Hi everyone,
I know I know..."where are the pictures and stories guys? I've been checking your blog religiously and haven't heard or seen anything since Bangkok?"...yeah right, lol.
Not sure what the heck happened really, we've been moving around alot and so much has happened since Bangkok. Maybe I can breakdown the last few weeks.
...after checking out of our off Koh San road hotel around lunch (I think), we managed to kill time before our Krabi bound bus left Bangkok at 6pm. Yes 6pm, it was an overnight bus that would eat up 16 of the 19 hours (the other few hours would be on a boat) required for us to reach the southern Thai island of Koh Lanta. This journey was the most gruelling yet. It was cramped, cold, long, and loud. It tested my immune system and it failed with flying colours...flying colours like the green, yellow or brown I would cough up or blow out of my nose every 10 minutes for the first 2 days in Koh Lanta. No worries though, we were blessed with ample time and a 4 day scooter rental on a kick-ass island with hilly and winding jungle roads (driving on the left of course), almost empty beaches and surf side restaurants that let you sit on their chairs in exchange for the occasional (insert tropical fruit name here) shake. We tried to recover the sun we lost over the last few days in a few hours of the first afternoon of good rays...I'm still peeling. Although doing the tan, drink, swim, smoke and repeat routine over the next few days made it all worth it. After more than a week of kicking it island style it was time to return to Bangkok. And yes, we flew back.
Bangkok, our Asian travel hub welcomed us back. Luckily, we arrived on the Sunday and we had enough time to hit the market after a short and comfy air conditioned ride on the Sky Train. Although we only managed to get out of the market with a few shirts and fruit shakes we made up the spending defecit elsewhere. After spending a questionable night at Narry's GH (unfortunately Narry is better with suits than he is with suites) we decided to splurge our last night at the President Solitaire. Karrie is probably better at describing this place than I am. Before checking in, we picked up our custom cut clothes and said good bye to Narry's...for now, lol. The next day we had to kill some time before our midnight flight to Manila so we just did the normal thing and got 90 minute massages at the President Soloitaire spa called Ananda...c'mon, what else were we supposed to do with $60 Canadian dollars after working so hard earlier sitting around the pool and watching movies in the fitness centre while sitting on excercise balls?
Before we left Canada I made sure I had all the documents necessary to give Karrie and myself a free one year visa for the motherland. Passports (Canadian and Filipino), birth certificate, marriage certificate, and some printout from the Philippine Consulate website for good measure. I carried them all during the whole trip and now was finally was walking toward the immigration officers desk with my speech ready (more like prepared begging) to convince the officer that we were worthy of the free access into the country for the year. Unexpectedly, with only one sentence and the presentation of my Filipino passport we were both in. She stamped our passports and spit us out like betel-nut juice wads.
We exited the terminal and it was different than what I remember. The large fence marking the boudary between the parking lot and the airport didn't have the mass of people waiting for what appeared to be a miracle. There were only a few aiport officers, taxi drivers, and my mom.
She had brought her two sisters and one of my cousins in the rented van that would tour us around Manila briefly (including a stop at the duty free complex) before heading to her hometown of Los Banos.
We were exhausted. We hadn't slept well since the night before we left Bangkok and we didn't arrive in Los Banos until the early afternoon. But as we drove in we made the request to stop for some Buko pie. This was as fresh as it was going to get and I think the warmth from the pies negated the effect of the van's air conditioning on Karrie. We passed pie shops, jeepneys, tricycles, hot spring resorts, fruit trees, jolliebees, and chow kings...it felt like home.
Well, maybe it only feels like home because everyone looks like a relative.
Kiev
