Days in phuket!!!

Been a while since we blogged last. And for a very good reason! It has rained everyday!!! 

So we spent a lot of time thinking about going to the beach but never actually ended up there. We ended up doing a lot of window shopping, hanging out with people in our hostel and checking out the bars at night. 

One night went for massages, yet again, on a very rainy night and had banana Nutella crepes after! 

 

The following day we went to Phuket town which was very very quiet and mostly closed because of rainy season. However we had a nice Thai lunch and checked out a bunch of art galleries in town. 

That night, Danielle and I decided we needed a night out in famous phuket -known for their lovely ladyboys, bars and shows.  We hung out with a bunch of people from our hostel and headed out to a show (pictures not included of that because photography was strictly prohibited)  hahaha. Then we lost a few people on the way to the bar.  Since we never got to see the ocean we ventured out there to check out the beach at night.  Ended up going swimming and almost getting arrested. Well we didn't!!! Yay!!! 

Art gallery in old phuket town 

Original artwork - guy paints himself in every single picture! 

Old phuket town

Group at the hostel before heading out for the night! 

Danielle posing haha 

Guy who worked at the hostel wearing a creepy mask! Clearly!! 

Phuket... Back in the city

Since we last blogged, we have travelled to Patong beach in Phuket, Thailand. We were told by several travelers how we only needed a couple nights here because it's not the greatest place. We are starting to think that we should stop listening to some travelers because we really like it here, and are really liking being back in the city! 

First night, checked into our hostel late and scoped out the street scene. Lots of stuff happening, but nothing we were too inclined to do that first night. So we scoped out the shopping mall and did some window shopping!

Next day, another rainy day and decided to catch a cheap movie. We have learned that the Asia theaters are amazing, however in Thailand it's accustomed to stand and listen to their national anthem before the show starts. Similar to what you would do before a sporting event. 

Today, day 3, we decided to go quadding. Out guides took us on ATVs to  the top of a mountain where "Big Buddha" is and so we could get a great shot of the city below. This was both of our first times on the ATVs and we had a blast! In the rainy weather, we managed to get nice and muddy and find lots of puddles to go through!

Met several people along the way. We are hoping we can get a day of sunshine to hit the beach tomorrow. Pictures below of the last few days activities!

Oh my Lanta!!!!

The last few days have been quite interesting: a day at the beach and a few days of severe food poisoning leading to a trip to the health clinic.  So we chilled out in our air conditioned, cable tv guesthouse eating ramen noodles to get better. After spending over a week on Koh Phi Phi - we decided we needed a change of scenery. 

Thought it would be a great idea to take a ferry to another island, Koh Lanta.  Hmmmmmm big mistake! Found out it rains all the time ( you know, during rainy season, it rains right? Makes sense, I guess). 

Well our adventure to the pier was lovely.  It is normally about a 10 minute walk from our guesthouse. Well after about 5 minutes, there was a torrential downpour. We were running through puddles of dirty water with our packs and purses - everything getting soaked.  So about 10 minutes later we get on the ferry- happy because we are finally out of the rain!! -- but then they tell us we are on the wrong ferry! Haha so we hop off, find our packs and get onto the other one.  Needless to say, both of us looked like drowned rats by the end of this. 

So here are some pictures below of the extremely low tide beaches and all the closed restaurants!! And the view from our bungalow which is actually really nice!! 

Snorkelling and THE Beach

So it's been a little while now and we haven't moved at all! Still on koh phi phi!! 

Ok where do I begin??? 

Spent one of the days on the beach - not too eventful other than a few fruit shakes and sun burns. 

Next day we went on this really cool tour of beaches and islands!!  We hopped on a little long tail boat with 20 other people. Our first stop was to snorkel. We jumped in the water and were surrounded by all these colourful tropical fish!! Spent about a half hour there then headed to bamboo island. Doesn't appear that anyone lives on the island but is a popular spot for boats to drop off tourists to enjoy the white sand and the clear blue water. Our guide handed us our lunch (a small container of fried rice) to eat on the island. We had our small lunch and went for a swim! Amazing place!!!  

After that we went snorkelling again in a different location. This time the reef was larger so we could take a better look at all the fish! 

And then the most anticipated beach of all!! Leonardo Dicaprios beach!! Ok ok it's actually called Maya Beach.  This is the one that they filmed the movie "The Beach" at. So it was a bit of a trek to get there.  Our boat stopped at the opposite side of the island and told us to swim (around these jagged rocks, I may add) and then climb up these very steep slippery stairs to walk to the other side of the island to get to maya beach.  

