Thailand Part II:4 months later

Thankfully Luna didn't get ahold of the pages in my notebook where I wrote down some notes on my Thailand trip. She did how some ever get ahold of the rest of it. So it's been a while but let's see if I can't make this good.

So the first day back to the mainland was spent traveling from the pier back to Krabi. I got another room at the AoNang Grand Inn, it was a fan room, for a whopping 750 TBH (30 TBH=$1). I booked my next two days adventure: Elephant Trekking and a Speedboat Islands tour.

I honestly could have done without the Elephant Trekking. I must be either really hopeful or didn't ask enough questions. They picked me up and I actually ended up in a van traveling for much more of the day than I would have thought. We went to the Hot Springs first. It was pretty much like a natural hot tub.

Next we went to Emerald pools. I was asked to take a picture with some kids(??) and did some swimming.

This next picture is from the actual elephant trekking that was very short and kinda sad the way they treated the elephants. Take a look at the kid that was riding with me. 12 year-old-boy form China. Check out his shirt...gotta love it!!!

This is where we had an awesome lunch. It's a fishery.

The last place on our tour we went was a Tiger Temple (no tiger) that had a bunch of greedy, thieving monkeys. They were so cute but would only get close if you were offering them food.

On this tour I met a couple from New Zealand. They are also teaching here in South Korea. I met up with them for dinner and some wandering about the beach area.

My second to last day in Thailand I went on an 8 stops powerboat Islands tour. Growing up on a boat made this a blast for me. Fun in the sun on a boat with stops here and there to do some snorkling, shopping, sun-bathing, and some history/stories. I saw so many amazing things that I can't even describe it. I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves (even though they don't do the beauty justice).

After a day on a powerboat...a little wind-blown.

The crew and I

Bamboo Island

Have you seen the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio...well this is it.

The last stop on our Island tour we stopped at Bamboo Island. I took a nap on the beach in the sun, did some snorkling, and met an amazing older couple. It was a Hungarian couple that had lived in Australia for the last 50 years. Larry was almost 90 years-old and his wife Kuki (nickname) was early-mid 80s. For about an hour and a half Larry was telling myself and a woman from France (her and I were the only non-coupled/non-family people on the tour) about his life and the war. Wow, he had lived. He got the last train out of Buddapest before the city was taken, made it to another station just for them to say it was going to be destroyed the next day. They ended up pretty much in the middle of no where... the Americans then ended up shooting up the small staion he was at. He was mad because all of his stuff was destroyed in the train. His stories were so amazing. To think that a person could live through all of that. Even though he had lived in Australia for the last 50 years he still had a much stronger Hungarian accent.

When I got back from the tour I did the usual walking around but decided that I wanted to try a scooter. Now, I have never ridden one before and the last time I rode a bicyle was ??? It was something like $15/24 hours. It was perfect, I would have it that evening and all day the next day till it was time to go. He gave me a quick run down on how to turn it on/off, gas, and break. "Have fun!!" ummmm...... ok?!?! In the first 30 minutes I almost hit 3 cars (steering was quite strange) almost ran into the back of parked cars, jumped a curb trying to turn around, forgot to put the kick stand up... oh man, this was too stressful for a vacation...I decided I would try this whole scooter thing when I got back to Korea and bought one. So after 30 minutes I took it back...they laughed, I laughed but then he just took my payment as a taxi to the airport the next evening...he was going to pick me up at 9pm for my flight at 11:55pm...better to be early than late, right?

The last day I was there I spent the day slack-lining on the beach,

laying in the sun, and doing some last minute shopping. I ran into Larry and Kuki again and made dinner arrangements with them at 7 at this open air resturaunt. (I was never disappointed by the food in Thailand or the atmosphere). To kill time till then, I did some more sunbathing to get nice a crispy before my aloe vera massage I was going to get. Went back to the hostel, took a shower, got my massage, went to dinner, got my bag, and got in the taxi.

45 minutes later we arrive at Krabi airport, extremely small, which was completely shut down. I was freaking out knowing there was no way I missed my flight because it wasn't leaving till 11:55 so I pulled out my itenerary to show the security guard... as I was passing it up I noticed that my flight from Bangkok was at 11:55 pm and my flight from Krabi was at 7:15pm... ooops. Luckily the taxi driver was super nice and took care of me. He drove me around to 3 different hotels about 30 minutes away (closet area with cheaper hotels) until we found a cheap one. On the way he stopped off at his cousins taxi service and made arrangement for him to pick me up in the morning and take me to the airport at 6am. I ended up at a concrete bungalow that was a little...um, yeah but it was a cheap place to stay and i had arrangements for the morning so all was good. I had no alarm or anything so I slept in my clothes(I would have anyways...no need to unpack and pack again) but woke up to a knocking at my door at 5:30 am. It was my taxi, I threw my shoes on, my pack on, and grabbed my purse. When I came out I realized I got to ride on the back of a motorbike with my pack (round two). The driver had already gotten my passport from the owner and we were on our way. 30 minutes later I arrive back at the airport that was supposed to be open at 6:30 (it was 6 now). We went through the gate and got dropped off at the front door to wait for it to open... 2 hours later people started showing up for work... apparently it doesn't open until 9:00am. Made arrangements to leave Krabi and spend the day in Bangkok and arrive into Seoul instead of Busan.

In Bangkok I bought some books, ate some food, ate some more food, drank some drinks, met some people, and just had a great day wandering the airport. The first lady and I were sharing snacks and taking turns watching eachothers things while the other went to the restroom. When she left 2 hours later her place was taken by this Swedish guy that had decided he hated dark winters and was moving to Australia. We hung out the rest of the time I was there (the last 8 hours anyways). Barely made my flight to Seoul...they had told me the time on my ticket was the boarding time but it was the departure time...after I got on the plane they shut the doors...whew almost was stuck there again!!!

Thailand was amazing and I will be there again!!!