Sihanoukville -> Bangkok -> Koh Samui -> Koh Phangan -> Koh Tao -> Bangkok -> Chiang Mai -> Kuala Lumpur

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur! I realize that lots of time has passed since I've posted anything, and I've narrowed this down to three main reasons.
1) My camera is busted. Its so sad, I can't even talk about it. I've always been "into" taking pictures but this trip really solidified my love and passion for sharing what I see through photos. Also, not only was it a great camera, but it was a birthday present from my best friends in the whole world; it flew home with Kate last week, but I'm not sure it'll find its way back to me. What a sad and expensive situation. In any case, not having pictures to share makes me feel like I don't have anything to share. I guess that's not entirely true, but its one of my arguments.
2) I've been having "loads" (I'm so UK) of fun and have been pretty busy! I arrived back in Bangkok via 12 hour bus from Sihanoukville on July 30th. Two days later, Kate arrived in Surat Thani. After two AMAZING weeks together, exploring the Gulf of Thailand Islands, we ended up back in Bangkok so that she could catch her flight back to SF. Two hours later, I was hanging out with the lovely Victoria- another volunteer from CCPP, who was doing the Thailand route. Three days later, I was with Dan (CCPP art director) in Chiang Mai. Next day, I met up with a fellow San Franciscan in Kuala Lumpur and... now I'm on my own again. Meeting cool people is my absolute favorite thing about traveling. Sure- you encounter a Debby Downer or Snobby Sally (particularly from USA, to be honest) every now and then, but I have met some of the absolute coolest, most adventurous, well-traveled, talented, interesting people on this trip & for that, I am so thankful. Whats a day at the beach, without a cool person to chit-chat with? And how much fun is a bamboo river rafting trip by yourself? None at all. But add two Austrian girls, a pair of Australian newlyweds and a gregarious Malaysian casino owner, and you've got yourself an eventful day AND a story to bring home. That being said, the only thing I love more than meeting these great people is meeting BACK up with them somewhere along the way. That rocks. A familiar face to grab a beer with and trade travel stories? Two thumbs way up.
3) I don't know who is reading this. I'm in no way implying that this little blog is bookmarked on more than 1 or maybe 2 computers (Mom and Kate, haha), but I'll admit that it is slightly creepy and unnerving that really, anyone has access to this blog. For some reason, that has been bothering me lately. I love sharing these little nuggets of my trip with my wonderful family & friends, but I don't like the idea of a random person (or not so random, & not so favored by me) reading it and getting to know all about my adventures. I know- too late to worry about it now and you should have thought of that sooner, Maura. The explorer.
Here's a brief overview of where I've been and where I'm going....

I ended up staying in Sihanoukville an extra three days. Each day, there was a totally legitimate reason to stay- I swear! Now I understand why the Cambodian monthly travel guide is named "Stay Another Day". That place is almost impossible to leave behind! After a full day of buses and vans and waiting in lines and listening to my JJ's Playlist on repeat, I arrived on Khao San Road on the night of the 30th. The next evening, I caught an overnight bus to the port town of Surat Thani & took the first ferry to Koh Samui in the morning. One tuk-tuk ride later and I was laying out by 11am that day. Amazing. Two days later, I headed back to the mainland to greet Kate at the Surat Thani airport. It was SO good to see her - I had been waiting for that moment for about five months! She looked great, felt great and had it all going on. Haha (inside joke). We spent four days basking in the direct sunlight on Koh Samui and then partied like 21 year olds on Koh Phangan for three days. One night, there was a huge party on the beach, the next night was a Pool (Pool Pool) Party (Party Party) at our hotel and the third night was The Black Moon Party. Thailand is really into celebrating the lunar calendar. The Full Moon Party being the original & most infamous, Thai visitors also have the option to attend parties in honor of the Half Moon, Black Moon and Blue Moon.
The morning after the Black Moon Party, Kate and I (and our wicked hangovers) took the high speed ferry to Koh Tao, where we spent our last four days hanging out at the beach, snorkeling, drinking Chang Beer & hanging out with some pretty cool American guys. After Koh Tao was Bangkok, and you know the rest of that story. We had such a great time together & I miss my sister terribly already! Its weird to say goodbye to someone you love when you truly have no idea when you'll see them again.
So I'm in KL now and I'll take the bus up to Penang tonight. I've heard great things about the Northern coast of Malaysia- the capital city of Penang is Georgetown, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Can't wait to see it! I'll head back down to KL on the 28th and on the morning of the 29th, I'll fly to Denpasar Airport in Bali to see my Jessica! I'm beyond excited for more beach time/exploring with one of my best friends on the planet, and also thrilled to finally check out Bali and see these gorgeous Gili Islands for myself. After Bali, I don't have another "appointment" until October 29th when Kathryn D. Torrey arrives in Sydney for our Australian Adventure. I've heard rumors of a three week "cruise" (wooden houseboat, bbq fish for dinner every night, dirt cheap & rustic) you can take through East Timor and PNG from Bali, so you better believe I'll look into that as soon as I get there. Anyway, I had received some requests for an update on my blog, so there you have it. Thanks for reading!

