Our Escape…and the end of our trip

We know the sound of being stuck on a tropical island doesn’t sound too horrible, however, the flooding in South Thailand caused many hardships and killed many people. Being a tourist in a region that’s declared a disaster area can be an extremely difficult place for tourists since they rely on hotels, restaurants, and stores for their necessities. The electricity on Koh Samui was out for several days, restaurants and shops were closed, and roads & hotel rooms were flooded. A man was electrocuted outside of a 7-eleven when a power-line fell in the water he was standing in. It proved to be too dangerous for us to leave our hotel. In addition, a family of 7 Thai’s died when their home was washed away in a mudslide were just some of the many negative events happening on Koh Samui. No boats could get to the island and we started to fear that water & food could be running out soon. The weather forecast was predicting another bad rainstorm was coming which could last another 4-5 days.

After raining continuously for 3-4 days, the rain finally stopped on Tuesday night. This gave us some hope that we might actually make our Wednesday morning flight off the island. As we were leaving our hotel the next morning for our 10am flight, it started to rain again. It wasn’t a heavy downpour like the past couple days but the rain dampened our spirits. Knowing our flight could be cancelled we asked the hotel to not book our room to anyone else before 2pm in case our flight was cancelled. A lady agreed and even took our credit card number to reserve the room. When we arrived at the airport, it was packed to the gills. People were everywhere; people were sitting on their luggage, sleeping on the floors, standing in lines that wrapped around the entire airport. The beautiful Koh Samui airport was littered with garbage; papers & cardboard on the floor, plastic bottles and empty cups. No flights left the island on Tuesday and only three flights left on Monday so the airport was full of people who showed up to be put on standby by Wednesday. The standby list was over 500 people long.

After much confusion at the airport, we figured out we had to wait around until they announced our flight was arriving before we could check in. The 6am and 7:30am flights to Bangkok left the island around 11am so we were hopeful our flight would eventually come in. Late that morning, we heard an announcement that a military ferryboat was going take 200 people off the island. As the day progressed the rain increased and a few more flights came and went. People in the airport would cheer every time a plane landed and took off.

Finally, in the early afternoon our flight became the next flight to Bangkok on the departure schedule. Next came some bad news. The military ferryboat was cancelled due to the 4 meter waves. Flights scheduled to depart after our flight were being called and we found out our flight was delayed until 4pm and may leave around 6pm. (with a cancellation still possible) Fearing a cancellation, we called our hotel to confirm our rooms for the night and learned that the hotel gave away our rooms to someone else. The only hotels left were extremely expensive.

As the day progressed, the airport got more and more crowded. Frustration levels increased and patience dwindled. We witnessed people yelling at airline employees, people crying, people pushing, and even heard about a couple fights. Around 3pm we heard good news that our flight 271 was in the air and heading towards the island. When they called our flight, Russ ran to the front of the line and Lee-Anne, Scott, and Renee follow-up with the luggage. We had missed our connection flight to Chiang Mai and in the chaos the airlines didn’t have the tools or time to find a new connecting flight for us. We happily collected our tickets to Bangkok and knew we’d have to figure out how to get to Chiang Mai once we were there.

Our flight took off and landed without a problem. Fortunately there was a 9pm flight to Chiang Mai that got us to our destination, the Tao Gardens Health Spa, just before midnight. Boy, were we exhausted and relieved!


Despite our horrible situation, we were actually extremely lucky things weren’t worse for us. The thing we were most thankful for was not being stuck on the small island of Koh Tao without an airport, minimal accommodation that was mostly budget and therefore flooded. All the ferries on and off the island were cancelled for 4 days (we took the last ferry off the island) and a military warship finally picked up hundreds of stranded tourists on Thursday. Since our Monday morning flight off the island was one of the first flights cancelled, we were able to book a room at Bhundhari, a luxury resort that was on high ground and near the airport.

