Starting over at 32

Pucket Patong Beach

andybouchier — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 13:09:00 GMT

Kyle and I end up taking the overnight sleep ferry from Koh Tao to Surri Tani. We bought a transfer ticket (boat+bus). Last year i got scammed in surri tani. This time is no different. We paid 800/900 baht for the ticket. 11 of us end up in some small mini bus terminal. For 250 baht each they will drive us to Patong Beach. They told us the bus will only drive us to pucket which is true. A cab from pucket to patong is about 250. So in the end logic won. Next time I will walk to the peer of koh tao and buy a sleep ferry ticket myself and most imporantly avoid Pucket all together.

We eventually make it to Patong Beach and check into a place called Kool backpackers right in the middle of the bar scene. Last year I hated this place. Kyle and I decide we will only stay one day and make our way down to Krabi the next day. That day I decide to drink with an American guy named Brennan. I'm drinking all day, I sleep for a bit and I continue to go out with people from our hostel. Somehow I get lost for 5/6 hours and everyone is thinking the worst. I have my backpack with me and I have everything on me, what a stupid decision in retrospect. I had my money, bank cards/passport. I take two taxis trying to find my hostel no one knows. I tell them to drive me to a tiger bar (turns out there is two tiger bars). The first guy drove me to the wrong one and wanted a tip on top of that. I told him if he actually drove me to the correct place I would give him a tip but he failed so no tip. The second guy was a motorbike taxi. He drove me everywhere. At one point a couple of police officers pull me and the motorbike taxi over. The cops search both of us looking for drugs. At this point I thought they were going to extort me. They put their hands in my pockets pulled out my money and put all the money back in. They let us go no problem. This guy eventually takes me to the right tiger bar and I find the hostel at 5 in the morning. Getting lost is part of the adventure sometimes. The next morning Kyle and I go to McDonalds and this middle aged guy is passed out in front of the bar at about 11am. We walk past McDonalds again and he is getting woken up by his biker buddies. What a crazy place this is and it's filled with dirty old men. peace out Patong Beach I hope to never see your face again.

koh tao

andybouchier — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 04:35:00 GMT

After the gong show of Koh Phangan Kyle Kim and I head over to Koh Tao. Koh Tao was my most favorite place of my trip last time to Thailand. It's a quiet tropical island with tons of restaurants right on the beach. You could literally swim around the island in a whole day which I guess one guy did on a beat a couple or years ago. He stopped a couple of times on the way to eat and get water. Kyle and I decided to do scuba diving at Goodtime Adventures. (Okay this computer is lame as I keep having to double type létters such as ư W, ô o, â a, so I will continue at a later date most likely back in Thailand. So I'm contining because somehow someone somewhere disabled those key strokes so I can type as a normal human being.) I end up having a great instructor named Sarah Wallace. Two students to one teacher made it a goodtime. Accomodations are included all for $300. We end up staying a private air conditioned bungalow. It is very small but cozy. During our time when we werent scuba diving we spend time watching extreme sporting adventures on television. To get our open water certification (SSI) we needed to study some homework. The first day consisted of a half day of studying and Sarah going through safety info, the second half of the day we went out to shore about 100 meters and practiced scuba diving in 3 meters of water. It is such a cool and odd feeling scuba diving. Your mask fogs up, gets water in it and you are breathing through your mouth. You need to be aware of all your surroundings. You have a vest you need to wear that can add air or take air away which increases and decreases your bounancy. On top of that you need to wear a weight belt (the purpose of this is it helps you get to the surface quicker in an emergency. So trying to breath ackwardly, trying to look through googles and looking at a gauge that shows how much air you have etc... It was a huge learning curve at first. On top of this your ears get clogged easily and need to be neutralized frequently. First day we basically practice emergency procedures and learn how to clear out your mask, ask for air if you are low on air and assist one another in need. Needless to stay scuba diving is really safe if you are safe.

