Ahhh vacation.....seriously the countdown for this trip has been going since the end of Novemeber when Erik and I bought our plane tickets to go to Thailand. The thought of a warm, sunny place for our trip was no question when we were deciding where to spend our week off for Chinese New Year. This winter has been so freakin cold in Shanghai. Yes, last year I worked in the mountains, but it was always sunny, blue skies, even if there was snow on the ground. And I think having a lot of snow on the ground makes it okay to be cold. Shanghai has just been cold, dismal, grey skies, windy...blah! It's hard to motivate yourself to do things after work when the weather is such crap.
Okay, moving on to Thailand! We worked all day Monday the 31st......brought our backpacks to work and all. After our last class we quickly changed into our clothes, ditches our heavy winter jackets and took a cab to the airport bus station. The takes about 45 min to get to the airport and is sooooo much cheaper than taking a cab! Our flight was about 4..5 hrs to Bangkok...we tried to sleep on the flight...but it was not so comfy. We arrived in Bangkok around 2 am, cleanred customs and then took turns sleeping. Well, let me rephrase that...Erik mostly slept the entire time. Around 4 am we deicded to get some food, so we got some pad thai.....so yummy! People were asleep all over the airport, it was pretty entertaining. After we ate, we were finally able to check in for our next flight to Phuket. We bought our tickets seperately to get to Phuket so we had to wait to get our boarding passes. We only brought lil backpaks with us so we didn't have to worry about checking luggage. We got our boarding passes and found an area to sleep in for a bit.
We got into Phuket around 730 am. As we were descending, I looked out the window and was so excited to see clear water, green mountains and palm trees. I immediately knew this vacation was going to be awesome! We had a driver from our hotel come pick us up...ya we are fancy, hahahaha. The drive took about an hr, but there was so much to see. They drive on the opposite side of the road in Thailand...which I did not know....this will come into play later when we get a motorbike. Driving around we noticed a giant Buddhist influence, obcession with their king(giant pics of his everywhere) and lot's of tiny lil gas stations (bottles of gas!) We got to our lil guesthouse around 930 am. Our room wasn't ready....so we were able to change our clothes downstairs in a room and leave our bags. We had them get a motorbike for us for the week....so cheap! We took the motorbike to explore the town and to get over to the dive shop Erik had been in touch with. Once we were on the main road, I have to quickly remind Erik that we needed to drive on the opposite side of the road..it took a lil getting used to. We found the dive shop. Erik organized a beach dive with him and then we booked a day on a boat to go out to the Phi Phi islands. Erik will dive and I will snorkel...ya ya ya..I am a wimp and I am still not certiifed to dive! After everything was sorted at the dive shop we headed down the street to get lunch....we were starving! We decided that for each meal we would always get pad thai......yum yum yum! I got cocunut juice..which came in a coconut and Erik got pineapple juice...good stuff. After lunch we went back to our place, moved our stuff in and got ready for the beach. I could not wait to get to the beach and take a nap. The water was amazing and it felt so good to have sand on my toes and sun on me! The water was warm...but not too warm and for sure felt amazing. Looking around on the beaches.....everyone was sooooo tan......like miami jewish grandma tan (yes i can say this b/c that is how my grandma was!) and everyone in town is from Russia....so crazy. Signs were in Russian, English and Thai. After the beach we relaxed in our room and then headed out to dinner in town. All the restaurants are open air....so nice! We went to a bar after dinner and had a few beers...nothing like watching hookers work their magic and getting killed by mosquitos. I don't know why mosquitos like me so much...blah!
Wednesday Erik did a beach dive for a few hours and I just wandered around town, ate breakfast and chilled on the beach. People watching is so awesome! We wandered around town and relaxed the rest of the day. At night we took the scooter up to Patong Beach...about 30 min away. This town is giant....well...giant compared to where we were staying. There were tons of bars, hookers, ladyboys, shops, restaurants, etc. For sure glad we were only going there for dinner...I don't think I would have liked staying in this town. We bought some cheap Thai rum and made some drinks and chilled out on our balcony for the rest of the night.
Thursday we got up bright and early to catch the boat to Koh Phi Phi Islands. It was super windy and one of the engines stopped working about 20 min into the journey...so we had to turn around. We were not too happy about this. One of the main reasons you go to southern Thailand is to go to the Phi Phi Islands. We went back to the dive shop and we were able to rearrange things and take the boat out on Friday instead. We went to lunch and then decided to go zipling for the afternoon. I have been ziplining in Costa Rica, but it was fun to go again. We took a truck about an hr away from where we were staying. There were only 7 of us in ther group which was awesome b/c then we didn't have to wait forever to go. One of the cables was super long, so the lady told me to video while I was going....so cool! We met 3 guys from Iran that were in our group. We had a really interesting conversation with them on our drive back to our hotel areas. Really cool guys and I learned alot talking to them! We got back from ziplining and made it in time to watch the sunset on the beach. Oh how I have missed my sunsets!!!!! We went to dinner in Kata Beach, about 10 min up the road and walked around.
Friday....we made it to Koh Phi Phi. It took us about an hour on the speed boat to get to our first dive site. I was paired up with a woman from Shanghai...random. She was a great snorkel buddy. We saw nemo fish, jelly fish, angel fish, turtles, a shark! and many other fist. The water was pretty clear! Erik went on two dives. We got to see the beach where they filmed the beach....very cool...but too many boats. The boat set up a lunch fo us on a lil bbeach....very quiet and beautiful. the water was so clear and warm! I was in heaven the whole time. Everyone needs to go here!!!! It felt so peaceful and calming to be in the water again ;) We even saw dolphins when we were heading back to Chalong Harbor! We were able to take showers when we got back to our guest house and then we went to have our last dinner in town. We will for sure miss all the yummy Thai food...and its so cheap!
All in all a great trip and a nice break from reality. We tried to extend our ticket in Bangkok, but we couldn't.........back to work!
2 comments:
Sounds like an awesome trip!!! Ya, I had the same experience trying to get used to driving my scooter on the wrong side of the road when I was in Bermuda!! The worst was when we had to go around a round about and you would get soo turned around!! Glad you guys had fun! You need to not be a wimp and get certified!! We went diving in Kauai and it was AMAZING!! Hope to go here some day!! I LOVE THAI FOOD, my fav :)
ya round abouts are scary!
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