(day 7) ko lanta, snorkeling

Woke up early for our snorkeling tour! We'd booked it through our hotel the night before, and I was super super psyched! The two main things I wanted to do in Thailand were snorkel, and rock climb.

Sunrise was really nice, the beach was mostly empty -- some joggers and old folks getting up at the crack of dawn but otherwise, real quite. Well actually, the beach we stayed at was really not crowded at all.

Did a little bit of reading before breakfast. The Good Earth, really good book!!!! Recommend.

You find this kind of flower all over the islands, apparently it's a plumeria flower.

Breakfast is included and was really really nice!

Lots of hot breakfast foods, salad, fruit, juice, coffee, plus you can ask them to cook whatever style of eggs you like (though we never did).

Sleepy cat at bar enjoys the sunrise too.

They pick you up right at your hotel, and we were told to watch out for the green boat. Again, not 100% sure of what's going on, but sure enough, at the appropriate time we see a green boat driving up to the beach! As they get close they kill the motors and then you wade out and climb into the boat. Kind of fun. :)

Didn't get any good shots of the boat, it was medium sized and we had about 20 people on the tour. The tours are not really social at all...sure, people might chat a tiny bit, but for the most part, everyone comes in a group or with their friend, and people kind of stick to their little groups throughout all the activities.

Hahaha. So I bought these waterproof cases hoping I could bring my phone and take pictures. The case worked great, my phone was totally protected from the water, but I couldn't get it to focus and take anything good! Dylan's fared a bit better.

Fuzzy pictures notwithstanding, snorkeling was. SO SO SO NICE.

I'd only been once before, in Cancun, and I remember it being cool, lots of fish. But the water here was just sooooo clear, the marine life was so brilliant, the corals were so colorful and amazing!! I was floored.

We made two different stops and were allowed to snorkel at both places for maybe half an hour.

One of the guides accompanied us for one of the trips and retrieved a purple starfish for us to hold! I say guides, but really they are just the tour operators. They don't really "guide" you, like tell you what species of fish are or anything, and they're not really responsible for hand holding you through the tour. This guide was really nice though, I think they thought we didn't know how to swim or something, so the head tour guide told another guy to take us around.

All the guides on all the tours I went on during the trip were super sweet, btw.

Even though they do the same trips every day, see hordes of tourists, and get very little thanks in return, they are really fun, sweet, gracious, and kind. It really made me appreciate Thai people that they could be so friendly in the face of so many less than friendly people. Not that I saw a lot of tourists being rude, either, just like, you know...the guides help you on and off the boat, hold your flippers while you're climbing back in, etc. and no one says thank you much, it's kind of just taken for granted that they'll get helped...but if you watch the guides they're pretty self sufficient, so it's not like you NEED to be helped.

Anyway shout out to all my awesome tour guides, I've forgotten most of your abnormal sounding names, but I remember your faces and you really really made my tours memorable and awesome. :)

We stopped at Ko Rok for lunch and relaxation time. Ko Rok (ko means island) is a national park, so no development happens on there, which means no hotels and mostly untouched beautiful beaches! It is hands down the most gorgeous beach I have ever seen. The sand feels like finely sifted flour beneath your feet, a perfect white color. The ocean is alternating saturated strips of turquoise, aquamarine, blue-green, teal. The water is warm and swimmable. It really is the most idealistic place I've ever seen. I wanted so much to share it with all my friends and family to see someday, but it is a bit troublesome to get to. I hope you can all see it someday. Every second I was there I couldn't believe my surroundings. It was truly a paradise.

I take terrible pictures and panoramas.

The water is SO CLEAR!

The proximity of the cora reefs means lots of little coral bits on the shores.

Lunch was provided, it was pretty good. The guides kept telling us to go see something that sounded like GARBLEGOOKENGLISHWORD but not to worry cuz they don't bite. We were like ?????

We found the garblegooks. They are HUGE lizards! Looks like a komodo dragon but moves really slowly and apparently harmless.

After a couple hours chilling there, we may have gone to one more place, I don't remember, but then we got dropped back at our resort the same way we were picked up.

Rinsed off and took a dip in the pool, then showered and cleaned up.

