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...

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.

kanchanaburi weekend, part 2

luckily, the other group had hired a sang thoew for the day so it was there to pick them up and they let us jump on with them. because it was a private ride and it was smaller, the trip back didnt take nearly as long. still, by the time we arrived back in kanchanaburi we were starving.

we had dinner at a hotel that will and andrew were staying at and were able to eat right by the water. as it began to get dark out, we saw barges with loud music passing every couple of minutes. We asked what they were and were told they are party boats essentially, bars that float up and down the river. the group was split about wanting to try that out, but ultimately we ended up no getting on one. we chose names for secret santa and by the time we got back to our places, it was almost 9.

we had seen a sign on one of the streets that said that the room we were in was 590 baht, so when we got back, we tried to talk to the desk and get an answer. the owner, sugar, who owns the bar we had been going to, said she would come meet to talk to us but never did, so we went next door to where the others were staying and played connect four and uno for a few hours before heading out to the bars.

the next morning, we decided it was time to deal with the room issues. the day before, emily and beth had both talked to sugar on the phone and so it was my turn this time. i explained to her that a price was only mentioned once to us on friday before checking in and that was 250 and 350 for the rooms. we were willing to pay the 350 and 590 she was asking for the second night, but were not happy about it. after arguing, calmly, for a few minutes, she threatened to call the police, so i passed the phone off to beth.

it ended up that she gave us 80 baht off each night, but on principle, we checked out of that hotel and went down the street to sams. in this place, we were staying on a barge that was docked but floating on the water. it was great. and sam spoke english very well since he had studied at rutgers years ago. he had even lived in tacoma park for a few months!

he talked to us for a bit and we told him we wanted to see the bridge and some other things around town, so he suggested that we take a boat tour. there were 12 of us and each boat cost 600 baht, so it ended up only being 100 each. for a few hours, we traveled up and down the river kwai, and it was amazing.

our first stop was the bridge, made famous by the movie "bridge over the river kwai." the city of kanchanaburi itself is completely based around the pow camp that existed there during wwii and this bridge built by pows as well as used to transport them, where thousands died on the trip or in the camp.

next, we went to the other end and saw a wat inside of a cave. while crawling through the winds and nooks, it occurred to us that we didnt know how they built the wats or the buddhas inside of the cave, but there was no one to ask, since our tour guide was a 7 or 8 year old thai boy.

following the cave, we went to the jeath war museum and learned more about the history of the bridge and the town. there were pictures, newspaper clippings, artifacts and paintings made by the pows while they were being held by the japanese.

we arrived back at the hotel and ate and napped for a bit before the boats came back to get us again for a light and sound show that happens at the bridge every sunday and wednesday night. it was amazing. we were watching it from the water rather than in chairs on the land and even though we couldnt really understand what was happening, we got the gist, since it was a war reenactment complemented by fireworks, music, halograms and lights. there were even people set on fire who then jumped off the bridge or boat into the water. it was definitely worth witnessing.

it did last longer than we expected though, and by the time we were showered and had dinner, it was already 11. after such a long two days, most of us who stayed and didnt head back to bangkok decided to head to bed early. we got up the next day and finally had some of the breakfast foods i had been craving, then walked down to see the war cemetery that is in the center of town before the long trek back home.

we decided to take a mini bus back, thinking it would be quicker and more comfortable, but it ended up taking longer because of the holiday and we were jammed in so it was not either. it took us back to khaosan where the roads were shut down for more celebrations and getting a cab back to my villiage took quite a while. by the time i arrived at my apartment, it was almost 9 and i was exhausted, but thrilled by the weekend i had just experienced.

my new favorite form of transportation.

the rumors about bangkok traffic are true: its some of the worst i have encountered. the lights in the directions i always want to be going last about 20 seconds while we wait at the intersection for 200+ seconds (i know because the lights have counters on them) for the traffic going down the cross streets. and the whole thing about lanes is kind of pointless, since it seems that those are used by the drivers own discretion.

one solution to this problem is motorbikes, which are used as taxis very frequently. they can zip through the bigger cars and on some of the smaller roads they can go faster. the problems here are 1. they do not have meters, so you must bargain the prices with them 2. they do not go to places that are very far and 3. you cannot travel in groups.

so theres another solution: river boats. and they happen to be my new favorite form of transportation. previously, i had tried out the watertaxi system in bangkok down the chao phraya. for 13 baht you can go all the way down the river, and you get a nice breeze and view while youre at it. definitely beats sitting in a cab in traffic when the minimum is 35 baht.

then this weekend while in kanchanaburi, we were about to go see the bridge over the river kwai when the man who owns the place we were staying at suggested a boat tour instead. for 100 baht per person, we were taken from our hotel to the bridge, from the bridge to a cave, the cave to a museum, and then back to our hotel. it was such a nice day and being on the water gave us a completely new perspective, while at the same time, it was the perspective best suited for this town, as life here does revolve around the river.

now, if only a system of canals and rivers could be dug for me by the time i get back to the east coast, that would be fab.