailand we received a 15 day visa. The trip back ended up taking another 8 hours as well as once we got back to Chiang Mai, we had to wait for a bus to take us back to Pai. The whole trip took around 16 hours and again we were exhausted.
The next day we decided to check out the hot springs as the area around Pai is known for them. We brought our bathing suits and towels and made our way over to the National Park. We paid the 200BHT to get in and went to the hot springs ready for a dip. We had waited until 4pm so it wouldn’t be so hot outside. Once we got there we saw some people sitting around a shallow pond, but we weren’t seeing the large pools we were imagining. We kept going further and found people cooking their eggs in the hot springs. Apparently the park sells some eggs in a plastic bag with a stick and the water is so hot it cooks the eggs. It turned out there were no large pools for us to soak in, just the shallow ponds we had seen earlier where we could dip our legs into, which we did. The water was quite hot and after a while I was sweating. After about a half hour we were done so we headed back home. We didn’t cook any eggs.
That night, as Andrew described in his post, we went to watch the F1 race.
The following day we drove around exploring the area a little more. We went to a scenic view point which was on top of one of the mountains, and had a fabulous view. Andrew took some great pictures so we’ll post those when we can. (As a side note, we have started posting our photos on facebook as it’s a little easier, so if you would like to see them, feel free to add us as friends). After that we went to see a waterfall in the area. The waterfall wasn’t too big, but there were a bunchof large rocks and it made it look really nice. While there, there were a bunch of guys who had their swimming trunks on and started using the rocks as a slide. Andrew was standing taking some pics and after some prodding from me, decided to join them. I think Andrew should describe his experience, but it more or less goes like this:
- The water at the bottom of this “slide” is maybe a foot deep
- There are a lot of rocks, big and small, in that foot of water
- The water is very cold as it’s coming from the mountains
- The “trick” is to slide down and make yourself very flat so as to avoid hitting any rocks at the bottom (the legs first approach is out of the question)
- After one slide, Andrew decided he would not do it again. He landed on his ass and proceeded to show me his ass in front of everyone to check if he had a bruise. He didn't have one that day, but it did develop the next day. Nice and purple.
And that was the waterfall experience.
The next day, as Andrew already described, we rented a couple of bikes and completed the 762 turns, times 2 (there and back). It was a lot of fun, however the confidence Andrew claims I felt, was not always as strong as he would lead you to believe. Yes it was fun. But there were also moments which were scary. Like when I would go into a turn too fast and be afraid that I wouldn’t make it out. Over all however it was a lot of fun. I didn’t realize however how tired I would be at the end of the day. After 4 or 5 hours of riding, I was pooped. We stopped for coffee at “Coffee in Love” and headed back home for dinner.
The next day we were heading back to Chiang Mai to start the trip towards the Laos border. We went to the bus station to catch the 2pm bus. People kept coming asking us if we’re taking their minivan back to Chiang Mai and we kept saying, no, we’re taking the 2pm “Big Bus”. The main difference is really comfort and price. The “Big Bus” is the local bus which costs half the price and the seats are half as spacious as that on the airplane. The minivan of course is a lot roomier, but we didn’t want to spend the money. Around 2:20 we were getting worried about the bus being late. Andrew went to inquire at the counter and it turns out the 2pm bus was not coming today. Everyone we talked failed to mention that! So we had to spend $5 each, which as I said was double than we had budgeted.
We arrived in Chiang Mai after a 4 hour bus ride back from Pai. Checked into a guesthouse and went to grab food at an Indian restaurant. Maybe because the food was different from what we have been eating up until now, but it was a very delicious meal. We then went back to our room and watched a movie on our laptop and new speakers.
Today (Nov. 17) we caught a bus to Chiang Khong which lies on the Mekong River which is the border between Thailand and Laos. We were supposed to go to Laos tomorrow but it looks like we’ll probably spend another day here exploring the area and then go to Laos from there.
