Since arriving back from my travels, I have gotten a weekly email (at least) from someone asking me more information about how I do it, where I went, prices of things, etc.
While I was in Southeast Asia, I wrote a journal every day. I wrote about my experiences, but most importantly I noted which routes I took, where I stayed, and how to get around. I wrote a lot of little tips and tricks I learned along the way, not for myself, but for others who intended to take the same adventure as I did.
This week I decided it was time to start turning my handwritten journal into an electronic guide. Keep in mind the travelers were myself, my boyfriend Kenny, and his brother Chris. We picked up several others on the way as well! This journey starts AFTER Bali, Fiji, and my 9 months in Australia and was our last “hoorah” before heading back to Toronto.
Join me in reliving my 50-day Journey in Southeast Asia. This is Part 1, Enjoy!
Day 1: October 29th, 2012
The first day of our travels was quite funny, to say the least. It was our last day in Melbourne and we had a hell of a going away party the night before. Kenny and I woke up in a drunken stupor (sorry, Mom) and packed the last of our things. We left half of our stuff in the lobby and the other half went right into the garbage … We said a few goodbyes and had a lovely ride with one of Kennys friends to the airport. We arrived SO SO SO late. Only in Australia would they let you check-in on an international flight less than an hour before departure. WHOA. Yes, check-in at the desk with only 45 minutes until take-off. Kenny and I kept our sunnies on and accidentally left a bunch of stuff in the car to the airport. It’s a miracle we made that flight … That flight took us to Singapore. We had some lovely hangover cuisine in the airport and boarded our second flight to Phuket.
- At the Singapore Airport – recovery mode
Day 2: October 30th, 2012. *Happy Birthday Nicole!
We stayed at Serene Resort in Phuket, Thailand. We established a daily budget of 1000-1500 THB per day, which is about $30-$50. The first day we struggled to stay within that budget. Phuket is more of a touristy place, so it tends to be more expensive than some of the islands or outer areas. Day 1 we spent on the beach!
Rental Chair on the beach: 100 baht/chair. (Approx. $3)
Plate of food: 150-200 baht (Approx. $5)
In Phuket we bought Thai Sim Cards for our phones so we could keep in contact with each other for our trip. The Sim card costs 90 baht (I think). You could get them at the nearest 7/11 – they are everywhere.
Also a good note – If you need to call a taxi: 0 7623 2158
Day 3: October 31st, 2012. PHUKET TO KOH PHI PHI
On the Ferry to Koh Phi Phi
Let me start by saying Koh Phi Phi was one of my favourite places in the entire trip. It is a very small island with so much character. We caught a ferry to Koh Phi Phi at 11am. Took about 1 ½ hours.
We stayed at the Harmony House – 400 baht/night. ($13) It was really busy, and we didn’t book ahead of time, so we settled for this place. It is not great by any means, but definitely gives you the hot, sweaty, no a/c asia experience. The Harmony House is a 10 minute walk from the pier. Don’t fall under the spell of all the people who greet you at the Pier – just keep walking and you’ll find a good price for whichever place you want.
A great tip to use during anytime on this trip. If you have questions, find a dive shop – there are likely to be Westerners working thereand they will give you the 411 real style. They won’t try and scam you like almost every other Thai person.
We found a cool Reggae Bar – the Banana Bar. It was very chill, a bunch of pillows on the ground. Cheap, too! It actually lit on fire while we were on the roof. They put it out quickly though.
The roof on fire at the Banana Bar!
That night we ended up partying on the beach for Halloween with hundreds of others. Watch out for the vodka red bull buckets. $3 for a bucket of booze and the red bull there is VERY different. Beware.
Day 4 November 1st: KOH PHI PHI
My Journal says “RELAX”. So I guess that’s what we did on Day 4, chilled hard. We took a taxi boat to long beach (300 baht) and trekked our way back when we were finished. A little secret for this area; the tide goes WAY down at night – so much so that you can pretty much walk into the middle of the ocean. If you are in Koh Phi Phi, I would absolutely recommend taking a nice ocean walk into the sunset.
