September 26 - October 20 was Srisawat's semester break. It's the equivalent to Christmas break in the States. All foreign teachers in Thailand take this time to travel and explore Thailand, and the rest of SE Asia. It's usually the time when friends and family come to visit as well. I partook in all of the above. I kinda went crazy with the traveling in the short 3 week break but it was totally worth it.
Ok here's my travel timeline from my break:
Nan >> Bangkok/ 1 night >> Koh Chang, Thailand / 5 nights >> Bangkok/ 2 nights >> Siem Reap, Cambodia/ 4 nights >> Bangkok/ 4 nights >> Krabi, Thailand/ 4 nights >> Bangkok/ 7 hours >> Nan
...Yeah I know right? It was a lot of traveling. Mostly by plane, but there was a 5 hours bus ride thrown in there as well. I'm gonna break this down into 3 legs of the my journey.
1st: Koh, Chang Island, Thailand
I left almost immediately after the last final test ended at school. I flew down to Bangkok where I met Roddy. It was his first time traveling abroad so I just knew we were in for an adventure. We headed to Koh Chang, Thailand the next morning. Koh Chang translates to "Elephant Island", and it is breathtaking. The island has beautiful beaches with crystal teal water, but it also has a lot of mountainous area covered in rain forests. And yes there are elephants on the island. We did a lot of awesome stuff including sea kayaking, scuba diving, elephant trekking, checked out viewpoints, motorbiking, hiked to a waterfall, and ate some amazing food. Scuba diving was terrifying, but I'm glad I sucked it up and went. I might even go again someday, 'might' being the key word there. The elephant trekking was eventful to say the least. Roddy and I got paired up with a temperamental pregnant elephant for our hour ride, and she was not a happy camper. After almost tossing us off her back halfway through the ride, we made it back to the camp in one piece. Needless to say we had a bitter taste in our mouth about the establishment, and just as I was ready to call it quits the most magical thing happened to us. We got to swim in the ocean with the baby elephants. I'll repeat in case you missed it: WE GOT TO SWIM WITH BABY ELEPHANTS. The elephants loved the water, and genuinely looked happy to be splashing around. It was one of the those experiences that you know will be with you forever. The joy I felt in that moment was tremendous, and it made the trip that much more incredible.
2nd: Siem Reap, Cambodia
After saying good bye to Roddy, I spent two nights in Bangkok waiting to meet up with Tricia (my roommate and co-worker) to fly out to Cambodia together where we would meet up with Tim, Tricia's friend from college. We had a chill first night because we had planned to do sunrise at Angkor Wat which entailed a 4:00am wake up. Angkor Wat was first a Hindu, but is now a Buddhist temple complex. It's the largest religious monument in the world, and has over 200 temples within the entire compound. Angkor means city or capital city in Khmer (the national language of Cambodia) and Wat means temple. So, Angkor Wat = Temple City or City of Temples. Yeah, I actually listened to our tour guide at 5:30am. Side note: our tour guide's name was Shapira. Yes, just like Shakira but with a p. Needless to say, I was probably his least favorite client after the 5th time I sang 'My Hips Don't Lie' to him at 6:00am in the morning. Anyway, the sunrise was a little bit of a let down because it was cloudy on the day we decided to go, but that did not detract from the grandeur of this place. It's huge. Like really big. We spent hours and hours walking around to the more popular temples on the grounds. The most of the temples are partially over grown, and there was a kind of magic in the way the earth had claimed certain parts of the temples and left other parts untouched. All of the temples had a different story. It was a wonderful day. The next day in Siem Reap the three of us booked a tour that included a bicycle tour through a small Khmer village and then a boat tour through one of the local floating villages outside of Siem Reap. It was also a really cool experience. Our tour guide was a young guy who was hoping to go study English in Europe when he can get the funds. It was really awesome to get to know him, and get a up close and personal view into the Cambodian villages. On the bicycle tour we got ambushed by a group of Khmer village children that thought my Nikon camera was maybe the coolest thing ever. I let them take it and see what they could do with it...which led to 280 pictures of mostly the ground and sky, but it also gave me some memories that I will never forget. On the whole, I loved Cambodia, and I regret that I only got to spend 4 days there, and only got to see Siem Reap. I hope to go back some day and spend more time.
3rd: Bangkok & Krabi, Thailand
I arrived back in Bangkok and waited for my second friend from back home, Ashlye, to arrive. I was so excited to see her, and get to have my bestie in Thailand for a week! Once she landed we spent 3 days in Bangkok doing the typical Bangkok tourist gig. We hit the Grand Palace and temples, we took a tour to one of the floating markets, and of course we went to the insanely huge western style malls because Ash needed a pedicure haha. We spent a night on Khao San Road (which is the crazy/anything goes street they featured in The Hangover 2) which was a lot of fun. There is never a dull moment on that road between the people eating scorpions and spiders to the crazy loud dance parties in the middle of the street. It's a prime location for people watching to say the least. We also spent a night at the rooftop bar, and had a much more classy time. After a few days in Bangkok we flew down to Krabi. It's not an island, but it is located very close to Phuket and Koh Phi Phi. We stayed on Railay Beach which you have to take a boat to get to. Before Ash came out she messaged me saying, "I think we are going to have to walk out into the water to get into a boat taxi with all our luggage." I thought she was just being dramatic, but sure as day when we pulled up we had to wade out to the boat with our full bags. Ha Ha. There are some funny pictures of that adventure, but it was all worth it. Railay beach is spectacular. The water was a perfect bright teal blue-ish green, and the limestone cliffs are breathtaking. It was one of the most beautiful places I have been in my life time. We stayed right on the beach and had the most amazing time. We spend an afternoon kayaking, which we are pretty darn good at. Just saying. We also attempted to reach a lagoon inside the rain forest before we encounter some of the most intense rock climbing I had ever attempted. It was scary. One of the days we rode and swam with elephants, I am telling you that I have never seen Ashlye so utterly happy as she was when she was in the water with Sow. Sow must be Ashlye's spirit animal because the connection was really, and it was such a great time. I loved the time we spent in Krabi the vibe was good, the views were out of this world, and the company was perfect.
No comments:
Post a Comment