If New Zealand and Nepal were on Mandy’s list of places we absolutely could not miss on this trip, Thailand was mine.  I’ve been wanting to see this place since I first started reading other bloggers’ posts about it, years ago when we started planning this trip.  There was something magical about it.  A devoutly buddhist population with a reputation of being the most friendly in Southeast Asia, delicious food you won’t find anywhere else, and, of course, the parties.  Full Moon, Half Moon…just because it’s a Tuesday….there’s always something going on in Thailand.  I wanted to experience as much of it as I could and that’s why we got our 60 day visas here.  We’d use about 53 of those days before we left and it was everything I had hoped it would be and so, so much more.

We started in the south and we would eventually hit four islands in the Andaman sea, and then move to the eastern side of the country, into the gulf of Thailand and we’d hit three more islands there, before moving inland to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and finally Chiang Rai.

Koh Lipe

The fast boat that took us out to Koh Lipe from the mainland made a few people seasick and this seemed to a pretty normal affair because the guys working on the boat began passing out plastic bags when we hit rough seas. Mandy got a little green, but never needed the bag.  I sat there grinning like a mad man, drinking a beer and chatting with a local Thai who’d never been out here before despite living in this country his whole life. He did a double take when we told him we’d be in his country for two whole months.  Most people spend a week or two here it seems.

We stayed in a place called Castaway bungalows and when we checked in they told us not to open the doors after nightfall because of the mosquitos.  We slept with a mosquito net here and it must have worked because we didn’t get bit.

We also found out that we’re not fans of kayaking while on Koh Lipe.  The current was so strong we almost got swept out to sea and it took all of our energy just to get it back to the shore. After that, we decided to just spend the majority of our time lying on the beach in front of our hotel getting some sun.  Unfortunately, it was also raining quite a bit here since we were in Thailand during the end of their rainy season.  We passed the time reading books, playing card games and drinking while sitting out in the common area of the hotel when it wasn’t sunny out.

We’d read stories of people showing up to Koh Lipe with intentions of staying for a few days and ending up staying for a month.  It was beautiful and we would have stayed longer, but there was a lot more of Thailand to see.

Ko Lanta

I assumed (incorrectly of course) that we would just take a boat to the next island.  What actually happened was we took the same boat that brought us out to Koh Lipe back to the mainland, and then got on a bus which took us on a two hour trip north and then for the second time on our trip, we’d take a bus on a barge across a body of water to get to our next destination.

Koh Lanta is a lot bigger than Koh Lipe, but it was way more relaxed.  We stayed in some bungalows that only had 8 rooms in the entire place and a swimming pool.  We had a huge room all to ourselves.  We glanced curiously at the flashlights that were right by the door only to discover the reason for their existence on our first night when the power went out. We made the most of it by using our headlamps to read in the dark.  Thankfully, this was the only power outage while here and it was only out for about an hour.

The beaches were huge and deserted here.  It was easy to find a huge stretch all to yourself.

We took our first of many snorkeling trips in Thailand here.  Unfortunately because of the rain, the water here wasn’t in the best condition to see the fish.  We would be rewarded for our patience with some amazing snorkeling later on though. We did get to see some awesome beaches around the island on our snorkeling trip though!

Oh, and for the very first time in my life, I had Pad Thai.  In Thailand.  And. It. Was. Legit.

Ko Phi Phi

This island was a lot more of what I thought islands on Thailand would be like.  Lots of bars, restaurants, and just a general party atmosphere.

The tide goes down in that picture up there and we got the most amazing sunset picture of our entire trip:

The most exciting thing we got to do on this island was go see Maya Bay that you see in the movie, “The Beach” with Leonardo Dicaprio.  I’d be lying if I said that movie didn’t have some influence on my wanting to see this country.  The only problem is that everyone else had the same idea and it is extremely crowded.  I got some good shots though.

We also took a snorkeling trip here and it was much better than Koh Lanta.

Phuket

Phuket is the biggest island in Thailand and when you glance at a map, it looks like it’s part of the mainland, but look closer…it’s still an island.  We stayed in the southern part and the hotel we stayed at was up on this huge hill so they had a free shuttle service down to various points in the town below.  You just had to sign up an hour or so before to let them know where you wanted to be dropped off and where you wanted to be picked up and at what time.

This was also the island that Mandy got the bright idea to do the fake surfing thing on the beach.  There is a bar with one of those big fake wave/surf/boogyboarding things.  She bit it hard.  I put a video up on our instagram, which you can see here.

That’s it for the islands we visited in the Andaman sea.  We would take a five hour bus ride across Thailand to get to the gulf, where we’d see three more island before heading inland and further up north.