On our first night at Bhundhari, both couples decided to stay dry by staying in their room and ordering room service. Awh…nothing like delicious food and a bottle of red wine while we watch a movie on our laptop. The next day we stayed at our resort; enjoyed several buffets, played some pool, hung out at the bar, and played a game of San Juan. We knew things in the resort were getting bad at dinner when we ordered a bottle of red wine and they could only sell us a glass of Rose wine. So...yes we didn’t have it too rough – however - that doesn’t mean we didn’t appreciate seeing a sunny sky with no clouds on our first morning at the Tao Gardens!

Sadly, our stay at Tao Gardens was reduced to only 2 days. The quiet, pristine environment of the health spa was the perfect environment for us to relax, unwind, and enjoy the last of our trip. We started the day early with Tai Chi then signed up for our series of spa treatments. Since we only had two days there we filled our days with treatments and massages. We were actually a bit overwhelmed by our busy schedule and found ourselves wiped out and depleted at the end of the day. Lee-Anne was actually sick to her stomach after a particularly detoxifying massage.

On Friday night (our last evening before our 3 flights home) we took a shuttle to Chaing Mai’s night bazaar. Renee, Lee-Anne, and Russ spent several hours meandering through the endless stalls of goods. After a while it seemed like there were dozens of stalls that sold the same things. (Same Same but different)


Now we’re in Hong Kong on a layover and we’re not looking forward to our long flight across the pacific. This trip has been filled with extreme ups and downs - it tested our fortitudes; provided moments of relaxation in tropical paradise; allowed us to discover new underwater worlds; and much more. Another hardship for Russ during the trip was finding out he lost his great Aunt Clara and knowing he’d be unable to attend her funeral in North Dakota and took some time to mourn her passing. It’s amazing how traveling can remove oneself from their normal life.

Rain, Rain Go Away

On our last evening in Koh Tao Russ, Lee-Anne, and Renee went to a lovely hill top restaurant with a lovely view of the west side of the island. After a wonderfully filling meal of garlicky Mackerel we went to a festival. The night before we heard a huge party going on, also, we heard about a festival that was coming, but due to most bars having raging parties every night we didn’t put the two together. A person from the dive shop told us we should check out the Save Koh Tao eco-festival. After dinner the three of us, minus Scott since he had an upset stomach, thought we’d check out what all the fuss was about. It was a full-on festival, with loads of food, drinks, two stages, Thai rat betting races, and really great display of information about ecological efforts to preserve sea life around the island.


Technically it’s supposed to be dry season in Thailand until May…not the past few days. Our ferryboat to leave Koh Tao on Sunday morning was 2.5 hours late. We saw ragged, pale travelers getting off the boat saying it was the worst boat trip ever. Standing and waiting to jump on the boat, someone in charge said, “The boat is cancelled due to bad weather.” At that very moment, and not a second later, the sky open up with a downpour in a characteristically theatrical sad-part-of-a-movie way. “REALLY?!” Fortunately, we eventually found a boat that was to leave several hours later and it was the last ferry out of Koh Tao – all the other ferries were cancelled due to the weather. Of course it was delayed, and they gave out Dramamine and barf bags when we got our tickets, but we got on board and away we went for a 3-hour torrid ride through the 12-foot swells. Russ put a short movie on youtube about our difficult voyage. Click here to see it.

We made it to Koh Samui to our beautiful flooded resort; I don’t think they intended to have an infinity pool. We made the most of the situation and went ahead with plans to celebrate Scott’s birthday by going to an all-you-can-eat Brazilian meat lover’s paradise. Lee-Anne was happy to see they had several seafood options. They also had beautiful Brazilian dancers (who may not have actually been Brazilian) who playfully beckoned us to dance with them. Which made everyone happy.

Monday, today, we are calling Monsoon Monday. We were suppose to catch our flight to Bangkok then to Chaing Mai. Before we got to the airport we knew that it was going to be delayed, but for only 2 hours and we got another flight to Chaing Mai to make up for the difference. Not to get too excited though our delayed time came and went, other flights to BKK were cancelled, more planes delayed and the rain fell. Sure enough our flight was cancelled too. No flights out for two days, most were already booked. We scrambled to change flights, hotels, get new accommodations, and our luggage. I know that I, Lee-Anne, felt utterly defeated at that moment. However, just as quickly as the tides change from bad to worse, they can change back again. We were able to get a beautiful hotel near the airport on high ground, important with all of the flooding on the island. In fact, it has been declared a disaster zone in five Thailand regions including Koh Samui, the island we are stuck on. One of the five regions had it’s worst flooding in 30 years. Click here to read more about the flooding.