We woke up at 4:30am so we could catch the bus at 5:30am to do the visa run. We were travelling from Pai to a border town with Myanmar. The bus was actually a large minivan, and it was pack full with 13 people. The trip from Pai to the border took around 8 hours as they forgot someone at one point and we had to turn around and go back. We crossed the border with no problems, after paying around $30 to get into Myanmar. We walked around for a bit and then turned right back around as we only had an hour for the whole process and to meet the bus. On re-entry into Thailand we received a 15 day visa. The trip back ended up taking another 8 hours as well as once we got back to Chiang Mai, we had to wait for a bus to take us back to Pai. The whole trip took around 16 hours and again we were exhausted.
The next day we decided to check out the hot springs as the area around Pai is known for them. We brought our bathing suits and towels and made our way over to the National Park. We paid the 200BHT to get in and went to the hot springs ready for a dip. We had waited until 4pm so it wouldn’t be so hot outside. Once we got there we saw some people sitting around a shallow pond, but we weren’t seeing the large pools we were imagining. We kept going further and found people cooking their eggs in the hot springs. Apparently the park sells some eggs in a plastic bag with a stick and the water is so hot it cooks the eggs. It turned out there were no large pools for us to soak in, just the shallow ponds we had seen earlier where we could dip our legs into, which we did. The water was quite hot and after a while I was sweating. After about a half hour we were done so we headed back home. We didn’t cook any eggs.
That night, as Andrew described in his post, we went to watch the F1 race.
The following day we drove around exploring the area a little more. We went to a scenic view point which was on top of one of the mountains, and had a fabulous view. Andrew took some great pictures so we’ll post those when we can. (As a side note, we have started posting our photos on facebook as it’s a little easier, so if you would like to see them, feel free to add us as friends). After that we went to see a waterfall in the area. The waterfall wasn’t too big, but there were a bunchof large rocks and it made it look really nice. While there, there were a bunch of guys who had their swimming trunks on and started using the rocks as a slide. Andrew was standing taking some pics and after some prodding from me, decided to join them. I think Andrew should describe his experience, but it more or less goes like this:
- The water at the bottom of this “slide” is maybe a foot deep
- There are a lot of rocks, big and small, in that foot of water
- The water is very cold as it’s coming from the mountains
- The “trick” is to slide down and make yourself very flat so as to avoid hitting any rocks at the bottom (the legs first approach is out of the question)
- After one slide, Andrew decided he would not do it again. He landed on his ass and proceeded to show me his ass in front of everyone to check if he had a bruise. He didn't have one that day, but it did develop the next day. Nice and purple.
And that was the waterfall experience.
The next day, as Andrew already described, we rented a couple of bikes and completed the 762 turns, times 2 (there and back). It was a lot of fun, however the confidence Andrew claims I felt, was not always as strong as he would lead you to believe. Yes it was fun. But there were also moments which were scary. Like when I would go into a turn too fast and be afraid that I wouldn’t make it out. Over all however it was a lot of fun. I didn’t realize however how tired I would be at the end of the day. After 4 or 5 hours of riding, I was pooped. We stopped for coffee at “Coffee in Love” and headed back home for dinner.
The next day we were heading back to Chiang Mai to start the trip towards the Laos border. We went to the bus station to catch the 2pm bus. People kept coming asking us if we’re taking their minivan back to Chiang Mai and we kept saying, no, we’re taking the 2pm “Big Bus”. The main difference is really comfort and price. The “Big Bus” is the local bus which costs half the price and the seats are half as spacious as that on the airplane. The minivan of course is a lot roomier, but we didn’t want to spend the money. Around 2:20 we were getting worried about the bus being late. Andrew went to inquire at the counter and it turns out the 2pm bus was not coming today. Everyone we talked failed to mention that! So we had to spend $5 each, which as I said was double than we had budgeted.
