3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos – Part 2
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January 13th, 2010
Continued from 3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos – Part 1
Koh Phangan, Thailand
From Bangkok we traveled the cheap, backpacker way and took the overnight bus to a ferry to get to Koh Phangan. The bus was surprisingly comfortable and we both were able to get some sleep. This 12ish hour journey only cost 600 baht each (~$18).
In Koh Phangan, we went back to Haad Rin, where we had been 4 years earlier on our RTW trip. For people that know Emily and I, this may seem like a surprising choice since Haad Rin is best known for its crazy full moon parties on the beach. We weren’t there for the parties, it was just nice to go back to someplace familiar; plus Koh Phangan has decent beaches, beautiful sunsets, and most importantly – delicious chicken schnitzel! We are both obsessed with these delicious non-Thai treats. Almost everyday we would go to “Mama’s Schnitzel” for lunch where we would get a chicken schnitzel sandwich and a fruit shake (coconut, pineapple, and orange). The sandwich is very basic – a bun with fried chicken, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and sweet chili sauce – but it is amazingly delicious. I wish Mama Schnitzel would franchise and open up in the US/Switzerland!
Most of our time in Koh Phangan was spent relaxing on the beach or sharing a Chang beer while watching beautiful sunsets. We took one day trip to Koh Samui to extend my visa (apparently when you cross the border via car or train you only get a 15 day Thai visa as opposed to 30 days when you enter by plane…). We also took a longtail boat over to Hat Yao one afternoon, where I proposed to Emily. (She said yes!)
Koh Tao, Thailand
We took the short ferry from Koh Phangan to Koh Tao to get a change of scenery and to meet up with our friend CK. On Koh Tao, we headed to Hat Sairee and were lucky to find a good, cheap, basic bungalow right on the beach. Our first choice was all booked (as many places were since this was just a few days before Christmas) but they had room left at Crystal Dive Resort. Our bungalow was very basic – just a wooden shack with a bed, a fan, and a bathroom, but it was all that we needed and it was right on the beach.
In Koh Tao we met up with our friend CK and her friend Ty. (We had recently seen CK when we visited her in London a month earlier). CK and Ty stayed on a different beach than us, Mae Haad, but we met up with them everyday on the beach and for dinner. It was a lot of fun to see some familiar faces and hang out with them.
Koh Tao is famous for its scuba diving. I did some dives here on the RTW trip back in 2005 and was excited to get back in the water. Since I hadn’t been diving since 2005, I decided to take the PADI refresher course at Seashell Divers. The refresher course consists of a brief classroom session (~30 minutes) and reviewing all of the 20 skills from the Open Water certification in the pool. I remembered how to do everything right away, but I felt more comfortable after taking the refresher course. The next two mornings I went on double dives, so I did 4 dives total. The first day we dove Green Rock followed by White Rock. Green Rock has some nice swim-throughs but is otherwise rather disappointing. White Rock has a lot more diversity of fish and coral, and I really enjoyed that dive. The next day, which happened to be Christmas Eve, we went out to Chumphon Pinnacle first, where I had an amazing dive. We saw at least 8 bull sharks that were each 6-8 feet long. Even besides the sharks, there were lots of other stuff to see including huge schools of fish and tons of sea anemones. This was by far the best dive of the trip. My final dive was back at Green Rock and was nice and long but otherwise unmemorable.
We spent Christmas on the beach in Koh Tao. It felt very strange to be away from home and in 90 degree weather for xmas, but at least there were enough tourists and expats that we saw lots of Santa hats and heard some Christmas carols playing. On Christmas morning, Emily and I filled stockings for each other, mostly with cheap Thai trinkets. We both put a lychee instead of the traditional orange at the end of the stocking (well, traditional in my family at least).
From Koh Tao, we took another ferry and overnight bus back to Bangkok. We only had a day in Bangkok before we had to head back to the airport where Emily flew back to Zurich and I flew to the USA (I couldn’t go back to Switzerland due to the visa issues). Overall, it was an amazing trip. It felt like we were gone forever. Long enough to forget which day of the week it is, which I think is the sign of a good vacation. Now it is back to reality…
