There's sand in my bed. There's also sand in Kaitlin's bed, and on the floor of our room, and in a tidy but rather large pile along the wall in the bathroom. Why is there sand everywhere? Because we're in Kenting. And because we had just the most relaxing day ever, lying in the sand.
It began, I grant you, with a few hiccups: we got a late start, my lack of knowledge and indecision made us miss a bus, hawkers for sketchy minibuses would NOT leave us alone, but eventually we made it aboard a regular Kenting-bound bus and, after practicing an old Chinese lesson with the driver (where should I get off?), we disembarked at the right stop and found our hotel. And, not only is is amazing, with the best possible location and easy beach access, but they let us check in early! Seriously, if you're going to Kenting, I highly recommend Mae Toong.
Anyway, we had a lovely Thai lunch which provided us with enough food for dinner, too (a blessing, given prices around here), and then hit the beach for a few hours, walking, wading (signs informed us we were not allowed to swim), sunbathing and reading. It was glorious.
Then it was back to the hotel to clean off (sand....) and eat our leftovers while watching an oddly amusing (and ridiculous) movie from the early 90s called Green Card, then check out the night market right outside our hotel (right outside, yet silent from within...) and grab some dessert before heading back. It's early yet now, but our lovely day deserves repeating tomorrow, and were hoping to get an early start, so it's off to bed now.
Because even with our beds are full of sand, nothing can ruin our day.
Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts
Friday, March 23, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Digging Deeper in Kaohsiung
I've mentioned before that when friends come to visit, I get to play the tourist again and rediscover all the things that make Kaohsiung so great. I've visited all my favorite places again whenever out-of-towners come to visit, showing them what I consider to be the best of Kaohsiung. What I hadn't done before, though, is take the opportunity of their coming to stretch my own knowledge of the area. Until today.
Today, after taking Kaitlin to school with me and enjoying delicious lunch at Ali's and then a quick nap/rest (see, we are Taiwanese!), we went to Cijin and Siziwan. Now, I've been to both of these places often; they are easily among my favorite places in Kaohsiung (though also among the most touristy). Yet, even so, this trip was entirely different, because....
- We took my scooter! Odd though it may seem, I had never before driven to Siziwan. There's an MRT stop nearby, and getting there doesn't even involve a transfer, so it's pretty simple to just go that route. However, it just so happens that Kaitlin, like myself, absolutely loves scootering, so I figured, why not? It turns out it's amazingly easy to get there, and, it being a Tuesday afternoon, parking was a breeze, too. (Unintended pun, given the wind today.)
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| I don't take pictures while scootering...here's the ferry, though! |
- After renting bikes (admittedly at the same place I always do, but with the caveat that it's cheapest there and we did get different types this time...), we set out, not along the sea shore where I usually take people, but to the right, where I had never been. It was absolutely GORGEOUS!...until we were stopped by apparent construction, that is.
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| Sometimes I forget how gorgeous the ocean is. Then I see places like this. :) |
- We went to the lighthouse! Somehow, I had never made it up there before. I've seen it from afar from the ferry, from Cijin beach, from Zhongshan Dashue, from the old British Embassy, but never in person! A call to Fonda that got forwarded to Dr. Sun helped us figure out where to turn off to get there, and we arrived just in time, 5 minutes or so before they kicked us out. But that was okay, because...
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| In other news, it is officially HOT in Kaohsiung again... |
- We went to the fortress! I'll be honest, before today I didn't even know there was a fortress on Cijin. It was fantastic. As we walked through the crumbling outskirts, I told Kaitlin it reminded me of the fortress I would have loved to build and never leave when I was 10 years old; when we got to the main building, I thoroughly enjoyed walking around on the roof in the gusting sea wind: adventure and a view!
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| Seconds before Kaitlin was attacked by a fire ant...true story. |
That's about it for original explorations on this trip; the standards of buying delicious fresh fruit juice on Cijin and then delicious mixed fruit shave ice back at Siziwan were the same (though I did spring for the sweetened condensed milk variety, which was new and DELICIOUS), because you just can't lose on some things.