The past several days, it’s rained on and off. However today the rain started at 8am and has not stopped for over 13 hours. This is INSANE!! Man we hope we’ll be able to escape the island (& our hotel room) soon!

Koh Tao – nearing our end on Turtle Island

It’s our last full day here on the beautiful island of Koh Tao. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday scuba diving during which time…Scott, Renee, and Russ completed their open water scuba diving certification. Thursday we went to Nangyuan island--a private island owed by the Japanese person that runs the boat ferries between the three main islands here. The beaches look straight out of a postcard, with its land bar connecting three small islands. The resort island had the best coconut shake ever and great snorkeling.

We’ll now describe Russ’ most memorable moment scuba diving, but first let us preface the story with a little information. On the ferry from Koh Samui to Koh Tao, we met this really nice Canadian scuba instructor, named Kent, and we asked him “What dangerous fish/sharks do we need to be careful of while we scuba dive in Koh Tao?” He said Triggerfish pose the most danger to scuba divers--more so than the docile native spotted whale sharks. They are territorial fish (several feet in size) that will viciously swim at you and could bite you when you’re in their cone-shaped territory.
On the first dive of our scuba certification, Russ, Scott and Renee finished the skills training and went exploring. In the distance, we saw a large and colorful fish (~2ft tall & ~3ft long) then noticed the dive instructor looking back at us and made a hand signal in the shape of a gun followed by a sign of biting. Renee and I concluded the large fish we saw was a dangerous Triggerfish and swam away from it. I looked back to view the fish and see where Scott and Renee were. I noticed Scott swimming towards the big fish and he gave me a signal to look at the fish as he pointed to it. I immediately signaled back “No, come here”. Apparently he never saw the dive instructor’s signals and he signaled back to me with another “look” signal and pointed to the Triggerfish. He swam within 10 ft of the Triggerfish then as he started turning back…he triggered the aggressive fish. Suddenly the large Triggerfish started swimming directly at Scott with his large mouth (about the size of my hand) chomping up and down. (At this point Scott had turned around and had no idea what was about to attack him). The massive Triggerfish (it was the largest Triggerfish our instructor had ever seen) reaches Scott and bit down on his fin. Startled, Scott turns towards the fish to see this huge fish with his mouth open and its characteristic big teeth swimming toward him. Instantly, Scott swam and kicked as hard he could to escape the attacking fish. The fish kept charging but he did a great job of keeping his fins between him and the fish. Russ soon realized that Scott and the aggressive, attacking fish were getting closer to him too so he started swimming quickly away too. Finally, after about 15 seconds the Triggerfish finally chased Scott out of it’s territory and swam away. Fortunately, Scott wasn’t hurt in this incident but afterwards we’ve heard about other Triggerfish attack to the point of causing stitches to a diver’s head. After that incident no one strayed away from the dive instructor. However, the next day on our navigational dive training Renee was leading us and accidently triggered a Triggerfish without her even being aware of it’s occurrence; she kept navigating the dive while Scott heart stopped when he saw the fish swimming towards his sweetie.

Most of the non-natives we come across here seem to be 20 something backpackers. We’re right on the cusp of being too old and it appears most bars & nightlife cater to the young backbacker crowd. Our private villa (located a short 10 min walk from the beach) is the perfect location for us. It’s not the summer camp vibe of the bungalows near the beach but it also isn’t the all-inclusive older crowd. We’ve enjoyed lounging around and taking early morning dips in our private little pool.

