Koh Tao: Snorkelling, Sunsets and Infinity Pool

Fourth island on our island hopping tour was Koh Tao. And it was beautiful. We decided to stay in a resort that was little more expensive than the rest, but we got a deal so it still didn't cost as much as it normally does, and was still super cheap compared to anything outside of Thailand. And it was well worth it as well.

The resort itself was situated at the top of a hill, just a short walk outside of the main village. We stayed in a sea view studio bungalow that had a balcony overlooking the water. The room was quite lovely, even if we had to walk down stairs down the hill to get to it, and walk back up them to get to the pool. restaurant or outside of the resort. The exercise was lovely, I have missed walking places. The resort was also covered in beautiful greenery and the animals living in and around the resort could be heard quite frequently. But it was rather nice. Well aside from the massive spider that we found in our room. Then there was the infinity pool overlooking the Gulf of Thailand and other neighbouring islands. It was unreal and just wonderful. Around the pool were lounge chairs and great big hammocks. There was quite a bit of time spent in both the pool and hammocks. 

Endless stairs to our bungalow

Me in the Infinity Pool

View

Laying in the Hammock

View from Hotel Lounge

The views from the resort were amazing. The sunsets we saw were unreal. Whether we stood on our balcony from our room, or at the pool, the sunsets were beautiful. I never planned to book our accommodations on the west coasts to see the sunsets, but we sure have been lucky to see some really nice ones in our travels. Even when we walked down all the stairs to get to the bottom of the hill, there was a beautiful little secluded beach. But because it was in a little cove, there was no breeze and deathly hot. Needless to stay, we didn't last long down there.

Sunset from pool

Sunset from the balcony of our room

Our own private (hot as) beach

We also decided to rent a motorbike one day to get to the bottom of the island to snorkel. It was cheaper to rent a motorbike then take a taxi to get there. So we went to the nearest rental place to our resort. They wouldn't let us rent without a passport, so we journeyed back to the resort to get my passport. The lady came out in a towel and was quite rude to us the entire transaction. The motorbike had no gas in it, so we had to not only pay to rent it but then pay 50 baht to put some gas in it to get anywhere. Ridiculous. Anyways, we took the motorbike to the south side of the island, to see Shark Bay and Freedom Beach. We had borrowed masks and snorkels to go snorkelling to find whale sharks. First we wandered into Shark Bay, after climbing over and around rocks we got in and started snorkelling around. We saw some beautiful fish, but no sharks of any kind. Scraped up the top of my foot a little bit though. So we decided to head to Freedom Beach. We tried a bit of snorkelling there, but aside from some coral and fish, no luck. So we laid on the beach for a bit and headed back.

Shark Bay

Freedom Beach

All in all, Koh Tao was quite a lovely island. One of my favourites for sure.

Koh Samui: Private Beach House & Relaxation

I went to Koh Samui in January when I first came to Thailand. I stayed in the Chaweng Beach area the first time. Very touristy. But nice nonetheless. This time Megan and I stayed in Bangpor Beach. It was much smaller, remote and quite a bit less touristy. I found a place to stay on an iPhone app called Airbnb. It was a private beach house, owned by an Brit who lived in the house next door. It was one big property, with the main house and a smaller beach house. It was perfect. We were in the mood for more relaxation than anything this island.

View of beach house from the road

Empty Beach

Our bed

Beachouse from the Beach

Most of the 3 days/nights spent in Koh Samui, were spent lying on the beach, swimming in the water, and eating from the local restaurants. Did I mention I have eaten a lot of pad thai during this whole trip? More so than I do in Chiang Mai, which is a lot. The owner of the beach house told us all the best places to eat nearby. All right on the beach, you can't go wrong with thai food, beachside.

Laying out front of the beachouse

One of the mornings we decided to go on a walk to find a pharmacy that wasn't a rip-off for Megan, and try to find touristy type shops for me to get another bikini. We left at 9am and walked for awhile along the beach, then headed up to the road. We eventually found a pharmacy, but no shops. So we headed back. On our way back we walked down to the pier to find ferry prices. Once down there, Megan and I had different ideas of what we felt like doing. So she went for a swim and headed back, and I went for a walk to check out the rocky edge. It was pretty sweet. Then I started to head back. On my way, I got a little dehydrated and passed out briefly in front of a little shake stand. They helped me up and gave me a lemon shake for free. I was rehydrated once again and kept on my journey home. I got home around 1pm, and Megan had not arrived yet. I waited in the shade and then drank as much water as possible when we got in. We decided to stay out of the sun the rest of the day.

Rocks near the pier

Pier

My new friend that followed us on our walk

The beach

Koh Samui was lovely. Not my favourite island, but it was nice to have an empty beach every day, a private beach house and actually still feel like we were in Thailand. Also we saw a beautiful sunset each night, on a near empty beach. Sunday morning we headed to the ferry, and got there just in time to catch the next ferry to Koh Tao. 