Walking on Water – the tide goes WAY down
Renting the boat to Long Beach
Day 5: November 2nd KOH PHI PHI
We took an early boat ride to Maya Bay, “The Beach” from the movie “The Beach”. It’s the most beautiful place in this world. It costs 250 baht + 100 baht entry fee to the island. There were SO many people when we went, but it’s a MUST DO. Just the boat ride is the most amazing scenery ever. You get to snorkel a few times on the way and the way back. The tour usually gives you an hour or two to relax on the beach before heading back. Day 5 we still stayed at Harmony House – and it was our last night in Koh Phi Phi.
Riding the boat into Maya Bay, unreal right?!
Day 6: November 3rd: KOH PHI PHI to KRABI
We woke up in the morning at 8am and walked up to the “viewpoint”. It’s, again, the most picturesque!
Atop the viewpoint.
Anyone who has been to SEAsia will have a picture atop the viewpoint – its beautiful. But beware, there are LOTS and LOTS of stairs. And its HOT. Bring water. After our walk, we bought a ferry ticket on the Andaman Sea Cruise to head to Krabi (inland). We paid 50baht ($1.50) for someone to wheel our luggage to the Pier … WELL WORTH IT. Especially when its 100 degrees outside. When we arrived in Krabi we had no idea where to go or where to stay. We decided upon a hostel called Pak Up costing 240 baht ($7) per night for our own room with a/c. It rained a lot this day, so we headed to the market, ate some pad thai for a dollar, and headed back to the hostel. A lot of people raved about Krabi, but we didn’t know too much about it, so we decided to move on and spend more time in the islands. We booked tickets to go to Koh Phangan at 6:30 the next morning.
Day 7: November 4th: KRABI TO KOH PHANGAN
We departed at 6:30 am for Koh Phangan and island on the gulf. The journey takes 6 hours and costs 500 baht per person. ($16). Talk down the ride to your hotel/hostel when you get off the pier. We paid about half as much as everyone else per person – we paid 100 baht per person. We decided to spoil ourselves in Koh Phangan and booked a place called Salad Beach Resort ($21/room). We booked everything that we chose ahead of time on AGODA.COM. Honestly, saved us sometimes. A lot of places we didn’t book ahead, so we just picked a place when we got there. The Salad beach Resort was beautiful. It’s a bit far from the “downtown” area of Koh Phangan, but we wanted some seclusion for a few days, so we didn’t mind. We rented motorbikes everyday so it was easy to get around.
Day 8: November 5th: KOH PHANGAN
My journal says “Action Packed”. We rented motor bikes first thing in the AM 150 baht per bike for 3 days + pay for your own fuel. Fuel should cost 50 baht per bottle of fuel. Be careful with this too, a lot of people water them WAAAY down and charge you more than 50 baht. ALSO, TIP: take pictures of your bike. A lot of rental places claim you made new scratches, when they were already there to begin with.
We spent the day exploring the island. We went to Malibu Beach (a fisher village), the Elephant lookout, the Chinese temples, Pheang Waterfall (has about 800 steps!), and back. A must do in Koh Phangan is the Night Market. It is CHEAP and has a big mix of locals and backpackers. We loved it, and went almost every night.
Day 9: November 6th, KOH PHANGAN
Day 9 we rode our motorbikes to the waterfall on the other side of the island, and went to check out the space for the Half Moon Party. The Full Moon Party is a big famous beach party, and the Half Moon is a famous party, but in the jungle instead. It’s on a smaller scale than the Full Moon, but just as crazy. We found a tshirt place close to the jungle where the party was held and bought a few bright shirts for 150 baht each. Much cheaper than in town (in town they charge 300 baht per shirt at least). I remember this day clearly, we spent the time in our resort watching Obama win a second term!