We'd both applied sunscreen but apparently not enough -- both of us were pretty lobstery on our backs (the part that gets exposed while you're facedown snorkeling)

Made it out to the poolside in time for sunset! Read our books and enjoyed the beautiful view (did not take a very good pic of it though).

...and made a friend!! This lil girl, saw her prancing along in the grasses, fake hunting the tall blades of grass. She was so adorable!! When we went near her she started squeaking and mewing at us, so we dubbed her L'il Squeaker.

She was a tiny adorable little thing, and despite not wanting to contract any strange diseases, we absolutely had to play with her a bit. She looked healthy, just small. We saw her every day during our stay at Ko Lanta. We were really worried about her situation until we saw her hunt down a tiny lizard for food, so at least she can take care of herself. Thai people are kind and caring to most strays as well.

We even briefly considered adopting her, it seems that there IS an avenue of possibility for such an adoption, but it is not easy and it's quite expensive.

In the end, it was too much trouble, and also kind of presumptuous for us to uproot this little kitten from her home just because we think we could do better.

L'il squeaker is a great hunter so I'm sure she is doing fine, hope we can meet again someday in Ko Lanta. :)

Went to a beach bar for drinks/dinner. They spread out little mats and tables on the beach so you can enjoy the sound of crashing waves while you relax in the evening.

Sadly the food was not up to snuff. I got a green curry, and while it was far from inedible, it was probably one of the worst meals I had while in Thailand. I guess you are paying for the ambiance and not a five star chef. :) Should have known.

Regardless, a really nice end to a really full day. The snorkeling tour was AMAZING, an unforgettable experience that I'll keep with me my whole life.

(day 6) ko lanta

Our time in Chiang Mai was short but sweet. It was a really nice change of pace from Bangkok. I did kind of feel like...I wasn't sure what to do there. There are tons of temples, stuff like zoos, museums, etc., but I don't know, my interest was never piqued. You can even see from the pics of the days we were there, we didn't actually DO a lot of things, though we had a lot of fun anyway. Would I go back? Mmm sure, it would be nice, but I think I'd rather spend the time in a new place, OR, conversely, spend a lot of time there just chilling in cafes being a digital nomad. :)

So anyway it was forward, onward, to the next place! Happy to have been to CM but glad for a new scene.

Our ride to the airport overslept and then drove us to the airport at mach speed. Had a super early morning 2 hour flight to Krabi, so that we could be in time to catch the ferry to Ko Lanta.

When I did my Thailand research a while ago, I found a shocking lack of documentation on transportation. There are so many destinations in Thailand, and tourists spend a lot of time hopping between locations -- but how do they get there?? I found information about ferries from Krabi to Ko Lanta, but no definitive source that said it was at X time at Y place, and to follow Z procedure to get there. :| Kind of nerve-wracking for a control freak planner.

Also bewildering that the millions of tourists that have needed to solve this problem have not shared their experiences online either! It was a real Bermuda Triangle of information.

Turns out I need not have worried, and there is a dearth of information because it is really pretty straightforward. Anything you want to do, you basically just need to get yourself to a nearby "hub" location by whatever means of transportation you prefer: plane, train, bus, boat. When you arrive there will likely be a multitude of travel agencies and hawkers that will scribble out a nondescript ticket, charge you some amount of money, and push you towards a connecting mode of transportation in broken English. While you WILL feel like a herd of cattle (mooooo), and you will NOT feel like you are in control of the situation at all -- you will be able to get to exactly where you want to go.

For example. We flew to Krabi. Exited Krabi airport to the lobby and walked to a random one of many travel agencies that said "Ko Lanta". Got written a ticket, put on a bus with many other people all going to different islands. Got driven to some halfway restaurant and told to get out and chill for a while, order food. Angry passengers demanded to know why we were dropped off there, it's because the ferry doesn't leave til 11 and no reason to wait at the pier so we wait here until the ferry's ready.

Spent an hour or two at the restaurant. Periodically pickup trucks come by and people clamor to get on, but they are all ignored -- the driver goes around checking tickets and through seemingly random selection picks who gets on. It kind of felt like getting sent to death camps :| never know where you're going or why you were picked.

