Island Living on Koh Phanghan

After a day of being loaded on to planes, pushed onto buses, and shoved onto ferry boats we arrived on Koh Phanghan.  It is one of the smaller islands, famous for Full Moon Parties and beautiful beaches littered with cute little bungalows.  We arrived a bit late in the evening, starving and lacking a place to stay - so it was a slow start getting settled into a place.  Transportation is expensive, as there are few roads and everyone seems to rent a motorcycle.  We briefly considered it, until I broke into a sweat at the sound of the engine and had flashes of my imminently ending life.  Island cabs are converted trucks with benches in the box, and it was easy enough to hail one down - even if price haggling proved a challenge.  We arrived at our hillside bungalow at a decent hour, but it was raining and so we played cards instead of exploring.

Arrival by Ferry boat

The next morning we set out for a morning swim.  The beach was nearly abandoned, and it was lovely to just have the morning to relax on the beach with a book!  After touring around cities, it was nice to just enjoy the hot weather, warm water and relaxed atmosphere.  After a break from the hot sun we returned in the evening for a beach BBQ.  You could choose your sea creature and then they would just weigh it and grill it up.  Although tempted to try out barracuda, we got a big portion of squid and a baked potato. It was really delicious.  The lights all over the beach were beautiful and there were fire dancers to entertain.

Snorkelling beach

The next day we headed to a new beach known for snorkelling.  We had a driver drop us off in the morning, and then he came back at a scheduled time that evening.  By the end of the day I was exhausted and full of salt water - but I had seen some super awesome fish.  The bay was absolutely gorgeous, and teeming with technicolor fish.  On breaks between fish watching I lounged in the sun, read a whole book, and drank fruit smoothies.  Koh Phanghan is a great place to be :)

The beach at night

The next day the weather changed, so we decided we might as well use a rainy day for a travel day.  Although I definitely could have spent more time on Koh Phanghan, we loaded up and headed to the next island.  Ferry travel in Thailand is super easy.  You have to pay attention to when they call your color, but they just push you on to a boat - and you have to trust it is going in the right direction.  We arrived to Samui just in time for a torrential storm....but that getting ahead to another entry.

** apologies for the lack of photos of Koh Phanghan **

Ordering up another iced coffee

Checking out Chiang Mai

The second stop on the holiday was Chiang Mai.  The town was recommended to me as one of the most relaxing and outdoorsy locations in Thailand, and I was really not disappointed.  The old city is walled in, and has a river squaring off the entire area.  The old town is entirely walkable, and was enjoyable to meander through after the sun eased off in the evening.  Also, the accommodation and food was super cheap.  A private room at a place with a pool only cost 9 bucks a night!  Market food is as cheap as you can get.  I ate tasty market treats until I was sick, and wanted to go back again the next night!

Welcome to Chiang Mai!

We spent almost a week in the Chiang Mai area exploring.  We arrived in town after a 10 hour overnight bus ride, and so were a bit tired - but in need of a stretch.  The morning was spent strolling from temple to temple.   We were able to see all the recommended sites of Chiang Mai in about half a day.  The temples are old, but well kept.  My favourite was one that looked almost Roman in style, and was crumbling into decay.  I could picture it in its former glory - with a full moat surrounding it, and the giant stone elephants guarding the gates into the chambers.  All of the temples were free to visit, and definitely worth taking some time in.

The elephant guards

Fish spa!  The little fish eat your feet...I was not a fan.

After a nap and a swim, we were ready to explore the night market.  It was Chinese New Year and we had heard that there would be some celebrations in China town.  I was excited to take part in the ritual, as I was missing out on the extravaganza back home.  Unfortunately, we could not find any celebration - but we did find banana chocolate pancakes and cool market jewellery, which was enough to satisfy!

Temple at night

The night market

The next day we went rented a truck to tour us around.  First he took us to the Tiger Park.  This is a type of zoo, but you can actually go inside the cages and cuddle up to the giant cats.  (You may want to refer back to my earlier post on Harbin when I described these as terrifying beasts).  However, I was not going to miss out on a chance to pet a Tiger.   I chose to hop in the cage with the large tigers and the small tigers.  The small were not really that small, as they get enourmous awful quick.  The newborns were very expensive, but I spent a long time peering in at them - jealous of those who had shelled out the cash.  The tigers I choose were still incredible.  My heart was racing, but it was worth it.  The cats are all female, and trained to be around people.  (I also suspect they are just overfed so they are too lazy to catch us and eat us).  Although I think my mom still hopes they were just stuffed, I have now pet live Tigers!

One of the little Tigers

After Tigers we headed to a crocodile show.  It was a pretty cheezy show, and it had no English.  I personally loved the overdone sound effects, played by a sullen man with a noise machine and a mic from the corner of the stage.  The man put his head inside of the crocs mouth, which was pretty cool, but it was more the spectacle itself that was worth laughing at.

Crocodiles!  You could pay 100 baht to get in the tank, but I declined.