Friday Russ and Lee-Anne embarked on one last dive session (consisting of two dives), but our first fun dive together. The dive resort, Big Blue, was going to one of the most revered dive spots, Champhon, which was our favorite Koh Tao dive site. With its diversity of fish, and known for big fish around Barracuda rock, no wonder we saw endless species of fish. Lee-Anne’s favorite fish she saw was a large, 3-foot long porcupine puffer. It was like being in a large tropical fish tank! Lee-Anne especially loved rolling upside down to look up at the schools of fish reflecting the sunlight. The second and last dive our morning dive session, took us to White Rock, another beautiful sight where we saw blue spotted stingrays, a diver filming a Triggerfish, and so much more. Once we surfaced…it was sprinkling…and a few minutes later we were on the boat and a downpour started. It made for a slow, wet boat ride back to shore.

The first few days on the island were hot and sunny! (a bit too hot for Russ) However, the last few days have been filled with occasional rain, downpours, and a few thunderstorms. We now know what torrential rain is like. While Russ and Lee-Anne were on the scuba boat, the roof at our villa started leaking. They also were amazed to see the road in front of our villa turn into a fast moving river due to the flash flooding. Utter downpour all day we played cards (San Juan); in the late afternoon we went for massages, then food and games (free pool, air hockey, & foosball) at the Simple Life restaurant & bar.

Today the weather has eased a bit but could change at any moment. We are lazily spending our day reading by the pool (and blogging) with an occasional food break or to make another cocktail.
Tomorrow we spend one night in Koh Samui before heading to the health spa in Chaing Mai.

One Night in Bangkok…

…and the world’s our oyster. That was the theme song of our one night stay in Bangkok. Our flights from SFO to Bangkok went well with one exception. The chairs on the Cathay Airline flight to Hong Kong wouldn’t recline. This made sleeping a bit difficult. After Scott elbowed Russ to stop squirming around next to him in his seat, he decided it was morning and time to watch a movie. Fortunately Scott is forgiving and we landed in Bangkok with excitement and smiles. Bangkok’s airport is the self -proclaimed airport of smiles, and has many beautiful gardens.

With less than 24 hours in Bangkok we made it to our hotel, the Sleep Withinn, which was located one block from the famous Khoa San Road. It was right across the street from the first hotel Lee-Anne ever stayed in Bangkok (it's Lee-Anne’s third time and Russ’ second time in Thailand). Lee-Anne and Russ happily reacquainting themselves with the familiar sights, smells, and noises of Bangkok while Scott and Renee were enjoying – for the first time - the many wonderful sights and cultural aspects of Thailand’s capital city. Lee-Anne noted that it is like sharing her childhood home with her friends. We took a scenic stroll around the neighborhood (the university, outside of the royal palace, and the amulet market) We made a few purchases before treating ourselves to a Thai and Foot massages before passing out after a long couple of days.


Koh Samui and the Full Moon party

The next morning we were off to the islands of Thailand; Koh Samui and Koh Tao. Going to the beautiful, paradise-like, islands of Thailand was the main purpose of this trip. Our resort on Koh Samui was perfect…it had an awesome infinity pool (w/ swim up bar) and lounge chairs on a beautiful, white sand beach. We spent the whole day enjoying the warm ocean waves, sunshine, tropical drinks, and our companions. During our short one night stay on Koh Samui we only left our resort once…and that was to take a trip to the island of Koh Phangan for the infamous Full Moon party.

Since leaving San Francisco, Scott (a DJ), was really excited about visiting the famous full moon party. Fortunately for us, there was a taxi & speedboat service that took us from our hotel to the party for an evening of mayhem. The party was filled with people from around the world wearing bright neon colored clothes and covered in bright neon body-paint. Liquor was bountiful and supplied by what appeared as hundreds of small vendors selling small drink buckets filled with a mixture of booze, fruit juice, and Thai red bull. The beachside bars were surrounded by huge groups of dancers, frolicking away to music blasted by DJs and huge sound systems. Lee-Anne had been to the Full Moon party 9 years ago. The things that are different: more alcohol, more people, bigger sound systems, fire jump rope (for any drunk fool to jump in to), a clean-up crew (although severely outnumbered by tourists), and more expensive drinks. Scott enjoy shining a new powerful laser all around the party which he had purchased the day before on Khoa San Road. The cacophony of sights and sounds reminded us of the esplande at burningman. As the night went on, the drunken crowd became more obnoxious and more packed so we headed home around 1am.


