Thailand for a week

Thailand

From the Hanoi airport in Vietnam Heather, Sebastian and I boarded the plane for Bangkok, Thailand. About 30 minutes into the flight though, the captain came on the loud speaker saying that because of 'technical difficulty'  we were going to turn around and go back to Hanoi. We were confused, but waited the flight out. When we landed they said we could stay in the plane while they fixed the problem and then we would leave again. After we had taken off for the second time we learned that there was a problem with one of the wheels and they also needed to re-fuel. So it wasn't anything too bad after all and we only landed in Bangkok about an hour late.

After landing in Bangkok Heather and I parted ways from Sebastian. Sebastian was headed into Bangkok while Heather and I headed to the bus station. There we hopped a bus to a place called Trat, east of Bangkok. The bus bounced along various roads, playing horribly loud Thai music for about 6 hours. Finally we were in Trat, thank goodness! From there, we talked to some other travelers and figured out a good place to stay. They showed us the way and then we parted. Heather and I grabbed some dinner and found out what time the taxi left for the ferry in the morning. After killing about 50 mosquitos in our room we turned off the light and went to bed.

I awoke very early in the morning to blasting Thai music. It wasn't bad music though. It was bells and chimes and other calming sounds, just very loud. While I was in the frigidly cold shower, Heather went wandering and learned that the music was playing for monks during their morning service. She said monks dressed in bright orange were everywhere. Unfortunately by the time I went looking for them they were gone.

After an amazing breakfast of fresh fruit, coffee and toast, Heather and I boarded the taxi to the ferry. The taxi was the back of a truck that also held about eight other travelers. After enjoying the wind blowing through my hair for 40 minutes we pulled up to our ferry. The ferry was another enjoyable 40 minutes of sea air and people watching. Finally we got to our destination, the island of Koh Chang. Once again we quickly shuffled onto a cram packed taxi truck and were off on the windy and hilly roads of Koh Chang. The view was wonderful! Turquoise water, white sand, green frilly palm trees, and the smell of vacation. :)

We got off the taxi in an area called Lonely Beach. After checking out many bungalows we finally found our home in a cute bungalow next to the sea at a place called Siam Huts. We noticed that many of the bungalows around us had hammocks, so after dropping our bags we set out to find our own hammock. We bartered with a Thai woman for a lovely green hammock that hung on our bungalow all week. From it, I saw many beautiful sunsets and read some good books.

Heather's and my original plan was to stay only for a few days before moving on to a different part of Thailand. But, unfortunately after day one I became sick. Bed-ridden sick in fact, ugh! Any smell or look or thought of food for two days would drive me into the bathroom hugging the toilet. I don't know if it was something I ate, or just the stress of working a lot and then traveling, but it killed me for those two days. After that, I didn't feel quite the same so Heather and I decided to stay in Koh Chang for our whole vacation (one week). It was a great week though! We swam in the warm blue water, had Thai massages on the beach, drank too many fresh fruit smoothies, rode motorbikes, rowed a kayak out to a deserted island, visited a fishing village, read good books, and brought in the new year on the beach with fireworks and fire dancers.

We didn't end up seeing lots of Thailand, but what we did see was amazing. The people were also really nice. Now I know that I want to go back there, and hopefully live there in the future. :)