Thailand: Round Two

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! Matt and I spent the holidays in Damaguete, Philippines, visiting our friend Wilson and touring the island of Negros. My mom and stepdad joined us for Christmas as well-so after three months of being on our own, we were suddenly surrounded by family and friends. We had a fabulous time...details to come in our Philippines blog-if we can ever get there.

So, going back a few months to our time at the Thailand beaches...Luckily, Matt and I left Bangkok and headed south to the beaches just before things got messy in Bangkok. The airport debacle (anti-government protesters took it over and it was closed down for over a week) had no impact on our travels; however, we met many people who were unable to fly home and were stranded in Thailand (bummer!). We left Bangkok on an overnight bus to Chumpon, where we caught the ferry to Koh Tao. In our last blog we alluded to this journey, as it was one of our most memorable (ie. worst) to date. It actually wasn't so miserable for Matt and I as it was for our fellow travellers since we luckily don't get sea sick. The overnight bus left around 8pm, stopped around 1am for a half hour break (I think they just wanted to wake us up), then arrived at the ferry pier at 5am. We slept on some picnic benches until the ferry left at 7am. It was the middle of the rainy season for the east coast of the Thailand peninsula and another storm was in full swing. The swells were a bit rough (to say the least) and within about five minutes of leaving the pier, at least 75% of the passengers were puking into the tiny plastic bags that had been handed out before we left. It was an absolutely miserable two and a half hour trip. Matt and I shivered in our seats (the AC was blasting at about 45 degrees), trying to plug our noses and fight back the urge to be sick-this was by far the closest we've ever come to feeling seasick. We made it, along with maybe a handful of other, but the majority spent the entire trip stumbling up the isle to the back deck and coming back into the blasting AC drenched from the spray. We finally arrived only to be delivered into a torrential downpour, and no place to stay. We found a place to crash for the day, then moved to a great bungalow right on the beach at a place called Seashells (highly recommended)!

The island of Koh Tao had a great vibe and is pretty much all about the diving. There was a cute little town and a thin strip of beach. However, the rain that started on our ferry ride continued through the entire three days we spent on the island and dampened all our plans to begin enjoying the "beach life." We spent most of our time camped out in the Seashells common area watching movies. One day, dressed in our ponchos, we headed out to explore the island by motorbike. However, the already rutted-out roads had only got worse with the rains, and we ended up slipping and sliding through mud and puddles for a few hours. I walked most of the way as Matt walked/rode the bike up and down steep rutted out hills. We did find a couple of beaches that we imagine would be beautiful on a sunny day and some gorgeous views from the top of the mountains.

We opted for the overnight ferry back to the mainland, and although the boat was a bit rickety (probably an old converted fishing boat), we actually had a great nights sleep and a pleasant ride. We caught the bus to Kao Sok National Park, our next stop on our trip south down the peninsula-and halfway between the east and west coasts. We ended up staying at Morning Mist, and awesome guesthouse that had bungalows spread around a garden along a river. The food was fantastic-we spent Thanksgiving here and had Green Curry for our dinner-there were even green beans and yams in the curry. We spent one day hiking through the national park (we were able to hike about halfway up each of the two main trails, but no further because they were closed off for the rainy season) and swimming in the river. On our second day, we rented a motorbike and rode through gorgeous karst jungle scenery to a large lake where we picnicked.

From Kao Sok we headed down to Phuket (despite many warnings from fellow travellers to avoid it at all cost-a warning that we would continue to pass on after our time spent there as well). Phuket can pretty much be summed up in five words: large European men in speedos. Luckily, we had another purposed for visiting other than lazing on the beach amongst the numerous sunburned tourists: find Chris. For those of you who don't know Chris Uyeda, he is a good friend from Miami who went to RSMAS with me and worked at Shake-A-Leg with Matt. He is currently teaching Oceanography on a boat that is sailing around the world for a Semester-at-Sea-like program. And his boat, the Argo, just happened to be in Phuket for a few days participating in the Kings Cup Regatta. Phuket is actually a pretty big island with numerous beaches along the west coast and harbors along the east coast. We didn't know where Chris was, other than that he was participating in the regatta. So, we rented a motorbike and headed out in the morning to tour the island and track him down. We headed north, stopping for snacks and swim breaks. Finally, just before sunset we arrived at the beach immediately south of ours to discover the regatta was taking place literally five minutes from where we were staying. As we headed towards the registration booth, we saw two people with "Argo" shirts on and literally charged them. Yes, of course they knew Chris (once you know him you realize it would be almost impossible not to know who he was) and in fact Chris was just about to come in on their dinghy to pick them up. So Chris arrived at the beach to find not only his two crew members, but Matt and I as well, standing their with our motorbike helmets. We joined them for dinner out on their boat. Chris gave us a tour of the Argo, which is an absolutely gorgeous double-masted sailboat, and introduced us to the crew and students. Chris then joined us back on the beach for a few hours of free time and we attempted to catch up on all that's happened the past few months. It was awesome getting to see him-and made us miss Miami all the more.

From Phuket we continued south to Krabi, then Ao Nang, and finally ended up at Ton Sai. Finally, we found the first of many beach paradises! Ton Sai is a stunning (yes, that is strong word, but not much else could do it justice) cove that is reachable only by longtail boat from Ao Nang. There are only a handful of bungalows (cheap) and beach bars scattered along the cove. The main attraction of the beach are the limestone cliffs that border each end and are perfect for rock climbing. I tried a short, half day intro course, but quickly realized that my fear of heights makes me much more suited to indoor climbing-so I think I'll stick with that. Otherwise, we spent a wonderful two days just lazing on the beach under the shade of palm trees-without a single person bothering us to buy something or have a massage. The water was clear and warm and we finally had sunshine. We could have spent much longer here, but our flight to the Philippines was rapidly approaching and we still had all of Peninsular Malaysia to see.

Our final stop in Thailand was Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta is an island connected to the mainland by two car ferries and has beaches down the whole west side and mangroves on the inland, eastern shore. We stayed at Sanctuary, this cool, artsy place on it's own little section of beach. Our bungalow had it's own outdoor bathroom and cool pieces of driftwood hung up as shelves and hooks. The beach on the island is brown sand, but it is wide and the water is super calm and clear. Again, because we were rushed and trying to get to Malaysia, we only spent two nights here, but could have spent more. I did my first dive of the trip (with Blue Planet-highly recommended!) on our only full day in Koh Lanta. Matt opted out of it as he was skeptical of the quality of the reefs from our previous snorkels, but regretted it after I came back gushing about how gorgeous the dives were. The diving I had previously done in the Caribbean and Hawaii can't even compare to the diving here. The corals are so much more vibrant and diverse and the fish are so much more plentiful! I spent both dives completely amazed and overwhelmed at how gorgeous it was.

We sadly left Koh Lanta, wishing we had a few more days to explore and do it justice. But, we had a full day of buses and ferries ahead to make it down to Malaysia.

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Photos

View of Koh Tao coastline
on our rainy motorbike tour of the island

Climber?
If you look close you might be able to find the guy on the face of this rock

Breakfast
These were growing right outside our room in Koh Lanta. It made for a cheap and easy breakfast and snacks all day as well.

Fat little cutie
There was a kindergarten right up the road from where we stayed; each day at sunset the kids would come for a swim with their teacher. This little girl was enormous.

World's smallest banana
A Megan sized portion; she was stuffed after this breakfast

Koh Lanta Beach
view from our guesthouse, Sanctuary

Umbrellas in Phuket
the beach with a million other tourists

Comments

[haylee]

Wow where was that