Ko Samui to Ko Phangan

Our Room at Plaa's Bungalows... the best room EVER

We had an interesting start to trying to get to Ko Phangan. It consisted of Andy and Tommy staying out all night and then Andy trying not to sleep at all. This didn’t last long and he was out cold pretty fast around 9am. At noon, when we had to check out and get a taxi to the boat to Ko Phangan he refused to get out of bed. It wasn’t pretty but we got him up. He then slept on the lounge chairs as we waited for the taxi and on the boat. Now the boat was over crowded, like there were probably 50 people on there that shouldn’t have been. We had to sit/stand on the lower deck in the aisle between the rows of seats.

Not happy on the boat

When we arrived in Ko Phangan we were all pretty hungry and went straight to Same-Same Burger. Pretty good for a thai burger. Then Andy and I took off to find the 7-11 with no success, but we did find a stupid lady driving a tuktuk who agreed to drive us to the other side of the island to our bungalows.
The drive was interesting- the roads were a combination of paved and dirt, with the dirt roads having the worst water damage EVER. Like giant groves criss-crossed the road where the rain water had run down it. It was amazing that the tuktuk didn’t break an axle and that none of us or our bags fell out.

Rough Ride

When we arrived we marched along the beach, through the cave in the rocks, and up a thousand steps to the reception and restaurant of Plaa’s Than Sadet. The view from up there was spectacular.

View from Plaa's back towards the island

Plaa himself showed us to our rooms; Andy picked the first room but I quickly no we want that one, to the one that was a little in front of the first and had a hammock. We quickly decided it was the best room in the world. The bed was even complete with a classic mosquito net hanging from the ceiling! I already didn’t want to leave before we’d even spent the first night there.
To be continued…

Welcome to my Paradise... Ko Samui!

Chaweng Beach... with fresh pineapple

Ko Samui is what I've been waiting for this entire trip: white sand beaches, tourquois water, and palm trees all at Thailand prices!
So far all we've done is beached it up and zoomed around on our bikes. And I think that's all we'll do for the 4 nights we're here. We've been eating well as well- the boys usually getting stupid big seafood platters, myself sticking to amazing thai currys. Mmmmm.

Some volleyball

Our matching bikes

After a day at the beach we decided to go for a little ride on the bikes. We ended up finding the Big Buddah. We also ended up running over a huge drill bit and popping our tire. You would not believe how big this thing was. Luckily there was a bike shop just past the place where we hit the drill bit... or was that a set-up?

Big Buddah

A gorgeous Ko Samui sunset

The drillbit we ran over

Seafood platter... this was part of a 950B meal for 2 people (thats about $30CAD)

One more thing... today at the beach a small child, a one year to be exact, started playing with our volleyball. Shortly after his dad/caretaker came over and started talking to us. It started out normal enough telling us the kids name etc and led to him trying to sell us weed, fair enough, but after we refused that he, in all seriousness, offered to sell us the baby for 1 million baht. No thanks. Picture of child for sale to come.

Return to Thailand... the Epic Journey

Crossing the Mekong back into Thailand

After another night in the big city it was time to say Goodbye to Lao and head back to Thailand and allllll the way down to Ko Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.

The first leg of our trip was a minivan to the border. At the border we went through the Lao check point and hopped on a ghetto thai bus to cross the bridge over the Mekong. Since it was a beautiful day we saw a lot more going over the bridge compared to the way into the country when it was rainy and gross. Off that bus and through Thai immigration and then the search for a lift to the Udon Thani airport. We thought we could catch the same airport operated shuttle that we took there but there were none to be found. Instead a few taxi guys approached us and we quickly agreed on a good price for the one hour drive (cheaper than on the way there, point us). Our ride ended up being a ute (pick up truck) with an extended cab, but only so much extended that 4 of us could sit inside, the other four eagerly got to sit in the back with the bags. They weren't the happiest 3 after that hour of 100km/h speeds. Since this leg of the journey went so smoothly we arrived at the Udon airport almost 3 hours before our flight and had to sit around an hour before we could even check-in, and then another until we could go through security (small airport: 2 gates). BUT the plus side to this was the DAIRY QUEEN in the airport. The ice cream even tasted like real DQ soft serve, amazing!

Back seat riders

DQ, that's what I like about Texas, I mean Thailand...

