Reminiscing of Thailand

Wow, these past two weeks have been the best of my life! Thailand is an incredible country! It was amazing to spend two weeks making such wonderful memories with my hubby! Below are my general thoughts, feelings and reflections about Thailand and our vacation.

I'm officially addicted to:

• mangos (fresh fruit, smoothies, and mixed drinks)
• dragon fruit
• green coconut curry chicken (with at least two chillies - curry made from scratch) and a side of steamed rice
• Chang beer (haha yes this is a vacation addiction, but don't worry, they don't sell Chang in Canada)

Things that were interesting about Thailand:

• I am not sure why they have lines painted on the road... Drivers never stay between the lines. They also never signal when they are about to change lines. Sometimes they don't even drive on their side of the road. The driving is crazy! "Holy Shit" handles are necessary in every vehicle including tuk tuks! And they drive on the opposite side of the road!
• Going to the bathroom usually helps build your immunity system (yes, yuck!).  Toilet paper, toilet seats, soap, paper towels or a hand dryer, and free washrooms are things of luxury in Thailand. 
• In restaurants, be prepared that you will be served at a different time than those at your table with whom you are dining with. In Canada, everyone is served at the same time. People would feel rude if they started eating before you. This also means though that your food might not be as fresh as possible. In Thailand, they serve your food as soon as it is ready. Sometimes that meant I finished my entire meal before Jake even got his, or vice versa. 
• They have tuk tuks driving around cities advertising (on very loud speakers) their entertainment. This is similar to Las Vegas. "You see Maui Thai, you see Thailand" will forever ring through my head lol!
• The prominence of their sex industry. Every night we would see prostitutes being picked up, usually by white middle-aged men (sorry for the stereotype, just stating what we saw). Lady boys are also everywhere but sometimes hard to know for sure if it is a lady boy or woman. In some ways this seemed sad since they were part of the sex trade, but in other ways it was cool how accepted this third gender was in Thailand. It was also interesting how aware we were made of random places where the sex trade would happen. For example, we only got Thai massages at places with "no sex" signs (similar to "no smoking" signs at home). Generally, the sex industry was pretty prominent and evident, more so than any other country I have visited. I'm not sure what my conclusion is, I will need to educate myself more on the goods and bads before I make any judgements. For now, just an interesting impression of this country. 

Things I LOVE about Thailand:

• Thai people - they are amazingly kind and very non-judgemental. They are also very modest in their way of dressing, it was a refreshing change from North America and Europe. 
• Buddhism - I have always thought that Buddhism is an awesome religion but I believe so even more now after seeing how Buddists act and hearing what they think. Buddhism (from my perspective and very limited exposure) teaches people to not judge one another; to find happiness, but not based on material things; to reflect, meditate, and pray; and to be thankful for the gifts the world gives you (again, not materialistic). It's premises seem very basic but at the same time very difficult to actually live every day. Although Jake and I are Catholic, I am always going to keep these Buddhist teachings in mind in my everyday life. 
• Thai food in general - omg we ate sooo much! The food is just delicious!! I will forever be addicted and I'm seriously afraid for my waistline lol!
• Thailand's sun, heat, salty water (wow it's salty - floating takes no effort), and beautiful scenery. Generally it is the most beautiful country I have ever seen!
• The diversity and differences between cities. In every city we went to, there were major differences - from the food, to the drinks, to the scenery, to the people, to the architecture, etc. It made our trip very interesting!
• Elephants and peacocks! They have always been some of my favourite animals, but are definately second to dogs now! They are also Thai's national animals. Just beautiful creatures!
• Thai's love for the Royal family; particularly the King who has done a lot for the Thai people. He sounds like he has qualities like Princess Diana. 
• Asian airlines (Air Asia, Bangkok Airways) - they are cheap and have the best in flight service (meals and drinks served even on 1/2 hour flights) - they also have boutique lounges to wait in (with free wifi) even when you are economy class.
• Thai foot massages. They are so... affordable ($5-10 per 1 hour massage)! Your feet and legs feel amazing afterwards, like you could run a marathon! They are everywhere so you can always stop in for one!
• Free wifi, everywhere!
• And the list goes on...

Overall, this was by far the best trip of my life! Jake also feels the same! We made some many incredible memories and we are so fortunate to be able to have these opportunities. Travelling always reminds me of how blessed I am and how thankful I should be for the little things at home. I will forever be grateful for Thailand's hospitality and I will cherish these memories for my entire life!

Now, when can we go back? :-)

Day 16: The Journey Home

Well we woke up at 5 AM to head to the Bangkok airport for 6 AM. Our first flight to Hong Kong left at 8:30 AM.