Eventually we got on, got dumped at pier. Again don't really know what's going on. Eventually we "check in" and board the ferry.

Finally we get to start moving.

Our ferry.

Ferry made a couple of stops, last stop is Ko Lanta (after about 2 hrs). Once we get out I thought we'd need to hail a cab/tuk tuk to the hotel, but nope! On the boat they'd asked us for our final destination. Based on everyone's answers, they load you into a songthaew and deliver you straight to the front door!

All in all, I'd have to say it is a very CONVENIENT way to travel. No walking to the nearest bus stop, no having to communicate your destination to a cab driver.... but it is still just.... a little uncomfortable to me. You never really know what's going on, and the drivers and organizers go through SO many ppl day in and day out that they're kind of jaded and not inclined to explain things to tourists. I understand that, I just wish that they would have, I don't know, signs? with explanations for what's going on. Or maybe time tables. It's all just too ad hoc and disorganized for me, and it makes me kind of nervous to have to just sit back and assume you're going to the right place.

But we made it! We booked a three star boutique hotel. It wasn't expensive or fancy by any means, but it was the "splurge" of the trip at about $100. For that, we got amazing rooms right on the beach, really attentive and kind staff, and just a great experience overall. :)

Pretty towel flowers.

There is a front door, but we primarily used the backdoor, which opens out to the rest of the resort and to the beach. This is the view going out the backdoor onto the patio.

We'd left CM 7am or so, and finally arrived at the resort at around 2pm. Travel time is real!

Rested up a bit, then went around to explore. Ko Lanta is one of the larger islands, but it still only has one main road running up and down the length of it. It's too big to reasonably walk from one end to the other, but you can take tuk tuk cabs or rent a scooter. Or just stick close to where you're staying.

If you rent a scooter, many of the little shops sell gas in these glass bottles for about $1/bottle, so it's easy to fill up.

We caught a tuk tuk to a restaurant I'd read about, Red Snapper. It's run by an expat, and they change up their menu a lot and like to experiment with food.

Dylan got a (really yummy) mojito, and I got an iced coffee.

Duck prosciutto and other stuff I don't remember.

Jalapeno cheese croquettes with salsa.

Little bread bites (forgot what it's called)

Salmon, pomelo, some sort of citrus glaze...

and a red snapper!

The food was all really, really good, and quite reasonably priced. Recommend!

(day 5) chiang mai

No real plans for the day. We'd originally planned on doing some rock climbing via a tour, but I tried to book it online twice and didn't get a response.

Some pretty flowers.

This shop was interesting, it look like a candy shop but with tons of different asian snacks.

Stopped by a random restaurant/cafe to get smoothies. There are a lot of healthy, organic, non-GMO, etc type places in Chiang Mai. I'm not sure why but it's definitely a foodie center for Thailand, esp for vegans and vegetarians. Anyway randomly stopped by this one called Bubbles and it turned out to be ranked really high on TripAdvisor.

One was a fruit smoothie and the other was just fresh juiced fruits/veggies.

Our goal was this riverside restaurant, not for any reason in particular other than to be headed somewhere and get lunch.

Food pics.

Steamed fish with lime-chili dressing.

After lunch, had some coffee, then a tuk tuk back to the hostel for nap times! Our time in Chiang Mai was very very chill...

Wandered out at night to the Chiang Mai "night market". There are actually a few of them, they're supposed to have a great one on the weekends, but unfortunately we were there during the week. There is however, a food night market near the Old City south gate (where our guesthouse was), so we went to check it out. Multiple people had recommended Miss Pa's smoothies so we found it and tried it out.

It was HELLA good. Don't know what the heck she mixed in there but it was super flavorful, fresh, and sweet.

Didn't tried any other food other that, not super hungry and a bit wary of the street food.

Around the perimeter of Old City is a moat, it's lit up at night and kind of nice looking. For lack of anything better to do, and wanting to enjoy the nice evening air, walked around it for a while. Saw a variety of irises along the water's edge, fountains, lights, was pretty nice.

Ended the night back at Dash again. There was a dish I really wanted to try out, Khao Soi, it's a Chiang Mai/northern Thailand specialty (apparently from Burma). It's noodles in curry topped with like kind of those crispy won ton strips.

