Arrived in Krabi

After catching the ferry for Krabi from phi phi, we arrived with the intention of going to railay beach, but when a figured out it would be a dark boat ride for just one night, we decided to stay in a guest house in Krabi town for the night.
We haven't gone out yet, but were going to get some food for a bit.
We booked a bus trip for tomorrow which will take us into the rainforest up north where we will spend the night, so that should be lots of fun!

***

Right now I'm writing this from basically a tree house with wifi, there are ids running around and screaming, mosquitos everywhere, and I can't get the wifi to connect, but I've had a good day so far.

When we were in Krabi, we happened to be there on one of the nights that the night market was open on, which was really fun. We went there and tried new foods, including some 5 baht pastry that was delicious, and some mystery chicken on a stick, which tasted a lot like Nandos, so I liked that.
There were carnival games, and music, food stalls and even a wooden furniture stall… it was really strange, but really cool at the same time.

After that, we went back and stayed in our dodgy, but nice rooms… After sleeping in a few hostels, you learn to appreciate a non-rock-hard (but not soft by any means) bed, and a fan on the ceiling.
The next day we woke up, and boarded a bus to Khao Sok National Park, which is a little more North of Phuket. That's where I am right now. The bus ride took a few hours, and soon we had arrived in a 160 million year old rainforest, surrounded by Thailand's finest flour and fauna.

We decided to book a tour through the lake, jungle and some caves for the next day (today) and we paid quite a bit of money for it - which I wasn't too pleased about (About 1500 baht, including another night's stay) but it's over now, and I had a good time.

We started off our day by boarding a bus for an hour bus trip up into the National Park, and we had to pay an entrance fee of 100 baht with our student cards. Once we got there, we immediately boarded a long boat with 4 other people, and were making our way through the 29 year old lake in Southern Thailand.

The boat ride took about an hour, and we had finally arrived in the raft house, which was basically like a floating dock, with a bunch of huts attached. We ate some lunch, and then got some time for swimming and kayaking around the large lake. The water was apparently 15-20 meters deep (I couldn't get anywhere near the bottom… despite trying several times) so I started doing dives and flips off the dock, which was pretty fun. The other's aren't too much of swimmers, it must be the Canadian in me.


After we got our fill of food, swimming, and in my case, flips and diving, we boarded the boat again for a 5 minute journey to a dock down river. We got off the boat, and were on our "trek" through the jungle, which was incredibly similar to a hike through the Niagara escarpment, just different plants.
You should have seen me in that jungle… I was basically Legolas. My Canadian instincts were going crazy, and I was hiking through right behind the tour guide no problem, loving life, and keeping chill, while a bunch of the others were fighting through the mud and the trees.
After about an hour's (2 kilometre) hike, we had arrived at a cave entrance, and were picking leeches off our bodies. We then donned head lamps, and entered a cave through an entrance that was difficult to stand up in. A few went back, but most of us kept through, and we went about 100 meters in the cave.

There were fish swimming, leeches, spiders, and all sorts of awesome creatures in this cave, as the water was rushing past our feet. At times we had to swim carrying our valuables above our heads, in freezing cold water, in pitch black. It was definitely a cool experience. We got to swim one by one down a narrow passageway where we could see a waterfall, but due to the wet season and flooding, we didn't go any further than that.

Right now the largest insect I've ever seen is flying around the room making a lot of noise, and is chilling on the ceiling above my head, with the many lizards that are also there.
I finally got the wifi working, which means I only have to stay here for 15 more minutes as my pictures upload with that terrible insect thing, which seems hellbent on not staying still and chilling out.
After we got out of the cave, we did a bit more intense hiking, free climbing up a few rocks (nothing serious) and fighting off more plants on less taken trails, it was pretty fun.
We eventually found our way back to the boat, and jungle house, where we sat, swam, and ate pineapple and watermelon for a little bit, before catching the 1 hour longboat ride back as the sun set.
All in all it was a pretty cool day, and we got up to a lot. Despite it costing a lot, I'm glad I did it. I've just got to start saving a lot more money now.


Semester Two NewsSo I was offered a place in residence at City University Hong Kong, which is very good news. I still haven't heard from the actual school as to whether or not I was accepted yet, but signs are looking good. I'm gonna send a few emails to confirm that everything's alright, and then I can make my payments. All I have to do from there is wait for my Visa, and then somehow make arrangements with Billy to get my luggage to me… Still not sure how that's going to work, but I'm sure it will find it's way home, as it does have my laptop in it.

I'm looking more into coming home early in May now, and trying to get a job at my Uni, so that I can work up some more money. I think that I might be going slightly into debt at the end of my CityU Journey.

