Archive for March, 2007

Last Post :(

Friday, March 9th, 2007

Wow, so this is it…5 months of posts and we are at the end of our trip!  Since the last time that we posted we have basically been on a holiday from backpacking.  After travelling from Laos through Chiang Rai, we spent two days in Bangkok seeing a movie and shopping at the fun, but exhausting, weekend market.  We then took a 22 hour trip to the south of Thailand and have spent the last five days relaxing on Koh Lanta.

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Actaully, in all honesty we were more ‘adventuring’ than relaxing.  Our first day on Koh Lanta we were both so excited about the nice resort we managed to find that we felt compelled to work on some very nasty sun burns (oops).  That was our only down time.  The second day we took a boat to Koh Phi Phi (pronounced ‘Pea Pea’) and went snorkeling in the very scenic Maya Bay (the beach from the movie ‘The Beach’).  This was my first time in tropical water and all that I can really say is holy frigging crap!  This is a huge, colourful, and easily accesible world that I have only ever seen on film.  The fish were incredibly friendly (especially when you hold a banana in your hand) and the coral seemed to be competing for the most ‘brilliantly coloured living thing’ award.  Truly amazing.

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We also checked out the part of Phi Phi island where all of the bungalows are.  This is likely the most expensive island in the area, and one of the main attractions?  The piles of grabage that are rarely shipped to the mainland.

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The next day we rented a scooter and spent the day buzzing around Lanta looking at the multitude of beaches and exploring a large, multi-chambered, and hot(!) cave.  Lanta is about 35km long and has many beaches and also a number of stunning view points that look out over the rest of the 57 islands in the Lanta group.  There is also a lot of rubber grown here, a very smelly and gooey process…

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On our final full day on Lanta we took another snorkeling trip to Koh Rok.  This trip had a very exclusive feel.  We were picked up on the beach by a 12 person speed boat and were whisked off on the 1 hour, high speed ride to the uninhabited, nature park islands of Koh Rok.  Here we went to two dedicated snorkeling sights, with depths of only about 2 meters and visibility of about 20m, and one beach with flour-fine sand and snorkeling within 20 meters.  What a treat.

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The only drawback to the snorkeling here is the searing pain of the local water!  There is some sort of plankton in the water that, on contact, illicits a burning sensation akin to a branding (or really bad Thai massage).  While it isn’t actually dangerous, it is quite destracting from the otherwise unparalleled beauty.

We are now in Ao Nang for our last three nights before starting the arduous journey back to Canada.  All told it will entail about 4 full days of travel in cars, on buses, airplanes and boats.  Before that we will try and get rested and mentally prepared for our glorious arrival back in Vancouver after a 19 hour flight…

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