Thailand island (blog # Last)

Although we spent a month in Thailand, when I think back on it I realize that Jef and I really didn't do all that much. We do however have to say that we did not enjoy the people of Thailand. After coming from Lao where everyone is patient and friendly, Thailand is really impatient, rude, uncomfortable and is full of people just trying to rip you off.Hopefully, this blog will not be to long then since there really is not much to summarize besides us being lazy and bumming around on some islands for a couple weeks.

When we crossed the border from Lao into Thailand it as very much a cluster fuck with people yelling at us all different orders and places to go. We eventually got across however we only had a 15 day visa to show for it. It seems that when someone chooses to fly into Thailand they are allowed a 30 day visa but upon arrival you are only allowed a 15 day (unless you are Polish??) So this kind of put a damper on our plans since we were not planning on having to exit and re-enter the country just to be able to stay an extra 15 days. We ended up taking a sleeper train that night to Bangkok, which was at first really fun and then it quickly turned south to miserable. It is really expensive to travel by train, and since the train cars with a fan instead of AC is cheaper they fill up faster, so we were stuck freezing in a little bed all night. We also got stuck on the upper bunk because it was the cheaper one (I thought to myself SCORE because whenever I was at a sleep over when I was younger everyone always wanted the top bunk and it is cheaper here) however we soon realized why it is so cheap. It is right next to the AC and there is a blinding light that is on the ceiling right next to your face that never gets turned off.

When we arrived into Thailand we had a choice of either staying at the legendary and cheap backpacker hostel road, or to not. And we had had enough of locals trying to haggle us and forcibly throw you in their tuktuk every 15 ft. so we chose to not go where the locals go and chose to stay downtown. This ended up being an awesome spot because we were so close to everything, right across the street from the most massive mall I have ever imagined. It is seriously 7 stories tall and is endless (we have been there plenty of times and it still feels like we have hardly touched it). We ate the most delicious McDonald's meal in the world (I will not eat Thai food for a long long time when I get home). We then took the sky train out to the immigration office to try to extend our visa and payed WAY to much baht to find out that you can only extend it for 7days, meaning we still had to leave the country. So we chose to head down to the Thai Islands and to cross into Malaysia.

The next evening we took another sleeper train to a town in southern Thailand called Chumpon. We arrived there around 2 am and had a 'bus' to take at 6 am to the port to take a ferry to our first island Koh Tao. Well we didn't sleep much that night and the bus ended up being a massive tuktuk that just herded in tourists, we all laughed at how comical it was and how we all looked like we were being shipped like cargo to come concentration camp. We eventually got on our ferry and headed to Koh Tao. The island is the smallest in a set of three sister islands and it is best knows for it's diving and snorkeling since it is so small and that is all there really is to do. We got set up with a recommended diving company instantly and started our open water diving course that night. We were staying in bungalows right on the beach, and this resort was packed with backpackers. All the instructors were awesome and were people who were visiting and fell in love with diving and just decided to stay. We were going to have to do 5 dives in 2 days and we were going to have homework. I was really worried about diving because I have horrible ears but surprisingly the first 3 dives went perfectly for everyone in our group. We had a group of 6 people, ourselves and two other couples who we ended up seriously bonding with. We had a ball sitting up late at night together all talking and doing our homework together.After we all passed our exams it started to go south. Neither Jef nor I could equalize while going down on our 4th dive and had to call it off for a couple of days. It turns out that everyone at this resort was having ear problems because of how cold the rooms were at night. My ears then took a turn from bad to worse. Actually still right now (3 weeks later) my ears are still in loads of pain and are probably infected. I was unable to finish my course, however, Jef was able to and we celebrated by going snorkeling :) It turns out that snorkeling on Koh Tao is way better than diving and we saw LOADS of fish. We say barracuda and trigger fish, every sort of fish from Finding Nemo, massive and poisonous urchins, enemines and star fish. The fish aren't afraid of you so you will constantly just be swarmed with different schools, it was wonderful! We ended up spending a good week on Koh Tao just renting motor bikes and driving to the local beaches and going snorkeling. At night we would eat at the local food vendors and walk along the beach and watch fire dancers and then lay in hammocks.

