dec 27-2009 rented another skooter today and drove off into koh samui and saw some buddha's and temples . At the temples
you are suppose to dress approiately and no bikini's I didnt think i would be seeing any temples so I was dressed in my
bikini so I had to stand outside the temples and get my pictures taken! they where amazing to look at and where so big
and they floated on water. After viewing the buddhas and temples we went to see the waterfall, today when I was driving I
was using extra precaution as on our way to ko samui we saw a bike accident and the person was dead on the road and there
was blood all over the car, bike accidents are really common here, so I was glad to put on my helmet today! It took
reality of that accident for me to realize to be safer on the bike! When we got to the fall we had to hike up the hill
about 30min the trees are all so lush and bright green. They have these trees in the jungle that are crazy looking and twine
into all different trunks and you can crawl into them! Once we got to the top of the falls we got into the water it was so
cold , i even went directly under the fall it felt really cool. There was little baby leaches on the rock though so every
time you touched a rock your hands where full of them I probably had 30 leaches on my hand ewww! We hiked back down the fall
and headed back into town to pick up our laundry and purchase our next to ferry ticket to ko phangan!
dec 28-2009 waited this morning for our cab to pick us up that was suppose to pick us up at 12:30 but never arrived
tell 1 we where getting worried as we had a ferry leave at 1:30, we made it on time, but like always the thai are always
running late but seem to get every where just in time. we got on the ferry and headed to ko phangan , I have took
many boat rides on this trip and I can say sea sickness is a true thing and I feel weazy all the time! We arrived in
and came to our pre-booked accomadation , we pre booked as the full moon party happens on this island and since it falls
on new years accomadation we where told was booking up. We are staying at DaKanDe it is these cute little white
stone bunglows lined up along the beach with a pool in the middle, it is really nice. there isnt much to do in ko phangan
except the full moon party so just alot of lounging and hopefully some more yoga we can do here. We did walk into town
which was 10 minutes away from our resort on the way we passed a ox which again was tied up with a little rope, suppoably
people walk buffalo here but I have not seen any. we went through another market on our way and the smell of fish and fly's
every where so making me sick. We did find a book store and I bought a book, a book about a 13 year old thai girl that
was put into the sex trade, it is a true story. We also passed another 7-eleven and I always laugh because there is always
a weigh machine outside of all the 7-elevens , like really who wants to weigh there self outside a convience store.
we had to walk back home and on the way back it was dark we ended up getting lost and all the thai's couldnt understand
us finally we got a tuk tuk drive back to our accomadation thank god we where thinking we where going to be walking for
hours !
dec 31-2009-jan 1-2010: we are headed to the full moon party the only reason why we came to ko pha-ngan, we took a
tuk tuk drive that took 15min through windy hills to 'haad rin' beach where the full moon party happens. we headed onto
the beach where there where lots of lights and buckets and buckets of booze. it seems like in thailand the drinks are
only served in buckets and not in glasses :/ there was alot of differnet house music along the beach , and by the end of
the night 30,000 people filled the beach. the bathroom was the ocean and there where hundrends of people standing out
there peeing girls and boys just the funniest site as everyone is so tanned and then you look out to the ocean and
you see these glowing white bums! People where covered in body paint and some had some strange costumes on. People where
passed out on the beach and there was a seven eleven which you thought was a convience store from the outside but when
you go inside it was club, was i ever tricked! The new year was unlike one I have ever experienced. Happy 2010
jan 2nd 2010- we boarded another ferry today to head to kao tao which means turtle island, we are headed there to get
certified in scuba diving. Upon arriving at the island you could see that the island had alot of big rocks around
which looked beatiful. After getting off the ferry at the pier we got a ride to sairee beach our ride included in the
back of a pick up truck all the ways of transport have seats in the back of pickups and they fill them as full as they