And no, I still don't know when I'll be home. =)

Cambodian Children's Painting Project

Life is good here in Sihanoukville. Truly, "living the dream". By day, I am a volunteer with Cambodian Children's Painting Project (www.letuscreate.org). By night, I am a regular at the beach bar/paint party/bucket night party scene that rages until the early morning hours each night. Yes, every single night in Sihanoukville, one of the beach bars hosts a giant full-moon-style beach party. Most people are only passing through "Sin-ville" for two or three nights, but to live here for a month is to be, essentially, constantly covered in paint.

When I was planning my trip last year, I decided I wanted to spend a good chunk of time in Cambodia and figured that volunteering with an NGO would be a good way to make a contribution while taking my time getting to know the country. My search brought me to the Thorn Tree Forum on lonelyplanet.com- ideally, I wanted to find a situation where I could volunteer WITH kids NEAR a beach. It seemed like a tall order, but voila! I found rave reviews for CCPP and quickly emailed them to begin the application process.


Its hard to say which I've enjoyed more- getting to know the gorgeous and happy children of CCPP... or the amazing and diverse group of volunteers here with me. In only two weeks time, I've grown incredibly close to many of the "teachers" here, and am thrilled to now have friends in places like Morocco, Frankfurt, Paris and Reunion Islands (near Madagascar). We are naturally making verbal commitments to visit each other next year, which I fully intend on doing!


The children of CCPP are the most beautiful kids I've ever met. Not only are most of them incredibly good-looking (Angelina was onto something...), but they are very polite, take good care of each other, share toys effortlessly and take pride in cleaning up after themselves. Cambodia has spawned a breed of Super Kids! Many of them are very intelligent and speak pretty good English; others come to CCPP with dirt on their faces & empty bellies. There is no smile more sincere than that of a hungry child receiving food- and I get to see about 100 of them every day.


My first week with CCPP, we moved into a new facility down the road. In three days, we took the vacant lot of a Swedish Restaurant and added walls, bleached counters, painted rooms and trimmed the trees to make the place a giant playground for the kids. Previously, CCPP was located on the main road down to Serendipity Beach- it was nice, since many tourists would stop by on their way to and from the beach, but the space was not big enough for the 100+ kids that come to CCPP each day. Now, the old space is used as our gallery/studio area where we prep boards and stretch canvases and sell paintings for $4 a piece.


Each day at 8am and 2pm, our driver Pip comes to the gallery to pick up volunteers to transport us up the road to the new facility, where there are always kids waiting for us with those giant smiles on their faces. The first 90 mins of each shift is painting with the kids- helping them with sketches, passing out paints with brushes, etc. In the afternoons, painting time is followed by free time. In the mornings, the kids follow painting time with English classes (in our on-site classroom) and then receive a free lunch. As the food is served, the children who sold paintings the day prior receive $2 cash for each sale. A round of applause is given between each announcement of a sale. If the painting was a larger canvas painting (prices vary from $15-$80), then the money is given to the child's guardian.


Cambodian Children's Painting Project is a fantastic and well-run NGO with its heart in the right place. To learn more about CCPP, please visit: www.letuscreate.org. If you would like to make a donation to the project, or send art supplies/clothing/shoes/medical supplies, please let me know and I would be happy to put you in touch with Madeline, the director of the program. If you are interested in buying a painting (or 10...), send me an email and I would be happy to help!

