Koh Tao Adventures

We left early Friday morning to catch a flight to Bangkok and then another flight to Surat Thani, where we then had to take a bus to catch our ferry. Southern Thailand is so different from Chiang Mai and Bangkok in the sense that it's a lot less developed, well only in Surat Thani area, I think. Our ferry ride was quite the experience. The waves were big so we were definitely getting some air and I felt like I was on a roller coaster for three hours straight! Luckily, I took some motion sickness pills before we left or else it might have turned gross quickly. Finally, around 7 pm we arrived in Koh Tao where we grabbed a taxi to our hotel. The first thing we did was head to the closest restaurant, which as always, was delicious! And the view! Oh the view was beautiful. I can't say it enough. I don't think I can ever get sick of being here in Koh Tao.

We were exhausted from our day of traveling so we fell asleep before 9 o' clock and had about 11 hours of sleep - that's what I call vacation! This morning when we woke up we explored the beach some more and then decided to risk dying and rent a motor bike. Since Ryan already knew how to drive it he drove us around so that we could reach one of the view points on Koh Tao. Let me just say that it was so tough! Some parts were way too steep that I had to get off the bike and hike up the hill while Ryan drove slowly up. It was so worth it though, the view was amazing. There was a beach on the other way down, but we couldn't get to it before sunset since I had to hike 75% of the way because of the steep hills so we headed back. I was exhausted by the end, but at least I got my workout in for the day. We headed straight to the restaurant and grabbed some ice cream and water then walked down to the beach where we watched the sun set and I cooled off in the water. The weather down here is so perfect - high 80's, humid, but breezy so you never feel too hot or cool and the water temperature is perfect! I took my dslr around today so I got some pretty great pictures of our time here so far. Enjoy!

Chiang Mai Love

Our last night in Chiang Mai and we didn't even know. For some reason I was I thought that the 19th of June was Sunday, but it's actually tomorrow and that's when our flight is to Koh Tao! This is why I always had my calendar open back home, but I have barely looked at my laptop while I'm here and we nearly missed our flight tomorrow. It's kind of sad because most of our touristy plans were for these next couple of days that we thought we had, but I have really enjoyed just living like Thais do here in Chiang Mai. We have just been walking around our neighborhood a lot, eating at a couple of local places, and of course shopping at local markets and some malls. We only saw one temple for a few minutes on our way to church on Sunday and didn't see too much of the old city and we didn't go to the night bazaar either. I guess we will have to save that for another day. It's alright though because then we can tell people all about places and such that they may have never heard of since most tourists stick to the usual touristy places. That pretty much sums up our time in Chiang Mai. I have a few pictures from this last week on our adventure so enjoy!