can! We got to sairee beach and we where told by other travelers that if you sign up for a open water course for scvuba
certification that the company would give you free accomadation. We searched through many places and everywhere seemed
to be booked up we finally found a place a davey jones locker scuba that was going to help us get certified and gave
us a place to stay, the shitty things was though we where not staying at sairee beach and we had to go back down to the
pier for our accomadation. We got to the accomadation and where not impressed the bed sheets looks like they had not
been cleaned in months and there was no power. We tried speaking to the thai about getting room but they didnt understand
i saw a floaty mattress toy in the hallway and decided i am bringing that in our room and sleeping on that because
i am not sleeping on that gross mattress, so off i went to bed on my floaty with a towel as a blanket:(
jan 3rd 2010- woke up and had the worst sleep ever, or wait actually woke up and looked up and there was gecko (lizard)
on the roof, this shows how bad this place is! today we had our first instructional day for our dive course, it was
a day of watching dive movies and doing small tests just a educational day. After the course for today was over
i browsed some more shops, the thing in thailand is that you remove your shoes before going into any stores. I have
went through over 7 pairs of flip flops here eithier because some one takes them when you go in a shop eithier by
accident or by theft or they break or get so thin quick from all the walking, but flip flops are sold everywhere
even in 7-elven for only 2$ or 55 baht. Another werid product in asia is whiteing cream they dont like to have a tan
so alot of there lotions are for whiteing the skin, I am here for a tan so these do not interest me! Also today i saw
a product to make your nipples lighter in colour! I am not sure if it is a thai thing or asian thing but they like
every body part to be as light as possible lmao!! Today when we came back to our room and they actually cleaned it
and there are new sheets so I will be sleeping on the mattress tongiht no more floaty for me!
jan 4th- woke up this morning to the first alarm clock i have heard in awhile, usally i get up when ever i want as I have
no schedule or any where to be :) I had to be up at 8 to get to my scuba course , again i was picked up in the back of
a truck again I remember when I was little kid in Canada this would be legal but not no more but this is the thai way! So
today in the morning we learned more book work at davey jones scuba school! Then in the afternoon we did our first confiend
dive in the swimming pool we first learned about the gear and how to properly use it. After we got the gear all sorted we got
into the pool , going under the water and breathing for the first time was really weird, i think i may have started to
hyper-ventilate a little at the begining because i am use to breathing through my nose and you have to breath through
your mouth with the ventilator, a little for me to get use of. In the pool my instructor would talk to me through hand
singals that we learned prior to getting into the water. We had to do different tasks everything from what happens if
water gets into your mask well you are below and how to properly remove it, this was a fear of mine because my eyes
are super senstive and during the lesson he actually removes your mask and fills it water and you have to properly
put it on and get the water out the cholorine in the pool hurt my eyes but removing the water from the mask was
actually quiet easy. another thing he does is he shuts off your oxygen and lets you singal for distress and how to properly
get emergency oxygen eithier from sharing from a buddy or using the emergency oxygen supply, lets just say it is not
fun when he shut that off. You also wear these weights around your waste and they control your boyancy and help you sink
he makes you take those off also and to re-put them on , i took mine off and i must have looked like a person having
a seizure because i was rolling around on the bottom of the pool trying to put it back on! \there is 5 [people in my
group learning to scuba dive I am sure they all got a good kick out of me!! |But over all I stayed under the water for
1.5hours and learned many techinques as tomorrow I am off for my first open water dive in the ocean off the boat! We
are actually going to go to 2 dives sites, so fingers crossed I due well and hopefully make scuba a new passion that
I can use all over the world for coral, dive wrecks, lakes ,rivers, seeing new species etc!!!
