Our thoughts...

1. Americans are missing out

 We have only seen a handful of Americans traveling around. 

Europeans, Germans, French, Spain, Italians, Russians, & Japanese surround us. We love hearing different languages around us & wish we had cooler accents. Not Dusty though he sounds super gnar.

We met 2 German girls at our resort & hung out on our deck drinking wine & sharing stories. We've been meeting a lot of solo woman travelers (very impressive) from Spain & Germany & say their country gives them 1-12 month long paid holidays! In America, we are brought up to go to school (elementary, high school, college) get a job, & then make money to buy things. I guess it's America's way of "living", but really not. It's actually kind of sad in a way...

This trip has definitely inspired us to travel more internationally , to seek & be marveled by God's creations.

To travel is to live. 

2. Hypnotized

We catch ourselves staring at the ocean for hours, not really thinking about anything, but being at peace listening to the water roll on to shore. We are loving these moments being worry free & having time to reflect.

Breakfast, lunch, & dinner view...

3. French inspired 

We've been having the best coffee here!  You will not have trouble finding cafes & delicious french inspired coffee & cafes. They're creamy & fattening, but so yummy! Oh & pancakes! Street pancakes (banana & nutella) sooo good! The best food, drinks, & snacks are better in the streets for sure! Cheaper by far as well.

4. Reggae Jams

We can't forget we are on an island with reggae jams & live music echoing across the bay from early mornings to late at night.  We love that we can lay on the beach, read a book, tan or sit on the deck of our bungalow & be more relaxed from it. 

5. 7-11

7-11 is our new best friend. For ballers on a budget you can get really good croissant sandwiches, cold coffee, & water to brush your teeth for less than a dollar each. Island prices are pretty high/ rip off especially for food. We 💙 7-11! 

7-11 menu

Yummy

Etc.

Gas for sale?😳

Taxi ride?

**We are still in Koh Tao. Checked into Phoenix Divers- accommodations included, breakfast, & we'll certified scuba divers in 4 days!!! 

So long, Bangkok!

Saturday, March 7, 2015 

 5 days & 4 nights in Bangkok was enough for us...

We hopped on a 2 decker bus at 5:30 am and headed to Koh Tao. It was an 8 hour bus ride to the ferry dock. During a part of our trip we made a stop in a little city where ladies came aboard & handed us a snack pack. 

We reached the dock at 2 p.m. & was nicely whisked away to the ferry. 

We sat on the sun deck, let our hair down & took in the views. It was nice to take in fresh air away from city air, city smells & people. At that moment we felt young, wild & freeeee!

We arrived on the docks of Koh Tao & caught a taxi (a toyota pickup that we sat in the bed of as he rambled through the jungle) & got to our resort. 

Our bungalow is a nice little one room place with a bed, mosquito net and fan, we also have a toilet/sink/shower head combo bathroom. It is over looking Freedom Bay, Koh Tao which is in the Gulf of Thailand. The resort is nice & open & also overlooks the bay. Away from the dock & crowds, just the kind of place we want to be. Our hotel requested that you remove your shoes when entering the lobby & bar.  This is typical in Thai culture.

We aren't really sure what there is to do on this island, and honestly don't really care. However, we did hear people come from all over to get their scuba certificate.  We want to unwind and shake off the chaos of Bangkok & plan on getting scuba certified.

We took a dip in the bay and tested out our snorkels. Afterwards we popped 2 Chang  beers & cheers we made it. Beer is actually cheaper than bottle water here. 

With these beautiful surroundings, reggae music bouncing off the sides of the bay and pleasant people we feel like this is a place where we can really center our chi.

Floating Market

Aimee got her coconut ice cream right out da shell!

Dragon fruit and French lattes.

America: cat lady. Thailand: hat lady.

Fresh vibrant fruit. Like Castro district in sf.

A van picked us up at our hotel @ 7:15am with fellow tourists & we headed to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market 1.5 hours away from Bangkok. We then took a long boat 20 minutes to the market. We passed through local homes along the river. The river is their source of life & work. Thailand Markets are "same same, but different" in their own right. We enjoyed time away from the city & saw our first elephant being ridden on the shoulder of the hwy. He wasn't eating peanuts, but he seamt cool. From the beginning we observed Thai people work very hard & we're gaining more perspective & appreciation from them. 

5 am tmorrow we catch a bus + ferry to our first island of the trip. 

