Honeymoon in Thailand, January, 2000 Y2K

In summer of 1999 we decided to get married after living together since 1993. We got married on January 15th, 2000. Paul was wrapping up a contract at Wi-LAN while Helen was finishing one up at Allianz. We realized that this would be a perfect opportunity to go on a big trip.

For our honeymoon we decided to go to Thailand for a month. Paul's parents had been there a couple of times and we liked what we had heard and seen of it. We used all of our Air Canada Aeroplan miles to book ourselves return flights to/from Bangkok. We would leave on the 22nd of January and return on February 26th.

We spent a lot of time surfing the net and reading guide books to decide how to plan the trip. We were actually able to book a few places in advance over the internet. This worked out really well as it meant we didn't have to worry about finding lodgings when we were in Bangkok, Trang and on the islands Bulon Leh and Siboya.

Following is a break down of the trip. Click the pictures to see the albums associated with each area.

Getting There

	Getting Ready After a fantastic wedding on Saturday the 15th of January we had 4 days to get ready before we left on Thursday for the first leg to San Francisco. We used this time to buy our snorkeling gear, finish our tanning sessions (so we wouldn't fry on day 1) and just enjoy ourselves. Our flight to Thailand was made up of 4 stages. The first was from Calgary to San Francisco. We had to spend the night in San Fran so we could make our connector at LAX early the next morning. We just pre-booked a cheap hotel close to the SF airport.
	LAX Security Breach The next morning we flew to LAX where we were greeted by chaos. We were told that we couldn't land at the main terminal because there had been a security breach. We were bused from the plane on the runway to outside of the international terminal. Something had happened to make them clear out the whole terminal, then make everyone come back in through 4 metal detectors. Talk about a bottleneck! Everyone was freaking out saying they would miss their flight, but they just delayed every single flight until they wered done. It was cool to see all of the different personalities as people handled the stress in their own ways. We were joking and having some fun with the people around us but we saw lots of extremly pissed off people.
	First Exotic Meal in Thailand After a long flight from LA we arrived in Hong Kong about 3 hours late. The airport staff had setup a trail of personnel to usher us from our arrival gate over to the departure gate for th eflight to Bangkok. Basically the crap in LAX meant a packed 747 was delayed for 2 hours waiting for about twenty people from LA. We finally arrived in Bangkok at about 10:30pm local time. First thing we did was take off our socks and unzip our pant legs. We found the touts for our hotel and they bussed us over to the nearby Comfort Inn where we crashed for the night. The next morning we bused back to the airport to catch our pre-booked flight from Bangkok to Trang, near the Malaysian border and close to the islands we wanted to visit. While waiting for the flight we indulged in our first Thai meal: Burger King!?!
	Trang Airport We flew to Trang via Krabi. As we were flying down south we could see the classic geography this part of the world was famous for. Limestone cliffs and towers everywhere. It was a nice relaxing flight but we realized our first silly mistake of the trip. We could have used our air miles to fly all the way down to Trang since Thai Air is a Star Alliance partner. Oh well only a couple of hundred bucks down the tubes.
	Thumrin Thana Hotel We were picked up at the airport by the hotel mini bus and taken to the hotel. This place was weird. It was huge and very lavish. Lots of marble, gilt, nice carpeting etc. Our bathroom was as big as some main rooms at other hotels. Apparently it dealt mainly with Thai conferences, none of which were going on when we arrived (thankfully). We estimated that there were at least twice as many staff as customers. It was like a ghost hotel.
	Trang The idea behind Trang was to stay in a nice hotel for a couple of days to decompress from the flight then move onto the islands. Trang is not a place you'd want to spend your honeymoon. It isn't built around tourism like other parts of Thailand. I think of it being like the Acron, Ohio of Thailand (not that we've ever been to Acron but is sounds plain). We stayed there for one day, arranged a minibus ride to the port Pak Bara, then bailed the next morning for the coast. Note to self: decompress on the beautiful, relaxing islands, not inland!

Ko Bulon Leh

Bulon Leh was our first and favourite island. We had booked ahead of time via phone to stay at the Pansand resort which worked out real well. The phrase "resort" should be used loosely here. This island is pristine. The locals have put up some open air buildings for restaurant/bars. The Pansand had the best Pad Thai we found in the country. Every day we'd lay on the beach, play in the waves, go snorkeling, eat, drink and repeat. One Thai lady baked these amazing fresh cinammon buns and would bring them onto the beach. We discovered that there was a village on the other side of the island. At night we'd walk over there because some of the locals would make their houses into restaurants at night. Their food was amazing and couldn't be fresher. We had planned to go to Ko Turatao (where Survivor was filmed a couple of years later) but the waves were a bit rough so we skipped it.