Sunset one night

Silhouette in the sunset

Walking into the sunset

Koh Lanta: Quiet Beach, Friendly Resort & Aussies Last Few Days

I didn't think I would have much to post about Koh Lanta, as it was more relax and chill then seeing a bunch of things. But after leaving there, I think it warrants it's own post. 

Koh Lanta from the ferry

Hammock on the porch of the hut we stayed in;
 how I spent my mornings

First of all, the resort we stayed at was great; Lanta Pearl Beach Resort. The staff were so friendly. They learned our names, got us whatever we wanted, they even took Megan to the pharmacy on their motorbike so she wouldn't have to get a songthaew or tuktuk and figure out where one was. Though when we got there, and our 3 person room we booked for 4 people (which I swear I emailed about before booking to make sure that was okay), was not acceptable, they helped us out with a cheap extra room for Nicole and Nick, and Megan and I stayed in the air-conditioned family room with two beds. They made excellent fruit shakes; switched between mango and lemon throughout the day. Their food was cheap for a resort; about 80-110 baht ($2.50-$3.50) a meal. And not just cheap, it was delicious. I mean I have had pad thai in just about every place I have been, and theirs was delicious compared to most restaurants/resorts. Still not as good as the super cheap street food, but nothing can compare really.

Little hut on the resort grounds

The hut we ate dinner and spent our nights in

Lanta Pearl Beach Resort

The resort was just a minutes walk from Long Beach. This beach was so quiet and peaceful, not to mention beautiful as well. Very few people out in the water or on the beach, or even at the scattered restaurants and bars lining the sand. It was a lovely change from the crowded beach of Phi Phi. Both beautiful in their own rights. We spent some time sunning on the beach, playing in the water and relaxing. It was quite lovely. After everyone left and it was down to Megan and I, I went for a nice stroll down to the end of the beach and sat on the rocks listening to Jack Johnson and taking it all in. It was lovely.

Long Beach in Koh Lanta, see all the people?

The end of Long Beach 

Listening to Jack Johnson

Walking in the water

Storm clouds a-brewin'

Koh Lanta was filled with much socializing, even if it was just Nicole, Nick, Sam, Becky, Megan and I, sitting in a hut at our resort talking, reading, drinking and eating. For two nights before Nicole and Nick had to head back to Australia, we spent our nights in the hut enjoying each others company. With our favourite resort dude, Ton aka Fat Boy Slim, making sure we had what we needed, due to his crush on Nicole, we had a great time. Sam is Nicole's friend from the UK, and Becky is her friend, who happened to be in Thailand at the same time, so decided to meet up with us in Koh Lanta. It was great to have a good group of people to hang out with, when there wasn't a ton of people around to really meet. Unfortunately, after 2 nights in Lanta, they all left us and it was down to just me and Megan.

Nick reading in the hut after coming in from storm clouds

Nicole and her flowers from Ton

I enjoyed a couple beers one night for once

Then came the fun. After my stroll down to the end of Long Beach, I walked back to the resort. Megan was napping in the room, so I went to the resort restaurant area and sat in a hut to finish my blog post about Phi Phi. Then I felt like watching New Girl. As I lay in the hut, with my headphones on, a random lady came up and told me that there was a tsunami warning and that there is talk of evacuating. So I decided I should probably go wake up Megan and we should figure out what is going on. After some deliberation, we threw our stuff together and headed to the front of the resort. We hopping in Ton's 'tuktuk' aka motorbike with a side cart type thing, and headed up to higher ground. The resort brought all the guests to the same place, a resort called Lanta Loft, to wait for word on whether or not there is going to be a tsunami or not. For a few hours we sat and waited, reading news articles that all said the same thing "8.7 earthquake in Indonesia, tsunami warnings for coasts on the Indian Ocean". Eventually they told us we could go back down at 8pm. It was 7:30pm when Ton came around rounding us all up. We hopped into the back of the pick-up truck and headed back down, straight to our rooms to drop off our stuff and to the restaurant to get food. It was an interesting last night in Koh Lanta, to say the least.

Ton driving us to higher ground

Little boy waiting for the tsunami

The next morning we woke up early to head here to Koh Samui, which was an 8 hour day of mini bus and ferry but worth every second.

Koh Phi Phi: Viewpoint, Maya Bay Boat Trip & Beach

I am just going to skip past writing about Phuket, as we weren't there long enough to warrant much written about it. We landed in Phuket, took a nauseating mini-bus ride to our hotel, slept there, had some food in the morning and took a ferry to Phi Phi.

As we approached Phi Phi on our ferry, we realized just why everyone raves about it. As obviously busy as it was while we approached, it still was a sight to be seen. We met a wonderful guy named Andy, working at a diving shop, who offered us some free advice, even drawing on a map to show us the best places to go while on the island. From food to views to tours, he knew it all. After some hassle with our booking not being made (though I had emailed the place before I even booked to make sure they had a room for all us 4 to fit), we found ourselves a couple rooms that were close enough to everything we needed (not that you really could get far from anything).