Ko Phangan
We hadn't the slightest clue about the island of Ko Phangan until brushing over the Lonely Planet on the ferry ride over. All we had heard about it regarded the hoards of drunken & drugged out Europeans that collect in Had Rin awaiting the next full moon party. Being the old fogies we are we grabbed a  taxi to the total opposite side of the island to a town called Had Yao. The taxi driver drops us off in the "Town" of Had Yao and it is as much of a "town" a Harvey the Rabbit is a good pet. As far as Jordan and I can tell we've just been marooned on some nameless road on an island we know zilch about. We eventually find a 7-11 along with a homely, scabbed up and probably still drunk Englishman that gives us directions to the happening place to stay in town, which still seems like a total sham because we've barely seen a car less than a guesthouse for a good 30 minutes.
After walking for a bit & weathering a pretty legit flash flood we found a homely alcove in "The Sun Moon Bungalow". It was pretty much a done deal once Jordan realized there was floppy dog with a whole bunch of frolic in him. Our time in Had Yao for the following 3 days was just pretty relaxed. The highlight of which was mostly reading, pictionary on the beach, taking on the San Francisco-esk hills by scooter, and of course gorging every night on fine 7-11 cuisine.
Around day four we go a little stir crazy & decide to venture down to Had RIn. We got down there to find that it's really not the Sodom & Gamora it's made out to be & the beach is gorgeous. The more we walk around the more we realize that this town is freak'n made for us. Along with the Metropolis of clothing stores to fuel jordan's addiction, we found our complete puzzle piece of a niche: "The Lazy House". It's a mecca of 16 couches, 7 tv's, 2 projectors, a bottomless supply of pirated movies, a full-out understanding of comfort food and a damn cuddly cat named Bacon. All that & an absolutely adorable waiter from Burma who we fell in love with... yeah, we found our spot. I swear we spent days there & I regret nothing.
We spent a good amount of time being beach rats but the water turned on us & became plagued  with some devil spawn jelly-tick type monstrosity. These little bastards stung, and were in endless supply, so there went swimming... typically a pretty big part of the whole water thing. But I have to say the most profound thing that happened was on the evening of out second day there, during the perfect combination of storm on one side and epic sunset on the other the clouds blew up right in front of us with the brightest pink aura that filled half the sky. The waves turned bright green with caps so ridiculously white I swear they glowed. It only lasted about a minute and a half, but it was unlike anything I've ever seen.
The last thing we did on the island the night before we left was follow the crowd of hundreds of people out into the jungle for the "Half Moon Party" & absolutely nothing good came from it. Jordan and the vomiting corpse formerly known as Jef left the next morning for the mainland. The bus, boat, boat, bus tuktuk combination took about twelve hours and landed us in the city of Had Yai. Just to fill you in on the details, Had Yai is the raunchiest smelling rat infested city we've been in thus far and the whole point of this pointless trip is only to reach the Malaysian border before our visa runs out. Yes, underwhelming indeed.
 
 PHUKET:
The last island that we decided to bum out on was Phuket, probably the most famous island in Thailand.It was definitely nice enough, but we had to stay in a town that wasn't right on the beach because everything on the beaches is way to expensive. Phuket is the honeymooners kind of place, not necessarily a backpackers place. It is really hard to find cheap and chill guest houses and it is even harder to meet fellow backpackers. We ended up snagging a pretty great place, although not cheap, that was run by a very adorable and friendly Scottish man. We had a great room right on the end with a balcony...overlooking the street. We ended up passing out right away, since it was a long bus ride there, and the next day we woke up and started celebrating my birthday :) Now, usually I'm not used to taking notice to my birthday because it is during the summer so it normally is overlooked, and since we are broke and traveling I was not expecting anything special. It ended up being one of the best birthday celebrations I have had yet. We woke up and the first thing Jef does is give me presents...which is always a wonderful thing to wake up to. He had somehow bought and hidden gifts in his bag without me noticing and they were fabulous ;) We rented a scooter and drove to the nearby beach, which was terrifying and I will never ever buy a bike and/or drive in a city again. Once we eventually arrived at Kata Beach we walked around town and then walked on the beach at sunset. When it was dark we went to the most epic miniature golf course!! It was straight out of Jurassic Park, with rivers and the rain forest, dinosaurs and caves and erupting volcanoes. I love miniature golf and this place completely blew me away with how epic it was. Then we got all dressed up and he took me out to dinner to this super nice place on the beach. When we were praying the manager walked by and happened to be Christian as well and gave us a discount on our meal (which was freaking amazing!) Then a lady walked by and was selling massive floating lanterns, so we got one and lit it for good luck and watched it float away from the shore. We ended the night by buying a massive firework and letting it off on the beach. Jef was a giggling fool and he is once again fabulous for surprising me with an unforgettable birthday celebration.
The next day, we decided not to go on the scooter because we felt it was to dangerous at the moment. It turns out that we were on Phuket during a Buddhist holiday so we were woken up way to early by a massive parade and marching band going down our street. We slept is way to late after that and walked around town and went to an internet cafe and wasted a good couple hours there. We went out to a great restaurant that night with live music sung by two local men. They were absolutely fantastic, and the food was as well. We then went to the local mall and went to the theatres and watched The Rise of Planet of the Apes, and it was bomb. We totally loved it! We have missed the whole movie theatre experience and loaded up on candy and sushi and just had a ball.
The next/final day on Phuket we decided to give the scooter another go down the highway to Kata Beach and this time it went way more smoothly. However, it was still to dangerous for us to feel comfortable. There are no driving laws and there is no order so it is terrifying. There are no stop signs or yield signs, people don't drive in their lanes and are constantly swerving around you. There are always cars in the wrong lanes coming head on towards you, and random people walk into the roads or open their doors, or don't look before they pull out. I don't understand how the locals can comfortably drive with a baby and three other passengers on one scooter down the highway and feel/be safe. Anyways, that final day on the beach was great. The beaches are why this island it so popular because they are so gorgeous. Soft white sand and crystal clear, warm water with good waves. We rented some boogie-boards for the day and laughed our asses off while riding on the waves. Of course we also got our asses kicked by the waves as well and are bruised from head to toe and have some serious rashes on our stomachs. The good ting about Phuket was that it has great food and great beaches, but unfortunately everything on the islands of Thailand are overpriced, and this high maintenance place really drained our bank accounts. We were bordering broke and woke up the next day getting ready to head out on a 12 hour bus ride back to Bangkok (where we are now) to get ready to fly back home to San Fran!!