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| Like this. |
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| And also this. :) |
(Bonus: cooking with Chialing!)
Monday, January 30, 2012
Theoretically the 29th
Technically, 1:28am in Singapore (and Taiwan), so 12:28am in Thailand, which is still not the 29th, but this is still pretty close to actually blogging all but one day of our stay in Thailand. Hooray!
So, we're currently in the Singapore airport, enduring a 6-hour overnight layover (cheap flights always have downsides...), and discovering that Singapore is the absolute best place ever to have a long layover. Their motto is "The feeling is first class," and it certainly does feel that way: wide open spaces, uber clean glass walls, smooth-running escalators, pristine stretches of (now-empty) carpet, free internet kiosks, an overnight cafe which smells scrumptious...and, as we just discovered, lounge chairs. Those will be our beds tonight.
In the meantime: today. It's been full. And a little crazy, for several reasons and on several occasions. Best of times, worst of times. A Dickensian day, if you will.
It started early, 7am, with a buffet breakfast and a rendezvous with our friend at the tour center, an older guy with so-so English who told us we could get a 2-hour snorkelling trip for two to Bamboo Island and Mosquito Island for 1,000 baht (~30USD). We said sign us up!
Snorkelling was glorious: after a 20 minute longtail boat journey, we started at Bamboo Island, where our driver parked on the beach near the coral; for me, a complete newbie at this whole being-in-the-ocean thing, it was perfect. I got to wade into it, literally, with the deepest spot I found about waist deep, and just float as I saw parrot fish, angelfish, leapord fish (campoflauged beautifully!), dozens of unidentified smaller fish, of course a fair amount of (unfortunately smallish) coral, sea cucumbers, some gorgeous peacock-blue floral-looking things, and, my favorite, a deflated puffer fish. Karina didn't snorkel much there, since she prefers deep water, but I loved it, my bi-minutely shark scans (I read too much for my own good) notwithstanding.
Then, after a brief verbal scuffle with someone trying to charge us to stay at the beach for an hour, we set out for Mosquito Island where, despite the name, I saw not a single mosquito.
What I did see, though, was fish. THOUSANDS of them, all swimming about and above a magnificent reef off the side of a limestone cliff. This one was deeper, and we didn't go to the shore, but just flopped out of the boat into what felt like an aquarium. Here were all the fish I saw before (except the puffer), plus some groupers, a Dory-like fish, some truly rainbow colored fish, and more varieties of others than I could possibly name. It was glorious.
All-in-all, a wonderful first snorkelling experience and, for that matter, first ocean-swimming experience. But I discovered that I love everything about swimming in salt water except the salt water. Despite my best efforts, it would NOT stay out of my mask and mouthpiece, leading to a few moments where I felt like I was drowning--many of which happened, not coincidentally, when I was in the deep water, barred from standing up and a long swim from my boat. Also, Karina delighted in throwing bread at me, upon which hundreds of thousands of fish would then converge--which is, by the way, TERRIFYING to experience inches from your face.
So snorkelling was great. When we got back, we checked out and I checked into the local massage place, where I treated myself to a lovely oil massage (at triple the prices of the mainland, unfortunately, though still four times cheaper than America) while Karina sunbathed. Then it was a rather rushed buffet lunch and just catching our 1pm ferry back to Phuket.
In Phuket, things got...interesting. For some unknown reason, not nearly enough taxis had shown up to service people coming off the ferry and, as all the minibuses were full, too, we decided to foot it to Phuket town (a 15 minute walk, we were told), eat dinner there and spend the rest of our Thai money (I REALLY wanted another hour or two of Thai experience), and then catch a minibus to the airport. A long walk past illegal taxi- and motorbike-hawkers later, we stopped in at a 7-11 and stepped out to find it was raining. And, of course, by then all taxis had disappeared.
At least this time my travel curse waited till we were off the beach.
About an hour, three stops for directions with some-English-speaking locals and several kilometers of walking and watching minibus after minibus speed by without stopping later, we found a wonderful Thai family who spoke decent English and called a taxi for us, which arrived just as it was starting to get dark for the last-minute save.