Seriously, I don't know what this bug is, and I respect all living things immensely, but I want it dead.
I'm also excited to do my medical internship over Christmas, as it will give me something to do, instead of being stranded from my family all alone! I have no concerns working on Christmas, as it's still a regular day, when people need help with things, and I've done it for the past 2-3 years.

What's NextTomorrow we have a bus / bus / ferry ticket booked to Koh Samui, which is an island off the East cost of Thailand. We don't have a hostel booked yet, but I think we're going to do that tonight, or when we get there. We should spend one or two nights there, I think.

After that we are getting a boat to Koh Phagan, where the full moon party is. I'm not really too keen on going to the full moon party, but I'm kind of stuck with it.

It's basically a bunch of white tourists getting absolutely, ridiculously intoxicated, on a beach, all night, while people spike drinks, pour outdated alcohol, and police arrest you for the slightest thing. There's certain types of immaturity that I embrace, it's healthy, but stuff like this is most definitely not for me, as my first response is to say "grow up, and get real". Whatever, sorry about the rant, I lost the person on the trip who shares the same feelings as me on this matter, everyone else seems to be fine with killing off thousands of their neurons.

That brings me to a second rant kind of a thing… Being here there's really nothing to do but the things around you, and not being in contact with a lot of people leaves me a lot of time with my thoughts (which is probably something that should happen). I feel myself getting a little bit bored, because there are things that I want to do, projects I want to complete, but have no way to complete them until yet.
I'm on the opportunity of a lifetime, but all I can think about is work, which is really strange. I guess that instead of enjoying the world for myself (which I've done plenty of) I want to make it a better place for others… I don't know.

I'm excited to get back to University, and also to get back to Brock. I'm pumped to learn some more immunology, and I'm really hoping to get a second and final year as an RLS member again, because there's a bunch of things that I've learned that I think I can bring to it.
My pictures are taking forever to load, it looks like I'll be stuck with that bug for a while longer.

Anyways, after Koh Phagnan, we will be heading up to Koh Tao,  which is another island, similar to the last two. After that, we'll head back to the mainland (Chumpton I think) and catch the train up to Bangkok for a few days (hopefully longer if I get my way) before heading up North to Chiang Mai, and other places in Northern Thailand. After that point, I will leave everyone and start my medical internship.

After it finishes, I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but chances are I'll be chilling on my own in Bangkok for a week, and then flying into Hong Kong on the 7th of January for my first day at City University HK!



That's it for now, stay sweet!






Life's too short... Travel the World!: Arrived in Krabi

Sunday 25 November 2012

Arrived in Krabi

After catching the ferry for Krabi from phi phi, we arrived with the intention of going to railay beach, but when a figured out it would be a dark boat ride for just one night, we decided to stay in a guest house in Krabi town for the night.
We haven't gone out yet, but were going to get some food for a bit.
We booked a bus trip for tomorrow which will take us into the rainforest up north where we will spend the night, so that should be lots of fun!

***

Right now I'm writing this from basically a tree house with wifi, there are ids running around and screaming, mosquitos everywhere, and I can't get the wifi to connect, but I've had a good day so far.

When we were in Krabi, we happened to be there on one of the nights that the night market was open on, which was really fun. We went there and tried new foods, including some 5 baht pastry that was delicious, and some mystery chicken on a stick, which tasted a lot like Nandos, so I liked that.
There were carnival games, and music, food stalls and even a wooden furniture stall… it was really strange, but really cool at the same time.

After that, we went back and stayed in our dodgy, but nice rooms… After sleeping in a few hostels, you learn to appreciate a non-rock-hard (but not soft by any means) bed, and a fan on the ceiling.
The next day we woke up, and boarded a bus to Khao Sok National Park, which is a little more North of Phuket. That's where I am right now. The bus ride took a few hours, and soon we had arrived in a 160 million year old rainforest, surrounded by Thailand's finest flour and fauna.

We decided to book a tour through the lake, jungle and some caves for the next day (today) and we paid quite a bit of money for it - which I wasn't too pleased about (About 1500 baht, including another night's stay) but it's over now, and I had a good time.

We started off our day by boarding a bus for an hour bus trip up into the National Park, and we had to pay an entrance fee of 100 baht with our student cards. Once we got there, we immediately boarded a long boat with 4 other people, and were making our way through the 29 year old lake in Southern Thailand.

The boat ride took about an hour, and we had finally arrived in the raft house, which was basically like a floating dock, with a bunch of huts attached. We ate some lunch, and then got some time for swimming and kayaking around the large lake. The water was apparently 15-20 meters deep (I couldn't get anywhere near the bottom… despite trying several times) so I started doing dives and flips off the dock, which was pretty fun. The other's aren't too much of swimmers, it must be the Canadian in me.


