Thai Time

It's taken a while, but I've finally written about my five-day four-night trip to Thailand. It was definitely an enjoyable trip, although not nearly long enough. I left Seoul with my friends Mike and Jon early Saturday morning, five and a half hours later we arrived into the furnace that is Bangkok this time of year. We successfully negotiated a bus to the domestic terminal of the airport and got on a short flight to Ko Samui, in the Gulf of Thailand.

Stepping off the the plane on Ko Samui was like stepping into another world; I've never been to an airport consisting only of thatch huts. It reminded me a little of airstrips built in the Pacific region during World War 2, but I definitely felt like I was on vacation. We were met at the airport by a couple Cambodian girls, friends of Mike's. We headed straight from the airport to the ferry dock bound for Ko Pha Ngan. A couple hours later we arrive on the famous/infamous backpacker island of Ko Pha Ngan. It was already dark so finding a place to stay and some food were top priorities. We got ourselves sorted out and headed out for a couple beers in the town of Haad Rin; you could definitely tell it was low season, not much was going on.

The next morning we packed up and headed to another beach , Haad Yao. This beach was one of my favourite places. The five of us shared a bungalow right on the beach; it provided the relaxed atmosphere I sorely needed. We stayed there two nights, and I quite enjoyed it. Monday afternoon Mike and I went to get massages on the beach, at $6 an hour it's tough to beat, and the massage was fantastic... until it monsooned after 30min. and we got absolutely soaked. I wish every place had cheap massages on the beach, should be a basic human right.

The next day was hilighted by riding some elephants. It was a very touristy thing to do, and wasn't overly exciting... but hey, now I've ridden an elephant through the jungle, have you? After the elephants we ate some durian, had some dinner and made the last night on Ko Phan Ngan an early one.

The next morning we packed up and headed back to Ko Samui for two days and one night. We headed to Haad Lamai on Ko Samui. We did some shopping (Ko Samui is much more commercial than Ko Pha Ngan) and some swimming on our first day on Ko Samui. The next day we were off tothe Ang Thong Marine Park. This was most certainly a good outing, on the first island we went to we were greeted by monkeys in palm trees on arrival. Immediately after that we set out on a hike that led to some quick spectacular views. We went back to the boat, ate some lunch and headed to the second island. On the second island we set out for a highly enjoyable couple hours opf kayaking and snorkelling. I got to see some really colourful fish, and kayaked through some interesting limestone caves. We went straight from the boat to the airport and slowly made our way back to Seoul. We flew out at 11:30pm and had to work the next morning; absolutely a long day at work.

So that's what I did in Thailand, but it doesn't really encompass the hilights. To me the best parts of the trip were the Thai people and the Thai food. If there is a country with more genuinely friendly people, I certainly haven't been there yet. The food, well lets just say everything I had, noodles, a lot of seafood, curry, etc. were things that I could surely eat everyday. Thailand is a country I'd like to go deeper into, I'm looking forward to spending more time there without feeling so rushed. This trip merely whetted my appetite, I'm really excited about exploring Phuket, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Ayuthaya. This was my first trip to Southeast Asia, but it will be the first of many.