Bangkok at 5am was hot and humid, just a glimpse of the weather in store for us in Thailand. We ran around looking for a place to stay in the very busy and booked up Bangkok. The city was just coming to life at 6am and the streets stalls were beginning to open with every kind of product for sale from fresh fruit, to grasshoppers to "spa" foot massages, that involves tiny fish nibbling at your feet and eating off the dead skin! We set out to explore the city and 15 minutes into our walk we ran into a local who was shocked by Greg's height, he then asked where we were from and started giving us advice on where to go, what transport to use etc, he was apparently a teacher at the school around the corner. He was just telling us what kind of tuk tuk to take when one happened to pull up and he rushed us in - apparently we had "SUCKERS" written across our foreheads because before we knew it we had fallen for the classic Bangkok scam and were whirled around the city to shops and sights to get the driver free gas coupons.
Apparently it was a Buddhist holiday and there was a temple that was only open one day a year to go see - which we did, down an alley that really didn't seem to close every other day. But we did meet a nice local and hit the gong for good luck. Thankfully our tuk tuk had a roof, the sun was beating down and our arms were burnt and the sweat was flowing. We got a great tour of the city though and met some of the other scam artists to know what to avoid.
For Christmas we headed to an island on the east coast - Koh Tao for scuba diving and sunshine. Greg signed up for a course so we got to stay at a nice resort, in the divers cabins, but we got full use of the facilities. Pool, white sand beach, turquoise waters and sunshine! Ahhhhh. Christmas Eve is when everyone celebrates so we headed down to the other beach with some fellow divers and hung out a local pub, with great food, cheap drinks, a cute pug puppy and a great time. Christmas day dawned hot and sunny. We headed to the beach and lounged at a beachfront cafe over breakfast - even splurged for perk coffee not instant! mmmmmmm! We spent the day snorkeling around the bay, the fish are spectacular. All shapes and sizes, the visibility was a little poor. The beach we were on had a small white sand area before hitting the sea and when the tide went out you could walk for miles and would have to go out quite a ways to reach knee to waist deep water. For Christmas dinner we went down the beach, they had seafood bbq's set up along the beach as well, lanterns and fireball entertainers. We started with an appetizer of tempura shrimp, which was quite possibly the best we have ever had, the shrimp was so fresh, Greg decided to have another plate for dinner and I had BBQ beef kabob with roasted corn on the cob and potato. Lots of paper lanterns were being set off into the star lit night, some in remembrance of loved ones and other for luck for the new year. They took off slowly and faded into the night sky appearing to be twinkling stars.
Greg finished his scuba course on the 27th and we spent the next day chilling before going diving together on the 28th! We went down for our first fun dive together and it all flooded back to me why I love scuba diving. The underwater world is spectacular!!! We literally saw thousands of fish, small ones, big ones, round ones, long skinny ones, ones with squiggles, some with spots, some with veritcal lines and some with horizontal lines and it goes on and on. The colours are so vibrant with fluorescent blues, yellows, greens and oranges. The ocean was teeming with schools of fish, at one point I did a 360 and there were fish everywhere I looked. Some were curious and came quite close, looking at me through my mask, others were very skittish and a whole school went soaring past in a state of fright. We saw a grouper that was probably 3 ft long and 11/2 feet around. It was incredbile. Swimming through the coral and seeing the fish that camoflouged in so well! We even got a glimpse of a shark when we first descended before it disappeared into the gloom below. At times were were surrounded by the schools of fish they engulfed us as they swam past.
We finally had to leave Koh Tao, although it is easy to see how the island life can grab hold of you and keep you there for long periods of time. We took an overnight ferry, which is set up with mattresses along all the walls and you literally just sleep the ride away. That is until you are woke up the smoke alarm at 130am, blaring and disorientating, with smoke outside the windows, people rushing to the exits - only a few with the foresight to even look to grab a life jacket. They told us to stay put while they investigated, however, being stuck inside a ferry with smoke outside was somewhat disconcerting and instead of just being sheep we decided to send Greg to investigate. The sea was heaving our ferry quite alot and there was a sharp angle to the rolls. Finally crisis averted we kept going, just a belt or something!
We headed to Krabi to spend New Years on the Andaman Sea. We got a fantastic little bamboo bungalo and walked all around town, sampling local food fairs along the way. Greg ordered some great looking tempura shrimp, only to find that they batter the whole fish, head, shell, tail and all. They laughed at us as we peeled away the shell to eat the shrimp inside. New Year's Eve we spent the day exploring the local islands and snorkelling. The limestone islands are beautiful to see with caves etched deep into their sides. The beaches are pristine white sand with the picture perfect postcard waters surrounding them. We saw some incredible fish, puffer fish, camoflouged fish and many we can't begin to know the names, but the pictures below will give you a little taste.
New Year's Eve was a celebration with fireworks going off consistently and 20 to 30 bags lighting the night sky. The warm evening night, with fireworks on the beach brought in 2010 for us.
Next stop, Malaysia!
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