Candace's trip to Thailand
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Welcome to our blog! We are so excited to connect with all of you, so we started this blog as a way for us to share our lives and experiences, we really hope that you follow along on our journeys!
Hi everyone, I'm Candace, a.k.a. one pea in the pod. I'm so excited to, not only, have the first opportunity to post on Two Peas and a Tripod's blog, but, also to be able to write about my recent trip to Thailand, which was amazing. I am new to blog writing, or writing in general, so, I hope that you enjoy my stories and experiences on my trip!
The adventure started in Vancouver, BC, I left Winnipeg bright and early with my friend, Kayla, and we arrived in beautiful British Columbia, for a 17 hour layover. Our first order of business was recovering from the social we attended the night before, after that we made our way to the Capilano Suspension Bridge to conquer some fears. We walked across the giant suspension bridge, more than once, nervously shuffled across the narrow "cliff walk", ate lunch and played in the tree tops, it was absolutely beautiful and amazing. After our adrenaline fix we headed back to downtown Vancouver, ate dinner at Elephant and Castle then headed to the airport to relax and wait for our flight.
Our first stop in Thailand was Phuket, after what felt like the hardest and longest journey, we arrived at the most adorable hotel, The Rommanee Boutique Hotel in Old Town Phuket. Our cab driver, Pakorn, unloaded our bags into the lobby (as we still had to wait for our room considering we arrived at 6:00 am), and then offered to drive us to a restaurant since we were absolute starving, airplane food is really awful. Pakorn, brought us to a cute local restaurant with very friendly owners, where we had delicious, authentic dim sum (Kayla's first time) and local Phuket noodles with egg and vegetables in them. We wandered back to the hotel, and dozed in and out in the lobby while we waited for our room to be ready. After checking in early, getting settled and showering, we then wandered Old Town Phuket, ate really delicious food and since the heat was a lot for us to handle we went back to the room for some much needed air conditioning, where we accidentally fell asleep.... for 9 hours! We woke up at 11:00 pm, when everything was closed, so we watched the season premiere of Wentworth, listened to the thunderstorm, watched the lightning storm, and went back to bed. We originally had two nights booked at the Rommanee, but, more of our friends were all together and waiting for us on Koh Phi Phi Island, so, we did all of our planned exploring in the morning (since we slept the first day away), and caught an afternoon ferry to Koh Phi Phi to meet up with our friends!
We made it to Koh Phi Phi, blindly walked through the streets (with all of our luggage I might add) to find the October Hostel where our friends were, and just when I thought I was going to pass out and give up, we found it and I've never felt happier! A very nice guy named Bob (who would later fall in love with me for reasons unknown) showed us to the room our friends were in and it was a very exciting reunion to see two of my best friends, Jenna and Kayla.P, who I hadn't seen for about 9 months and another best friend, Devynn, who started her travels 3 months earlier, it was also exciting to feel air conditioning again (couldn't tell you what was more exciting in that moment...JK!). We only had two nights and one full day in Koh Phi Phi, so during the nights we explored the cute markets, walked along the beach at night, shared a few drinks together, and during the day me and Kayla went on a sunset boat tour, which was recommended by our travel expert friends, and it was every bit worth it, even worth the awful sunburn. Koh Phi Phi was stunning and if/when I go back to Thailand, more time will definitely be spent there!
Next stop for us was Ao Nang, and we only had a short time there so we did our best to make the most out of it. When we arrived we scouted out a hotel, got settled and went to find food (seems like we are always looking for and eating food..). One of the days we went on a 4 island boat tour, which was beautiful, as is everything out there. We went to Tup Island, Poda Island, Chicken Island and Tham Phar Nang Island. At night we went for dinner and walked the streets and then went back to our room to watch Train Wreck and relax. The day that we were leaving we woke up bright and early to head to the Tiger Cave Temple, which is a temple that you have to climb up 1237 steps (which is a lie because at the top it says 1260), to reach. It was exhausting and terrifying, due to the monkeys, but completely worth it once we reached the top! We stayed up there enjoying the view that we worked so hard for, took some pictures, found some Wifi and a few of us face timed loved ones back home, and then we made our way back down 1237 (really 1260) steps. After our breath taking (literally) morning we went back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to travel to the next location, Koh Tao!
