Koh Samui, Thailand

So as I mentioned in the last post, we had a stressful morning dealing with cab drivers. Luckily, our next stop was Koh Samui. We stayed at The Passage Samui, a smaller resort with about 50 individual bungalows. We were greeted by smiles and the most amazing view overlooking 3 pools and the ocean. We basically spent our time lounging around the resort, sunbathing and drinking. What a wonderful way to unwind from the craziness that was Bangkok. We ate some really great Thai food and worked on our tans!

When we felt like getting out to see the island, we rented a scooter. At first, Jason was a bit tentative driving and always stayed on the shoulder with the slower traffic. After biking around the island, he was a full fledged local driver, weaving in and out between the big trucks, taxis and other mopeds. We spent about 4 hours total on the bike just cruising around the island and making stops when we saw something interesting to do. We had lunch on the beach, hiked to cool rock formations and made a REALLY fast trip to see some elephants.

Warning: Animal Lover Rant. So, I'm not sure how many of you know, but the elephant business in SE Asia is really horrific. The way that they train them is downright cruel. As soon as we got there, I saw a man use a pick to get the elephants to move where he wanted and I almost started crying on the spot. Luckily, Jason got that I needed to leave and we were out of there quickly. If you want to see elephants, I would recommend going to a sanctuary. Lesson learned.

 

"Grandfather" rock was named for...obvious reasons. The "grandmother" was on the other side.

Also, we decided that no trip to Thailand would be complete until we had experienced a Thai massage.  Jason has actually never had a massage before...what a way to start!  He went with a 90 minutes Thai massage that felt like 90 minutes of heaven (according to him).  I went with a body scrub and 60 minute massage. We both thought it was one of the most relaxing experiences...especially since we got to be in the same room next to each other!

 

The sandbar was walkable during low tide.

 

 

Overall, we loved Koh Samui. We wished we had more time here to be honest. Next up, we caught a ferry and flight to Hanoi, Vietnam!

We're Off To: Southeast Asia

Hello all. I know we've been a little back and forth on our one "big" trip. We toyed around with the idea of the Phillipines, Indonesia, and Australia/New Zealand. After much research and many conversations including the phrases "oh my gosh, we can go there for HOW little?" and "let's just make a decision already", we have once again come back to the original plan of Southeast Asia! What it really came down to was that this was our first choice. All of those other options are still definitely on our constantly increasing wishlist.

Hotels have been booked (refundable, of course), visas obtained, and air travel is standby.

Our itinerary:

3 days in Bangkok, Thailand

4 days relaxing in paradise aka Koh Samui, Thailand

2 days in Hanoi, Vietnam

2 days cruising in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

3 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia

2 days of travel (really 3 due to time differences)

= 16 days in SE Asia!

People who are used to traveling in Europe and the Caribbean, beware! Visas are a pretty common thing for most other countries. The application process to obtain a visa for Vietnam is crazy. Either you go to a city with a consulate (Houston has one) between 9am-12pm Monday - Friday (so that's out), mail your passports, money order, and form to the consulate (I've heard horror stories of passports getting lost), or get your hotel to provide you with a Visa on Arrival for the "small" fee of $25/person. That doesn't include the stamping fee of $45/person. The whole ordeal probably took about 3 weeks to obtain.

By contrast, Cambodia's application is online and costs $23/person. We got our visas in 2 days. Thailand doesn't require a visa for tourist travel less than 30 days. Call me goofy, but I always ALWAYS check country information (http://travel.state.gov/) before traveling anywhere outside of the US. We might have been in big trouble otherwise!

Other than that, I've really enjoyed the planning process. We're even getting to knock off 2 items from our bucket list. We're in San Francisco right now, hoping to catch an early morning flight. On one hand, I'm getting crazy excited...on the other, I'm preparing myself for the realistic possibility that we might get there a day or two late. I don't think I will really allow myself to get excited until we're on that second flight to Bangkok.

Well, wish us luck, and hopefully we'll see you in 2 1/2 weeks USA!