Koh Tao

The next day we embarked on a ferry to our next destination for a week on the island of Koh Tao, or Turtle Island. We rented a private two-bedroom villa (http://www.kohtaoindigo.com/) that’s a short ten minute walk from Koh Tao’s Sawadee village and beach. Our villa is surrounded by beautiful, tropical vegetation and wildlife consisting of colorful birds & butterflies, geckos & lizards, and buzzing cicada. While here…we’ve been enjoying relaxing by our pool, walks along the beach, and inexpensive Thai massages. One of our highlights has been eating at restaurants on the beach, which have low tables where we sit bare-foot on cushions and enjoy paradise.


Tomorrow we will scuba dive in Koh Tao. Lee-Anne is already certified while Russ, Renee, and Scott will become open water certified scuba divers.

Back to Nice - Last honeymoon post

Our departure from Italy went a lot smoother and faster than our arrival in Italy. After a long but relaxing six hours on trains we arrived at Nice's train station and walked 2 blocks to our hotel. After spoiling ourselves on our honeymoon, Lee-Anne was not a big fan of our 2 star hotel located a loud, drab neighborhood.

On the last full day of our honeymoon we successfully completed everything we wanted to do. First we navigated our way through a huge crowd of French train workers who were on strike for the day (glad we took the train the day before) as we made our way to a spectacular Russian orthodox Church. Next we took the economical city bus to the last site we wanted to see, the Matisse Museum. Both of us were mesmerized by Matisse's mastery of colors in his works.

The rest of the day was spent just how Lee-Anne wanted...strolling the many shops in Nice's city center. For dinner, we went back to the fantastic restaurant we visited on our first night in Nice. We cherished our last dinner and evening of our honeymoon with a bottle of Margaux grand cru wine.

Overall we really enjoyed our honeymoon. Of course it had its ups and downs. Our honeymoon wasn't always relaxing. Trying to see so many sites and traveling to so many locations was exhausting at time. The language barrier also proved frustrating at times. However, despite some difficulties our adventurous spirits loved exploring new places and cultures. The French and Italian Riviera's are truly beautiful places full of amazing art, architecture, and history. The riviera's extremely scenic with beautiful waters along lush, green mountainous land. All of the food we had was fresh and delicious. Overall our highlights were St. Tropez, Italy (Santa Margherita & Cinque Terra) and Nice. We have to say, we liked Italy a little better. The Italians we met were extremely friendly, welcoming, and seemed happy to speak english with us.

Blissfully,
Lee-Anne and Russ

Sexy Italia

On our first full day in Italy, Russ found an energy drink named “Sexy Italia” and it quickly became our slogan for our short time in Italy. After dropping off our rental car in Nice, we took a series of slow moving trains meet up with our friends Natalie and Michael in Santa Margherita Ligure. This was the first of our 4 night/5 day stay in Italy. We arrived later than expected (10:30pm) and immediately set out to fill our empty stomachs with delicious Italian cuisine. As we walked out of the restaurant, we noticed Michael and Natalie walking 5 meters away down the sidewalk. Wow! Meeting up was easy…then we headed out for a drink.


We started the next day with a trip to the nearby town of Portofino. Portofino is a small wealthy town. There is a harbor full of boats (ranging from huge yatchs to tiny two person boats) and gorgeous mansions perch above on the lush, green hillsides. Afterwards our early afternoon excursion we headed back to Santa Margherita’s centre for some food, drinks, and to watch world cup soccer. Italy was playing New Zealand so we wanted to sit amongst the locals and cheer for the local team. After months, maybe even years, of anticipation, Lee-Anne finally got to do some shopping in Italy. Lee-Anne finally had the chance to try on real Italian leather boots, and grope at finally tailored handbags, both that became valued possessions.

