No good, very bad, awful day

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Our 200 baht a night hut on the pier was not so bad at all. I didn't get a single bite. Other than it being noisy, it was a great place really. I woke up in the middle of the night to our first rain. More like monsoon! it was crazy. i went outside for a minute but there wasn't anywhere to stand in the rain. the whole pier is covered in most parts. in the morning the only evidence was the big puddles of water collected in the tarps overhead. we tried the restaurant we had dinner at our first time on the pier but they didn't have any muesli & yogurt (our fave breakfast) so we had toast. the bread is all just white bread here. sometimes it is thick but mostly it is very thin and boring. we had to hurry to catch our boat to Koh Mak. It was very slow so we listened to music and enjoyed the scenery. i didn't get sick either which was great. when we arrived it seemed the whole island was there to meet us. they had laminated brochures of their resorts and did their best to take us with them. we had a couple ideas of where to stay but we only saw one of them and the resort was right there by the pier and didn't have much beach so we went with a different guy. his brochure looked nice with a great beach picture and we even asked him if there was a nice beach. of course there is he says! this is the only reason we came here, to get some sun and swimming in before heading north where there is no ocean. so we hop in his truck, surveying the other trucks around us. a few of them looked worse than ours, a few better. nobody else was in our truck and we started off. the road started out nice and then it gradually got worse and worse until we were bumping around everywhere, getting more and more scared of where we were headed. it seemed we were getting further from town every minute. we saw a guy drive by on a motorbike with a dog in his basket. it seemed as if all of the thais we passed were laughing at us but we couldn't be sure. when we arrived we knew why. this place left a lot to be desired. the 'beach' was a strip of dirty sand that you couldn't have spread a towel on and the water was muddy and full of leaves, etc. i didn't look at the bungalow but craig climbed up to one of them (they were on a hillside) and i guess he decided it was ok. i pouted at the bottom of course until he came back down and told him i couldn't stay here. i felt bad because they seemed so desperate for our business but there was not another soul there, a loud bug was screeching in the jungle the whole time we were there, the family living there was staring at us the whole time and there was no beach, music, swimming. nothing. so we debated about what to do and finally we told them we wanted a better beach so the man drove us back out for 100baht to another resort which was not too bad. it turns out the tide was in so there wasn't much beach anywhere but there was definately more here and the water was nice to swim in. and that is just what i did. most of the time was spent in the water. craig tried to rent us a kayak but it was faulty or we are too big because it ended up sinking and dumping us in the water. i was panicking because i am a chicken and i was afraid of the coral underneath us as soon as we got over 6 feet deep. not a great moment but of course my stresses didn't even faze craig and he didn't make me feel bad about it. just blamed the silly kayak.
we attempted to wash some of our clothing in the sink which was hilarious but we got it done mostly. a tip for next time though. don't wash other clothing in the water you just washed your stinky underwear in. it will smell like the unde3rwear used to when it dries! yuck. we had a few drinks at the bar by our bungalow where they had a fire and some good music playing. the sunset was nice and then we had dinner at this nice restaurant beside our place. we decided to leave the next day since there wasn't much else to do here and the bug count was much higher than anywhere else we'd been. we had an option of the slow boat we came in on for 450b or a speedboat for 500b. hard choice. perhaps not the best one though. the ride was so rough. every bump over the waves felt like my insides were scrambled. we made it back eventually though and took a (very expensive) truck to the blue lagoon resort, a place craig wanted to go to after reading about in the lonely planet. it turns out we should have been staying here the whole time! it was lovely. the restaurant was amazing and our cute little bungalow was right on the lagoon with it's own deck and hammock. we tried going to the beach as soon as we arrived and we ended up on another very fancy (expensive) resorts beach and craig had a lounge on one of their big chairs on the beach even though i told him not to. i could see the employees having a chat over who was going to boot him and sure enough, one of them came over shortly. we headed back towards our place and found this little raft that you pull by a rope to the other side of the lagoon. there is a restaurant there with chairs and tables on the beach so we had a beverage. the tide was way in again but we found a little spot and went for a swim in the shallow water. on our way back, something happened that we've been waiting for. a coconut fell off a tree with a HUGE crash about 6 feet away from me. it was much louder than we thought. i saw it as a sign since i've wanted to get one of those things open the entire trip so i grabbed it and slammed it against a post for awhile but didn't manage to do much except get a lot of juice out of it. i put it aside to work on later. the power was out on the entire island the whole day resulting in a lot of warm beverages and no fans/air condition. it seemed like it was back on later but we got to our bungalow and there was no power at all. the one right next to us had it so we went and inquired and they said it was the last one to be fixed. it ended up coming on right as we were falling asleep which was nice so we had a fan.
