We completed our advance open water which allows us to go to 30m deep! We did navigation with compasses underwater, buoyancy skills, 30m deep dive, a ship wreck dive which was awesome (wasn't a real sunken ship but one that had been sunk on purpose to be a dive site) and lastly - a night dive!! The night dive was awesome... We sort of saw a sleeping turtle...Wel didn't know what it was til we surfaced! A blue spotted sting ray, some huge hermit crabs and lots of nocturnal and sleeping fishies.
It felt as if we were floating in space. Blackness all around and sometimes the light of the boats shining down like in an alien abduction! Super cool. Its hard to keep ones bearings in the dark.
The day after our advanced ended we decided to say goodbye to koh tao and our awesome instructor Skui and friend Ben. It is such an awesome little island but we have so many more adventures to go on! We were thinking maybe of coming back to do our dive masters!
Took a fast ferry boat this time on the way to ko phangan, it took only 1:30mins! (Compared to the songserm slowboat that always takes double the time of the fast boat.)
We met up with Kaila at cookies bungalows, just north of thong sala where the ferry comes in, where we found some sweet new digs with beachfront! 550 baht($18)split between 2 people isn't so bad... Probably the nicest spot we've stayed in Asia yet! We rented motor bikes @ 150 baht a pop and off we go!! Drove across the island to the east coast to swim in the deep, crazy cerulean waves. The west coast ,where we are staying, is much shallower and better for snorkeling.
Kaila has been going to monte vista yoga centre for a workshop and daily yoga and meditation and Mairi is committed to go too for the 5 days we are staying on ko phangan. Except for today of course
because today Mairi and Keith are going for 2 dives at sail rock!!
Super stoked - this is a small rock/island, off the northern tip of ko phangan between koh tao, where tons of fish and other creatures gather. There are massive schools of mackerel and barracuda so thick all one can see is fins and flicks of colours and silver.They say there's a higher chance of seeing a whaleshark at sail rock! We chose sail rock divers to go dive with and our dive leaders name is "blue".
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
March 11 - certified open water divers!
Today Mairi and Keith completed their 4 day open water diver course at big blue 1 in koh tao, thailand!
We can now dive to 18m and have completed 4 dives. Our very first was called mango bay and we did see some cool fish but most of our time was spent adjusting our breath and buoyancy vests (BC) as hovering in the water takes a bit of getting used to!
Big blue was our dive resort choice, some other nelsonites had done their OWDs there and recommended it. Super awesome, helpful, witty staff! Skui, a girl from Finland, was our instructor and she was great! Our other dive sites were : twins, chumphon, white rock.
Today we explored the latter 2 dives and saw so many kinds of fish! Banner fish, moray eel, angel fish, triggerfish, yellow tail barracuda, clownfish (aka nemo!) , butterfly fish, urchin clingfish sea cucumbers, cleaner wrasse (that eat scabs..) and so many more. Tomorrow we have decided to go ahead and do our advanced open water as we get a discount and t enables us Togo to 30m and do 5 dives total! 2 technical : navigation and 30m dive enablement, and 3 elective courses which we think we will pick: buoyancy, night dive, and a ship wreck dive!
Tonight we watch our open water film as we had a camera guy on us all day!
We can now dive to 18m and have completed 4 dives. Our very first was called mango bay and we did see some cool fish but most of our time was spent adjusting our breath and buoyancy vests (BC) as hovering in the water takes a bit of getting used to!
Big blue was our dive resort choice, some other nelsonites had done their OWDs there and recommended it. Super awesome, helpful, witty staff! Skui, a girl from Finland, was our instructor and she was great! Our other dive sites were : twins, chumphon, white rock.