We arrived in Chiang Mai after a 4 hour bus ride back from Pai. Checked into a guesthouse and went to grab food at an Indian restaurant. Maybe because the food was different from what we have been eating up until now, but it was a very delicious meal. We then went back to our room and watched a movie on our laptop and new speakers.
Today (Nov. 17) we caught a bus to Chiang Khong which lies on the Mekong River which is the border between Thailand and Laos. We were supposed to go to Laos tomorrow but it looks like we’ll probably spend another day here exploring the area and then go to Laos from there.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Pai
We had been told about a small town around 100km’s north of Chiang Mai, called Pai. Anyone who had been there raved about it, so we decided to go and take a look. Although it’s only 100km north of Chiang Mai, it takes 4 hours by buys. We soon learned why. The road is through the mountains and it contains nothing but hair pin turns. We were talking about that when I asked Andrew how many turns does the “Tail Of The Dragon” have? (Google it, it’s where motorcycle aficionados go to frolic) and he said maybe a couple of hundred. I said this had to have more. It turns out we were right, this 100 km stretch has 762 turns! We arrived in Pai and fell in love right away. It’s a small town set among the mountains, with a quiet atmosphere. The days are hot but nights are quite cold at around 12 degrees Celsius. I know for those of you in Canada right now you are not feeling sorry for us, but trust me when you sleep in a bamboo hut with no warm clothes, 12 degrees is quite cold. We rented a bike and started exploring the region. The scenery is amazing and we have seen some great sights. Unfortunately Andrew has been sick for the past couple of days, but the bright side is that I have finally been able to ride the scooter. It is so much fun! I spent the better part of yesterday running errands. From getting Andrew medicine, to getting food and tea, but I have also been able to explore the area on my own. I don’t even care where I go I just want to ride the scooter! It’s a lot of fun.
In Pai we found a cheap bamboo hut with hot water! for 250 Baht per night. That’s around $8 a night. It’s actually quite charming, and the best part is that it’s cheap. The only down side is all the chickens and roosters it’s surrounded by. They are not right in the courtyard, but in the neighbors courtyards. That does not prevent the roosters from crowing at 6am and waking us up. Every day. And there is not just 1 rooster. Each neighbor has around 4 or 5. And it seems everyone has chickens and roosters in Pai, so at 6am you hear all of them. I think we are slowly starting to get used to it however, since we now wake up but are able to go right back to sleep and sleep through it.
Unfortunately our visa is expiring tomorrow (Nov. 12) and since we feel like we’re not quite done with this part of Thailand we decided to do a visa run. That basically means we have to leave the country (go to Myanmar or Laos) and then cross right back to get an additional 15 days. So tomorrow we will be going to Myanmar by bus to get our visa so we can continue exploring Northern Thailand. The original plan was to rent a big bike (500cc or so) and do the trip ourselves. This was really an excuse for Andrew to ride those 762 turns mentioned above. Since he’s been sick however, we thought it was better to do it with a tour company. Of course Andrew will not let us be here and not do this stretch of road, so when we come back we’re renting a motorcycle and will be completing the 762 turns, times 2. There and back. I’ll post again to let you know if we survived.
This is a complete side note but while on Koh Phangan, my kobo (the electronic book reader) broke! I was so pissed off because I had bought 10 books before we left! So this is for those people considering buying an electronic reader: DON’T! The good news is I was able to download those books to my ipod. Although the reading won’t be as easy, at least the money I spent on the books won’t go to waste. The $150 I spent on the reader itself will.
In Pai we found a cheap bamboo hut with hot water! for 250 Baht per night. That’s around $8 a night. It’s actually quite charming, and the best part is that it’s cheap. The only down side is all the chickens and roosters it’s surrounded by. They are not right in the courtyard, but in the neighbors courtyards. That does not prevent the roosters from crowing at 6am and waking us up. Every day. And there is not just 1 rooster. Each neighbor has around 4 or 5. And it seems everyone has chickens and roosters in Pai, so at 6am you hear all of them. I think we are slowly starting to get used to it however, since we now wake up but are able to go right back to sleep and sleep through it.
