Street View: N7°53.436′ E98°18.230′

A marathon 14 hour trek from Ko Tao took us via Ko Phangan, Ko Samui and Suratthani to the Adaman Coast and Thailand’s largest island of Phuket (I want to remember the modes of transport we used so I’m going to jot them down here: tuk-tuk, high-speed catamaran, mini-bus, car ferry, bus, car, mini-bus, taxi [in that order]).  Phuket is separated from the mainland by a thin stretch of water and linked by a permanent bridge.  The island is quite large, at 533 square kilometers (206 square miles) Phuket covers about the same area as Singapore.  The island’s main beaches are all located on the west coast, a collection of white sandy retreats next to the turquoise waters of the Adaman Sea backed by mountainous tropical jungle.  Thoughtless overdevelopment of many of the island’s beaches have rendered them nothing more than expensive package holiday destinations that retain little, if any, of their traditional Thai culture.  That said, there were plenty of out-of-the way beaches we found while touring the island on our little moped and a plethora of local eateries that continued to wow our taste buds.

We spent all but two of our nights in Phuket at a fantastic little hotel in Ao Patong called the Siam Hotel.  With the largest and one of the cleanest rooms we’ve had throughout Southeast Asia as well as an AC and TV, at 500 Baht (around $USD15) a night we couldn’t have asked for more.  Centrally located in the tourist mecca of Ao Patong (Patong Beach) we were a short moped ride from Phuket Town as well as some of the nicer west coast beaches.  Ao Patong could have been one of the seedier Bangkok nightlife areas transplanted to the west coast of Phuket: the endless go-go girl bars and steamy drinking holes offering discount beers wasn’t really our scene but the place was definitely popular with a lot of the western tourists visiting the island.  The bars off the main strip closer to our hotel were more up our alley, we thought of how much all of Lisa’s college friends (especially you Andi Biaggi!) would enjoy them as they all provide patrons with free games ranging from cards through eight ball, dice and even Jenga.

October is still the monsoon season on Thailand’s west coast, almost every day at around noon we were forced to find shelter to avoid the torrential downpours typical of the season in Phuket.  Even though this did hamper our exploration of the island a little it was a good excuse to stop at the nearest local eatery to wait out the showers, which usually didn’t last for more than an hour.  The photo below left was taken on our way to Bang Pae Waterfall and the adjacent Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre, we just escaped the downpour and ended up waiting out the storm at a local eatery that served the best BBQ chicken Lisa had tasted anywhere in Southeast Asia.  We did get caught out by the rain one day: we were exploring the northern end of the island when, 27 kilometers from our hotel, we were caught in the heaviest rain either of has ever experienced.  By the time we made it back to our hotel almost an hour later there wasn’t a single piece of clothing on either of us that wasn’t wet.  Luckily we were in our swimming gear after a morning at Ao Surin (Surin Beach), a relatively undeveloped and secluded spot on the northwest coast with enough of a swell for some fun bodysurfing.  One of our favorite swimming spots on the island was a small, secluded beach at the very southern tip of the island below Laem Promthep (beach pictured here).  The day we were there only a few other people shared the spot with us and we found some fantastic reefs to explore with our snorkels a short swim off the beach.  We had originally planned to only spend a few days in Phuket and then move on to Ko Phi Phi (one of Thailand’s most famous island destinations and also the filming location of the movie The Beach) but with the wet weather and the wealth of different locations to explore on Phuket we instead decided to stay for almost a week.