We got to Hong Kong at 12:30 PM Thailand time, 1:30 PM Hong Kong time. We wasted some time on wifi and then enjoyed our "Easter dinner" at the airport before our final flight to Toronto which left at 5:30 PM. 

The flight was 15 hours but because of the time change, we arrived in Toronto at 8:30 PM.

The Hardonk fam jam picked us up from the airport and we did 1/2 the trek home to Brighton. We had a nice little welcome party! You would have though we were gone for a long time! Hehe :-)

On Sunday we picked up our fur baby Tobi from the Reath residence and completed the other 1/2 of the drive home to Ottawa. What a whirlwind of travels, overall review to be posted shortly!

Day 15: Patong Beach Part II

This was our last official day in Thailand. We were so sad to be leaving this incredible country but we made the most of this last day! Definitely not ready to go but unfortunately our vacation time from work was over. 

We had breakfast and made our way to Patong Beach. Basically a mirror image to our day yesterday (day 14) - relaxing, drinking, swimming, tanning and eating! 

 

After our day at the beach, we made our way to Phuket's airport by taxi. We flew to Bangkok where we stayed for one last night before our long trek home. 

This has officially been the best trip of our lives! I can't believe how much all our planning paid off and how seamless everything was - there were literally no kinks in our travels. Just the best time ever with the love of my life! I will post a full review in another blog post! :-)

Day 14: Patong Beach

So this is going to be a really exciting blog post! (*Reath sarcasm warning*) Well in reality, it wasn't "exciting" but it was incredibly relaxing and an amazing way to finish off our vacation! What did we do on day 13? 

Slept in. Really late. Ate breakfast. Went to beach. Swam in beach. Had a Siesta on beach. Peed in water. Tanned on loungers. Drank beers on beach. Peed in water. Tanned on loungers. Watched parasailers who had Thai guys hanging on (with no harness) to the parasail to guide it along. Tanned in loungers. Drank Mai Thais and Piña Colodas on beach. Peed in water. Ate lunch on beach. Tanned on loungers. Soaked up every bit of sun and heat in hopes to bring some back to Canada with us!

Now that brings us to about 6 PM! What an amazingly relaxing day!!! We were so happy we were spending our last few days relaxing before heading home!

After our beach day, we went back to our hotel room to clean ourselves up. We had dinner at a nice restaurant near our hotel. 

We started with chicken satay and peanut sauce (delicious)! 

Jake ordered minced pork with basil and garlic while I ordered my absolute favourite green coconut curry chicken with steamed rice. 

I have also been obsessed with the fresh mangos in Thailand! I have been eating mangos and drinking fresh mango juice everyday, so when I saw a mango cocktail at this restaurant, I had to go for it! 

After dinner, we did a bit of shopping and then treated ourselves to Thai foot massages. These were definitely the best Thai foot massages we had yet!!! Our feet felt amazing afterwards. 

We ended the night by heading to the Irish pub where our new friend Ayden was playing again. We hung out with him for the evening and then went back to have a great sleep before or last day in Thailand (tear). 

Day 13: Phuket Sail Tours (PST) & Patong Nightlife

We woke up today for another early morning start at 6:00 AM. We quickly got ready, enjoyed some breakfast and coffee from the Holiday Inn, and were picked up by 7:00 AM. Our driver took us to a pier at the north east end of Phuket where we boarded a speedboat owned by PST (I would high recommend this tour provider if you are in Phuket). 

We started the day by going to a gorgeous white sand beach in Krabi. It was breathtaking! White sand beaches, clear water, surrounded by lush large mountains popping out of the water, and the water was as calm as can be! We spent almost an hour there swimming and sun bathing, while some others on our tour went snorkelling. We ran into a few jelly fish, but not too many that it was disturbing to our swim. 

Next stop was the Big Buddha Tree which is a 1,000 year old bodhi tree (a sacred tree in Thailand). To get there, we pulled up to a beach where we took a 10 minute walk through the jungle. We literally had to walk along a tiny path made of tiny bamboo boards until we got to the tree. We learnt about the history of Buddhism which began when a man (big Buddha) wanted to find enlightenment so he left his prized life and went to sit under a bodhi tree. He spent quite a bit of time there and learnt many life lessons. He then began teaching those to anyone who also wanted to find enlightenment. This, the beginning of Buddhism. 

We took a quick pit stop at "James Bond Island" (famed for the movie set of "Man with the Golden Gun"). This is just a big rock, among many in Phagnan Bay, so it didn't seem anymore exciting compared to the rest of the scenery. PST is a great tour provider because they know this so we only drive by in the boat to take a few quick pictures. The beach is also extremely touristy so PST avoided these locations and took us to more quite and less disturbed areas - something we really appreciated!