Unfortunately our visa is expiring tomorrow (Nov. 12) and since we feel like we’re not quite done with this part of Thailand we decided to do a visa run. That basically means we have to leave the country (go to Myanmar or Laos) and then cross right back to get an additional 15 days. So tomorrow we will be going to Myanmar by bus to get our visa so we can continue exploring Northern Thailand. The original plan was to rent a big bike (500cc or so) and do the trip ourselves. This was really an excuse for Andrew to ride those 762 turns mentioned above. Since he’s been sick however, we thought it was better to do it with a tour company. Of course Andrew will not let us be here and not do this stretch of road, so when we come back we’re renting a motorcycle and will be completing the 762 turns, times 2. There and back. I’ll post again to let you know if we survived.
This is a complete side note but while on Koh Phangan, my kobo (the electronic book reader) broke! I was so pissed off because I had bought 10 books before we left! So this is for those people considering buying an electronic reader: DON’T! The good news is I was able to download those books to my ipod. Although the reading won’t be as easy, at least the money I spent on the books won’t go to waste. The $150 I spent on the reader itself will.
Chiang Mai
We arrived in Bangkok after the islands and found a place to stay near Koh San Rd. We had arrived in Bangkok around 3am, so we waited until 4:30am to check in as we didn’t want to pay for an extra night. Guest houses will charge you for the previous night if you check in before a certain time. In this case it was 5am, but after waiting for an hour and a half they gave up and let us check in a half hour early with no additional charge.
After being on the islands and spending some significant cash on the internet we decided we needed a laptop. We were basically using the internet cafes to download pictures and write on the blog, things we could be doing for free on a laptop. We went shopping and bought a laptop. In addition to making our lives a little easier, we are now able to skype with our parents, edit our photos, watch movies in our room, and I can write the blog whenever I want and post it once we have a connection. The next day we had dinner with Bobby, his wife Jib and their 2 kids at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. They give out condoms at the end of each meal instead of mints, to educate people about safe sex. Their belief is that condoms and safe sex should be as available as vegetables. We had a great Thai meal with Bobby and his family. His wife is Thai so we let her pick the dishes, and they were fantastic. The next day we decided it was time to leave Bangkok so we headed over to the train station and bought 2nd class seats to Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand. The train left at 2:30pm and was scheduled to arrive at 5:30am. Even though it’s only 750km’s the train makes a lot of stops and that’s why it takes 15 hours. It’s wasn’t too bad while there was still daylight as we had an opportunity to see the vast flooding in Thailand, as well as see some of the countryside. The challenge was when it got dark, and unfortunately it gets dark fairly early at this time of the year. There was really nothing to do except read and sleep. It quickly became evident I would not be sleeping on this train, mainly because of all the cockroaches that came out at night. There were really quite a few. I was so grossed out that I didn’t want to put my feet on the floor so I sat with my feet up for the remaining 8 or 9 hours of the journey.
We arrived in Chiang Mai an hour behind schedule. We found a hostel to stay at and went straight to sleep. We woke up around 12pm and went to explore the town, which is surrounded by mountains. The city of Chiang Mai has around 175,000 people. It’s divided into 2 parts, the old town and the new town. It’s not a large city and it had a much more down low feel than Bangkok, which we appreciated right away. Bangkok is a very hectic city and as I have previously stated in my earlier posts, a lot of people haggle you, but Chiang Mai is different. There is still the odd Tuk Tuk driver who wants to get your business but it’s a lot quieter than in Bangkok. We stumbled across a night market, and we were thrilled because these always have great street food. Again we pigged out on pork bungs, sausages and tiny tim bits. I call them that because I really don’t know what else they were. The next day we rented a scooter and went into the mountains. The intention was to visit the Tiger Kingdom where you see a large tiger, a medium tiger and a small tiger (their labeling, not ours). When we arrived there we found the prices to be atrociously high so decided against it. We continued driving higher into the mountains only to find a couple of guys riding elephants. They stopped for us and we were able to take some pictures with them. The sun would be setting in the next couple of hours so we knew it was time to start heading back. Surprisingly it got cold in the mountains. Even in the sun it was quite chilly and we were completely unprepared in our t-shirts and shorts. We did make it back to town before sunset. The scenery is beautiful in the mountains. It looks like straight out of a movie. The rolling hills, the dense trees, with the sun shining, it looked amazing. The air was clean and crisp and you didn’t feel the oppression of the big cities.
