The last 3 days on Koh Tao, Island (AKA Paradise!!)

Forgive me for not blogging for a couple days, but between the internet shutting off half way through every post I tried to write (finiky internet, on small islands, is the norm in Thailand), and the fact that I've been enjoying my vacation and not fretting about journaling my every move...  I'll just say, we made it safely to Koh Tao island after a 3 hour ferry ride with about 100 people!

... which was completely worth it when we found this gem of a place to stay (Coral View Resort)!

... which happened to have one of the most amazing tree swings on the planet!

... and some delicious, and cheap beer, for Aaron to enjoy at the beach bar!

This is the view from the restaurant on the hill where we ate every meal for two days!  We're not oppossed to eating at other places, but our resort was so secluded that there was no way to get anywhere else without a four wheel drive truck!  We didn't mind! :)

We snorkeled here on the resort's private beach cove and saw some of the most gorgeous and exotic fish I've ever seen!  I'll post some videos when I get back home of our snorkeling ventures!!

We ate scrumptious cocount thai curry!

... and ventured on the rocks, and over the hill, to see what was on the other side of our cove!

For all you curious little ones, this was what we saw on the other side of the hill!  GORGEOUS, huh?!

 This was the view, in the morning, from my bungalow on the hill! 

(2 minute walk to the beach, 5 minute walk back up the hill! haha)

I promise Aaron isn't an alchoholic!!  It just happens to be that I've taken pictures of him when he's been drinking!  :)  Besides, I couldn't resist posting this pic!

Our resort had delicious banana pancakes with chocolate syrup, a must have while you're in Thailand!

On the 2nd morning, I woke up to "Butter" on my doorstep!  Aaron named her Butter, because when he saw her the day before, he picked her up, and she literally melted into him!   Such an awesome kitty!  I'd be lying if I said I didn't let her sleep on my bed the last night I was at Coral View!  :)

 View, from my bungalow, looking towards the sea! 

 

And here it is... my home sweet home for 2 nights in Koh Tao at Coral View Resort!  And before you assume that I'm filthy rich because I'm staying in an oceanview bungalow in Thailand, it was only $11.50! 

I'm extremely relaxed here in Thailand... can you tell?!

We talked it over this morning, and while we absolutely adored Coral View, we decided to check out another area of the island, so we took the truck taxi, over the mountain to Sairee beach, where we ordered breakfast, rented a scooter, and headed on a mission to find the perfect place to stay!  When I saw that this bungalow, over the water, was available, I jumped on it!!

Aaron was more than happy to comply with my decision!!

This is, hands down, the best view I've ever had from my front porch at a hotel before!!   Yes, this is literally taken from my front door!

After settling in, we hoped on the scooter and headed for lunch in Chalok Bay!

... and gave ourselves a little tour of the island on the scooter!

Around 2pm, we made it safely back to OK 2 Bungalow, which we had only found, on a whim, by riding the scooter to the end of a road earlier in the day!  This was one of those times where our adventurous spirits paid off!!  :)

We put our bathing suits on and headed for the shark infested water infront of my bungalow!  NO JOKE!  This is, afterall, called Shark Bay... and YES, we did see TONS of sharks while snorkeling! 

If I had to guess, I probably had over 20 shark encounters!  Here's a VIDEO to prove it!

After doing hours and hours and hours of snorkeling in Shark Bay, we sat down to dinner at the hotel's restaurant on the hilltop, overlooking the bay!  The next 3 pictures are my attempt at a panoramic picture!

If you look closely, in the picture above, you can see a snorkeler, way out in the water!  That's about where we were most of the day!  And yes, my arms and abs are VERY sore!

This is the restaurant dog, who, no matter how loudly you yell at it, it continues to sleep!  CLASSIC island dog, I guess!  ...Totally relaxed and content with doing absoutely nothing but sleeping!

Aaron's had some sort of Thai noodle dish, which looked delicious... and then just as he said, "I wonder why we're the only one's here right now..."

... my Pad Thai came out and it was PINK!  We both laughed and said, "That's probably why!" Surprisingly enough, it was actually really delicious!  Who knew?!

We're both having the most incredible time and are so happy with the place w've found to stay, which are far, far, far away from the touristy areas! We're in paradise as far as we're concerned, and we're taking every moment in, and enjoying the unconceivable beauty around us!