	Paradise We took the ferry from Pak Bara to Bulon Leh. There were probably 20 people on board. We were ferried by longtail from th eferry to the beach. There was quite a scramble as people rushed to the check-in to get the best spots. We didn't have to worry as Helen had booked aheadd of time over the phone. We had a great cottage near the beach with a shower and western toilet. For $20 Cdn. a night we figured we were getting an amazing deal.
	Drinking Buddies We met Shannon and Scott in Trang. They were taking the same minibus to the coast as we were. We got talking and found that they were from Toronto and worked in the film industry there. Our first night on Bulon Leh we had a huge meal and many drinks. An amazing first day on the islands! This picture was taken in a family house on the other side of the island. At night they turned it into a restaurant. You could hear them making the curries in the mortar and pestle. Amazing seafood and curries. Just look for paths going up the hill on the "resort" side of the island. Take a flashlight because it gets real dark. Check out the glow worms too.
	Ko Bulon Leh Sunrise The sunrises were spectacular here.
	Rough Seas One day the wind must have picked up and the waves were great to play in. Can you see the boat moored offshore in the right of the picture? Click the picture for a bigger version. It belonged to a German guy who lived onboard with his dog.
	Uh Oh! Apparently the anchor wasn't set well in the reef and the waves dislodged it.
	Boat Aground Despite some desperate actions by the owner and everyone on the beach they couldn't stop the boat from running aground. It took a real hammering on the rocks and broke its keel. I can think of worse places to be stranded though.
	Bulon Ritz Shannon and Scott had moved to the other resort on the island, Bulon run by Canuck Cameron. These huts cost only $8 a night. Most nights we'd go from place to place having a few beers. By the time we went to bed we were feeling no pain so the nicer place wasn't doing a lot for us. We'd still go back to the other place a lot because the food was so good.
	$8 View Here's the view we woke up to every day for $8 a day. It's a hard life....

Ko Ngai

When we left Ko Bulon Leh, our next destination was Ko Ngai. This was a little ways up the coast from Bulon. We took the ferry back to Pak Bara then found a guy to take us to the port of Pak Meng (via Trang). When we got off the ferry most people dove into the aircon minibus's destined for Krabi or Hat Yai. We were taking an uncommon route so we had to convince someone to go where we wanted. We ended up gettin gripped off. In North American terms we got a killer deal, $40 Cdn to take two people and their packs about 150km. If we'd had a bigger group it wouldn't have mattered. It should have been at least half that but we tried not to let it bug us. The ferry ride to Ko Ngai was a bit spooky as the clouds were black and ominous. The boat stopped in the shelter behind this big limstone outcropping where we transferred to a longboat for the ride ashore. This was a blast as we rode the waves in getting soaked by the spray. We stayed at the Ko Ngai Villa, another dirt cheap $8 a night grass hut place. The people weren't as friendly here and the food sucked. Cheap accomodation though. The next day we wandered around and discovered this incredibly fancy hotel on the beach, the Fantasy Resort. It was built to look like an ocean liner. The place was empty so the staff fussed over us because they had nothing better to do. So for the next few days we stayed in the cheap resort but ate at the fancy one.

	Ominous Weather The weather was pretty spooky on the boat ride out to Ko Ngai. It turned out to just look bad as the seas weren't too rough.
	Ngai Digs This was our $5 accomodation on Ko Ngai. This was a nicer hut than our one on Bulon. It had its own toilet and shower.
	View from our Hut This was the scene from our huts veranda. Beautiful!
	Beach Bum The beach here was huge. It was a great walk along its length and back. Super hot though, bring lots of water!
	Is it Real or Memorex? Here's a picture of Helen taken in the restaurant of the Fantasy resort. The restaurant was wide open with a beautiful breeze coming in off the sea. Can you believe the colors behind Helen. It almost looks like a painting.
	Ngai Drinking Buddies Here's the crowd we hooked up with on Ngai. From the left: Paul, Ernie, Richard, Helen, Thulve.