Following the show the driver tried to take us to the "Long Neck" village, a place where women still wear rings around their necks.  However, after quickly surveying the dirty tourist dump, we decided to return to our hostel for a swim instead.  The village was obviously fake, and it was quite sad to see.  The evening was spent gorging at the market and bartering for some souvenirs.


The next day we set out for a three day trek.  We were picked up early in the morning, piled into a jeep, and driven out of town.  We started out with an elephant ride.  We were able to feed them sugar cane and fruit, and our elephant was definitely the fatty.  He kept stopping, swinging his trunk back and asking for more.  He was really quite adorable.  Seeing elephants was one of the top things on my list for my trip, and I checked it off happily.  Next we climbed up through the jungle for a few hours.  We stopped at an icy cold waterfall for a refreshing shower, then kept trekking upwards.  We arrived around dinner to a small village.  Our accommodation was a little bamboo hut, lined with sleeping mats and mosquito nets for everyone.  The deck overlooked the entire valley, and even had space for a campfire.  We ate camp food and settled in for an evening around the camp fire.

Time for an elephant ride!

The next morning we had a bit of time to wander through the village, and then set out for a few more hours of hiking.  We stopped at two beautiful waterfalls, ate lunch at a tiny village, and set up camp for the night in a new hut by a river.  It was a beautiful balance to spend one night on the mountain, and one night in the valley.

A little girl from the village who enjoyed taking pictures!

The sleeping bunk

On our last day we walked to a white water rafting start point, got loaded into rafts and headed down the river.  It was super lame, as there was really no rapids.  However, the water fight amongst rafts floating leisurely down the river was a good time.  We were tired and extremely dirty, but headed back to town and met up with Meg for some dinner and rest.


For our last day in Chiang Mai we actually took a day tour up to Chiang Rai and and the Golden Triangle.  It was a tightly run tour, and a long day, but worthwhile seeing.  First we saw a crazy temple that was beautiful and entirely white but had the strangest accents I have ever seen.  There were skeleton models and deathly images everywhere!  Inside the temple itself, half of the temple was traditional and the other half was painted over with images of Johnny Depp, Harry Potter, Superman, and various other pop culture references.  When asked why such a strange temple existed, the explanation was a vague one of "in order to show the contrasts of life..." but I believe it was just a way to make it what they believed tourists would like.  It was ridiculous.   When loaded back into the van, we headed up to the Golden Triangle and rode a boat to Laos.  I learned a great amount about opium trade, and got a stamp saying I had been to three places at once.  After lunch we stopped at a Burma crossing.  I chose not to go across, as it would have messed up my amount of days allowed in Thailand.  It would have been interesting to meander around the border area, but I was too sick from the food they gave us!

Beautiful on the outside....

...but scary close up!

You can't tell, but I am in three places at once!

We returned late in the evening and had to get ready to catch a plane the next morning.  I was sad to say goodbye to the north, but very excited for island life!

One last Tiger!

Having a Blast in Bangkok

The first stop on my winter break was the capital of Thailand, Bangkok.  It is a massive city, and massively spread out.  The first night I was in too late to see anything, but set out early the next day to see the sights.  Unfortunately I left it too long to remember all the details, but the first two days  I saw many different temples, wandered through some market streets, ate delicious street food, and cruised down the dirty, dirty river in a long boat. The first couple days were fairly lazy, simply because it was an adjustment to the muggy heat of Thailand, from the frigid cold of a China winter.

A water monitor hanging out in a city park.

Reeling in a big one!

One of the temples visited

Admiring the murals

I was travelling with a friend from home, and on the third day we met up with Tup, a good friend from university.  He lives in Bangkok and was excited to take us on a fishing adventure.  We spent the day out on the dock catching 9 giant catfish!  There were huge and disgusting and awesome.  I had no idea that they were that much work to catch!  I was in pain after the first couple of fish.  I might need to start doing some arm workouts to improve my fishing.  I had to yell to Tup for help reeling some in.  Fishing is hard!

The gold is hard to look at in the sun!

A touch of Kamloops in Thailand :)

The next day was spent at the Golden Palace.  This was the coolest site to visit in the city, and was a great place to spend a few hours meandering around.  The most interesting part was the mural that went around the entire compound.  It was a great day of meandering around the city, and then back for a delicious sea food dinner with Tup's family.

Riverside temples

Bangkok was interesting to see, and a little bit cleaner than China.  For the most part, it was actually quite cheap and accomodation was easy to find.  After figuring out the sky train system it became much easier to get around.  The tuk-tuk's are still the most fun option for travel within the city!  I don't think that it is a place I would go back to, as the time I enjoyed the most was out on the water fishing (which was certainly not in the city).

One of the smaller fish!

Although I am not giving a super thorough picture of Bangkok, it was a great start to the trip.  However, after living in China for the past six months, I was not interested in spending too much time in an overcrowded city.  I wanted a break from the hustle, and so the next stop on the trip was the very relaxed (and cheap!) Chiang Mai.

In my respectable temple garb.