Today we explored the latter 2 dives and saw so many kinds of fish! Banner fish, moray eel, angel fish, triggerfish, yellow tail barracuda, clownfish (aka nemo!) , butterfly fish, urchin clingfish sea cucumbers, cleaner wrasse (that eat scabs..) and so many more. Tomorrow we have decided to go ahead and do our advanced open water as we get a discount and t enables us Togo to 30m and do 5 dives total! 2 technical : navigation and 30m dive enablement, and 3 elective courses which we think we will pick: buoyancy, night dive, and a ship wreck dive!
Tonight we watch our open water film as we had a camera guy on us all day!
March 8 - Cambodia, Angkor wat ad Keith's bday!
Made it to siem reap to explore Angkor wat! Such an amazing land of temples. The first day we pedal biked to and around the large loop of temples in the heat of the day for 60 kms total! got our workout for the day... Our friend Julia from Nelson met up with us for the adventure. There is a lot of work being put into restoring the temples as a lot of them have been destroyed in bombings, been beaten down by the weather, and maimed or stolen by humans. Mairi and Keith went to the siem riep museum the day before to learn more about the temples and it was a really nice, large, and informative museum. Mairi found a pottery place where they have kick wheels and you work alongside the Cambodians spinning huge master pieces in minutes! She made a nice little cup and the company glazed and fired it for her and then sent it to the hostel the next day.
We went to see more temples the day after meeting up with some more friends, Eva from Nelson and 2 Aussies, joel and matt, and a German, Chris. This time around we all took a tui tui! We saw tah prohm - the temple where they filmed a lot of the tomb raider movie. The trees are huge and grow all over the temples! Everywhere on all the stones there are amazing carvings of so many different scenes. All the stones were hand carted from 50km away, and most were carved in the 16th century!
Later we found a pool and had some nice cool brews and a chillout from the hot sun. We all had a cambodian BBQ - it's at a restaurant and there are holes in te table where the waiter puts a metal upside down bowl and lights coals underneath. A large piece of lard is put on top to keep the meat from burning and then you pick the meats you want and BBQ them yourself! It came with unlimited rice and veggies/noodle soup. We ordered kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich, frog, and pork.
Kangaroo was a favourite, tasting lean like deer.
Crocodile was a bit like chewy old chicken.. Almost wouldn't be surprised if thats what it really was!
Ostrich turns grey as its cooked and is delicious.
Frog is yummy , have to pick the bones away from the meat. Sorta like a small chicken.
And pork was.. Pork!
Super delicious food....
Mairi and her friend Julia did a Cambodian cooking course and it was pretty good. We did it at the paper tiger cooking school which was a bigger school in siem reap. The course Mairi did in pai, thailand with charlie and leks restaurant was much tastier and enjoyable!!
For Keith's birthday we all hung out and had a mini party in our hostel rooms ( siem reap central hostel was awesome $6 each with air con, and super clean! Thanks for finding it Matt!) for his birthday keith got: snake whiskey, soft lush man undies (he hadn't worn any this whole trip!), a negro doll keychain, and a breast pump. Such nice gifts!!! ;). We went to temple bar after and then made it home for some zzzs.
We went to see more temples the day after meeting up with some more friends, Eva from Nelson and 2 Aussies, joel and matt, and a German, Chris. This time around we all took a tui tui! We saw tah prohm - the temple where they filmed a lot of the tomb raider movie. The trees are huge and grow all over the temples! Everywhere on all the stones there are amazing carvings of so many different scenes. All the stones were hand carted from 50km away, and most were carved in the 16th century!
Later we found a pool and had some nice cool brews and a chillout from the hot sun. We all had a cambodian BBQ - it's at a restaurant and there are holes in te table where the waiter puts a metal upside down bowl and lights coals underneath. A large piece of lard is put on top to keep the meat from burning and then you pick the meats you want and BBQ them yourself! It came with unlimited rice and veggies/noodle soup. We ordered kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich, frog, and pork.
Kangaroo was a favourite, tasting lean like deer.
Crocodile was a bit like chewy old chicken.. Almost wouldn't be surprised if thats what it really was!