We’d had a pretty good run with food in Southeast Asia, Lisa’s sensitive stomach had been handling all the new flavors and spices well even though the majority of our food has come from street carts.  We had our first bit of culinary bad luck in Phuket though, Lisa was stricken with a sleepless night and quite a bit of gastrointestinal pain due to some undercooked chicken off a food stall at Surin Beach (we think that’s what it was because it was the only piece of food I didn’t eat that day).  We made a trip to Patong Hospital on Sunday morning to get it sorted out and indeed the doctor diagnosed her with gastroenteritis, prescribing a batch of medicine to help her through it and advising to stay away from spicy food for a few days.  We were a little worried that her symptoms were similar to those stemming from a malarial infection so were glad to be able to see a doctor quickly…  It took her a couple of days to get over the bug, luckily we had a nice hotel room in which she could wait out the ailment.  I left Lisa watching movies in our room for a few hours at time while exploring some sections of the island closer to Ao Patong.  Phuket Town was a quick 10 kilometer ride over the mountains from our hotel, its distance from the beaches means that it’s almost completely devoid of tourists and a good way to experience some of the local culture.  The markets were more targeted toward Thai people coming in to do their day-to-day shopping rather than the tourist markets we’ve seen elsewhere in Thailand.  The food stalls were great, so much on offer, most of which I’d never seen before and had no idea of its composition!

Phuket spells the end of our journey through Thailand and the bulk of our travels through Southeast Asia.  I think we’ll both definitely be yearning for more of the fantastic food we’ve had in the four countries we visited (although Lisa maybe a little less so after her gastroenteritis in Phuket!), and I’ll definitely miss the morning iced coffees I’ve become used to.  Next: Singapore.

Street View: N10°06.196′ E99°49.678′

Temperature: 27-33°C (81-91°F)

Water Temperature: 29°C (85°F)

Departing the bustling big city of Bangkok we were excited to finally be on our way to a tropical island with some turquoise water and white sandy beaches.  We left Bangkok around 9:00PM on an overnight bus to the town of Chumpon, where we arrived at 5:00AM and had to wait two hours before departing on a one-and-a-half hour catamaran to the island of Ko Tao.  Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep over the course of this long slog but made it and were thrilled to go for a swim and snorkel as soon as we dropped our bags in our room.  The first full day we had on the island we hired a scooter (with knobby tires) and went exploring.  Let’s just say I was very relieved that Sam is good on a mountain bike because navigating up and down some of the dirt roads was quite technical.  We ventured to the very south end of the island to take in the views over Freedom Beach and then made our way out to Cape Jeda Gang, a recommended snorkeling spot.  It was a bit of an adventure getting there with the roads having been washed from the recent rains as well as a few wrong turns we made along the way.  At one point it started raining so hard we stopped and took shelter under a little shed housing building materials!  The snorkeling spot was worth the effort though, a huge open bay that was full of beautiful coral and plenty of fish.  The sky stayed clear while we snorkeled but on the way back the weather made a quick change and decided to pour.  Zooming through the wet streets we were soaked by the time we returned to our room but thrilled with our adventurous day.

Sam loves diving but has never ‘officially’ been certified to SCUBA dive.  He signed up for a four day intensive PADI course which included four dives at various locations around Ko Tao.  Being that I’m a big chicken and afraid to be trapped underwater I opted to stick with snorkeling, maybe some day I’ll overcome my fear.  On the first day of his course Sam was paired up with Andrew from Montana, of all places.  Andrew was in Ko Tao with his  girlfriend MeiLi, originally from Hawaii but now living in Beijing.  While the guys were in their course MeiLi and I road her scooter to explore more of the island.  We hiked up a very steep hill while sweat streamed down our faces to a beautiful lookout called Two View.  The name says it all, you could see both sides of the island during the course of the hike.  At the top of the mountain we stopped off for a refreshing cup of mint tea at a little hut where the proprietor, Sak, and his wife live.  Sak is a very mellow Thai that over the last 30 years has hosted many westerners seeking a calm, quiet place to practice yoga and meditation.  That evening we went out for some beers and dinner with a group from Sam’s dive class: a couple on their honeymoon from Toronto, Nada and Greg, as well as MeiLi and Andrew.  We had a great time exchanging travel stories and sharing some flavorful Thai dishes.     