Eventually it was time to fly and our flight was on time and short. We arrived in Bangkok, got our shit, and went to find a taxi or something to the train station. We ended up getting the Airport Express bus for pretty cheap and our driver was like bat out of hell. Weeeeeeeee!
Once at the train station thins started to take a turn for the not so good. First we learned that the last train that night, at 10:50pm (it was almost 8:30 by this point), was not a sleeper aka it only had seats no beds! Also, this train got into Surat Thani after the last bus had left to the pier so if we took it we'd have to find our own way there. The train people told us to go to this travel agency and try to get the bus which would take us straight to the pier. We did and they told us the bus only had two seats (we're a group of 7) and then tried to sell us a 1500baht (about $50) package of train and fast boat to Ko Samui. Fuck that we said and went back to get train tickets. The train ticket guy tried us to take this fast boat for 1500B as well but we told him no and got the train and slow boat for 1180B. Sorted.
We spent the next 2 hours finding dinner (the KFC attached to the station was out of chicken! so the boys took tuktuks to a MacDee's but of course the tuktuk driver took them to Seafood restaurant b/c like the suit places if they bring customers they get free fuel vouchers. They eventually got their big macs) and waiting. The train was a little late but only by about 15 minutes. We border and drank the beer we'd brought on and then tried to sleep in the uncomfortable seats.
At a little after 6am the train stopped at our station: Chumpon, and we got off and tried to find our boat company who would take us to the pier and put us on the boat. Well we found him and he had more bad news: our boat had been cancelled due to big waves in the gulf. His english was poor and he didn't seem quite legit, he wanted 150B ($5) from each of us to get us upgraded to take the fast boat, so we ended up squeezing on to a tuktuk with some other people. We arrived at the pier for the fast boat and were told the same thing by the people there: pay another 150B each to get on this boat. We thought this was bullshit; the company that ran the slow boat should of paid for our upgrade b/c they'd cancelled our boat, but that company's representative was long gone. We grudgingly paid the money since we really had no other choice, unless we wanted to spend a day in Chumpon, but we had a reservation at a hotel in Samui. On the positive side the fast boat to the island would get us there in about half the time.

The fast boat pier at Chumpon

On the boat we all slept most of the time despite it being a gorgeous day and at around 11am arrived at the pier on Ko Samui where we then negotiated our final leg: taxi to our hotel at Cheweng Beach. Easy as. About 20minutes later we were checking into our hotel- Laem Din Hotel, the nicest one yet- and unpacking our bags. The next four days will be spent doing nothing but beaching it up!

Our hotel room at Laem Din Hotel

Back to the Capital

Because we had a flight to catch back to Bangkok our time in Lao was limited. That meant we had to get from Luang Prabang back to Vientiane in one shot. So that meant a 9 hour bus ride. Of course the day we did this was the most beautiful we’d seen in Lao yet- it hurt a little to drive through Vang Vieng and know it was a perfect tubing day. The good thing about the bus was that Andy and I had front row seats in the top level of the beast and our driver knew how to go fast. Lunch of Lao food at a roadside eatery was included and it was surprisingly good. I enjoyed most the drive, there was so much to look out at, be it beautiful scenery, village happenings, Lao children doing something funny, or animals blocking the road. Back in Vientiane we got a hotel and went to eat and spend the rest of our kip, the Lao currency. You get a bad exchange rate on it if you try to exchange it back into something else so the best thing is to just spend what you’ve got.

Luang Prabang

We spent 3 nights in LP and sun only came out on our last day. It was freezing without the sun! I could see my breath! The first day a few of us went to see the big temple on the top of the hill and then took a tuktuk to Kuang Si Waterfall. Everyone else was sick with bad stomachs and most likely TD. Luang Prabang had a cool night market that I went to a few times and a bowling alley! Hahaha. Because it was so cold we all kind of went into hibernation mode and wanted to huddle under the nice duvets of our beds. I was going to do an elephant safari/ride type thing but I would’ve froze and not enjoyed it.

Kaung Si Waterfall... not the big part

Dumpling... maybe the best thing ever.

Part of the temple on the hill in LP

More Temple

Going up the hill to the temple

Six and a half hours

Both nearish to Vang Vieng

After Vang Vieng we headed to Luang Prabang in a minivan. It took 6 and a half hours. Our driver sucked. He would coast as much as he possibly could to save fuel, even if it meant we were going along at 20kmh. It was a beautiful drive though, all through the mountains and past many small Lao villages.

Vang Vieng: The Happiest Place on Earth

Our "VIP" bus to VV

On our second day in Lao we took the afternoon “VIP” bus to Vang Vieng. It’s only about 150km but it takes 3 hours, especially when your “VIP” bus looks like it’s about 100 years old and all the baggage is strapped on the roof. We found a hotel and chilled out in preparation of the coming 2 days.... of tubing!

Tubing in Lao is a little bit like the Texas version. Same in that you pay money to rent a tube and get a ride to a point further up river. Different in that you are barely on your tube and can see the end point from the beginning; there are bars all along the river; the bars all have a zipline, rope swing, or slide into the river; and well that’s it really. So we did that 2 days in a row. The weather was unagreeable, it was overcast and since Lao is in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s November no sun = not warm. The second day we all shivered our way down the river but luckily most bars have a big fire warm yourself at. 3 of our group pussed out and didn’t come the second day, but Ben and his g/f showed up and came instead. We spent a lot of that 2nd say at the bar with the monkey. It was a little gray monkey with a long tail and really creepy looking eyes. We ended the last day at the big slide. This was a mistake. I landed funny and knocked the wind out of myself and felt like a walking, talking bruise for the next days… but looking back I still would’ve done it.

View down river from the first bar

First zipline of the day

The first bar later on...

The slide on Day 1- didn't hurt.

Day Two

First Beer Lao of the day... 1pm

Monkey trying to drink free whiskey shots... he succeeded but I wasn't fast enough with the camera

Mud volleyball

In the mud pit... it was almost 7ft deep!

Near the end, about to go on a rope swing