Cambodia: Week 1

At the moment, I'm sitting in a little cafe on Serendipity Street in Sihanoukville, drinking a fresh mango smoothie with old school Mariah Carey playing in the background. Life is good. The rain is pouring down outside (don't worry- it'll be hot and sunny in a minute or two) and the noise makes me wonder if this roof is made of tin? So loud! Eager tuktuk drivers sit in their vehicles, beckoning the business of tourists. They're not so much pushy here, as they are assertive. "Ok, miss? Tuktuk now?" Their unique approach makes me laugh to myself as I shake my head and decline the seven to ten offers I typically get when I leave the grounds of my hotel.With its dirt roads, bipolar weather and blend of both foreign and wealthy Cambodian tourists, Sihanoukville is a special place. Most of the guesthouses and cafes are located on Serendipity Street, which leads directly from the main traffic circle in town to Occheuteal Beach. I get the feeling that most of the establishments are not Cambodian owned, but the majority of staff members are Cambodian, so that's good; jobs aren't necessarily being taken from the locals.
Perhaps its due to Cambodia's newer status as a mandatory stop on the S.E. Asian backpacker route, but there's a different energy towards tourists here. People are anxious for your business, but not to the point where they will harass you (ahem, Vietnam). I neither feel like an outsider, nor like I have a dollar sign tattooed to my forehead. Its refreshing.

My first week in Cambodia was spent in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. My whirlwind trip through Phnom Penh included a nice riverside hotel with my new friend Aaron from NYC and visits to both The Killing Fields (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields) and S-21 Prison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum). Visiting these places within my first few hours of arriving here was both overwhelming and heart-breaking, but it immediately put Cambodia's history into perspective for me and gave me a real sense of the tragedy that the Khmer people have only recently overcome.
My first night in Cambodia, we got home from a night of pizza & beer to find my FAVORITE movie playing on TV: Scream. Aaron had never seen it and it had been at least a few years since I sat down and watched the whole thing. In the morning, we woke up just in time to catch the second half of the final Celtics vs. The Kobe Show game. It was actually a very odd morning- not only to be in a hotel room (mostly hostel dorms for me), but to have a TV in my room, be able to watch a live NBA game and chit-chat through the entire thing with a fellow American, who I had only met 24 hrs earlier at a bar in Vietnam? In fact, I think we agreed to share a room in Phnom Penh before we even exchanged names. Strange things happen when you travel. And I love it.


From Phnom Penh, it was off to Siem Reap via conditioned bus (only $5!) through the Cambodian countryside. Aaron and I were lucky enough to get the front row passenger side seats, which gave us a great view of the scenery from the huge bus windshield. On our first day in Siem Reap, we wandered around the town and walked along the river to the Palace. Figuring that it would be smart to visit the museum before seeing the temples, we stopped by the newly constructed Angkor Wat National Museum; wait a minute- its $12 to get in?! And its only $20 to visit the actual Angkor Wat temple? What's going on here? We (obviously) didn't go in, but I hope they lower the price of the ticket soon! In Cambodia, $12 is a large sum of money. Outrageous.

That evening, we hired a tuktuk driver to take us to Angkor Wat for a few hours. A little birdy told us that if you head to the temples after 4:30pm, they don't check your tickets at the gate. Since we were planning on spending the early morning and afternoon at the temples the following day, our first visit was just in time for sunset and I was honestly blown away by the majestic beauty of Angkor Wat. In fact, I actually caught myself saying "unreal" so many times that I had to make a mental note to knock it off. There is so much beauty and so many details to take in -it is mind-boggling to think that the entire thing was built back in the 12th century!

Angkor Wat temple is only one of many, many temples on the grounds, but we decided to focus on just the one site for that afternoon. After spending about two hours getting lost in the hallways, stairwells and rooms of Angkor Wat, we sat on the wall of the entrance gate and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. And thats saying a lot because both the Baltic Sea and Karon Beach provided some stiff competition.

At one point, we turned around and noticed there was even a rainbow over Angkor Wat behind us. When I set off on this journey, I knew that I would be visiting many famous and beautiful places, but that afternoon at Angkor Wat was on another level. The Taj Mahal was breathtaking and Halong Bay was stunning, but Angkor Wat was, simply put, "unreal".

