Questions to consider when travelling in Thailand

Happy New Year!

We have just returned from ringing in the new year with a little island vacation full of reading, relaxing, snorkelling and taking pictures with our new underwater camera! We spent the long weekend on the island of Koh Tao in a beautiful little resort away from the party beach (time for some peace and quiet!). This place was ideal for spending our entire weekend just staring at fish and other sea creatures.

Sting ray!

 Snorkel mask rings...

 Diving

 Sea horse!!!!

 Our bus on the way to Koh Tao

Shane diving

 Christmas tree worms

 Parrot fish... or as Hannah has called them "Rainbow fish"

A lonely yellow fish... mostly these little guys travel in pairs.

After such a wonderful relaxing weekend we shouldn't have been surprised when we encountered a few tiny mishaps on our way home...

First of all we wondered, what do you do if it starts to rain while you are riding on a songtao (a pickup truck with two benches in the truck bed)... well, we found out that you just get wet. Luckily the rain wasn't too torrential so we arrived at the pier to meet our ferry in relatively good shape.

Unfortunately on the ferry we found out the answer to another important travelling question, does Shane get seasick? Sadly the answer to this one is yes. However, he wasn't as sick as many of the other passengers, particularly one poor girl whose sickness seemed to follow her (and us) from the boat to the pier and then even on to the bus. To get to (and leave) the island, the most economical option is to take a night bus, leaving late in the evening and arriving early in the morning, coupled with a ferry to or from the island.

On our way home we were finally being lulled to sleep (sick girl had finally settled her stomach) when suddenly there was a POP and a hiss, and the bus pulled over with a flat tire. Now, you might be wondering, what do you do if your bus has to pull over with a flat tire at two in the morning in some small town in Thailand? Why, drive slowly down the road stopping at every garage-looking place and knocking on doors of course! Our bus drivers spent the better part of an hour yelling at houses and getting barked at by soi dogs as they attempted to find someone who could fix the busted flat. Luckily they were eventually sucessful and we got safely back on the road no worse for the wear.