That evening we enjoyed our best meal in Italy (and one of our top meals ever!) at a small authentic, non-touristy restaurant that our hotel’s concierge recommended. Also, after our meal, one of the owners had a puppy that Natalie and I fell in love with. On our walk home we ran into the uber-friendly, Argentinean (and extremely handsome – think a young Antonio Banderes) waiter at the bar where we watched the soccer game. We had a long philosophical and political conversation with him and then decided to have a drink there. Another perfect day.

After taking advantage of the beach and rooftop sundeck of our hotel in Santa Margherita, the four of us ventured on to Vernazza, one of the towns in Cinque Terra. The scenic, yet much longer than expected drive, to Vernazza was a tad challenging. First, we had difficulty finding Cinque Terra. After an hour navigating the windy, mountainous roads to Cinque Terra we noticed the one road into Vernazza was closed due to a rockslide from the storm we have unwillingly have been chasing. We had to drive to a nearby town and lug all of our baggage (no wonder why it’s called lug-gage) in by train. Of course we took the wrong train, had to back track back to where we needed to go.

Cinque Terre is one of the reasons why Lee-Anne has always wanted to travel to Italy, and it did not disappoint her. Vineyards, olive trees, and luscious gardens cover the terraced mountains maintained by the same sturdy families that have lived there for centuries. Our full day there started by going to the bakery and getting breakfast to eat on our semi-private rugged terrace over looking the Mediterranean. Natalie’s knee and foot were in pain from the travel the day before so we took our time getting to the first of the five villages that make up Cinque (“five” in Italian) Terre. Russ and Lee-Anne split up from Natalie and Michael and went off to scamper up the top of the town of Riomaggiore to take scenic photos. We walked between the towns stopping for more delicious sea-side pasta and seafood (where Lee-Anne fell in love with Anchovies marinated in lemon). The last of the hikes was a bit more of a hike than a walk. Sore feet called for a bottle of excellent Italian wine (Brunello di Montalcino) with friends on our terrace before we shared one last dinner with Natalie and Michael. After dinner, Michael and Russ couldn't resist the urge to join a handful of people playing soccer on the small Vernazza beach.

ST. TROPEZ!!

“ST. TROPEZ!!”
Lee-Anne had to admit to Russ that he was right. Lee-Anne loves St. Tropez. We were originally going to stay there for 3 nights, but to Lee-Anne’s protest, Russ changed it to 2 nights, allowing another day in Antibes. What a mistake! After reading the Lonely Planet travel guide’s description of St. Tropez, Lee-Anne was not excited to spend her honeymoon fighting hoards of wealthy tourists stepping off their million-dollar yachts. The Lonely Planet made this small fishing village into a Miami beach nightclub at WMC (Winter Music Conference). Alas, arriving in St. Tropez we quickly discovered the Lonely Planet travel guide was wrong on dismissing this beautiful, chic, charming, and albeit expensive village. In St. Tropez Russ and Lee-Anne experienced: the best hotel so far, an amazing state-of the art club, beautiful soft fluffy sand beaches, and excellent food and wine. In the two evenings we spent there we enjoyed walking around the quaint town while window shopping in cute boutiques and big name-brand designer shops, and gawking at the biggest yachts you could imagine.

The most decadent day of our honeymoon was Friday in St. Tropez. Where we spent most of the day on the beach drinking wine on our comfortable beach chairs. We treated ourselves (and thanks to friends contributions on honeyfund) received our first couple’s massage in a fancy hotel spa. This luxurious treat followed by a delicious dinner of oysters, prawn risotto for Lee-Anne and a cod and vegetable soup for Russ, and yes more wine. ☺ We dressed the best two traveling hipsters can on their honeymoon and hit the hottest and most exclusive club in the French Riveria. We showed up at the perfect time and with a nod from the doorman he opened up the roped off entrance and we waltzed right in. While admission was free, the club got their money. It did not seem to matter what drinks we ordered, be it expensive chamagne, vodka, shots, or water, each set of two drinks were 52 Euros. The music (mostly electronica) was very danceable and accessible to the wide variety of well dressed club goers.