Ko Phi Phi and a brief stop in Phuket

After my rather uneventful night spent on Railay Beach, I decided to head out and continue to Ko Phi Phi, my next planned stop. The wonderful thing about travelling solo (not alone, as I am very rarely, if ever, alone due to the friendliness of other travelers!) is that I don't have to accomodate anyone else's schedule. In this case, I wasn't really a fan of Railay, so I continued on!

Monkey Beach

I spent the ferry ride to Ko Phi Phi huddled inside the boat, as a rather big storm came up while we travelled. Thankfully it was a large boat so I felt quite safe, but it definitely was a reminder that the rainy season is around the corner. On the ferry I met an American named Colin who was in Malaysia for business, and who decided to tack on a quick trip to Thailand since he was so close anyways. It was nice to talk to someone with a (similiar! :-P) accent, and so when the boat arrived, thankfully in one piece, we swapped contact info. After I found a place to stay for the night and he dropped his bags off at his own hotel, we met up for a drink, and on a whim signed up for a group tour of the islands for the next day.

What a good use of money! The tour of the islands cost $550 baht (around $19 cnd) and was worth every penny. We were picked up at 11:30am and joined around 9 or 10 other people who we got to know quite well over the course of the day. We traveled in a in a traditional Thai long-tail boat, and visited around 6 or 7 different islands throughout the course of the day. Now, I have traveled before, and I've seen some really beautiful spots. However, I have never seen this many beautiful spots all packed into one day. Each beach or cliff we stopped at I was blown away by and sad to leave, but each new beach seemed to outshine the last. We stopped for snorkeling multiple times, visited "monkey beach" where the monkeys were shockingly bold towards the tourists, and even stopped at Maya Bay, where the movie "The Beach" was filmed, and that every other tourism poster on Koh Phi Phi seems to reference. We were provided with fresh fruit, water, and lunch, and finished the day with snorkeling in an area that is commonly known to have Black Tip Reef Sharks in the evenings, a species which I had seen once in Australia but never in Thailand. Fortunately for us, there were a couple of them that we spotted -definitely a highlight of the trip!

The only downside, and one that I can laugh about later, were three, apparently very spoiled, Israeli girls. I don't know if it was boredom with the trip, discomfort with the at times rocky waves that bounced our long-tail boat about and sometimes sprayed us with water, or if it was just a dislike for snorkeling, but they tried to convince the rest of us to cut the trip short after 4 of the 6 or 7 stops. None of us wanted to of course; we had all paid money and were really enjoying the day. It culminated with the loudest of the three girls yelling at our long-tail boat driver to take us back NOW. Most of us exchanged nervous glances and tittered audibly, and a poor honeymooning couple who also happened to be from Israel were stuck trying to convince them in Hebrew that that was not how things worked. In the end, the girls paid another long-tail boat to take them home early, a fact that made the rest of us quite relieved! The rest of us on the boat (including the couple from Israel, who were really lovely) actually ended up all going for dinner as a group and out to watch the firedancers on the beach later that night. Such a great day!

The rest of my time of Ko Phi Phi was not all that exciting. I did a couple dives with a local dive company, and then caught a minor stomach bug later on. I slept for almost 24hrs straight, with the exception of a brief wake-up from my "nap" at around 1 in the morning. I went for a very short, very sober walk to the 7-11 at this time, and was surprised to see almost all the shops still open, the street filled with revellers, and the clubs just pounding. None of this was all that surprisingly, but the thing that did get me was the amount of tattoo parlours filled with drunken patrons getting fresh ink. I saw more than one person who looked like they had physically passed out in their chair, who the tattoo artist was still dutifully working on. Probably not my first strategy for a new tattoo, but hey, to each their own!

