Holy cow, its been awhile. I can't believe we've already been here for a month. Time flies! We tallied up that we have spent about 100 hours or more thus far just traveling. Most of our bus trips have been tolerable and nothing to write home about but after days of a million bus transfers and bumpy commutes I just would love to be home for a second and be cold and sit by a fire eating squash soup.
Last week we were awoken on our sleeper train by someone at 4 am saying "get off right now...you have 3 minutes!" We grabbed our bags and got off the bus 24 hours after straight travel. We were in a daze and it was pouring rain and pitch black and we were outside with our huge backpacks and skimpy pjs. We waited for another couple hours to catch the ferry and then hopped on board. When we stepped on board, we were directed to go into this room upstairs. I told the worker that I wanted to go downstairs and he said "no! you go upstairs!" As we were sitting there for awhile and the ferry starts moving, the employee comes up with a sign saying that we had to pay extra for the room we were sitting in. Being the cheap skate that I am, I said no way and pretended not to understand. When we worked it out it was $1, but it was the fact of the matter--and i wasn't feeding into any shady business schemes! What I didn't know is that my stupid idea would lead to the most miserable traveling experience I have ever been dealt.... Or maybe it was tied with our 8 hr windy bus ride where someone put their "cripple sticks" as Lauren called them in in carsick misery, (aka crutches) in our foot space.
We got kicked out to the upper deck and at first it was very refreshing and nice. Within minutes the sky opened up and there was a torrential downpour. We had nowhere to go and sat out in the rain for 3 hours while the bullet water pelted our skin to death. The storm was like something you would expect in the Bermuda Triangle, and immediately my face was green and blue as the ocean. The weather reminded me a lot of the intro to gilligans island. Pure chaos. I was so worried that my spew wouldn't quite make it from my stomach into the ocean because the ferry was so rocky that we were gripping the guard rail for our lives and at times could practically hang from it. The boat that was once full of excited travelers turned almost instantly to barf fest 2012.
I turned around, and my eyes were so heavily blurred from the rain that I could only make out shapes and outlines of things. I saw a figure coming toward me with sea leg syndrome and full squirrel cheeks. I grew up with a brother who got motion sickness driving down the street to the market, so I knew what those full cheeks indicated instantly and as my mom would say "i got the hell outta dodge". i slid risky business style quickly enough to escape most of the debris that was blown by the heavy winds back into the boat.
After several hours the boat was silent, travelers were no longer happy, and the majority of people looked like they had legitimately been beaten with a crowbar. our clothes were so wet that we may as well have entered a wet t shirt contest. We both chose white tanks that day and nothing was left to anyone's imagination. We couldn't go back into the air conditioned room because our jaws were already chattering like we were in the arctic sea, so we sat in a ball and clung tight to the rail until we reached land.
We finally made it to koh Tao which was our favorite of the Thai islands we've visited so far. It reminded me a lot of Kauai, Hawaii...super lush and filled with small villages and bamboo huts. Our hotel was right on the crystal clear calm beach that was lined with restaurants and bars that we walked barefoot to at night.
We moved over to koh samui, which was much more touristy, commercial, and heavily westernized. We took a cooking class and made soup, our own curry, and lemongrass chicken nuggets. Every dish was very elaborate with its ingredients, and I could honestly probably never recreate the meals, but they were delicious and very authentic anyway.
At night time we had planned to go to a Muay Thai boxing match, which is really popular over here. We walked to the stadium but when we got there we decided it was too expensive and walked back. On our stroll home we passed a bunch of beautiful showgirls and were flabbergasted when one of the fully busty women opened her mouth and spoke in a deep raspy man voice. The group of lady boys beckoned us to come to their show, which was free minus the fact that they forced $12 beers down our throats. I would say it was pretty well worth the money. We saw a Whitney Houston show, the dream girls, Madonna, Christina aguilara..and the list continues. Pure hilarity.
The next day we hit up the beach. Lauren sipped on a couple mojitos while I took a long 2 hr walk. When I got back she convinced me that we needed to get henna tattoos. As if henna wasn't already pretty lame, I talked her into getting Popeye the sailor man on her arm. It was the easiest I've ever had to work to convince someone todo anything. I laughed hysterically while I watched her struggle uncomfortably in regretting her Popeye decision. The henna will not come off for 2 weeks, so it's been a very interesting conversation starter.
I was really excited to get over to koh phagnan for the full moon party. Another one of my best friends, Angie, met us here and I was so so so excited to see her. I screamed like a cheerleader and jumped up ans down like i had just won the lottery when she walked in the door. She's so great and positive and just very easy going and fun to be around. Unfortunately we all got rocked on koh phagnan, and I felt so bad for Angie for having to start her vacation with so many little hiccups.
The morning of my birthday we rented motor bikes and had an amazing day. We happened across a safari place with elephants and we decided to stop and feed them some bananas. The girls had gone over to the elephants and something caught my eye in my periphery. I thought it was a cat tied on a leash because it made really weird meowy noises. I went over to investigate and saw that it was a baby monkey. No. Freaking. Way. Lauren was starting to get overwhelmed by the amount of time I spent dedicated to trying to find a monkey to hold. I went through a phase in my life where I asked for an orangutan every consecutive year for about 5 years from Santa. its been a lifetime dream of mine to hold one. The monkey climbed up on my shoulder and tried taking my sunglasses and then I grabbed a newborn puppy that was wandering around and presented it to the monkey who gently pet the puppy and picked at his ears. Cuteness overload!
