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If It Ain’t Broke…

Well, with our room being booked out from under us, we needed to crowd back into Jen’s bungalow for a sleep over for a couple nights, so we started by moving our bags over. We ate breakfast (with our starts I should really be calling these lunches…) at our guy’s place… and then took off to gas up and buy some extra stock for the cooler.

We stopped at an internet cafe and tried to find a new resort, some where a little nicer to stay on our last couple of nights, maybe on a new beach, but with all the options we found ourselves just spinning our wheels. We figured our beach time was slipping away so we just headed back to the resort and did the “same, same, but different.”

For dinner we went to this BBQ buffet place. If our stomaches survive that lesson in what not to do in food safety, then it will really be a milestone in our ability to stomach any kind of food preparation settings.

Professional Relaxation

Well, as much as we tried to cool off yesterday, today we needed to seriously consider it. The goal, sit in the shade of the trees around our resort and read.

First we scooted off to have breakfast with our guy. Amazing as always. Then we bought some fruit at the market, found a place selling Styrofoam coolers, bought ice, drinks, etc… and headed back.

After rounding up some loungers we set in on our books and didn’t really look up until it was too dark to read. We finished with dinner with our guy again.

Ess-cappay

With 2 goals, 1 to see the island, 2 to stay out of the sun a bit, we decided to scoot down south (the goal we originally had the day we ended up on the east side of the island.)

We stopped along the way for breakfast, drinks, and spent a good chunk of time at a beach side bar which had some umbrellas and loungers on the sand. My routine was, have a dip, sit in the chair till the wind dried off the water, then have a dip. I kept that up for a good while, Amy and Jen played cards and used the free internet… eventually we took off to find some food and ended up at a really nice place.

Our road eventually became a bumpy dirt mess, and we trucked on for a while, but we wanted to hit the pool before it closed so we turned back. Jen spotted monkeys and we stopped for pictures… after a night time swim we had a couple of drinks to cool off before hitting the hut. This time Jen had her own hut, a much nicer, ocean view, working fan hut.

Fun In The Sun

Well, being that it was check out day, I figured I would check and see if maybe the water had cleared up it’s little jelly fish issue. It had! We spent a huge amount of time swimming around, trying the water proof camera Amy bought for me back in Laos, walking up and down the beach, etc… eventually we figured we should go check in to our new place.

We loaded our bags on our backs and bellies and took off on the scooters. When we rolled in to the resort, we were greeted with fresh pineapple juice and were escorted to our cozy hut bungalow. An extra bed is 300 baht, and a hut is 400, so our plan was to get 2 huts, but the first night they were all booked up so we all squeezed into the little bungalow, tucked way at the back in the jungle.

It wasn’t long before we were back in the water at our new beach. The resort is located at the north end of the island on a little delta, and you almost feel like you are on your own little private island. Our new beach is kind of like Rathtrevor where the sand bar goes out forever, making the water even warmer. In fact, on a hot day, you cant even find a cool bit of water to refresh yourself. The infinity pool is hot, the ocean is hot, the shower is hot, the shade is hot….

Towards the end of the day it was clear we had a little too much sun. We had dinner at a little roadside stand which had the best shakes ever, and headed back to our much to warm, cooled only by a broken fan, bungalow.

What? It Costs How Much?!

Scooters on the island rent for 24h periods, seeing as how people usually want to use them each day they are here. Our bungalow rented them, so we figured we would try and talk them down in price and find them cheaper somewhere else during the day… so after a bit of a chat we took our 150 baht motobikes and took off to explore the island.

One of the first things I wanted to do was check out the caves the island has to offer. Too expensive, we move on, at least it was a cool ride out on a dirt road. Then we happened across an ATV track place. There was a big “NOW OPEN” sign, but no one around, so we ventured down what we thought was the driveway on our scooters to find some one to see how much it might cost.

A few huge hill, a couple deep ruts, and some flags and coloured tires later… it was clear we were on the ATV course. Probably not really meant to be scooter territory. There was no one around to ask any questions, so we just took off.

Eventually we ended up in Ko Lanta’s “old town” which is cool little island “down town” kind of area. We had some shakes in hammocks on a pier (you walk through a kitchen and a laundry room to get to the back patio) and just chilled out there out of the sun for a while. This was on the east side of the island which isn’t really a swimming area, too many rocks, but a great view. Next door was the hammock shop. They were amazing. If you want a hammock, this is the place to get them, but it is a little steep for an impulse purchase. Check them out here if you want.

We had seen billboards advertising a monkey school, and Amy really wanted to see it. When we finally rolled up, it was too expensive, we moved on. Snake show? Too expensive, we moved on. Kayaking? Too expensive, we moved on.

Eventually after getting past two stands of people trying to sell you over priced tours, we found a free entrance to a short nature walk where you could see a bunch of fiddler crabs among the mangrove trees. They were really neat to see, and they would scurry away in waves as you walked down the elevated path. We ended up coming across a small fish farm at the end of the path. There were some really neat fish there, and we ended up having some blue crab. It was so tasty. While we were eating Amy detected a monkey sneaking by in the trees. The lady also offered us some little half day trips at the best prices we had heard, but still very expensive so we moved on.

