Team Awesome's Adventure

Party party party!!!  It's a glorious world of buckets, neon paint and lots of debauchery.  Every night you have a plethora Of parties to choose from. Whether its the pool party down the street, a party on the beach or a chill out time at the Mello Mountian Mushroom Bar. From the minute we got there, music was pouring from the beach and lots of people on the street convincing you to go to their bar over their competitors. It was awesome!

Our accomedations were actually on the other side of Haad Rin, where Sunset Beach is. It's close enough to the party to walk to but far enough away that you could pass out in a hammock without hearing a peep. It was bliss! And walking down the streets, you are not let down by the amount of shops selling anything from clothes, floppy flops, jewelry, to buckets of booze. In a single block you could change your outfit into neon clothes, get decorated in neon paint and pre drink with even wincing. We did this and soon after hit up the parties.

I can't really give a vivid description, only because they felt like they all melted into one big night. I know the pool party had a lot people and they sold laughing gas on the side. Everyone was dancing in the pool, splashing and having a good time, however you needed to have your head on a swivel in there. I remember (slightly) that people would have chicken fights on each other shoulders, and usually they would fall on you if you didnt get out of the way. The beach was a mass of people with a bucket in the hand dancing up a storm along the sandy front. Everyone would be in such good spirits regardless of where you were, so making random friends along the way was inevitable. I even had my friend from Gold's gym, who had been working in Vietnam for the past few months, come down and party with me NYE. Jared and company took a boat from Koh Samui to ring in the new year and it was great to see him. I forgot how drunk we get when we see each other and this was no exception starting at 5pm. And it looked like dinner was a liquid diet of redbull and whiskey, which leads to inevitable black out. Luckily I did not black out much and had Garrett the to feed me food at some point in the night. It it was also a bad way to find out that the red bull contained speed and aphederine, and put your stomach in knots if you drank too much of it. Guilty. Regardless everyone made it through the party binge week safely and we had a mutual rest day on the 1st.

Bucket?

Sunrise Beach

Or until we got a call from our tour booking company to let us know that our travel plans needed to change for the 2nd because there was a slight flooding issue. Our original plan was to take a ferry back to Surant Thani (the main port and transportation hub) and then take a bus to the Malaysian border to make our way to Medan, Indonesia. With the flooding, the bus couldn't make it to the border and now we were stuck. Our visas expired on the 2nd with the Thai government, and if we stayed its a 500baht penalty per day so we needed to get out somewhere. Our options were to fly out, stay there, or make a visa run. Since the flights were sold our for at least 5 more days, and weighing in the options, we decided to make a visa run to Burma, as it was the closest place to us and apparently quicker. So we were now scheduled to leave Koh Phangan at 7 am for our ferry, catch a bus to Ranong (closest city to the border in Thailand), take a taxi to the immigration office and take a boat to the Burma border. This was supposedly do able in one day however, because of the flooding we were delayed more. The bus was originally suppose to take ony 4 hours but since the flood also affected our road from Surant Thani to Ranong, we took a 6 hour detour back up north and then south again. By the time we got into Ranong, it was midnight and the immigration office closed at 6pm and so did a lot of reception desks for accomedations. We ended up meeting 3 other people that were in the same situation and so we all stuck together and found a room that fit all of us. In the morning, the people at the reception organized our transportation for the border run for a set fee and so here we go again. The immigration office made us pay our penalty for our one day overstay, even though we technically got a 1 day leanancy, and then we were on a long boat to the border.

Koh Phi Phi was beautiful! The breathing taking white sandy beaches and the crystal clear blue waters was a sight for sore eyes. As amazing as it was, Phi Phi was an unexpected surprise and we didn't plan or research what there was to do other than be a beach bum. But after that week, it took little convincing that was just what we needed. Yes we eventually booked a couple tours but nothing crazy. We ventured out on a diving excursion one day seeing black tipped reef sharks (they don't bite, they are more scared of us then we are of them), turtles, lots of clown fish and trigger fish. Tried to restart the party by going on a booze cruise that didn't turn out so boozy, however Garrett ran into a guy named Stu that he met in South America last year. It was funny because Garrett literally was talking to another couple from Rio, and as he is explaining the story that involved a crazy soccer match and Stu, Stu turned around and recognized Garrett. Small world!!

