The trip of our lifetime: May 2013

Koh Samui! Sun! Ocean! Koh Tao!

How can you take a vacation from your current 5 months vacation? I guess there is a first for everything.

We have been craving a beach with sun and no rain for a couple months, and boy did we get what we asked for.

Welcome to Koh Samui and Koh Tao, the two islands we selected out of hundreds to visit. Each island offers white sand beaches, azure colored waters, and all kinds of activities. We found that both these islands, despite being geographically similar, couldn't be more different in personality. It's like having two siblings of the same family. One is shy and one outgoing. One polite and one quite cheeky.

Koh Samui

We arrived by plane and saw that we have really just landed on an island by their cutest airport, with a wooden hut in tow. The very expensive taxi ride for 5 minutes, showed us how cheeky this island was. It was nothing like Chiang Mai, it was an island with attitude. With trucks that drive around the main road with huge billboards but even bigger speakers in the back blasting music and trying to get attention for Muay Thai fight to Sexy wet t-shirt contests.

As we absorbed the new atmosphere we created a routine for the island; breakfast on the beach in our cute little beach huts; sun bathe by the pool; swim in said pool; read; move to the beach; read; swim in the hottest, shallowest ocean; sun bathe on the beach; out for dinner; and REPEAT! Life was hard, as anyone can imagine.

The one huge thing we noticed was we were no longer in our amazingly cheap Chiang Mai, we were on an island in the middle of no where and everything was now expensive. Our dinner budgets skyrocketed, thank god for the tiny thai restaurants we found hidden away like the rarest gems. Which gave us a perfect spot for people watching like every other Australian shirtless guys ironically always searching for shirts.

Only activity we participated in that involved any real effort (remember, the routine) was kayaking. We took out a kayak out into the water and realized quickly kayaks don't move as fast as they do on tv. We kayaked out to the middle island which is covered completely in coral rock. I don’t know if you call it cheating, when you kayak but the water depth is never higher than your waist or sometimes a person would swim by. Still a conundrum. None the less this was a great way to end our stay in the cheeky island of Koh Samui.

Koh Tao

Arriving only on one of the few ferries to the island, we knew this was a whole different sibling of Koh Samui. Getting off the ferry to follow the sign with Anna's name on it, made us feel like royalty. Until our taxi ride was about 2 minutes, and the hotel was a 5 minute walk from the pier. Koh Tao, was something amazing, like a tiny island, with a village and everyone bent out of shape for diving. Dive shops/hotels/huts everywhere you got. Very few paved roads, mostly only small mopeds and people walking everywhere. We knew right away we were in love. The island has a small town feel and a bustling night life with restaurants all over the beach.

The island was largely uninhabited save for a few fisherman. It only became a resort around the 1980's when travellers started showing up in increasing numbers. It's still a diving mecca, but that's slowly changing as older tourists started returning with their families. Many tourists come here mostly from Europe to dive, rock climb, and snorkel. The whole island is 21 square kilometers.

We resumed our said routine up top, but added a few adventurous walks, exploration of the island and a full day trip swimming with the fishes. The snorkeling trip was an amazing decision we made, it was on a long boat, with lots of people. They wizzed us around and dropped us off for a snorkeling heaven, made us forget the awful time we had in Bali trying to achieve the same outcome. It was a full day event, and boating around the whole island was amazing, we even stopped on an even more remote island called Koh Nangyuan, apparently one of the most beautiful islands in the world. They were right, it was the tiniest and the most beautiful island.

As our time is ending, we are really sadden by this, but than we realize its Bangkok time only followed by a whole new introduction to EUROPE! Helllllllo Germany, we can't wait.

~Anna

Bangkok! Chiang Mai! Coconut Curry! Chiang Mai!

Bangkok, what can say about Bangkok. It is very populated (9 million people), ridiculously hot and intensely crowded. One upside was the amazing Marriott Sukhumvit Hotel. It is by far the best hotel we have stayed, not to mention it opened only last month. The breakfast buffet was unreal. Whatever growth quotas our stomachs were aiming for were handily achieved. The rooftop patio 45 stories high was a nice perk as well. They also happened to be filming a movie there, which we will have to hunt it down one day.