So we ate in the Phuket airport, bought a few postcards, rearranged our stuff, sat around, got frustrated with line-cutters at immigration, jostled for service with determined, yet non-English or Thai-speaking Chinese tourists with meal vouchers at Dairy Queen, and finally boarded our (delayed) flight for Singapore.
And now we're here, using our free Internet but more than ready to seek out the fabled "snooze chairs" the airport is advertising every time our 15 minute sessions run out. After all, the 29th has been a very long, though wonderful, day.
So, we're currently in the Singapore airport, enduring a 6-hour overnight layover (cheap flights always have downsides...), and discovering that Singapore is the absolute best place ever to have a long layover. Their motto is "The feeling is first class," and it certainly does feel that way: wide open spaces, uber clean glass walls, smooth-running escalators, pristine stretches of (now-empty) carpet, free internet kiosks, an overnight cafe which smells scrumptious...and, as we just discovered, lounge chairs. Those will be our beds tonight.
In the meantime: today. It's been full. And a little crazy, for several reasons and on several occasions. Best of times, worst of times. A Dickensian day, if you will.
It started early, 7am, with a buffet breakfast and a rendezvous with our friend at the tour center, an older guy with so-so English who told us we could get a 2-hour snorkelling trip for two to Bamboo Island and Mosquito Island for 1,000 baht (~30USD). We said sign us up!
Snorkelling was glorious: after a 20 minute longtail boat journey, we started at Bamboo Island, where our driver parked on the beach near the coral; for me, a complete newbie at this whole being-in-the-ocean thing, it was perfect. I got to wade into it, literally, with the deepest spot I found about waist deep, and just float as I saw parrot fish, angelfish, leapord fish (campoflauged beautifully!), dozens of unidentified smaller fish, of course a fair amount of (unfortunately smallish) coral, sea cucumbers, some gorgeous peacock-blue floral-looking things, and, my favorite, a deflated puffer fish. Karina didn't snorkel much there, since she prefers deep water, but I loved it, my bi-minutely shark scans (I read too much for my own good) notwithstanding.
Then, after a brief verbal scuffle with someone trying to charge us to stay at the beach for an hour, we set out for Mosquito Island where, despite the name, I saw not a single mosquito.
What I did see, though, was fish. THOUSANDS of them, all swimming about and above a magnificent reef off the side of a limestone cliff. This one was deeper, and we didn't go to the shore, but just flopped out of the boat into what felt like an aquarium. Here were all the fish I saw before (except the puffer), plus some groupers, a Dory-like fish, some truly rainbow colored fish, and more varieties of others than I could possibly name. It was glorious.
All-in-all, a wonderful first snorkelling experience and, for that matter, first ocean-swimming experience. But I discovered that I love everything about swimming in salt water except the salt water. Despite my best efforts, it would NOT stay out of my mask and mouthpiece, leading to a few moments where I felt like I was drowning--many of which happened, not coincidentally, when I was in the deep water, barred from standing up and a long swim from my boat. Also, Karina delighted in throwing bread at me, upon which hundreds of thousands of fish would then converge--which is, by the way, TERRIFYING to experience inches from your face.
So snorkelling was great. When we got back, we checked out and I checked into the local massage place, where I treated myself to a lovely oil massage (at triple the prices of the mainland, unfortunately, though still four times cheaper than America) while Karina sunbathed. Then it was a rather rushed buffet lunch and just catching our 1pm ferry back to Phuket.
In Phuket, things got...interesting. For some unknown reason, not nearly enough taxis had shown up to service people coming off the ferry and, as all the minibuses were full, too, we decided to foot it to Phuket town (a 15 minute walk, we were told), eat dinner there and spend the rest of our Thai money (I REALLY wanted another hour or two of Thai experience), and then catch a minibus to the airport. A long walk past illegal taxi- and motorbike-hawkers later, we stopped in at a 7-11 and stepped out to find it was raining. And, of course, by then all taxis had disappeared.
At least this time my travel curse waited till we were off the beach.