Sharon and I

Now, I am on on Phuket, an island that is so big that it doesn't even feel like an island. I met Sharon, Stefan and Rico, three dutch travellers who were staying in the same town as me. Nai Yang is a very small town but near the airport -a convenient fact, as we are all flying out tomorow. Since we were all dropped off at the same spot, we decided to split on two hotel rooms. This was definitely the nicest spot I've stayed yet, but I was very glad to be splitting the cost! It was nice to get some girls time in as well, as the boys slept in in the morning, and Sharon and I enjoyed a beach day. When the three of them left, I snuck into a very nice resort to take up the rest of my day, until my flight leaves.

Just a 5-star resort, no big deal.

Tonight at 8 I fly out to Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand. I hope to experience a slightly different culinary scene, see the jungles and animals, and see how the towns and villages differ from in the South (maybe less touristy?). I have a friend there who I may reunite with, as we're both in the North at the same time. Should be a good time!

 

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Railay Beach in the low season: Very beautiful, but very boring.

Traveling during this time of year has some pluses and some minuses. In Thailand, this is considered the beginning of the low season. In some ways, this is great. Lower prices and more chilled out areas of beaches and towns can be really nice. On the other hand, some places which may be just a nice level of laid back can become absolutely dead in this time of year.

Tonsai Bay

After I left Koh Tao, I headed to the Andaman coast which is the western side of Thailand's southern strip of beaches and islands. My first stop was in Krabi, where I stayed for one night, and then I headed to Railay beach which I had heard was absolutely stunning. Railay beach was only a half an hour, 150 baht long-tail boat ride away one way. Many people that come here just come for day: a chance to soak up some sun, maybe do a bit of mountain climbing, and then leave again. I knew that I could take a boat from it to my next stop, and I didn't particularly feel like backtracking so I signed out of my hostel, packed up my bags and took them with me, intending to stay at some guesthouse or bungalow on Railay Beach.

Swimming in a lagoon

When I arrived, I was greeted by stunning limestone cliffs surrounding white sand beaches and lush jungle. However, I was also greeted by very nice, luxury hotels that seemed quite empty, except for the occasional family. Not really what I was looking for. Thankfully, I had met some backpackers from Brazil who told me that Tonsai beach was really what I wanted. I followed them away from the main beaches and hotels, over an intense cliff that we had to climb (glad that I packed light, wishing I had packed even lighter), and found myself in a run down, hippie beach which seemed to be populated entirely by rock climbers.

Our group on the way to the lagoon

Every place that I have visited has seemed to have one or two things that it does really well. Koh Phangan has its parties, for Koh Tao it is diving, and for Railay beach, without a doubt it is rock climbing. This place is known world wide as a climber's mecca, and I can totally see why -the cliffs are huge, jut straight up, and the surrounding area is beautiful. There are also no police and therefore no rules, which has cultivated a rather interesting nightlife. However, I am not really a climber. I am also not really a connessieur of Happy Mushroom Shakes, which were quite blantantly scrawled across most of the menu boards and seemed to be the most popular recreational activity choice in Tonsai, next to climbing of course. Additionally, the low season had started, as I previously mentioned. I wandered around with my pack, looking for a place to stay. Most of the cities or islands I have been to have people waiting at place of the ferry or bus arrival, touting their particular guesthouse/hotel. Lately I had had some really good luck just wandering until I found a clean looking hostel in the right area of town with enough backpackers hanging around. Here however, there was nothing. Very few people, very few bungalows. I found myself looking at a map on a sign, and getting confused because the main "roads" were more like paths or alleys -I use the word "roads" loosely. I ended up wandering for a bit, and found myself standing in front of some very cheap bungalows, with what appeared to be some of the only backpackers on Tonsai. They were a group of 6 or 7 guys traveling solo, all from different countries. They were friendly and inviting so I picked out a bamboo bungalow at the "resort" they were at, and just stayed there.

