Em & Tola's Travel Blog

We arrived and we left Bangkok safely and calmly .. 5 1/2 nights spent. Our bus strategically dropped us off (along with a full bus of other tourists) far enough from Khao San Road to make us not want to walk the distance in the heat of 4 AM (yes I was very hot, sweaty, and cranky because of the lack of sleep), so we barely haggled with a tuk tuk and hopped in for a short drive to backpacker central. Guesthouses around Khao San seem to be used to having travelers arrive at all hours of the night, and they are very gracious to check in guests numerous hours before check in time. We found a guesthouse that seemed suitable enough to catch a few hours of sleep before the morning approached and the city awoke.

After getting some needed hours of sleep, it was time to step out onto the warm streets of Bangkok, and Tola and I felt at least ready to check out Khao San and its surroundings. For the first time during the past couple of months, I really felt that we were in the middle of backpacker madness (in a good way) as people from all over the world walked the streets shopping, eating, many looking for something new or perhaps for something that they had heard about from other travelers, friends, or guidebooks.

As some of you know, Thailand has been in the news lately because of political demonstrations that have been held for numerous weeks on the account of unhappy citizens. The demonstrators have been protesting against the government, and many of them have been gathering because of a decision that has been made against Thailand's past and favorable (for some) leader Taksin. Bangkok being the capital of Thailand has of course been the hub for all of the recent action that has taken place. As the largest gatherings were being organized, Tola and I arrived in Bangkok. Throughout our week in Bangkok (when we were near the center of the city) we saw trucks loaded with protesters, red shirts warn by most, and Taksin's picture on anything from posters to tea cups. Tola and I both became well aware that we were very close to something that could possibly be historic for Thailand's future. There definitely were devoted demonstrators, and I became curious as I wondered how they managed to take so much time off for this event ...

After spending three weeks on white sandy beaches and spending many hours swimming in beautiful warm ocean water, I wondered how it would feel being back in a large, hot, and crowded city, but the adjustment went just fine. I think I am a city girl after all ... :)Tola and I had planned on getting together with his dad and other members of his dad's family, so we were able to easily stay away from the political events taking place in the center of the city. We settled in for the week at Tola's Uncle Boon's house, and we had a busy week of exploring Bangkok. While we stayed at Uncle Boon's house, we also made a new friend named Beng. Beng is like a grandson to Tola's uncle, and we had fun spending time with him as we explored a new city. Tola and I had a great tour of Bangkok as we were taxied around and taken to many wonderful places. During the week with also met up with Tola's family friend Sune who has lived in Bangkok for over fifteen years. I felt overwhelmed as we were treated to many delicious meals and as we explored many unique places.

Some of the sights we visited during the week were the Crocodile Farm, the Erawan Museum (a magnificent art museum along with botanical gardens), Wat Phra Kew and the Grand Palace, the National Museum, many markets for shopping, and of course many restaurants that allowed us to taste the tastes of Thailand. On one day Tola and I also went to a park known as Lumphini Park. I enjoyed being a spectator of life throughout the park as we sat and chatted about past and future events. This also gave me a moment to think about all that we have seen during the past couple of months and of all that I have to be thankful for in my life.

During the past couple of months I have noticed that my love for small animals occasionally comes out, and I didn't even know that this existed within me, but it has made a short appearance during a couple of memorable times. :) While we were visiting the Crocodile Farm, Tola and I were also given the chance to hold a baby white lion, and this again showed me that sometimes I can have a heart for the little creatures .. they are not so intimidating after all ..

Throughout our trip there have been many moments that I have been able to take in the beauty that has been created before us. I have also found that there is also a kind of beauty that can be seen even in the midst of a big and overcrowded city. Sometimes you have to look a little harder, but I believe that it is always there ..

After the decadent lifestyle on Koh Phangan, we wanted to activate ourselves again in the diving mecca that is the island of Ko Tao.

Right when we landed on the island, we liked the atmosphere better than on Koh Phangan. It is a very hilly island with tons of palm trees. From above it is supposed to resemble a sunbathing turtle resting between two coral reefs. There for the name Ko Tao (Turtle island).


We asked around where the best snorkeling on the island was and we were recommended Tanote bay. So we took a taxi (a van where you sit in the back in the open air grabbing on the the sides not to fall out) on some muddy and extremely bumpy and steep roads that were not very well suited for driving. We got a bungalow 30 seconds from the water and got ready for a few intense days.

Instead, the bad weather hit. We have been incredibly fortunate weather wise so far on the trip, but now our luck changed. Thunderstorms created high waves which is not exactly optimal for snorkeling or sunbathing for that matter.