About an hour, three stops for directions with some-English-speaking locals and several kilometers of walking and watching minibus after minibus speed by without stopping later, we found a wonderful Thai family who spoke decent English and called a taxi for us, which arrived just as it was starting to get dark for the last-minute save.
So we ate in the Phuket airport, bought a few postcards, rearranged our stuff, sat around, got frustrated with line-cutters at immigration, jostled for service with determined, yet non-English or Thai-speaking Chinese tourists with meal vouchers at Dairy Queen, and finally boarded our (delayed) flight for Singapore.
And now we're here, using our free Internet but more than ready to seek out the fabled "snooze chairs" the airport is advertising every time our 15 minute sessions run out. After all, the 29th has been a very long, though wonderful, day.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Krabi retrospective
Today is actually Feb. 2. However, on January 27th I was settling into a new hostel which, so far as I knew then, had no Internet. I later discovered this was wrong, but also discovered the baht-per-minute charge and snail-like pacing, so blogging took a backseat.
Also, here's us waiting for the bus at Patong beach, just because I like these pictures and want to post them:
Besides, by waiting and posting retrospectively, you now have the benefit of more than mere words on my blog! See, our first day in Krabi (after the insanely long bus-and-minibus journey from Patong beach to Phuket Town, and then Phuket Town to Krabi Town, and then the involved negotiation for a cab from Krabi Town to our hostel, a good 25 minutes outside town), was glorious.
First off, here's what the hostel looks like:
Then there's the part where we got there just in time for dinner (DELICIOUS curry and fresh coconut for me):
And, after dinner, the sunset. And I really can't even begin to post all the amazing pictures we took there on here. I'll just throw up a few, and a few videos; give me a few days, and I'll put the link to my Facebook album on here. We must have taken over 200 pictures just in that one evening...absolutely GORGEOUS!
Okay, a few more than a couple. Can't help myself. Anyway, here is the more experiential version of the evening, via video:
So now the lost day is fully exposed, and, I feel (and you you agree), well worth the wait.
Also, here's us waiting for the bus at Patong beach, just because I like these pictures and want to post them:
Besides, by waiting and posting retrospectively, you now have the benefit of more than mere words on my blog! See, our first day in Krabi (after the insanely long bus-and-minibus journey from Patong beach to Phuket Town, and then Phuket Town to Krabi Town, and then the involved negotiation for a cab from Krabi Town to our hostel, a good 25 minutes outside town), was glorious.
First off, here's what the hostel looks like:
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| (food/internet/hammocks to the right; ocean straight ahead; huts behind) |
 |
| The rooms. :) |
And, after dinner, the sunset. And I really can't even begin to post all the amazing pictures we took there on here. I'll just throw up a few, and a few videos; give me a few days, and I'll put the link to my Facebook album on here. We must have taken over 200 pictures just in that one evening...absolutely GORGEOUS!
Okay, a few more than a couple. Can't help myself. Anyway, here is the more experiential version of the evening, via video:
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Color-coded
Ten years ago, no one would have described me as a planner. Granted, ten years ago I was 12 years old, and scarcely anyone would describe any 12-year-old as a planner, but a quick scan around my room would reveal nothing whatsoever to indicate that anything within me liked things to be ordered in any particular way--or, for that matter, in any way at all.
At some point, probably in high school, this changed, and I became a strictly regulated being with a full schedule. In college, this intensified; I discovered that, without a clean dorm room (or at least a clean desk), it was almost impossible for me to be productive. In addition, I suddenly had to face the prospect of paying my own bills out of my own wallet--not just gas money and movie tickets anymore, but tuition and living expenses and books, too. And, as those things are expensive, I got a job, then more jobs, and my schedule became something which I couldn't have escaped even if I wanted to.
But despite all this organization--or perhaps because of it--by the time I graduated college, I had determined that I had earned a little disorganization. A little time without plans, a little time in which every last bit of minutiae in my life wasn't finely humming along with my internal self-regulator. This philosophy actually started in college, in my rare and precious free moments: If I didn't absolutely have to plan something, I wouldn't.