the next day we were heading off to our first snorkeling adventure. i was nervous but excited as well. our truck picked us up (late as always) and we headed back to Bang Bao pier after picking up a bunch of french people. we didn't have time for breakfast so i grabbed a sugar donut on the way by. a thai lady took our photo as we sat down on the boat and later sold it to us in a frame for 100b. across from us on the boat we saw a young swedish couple that had been on the speedboat with us and we got talking to them. they spoke very good english and we became friends. we didn't manage to get their names though, awful canadian habit we have of not introducing ourselves. i tried to see what they wrote on the snorkel sign out sheet and i think i got her name, possibly his. the weather was no good at all. overcast and extremely windy. the boat ride was very slow and a bit rough. we weren't sure how we were planning on swimming in the waves that we crashing by. the first island stop the water was still wavy but we jumped in anyway and i panicked almost immediately. craig had to go get me a lifejacket. the waves were so big that they were crashing over top of me and water was going in my breathing tube and i was having a hard time swimming at the same time. it was a bit better when i had the lifejacket which i just put my arms through and floated on but i couldn't get under the water enough to see much and the waves were still making me panic a bit. one of the thai men that run the boat came and grabbed my hand and towed me around showing me many different things. that was much better because i probably wouldn't have seen anything. the next stop i sat out as we had eaten some rice and veggies and it made me feel worse after being on the rocking boat. it wasn't very good anyway apparently. the third stop was probably the best one. i decided to try without the lifejacket and turned around immediately to go back and get it but the thai man was back and he pulled me over to the reef. i panicked quite a few times when water was getting in my mask and waves were going over my snorkel but he would hold me up in the water so i could breathe and get my bearings and then i was ok for a bit. it is a tricky thing, snorkeling. i think if the water was calm i would do much better and if i had flippers. i touched a sea cucumber he brought up and saw a huge school of fish. there was something big and white that made the thai guy very excited and made the school of fish swim away quickly but my stupid mask fogged up right then and i missed it. i think it was a shark but i'm not sure. i saw two divers as well at the bottom which was neat. i sat out the last dive but craig said it wasn't very good either. he swam right around the whole island of course. we got quite burnt even though it was overcast but mine has turned into a bit of a tan (until it peels of course) and craig is still nursing his arm burns that are peeling horribly right now as well as his new back burn. he got it worse of course. i ate so much pineapple on the boat that my lips split on both corners and my mouth felt like it had tiny cuts all over it. then i ate some more! it is so good. we had some roasted potatoes and craig had a chicken/veg/pineapple shish kabob and then we started the slow ride home. i wish we had brought the camera but wasn't sure what to expect.
We spent one more day at the blue lagoon which was a lazy one. we were sunburnt and tired so we just sat around on the beach and drank pineapple shakes and read/wrote in our journals as well as ate a ton of great food. the next day was the start of the worst day ever. we had 35 minutes for breakfast before the bus came to pick us up but it arrived early and craigs food wasn't even here yet so i paid quickly while he grabbed the bags and i scooped up my toast and eggs and he grabbed his banana pancake and we ran. the bus driver was so slow and we eventually made it there with just a couple minutes to spare. it was extremely windy again and the water was so rough. the boat could barely make it out of port. we were hoping to see our swedish friends again but they weren't on the boat. on the other side we had to wait an hour or so for our bus and then once we boarded it, we had to wait another half hour or so. finally we left on our journey back to stinky Bangkok. the ride wasn't that great. we had the only squeaky seat on the bus and the danish couple next to us was loud and annoying and kept groping each other and play fighting. the bus stopped for 20 minutes at a little restaurant and we ran into our swedish friends so i got their email! traffic in bangkok was awful of course and we didn't know where we were getting off. finally we jumped out at the bus station and craig figured out that we could take the skytrain to the north east bus station that would take us to Chiang Mai. the ride was fairly easy to figure out and we bought some of these really good waffles from a vendor. once we got off the skytrain all hell broke loose. we got so lost in the dark streets of bangkok. we were beside a park which had a fence all around it and we walked for about 45 minutes one way before realizing we needed to be on the other side of the park but hadn't seen an opening to get in since the skytrain station 45 minutes back. i had to pee and was