Ko Lanta

After being uncerimoniously rushed out of our bungalows at Ko Ngai, we waited at the Fantasy Resort for the boat. There was a lot of confusion, but we finally got the "ferry" to Ko Lanta. It turned out to be the tail end of a snorkaling trip from Ko Lanta. Paul also got to do a snorkel at the boats last stop. The boat was crowded, but after a couple of stops and a breakdown we got to Ko Lanta. We walked 5 minutes to the town and got a "taxi', basically a dirt bike with a small sidecar, to our Bungalows. We had booked a night at the Kaw Kwang for about $20. After a walk down the beach we had supper and ended up finding a nicer place, which was brand new, Sun, Fun & Sea. We decided to move in the morning. Ko Lanta is very busy and touristy, think Mexico. There were a ton of bar type places on the beach, Sexy Bar, Lasses, Easy Bar, Drinker's....and on and on. There were also a lot of resort type places, seperated by walls and fences, so they appeared to be exclusive. The town was small, but busy. I think we were there on a holiday. The second night there appeared to be a fair of some sort. They had a stage set up and there was Thai dancing and a comedian who was funny to watch, but we couldn't understand anything. There was a guy who made the best pancakes ever, his name was Abdoulah. We connected with Ernie again, which was fun. We all went to a Thai boxing match out of town. We loaded into the back of a pick up truck and went out to the boxing site. It was really neat to see, there were people of all ages and skill levels to watch. It was amazing.

	Ko Lanta Sunset This was the first sunset that we saw on Ko Lanta. After we checked into the bungalow, we followed a trail out the back. The staff said it was a nice place to watch the sunset. We walked up to the top of a hill, there were really owl stone steps carved out. There was a really old cabin type thing on the top, but not a great view point. I think we got a better view from the beach. There were shrimp boats that could be seen on the horizon. We basically wondered down the beach, stopped at one of the many bars, and played some darts.
	Ko Lanta Drinking Buddies From Left: Paul, Tulva, Helen, Pia, Stella and Ernie. Having a bevie or more at the Easy Bar .
	Thai Kickboxing This was amazing, a ring in the middle of nowhere. There were people of all ages participating, they even had a match with two girls. The skill and ability was incredible. Too bad the picture really doesn't do it justice. After they were done boxing, the athletes were mixing with the spectators. We got to sit beside one of the younger kids, and he showed us his trophy.

Ko Siboya

After the rush of Ko Lanta we were looking for some peace and quiet. We had read about this island on the internet, and even booked a place to stay at Siboya Bungalows. There was a Canadian couple, who had built a place and we arranged to rent it from them for the time we would be there. They were great with giving us ideas about the trip. We took the ferry from Ko Lanta which stopped near Ko Jam. There we said goodbye to everyone, as we were all leaving to go seperate ways. We transferred to a longtail just off th eshore of Ko Jam. It looked neat, and very quiet. Once there we arranged for the long tail driver to take us to Ko Siboya. That was a neat 1 hour trip, the islands seemed Jurassic Park like, and it was quiet. We had a bit of a disapointment when we went to check in, our place had been given to someone else by mistake. We were shown another bungalow, so we took that, and everything worked out great. The best thing about Siboya hands down.....the food. Mr Jung and his family run an amazing place, especially the food. We ate huge quantities of curried squid. Helen, wasn't feeling great one day, so they made her a real "western meal": chicken sandwhich with fries. She swears to this day that it was the best she has ever had. We had an incident with spiders our first night, but we recovered. We met so many nice people on this island. There was Andrew and Mandy from England, who run a hotel in the Lake District, Peter and Becky from the States. Peter and Becky were building a bungalow in the island. Mr Chung took us for a walk and showed us land he was selling, and had a coconut chopped down for us. We played alot of Jenga and re-laxed. It was nice. Lots of boozing.

	Longtail to Siboya We did the mid-sea transfer from the Ko Lanta - Krabi ferry to get to Ko Siboya. It was only us and the driver on board, so we could strech out.
	Siboya Boozers This was during a night of serious partaking. Apparently the locals were impressed by the imbibing abilities of those participating. The next day was not impressive. From left: Mandy, Becky, Pete, Mr. Jung, Helen, Paul(standing), Andrew.
	Second Digs on Siboya We moved into this place after the spider incident. It was a really nice two story building. We stayed on the main floor and had lots of compnay: monkeys in the trees watching us shower (open roof bathroom), frogs on the shutters, a scorpion in the bathroom.... The last was according to Paul, who didn't tell Helen until they got back to Calgary.
	Siboyah SunsetWe took this one night walking down "Cobra Alley". So christened by Paul and Andrew, as were the Deaths Head moths and jumping spiders..don't ask.