We managed to get to the beach with minor injuries. But we were a little disappointed that Leo wasn't waiting for us at the other side hahaha. We had very high expectations about this beach and were sadly disappointed.  The beach and water was quite dirty (despite the entrance fee we paid to keep the island clean). We spent about an hour there. It was quite the mission getting back on our boat.  Danielle made it back quite quickly, while I was a little less fortunate. I ended up getting stuck in a little lagoon hitting rocks. One of the guides had to come help me get out. As I climbed back on the boat noticed a lot of cuts on my arms and legs but luckily they were very deep.  

We then went to check out monkey island.  Guess what!! It's exactly how it sounds!! Our guide fed the monkeys (even though there were signs everywhere saying do not feed the monkeys).  I got a million pictures of that!! 

The sun was starting to set and we headed to a very inconvenient spot to watch it.  We were situated right behind a mountain so if there was a sunset -we didn't see it hahahha. Went for a quick swim and headed out for dinner with Aren and our new English friends, Sophie and Dave.  

Danielle and I at maya beach!! 

Danielle, Cam, Shauna, Aren and Jill at maya beach!! 

Long tail boats on the beach 

Me snorkelling! 

The disaster obstacle getting to maya beach

Danielle on the boat with Maya beach "THE Beach" in the background! 

Monkeys on monkey island!! 

 long beach 

From the viewpoint overlooking phi phi 

Oh Koh Phi Phi!!

A couple days ago we left Krabi and headed to Koh Phi Phi island with our Canadian friend, Aren. We took a ferry- yes an actual ferry!!! It was about a 2 hour boat ride with about 100 people. We arrived at the island and had to pay an entrance fee of 20 baht- which is about 70 cents!

Then we went for a bit of a hike trying to find our hotel. Turns out it was located kinda in the jungle away from most of the touristy stuff. Which we learned was kinda nice because most of the clubs and bars blare house music til about 4am, however a little sketchy trying to find it at night.

We have been taking it pretty easy since we have been here! Our first night we went to a bar where they played a lot of western music and had guys playing with fire. So we sat back, had a couple beers and watched as they threw flaming batons and tennis balls coated in kerosene around. It's actually quite an entertaining performance!

After they finished their show they grabbed the "jump ropes" aka a long tag doused with kerosene and lit on fire. Danielle was definitely not hesitant to jump right in! Afterwards, they pulled out the limbo stick which was also on fire. Danielle then convinced me to do it. I was reluctant due to my fear of being on fire - I know I'm such a drama queen hahahaha.

The following day we hung out at the beach and searched for another place to stay - it just seems silly to stay in a hotel here when the guesthouses are equally as nice (ok maybe no tv but there is usually only one English Channel anyway) and a couple hundred baht cheaper ( about $3-6). We found a cute little bungalow which is surrounded by a garden and hammocks ( everyone seems to have hammocks here - so great!!)

For dinner, Danielle, Aren and I met up with friends from our tour, Jill and Cam, who brought along their German friend, Louis. All had some great cheap Thai food and beers. Everyone seems to love the local beer called Chang which is about $2 for a small and 3.50 for a large one.

We went back to the fire show and the waitresses all treated us very well because they remembered us (and of course we tipped them). Later we went to another club on the beach and danced the night away on a makeshift dance floor of plywood!!

Definitely in love with this island!!!

Ps- photos below of the guys with fire, Danielle and I limboing and Danielle jumping fire rope

Railay beach: our first island

We took a 30 min ferry (really loud long boat with a huge motor and about 5 wooden benches) to Railay Beach, which is a resort island where climbing and kayaking seem like popular activities. We went with our Canadian friend, Aaron, who was really into trekking. Fine with us, we trekked through brush, cliffs and water and got sick of it pretty fast. Shauna had a blowout on her thong (Australian saying for the middle part of your flip-flops coming out) and we decided to call it quits on the trekking. After that I decided it was a good idea to go rock climbing. I have never been rock climbing on a really cliff, and this was an incredible experience. Unfortunately the safety gear was not up to par, but after a 10 year old Russian girl did it in 15 minutes I had to beat her record. Made it up in 10 minutes! Take that Russian girl! 