jan 5th 2010- dang alarm clock again this morning! back up early for another day of scuba stacey!! We had another morning
of class and went through some brain work for planning a dive with how much time you are alound under water etc. After class
we got our gear back on and took a long tail boat out to the dive boat. The boat was so packed full of other divers and it was
a hassle and a cluster f*** to get everything on, this was my first open water dive and we where going out to a area called japannesse
gardens it was like a cove full of large rocks, we got all of our gear on and we where instructed on the decent off the boat, i was
really nervous there was so much weigh from the tank, bcd, weigh belt, and all the other gear so when you jumped off the boat you
had to inflate your bcd and rise to the surface . (a bcd is kinda like a life jacket but all your is connected to it) but we
all had to get in single file there was a total of 5 divers in my group , we had to ascend down a rope to the bottom of the ocean floor
i had went under about 2 meters and my ears started being all funny and i had a panic attack because i wasnt getting air
so i inflated my bcd and went to the top and had a panic attack and even cried a little :( I really wanted to dive so i gave
it another go , my ears kept having so much pressure built up and you are suppose to equalize your ears every meter by plugging
your noses and blowing out it was hard for me to plug my nose because of my nose ring i had to go to the surface and take it out
or else i wouldnt be able to properly dive, after that i was fine and got my breath back with out having a attack, so i desended to
the bottom and it was actually really cool to be under there swimming around. We stayed under for about 45min and then got back up the
top and got back on the boat and went out to another dive site at sairee beach, we got our gear back on and this dive went alot better
then the first one at the bottom of the ocean floor we had to get tested on skills we learnded everything from him taking your mask off
and putting it back on losing your oxygen and getting emergency oxygen it was good and i actually felt kinda conffiedent in my dive
skills. this was a great day I learned some thing new and some thing every one has to try once in there life great experience, now i am
off to bed as i have to be up for 6:00am for another 2 dives tomorrow!
jan 6TH 2010- Up early at 6:30am for another 2 dives today to get my certification for open water diving up to 18 meters
we took the boat out to 'twins' and got all our gear on and back out for the first dive today we went out with another
group that was getting certified they where from germany , today i was feeling alot more confident in the dive and everything
went so smooth we got down there and saw lots of coral and lots of fish even a snake a spotted sting ray, there was a lady
named fran who was video taping it all so that was also cool, we stayed on that dive for about 35min and then re-surfaced
, it is really neat when you get to the surface it looks like you are going to break through a sheet of ice you keep thinking
you are there but you keep swimming and the light is getting brighter and brighter it is really neat and when you finally get to the top
your bcd inflates, when we got to the surface my instructor frankie made me do some more skills like taking my weigh belt
off and putting it back on , i am not a fan of this because if you drop those weighs they cost you alot of money and
they are a hassle to put on , it is a series of blocks on a belt that goes around your waste to help you sink lol. We got
back on the boat and had some hot coffee and cookies and changes our oxygen tanks for your next dive, we got to 'white rock'
and back down we went, it is really cool to be floating around down there ! After our last dive we had to write
a exam and i passed with 90% and now am a certified open water diver! In the evening we where asked to come back
to davey jones locker and watch the film that was created for our scuba group, it showed us getting ready to dive around
ko tao , it was a great video so i purchased it get ready to watch scuba stacey when i am back!!
jan 7th-8th 2010- today we are off to cambodia , we got on a ferry to chumphon (inland) which was a 5 hour journey, lately
i have been feeling sick on the boat so i stopped and got some sea tablets before departing, in the store they had no
labels but the thai girl i think understood me and told me to buy them, so i took 2 tablets before the boat and lets
say i was out like a light. when we got to chumpon we had to wait 3 hours for our bus to pick us up, inside the bus
station they had a t.v so there where alot of travellers all over the floor watching the movie, we got on the night bus and
we where headed to bangkok, we where suppose to arrive at 5:30am and have a 2hr delay for our next bus into cambodia. We
actually arrived at 3:30am and I had no sleep as the bus i could not get comfortable on to sleep, when we got to bangkok
we where dropped off on ko san road, it was 3:30 and it was still alive there where hookers every where , street vendors, people
partying and the smell of pee/vomit everywhere. I was sooo tired and carry my backpack around stinky ko san road was not
that fun. There was no point of finding accomadation for 4 hours so we hit up mcdonalds and sat there for about a hour
and then we went to the 24 interent cafe where we tried to waste as much time as we could, finally the time had passed
and it was 7:30 and we where on our next bus to cambodia we got on the bus and this french girl sat beside me she was
so annoying and kept shuffling in her seat and pushing at me , again no sleep it has been over a day and i have not had
sleep, on the way to cambodia we got pulled over and some guy with a machine gun opened our door and looked inside and
then sent us on our way, i am not sure what that was all about but was scary. We got to another station and
where dropped off right before the cambodia border we where asked to fill out entry info for arrivals, we got our visa
for cambodia and we where asked to walk through the border as our bus turned around and drove off. I was wondering why
we where walking through this crossing which was told me to 5 minutes later by a thai , he told the group of 14 that
was about to walk cross the border to hold your bags tight dont let any one touch your passport there is alot of pit
pockers and to keep walking as they are going to grab you for all they can get the adults and kids, this was a great