pretty much in pain from my heavy backpack so i was not enthused at the idea of backtracking and crossing the creepy park where we had just seen a 4 foot long moniter lizard run by. we found the opening eventually though and then we couldn't find another way out. we found a bathroom finally which was a bit of relief but then we got lost again and some wild dogs started growling at us when we tried to pass. we couldn't find a taxi and the bus station was not where we thought it should be. i was having a hard time breathing and was about to have an anxiety attack when a nice man with excellent english pulled over to help the struggling farang couple with the lonely planet out. he ended up driving us to the bus depot which was WAY far away and we were so grateful. once we got inside it was absolute chaos. a million people and not one english word anywhere. we had no idea what to do. i finally saw 'information' but craig had just gone up to a ticket agent and she spoke decent english so we booked a ticket for what we thought was 9:50 (this was at about 7:40). it was a 2nd class bus with no bathroom but she assured us it made stops during the 10 hour trip. we settled down in some seats to wait and after a bathroom visit and a stop at 7-11 for munchies we headed to our departure bay. we still had 20 minutes so we sat down to wait and a man came over and asked for our ticket. he pointed out that it said 19:50 on it which meant that we had missed our bus over two hours ago! we were so tired that when she said 19:50 we thought she said 9:50 and didn't think to check. this 24 hour clock thing is hard to get used to. the man ended up taking us to another bus and we paid 124 baht each to get on this 1st class bus leaving in ten minutes. we were very relieved and thanked him. they gave us blankets and we settled down to watch the movie (though it was dubbed over in thai). before we left they made us move to the back of the bus which is where the worst of it started. i couldn't put my seat all the way down because there was a bunch of stuff behind it on the seat and the bus was absolutely freezing with the air conditioning cranked the entire time. a cockroach crawled out onto the curtain beside me and then i tried to flick it away but i lost it and was worried about where it went the whole time. another bug crawled by the front of craigs seat. the girl in front of me slammed her seat down really hard and my knees were completely wedged between seats so i couldn't move the whole time. then the air conditioning vent above me started dripping freezing water all over me. the whole trip. for 10 plus hours. we stopped about 4 times for 20 minutes or so during the first hour for who knows what reason but it was very annoying as we just wanted to get there. craig was having a nice snooze while i was freezing my butt off beside him with my legs wedged between the seats and bugs crawling on me and water dripping all over. of course none of the other vents were dripping water. to top it all off i had the squeaky seat again and i was right beside the escape door which gradually got looser and looser until the handle was rattling around extremely loudly beside me. they gave us this little box with instant coffee and some weird piece of sponge bread in it so i wedged the bread in the handle to make it a bit quieter but it was still awful and i was waiting for it to swing open at any second. it was definately the worst bus ride i've ever been on and i am not taking the bus back to bangkok next time. i will take the train or fly. i'd hate to see what 2nd class is all about!
We arrived in Chiang Mai and within the first 15 minutes we thought we got ripped off. the driver took us to the place we wanted to go and even gave us a brochure but when we got here it looked nothing like the brochure which is quite common so we didn't really worry. we just asked if they had a swimming pool which is why we picked it and they said yes and that they changed the name cuz it was different. we got our room which was more money than we wanted but we can switch tomorrow and it again looks nothing like the brochure. we saw no pool either so we were convinced we got ripped off. then we looked in the lonely planet and saw that the cab driver ripped us off too after taking us to the wrong place. we went searching for the correct place and found it directly across the street after walking around the block. it didn't really look like the brochure either but it looks nicer so they told us to come back in the morning for a room. we ended up asking at our place about the pool and we eventually found out that they are owned by brothers and they used to have the same name but they changed it to get more business. we are able to use the pool across the street whenever but we will probably get a room over there tomorrow so we don't have to leave the building. we had an amazing lunch at a vegetarian restaurant which there seems to be a huge abundance of and we are planning on trying to catch a movie and have a few beers tonight. i will leave this huge entry here. i was going to add some photos but i will have to do that later.

p.s. mom i tried to call you but this skype wasn't working very good. not sure whats up with that. i will call in the morning!!!

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Comments

[Rachel]

Holy Thailand!
Good to hear in-depth info about your trip!! I saw your profile pic. Glad to see that you got to see some Gee-Raffs!! How much is a baht?? Sucks that I won't see you at Christmas and then who knows when I'll be home next after that... But hopefully you are having fun there!! And not getting ripped off too much! Luv Mini Me