[Barts trip of a lifetime!] Paradise hopping in Thailand - part one!

[Bart]

Dear followers,

I’m over 4,5 months away right now. I'm still living the dream, I'm still doing wonderfull things and I still didn't run out of money. Soooo it's time for another update! Some major things have happened since the last update. Or perhaps I should say some major things have changed.

For starters, my dear travel buddy Hanneke left me on the 28th of December to fly back home to Holland. Back to reality, back to the hard life. But I am happy to inform you that (something nobody had expected, myself included, considering my attitude towards ‘a happy bachelor life’) Hanneke has become more than just a travel buddy. She has become much more. After 3 months of traveling we’ve fallen in love with eachother! It turned out that 3 months of traveling together is enough to get pretty close to one another and develop deeper feelings! Anyway, we’re together now and even though it’s sometimes a little difficult that she’s back home and I’m hopping from tropical island to tropical island, we are both confident that it will work out fine once I set foot again on Holland soil! In the meantime we just have to skype and e-mail a lot! 

Hanneke and me spent our last week on Koh Chang, in the south of Thailand. A tropical island which we figured would be the perfect setting for a 'sunny christmas on the beach'. And so it was. Hot temperatures, tropical enviroment, lots of beaches and very little snow :P! We had a cosy bungalow near the beach and we spent most of the time just chilling at the beach, watching the sunset and getting around the island on our awesome scooter we rented. Since we are veterans on anything with an engine and two wheels (we cruised Vietnam baby!!!!) it was no problem at all to drive on the left side of the road and overtake dozens of less experienced tourists on motorbikes! The scenery was absolutely stunning. Have a look at the pics.  

With Koh Chang as our last adventure together and seeing Hanneke leaving at the airport of Bangkok (one of the little sad moments I had during my trip) I was all alone again. Fortunately my good friends Ron and Michel – both guys I used to work with – came to visit me in Thailand two days after that.

I met the guys in Surat Thani, a shithole somewhere near the coast of the 'Gulf of Thailand'. There is very little to do in that place, but the only reason we met eachother here was to get a ferry from the mainland all the way to Koh Phangan somewhere in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand. Koh Phangan is another tropical paradise, but basicly the only reason people visit this island is because of the world famous Full Moon Parties. These parties are known as the BIGGEST beachparties in the world and I've experienced one of these parties on my last trip in Thailand, last year. Therefor, we thought it would be the ultimate destination to celebrate New Years Eve together. Because where a 'regular' Full Moon Party attracts around the 30.000 people in the high season, with a NYE party no less than 50.000 people head down to 'Haad Rin' (the Party beach on the island) to party all night long under the stars, untill sunrise and beyond!

During my trip I have experienced moments of  the 'spine tickling' feeling (in dutch called 'kippevel moment'), which you usualy get when doing something exciting or listen to a good song. I had this many times during my motorbike trip for example, or the first time I walked over the Chinese wall. Well, I can tell you, to be with 50.000 people on a beach, under the stars, counting down from 10 to 0 with all these peole in one voice and witness the most beautifull fireworks exploding in the air, combined with the sweet sounds of housemusic pumping out of the speakers all over the beach..... was just another legendary 'spine tickling' experience I will never, never forget! Being here with my two good friends and party all night long is something which will rank high in my 'best things I've done so far' list! I won't bother you with all the details of the party, let's just say it was a crazy but awesome night, with lots of beers and the occasional bucket of booze (sorry mum :-))! The main thing is we ended up home safe in our hotel somewhere the following morning and slept our hangovers away untill late afternoon!