Day 10: November 7th, KOH PHANGAN
** Half Moon Party!
We woke up 8:45am and went to practice some Yoga (I brought Kenny and Chris with me!) at the Ovion healing center. It was free with donation and on the west side of the Island. It went from 9:30-11am. We got our daily fruit shakes and pad thai (total 60 baht for both = $2). Then we went to the halfmoon party at night.
We had our taxi drop us off at Lime and Soda, a hostel in town – we got all painted and liquored up and then took another ride to the half moon – 50 baht per person to get there. The Half moon Party was out of control – lots of techno and dance music. Drinks are about $5 each rather than the normal $1/$2, but you can’t go in and out, so you have to deal.
Day 11: November 8th KOH PHANGAN
Apparently Day 11 was a nothing day. I must’ve been hurtin’. It says, didn’t leave the bed, Sons of Anarchy all day.
Day 12: November 9th KOH PHANGAN TO KOH TAO
November 9th we checked out and left for Koh Tao. We booked (on November 6th) an Open Water Scuba Diving Course with Ocean Sound – instructor Will North, a Canadian! We saw great reviews, and decided to give it a go. A Boat ticket to Koh Tao was 300 thb and took 2 hours. Our open water course was 9800 baht and included 4 dives + 3 days accommodation. (About $300 USD). We arrived, got a ride to Ocean Sound, checked in, and started our course that night. Theres a good chunk of reading you have to do – safety, buoyancy, etc. With the course we stayed at Prik Tai Bungalows – no a/c, mediocre, but we were used to it at this point. The host at the resort gave us a bottle of water and toilet paper… She was our angel. I remember being the happiest I have ever been for a bottle of water and toilet paper. 7/11 in Asia will be your best friend, remember that.
Day 13: November 10th: KOH TAO
Started the day early with some knowledge testing and then water lessons to learn simple diving skills. Classroom from 9-12, boat from 12-5. We were tired from our first day, we did some Diving Homework and went right to bed.
Day 14: November 11th; KOH TAO
First two real dives! Only dove to 13 meters (41 feet), but a big step for me, someone who used to be scared of fish.
Once again, ate noodles for dinner from 7/11 – 19 baht, less than one dollar! The diving training is actually exhausting. So another early night.
Day 15: November 12th: KOH TAO
Second two dives. It was raining hard this day, but it doesn’t effect anything when diving. It is actually lovely to get under water when its raining. We met at 5:30am and went straight on the boat. We dove at Chumpon and there were HUNDREDS of fish! Our diving team was called Team Grandma, because we started off really slow. But by the third day of diving, we were Pros! I swam with my first shark November 12th, and literally hundreds of fish. A trigger fish smashed into me a bunch of times (they don’t like it when you’re in their space) – and we went to 30 meters, 127 feet under. We got back to the island at about 1pm. We had some food and rested.
I woke up from my nap with an INTENSE fever and couldn’t move or breathe. This was the worst. We were supposed to be up at 5:30am the next day to go to a few more special dive sites – but instead Kenny was taking me to the doctor.
Turned out .. Tara had Dengue Fever. Will had warned us about Dengue the first day of diving, and that it had been around the island all year. It was the most painful experience .. and the scariest part – there is no cure. Some girls even had to be helicoptered home. I am so thankful for my wonderful man. He was awake all night covering me with cold towels and making sure my fever was never too high.
Day 16: November 13th: KOH TAO to BANGKOK
My journal says this: 😦 PAIN. BEDREST.
The boys went at 5:30am for the last day of diving, and I rested. We decided to get to the mainland and head to Bangkok so I could get proper medicine and away from the islands. We took the Comprayah ferry (DO NOT TAKE SONGSERM- horror stories of people getting stolen from, some even sinking!). It cost 900 baht per person and included a ferry to mainland and then a bus to Bangkok. I remember November 13th – I was in Pain. I could barely move. And my fever was the worst. I just took my meds and passed out until we arrived in Bangkok.
