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Saved: February 12th 2022
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This is the first of two blogs chronicling my Thai vacation. The second one is Bittersweet Ko Samui.
My adventures started bright and early...about 5 a.m. on Tuesday. I woke up, double checked I'd packed everything then hopped in a cab to the bus station. I met Tonya at the station, our tickets were for 7 a.m. to Incheon Airport. We also met our friend Greg there, he was going to Shanghai that same morning.
At the airport we went to Bennigan's where I ordered a monte cristo. I've never had one of these that I didn't make myself. It was fairly ridiculous with all its meats, cheese and being seemingly deep fried. I could only eat half so I bagged it for later. Little did I know that I would definitely need it.
I flew to Beijing at 1 p.m. There is a one hour time difference which didn't really effect me much except for a momentary panic when I thought that the itinerary I'd copied down might all be in Korea time, which it wasn't. I was slated for a five hour layover in Beijing. It wasn't awesome. Their airport terminal is bare, there are plenty
of duty free shops but if you want something to eat or drink you'd better buy a .75 of Johnny Walker and eat a 25 pack of Toblerones. I found a place with chairs that leaned way back and took myself a little nap. Not sure how long I was zonked. When I awoke I tried to get online but the airport wi-fi was protected under some registration code. I had to go scan my passport in a machine before I could log in. I guess it had something to do with how protective they are of their internet over there. I checked online and my flight was delayed an additional two hours. Not cool.
I arrived in Bangkok at about 2 a.m. local time which means on the first leg of my journey I was awake about 24 hours. I took a shuttle van to the hotel where I met Tonya (we were on separate flights) and passed out. The next morning I woke up, had some "breakfast" which was boiled ham on some cold toast, and prepared for day two of travelling. Tonya and I were on a mission, our goal was to attend the Full Moon
Party on the remote island of Pha-Ngan (Ko means "island" in Thai). We booked a short one hour flight round trip to a larger island close by, Samui. The cost of that round trip was about $280. It was a semi-expected expense. There are boats from Bangkok but they take 12 hours or so. I saw absolutely nothing of Bangkok besides the road between hotel and airport. The flight was an hour and we got a nice view of the islands as we flew in.
We got there and found out a ferry to take us to Pha-Ngan was a few hours from departing so we did a little souvenir shopping then went to a beach bar and had a couple beers. The weather was hot but the scenery was quite breath-taking. At four we got on the boat and cruised over to the smaller island.
Once we made port we tried to hail a cab. Turns out none of the cabs go by meters on the island, just pre-negotiation. We got into a large van that was taking many others to their resort. The ride was extremely hilly and we were the last to get dropped off.
So at about 4 p.m we arrived at the resort, nearly 37 hours of pure travelling.
We settled into the room and went down for dinner a little after sunset. The resort had nightly grilled seafood specials. I picked out red snapper and Tonya had some "king prawns" which were similar in size to a small lobster. They were the biggest shrimp I've ever seen. The next day we spent some time sunning at the beach after having the breakfast buffet (loaded with half breakfast foods half strange stuff like fried rice and spaghetti). The view from our resort was phenomenal, like you'd see on a post card...or an ad for a resort.
The water was clear enough to see to the bottom even three feet deep. There was a lot of coral in the sand but the sand itself was not sticky like it is at Daechon beach. There didn't seem to be any tide or waves, we were on a part of the island called Haad Salad which means Pirate Bay, though it could also be a way to describe what you did for lunch. In the afternoon we rented some motorbikes. Quite cheap, about $4
for the day. I had never ridden one before. Within 10 meters of taking off I crashed and the bike fell on its side. The owner saw me do it.
We cruised around the island in the hot sun, letting the breeze from going fast cool us off. The roads were extremely steep in some places, I'd not want to brave them at night or in the rain. We went to the closest town and exchanged some more money. On the way back we stopped to snap some pictures. Along the road there were many shops/homes selling bottles of gasoline, yep...bottles. I guess they were for recharging your bike should the need arise.
I took a rest in the early evening to prepare for the party. Tonya tried to get in touch with a teacher friend of hers who was also going to the party. I find it's quite difficult to communicate without a phone and limited internet usage. Everywhere in that country I needed to pay for internet access. Free wi-fi is unheard of on an island, usage is a commodity.
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