Instead we just relaxed in our hammock reading and waiting for the bad weather to pass. Luckily it did, and we finally got to go on a snorkeling trip.



The waves where still high in some places, so the sharks and the dolphins(!) in the area had moved away, so we had to snorkel at some smaller bays around the island instead of around a smaller island off the island called "Shark Island". Well in the water, we realized what all the fuss surrounding Ko Tao is coming from. The waters are by far the clearest we have seen, and you could see all the fish and coral in high detail. Most of the things we saw under water, we had seen before though, huge schools of fish, sea stars, big white clams, etc.


But on the last stop (a place called the Japanese Gardens), we bumped into a sting ray. It was quite the experience. It was brown with white dots, and it was swimming right next to us. It looked like a huge butterfly in slow motion under water. It is one of the most beautiful sights I have seen so far on the trip.

We were very happy that we got to experience a tiny sliver of the underwater world surrounding Ko Tao before we left, and now after almost 3 weeks on paradise islands, we are ready to head back in to the big city again. This time, the big city will be Bangkok.

We don't have that much to write about this place, so we are just putting up a few pictures from it.

After a few wonderful weeks in Malaysia we left to go to one of my "home countries," Thailand. To get a 30 day Visa we had to go back all the way to Kuala Lumpur and fly to Phuket from there. Our attempt of having a "green" trip has now lead to 3 shorter Air Asia flights. We will try to do better during the next weeks.

We arrived in Phuket late in the evening, so we got a room for one night and booked boat tickets for our intended first destination, the Phi Phi Islands.


When we arrived early Sunday morning, we realized that the Lonely Planet had been spot on in describing the islands. The amazing views of the dramatic limestone cliffs, the perfectly white beaches and perfectly clear turquiose waters make you shed a tear, but when you realize that you share everything with every speedo on the planet you shed another tear. Aside from the speedos we also had to share the islands with every woman over 60 that thinks it is a good idea to sunbathe topless on a crowded beach, Swedish families with young children, and people who think that it is fashionable to wear sandals when you swim in the ocean.



To get away from all of this we were lucky enough to find a decently remote beach with a few bungalows and huts, the Ao Poh Bungalows. They had a few of the best morning views you could imagine. At 6 o'clock every morning, we popped open the windows and saw the most amazing sunrises by just opening our eyes while still half sleeping. The evenings were not bad either, the moon shone straight on our beach and you fell asleep to the sound of the ocean waves rolling in over the beach.


The days on Phi Phi were spent swimming in the turquoise waters and working on our tans. One day Emily and I thought that we had enough rest and went on a 7 hour boat trip around the islands. The first stop was Maya Bay, better known as the beach in the Di Caprio movie "The Beach" from 2001. As deserted as it is in the movie, it was filled with tourists to the brim. Being there you can not understand that the islands actually are part of a national park. When you swam out a bit and imagined the place without other people, the beauty of the beach became very obvious with its amazing water and beautiful cliffs.


After we left the beach, we went snorkeling in a bay nearby. The sights above the water was more mesmorizing than the ones under the water. The next stop on the boat trip was Monkey Beach. As you can guess there were monkeys on the beach that gladly posed for a picture in exchange for a banana or a sip of Fanta orange. The boat ride also took us to Mosquito Island and Bamboo Island and both of them gave us wonderful views. So much in fact that when we were supposed to watch the sunset in the water between the islands, the people on the boat had enough and we went back to the pier for some pizza.



We have done quite a lot on the trip so far, but one thing we have not done is that we have not enjoyed the nightlife in Southeast Asia. So tomorrow we are heading to Koh Phangan. An island infamous for its parties, and its full moon parties in particular. We just missed the full moon, but in a few days it is half moon, and we are guessing that the backpacker crowd will celebrate that as well...

Thinking upon the past year, I remember the various landscapes I have experienced around the globe. Being able to enjoy diverse settings has been a big part of our trip so far. Everything has been quite different, and as we try to compare place to place, it becomes more and more difficult because everything has something that makes it "special" and unique.

On February 20th, we began making our way to the Perhentian Island of Kecil (the small island). I guess I had expected that it would be a little bit more difficult to get to the Perhentian Islands (because of our trip to the Gili Islands), but it went very smoothly and our trip was quite fast. We left the Cameron Highlands in the morning and loaded up in a van with four other people. The drive was supposed to take 6 hours, but I think our driver made it in around 5 hours (we even had two stops along the way). I usually don't get car sick, but at times I felt like I was on the verge of getting ill because our driver drove extremely quickly along windy roads. If there was a speed limit (which I don't believe there was), he definitely wasn't following it, and I was happy when our drive was over. :) Still, driving in Malaysia seems to be a lot easier than hectic Indonesia .. Indonesians drove every speed possible!!