I cannot say enough about Koh Tao, it was absolutely was amazing. We had 5 unreal days here and I got so comfortable, I forgot I was a tourist so I ended up forgetting my camera in my room nearly every day.. but that's okay, I experienced so many things here, and every second of it was amazing! I climbed to view points, went stand up paddle boarding for the first time, went to the full moon party (on Koh Phangnan technically), became part of the nightly fire shows, ate a chicken burger every day at our favourite lunch spot, bar hopped on the beach almost every night, attended a lady boy show and ate my fair share of pancakes after a couple drinks, plus so much more! This island is so beautiful, words can't explain and pictures don't do it justice. It was just amazing, I can't say that enough, I have absolutely zero complaints about this island, and again, when I go back to Thailand a lot of time will be spent here!
After Koh Tao, our group of 9 split up, 2 stayed back in Koh Tao and 7 of us headed over to Chiang Mai to play with the elephants at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, and honestly I cannot say enough about that experience!! Most amazing, gentle, and smart creatures and so huge, even the babies! We had to wear special covers because that is what the Karen Tribe wears and when the elephants see you wearing them they trust you, because they remember the clothes every time. We only had one day and one night in Chiang Mai and it was not enough but the elephants made up for the short time period spent there. We spent the morning feeding the elephants, taking pictures and interacting with them, it was surreal! In the afternoon we got to participate in giving the elephants a mud bath, it was disgusting and uncomfortable but yet so unreal all at the same time. The elephants love the mud and they were literally smiling the whole time that we were all screaming and gagging from the disgusting mud! Then we headed over to the water to bath the elephants, who just ended up back in the mud anyway... All in all it was an experience I will never forget and when I return to Thailand, I will be returning, hopefully for a longer period of time! After the sanctuary, we all speed showered at the hotel because a bus was coming to pick us up for an overnight bus journey to Bangkok. We had one night in Bangkok, and I think I am pleased with the amount of time spent there. I am sure there are many more worth while things to witness in Bangkok, but, I preferred the islands, and was also excited about returning to Canadian soil. However, Bangkok is where I did the majority of my shopping because the deals were amazing, Khao San Road was crazy, and I spent my whole shopping budget there, and then some. We also went to BBK, which is their giant mall, and also to Terminal 21 which was actually a really cool shopping mall where every floor was a different location in the world. However, most of our time in Bangkok was spent at our rooftop pool.
Kayla and I left Bangkok on May 27th (cutting it pretty close when our cab driver took us to the wrong airport at first) and we could not wait to get back to Canada, after an amazing 16 days in Thailand and a total of 20 days away from Canada, we were ready. It was an unbelievable adventure, there were countless amazing moments along with numerous miserable moments and I wouldn't change any of them because this was the trip of a lifetime. It may have only been 16 days in Thailand but I had been more outside of my comfort zone than ever before and it forced me to learn a few things along the way. I went to roughly 10 islands and 2 cities, played with elephants and island dogs, held a monkey and ran from wild monkeys, swam in the sea/ocean and snorkeled for the first time, learned that Thailand sun is much worse than Winnipeg sun, improved my bartering skills, found out that Thai men love me and also that it is possible for your shins to drip sweat, had my first "Changover", did more stair climbing in 3 weeks than I have in my whole life, and SO MUCH MORE! I couldn't have asked for a better trip and what better way to do it than with a group of my best friends, I can't rave enough about this experience and everyone involved! I miss Thailand a lot and I was very sad to leave, but one day I will go back and relive all of the amazing experiences and memories over again! Until next time Thailand!
- Candace ♥.
