Paradise on earth; Ko Tao

I can’t not believe it. The place i’ve always dreamed of exists! The place I have combed through continents for years searching for, exists! The gorgeous beach, crystal clear water teaming with colorful fish, dotted with bamboo bungalows and hammocks; developed just enough to have running water, not hot water, not AC, a bungalow on the beach with very few other tourist around. You can lounge in beach front chairs for free, borrow a snorkel from the woven basket for free, walk 5 minutes into town and rent a motorcycle for $4.50 a day without singing a waiver, buying insurance or providing a drivers license. 

It’s like going back in time where everything is cheap and simple, no regulations, no permits. 

Our overnight boat arrived at 5:00am- still dark out. We hopped in a tuk tuk to Sairee beach where we were dropped at a cluster of bungalows. Nothing was open yet so we wandered down the beach until we found ones we liked the look of and ran into out new Dutch friends we made on the boat who were also waiting for the bungalow keeper to awake. We were all thankful she had bungalows available, but I was not surprised, things were going to smoothly so far, why would they stop now. People are so accomodating in Thailand! We had to pay 800 bahts (Approx $24 USD) instead of 600 because we were only staying one night, and we had to take the old bungalow that had not one but two igunas in it, but who cares!? We are in paradise and lizards eat big spiders. 

We secure a hut and brush our teeth, THANK GOD, throw on swim suits and stroll to the beach for a recovery nap and some breakfast. Next, we grab a snorkel and dive in to the crystal clear water just long enough for Jason to cut his stomach on coral:( Decide it's time to take a break from swimming and get a motorcycle to explore the rest of the island. Ride to the top of a mountain, drink a coconut shake, snorkel on the other side of the island. Eat a fabulous meal. Return to our side of the island. Go for an evening stroll on the beach, oh look, thai massages on the beach for $7USD, sold. Feeling limber and restored, we continue our walk to thinking this day couldn’t get any better yet it does. Fire throwers and dancers lining the beach, we score a beach front seat on the sand with a triangular pillow to lean again and order a beer. CHANG. I’m learning to love Chang mostly for the price tag. 

Ko Tao is paradise. I love the vibe on this island. I never want to leave. 

Working our way down the Gulf Cost of Thailand

Mistake number one, going to the bus station and letting people herd you onto their buses.There are multiple companies, shop around until you find the nice, non mildewy, aircon leaking on the seat bus! But whatever, it’s only a few hours to and thanks to the magnetic traveling chess board, we have an intense game of chess going on so we barely notice.We are awakened at our destination, Hua Hin. Per the usual, we roll in to town with no hotel. Swarms of tuk tuks and are waiting at the bus stop, we start negotiating the price to be dropped in an area close to the beach and then wander for a few minutes until we find a little guest house for $30 a night, it’s no frills but it’s cheap and its close to the beach and we’re tired. We wake up before sunrise again. Relieved to realize the other is awake, put on some running shoes and go for a run to explore our new town. Early morning runs in a new country are sheer magic. It’s still cool out, the city is clean and quiet and you get to watch the city wake up.

Stairs leading up to Wat Kaho Takiap

It’s like being early to a party your best friend is hosting, you get to see greet every guest as they come and watch the party come to life. We run on the beach with an escort of non mangy dogs, watching the fishermen set off to sea, intrigued by steep stairs up a large hill with some ruins we start up. We are greeted by dozens of enormous monkeys guarding the path to the temple at the top, we proceed cautiously but it turns out they are friend, not foe.

After we’ve befriended a couple of monkeys and found a string of restaurants on the beach with lounge chairs, we end our run with one of the early to set up street vendors and have a thai coffee. We don’t speak a word of the same language, it’s the inevitable game of charades with lots of smiling and bowing, Thai’s sure smile a lot.  Back to the “hotel” to throw on swim suits and head to the unpopulated beach area we discovered. We eat just about everything on the menu and drink coconut shakes and carrot shakes, noodle salad, noodle soup, seafood salad and then lounge around on the beach for a while napping and reading lonely planet deciding our next destination and the the best combination of trains, buses, boats, car rentals and motorcycles to get to Ko Tao. 