We stayed at Sawasdee Bungalow – was pretty bad (700baht for a room), but we only stayed one night.
** DO NOT GET IN A TUK TUK. We got in a tuk tuk to take us to get train tickets .. They didn’t take us to get train tickets. They took us to a travel agency (probably one of their friends) and tried to convince us to buy all kinds of trips. DON’T LET THEM TAKE YOU ANYWHERE! He just left us in the middle of nowhere and hoped for some commission.
We went to bed early this night – I took some Dengue meds and passed out.
Day 17: November 14th : BANGKOK TO CHIANG MAI
We checked out of our Bangkok Hotel and went shopping at some of the Bangkok markets. We bought a few tshirts for the rest of the trip and headed to the train station. There were no more sleeper trains available (OOPS, we should have booked in advance) or any seats with Air Conditioning. So, we ended up booking seats with fans for 431 baht one way to Chiang Mai. The train is 16.5 hours. We left Bangkok at 10pm and arrived in Chaing Mai at 1pm. The Meds helped me sleep on this trip and I was finally starting to feel like a human again.
Day 18: November 15th: CHIANG MAI
We spent the morning on the train … This experience I will never forget. I didn’t pee for 16.5 hours. The bathrooms were shocking – and most Thai bathrooms (if you can even call them that) were, but ours were out of order unless you were a man. It was basically a pee into the outside world while the train was moving. Needless to say, I held it for 17 hours.
A side note on Thai toilets – there are no toilets most times. Just holes in the ground with a pot of water beside it. You scoop the water and dump it into the hole to wash out the pee, etc. And toilet paper doesn’t exist unless you have your own. The best advice I could offer is to bring toilet paper and baby wipes with you AT ALL TIMES.
We arrived in Chiang Mai. It’s much different than my past two weeks on the islands. I can no longer walk around in sarongs and bikinis every hour every day. We stayed at the YMCA in Chiang Mai. We thought it was a hostel, but it turned out to be a community center – whoops. We did some walking and exploring- booked a driver for a daytrip the next day. I got a manicure (150baht – $5) and a massage (200 baht – $6). We ate at the night market, cheap cheap! I called it an early night again, I was still not feeling so hot.
Day 19: November 16th: CHIANG MAI
Woke up at 8am. Met our driver at 9am – we paid him 600 baht from 9-5. He took us to the biggest elephant camp (about 1 hour). It ended up being REALLY expensive, in Thai terms (2000 baht per person). So we went to see the smaller elephant camp instead. This one was only 600baht per person and turned out to be much better than the other one. We saw an incredible elephant show and rode the elephants and took them for a water bath! The elephants were drawing pictures, playing soccer, all kinds of things. We also went to the Chiang Mai Tiger Kingdom – one of my favourite things on our entire trip. We picked the Big Tigers and the Baby Tigers to visit. The Baby Tigers were only 3 months old! So playful too. We ended at the “Old City” visiting a few temples. We walked the city to the River, bought some $1 7/11 beer and found some Floating Chinese Lanterns (30baht) . Such a cool tradition. We bought some fireworks and had a mini celebration of our own.
Day 20: November 17th: CHIANG MAI
We changed hotels today – no more YMCA. We changed to the Soho-stel – it was much nicer, although we didn’t get our own room. We did a fun thing on November 17th and continued to do this throughout our journey. Because we are Westerners, the Thai people assume us to be rich. So, we walked into La Meridian hotel, a 5 star hotel, and used their rooftop pool all day. We gave a mock number (Room 1515), and received 5 star service. We literally just walked in, picked 4 seats and lived like Kings. We spent the night out watching some Thai Boxing.
