Keeping busy!

I haven't had a chance to update the blog in quite a while and we just wanted to let you all know that we are doing very well but have just been very busy and have not had much spare time! We have been having a great time in Singapore again and the two weeks we spent in New Zealand were fantastic as well!

We head off to Taiwan early tomorrow morning for three days and then to LA for a day and a half, and then back home finally in less than a week!! I think I'll have to update you all on the rest of our travels once we are home as I don't think we'll have much internet access in the next week and I think it'll be a bit of a whirlwind too!

We're looking very forward to catching up with all of you very soon!

Southern Thailand Islands

The first island in southern Thailand that we visited was a pretty island called Ko Pha Ngan. We started out our stay there at a very quiet beach area, which is only accessible by boat or by extremely bumpy roads. We stayed in a little bungalow very close to the beach, and here we enjoyed some of the best weather before all the downpours began.

After four relaxing days there we moved to another side of the island called Hat Yao for a change in scenery, and we were glad that we did since the next place we stayed was really great. The beach was much prettier and did not have seaweed and debris like the other beach had, we stayed in a great bungalow, and the staff were awesome and so friendly. The chef at the resort’s restaurant took a great liking to Wehuns especially, and so we enjoyed very delicious special creations he would cook up each night for us. After we started eating he would come out of the kitchen so excitedly to see our reaction to his cooking, it was so cute!

On this side of the island we had tons and tons of rain, and some days it poured all day without any break at all. So we had lots of time to catch up on some sleep and reading and Wehuns was able to do some more work as well. Two of the days we rented a scooter and zipped around the island despite the rain, which was fun and it was nice to have a change from the resort. One of the days we visited an elephant training area where we fed an elephant and we got to hold an adorable 1 month old monkey too!

Our next stop in the south was in Krabi, which is on the Andaman sea side and so we were hoping that this side would have a little less rain, which it did slightly. It took us quite a while to reach there from Ko Pha Ngan with the ferry ride and then two buses. The second bus left 3 hours after it was scheduled to, so it’s a good thing we weren’t in a rush! The first day there we explored around Krabi town and around the expansive park grounds of our resort which was very pretty. They also had an ostrich farm there, which was sort of random, but fun to see these huge birds.

The following day we rented a car and drove out to Than Bokkarani National Park, which is a beautiful park filled with many waterfalls. We spent a couple of hours there wandering around the trails through the forest. We then continued along on a beautiful country road to another national park which also has waterfalls and has an 11 tiered one that we wanted to see. Unfortunately we arrived just after it had closed, but the guard was kind enough to let us go in and run up to the closest waterfall. We weren’t sure if this was the 11 tiered one or if it was further in the park, but this one was not as impressive as the ones at the first park we visited.

The following day we took a ferry over to Ko Phi Phi Island, which is the most developed island in the south, but it is the most beautiful. It was badly devastated from the tsunami in 2004, but there has been so much re-construction that has been done since then. There are no cars on the island, which is very nice, and so you need to either walk to your resort or take a boat there. The water is so blue and clear and looks so beautiful, and we had a lovely view of the water from the balcony of the bungalow we stayed at. The bungalow was quite high up on a hill and a far walk up, but we felt much safer being so elevated in case a tsunami were to ever come again, not to mention this location was much cheaper!

We had great weather that day, so we rented a sea kayak and set out to explore the area. We paddled over to another beach nearby where we did some snorkeling amongst the coral and we saw some beautiful bright coloured fish. When we tried paddling back to our beach we realized that the tide had gone WAY out, and it was quite difficult to maneuver through the maze of very shallow abundant coral. Eventually we got to a point where we just couldn’t paddle any longer since we were beached, but we were still quite far away from shore. We had to carry the kayak the rest of the way in, which was about one kilometer or so, which must have looked pretty funny! Too bad that no one informed us about getting back in time while there was still water!

The following day was a fairly uneventful rainy day, but we went out anyways to check out the ocean when the tide was out to look for shells and fish, and then we walked into the little town to have a look.

We were thrilled to have some sunshine the next day, and so we went on a boat trip to the island of Ko Phi Phi Leh (which was made famous from the movie the Beach, which was filmed here). The sea was quite rough and the boat was rocking every which way, so I was gradually getting more and more seasick as we went along. I tried to ignore it, and went snorkeling for only about 15 minutes, which did not really help as it was so wavy in the water and made things worse. Once we were back on the boat the trip continued and I got so sick that I began vomiting several times over the side of the boat! It was terrible! It was supposed to be a full day trip to different islands and snorkeling areas, but I just could not handle any more time than necessary on that boat. I was so thankful that we could arrange to get back by the long tail boat that came to our boat to drop off the lunch, and we were joined by about ten other people who were quite sea sick as well. It was great to be back on solid ground again, and we spent some time chatting with two of the other couples who got off also over some ginger ale to settle our stomachs. I had a nap for most of the afternoon to try to sleep it off, but I felt pretty awful for the rest of the day and both of our heads continued to spin and feel like we were still on the boat!

I was dreading another ferry boat ride the following day to get over to Phuket, but this time I was much better with some gravol in my system. We took the boat over with one of the other couples we met the previous day, and had a great time getting to know them more.

Once we arrived and settled into our hotel in Phuket we walked over to Kata beach nearby, where we were so excited to see some great waves that were perfect for one of our favourite activities – boogie boarding!! We had so much fun catching some good rides on the waves and a couple of hours passed before we knew it, and the sun began to set. We headed back to our hotel for a swim in their awesome pool before heading out for dinner. After dinner we went for a Thai back massage, but poor Wehuns got a lady who was quite rough and was using her elbows the whole time, so he was very sore afterwards unfortunately.

The next day was our last in Thailand and we made our way back to Singapore on a quick flight, and it was very nice to return to family, warm weather and clear skies!