Adventures in Vietnam (co-starring Mom & Dad)

Ok, I'll say it. I didn't love Vietnam. I really LIKED Vietnam and I had a fun, interesting and eventful two weeks with Mom and Dad during their visit at the end of May. The food was great, the beer was cheap and each city had its own lovable quality. But overall, I never felt fully comfortable in Vietnam. With people constantly walking up to you on the street, offering motorbikes, books, rooms, sunglasses, taxis & spa offers, etc. it was hard to ever relax. There were far too many times where myself or the group I was with somehow got ripped off or scammed. The air quality was pretty bad in the main cities and overall, most cities had litter all over the streets. I didn't write any blog posts while I was there, due to lack of inspiration. I realize that tourism is somewhat new to Vietnam (compared to places like Thailand) but their effort to accommodate as many as possible, as soon as possible results in a lack of compassion & pride for showing off their country. Every restaurant sells bikes/ books tours/ has a guesthouse above it oh- and the owner has a brother who can drive you to the airport for $5. Its just too much.

I was in Vietnam for three & half weeks and spent the first chunk of my trip with my parents! We agreed to meet at our fancypants riverside hotel and ironically, when Mom and Dad pulled up in their taxi, I was standing outside of the hotel, arguing over the cost of my taxi from my hostel to the new hotel. Ahem. M&D spent their first day touring the sites while I worked on my tan at the pool. I had already seen most of the attractions during my first two days in Ho Chi Minh with two friends from Paly High that I ran into at the Bangkok Airport. Small world!
While in Ho Chi Minh, we did a Mekong Delta Tour (eh), visited a few night markets, had some fantastic meals & enjoyed the roof top pool at our hotel. After two days, Mom and Dad flew to Nha Trang and I took the five hour bus to Mui Ne & hung out on the beach for two days before taking a NINETEEN HOUR bus ride up to Hoi An. I will never again, as long as I live, EVER save $40 by sitting on a bus for nineteen hours, haha. Lesson learned: my time and my back alignment are very valuable to me.

We had a lovely time in Hoi An- stayed at the wonderful Long Life Hotel, which we highly recommend! (http://longlifehotels.com/main.php) The majority of our free time was spent in tailor shops, having suits and shoes and shirts and dresses made. If you know me, you know that I am a complete bargain-shop-a-holic, so I was in absolute heaven: spending less than $100 a pair of leather boots, 100% designed by me. Which leather do you want? Which heel do you like? We have a few zipper choices for you. How tall do you want them to be? Fabric swatches, sketches of dresses and measuring tape. I had a blast and each of my purchases turned out really well! Cafe 43 was a gastro highlight of Hoi An & I really enjoyed renting bikes one day and checking out Cua Dai Beach.

From there, we all flew to Hanoi, where we immediately headed to Halong Bay. Mom and Dad treated me to a snazzy cruise package with a visit to the caves, kayaking (where Mom and I came in second place during a race back to the dock), wine happy hour, and three fancy meals per day in the dining room of the boat. This was definitely the highlight of my trip to Vietnam: Halong Bay was gorgeous and majestic- see it for yourself as soon as you can!


After Halong Bay, we had one more night in Hanoi before Mom and Dad headed home. One last delicious and fancy dinner (at the swanky Highway 4 restaurant) , then a Vietnamese Water Puppet show, followed by coffee and dessert on a balcony, overlooking the bustling streets of Hanoi. After a teary and bittersweet goodbye, it was back to hostel-living and extreme budget travel for me!

Before heading down to Ho Chi Minh to catch the bus to Cambodia, I decided to travel up to the northeastern mountains of Vietnam in Lao Cai to visit the hill tribes of Vietnam. Originally settled by the French in the late 1800's, Sapa is only a few miles from the Chinese border and therefore, has an interesting blend of influence from both cultures. In Sapa, the air is cooler & cleaner, the locals are dressed in traditional Hmong costumes and the views are spectacular. My tour (which can be arranged by any of the tour shops/restaurants/internet cafes in Hanoi) consisted of a 10km hike the first day, overnight with Hmong family in a home stay, 6km trek on day two, one night in a hotel in Sapa Town and a 3km hike to a waterfall on day three. Overall, I would recommend a visit to Sapa but suggest doing two nights in a hotel, since most of the "home" stays are actually only buildings put up within the last three years, to accommodate tourists. Usually one or two Vietnamese girls take care of the cooking and cleaning; I had a great experience and the food was spectacular, but I felt misled by the term "home"stay. Oh well.

