Koh Tao Recap

Sometime around the end of January

Koh Tao, Thailand

After a few days living it up on Koh Chang, we headed to Koh Tao for some more island fun.  As you know from Kim's post, Tragedy in Paradise, this is where I lost my iphone/3,000 unsaved pictures/only wifi device/heart&soul.  I still have nightmares about it slipping out of my hand, over the railing, and into the water.  It had been such a happy day!  Out on our first ever fishing expedition, ready to catch some giant barracuda, happy happy happy.

And then plonk.  Into the ocean.  ALL THE MEMORIES.  Ok sorry I'm getting emo over here.  Back to Koh Tao.  Maybe I'll just bullet point it.

1.  It was insanely beautiful.

This picture doesn't even do it justice

2.  We happened to be there at the same time as the Full Moon Party was going on just an hour boat ride away on Koh Phangan.  Sounds like an easy jaunt over there to partake in one of the biggest parties in the world, right?  And YOLO, right??  I know, but there were some important details we had to consider.  There was the fact that we had just arrived that morning after a horrific 9 hour overnight train ride from Bangkok and were worried we were too exhausted to party all night long that same night.  Or the fact that not only would we have had to party all night long, we literally would have had to leave at 4pm on a boat to the Full Moon Party to only return back to our hotel/island at 10am the next morning, essentially forcing us to be awake and partying from about 7pm until 9am the next day, without anywhere to sleep or rest or hide from the craziness.  Also, we were scared we might lose all our things, or lose each other, or get drugged, or have one of us get so drunk we'd have to leave them in a place called the "no rape zone" we heard about, or have one of those people who carry around big sn@kes and put them around your neck so you can pay them to pose for a picture approach me- and then I would have died, and so ultimately, it just didn't seem like a good idea.  The next day we saw the people who did decide to take the boat over to the full moon party and we were SUPER happy we didn't go.  

Yes,  I know.  This probably would have been me if we had gone...

3.  Kim and Pkimb talked me into taking a hike in the million degree heat over to some place called Banana Beach where I was supposed to be able to swim out to some amazing old bar in the middle of the water and enjoy the sunset.  When we got there a million hours later, super sweaty ready to swim we found out that there was no bar in the middle of the ocean to swim to, and the beach and water were COVERED in giant banana slugs (hence the name) so we didn't even get to swim really.  There was at least a cool looking rickety old bar on the beach that we got to go to, which was fun until we thought we made a new Thai friend who actually turned out to be a drug dealer and stopped talking to us the second we told him we weren't interested in any opium.  

4.  Pkimb got her first Thai oil massage on our last day on the island, which was one of the best massage places we had been to, except for the fact that Pkimb, the first timer, got stuck on the bed closest to the front window/doors of the shop and, while Kim K and I were back behind our privacy curtains enjoying our massages, Pkimb had to strip down in the front of the massage parlor, without a curtain, rushing to get under the skimpy little sheet they give you.  This was probably funnier to us than it was to Pkimb. :)

All of this takes us to our last day on Koh Tao.  The day before the worst day/night of transportation of our entire trip.  

Love,

Ashley

Meet Pkimb

This all happened about 2 months ago....we're a LITTLE behind... but this blog is our journal and we don't want to leave too much out, so let's just pretend it's still the end of January and we're still in Asia for a bit, k?  K.

A quick backstory:  After spending time in Laos with our 13 new friends, Kim and I headed out on a flight to Bangkok to meet up with our lovely friend Kim M (we'll call her by her asian name, Pkimb, for the purpose of this blog) from home who was flying in to spend 10 days with us in Thailand.  

The good:  We got to see Kim!!  I mean- Pkimb.

HI KIM WE MISS YOU!!!

The bad:  Kim K came down with a very nasty case of something very nasty.  

A tiny Asian version of Kim 

I had been really sick with the same thing the day before so I can say with complete understanding- it was bad.  When we arrived in Bangkok to meet Pkimb at the airport, it was pretty obvious Kim K wasn't going anywhere except the bathroom.  The only problem with this was that the 3 of us we were supposed to be getting directly on a 7 hour bus/ferry ride to the island of Koh Chang.  After a few seconds of trying to figure out what we should do, Kim K noticed a sign for an airport hotel and was like guys- you go ahead I'll meet you tomorrow- and ran off to go puke her brains out. 

