Sawadee ka : Thailand ॐ

I would be lying if I said that South East Asia was not an eye opener.

I was a bit naïve in thinking that it wouldn’t be too different from home, but I was not expecting what I saw.

We arrived into Bangkok & went walk-about on our first evening there. We were about 30 minutes skytrain out of the city center on Sukhumvit Road (which heads up is a bloody long road stretching at least half the central city). The first impression of Bangkok was not a good one. It smelt, there was food all over the road & pathway, everyone looked like they needed a shower and it was just so loud! After a 12 hour flight all we wanted to do was eat, but after walking the street my appetite was well suppressed. New Years eve we had booked in at a roof top bar & lordy that was a muck around. We turned up & the time we booked was prior to opening and they had no clue about the drink vouchers they had given us, so Marc got annoyed and we left. Money in hand, 9pm on New Years Eve & no idea where to celebrate the coming year we decided to venture down to Khao San Road – Backpacking center of Bangkok- where we walked up and down the strip trying to decide which bar we should venture into. All had ladyboys as waitresses, loud music and many patrons. We decided on one & spent the entire night there, even made friends with the couple next to us – who I still occasionally keep in touch with now. Overall we spent around 5 days in Bangkok, which was more then enough for me.

Second stop of our Thailand adventure was Chiang Mai. A city in Northern Thailand which is well known for the Elephants & tours. It may be a large city but the center is “Old Town” surrounded by a mote & old wall ruins. It has this awesome charm about it & was by far my favorite place. Day 1 we managed to get screwed over by an “Information Center” where they booked us on an Elephant Tour Day, but had booked us into a different cheaper scam company. In the end we managed to go to the one we had intended to go to & oh my lord. Spending the day with the Elephants is one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced. EVER! They are such a charming animal as they are extremely intelligent, but yet so friendly and quaint. People aren’t lying when they call them gentle giants. We made friends with a lovely couple from Canada Jer & Jill, who will feature again in my posts. The next couple of days were spent wandering the city seeing all the local temples & catching up with our flatmates from home! Who would have thought that you’d run into the girls you live with in NZ halfway across the world. We ventured out to what is known as the Grand Canyon of Chiang Mai. It’s an old quarry where the miners dug too deep so it natural filled up with water, and is now a very popular tourist destination, as you can jump of different cliff tops into this cold, deep blue water. To anyone travelling here I would highly recommend going there.

As any traveler going through Thailand you always go to Phuket. We spent most of our time here on a road called Soi tad-ied which is full of Muay Thai, and Crossfit gyms. So naturally Marc & myself did those. We stayed in this amazing resort bungalows which served all healthy & natural meals, multiple swimming pools & within walking distance to the gyms. We ventured up to the “Big Buddah” up on top of the mountains and he is massive! It was an amazing feeling being up there looking over Phuket surrounded by monks & hearing their prayers over the loud speakers. At the base of the Big Buddah there were small bells you could purchase- which went to the restration of the buddah- and could write a message ( as you can see in the picture with this post). Most of my days were spent either training Crossfit, doing Yoga or relaxing by the pool while Marc went and did his MMA training.

As any tourist does we went over to Koh Phi Phi. These Islands are amazingly beautiful. I can see why it is seen as one of the best travel destinations in Thailand. Unfortunately for me as I had spent the previous days doing both Crossfit & Yoga, I had given myself heat exhaustion & spent the next day or so (including the ferry ride) in agony & unable to eat or drink. We were staying away from the islands hustle & bustle on Long Beach (super original name there), which had amazing views of the smaller islands where The Beach was filmed. On the full day that we were there we got a Dragon Boat Tour out to Koh Phi Phi Lei where The Beach was filmed. We went snorkeling in a cove and swam among fish. This is also another of the best experiences of my life, surrounded by hundreds of small tropical fish which aren’t even bothered by your presence. We stopped off at Monkey Beach, which as the name suggests is full of the cheeky buggers. One guy even gave a monkey a beer and sat down next to him drinking his own. It was like they were down at the local pub. The ride back to the main island still resides in my best memories. The sun setting on the horizon with gorgeous oranges, pinks and purples scattering the skyline, in this small dragon boat drinking beers with the Canadian friends and Marc.

After leaving Koh Phi Phi we were back in Phuket training for a futher few days before flying over to another island- Koh Samui. Unfortunately we had missed the Full Moon Party which was over on the sister island of Koh Phangan . We were staying on the southern coast of the island which was surrounded by jungle. So we had to hire scooters to travel around on. Marc is not a small man so it was rather hilarious to see him driving around on a small scooter. We went up to the Na Muang Falls which are in the center of the Island , where the larger of the two is around 80m tall. We climbed to the top of that and it was breathe-taking! Another day was spent on a tour going out to the Anthong National park. Where we kayaked around the coves, climbed to the green lagoon, climbed up the islands highest point and looked over the park (the photo of this features on my main page). I fell in love with that view. The climb however was a mission, as it was not a path, but more tree roots, large rocks and then rocks which were very jaggered and full of many crevaces. On our last full day we went and caught up with Jer & Jill on the northern side of the island and had a few beers & a swim. The ride home was where the fun began. Due to the time of night Marc & I decided to take a “short-cut” through the middle of the island rather than around where all the traffic was. Worst Idea ever. Desolate roads surround by enormous palm trees, also rain. This road had long flats but also very very steep hills which our scooters struggled to go up and then also down where we were very much almost at snails pace. One local passed us on the windy roads going atleast 100km on wet slippery roads while we were going a weak 20km.

On our final days we spent wandering around Bangkok again, killing time & just relaxing. The last day came and Marc had to fly out a few more hours than me. Saying Goodbye to him was hard as I knew I wouldn’t see him for nearly 2 months, and after living together and seeing him for 20 days straight, I got emotional. I then had to spend 6 hours in Bangkok International airport by myself until I could fly off to my next adventure. All by myself. Alone.