Christmas in Thailand: Day 7-9 CHRISTMAS DAY!

DAY SEVEN/EIGHT:

Other than the 4 islands tour of death and beauty, we didn’t do much on Koh Lanta other than enjoy its food, views, and beach walking. We got a lot of reading done and just enjoyed relaxing. To be honest, I needed a day to recover from my nausea. Happy tears streamed down my face when I woke up on Day 7 in solid ground NOT rocking back and forth in a rain soaked boat. I’m easy to please!

So our last few days in Lanta we saw a washed up jellyfish which was kind of cool and ate more dessert at “The Kitchen” where we had to wait over an hour because the place rocks and it was so worth the wait!

The next day we hopped a tuktuk to the pier and boated over to the even smaller island of Railay Beach. SO small in fact that there are no tuktuks, taxis, bikes, or anything…. Just walking. Our hotel was on the opposite side of the beach and we walked there in about five minutes. Loved it!

We got to Railay beach around dinner time so we picked some random restaurant, which was stupid, ate there, grabbed some beach snacks and sat on the beach listening to Christmas music and watched the sunset. Perfect way to spend Christmas eve night!

DAY NINE (Christmas Day!!!):

The next morning I woke up really excited. It was Christmas!!! We had breakfast at the hotel (a decent spread considering the food options on the beach, in my opinion, weren’t the best) and made a plan to check out the caves and snorkel. I dawned my Santa hat even though it was a million degrees as per my mom’s request to get a Christmas hat picture on the beach! I was boiling but people were smiling at me and some even wished us a Merry Christmas. Believe it or not, we didn’t get a lot of smiley face wishes, but it didn’t matter. 

We were still happy to be on a beach having a very untraditional Christmas! We checked out some caves and swam through an area that had a big DANGER sign that I saw after swimming in it. I felt really badass to have swam through a place that had something called “Portugese Manowar” (I called it Man of War for months… Bernard just corrected me now) that could cause death. Don’t worry Mom and Dad! We are fine and many people were swimming there. I think the sign was outdated. No big deal!

Anyway, so we snorkeled all over the caves and around giant rocks and such. Railay had the best snorkeling of the trip that’s for sure! 

We spent hours enjoying the sea life and every now and then coming to shore for a fruit smoothie to regain sustenance before hopping back in the water to check out more coral and fish!

We decided to have a special Christmas dinner at a very popping restaurant that had a cute cocktail bar attached. My food was delicious and my drink even more so! It was a perfect day, until…

Around midnight, my tummy was like GET UP WOMAN and I had a bout of the most horrific food poisoning known to man for about 48 hours solid. It was the worst thing ever; however, I must admit, if you are going to toss your cookies for what seems like a lifetime, it’s nice to do so in your own private hut amongst nature and monkeys and beautiful sunshine. Hah! The silver lining needed to be found! What a Christmas! So I spent two days in bed reading and sleeping and heaving and throwing up. It was awful. I hallucinated hardcore too. I thought I was going to die, but luckily before our boat back to Ao Nang and later flight, I felt kind of alive enough to make it back to Shanghai! Thank goodness. What a Christmas indeed!!! Next year, I think we will lay low. I cannot handle another perfect storm food poisoning throw up Christmas… but it was a Christmas to remember that’s for sure.

Christmas in Thailand: Day 6 - The Perfect Storm

DAY SIX:

On December 22^nd, we went on a 4 island snorkeling tour in Koh Lanta! We were really excited to get some good snorkeling in as we hadn’t snorkeled yet because the beaches we had been to so far were pretty shallow.

So how can I describe the island tour other than calling it that scene from The Perfect Storm! Sweet Jesus, I have never experienced rockier waters than this damn boat tour. Christ, I’m still nauseous from it! First of all, we were on this rickety canoe with a top, which is hardly a “boat” more than a piece of wood wobbly floating on water. There were many boat rides. After a bumpy tuktuk ride to the pier, we boarded a rickety ass boat and boated to another boat and another boat, each boat more decrepit than the last! This whole time it was windy and raining on and off. Nevertheless, B and I smiled the whole time because we were feeling lucky to be having a cool experience in Thailand. My Lord did I ever feel motion sick though. Luckily, I brought a sniffer thing (smelling salts for motion sickness) and sniffed it probably 2/3 of the way. I was groggy and spaced out of my face by the time we got to our second snorkel destination.