Fast forward a day or so and the three of us are sitting pretty on a beach in Koh Chang together.  It was so amazing having Pkimb with us.  She's the most hilarious, easygoing, up-for-anything travel partner you could ask for and there are way too many stories that happened while we were traveling with her to share here, so I'll just pick a few of my favorites over the next couple of posts.

Pretending to fit in at the fanciest hotel on Koh Chang

Enjoying all the hotel had to offer

One of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen

To start- there was the time (or 7) we snuck into the fancy hotel in Koh Chang next to our budget (gecko-infested, cement bed, situated next to a night club) hostel.  We spent the day swimming in their infinity pool, playing darts by the ocean, and buying rum and cokes like they were going out of style so that the waiter didn't kick us out.  We then snuck back to the fancy hotel's beach area that night to enjoy the cocktails and the ocean view from their cozy beach chairs.  About 20 minutes into our private cocktail hour, their security guard started walking around the beach with a flashlight looking for trespassers.  (Us.) We didn't really have anywhere to hide and we didn't know what to do so we just got really quiet and sat perfectly still, which worked fine until he shone his flashlight in our faces.  And then.  He walked away.  I know I'm not explaining how funny this was very well and it's probably one of those I guess you had to be there moments, but it really was hilarious and we could not stop laughing.  We were sitting there, giant cocktails in hand, at the fanciest resort on the island and we were apparently invisible.  After the security guard left we just kept laughing saying... if he's not looking for us...what IS he looking for?  

The next night we had a similar we-must-be-invisible experience when we decided we wanted one of the fruit shake vendor guys on the street to mix our favorite cocktail for us for the price of just a fruit shake ($1).  All it took was buying our own bottle of vodka, bottle of baileys, and ordering a banana shake.  As he started pouring all of the ingredients into the blender for the fruit shake, I leaned over and started pouring in our vodka and Baileys.  Don't mind me.  Just adding a little something extra.  Nothing to see here.  He literally did not look up, threw the lid on, and started mixing our shake.  Have I mentioned how much I love Thailand??

Here's our lovely fruit shake vendor

Here's me, adding in the special ingredients

Love,
Ashley

From Phuket with Love

Phuket, Thailand: Dec 26th to Dec 30th

We loved it here!  Being in Phuket was like having the best summer day in Seattle over and over again.  Just normal and relaxing and perfect.  And thanks to some tips from friends back home we made a great choice right off the bat by deciding to book our hotel in Karon beach instead of the uber-touristy/ping pong showy Patong beach area.

Karon Beach

We walked a million miles a day up and down the beach and through the awesome little town.  We drank $1 fruit shakes and fresh coconut water like it was our job.  We swam and body-boarded (new favorite activity) in the salty crystal clear water.  And we tanned on the packed yet perfect beaches on our $3 beach chairs that they refused to barter with us on- that were totally worth it.

We got Thai massages. We got TONS of sleep, and watched lots of movies--have you seen that movie frmo about 5 years ago with Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer, "I Will Never Be Your Woman"? Well if you haven't you should. If it's on one of the 3 English channels in Thailand it's got to be on Netflix. Go watch it now please, it's hilarious. It's all three of our new favorite movie (sorry to call you out Kyle).

  

We enjoyed the heavenly air conditioning in our cheap guest house.  We snuck into a fancy hotel pool down the street!

Sneaking into the fancy hotel pool!  We are rebels I tell you.

We ate lots of delicious Thai food and surprisingly, some delicious Russian food as well, because as it turns out Phuket is pretty much "little Russia".  I'd say 80% of the tourists were either Russian or Polish.  Thanks to Anna I was able to tell them I love them and say 'good' in Russian.  Specibo, Annichika!

On our last night on the island we took a tuk tuk to the crazy Patong beach area so we could see what it was all about.  Just like we had heard, it was pretty insane.  It felt a bit like being in Time Square to me, with all the billboards and McDonald's and people trying to sell you things.  Fun for a night but definitely not for our whole stay.  We ended up having dinner and a giant tower of beer at a little restaurant in some alley where we played cards (Kings) and laughed so hard *someone* might have peed their pants.  Then we headed back to the main road to explore, got caught in a giant rain storm- watched every single person run for cover- and in true Seattle fashion- danced through the streets in the rain instead.

Main street in Patong

Tower of Chang beer

A lively game of Kings

Dancing in the rain

We've learned you can't always trust other peoples' advice, but just in case you trust us, our advice to you is when you go to Phuket, stay in Karon Beach. :) You're welcome.

-From Ashley with Love