One Night In Bangkok

Things we did today:

1. Woke up & grabbed Bung's Tear Coffee (street Starbucks coffee) & people watched.

2. Ate a well balanced but different breaky of choice for Americans: rice noodles in beef base with stewed beef, watercrest, thai basil, fried garlic & shallots with sprouts (locals breaky)

3.Booked upcoming adventures: floating market & bus + ferry to Koh Tao

4. Grabbed beers, fried mini fish & fried chicken to eat by the pool. It has been 90 degrees here! Hot & humid! We met fellow backpackers from Norway & Holland. Got travel tips & recs. 

5. Rode our first Tuk Tuk to Patpong Night Market (Hangover 2). Spent about $20 on 2 sunglasses & mala beads. The locals have been mistaken Aimee as Thai but we've been getting hook ups because of it. As for Dusty, Thai women have been super friendly with him.

6. We thought we caught a sketchy ass Tuk Tuk ride back to Khao San Rd/Party Central but the driver was just taking short cuts thru alleys. Bangkok is full of crazy drivers & polluted air. 

7. At Khao San Rd. a rasta bar was blasting ganja farmer so we sat down & had a relief beer. Chang has been our beer of choice.

8. We shopped our way back to our hotel room & packed up for tomorrow's adventure. It's hard not to shop & pass up good deals. Plus bargaining is becoming pretty fun. We bought bags, tanks, & jewelry. We're trying to pump our breaks since it's only the beginning of our trip & we don't want to lug a lot of crap around.

If you like to party Khao San is the place for you. Bright lights, music blasting, people partying of all ages, you can drink & walk around, shop & all around good vibes! So fun! 

Buddha Buddha Buddha Buddha Buddha Everywhere

Wednesday, March 4th is Buddha Day in Thailand. We woke up at sunrise & walked down to the Grand Palace & Wat Pho temple. We spent the morning visitng temples, observing monks, & really feeling the history of Thailand. 

After a long morning of walking we stopped to get Thai Massage & experience the fish spa for the first time. It was wild. Dusty has been waiting 10 years while working in the kitchens on his feet for this.  Totally worth it. Aimee's masseuse put her in a full nelson & they both fell off the bed. 

We hit up the markets & street food and are now cooling down with fresh mangoes & fruit shakes. We think we did a pretty good job bargaining & we're sure they feel like they got a great bargain. 

Bangkok Day 1: Street food, Ladyboy #1, Cheap Beer & Extreme Heat

WE HAVE ARRIVED! It is 5:30 am wed, March 4 here. We reached yesterday afternoon. The time difference is 17 hrs ahead of Hawaii & 15 hrs ahead of Washington. 

After about 20 hrs of travel with a quick stop in Taiwan (including flights, layovers, immigration & cab into Bangkok). We flew EVA Air & were pleasantly surprised with how nice the process was. With anime like flight attendants in cute uniforms we were fed pretty decent meals (rice, meat, salad, fruit, bread, dessert) and beer, wine & soda in between sleep and watching new releases (as in moving pictures) on our own touch screens. We were also given blankets, pillows and slippers for the flight and were surprised how quickly and smoothly the whole thing went. We were honestly a bit anxious about the first 13 hr flight but once we landed it turned out to be quick, fun and pleasant. We would def recommend EVA AIR if you're going to Asia. 

 Off the plane we went through

Immigration and caught a cab (with no wait time through the use of a kiosk. Grab a number and walk to that taxi) and took a 40 min cab ride into Bangkok. There were 2 tolls coming into the city but overall it was a cheap ride $14.83 altogether. 

 More to come, we wanted to announce our safe arrival and show a few shots. We are going to go take a sunrise walk to a temple and will catch you all soon!

Oh and p.s. The whole ladyboy thing, nothing happened he/she was just trying to sell us roast duck and walked right past Aimee and was an extreme close talker.

Our home for the next few days. Wild Orchid Villa, right in the middle of markets, bars, restaurants and street food vendors. $62/3 nights.

First beer in Bangkok.

First street food in Thailand, crispy chicken with sweet chili sauce, vegetable pad Thai and Singha beer. So good, everything you hear is true.

Baht-a Bing Baht-a Boom

Our Thailand baht is in & we are just days from flying to Bangkok. We ordered our currency from Bank of America online. You just need to sign in online (existing members) and type in foreign currency order and you can select from many different countries. The whole process takes about 5 minutes and there is a $7.50 charge. They overnighted our Baht from LA and it was shipped through FedEx in a secured bag. So I would recommend this process if you're gonna be going out of country and want to avoid ATM fees. I just might have to order some Vietnam Dong while I'm at it.

 -Dusty