Our second snorkel destination was into the EMERALD cave (the part I was looking forward to the most on the tour!), which turned into a grotto! It was unbelievable and I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more had I been able to see (no glasses because of the choppy waters and the fact that I was swimming) and not been so damn nauseous the whole time. Regardless of all the obstacles, it was incredible! We were given life jackets and lined up in the water to follow a guide through a cave into the grotto. It was practically pitch black and the waters were choppy as hell and I was feeling like Helen Keller in water so naturally I was pissing myself. But seriously, I was in the ocean, so I was peeing the whole time which was the only way to calm myself from the harrowing experience of swimming in the pitch black hearing echoing of people laughing and yelling and shrieking (that was me) as we moved along to the grotto. I reached in front of me and held onto what I thought was Bernard but turned out to be a Dutch chick who was very nice about me clawing at her back in fear.

As I swam through the journey to hell, I saw a teeny tiny light that grew bigger and bigger as we neared it. I paddled happily towards the light and came out into this cylindrical grotto. It was amazing and honestly really hard to describe!

http://www.homebehindtheworldahead.com/koh-lantas-4-islands-tour-longtail-boats-snorkeling-and-emerald-caves/

^ Blog about the 4 islands tour that has pictures showing the grotto and tunnel cave (sort of)

I found a blog from a girl who went there and obviously had a waterproof camera so she took some pictures, so here you go. The pictures do not do it justice at all! It was really cool and I felt like I was on Survivor or something. The whole time though, I was swallowing and breathing myself into calmness and trying my best not to projectile vom in this beautiful place.

It was hard to see many fish because of the torrential waves and rain, but we managed to see some and stay reasonably not freezing. Finally, it was time for lunch and although I was hungry, my nauseous overpowered every feeling imaginable so I ate as much as I could knowing it would help my tummy feel better and then I just chilled on the beach where we parked for lunch until dark and ominous clouds reached us faster than expected and it bucketed down rain! People were screaming and rushing to the boat, but we took this opportunity to enjoy a rainshower swim since we were already wet anyway. A few people on the boat followed suit and we all tried to enjoy the inconvenient weather.

After trying to wait out the rain, the guide told us to get in the boat so we could head home. It took hours. HOURS! Again, this was like The Perfect Storm. The boat was practically vertical at one point. I kept my eyes closed and wrapped my soaking wet dress around my cold ass and prayed for safety. With every exhalation, I was impressed to not have vomited so I counted my lucky stars. Even Bernard said he felt really sick. I squeezed his hand and he squeezed mine and we yoga breathed our way back to dry land. I all but kissed that damn ground when we got off that frigging boat! Calling the waves torrential would be an understatement. I really cannot believe no one got sick. Maybe they did and my eyes were shut and my brain was screaming at that point so I didn’t realize. Who knows!

Anyway, we tuktuked back to the hotel with a bunch of miserable passengers. B and I were smiling and super excited to not be on the boat anymore and to have had the experience, but we were really glad to get off the bitter bus and skipped into our hotel where we told the front desk about our crazy, rainy times. She apologized for the weather which was sweet but unnecessary and wished us a happy rest of our time in Koh Lanta. Everyone in Thailand is nice. Period.

After a hot shower which was the best thing in the universe after a freezing and chilly boat ride through Jaws: Thailand edition, we had a traditional Thai dinner at a cute little place called Krua Nidnoy right on the beach. The place was super cute and placed some serious 90’s beats like Spice Girls which we chair danced to as we ate our spring rolls, curry, and hot pan (a pan that was literally on fire!)

After dinner, we met one of Bernard’s work friends and his wife for drinks and spent a beautiful evening lounging on the beach and sharing Thailand stories.

Christmas in Thailand: Day 5

DAY FIVE:

Koh Lanta was similar to Ao Nang in that we had leisurely meals and spent a lot of time walking beaches, reading, swimming, and basking in the glory of perfect views and sunshine. We did happen to arrive in Koh Lanta for some lame weather as it rained literally the whole time we were there, but this didn’t bother us and we continued to have the best time!

