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Published: July 10th 2007
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Hey everyone!
Just an update as to what we have been up to here in Thailand. I know I already bragged about our $9.99 deal on our flight over here but I just needed to rub it in again!
My sister and I flew into Phuket and immediately went down to Patong where we had an AWESOME day playing in the water and in the sun. We rented some boogie-boards which was a lot of fun, the waves were quite large so you were able to get some speed when you catch the wave right. Unfortunately I was still recovering from a sun-burn that I got in Singapore so wearing a bikini and laying on a boogie-board did not feel good at all! I have the "carpet burned" rib cage to prove it! The beach in Patong was beautiful and the streets quite busy with shops and pubs. It shows our age in that we only stayed in Patong for two days before moving down to my old stompin' grounds from 2005-Ao Nang.
Ao Nang is a beautiful, layed back smaller town located in the province of Krabi here in Thailand. It is still on the Adaman
Sea side and has some amazing places to rock climb, snorkle and play on the beaches. Unfortunately we had CRAPPY weather, it rained everyday days we were there so we didn't get out to do any tours that we had looked at. We spent one day walking around the town and the next we went out to Railay Beach where Sue and I hung out in 2005. We had decent weather taking the long boat over but the way back was a different story as it had started to storm some, needless to say we made it back in one piece but very wet!
Christa and I did discover a new resteraunt on the water that was awesome, it was where we spent both our evenings when in Ao Nang-just relaxing, talking to some other travellers and eating delicious spring roles and fried rice. My visit to Ao Nang ended on a bitter note as my sisters Singapore money and Visa were stolen from her luggage in our hotel room. We're not sure how this happened as we usually lock our bags and we're pretty sure that she had locked hers. We did not notice it stolen until we
got to where we are now. Thankfully dad was able to put a block on the card until Christa contacted the Visa company. Altogether they had charged up approximately $95 which works out to about 3,000baht. So...if you are going to Ao Nang, make sure you lock your bags and take all money with you if you stay at the J-Hotel. We had thought we had found a great place, it was family run, small, CLEAN and cheap but I guess theft can happen any where...
As I mentioned, we had planned on doing some exploring around Krabi but because of the weather we woke up one morning and decided to leave (thankfully we were able to book a seat on the bus!). So that takes us to where we are now...Ko Samui Island on the other side of Thailand in the Gulf of Thailand.
To make a long story short, our bus ride up here was frustrating at times. The Thai people are smart in how they suck tourists into buying packages etc. Instead of having a direct bus ride to the ferry, they make the entire bus of about 40 people get out at a tourist
place so we can wait for 1.5 hours for the bus to come back and pick us up. Meanwhile, they try to get you to buy tour packages and to book hotels there when you can get them cheaper usually when you get to your destination. But, the 1.5 hour wait wasn't the frustrating part, we were told that we would be at Ko Samui by 5:30pm which means we would have had to make the 4pm ferry. Well for some reason our bus driver and his little buddy (the first rude Thai's I have met) decided to drive literally 30km and hour! We were told by the tourist guy at the station that the ferry was only a 30min drive away...well it took us almost two hours to get there. When someone asked if they could go faster the driver laughed and slowed down even more...so we missed our ferry and got in later. So there were quite a few angry and frustrated people on that bus!
The ferry ride over to Ko Samui was beautiful, I felt like I was back in Vancouver taking the ferry. Christa and I met a young couple from Holland on the
ferry who we have been travelling with since-Nikko and Afnia (not spelled right?). They are a great couple, lots of fun and are trying to teach us some Dutch...
Our first couple of days here in Ko Samui haven't been that great weather wise but we have had a lot of fun. The first night here, we hung out at our bungalow which is right by the water and talked all night with some of the locals and other guests. The Bungalows were we are staying are about a 10minute walk into town but for being right on the water, we can handle the walk! The next day we walked into town, wandered around and then played cards all evening.
Today was our first ALMOST full day of sunshine. We had wanted to do a snorking/kyaking trip but were told when we tried to book it that it was cancelled due to the weather. So instead we rented scooters and took off to explore the island some. For 200baht (about $3.50) we rented the bikes for the day and went to look for some waterfalls that were supposed to be amazing. The first waterfall was a disappointment but the second one was beautiful! And thankfully we didn't pay the 800 Baht for the tour you could take because one of the locals took the four of us higher up beside the waterfall and to a place where we could swim so we spent some time playing in the swimming hole.
After the waterfalls we decided to check out what is supposed to be the number one beach on the island and although the beach itself was beautiful the entire area consisted of resort after resort so we were quite happy to be where we are.
From what we have seen of Ko Samui it looks like a beautiful island but unfortunately all four of us are off to Ko Tao (I believe) tomorrow morning. The plan there is for Christa and Afnia to scuba dive etc and Nikko and I are will snorkle and bum around for the next week. Affnia and Nikko only have 8 more days left in Thailand so after we part ways Christa and I may come back to Ko Samui before flying back to Singapore.
Well I should run. Talk to you all soon. And I have lots of pictures to post but it takes way to long so I shall later!
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Patty A.
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Armchair Traveller
Hi Michelle - I am loving hearing about your latest adventure! It sounds like you are having a trip to remember and how nice to have it with your sis! Take care of yourselves and each other!!