Ko Samui and unexpectedly…Singapore

Three buses, a ferry, a taxi, and seven hours later, we were at the Phang Ka Paradise Resort on the southwest corner of the island of Ko Samui. The taxi guys got a good laugh at Jim’s attempt to pronounce the area where we were going, but we thought it was a solid effort. It was a fairly new place and pretty secluded, so the taxi driver didn’t even know how to find it and had to call for directions. Upon arrival, it looked like we were maybe the only guests – and being the only ones to show up for dinner (this was the only dinner option for miles), we confirmed that we had the entire place to ourselves. The staff-to-guest ratio was about 5 to 1, so as you could imagine, our service was pretty top notch. They also had a great chocolate lab, Saku, who was our security escort in the evenings.

We spent most of our first full day laying in lounge chairs on the beach. To give you an idea of just how uneventful our day actually was, we each borrowed books that morning at breakfast. Jim’s book – some James Patterson thing – was finished before dinner, and Haley’s Jane Green book was finished just after dinner. It’s probably not the healthiest to barely move for an entire day, but we were on vacation, and that’s what we felt like doing.

Day three started off as a pretty normal day. We woke up at a leisurely time, ate breakfast, and checked our email on their laptop. In two days time, we were scheduled to fly from Ko Samui to Bangkok and then to Australia, but news from Bangkok was not sounding good. Government protesters still had a firm grip on the international airport, and it looked like the protesters weren’t going to give up their post anytime soon. We decided that we needed to start getting a little more proactive about making plans to get out of Thailand and onto our next destination of Australia. Being that our resort was a good half hour to anything resembling a town, we thought it was best to pack our bags, check-out early, and relocate to the islands biggest town of Hat Chaweng near the airport. The resort was nice enough to refund our next two nights. We were really enjoying our quiet stay, but duty called.

Once in Hat Chaweng, we booked two nights of lodging at a cheap Lonely Plant recommended hotel. After setting down our bags, we wondered through the town looking for a good internet cafe to do some travel wheeling and dealing. For about a mile, we walked down the town’s main road noticing a strange pattern emerge along the way – tailor, restaurant, travel agency, t-shirt shop, hotel, massage parlor…repeat.

We eventually found a good internet cafe with Skype (internet calling) capabilities and sat down to get to work. Our first order of business was to call British Airways to check on our flight from Bangkok to Sydney. They didn’t know the exact status of our flight yet, but mentioned that it may be leaving from Singapore and asked us to call back later to confirm. We did a quick Google search to figure out where exactly Singapore was located (our geography sucks), and then started figuring out how best to get there before our flight left in two days. It basically came down to two options: 1) a 24-hour train ride, or 2) a special flight Bangkok Airways was now offering from Ko Samui. The thought of spending one entire day on a train didn’t sound very appealing, so we decided to look into the flight option first. We quickly called back British Airways and they confirmed that our flight was leaving from Singapore. When they asked us if we could get to Singapore on time, we looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and responded with a less than confident, “sure.”

Crossing our fingers, we called Bangkok Airways to see if there was any remaining availability on their special flights. Unfortunately, the two flights were booked solid the following day and the best they could offer was standby. Not wanting to throw in the towel yet, Jim asked if there were any flights leaving that evening. They told us yes and that there were just a few seats left. We gasped when she told us the price, but we thought maybe we could put our travel insurance to work and went ahead and reserved the seats. After taking down our information, the lady told us that we would have to be at the airport by 7:00pm to pay for the tickets. Jim looked over at Haley’s watch – it read 6:20pm.

Being that the last time either of us had done any sort of jogging was the middle of July, the sprint back to our hotel was quite an effort. Just before our lungs burst, we flagged down a taxi who proceeded to drive right past our hotel and just kept on driving despite our best efforts to get her to turn around. Finally back at the hotel, Jim ran for the bags upstairs while Haley talked with the front desk. They were kind enough to refund one of our two nights. The taxi driver got her act together, and dropped us at the airport just before seven. We paid for the tickets and smoothly made it through security and customs. At the gate, we took advantage of our thirty minutes of free internet, which we hoped was enough time to book a last minute hotel. We checked around at a few hostels, but somehow ended up splurging on the luxurious Swissotel.

We arrived in Singapore a few minutes past midnight and then caught a cab into the city center. To our delight, the hotel upgraded our room at check-in to a huge suite with a balcony. After a great night of sleep, we hit the steamy Singapore streets to see some of the city during our unexpected stay. The weather was a little too much to handle, so before long, we found ourselves sliding down the slides at the huge Swissotel pool. We did manage to see some of the main Singapore sights during our visit and we were impressed. It’s a very modern, orderly and clean city with a good amount of green space around town. It almost looked as if the entire city had been built in the last fifteen years.

After our day and a half was up, we headed back to the airport, where we boarded our flight to the land down under.

Ko Lanta and Krabi Town

After our four days on Ko Phi Phi, it was time to move on to the island of Ko Lanta. We rode the 11:30 ferry that ended up leaving a half hour late and arrived in Ko Lanta an hour late. We rode on the boat deck hoping to work on our tans, but only managed to get drenched in sea spray for the majority of the trip.

