The Road Home

I am in full rejection mode of the fact that I'll be back in the states (and the winter) today. Last night Michael and I made a list of things to be excited about to help with the heartache. 

Pro tip: when you're wrapping up the trip of a lifetime, it's ok to eat ice cream for breakfast to distract from reality. 

See you all stateside!

You Clean Up Nice - Tailoring in Bangkok

We followed the "must do" advice and got some tailoring done in Bangkok. 

Michael got two shirts and a blazer, I got two blazers. They weren't particularly cheap - almost $200 a blazer, but the wool tweed is super beautiful and the fit is spot-on. 

We went to a place near Silom Road called Excelsior Tailors. It's a family-owned shop that's been there for more than 40 years. They made the process fun and easy, and turned it all around in 36h without a rush fee. High recommend if you're looking for a good spot. 

Michael quickly went from "is this too fancy?" to "please take all my measurements so I can order all my clothes from you in the future." See face below which appropriately demonstrates the transition. 

Happy birthday, Buddha!

For he's a jolly good fellow, indeed. We found out about the event because I tried to buy a tiny elephant off the street, which was apparently supposed to be a birthday gift for Buddha. 

300 baht later, I got the elephant, but we also had to go to his birthday party bearing his preferred gifts, incense and marigolds.

My party favor was this gold leaf they schmeared on my forehead for luck. 

Happy birthday to you, Buddha! 🎉🍰🌼

Here's my new phone background.

You can use it too if you want.

Taken just before boarding the boat that wrenched us away from our tiny paradise. 

On to Bangkok!

The Secret to a Successful Beach Vacation

Two words: food poisoning. 

Michael went a little hard on the green curry at the end of our first day in Railay so we were obliged to take it way easy the rest of the trip. 

And guess what? It was incredible.

Once he got through the GI complications (shout out to our super nice bathroom at Railay Great View), it was a deliciously relaxing and pleasant vacation. 

Here's what we learned:

1. Sunset is an event worth scheduling your day around. 

2. Monkeys are the raccoons of Thailand. 

Super cute; full of trash

3. Phranang Beach is the best of the best. If you google image Railay you'll certainly get results of Phranang. So do that because they're all better than the pictures I took. 

4. The best food is also there. These sweet little boats that come over from Ao Nang and park on the beach all day. 

The pad Thai from the second-to-last boat is literally the best I've had in Thailand or elsewhere. See below for gratuitous demonstration. We got it twice. 

5. A pleasant hotel is worth the effort/investment. Much of our time was spent oh-so-happily on our peaceful and beautiful balcony. 

6. Doing nothing is a quite something. We lived like glamour queens for three days and I wouldn't change a bit of it. 

More than once we asked each other "what do you want to do now?" And the answer always came back as "...this."

If that isn't nice, what is?

Better Late Than Never: A Broad-Stroke Recap of Phu Quoc

Frankly we didn't love Phu Quoc. Our hotel was a dump and it turns out Kevin and I aren't great at "slowing down" and "relaxing."

But now that I've been gone for two weeks I can admit that at least we took some great pictures, so here they all are at once.  

At first we were v excited about being tan and lazy and fabulous. It was short-lived, but appropriately weird looking. 

Here's a shot of Kevin getting a jump start on doing what he does best: buying stuff he doesn't need. 

Upon realizing how much we hated our hotel, we went to the night market to indulge in our favorite vices: ice cream for me and more buying stuff for Kevin. 

The next morning we had a renewed sense of spirit because we remembered that Vietnamese coffee exists. PRAISE. 

Then we did some exploring and I found some stuff to climb. Always a crowd pleaser. 

JK Kevin hated it, but I talked him into it anyway. 

Then I found more climbable stuff which I ran at gleefully 

and Kevin hated it even more. 

But then he decided ok fine it looks like fun and he was right. 

Then Kevin threw caution and doctor's orders to the wind by ignoring his allergy and drinking the first of many coconuts.

That night we found out our hotel has kayaks (#tinyvictory) and took them for a sunset spin. 

 

Which turned into a full-blown photo shoot. 

Especially once we started doing yoga on the floating dock. 

Aka taking pictures of each other actively falling down

Then Kevin realized his childhood dream of recreating Ariel's epic hair flip. I provided the soundtrack. 

All in all, we had some fun but this picture is mostly a lie. Plus I lost those sunglasses which is certainly anyone's fault but my own. 

