Backpacking Southeast Asia

After a long, 12 hour bus ride from Surat Thani, I'm back in Bangkok. I arrived at 530am. I wanted to stay longer on the island, but I knew I had to get going. The Thais that owned the guesthouse were very nice to me, they even made me a sandwich for the road and gave me a coconut shake for free before I left. They also took whoever was staying there snorkelling for free. We went up to the furthest northwest corner of the island to a place called Mae Haad, and it's got the best snorkelling on the island. The fish have no fear, huge schools of fish just swarm and swim around you. The area was very picturesque, there was a sandbar that connects a small island about 200m away. Didn't have my camera though.

I did take a couple pictures of sunsets while I was there. Even though it rained virtually every day there, it always seemed to clear up long enough to go snorkelling in the afternoon and for the sunset. After that, clouds would roll in bringing heavy thunderstorms. We got a lightning show every night.

This was the view from my bungalow.

This was down at the beach on the second last night. It was low tide, so all the rocks were exposed.

There was a couple from Winnipeg staying there who had been teaching English in Southern Thailand for the past six months. They had also been in Asia for over a year and didn't seem to be very interested in returning home. Pretty reclusive people though, hard to talk to. I hung out mostly with a German couple, a Danish couple, an Italian guy and a Belgium guy. Really nice people. The Italian was about as stereotypical as it gets. Very loud and animated, thick accent. I also met another Canadian couple from Victoria on the bus ride back to Bangkok. Like me, they were just starting out on their trip, going all over Southeast Asia. I sat next to an Israeli on the bus named Guy, and he taught the three of us a card game to pass the time.

I'm only spending one night in Bangkok this time, and I'm heading to a city called Ayutthaya tomorrow, about an hour and a half north of Bangkok. It's the old capital of Thailand and there's some ruins to see. After that, I'll go further north and eventually land in Chiang Mai, the major northern city, before I head into Laos.

I was planning on going to Burma near the end of my trip, but since that situation is a bit tense right now (I don't even think they're handing out visas anymore), I'm playing with the idea of going to India. It's super cheap there, but it all depends on how I feel come January, so we'll see.

I miss Vancouver! I was able to listen to the Canucks beat up on Edmonton last Saturday (Sunday morning for me), so that was a nice homesickness killer.

Hope everyone is well!