Our last day in Phi Phi ended with a sunset boat tour of all the other islands including the famous Maya Beach where the film "The Beach" was filmed. Yes it is as nice as the movie depicted it, except for when you put your head under water and see all the dead and destroyed coral that was once there. I am sure the tsunami had a hand in the destruction but I'm also certain that the extra attention the beach got after the movie was made was also a huge contributer. Don't get me wrong, there is still a great amount of marine life still there, it's just sad when you know the potential that it once had. This is where we saw a lionfish, turtles, loads of sea urchins and clown fish. So on the lighter side of the tour, we did a lot of snorkeling and kayaking which was really nice! And to end of our tour, we watched the sunset slowly melt into the horizon with the sea breeze in the air. It was a really enjoyable farewell from an island that I hope to come back to someday.

The Gang

Leaving Vang Vieng by 4 buses, 1 train, 1 bumpy, sea sick "catamaran" boat ride and 48 hours of traveling later, we finally arrive in Koh Tao!  This was a such a relaxing destination and not to mention a warm one, finally!

It felt like we were constantly chasing good weather and every time we left a country, our final day was usually the sunniest.  Except this time we were actually welcomed by bright sunshine and 31 degrees so we were very happy.  With Koh Tao, it seemed Ike you never really needed to plan anything in advance as you could just walk down the street and there would be tons of things being offered.  Things like learn to trapeze in a hour, or hike up the mountain for a spectacular view of the island or boat to the private island near by.  However the main attraction in Koh Tao is diving, and so we went diving!   We registered with Ban's Diving Resort for our 3 day open water PADI certification which involved one morning of classroom time, training in a swimming pool and 4 dives.  Garrett was definitely a bit hesitant due to a bad experience his dad had years ago.  Well I convinced Garrett to give it a go anyway.  Diving was amazing.  So many different ocean creatures. Highlights included sting rays, moray white eyed eels, barracudas and the ginormous trigger fish.  Also the coral was incredible. All was good until on one of our last dives, there was a slight scare.  Garrett and I were buddies and during one of our exercises in navigation, we were pointed off in one direction, kick 10 times, and head back in the reciprocal direction.  Well I guess Garrett and I were so engulfed with our compasses that we forgot to notify each other when we were suppose to go back, and I kept swimming forward while Garrett returned to the group.  After he was high fived by our instructor Santi, Garrett then realized that I was not with him.  Santi told Garrett to keep calm, while he went to go look for me.  All the while, I had swam back and forth looking for the group but the visibility was very low, and the area was over taken by so many other divers that I just lost everyone.  But they did tell us that if you ever get separated from your partner for more than a minute that you should swim straight to he surface (the both of you) so you could find each other more easily.  So I did what I was told and swam to the surface.  I guess Santi and anther dive master did the same but because I kept diving back under the surface to continue to look for them, we kept missing each other.  Eventually just swam back to the boat and when I did, the rest of the group surfaced as soon as I took my gear off.  Poor Garrett.  I made him so worried.  But the important thing was that everyone was ok and no one was hurt.   Everyone did what they we suppose to.  We couldn't leave our last dive as this. To correct this situation, we signed up for the advanced course!  This  gave us the chance to dive down to 30m and explore some other sites such as the ship wreck.  An old war ship with front and back mounted cannons.  Also included with the advance course was a night dive. Couldn't see much as it is night and dark, but they gave us flash lights which helped a bit. The cool part about the flash light is u can see the true colors of everything. During the day, sunlight can only stretch so far thru the water. The further down you go, you start to loose your reds, then oranges, then yellows and so on thru the rainbow.  So with a flash light you get to see the actual colors. Another cool thing is at one point, all of us turn off our flash lights and sit on the bottom in total darkness. When you move your hands real fast, you activate the plankton causing it to glow.  We had our own little mini rave.  Next day we were given digital cameras and the opportunity to explore on our own looking for fish and other creatures.  In the end we completed 9 dives in 4 days and are certified advanced open water divers!

