good bye snow...

adventures of jess and crystal

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I'm pretty sure no one is left reading this blog. I suppose that is what I get for being such a disappointment to my loyal fans. So for those few of you who are still around... thanks, and if not, I now have a journal of my adventures, which I'm even worse at writing than these blogs... ha ha.

Anyway for your reading pleasure: Jess and Crystal take Thailand and Malaysia

So we began as all of my friends trip to Thailand begin, a trip to Samet. And it sure did the jet lag well. Days of lounging on the beach, evenings of sleeping and nights of drinking, fire shows and dancing... not a bad start.

After a few days of adjusting to Thai time, we headed to Malaysia, which unfortunately meant spending a night in KL. Blah. Yes indeed, just as horrible as the last two times I've been there. Why is this city such a travel hub? Gosh!

The reason we stopped in KL was to join a tour in Taman Negara, which is an amazing tropical rainforest. It was actually the most wonderful thing ever. Getting there was kinda a pain though. We had to take a three hour bus up to a city near the national park, where we had a few hours to stop for lunch. I use the term city very loosely. There was a police station, this travel center that we were at and an internet cafe. At this point Jess wasn't feeling so hot, so we decided to search for a pharmacy. After asking about a million people for directions and diligently trying to follow those directions for a good half hour, I decided to check my lonely planet's language section: turns out that it was farmaci. How was I supposed to get Pharmacy from that, ha ha, anyway we found it about 30 seconds later and got Jess good and drugged.

To get into the park you have to take a three hour long boat. It was the trip was long and bumpy, but we had loads of entertainment, two Japanese women playing with their hair and then taking pictures of their styles. Seriously enthralling.

We arrived at our cute little bungalow, met our guide, who was wonderful, and went exploring before dinner. After dinner we went on a night hike. First they made us watch an informational video about the wildlife in the region. I tried so hard to stay awake, really I did... but alas, my efforts were not successful.




The night hike was really cool. We saw some cool bugs and plants and stuff. We went to this tree top lookout point, but didn't see anything. Still it was really pretty and fun to wander around in the dark. However, it was then our guide decided to inform us of the jumping dry land leeches. The sit, perched in a pouncing position, waiting for some nice ankles to suck on, when they find the appropriate meat, they lunge at you. At this point, I really regretted not wearing socks. Luckily, we returned from the trek unharmed.

The next day was our big adventure tour day. We began by going to the caves. It was actually the most fun thing I have ever done. Both Jess and I were a little apprehensive, as she is extremely clausterphobic and I am petrified of things with wings - so I was thinking this bat cave was not the thing for me... however, we both sucked it up, got remarkable dirty, and did not suffocate or get devoured by bats.




After the caves, we went on to the canopy walkway. Here I am naievely thinking this would be a relaxing stroll through the tree tops, when actually it was a trillion times scarier than the bats. First things first, the view was spectacular! Breathtaking! Wonderful! However, I could only enjoy from the safety of the resting points between each bridge, because when on the bridge, all I could think about was not plummeting to my death. There was no harness, no helmet, and only a tiny, tiny little net to supposedly stop you from plummeting to your death. I was not convinced. Then you have to practically be a trapeze artist to walk across the two thin planks known as the "walkway." I've been known to be a bit of a klutz, so I really thought this was it for me. Thankfully, I managed to make my way to the end, without tripping on my two left feet.





After this death defying experience, we went to a tribal village and learned how to shoot blow guns. Then we went on a boat trip in the rapids, and then swam in the rapids, all events that didn't make our pulse race in quite the same way as the morning adventures. Oh, also, all of these things included some pretty magnificent hiking to get to each destination. It was also rainy season, so it was super muddy and slippery. Between the two of us we only fell a handful of times. Please take note... crocs are not good for adventure trekking, both Jess Clark and Amy Flannery have proven this point as my hatred for those wretched shoes grows.



