Beaches, beaches, beautiful beaches

Our internet has been atrociously poor on Koh Maak – I wrote this a few days ago, and haven’t actually had enough internet to load it up.  As such, it may be sans photo and video, and for that I apologize.  I’ll add a few when I get enough internet to do so.  So...here’s an update up until December 1^st!

I am seriously loving the south.

I apologize for my complete and utter online absence these past few days – I’ve been without wifi, and frankly, I’ve had no real desire to go search it out.  Things have been a bit hectic, and as I write this, I am reminded that today is December 1^st, a strange concept for someone who just swam under some coconut trees, in an ocean as warm as bath water. 

Thank you for the birthday wishes, those of you who wished me a Happy Birthday.  I have to admit, I didn’t do anything special – nor did it even feel like my birthday, being in such a tropical clime.  I’m writing this offline at the moment, so I’m not positive where I left off in the blog post prior to this, but I think the last thing I was doing was leaving the monastery – so I guess I owe a bit of a catch-up. 

The three of us remaining foreigners (Sarom, Savann, and myself – as well as a local Thai girl named Bhat) left the monastery at 06:00 to head to the train station, to catch the train back into Bangkok.  I didn’t want to leave so early in the day, but the 3^rd class train from Nakon Pathom into Bangkok was free during rush hour (I’m crazy, I know) ...and hey, free is free.  So after a bit of a huge rush to make the train – our ride slept in, so we had to catch a bus, and it was late, and then we got to the train station late...but the train was late, so everything was fine – and I tried a weird cake thing for breakfast with cream in it, which was totally a mistake, but I didn’t realize it was cream until I ate a huge portion of it – oh well – and we hopped on the train.  It was PACKED.   It took two hours, and we stood almost the whole way, and thank goodness it was early morning, because it wasn’t air-conned, and I would have died of motion sickness if it got any hotter.  As it is, the last 30 minutes was brutal.   The train apparently only just opened up for business again the week before, and we passed some massive flooding.  I took a brief video of it, but the video doesn’t really do it justice.  Everything was just so flooded.  People were passing the train on boats, and houses were filled with water.  It was insane.  

We took the train all the way into central Bangkok to the main train terminal – Hua Lampong – and dropped our luggage off at the train station.  I was super nervous about doing it, and kept asking if it was safe or not.  I also bought a book about Thai prostitution, and read it in a day, but that’s beside the point.  I found Belgian waffles!  You know the sugary delicious ones they sell in Belgium and in Victoria at Wanna Waffle?  Yeah, those.  Breakfast was good that day.

After we dropped our gear off, we parted ways for the morning – Sarom and Savann had a bus to catch back to Cambodia in the afternoon, but had some running around to do in Bangkok first, and I wanted to head to Siam Paragon (that giant shopping centre) to grab some more ginger tea and some wine.  I ended up with candy for Thomas, almond butter, instant oatmeal (oh my god), and a bunch of miscellaneous items, including a delicious bottle of Argentinean Malbec.  

We met up again to grab our luggage at noon, and we said our goodbyes.  It was a bit hard, but I always find goodbyes hard to do.  We had just spent all day everyday for a week straight together.  I have to admit, I didn’t really like Savann at first – he was raised in California, and in many ways, I considered him to be a brash American, but once he stopped trying to hit on me, and actually acted like himself, my consideration of him increased greatly.  Turns out he’s a pretty good guy.

I headed straight to the hotel near the airport after that, and waited for Tim.  Unfortunately, he missed his flight in Tokyo, and didn’t actually end up showing up until 06:00 the next morning, so I spent my birthday night in a big hotel room on my own – the hot shower and beer made up for it though, I do have to say.  That hot shower, oh my god.  It was divine – divinity in shower form.  I stayed in there until I was so pruny that my skin was splitting.  The beer made it even better.  At that point, I hadn’t had a hot shower since I got to Thailand, and most of them have been VERY cold. 

