Day 55-57: Koh Tao, Thailand & Transit to Bangkok

Another few days just relaxing on a beach. We changed locations from our splurge hotel and went back to reality, at bungalow accommodation right on the beach.

By the way, Mom, thanks for all of the 'sounds like that go bump in the night' tent checks we did in Girl Scouts. When we were growing up, every year, twice a year, we'd go camping with the Girl Scouts. And, ever year, twice a year, one of us (who we all know, but shall remain nameless), spooked at every night time sound. As such, every year, twice a year, my Mom would walk around the perma tent, doing her best to imitate squirrels, wind, falling acorns, etc. That's how I felt when I started to hear all of the unfamiliar Thai forest creatures! I'm guessing we just were hearing toads and geckos, but how would I know? It only kept me up a little bit.......

This beach had great snorkeling, but not nearly as good as it was in Indonesia. Indo spoiled us too soon in our journey! I only wish the actual beach at this place was better! Coral makes for great snorkeling but for painful beaches.

Our island timing is unfortunate! We don't feel like we've really experienced Thai beaches because, as its monsoon season, all of the islands on the Andaman sea are closed! We also are racing monsoon across all of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, so we can't even just chill on a beach on the mainland. Plus, this island is suppose to be one of the cheapest places in the world to learn how to scuba dive, which we were seriously considering; however, Pallavi's cold made the decision for us to not learn how to dive... next time diving school... next time......

Hopefully we'll be able to do a bit more beach life in Cambodia.

We decided to leave Koh Tao and head over to Bangkok. It's a mostly straightforward journey. Ferry to the train station and then take an overnight train to Bangkok. Except when, in order to get to your platform, you have to cross through the train standing in front of you!

All of the foreigners waiting for our train had the same look of shock when the answer to our question, how do we get to platform 2, was a pointed arm at the open door of the train standing in front of us. I have never seen people move their luggage so quickly as we did through that train. I did too! Man, those 15 kg bags moved up the stairs and down the stairs almost by themselves! I did NOT want to be the one stuck in some bad movie montage with one bag down on platform 2 and another bag to go when the train we were crossing through started to move. (Pallavi apparently thought, eh, this train goes to Bangkok too, worse case). I may be dramatic, but I am not made for drama!

Overnight train done, bring it on Bangkok. 

Day 50-52: Krabi, Thailand

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. 

Day 45-49: George Town, Penang

Pallavi had told me a lot about George Town, having visited it before. She said, "the food is really good, and it has its own charm about it." It really does, but in a very different way from its Melacca counterpart. We stayed in the Chinatown area, which, for once, actually feels like Chinatown. Every lane is narrow, surrounded by "heritage pre-war shop-houses" and heritage hotels. There are shrines & temples tucked around corners and in lane ways. They even have their own colonial district and a proper Little India. We stayed in our first heritage hotel and decided, although it was nice, to see if we could find something a bit more in our backpacker budget.

We ended up finding a heritage hotel that met our criteria just a block down the road, run by 3 siblings, that just opened a few days ago. It's so fantastic to be a part of a new opening. You can feel their excitement as they stay up all hours of the night, hammering, moving, cleaning to prepare for their opening party on the Sunday when we are here. They also go out of their way to make us coffee, make sure we are comfortable, and even carry trays of our food upstairs for us. One day we came back from dinner, wanting to try some Nonya sweets (like in Malacca, a population of Chinese who emigrated to Malaysia in the 14th century). We asked one of the siblings, Jack, where we could go to get some sweets. We were saddened by the fact the place to purchase the Nonya sweets was too far to walk in the rain. Jack offered to go and get some sweets for us, which we politely declined. Low and behold, when we saw Jack again, he came baring a whole plate of Nonya sweets he had picked up for us! We just have to wait until we can write them up on Trip Advisor. 

In between meals, we have spent our days just exploring the city. In 2012, some Lithuanian artist decided to start some cultural street art program here. The street art mixes dimensions, coming 2D animation with 3D real artifacts. For example, he'll have a swing set against a wall, and then paint two children on it. Then there is metal artwork around different places, each with a cartoon and a historical description about the area. Between the mixed art & the metal art, there are roughly 40 pieces of art to try to spot around the city. It's such a brilliant way to get people walking around the streets and interacting with the city. Everybody poses with the art. I'll work on getting pics up someday so people can see it. 

Unfortunately, Pallavi's been a bit under the weather, so we haven't really explored the whole city. However, that's alright. This city is the kind that you can just take it easy in and explore as you want. Plus, we've been pushing pretty hard over the past week or so, so it's fine to just stay in and catch up on all of the free iTunes shows we can find and download (Last Alaskans is pretty good, btw). 

We also got an unexpected treat on Sunday when our guest house had its official launch party. The theme of the night was 'nonya.' Our hosts made a whole buffet of traditional nonya foods (I obviously tried to sample as many of them as I could). They also had nonya performers! Some local celebrity named Annie Lin, who is this 80 something year old 'pure blood nonya,' who has been in movies and on tv, etc was the guest of honor. Then, a whole troop of women dressed in nonya finest came in to dance! We learned from one of them that this is a group of older women who get together to practice, perform, and share nonya traditional dance. The younger folk aren't as interested, as each outfit can cost up to $1000. The outfits are all handmade from head to toe. Each shoe is embroidered with beads. Each sarong is patterned with beautiful designs. Each top has elegant brocade-work. Then, to top it off, diamond brochures and earrings, and a yellow flower behind the left ear. We also learned there is quite the nonya-off competition between Penang nonya and Malacca nonya. Also, nonyans do not appreciate false impersonators. As one whispered to us, "there are a lot of Chinese who wear these dresses, but they are NOT nonya.'

It was a blast. But now it's time to head off to Thailand.