Next Stop: Unknown

- Day One -
Welcome to the jungle, of sorts… Before arriving in Chiang Mai, I’d heard all about the depth and breadth of the regions craftsmanship and the unique heritages of all of the hill tribes that live in the region. So I was completely surprised to land in a city that looked little different to the suburbs of Bangkok: Same 40 THB barbershops, same tuk tuk drivers with fares that quickly lower when they realize that you can speak a little Thai and aren’t completely a farang, and the same plethora of food vendors like a street carnival is being held every night.

Our flight left BKK at the unholy hour of 6 AM, putting us at our guesthouse in CNX by 8 AM. We were exhausted (I hadn’t slept at all the night before) but didn’t want to laze away our first day. So we jumped right into a Thai cooking class with Siam Rice! Before I go into that story a big thank you and hello to Nine & Stella at Green Tulip Guesthouse. These awesome ladies knew our names after the first evening, worked all hours of the day to make sure their guests were enjoying themselves, and were always either laughing or smiling.

So, by 9 AM we were at a local produce market learning about kaffir limes and turmeric, and by 10 AM we were beginning to prepare our own dishes! Fried cashew nuts with chicken, chicken in coconut milk soup, fried holy basil with chicken, and thai red curry with chicken for starters… then spring rolls and mangos with sticky milk and it went on and on from there. Each was amazing, but we were particularly keen on the mango sticky rice. At one point we paused from our crazy cook, eat, cook, eat schedule to craft flowers out of carrots. Two things I learned: I’m not ‘cut’ out to be a carrot artist, and never eat those fancy veggies that garnish your plate! It is impossible to make those things without getting your grubby paws all over the food!

When we got back to the guest house that evening, we were exhausted and full to the max. Perfect excuse for a 2 hour couples massage!

Lucas cooking away!

Learning about produce in the market.

Homemade sausages for sale.

Fish or veggies, anyone?

Jenn and I took a stroll down to the weekend market in Bangkok to look around a bit.  I love taking pictures of food, so of course I snapped off a few.  But, what is more interesting is how everyone is wearing facemasks here.  It’s quite funny really… I don’t see how a little facemask is going to stop an airborne virus with particles so small they’d go right through but, none-the-less, you can actually buy designer masks now.  I didn’t think to snap a picture of one, but there are people all over in stalls that will airbrush anything you want onto the front of your mask for you.  Here are a few quick pictures from the market!

I think this one is my favorite… The ‘cowboy’ in the back is hilarious.

Food glorious food!

Cute old lady selling popsicles

Random string of lights… colorful

Jenn and I love the coconut ice cream!

Squid eggs?  I’ve no idea what they are really… looked like a cross between scrambled egg whites and fish balls.

After just about three months of constant travel, Lucas and I were starting to get a little tired of packing up camp every third night. So we wandered our way back to Bangkok and decided to set down some shallow roots. We’ve got a great set-up going for us! We signed a one-month lease on a furnished apartment for about $350USD including internet and house cleaning service. There’s a little grocery store, restaurant, hair salon and Laundromat downstairs. The building is brand new, and best of all Bangkok is an excellent place from which to embark on mini-adventures! Thank you Air Asia!

Meanwhile, being in one place for a bit of time has let us actually pick up a bit of the language and experience a wee more of the local culture than is available to those who breeze through the country. We can now count up to 999, and if I , could just keep the word for 1,000 in my mind we could make it up to 999,999! We can hail a taxi and give directions across town – all in Thai. We know how to order food and make sure it doesn’t come out too spicy. We can ask how much something costs, bargain down the price, get the bill at the end of a meal, say the food is delicious and compliment a masseuse on her massage skills. So basically all of the important stuff… Wink, wink.

A quick shout out to our friends in Thailand: Rob, Amy, James, John Michael and his girlfriend Oh. 

