Last day in Thailand

We spent our day in Phuket packing up and getting the last of the sunshine.

We headed into old town to find a restaurant that was closed on Monday. We arrived at the cook. A Thai Italian chef that worked at a megaresort and decided to take what he learned and fused them together. Chelsea went Italian with her spaghetti and Matt went fusion with a green curry chicken pizza. It was really good. To finish the meal off we had a creme brule. Wait isn't that french?

We made to the airport to begin our journey home. First stop Bangkok for an overnight stay and then to Japan. Then home. Which ended up being 26 hours from Bangkok to our doorstep.

Mark and Matt shared a 4L super big Chang on their one night in Bangkok. The service was great eventhough they put put ice in our first beer.



Thailand trip is offically over. Great vacation.

Day 15 - 18 Phuket

We arrived in Phuket late in the afternoon, Caught two buses to get to our beatiful resort. Rawai Palm Beach Resort. We got this 4 star family room for $40 including breakfast. Regular price on this one was $400/ night. This is a mega resort that just opened on Dec 15th steps from Rawai Beach. Still working out the kinks but a huge pool with a waterfall. The breakfasts: egg station, waffles, pancakes or french toast on different days, fresh fruit, yoghurt, cereal, juice, coffee, tea, thai food, italian food, four type of french bread, danishes etc. - very very good!

We all went in the pool immediately after arriving and then again after dinner on the beach. We were back to resort prices. We were spoiled in Krabi. But the freshest seafood is right here. They catch from the morning to three in the afternoon and then sell to the restaurants an hour later its on ice ready to be grilled, steamed or deep fried.


Day 16
The next morning we headed to Hat Yanoi (beach). We all got burned but we snorkeled and saw some pretty awesome creatures in and around the coral reef. We saw sea cucumbers, pencil fish and some others we couldn't identify. After the beach, we hung out at the resort and got familiar with Rawai. Pretty much lots of places to eat. Perfect place for the four (fat) Canadians. JK.

At night Mark and Matt got freshly caught crab fried rice. Mark got calamari which we all had two nights later. It was the best we have all ever tasted. Not old and rubbery. Chelsea and Chantal had their meals from another place two restaurants over - glass noodle soup. We all ate at the same table on the beach, on the ground.

Day 17
Matt and Chelsea rented a motorbike to see Old Town. Its a mixed on Portuguese and Thai buildings from the early 1900s. Almost everything on Matt's to do list was closed or renovated. Monday apparently is another off day for the Thais. We did find a book for Mark and some delicious Chinese Almond cookies. We stop for dinner at the Rawai night market for some spicy chicken on a stick, curry fried rice and chocolate cake.



Mark and Chantal got some more sunshine as it was another great day. Chom Lay on the pier was a great place to eat at.


Day 18
Mark and Matt headed out for a early morning workout at Top Team Muay Thai. The instruction was good, and the heat played a factor again. Man we were sweating. We both sparred a bit, but no mouth guards didn't help. We'd go back if it wasn't so far away from the hotel.



After another buffet breakfast, we all headed on the bikes to the Big Buddha. It is on one of Phukets highest peaks and it was quite a windy road up there. It is 45 m tall and can be seen from most of Phuket. It was great. We have a video of Matt and Chelsea being blessed by the monks. Chantal and Mark did it too.



We all have braclets from the monks as well. We think its for good luck and prosperity but it was hard to understand the prayers they gave us. We must learn more Thai. Chantal memorized the positions of Buddha - all eleven. The Buddha itself is still under construction, we could actually buy a piece of marble that will go on the buddha for as little as $3. It was one of the best experiences on this trip.

After the crazy trip back down the mountain, we headed to Karon and Kata Beach area for lunch. Another place on Matt's list could not be found. So we stopped at a local Thai shop. We shopped at a temple??? it was really weird Thai vendors on the grounds of Wat Karon selling clothing, watches, food and grubs. Matt ate a crazy deep friend grasshopper - "it was crunchy and salty" YUK!



It was hot, i think we all got our vitamin D today. We stopped at Karon beach to hit the huge waves. They were the biggest we have seen. It was so much fun. The windy road along the cape just before sunset was pretty nice. We dined at the same place Nong Pla and had fried rice with crab and calamari again. Good call Mark!