At least we looked good. Ready for more adventures in Cambodia!

Railay: Update/Upgrade

After one night at the glamorous luxury resort (read: terror nightmare dump) called Railay Viewpoint, we've decided to move hotels.

Things we hoped to find in our next destination:

1. Soap in bathrooms

2. Sheets or blankets on bed

3. Hot water

And if we're getting really greedy, air conditioning.

Thanks to Michael for his accurate demonstration of how we slept last night. 

Yes, that blanket is also a towel. 2-in-1!

This morning we got up earlier than is reasonable for people on a beach vacation, and hiked it down to a place called Railay Great View to inquire about a room. 

After a good amount of confusion and effort (one booking, one cancelled booking, several rearranged rooms and a lot of Thai-to-charades-to-English translation), we are in a dreamscape. 

We have soap and hot(ish) water!

We have sheets AND a blanket!

And, living up to its name, we have a hilltop and ocean view balcony which we may never leave. 

Four thumbs way way up. 

Railay: So Far, So Weird

Today we headed to the beaches and decided to get experimental along the way. Our plan for this leg of the trip is "do the thing we want to do at any moment" aka no set plans and we like it that way. 

Ever bought a plane ticket at the airport same-day? Us either. So we tried that and found out flights in Thailand sell out regularly. 

Also, website purchasing closes down a few hours before the flight. So we bought one ticket real-time, and then the connection from a different airline online. Sure thing. 

This made for a wierd three-hour layover at the Bangkok domestic airport (DMK not BKK), but nothing a little airport yoga couldn't fix. 

Also we did some weird food discovery at a place called "BreadTalk" (see picture of Fire Flosss in different post). That was a tiny victory moment for me. #chocobear

Eventually we made it to Krabi. Here's the process from there:

1. Exit the airport, find the shuttle/taxi stand. Taxi was 600 baht, we took the shuttle for 150 each. 

2. Take the shuttle to Railay Pier. It's the second stop. The bus smells strange.

3. At this point we were accosted by an official-sounding woman who we now know to be a travel agent. TBD on whether this was super useful or a huge scam or just kind of annoying. It is Chinese New Year (oops) and we did show up without any plans for where we would stay. So maybe she's a tiny angel or may she ripped us off. Standby for update. 

4. Take the longboat to Railay. You can definitely skip the lady and just buy tickets at the boat. 

5. Spend a few minutes basking in the beauty of the boat ride and be glad you aren't the poor girl behind us in her high-end resort wear who clearly thought her honeymoon would go a bit differently. 

6. Check in to your somewhat upsetting hotel, take a freezing shower, immediately start sweating again, crack open the wine you bought at the grocery store which can only be described as "stingy" and head out to greet the day (and maybe find a different hotel)!

Welcome to Railay, y'all!

Chiang Dao: Precisely As Advertised

After bidding a miserable farewell to my sweet Kevin, Michael and I headed north to a little town called Chiang Dao to do some exploring. 

We had very few expectations, but everything we did lived up to its name. Three examples to illustrate:

1. Our hotel was called "Chiang Dao Privacy." We were the only people there. 

We had our own little bungalow and the view was spectacular.

The rooms were simple, but perfectly rustic and cozy. See mosquito net for function and ambience. 

Also it came with a tiny puppy who sat outside our door and waited for us to give if scratches and snacks. We obliged.

 

Because we were the only patrons of the establishment, the Proprietor (whose name we never were able to understand/pronounce) acted as our personal guide all afternoon. He took us three places: a cave, a temple, a restaurant for dinner. 

2. First we went to a placed called "Chiang Dao Cave." It is a cave, located in Chiang Dao. 

This is where the Burmese army lived while preparing to invade what is now Thailand. It costs 40 baht/person to get in, plus 200 baht "if you want" a (required) guide with a lantern to show you through the cave. Would have rather done it on our own, but somebody's got to pay for the wifi, amiright?

Then we went to a beautiful temple 510 steps up a hillside which was very meditative and peaceful. 

The view from the top is all jungle. Chiang Dao is a common vacation destination for Thai people, but not so much for internationals. Since it's off-season, we pretty much had the place to ourselves (if you don't count the monks).

3. Finally it was time for dinner. Proprietor took us to this restaurant named "Chiang Dao Good View."

Way to under-promise and over-deliver, Chiang Dao. I appreciate your natural beauty and straightforward naming convention. Add us to your list of satisfied customers.