Northward bound

Hey friends and fam! Hello from Bangkok, at 7:50 AM! Can I just say what a surreal experience it is taking the overnight double-decker bus for 12 hours! Second time doing this, still nuts :)

After 10(ish?) days on the Phra Nang Peninsula (the closest town is Krabi, if you're following along) we are heading North for the next portion of our trip. That means hopping on a longtail boat/mini-bus/"V.I.P. bus" combo that takes us from Tonsai beach to the Krabi pier and back up to Bangkok. 12 hours of travel once we're on the big bus - or so they tell us. We're quickly learning to add a few hours onto the state time en route :) Yesterday we spent a couple hours at the "Andaman WaveMaster Bus Station" (real name) waiting for the massive, brightly colored tourist bus, which is the cheapest option and what most backpacker types take all around Thailand...also known as the nightmare overnight bus! I distinctly remember making joyful fun of these things when I first saw them, not realizing we would soon be taking them. They really look like what a punk rock band would tour in! The bus was supposed to leave at 4 but actually left at 5:45 PM. We passed the pre-bus time devouring novels, journaling, stretching on the yoga "mat" (our multicolored straw beach mat, a must have on Tonsai) and playing vicious games of ScrabbleSlam! There was internet for 2 baht/minute and a cooler of chilled drinks, so it really was pretty good. Now we're back in Bangkok, and hopefully not for long this time...

Next up is one more overnight travel stint, this time in a train, which we've heard from multiple sources now is much better than the bus (there are actually beds for sleeping, hooray for being horizontal!). The train will also be about 10-12 hours, we think. It will cost us 450 baht, same as the bus. $15 dollars to go from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, awesome! (300 baht is $10 dollars).


Speaking of money. Most things here, relatively speaking, are so inexpensive! Especially the food. Pad thai from a street vendor, 30-50 baht. Mango or pineapple shake, 50 baht. Panang curry with tofu, from a restaurant, 60-80 baht. Win! Other non-food items can be more expensive at times, especially in more remote areas where selection is limited. Still, there seems to be quite a bit of variation even between beaches. Our home-base beach, Tonsai, full of climbers staying in simple bungalows, was very cheap compared with the resort-lined Railay. Also, we can tell there is/will be a pretty substantial difference between high season and low season prices. Bungalows on Tonsai that are 350 baht per night now will supposedly (according to the property owners) drop to 150 baht at the end of this month - which is great for us because our general plan is to head North, explore Chiang Mai and the surrounding area (more on this later), dip into Laos, and eventually return South for the last couple weeks of our trip.

On a longtail boat leaving the Phra Nang Peninsula, to return in one month's time..


Longtail boats lining the Tonsai coast
Mike lowering off of "No Onion No Garlic" on Dum's Kitchen wall, Tonsai.

Tonsai at low tide. We could walk from here to Railay beach when the tide was out.
Not so scenic, but real life and unfortunately everywhere. Plastic water bottles fill up the garbage and recycling areas most places we've been. Since the tap water isn't clean to drink, most people drinks bottled water here. To stop using 5 small bottles per day, we started buying massive jugs of clean water and filling our smaller bottles. Last week Mike bought a 20 liter jug from a restaurant, with a 100 baht deposit on the jug :)

A water monitor!!!!!! Seriously, just a huge lizard on the side of the trail. What in the world.A quick note on sea kayaking. We rented a kayak for 300 baht and took it out for 4 hours one afternoon. We will probably be able to do this for an even better price once the high season dies down. We were able to kayak through and underneath crazy limestone formations. It was beautiful! We saw little greenish crabs skuttling across the rock, and some bright yellow fish under our boat. Also spotted was the yellow-lipped sea snake, which Mike promptly identified and we quickly avoided. Next time we go out kayaking when we're back on the Phra Nang, we're going to bring a camera in the dry bag, it's just too ridiculous not to take some pictures. Okay, we're off to find a day-room before we get on the overnight train to Chiang Mai. More coming soon from the North! J and M