Thailand - First Encounter (December 17 - 27)

After crossing the border by longboat into Thailand from Lao, it was like we had taken a boat to a completely different world. All of a sudden all the roads were well paved and the town on the Thai side, Chiang Khong, was so clean and developed. It was a small culture shock... a Seven-Eleven!!

Right away we booked our busride to Bangkok and decided to treat ourselves to firstclass for the extra 3 dollars each. The overnight busride to Bangkok was absolutely heavenly, seeing as there was no chunk-blowing children nor animals wedged between the seats. Their was even a steward who offered us snacks and drinks and coffee!

We arrived in Bangkok before the sun came up and got into a taxi for the infamous Khao San Road. For those of you who have been, you know nuts that area can be. For those who haven't been, it's a nuts area. It's kind of similar to a plane full of hippies crashing into an Asian cosmopolitan city. The people watching is fantastic. You find yourself thinking things like "I didn't know that you could pierce that" and "is that his real hair?" and "I wonder what drugs she is on...or what drugs she should be on?"

We booked flights to Mumbai as soon as a reputable looking travel agency opened and decided that we couldn't stay in Bankok any longer. We later found out how nice Bangkok can be, but felt way too overwhelmed with the big city on that particular day. We decided that since our flight to Mumbai was on December 27th, that we should find a nice beach to spend the week before christmas on. That beach turned out to be Ao Thian on Koh Samet (Samet Island).


Our home away from home over Christmas.

We a small boat over to Koh Samet and in a short time found a beautiful little cottage right on the beach. The beach was pristine with 'white as snow' sand and some of the bluest water either of us had ever seen.


Koh Samet is heaven!

We spent the next 9 days and nights swimming, walking, snorkelling, eating and doing pretty much anything we pleased. We also befriended the owner of the restaurant on the little resort we were staying on and he spoiled us with beautiful Thai dishes and took us to other beaches on two of the evenings to go dancing.


Ready for an underwater adventure!

Due to the fact that the island was incredibly thin at the southern end where we were staying, we had our own little tradition of waking up to watch sunrise from the beach in front of our bungalow and in the evenings, taking a small path to the other side of the island to watch sunset, often with no one else around at all. We really felt that this was our honeymoon.


A beautiful sunrise from our doorstep.

Christmas came and went without any presents, or snow, or extended family, or anything else we grew to associating with the holiday season. Needless to say, we missed our families and extended families more on christmas than on any other day prior, but we were on a beach in Thailand, so we got over it (hahaha).


"Sandy the sandman, was a very happy soul, with a string and a hat and a twiggy nose and two eyes made out of sand..."

We did however want to do something special for Christmas. So we did two things special: 1) Got a real, Canadian style breakfast. (This was a special treat because we normally ate a rice or noodle dish for breakfast to save money). 2) We got Thai massages (very nice except for the hurting bits).


Christmas morning breakfast.

When the time came, we hiked the several kilometers up island to catch a ferry back to the mainland. We got a minibus to the airport where we shared a beer and played cards on the floor in the middle of one of the departure terminals, eagerly awaiting our flight to our next adventure: Incredible India.



One of our last days in Thailand...that is...until we return!!