After a few days of Koh Phangan, the guys and me took a ferry back to the mainland and from there the bus to Phuket. Although I'm used to traveling under uncomfortable circumstances pretty well by now, this trip was something else! First the 'estimated' 3,5 hour journey (as told by the travel agency lady) turned out to be more than 8 hours by bus!! After we finally arrived in Phuket Town, the hotel we were supposed to go was not in Phuket Town. It was in a district near the airport, another one hour cab drive back. Already exhausted by the bustrip, we took a taxi which a 'nice thai lady' arranged for us. After driving for one hour the taxi driver dropped of the other passengers whom we shared our taxi with. We thought we had to be pretty close to our hotel by now, but all of a sudden the driver made a u-turn and drove ALL THE WAY BACK to the pick-up point! ONE HOUR! The stupid bastard didn't got the directions right from our 'nice thai lady' and thought we needed to be somewhere in Phuket town! ARRRGGHHHH.... Ofcourse the driver spoke 0 words of english, and the louder we yelled at him the faster the crazy bastard drove us back over the highway. (hitting 120 km/hr in a mini-van with no seatbelts isn't that comfortable). At last we arrived back at the pick-up point where the 'nice thai lady' was still present. Me and Ronnie started to argue with her and cursed the stupid driver. The 'nice thai lady' came to the conclusion that one of us had mentioned the wrong destination to the driver and that's why he came all the way back here. Of course... now it was OUR fault. Anyway, she was happy to send us back - the right destination this time - as long as we paid some baths extra. Although I couldn't stand the fact she was blaming this on us instead of the ignorant driver, we had no choice but to pay extra and drove for a second time all the way up to the hotel. It was near midnight already (we were on the road for nearly 12 hours now), we were exhausted and there were no other taxi present anyway. Fortunately we ended up in our hotel the second time and although the trip wasn't with to little hassle, the hotel made everything worth while.

Chong, a collegue I used to work with, arranged free accomodation for 3 days in the 5 Star MARRIOT BEACH CLUB HOTEL'. His girlfriend is a Thai and apparently she has some goooood connections. Chong and his girlfriend were staying there as well and with the 5 of us we shared a 2 bedroom VILLA. This is easily the most luxurious resort I've ever stayed in and no doubt the best and biggest hotelroom I've seen during my trip. Check out the pics and you will see what I mean.

After 3 days of Phuket 'enjoying' overpriced beers and food from the Marriot, the guys and me took a ferry to 'Paradise on earth' - Phi Phi Islands. I've been here last year as well and I count it as one of the best places on earth. It is absolutely gorgeous and stunningly beautiful. At this place the guys and me enrolled in a 'PADI open water Scubadiving Course'. This course would last 3 or 4 days, including 5 hours of theory lessons, 1 skill dive and 4 open water dives. After this course we would be certified 'open water divers' and with that title you are allowed to dive anywhere in the world up to 18 meters deep! Although the thought of 'homework' (every day we had to some tests from the theory we studied) didn't sound too tempting, it turned out to be absolutely awesome. With our studybook in our hand, we walked to the beach. And with some of the world's finest nature as our view when looking up from the studybook, it didn't even feel like studying. We were learning to become ScubaDivers baby!

During our 'skill dives' we went only 3 meter deep in a small part of the sea, near the coast. During this dive we had to practice all kinds of skills. Like how to get water out of your mask without going back to the surface and how to handle when your buddy runs out of air. Especially all the 'out of air' skills were extremely important and to witness how it was to 'run out of air', our instructor turned of our oxygen tanks untill I couldn't breath anymore which forced me to breath through the emergency breather from my buddy. Although it was a little scary, it was all part of the course and all part of being a diver. Very cool ofcourse! During our 4 open water dives we went up to depths of 18 meters. We saw very cool things, like sea turtles, triggerfish, giant puffer pish and clownfish (nemo's). Michel was a lucky basterd and saw a BlackTip reef Shark of 1,5 meter! Ron and me missed that when we were chasing a turtle! Anyway, we all passed our final exams, so we're PADI DIVERS right now. And with my trip to Australia coming up, I can't wait to hit the oceans there as well!

Last but not least, before I end this blog I want to tell you one more exciting story. After a crazy night of partying on the beaches of PhiPhi, we walked back to our hotel. All of a sudden a big group of people was gathering around something. Curious as we were, we walked to the group and what we discovered there was unbelieveable. A giant wild snake of at least 2.5 meters was trapped on a stick with some wires. It was stuck. Within minutes a local Thai guy came to the scenery and 'resqued' the snake. Michel was brave enough to hold the big snake on his neck! Classic pictures! After that, the guy set the snake back into the bush! Damn.... I never saw a snake that big in the wild!

Okay peepz, it was a long piece of reading again, and I just covered the first 3 weeks of my trip here in Thailand. Part 2 is coming up pretty soon. I probably will write that from Malaysia. I will fly there from the 25th of Jan. to meet Jeffrey who I met during my trip in Cambodia.

It's a hard job, but someone's gotta do it!

Cheers, over and out! Bert.

click here for pics.

--
Geplaatst door Bart op Barts trip of a lifetime! op 1/15/2011 03:00:00 PM