Home for a night

We did have a pretty fun day, so I suppose I can't complain. We took a little hike to a very beautiful lagoon with caves with some Canadian girls who we met on the beach, although they had to catch a ferry and couldn't stay for very long. We swam in some stunning water, jumped off some rocks, and saw wild monkeys on the path to the caves. The caves themselves were quite, uh, interesting as well. They were dedicated to a fertility goddess of some sort, and were full of penis statues. I wish I was able to read Thai -almost all the signs surrounding them were in Thai, so I wasn't able to understand what they really were about.

Penis cave!!

However, at night when we returned to our beach, there was not a lot going on. There was not a lot of people out and about, and our bungalows were just a bit too off the main path and too darkly lit for me to feel comfortable going out alone. It was a quiet night in for me! My recommendation for those going to Railay would be: develop an interest in climbing, go in the high season, or do a day trip with friends you already know. Otherwise, be prepared for a very quiet time (unless you're a big lover of "happy shakes". Then you might really like this place too).

Suffice it to say -a beautiful place, but maybe not quite the right fit for me

 

 

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On falling in love with scuba diving

Most travelers that I've talked to have been able to tell me about certain places that stole their heart, and that they ended up staying at much longer than they have meant to. Although I haven't stayed put for an extremely long amount of time, I have to say that Koh Tao is that kind of a place for me.

The dive boat

I originally planned to stay a couple nights, maybe 3 or 4, and then likely head on to Thailand's Andaman coast. Instead, I stayed for 9 days!

When I got off the ferry at Koh Tao, I found myself walking beside another girl around my age who looked to be traveling alone, and who also looked like she was looking for a place to stay. We sort of looked over at each other, asked where the other was going, realized we were both traveling alone, and soon enough had decided to find a hostel together. Travelers are a friendly bunch, lemme tell you! Elise was from the Netherlands and doing a trip around the same length as me, and we ended up staying at the same hostel for the entire time we were on Koh Tao with both of us overstaying our original plans.

On the boat for a night dive

As you probably knew from the title of this post, I ended up doing my PADI open water scuba diving license while on Koh Tao. The PADI open water is a very well known and well-regarded program for certifying divers, and will allow me to dive up to 18m underwater. I absolutely loved it!! I ended up doing the course with Niklas, a german friend I had met at Koh Phangan and who wanted to do scuba as well. After I finished I decided to continue on and do my advanced scuba as well, allowing me to dive to 30m, including deep dives, wrecks, night diving, etc. The thing that really made me decide to do my advanced is that with the regular open water, I would be certified to dive approximately 15% of the world's dive sites, but with the advanced that number would expand to approximately 90%, mostly because of the depth increase. I also learned a ton in the advanced course. The modules I chose were Peak Performance Buoyancy (where we went to "buoyancy world" to swim through hoops and various obstancles to really perfect the art of perfect neutral buoyancy underwater -a task that needs constant adjustment as your air is used up), Underwater navigator, Deep Diving, Wreck diving, and Night diving. The reefs were amazing, we saw so many fish and corals, and by the end I felt really comfortable and confident with all of my gear. My favourite was the night diving module. It was so dark except for our flashlights, and the reef was different somehow. Fish which hid in the day were now out and about, and it was just a rush to be on the ocean floor when it is so dark. At one point we turned off our flashlights, and stirred up these little organisms in the water which create bioluminescence. It was pretty incredible. Now I just want to adjust my trip to fit more dives in no matter what country I'm in! (Or maybe I should just change my career path from nurse to dive medic... :-P).

A typical evening on Koh Tao

As for the rest of my time on Koh Tao, my days slid languously from one to the next. I fell in with a really good group of people, including Elise, and Niklas (who later moved to our hostel as well) as well as a couple more from our hostel who were there to dive as well. For most of the time I spent at Koh Tao, my days developed a nice little routine -waking up around 8 after a excellent night's sleep (our hostel had air-conditioning, plus diving is surprisingly tiring), heading out for breakfast with friends, separating to spend the day on the water, getting in multiple dives, finishing with a drink or a beer with our instructor, his friends, or friends from the hostel, or friends they had met. At night, we would usually find one of the many restaurants along the beach with large patio's stretching on to the beach. Some of these restaurants were really gorgeous, with little lights hanging in the trees and cool patios where people sit on cushions and props, instead of at a table. We would take our time with dinner, check our email on someone's ipad, lay around and play cards, or go further down the beach to watch the fire dancers. Not much drinking though -it doesn't mesh well with dives the next day. It was the most relaxing, nice time, and we were blesed with good weather. I was so sad to leave, but I can't afford to dive every day for the rest of my life, and there is a lot more of SE Asia I need to explore. Oh well. On to the next one!

