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Published: October 7th 2015
Hello everyone! Have you missed us?? Before I launch into why and how we're in Thailand, let me tell you about some exciting news I have!
As you may know, I've had the goal of becoming a professional travel writer for quite some time now (as in, my whole life). Travelblog.org (host of the blog you're currently reading) has been a great platform for me to use for these past 6 years. It's given me some good exposure and let me gain a nice following of readers and fellow travel geeks. But there's only so much I can do with them, so I'm happy to announce that I have just launched my VERY OWN travel blog!! It is appropriately called "Odyssey of the Blonde Giraffe," and you can check it out here:
www.odysseyoftheblondegiraffe.com From now on, I will be creating blogs and posting my stories/pictures on that site. This means that this post you're currently reading will be my VERY LAST blog on travelblog.org.
If you're currently subscribed to this blog, don't worry - I'm switching over all my subscribers to my new giraffe blog. You should receive a welcome email from amy@odysseyoftheblondegiraffe.com in your inbox (check
your junk/spam folder if you don't). If you haven't received it, you can go onto the website and manually subscribe to my newsletter (on the right-hand side of the home page), so you'll keep getting my new entries!
Alright. Everyone got all that? Good! Moving on.
If you've been following the news, you may have already heard what's been going on in Malaysia (and Singapore, and Indonesia, and southern Thailand) for the past 6 weeks or so. As you can see, the air quality has gone from nice and clear to post-Apocalyptic haze, smog, and general nastiness. Yep, it's pretty gross. Some days are worse than others, but generally the air outside smells of smoke and chemicals and nuclear fallout (okay, maybe not that last one). Let's put it this way...you kind of want to hold your breath any time you set foot outside.
What's causing this atmospheric phenomenon? Apparently this happens ever year around August/Septmber-ish, when the nearby island of Sumatra, Indonesia does their annual (illegal) slash-and-burn clearing of their forests. The smoke blows across the narrow Strait of Malacca and settles over peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, usually for a couple of weeks or a month,
max.
Well, this started while we were in India (mid-August), and now here we are, going into the second week of October...and the haze is STILL here. In fact, it's worse than ever. In fact, several friends of ours have been hospitalized because of severe respiratory problems (and they've taken all possible precautions)! They're blaming the unusually long and severe "haze season" on El Nino AND an extended dry season, which is doing nothing to stop the fires.
So, now that you have THAT lovely background, you've got a bit of an idea of what we've been dealing with. Basically, we've been prisoners inside our home, leaving only to do necessary tasks like buy groceries or pay bills.
It's been pretty darn miserable.
Our fellow Floridian friends, Danielle and Jason (and their four kids) have also been struggling with the whole cooped-up thing - not to mention their youngest son is asthmatic and he's been in and out of the hospital multiple times. On Saturday evening, we received an unexpected phone call that went something like this:
Danielle: "Hi. We just booked a house on the beach in Krabi, Thailand, to get the heck out
of this smog. We leave tomorrow morning. Do you want to join us?"
Us: "Uhhhhhhh...YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!"
And that's how it happened. Within an hour, we'd packed our backpacks, loaded our laptops, and bought two one-way tickets to Krabi.
So that's the awesome part. We are here, in Thailand, which is always a great place to be. Tragically, though, the haze has reached southern Thailand, as well. It is nowhere NEAR as bad as back in Malaysia - you can actually walk outside here without feeling like your lungs are on fire - but yes, it is rather disappointing. Not exactly what we envisioned when we hopped on that plane on Sunday morning!
But you know...when someone offers you a beach house in Thailand, you don't complain. So we're not.
The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Krabi is about an hour. It actually takes twice as long (once you land) to get out to the island of Ko Lanta. One snazzy private van, two car ferries, and two hours later, we pulled up to a lovely little development on the northwest shore of the island. I would love to recount some epic description of the sunset, or
the beauty of the water, or of sun-drenched days spent lounging on the beach. But the truth is, we pretty much spent the first few days inside. Again, the haze is NOT as bad as it is at home...but it's bad enough to where you don't want to go out and breathe it in for hours, either. Highlights of our first few days in Ko Lanta include eating lots of great Thai food and splurging ($9) on oceanfront massages.
Like I was saying...it could be a LOT worse.
Last night we had a decent rain, which helped to *sort of* clear some of the haze out. This morning we could actually see something resembling shadows on the ground and a faint hint of sunlight trying to filter through (what IS that big glowing orb in the sky, anyway? I've forgotten - haven't seen it in six weeks)! There's only so much time that you can lock kids inside before they start to go nuts - and then there's the children! It was a unanimous decision among big kids (me, Jeremy, and Danielle) and little kids (Tristan, Lincoln, Carson, and Chase) alike that we wanted to go ride some
elephants.
We bought a few baskets of bananas to give the elephants a pre-ride "snack" - although it wasn't much to them. Apparently, the average elephant consumes 400kg (about 900 pounds) of food EVERY SINGLE DAY!! Doubtful a few handfuls of bananas did much to curb that appetite!
But we became instant friends, at any rate. When it was time to climb aboard, I asked if I could sit on the elephant's neck rather than the little chair/bench thing strapped to its back. No problem, the guide said. So I stepped onto the elephant - yes, literally STEPPED onto him, so I was standing on his neck - and proceeded to take a (rather prickly) seat. Big ol' elephant ears flopped against my bare legs for the next hour as we hiked along through the surrounding jungle. This was my second "real" elephant ride (third if you count the touristy little 10-minute ride up to the temple in Angkor Wat), so needless to say...I was stoked. Horses are of course my absolute favorite large animal to ride, but let's not be biased - I can have an awesome time on an elephant (or a camel) too!
So
that's where we're at. On a little "haze escape" in Thailand until further notice (probably a week or so, maybe a few days longer). Forecasters are now calling for the haze to FINALLY start clearing (from all areas) this coming weekend, so here's hoping!!
In the meantime, don't forget to look for that welcome email from my giraffe site! (If you don't get it, you can easily go to the site and sign up, too - or, if you're really having issues, leave a comment here and I'll see what I can do to help.) Odyssey of the Blonde Giraffe is also launched on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, so if you use any of those sites, don't forget to find and follow me (and tell your fellow travelholic friends about me, too)!
So! With these words, I bid a fond farewell to travelblog.org. Catch you guys on Odyssey of the Blonde Giraffe!!
www.odysseyoftheblondegiraffe.com
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