After a long day of swimming, trekking, climbing and tanning, we decided to hit the night markets again. This time was better. More food, fun music, break dance battles and a fire twirling guy doing cool tricks and dancing to the music. We even got a caricature done for free! I think the artist liked us, he was very smiley when he was chatting with us. 

Pictures below of the amazing views and the night markets!

Krabi - not so crabby afterall

Left Hat Yai  and took a very small bus to Krabi town. The 4 hour journey seemed to go by pretty quick but we were a little annoyed when we were crammed into the back seats with 2 other western tourists, meanwhile in the front were a large Chinese family who reserved the nice seats up there for their infant children who weren't even sitting in them! Annoying!

We quickly checked into our hostel when we arrived in Krabi, Pak-up hostel, the best one I have been to. Huge with great rooms, AC and showers! This was our first dorm style hostel experience and we loved it! We decided to take it easy this night and went for dinner down the road. And by down the road I mean a 30 second walk. Met some British boys, Mark and George who we decided we were going to meet up with in Phi Phi. Checked out the night markets and then the rooftop bar on our hostel. Open mic night. Lots of drunk westerners singing oasis, Coldplay, Hendrix, etc. Some were good, most butchered it! 

Day 2 went to the beach in AoNang, a 30 min tuk tuk ride from Krabi town and got our first real sun burns of the trip. Not a very exciting day, but met a few of our dorm mates. One who is a Canadian guy from Victoria who we are hanging out with for the next couple days. We have learned that most of the backpackers are really easy to chat with and all have great stories. We have learned a lot about what to do and what not to do or the next couple weeks. Check out the pics below!

Back in Thailand!!!

Finally we are back in Thailand!! And we love it!! After our bitter encounter with Malaysia we are happy to be back to a wonderful land where everyone is happy to talk to us and show us around without feeling threatened.



We arrived at the Hat Yai, Thailand airport where there was a little dispute about how we would get to our hotel. Flying was a much better choice than taking a bus-which we initially planned to do. There were a few issues with crossing into Thailand by land: 1) crossing by land gives us a 15 days visa so we would have to pay $250 extra to stay in the country til we depart at the end of June 2) there is ongoing political unrest between Muslim Malaysia and Buddhist Thailand. So the "deep south" of Thailand is considered a no travel Zone by most western governments due to the bombings and beheading and such.

So after a long debate we ended up getting a cheap flight into Hat Yai (the north end of the "no travel zone")


Danielle and I ended up at the bus station and taking a tuk tuk with a guy from Cameroon. We checked into our very nice hotel and decided to stay 2 nights. Hotel was great- very similar to a western hotel so we felt quite comfortable. The town did not have much going on; night markets which were a 20 minute walk away and some restaurants. This is much different than many of the places we have travelled to so far. It appears there is no touristy areas - I think it has to do with the no travel Zone. A lot of places were closes or out of business so it took us about 20 minutes to find a place to eat dinner.

We spent two nights here and today we are headed to Krabi. This is located right by the beach- thank god!!! We are ready to relax and chill on the beach after moving around the last month!!

And below is a picture of a mall haha somehow we always end up at one!!

Malaysia: hmmm, no comment

I'm sorry parents but really the only way to describe this place is as being a massive clusterfuck! And we still aren't sure if its because of the drastic change from the greatness of Singapore or if it just really sucks. 

We won't dwell on it for too long so here is a quick point form summary of our time in Kuala Lumpur.

-taxi gets lost from airport trying to find our non existent crappy budget hotel

-hotel gives us tiny room with one bed and double charges us for our two night stay

-bathroom is literally in the room with glass wall separating beds from toilet

-try to get train ticket out = booked til June

-try to get bus ticket out= succeed to find out that this will not ensure us enough days on our Thai visa for the duration of time we are staying there

-book flight at midnight for 11:45 the next day to get the hell out of here = success

-it's taken the entire day to learn that from the beginning flying was the best and safest method of transportation into Thailand = complete waste of day

*positive note

- amongst the intimidating glares from both men and women, and those who made it blatantly obviously that they were talking about us by snickering, pointing and staring, we managed to get some help and information from kind English speaking locals (the yogen fruz guys, and taxi driver) who could tell we were having trouble. 

- also, some great pics of the KL tower and Petron twin towers which is pretty much the only reason we came here

- mall within the Petron twin towers was worth seeing however

Overall, an interesting experience, but we will be relieved and happy to be back in Thailand!