We took another quick pit stop at Kao

Kee-un (drawing mountain) which are some caves where there are ancient paintings made by the gypsy tribes in Thailand. These gypsy tribes still live in areas like this in Thailand. 

After that we visited Panyi Village in Phangan Nga Bay. This is the Muslim village on stilts built along the side of one of the beautiful mountains. It has a population of roughly 1,700.  Sometimes this is referred to as the "Venice of the East," similar to the canal homes in Bangkok. It was here that we had lunch (Massunan Curry, Tom Kha Gai (chicken and coconut soup), stir fried veggies in oyster sauce, curried crab, fresh battered coconut prawns, battered chicken, chicken and cashew nuts, and of course steamed rice! Check out YouTube for some really cool videos on this island, especially the story of kids who built a famous floating soccer field! 

Next we were taken on a 45 minute canoe trip around Hong Island where we were guided through caves and into other lagoons. Our canoe guide have me a homemade flower :-)

We ended our day at a smaller beach when the tide was partially out and we walked through some caves. One of the caves took us to a lagoon where we saw many little creatures including walking fish, more formerly known as mud skippers! Evolution is an amazing thing! These fish swim and breath like normal fish when the tide comes into the lagoon but when the tide is out they breath fresh air and walk on land with their little legs!

After a great day, at around 5:00 PM we were dropped back off at our hotel. More pictures to come from this day, but they are all on our good camera and GoPro right now. 

After being dropped off, we got cleaned up and walked around Patong Beach and some of the main streets. We had a delicious dinner at The Tiger! Jake had sweet and sour chicken with rice while I had grilled duck breast with coconut curry and rice. We also had some breaded prawns, beers and vino!

I am also addicted to fresh mango smoothies so I enjoyed one for dessert! 

Next we took a walk down to Bangala Road. Holy crap this is the Vegas of the east! I think it seemed a little crazier than Bangkok but it was good since it was secluded to one street. 

We quickly left there and went to get one hour Thai foot massages! Again, these are dirt cheap here ($8 each). 

With refreshed feet, we walked down to the beach to enjoy some long islands! It started raining so as we were walking back home, we ran across a little dive Irish pub with live music! The singer/guitarist was awesome! After two weeks do searching for my "travelling song" I was finally able to get someone to play "Sweet Home Alabama" for me! Lisa and Lukas, I have a video for you kids!

We even found some cider which was surprisingly delicious! 

After a long amazing day and super fun evening, we called it quits around 2:30 AM. And yes... We caved and had McDonalds delivered! Best idea ever! LOL

Day 12: Koh Phagnan to Koh Samui to Phuket

We slept in a little at Coral Bungalows to quickly recover after the FMP! Our taxi picked us up at 11 AM to take us to Haad Rin Pier. From there, all the FMPers crammed on the 11:40 ferry like sardines!   It was an hour long hot, sweaty, crowded ferry ride, but I'm not complaining! I know it was snowing in Canada so we soaked up every minute of that sunshine and heat! After taking the ferry to Big Buddha Pier on Koh Samui, we took a taxi ride to the Koh Samui airport. That airport is the nicest airport we have ever seen!

It seemed like an outdoor Florida outlet shopping centre surrounded by lush gardens smelling of roses and lilacs, but it was the airpor! Every "gate" was its own little tiki hut. Canadian airlines really need to take some notes from Asian airlines. We were flying economy but our economy tiki hut had free wifi, popcorn, sandwiches and drinks. To board the plane, we hopped on a little trolly cart which took us to the outside runway to board the propeller aircraft. 

Excuse the baldness, that's my hangover hair being hidden!

During a 30 minute flight to Phuket we were served drinks and a full meal! After arriving in Phuket, we took a 45 minute cab to our hotel. For the last 4 days of our trip we decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel. I know "Holiday Inn Express" isn't a "luxury" hotel in North America, but it certainly felt like it for us after staying in hostels and guesthouses for the last 2 weeks! We were oogling over the pool, loungers, and little things like toilet paper, hot water, and elevators! Haha! The hotel is also known as "Patong Beach Central" since it is a 2 minute walk to Patong Beach!

Here are some photos of the pool taken later in the evening:

Once we were checked in, we went for a dip in our pool to catch the remaining rays for the day. Then we decided to get cleaned up for a "fancy" dinner. We ate at  "76 Bar, Drink & Dine" which was a nice sit down restaurant - very different from all the street meat we have been eating! 

I think our eyes were bigger than our stomachs because we ordered an appetizer to share, Caesar salad, and pasta as our main. 

We also had some vino (a first for this trip - Thai beer has been our go to so wine was a nice change) and Long Island Iced Teas (cheers to you Mitch, Lukas and Ryan). 

After those long islands, we were pooped, so we went to bed loving every second of the comfy cozy Holiday Inn bed!