We never planned to stay long in Bangkok so we jumped on the night train to Chiang Mai. Ali has never been on a sleeper train, so he was giddy. It was an open space sleeper train where the 30 of us slept together ;). It would of been a better experience if they turned off the lights and the old ladies weren't having a snoring competition. Also having kids and orange juice salesman running around at 0430 didn't help.

Chiang Mai, what can you say about Chiang Mai. It is an amazing little city in between lush jungle and mountains. It can be as lively as you want or as quiet as you prefer. Our guesthouse was located right in the heart of the Old City, right on the Sunday Walking Street. Which is an amazing bazaar where all the local artists get to show off their work. Chiang Mai has to be the most creative town we have ever been to. The amount of galleries, and everything handmade is amazing. It takes a few hours to walk the walking street and you can eat all the craziest things while listening to local artists perform. One vender stood out the most as he had some edible snacks. Juicy Bamboo worms, and giant water bugs. If you think these are simply cute and candy coated you are sadly mistaken. These bugs are absolutely real, and absolutely huge! The worms are the size of an average finger, and the giant water bug is 2" long and 1/2" wide and thick.

There are no shortage of Buddhist temples here in Thailand. In Chiang Mai alone there's one every block in all directions. There's one particular Buddhist temple called "Wat Phra That Doi Suthep" built around 1383 on top of hill. Truth be told we weren't planning to go but a tourist looking for a bulk taxi discount, randomly asked us to join and we accepted. The taxi took us up the hill on a windy road for almost an hour. The staircase to the temple was huge as it had 309 steps with large green, red, and gold dragons flanking it all the way up. At the top of the stairs there was a very gold magical place. They had many worship buildings and a huge gold chedi in the middle of the grounds. We spent time up there admiring the architecture, the view of the city, which is incredible, and some of the processions that were taking place. (Thailand has talent was filming there too) When we descended down a rain storm had begun. The rain turned to heavy rain, than thunder showers where rivers of water were cascading down the steps. Than it turned to hail, then blowing hail! Ah made us remember Canada.

One of the best things we did was to take a cooking class in Chiang Mai. We love Thai food and learning how to make it on our own is something we're very excited about. We signed up with the Asian Scenic Thai Cooking School. They have cooking classes on their farm. They took us to the markets and explained all their herbs and spices that are used in their cooking and also gave us substitutions for certain ingredients we wouldn't have at home. Our host "A" was very knowledgable and absolutely hilarious (sexxxxy cooking ;) ). We each had to cook a five course meal. We had a great cooking group with us which made it so much fun. We were always competing on who would have the sexiest or the ugliest spring rolls or who can do it faster and harder ;). We have developed a very serious curry addiction as a result. The farm and cooking school as an incredible value and we'd strongly recommend anyone coming to Chiang Mai try it.

We went to the Elephant Nature Park. There are no shortage of elephant attractions here in Thailand. Most of the trips they offer involve riding elephants. This isn't something we wanted as we were more interested in learning about them in the most humane way possible. We're glad we did! This elephant nature park is a place where people learn about the elephants and understand them. It's a sanctuary for elephants that have been rescued from abusive owners. Owners range from logging companies, villages, farmers, & street beggars using them to get money from tourists in cities, etc. They have a total of 35 elephants. 31 female and 4 male. Being up close with these gentle giants in their natural habitat is a majestic and awe inspiring experience. To feel their massive bodies move, to watch them come up to you and ask for food, to bathe them, to watch them with their babies and travel as packs. It's truly a special experience. Many people come for a week or two at a time to help care for the elephants which is something we'd consider doing. We had to watch some videos on what happens to these elephants when they're in captivity. Almost all of them are subjected to unimaginable cruelty to break their spirit before they can be useful for any human based endeavor. Bottom line, if they're doing tricks or letting you ride them, farming, or performing for you, they've been "domesticated" using severe methods. We can't watch the Shriners circus or consider riding an elephant now after what we learned. They are definitely in decline as their population has dropped 95% in the past 10 years alone.

As you can see, we resumed our busier schedules. Now we prepare to see some of the islands and beaches. Something we're sorely missing since Bali.