Thailand Adventures

Well as I post this I have just spent my first night back in Canada. AHHHH so good to be back on home soil. I love to travel but also definitely have a full appreciation of being back where everyone speaks english and I can drink the water. haha

The final 3 weeks of my journey were been spent in Thailand

I arrived in Krabi and click my brain into arrival mode - bought another new sim, got money and figured out how to actually get to my hotel on Railay beach as it can only be reached by boat. I figure out the bus/boat system (sort of anyways) buy my ticket an hop aboard. Easy peasy, or so I think...

A good 30 minutes into my trip I am chatting away with my random new friend (I've had a lot of those) when the bus pulls over on the side of the highways and the driver yells at me this is my stop, I am very confused as its the edge of the road not at a pier which I thought we were going to and there is no water anywhere in sight which makes no sense to me because I am supposed to be taking a boat the rest of the way. It's also dark now so that's not really encouraging me to leave the safety of the bus but he shouts again in broken english that this is my stop so I grab my bags and cross my fingers that he knows better than I do (usually the case). I check in at the little office my bus driver friend was pointing me to and yes he was correct the pier is about 50 yards in from the road, no crisis, whew!

I get the boat ride settled and after a short wait the long boat we are taking arrives and takes us on our journey through the pitch black waters towards Railay. A cool little town I quickly find my hotel, praise Jesus it's nice, well nice enough, there were some REALLY nasty trip advisor comments so I was concerned but for the cost it was definitely nice enough. I shower and freshen up then decide its time to wander. It's a very low key town, lots of little shops but very few people on the whole. I wander the beach front to the end of the board walk where there is a little beach bar where I was able to find a hammock and a cold drink and sit back and listen to the ocean waves crash into shore. Pretty much perfection.

Having enough of the quiet, I left again on search of more adventures, on my previous roaming a promoter in front of the towns night spot "The Last Bar" had stopped me to inform me about live Thai boxing that would be happening that night so I made my way back to it. IT WAS AWESOME! And then to close the night off there were was a fire show, I am super sad that my phone died before I got video as these guys were intense! After that though I was done, bed time for this kid, so back to the hotel for me.

Day 2, I spent wandering the rest of the area, there are 3 beaches each more beautiful than the last, lots of little shops. I figured out where to go rock climbing and where some cool hiking spots were, saw monkeys and also saw what a longboat actually looks like as it had been dark when I climbed aboard the previous night. (They look like a bit like a death trap FYI so I am a bit glad I was kept literally in the dark haha) Spent some time at the beach, by the pool and in my room with the AC (its super hot here) and just generally relaxed ate some great Thai food and got a Thai massage. Super chill day. (My favorite kind haha)

The 3rd day is where it gets a little dicey unfortunately. I had planned to get up early and do the rock climbing but instead I lazily spent the morning enjoying the last of my AC comfortable living before moving over to my much cheaper but MUCH less comfortable accommodation. Don't get me wrong I have long held a dream of laying in a hammock on the front of a grass hut near the beach pecking stories into my laptop, so this was very much my choice, but I knew I would miss the AC. Leaving just before noon I got to my hut and moved in, very simple just a bed and a shelf, bathroom with "basic" plumbing (a cold water line to a sink, a shower head and a bucket which was to act as the toilets tank). Lots of creepy crawlies but it had a fan and a mosquito net, so I would be fine. After grabbing lunch I was hit with a restless mood so decided I would spend the afternoon hiking up to the lookout and lagoon. I was told it was beautiful and it definitely was, but the hike itself, wow! It was not what I had expected. One of the toughest I have done, but totally worth the efforts as you can see from the pictures.