Suan Son Beach at sunrise

Pleasantly surprised by how cheap the trains are in comparison to Europe, we take a train to Chumphon. The train is delayed but there’s WiFi in the train station where I check my email to make sure my last set of Airbnb’ers left the key for the upcoming set of Airbnb'ers  and the Homejoy cleaners were able to find the washer and dryer. Things are on auto pilot, great, I can check back out. The train from Hua Him to Chumphon was one of the most gorgeous train rides, we wished our train hadn’t been delayed and it was light the whole time, but I wouldn’t have been able to keep my eyes open anyway. Trains put me into a deep sleep, every time, without fail. Upon arrival to Chumphon we are beckoned by a thai woman announcing the slow boat to Ko Tao is leaving “NOW” so hurry up and come with her. We are skeptical but it’s only $12 to take an overnight boat to an island, what do we have to loose? Overnight travel is so efficient. You get accommodation + transportation and you waste no time getting there. You’re sleeping in one city/ country and wake up in a new one. I try to work in over night transportation whenever possible. We befriended some Dutch girls and all blindly followed the random woman from the train station in a tuk tuk to a cargo boat. Yes, a cargo boat. They cleared out a room in the hull and added 36 bunk beds.

The cargo ship

cargo sent from the mainland to the island

playing chess in our bunk in the hull of the ship (I won!) 

Not the most romantic, but we have Six Senses for the romantic part of the honeymoon, until then we are traveling… It was remarkably clean, this culture has an obsession with cleanliness (except the bathrooms), even on a ship! We had to take our shoes off before entering the sleeping room. I was thankful I had my "don't leave home without it bag". And thankful I could make it through the night without using the bathroom or brushing my teeth. We arrive to Ko Tao at 5:30 am, again it is dark, we don’t have lodgings and there are swarms of tuk tuk drivers luring us into their cars. 

Don't leave home without...

There are some items I never get on a plane without and I think ever traveler should also consider packing before embarking upon an adventure. 

Running shoes: I never pack a bag without Nike Frees, when I am home and running to train for something of distance, I run in Saucony’s, Brooks or Mizunos, but when I’m traveling, I’m exploring new territory and not doing any runs longer than an hour so I pack Frees because they are small, light and make great traveling shoes as well as running shoes. 

Bikini: Even if I'm going to Austria in the fall, I take a bikini. When there’s not a beach or a hot tub, it’s a top for a yoga or a strapless bra. Bikini’s are more versatile than they get credit for. 

Hand sanitizer: Pre street food, post restroom. There are few countries with clean and open to the public bathrooms like the US. 

Kleenex: serves many purposes, napkins for greasy street food, TP for squatty potties… 

Gum: Just accept the fact that you’re going to be dehydrated the majority of the time you travel. At least when you have gum, you don’t feel like you're dying of thirst. Plus, it’s the easiest way to make a new friend, kids world wide LOVE a stick of gum. 

Passport: Duh. I never leave my house without this.

Face wipes: They are the key to making overnight transit go from bearable to enjoyable. And a life saver when you go straight from a sweaty bike ride to a sprint to the overnight bus stop, no shower in between. 

Portable phone charger: The phone is now a camera, WiFi, alarm clock, flashlight, it’s nice to have a life line charged. 

Chapstick-ever since I caught my lip on fire in Valencia Spain, I have an obsession with keeping my lips hydrated. 

Happy traveling! 

Have Passport, need Visa.

Day two in Thailand, still waking up before the sun which is great. We eat an AMAZING breakfast at the Dream hotel, find a cooking class to sign up for and figure out where the Myanmar embassy is. Next stop- Myanmar embassy to obtain some visas. Could we have done this in advance- yes. Did we no? Why you may ask would we spend precious time in a foreign land obtaining visas? Well, glad you inquired. About a year in a half ago, our passports were lost in the mail (yes yes, completely my fault for sending them regular mail) when we applied for our visas to Jordan in advance. And no- you are not required to get those in advance, I was just trying to be prepared for once in my life, but it back fired on me and we ended up missing our flights, paying the $500 change fee and getting 24 hour passports which cost even more. Jason refused to go through that again for visas to Myanmar and miss our honeymoon. He got me on board by reminding me how pretty my passport was getting with stamps and visas and that I might be able to achieve my goal of adding passport pages if I didn’t loose this one. He always knows how to get me on board. SO here we are, at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, 30 minutes before it opens, and it packed with travelers! Getting visas makes us giddy with excitement despite the fact that it is sweltering hot and we are missing the cooking class I’d signed us up for earlier this morning.