The first night there, Megan stayed in and Nicole, Nick and I went out to the Jordan's Irish Bar. The place had chalk writing all over the walls, a pool table and 2 for 1 buckets of alcoholic drinks. We decided to get two buckets split between the 3 of us, as I rarely drink and two buckets would probably be a bad idea for me. Not too long after being there we met a few friendly English blokes who lived in Australia and were visiting Phi Phi for a 4 day weekend. They were quite entertaining between the discussions of randomness, their sunnies that ended up getting a lens popped out and passed around, and them taking us across the soi to the Reggae Bar where their two friends, who are brothers, were about to get into the ring to box each other. The bar offers free buckets to those who want to participate in Thai boxing against another volunteer. After watching a bit, I eventually turned in and headed to bed.

The next morning we chose to head out to find the Phi Phi viewpoint that Andy had told us to seek out. We followed his directions, as well as some signs. About halfway up, Nick and I had been traveling a bit too fast and lost Megan and Nicole, so we decided to forge on ahead and meet them at the end. It was a gruelling climb around and up the mountain, but it was completely worth it. After many pictures taken and a bit of a wait for the other two (about 45 minutes we reckon), we decided to head back down. We ran into them a short time after, it seems as though they went to the other viewpoint first and were headed to the one we went to now. So Nick and I headed to the viewpoint they just left, and it proved to be worthwhile, giving an amazing view of Phi Phi as well. We then took the stairs down (apparently we could have taken those up, for 20 baht of course) and waited at the room for the girls. 

Viewpoint Two

Viewpoint Two

Boat in Phi Phi

Viewpoint One

Once they arrived back, we headed to the Pirate Bamboo Tattoo place. It was time for me to get my bamboo tattoo I had been planning since before coming to Thailand. It was pretty cool, as it felt quite different than a regular machine tattoo. Though neither hurt me, the bamboo tattoo hurt even less, due to the lack of scratching/burning that a machine feels like. The tattoo took no time at all, as it was merely the word 'teacher' in Thai, pronounced 'Krue'. That afternoon was then spent laying on the beach reading, and getting some sun. With an early night due to exhaustion by all.

Getting my Bamboo Tattoo

New Tattoo, it says 'Teacher' in Thai (pronounced 'krue')

Reading on the beach

Beach

The next morning we set out to find a driver to take us on a catamaran to Maya Bay. We found one for 1500 baht total to take us on a 3 hour boat ride. Our driver took us all around Maya Bay, with stops to swim, and even snorkel. He threw in food for the fish to swarm around us while snorkelling. Colourful fish swimming between our arms and legs was quite unreal. Then he took us into the actual Maya Bay, and the actual beach was so busy, so he took us to a smaller beach off to the side for us to get out and swim a bit and take pictures. Then it was onto Monkey Beach, where we got to get out and feed the monkeys and take pictures, naturally. Then we headed back to Phi Phi. That afternoon was spend napping, as all the sun and swimming took it out of me. After dinner, Megan wasn't feeling so great so she headed back to the room. Nicole, Nick and I headed to the beach and found a quieter bar for them to get a few beers, and me to get a few fruit shakes. I live off those at the moment. Nothing beats a good mango, banana or lemon shake. We stayed awhile chatting and drinking, as the stars came out and the beach bars began to get busier. We came in eventually, and retired to our rooms to get some rest for the ferry in the morning to head to Koh Lanta. Onto the next island...

Maya Bay

Maya Bay

Maya Bay

Dancing around in Maya Bay

Monkey Beach

Maya Bay Boat Ride

Maya Bay

Swimming in Maya Bay

Last Night in Phi Phi

Kindness of Strangers and Good Karma

As I sat in the departure lounge, waiting for my flight to Bangkok, all I wanted was an iced mocha/coffee. Normally I pay about 30-40 baht for one. At the airport, they were 80 baht. This made me sad. After walking upto the coffee place twice debating my purchase, I decided, out loud to my travel companions, that I could not justify spending that much on it.

Out of nowhere a lady walked up and said she couldn't help overhearing my debate on whether to buy an iced coffee and she wanted to buy me one. She said she remembered traveling on a budget and not being able to afford little things. She held out 100 baht. I said I could not accept it. But she insisted, saying it would make her happy. So I took the bill and went and got an iced coffee.

I went back to her with the change, which she would not accept. But she told me how she was from the states and lived in India with her husband and daughter, who were with her. He works, she enjoys life. She told me to spend the change on my friends. So Megan bought a water, which she also did not buy previously due to the high mark up.

As we boarded the plane, Nicole and Nick had been seated together. Megan and I were told we could not be seated together, so we were 2 rows apart. Although we were told it was full, Megan had an empty seat beside her. She offered for me to come back and sit middle seat beside her. I chose to stay put at my window seat, and as luck would have it, I had all 3 seats to myself. So I stretched out and enjoyed my flight. Then on my flight from Bangkok to Phuket, I had 2 seats to myself. Not a bad way to start my trip.