October 15-17
I began my journey to Thailand with a 4:30am wake up and dragged my tired self to the car. Luckily, there was no traffic to LGA before the sun came up, though we got a little lost (maybe my fault...) but all was well and mommy made it home in time to get to work on time! My flight to Chicago took off 15 minutes early and landed 40 minutes early so I was able to creepily hide behind a pole in an attempt to surprise Hila when her plane came in! With 4 hours to kill, we wandered around the airport, ate some sandwiches and and bought absurdly expensive (but amazing) chocolate for the plane!
When we boarded our plane, our seats had been switched so we weren't together but then Hila's rowmate (they were in the very last row on the plane) was willing to switch seats with me - and her name was Julia too! Best of all we were in a 2 seater so we didn't even have to worry about sitting next to weirdos... But the bathroom was close so there were some annoying lines after meals... But all in all the flight ended up being pretty great, we got our vegetarian meals before everyone else got their food, although meal times were pretty confusing and we basically ate dinner twice... Including once at home time 2am... I watched gatsby and the heat and tried to sleep, and fell asleep with 6 hours to go with the tv radio on Bob Marley which I dreamt was playing on some stereo that I couldn't turn off.
We finally got to the Hong Kong airport which is huge, really cool looking and confusing... We had to pick up our luggage and recheck in and realized after security that the dumpling place Hila found in a magazine was outside the "restricted" area... So we tried to find some comfort food and had the most random breakfast/lunch/dinner? And spent $15 on a cup of tea, and 2 mini pancakes - while Hila spent the same and had a cup of tea and a bowl of what we assume was Campbell's soup with extra salt... So we decided to find somewhere to relax and we found some cool reclining lounge chairs to sit on while we killed 12 hours.
Eventually 8:55am rolled around and we finally boarded our last plane to Thailand! It was funny because we walked all the way to our boarding gate, only to take a bus from there to a gate right near our sleeping spot. The plane was full, except for the third seat in our row so we took full advantage and flew quite comfortably for the next 3 hours.
We landed around noon and our airport pickup was waiting to take us to our lovely hostel "Baan Kamala". We settled into the room and even though I think the bed could have been a piece of wood with sheets wrapped around it, it was the most comfortable bed I had seen in almost 45 hours and I was beyond grateful for it. We forced ourselves to stay awake and ate lunch and then wandered around the area and down the beach. At around 5 we decided it was acceptable to eat dinner and pass out, so we went back and did just that!
October 18
Today we woke up at 5am, an hour before the sunrise which we sort of watched from our window. Unaware of what time the village commotion began, we set off in search of breakfast at 7 only to find that maybe 10 people were awake, and nothing was open. After wandering around we stumbled across a cute little coffee shop where we drank some Iced Americanos and ate a couple cookies. From here we decided that we would rent a motor scooter for the day and explore Phuket some more. At around 9 we split a granola bar and headed to the front desk to get some keys! We rented the bike for 250 Baht (less than $10) and set off with our only guidance to "turn right" and a map showing nothing helpful (though we only figured that out a few hours later).
Let me start off by saying that 1) it may be a miracle that we survived with only a scratch 2) it's pretty much only funny now because we survived with only a scratch - but in hindsight, it was hilarious.
We mapped out a couple places that we wanted to visit including the temple, Wat Chalong, and the Big Buddha and maybe the south most point to watch the sunset. Hila learned the ropes quickly and we took off at full speed (except more like 1/4 speed the whole time and cars were beeping and passing us like no other). We soon learned that Phuket is very clearly UNmarked and whatever traffic laws there may have been, are completely obsolete. People basically drive anywhere and everywhere and in all directions but my trusty guide Hila played it safe (thank goodness)!! We ended up getting lost and passing a few landmarks more than once, sometimes twice haha, and the journey to the beach and Wat Chalong was waaaaaay longer than the map had fooled us into being. We somehow eventually made it though, a few sunglass and shorts tans later - so we took the much needed break from the bike and explored!
We were starved by the time we made it to the beach and shared a coconut while we decided what to do next. Inside a diving school, we were able to ask a nice Aussie man where we could grab some lunch and after eating we set off to Wat Chalong!
Midway through our journey there, and having already been out for 3-4 hours, we were both dead set on just making it home somehow! Lucky for us, Wat Chalong magically appeared so we made a little (much needed) pit stop and explored the temples!
