It it finally time for us to start racing the monsoon and get ourselves to Thailand. I am absolutely dreading monsoon, which starts in its full raining glory in July. I am failing my Girl Scout motto. I am not prepared. I do not have what I need to survive monsoon. Let's just review all of the stuff I do NOT have:
- Umbrella. I lived in Ireland for crying out loud and I don't have an umbrella? Too much to carry.
- Poncho. Nobody can make a poncho look cool. Then again, looking like a wet, bedraggled kitten when it pours also is a hard look to rock.
- Floater Sandles. These are those rough and tumble kind of sandles. The kind that people in Portland or Seattle wear. Rugged. Unattractive. Provides good arch support in a hiking situation. Can support a hiking situation. We had wanted to buy these in Melbourne, but the price wasn't right. We tried getting them overseas from India, but my shoe size (ginormous) is apparently too big for the Indian stores to stock. We have looked for them everywhere here, but we have yet to find them. All in all - I'm stuck with flipflops - which are a recipe for disaster. Or my Toms, which also aren't the best for a flood situation.
- Backpack Rain Covers. That's right - it pours, our stuff gets water logged. For some reason, Pallavi does not support my continued suggestion to just use garbage bags. Something about them not being attractive. In my opinion, garbage backs are a bit trashy, but functional.
No sooner do we arrive in Thailand, waiting for our next bus to take us to Krabi then it starts to monsoon rain outside. Not actual monsoon season - but meaning when it rains so hard you think its a monsoon. What did that mean for us in our ill equipped state? No lunch! It was our only break in our trip to get food and it was raining too hard for me to face running across the street to go and get something. Good thing I've got cookies! Cookies are a completely reasonable lunch - if I was Cookie Monster.
It's a tough time of year to be heading up to Thailand. We decided to head towards Krabi Town, in the province of Krabi. Unfortunately, all of the beautiful islands to our west on the Andaman, are closed because of the upcoming monsoon. That means some of the beaches are too.
Tragically, Pallavi continues to feel a bit under the weather, so we haven't had a chance to explore much of Krabi Town. We've just been taking it easy so far.
Tomorrow we do head over to Koh Tao, which is meant to have some amazing snorkeling. We are way overdue for some beach bumming time.
Things we've noticed about Thailand so far:
- cheaper than Malaysia
- feels a bit more congested than Malaysia
- more tourists! (we got spoiled in Indo & on Borneo with the lack of tourism)
- feels more tropical - more forests, hotter temp
- yummier more interesting food
We'll see how much we like Thailand vs. how much we want to risk being here in monsoon. Still up in the air.
Just a test comment for my momma!
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