SE Asia Backpacking Series : Ko Tao, Ko Samui, Ko Phi Phi, Chiang Mai (again :P) and Bangkok

Hello everyone! Long time no post! I wanted to post this earlier but the internet here is not always great and uploading pictures can be a pain. Now I have a decent wifi in my room in Nha Trang Vietnam so I will update you on how the trip has been going. First thing we did in Ko Tao was find a good diving resort for a couple fun dives. Our friends wanted to do the PADI Open Water Course so we went diving in the meantime. We dived 6 times, in 6 different sites, all of which were very nice. I reckon it's some of the best diving I have done so far (not that I have done that much :P).

 On our last day in Ko Tao, Mathieu and I went snorkeling in Shark Bay, where you can usually spot black fin sharks. We were able to see a bunch of different species of fish including one shark!

After that, we left for Ko Samui. In Ko Phangan, we met two girls from Quebec and decided to travel along with them for a while. We decided to follow them to Ko Samui as they were going there to celebrate one of the girls' birthday. We only stayed two nights. While we were there, we went to the Green Mango, a popular night club there. It was all a lot of fun :)

We left Ko Samui and headed straight for Ko Phi Phi where we spent a couple days. There, we went for two more fun dives (this time we saw a bunch of sharks and a sea turtle!) and a snorkeling trip to the beautiful beaches of the area, including Maya Bay, the place from the movie "The Beach". I wasn't so keen on the island itself though. It felt too crowded for the ressources and there was usually quite a bit of trash lying around. There were many nice restaurants there though and we even had a poutine! Who would've thought?

From Ko Phi Phi, we caught a boat to Phuket, were we stayed the night. Our plane for the north was leaving from there so we walked around the city a little bit during the day. After a pretty uneventful plane ride to Chiang Mai we were back, once again, in the north. Our friend had never been and since I quite enjoy it there, we decided it was fine to go back. This time, we went to a tiger farm, where you can pet tigers and take pictures with them and took a day long tour to the golden triangle and the white temple. The white temple was simply breathtaking and the paintings inside were amazing (pictures inside the temples aren't allowed in Thailand so I don't have pictures). We also went to the night market in Chiang Mai for some souvenir shopping, to see a muay thai show and to get thai massages. As always, Chiang Mai was a lot of fun and I'd definitely would go back in the future.

 Our friend's trip was getting close to its end by this point so we caught a night train back to Bangkok. After she left, Mathieu and I spent some time there to relax, went to the cinema, the arcade and ate huge amounts of japanese food. There are many great japanese restaurants at the MBK Center in Bangkok, I had no idea until this time that there was so much of it there!

We have been to Cambodia briefly since then and are now in Vietnam. Cambodia hasn't been the greatest experience for us, but we didn't stay very long which means it's hard to judge. I'll update in a bit on how it's going here in Vietnam! Right now I'm kind of sick and might go to the doctor tomorrow if it doesn't get any better. Not to worry though, I doubt it's anything serious, but I might needs some antibiotics to help speed my recovery :)

  That's all for now, hope you all enjoyed this :) How's all of your summers going so far? Let me know in the comments!

SE Asia Backpacking Series : Tokyo, Bangkok, Chiang Mai

We left a couple days ago for a 10 weeks SE Asia backpacking trip. I thought I would update you all on how things are going so far!

First, we left at 6:30 am on the 21st from the airport. We had two layovers (one in Newark and one in Tokyo) and a total of 19 hours of flight. I was able to sleep just fine thanks to my trusty ear plugs, neck pillow and Benadryl. We had to buy a charger for our cell phone in Newark since I forgot it in the car (doh!) which ended up being really expensive, but we're glad we have it since we bought a Thai sim card and we can now access Thailand's 3G network for really cheap :) It's really quite handy, I definitely recommend it if you're traveling to SE Asia! We had ramen at Narita Airport in Tokyo (10$ per bowl) which was really tasty and exciting since I loooove ramen!

We arrived in Thailand late, but had no issues finding a Guest House to stay. The city is quite lively even at night! We stayed at My House Guest House, in a really hot, tiny room. At least it wasn't expensive :) We went out for some rice noodles with chicken and egg which was absolutely delicious (so far the food has been fantastic).

The next day, we took a long walk to the MBK Center mall (about 1 hours away from where we stayed near Khao San Road). I love how you can walk around quite safely in Bangkok as long as you beware of the traffic. At the mall, we bought an adaptor to charge our laptop safely (it protects from power surges). It was really  cheap (only about 3.50$) and works perfectly :) We also went for a movie in what they call a VIP cinema. We saw Men In Black 3 which I quite enjoyed. The tickets were 8$ per person and included large comfortable reclining seats, a free drink and blankets. It's a bit expensive by Thailand's standards, but compared to what we get for 12$ back home, I'd say it's a bargain :) We stayed another night at the same guest house and left in the morning for Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is a 13-14 hour ride from Bangkok by train. It's a little faster by bus, which we wish we had chosen instead. Our initial plan was to book a sleeper train, but there isn't any during the day (which is quite obvious now that we think about it :P). The train was quite uncomfortable and the ride seemed to last forever. I would say it wasn't the best experience all things considered. To make things worse, when we got to Chiang Mai, most guesthouses were fully booked which means we had to walk around for about an hour with our packs, during the night to find a place that wasn't full. We had a tasty, but expensive burger at Mike's Burger before we finally found some place to sleep.

We stayed at Julie's guesthouse which we really did not enjoy. It's dank, dirty, hot and dark in the room. We moved guest houses right away the next morning. We then found a much better place to stay, for only 2$ more per night. The place is called TK Guest house and offers really clean, large rooms with free wifi internet, private bathroom with hot shower and even a balcony (it's 10$ per night). I couldn't be happier with this place.

And that's about it for now! We have booked a Thai cooking class for tomorrow and I'm really excited to go! We booked with Baan Thai Cookery School a well reputed cooking school here in Chiang Mai. It was 30$ per person, which sounds like a lot, but it includes a market visit, a cooking book, making 6 dishes (which we get to eat afterwards) and drinks/snacks. I cannot wait! We get to choose between 3 options for each dish category : curry paste, curry, stir-fried, soup, appetizer and desert. We chose : green curry paste, green curry with chicken, Pad Thai, chicken in coconut milk soup, spring roll, and  mango with sticky rice. Anyway, I'm super excited about it!

Hope you all enjoyed this! Will be back in a few days with more updates about my trip :)