Regardless, we had way too much fun in and out of the water and our instructors were a huge contributing factor to that.  We had Santi, a 46 year old half Thai, half Chinese, free spirited and dirty minded instructor.  Liz, from Oxford, been teaching at Ban's for 6 years even though she was only planning to stay for 6 months, and an amazing teacher.  Ella, really laid back, from Israel who had just finished her instructor course 2 weeks ago had been in the island for only 1 month and half, and Viktoria from Germany who also graduated with Ella at the same time.  They were all so much fun!  They always made sure that we were safe and at the same time knew how to let loose once in a while (or maybe too often).

My diving form

Under water crew!

But being in Koh Tao was such a picturesque setting to be spending Christmas.  The sun (was almost) always shining, the beaches turned into an outdoor lounge with fire shows, and we were surrounded by friends from all over.  The first night after we had been in the pool to practice our basic skills, Garrett and I went out for dinner along the beach.  Our table was right along the beach with a giant coconut tree in front of us.  The moon was reflecting off the ocean as the stars started to poke out from the clouds.  And it was pretty rare for Garrett and I to get some time to ourselves for dinner when you are traveling with a few people at the same time.  There's usually a group dinner planned or an event to watch but this night was ours!  After dinner we walked along the beach back towards our room, when Garrett wanted to stop and really take in our surrounding.  We stopped just underneath a giant banyan tree with a rock wall and lots of white sandy beach in front of us.  He proclaimed how much I make him indescribably happy and got down on one knee, asking, "will you marry me?". Now balling my eyes out, I tried to blurt out yes but nothing really came out.  I just kissed him and nodded my head.  Digging deep in his pockets he pulled out a supplementary ring that he bought in Bangkok that was a crystal band until I got home with the real ring waiting.  

When we got back near our room, we found Eppa and Landon to tell them the great news!  To celebrate they had bought us a bottle of champagne and we had bought 4 wish lanterns.  Lighting one for Garrett and I, one for Landon and Eppa, one for our friend Yogev, and one for all of us as a group. 

Wish lanterns

Champagne showers

Engagement celebrations

How do I describe this little town tucked away 4 hours away from the capital?  Tubing down a river drinking buckets of booze for $3.50 all afternoon and partying all night long with anyone that is still standing from the afternoon.  The poor people that actually live in Vang Vieng that have to put up with drunk tourists all year long.    And all over Laos, they don't like seeing any type of nakedness, public displays of affection, no smoking drugs and even enforce a curfew, yet in Vang Vieng it's extremely lenient.  Well except for the smoking drugs part.  Along the river they openly serve you special shakes that can contain mushrooms and weed if you feel up to it.  

On the other hand, our arrival to Vang Vieng was quite the adventure.  We had booked a private mini van to take us along our 5 hour journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng that would drive us from one hostel to their sister hostel in Vang Vieng.  Most of the other buses were quoting6-10 hours which we were not a fan of so this was clearly the better choice.  3 hours into our drive, everything's going great until we start approaching s corner.  A semi is heading towards us as well as a f150 truck trying to pass the semi. Our driver starts to slow down but doesn't stop and the F150's front end gets smushed between our back driver corner panel and the semi's driver door leaving a fee scrapes on our van.  After the accident no one stops but us and the oncoming traffic just kept going. Our van  was still drivable, yet our driver decides to flag down a scooter, hops on and chased after the culprit leaving us on the side of the road.  We sat around this little village containing only a few huts for about 2 hours waiting, for his return before flagged down a bus to hitch a ride.  And the only reason why we waited was because he said he was going to come back for us. So gullible of us.  Anyway our 5 hour bus trip turned into a 10 hour bus trip but really at the end of the day we got to our destination in one piece.  

So the first day of tubing was interesting. All the bars welcome you with shots of Laos whiskey and tie a bracelet around your wrist. These bracelets accumulate along your arm and now become your badge of honor for how long you have stayed and how often you get your whiskey on.  They also set up apparatuses for those who had enough or too much liquid courage to conquer.  Things like slides, zip lines that can launch you into the water, rope swings, and bungie swings.  Really mixing these with the amount of booze they serve is pretty scary and we were highly advised to not attempt any head first or any if we could resist on the first day.  They said to mostly observe and see what you feel like would be the safest if you were considering any to attempt.  A girl had also died 10 days prior to our arrival when she went on the rope swing, swung out, let it swing back in and then let go above a bunch of rocks.  Thankfully everyone made it safely through their first day, only stumbling away with too much whiskey in our systems. 