Ostrich turns grey as its cooked and is delicious.
Frog is yummy , have to pick the bones away from the meat. Sorta like a small chicken.
And pork was.. Pork!
Super delicious food....
Mairi and her friend Julia did a Cambodian cooking course and it was pretty good. We did it at the paper tiger cooking school which was a bigger school in siem reap. The course Mairi did in pai, thailand with charlie and leks restaurant was much tastier and enjoyable!!
For Keith's birthday we all hung out and had a mini party in our hostel rooms ( siem reap central hostel was awesome $6 each with air con, and super clean! Thanks for finding it Matt!) for his birthday keith got: snake whiskey, soft lush man undies (he hadn't worn any this whole trip!), a negro doll keychain, and a breast pump. Such nice gifts!!! ;). We went to temple bar after and then made it home for some zzzs.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Feb 23 - Vang vieng
We bussed down 3 hrs to cang vieng where Keith promptly fell ill after Mairi. =( we stayed at pans guesthouse. The owners were very nice and there was a decent restauraunt attached as well as fee drinking water supplied! We paid about 25000 kip each ($3)! And had a double bed and bathroom with hot shower... Laos accomodation can be so cheap it's awesome!
Vang vieng is well known for its many caves to explore, rock climbing, biking, and tubing.
Mairi went to the smaller, closer caves with some friends from Nelson and after a couple days Keith was feeling better so we all floated down the river.. It was so nice but apparently it's changed a lot since the party days. There were 2 riverside bars ( we weren't into getting sick again so we didn't stop) and all the water slides had been ripped down. Te night life in vang vieng was still pretty crazy tho. So many Koreans going crazy gangnam stylin'!!
Then we rented motorbikes to explore the much larger and completely dark blue lagoon cave. It was awesome we spent a few hours finding our way around with headlamps and "spelunking" or just climbing through small holes in the rocks...
Didn't do any rock climbing , ran out of time and were scheduled to catch a 21 hour sleeper bus to southern laos... The 4000 islands!
Mairi met up with some friends from Nelson ad went to the closer caves
Vang vieng is well known for its many caves to explore, rock climbing, biking, and tubing.
Mairi went to the smaller, closer caves with some friends from Nelson and after a couple days Keith was feeling better so we all floated down the river.. It was so nice but apparently it's changed a lot since the party days. There were 2 riverside bars ( we weren't into getting sick again so we didn't stop) and all the water slides had been ripped down. Te night life in vang vieng was still pretty crazy tho. So many Koreans going crazy gangnam stylin'!!
Then we rented motorbikes to explore the much larger and completely dark blue lagoon cave. It was awesome we spent a few hours finding our way around with headlamps and "spelunking" or just climbing through small holes in the rocks...
Didn't do any rock climbing , ran out of time and were scheduled to catch a 21 hour sleeper bus to southern laos... The 4000 islands!
Mairi met up with some friends from Nelson ad went to the closer caves
Feb 18 - Luong prabang
The slowboat ended in luong prabang and we ended up staying for 5 days because Mairi got her first bout of food sickness after a couple days. =( we rented a motorcycle and headed 40 mins away to Kuang Si waterfalls. Thy were so amazing... Icy blue waters and about 6 "steps" of waterfalls in total. One had a rope swing and a huge swimming area so we hung out there with some friends for a bit while fishies nibbled our toes. Connected to the waterfall park was a sun bear conservation area where they had 5 different bears with funny shaggy necks chilling out in hammocks. An Aussie lady started the program to save the bears and now they house rescued bears near the falls.
We explored around luong prabang more, made it to Pak Ou caves - otherwise known as 1000 buddha caves as that's what is in them! Utopia restaurant/ bar was really nice and has bamboo, coconuts, and old bombshells as decorations. in the day there is yoga over looking the river and a chillout spot and at night it comes alive with volleyball in the bar (in a court!), music. Bowling is the only thing one can do after the strict Laoation curfew of 11pm kicks in. Most tourists seem to go and bowl and drink all night!