scare we got to thai crossing and waited for my passport to get checked, in the customs they had 50cent music blasting
it shows how unproffesional organized the goverment is. after the depart from thai we where in free land it is land that
is split in between thai and cambodia which there is a war over and there people with guns everywhere, we had to wait about
another 1 hour to get through as there was so many people waiting, we finally got through and got on the bus to siem
reap cambodia, we arrived at 8:00pm and the 2 days of travelling was exhausting we are staying in a place called the
hilton and lets just say it is not like the hilton back home, :(
jan 8th 2010- couldnt sleep in for some reason today thought i would because i was lacking so much sleep from the past
2 days, got up and decided what to do today, we where approached in our hotel to see the floating markets and go to a
war muesum we thought why not. So on the tuk tuk we went he said he would drive us around all day for 10$ . THe drive
to the markets took about 30min on the way we saw kids walking buffloos down the street , people selling knives off
a bike, 6 people on one motorcycle, dead snakes/bugs/geckos for sale for food , cambodia is really 3rd world and looks
like out a world vision show . we got to the floating market and we paid for our entry upon paying the cambodia people
saw i had some gum in my bag and the begged to have some i just gave it to them, they looked so happy over gum? We got onto
our boat and our driver was 5yr old boy, the sterring wheel had two places to put a key in but there was no key and there
was a sting hanging down from the steering wheel , where he hooked his right toe in and it was used as a gas petal,
it was really strange, the floating market had everything from peoples homes to stores to churches floating on the water,
we passed this one boat where this girl was holding a snake around her neck, she was about 4yr old and it was so disturbing
she was in the back of the boat , where her mom was in the front well she was trying to hand her baby off to us, it was
so weird , there where also kids swimming in the water which was brown in colour and there where snakes and alligators in
the water but they still continued to play. me and josie decided we will do one more toursit thing and then we are out of
cambodia asap. After the floating market we went to the war museum we where givin a tour by a cambodia young gentlemen
he had told us that he was in the war and saw his family die and that a land mine had got his hand (he was missing his fingers)
and showed us all the equipment in the war and the stuff that is still being used today, he showed us scars on his body
and told us about the cambodia gov't. It was a sad story and this war just ended 10yr ago and is still being dealt
with today, it is told do not go off the path in cambodia as there are millions of land mines everywhere. After the
muesum we went to the market, the market was so full of garbage stuff, there was even hairdressers in the alley ways
cutting hair.
jan 9th- 2010- my sleep last night involved listening to a cambodian wedding outside our guesthouse it was so annoying and
my bed was so hard so it was a bad sleep and at 6:00am the music turned right back on, we tried to rest/sleep through the music
but decided we better get up, we where suppose to catch a night bus back to bangkok but the night bus had been shut down due the
war at the border so we had to stay another night and leave in the morning on the 10 which we didnt plan on doing. so since we had
so much time in our down i laid in bed untell we finally decided to get up and go and see angkor wat the 8th wonder of the world
we got a tuk tuk there to drive us around for the hole day for 12$ we got to angkor wat and we had to buy our admission ticket in
which they place a picture of you on this card, we drove into angkor wat and where welcomed to many temples , we bought a day pass
here but there are passes for 3 days or weeks, i am not that into history so just to see angkor wat is good enough for me! we where
dropped off at our first temple and we climed all around it and got many pictures of the buddha heads that where so perfectly carved
in stone, there was a cambodian student there and he explained some of the temple to us which i had to concentrate really hard to listen
as his english was not that well. After visting the first temple we where off to the second , the second temple was where 'tomb raider' the
movies with angeline jolie was filmed, and it where the 'ta phrom' tree is , these trees seem to grow over building and have the weirdest
shaped trunks. After we went to angkor wat it was very beatiuful and was created so long ago like the pyrmaids , i was amazed they still
let people inside and to walk around in a part of history, i did think we would only get to view them but i guess not! at angkor
wat they had the charters out of a 'katuk' dance we saw in bali, this time i had to get a picture with them , as in bali my camera died
so this was a oppurtinuty to get a great picture, they did charge me a 1$ to get a picture, but nothing is ever free in asia. after our
day at angkor wat we went back into town to the market where josie wanted to buy a ruby for her grandma she purchased one for 20|$ and the
lady did a test on the ruby with some electric thing, so it was convincing enough to buy! after the market we went back to our guesthouse
and decided to get a massage there was this place outside the guesthouse which was close we went there, we got there and they lead us up
to the room where you got the massage it was 2 beds that looked liked from the 1900 and the walls where so dirty, the massage was only 5$
so i thought why not, i was getting a oil massage and there was no privacy she was trying to strip my clothes off of me! during the massage she
asked me to turn around, that is when i noticed a big spider on the roof so it was hard to enjoy the massage as i thought it was going to drop
on my head, i also had a towel that was covering my breasts and she ripped it off and started to massage me, i started bursting out laughing and
that cambodian lady just thought it was funny i was like what kind of massage was this lucky it only last about 30seconds! the strangest things
always seem to happen to me, neither less during my massage her cell phone as ringing and she was chatting away well giving me a masssage this is
not the first time that has happened eithier!
