DISCLAIMER: this was supposed to be posted 2 weeks ago, sometime around December 1, but technical difficulties have delayed it somewhat....please enjoy any ways
Sorry, there will be no pictures with this blog. The internet is much to slow to upload any, but I thought we should finish up our Thailand adventure blog before we got too far behind.
After leaving Chiang Mai we flew south
to Phuket and then hired a car to drive us to Koh Lak. We spent 3
nights there laying on the beach and by the pool. We stayed at Ayara
Resort, and it was probably nice a couple years ago, but seemed to be
struggling a bit now. During our three nights we managed to break 2
AC units, a tv and a telephone (well technically we didn't break
them, but they all went out). But the beach and the pool were both
really nice. The sunsets were absolutely stunning and we enjoyed our
relaxing days.
Next we headed to the island of Koh
Phra Thong for our scuba certification (in the POURING rain). After
a long boat ride and pick-up truck ride we arrived at our bungalow
completely soaked (along with all of our stuff). We spent the next 4
nights in a very “rustic” bungalow, which was open to the
outside, and had electricity for a couple hrs a day when the
generator was running. We were the only ones staying there, so we
basically had our own private chef! The guy running the place
cooked all of our meals and they were amazing! Some of the best food
we've had the entire trip. We would just tell him what time we
wanted to eat and presto, our meal would be ready. I loved being
disconnected from everything and not having to plan the next thing.
Phra Thong for our scuba certification (in the POURING rain). After
a long boat ride and pick-up truck ride we arrived at our bungalow
completely soaked (along with all of our stuff). We spent the next 4
nights in a very “rustic” bungalow, which was open to the
outside, and had electricity for a couple hrs a day when the
generator was running. We were the only ones staying there, so we
basically had our own private chef! The guy running the place
cooked all of our meals and they were amazing! Some of the best food
we've had the entire trip. We would just tell him what time we
wanted to eat and presto, our meal would be ready. I loved being
disconnected from everything and not having to plan the next thing.
I was worried about being able to pop
my ears while diving, what I should have been worried about was lack
of visibility and strong currents during our “confined” water
dives. Since there was no pool to practice our skills we got to
learn everything in open water, just a little shallower. The
currents off the island were tough and visibility was terrible
wherever there was sand to kneel on. When we first went below the
water I had a minor freak out and immediately went back to the
surface. Fortunately, that was my only major problem and I made it
through the course while actually enjoying myself. After suffering
through a couple days with 1-2 meter vis we were both glad to head to
Tachai National Park to finish our course. There we found no current
and 15-30 meter vis. We enjoyed our first couple “real” dives
and were sad to have to leave the island. From Koh Phra Thong we
headed to Koh Samui via taxi/bus/boat.
my ears while diving, what I should have been worried about was lack
of visibility and strong currents during our “confined” water
dives. Since there was no pool to practice our skills we got to
learn everything in open water, just a little shallower. The
currents off the island were tough and visibility was terrible
wherever there was sand to kneel on. When we first went below the
water I had a minor freak out and immediately went back to the
surface. Fortunately, that was my only major problem and I made it
through the course while actually enjoying myself. After suffering
through a couple days with 1-2 meter vis we were both glad to head to
Tachai National Park to finish our course. There we found no current
and 15-30 meter vis. We enjoyed our first couple “real” dives
and were sad to have to leave the island. From Koh Phra Thong we
headed to Koh Samui via taxi/bus/boat.
Arriving in Koh Samui we were greeted
with rain....did you know that Thailand has TWO monsoon seasons!? If
you did, why didn't you warn us! We thought that the Thailand
monsoon ended at the beginning of Nov, and for the Andaman Sea it did.
Unfortunately in Koh Samui the monsoon starts in November. Luckily
we had booked a nice room, with the thought of laying by the pool and
the beach. We spent most of the next 5 days hanging out it our room,
or anywhere else we could find that was covered. It probably rained for 20+
hrs/day. Oh well, it was still fun and we got a dive trip in to Koh
Tao. The diving there was spectacular and we only had to deal with
the rain on the surface. The 2 hr speedboat ride there and back
wasn't so fun, but the driver was good and I only thought we were
gonna flip a couple time in the 8-10 ft swells. Our last day in Koh
Samui we met up with Julia, a college friend currently working in
Brunei. It also happened to be the Loy Krathong Festival, so we made
floats (Krathongs) out of banana leaves and flowers. Ours won first
place...who knew engineers had an artistic side (or maybe it was the
free drink they were offering to the winners that motivated us).