Above: child carrying child in Sapa.
Below: view of the valley in Sapa.

Upon returning from Sapa, I spent three more days checking out Hanoi and then flew down to Saigon, where I spent another two days hanging out with new hostel friends and taking in all of the sights. From Saigon, I took a 6 hour bus across the border to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Due to bad planning, I unintentionally managed to visit the Vietnam War Remnants Museum, The Killing Fields and S-21 within 48 hours: arguably three of the most heartbreaking cultural sights in Asia, if not the world. Each site was powerfully moving and disturbing but left me with a new appreciation for the astounding resilience of these countries.


Above: Memorial at The Killing Fields, outside of Phnom Penh.
Below: S-21 prison, where 20,000 Cambodians were jailed & then killed during the Khmer Rouge Regime of the late 1970's.

Mong's Beach Bar

Drive a scooter around Koh Lanta for the day, and you'll inevitably see at least a dozen wooden signs nailed to trees, advertising "Mong's Bar" with an arrow pointing the way. Some of them say "In Bud We Trust". Others say "Your Ticket To The Moon!". Either way, I had to check this place out.

If you're lucky, you'll be at Mong's on a night where some gullible sap (usually a 19 year old British guy with tons of bracelets on one arm and impossibly perfect hair) is convinced to let Mong play Five Finger Fillet with their hand. First with a sharp bar knife. I can barely watch. Next with a cleaver. I have to turn away but I'll watch it on video once its over, if nothing bad happens. And then with a power drill on full blast. I kid you not. I had to physically leave the bar. Partially because I figured the blood would spray everywhere and partially because I was about to puke. But nothing went wrong at all. In fact, I saw Mong do this to two different people in one night. In Mong I trust. I also saw his collection of fermented vodka- one with a dead scorpion, another with cobra & cobra blood and one with monkey brain. From a monkey he had hunted and killed himself, naturally.

On the Mong's Menu, you'll notice "Happy Shakes" and "Banglassies". Happy Shake = magic mushroom shake, from Mong's farm of mushrooms up in the hills of Koh Lanta. Banglassie = some kind of drink with marijuana. I didn't order either of these drinks because they were about 8x the price of a Chang Beer. Also, during my first night at Mong's, a group of hippie Spanish folk at the "table" (big beach blanket with low tables and triangle pillows that serve as perfect neck holders while star-gazing) next to us tried to get their money back from the Happy Shake they ordered. They could barely feel the effects... but they also couldn't get their money back, said Mong. Buzzkill.

My favorite night at Mong's was the night where we all stayed up until 3am, in hopes of seeing a shooting star in the perfectly clear Thai night sky. A few nights prior, there had been "tons" of shooting stars in the sky, according to a few of the bar flies. I've never seen one but have always wanted to, so it wasn't hard to convince me to stay up late/early enough to take part in Shooting Star Watch 2010. With Kings of Leon playing at the bar (the good songs, not the pop ones) just loud enough so that we could still hear the waves crashing only about 20 feet from us, we all laid out on the big wooden deck at Mong's with our triangle pillows supporting our necks and Chang beers in hand. Erin from Australia pointed out the Southern Cross constellation, which she can see from home all the time. Jeff and I argued about whether we were looking at the Big Dipper or Orion's Belt or maybe they're part of the same constellation? We spotted tons of planets and stars and constellations- more than I have ever see before, but no shooting stars. But thats ok. That time at Mong's was one of the best nights I've had on this trip. Save the shooting stars for another time; from Mong's party tricks to hanging out with new friends from far away places, plus the clearest night sky I've ever witnessed, it'll still be a night I'll never forget.

Unconventional Travel Gear

Happy two month anniversary to me and my "little" trip. Since I've been officially living out of a backpack for over 60 days, I thought it would be appropriate to make a list of my Most Useful (and somewhat unconventional) Pieces of Travel Gear. Enjoy!