We explored around luong prabang more, made it to Pak Ou caves - otherwise known as 1000 buddha caves as that's what is in them! Utopia restaurant/ bar was really nice and has bamboo, coconuts, and old bombshells as decorations. in the day there is yoga over looking the river and a chillout spot and at night it comes alive with volleyball in the bar (in a court!), music. Bowling is the only thing one can do after the strict Laoation curfew of 11pm kicks in. Most tourists seem to go and bowl and drink all night!
Feb 12 - on to Laos and the slowboat!
So we took a bus to chiang mai and then to chiang kong where we had 1 night hostel included in our bus ticket (650 baht) the next day we paid 40 baht to cross the Mekong river to Laos on a little ferry and got our visas in the crazy small and crowded visa building! Quite fun and a good test of patience for some fellow tourists, always a good laugh watching some people lose their face at waiting for half an hour - we are in Asia people where patience is key! :) next we caught a slow boat for 950 baht (we spent 1600 baht for the total versus 1700-1900 that people pay for a package in thailand so a heads up you can save some money if you do it yourself for those that might be reading this and heading to Laos!) the slowboat was 2 days with 1 night stop in pak beng (another money saver: you don't need to pre book a hotel in pak beng or even when you first get on the slow boat in huay xai where they will tell you you have to and that you will save money - its a ripoff! the hotels are so cheap and so plentiful! And all the hotel guys wait for people at the dock when you get off the boat! Our room was 150 baht for 2 people (that's $5 total!) we arrived in luong prabang and found a nice spot to stay with a family. Kaila left to Vientiane to sort out her thailand visa extension and head to ko phangan.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Feb 5 - I <3 Pai!
We stayed in pai for almost a week it was such an amazing little town! 3,000 people but it felt like more due to the tourism. We all found nicely priced and quaint little bungalows, Villa De Pai and Karkaran?? Kailas had a bird near the entrance that mimicked sounds, it would cough and make motorbike startup noises as well as laugh and speak in thai! We rented motorbikes and checked out a couple waterfalls (more than once!) one waterfall had slippery rock slides and the other was like a cavern. We also checked out the hotsprings which the bangkok government has recently taken over control of (unfortunately) and now charge and outrageous price (in thailand) of 200 baht (about $7) where they used to be free. It was worth the money though, no caves like our home town Nelson, BCs ainsworth hot springs but there were about 8 pools flowing from one to the next and the top most were 38 degrees so hot!
The Chinese New Year also started while we were in Pai and there is a chinese village nearby but there wasn't much going on in such a small town. Keith and Mairi took a cooking course from Charlie and Lek'a restaurant and it was amazing and fun. We learned how to make traditional chili curry paste and made 5 dishes: Spring rolls, Tom ka/Tom yum soup, papaya and banana blossom salads, pad thai, green and red curries. We will be having a thai dinner for our families when we get back!
We all did a free meditation that is offered 3 days a week at a local tea shop/ restaurant, a yoga class with a woman named Vicky. And made a friend from Austin Texas who taught us how to do acrobatic yoga (partner yoga) which was really fun, blessings and thanks eddy!
The Chinese New Year also started while we were in Pai and there is a chinese village nearby but there wasn't much going on in such a small town. Keith and Mairi took a cooking course from Charlie and Lek'a restaurant and it was amazing and fun. We learned how to make traditional chili curry paste and made 5 dishes: Spring rolls, Tom ka/Tom yum soup, papaya and banana blossom salads, pad thai, green and red curries. We will be having a thai dinner for our families when we get back!
We all did a free meditation that is offered 3 days a week at a local tea shop/ restaurant, a yoga class with a woman named Vicky. And made a friend from Austin Texas who taught us how to do acrobatic yoga (partner yoga) which was really fun, blessings and thanks eddy!
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