We circled the island, and hit an internet cafe to look for a new place to stay. After picking on online, we went to check it out and it worked out great. They were called “cozy hut” bungalows, and from the description they sounded a little rough, but they were 400 baht a night, WAY cheaper than anything else we found, and we wanted to find some place cheap so we could maybe save some money to spend on a day trip or something.

After booking a room we scooted back to our bungalows for one last night stay.

Oh, and as it turns out, 150 baht/24h for scooters is a really good deal here. No one else was able to even match it.

Jelly Belly

Blah Blah Blah, long travel story, confusion, ferries, blah blah blah…

So we roll up to our “resort” and my god… it was amazing. The bungalows themselves, not so stunning, nice, but basic… but the beach. My god the beach was stunning.

We didn’t waste much time. A quick change in the bungalow and we hit the water. The water was nice, warm, clear… but as I swam it kept feeling like my hands were running through clouds of invisible somethings. Small stings started happening, but I sort of assumed it must just be a cut or something with the salt water. Once Amy got in the water, there was no more time spent questioning — we were swimming in a huge cloud of tiny little jelly fish thingys.

In the water you couldn’t even see them, but on the beach, where the waves washed them on shore, you could see huge strips of them. Not much bigger than a jelly bean, but so many.

We were kinda disappointed. Such a picturesque beach, and we couldn’t swim in the water without getting stung. Of course, being southeast Asia, no one mentions that they are out there, no word of warning, no claims of how long they will be there, if it is normal, if there are beaches without them…

So for the rest of the day we just lazed around, walked the beach, then in the evening we checked out a place called “ting tong bar” which was having a st. patrick’s day party (right next to our resort, on the beach) so we had some appetizers and listened to the live band until the free BBQ started. It didn’t come till much later than advertised, so it wasn’t more than a couple of chicken wings before we headed off to bed, tuckered from our travel.

And Now The “Vacation” Starts

Well today we travel to Ko Lanta (Check it out here) around 6:00 in the evening. The day was spent finishing up some chores, putting what we don’t need for the rest of the trip in storage with the rest of Amy’s stuff, and then catching up on my blogging :D

I’m pretty excited about this part, and I have high hopes for the island we picked. We are (what I expect) a nice bus ride over night, and a boat ride away from white sandy beaches and clear blue water.

Again, I don’t know what the internet situation will be like, but we plan to stay on the islands until about the 27th or 28th.

Pool Party

We woke up late. Like 12:00 in the afternoon is when we finally got out of bed. We haven’t had any decent sleep for a while. To was a chore day. Booking travel, choosing an island to chill out on for the rest of our trip, laundry, hair cut, etc…

Eventually we made it up onto the roof of the hotel to see their pool. It was only 3-4 feet deep, but it was fantastic. It looked nice, the water wasn’t freezing cold, the chairs around were nice… it was a shame it was only open to 6:00.

After we frittered time away in the streets and then headed off to check out the protests. They were definitely being done the way a protest should be done. Organized, visible, calm, good natured… and finally we got to see the non-tourist prices. There were food and merchandise stands set up for the protesters, and for example, glasses that are priced at 250 baht on khao san road were priced at 50 baht.

After we checked out a show, and then after a little more shopping we headed back to the room.

On The Road Again

Another early morning. The hotel tried to charge us for food we didn’t eat (it was eaten on a day when we were still in Vietnam) which wasn’t what we wanted to deal with in the morning while we were rushing to a bus.

Again we did some take away food deal so we could eat on the bus. This bus cost 7 dollars and it showed. People and luggage piled everywhere. I ended up in the back with a bunch of Japanese people who were really friendly, and Jen and Amy were up front. The food stops were horrible, and the eventual border crossing took forever. We stood in lines for at least 2 hours.

The bus in Thailand was better. The 7 hour trip ended up taking about 13 hours. When we got back to the hood, we found a really nice new guest house. We had some food and slept.

Cambodians Are Awesome

Well, there were reports that you need 3 days to see all of Angkor Wat and the surrounding ruins, but I had the feeling if any group of 3 people could get it done on the 1 day pass, it would be us.

We left around 10:00 in the morning, we needed at least a bit of a sleep in after the last few days we have been having. In summary for the ruins and temples, they were really nice. Some really were just dripping in history and you felt like you were walking around in an Indiana Jones movie, or a tomb raider game.

As far as the people go. WOW. English was amazing, they were all very funny, very happy, and very good at selling things. Initially our goal was to just go hang out with some locals selling things tomorrow, but when we got back into town and scoped out the travel situation, the time the bus left was too early.

We checked out the night market after some tasty food, then got a massage. After a beer, we hit the hay.

Ahh, PS. we watched the sunset from “the best spot.” It was a lot of tourists, and a very mediocre sunset, but at least we did it :D

Bus Luck

We got our first good bus of the trip! Leg room, AC, it was like a REAL bus! We were so excited as it was a 12 hour trip, and trips never take as long as they are supposed to. 12 hours is always at least 16 hours.

Not much to say, border crossings are always a little awkward, but this one was pretty easy over all. When we rolled in to Siem Reap, we got a tuk-tuk into the city, clearly to some place where he would get commission, but at 10 dollars a night, it seemed worth it. The guy seemed nice too so we hired him for the next day so we could see all the temples and ruins around Angkor Wat.

We had a little dinner across the road, and then went to sleep.

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