1) Sarong: Definitely an item that you should buy while travelling, since sarongs tend to be expensive at home. At the Krabi night market, I purchased the MOST beautiful sarong for 120 baht (less than $4). So far, I've used mine as a dress, a skirt, a top, a light blanket to sleep with, a shawl, a beach blanket and a towel. 8 uses for $4? Basically, a "must have" for any beach vacation.

2) Rope: With a little rope, one door handle and a bed post, you can instantly MacGyver (or MacGruber?) a drying line to air out bathing suits and towels. Also useful if you need to secure a backpack or bag to a motorbike or taxi roof.

3) Whistle: This was one of my bon voyage gifts from Jess. Definitely the cheapest and smallest form of protection I can think of, and more user-friendly than pepper spray. In sketchy buses, trains or hostels, I sleep with my whistle under my pillow. Fortunately, I haven't had a reason to use it yet, but I would imagine that it would attract a lot of attention very quickly. Props to Jess for the idea.

4) Student ID: Am I still a student in college? No. Do I show my old student ID to get discounts at museums, hostels, restaurants? Absolutely. Is it illegal? Technically, yes. Is anyone in harm's way if I save 50%? Not at all. Rarely do people even look at the dates or picture on the ID card. If you have an old one lying around, I highly recommend bringing it along if you're on a "every dollar counts" trip, like yours truly.

5) Quick Dry Towel: From soaking wet to bone dry in two hours flat. What more is there to say? The best $20 you can spend on your trip, I guarantee. You seldom see a backpacker without one of these gifts from the REI Travel Gods.

6) Overnight/day trip bag: My 16 kilo backpack doesn't get to go everywhere with me, no way jose. For my day trip to Phi Phi and then my 2 night stay in Tonsai, I filled my Longchamp bag up with necessities and left the Big Bertha at a guesthouse in Krabi. Boarding a long tail boat with a small shoulder bag > boarding a long tail boat with all of your belongings. Most hostels/hostels are more than happy to hold the bigger bag in a safe place for you until you return.

7) Sleeping mask: When I was a kid, we used to put a blanket over our bird's cage in the evening, to trick the little guy into thinking it was night time so he would fall asleep. Sleeping mask = same idea. Sleeping pills make me nervous, since I would feel vulnerable if I took them on a train or bus. Sleeping mask works just as well for me, without the drowsy factor.

8) Alarm/Clock: BYOC. Bring your own clock. Hostels very rarely have clocks on the walls. Bungalows? Forget about it. Maybe some of the nicer, more Westernized hotels have time keeping devices, but I wouldn't count on it. Keep in mind that most cell phones and ipods have alarm clock capabilities; two birds, one stone.

9) iPod Touch or iPhone: Shout out to my genius friend, Deanna Ho, for recommending that I bring an iPodTouch on my trip, instead of a laptop or netbook. The iPodTouch is basically an iPhone without talking capabilities (that is... until you download the Skype application and buy a microphone) and without a camera. I'm able to pick up WiFi almost everywhere I go and with iTunes built in, I've been able to keep up to date with my favorite podcasts, download new songs, etc. LOVE my iPodTouch. Best $200 I spent on this trip.

10) A Really Good Digital Camera: (not pictured, but used to take the picture) Some of my amazingly thoughtful & generous friends gave me a Canon PowershotSD780IS for my birthday this year. Best. Gift. Ever. From the "Sunset" setting to its ability to crop & edit pictures on its little screen, this little camera is my absolute favorite travel accessory. I've been able to record a video of the Thai jungle in Railay & have some excellent photos of butterflies from the exhibit on Mainau Island. Buying a worthy and durable digital camera seems like a must for anyone who wants to document their travels.

11) Headlamp: Another Deanna Ho tip! A cheap headlamp from REI ($14) is a great investment and very useful piece of travel gear. You can rifle through your backpack with two hands in a dark hostel dorm room. Walking along the beach, you can find your way back to your bungalow at night. You can read your book in bed on a night train without disturbing the rest of the people in your compartment. And, like I experienced four nights ago, you can sleep with it on your head so that when rats crawl into your bungalow in the middle of the night, you can turn on the headlamp to scare them away.

Hope you were able to find these suggestions useful! Thanks for reading.

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!