back to the beginning: phuket

if i had known that i would be given that extra week off, i would have left hanoi a few days earlier and made it to laos as i had intended as part of that trip. i wouldnt have had to fly back and i would have been able to experience the tubing that all of my friends have raved about. but since i didnt know i went back to bangkok and couldnt leave the country again because the immigration offices were closed and therefore i couldnt get another reentry stamp.

on monday i headed over to stephs. on tuesday she found out that she would have the entire week off as well. by wednesday morning we were arriving in phuket town.

we stayed with a friend we met in chiang mai who is also a teacher and consequently met many other teachers as well. at one point, i was talking to one of them and mentioned that i went to maryland and he said "seems like there are a lot of you guys." i was confused because i hadnt met anyone from maryland at that point, but he said there were a few others teaching in phuket and even one who lived right next door. turns out that person was sid, ians friend who i had met briefly one night out in dc last summer when we had already both decided to teach in thailand for a year. cliche time, but seriously, small world.

steph and i took a day and went back down to nai harn. it was just as beautiful as we remember with the only significant change being that there were more chairs set up on the beach, which we guessed was because the high tourist season was just ending. we reminisced about our three weeks spent there and talked a lot about all the people from our group who we were missing. it was nostalgic and slightly sad to be there without everyone. but we discovered that it is still one of our favorite beaches in thailand and realized how lucky we were to start our time in this country in such a great location.

the most notable part of our trip back to phuket was a canoe trip that steph got us for free. on the first night there, while making a run to the convenience store, she met some thai guys who told her they worked giving canoe tours and told her she should go on one. she told that that shes a teacher and so she didnt have the money for that, but they said they would do it for free. so she exchanged numbers with them. later that night they called and asked when we would like to go, so she said friday would be good. they called agin the next day to confirm for friday and told us to meet them at tesco at 1030 the next morning.

we went a little earlier to have breakfast and decided to buy some apples fro the trip and to give to the guides since they were doing this for us for free. when steph got the call that they were on their way, she was then told "ok, we will see you soon. expect to be back around 11 tonight." that was when we realized we had gotten into much more than we were expecting. it was not an hour in a canoe that we were getting, but this.

we had two amazing gourmet meals on the boat and went around to 4 different caves, and in and out of lagoons. at points the top of the caves were so low we actually had to lay down completely in the kayak and our guide had to get out and push so that we could get through. the last cave we went to was the bat cave, named of course because it is full of bats. so.many.bats. also, because this cave was so dark, we were able to see glowing plankton, which is basically particles in the water that glow when they get disturbed. it was quite an amazing experience and had we known what to expect we may have taken a camera to get some quality pictures......but since we didnt have one with us, i took these offline to give you an idea :]

ha long bay

another short trip i took while up north in hanoi was to ha long bay, which means "descending dragon bay." it is a unesco world heritage site and has 1969 (would not have wanted to have been the one to count these...) small islands, which are really limestone rock formations. the water is clear and in the center of the bay, the islands are very close together, making a very beautiful and unique landscape. the maze created by the islands also used to be useful when the site was a common grounds for battle against the chinese.

some of the islands.

i took an overnight cruise in the bay on a wooden ship. it included a visit to two caves, one of which was extremely big, and canoeing through some smaller ones. we had a good group, with almost everyone being young travelers, and we all stayed up late on the top deck of the boat. the second day it was rainy though, so there wasnt much happening except heading back to the harbor.

our boat.

view of the bay from the top of the cave.

inside the big cave.

saleswomen came right up to the boat.

quite a LONG weekend

this past sunday was a buddhist holiday, and so we had monday off. the long weekend gave us a chance to go on a trip a little further away than we would normally prefer to do in just a two day weekend, and so we opted for the beaches of koh chang. from what we had been told, it was suppose to be so amazing there that once we had been, we wouldnt want to go anywhere else.

to get to the port town of trat takes about 5 hours from bangkok, so we bussed down to trat and spent the night at a cute little hostel there, then woke up in the morning, had breakfast, and headed over to the ferry. we thought the whole thing might take about an hour and half and then we would be on the beach! but no, of course not, because THIS IS THAILAND.