Our second day was a repeat of the first just sloppier.  We all went off the zip line and only Garrett went off the bungie swing.  And somewhere in our day, we partied harder. Yet again we all made it home safe and sound and survived "in the tubing" with no accidents. I didn't make it out to the bars but the boys did and felt the joy the next morning when we were off to see another limestone caves and a blue lagoon.

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Day 2 of our tubing shananagians

the view of the first 2 bars along the river

Me zip lining!

Garrett taking the leap backwards!

At the waterfalls

Reunited with Eppa Lea!

Arriving in Bokeo was a huge relief.  Before our arrival, we we all stressing out how we were getting there as the Internet was not very specific.  And at this point we also had not received a confirmation email from the Gibbon Experience for our reservation so on a leap of faith we just showed up.  Thankfully they took us in for the next day's tour and kinda knew we were on our way.  They periodically have power shortages so that was their excuse for the lack of timely responses, either way we were in!!  Bus departed the next morning. And we remembered that in one of Eppa's emails, she said she should be ending her Gibbon Experience today so with a little investigation she was expected back this afternoon at 3:30. As well she has no idea that we are in Bokeo the same time as she was since we were gonna meet her inVang Vien on the 15th.  Surprise greeting?  I think so!!!  

 Arriving in Bokeo was a huge relief.  Before our arrival, we we all stressing out how we were getting there as the Internet was not very specific.  And at this point we also had not received a confirmation email from the Gibbon Experience for our reservation so on a leap of faith we just showed up.  Thankfully they took us in for the next day's tour and kinda knew we were on our way.  They periodically have power shortages so that was their excuse for the lack of timely responses, either way we were in!!  Bus departed the next morning. And we remembered that in one of Eppa's emails, she said she should be ending her Gibbon Experience today so with a little investigation she was expected back this afternoon at 3:30. As well she has no idea that we are in Bokeo the same time as she was since we were gonna meet her inVang Vien on the 15th.  Surprise greeting?  I think so!!!  

Around 3:20 I show up at the Gibbon office expecting no one to really be there however there are a few people that look like they were just getting ready to dEpart or they just arrived.  Turns out the tour returned at 3 and everyone had already parted ways.  Thankfully the people there knew of Eppa and said she had headed down the street but was unsure of where.  Not asking any more questions I run down the street in her direction looking in guest houses or restaurants for any signs of her.  Nothing.  Knowing Eppa, she would either be in pub or updating her fb status so I start looking in pubs and Internet cafes.  Then I pop into an internet cafe and decided to send her a quick email.  Sure enough she had sent me one telling eschews staying just down the street and before I could even pay I ran out looking for her hostel.  Then i hear Eppa shouting my name from down the street.  I still couldn't see her until I ran up the street calling her name out to and out from behind this truck there she was.  It looked like a scene from one of those cheesy movies where two lovers are running towards each other through a tall grass meadow, and collide with a long embrace.  Yes that was us minus the grass meadow and the lover part.  Garrett watching from a far said it was quite the scene and wished he could have caught it on film.  Anyway we definitely got caught up on what we could for the next 8 hours filling each other in on our lives.  

