In My Wildest Dreams

OKAY OKAY better late than never

Yes - sorry I did not have a chance to keep up with the blog. Or perhaps it was moreso due to an aversion to anything with a keyboard, after having spent the past several months plastered to a laptop. In any event, pangs of guilt and remorse have driven me to write a brief update of my trip, albeit after the fact, but only less than 24 hours so. Anyway, Meng and I did in fact go SCUBA diving. But as of my last blog, we had spent our first night in Phuket, at a lovely hotel (pics to come). A beautiful Southeast Asian room, with glass doors opening up to a pool that circled and sinewed around the hotel grounds. The first thing Meng and did, however, once we arrived at the hotel, was crash out for about 3 hours. Then we were able to get out for a bit - went to the beach a few blocks down from the hotel and sat out under a palm leaf bungalow (palapa as I have learned to call them from living in Mexico) drinking watermelon juice. Went for a dip in the GORGEOUS blue ocean, beautiful waves and clear shallow water. That night we ate dinner on the beach and I ordered a less than satisfactory lobster (oh well) but Meng ordered crab with glass noodles that was absolutely mahvelous.

The next day (June 17) we took the one-hour-ish ferry to Koh Phi Phi, a small island that reminded me so much of San Pedro Island (La Isla Bonita) in Belize. Spent the evening walking around the island and ate dinner by the water, this time yummy Thai food so I was not disappointed. We had booked a room at the Chunut house, and although it was a cluster of lovely little wooden bungalows, it was a bit jungly and mosquito-ish. We slept under a mosquito net. Very rustic, in a good way, but not in a honeymoon way. And as I told Meng, I felt like I needed to set my alarm at 5 a.m. to wake my students up for birdwatching. (In other words, it reminded me so much of places I stayed while working in Guatemala that I almost felt like I was working in Guatemala.) Meng was not incredibly psyched either, so the next day we apologized profusely to the nice Thai owner and went to check in at a place we'd found on the beach, called Baia Baia. We had our own little bungalow (with A/C - guilty admission) right in front of the water, which offered much less protection from any impending tsunamis than did Chunut House, but a sacrifice I was willing to make for my (I mean our) honeymoon experience :).

That day we found Phi Phi Bakery, which Meng had remembered from his last trip to the island, and at fresh soft boiled eggs on toast with nice bright orange yolks that one only finds in places far far away from hormone-contaminated soil, or whatever it is they use to make yolks so plainly yellow. Yummy. At this point, after a full afternoon and then morning without any scheduled activities, Meng was about to go crazy with cabin fever, (the man cannot sit still), so we booked a snorkeling/kayaking trip to Monkey Beach, Phi Phi Lei, and Maya Beach. We boarded our little ferry and I slathered on the sun screen, preparing for our afternoon out in the sun. Our first stop was Monkey Beach, so after all of us on the ferry had scared most of the monkeys away, save one or two, we hopped in a little boat and some kayaks and headed toward the shore, to make sure we had frightened off every last one of them. I was fortunate enough to arrive early and fed the sole remaining monkey a piece of banana (going against everything my ecotourism training had engrained in me, but aw he was so damn cute!). At that point, another ferry pulled up to unload another slew of tourists in kayaks and small boats, and my little monkey took off for the caves, dragging his banana bloated belly the whole way.

The next stop was Phi Phi Lei, where we got off the boat to kayak a bit, although the water was quite shallow in some places - and of course, me being the kayak master that I am - found myself barking orders at Meng who was steering in the back. Was a nice little jaunt, but I think I may have foiled any plans to rent kayaks back at Koh Phi Phi. Meng had suddenly lost interest in this idea (hmm... how could it be?).

Our final stop was Maya Beach, where the film The Beach was shot. Was a really nice beach, super clear water, and Meng and I took a brief dip until it was time to get back on the ferry to watch the sunset over the water. Gorgeous.

The next day we went SCUBA diving. Fortunately, my ear did not give me any problems - as much as I had worried that I'd messed it up forever trying to equalize in New Zealand. But, it was fine and we had two very lovely dives. Saw some purdy fish and a sea snake.

THEN the next day we took it easy cuz I had managed to catch a cold. Did some shopping, went to the market for fresh Som Tum (green papaya salad) and Pad Thai. All very yummy but super spicy, even for me. Somethin about them Thai Chili peppers. I don't remember what else we did that day. A lot of walking around. Oh yea! I got my second Thai massage. So nice. Only $10 an hour. Other than that we took it easy, hung out with the folks at the dive shop, I read my book, and Meng got really bored. So I convinced him to book another dive trip for himself the next day. That night we went to this bar where you can challenge your friend to a kickboxing match in an actual ring in the middle of a bar. Two of our friends from the dive shop actually took to the challenge and kind of bashed each other up a bit. Hm. As much as I love to box, that just didn't seem like my idea of fun at the moment. Meng and I thought about going in there, but something about being in the ring makes people forget that it's just for fun, and we thought better about it.

The next day Meng went diving and I spent the entire day flat on my back (except when I was on my belly) on the beach, reading and sleeping. AHHHHHHHHHH yea. Was feeling pretty sick with a cold, but no where I'd rather be in that condition.

On our last day, we went for a tour on a long boat (traditional Thai wooden boat with motor) to snorkel with the reef sharks. Spent a couple of hours swimming around looking for and waiting for sharks - saw about 10 to 15 in total, but by the last half hour I had to pee so bad I just couldn't stand it. And I couldn't seem to take care of business in the water, something about wearing a wet suit and being in a lateral position. Finally my bladder was about to burst and I just took off swimming for the boat, Meng and guide in tow. Turned out it was pretty much time to head back anyway.

That afternoon we did some more shopping before catching the ferry back. Was a 3 or 4 level ferry and we went up to the top where there were the least amount of people. Was nice and sunny when we left but hit a bit of a storm mid way and got to play Pirate for a bit. When we arrived in Phuket we went back to our original hotel. It was still raining so we didn't get to do any swimming but I did take a nice hot bath in the cutest clay tub in our room. Love that hotel. That night we went out for our last phenomenal Thai meal. Took a tuk tuk to another part of the island. I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't find a place on the beach, but we managed to find a little Thai restaurant where the food was so good that I almost forgot I was irritated about the beach thing. Almost.

The next morning we got up early to catch our flight back to Singapore, where we spent another 2 days with Meng's completely adorable incredibly lovable family. His mom is great. She's 72 years old and when we went to the mall, she wore these cute little hipster jeans, a New York t-shirt, and some white copycat Chanel sunglasses I bought her in Thailand. I told Meng she reminds me of Edith Piaf - same hair, same walk, and she's so full of joy and always laughing -but he doesn't see the resemblance.

On our last day, Vivien, his sister, took us and his parents out for dim sum for lunch, and then we had a huge meal at a seafood restaurant that night with his (our) extended family - brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews. So many courses I don't even remember. Although I can say that I would probably be just fine if I didn't eat for the next week. During our last two days as well, Meng's mom filled me up with all kinds of tonics and Chinese elixirs, so I should be in tip top health. Although I was only able to drink about half of the Black Chicken and Korean Ginseng soup.

AND I STILL NEED TO WRITE about the tea ceremony and wedding banquet, one of the most amazing days of my life. But that's all for now.

Love,
Sara

posted by Sara @ 11:50 AM