Songkhla, Ko Lipe and Krabi, Thailand

After the islands, it was so refreshing to go to a place where there were very few other tourists. In fact, I didn't meet any other tourists, only old, fat, Enlgish guys who were living in Songkhla because they couldn't get girlfriends back home. Ok, I know, I am judging, but seriously, it was disgusting a trend all over Thailand, you see these old fat foggies with young beautiful Thai women all over them and every one of them says they LOVE Thailand... gimme a break.

Anyway, Songkhla was nice. I stayed in a really cute guest house where the dad cut me fresh mangos and watermelon everyday. The city is surrounded by water, but it wasn't good for swimming, which was a bit annoying since it was SO hot. But I dealt with it and drank a lot of water (and beer).

View of Songkla from peak

While I was there, it was the Thai new year known as Songkran. Hah, it was hilarious. Basically you poor water on everyone and say happy new year and then rub powder on their cheeks. It lasts all day and people are just soaked and dancing and drinking and eating. I wandered around and having been in town for two days already, I knew a few people so it turned out to be a really fun day!

My company

My weapon

I left the next day to head to the west coast. There is a national park off the shore known as Tarutao National Park. It doesn't allow building on these islands so they are very isolated and beautiful. I stayed the first night on the main island in a tent right on the beach and remembered how boring camping by yourself is. But I read, sewed my pants, read some more... I really wish I hadn't lost my iPod, its killing me. The next day I rented a bike and rode to the next beach over which was really nice and I was the only person on the beach, which again, sounds cool but got pretty boring pretty quick.

My tent

I headed out to the touristy island known as Ko Lipe. Its what Ko Samui used to be probably 20 years ago. There is no road and you can walk from one end of the island to the next in about 15 minutes. I stayed on the quiet beach but walked to the popular (more expensive end) both nights. I met an English girl and an Austrian girl, so we hung out and explored. The snorkeling was really nice and the beaches were perfect. I loved Ko Lipe and I would recomend it to couples in particular because it was quite romantic and there were lots of stuff to do... obviously, it made me miss my man!

Beautiful Beach

Beach Bungalows for pennies (but not for long)

The beach I stayed on (Sunset Beach)

After the past few days on the islands, it was time to head to the main land. I went to Krabi thinking I would go straight to the beaches there, but Krabi was actually a pretty cool town and I stayed there for three nights. I shared a room with Julia (the Austrian girl), which was really cheap and we did so much during the day that going to the beaches just seemed boring! The first evening we just walked around and explored, went to a bar where we met some people and decided to all hang out the next day. So the next day, we all rented a longtail boat (thanks to Nui who owns Up2U hostel, best place in Krabi) and headed out to these really isolated islands where we just cruised around all afternoon. Probably one of my favorite days so far.

At the night market, I thought this picture was hilarious cause I look disgusting and sweaty and I am shoving food in my face while the guy just laughs. Priceless picture.

View from our boat

Eating watermelon in an isolated lagoon.

Hong Island

So after such an amazing, day I thought it would be hard to beat, but the next day Julia and I rented motorbikes (both of us being pretty nervous about riding) and rode out to a waterfall outside Krabi. We hung out there for a while which was so refreshing compared to the luke warm water of the ocean. After that we took the bikes exploring and found a cave that you could walk through. This little girl guided us through the cave which was sooo cool! There were a ton of bats and bugs so it smelled pretty bad, but we went really deep in and it was so eeried and cool, glad we went even though my stupid camera broke in the cave.

Waterfall

Bat Cave

Julia and Me after the cave and we wiped the bat poop off

I was scheduled to leave the next morning, Monday, to head to Phuket to catch a flight to Indonesia. We had so much fun on the bikes that we decided to wake up early the next day and take another trip to a local temple. We got there a little after 7am and hiked up 1,200 something steps to get to the top. It was amazing. The view overlooked the ocean and the big buddha was really spectacular.

Buddha

We said our good-byes and I said goodbye to Thailand. My last day in Thailand was one of the roughest I have had. I don't know whether I was exhausted, affected by the heat or just had too many things go wrong in the past 3 weeks, but I broke down. Poor Gary had to read my MISERABLE emails and deal with all my whining. But no matter how bad it gets, I have to remember that I am very lucky to be here. There are so many people in this world who won't ever get to leave their small village and here I am travelling all over the world. So motorbike crash, broken doors, broken cameras, etc, its all ok. I am very lucky and thankful to be where I am.

Off to Indonesia!

Bangkok and the Islands

On the plane from Hong Kong to Bangkok, I sat next to this guy who literally had a piece of snot coming out of his nose all the way to his lap, it was disgusting/incredible. Anyway, got to Bangkok and headed to Kho San Road and holy crap, I have never seen so many tourists in one area ever in my life. Everyone in that part of town is white. I noticed this seems to be a trend here in Thailand, tons and tons and tons of tourists.

Bangkok is HUGE! Its also very hot at the moment, but that didnt stop me from exploring. I did the touristy things, went to the lying Buddha, the Kings Palace and took a water taxi thing. Bangkok is pretty cool. Its really cheap and there is a ton of shopping. Good thing its my last stop before home :)

Kings Palace

Palace

More palace

So much detail!