Day 18
After a normal holiday time wake up, a run and a swim for some, we all met for breakfast again. It has been pretty good, so bananas and toast will be hard to swallow when we get home.

Matt went on his own today for the last few hours on the bike. I ate indian roti, thai (north & south) curries, missed the gelato (closed), and german bratwurst and saurekaut with fresh bread on my food journey. I ate all day. Brought Chelsea a Chocolate Croissant home and we shared the curries and roti --- awesome. We ate it poolside.

Mark and Chantal headed back to Yanoi for more snokeling and vitamin D. It rained twice but it was welcomed as it was pretty hot today. 30 degrees with humidity feels like 39.

We had to one more dinner on the waters of Rawai. Tongiht was special - a huge storm was coming we watched the thunder and lighting brighten the sky and the islands surrounding phuket. We ended up watching it for hours after dinner too.

Day 13-14 Krabi

Krabi was a very quiet town. It was exactly what we all needed after the crazy islands of Thailand. Krabi is very central to alot of places like Koh Phi Phi, James bond Island, Railay beach and Koh Lanta (another resort island - PASS).





We decided to head to Railay beach for the day. We hired a long tail boat from Krabi for $1200 baht round trip total($43) Worth it!!! I can see why lots of pictures of Thailand are from here. It is a community that strives on sustainablility, reducing waste and conserving the land as much as possible. For that reason, hotels here are expensive. There is one on its own that cost $2500/night!!! We stayed on the beach for free. After a good morning burn. We headed to Paneng Beach at Railay. This was more secluded. On the way we found monkeys, and these huge limestone cliffs and caves. Of course this is where both cameras died... great. We watched some rock climbers for a bit and then it rained and rained and rained... Glad we got to the beach in the morning. We actually had to wait until the storm blew over as it was too dangerous to boat back.

We arrived safely and spent the rest of our time in town. We ate at this restaurant right by our hotel 4 times... it was cheap and good. After lunch they gave us each a banana for free. Nice touch. We came back because of that. We had breakfast there. For 100 baht (under $4), we got 2 eggs, brown bread toast (hadn't seen that in a few weeks), whole, banana, half papaya, quater pineapple, coffee or tea and juice. The boys opted for the fruit, and got bacon, sausage and ham. They ended up eating the fruit off our plate anyways as it was too much for one sitting.



Matt and Chantal got hooked on Chai Yan (thai iced tea). You do not want to know the sugar content but, tea chilled with condensed milk. Sounds gross but so delicious!

The next morning we had to make some decisions, whether to boat to Koh Phi Phi and then boat on to Phuket or just bus it to Phuket. We choose the latter. It took much longer than the two hours promised but we were on holidays.

Day 10 -12 Samui again and on to Krabi

Day 10 Beach, Samui Night Life

We hit the beach immediately. Matt ran down the wrong beach and ended up running the entire stretch of Chaweng Beach. We jumped the waves for 2 hours. It was really fun.

Afterwards we found an odd reggae bar and restaurant that played Bob Marley hits "right on da beach". The weird thing was the place only served drinks and ordered food from the resort next to his spot. He wasn't a nice guy, probably cause we weren't buying any drinks. We walked through town the way back and shopped.










Day 11 Hottest day yet

Mark and Matt had an early breakfast so they could workout at Super Pro Muay Thai. The 2 hour morning class was pretty awesome but packed. About 16. It felt at times like an aerobics class but the pad work and technique was good and worth the money.

We hit the beach early to catch some rays jump the waves again. It was Matt's first time on Chaweng. The waves weren't as strong as yesterdays but they still through us around. We headed to the Monkey Bar right off the point with waves crashing, music and a little husband and wife running the entire place. More Bob Marley tunes. The food took quite a while but it was worth not leaving the beach. Only 10 items on the menu so we all made quick decisions.

We found a great place for drink during happy hour (50baht drinks) We had pina coladas, mojitos, singapore slings, and chelsea had her two scopes of ice cream. Everyone had a great meal as well.