 

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The most beautiful spot in the world -Koh Tao

I think I've found paradise. Every day in Koh Tao is more beautiful than the last, and I truly mean it. This small island is just slightly north of Koh Phangan, and differs in its vibe considerably. Koh Phangan was fun, but was very much a party island -as I mentioned before, this is where the full moon party is held. It is either feast or famine for Koh Phangan, as the island experiences a tremendous surge in income during the various parties it hosts and barely makes any money at all when there is not a party. The island first became famous with the Full moon party, but once it realized how much money it could make it began to introduce more "moon" related parties. We were there for the Shiva moon party, which was a total bust in almost every way. Although I have nothing against backpackers who come looking for a party scene, it just wasn't the reason I came to Thailand. For me, experiencing a culture completely different from my own was part of the appeal of asia. On Koh Phangan, I found that the reliance on partying and tourism as the main source of income really created a huge divide between the locals and travelers. I sometimes found the locals a bit jaded and detached, and the backpackers there only to party, feeling upset when there wasn't much.

Flowers in Koh Tao

Koh Tao is much different. This island is every bit as touristy, but the locals are friendlier and the main attraction is diving. My dive instructor (as of tomorrow!) told me today that 7 of the top 10 dive schools in the world are located here, including the top 5 in the world. I'm not sure where he got his stats, but that sounds pretty impressive! Almost everyone here has come to get their PADI or SSI certification, and it is consistently busy but never overwhelming, unlike Koh Phangan. It is also a very laid back kind of place. There is a much bigger diversity in the type of travleller here, and because drinking is not recommended before diving most of the places here close up around 10 or 11. The ones that stay open are pretty chill, laid back kind of venues, and I've honestly only seen 1 or 2 that even stay open later. I start my own dive course tomorrow, and I'm pretty excited. I'm biting the bullet, and am getting my PADI open water certification with a friend from Germany I met on Koh Phangan. The owner of the hostel I'm staying at in Koh Tao is a really cool Dutch guy who only opened this hostel a week ago. He hooked us up with a friend of his that only does private or semi-private lessons through a dive school a block away. It'll be a semi-private dive course with only the 2 of us as students, and I got a really good price for it. I start tomorrow, and I'm so excited!! In the meantime, I plan on staying at the same hostel, mainly because it's new, quiet, has air conditioning and has a few people I've made friends with.

I'm enjoying walking around and checking out this part of the island as well. There are a lot of really neat restaurants that have some gorgeous decorating, and sit right on the beach. Many of them have various props and cushions, and you sit down to eat which I found to be a pretty interesting novelty! When your server comes over to take your order, they sit down beside you as they right it down. I'm ordering at least one fruit shake a day. I could probably live on these things! So delicious, the fresh fruit is one of my favourite parts of my travels thus far.

Here, the Thai way to do things is to remove your shoes before entering any building, and this includes stores and restaurants. Some of the smaller restaurants or stores have people's homes attached to the back as well, they are all tiled, and the owners/workers are very conscientious about sweeping regularly throughout the day. Although it took some getting used to, I am now quite comfortable slipping off my flip flops and leaving them gathered around the front stoop with the others.

No photo editing needed.

Anyways, I suppose that's enough rambling for tonight. To sum things up: Koh Tao is amazing, and I want to stay here forever. Or at least until I find my next paradise...