Day 21: November 18th CHIANG MAI TO PAI
We checked out of Soho stel. November 18th and found a little Irish bar to watch GSP fight. We went back to Le Meridian pool until our bus ride to Pai. BEWARE… EITHER TAKE VALIUM OR HAVE A BARG BAG. There are 721 turns from Chiang Mai to Pai. This journey was the weirdest. We had one van take us halfway and in the middle of the highway we had to switch vans. We drove for a little more and the trunk of the van infront of us opened and about 20 bags fell out onto the highway. People were pulling over to throw up, others were dry heaving. No Good. We finally arrived and arranged a ride from Darling Bungalows. It was 180 bath per night per person. The beds were all on the floor, but it is honestly the coolest place ever. Pai is located in the northwest of Thailand, almost to Burma and Laos. Its cooler here than most of Thailand, but still warm during the day.
Day 22: November 19th PAI
We rented motorbikes again. 140 baht per day with insurance. We explored and went to see the waterfall and took a trip to the natural hot springs. (200 baht per person) They were AMAZING. The hottest one is so hot it can boil an egg!
My journal also noted that I took my meds and passed out – apparently I still wasn’t feeling too great. They boys brought me back pad thai.
Day 23: November 20th PAI
Day 23 we took it easy. We went to the day markets on the main street in Pai, so amazing. The culture is so much different than the islands, but so beautiful in its own way. We ate every morning at Pai Country. We found the pool nearby (at a place called Fluid) and our “restful” day turned into day drinking. We bought rum from 7/11 for 109 baht ($3) went to a jazz bar.
Day 24: November 21st PAI
It was a rainy day, and a hangover day. Chris got into a second motorbike accident … BE CAREFUL! We went into town to look into getting a van out of PAI, but everything was full. The only thing left was a bus for 19 hours back to Bangkok.
We spent the night at the Night Market and relaxing.
Day 25: November 22nd: PAI TO BANGKOK
We woke up, spent the morning in Pai and left at 2:30pm for Bangkok. We had to switch from a bus to a minivan to another bus. November 22nd was a shitty day. We slept on the bus (because it was 20 hours) and 8000 baht and two watches were stolen from our luggage that was RIGHT UNDERNEATH US! This is a common scam in Thailand, where they have people sleep in the compartments with our luggage and on long journeys they climb around and steal your stuff. I was pissed to say the least.
Day 26: November 23rd: BANGKOK TO SIEMP REAP CAMBODIA.
Another shitty day was this one. We got scammed, AGAIN. We arrived in Bangkok at 6am to find our things were stolen. And waited at a McDonalds nearby. We met four Canadian girls who gave us a phone number to get transport to Siem Reap Cambodia. I have read about the border in Cambodia and how people charge you 20x as much, take you someplace away from the border, take your passports – and then you have no choice. Well this exact scenario happened to us. And I don’t like to be messed with – especially after being stolen from. So of course, I made a scene. The driver threatened to take our passports. I called his bluff, he called mine, and in the end we had to walk across the border – and overpaid by 1 million percent.
They will also tell you at the Thai border to take out money then exchange it when you get across, they tell you that you will get a much better rate to do it before you cross. ANOTHER SCAM. Please, just take out money when you get to Cambodia. Most place use the USD – not Cambodian money (the kind of money the Thai people are telling you to exchange for). When we arrived in Siem Reap, they drop you off in a offlandish area where there are no other way out other than their transport. You’ll have to either suck it up and take a tuk tuk ride into the city, or walk a bit with your luggage into town.
My advice for this leg would be to find a place to stay in Siem Reap ahead of time. We didn’t know where we were staying – and our tuk tuk knew right away. ALSO, NEVER TELL YOUR DRIVER YOU DON’T HAVE A PLACE BOOKED. They ended up taking us to three of their friends hostels (disgusting ones), because they get commission to bring people there. Just please book at least one night ahead of time – and know the address. We ended up staying at Siem Reap Temple Villa for $15 a night per room. It had a pool and 2 double beds. We really liked it!