Actually, I know right where we are, but I liked the drama implied! Lucas and I boarded The Fuli with Captain John and “Skipper” Anna almost six days ago in Phuket, Thailand. During that time we’ve overnighted in Ao Chalong Bay in Phuket, Koh Mai Thorn, Koh Racha Yai, Koh Phi Phi Don, Mosquito Island (Ko Yung) and tonight we’re back to Koh Phi Phi before heading on to Malaysia.  The boat is small and a quaint, and a bit crowded at times.  There isn’t a lot of privacy, but we knew that going in…However, it builds up after a bit, and little things start to annoy the hell out of us.  We originally thought we’d sail around 14 days or so, south to Malaysia.  However, the captain wanted us to book for 20 days, since he thought it would take that long to get to the next port/customs/immigration place.  Secretly, both Jenn and I hope it doesn’t take that long, as we miss exploring stuff on land.  However, it’s not all bad.  We’ve has some seriously amazing snorkeling.  The last two days we’ve stopped at some pretty remote beaches, and gotten the opportunity to snorkel around on places that rarely see tourists. 

This  morning, I woke up to try my hand a spear fishing.  I loaded the spear gun and took off for the reef… I had my doubts about the gun, but wanted to give it a shot anyway.  After a long swim from the boat to the reef, I looked around for something tasty.  I found what I thought was a grouper hiding under a rock, so I took a breath, swam down, aimed, and pulled the trigger.  The spear barely made it out the end of the gun before it stopped, then sank to the ground.  I used the string to pull the spear back up, slid it back into the gun, and tried to pull the catch back up to the next level, which should be a bit more powerful… but, the elastic gave, and broke away, ending my first spear fishing expedition.  So sad… so far on the trip I’ve got a broken fishing rod (I didn’t break it, thankfully) snorkel fins that don’t fit, a leaky mask, a snorkel that doesn’t work well, and now a broken spear gun.  So, the three things I was looking forward to (fishing, spear fishing, and snorkeling) seem to be less than optimal.  But, it’s beautiful here, and we are both getting quite a bit of sun, and are burning through the pages in our books. 

Speaking of books, both of us have just finished the Harry Potter series.  I must say I quite enjoyed them.  The last book was by far the best… I think I read it cover to cover in 2 days.  I’m a little sad that it’s over though, as Harry’s been such excellent company, I don’t think the other books I have lined up will compare.  If you haven’t read them, I suggest giving it a shot.  The first one is pretty short, only a couple hundred pages, I bet you’ll want to read the rest of them.  If anyone has any recommendations for another good series, please let us know… we’ve been reading a lot!

Moving forward, Jenn and I are looking forward to meeting up with Joey near the end of June.  We are going to be scuba diving with him somewhere in Indonesia.  Not sure where yet, but it should be great fun.  That should put us into early July, at which point we thought we might pick a place and rent an apartment for a month and use it as a base to explore for a while.  We both have a few ideas that we’d like to chew on which requires some internet and computer time.  If all goes well, maybe we can earn some income while we travel.  Hopefully our 4 hour workweek strategies come through for us! 

Morning came quickly and we barely had time to back up our stuff and get to the cliff jumping meeting spot.  By 10:30, we were on a long tail boat with a 3rd tourist, François, off to go cliff jumping and snorkeling.  The long tail didn’t take us very far, probably 15 minutes to a jagged set of rocks, right down the beach.  We moored up to a buoy, donned weird sock like gloves and beat up tennis shoes and followed the guide into the water.  He took us to a spot where we had to fight the waves and time it just right so we didn’t impale ourselves on the sea walls, then climb up way up a tiny crevice onto the cliffs above.  The rocks were super sharp, so the gloves and shoes helped tremendously!  Once we got to the top, our first jump was from 8 meters.  It didn’t look very tall from the water, but standing at the top looking down was a totally different story.  The guide, who was also filming us, explained how we should jump… basically, jump off the cliff, stay as straight and vertical as possible, hands at the side, feet down, and plunge into the water.  The Belgian guy went first, it was kinda funny, as he jumped off, his arms went flailing madly, and he barely got them tucked in before he hit the water… but, he came up out of the water ok, and it was my turn to go next.  I tried not to let my nerves build up too much, so I just jumped straight in… it was exhilarating!  No problem, I can jump from higher!  Jenn was next, and I watched her contemplate making the jump for about a minute..but she went in like a champ and came up looking a bit surprised!  She hadn’t gone into the water completely straight, so I think she got a little water up the backside!