The following day was Sunday and there is a large night market which takes place every Sunday night. Large is perhaps an understatement. It is extremely large, continuing with no end in sight. We walked for a good hour and a half and we didn’t reach the end. Again you can buy anything from t-shirts to shoes to hand woven silks and of course no market would be complete without food. We were once again happy to eat all that the night food market had to offer. Eating the delicious and cheap food has really become our favourite part of the night markets. We can eat very well for $3.50 for the both of us. The interesting part was the amount of people that came out. While sightseeing during the day, you see a lot of locals but not a lot of tourists. But the night market was packed with tourists. I really don’t know where they came from.
We had been on the go for most of the month, doing a lot of hiking, walking, sightseeing, etc. And we decided to take a day off. We literally spent the whole day in bed, and we were lucky enough to have a TV in our room, so we watched re-runs of Law & Order all day. That night however we decided to get out of bed and watch a live Muay Thai boxing fight. Muay Thai boxing is a combination of boxing and kick boxing. The fight began with 2 kids fighting, and after them it was 2 girls who were around 16-17 years old. Surprisingly theirs was the only fight where we saw blood. It was actually quite gross but Andrew of course managed to capture it all in photos. The last fight of the day was between a Thai and a Canadian. There were a surprising number of people supporting the Canadian (including Andrew with his Canada t-shirt) and I’m happy to say the Canadian kicked ass and won the match.
It was in Chiang Mai where Andrew wrote his post and I saw that disgusting spider. It was as large as my whole hand. Andrew thinks I always over exaggerate the size of any bug/insect but it was that large and he would agree. It was also hairy. The worst part is that when I started screaming Andrew was turned away from the wall and by the time he turned around of course the spider had ran under the stool, and Andrew thought I was exaggerating its size. He was going to turn back to his post but I would not let him. The funny party (maybe sad?) is that as soon as I convinced him of the large spider, he did not go looking for it, he went looking for his camera. I thought he was insane and told him as much but he would not listen. He did end up finding the spider, photographing it, and killing it with his sandal. Much to my relief.
After being on the islands and spending some significant cash on the internet we decided we needed a laptop. We were basically using the internet cafes to download pictures and write on the blog, things we could be doing for free on a laptop. We went shopping and bought a laptop. In addition to making our lives a little easier, we are now able to skype with our parents, edit our photos, watch movies in our room, and I can write the blog whenever I want and post it once we have a connection. The next day we had dinner with Bobby, his wife Jib and their 2 kids at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. They give out condoms at the end of each meal instead of mints, to educate people about safe sex. Their belief is that condoms and safe sex should be as available as vegetables. We had a great Thai meal with Bobby and his family. His wife is Thai so we let her pick the dishes, and they were fantastic. The next day we decided it was time to leave Bangkok so we headed over to the train station and bought 2nd class seats to Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand. The train left at 2:30pm and was scheduled to arrive at 5:30am. Even though it’s only 750km’s the train makes a lot of stops and that’s why it takes 15 hours. It’s wasn’t too bad while there was still daylight as we had an opportunity to see the vast flooding in Thailand, as well as see some of the countryside. The challenge was when it got dark, and unfortunately it gets dark fairly early at this time of the year. There was really nothing to do except read and sleep. It quickly became evident I would not be sleeping on this train, mainly because of all the cockroaches that came out at night. There were really quite a few. I was so grossed out that I didn’t want to put my feet on the floor so I sat with my feet up for the remaining 8 or 9 hours of the journey.