Day 27: November 24th SIEM REAP
We spend the 24th reorganizing. We sorted out our Angkor Wat visits and things.
We spent the morning at a Monk Chat – a place where you can chat with a Monk about the way of life, his religion, how they live. It was one of the best moments of my whole trip. Our Monk Friend, Raan, invited us to teach English with him! He was 30 years old and had been a monk since he was 14.
We went to dinner on Pub Street (you’ll know it immediately) and went for drinks and night out at the Temple Bar. A Pitcher of beer was $3.75.
Day 28: November 25th SIEM REAP.
Kenny and I hung out at the pool all day. We went to Angkor Wat for Sunset – Another must do! When you buy tickets after 5pm, they are good for the next day and the sunset is free. Beware though, there are HUNDREDS of people waiting in line to see the sunset. But it was so so so beautiful. We had an easy night, went for $1 tacos.
Day 29: November 26th SIEM REAP
We woke up at 5am to go to Angkor Wat. You have to go right at Sunrise. There are WAY less people, it is not as scorching hot as during the day, and its unbelievably beautiful. We gave our tuk tuk $15 for the day – and he took us all around Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Make sure you know what your driver is wearing because they all look the same, literally. We went to the Tomb Raider temple, Four Faces temple. We had a lot of fun climbing through the “unsafe areas”, hehe! It started to get really hot and busy, so we were back to the hotel by 12pm. We took a nap, and checked out that day. We met a monk on Day 29 who showed us around, and eventually took us out to teach English classes! Really awesome experience. That night we took an overnight bus $9US per person to Phnom Penh. We stayed at Sundance Inn for $18 a night.
Day 30: November 27th: Phnom Penh
The tuk tuk picked us up at 9am. We travelled to the S21 Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. Quite a sad day really. But a must-do if you are in Cambodia. It is really important to see what happened to them only 30 years ago. We only stayed in Phnom Penh for a day, our beach bum selfs wanted to get back to the islands.
Day 31: November 28th Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville
Woke up at 6am to catch a bus to Sihanoukville (south Cambodia). $7 per person. We arrived and met up with a few friends at Led Zephrys hostel $5 each for a dorm bed.
Day 32: November 29th: Sihanoukville
Beach day! We got $5 mani-pedis on the beach and spent the day lounging.
Day 33: November 30th: Sihanoukville
We moved up the road to get a private room for only $10 per night! No A/c, but was still nice for our privacy and own space. We went Ouriel beach (I think it was called) – and we ran out of gas on the way, ha! Our tuk tuk had to get another friend to bring some gas. Finished the day at the beach, yet again!
Day 34: December 1st: Sihanouk – Bamboo Island
My good friend Jordanna told me if there was ONE place to pick in all of southeast asia, this little island off of the coast of Cambodia would be her pick. So of course, we had to go. Tickets were $10 each to get a boat there, and we departed at 8am. We arrived at noon and settled into our own beach hut for $5 a night per person. Our hut was literally ON the beach. There is only 2 restaurants on the island, and one place to stay. Maybe 40 people total on the whole island. We fell in love with this little island.
Days 35-37: Bamboo Island.
Our lives consisted of beach volleyball, reading, family dinners, playing cards, and ocean swims for the next three days. I also learned to spin fire from the locals! Such a fun sport.
Day 38: December 5th Bamboo to Sihanoukville
Headed back to mainland. We ended up getting an air conditioned room right off the shore for $15 that night. Lazy day, getting our feet back on the ground.
Day 39: December 6th. Sihanouk – Koh Chang
We decided to spend our last week in paradise on one island in Thailand, Koh Chang. Which made 39 another travel day, and another border crossing. We woke up at 7am, took the 8am minivan to the border. Scratch that …. A van, and then a bus – to the border. $17 each to Trat. Finally we arrived in Koh Chang, and we found a little hostel (Tuk Tuk Guesthouse) for 500 baht a night.