Fantastic adventure... Check! But, this is when the dicey starts. About 3/4 of the way back down the trail I start feeling "off" I just assumed I was dehydrated, I had drank a water before I left but this was a tough hike so I was pretty low on fluid. Anyways, I decide to forgo wandering the caves which were just down the trail a way and head back in search of water. I get back to my hut, get water, rest in my hammock but progressively and quickly deteriorate. I am still not sure if it was the food from lunch or the heat that sent me spiralling, perhaps a combination of both, but the next 12 hours would be spent with the porcelain throne my body fully rejecting anything and EVERYTHING I had put in it. Legit Hell. Being sick is bad, being sick in a smelly foreign country all alone in a hot bamboo hut with no real plumbing, that was just the worst (great literary term, I know) by the next morning I had enough so I messaged my friend Niamh in Bangkok. I had previously planned to stay with her the following week but she took pity on my sorry soul and invited me to come earlier. The girl is a God send, a legitimate hero. I did temporarily feel ok for a bit of that day an opportunity I used to go find nausea meds, but it would seem that I over did it and ended up paying for puking in an alley just before my hotel. (TMI? sorry) The meds did help over all but I had had enough of that muggy smelly little town (Sick David has a bad attitude lol) and caught a boat out the next morning even though my flight wasn't until afternoon. Thankfully the airport was and I found a quiet corner and just sat and waited for my flight.

I got to Bangkok about the same time Niamh was getting off work so I was able to connect with her at the Metro station near her place. There I just basically rested the next couple days watching A LOT of Netflix (How to make a murderer is freaking creepy, yo) Back on my feet my days in Bangkok have been spent using the condo's office space to work on a project I have on the go for when I arrive back in Canada, relaxing by the pool and using the gym, Asia knows how to set their tenants up right thats for sure. Like myself Niamh enjoys an active social life so most evenings have been spent out for dinners and drinks with friends from Bangkok and across the world. One restaurant called Above Eleven is located on a rooftop patio of one of the sky scrapers, the view was tremendous.

I also do a lot of mini adventures, toured around Chatachuk market one Saturday morning, wandered the crazy huge malls that are in Bangkok, as well as founds some cool coffee shops. I even went and had a suit custom made for me. (Best decision ever!)

It also sounds funny but one of my favorite Bangkok adventures was my trip to see the Logan movie. The theatre had these crazy big comfy seats and the lobby looked super classy I felt like I was going to see a play on broadway or something. Was SUPER cool.

My friend Darren from my university days also lives here. He was a party promoter at one point so he took me out the first Friday I was here and showed me the night life. This place gets crazy thats for sure, there was a time in my life when I would have gotten into a lot of trouble in this town haha. Nowadays however... we were home by 11. #oldmen

Last weekend Niamh and I met a couple of her friends from teaching at a resort in Phuket called the Cassia. Gorgeous place, I have discovered that I much prefer nice hotels to grass huts near the beach. Amazing what you find out about yourself when you travel haha. It was a great time Mitch and Rachel were great to hangout with and had an awesome little dude who helped keep things interesting. We did a workout on paddle boards at the beach as a group from Niamh's gym was there the same time. And I got a nasty sunburn, but hey cant win em all!

The final week there I spent a lot of time in the office working on my new project but I did manage a few adventures! It was Niamh's birthday, so we went out with her work friends for that and then for my last night in town we went SURFING! Little known fact one of my biggest disappointments for my trip was when I discovered that there was no surf this time of year in Thailand, I mean what is the point of having an ocean if you can't surf it, seems like such a waste :-P So this for me WAS AMAZING! I want one of these machines in my back yard. It like shoots water up from the bottom simulating a wave, definitely different to ride but was so much fun, I wish I had more than an hour with it lol and didnt want to share :-P. On the way home we stopped at a Bangkok landmark that is about to be torn down, Cheap Charlie's is a little dive bar just off Soi 11, it has no walls just a rope that separates the "bar" from the street, its always packed too, partially because the rent was super low so he passed the savings on to his patrons I think. Anyways, the entire area block is being torn down to make room for a new condo (tonnes of new development around here) this week so end of an era. The final Bangkok adventure was a tuk tuk ride the rest of the way home, lol just a few blocks but I had to get in one at least once.