Enormous Buddha

Some Wats

Water taxi

I had to head down to the islands in the southeastern part of Thailand cause I wanted to go to the full moon party. I arrived in Kho Tao and again, all white people. At this point, I am realizing it is extremely hard to meet people in places like this. Everyone is on vacation with their friends, there are very few backpackers, and the ones you do meet, I wasnt really impressed with (that sounds so snobby, but trust me, its true). I had to have a day alone just to take time to come to terms with the fact that this is different than South America and the people I meet are going to be different and there are going to be a lot, a lot of tourists from here on out. But thats ok, I can find places that make me happy, because its my trip!

Kho Tao was ok. I tried to learn how to ride a scooter but about a minute after I got on the bike I ran directly into a brand new truck and had to pay him $200!!! I need a little more practice on those things.

Kho Tao

After 2 days in Kho Tao, I headed to Kho Phanghan to make sure I got a room for the full moon party. I met these two English fellows in the cab and we decided to share a room. The room was expenisve, but it had AC and a TV and was right in town. The beach we stayed at was crowded and not that nice. I went up north one day to check out the other beaches, but to get around this island is expensive too. Obviously, I am not a big fan of this portion of the trip.

So every night, we went to the beach, drank some buckets, danced, played with fire, and just hung out. Buckets are dangerous!

Roomates and Buckets

Fire Limbo

Haad Yao Beach

I don't have any pictures of the Full Moon Party because I didn't want to bring my camera, but basically, I hung out alone all night. The boys I was with met these 18 year old sweedish girls and I was not really enjoying their company so I was like, ok, peace out, I am going to explore. I walked around all night, met people, danced, but its pretty boring when you don't have any friends and I couldn't find anyone I had met this past week. At one point, one of the roomies, found me and told me that he and the other roomate got into a fight and he had been in the ER the past few hours because he got his ear bit off!! He was really pissed off and had his pack with him because he was like "I can't stay with that asshole tonight". I went back at around sunrise and passed out. Woke up at 11, the guys had to catch an early boat so the remaining fellow left before I woke up. So when I went to check out, I got stuck with a $200 bill for the broken door! I was so fucking pissed off I just started bawling. I already don't like this place and then all that happened. Leaving on a 7am boat tomorrow to get very far away from here. It wasn't all bad, but looking forward to a new location.

End of South America, starting Asia in Hong Kong and China

After Taganga, I had only a few days left in Colombia before leaving South America, it was kind of sad! I went to Cartegena, which is a beautiful spanish style city right on the ocean. I just hung out there, walked around, ate, walked around some more, you know, the usual stuff.

Town

Really nice buildings

Right outside of Cartegena is this mud volcano, where you climb in with a bunch of other people, get a massage from a local guy, and float around in the mud. It was hilarious. The mud was so thick that even though there was no bottom, you just float, it was awesome.

Me and the Irish covered in mud

So then it was adios South America and home for a few days. I went to Miami with Gary and we ripped it up. Miami is really pretty, I don't think I ever realized that. Saw my friend Rachael from BU which was really nice. She took us out on her big ass boat and got to catch up. After Miami, headed to Austin for some family time! Always nice to go home, but even better when it is SXSW. Carly took a day off to come hang out with me and we checked out the music scene. After Austin, headed to San Francisco where I saw Michelle and Courtney and Gary came out again. We explored SF, ripped it up some more. It was actually an amazing trip back in the states, it was so good to see everyone!

And then it was off to Hong Kong!! Apparently, hostels in HK are really sketchy and still expensive so I decided to couch surf. I stayed with Joy and Ben, both from Texas but out in HK teaching English. They were incredibly nice. I didn't hang out with them too much since they worked during the day, but I am very grateful for them letting me stay on their couch!! Hong Kong is awesome! It was rainy and cloudy when I was there, but still an amazing city. Its so lively and so big and really pretty. It was Rugby Sevens weekend so there were a lot of people in town, which I want to go to maybe in 2011... whose with me?

I spent my days in Hong Kong walking around. There are some cool sites to see, but its mostly shopping. I met up with an old co-worker for lunch, twice. We had some authentic local cuisine including dim sum, noodles soup and congee.

I also met up with a guy I knew from Boston (friend of a friend) and we went out on Thursday night and I almost missed my train to China cause I was having so much fun until like 6am! And I was the first to leave!

Temple

Busy city center

Inside the temple

My cloudy city view from the peak

View from apartment I stayed in

Near the airport, there is a giant buddha statue. I was excited because I thought it was going to be this ancient masterpiece, but when I got there, its a little touristy area with shops and the buddha was only built like 20 years ago! Hah. It was still pretty cool, but not as cool as I had thought it was going to be.

Buddha

So I left Hong Kong on Friday morning and took the train to go see Stella!! (my grandma). She had a whole gang with her when she met me at the train station. She looks so good and healthy and happy, it was so good to see her.

Granparents

First lunch with family

From the border, we took another train back into Guangzhou where she lives. We walked around the neighborhood and then ate again. Ugh, the food on this part of the trip was absolutely amazing. I could talk for hours about how much I loved the food, I definitely did not go hungry. After dinner we drove around the city to see it at night, its actually a pretty cool place. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it very much.

Guangzhou at night

We spent the next day walking around the city, seeing the sights. On Sunday we went to her vacation home a little outside of the city, hung out there, ate, drove around. It was nice. On Monday we walked around some more, saw where she used to live and where my mom grew up. Then we got massages and sang karaoke, which was hilarious. It was really cool. I really had a good time with her.

Buddhas

At the vacation home

Picking out lunch

Karaoke!

Last night dinner with the whole family!

And then it was off to Thailand!