After we got our fill of food, swimming, and in my case, flips and diving, we boarded the boat again for a 5 minute journey to a dock down river. We got off the boat, and were on our "trek" through the jungle, which was incredibly similar to a hike through the Niagara escarpment, just different plants.
You should have seen me in that jungle… I was basically Legolas. My Canadian instincts were going crazy, and I was hiking through right behind the tour guide no problem, loving life, and keeping chill, while a bunch of the others were fighting through the mud and the trees.
After about an hour's (2 kilometre) hike, we had arrived at a cave entrance, and were picking leeches off our bodies. We then donned head lamps, and entered a cave through an entrance that was difficult to stand up in. A few went back, but most of us kept through, and we went about 100 meters in the cave.

There were fish swimming, leeches, spiders, and all sorts of awesome creatures in this cave, as the water was rushing past our feet. At times we had to swim carrying our valuables above our heads, in freezing cold water, in pitch black. It was definitely a cool experience. We got to swim one by one down a narrow passageway where we could see a waterfall, but due to the wet season and flooding, we didn't go any further than that.

Right now the largest insect I've ever seen is flying around the room making a lot of noise, and is chilling on the ceiling above my head, with the many lizards that are also there.
I finally got the wifi working, which means I only have to stay here for 15 more minutes as my pictures upload with that terrible insect thing, which seems hellbent on not staying still and chilling out.
After we got out of the cave, we did a bit more intense hiking, free climbing up a few rocks (nothing serious) and fighting off more plants on less taken trails, it was pretty fun.
We eventually found our way back to the boat, and jungle house, where we sat, swam, and ate pineapple and watermelon for a little bit, before catching the 1 hour longboat ride back as the sun set.
All in all it was a pretty cool day, and we got up to a lot. Despite it costing a lot, I'm glad I did it. I've just got to start saving a lot more money now.


Semester Two NewsSo I was offered a place in residence at City University Hong Kong, which is very good news. I still haven't heard from the actual school as to whether or not I was accepted yet, but signs are looking good. I'm gonna send a few emails to confirm that everything's alright, and then I can make my payments. All I have to do from there is wait for my Visa, and then somehow make arrangements with Billy to get my luggage to me… Still not sure how that's going to work, but I'm sure it will find it's way home, as it does have my laptop in it.

I'm looking more into coming home early in May now, and trying to get a job at my Uni, so that I can work up some more money. I think that I might be going slightly into debt at the end of my CityU Journey.

Seriously, I don't know what this bug is, and I respect all living things immensely, but I want it dead.
I'm also excited to do my medical internship over Christmas, as it will give me something to do, instead of being stranded from my family all alone! I have no concerns working on Christmas, as it's still a regular day, when people need help with things, and I've done it for the past 2-3 years.

What's NextTomorrow we have a bus / bus / ferry ticket booked to Koh Samui, which is an island off the East cost of Thailand. We don't have a hostel booked yet, but I think we're going to do that tonight, or when we get there. We should spend one or two nights there, I think.

After that we are getting a boat to Koh Phagan, where the full moon party is. I'm not really too keen on going to the full moon party, but I'm kind of stuck with it.

It's basically a bunch of white tourists getting absolutely, ridiculously intoxicated, on a beach, all night, while people spike drinks, pour outdated alcohol, and police arrest you for the slightest thing. There's certain types of immaturity that I embrace, it's healthy, but stuff like this is most definitely not for me, as my first response is to say "grow up, and get real". Whatever, sorry about the rant, I lost the person on the trip who shares the same feelings as me on this matter, everyone else seems to be fine with killing off thousands of their neurons.

That brings me to a second rant kind of a thing… Being here there's really nothing to do but the things around you, and not being in contact with a lot of people leaves me a lot of time with my thoughts (which is probably something that should happen). I feel myself getting a little bit bored, because there are things that I want to do, projects I want to complete, but have no way to complete them until yet.
I'm on the opportunity of a lifetime, but all I can think about is work, which is really strange. I guess that instead of enjoying the world for myself (which I've done plenty of) I want to make it a better place for others… I don't know.

I'm excited to get back to University, and also to get back to Brock. I'm pumped to learn some more immunology, and I'm really hoping to get a second and final year as an RLS member again, because there's a bunch of things that I've learned that I think I can bring to it.
My pictures are taking forever to load, it looks like I'll be stuck with that bug for a while longer.

Anyways, after Koh Phagnan, we will be heading up to Koh Tao,  which is another island, similar to the last two. After that, we'll head back to the mainland (Chumpton I think) and catch the train up to Bangkok for a few days (hopefully longer if I get my way) before heading up North to Chiang Mai, and other places in Northern Thailand. After that point, I will leave everyone and start my medical internship.

After it finishes, I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but chances are I'll be chilling on my own in Bangkok for a week, and then flying into Hong Kong on the 7th of January for my first day at City University HK!



That's it for now, stay sweet!