Bummed about going home early...

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Unfortunately this will be my last travel blog for the time being. I'm actually posting this one from North Carolina upon arriving late last night. If you didn't hear from Brian's blog, and/or didn't read my last blog, we had to cut our trip short due to my knee injury. Total bummer. Anyways, the last week of our trip was still pretty awesome, so I'll tune you in on that.....

We ended up staying in Koh Tao for about a week. The first 4 days or so we basically just hung out at the beach, read a lot, drank some beer, watched some movies, and chilled out after having been at the Full Moon Party in Koh Pha Gnan. Definitely a nice break from insanity. After being lazy for long enough, Chase and I got motivated one day and rented a sea kayak, which is something I can do with a bad knee and all. Of course we waited until the best possible time to venture out to an island - just as a storm was rolling in from sea. The guy who rented us the kayak was like, "You see storm first, hahahaha," finding it quite funny that we were venturing towards a storm, but then again, he was making money, so of course he was fine with it. We paddled out to an island just off the coast of Koh Tao and thought we had ended up in Japan - when we got out on the beach, every single person we saw was Japanese, kinda crazy. With the storm still lingering, we decided to book it back to our beach, and just barely made it in time before the monsoon hit. Lucky us. The next day, the entire group, plus a few friends we met along the way, hired 2 longtail boats to take us snorkeling. Now, you're probably wondering how I managed to go snorkeling, but with flippers and very salty water to make you buoyant, it worked out using only one leg to swim around. Our first stop: Shark Bay. Fully knowing that this bay was named for a reason, we jumped right in and set out to see some sharks. After about 15 minutes of seeing some cool fish and not-so-cool coral, I spotted a reef shark. I will admit that at first I was a little nervous, but after watching and swimming with my new friend, I thought it was pretty cool. We saw a few more reef sharks, which are the harmless kind (most of the time at least), followed them around, and then got back in the boat to check out the next snorkel spot. Our second stop turned out to be some of the best, if not the best, snorkeling I've ever done. Right after jumping in, I was immediately surrounded by a brilliant rainbow of exotic fish, many species of which I had never seen before. The coral was equally brilliant. I managed to chase down a few more reef sharks at this stop as well. Awesome snorkeling. Next we headed to Mango Bay where we had lunch at this resort on top of a cliff overlooking clear turquoise water and white beaches lined with royal palms - pretty spectacular. With the usual afternoon storm/monsoon lingering at sea, we headed back to our beach. This time, we didn't quite beat the storm, and ended up basically white-water rafting back in a longtail boat. While the captain of my boat seemed confident in what he was doing, Brian and Chase's did not - I really thought for a minute that they would be lost at sea. Surprisingly everyone did indeed make it back. All in all, that was one of the best days of my trip. After a great day, we all went out that night to the eclectic beach bars in celebration of an awesome 10 days in the Thai islands before going our separate ways in the morning. And believe it or not, Brian and I did manage to leave paradise and head to Bangkok the next day.

The road was Bangkok was very long, but surprisingly easy. After a 2 hour ferry ride to the mainland, we took an 8 hour bus north to Bangkok. Somehow we ended up in the downstairs section of the double-decker and basically had our own private suite with movies and AC. Very nice. Bangkok proved to be a stark contrast to the chillness of the islands. Being a city of 12 million and spanning an area of 50 km or so, it is by far the largest city I've ever been in. Absolute insanity. The skyscrapers are unending. One thing about Bangkok that I immediately noticed is the huge discrepancy between wealth and poverty. Super chic and modern buildings would back right up to run down wooden flats built on stilts above the Chao Phraya river, looking as if they might just fall in. I noticed such contrast in much of Southeast Asia, but nothing like Bangkok. Taking part in such monetary discrepancy, sad to say, we ended up staying in a really nice place by the river, a little removed from everything. In Bangkok, I decided that it was time to figure my knee injury out, so I ventured to one of the many state of the art hospitals in the city. I must say that I was quite impressed with the cleanliness, effeciency and the extremely nice and accommodating staff. The doctor I saw spoke very good English, but unfortunately his English was good enough for me to understand that I should stay off my knee for about 4-6 weeks and that I would most likely need to have surgery when I get home. So with that diagnosis, Brian and I decided to postpone the rest of our trip until my knee is in better condition to travel and do all of the active things we were planning on doing - jungle trekking, a lot of walking, white-water rafting, etc. Needless to say, we were both extremely bummed about having to cut our trip short, but at the same time, we did have an awesome 3 weeks in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, so I can't really complain too much. As for now, we are planning on returning sometime within the next year to see what we missed and extend our travels even further. While in Bangkok, we did manage to see a little bit of the city as we took a ferry up the river to Wat Pho, the oldest and largest Wat in Bangkok. Wat Pho is home to the infamous gold plated Reclining Buddha statue that measures an impressive 46 meters long and 15 meters high. Amazingly large, and yes, that is what she said for all of you guys who watch The Office. Anyways, at Wat Pho, Brian and I entered one of the smaller temples and had quite an interesting interaction with a Thai worshiper. After an awkward exchange of trying to understand another language as well as a completely unfamiliar religion while trying not to offend anyone, and trying to explain why I couldn't kneel down, we ended up partaking in traditional Buddhist worship, which (minus some awkward cultural differences) was quite peaceful and calming. Overcome by heat, we headed back to our hotel, and sadly enough, packed our smelly backpacks to go home.

The trip home was miserable to say the least. We left our Bangkok hotel late, around 4am, after having to dispute additional and unexplained charges on the bill, arrived at the airport where Brian realized he lost his wallet, got charged $219 by the airlines for things that should have already been taken care of when we changed our tickets and boarded a 6 hour flight to Tokyo. In Tokyo we immediately boarded our next 11 hour flight to Minneapolis, on which Brian sat next to this guy with horrible breath who kept falling asleep on his shoulder, lucky Brian. We had enough time in Minneapolis to get a few much needed drinks before heading to Denver, which was completely unnecessary in the first place with our final destination being Charlotte, but because airlines seem to think that you should pay extra if you don't board a plane you already have tickets for (which I still can't understand, it's less work and more room for them), we just rolled with the punches. In Denver, stoked to be on our last flight of the series, we just so happened to get on a plane with a fuel leak and had to deplane and wait around for another available plane. Now you can only imagine how excited we are at this point. Eventually we made it to Charlotte, late of course, and to find that Brian's backpack was lost - it was never scanned in Denver, so they told him it was probably just sitting somewhere (no idea where that somewhere might be) and that hopefully they would find it and get it to him in a few days. Awesome. Hunter picked us up at the airport, we dropped Brian off in Hickory, and then booked it up the mountain to try and make last call at a Blowing Rock bar where our friends were, but of course, walked in just after last call. Anyways, after about 35 hours of traveling, I made it Blowing Rock, where I will be indefinitely (until I see a doctor and possibly have knee surgery). So that's the last of my travels for now. I hope to have more entries coming your way sooner rather than later. Until my next trip, I wish you all the best. Pura vida.....

E

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