Dec 14 – We arrived in Singapore and had a few hours to kill before our flight to Bangkok, so we took a nap and checked our email. We arrived in Bangkok and got a taxi to our hotel near Chinatown. We were on the 23rd floor with an amazing view.
We took another nap before getting cleaned up and heading off to backpacker heaven – Khao San Road.
I introduced Kim to Pad Thai and then we headed in to an Irish pub (of all places) and had happy hour and listened to the local bands. We ended up making friends with the people around us and got really drunk and sang along as the place got packed with people. I know we left there and went to another place when it closed and those people kept drinking, and I ordered a pizza for Kim and me. As soon as we finished I paid and told Kim we had to go. I have no idea what time it was, how we got the taxi, but I know I brushed my teeth, changed clothes and passed out.
Dec 15 - I woke up the next day so ill that even water wouldn’t stay down. So much for getting to the bus station early. By the time we made it to the station we were told we would miss our ferry connection to Koh Chang (an island)… Kim bought our tickets while I babysat our bags and tried to stay as still as possible. She went to look for some snacks and I realized there was an earlier bus time. She returned, I showed her the other bus, we returned the tickets, bought new ones and ran to the bus. The bus service was great! They gave us drinks, snacks, and even turned on Herbie Fully Loaded (dubbed in Thai). It took us about 4 hours to get to the nearest city to KC where we jumped into the back of a truck with a bunch of other people and went to the ferry port. Our ferry arrived and we were on our way to the island – that took about an hour. We arrived on Koh Chang and jumped into another truck to get to our hotel. When we saw it, we were passing it and yelled at the driver to stop. Said goodbye to the people in the truck and made our way back down the street a bit…then stopped dead in our tracks. The hotel was under construction!! We asked the guard as we showed him our confirmation. I saw a man run across the street and walk up to Kim as I sat with the bags… he grabbed our bags and another porter came over and we walked across the way to a different hotel. Turns out there are two complexes and all was well.
We checked in to our beautiful room facing the pool, took showers, and had dinner (the food was amazing and part of our package again!). We went for a walk, but it was a bit cool out and returned early to bed since we were supposed to go snorkeling early the next morning.
Dec 16 – Snorkeling got cancelled due to the wind, so we slept in a bit more before heading out to check out the White Sand Beach area and find an internet café. Instead of our snorkeling adventure, our replacement was an elephant ride, so after lunch we caught our transfer to the elephant trek grounds and had a fun ride on Banyan with a guide that we swear was high on something.
He was so funny and just kept saying “Banyan, mother. Baaaaaby elephant. Thailand tong (tongue).” We just kept laughing and I was just flipping out that I was on an elephant’s head. I love elephants. After the ride, we played with a baby elephant and went back to the hotel so we could go check out the beach. The beach was beautiful. We watched the sun go down and then came back to have dinner where we were served amazing food again!
It was a full moon, so there was a party going on. So we walked back to the beach and had a couple drinks before landing at Tantawan, a reggae beach club with bungalows. Turns out they had a vacancy the next day right on the beach and we booked it, listened to music, drank some Thai rum, hung out with some guys from Holland and went to the Sabay Bar where the full moon party was happening. Unfortunately, a fight between to Thais broke out right next to where we were standing and that made me lose my buzz and we left pretty soon after.
Dec 17 – We woke up for last parts of our package deal – an hour of kayaking and a hike to the waterfall. The kayaking was really nice and peaceful. The hike to the waterfall was also pretty easy and worth the view.
Kim and I got back to the hotel, had lunch (our last meal *sniff sniff*) and packed our things and headed to check in at the bungalows. Gone were the soft twin beds, AC, and hot shower… but hello! Ocean 15 feet away from my door! (see pic - our door on the right!)
We made one trip and dumped some stuff and went back to get the rest of our stuff at the hotel when our favorite hotel staff guy said he’d take care of the luggage, called the hotel van, packed our stuff up and us too, and took us down the road. Kim and I went to open up the back of the van and out popped a bellhop who picked up our bags and carried our stuff in. These guys were awesome. They even checked out the place and approved. We were really sad to leave them, but the bungalows were only 700 Baht (like $20) rather than $50 at the other if we had stayed. Kim and I changed into our suits and hit the sand. We had met a Thai man the night before who had invited us out to the bungalows he owns for dinner… sounded kinda dodgy, but we met him anyhow and went out to his place on Klong Prao.