At the end of our first day Kyle and I are just exhausted, on top of this we have more homework to do. We decide to do homework and eat a bbq shiskibob. Super amazing food, it even came with fries all for $4. Day two we go over some more safety information and we take our first of four open water dives. What an incredible experience diving is. It is ackward breaking from your mouth, slowly descending and having to be aware of everything. Every dive lasts about 30 minutes but at the end of it, it feels like 5 minutes. It requires to much focus, energy and endurance you feel really tired. It is a great way to get in shape. Our instructor tells us we need to overhydrate to avoid decompression sickness (that's when the nitrogren in your system forms bubbles in your body and can be really bad news, worst case senerio you die). There are no toilets so get what? Every diver in the world pees in the sea/ocean. One of our final tasks is navigating a compass underwater which I fail misterably, Sarah tells us this is normal as it is not easy to get over the learning curve of so many variables.

It feels good to be certified with SSI at some point I want to take my advanced course and maybe continue to do more and more. Maybe one day I will teach as well. The world is our oyster.

Koh Phangan

andybouchier — Thu, 7 Feb 2013 16:47:00 GMT

This is a horribly wonderful place. We checked into Baan Tai backpacker hostel. It is owned by a guy from Calgary who is also 32. We stayed in a dorm style hostel and met a girl named Kim. Actually her last name is Kim and her first name is very difficult to say so she just goes by Kim. We would end up spending a good 2 weeks travelling together. There were a total of 6 beds in our dorm and everyone is Canadian except for Kim who is from south Korea. The other Canadian guys were very young and looking to party hard. Two of the guys happened to turn slightly douchey when drunk. Both guys got in seperate fights at two different times during the night of the full moon party. Our first night there we ended up going to this party for 500 baht each which in retrospect was a waste as we later learned we could get in for free. Kyle was very generous this night, he ended up buying about 9 buckets between the 3 of us. We also ran into a guy from Bangkok, we couldn't remember his name but he could remember ours. Garith is his name. We danced in the sand for about 5 hours listening to techno music. There was some interesting characters in the coward. One guy looked almost exactly Chris Farley, another guy was shirtless with long dreads baggy Thai pants and no sandels. We saw this same guy walking on the beach hours earlier with only one sandel. I'm pretty sure he was on some kind of heavy drug. I double piggy backed Kyle and Kim and piggy backed the weird dude with dreadlocks. There was a very very low douchebag factor at this party which is always a great thing. The next morning Kim and I go to a place called Karma house. It is run by a older Thai guy who looks like a surfer or serious pothead. PaPa is his name. In this place there is no menus, PaPa just makes food. He somehow understands everything we say but I could never understand anything he says. Papa makes random food (mostly when he is high) and it always tastes amazing. In his broken Thai/English he happens to mention he has a room for rent which is about $120 a month. It has no A/C but is cozy with a rotating fan. We ended up going to Papa's several times over the next three days on the island. Papa is in line with Thailand. "Thailand, you never know what you are going to get". There are plenty of pleasant and unpleasant surprises. During my time on this island I happened to get the travellers flu. I literally couldn't go without an hour without having to go #2. I tried to sleep during the day but it just wouldn't work. I had two options I could lay in bed sick or I could suck it up and deal with it. I chose to suck it up and deal with it. A (her name is A) she works at Baan Tai backpackers and she helped take care of me while I was sick. I decided to go with some people from our hostel and it was a rough night where I ended up being up for 30ish hours and somehow at the end of it Kyle remembered he has some pills for travellers flu. Two days later I was completed over it and on top of it I lost 17 pounds which was mostly water weight. Full moon party was same same but different as last time. We saw some young 20ish year old guy jump off some makeshift dance platform and land right on his neck. His exact words were "I think I broke my neck" followed by him celebrating over his drunkocity (drunk+idiot+city). His friend then jumped on his neck as well the time was around 8pm... I wouldn't be surprised it he woke up paralized. Needless to say Kyle Kim and I had a plan to make it through the night. I brought a roofie proof camel drink bag and we mixed drinks and drank from the same bag. We left just at the peak of the party. We ended up bumping into a guy from Winnipeg who got roofied 4 days prior to the full moon party. He said he and his buddy were offered a free shot and then they were tagged with a captain jack temporary tattoo. They said they felt horrible, so they drank about 8 red bulls and powered through it. They later learned they would have gotten completely robbed (they robbers would've taken their room key and rob their room and everything). First rule of Thailand NOTHING IS FREE. Second rule is never take a free anything from a local or anyone for that matter. Third rule is always have a safety plan. Fourth rule is don't be 18 years old.

