Thailand 2011

Asia, International, Thailand 2011

Koh Lipe is an amazing little island in the middle of the Andaman Sea.  After three days at Castaway Resort we moved to the northwest side of the island and finished our days at Mountain Resort. After our last leisurely breakfast our transfer awaited, a motor bike with sidecar.  We bombed through the walking street and up to our next home, pretty funny. On our way over we passed a soldier holding a M16, which we noted as a bit out of place on this pleasant little island.  But then as we drove a little further we passed more and more military personnel until we came upon a group of 20-30 all holding submachine guns. We later found out that the Prince of Thailand was making a visit to his vacation home, evident by war ships and military helicopters.

Mountain Resort had amazing views; although beautiful, the food was not much to write home about so we made our way back to our favorite little place, Sunrise Cafe, several times – the papaya salad, french fries and chocolate shakes were worth the walk back for. We spent our last few days enjoying and relaxing by the water, swimming, exploring the tiny island and eating delicious food. On Wednesday afternoon we walked over to Sunset Beach to check out the sunset and found Boom Boom Bar.  There were a few clouds that the sun just slid behind so we ended up enjoying fresh mango drinks and people watching. The Boom Boom Bar is certainly one to recommend as the people were friendly and the reggae music made a perfect mix for a true island experience.

Our final afternoon, we decided to stay on the beach and take some pictures of the sunset. This sunset turned out to be one the the most amazing views of the trip. As we admired the scene the Thai woman snapping away next to us realized we had the same camera and we began to exchange pointers, we had both just bought them within the last few weeks. With a sunset like that it was hard to take a bad photo but fun to share it with some of the people we met.

We had an amazing time in Thailand and will take many memories with us, however our curiousity for the asian culture and urge to explore throughout APAC grew.

Two weeks later and it’s hard to bring this to a close, reality hit hard after such a wonderful trip.  Thankfully the way home was smooth, but it was long.  We packed up and caught a longtail to the mainland fairy and that was that.  A 2 hour ferry to the mainland, 2 hour bus ride inland to the airport,  and a 2 hour flight to Bangkok just to start the journey home.  We arrived to find our friends Britt and Stefano were on the same flight to Tokyo, it was nice to catch up and trade stories.  There wasn’t much time in Narita, so we weren’t able to catch a sushi snack before heading over to check the cleared list.  All non-revs were clear so we got our tickets and swallowed the disappointment that we were so far in back, I mean row 73 seemed like it had to be the back of the bus.  Once we actually realized we were on a 747, the double-decker, and on the second floor of business class we were elated.  We certainly experienced the highs and lows of non-rev travel and will probably do it again!