Koh Tao, Turtle Island

There are scooters everywhere on this island. Every pathway and every dirt road. I fear for my life while walking around her. Every second some crazy thai or tourist comes zipping by narorwly missing everyone walking. My favourite is when a family of four goes by, two parents and two little babies, and they are squirming about and they're trying ot hold them down and make a phone call at the same time and then also drive. Fabulous. I'm prepared to jump out of hte pathway at any minute.

Koh Tao is great so far. We arrived this morning after one hell of a bus ride, which ended up taking around 10 hours. No sleep, no food, random stops during the night, cramped seats, freezing a/c, it was a blast! We then took a ferry and watched the sun rise over to this island. It's just like a postcard, palm trees, rocks, beaches, fruit stands. It's wonderful. We decided to stay at a place called Big Blue Diving Resorts and get 50% off accomadation when diving. For 9800 baht, I am able to get PADI certified to open dive anywhere in the world! How exciting is that! It comes out to arund $350 or so, which is nothing in comparision to Australia, Vietnam, and most likely Vancouver. We start the course tomorrow and over four days will do an orientation and theory lessons every morning followed by 4 or 5 dives in the afternoons, starting easy and in shallow water to later on going up to 12-18metres. Don't worry, I asked about sharks and they said we will be extemely lucky if we are able to see a Whale Shark or some Reef Sharks, both of which do not eat human. Apparently there is a whale shark in the area right now that is over 7metres long. If i see it I might just pee my pants (or rather, wetsuit). I am really excited to do this! We'll be paying 100 baht a night for our fan room, and for less than $4, I'm wiling to sweat the night out! Google the resort if you want, it's cool.

A little more expensive food wise here, no longer can we get our 55baht dinners, now they're up to 80! Not many photos yet, it is also smoggy here, the one downside. So, this is a picture off the net to give you a taste of what it looks like!

'Hey Canada!'

Our last day in Bangkok and I'm very happy about that. It's far too hectic and hot here. We took a longboat tour through some Bangkok canals, and it was definitely an eye opening experience. The contrasts between the rich and the poor is unbelievable. There would be mansions and then saggy houses, looking like they would collapse at any minute. People were hanging out on docks at the end of their house and their little babies would be sitting there, looking as if they could fall in any minute.

I took far too many pictures on the boat! After that we had the chance to walk around some non touristy areas, or at least less touristy, and it was nice to not get hasseled for things every few minutes. I am wishing (for the first time) that I didn't have a Canadian flag on my bag. Everywhere we go, people yell, 'Hey! Vancouver! You Canada?' and over and over. It gets really tiring! We were searching for a fruit stand, but so far we have found none. Tonight we are taking an overnight bus (I'm having flashback fears of the bus I took in Greece...) to get to the island Ko Tao. We leave at 6pm and arrive around 3 or 4am in the morning and then our ferry leaves for the island around 7am. The whole journey will cost us around $25 including the bus and ferry. It shall be interesting for sure. I think it's something like 500km from Bangkok to where we will then catch the ferry. I'm pretty excited to get to the beaches and out of smoggy Bangkok!

We bought our first drinks out of bags today and acted like crazy tourists taking pictures. The little lady selling them to us was very funny as well. We are looking forward to geting out of here and lying on the beach. It's time for a tan! (and maybe some scuba diving and some banana pancakes for sure!)

Bangkok, Day One

Day one. It's hot. Like really hot. We had the airconditioner on all night last night and as soon as we stepp out this morning it was stifeling again!! It's exactly like you seen in the movies here, people hustling you, trying to take you to their shops for cheap so they get a commission. It gets annoying constantly saying no and trying to get through the hoards.

We went to see the royal palace today. This picture is one of the many ornaments all along the side. It was so hot that we slugged our way through for a little bit and i felt like my sandles were melting on all the tiles. You have to take off your shoes before entering any temples and it's cool to walk around these huge buddist temples in bare feet. We then headed down the really long block to see the famous reclining buddha. It cost us 50 baht to get in, roughly $2. I had my first real padthai and a bottle of coke for lunch today all for 80 baht, ($2.80) and it was delicious and very filling! I am getting slightly hungry again, but after it being so hot and drinking so much water, I don't feel like eating much.

.We are heading south tomorrow sometime to the islands. Don't know which one yet, but we want to get out of the city and somewhere cooler where we can swim!! Anyway, it's time to get some dinner. I wanted to try uploading photos to see how they work...hopefully they will!

17 Hours later...

...and I'm here! And it's hot! Really really really hot. The first thing was the heat. It hit me like crazy as I stepped off the plane. The Bangkok airport is really nice too, a lot nicer than I was expecting it to be. Lindsey was at the Starbucks just like we had planned (Thank God) and I had a few more people in tow and we set off trying to get a cab, and somehow managed to get stuck on one level of the airport, not able to get back to where the taxis were waiting. That took us a bit of time to figure out, but once we did it was easy! Our taxi took us to Khao San and as soon as we got there we recognized it. Straight out of The Beach. Crazy. Busy, people everywhere, food, hawkers, people juggling crystal balls, advertising, cats, bars, loud music, drunks, stray dogs, hotels everywhere, and even mcdonalds subway and burger king. It's quite a sight. All of the tourists hanging around look like dirty hippies and it's easy to see why! Because it's so hot!!

Our room is tiny, but clean, and our double beds are pushed together to make one big one...it'll be a cozy night!! I'm happy we have our own bathroom and shower as well! I think that will be a luxury that we wont' be affording too much longer....

Anyway, it is 1am here and I'm feel pretty tired seeing how I barely slept all last night and lost a day in my travels. I am going to head back up to our room down the street and get ready for the first night in Bangkok!

Oh, and our hotel has free breakfast...how great is that!

The Plan

Today I found a flight that will take me to Bangkok in 19+ hours, stopping in Tokyo for a few of them.  It's cheaper than others, so I am happy about that.  In ten days I will be off! Hip Hip Horray!