Koh Phi Phi to Chiang Mai

Hi all,

I have just finished uploading all of the photos we have from Thailand so far. Please check them out HERE.

After we wrote last (sorry for the long post and thanks to anyone who read the whole thing), we spent a few more days in Koh Phi Phi. I went scuba diving without Jacob (he wanted to save money

Seahorse

for more climbing) and it was beautiful. The water on the Andaman Sea side of Thailand is so much clearer and the marine life is amazing. It was more like what I was expecting out of Thailand diving, although still a bit short of the Philippines. I saw a couple of turtles, but no sharks, unfortunately. Every other group on the boat saw a Leopard Shark or two. But it doesn’t matter, it was awesome.

The next day, after waiting many hours for our ferry departure time, we headed back to Railay Bay to meet Chris, Mo, and a new friend, Felix, and

Jacob climbing

to do some more climbing. There’s not much else to do in Railay Bay, so I climbed again too, despite the fact that I was tired and hadn’t planned on it. It was fun and later that night I could barely type emails let alone pick things up. Satisfying!

We only spent a couple of days in Railay this time, after which we headed back to Krabi to catch a night bus to Bangkok. We were heading north to Chiang Mai, but were forced to divide the trip into two long-haul overnight bus rides, with a one night stop-over in Bangkok. The bus ride was terrible, for me at least, and all we wanted to do when we got to Bangkok (before sunrise) was check into a hotel and go to bed. It took about an hour of lugging our stuff around Khao San Road before we found a place but we checked in and went right to bed. Several hours later, hunger struck, so we

Mo, Chris, Felix, Becca and Jacob with Tiger Beer

ventured out into the chaos that is Khao San for our first taste of western chain fast food in a few months. Jacob had Subway and I enjoyed a delicious Whopper. We wandered around for a while before we found a pub with a pool table near our hotel where we could begin the fun. Later all five of us took a taxi to Patpong, one of Bangkok’s red light districts. Unlike other countries we’ve visited, this was a proper red light district, with strip clubs and “massage parlors” and a gay bar area (at which we accidentally ended up having several drinks before noticing the rainbow flags…duh). I thought the main street itself was disgusting, the boys thought it was funny, but we all laughed a little at the men who look like women and the women who look like men. How can you know who’s what!?!!?!?

We didn’t spend long on the main street and decided to go back to Khao San. There we stayed playing pool until some ungodly hour. We met a hilarious Irish pool champ named Mark who had been drinking since 8am and stayed long after we all called it a night. The next day we slept late and tooled around the area and by the time we left to meet our bus at 530pm, Mark was still drinking at the same pool table! Ah, the Irish.

So after another long, terrible, sleepless bus ride, we arrived in Chiang Mai around 7am and once again were looking to book straight into a room and get some proper sleep. Unfortunately, this time the bus “broke down” right outside of the city (and once we were all off, immediately pulled away), requiring us to pay 20 baht each for a taxi ride into to town, even though the bus ticket we purchased was supposed to take us all the way there. On the way, Jacob said, “I bet they drop us off at their travel agency” and he was right. It was a tour agency in a hotel lobby, the Plaza Inn, and they had a few cheap rooms left. Being exhausted, I thought we should just check in, because the rooms were cheap (250 baht) and we wouldn’t have to go searching for beds elsewhere. After a bit of a discussion about it being part of the bigger scam, we checked in. The beds were comfy and the rooms were clean, but just in case, we checked out the next day and into a hotel just down the street, Poolside Guesthouse, for 200 baht per night. The rooms were dirtier but there was a pool!

The next few days we spent strolling the various markets in town, visiting the many wats (temples), and checking out the night life. We found a great bar street with a place called Roots, Rock, Reggae that I loved because of the two house ska bands that play every night. It is standing/dancing room only in there and the drinks are cheap. There are a few other bars with pool tables and at least once we’ve stayed past closing time.

Jacob, Becca, Paula, and Mikey

One great day we all rented scooters and drove out to Tiger Kingdom, a place where, for a small fee, you can get into cages with tigers and pet them and hold them and play with them. It was very cool and the tigers are all quite calm. Some people say they are highly sedated, but after watching Mike the Tiger lay around all day and have fun at night, I think it must be just the way tigers are. I can only refer you to the photos of this because its pretty self-explanatory and the photos are great. My only regret is not having an LSU shirt to wear.

Jacob and Becca at Mae Rim Waterfall

After tigers we rode to some nearby waterfalls that run through a series of national parks. You can get into all the areas parks with the same ticket, and we made it to two of them before closing. Chris took a little spill off of his scooter onto some gravel, but toughed it out. It was a great day overall.

Jacob and I visited the Sunday Walking Street two days ago, which is a huge market all along a main street through the old city. We bought several cool souvenirs which we had planned to send home yesterday, but it was a holiday. Today we will try the post office again, plan our next few days, and take it easy by the pool.

Sunday Walking Street

So that’s where we are now. Tomorrow we’re planning to go on a three day trek which will include elephant rides, white water rafting, visiting hill tribe villages, and sleeping in huts. Look out for another post after we get back!

Becca