Loyal Followers, welcome once more to an installment on the life of me. As many of you know the past week+ I have been traveling for Chinese New Year. I made my way down to Thailand on the 22nd of January for a bit of relaxation in the sun. Well, I was relaxed but then I had to travel home (more on that later). Lets rewind to that beautiful day in January when we left Hong Kong on one of the warmest days since my arrival. After a half hour or so on the MTR (subway) we got to the ferry which took us to Macau. From there we boarded a plane to Bangkok. Some of you may say "Matt, why not just fly out of Hong Kong instead of taking a ferry for an hour to Macau?" In hindsight, you raise a very good question! With all the extra expenses (ferry, taxi & food) that it took to get to Macau, it may very well have been a better choice to just fly out of Hong Kong. You live and you learn though. Many of you were/are students and know that impulse often takes over in certain moments and you fail to think situations through all the way. I believe this is the first time I have experienced this though...(sarcasm). Anyways, we arrived in Bangkok and after a 45 minute taxi ride we were at our hostel. Let me tell you, nothing but 5 stars there! 3 stars for air conditioning, 1 star for a bed and 1 star for a toilet/shower combo. See! 5 Stars! Now I am aware of how the rating scale works. About $7 USD/night. Can't complain there. 2 nights in Bangkok. Done, over, thank God!
Now that Bangkok is over, we board a bus to the Islands. First stop - some random place at 4:45 am where they drop you off for 2 hours while you wait for another bus. However! You may be thinking "what will you do for food?" Answer: It is a company restaurant. $5 USD for a pack of Oreos? Might as well! Don't worry, I waited to eat. I'm too cheap to be suckered like that. Oh, I must have forgotten to tell you that the first leg of the bus ride was about 9 hours. Next leg is only 3 hours. Now we only have an hour and a half long ferry ride and we are at Koh Samui! Exciting stuff. When do I get to sleep? 2 days in Koh Samui. What did we do there? Nothing exciting! Can we stop moving yet? Absolutely not! We have to go to Koh Phangan for a day. This day happens to be January 27th. If you don't know what that means, immediately terminate reading this blog and return to your prior activities. So we go out for dinner and a few drinks because I am legal in the U.S. of A. now (legal in China/Thailand since arrival but what fun is that?). I reiterate my previous point...Can I go to bed yet? NO!!! We have to get up at 8 am the next morning to go to Koh Tao!!! After another ferry ride, we arrive in Koh Tao for 3 days. YAY!!! SLEEP!!! If you have ever traveled any distance over an hour with me, you know my tendency to fall asleep on any journey. Pattern continued on current trip. Koh Tao was the most relaxing part of the trip. Myself and another kid left Koh Phangan early from the rest of the group as he wanted to become a certified Open Water diver. I agreed to accompany him and contemplate making a dive or two of my own (already certified if you didn't know). Wednesday...what did I do? Arose from slumber at approx. 9 am. Headed to restaurant on beach for breakfast. Ate while reading Kite Runner (which is an amazing book if you haven't read it. Very powerful message). Finished eating...didn't move from table. Ate lunch in same seat. Moved to beach chair at approx. noon. Moved back to previous table for fruit snack and remained there until I finished book. Went and took a nap. Awoke for dinner. Very fulfilling day in my eyes. Day 2: Took refresher course in diving since I hadn't been in the water for 6-12 months (PADI Regulation). Too tired to do anything else. Retired to bed. Day 3: Wake up time 5:45 am. Dive Boat leaves in 30 minutes and I need my gear. Get everything and am at the dive site around 7 for the sunrise. In the water for a first dive of about 40 minutes to a depth of approx. 18 meters. Second dive is about 55 minutes to a depth of approx. 16 meters. Fun day. Time to start heading back to Bangkok! Taxi from hotel to ferry. Ferry from Koh Tao to Chumporn. Overnight train from Chumporn to Bangkok. Bangkok for one night. Plane at 7 am in the morning. Are you getting bored yet from reading this? Shake head Yes or No. If Yes, stop reading and take a nap (my specialty). If No, continue reading. Our day in Bangkok is spent in the hotel room as we are exhausted. Wake up call at 4:00 am. Taxi to the airport. Checked in by 5. I wanted to take the 5:30 taxi instead of the 4:30. An hour of sleep is always nice and we would have made it no problems. Sunk cost now. I can only look back and remember how I was right from now on! :) After a 2 1/2 hour flight we are back in Macau. Another taxi ride, a ferry and some time spent on the MTR and here I am back at my computer writing you this descriptive and exceedingly long blog entry. Impressed? I didn't think so.
Total types of Transportation used on trip: 11 (Plane, Train, Subway, Taxi, Tuk Tuk (Google that if you don't know), ferry, small boat, moped, truck bed, bus, feet)
Average temperature: 85 (approx.)
Percentage of time spent in transit that I was asleep: 75% (best guess since we had an overnight train and bus)
If you made it this far, congratulations. I am going back to watching Quantum Of Solace on my computer before retiring to bed after a bit of light reading via The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan.
No comments:
Post a Comment