May 17 – Beauty and the Beach

Koh Phi Phi is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. It’s a small island with hotels, bars, shops and restaurants on a thin strip of land and mountains on either side. The main area is made up of small streets and paths and there are no cars on the island, only bikes. We stayed in a small bungalow on the hill with views of the water. On the first night there were a bunch of centipede type bugs in the room and Jacob, trying to get me to overcome my fear of bugs, insisted that I remove them. It took almost half an hour to get up the courage but I finally picked them up with a piece of paper and threw them off the balcony. The next day we found out that these were poisonous and were told not to touch them if we see any! I’m never going close to a bug again, especially during our travels.

We took a day trip out to the neighbouring island (where The Beach was filmed) and spent the day chilling on various beaches (one of them had a bunch of monkeys on it). We went snorkelling were the fish would nibble on Jacob’s chest hair. We also hiked up one of the mountains, through the jungle to a viewpoint overlooking the island. The scenery here is amazing and the sunsets are unlike anything I’ve ever seen – the sky becomes almost red as the sun passes behind the clouds and mountains.  

Anyway, I guess this is the end of “vacation”. We leave for India tomorrow and I’m not sure what to expect but from what I’ve heard, Delhi is hectic and overwhelming (probably 100% worse than Dar es Salaam) and it’s suggested that women be covered head to toe. The second we get there I’m getting myself a Sari!

May 14 - Vacation

So we really don’t have much to say in this one. Thailand has been like a vacation since leaving Africa. We’ve just been wandering around, shopping, eating, drinking and taking in some sights. It’s been nice to relax but I was telling Lungi that I miss Africa where my body and mind were always stimulated. Here we can just float through the day without really thinking or working too hard – Thailand is really built for tourism. We spent some time in Bangkok and visited the Grand Palace before taking a quick trip up north to Chiang Mai where we just strolled through the streets and ate delicious food.

 

 

 

 

From Chiang Mai we headed south to Koh Phangnan and rented a scooter to explore the island. It’s nice and laid back here and we’re staying at a small bungalow on a beautiful stretch of beach facing Koh Samui. It’s the off season so we’re sharing the beach with only a few tourists. The full moon party is in a couple of days at which point the island will swell with tourists coming to party and sample the magical shakes. Unfortunately we’ll miss it as we’ll be heading to Koh Phi Phi (where the movie “The Beach” was filmed).

 

 

 

 

May 9 – Birthday in Thailand

Arriving in Thailand we immediately noticed a huge difference from Africa. There are a ton of tourists so we no longer stand out wherever we go, it is very developed, organized and built for tourism. We checked into the hotel, Jacob got his head shaved and then we decided to relax in the hotel as we were pretty tired from travelling for 20 hours. Our hotel is located on the main tourist street, Khao San Road, and our room was located pretty much on top of a very loud club. We couldn’t relax so we decided to head out and explore the night life. Khao San is lined with bars, shops, food stalls, massage parlours and at night, prostitutes. We went from bar to bar sampling the different bucket drinks and getting foot massages in between. It’ incredible how cheap it is here – a 1 hour massage costs about $6 and the two of us can eat delicious food all day long for under $15.  

Before

After (so handsome)

 

 

Every day we wake up, roam around the streets, look for somewhere to eat, get a massage, have a few drinks and shop. This has been or daily routine since we arrived except for yesterday…my birthday. Those who know Jacob well know he’s a hopeless romantic and loves to surprise me whenever he can no matter where in the world we are. He dragged me out of the budget hotel we were staying at and brought me to a suite in the 5-star Shangri-La hotel on the Chao Praya River. He then took me shopping (I think I went a little overboard because we now need another bag) and out for dinner at some fancy Thai restaurant with traditional dancing. Afterwards we made our way out to the clubs and proceeded to dance and drink until 4 in the morning – I haven’t done that in a loooooong time! On the way out of the club I got mistaken as Jacob’s Thai prostitute but I won’t go into detail on that.

Hotel lobby

View from our room

Our welcome fruit

Jacob obsessed with welcome fruit

 

Wasted!

Foot massage

Breakfast in bed