Surat Thani/Koh Samui/boats

andybouchier — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 13:22:00 GMT

We arrived at Surat Thani airport after a very short flight. Took about an hour. Basically we traded 1000 baht ($30) to save a 14 hour bus trip which may or may not have had A/C and we were both so hung over it would have been hell. We caught a bus to the port to catch a boat. It about 430pm when we get at the port. Overnight sleep ferry doesn't leave for 6 hours it ends us costing us 200 baht each ($6) and will be about a 6 hour ride. I don't know how these people make money. We ended up meeting some Scottish guy (I think his name was Matt). We sat with him for 6 hours. We sat and the same area I sat last year when I was with Michelle and Stacy. Some guy from Manchester sat with us after about 2 hours. We couldn't understand a word this fucking guy said even though he spoke perfect English. He's like a UK version of Boomhower off of the cartoon show "King of The Hill". He mumbled every word, spoke softly and quickly. How is it that two people can speak English but not even understand each other? During our wait for the sleep ferry we eat street food at the market and we are subjects for English surveys from random girls from a university. Kyle ended up getting targeted going to the toilet. He's a pretty white guy so he gets a lot of attention. Most of the advertisements here are of beautiful white people. It's pretty funny. During our wait time we see the locals constantly building stuff and loading stuff into the boats; taking stuff down, putting stuff up and taking it down again. I wonder if they are union laborers from Alberta as it looks like they are needlessly doing pointless takes to pass time.

We board the sleep ferry and it's different from when I took it when I went to koh phangan roughly a year ago. This one they made up take off our shoes at the entrance way. It takes it about 30 minutes to board and take off in super slow motion. I go and take a piss with is a toilet with a hole in the bottom and a giant bucket beside it. I pop some vailum I bought for 200 baht in Bangkok 100baht/10 pills, I give some to Kyle and we start to sleep. I am right at doorway to a room that leads to the only toilet for about 50-70 people on the boat. Everyone has to step over the biggest guy on the boat. I woke up once to use the toilet and here is about half an inch of space in the toilet room door and hinge so if you are a creeper you could get a really good look at someone taking a shit. I use the washroom bare feet because it's wet on the floor and I don't have my shoes because they are at the entrance. Kyle later tells me he woke up several times to take a piss and at one point there was about an inch of piss in the toilet room swishing back and forth, it was at that time he made the executive decision to piss off the back of the boat. There was a small group of hardcore people that sat at the back of the boat drinking all night. I had a great sleep.

We get into the dock at Koh Samui and there are several locals in super tight undies climbing around other huge tall boats like monkeys. All of they are super lean, if I was a gay man I would be in heavan at this moment. We ended up taking a cab to a place called Chawang Beach. It's about 8am. We walk with some guy from Vancouver I think. We walk for two hours looking for a place. We end up finding a hotel for 500 baht per person. It has A/C, a television and a nice private shower. Kyle decides to go for a run on the beach I decide to get street food somewhere. I walk for about an hour and find the perfect stand that has street soup for 40 baht which is a little over a dollar. I walk about and proceed to get lost for about an hour and a half. I come back and I'm just sweating buckets and have some sunburn on the back of my neck and on my face. Kyle is just laughing at me. During our whole stay we watch a pop music channel which has the most rediculous videos around the world. Most of them are from Korea. Kyle convinces me to rent a motorbike "I'm all like my family will freak out if they know I rented a motorbike". I decide to go for it, it's just like riding a bike he tells me. no shifting involved just gas and break. Kyle used to race motorcross so he has a lot of experience with motorbikes. People are crazy fucking drivers on the island and they drive on the opposite side of the road. We end up checking out some waterfall. Kyle ran out of gas and some old lady sold him some gas but wanted to keep the glass bottle, she has a broken arm and proceeded to pour gas down her cast while trying to fill up a plastic bottle. We decided to check out the night life and ended up going to this some ice room and a eventually made it to a place called Ark bar. Little kids selling us glow in the dark stuff till 230am. Those kids sure know how to sell and it's very tough to say no. We catch a motorcycle taxi back to our hotel. Once we get off the taxi driver asks if we want a private ping pong show in our room rediculous... The next day we take our motorbikes back and leave for the boat for koh phangan. It is about 30 minute ride but it takes about an hour to load up. We stragically placed ourselves in the back so we could get off the boat first. I accidently kicked some guy in the face. My legs were hanging over the edge and he was on the level below me. He gave me a thumbs up so it's all good. We had some trip beers on the boat ride.