Seeing throngs of people excited about exploring the uncharted territories of Myanmar excites me. It’s like we are all explorers waiting for the King to grant us permission to sail to the new world. It’s also beautiful to see the throngs of shops that have sprouted up to cater to the influx of foot traffic at the embassy. Tuk Tuks with instant passport photos and copiers for the required pictures and passport copies to obtain a visas, men selling coffee, women selling meat skewers- it’s capitalism in it’s purist form. We wait for approximately two hours, drinking coffee, taking turns exploring while one of us stays in line, playing would you rather, and then our number is called. I’m nervous. We are requesting same day visas and don’t have proof of exit from the country- no way they’ll grant it according to everyone we’ve talked to in line and what we’ve read. If they don’t we’ll have to come back to Bangkok in a couple of days, but will we even be able to check into hotels without our passports?! Probably not, and we won’t be able to fly back to Bangkok either… we have to get them today or we loose another day of a hammock on the beach. I put my biggest smile on and start chatting with the woman behind the counter, our fate lies in her stamp. Things are going well until she sees that I’ve foolishly written “producer” as my occupation. It’s habit, for years it’s been my primary occupation but now I have several other side projects I could just have easily written, “chef, entrepreneur, wedding industry” anything else would have been less threatening than producer. The last thing a country that’s barely opened it’s doors to the world wants is a producer in there filming the less than perfect parts of their country. Little does she know, as a post production producer I don’t do anything cool like filming or making any kind of creative decisions. She growled at me and then grabbed her colleague who came back and also growled. “what will you produce in OUR country” they questioned. Sweat beads began to appear on my forehead making me look like I was an under cover spy rather than a tourist on a honeymoon that was dying to explore new frontier. I managed to make them believe the truth, and we went back to our jovial chatting when she said, "ok, you come back at 3:30 for pick up” We tried not to let our joy and shock show until we got outside and we burst out laughing and cheering. They et us in!!!! No questions about an exit strategy even asked. This turned out to be the easiest and cheapest (approximately $37 USD) visa I’ve ever gotten. Why is everything so easy in Asia?! 

Now we were an hour late for cooking class at Silom Thai Cooking School but we decided to give it a whirl anyway. Much to our delight, we were welcomed with open arms and brought up to speed. It was a FANTASTIC experience. They require you to cook barefoot, I love Asian’s insistence on bare feet. In America, we’re required to wear close toed shoes when cooking commercially and here, they require you to cook barefoot. It’s so liberating. We made and ate green curry, pad thai, tom yum soup and mango sticky rice and then went on the market tour we’d missed from the morning class with the afternoon class group. While we cooked dishes catered to the western world, it was super fun learning making curry paste from scratch and touring a market with so many foreign fruits and vegetables with a chef. With still a couple of hours to kill before our visa was ready we popped into one of the thousands of thai massage places and got hour long massages for $7.50. I’m madly in love with this country. Now to find a bus to start working our way down the coast. Our only schedule is to be at Six Sense in Ko Samui 5 days from when we landed. 

Beating Jet Lag in Bangkok

We arrived after a seemingly quick and incredibly easy journey from LA to Bangkok, probably because we were beyond exhausted when we got on the plane and slept for at least 7 hours. It’s now 2:00am in Thailand, the first thing I do when arriving in a new time zone, change my watch and refuse to try to figure out "what time it is back home”. The body can’t adjust to a new time if your mind is constantly reminding it what it should be feeling. My second move for beating jet lag is to utilize coffee or beer to coax your body into acclimating to the proper time. Thirdly, embrace the incredibly early morning wake ups. Put on your running shoes and explore the city, write, read, research, whatever you do- just embrace it, chances are, you’ll have a train, bus or boat ride to nap on later in the day when you’re crashing. 