We swam back to the climb-up point, did the wave waltz, and made our way to the next jumping point, which was 10 meters.  (33 feet).  Somehow, it looked a lot taller than the 8 meters had.   The Belgium and I both jumped in no problem, but Jenn didn’t really seem too inclined to jump.  When she finally did, she didn’t land very well, and opted not to continue on the the next height.  It kinda spooked me a bit too… and when I stood up at 13 meters for the next one… I decided that was high enough.  The Belgium went on to jump from 20 meters… freaking crazy.  Back when I was little, maybe 12 or 13 years old, we jumped from 60 feet some place in Arkansas, into a river.  The only thing I remember vividly was hitting so hard that my arms went numb when they slapped against the water… So, I really had no desire to repeat that experience!  After the 3rd jump, I opted to join Jenn and do some snorkeling in the cove.  The snorkeling was quite amazing.  Even though we were not really on a huge reef, there were tons of fish.  We could only stay under water for as long as we could hold our breath, but we saw most of the same fish as in Koh Tao, only they seemed more abundant here.  It got me excited for diving in the area! 

Our next stop was Monkey Beach, which is a little strip of beach completely covered with monkeys.  I’m not sure what kind of monkeys they are, but they were absolutely hilarious.  I would guess there were 50 or 60 right on the beach, and they were “tourist fed” monkeys.  Basically, people would bring fruit and such to the beach to feed them, and they would come and take the food right out of your hands.  They are also sly suckers, and will run off with anything you set down.  We fed them some watermelon, and had a couple minutes of just us with the monkeys, then another big tour boat landed and the beach filled with tourists.  One person gave the monkey a bottle of Pepsi, and it sat there on the beach drinking out of it like a rock star.  Following his lead, another guy lit a cigarette and tried handing it to a monkey… thankfully, he wasn’t interested… although it would have made for a great picture.  We got to see baby monkeys playing and swinging, and even some monkey love.  (Turns our our guide/ videographer got it on film, so we get to relive “the moment”). 

We boated back to the pier, grabbed some lunch, and then made our way to the pick up spot for our overnight camping trip to Maya Beach. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beach was covered in monkeys! Baby monkeys, monkey brothers and sisters, and grandparents – they were all over!

 

 

 

 

 

Smart little buggers!

 

 

 

The trip to Maya Beach was dreadfully choppy! We didn’t realize that monsoon season means more than just rain – it also means huge swells of water coming from the west (the Indian Ocean). These cause raucous waves whenever the ship is exposed to the sea. Neither one of us got sick though! We started our Maya Beach adventure with some snorkeling and kayaking. Like earlier in the day the water was fabulous! We saw our first Lion Fish EVER. Very cool! Lots of puffer fish, sea cucumber, sea urchin, little nemo’s and such. Then we headed over to the scene of “The Beach” where we had a picnic dinner (curry & rice – a new type of practical picnic food!) drank our complimentary bucket of liquor, saw a MASSIVE hermit crab, took in the sunset, and then snuggled up on our reed mats for the night. Yes, we “slept” outside on the beach, uncovered, in full view of the mosquitoes, crabs, mice and other varmints – hence “slept” and not slept…

The naturalistic experience was well worth it though, as we left with fabulous memories and some amazing photos! Check out the sunset below – wowwie.

 

Lucas looking especially tan on the Maya Beach Camping Boat Cruise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the photos we’ve seen on the internet of Maya Bay have these amazingly calm waters… well since we were there during monsoon season taking any similar photographs was absolutely impossible, but the stormy weather does make for some nice clouds and shadows though, don’t you think.

 

 

 

 

Lucas and Jenn, just after sunset.

 

 

 

 

And to reward those of you who read down to the very bottom… two of our most stunning shots of Maya Bay during sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and one more of the hermit crab!