so it took a good half hour at least to get to the port, or what we thought was the port, and so we booked our tickets for the ferry to koh chang, back and our bus back to bkk since it was a good deal. then we climbed into another songthaew and went on another ride to the port. as we were about to enter, the guy stopped us because apparently the four of us who got the package deal did not receive our tickets TO koh chang. great. so we spent about 10 minutes arguing with him, as he was being very not nice, before he finally got smart enough to call the desk, and things were eventually settled. but we had missed the ferry and had to wait for the next one.

so we ferry over to koh chang and are loaded onto another songthaew, this time packed fuller than it should legally allowed to be, and we start on our journey to lonely beach where we had booked our stay. after driving for a half hour, we still hadnt made it, and to make it worse, we were pulled over so that some of the other passengers could go to a bank. we were stopped there in the heat for about 15 minutes before they got BACK on the songthaew and continued on with us, ugh. finally, we saw a sign for lonely beach, and thought we would be getting off. but not yet. our place wasnt that close, and after a little longer, we got dropped off on the top of a hill with a sign pointing down to where we could find our bungalows. at this point, i was not happy, but our place was nice enough and that cheered me up some, until i discovered we had to trek BACK about 15-20 minutes to get to a beach. needless to say, my first moment in the water was long anticipated and well deserved.

the water was crystal clear and definitely the warmest i have yet to encounter here in thailand. the group we went down with was me steph tasha beth jake and eric and then when we got there we met up with david megan and nicole who did ati in chiang mai at the same time we did and are friends with beth from school. we stayed

on the beach all day and had a nice time. i had decided that i wanted a jumping picture at sunset, and so i made everyone stay out until we got a semi good one...after 22 attempts. its much harder to do than it looks.

thats the only one that is semi-good. i need more coordinated friends :P

so after that we got showered and ready and had dinner, then we heard that there was a full moon party on the island somewhere but found out it was way too far for us to go to. some people the others knew from their group joined us and we went to happy hour where drinks 20 baht, then we went back to a bar closer to the beach and danced and drank and swam until we were tired then made the trek back to our bungalows. the next day was more relaxing and basically all we did was stay on the beach and eat. we got to see the start of a gorgeous sunset before some clouds moved in and blocked it, then i ended up reading in a hammock until dinner, which was a nice barbaque. jake and steph and i took a long walk and explored the area some more and then we called it an early night.

i wouldnt say i preferred koh chang more than koh samet, but it turned out better than i expected it to at the start and i ended up having a great long weekend.

o yeah, i also made a new friend:

and steph and i almost puppysnatched yet again. the two of us are dangerous when it comes to baby dogs and the longer we are here the more likely it seems as if we will have a pet pretty soon...

last weekend, i fell in love...

...with the island of koh samet. or koh samed. or koh sumet. however you want to spell it. its paradise. and i was here while all of you back home were getting hit by snowpocolypse :P

i know ive referred to many places ive seen over here as paradise. is it possible that there are so many places where such happiness can be found? yes. but is there one that stands above the others on my list? now, yes.

i wont say it was prettier than phi phi, because im pretty sure no such place exists. what makes koh samet so amazing is:

1. its just about as gorgeous as beaches come, with fine white sand and crystal blue waters.

2. the atmosphere of the 'town' (if you would call it such, as it is a very small island) is just amazing. a mix of thais and locals with the nights spent dancing

(or drinking) on the beach. and

3. ITS ONLY 2 1/2 HOURS FROM BANGKOK!!!

the last one is key, as i am not allowed to take off on fridays or mondays and therefor get very few long weekends. going go koh samet is very doable on a friday night so that i can wake up at the beach and have a full day there. going down south on a normal weekend just makes absolutely no sense because the entire time is spent traveling.

needless to say, when everyone leaves, i will be spending my time on this little slice of paradise so close to the bkk.....at least, any weekend that it isnt monsooning.....

once in a blue moon. (the long overdue new years post)

honestly had no idea what that expression meant before i looked into it. when i heard that not only was there a full moon on new years eve, but it was a blue moon, i knew there was no way i wasnt going to be at the famous full moon party in koh phangan. (a blue moon is the second full moon that happens in the same month. most years, there are

only 12 full moons, so there is only one full moon each month, but because the lunar calendar and the regular calendar are not exactly the same, there is sometimes an extra moon in there somewhere, about every 3 years. it can happen anytime during the year, so the fact that this was THE one on new years was a HUGE deal.)