Day 40: December 7th : Koh Chang
We woke up in Koh Chang and began discovering. We rented a motorbike for 3 days (500baht) and ended up deciding to stay in our cheap little hostel. Instead, we used the hotel amenities across the road (beach access, pool, etc)
Day 41: December 8th Koh Chang
Lazy day by the pool and beach. We stayed at Tuk Tuk resort again and had dinner at the beachside bungalows. They had an awesome fire show for us to watch ! So insane. After our dinner we got some massages and Kenny even got a haircut! 200Baht each.
Day 42: December 9th Koh Chang
We decided to move from the upper part of the island (white sands) down to the backpacker area.. Younger people, less families. The area is called Lonely Beach. We moved into Sunset huts, right on the water 600baht a night with a/c. We settled in and then decided to go for a long bike ride around the island. We ended up finding the National Park Waterfall (200baht each) and spent the day cliffdiving and jumping into the freshwater.
Day 43: December 10th: Koh Chang
Beach day! I love it when my journal says that. We moved rooms again, to be closer to a few friends. And the room we found was only 250 baht a night. No a/c, but so cheap, and in the next room to our friends. We ended up staying here for the next four nights. Little did we know, there was no roof to our room and the place became a nightclub. Oops.
Another tip, don’t piss off drunk locals. On day 43, someone thought we didn’t pay for our cheese sandwich (which we did of course!) and pulled out his machete. UH OH.
Day 44: Koh Chang
We confirmed a dive trip for the following day, and decided to spend the day in the Treetop adventure park. We ziplined through the jungle and climbed around with monkeys! Not a bad life. (1000 baht per person, 2 hours)
Day 45: December 12th: Koh Chang
Left early for our dive trip. 3700 baht per person. ($120 USD). We went on two dives, the first dive being the biggest shipwreck in Southeast Asia. It was awesome, but the current was very very very strong. Kenny had to come get me, and we had to do an emergency ascension because he ran out of air! Really good luck on our first solo-dive. Whoops. The second dive was great. 51 minutes and so many fishies! We met some great friends of ours on this dive trip, who are still traveling today!
Day 46: December 13th: Koh Chang
With only a week left, and a rough hangover, we decided to spend the day at the beach. We rested all day, had dinner with some friends. And guess what … TATTOO time! I got a tattoo on my left side upper ribs. They tattoo with bamboo in Thailand, so it was not invasive at all, no bleeding, no scabbing, and I could swim immediately … Bamboo tattoo a must. Kenny decided while sitting there, he was going to get one too. Little did we know, his would take 6 hours. Ouch.
Day 47: December 14th :Koh Chang to Bangkok
Woke up early to get the bus to the ferry. 7:30 departure. We took the ferry, and then a bus, arriving in Bangkok at 5:30pm.
We made a big mistake by booking our hotel ahead of time, and ended up being SO FAR out of the city. It was a fun adventure though …
Day 48: December 15th Bangkok
We ended up changing hotels to something closer to the city centre and our friends we were to meet up with. Kenny found a suit place he liked, and got fitted for a custom made silk suit!
Day 49: December 16th Bangkok
Kenny and I attacked the Chatachuk market. We got all our Christmas shopping done in a good half-day. It got reaaaaally hot and a bit frustrating in the end, but we got evertything out of the way! We even bought a new small duffle bag so that we could carry-on all the gifts we bought.
Day 50- 52: December 17t-19th : Bangkok
We moved hotels yet again. Right to the main strip this time, sharing a room with Kennys brother. The next 48 hours were a bit of a haze. Pool Parties, street parties, other parties, ping pong shows (UH OH), beer, beer, beer. Needless to say, we barely made our flight to Tokyo (as per usual), but we did in fact make it! And then onto Toronto, to be greeted by Kennys wonderful parents at the airport. That marked the end of our 11 month world journey, and our 52 day Southeast Asia trip.
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