I couldn’t sleep that night because of nerves though – I was texting with Damon at 02:00, and calling my grandmother on the phone at 03:00.  I think in that three hour period before Tim arrived, I had every doubt and every misconception I could ever possibly have in a lifetime, and I have no idea why – but I was so nervous that it was turning my insides to liquid, and I was shaking while waiting at the airport.  I tried to fix it with Starbucks and dubstep, but to no avail. 

We wasted no time in leaving Bangkok – we went back to the hotel long enough to shower and pack things up a bit, and then headed to the bus station to leave Bangkok.  I was very done with air pollution, noise, and Bangkok by that point.  We took a bus/mini-van thing all the way to Trat, where we thought to wing it on finding a hotel, which was a total mistake, because the one we emailed was booked full, and so we got dropped off at a guesthouse that was way more expensive than anything I would want to pay, though we did get a meagre breakfast in the morning, which was nice. 

There was a fair that evening, with loud music and markets, and we went and checked it out some – Tim was exhausted, after having been awake for three days though, and we didn’t stay long. 

I saw the coolest little thing though, while I was there!   These little kids were fishing for fish with a piece of paper, I think it was a carnival game of some kind, and if they caught the fish, they got...the fish?  I’m not sure what they won because I didn’t see anyone win anything, but they had these little hoops with paper in it, and they had to catch a fish before the paper disintegrated.  I was fully enamoured with the whole little display, complete with those little giggles I give off whenever I see anything cool. 

Our evening, which was supposed to consist of a single glass of wine (glasses which I pilfered from the kitchen of the guest house...I hope it was okay) ended up consisting of sharing the bottle between the two of us, on a rooftop, in southern Thailand, complete with music from my phone and Tim’s camera (he’s more into photography than me, if that’s even possible) ...stars, moon, etc.  It was a pretty fantastic way to spend our first evening together. 

The next day, we hopped on a ferry to Koh Chang and spent the night there.  That was yesterday – and it was my first introduction to tropical beach life...and I like it.  Muchly so.  We had some issues finding a place to stay for cheap (again – where the fuck is the cheap Thailand I keep hearing about?  I’m on a budget, damn it!) ...but in the end, we found a place for 600 baht (the cheapest we could get that wasn’t disgusting, and accommodated two people) in a bungalow, right on the beach, with monkeys in the trees, and the single best sunset I’ve ever seen.  And no, I’m sorry, but neither of us have photos – we were both too busy enjoying ourselves, and it just never happened.  I drank pineapple juice on the beach, and got killer sunburn on my nose and arms, and we played in the water, and went for gelato (sorbet for me) after dark.  We both crashed early, and rose early and went for a walk along the beach to collect seashells at dawn.  It was pretty fantastic. 

Traveling with another human is a new concept to me, having not done it since that trip to the UK for the first time with Alex.  I’ve been too scared to try it since.  I like to fly solo, as it were.  So, there have been some bumps.  I’m not used to accommodating another person for more than a few hours or a few drinks, I’m not used to traveling and waking next to someone, and I’m not used to having to confer with someone else when I want to do something.   But overall – it’s been pretty good.  Despite bumps, it’s awesome to have Tim here with me, especially now, on Koh Maak, in a resort right on the beach.  I can see coconut trees and that beautiful blue tropical water right from my bed.  Right now.  As I type this, I can see coconuts. 

And the water here!  Oh my god, the ocean.  The ocean is beautiful.  It’s blue, just so blue, with a green hue in the shallows, and there’s little tropical fish, and coral and beautiful seashells, and the sand is white, and it’s just gorgeous.  Beyond gorgeous.  For a Canadian who’s never done this, I never could have imagined such beauty could come from a place that isn’t delightfully cold.

The water itself is very salty, much more so than home, and almost warm enough to bathe in.  And I can float in it!  ME – I floated.  I think we’re going to try snorkelling in the next couple days here.  As well as rent motorcycles, and go on hikes, and take photography – and I totally picture duelling cameras here – and just have the god-damned time of our lives.  It’s fantastic so far. 

So there, there’s your catch-up.  Stay awesome, people.