Taste of Thailand with Bass

Posted March 23, 2016

Bangkok

I left Kombat Group and the taxi driver drove me to Bed Station hostel in Bangkok. This was definitely a memorable hostel for all of us who stayed there (Aaron, Skylar, Marvee, Luke) I had met up with Mr. Christopher Price who happened to be in the area for the day before heading off to Singapore or Malaysia I think. I was trying to keep on my “fat camp” diet by eating salad and chicken breast and realized how hard this would be in Thailand with the high cost of chicken breast and salad and also the tempting tasties surrounding me. I said good bye to Chris and it was time to pick up Jas (Bass) from the airport. I was thrilled to see my friend who I hadn’t seen in over 6 months. We had so much fun in Bangkok! We went to the mall to eat both of our first real “Thai” dishes. Bass did great with his dish but I ended up ordering the spiciest basil chicken dish known to mankind. My mouth was definitely on fire. We went to visit the Jim Thompson house that was a wealthy man who built the silk empire in Thailand. The poor guy later went missing in the jungle and was suspected to be a CIA agent. Anyways, his house and the gardens were beautiful.

We booked a Bangkok food tour that was a great over view of some tasty treats we could eat in China town. We were able to meet Samantha and Lexi who were in our group for the day. Samantha, I would go onto meet in Malaysia in the near future. We also partied it up on Kao San road with buckets of booze with Chlorissa from Ontario. Bass and I ended up exploring most of the food options in Bangkok I believe from delicious pad thai noodles, tom yum soups, and toasties at the 7/11 ha ha. We viewed the beautiful cities skyline on top of the Sky Tower. The tower had strict dress code and women had to wear shoes with a backing. No flip flops allowed. Looks like I wore a dress with my ugly Teva sandals ha ha. We ventured into the Grand Palace in Thailand the next day, which was a stunning display for Buddhism with intricate statues and bright colours. We had gotten to the palace late and of course they denied me entry because they didn’t like the pants I had on. I had to go to their “borrow” store and borrow a Thai long waist skirt. We had to rush through the palace which didn’t make us happy but we ended up having a funny photo shoot at the end. One thing I think we learned from each other is my “Hangryness” ha ha ha. Jas loved to scout out recommended restaurants from the Lonely Planet guide books but sometimes they were closed down and we it would feel like we were walking forever when my hunger only increased, ha ha. Then we came up with a plan. If I was hungry, I would go get something to eat and not act like a crazy person. That was a simple solution right? Ha ha

Ayutthaya

Bass pretty much planned everything because I was super lazy. Super lazy or burned out ha ha. He decided we were going to the ancient city of Ayutthaya, a few hours away. With some effort we managed to find where the mini bus was leaving and got on board. We arrived, checked into our hostel, grabbed some bikes and went exploring. We visited some ancient ruins which were stunning and then headed to the night market where I tried deep friend crickets and meals worms. Bass wouldn’t participate in this adventure, ha ha.

Lopburi

Bass wanted to check out Lopburi, monkey town. I didn’t want to after my monkey experiences in India. They aren’t kind animals, they are mean, lol. We checked into the Little Lopburi Village who was run by a lovely couple. We had a private room with mattresses on the floor, which was fine for the night. The owner had shown us how to cook Pad Thai and Sweet Basil pork dishes, which were fantastic. The next day I walked with bass to the “Monkey Temple” but as soon as I saw a few monkeys walking around, I bailed on him and told him I’d wait at the 7/11. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the courage to be ambushed again!

Sukothai

Bass thought it would be a good idea to book a bicycle tour in this town since it seems to be the best way for a local to give us knowledge on all the main points of interest in this town. The tour was lovely, there were a few couples on the tour from Holland so cycling for them was child’s play. I forget how long we cycled for, maybe 50km’s? The sites and temples were stunning. The owner had some amazing local snacks set up for us and paired up with a restaurant for a stunning all you can eat lunch. By the end of it, I didn’t think I could pedal anymore but I made it back with every one else and of course, Jas and I had to celebrate with a lovely Chang!

Chiang Mai

We took the train to Chiang Mai and checked into our hostel called the Box hostel. We really loved it here and the owner Amy was so nice to us and helpful. The next few days were exhausting not only because of the heat but because Bass, who I love dearly, loves to take his “Shark” for walks. One of the walks lasted 15 hours. I definitely got my exercise for those days. We tried all the street foods out and met the lovely Ani who is a student from Bangkok studying in Chiang Mai. She was included in many of our Chiang Mai adventures and was a sweet heart for putting up with the two of us.

Bass and I signed up for the world’s best cooking class at the Thai farm cooking school. Ning was our instructor and we loved every moment with her. At the cooking class we became besties with all the students, which included Rebecca, Diana, Duncan, Alexa, Meredith, and Chris. We learned to make thai curry paste from scratch, paid thai, tom yum soup or tom kao gao, chicken with basil, chicken with cashews, spring rolls, mango sticky rice, and bananas in coconut milk. We got to have a tour of their farm and the market and ask as many ridiculous questions as we wanted. Our famous quotes from Ning that I still use to this day are, “Never try, never know” “Same same but different” “Oyster sauce and soy sauce are soul mates”.

Pai

We took a bus to Pai, which is kind of a hippy town. We met Chantal from Quebec on the bus who was good company. We weren’t so impressed with this town because the food prices were high and catered to mainly Westerners. This is where Bass learned to drive a scooter with me on the back so we could explore this town. I was terrified to learn so I skipped out on the experience, which now I regret. It was a calmer city to learn this skill set but it’s never too late right? We visited a canyon, a land split, a big Buddha and maybe some other points of interests I’m forgetting. The next day we were going to head up north to visit some caves but tickets were all sold out so we decided to go back to Chiang Mai where we met up with Neha and Ani again.

