Day 39 - Phuket and Patong Beach

At breakfast we decided it was definitely time for a beach day and I bought a cheesy, HUGE paperback to read for 50 baht and we walked down to Patong Beach, one of the main beaches in Phuket.  The touts wanted 200 baht for each chair and umbrella and it was 80 baht for five Tiger beers, 160 baht for a bacon sandwich - we didn't lift a finger and it was awesome!  It actually reminded me a lot of Cancun's beaches; para-sailing, jet skis, speed boat, banana boats were all available for tourists.  Had some pretty big washing machine waves (like Cabo) so I didn't stay in that long but it was great fun!

The only unfortunate thing is that we did get harassed about every 10 mins to buy bracelets, wood carvings, paintings, and I even got assaulted by a little girl with Raybans and a flower lei; she tried to kiss me on the mouth!

After our luxurious session at the beach we came back to the Voyage and rested awhile - then in the evening we had dinner and got our fill of naughty Bangla Road pole-dancers!

We snuck into the VIP table area ;-)

This girl looked 16 and her date was at least in his late 60's...ick!

We didn't end up going to a ping-pong (sex) show and I am actually so relieved we didn't, we had seen enough of exploitation of the Thai girls to know it wasn't for us.  We went to bed pretty early, tomorrow we're leaving Thailand and on our way to Malaysia!

Day 38 - Travel to Phuket

Eager to move on, we woke up early (for us) at 8:30am and checked out of the Zoe Crap French Resort.  Ty helped me drag the bags to the main road and I hopped onto a tuk tuk to Cyana Beach Resort while Ty scooted over with our rented motorbike.   We met up with L & L, had some lovely tasting omelets and then I got some pool time with Lora, which was great because our shower didn't exactly work at the Zoe French resort.

View of the beach close to the Thongsala pier

Together we caught the noon ferry boat - they got off on Koh Samui and we continued onto Surat Thani.  At Surat Thani we caught a 6 hour bus to Phuket and after two minibus transfers and a lot of waiting, snoozing and watching the Sopranos we arrived into Phuket at 9:30pm.

We were hopeful when we checked into the Patong Voyage and were surprised to find it was clean, had AC, a shower that worked wonderfully and even a patio!  After cleaning up a bit we hit the town for some dinner and then walked over to Bangla Road, the Phuket version of Khao San Road.  We listened to a local band play some great Adele covers, saw a street magician and were in bed by 1:30am.

So many motorbikes...for rent??

Crazy Bangla Road

Adele cover band

Biggest gal-bar I have ever been to

Sex-pat 

Day 31 - Snorkel tour of Koh Tao

At about 8:30am we met up with the tour group and hopped on a catamaran with about 15 other people.  The tour took us to Shark Bay, Mango Bay, Aow Leuk Bay, Tanote Bay and Nangyuan Island and included lunch!

Paparazzi Shots from our Captain

 

Pics from the boat

At Shark Bay we unfortunately didn't see any black-tip sharks, but later in the morning at Mango Bay I did have a 2 meter black-tip shark cruise underneath me...which both scared and thrilled me!  Apparently black-tip sharks don't usually bother with humans but have been known to nibble on people's ankles if wading in deeper water.

At Aow Leuk Bay we were lucky enough to see about 2,000 medium sized silver fish schooling just outside of the bay which was just amazing!  After lunch we visited Tanote Bay and again were impressed by the number and variety of fish...but never did see the elusive Clownfish!

At about 2pm we landed at Nangyuan island, and we were sternly warned that if we were to bring any plastic bottles onto the island we would be charged 200 baht per bottle.  Apparently they have had a big problem with tourists drinking out of bottles and tossing them from the peak of Nangyuan - that was sad to hear... I found it hard to believe that people would want to ruin such a beautiful place!

Gorgeous beach on both sides with plenty of fish to see

View from the top of Nangyuan

Boat ride back to Koh Tao

Dinner was at the hotel and exhausted, we turned in for the night.

Day 30 - Loving Koh Tao

The first thing I did when we woke up was check the weather - it was finally not raining!
We rented some snorkel gear and decided to take ourselves over to Jansom Bay, a small beach located on the property of a resort called Charm Churee.  It was a good 30 minute walk from our hotel but was worth it when we had paid our 200 baht entrance fee...it was gorgeous and thankfully had sun-beds with umbrellas (much needed).