What is notable about this day was our dinner experience. We went to a place beside our hotel off the beach called “The Kitchen”. I think this place had some of the best food I had ever eaten in Thailand and was cheap! We ordered too much because we felt like it: spring rolls, massaman curry, pad sea ew, and banana coconut milk which tasted like Heaven if Heaven was a flavor of donut or something! OMG.

As we were finishing up dinner and waiting for dessert, I was people watching and noticed that there was a cat climbing down a tree near a table. The cat scurried down the tree and jumped on a box next to a couple at a table and scared the daylights out of them. It made me laugh but the lady was pissed so the waitress came and shewed the cat away. The same brazen cat came over to us after our table was cleared and jumped on my lap! It then tried to drink my iced tea, which made me laugh. The waitress apologized but I said not to worry and that I was extremely amused. Then the cat strutted about trying to bother other tables. I think we were the most accepting table of this annoying cat. Haha!

Christmas in Thailand: Day 3 & 4

DAY THREE:

On the third day, we resumed what now felt like our morning routine of gym, swim, and breakfast. We then continued our day with more beach chilling on Ao Nang beach. Naturally, because I’m in Thailand, I had to have another massage! Let me tell you, my idea of a vacation is food and massages on the beach. Done! After an afternoon massage back at Massage Corner, we snapped some photos and walked to Jungle Kitchen, another TripAdvisor find. What a cool restaurant! It literally felt like we were eating in the jungle! Bernard ordered something called jungle curry which scared me a bit. Thai peeps know how to spice it up so I thought Bernard’s dish was going to come out on fire. Almost. HAH! I had a pineapple curry and finished it off with mango sticky rice. As we were eating dessert, it began to pour down rain. A lot of people were irritated about it, but we thought it sounded beautiful and were protected by our little jungle hut, so who cares. Also, you are at the beach and therefore covered in sand and water all the time – who cares about rain! It was gorgeous. We waited for the heavy rain to die down and continued our walk back towards the beach. The people at Jungle Kitchen even offered to GIVE us an umbrella in case it started raining again and were confused when we didn’t take it. So sweet!

We found a walking street and picked up a “Walktail” (walking cocktail… cute wordplay!) for the walk back. We hit up Nompparat beach, which is a less populated beach than the popular Ao Nang and took a stroll in the peace and quiet. Then, because we could, we had a late night swim and hit the hay.

DAY FOUR:

We got up much earlier on our last day in Ao Nang for a gym, swim, and breakfast. We checked out of our hotel at 10:00am and were a little sad to leave such luxury. We then hopped a bus to Koh Lanta, our next destination on our Christmas in Thailand trip. As we were on the bus, I kept wondering how we were going to get there. It was a small island off Ao Nang and we were on a bus. Surely we would have to cross water at some point. Then, our bus drove onto what looked like a small landing strip and a man pushed us off into the ocean! We had driven onto a make shift boat! Cool!

Just before 2:00pm, the bus dropped us off at a place called “Lemonade” boutique. We were staying at the “Lanta Mermaid” which made me laugh because no those are NOT the same. Luckily, it wasn’t too far from our actual hotel. We had a good laugh as we walked over to our hotel and checked in to the cute little boutique which was a lot more quaint than our previous luxury hotel, but still very pleasant and comfortable. It was very rainy at this point, so we grabbed an umbrella and walked a bit for lunch. 

We then walked all along Klong Dao beach taking photos. Koh Lanta was pretty small and gorgeous so we took advantage of being able to see a lot of it.

 

We stopped at a place called Picasso for dinner and I had my third pad thai of the day! Bernard had a panang curry and we splurged on cocktails because it was happy hour and we were on a beach at Christmas time. 

After dinner, it was sufficiently dark, so we walked along the beach and searched for sea life after dark. We saw many little hermit crabs scuttling along, small fish hiding under rocks that washed up with the tide, and sea slugs which are the grossest things in the world. They look like mushy cucumbers. Disgusting! Then we grabbed some snacks and headed back to the hotel for a much needed rest.