(day 4) chiang mai, doi suthep

Caught an early flight out to Chiang Mai the next morning, only a 1 hour flight away. From Chiang Mai airport to the guesthouse was only like a 5 minute drive -- it's not a huge city.

The first thing I noticed about Chiang Mai was how much cooler and cleaner the air was. It was SUCH a nice change from Bangkok. After days of being uncomfortable, hot, and (often) grossed out, Chiang Mai was a much needed breath of fresh air. I don't really know how to describe the difference -- it almost felt like a suburb, but with things packed in densely like in a city. A lot of the shops and businesses were very cute and hipster-designer-looking.

Not the guesthouse we stayed out, but this is just a random guest house I saw that looked really nice. This wasn't an exception or a pricy place either!

Bought some fried stuff from a lady, ate it in an alley, it was yummy.

Coffee and a mango smoothie from a cute little cafe with outdoor seating and wifi. Chiang Mai has a huge expat population, and great for digital nomads thanks to an abundance of wifi and places like this to chill and do work.

There are also temples just about everywhere you turn, in Chiang Mai. Similar to Tokyo and Kyoto, Chiang Mai was a capital for a long time (Bangkok not so much), and in an older time when transportation wasn't as easy to come by, so a lot of stuff is packed into a small space -- all within walking distance. The city of Chiang Mai is somewhat sprawling, but the Old City part of Chiang Mai is a small square area, bounded by a moat. Our guesthouse is in old city.

See this lil sea serpent dude a lot. Hallo.

Buddha sitting under a tree, achieving enlightenment I guess.

A less flashy spire.

Two of Dylan's friends from Apple, a couple named Paul and Eva, quit their jobs to go travel for a year. They happened to overlap with us in Chiang Mai so Dylan made plans to meet them for lunch. They suggested this place, a ceramics studio/garden that also serves food and drinks.

The grounds were quite nice, wandered around while waiting for them.

I didn't take any pictures of Paul and Eva (who are REALLY really nice), buuuut I did take pictures of my food. :| Curry and blue rice (tastes just like normal rice).

After lunch we went back to our guesthouse to officially check in to our room (we'd only dropped our bags off before). Then all 4 of us rented a songthaew to go to Doi Suthep. A songthaew is a sort of taxi, but built into the back of a pickup truck. A tuk tuk is also just a scooter with an enclosure attached to it. I guess Thai people are really into modding their vehicles. :)

Some songthaew's rent certain routes, but you can also flag one down and try to negotiate a price for wherever you're going.

Doi Suthep is a national park just outside of Chiang Mai. There is a Doi Suthep temple that is supposed to be really cool (Paul and Eva had been before on a previous trip). You can technically hike up the mountain but it takes 4 or 5 hours, in the songthaew it's maybe 20 minutes.

not pictured: I got very carsick going up. I never get carsick!! But I think a combination of windy mountain roads, fast turns, and sitting sideways and looking out the back of the truck just threw my brain for a loop.

The temple was very very cool. I was sick of temples at this point but still had to admit that it was really impressive. Everything was in gold, the views from the mountain were great.

Brilliant jade buddha on a golden throne.

You've all met mom.

After a few hours poking around, came back down and decided to call it a day. We went back to our room (really cute!) and watched a movie, I already don't remember what it's called but it has Michael Scott in it.

Oh that's right, I forgot to mention a huge part of our Bangkok experience. Every time we went back to the Airbnb to cool off, we'd turn on the TV and watch NHK! It's a Japanese channel with shows about random different things, like one was about a grocer and how he started his business and how his son was slowly training to take it over, another about tea ceremonies, I already don't remember a lot of them now, but it was really good! I don't know if it was due to the situation (bored, nothing else on TV) or it was actually good, but we both really looked forward to our NHK every morning/afternoon/evening.

Went back out at night for food. Dylan looked up a place called Dash and we walked over. Really great find! The food was super super good, lots of varieties and options, cheap, nice ambiance. I got pad see ew and a soup, cuz my stomach was still roiling from the car ride.

Coconut chicken soup.

Indian samosas (only ok).