On Sam’s first day out on the dive boat I was able to tag along and go snorkeling at their two dive spots.  It was also a great opportunity to be able to see Sam in action and take some photos.  The first stop was at Hin Wong Bay and the second spot was called Mango Bay.  Sam and the divers were working on many scenarios underwater but were still able to see some amazing fish and coral.  Mango Bay was a much larger site than Hin Wong with a wider variety of fish swimming around, I enjoyed exploring the large cove.  The following morning Sam awoke early and was on the dive boat at 6:00AM, they motored about 45 minutes to the northwest of the island to a spot called Chumpon Pinnacle.  He was most impressed with this location, his group had more free time on this dive and was able to really enjoy the amazing coral, sea grasses and marine life surrounding the pinnacle.  This was the deepest dive of the course, going down to 17 meters (56 feet), Sam said the clarity was very impressive throughout the dive.  The last spot Sam dove was called Japanese Garden which is located between Nang Yuan Island and Ko Tao, it was full of any and all types and colors of Southeast Asian coral.  Sam enjoyed all the dives immensely and continued to recount things that he saw throughout the remainder of the day, he was especially impressed with the competence of his Welsh instructor, Mike.  We spent our last afternoon lazing on the beach and enjoyed our final dinner at our favorite family Thai restaurant in Sairee.

An outing we were both looking forward to in Bangkok was a visit to one of the nightly Muay Thai boxing bouts.  The main Muay Thai bouts rotate between two stadiums in Bangkok, on the night we attended it was held at Lumphini Stadium a short skyway ride from Siam Center.  It was quite expensive, given what we’ve become used to paying for things in Southeast Asia, but the roughly $USD60.00 per ticket we paid for ringside seats was well worth it.  Each Muay Thai fight consists of five rounds of three minutes each, before the bout begins the fighters make their way into the ring and perform a ceremonial dance which could almost be likened to an extravagant prayer ceremony.  The fighters wear traditional garb for the ceremonial dance, which can last as long as 10 minutes.  Once each fighter readies themselves the traditional clothing is removed and the crowd treated to five rounds of often exceedingly violent fighting in which anything is permitted with the exception of head- butting and elbows above the neck.  If a knockout occurs it’s usually via a kick to the head, we saw this happen once to decide the Lightweight Title of Thailand.  The main event was between two fighters each weighing only 130 pounds (59 kilograms) but, as with all of the night’s athletes, they were in amazing condition and wouldn’t have had more than a few ounces of fat on them.  The atmosphere in the stadium was electric, there’s a great deal of money riding on each fight and thus the crowd really got involved as the fights ensued.  Each blow was met by cheers from the crowd, the noise bouncing back and forth between the red and blue sides of the stadium, with all noise from the crowd and the traditional live music played with each bout we couldn’t help but get right into it with the rest of the onlookers.  A very entertaining evening…

We spent one of our days in Bangkok walking the streets to explore some of the historical and architectural wonders of the capital.  We started out by walking a few kilometers from our hotel on Khaosan Road past Wat Rajnadda and, according to our taxi driver on the way home from the Muay Thai boxing, to the hole in the wall that is known by locals as the best pad thai restaurant in Bangkok.  It’s reputation is well deserved: our meals came wrapped in a blanket of egg and included prawns the size of a child’s fist, definitely the best pad thai I’ve ever eaten.  We walked past the Royal Palace and the immense Wat Phra Kaeo, the holiest site in all of Thailand adjoining the Royal Palace (unfortunately the Royal Palace was closed to foreigners on the day we visited).  A number of times walking around the city we were confronted by seemingly too friendly Thai men offering us directions, suggestions and locals’ insights on touring Bangkok.  We were a little skeptical at first but as we encountered more and more friendly locals we became aware that the Thai people understand just how much of a boon tourism is to the economy and want to make sure that tourists enjoy their time in the country.  The suggestions we were given never came with any kind of request for money or slight of hand, just genuinely nice people offering us their inside knowledge (such as to only catch tuk-tuks with white and black license plates because they’re government regulated, tuk-tuks with other colors are private tuk-tuks and will try to charge up to 10X the price).  All of the friendly locals would try to draw a route on a map for us in case their English wasn’t good enough for us to understand!