Either way we enjoyed our prize – a bottle of sparkling wine! That
evening the rains held off and we launched our Krathong into the
pool. That night was also the full moon party, but we decided that
was one life experience we were ok with missing, and we confirmed our
decision the next day at the airport when we saw numerous hungover
people strewn about waiting for their flights.
with rain....did you know that Thailand has TWO monsoon seasons!? If
you did, why didn't you warn us! We thought that the Thailand
monsoon ended at the beginning of Nov, and for the Andaman Sea it did.
Unfortunately in Koh Samui the monsoon starts in November. Luckily
we had booked a nice room, with the thought of laying by the pool and
the beach. We spent most of the next 5 days hanging out it our room,
or anywhere else we could find that was covered. It probably rained for 20+
hrs/day. Oh well, it was still fun and we got a dive trip in to Koh
Tao. The diving there was spectacular and we only had to deal with
the rain on the surface. The 2 hr speedboat ride there and back
wasn't so fun, but the driver was good and I only thought we were
gonna flip a couple time in the 8-10 ft swells. Our last day in Koh
Samui we met up with Julia, a college friend currently working in
Brunei. It also happened to be the Loy Krathong Festival, so we made
floats (Krathongs) out of banana leaves and flowers. Ours won first
place...who knew engineers had an artistic side (or maybe it was the
free drink they were offering to the winners that motivated us).
Either way we enjoyed our prize – a bottle of sparkling wine! That
evening the rains held off and we launched our Krathong into the
pool. That night was also the full moon party, but we decided that
was one life experience we were ok with missing, and we confirmed our
decision the next day at the airport when we saw numerous hungover
people strewn about waiting for their flights.
Back in Bangkok we enjoyed our last
night in Thailand by walking through the cheapest market we had seen
(we were also the only white people there). By the time we got to the airport we were both Asia'd out
and excited to move onto New Zealand....unfortunately Thai Air wanted
to make that difficult. We hadn't yet booked a ticket out of New
Zealand, because I had read that all we needed was enough money to
buy one. Thai Air didn't like that and refused us our boarding pass
until we had a ticket. So we looked for wi-fi, nope, that's not
available until you are in the terminal. So we went to the Thai
ticket purchase center. They said they couldn't sell us a ticket
from Auckland to Fiji...sooooo....we were directed to an internet
cafe. By this time I was “hangry” (hungry and angry) so we
picked up some snacks and started looking for cheap flights. We
found one on Expedia and booked it, and they declined our card. So
we tried another card, it wouldn't give us a confirmation so we
bought more internet time and found a ticket on cheapOair. Luckily
that went through and after 2 hrs were were able to print
confirmation and get our boarding passes. Luckily we had gotten to the
airport with 5 hrs to spare! Once inside the terminal Adam received
an email about fraud on his card....awesome. We called and found out it was the Expedia charge, so we just had them cancel that. When
we checked our other card we found that Expedia had charged that one
too, even though they never said it went through. Thank god for
credit cards that just let us decline purchases!! After our fun
little airport adventure we were more ready than ever for New
Zealand!
night in Thailand by walking through the cheapest market we had seen
(we were also the only white people there). By the time we got to the airport we were both Asia'd out
and excited to move onto New Zealand....unfortunately Thai Air wanted
to make that difficult. We hadn't yet booked a ticket out of New
Zealand, because I had read that all we needed was enough money to
buy one. Thai Air didn't like that and refused us our boarding pass
until we had a ticket. So we looked for wi-fi, nope, that's not
available until you are in the terminal. So we went to the Thai
ticket purchase center. They said they couldn't sell us a ticket
from Auckland to Fiji...sooooo....we were directed to an internet
cafe. By this time I was “hangry” (hungry and angry) so we
picked up some snacks and started looking for cheap flights. We
found one on Expedia and booked it, and they declined our card. So
we tried another card, it wouldn't give us a confirmation so we
bought more internet time and found a ticket on cheapOair. Luckily
that went through and after 2 hrs were were able to print
confirmation and get our boarding passes. Luckily we had gotten to the
airport with 5 hrs to spare! Once inside the terminal Adam received
an email about fraud on his card....awesome. We called and found out it was the Expedia charge, so we just had them cancel that. When
we checked our other card we found that Expedia had charged that one
too, even though they never said it went through. Thank god for
credit cards that just let us decline purchases!! After our fun
little airport adventure we were more ready than ever for New
Zealand!
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