Phuket

Bass and I flew to Phuket from Chiang Mai. I had booked a hostel near
Kata beach. Originally I thought I would during this period join Tiger Muy Thai training camp and say good-bye to Bass. We were having such a good time that I didn’t want to leave our trip together. We met up with Johnno who I met at Kombat Group and hung out with him for a couple of days. For me to get to the camp from the hostel would cost $25 per way and I realized it wasn’t worth it and my planning had been poor. Bass got me to get into the water which was great cause I can’t remember the last time I was actually in the ocean. I’m a scaredy cat with water sometimes. He got me a pair of goggles so the salt wouldn’t sting my eye and I learned to get more and more comfortable with the water. We didn’t do much in Phuket except beach time and a wee bit of partying with hostel peeps. I hated the showers at this hostel cause they were combined with the toilet so every time you had to go pee you’d be stepping in wetness from someone taking a shower before and toilet roll would be soaked. Not a good feat of engineering or logic I would say. The sunsets off the beach were the most stunning I’ve ever seen, so many beautiful colours.

Ko Phi Phi

It was time to island hop! Bass and I took a boat to the party island of Ko Phi Phi where the waters were crystal blue. We met up with Justin from Alaska and Rikard from Sweden again who was at the Phuket hostel with us. We climbed a mountain a bit tipsy and saw a stunning sun set. We climbed back down and went to Justin’s hostel for some beverages and partied the night away. We really liked our hotel room here and didn’t want to leave. It was an air-conditioned haven because the heat so unbearable at times on the island.

Koh Lanta

We took another boat to the beautiful island of Koh Lanta. This would be my favourite of the islands we visited. We checked into our hostel and headed to the beach. The water was crystal blue and the tropical fish were everywhere. Bass got me comfortable in the water again and made sure I was able to dive down while holding my breath to see the fish. He later found a patch of coral, which he wanted to explore. The coral was a bit further out and I saw a german couple with snorkel masks so I decided I wanted to try it out. I rented to snorkel mask and fins for $8/day. I had
never used them before so I didn’t realize it would make sense to walk backwards into the ocean from the beach. Life would have been easier that way to get into the water ha ha. I got the hang of the equipment and Bass and I head to the coral. I’d have to say this was the best day ever in my entire life ha ha. The things that I saw were stunning. I saw a sting ray, octopus, brain coral, coral that I cannot describe, fish that I cannot describe, I needed David Attenborough in my ear to explain Planet Earth-the Ocean series. I didn’t want to leave, I could have stayed there the entire day. The problem was the sun. It burned me pretty bad and I got darker then the night, ha ha. We met Ellie an English girl and Sara a German girl at our hostel and they had a lovely beach dinner with us at night where Bass and I feasted on all sorts of tasty seafood and later saw a fire show on the beach.

Koh Samui

We got to this island and it was super touristy. Which is fine but way to busy for my liking. The beaches were packed everyday but Bass and I did get out to the water where he taught me to swim a lot better and more confidently. Thanks Bass. We tried some tasty seafood here as well in a food court type of arrangement and some jumbo prawns. From snorkelling in the sun for too long in Ko Lanta, I paid the price with a very bad sun burn and got super dark, ha ha. We had a few bebidas in Koh Samui and explored hole in the wall restaurants but it was time for a new adventure in Koh Tao.

Koh Tao

Now it was time to put my big girl pants on. We arrived in Koh Tao and we were going straight to Big Blue diving school. I was beyond nervous because 1) I’m a bit terrified of the water 2) I can’t pop my ears 3) I don’t want to have a panic attack under water. We met our instructors Lyndon and Erin at 10:30am and they were both really friendly and explained how scuba diving works, our equipment, and what we were going to do that afternoon. We also met our teammates Katie and Melissa fellow Canadians. The ratio was 2 instructors for every 4 divers so pretty decent. We breaked for one hour for lunch then got onto the boat with our gear and were transferred to another bigger boat. We suited up and then we were ready to jump in. I was actually pretty terrified to jump in but I knew that Lyndon and Erin would take care of me and I’d be ok if anything happened. We swam to the beach where we began to work on some scuba skills. This is when I absolutely panicked and decided I wasn’t going to continue and that scuba diving wasn’t for me. Lyndon immediately took me under his wing, giving me one on one training and helping me calm down and simply just get me use to breathing normally under water. Then we began the skills and I had such a hard time clearing my mask (kept breathing water in with my nose ha ha). I was getting frustrated but I wasn’t going to give up. We switched instructors and Erin came over to help me with another technique to clear my mask and with some practice it worked! I was able to join the rest of the group on the dive and as we got deeper my ears needed to be popped. Erin helped me under water try several techniques and to my surprise they finally popped and the pressure was released. The rest of the dive went ok but I felt like I was still nervous and getting use to all of the equipment. I’m super happy that I did it though and checked it off my bucket list. Hopefully in the future, I’ll get to do it again and practice makes perfect right?

Back to Bangkok

Bass and I took a 10 hour bus back to Bangkok where we would sleep at Bed Station again and make friends with a
few new people and attempt to go out and party..ha ha. In the morning we woke up and I said a tearful good bye to my bestie and left for the airport to go to Kuala Lumpur and it was time for him to return back to Vancouver. I had to go to Kuala Lumpur cause my 60 days visa in Thailand was expiring and you can’t overstay your visit in this country. I was super sad on the plane ride to cause I had just spent an awesome month with a great friend creating amazing memories. Thanks Basser, love you long time!