jan 10th 2010- up early this morning at 6:30 as we where told the bus leaves at 7 back to bangkok, we where all checked out of room and we never
left tell 7:30 and got dropped off on the side of a road, awaiting another bus that never picked us tell 9:00am not a good start to a day of
transportation, we got on the bus and it was full of other travellers also, there was even this 12yr boy from australia that talked like he was 30
and was so smart, we had to listen to his storys all the way to bangkok, i tried sleeping but the drivers are manicaks here so that didnt go so
well, we had to also cross the border again, it was alot easier departing then arriving and i never saw any weird stuff this time, expcet a thai
crawling under a barb wire fence and crawling under the pillars and running into cambodia, shows what shitty securtity there is there. we got to bangkok
at about 7:00pm and where exhausted, we decided to hit up a movie as we have not seen a city or theater in a while and where told about a fancy cinema
this cinema we went to only had one film playing and it was 'the morgans' we never heard of it but it ended up being a good movie, but any who about the
theater they give you a complinetery cock tail in this trendy modern room before the show and when you go into the theater every one gets there
own big sofa that reclines and you get service at your couch for food, anything from cheese-cakes to popcorn or cocktails, they also give you a big blanket .
before the movie starts there is also a saying to the king of thailand and everyone must stand up and watch it. the king is very respected in thailand
and you cant drive or walk 10 feet with out seeing a picture of him, he is everywhere!
jan 11 2010- off for some retail therapy today! i have not seen a mall forever and am dieing to shop shop shop! we went to mbk where it is level upon level
of anything you can imagine! one floor is specifally just for cell phones there is probably over 500 shops just for a phone, i cant imagine why you need
so many shops but it is just ridialous, i thought west edmonton mall was biggest mall in the world but the malls i have seen in asia have beat wem by far! i
came out of the mall with both arms full but now that i go through my bigs there isnt that much :( it takes longer to walk through that mall and bargain for
your stuff then to get lots of shopping done. after the shopping we decieded to watch another movie to relax we watched brothers and it was a sap and again
we had to stand and pray for the king!
jan 12-2010 today we drove to karchuckin where we saw some railroad that is supposably famous? who knows and i was not that interested as it took like
2.5 hours to get there after looking at this bridge for 5min we went on a 1 hour elephant trek in the dry thai mountains, we got to sit on a sit that was
above the elephants well the momut sat at the neck of the elephant and drove it around, our elephant wanted to eat alot so we where stopping alot , the momut
did get off the elephant and josie got to sit at the neck well i sat on the seat , i was wearing a dress so i didnt really want to sit on the elephant as i had
nothing under my dress! the momut did take pictures of us on the elephant it looked like josie was the momut well I was the princess sitting on the seat!
we did get to trek through the river with the elephant which was cool and got to feed them banannas , i kept thinking rylynd would have loved this! after the trek
we went to a tiger temple where you are suppose to dress approaiately meaning showing know skin, i didnt go as i didnt have the right clothes on,
