Welcome to Paradise

When it comes to traveling, Spain is definitely my first love. And Thailand is undoubtedly my true love. It feels SO good to be back here. Four years ago, Jess and I headed down here on a whim, after deciding to treat ourselves to some travel after teaching English in Beijing. I'd heard great things about Thailand, and after only a little research, we decided to fly into Bangkok for a few days and then take a night train down to Surat Thani to catch a ferry to Koh Samui. Why Koh Samui? I honestly can't remember. But I vividly remember arriving at the ferry terminal at Koh Samui and noticing a girl with a backpack and a wicked dark tan standing by herself, waiting for the ferry back to Surat Thai. For some reason, the image of her standing there stayed with me for a while. Could that be me someday? Could I eventually come back on my own, with only a backpack and stay in Thailand long enough to turn that dark from day after day spent on Thai beaches? It seemed like both an impossible and enchanting idea. We were only able to stay in Koh Samui for four days, but I couldn't imagine a more beautiful place to call home for a month... or two... or three. During that visit, I made it a goal for myself to make it back there one day and stay as long as I possibly could.

April 28th, I arrived in Bangkok at 6am and had to 7 hours until my flight to Phuket. Thank goodness for free wi-fi (and a fully charged ipod touch) and a good book! From Phuket, I took a minibus down to Patong Beach and arrived at SeaBlue Guesthouse, where I had reserved a dorm bed for 5 nights. Unfortunately, I immediately disliked Patong. Lots of fluorescent lights, loud bars, Thai "women" "for sale" (if you know what I mean...), and the beach itself looked more like Cabo San Lucas than Thailand: think jet skis, para sailing and hundreds of lounge chairs for sale. On the plus side, I met some really cool people at SeaBlue and ended up having a great time getting to know my new friends. I also rode on a motorcycle with a British boy named Brad, who clearly had a "need for speed". 110mph on a Honda speed bike with only a helmet? That hour tour around Phuket was 60 of the most terrifying moments of my life. Speaking of terrifying, I also attended a "Ping Pong show". This is one of those things that everyone will tell you that you HAVE to see when you visit Thailand. Google it, if you're curious. No way am I tainting my blog by describing it. But let's just say that was my first and last "Ping Pong show". And no, I don't have photographic evidence to prove that I went. You pervert.

My next stop was Karon Beach (shout out to Seana Norvell for the tip!), where I had three very relaxing and cheap days, compared to my stay in Patong. I'm now in Krabi Town (which is even CHEAPER than Karon- yay!)with two of the girls I met at Pineapple Guesthouse in Karon. They're both 20 years old; one from Germany and one from Australia. I'm the Mama Hen of the group. =) Today, I finally did my first touristy tour in Thailand. I avoid them, since they usually end up feeling like a rip-off, but we actually got a great package deal which included visits to four different islands (Tup, Poda, Chicken and Phranang) with a picnic lunch on Poda- all for about $10 US. Definitely my favorite day of the trip so far! The pictures (see above- that little dot on the left is me!) are unreal. Every single moment of the day was postcard-worthy.

Tip of the day: The absolute best time of year to visit Thailand is the beginning of May. Literally all of the hotels/guesthouses/tour companies drop their prices by 50% on May 1st. The weather is still perfect, the beaches are far less crowded and Thailand magically becomes even MORE affordable!