Thailand Part 3: Koh Phi Phi (Feb. 26-30, 2014)

Welcome to my 100th post!  On the 26th, we left Phuket and took a taxi to the pier.  Then we took a 2-hour ferry ride to Phi Phi Island and a 20 minute banana boat ride to our resort.  We stayed at Tohko Beach Resort for 5 nights.  We absolutely loved it!  However, it's not for everyone.  This place isn't a typical "resort" because there was no power from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm.  And, there was no hot water available.  We knew all this going in and were really excited about it.

Like my other posts about our vacation, I'm not going to break this one up into days because every day was pretty much the same.  We went swimming in the ocean, laid out on the beach, took naps, read books, and ate.  Our beach was very rocky and had lots of corral so on the first night I hit my toe on a rock and half of my toenail came off.  That wasn't much fun, but everything else was pretty much perfect!

One of the days, we decided to take a boat ride around the Bays of Phi Phi.  We saw Loh Samah Bay, Pileh Cove, Viking Cave, Monkey Bay, and Maya Bay (where "The Beach" was partially filmed).  At one of the stops, we were able to get out of the boat and snorkel for a while.

Another day, we hiked up to "View Point" and got a few pictures.  Then we went snorkeling on our own beach.  Zach is now addicted and wants to go scuba diving.

We had 5 nights / 6 days of pure relaxation, sun, and good food.  It was a wonderful end to our Thailand vacation.

View from our bungalow

Our shower in case you were wondering what it would look like.

View from our bungalow

Our bungalow

Last sunrise of vacation

For more pictures, please visit my Facebook page  If you are my friend or Zach's friend on Facebook, you can see the pictures.  If not, sorry.

Thailand Part 2: Phuket (Feb. 23-25, 2014)

After Bangkok, we spent 3 days in Phuket.  One of the only reasons we went to Phuket was for the BBQ Beatdown that occurs on the last Saturday of each month.  We stayed in Chalong which is basically the area for gyms, Muay Thai training, and fitness centers.  We stayed at the Baan Suan Resort.

1/23
We flew from Bangkok to Phuket and didn't get to our hotel until late afternoon.  After checking in, we went swimming in the pool.

Pool

Our living room

1/24
We spent the morning/early afternoon swimming and laying out.  In the afternoon, we went to Big C which is almost identical to Walmart.  It was a shock to our system.  We haven't been in a Walmart for almost two years.  We needed to pick up a few things for our 5 nights on Ko Phi Phi.

Hanging at a bar

Some of the essentials we bought at Big C

1/25
Just like the day before, we spent a good portion of the day hanging out at the pool.  In the afternoon we went to a convenience store and saw someone wearing a shirt with Korean on it.  Zach read the guy's shirt and it said something about 'Busan'.  I approached him and asked where he got his shirt.  He said that he used to live there.  We told him that we currently live there and he asked if we knew any of the same people.  Sure enough, we did!  What a small world!!  That evening, we went to the BBQ Beatdown.

Zach makes an appearance in the video below.




For more pictures, please visit my Facebook page.  If you are my friend or Zach's friend on Facebook, you can see the pictures.  If not, sorry.

Thailand Part 1: Bangkok (Feb. 15-22, 2014)

We did it - we finally went on vacation!  For this past winter break, we went to Thailand for 16 days.  We spent the first 7 days in Bangkok.  Here is a quick overview of our time in Bangkok.

1/15
We passed our time in the airport playing Euchre with two guys we met in line to get our tickets.  We stayed the night at Check Inn.

1/16
We checked into our hotel, MHC Guesthouse.  We took it easy since we got in so late the night before.  We checked out the area around our hotel.  Later in the evening we went to Rajawongse to pick out fabric for Zach's custom suit and shirts.  We then went to an Irish pub for dinner and drinks.

1/17
We ate a breakfast of an omelet over rice which was pretty much our breakfast everyday.

omelet over rice

We then went shopping in a mall.  Western sizes are more available in Thailand than in Korea.  We also had our first Dairy Queen since our time in China almost 1 1/2 years ago.

Dairy Queen!

Later that evening, we went back for Zach's first fitting.

The beginning of Zach's new suit.

In between our hotel and and the clothier, was a protest site.  It looked more like a street festival than a protest site.

1/18
On Saturday, we took a boat to the Grand Palace and Wat Po.

Later that night, we went back for Zach's second fitting.

1/19
On Monday, we got breakfast of an omelet on rice and milk tea / bubble tea and took it to the park.  We spent the whole morning playing cards, people watching, and reading in the park.  Not only did we want to do touristy things, but we also wanted a relaxing vacation.  We then bought a simple point-and-shoot camera  since it's a lot cheaper than buying one in Korea.  Later that evening we went to a bar for food and drinks.

1/20
We got up early to join a tour group to see the ancient city.  Our tour guide, Donna, was awesome and so funny.

We were excited that we got to try some Durian ice cream.  Maybe in Cambodia we'll try the actual fruit.

Durian ice cream

Eating durian ice cream at the reclining Buddha

That afternoon, we took a dinner cruise back to Bangkok.

Dinner cruise back

1/21
Besides having a lazy day and doing some shopping, we went back to the protest site and bought t-shirts.

1/22
We ate our usual breakfast in the park.  Later in the morning, we got foot massages.  We then went back for Zach's last suit fitting.  We had the suit shipped back to Korea so we didn't have to worry about it for the rest of vacation.


What I am not showing is all of the yummy food we ate the whole week.  For more pictures, please visit my Facebook page.  If you are my friend or Zach's friend on Facebook, you can see the pictures.  If not, sorry.