For our first three nights on the island, we stayed in a nice little bungalow at the Lanta Castaway. It was relaxing spot, with lots of lounge-able spaces, good restaurant, beach-side massages, and fully stocked beach bar. That afternoon, we tested out the beach, bar, and sampled a few of the Tex-Mex items on the menu.

Our second day, we went on an overpriced but fun snorkeling trip to the islands of Ko Haa. We guess it was the price we had to pay for a speedboat with six people and a delicious lunch vs. a huge ferry-ish boat packed with a hundred other snorkelers. We were the first boat to arrive at Ko Haa that morning where we kicked around for about an hour in the crystal clear waters looking at the fish and colorful corals. After lunch, we drove to a nearby island where we spent some more time exploring the underworld. That evening, we treated ourselves to beach-side massages. It was an exhausting day of bobbing around in the ocean and we really needed a knead.

The following afternoon, we took a five hour Thai cooking class at a place called Time For Lime. It was a little more of a social gathering than a cooking school, but we think we learned enough to get us started on Thai cuisine. We also got to eat our own makings and it actually tasted pretty good. It was truly an international gathering – Italians, Germans, French, Brits, Koreans and even a few Canucks – and we had a good time mingling with our fellow culinary students/ eaters.

For our final two nights on the island, we moved south to a small secluded place called Baan Phu Lae. Our room wasn’t anything to shout about, but the restaurant was good, and the beach and natural setting was pretty cool. Our first day, we kept dry under the restaurant deck getting some serious reading time in. On our way to dinner that night, we got a good taste of nature when we spotted a few monkeys swinging around in the trees. We were glad we didn’t get too close though because we would have got rained on (when you gotta go, you gotta go). Our dinner that night was pleasantly interrupted by a nine-ish year-old girl who put on an amazing fire show down on the beach.

Day two was Thanksgiving in the tropics for which we were very thankful. We spent most of the day relaxing on the soft, white sand beach. We got in a few good paddle ball rallies and read a few pages. Haley also drew a great Thanksgiving mural in the sand complete with turkeys, pies and wine. Rain forced us inside for a quiet afternoon of beer, books and Scrabble. Haley is happy to report that she beat Jim in a game of Scrabble for the first time ever. Jim was not thankful, and blames the defeat on one too many Chang beers. As you might guess, there was no Turkey to be found on the menu. We stuck to traditional Thai fare.

Early the next morning, we cabbed up to the port town to catch the slow boat to Krabi Town. The Port Orchard foot ferry could have run circles around this thing. We tried to walk from the pier in Krabi into the town, but after about fifteen minutes of sweating our way down the road, we finally realized we had arrived at a different pier than our mapped showed. We hailed a few moped taxis and had a thrilling ride into town.

Our intention was to arrive in Krabi, take a day trip to Railay beach, get a good night’s sleep and then fly out to Ko Samui, an island off of Thailand’s east coast. However, our plans had to be changed a little when we checked our email and had received the following:

Dear BANGKOK AIRWAYS’s passengers:

We have to inform you that FLT PG266/KBVUSM/29NOV08 canceled due to political unrest at SVB airport. We so apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your kind understanding.

Best Regards
Mr. Waroot Phiromrut
KBV Asst Ground officer

After a few minutes of panic, we glanced around our internet cafe, which also happened to be a travel agency (as well as rented mopeds, did laundry and massages), and found a travel package displayed on the wall offering a bus and boat combo trip to Ko Samui. We let out a sigh of relief and booked it.

The remainder of the day, we walked around Krabi town checking out the riverfront, food markets, temples, and discheveled streets. We ate dinner at an outside cafe, and halfway through our meal, we saw a man riding a huge elephant up the street. It was the highlight of our day in Krabi. We stayed at a great guesthouse for the night called Chan Cha Lay. The location was perfect and our room was nicely decorated in Mediterranean blues and white. The open air bathroom was kind of fun too, but a little warm water would have been appreciated.

The Island of Pee Pee

Once our flight left from Bangkok to Phuket, our travels officially entered relaxation mode. The final destination that day was the island of Ko Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee) and it was kind of a hike to get there. We started early – catching our cab to the airport at 5:15am. After a quick one-hour flight, we hopped in another cab for a half-hour ride to the pier where we sat around for fours hours before boarding our ferry boat to Phi Phi.

The ferry ride was quite a disaster. Aside from being hottest most uncomfortable ferry ride ever (see photo)(we thankfully had good seats), the luggage storage system, or lack thereof, was the most mismanaged operation we’ve ever seen in our lives. Everything was fine loading the bags into the boat. The workers neatly piled all the bags near the back of the boat. But as the people kept streaming in, this pile soon became a massive mountain. Once the boat landed in Phi Phi, Bag Mountain erupted when 300 ish people started rummaging through the pile in search of their own. It took a solid 45 minutes to sort out the mess.