The evening was pretty chill, until we realized that you couldn't just keep going north to get to the Southern Island in Thailand that was our next destination. Oooops, just a small glitch in our uber planning. So after much stress and inadequate internet connection, we got a plan - boat/drive back to KL (I can't escape this stupid city), take a bus to Penang, which is a big city island in Northern Malaysia then the next morning take a plane to Ko Samui, where there is a ferry to catch to Ko Pha Ngan, the home of the full moon party. And we thought it would be easy.

So we start out early in the morn to KL, make it there, manage to find our way to the bus terminal, we we had our first real amazing race adventure. We were trying to find the company that was recommended to take to Penang, which of course was sold out. It can't be sold out... we need to get there or we will miss out flight the next morning. So - we run around to a million other companies to try and find a bus going to our desired location, and finally - SUCCESS - except it is leaving right NOW. So we follow instructions to where the bus is, and we wind up in an underground garage, which was extremely inadequately labelled. It was kinda like when you lose your car in a parking lot because you forgot to note the section you were in, except you forgot what your car looks like. So we are looking for buses that had the same name as the company, which none of them did, then we started asking people who wanted nothing to do with us, until finally, I grabbed a baggage guy and wouldn't leave him alone until he took me to my bus. Thankfully he did, and as it turns out, the company name was not on the bus, that would just be too easy.

We arrived in Penang late at night, without a hotel. The first few we tried were full, so we tried a different sketchier one, but whatever it had beds right? Anyway, we grabbed some food and went to bed. Oh we also got picked up by an Aussie. The next morning, we decided to go shopping before we caught our plane. We walked for a while looking for the mall, which of course was closed when we go there, because why wouldn't it be? Then we stumbled upon a little outdoor market which was far to overwheming, so we decided to give up on Malaysia and head to the airport. When we got there we discovered, surprise... our flight was delayed! So we had like an extra 3 hours to kill. So after walking around the smallest airport ever, we just went to the gate and read. After about 20 minutes Jess looked up, and was like, "Hey, is that our plane they our boarding?" I thought, it can't be, it's not supposed to board for 2.5 hours... but we might as well try to find out. So we hand our boarding passes to the attendant and on board we go. Cool - so Firefly airlines is super... they delay the flight, and then change the flight back to the original time without making an announcement or letting people who have already checked in with a different boarding time know. It was ridiculous. Once we boarded the plane, they made an announcement, "Sorry for the delay folks, but we have to remove some baggage from the plane, as two guests haven't come through yet." I'm thinking, yeah, no kidding, because they probably think they have two freaking hours to catch their flight! Also, it's the smallest plane ever, so Jess was a little freaked out.

Anyway, we made it to Full Moon Island. It was great. We checked into our wonderful hotel on the beach and then we had a pretty early night, as all that chaos is quite exhausting. The next day was full moon day. Woo hoo! Jess wanted to go Elephant trekking, so we found a tour, she hopped on an elephant, while I read Harry Potter. After that we decided to chill by the beach. We returned to our beach to realize that by the afternoon, you have to walk a good kilo before reaching actual water because of the tide, so we decided to relax by the pool. Until, of course, it decided to pour rain. So we ran to the safety of our bungalow to rest up for the evening ahead.


On to the Full Moon Party. I don't even know how to explain this experience because you really do need to experience it. Basically, the whole beach is transformed into this massive sea of people. Each bar is blasting music, so as you walk down the beach their are invisible walls that changes it from one music scene to the next. The whole beach is glowing with black lights and flourecent paint. And of course, there is no shortage of buckets. Overall, the night was a blast. Pretty much the best party I've been to, ummmm - ever!

The next day was pretty chill as was the rest of the vacation. We hung out by the pool/beach, ate good food, went exploring. Good times. We took a 12 hour journey back to Bangkok via boat and bus... where we met up with Flannery and Jenn I, and then I gave them all the official Bangkok tour mixed in with their various other adventures.

After that... it was back to school, where I met my new rowdy bunch of wonderful students.

Apparently I had a lot to say about this trip. It was soooo great. More travel adventures to come.

posted by Crystal @ 2:02 AM 0 comments