Instagram'd photo of our view at lunch

Charm Churee Villas behind me

Nangyuan island 

After our beach time we walked back to our hotel and got ready for dinner at MOOV Restaurant!  We had beef sliders, raw veggies with pesto hummus and Thai-style ribs, all a relief from the never-ending Thai food we had been having.  Two mojitos later we tromped back to Mae Head, the main road in Koh Tao, but there was not much happening so we called it an early night.

Day 29 Koh Tao & the Rain

We slept about 13 hours and when we woke up it was still raining.  Koh Tao is definitely more on the undeveloped side as far as Thailand islands go; one main paved road and the rest were dirt roads.  We walked along the beach towards the main pier/ferry area and after being disappointed that the highly rated MOOV tapas restaurant was closed, we breakfasted with the locals and some Premier League soccer.

I decided to treat myself to a mani/pedi (for $10 USD) and had to stop myself from giggling when my therapist kept referring to her reading glasses while painting my nails.  Even with the reading glasses, it was definitely not the best paint job but it was sorely needed!

As it was still raining we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and watching TV/movies from our collection of Sex in the City, Glee, The Sopranos and Shameless.

Day 28 - Travel to Koh Tao

After sleeping in the gorgeous Phi Phi Natural Resort I was surprised and a little dismayed to wake up in the tiny hostel bed at 10:30am with a size-able hangover.

There was some confusion when I couldn't find my shoes (they were locked up in the main hostel area for the night) we caught a bumpy cab to the ferry terminal, where we waited and had lunch, feeling sick sick sick.  What we didn't know is that the stomach churning ferry would be stopping twice before arriving on the island of Koh Tao, once at party-central Koh Phagnan and the small isle of Nangyuan, right next to Koh Tao.

The saving grace of the day was that there was actually someone waiting at the ferry terminal with a sign with our names on it - HURRAY!  I think one of the worst parts of traveling is when you first arrive, confused and tired (and hungover), there are all these people shouting at you and offering you taxis/rides...etc.

We checked in and after changing into our bathing suits we high-tailed it down to the beach.  Only minutes after Ty had jumped in it started raining really hard so I hid out with my book at the nearby restaurant, making friends with the local cats.

Ty making friends in the rainy ocean

Koh Tao Regal Resort pool

It kept raining and after dinner we went to much needed bed.

Day 27 - Fun times in Koh Samui with friends!

I was actually fairly excited to leave Phi Phi because we had already seen both sides of the island, snorkeled, done the nightlife and wore ourselves out at the Natacha Hotel (about $15 USD/night - bare bones!).

We retraced our steps and rode a ferry to Krabi, took a Greyhound bus to Surat Thani and were waiting at the Koh Samui dock when we bumped into the couple we had met on Phi Phi at the Natural Resort!  I was really happy that they were going to Samui too and we made plans to meet for dinner and a little adventure out on the town.  We were taking a page from another couples' books and had not booked any accommodations as we were only in Samui for one night, then ferrying over to Koh Tao the next day, whereas our friends were staying at a pricey resort.

We split a cab with L & L, our new travel buddies, and after wandering a bit found the Backpackers Hostel, which had only been open for a few months.   It was absolutely meant to be; we were walking down the street with our bags and randomly struck up a conversation with a traveler who had been staying there for 2 weeks.  We booked ourselves two beds in the 10 bed dorm and got ready for a night out!
In high spirits we got after it...we had dinner at a fairly nice restaurant, then drinks at Solo Bar, a bit of a walk to Ice bar (-7 celsius temperature), then grabbed some buckets (no Red-bull!) at a small place across the street from the Green Mango club.  Once the Green Mango got busy (around midnight) we wandered over and danced, danced, danced.  We all took a turn on the small scaffolding/stage that was there - Ty even did a front flip off of the stage and... nearly landed it.  

Solo bar - spendy

Green Mango - empty at 9, packed at 12

Cheap-bucket buddies

Interesting scenery in front of this cabaret (sexpat central)

Ice bar finery

                      

                                                             Crazy skilled Magician

All ice!

Before making our somewhat drunken way home we came across Burger King (which I hadn't had in ages) and had a snack there.  L & L grabbed a cab and took off for their resort and Ty and I used my HTC phones GPS to find our way back to the Backpackers hostel at about 2:30am...yikes!