Tomorrow I'm planning to read on my bungalow balcony, swim with more sharks, eat delicious food, take beautiful pictures, and relax, relax, relax with my love!! 

P.S. I got an e-mail telling me that I got the job at the school I requested for next year!  So, I'll be working at Dae Gyo Elementary School, on Yeongdo Island, beginning March 1st, 2011!  I'm telling you, this could be one of the greatest weeks of all time!!

Signing off from Koh Tao, Thailand!

Getting somewhere!

Today was all about traveling – literally “traveling!” Our taxi driver picked us up at 6:00am and drove us 2 hours to the border of Cambodia and Thailand. After dropping us off, we walked through the crossing with everyone else! Many Cambodians push carts of bedding, clothes, and other handmade items across the border to sell in Thailand. Some of the kids ride on top!

After making it successfully across the border, I waved good morning to the Thai president and began our 2 kilometer long trek to the bus station, which we didn’t exactly remember the location of!

We walked through this market, nearby the border, along the way, and found it quite funny to see a baby elephant walking through!  Only in Thailand!

We unfortunately gave up on our search for the bus station and asked the local “tourist police” for directions! The guy ended up giving us a lift there, which was very nice!

We got to the bus stop around 10:30am, purchased our tickets to Morchit Station in Bangkok, and boarded the bus at 11:00am!

I find it really interesting the way grown men in Thailand and Cambodia decorate their taxi’s and buses with chincy (sp?) toys and stickers! To each his own, I guess!

The bus ride was llllooooonnnngggg, and we arrived around 3:40pm in Bangkok! First order of business was to book a train to Chomphorn, but unfortunately, they were all booked, so we were forced to reserve seats on yet another bus! Luckily, we have about 4 hours to spare, so we caught a taxi to Koh San Road for some shopping!

For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures on Koh San Road… maybe it’s because I was too focused on all the great things you can buy there!

We headed back to the train station with about an hour to spare before boarding the bus!

The only place with wifi was KFC, so Aaron and I had a nice little Valentine’s dinner in the upstairs section of a Thailand KFC and checked our e-mails! So romantic!

While we were out shopping earlier in the day, Aaron asked a couple Thai men what Thai women like for Valentine’s day. They all looked at him and asked excitedly, “You like Thai woman?!” haha! Anyhow, their recommendation was flowers… so Aaron secretly bought me a rose!

At 9:30pm, on the dot, we boarded our night bus to Chomphorn! It was a long ride, but luckily we were able to sleep quite a bit, and I’m sure all the traveling today will be worth it when we’re finally relaxing on our island!

And as far as  not really celebratingValentine's goes, we celebrate our love everyday, so we were okay with a boring day of traveling! :)

Angkor Wat...

I decided to try something a little different with today's blog!  Instead of writing a play by play, I made a little video.. Unfortunately, the pictures quality is not very good, so I'll probably post pictures when I get back to Korea and have some extra time!  :(

Since I know many of you read my blog from work or during class, I decided not to ad any music!  I'd hate for traditional Cambodian music to come blaring from your computer during class or a business meeting! haha 

ENJOY Angkor Wat through my eyes!!

click here if the video doesn't play on this page...

Exploring Cambodia

We woke up this morning to the lights on the plane being turned on!  Nothing like a 2:30am wake-up call!  When we landed, it was about 3:00am, 2 hours past our scheduled arrival, so we talked it over and decided to grab a taxi and head over to Morchit bus station, in Bangkok, and catch the 4:30am bus over to the Cambodian border!

Luckily we were able to sleep a little bit on the bus, so when we finally got the border, we were ready to face the hundreds of touts who met us there begging for us to buy their souveniers!   We quickly found a woman to take us to the border on her tuk tuk for $1.00!

After just a couple minutes, we were there and could see the border in sight!

We quickly moved through the Thai immigration office and then through the Cambodian one, but not without being grifted by the Cambodian police!  We were savy to their grift though, and only paid the $20.00 price that was listed on the wall (for our VISAs) instead of the outrageous price they told us to pay!  It’s sad when a country’s own policemen try to scam you! 

After getting our Cambodian visas, we jumped on the free government shuttle which took us to the taxi area! If weren’t for Aaron, I would have paid an arm and a leg during this whole border crossing fiasco! It’s REALLY easy to get scammed in this country!