so the majority of our group, not just in bangkok but those down south as well, started planning our full moon experience shortly before december began. it was tricky because people had all different vacation days. since i had to do a visa run the beginning of the week, i joined up with the group that was taking the overnight bus from khaosan road on wednesday night. we were meant to leave around 6, finally left between 8 and 9 (thai time, ugh) and got down to suratthani around 5 on thursday morning, new years eve. now i agree that it wasnt the smartest idea to spend the night before an all night rager traveling on a bus, but really, we didnt have any other choice.

so we finally hit the island of koh samui around 11am and got to our hotel on the other side of the island about an hour later. koh samui is not the island where the party was, however. that takes place on koh phangan, which only has accommodations enough for 3000-5000 people. normal full moon parties bring in about 20-30 thousand people. this one was expected to draw 50-60 thousand. this meant thatwe obviously had to stay on a different island and boat over.

our "before" picture

we were told to be at the dock at 5, but when we got there we found out the ferry wasnt suppose to leave until 530. of course, on thai time, this meant that we didnt actually head out until after 7. so we got to koh phangan around 830, tired and hungry and so not ready to start all night partying. we thought the best idea would be stop in and get a proper meal. now what would have been smart was to eat first, which was the plan. but of course, during the time it took to find a place that could accommodate us, we somehow ended up with buckets in hand, and that was our downfall.

we ended up having a fantastic meal and then hitting the beach. it was pretty nuts and still very early, considering it didnt stop until 11am the next day. there was music blasting out of every bar and lining the beach, different "makeshift bars" selling the famous buckets. all of them had outrageous schemes to try to get people to buy from them as opposed to the person right next to them selling the exact same thing for the exact same price. all across the beach were different attractions: water slides, fire jumping rope and limbo ropes, body painting, fire dancers, stages, etc. it was pretty wild.

so thats how we spent our night. dancing and drinking on the beach under a full moon. it was great because we got to see the kiwis who are living down south in hat yai, and some other people from our group who we rarely see. however, we didnt stay together as a group for long, and with so many people, that was expected. there was a countdown at midnight and by that time, many buckets had been had and things got crazy.

around 3 steph and i decided we couldnt handle it anymore and went and slept in a room some friends of ours had on that same island. we set an alarm for 530 to get up and meet everyone to ferry back to koh samui.

that didnt happen. at some point, someone threw the phone when the alarm was going off and when we finally woke up, it was after 7. as we walked out onto the beach, the scene we encountered was quite humorous. so steph and i trekked over to the other side of the island to catch a ferry we were told would be leaving at 9. again, we got there and find out the next ferry didnt leave until 11. so we sat down to kill some time at the barge when these two aussies came up and started chatting with us. they were really nice and we were talking to them when all of a sudden, eric popped up off of one of the benches at the waiting area. he had gotten separated from the group too and was waitiing for the ferry at 11 as well. so the 5 of us decided to grab some breakfast/play pool at an irish pub just down the block from the pier.

the scene across the beach in the morning

our "after" picture.

after breakfast we went to catch the ferry and discovered that eric was actually on a different boat. he left first, and then the four of us (me steph and the aussies) ended up waiting for another 30-45 minutes for our ferry. luckily, they were good company and we talked to them the whole trip back to koh samui. they actually had just left australia for the first time and were doing a month-long world tour. and, they even offered us a place to stay if we ever traveled down to melbourne!

so we got back to our hotel around 2 and since everyone else had gotten back much earlier, we had no beds :( we tried to sleep on the beach but that wasnt happening. so we had a bar-b-que that the owner of our resort cooked for us since our hotel was waaaay out of the way for everyting. we planned on having a bonfire on the beach that night and started gathering firewood, but after eating, most of us were too tired to do that, and so we went to bed early to recuperate from the night before.

a weekend in kho phi phi!

being in phuket gives us access to some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world. this past weekend we took a group trip to one of those, called koh phi phi don. theres a beach on the island next to it which is there the movie "the beach" was filmed. there is so much i could say about this place, but i will let some of the pictures do most of the talking:

from the boat as we were pulling up to the island.

on the shore. one of the images most closely associated with thailand.

look close and you can see the monkeys on monkey beach!

aaaand i went cliff jumping. sorry mom.

so yeah. we had to do a graded peer teach monday and that went rather well for me. some people broke under pressure but i was fine with it. for my, the public speaking isnt what im worried about with teaching...im most concerned about the patience issue. and apparently im teaching 4-9 year olds. i feel a little sorry for them...