airplanes/Bangkok

andybouchier — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 12:56:00 GMT

I haven't updated this for over a week. Mainly because it's very troublesome to do on my phone/tablet and I have been too busy with other things. I'm using the computer at our hostel Baan Tai Backpackers (look it up on google). The flight to get here was pretty long. Edmonton to Vancouver was a breeze however Hongcouver (Vancouver) to Hangkok was a long flight. I had a fairly good sleep on that flight. Our flight from Hongkong to Bangkok was delayed about an hour. Between flight time and airport time it ended up being 24 hours.

Bangkok

This is my third time in this city and it never ceases to amaze me. Kyle and I ended up catching the train from the airport to the city which was about 60 baht (roughly $2). By the time we got to the city we had to catch a cab to the hostel which ended up being 200 baht ($6). We arrived at the hostel and it immediately exceeded my expectations. A hip urban lounge where you can do a photo op with your head in an elephants ass. We ended up staying at this hostel for 2 days. We decided to go with a private room with two beds which ended up being about 500 baht a night per person ($15). We ended up playing Jenga with some random people at the hostel and made our way to koh san road. Kyle ate a scorpion and I ended up partying with locals by myself for two hours. Needless to stay I may have had too much to drink. I tell you those buckets of alcohol hit you hard. We both felt pretty crappy the next morning and our options were to stay another night, catch a train down south, catch a 14 hour bus with ferry ride or catch an airplane. We chose a plane ride. It cost us 2000 baht each ($60) took and hour long, super small seats and this old airport literally had an active golf course next to the air strip. Getting there was an absolute gong show. Our first cab driver had some road rage and and almost got hit by a car. Starting swearing in Thai and flipping this guy the finger in the middle of traffic. Seemed pretty sketchy. We said take us to old airport. He took us to the wrong one. We still payed him. We went to check to see what kind of flights we could get at the new airport and there wasn't really anything any time soon and it would have been way to expensive. We decided to catch another cab. We haggle with one guy 400 baht ($12) and the next guy wanted 600 baht ($18) and he told us he would drive fast and he spoke perfect English. So basically we were willing to pay an extra 200 baht ($6) for English speaking skills and the promise of driving fast to the old airport. The next flight was in little over an hour. He told us it may take us 1 hour to get there we ended up getting there in about 35 minutes. This old airport looked like something out of an old 1960's Vietnam war movie. We ended up overpaying for cabs that day but we just wanted to get the fuck out of bangkok because we were hung over. I'm going to have to make some better money decisions to make my funds last longer....

In 3 days

andybouchier — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:06:00 GMT

I start my trip to Bangkok in 3 days. I was in Thailand for roughly 3 weeks a year ago. It took me a year to take the advice of a friend I met in Thailand. Pablo encouraged me to write on a bucket stand on koh phangan "fuck your job the adventure starts here". I quit my job 2 months ago. I sold my suv and now I plan to make the most of this decision. Last summer I took a TEFL course online (teach english as a foreign language). I have a yoga instructor course planned for April and i may become a scuba diving instructor even though I have never done scuba diving in my life. I have a one way ticket to Bangkok. Roughly $11000 in cash and a desire to find my passion in life. I'm going to miss my family and friends in Edmonton and that will be the only thing I will miss. I write this very tired at the moment. In a effort to save money I have rarely gone out since I quit my job. For the first month of my travels I am going with a good friend of my Kyle. I have a flight booked a pre paid visa for Vietnam. I may plan on taking odd jobs to make my travel last longer. I may plan on teaching English while I'm over there. I have been basically living as a hermit in Edmonton and my life will completely be different once I'm overseas. I have been spending the last month playing Skyrim and Halo 4. Once I'm overseas i doubt I will watch movies, play video games or watch any t.v.