Usually, this works out fine; I am fortunate enough to have plenty of great friends who are more ambitious when it comes to, say, travel plans. But sometimes that's not enough. And, when that's the case, I realize abruptly that I am a planner, after all.
Today, I planned my break-time trip to Thailand. Karina and I have been making preliminary plans on this trip for months--I wrote about this stage a while ago--but even pinning down dates has been difficult, let alone pinning down physical locations or, the ultimate plan, reserving plane tickets. But it has to be done, and soon.
So, today Karina and I sat down and hashed it out, finally choosing a time for certain, and working out a rough itinerary of where we wanted to go. A few hours into the process, Karina had to head for bed, but I kept at it. I couldn't seem to stop: I had to finish it, and finish it well. After a grueling whole-Internet search, I found plane tickets which should knock 30% off what we thought we would have to pay. So I took down the plane numbers, the arrival and departure times, the sites where I found the deals. I did some more research and figured out when and how we could move from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Phuket to Krabi to Phi Phi and back again.
All pretty normal, right? You've got to know where, when, and how you're going, right?
Sure. But then came the attached maps. And the color-coded days and diagrams.
I'm pretty sure that's not normal. I'm pretty sure that, if 12-year-old me could see it, she would roll her eyes and walk away, dreading the moment when I'd force her to follow every detail of my plan, down to the minute.
Fortunately, I'm still not at that phase; I still value freedom within a vacation, but my journey from messy, disorganized child to That Person Who Color-Codes Her Itineraries is still perplexing.
Then again, 12-year-old me never got to go to Thailand. So if she wants to run screaming away from me, let her: I'll be lounging on the beach at Krabi.
At some point, probably in high school, this changed, and I became a strictly regulated being with a full schedule. In college, this intensified; I discovered that, without a clean dorm room (or at least a clean desk), it was almost impossible for me to be productive. In addition, I suddenly had to face the prospect of paying my own bills out of my own wallet--not just gas money and movie tickets anymore, but tuition and living expenses and books, too. And, as those things are expensive, I got a job, then more jobs, and my schedule became something which I couldn't have escaped even if I wanted to.
But despite all this organization--or perhaps because of it--by the time I graduated college, I had determined that I had earned a little disorganization. A little time without plans, a little time in which every last bit of minutiae in my life wasn't finely humming along with my internal self-regulator. This philosophy actually started in college, in my rare and precious free moments: If I didn't absolutely have to plan something, I wouldn't.
Usually, this works out fine; I am fortunate enough to have plenty of great friends who are more ambitious when it comes to, say, travel plans. But sometimes that's not enough. And, when that's the case, I realize abruptly that I am a planner, after all.
Today, I planned my break-time trip to Thailand. Karina and I have been making preliminary plans on this trip for months--I wrote about this stage a while ago--but even pinning down dates has been difficult, let alone pinning down physical locations or, the ultimate plan, reserving plane tickets. But it has to be done, and soon.
So, today Karina and I sat down and hashed it out, finally choosing a time for certain, and working out a rough itinerary of where we wanted to go. A few hours into the process, Karina had to head for bed, but I kept at it. I couldn't seem to stop: I had to finish it, and finish it well. After a grueling whole-Internet search, I found plane tickets which should knock 30% off what we thought we would have to pay. So I took down the plane numbers, the arrival and departure times, the sites where I found the deals. I did some more research and figured out when and how we could move from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Phuket to Krabi to Phi Phi and back again.
All pretty normal, right? You've got to know where, when, and how you're going, right?
Sure. But then came the attached maps. And the color-coded days and diagrams.
I'm pretty sure that's not normal. I'm pretty sure that, if 12-year-old me could see it, she would roll her eyes and walk away, dreading the moment when I'd force her to follow every detail of my plan, down to the minute.
Fortunately, I'm still not at that phase; I still value freedom within a vacation, but my journey from messy, disorganized child to That Person Who Color-Codes Her Itineraries is still perplexing.
Then again, 12-year-old me never got to go to Thailand. So if she wants to run screaming away from me, let her: I'll be lounging on the beach at Krabi.
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