 

 

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Scooter Riding in Koh Phangan

Driving a scooter through the jungles and mountains of Koh Phangan has got to be one of my most favourite experiences on this trip yet. Everyone on this island seems to drive them -the "motorbike" parking lot at one of the waterfalls we went to was twice the size of the regular car lot, and the roads are dominated by them. Locals zoom by in their flip flops and shorts, small child clinging to them, with no helmets in sight. Apparently most of the backpackers we met were old pro's at riding a scooter as well, and encouraged Deneca and I to rent one.

Deneca and I

I had heard horror stories online and from other backpackers about untrustworthy bike shops renting out bikes to tourists and then claiming that the scratches present on them were their fault, charging them hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Because these shops require a passport to rent a bike, this can result in a pretty bad situation! To keep this fate from becoming my own, I was careful to take a quick video of the motorbike, with the owner in it of course, detailing any scrates or dents just to be on the safe side. It took one slightly wobbly ride down an alley to practice, and then home, adrenaline pumping, to figure out the basics of riding a motorbike. This was made a bit more tricky by the fact that the drivers can be a bit more... shall we say, ambitious, than they are at home. Drivers also drive on the left side of the road, which took some getting used to.

Random beach we found.

Once we figured it out though, the amount of freedom we had was amazing! Taking turns driving, and sitting on the back (with Den taking more than her fair share on the back just to keep from having to listen to me yell at her to slow down), we made our way around the island multiple times. We drove at night, we went during the day, we drove to fancy resorts on the other side of the island to swim in their pools, and we disovered small beaches with small bungalows that required some driving through some questionable "roads".

A resort we snuck into!

The island of Koh Phangan (Koh, or Ko, just means "island" in Thai) is composed of jungle covered mountains, and the beauty was just indescribable. The pictures honestly do not do it justice. So many times I wanted to pull over and photograph what I was seeing, but of course I couldn't do that too often. We passed small houses occupied by some very poor people, we saw elephants multiple times, and we listened to cicadas who almost drowned out the sound of the engine as we puttered up steep hills. When Deneca left the island to continue her travels, I went with a couple of the guys I had met from our bungalow to check out some of the waterfalls on the island and go to Bottle Beach, which we had heard was beautiful and good for swimming.

One of the nicer roads.

None of the roads here have names or signs, but thankfully, the island is not big enough to get seriously lost. So, when we found a road in approximately the right area going in approximately the right direction, we took it.

We didn't find Bottle Beach, but we did find a pretty cool rock formation, and spent the day jumping into the warm, wavy ocean, practicing our rock climbing, and sunning ourselves under the hot Thai sun. Not a bad way to spend the day!

If anyone finds themselves in any other the southern islands and beaches in Thailand, I recommend getting a scooter. Zipping around the island was probably my favourite part of Koh Phangan!

 

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Bangkok and Ko Phangan

It's only been a few days that I've been in Thailand, and already it feels like so much longer. After a brutal day of travel, I arrived in Bangkok close to midnight. When we landed, we walked directly off the plane and on to the tarmac, and it was a pretty incredible feeling! The heat and humidity even at that time of night was almost overwhelming.

I shared a cab with three American guys and it dropped me off right at my hostel. After reading about Taxi drivers who refuse to use their meters, I was impressed to see how the system for taxis at the airport worked -everyone lined up in separate lines, told them your destination, and were sent to a cab that was waiting for you. This was also my first encounter with Thai money -our entire trip to downtown took about 30 minutes, and cost us around 120 baht -this works out to around $4 Canadian. So cheap!

I stayed in Bangkok for two nights, and ended up meeting another Kingston girl, of all people, in my hostel. We hit it off and I ended up following her to Ko Phangan, which is where I am writing this from right now. The two of us are sharing a bungalow on the beach for two nights, before she heads on to Krabi to meet other friends, and then I'll probably go to Ko Tao, a neighouring island to do some snorkeling/diving.

