where the hell are all the perks in life?
I'll tell you... school holidays.
Since we arrived in Hong Kong, we have seen many of our friends, and on numerous occasions, desert us for exotic getaways while we stay behind and look after their smelly pets.
Enough is enough.
We wanted our own little slice of paradise... and we made sure that we got it.
Destination: Remark Puzi, Bang Bao, Koh Chang Island, Thailand.
Objective: Nothing... the thought in itself is like going on holiday.
So, we planned as best we could, bought our tickets, and waited. Patience is an overrated virtue... I think we literally would have died if we had to wait another day more than we did.
We jumped on the plane, looking forward to the prospect of experiencing nine days of heaven on earth.
The flight was just how I like them... short and distracting.
It was a 2 hour flight, and I started watching "Frost Nixon". As fate would have it, it was a 2 hour 15 minute film... so I missed the whole climax of the film at the end and was left seriously wanting. Jacs, as usual, slept the whole way.
We booked ourselves into a backpackers in Sukumvit 11, namely Suk 11 hostel, in Bangkok. We didn't know when we booked, but this was Bangkok's prozzie ghetto. There were really miff old men with these very pretty, young thai girls everywhere. It was seriously off putting.
After sweating the night away in our cardboard-box-lined-room, and having a sweaty poo down the passage in the morning (there is nothing worse than sweating while you are trying to do your thing) we boarded a mini bus that would take us on a 5 hour drive down to Koh Chang... another 5 hours wasted... things were getting desperate... for me anyway, guess what jacqui did? yup, slept.
Eventually, with pins and needles eating away at my rump, we arrived at the ferry terminal that would take us to the island. We smelt the turquoise water, we felt the tropical breeze in our hair... the island was calling (say this last bit in a jamacian accent) I felt like we were in a rum advert or something. It was breathtaking.
When we got to the island, we jumped on a bukkie taxi and headed for our cheap little shack. It was similar to how I imagined the first little piggy's house would have looked. Very basic, no aircon, no hot water and it was made out of hay. Ok, not really. Leaves then. Palm leaves... I would have preferred hay.
Luckily, they did have a spray nozzle for your ass... no holding back on the extras at this place.
It was simple, but exactly what we wanted. It was great.
Needless to say, the whole trip was the best trip we have ever had. We went to a popular beach near the beginning of our stay, but there were so many beautiful people around that we couldn't enjoy ourselves... however, we did manage to find a beach that we affectionately named "Average Joes".
It was a wonderful beach, but the best part about it was that the patrons of this specific beach were all fat, old germans and sweeds in speedos. Perfect.
To cut a long story short, we snorkeled, nearly got eaten by ravenous fish, had buckets of water chucked on us (due to the thai new year festival where you are supposedly meant to spray water on other people for good luck and it also serves as a way to chuck a massive bucket of water on a person you don't like when they are driving a bike with bad brakes down the highway)... good clean fun.
Most of the people we saw doing all the massive water dumping were drunk foreigners. Typical.
We also had 2 thai massages. The first one, in dodgy bangkok, was more like a brothel than a clinical massage service. The second one was awesome - on the beach, 1 hour, R30.
On the last day and night, we moved further up the island so that we would be closer to the ferry. We booked into this place called "Tiger Bungalows". It really did smell like a wet tiger had died in the bungalow. It was horrific.
I don't know if all of you know this, but, Jacs is petrified of spiders... terrified to the point of sleep deprivation paranoia... and this place wasn't giving off the impression that spiders wouldn't be welcome there. So, as it was our 1st year anniversary, I booked us into a hotel and spa resort for one night without jacqui knowing. It was the perfect end to the perfect holiday. We spend the day lounging in a rim flow pool that overlooked white sand beaches, an endless ocean and it finished off with a postcard sunset.
In our room there was aircon, robes, slippers and a two seater jacuzi. Could it get any better than that?
The next morning we very sadly parted with our new love, Koh Chang, and headed back to Bangkok for one more night... while the country was trying to deal with an attempted coup of sorts.
What a trip.
What a jol.
P.S: I managed to see the end of Frost Nixon on the flight back... well worth the wait.
hippies ;-) ... hot though!
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