After our quick drive through mountains and windy roads, we made it to a smaller town. Next we took a fast boat to Perhentian Kecil. The fast boat took 30 minutes, and riding through the smooth waves was kind of like riding on a small roller coaster. As we glided across the beautiful blue water, I thought about the many boating excursions I have had (with my family and friends) in the past on Lake Roosevelt (the lake near Kettle Falls). The Perhentian Islands soon came into view and they immediately appeared to be beautiful in their magical setting. Both islands looked to be mostly overgrown jungle with white sandy beaches along much of the water front.

We decided to stay at Coral Bay on Perhentian Kecil because during February, Coral Bay has very calm waters as the other side of the island is still a bit windy during this time of year. Coral Bay is a beautiful bay lined with white sand, chalets, and my favorite, coconut trees. We first decided to stay at a place called Aur Bay that is owned by a dear Malaysian family. It was joyful to see the little children playing hopscotch and hula hoop in the sand in front of the small chalets. They also practiced their English a bit, and always seemed eager to try and make conversation. Aur Bay is a place of character, and it seems to be one of the oldest places in Coral Bay. We enjoyed watching huge local monitor lizards walk in between the chalets, and we had a few fun nights playing cards on the small porch. I will let you know that I think I have won the most when playing cards with Tola and Antti. ;)

After four nights at Aur Bay, we decided to try another place for our last night, so we moved to Senja Resort. Once we realized it took about twenty steps to walk into the water from the chalet, we decided to stay one more night at Senja Bay. The little chalet made me feel like I could stay on Perhentian Kecil for a long long time. It was the perfect place to spend our last couple of days on the breathtaking island.

During our first days on the small island, we spent quite a bit of time snorkeling in the clear turquoise waters. I started feeling a lot more comfortable with snorkeling, and I realized that it really is an amazing activity. On our first big snorkeling day I spotted a group of Nemos hiding in a sea anenome, and at that moment, I realized my love for swimming in the ocean (not just sun tanning on the beach) was actually growing.



Tola, Antti, and I also decided to go on a boat snorkeling trip, and this ended up being a great decision. We spent almost the entire day on the water and we experienced things I really had never imagined experiencing first hand. At our first stop, we saw many beautiful fish and I felt like I had seen enough for the day, but soon I found out, it was only the beginning. On our next boat stop, we came to a shark point, and I almost didn't want to get in the water. Everyone else seemed so excited, so I decided to join in the fun. I asked Tola to swim by my side because I didn't want to be by myself (even though there were about 10 others on our boat). :) Tola and I jumped in and almost instantly we saw our first shark. Swimming along I almost started to back up, but then I realized that the shark didn't appear to be coming our way at all. It amazed me how something so fierce to so many other creatures (and even sometimes to humans) can be so beautiful and magnificant as it seems along on its own. Being a social person, I almost felt sorry that the shark spends its day alone, and that all of the other creatures swimming around are terrified of its existence. Then I realize, I don't think the shark things the same way I do. :) Following our shark experience, I again felt like I could call it a day, but our next stop was "turtle point." I found it quite interesting that the locals seem to know where the turtles are always hanging out because I thought turtles liked to travel; however, our guide knew what he was doing. Jumping in the water at turtle point was the beginning of another moving moment. I was stunned as I saw three giant sea turtles swimming together, and we began to swim after them as quickly as we could. I think the most beautiful thing I have witnessed (in the animal world) was when one large turtle swam up to another turtle, and it seemed like they almost hugged or showed a sign of affection towards each other. This moment allowed me to think of all of the beautiful creatures that have been created, and how diverse our world really is in so many different ways. Most of you know that I am much more of a people person than an animal person, but during our trip, I have come to enjoy some special moments with other wonderfully made creatures.


I am writing all of this on our last day on Perhentian Kecil, and as I am sure I am exhausting some of you, I feel that it is time to let you go for now as I will venture out into the sun. I usually don't enjoy my alone time, but today I have decided to let Tola and Antti go exploring by themselves... I will get some sun tanning and swimming in as I hang out at our little chalet. Before Tola and Antti left, I did let a foot long lizard into the chalet, so I am not totally alone, although I think I'd prefer to be alone! I don't mind when the critters are outside, but it is still bit of a touchy subject when they enter my bedroom. :) Don't worry though, I am getting much better!