One of the temples we toured in Bangkok

In Bangkok, we stayed near Khao San Road, a place from which much can be written. Khao San Road is a chaotic, messy, loud, and oh-so-interesting stretch of road that is known for catering specifically to backpackers. During the day, clothing stores, food vendors, tattoo studios and travel agencies spill out into the street to compete for your attention, and at night everything transforms into many different bars. The place is absolutely packed! This was definitely an interesting experience. We also took a tuk tuk around town (a strange three wheeled open air cab), checked out several different temples, figured out the cell phone situation, bought a bus ticket to the islands, and snuck into a hotel pool to try and escape the oppressing heat. A large group from the hostle also took the sky train to one of the largest outdoor markets in the world. Apparently there are twenty-something districts, with live animals, appliances, clothing, food, and more being sold, but despite looking, we were only able to make our way through the clothing section. I was still feeling a bit jet-lagged at this point, and this combined with the heat made the experience maybe not as fun as it could have been.

I write this from Ko Phangan -a Thai island on the western side of southern Thailand. This is an island known for it's legendary and debaucherous full moon party, although many other "moon" related parties have popped up in the last few years to lure backpackers. We're not here during any of the parties though, and this is evident in the amounts of empty bars and restaurants as one walks up and down the streets. The island is truly beautiful though. The greenery is lush, and the water is a beautiful teal colour. We are staying in bungalows on the beach which are really nice, although we plan on heading to the other side of the island tomorrow where the better swimming beach is. I have so much more I could write about -I wish I could fully describe the way the humidity makes even paper feel permanently damp, how intense the afternoon rain showers are, the way the market smells, and the way that you can't escape seeing what you are probably going to eat that night laid out at the market stalls. People drive around on their scooters without helmets with their children hanging off the back, and dogs covered in sores roam the streets. It's all a pretty big contrast to the backpacker crowd. I'm really enjoying meeting other travellers, and it's a pleasant surprise to find out how many other solo travellers there are, however there is definitely a big contrast between the way the local people live and the way the backpackers do. It makes me want to get off the beaten path a little bit!

The downtown of Ko Phangan

Anyways, this is a long enough post for now. I'm sorry about the lack of pictures -my camera has disappeared, which is a story for another day, so there is a bit of a gap in one day of photos. Hope everyone back home is doing well!

 

 

 

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The first day of travel, and how to kill a layover.

Well, my trip has officially started!! Exams went late this year -my last one was on the 25th -and the last few days have been a flurry of running around picking up last minute items, connecting with friends before I disappear, packing, re-packing, remembering things I should have picked up, cleaning and organizing my room for my subletter, and finally, FINALLY, getting going. I've been fortunate to have such a great roommate. Brittany and I were strangers when she moved in, but we've grown to become quite close. She's the one taking care of my cats this summer, she found my subletter for me, and we spent my last night in Kingston cleaning and organizing the apartment together.

Sampson wanted to go on a trip as well. Also, note the massive mess that my room had turned into in the background.

Brit was also the one to come with me to Toronto for a girls day. We walked around, ate some delicious food and went up the CN tower as she had never been, and the last time I had been up was when I was 10. After a great day and an early night at the hotel, she was kind enough to wake up at 3am with me to make it to the airport for 4am to see me off. I'm lucky to have great friends!

On the glass floor of the CN tower!

So here I am now. The flight to Washington was short and uneventful. I was expecting to be more thrilled and electrified as I took off, but I think the lack of sleep over the last two nights just kept me too sleepy to get properly pumped up. Ah well. I have a 14hr flight to Tokyo lined up for 12:20 will give me plenty of time to (try) to get caught up on sleep!

For now, I'm learning how to kill time. This is not something that I'm used to! Simple things, like seeing how long the hallway is, getting a coffee, or finding out what gate I am at, are being turned into events that last much longer than necessary. Writing a perhaps less than exciting blog post about what I've been up to, and learning how to use my blogging app is clearly becoming one way of using up time as well! Haha.

 

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