Eventually we got back on the bike and with a map in one hand and the road before us, we somehow navigated (I'm convinced that it was completely luck) the highways and streets all the way back to Kamala! Our little bike was almost on empty so we bought 2 liter bottles of gas (for $3) and filled it right up, vowing never to touch a motorbike again once we parked it at the hostel.
October 19th
With big plans ahead of us for our lovely ride to Koh Lanta, part of Krabi Province, we packed up our bags and headed down to the lobby to ask someone about our transportation options... We had researched hostels, ferries, and buses the night before but were skeptical about booking anything since we weren't exactly sure about the accuracy of the bus/ferry schedules. Eventually we were able to translate that we wouldn't be able to take a ferry for various reasons, but that we could take a bus for the 4-6 hour ride along the coast.
All checked out, we followed our receptionist's directions and found the bus stop for our first ride, just as two large buses, that we assumed were ours, passed right by. Sitting in the sweltering heat with no time frame for when the bus would actually come or what it even looked like (we were told it was blue), we were pleasantly surprised that we only had to wait about 15 minutes. To begin, our expectations about the vehicle were far from accurate - rather than being the air conditioned greyhound we had seen earlier, it was a medium sized rectangle on wheels with cushioned benches lining the windows and another down the center. We boarded through the hole in the back and chose a seat in the front by the driver. Confused about how to pay for our ride, we looked around at our fellow passengers and the driver for a clue but everyone seemed unphased. The bus sat unmoving for about 5 minutes, further adding to our confusion but eventually we took off at a pace slower than the one we chose the day before on our motor scooter adventure... The breeze was great as we wound up and down the mountains picking up passengers along the way until the bus was filled with people squished together and even hanging out the back "door". Two of those passengers also happened to be a couple scrawny boys covered in bandages with a motor scooter incident to blame. (Like I said, it's a miracle we survived our ride the day before with a bruised toe as the only injury we sustained).
We were told that the ride to the monument would be about an hour on this bus and upon trying to estimate our arrack time,came to the realization that Hila had left her watch at the guesthouse. If it weren't for the helpful bus driver getting out and asking us where we were going again, we would have completely missed our stop. This so called "monument" was 1) not marked whatsoever 2) definitely not a monument 3) not the bus 'hub' we were hoping it would be.
As I said, the bus driver asked us where we were going and then informed us that this stop was the monument so we threw our bags out the window and climbed over the 20+ people in our way to the back. Standing on the sidewalk in utter confusion, two bus attendants (or something) in yellow crossing guard vests asked us about our next destination. We said we needed a bus to Krabi or Koh Lanta and confused, they offered us no assistance ... So we set off walking towards the major traffic circle near where we were dropped off. Looking clearly out of place, we managed to get a very helpful store attendant to help us - very helpful meaning he even ran after us barefoot across the circle to direct us to the right spot, and then translated to the ticket seller where we were going! We bought our ticket to Krabi and waited a few minutes for the bus that we ended up having to run to since it flew right by. Thankfully, this bus was greyhound-esque, with the main difference being the green seats and pink window shades, but it was comfortable, mostly empty and best of all air conditioned!
The journey was smoother and shorter than expected and our stop in Krabi was a clearly marked bus terminal! As soon as we got off, someone assisted us to buy our ticket for Koh Lanta and all we had to do was wait! We were told the next bus was too full so we'd have to wait another hour, but when the first minibus arrived we were shuffled on and it worked out perfectly!
The whole ride was pretty comfortable except for the annoying teenage girls in front of us who slapped each other and cried the ENTIRE time. This ride was expected to take 2 hours, but ended up more like 4 since we had to take 2 ferries - one of which we waited for in traffic for at least an hour - but FINALLY we made it to Koh Lanta!!
We were dropped off at Pinky's Bungalows where we are staying for a few days. Greeted by the nicest lady, Mama Naa (or something), we were shown around and then to our adorable bungalow with a comfortable bed, tv and AC. Starving, we made our way to the little restaurant that Mama had mentioned and had our first actual meal for the day! We also met a nice American from Bergen County, NJ, who has been traveling since February and was able to give us lots of advice and stories. Exhausted from our long day of sitting in buses, we finally made our way back home to sleep!
October 21st
I'm strapping on my helmet while writing this from our Koh Lanta "Pinky Bungalows" lobby, since we were convinced that the roads here are 10x less crowded and much safer than Phuket! Today we're off to explore some caves and waterfalls so we'll let you know how it goes when we're back!
