Goes by in a blink.: Lost in Transition

Our desire for warmth accompanied by white sandy beaches and warm tropical waters won us over and we did decided to head south. We opted not to take the 3rd class train and instead took two different air conditioned buses back to Bangkok. After arriving late into Bangkok and with many more hours to go to get to our destination we thought it best to take a break and spend the night there. We headed to Koh San Road the hub of the backpacker culture and to where we had stayed 4 years ago. We spent the evening and next day wandering around eating "street food", which always delicious and cheap. And seeking out the places we had seen previously. Surprisingly, a lot has changed with many more Westernized food chains. Not surprisingly, a lot hasn't changed. Still the party hub with lots of drunk people and travelers all dressed in the same clothes, looking grungy, tired and at the same time having the time of their lives.

Tom Yum Soup

Our plan was to take the over night train to Surathani which we had done before. It's a near 12 hour trip made easier with a small bed for you to sleep on until you reach your destination. Unfortunately, we didn't buy tickets in advance and when we got there, their was only 3rd class tickets left. That means no air conditioning and no bed. Just a very long dirty trip with uncomfortably hard seats. After much frustration, we returned our tickets for a refund of only 50% and set out to find a bus. That option failed us too and late that night we found ourselves back on Koh San Road in an overpriced, uncomfortable, horrible hotel room. We were so frustrated and tired we ended up booking a VIP bus to our destination with the travel agent downstairs. It was due to depart the next evening.

When we finally got to the bus stop the next night, we were more than anxious to get going. We were warned to make sure to keep all of our valuables on us and to not leave anything in our packs that would be stored under the bus. This was not new news to us and we already felt fairly prepared. The VIP bus was nice. Air conditioned, blankets, big roomy seats that reclined far back, an English speaking movie and not full of people. Despite the luxury of the bus we didn't sleep that well. We arrived at the bus stop at 6am and while waiting for our next bus to take us the remaining 3 hours, one of the others travelers opened her bag and started swearing. We were all intrigued as to what was going on. Turns out that while we were all trying to sleep, the people operating the bus were going through all our bags. We were lucky that the only thing taken was out of Deans bag. It was the charger for his I-phone, easy enough to replace. Other people had money stolen and who knows what else. It's hard to look through you bag thoroughly while sitting on the side of the road. It's so annoying and frustrating when you pay extra money for a "VIP" bus and you come off feeling personally violated and with less than what you went on with.

After 17 hours of travel we arrived to Ao Nang Beach. Again, we have been here before but were excited to be back. It is a quaint little town, with many beaches easily accessible and a variety of different scaled travelers. Some wealthier than others. We found a great hotel with the friendliest staff and were only a 5 minute walk from the beach. Sadly, that first day we were both so tired. Dean had a cold and we were both battling the dreaded travelers gut rut, we spent most of the day in the hotel. Thankfully, the next day we were feeling much better and we spent the whole day on the beach relaxing and swimming in the very warm water. Dean even enjoyed a massage. :)

The next day we rented a scooter and spent the day exploring. Not really knowing where each turn would take us but enjoying the moments of the unknown. We stumbled across some very beautiful beaches and spent lots of time swimming. Dean had fun swimming near the large rock islands with hundreds of fish dodging in between him and the rocks. We were delighted when we rode across an elephant on the side of the road munching on her dinner. And had fun walking through an extremely busy local market that maybe had 2 other foreigners at it. It's places like this that you see the heart of Thailand and it's people. And although often we feel extremely out of place, it's in these moments that we make some of our greatest memories. We finished the day relaxed, happy and very sun burnt despite our many efforts of re applying the spf 45 :)

Tomorrow we are taking a local bus, which is not always luxurious but always cheaper, and head slightly west to Phuket. On Monday, Deans cousin Brenna arrives and we are looking forward to her company for the next 2 weeks. As far as we know she is content to stay near the beaches, which works for us. We hope to do some island hopping and of course much more relaxing and adventure seeking!!