Gibbon Experience: if you can afford the time and the money I would highly recommend this adventure!!! This comes highly recommended by Lonely Planet and by lots of other travelers and now by us.  Our time hiking through the forest amongst the beautiful mountain backdrop, living in the tree houses and zip lining high up in the trees was incredible.  Just to be surrounded by so much natural beauty and to be falling asleep to nature's lullaby was an overwhelming zen like feeling.  Throughout our 3 days, we spent most of the time hiking up and around through a labyrinth of bamboo trees trying to listen for nearby gibbons.  We came close a couple times but no sightings for our group.  However I can say how proud I am of myself for facing my fear of heights and literally taking a leap to zip line at least 150 meters above ground.  My first zip was one of the scariest as I didn't know what to expect or how I would react.  They gave us a quick lesson and we watched a video before we left but it didn't seem like any of that retained as I was actually zip lining.  I remember my heart was racing and my knees were shaking as my fears relied on cable and a carabana.  But I held on tight, held my breath and jumped!  Once I opened my eyes I realized that it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be even though we were really high and how amazing the scenery was.  All was calm until I started to spin off to the side and I started to panic.  Because I panicked, I forgot how to correct myself properly and my right hand was holding the carabana (this is used as your steering and braking) in an awkward position.  So when I was twisting, my right outside forearm just caught the cable slightly leaving a cable burn.  i walked off my first zip with a battle scar.  Oh well!!  At least it comes with a good memory and it was my only war wound traveling so far.  And while I was getting used to just taking off on the zip, many people from the group were seeing how gear they could push the envelope by going backwards, upside down, hands free, pushing themselves off on trees.  I was able to go backwards, let go of my hands and go upside down but not all at the same time like the other people.  Still a round of applause for everyone in the group, and a definite pat on my back for taking chances :D.  

Moon Hill

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First off, leaving Shanghai, we almost missed our train out to Yangshao, not kidding. As we stepped on the train itself, the train left 1 minute later. And we were so flustered with all of our bags in hand and out of breath from running with our giant backpacks, a woman approaches us. She notices our Canada flags on our bags and asks if we spoke English. Of course we said yes and it turns out this woman named Lucy, lives in Yangshao and teaches English. She is also fluent in Mandarin, and Cantonese and wanted to practice her English with us as she hardly ever had an opportunity to do so. And being the polite Canadians of course we agreed, however we were talking earlier that day how we should all sign up for a Mandarin class so we could get by town easier. Funny how life works life works out huh? Lucy also agrees to teach us some Mandarin during our 20 hour train ride and if we liked it we could continue with her once we it settled in town. Garrett and Landon did really well, I struggled a bit since I kept confusing pronunciation with Cantonese tones. And Landon kept up with his lessons for the remainder of the trip where as Garrett and I gave up.

Lucy was the perfect person to meet as well. She recommended us the best, cleanest hostel for the cheapest. We stayed at the Showbizz Ithaw hitch provided clean, 4 bedroom dorms, free laundry and for only $5 per person. She gave us a good idea of what was the don't miss attractions for our 3 day 2 night stay in her hometown, as well as she invited us over for dinner on our last night! Lucy just hooked us up all over the place and wanted to make sure we fully took advantage of the wonderful things Yangsho had to offer. First day in, we rented bikes and rode to Moon Hill to the Gold Water Cave. The Gold water cave was fun. It had a natural hot spring and mud bath filled with minerals to make your skin look and feel great! We took lots of pictures of the cave but none of them really do any justice to capture the real beauty of it all. 2 hours later for in Gold Water Caves, we took off to Moon Hill. Up top you had a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding you and the village below. There were lots of people rock climbing in the curvature of Moon Hill which is insane cause you are upside down. Über kudos to those brave souls. By the time we explored and biked to these places, we had no time before the sun set and it got pitch black so we headed back into town. How our street changed so much from the time that we left til the time we got back is night and day. The streets were now filled with hustle and bustle, street vendors selling all kinds of trinkets as well as lots of street food. And when 6 pm hits, the clubs pumped out tunes to win you over their competition of all the other night clubs across the street. We definitely did not expect this little town to have such a night life as well.

Day two: Landon went to his Mandarin lesson while Garrett and I took off to the Dragon Bridge which was another 20 km bike trip to. Although this time we wanted to take the more scenic country side tour. Too bad the roads are hard,y marked and no one really spoke English so we got lost for a little while. We eventually stumbled onto the main road and found some other people that were going to the same attraction so we convoyed it up! This spectacular bridge was 600 years old but when we got there, we felt there was not much to boast about. It looked ok... Heading back was almost the same situation where we t lost through the country back roads and now Garrett and I were on a time crunch. Lucy offered to make us dinner and knew someone that could get us into Impressions Light Show at a discounted price including our rides there and back. Impressions is directed by the Zhang Yimou who directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the movie Hero. This is a well choreographed musical that incorporates real fisherman living in Yangshao, local dancers and performers and lights shining upon the mountain to corridinate with the music. It's a definite must see and a great way to end our Yangshao trip!