Mark and Matt got some suits and shirts custom made. Ties were $3 too. Saweet!

Day 12 Off to Krabi Town

Our flight to Krabi was only 45 minutes, hey had a lounge with treats before takeoff and also a meal on the plane. Bangkok Airways - awesome! Matt loves airport lounges, everyone on the trip realized this easily.:)



We landed in a much less tourist orineted area in Krabi. Soccer jerseys were 80 baht ($3), accomodations ($16 - air con, hot water) and the man running the hotel is very nice. We are headed for food at the night market. Selection was minimal, it was no Prantip in Thong Sala but it was still another experience.

Day 7 to 10

We checked in at Beck's resort. It was a 12 minute walk from the town of Thong Sala. We headed immediately for a late lunch/ early dinner as we were pretty hungry. Thinking eating is all we are doing on this trip - yes it is a big part of the culture here. We stopped in a restaurant Chelsea and I frequently ate at the last time we were here, Krupen Thai. They remembered us which was pretty awesome. Chelsea found pinapple fried rice. We all had 2 plates each. We walked off the meal to a food market so we could pick up papaya and mandarins for the morning. Mark and Chantal took in sunset at our resort. We wouldn't miss the next days.



Day 8 Full Moon

We found the food market at Prantip. It was a maze of carts and vendors offering thai food, chicken (BBQ and deep fried), hot dogs, donuts, seafood. They had fruit shakes for 20 baht (66 cents). As much fruit and veggies that you can put in a shake. We ended up getting at least 2 each day from the same vendor. Mark and Matt shared a thin crust pizza for 3 bucks. Pad Thai was also a favourite here. Man we ate. Dessert was a butter cream roll and a fresh made Bavarian cream donut. Chantal had 3 (although she said she shared with Mark LOL).

We had our warm up party in our room before the full moon. We had our buckets and headed to the beach. It was pretty packed. There is usually 20-30K so it was relatively quiet. There was probably about 10,000 people that had descended upon Haad Rin Nak (Sunrise Beach). We didn't make it to sunrise - probably a good thing. The music and the partiers weren't quiet though. All types of music along the beach (pop, reggae, trance, hiphop, ok no country).

Day 9 Active day

After a late night we all slept in but grabbed another shake and breakfast at Krupen. We spent more time walking around Thong Sala shopping and booking our next few nights in Koh Samui. We decided to go back instead of staying here another few nights as there wasn't much selection during peak time and season. Lunch at Prantip was BBQ chicken for the guys and noodle soup for the ladies.

We headed back to the resort for an afternoon kayak around the bays. We found a possible hotel site (I think if we win the lottery for though). It was overcast so the sun didn't burn us. It was a quick but fun trip for 6 bucks for all of us in 2 kayaks.

Mark and Chantal caught the last sunset on Koh Phangan, Chelsea had a nap and Matt played Soccer sorry Football with the FC Farangs (foreigners in Thai). Most were ex pats from England and Denmark. They decided stop drinking so many beers and be active for 2 hours Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Other travellors were from Spain, Italy, Burma, and Korea. The play was pretty good, the pitch was not. My white shirt came back brown. It was still worth it. Of course afterwards we all went out for a pint and watched the Manchester (United vs City) game.

We had our last soup, pad thai, bbq chicken and donuts at Prantip market. What an awesome place.

Day 10 Back to Samui

We had our last breakfast at Krupen before taking the ferry back to Samui. Oops we took the wrong ferry and are on the other side of the island. We did this on the way over as well. Gotta love island time, ferry scheduled to leave at 1230 we left at 115 (its arrival time). Glad we ate lunch before.

We are feeling like seasoned travellors now bartering with any taxi as we know the prices now.

Hello Southern Thailand

Day 5 - Samui

We headed for our flight to Koh Samui. We got bumped up by 2 hours and the front of the plane. Glad we asked.
It made our arrival much easier.
We checked in at the Coral Cove Resort. We got a bungalow on the beach for $25. We ate under the stars for dinner. Food was bland the waves and the atmosphere made the experience. Gotta love Thailand.







Day 6?
I think we are holidays now. We have no idea what day it is.