We had an escorted five minute walk to our hotel, PP Palmtree Resort. We knew that we were spending a few more Baht than we should for accommodations in Thailand, but we concluded that the Palmtree was actually worth the splurge. The town is a backpacker heaven so the hotel was a good place to escape from all of the crazies. Our room was nicely decorated with a modern yet traditional feel. We were in a pool-side room with a balcony only three steps to the pool. Once again we’re happy to report that a super breakfast buffet was included at the Palmtree, which we happily devoured each morning.

After a quick dip in the pool to cool off, we walked a lap through town and bought our island essentials – bug spray, sunscreen and a paddle ball set. Dinner that night was Mexican food, which didn’t really taste too much like Mexican food, but we decided it was no worse than the stuff we used to eat in NYC.

Our first morning, we made the short walk to the northern edge of town to Loh Dalum Bay. The water was super shallow, and not real conducive to swimming, but the sand was nice and the temps were manageable. We also had some great views of the surrounding limestone cliffs jetting vertically out of the turquoise waters. Some clouds rolled in that afternoon, so we headed back to the pool for a little more R&R.

Day two’s weather was a little disappointing, so we skipped the beach and spent more time exploring the town and island. Despite the stifling humidity and occasional rain showers, we hiked up to the Phi Phi viewpoint. As you could imagine, we had to gain some elevation to obtain a decent view. A few steps into our uphill journey, we were covered in sweat and ready to retreat to the pool. We pressed on though and made it to the top. We had a great view of the town, beaches, clear waters, and hills. At the viewpoint, there was a picture of what the town looked like post-tsunami. Phi Phi was one of the hardest hit islands and it was apparent that pretty much all we were looking at from the viewpoint had been completely swept away.

The weather still stunk in the afternoon, so we decided to get in a nice Thai massage. It was a punishing hour, but our bodies were happy for it.

The weather came around nicely on our final day, so we took the opportunity to ride in a long-tail boat to Hat Yao, one of the nicest beaches on the island. We did what most people do on a nice sandy beach – lay around, read, swim, and play paddle ball.

We packed up the following morning and headed to island destination #2 – Ko Lanta.

Here are the pics. Sorry about all the flowers. Haley got a little carried away.

Bangkok

Waiting for the bus outside of Bangkok’s airport terminal, we were rudely introduced to the SE Asia humidity. We arrived in the PM and rode the airport bus almost right in front of our hotel lobby. It was raining cats and dogs, so it was nice to not go wondering around the neighborhood looking for our place. We stayed at a nice hotel called New Siam Riverside. Our room was big, with a comfy bed, much needed A/C, pool, and a delicious complimentary breakfast buffet (seriously, they had every breakfast food you could ever want).

We didn’t do a whole lot the first night. We still had to shore up a few night’s accommodations in the islands, so we spent some time shooting off emails. We settled for dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, which was surprisingly good and shockingly cheap. They practically gave the food away. The rain stopped by the time we finished dinner, so we walked around the neighborhood to get our bearings. The streets were a chaotic mixture of food stands, clothing shops, tailors, massage joints, and many others. There were lots of western looking folks hanging around, but that was somewhat expected.

The following day, we explored the Banglamphu neighborhood near our hotel. Most of our day was spent lazily wandering the streets and shopping around for souvenirs. In the afternoon, we hung around the pool for some R&R, before treating ourselves to an hour long $6 foot massages. It was a painful yet refreshing experience.

Our final day, we visited Bangkok’s largest and oldest Buddhist temple, Wat Pho. The architecture, somewhat similar to Beijing’s Forbidden City, was very beautiful with lots of curves, arcs, vibrant colors and interesting shapes. The temple is most famous for its Reclining Buddha, which is basically a 150 feet long golden Buddha statue laying on his side with his hand propping up his head. It looked a little like he could have been lying on the floor with a bowl of popcorn in front of him watching TV. After Wat Pho, we took a tour of the Jim Thompson house. Jim was an American who moved to Thailand after WWII and started a famous Thai silk manufacturing company. He disappeared without a trace in the 60′s, but his house has remained as a museum of traditional Thai architecture and design. We learned a lot about the building techniques used, which often blended functionality with Thai customs and religious beliefs.

To cool off that evening, we went walking through one of Bangkok’s massive and crazy shopping malls where we picked up a few items and just admired the mayhem. We had to put our negotiation skills to the test to get home that evening. Our taxi driver was refusing to run his meter (which he’s legally supposed to do) because there was a lot of traffic and could make more if we just settled on a fixed price. We weren’t suckers, though, and knew about how much it should cost from a taxi ride we made earlier that day. We put the screws to the guy, threatening to walk several times, but we finally agreed on a reasonable price.

Unfortunately, we had to miss breakfast the next morning to catch an early flight to the beaches of Southern Thailand. It was the price we had to pay for some white sands and blue waters.

Thailand Beach Prep

Beijing had these great little workout areas randomly situated around the city. We decided to hit up the elliptical machines for a few minutes to get the beach bods ready for Thailand - it was too little, too late.