Luckily, we found a really great taxi driver who drove us the two hours to Siem Reap for $40.00, which is a standard fare from the border. We drove through quite a few small towns along the way… This should give you a good example of how the Cambodian people live. It definitely made me realize how fortunate I was.

  

 The ride was llllloooonnnngggg, and we were sooo exhausted from traveling, hence Aaron's very sleepy eyes!

We arrived in Siem Reap around noon, and quickly found a tuk tuk to take us to Two Dragons hostel.  Aaron had stayed here last time he was in Cambodia and highly recommended it!  It’s run by a nice American guy and his Camobodian wife.

We both got settled in, ordered some lunch, read through some pamphlets on what to do in the city, and then rented bikes for $1.00 each and rode to Khmer Ceramics Center, an outdoor pottery place where we sat and made our very own pottery with some local teenagers!

For $15.00 (a bit expensive, but worth the experience), we were able to make 3 things! We could use the wheel, or sit at the table and create something! We both chose to start on the wheel!

… There was one table where some locals were crafting stuff to sell in the store’s gallery.  Aaron and I had a lot of fun here because it wasn’t touristy at all!  In fact, we were the only foreigners there! 

Playing with clay was a first for me, since I was forced to take Spanish as an elective in High School, instead of Ceramics! So, I needed a lot more assistance than Aaron! 

My pottery, sunbathing, and getting ready for the kiln!

Aaron’s pottery, sunbathing next to mine!  He kept trying to make something on the wheel for his 3^rd thing, but ended up giving up and making a heart instead!  It is the week of Valentine’s, after all!  J  I thought it was a cute sentiment on his part!

We were assured that our pottery would be glazed, fired, and delivered to Two Dragon’s hostel the next day… so off we went to explore the city on our bikes!

This river runs right through the middle of Siem Reap and you can find lots of local Cambodians jogging in the late afternoon and evening… you can also see little neighborhoods, like this one, with wooden shacks, on stilts, in some areas of the river.

After exploring the town, we headed back to the hostel for a nap!  We were both so tired and worn out from the sun and bike riding! We immediately fell in love with Matthew, the owners ½ Camoboidan – ½ American son, who is one of the smartest and most creatuive 5 ½ year olds that I’ve met to date! His imagination is unbelievable! As you can see, he was deep sea diving tonight!

We had heard of a great place to catch the sunset, but decided to try somewhere different instead.  It’s a local street market, where tourists are never seen!  It sounded like just the kind of place that Aaron and I would be in to!  So, we hired a tuk tuk driver and off we went!

We spotted this guy, carrying a toddler, on his motorcycle!  This isn’t even close to the worst we’ve seen though!  Later tonight, we saw two guys and 3 babies on 1 scooter!  I kid you not!

When we got to the street market, the locals were just beginning to set up shop, so we stopped in at a little street food place and ordered some drinks!

This was the son of the woman who ran the street food cart!

She motioned for us to sit down at one of the tables she had set up for her customers!  (Yes, there were carnival rides set up!  None of which you should try riding if you want to live to see tomorrow though!)

This one was my personal favorite! A homemade merry-go-round, powered with electric extension chords, running under the dirt! The little cars where the kids could sit were actually plastic cards like big wheels, tricycles, etc… basically whatever the owner could find to put on the darn thing! It was classic!

There were even carnival games!  Aaron tried this one and was a big winner!  It was the game where you throw balls at cans and try to knock all of them over!  Being the athletic guy that he is, he knocked all of them down without using all of the balls!   He was given a bag of chips!  Haha

Here was another homemade merry-go-round, of sorts, with random cars on it!  They love these things!

As you can probably imagine, Cambodia is absolutely dirt poor...  It was hard not to want to help everyone, especially the little ones who are covered in dirt and walking, aimlessly, around the markets, with no parents in sight.

We met a little boy earlier in the day who said he hadn’t eaten anything that day and was really excited for his next meal.  Hopefully it wasn’t these crickets that were for sale in the street market!

… or these gigantic beetles that were also up for grabs!  I’ll eat bull frogs, but I was not about to try a beetle!  I have to draw the line somewhere, right?!

After the night market, we headed back to Two dragons where we ordered some dinner and called it a night!

Tomorrow morning, we’re both setting our alarms for 4:00am to go over to Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise! Should be amazing!