Turns out, we had kayaked right by his bungalows that morning and the place was fabulous. He made us dinner of barracuda and veggie noodles and we had beer and rum and laughed with the other people staying there. All of a sudden I felt a thud on my chest. I thought someone had thrown something at me, but when I looked down it turns out it was a baby gecko! And mommy and daddy gecko were up above us on the roof watching!
We had such a great time that we invited everyone back to hear the live music at our place and to keep on drinking rum. It was an awesome night.
Dec 18 – Ahhh, vacation. No plans. Just the sun, sand, water, and me. The electricity was out in our room and the water wasn’t working either, so I got changed into my swimsuit and sat outside until the bungalow boys woke up and asked me if I wanted to go on a liquor run with them. I jumped into the car and we drove down the road and I picked up some bottles of rum to bring back as gifts (kicking self now as I wish I had bought more!). I was poured a glass of Pastis and soda, which took some getting used to, but ended up being kinda refreshing as I sat in the sun. Yes, alcohol and sun. Am so smart, but I drank a lot of water too. I ended up babysitting a baby python owned by the tattoo artist at the bungalows and could totally have one as a pet (til it outgrows me!). He would just coil up around my hand and sit. It was sweet. (Yes, a snake is sweet and yes, this is my hand pictured.)
Dec 19 – Again, no agenda. I woke up and had breakfast of French toast and listened/watched music DVDs as I read a Sidney Sheldon book I had gotten off the lending shelf at the bungalow’s library. Siri, the guy who owned the other bungalows, came by that afternoon to invite us back out to his place that evening for a birthday party. We said sure and hung out on the beach, playing with the snake and enjoying the day til it was time to go out there. Kim and I got a taxi to the road where his bungalows were located and then walked…nearly getting lost in the dark trying to get there. We had a fantastic dinner provided by the Turkish guy Ziggy who was staying there and plenty of laughter and drinks for the birthday of a Suisse guy staying there. At the end of the night, I was getting a bit concerned on how we were going to get home. Siri finally agreed to drive us, but I think I was scared the entire drive. It seemed to take forever and I think he even fell asleep a couple times on the road. By the time we got back, I was so wound up that I got sick to my stomach. Or it could have been the food. Hard to know after all my stomach had been through on the trip.
Dec 20 – We woke up and packed our things to check out and leave behind our beach and bungalow. It was kinda sad, but we were also both looking forward to getting back to our friends in Australia. We made our way back on the truck, ferry, truck, bus, taxi and to the hotel where we had stayed the first night. We got checked in, cleaned up, and then went to Hard Rock and then out to Khao San again. We didn’t have much time to pick up anything, but I grabbed a couple shirts since everything I owned was dirty, so at least I had a clean shirt for the plane. We left around midnight and walked a good portion of the way back and took pics of the city at night. It really is peaceful in the city… I was quite surprised. Such a contrast to the road we had just been on! We decided we were lost after about 45 min walking and grabbed a rickshaw and came back to the hotel.
Dec 21 – Bye bye Bangkok. We arrived at the airport and checked in but because I have an e-visa for Australia (meaning, it’s not in my passport like a stamp) the lady refused to check me in past Singapore because she thought I would be denied entry to the country. I argued that it was fine…but in the end just said ok. We went to head through customs and got dealt another blow – a 500baht visitor tax each! Kim had saved 1000baht to buy something at the airport, but sadly (and fortunately) it went to pay the tax for us instead since I didn’t have anything left!
We got in to Singapore and called Te Wann and met him on Orchard Road to go to dinner at Clarke Quay at the brewery where Kim and I had the good nachos last time. Te Wann had gotten married on the 14th of December so we got wedding details while we drank a tower of beer and went through two plates of nachos and also talked to a nice guy from the US who was working on a ship and flying out the next day to meet it off some remote island. Te Wann had to run off to a work engagement and Kim and I had to make our way back to the airport. T called us a taxi, but it still took a while for it to arrive, plus drive time to the airport. We went back through customs and then realized that I had looked at the flight time wrong and it the gate was closing when we arrived… so we took off running and laughing all the way and made it with plenty time to spare, but still I think it shocked us. We got settled next to a nice guy who didn’t mind that we were so silly and giggly from our beers as we tried to calm down. I’m not sure either of us slept on the flight, maybe Kim did, but we arrived back in Melbourne on Dec 22 around 930am and Sahani picked us up and took us back to graduate house. Back to life in Oz.