The monkey was cute but very erratic. He was so calm and falling asleep while we cuddled him, and then all of a sudden would get this disturbed, possessed look in his eye and would purse his lips uncontrollably. His eye contact was humanely frightening and it gave me no choice but to throw the monkey out of attack distance. It took us awhile to recognize that his crazy eyes meant he was about to leap on your head and bite your hand off. He liked crawling inside angies purse and playing with our cell phones, and if you ever took something away from him he would freak out. He bit all of us but really liked nibbling on Lauren's skin. I looked over and he had his teeth sunken into her skin and was spasming his head back and forth from side to side like how a lion would rip apart its prey. Lauren's reaction was shockingly non existent, but the blood was enough to let us know that it was probably time to move away from the monkey. I have never giggled so consistently for the amount of time that we did. It was just so enjoyable and we laughed at its every move until he turned into a little satan gremlin furby.
The owner loved us and gave us a tour of the facilities. He was the craziest guy I've ever met. He brought out a few cobras and kissed a king cobra on the head. He swallowed two scorpions and coughed them up, had a centipede bite his arm (which he said he's done every day for 10 years or something crazy). His arm was filled with scars from all the animals that had bitten him. The king cobra attacked him one time and he told us he had 20 minutes to get to a hospital before he would die. It was crazy to be feet from this angry hissing snake that could attack at any time. I asked why the cobra hasn't attacked him again and he said its because he and the cobra are friends now. He took us into the crocodile cage where we watched him feed chicken to. Those things sound like engines when they're mad!!
We continued on and ate lunch at a restaurant on the ocean and threw off our clothes to take a dip. We took Lauren to the hospital on our way back to get a rabies shot and when we walked in the doctor asked what was wrong and she goes, "yea um, I was bitten by a monkey?" We all just burst out into laughter and couldn't ever imagine saying this ever again in our lives. Lauren was intent on getting a rabies shot, partly because she read a bunch of articles that said you can catch gonorreah and other stds from monkeys and that sounded pretty unappetizing to her, which I thought was completely plausible.
We had an excellent day and the workers at the restaurant went out and bought me a cake when they found out it was my bday. I was handed some pretty heavy news that night that i am trying to not allow ruin my trip but I am physically and mentally exhausted and pretty homesick. Luckily I have the best friends I could ever ask for and I was so lucky that they were here for me because I really don't know what I would have done without them. We went to this full moon party that we had planned our trip around and I had a breakdown as soon as we got there and Had to leave. The girls were so great and were happy to be there for me to talk me through my troubles. When we got home we were locked out and the concierge was no longer awake. We all thought the other person had the key because we had a major misunderstanding. Therefore we had to sleep outside. I couldn't sleep so I walked down the beach and watched the stagnant ocean water the entire night until the sun rose.
Angie noticed her credit card was missing and so we took our motorbikes out again and went looking for it. She crashed her motorbike and her $6/24 hr retail turned into quite a hefty fine for all the damage. Luckily she came out with just a few scratches on her body so it could have been much worse. What I love about Angie is that no matter what crap is handed to her, she always creates something positive out of the situation. She has been such an amazing travel companion and I really strive to be like her and think more positively and look for the good in every situation. When the company told her what the damage would cost she said enthusiastically, "it's actually perfect because I have that exact amount of money in my savings account. I'll just use that!!" Gosh what a trooper.
We were all just so emotionally and physically beaten to the ground that we decided a box of franzia and some French bread and Brie would be the only things that would brighten our day. We sat out by the pool with our two piece plastic wine glasses with detachable stems, and didn't give a care about anything around us. We cannonballed, raced each other down the length of the pool, and thn would run into the ocean that was the same temp I would take a bath in. We swam out to a shanty fishing boat and laid out on it until the sun set.
Given the circumstances of the day, we turned a pretty horrible day for everyone into one of the best I've had since I've been here. I love that I can be myself around these girls and say whatever I want without judgement or weirdness.
We ran into our New Zealand friends today in Thailand who we met in Lao. The girls were so nice and I was glad we got to see them again! This has happened several times now where we will run into the same people over and over again in different countries. Our favorite was this Australian guy who stubbed his toe and said a very explicit but strange series of words while he hopped on one foot in agony. We quote him all the time, although we don't know his name. We randomly ran into him on the streets in Bangkok after weeks of traveling.
I am really concerned about what I'm doing when I get back. I had a pretty clear idea of my plan and that plan is no longer an option, so now I am very concerned about which city I will move back to and what I will do for a living. I can't help but worry incessantly all day about my life back home and I went from feeling very content to deathly afraid of the future that lies ahead of me. I am trying to stick out the rest of my trip and I'm hoping I can get past this speed bump.
Angie brought me a new iPhone so if you want to iMessage you can text me without fees. I lost all my contacts ive had for 10 years so if you could please email me or text me your number it would be greatly appreciated. Email is allison.sebek@gmail.com. Can you believe that for how spacey i am ive never lost my phone in 10 years? Also, we are all posting photos on Instagram so if you want to check out what we are doing you can follow us at @alliseb @laurenkaci @angie_oh
Tomorrow morning we are flying to Indonesia. I'll try to update this more frequently but we have just been on the go like nobody's business. Indo will be more relaxing and I'm pretty excited to move on!
Sent from my iPhone
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