We went to the town of Lamai for the day after a morning at our beach. We had enough sun. Had a late lunch at an Italian owned restaurant (Thai & Isan). He kept apologizing for his poor English but compared to everywhere else he spoke the best. He also made his own egg noodles fresh daily. Another great find. Mark grabbed some street meat after our food to fill the belly a bit more. He shared his spring roll and chicken bites with us all. It was actually really good.

We hung out at the resort and swam in the infinity pool which we think was part of our resort. We are all still debating this.











Day 7 just go with it.

We left Samui for Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party. It was quite packed on the island as every tourist comes on the 8th for this world famous party on the beach. Opps we took the wrong boat to the south end of the island so our taxi gave us a great tour of the island. We checked in at Beck's Resort in Thong Sala (small town north of Had Rin).

Bangkok to Koh Samui

Bangkok

We have arrived.

First day after an "American Breakfast" we walked alot of Bangkok. It was also the hottest day. We saw lumphini park and boxing stadium. A relic but historic for Muay Thai boxing. It was a holiday so not much was open.

The tourists that we are almost beleived a well dressed man that told us even the malls were closed and that we should go to a suit shop and a lucky buddha for 20 bhat (less than a dollar)in a tuk tuk (three wheeled taxi). It is 35 baht for a cab just to pick us up. We chose the cab instead and headed to the largest mall in Thailand MBK, seven floors of deals. The sale they had on was the "flood sale". Everywhere we looked there was reminents of the floods in December.

Learnt our first lesson in Bangkok, dont eat in a restaurant late at night, and when its dead inside. Awful meal. Mark chose not to finsih his... good choice.

Day 2
we got our bearings a bit better. Mark and Matt headed to Grand Master Toddy's Muay Thai academy for a one hour private lesson. Toddy watched gave instruction to his championn trainors. We were sweating before we started. It was AWESOME. We learnt so much from him and his team. After the workout his business partner showed us how they make their fighting gear and some tips for the rest of our trip. Nice school and very nice people.

We headed for a late lunch, best food yet... green and massaman curries, pad thai, tom yam soup, chicken and coconut soup, fried rice, papaya salad, WE ATE AND ATE AND ATE. Dessert was a mango and sticky rice. Although it was expensive for Thailand... $30 for the entire table was a great price.

After lunch we headed to Wat Pho but it was closed (actually closed)... the way there as worth it. We took the subway, the sky train and then connected on a long tail boat up the river, we saw temples, skyscapers, poverty:(, and some great culture all for 50 cents each.
















We took all types of traspotation bangkok offered, even a tuk tuk to Khao San Road. It is a night market full of tourists.
We shopped of course, Mark got pants, Chelsea got some dresses, and Chantal got some shirts. Matt people watched and had a few chang's (beer). Awesome Day!

Day 3
Grand Palace

We headed for the Grand Palace early so we wouldn't be denied access. Of course it was another holiday. Do the Thai's work? Im not sure. So it wouldnt open until 2pm. We got in line to dress properly by covering ourselves up and headed in. We had to wear pants and cover up as the Buddhist culture requires. The pants were given to us for free. It was quite amazing to see the effort and work to build these statues, temples and buddhas. The Grand Palace was a sight. We saw the emerald Buddha and many people praying.






Day 4
Floating Market in Damnoen Saduk

After a 45 minute bus ride that should taken 90. We were happy to be on land. The driver was crazy. Maybe we just aren't familiar with how people drive in Thailand but Chantal had to ask him to slow down. Parents you don't want to know how fast he was going but it was too fast for us.

We stayed overnight on a lonely planet tip that if we get to the market and leave before the tourist buses from Bangkok arrive at 9am we will have a better experience at the floating market. The tip worked out well. It even saved us money. Going through the market was an amazing experience. We an awesome soup as our guide (little grandma) took us through the canals. There were motorized boats but we hired a paddle boat for the environmental and quieter experience. We picked up some spices, fresh fruit (jackfruit, coconut, pineapple, lichee, and of course more fried bananas) and a few souveniurs. Definetly glad we did it.

We landed in Koh Samui and it s hot!!!

Out of internet time.

Matt Mark, Chels and Chantulie