We arrived in Chiang Mai an hour behind schedule. We found a hostel to stay at and went straight to sleep. We woke up around 12pm and went to explore the town, which is surrounded by mountains. The city of Chiang Mai has around 175,000 people. It’s divided into 2 parts, the old town and the new town. It’s not a large city and it had a much more down low feel than Bangkok, which we appreciated right away. Bangkok is a very hectic city and as I have previously stated in my earlier posts, a lot of people haggle you, but Chiang Mai is different. There is still the odd Tuk Tuk driver who wants to get your business but it’s a lot quieter than in Bangkok. We stumbled across a night market, and we were thrilled because these always have great street food. Again we pigged out on pork bungs, sausages and tiny tim bits. I call them that because I really don’t know what else they were. The next day we rented a scooter and went into the mountains. The intention was to visit the Tiger Kingdom where you see a large tiger, a medium tiger and a small tiger (their labeling, not ours). When we arrived there we found the prices to be atrociously high so decided against it. We continued driving higher into the mountains only to find a couple of guys riding elephants. They stopped for us and we were able to take some pictures with them. The sun would be setting in the next couple of hours so we knew it was time to start heading back. Surprisingly it got cold in the mountains. Even in the sun it was quite chilly and we were completely unprepared in our t-shirts and shorts. We did make it back to town before sunset. The scenery is beautiful in the mountains. It looks like straight out of a movie. The rolling hills, the dense trees, with the sun shining, it looked amazing. The air was clean and crisp and you didn’t feel the oppression of the big cities.
The following day was Sunday and there is a large night market which takes place every Sunday night. Large is perhaps an understatement. It is extremely large, continuing with no end in sight. We walked for a good hour and a half and we didn’t reach the end. Again you can buy anything from t-shirts to shoes to hand woven silks and of course no market would be complete without food. We were once again happy to eat all that the night food market had to offer. Eating the delicious and cheap food has really become our favourite part of the night markets. We can eat very well for $3.50 for the both of us. The interesting part was the amount of people that came out. While sightseeing during the day, you see a lot of locals but not a lot of tourists. But the night market was packed with tourists. I really don’t know where they came from.
We had been on the go for most of the month, doing a lot of hiking, walking, sightseeing, etc. And we decided to take a day off. We literally spent the whole day in bed, and we were lucky enough to have a TV in our room, so we watched re-runs of Law & Order all day. That night however we decided to get out of bed and watch a live Muay Thai boxing fight. Muay Thai boxing is a combination of boxing and kick boxing. The fight began with 2 kids fighting, and after them it was 2 girls who were around 16-17 years old. Surprisingly theirs was the only fight where we saw blood. It was actually quite gross but Andrew of course managed to capture it all in photos. The last fight of the day was between a Thai and a Canadian. There were a surprising number of people supporting the Canadian (including Andrew with his Canada t-shirt) and I’m happy to say the Canadian kicked ass and won the match.
It was in Chiang Mai where Andrew wrote his post and I saw that disgusting spider. It was as large as my whole hand. Andrew thinks I always over exaggerate the size of any bug/insect but it was that large and he would agree. It was also hairy. The worst part is that when I started screaming Andrew was turned away from the wall and by the time he turned around of course the spider had ran under the stool, and Andrew thought I was exaggerating its size. He was going to turn back to his post but I would not let him. The funny party (maybe sad?) is that as soon as I convinced him of the large spider, he did not go looking for it, he went looking for his camera. I thought he was insane and told him as much but he would not listen. He did end up finding the spider, photographing it, and killing it with his sandal. Much to my relief.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)