We take a cab from the airport- a total breeze compared to anywhere in Latin America to pre booked hotel- thank you husband for researching in advance and not having us roaming the streets with bags at 2:00am. Get to the Dream Hotel- it’s pretty dreamy. Ditch our bags and go for a late night stroll to walk off the 16 hours of sitting and hunt down some food. I will say- if I wasn’t married to a man highly trained in a variety of marshall arts, I might rethink late night strolls from time to time. Bangkok is alive and kicking at this hour, we walk until we find street food and sit on a bench outside eating with all the party animals leaving the near by club. I am SO excited to finally be in Asia, I can’t believe it took me so long to get here and I plan to eat my way through Thailand and any other countries we make it too. We ordered just about everything the nice woman had to offer plus a few Chang’s (cheap Thai beer) and our bill was $12 USD, I’m overjoyed both with the price and the tastiness. Not even the raccoon sized rats shimmying by my feet could deflate me.

Auto Reply

I love all things travel related. Preparing, not that I ever plan much in advance; the actual journey of planes, trains, boats, buses, camels, kayaks, bikes, motorcycles or cars no matter how arduous; the actual destination and the aftermath.There are a lot of preparations that go into traveling. Vaccinations, visas, cleaning the house for Airbnb renters, cleaning the car for Flight Car rentals, packing on and on.  But one of my favorite preparations for traveling is setting my auto responder on my email. I just had the joy of activating this automated email response:

Hi, thanks for your email. I'm currently exploring undiscovered territory in one of the last remaining countries that does not have access to internet!!! Can you guess where I am?! We'll be crossing borders and finding WiFi periodically and I'll respond to any urgent emails when I can!  

Peace and Love,
Rebecca

One Way ticket- Carry ons only

My husband and I are on our way to Asia for our delayed honeymoon. One way flight to Thailand, carry ons only. This is the definition of freedom, happiness and success in my world. Freedom to travel for some unknown amount of time. Yes, we will have to come back to work at some point (probably sooner rather than later because Jason is at a breaking point in his career, I'm freelance and in the middle of starting my own business and we're in the middle of massive home renovations) but the fact that we can work remotely and flexibly- is everything I've ever wanted life. 
For the first time in my life, we arrived at the airport almost 3 hours before our flight. Traffic wasn’t as bad as it looked like it would be, the car drop at flight car was quicker than usual and having rented out our apartment a couple days in advance of our departure, the last minute Airbnb prep that usually delays us, was already finished. So, having missed an international flight only 2 months prior, I went along with my risk adverse husband's desire to avoid the mad dash through the airport. Did the international terminal at LAX just get remodeled with great restaurants and stores or did I always just sprint through it so fast I never noticed?? Either way, it's fabulous! There's a Border Grill, Umami Burger, Chaya, even Pink Berry! Knowing I would be thinking of all the projects I could be working on rather than sitting in the airport ( i.e. the dresser turned vanity I left in desperate need of another coat of polyurethane) Jason attempted to entertain me into thinking arriving to the airport early was FUN.

And it turns out it was. We ate Mexican food and had a beer and did all that last minute stuff we hadn't done yet; called the bank requesting they not to block my credit cards abroad, call for an international data plan on the phone, call my mom and tell her I love her, turn on the out of office automated response on email etc etc. I'd spotted the Pink Berry on our stroll to the gate and made a mental note to pick one up after I'd tied up my loose ends. The next thing I knew the plane was boarding, so I finished my emails and then announced I was going to Pink Berry. "Are you KIDDING me?! The plane is BOARDING!" Jason exclaimed with disbelief. "You've had all this time to get a Pink Berry and now you're going? Now that the plane is actually boarding, you're going to leave the gate, run down the terminal and get a Pink Berry?" "Take my bag, I'll be quick" I promised. He shook his head with horror and yelled after me as I began to run, "Hope you don't miss our honeymoon!" Maybe it was it was poor time management, maybe it was the need to sprint through the airport, but in true form, I was the last person to board the plane and heard to oh-so-familiar and comforting announcement "Final boarding call for TaiPei" It wouldn't have been right to board a plane with a resting heart rate and no beads of sweat on my forehead. When I arrived with a large Pink Berry and two spoons, Jason was thrilled I'd made the mad dash. Let the gloriously long, full of books and movies and long naps, flight begin...