Ao Nang

From Siboya we arrannged a longtail into Krabi. When we were getting in the boat, something stung Paul on the foot. It was quiet painful and was a bit spooky at first. Paul was witing for his heart to stop beating or some other horrible thing. We were looking into the first aid kit, but the driver noticed what happened and gave Paul a lime and told him to squeeze it on the sting. Well, did it ever work! It was weird how fast the lime juice took away the stinging. We got into Krabi and wandered around a bit. We found a travel agent to book us in at Ao Nang, so we hopped a bus and went to the PK Mansion. We slept there, but spent most of out time during the day out and about. It was very developed with lots of large hotel type resorts. At night you could watch pirated movies that were taped in the theaters. We were watching them before they were released in the theatres. Every once in a while you would see someone stand up or a head in the way. We wandered around alot a night, and spent most of our days on Chicken Island. That was great snorkeling and walking, and the longtail out to there was cool. We went over to West Raleigh one day and watched people climb the formations, which was really neat. Walking down from our place to the beach, we would pass a group of local women who had kitchens set up on the back of their motorbikes. The food was really good, you could get curry & rice for a buck. We even found a place where Paul could watch a footie game...Liverpool beat Leeds.

	Chicken Island We got burnt our first day on Chicken Island, so our second time out we rented the umbrella and chairs.
	Poda Island We didn't stop here, but they are supposed to have good snorkelling and a nice beach as well.
	Chicken Island Longtails The longtails would be going back and forth all day with passengers. You could arrange to have the same one that dropped you off come back to pick you up. Don't let them rip you off on prices. There's a big sign showing what the fairs should be at the Ao Nang beach.
	Chicken Island Longtails Our one driver took us under the overhang so we could see the formations. It was pretty cool.

Chang Mai

From Ao Nanag we flew from Krabi up to Chaing Mai, with a transfer in Bangkok. We stayed in the Top North guest house and walked over to the street market at night. You could buy anything at the stalls, and bartering was a must. It took us a bit to get the hang of it. We bought a lot of shirts and presents here, everything was so cheap. We had to go back to get a local to show us how a puzzle that we had bought for one of nephews worked. He had a good laugh with us. On the way back we to the guest house, we found another pancake vendor, so we stopped there every night. We met a local taxi guy, who arranged to take us to a What and a local village. Everything here is focused on selling to the tourist. He took us on the trip to tourist stuff, but on the way back, we had to stop at the silver shops, etc. He was great though, when we told him we were not interested, he just took us on a tour of Chaing Mai. To get to the temple we had to go way up and back into the mountians, I think there was a royal residence somewhere in there. We saw lots of armed guards in certain areas. To get into the temple you had to walk up 300 stairs. It was neat.

	Hill Tribe Garden This was located way back in the mountains. the garden was beautiful.
	Flowering Temple Tree The temple was very neat. This tree was growing in the middle of the floor. .
	Top North Hotel This was us checking out of our Guest House .

Bangkok

We decided to spend out last couple of days in Bangkok. We stayed on Ko San Road for a night, which was an experience. The traffic was incredible, as was the number of people. There were pictures of the King or other members of the Royal family everywhere. We wondered around the area, tried to see the Grand Palace, but it had closed for the day. We ended up going back to the Best Western by the Airport for the last day. We spent the afternoon in the pool where we met a pilot who was from Toronto, and had an amazing supper for our last night. We were both so excited to be heading home that we couldn't sleep, so we ended up staying awake all night talking and watching TV.

	Ko San Road We stayed here for a night. It was amazingly busy.
	By The River We went for a walk to try and see the Grand Palace, but it was closed when we got there. It was a nice walk by the river.
	Checking Out Leaving Ko San Road.

Heading Home

We couldn't sleep our last night, so we were tired when we started our odessey. Our flight went from Bangkok to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to LA, La to Seattle, Seattle to Vancouver, Vancouver to Calgary. At the end of it all we were done in. Our flight from Hong Kong was neat, the plane was almost empty, so we each got our own row. We met a steward who had been to Banff and Calgary, so he took great care of us. At Thai Air, the ladies get an orchid when they depart. When we landed in LA, they found out we were ending our honeymoon, so they gave us a huge box of Godiva chocolates. We were treated really well on that flight. The rest left alot to be desired. The worst was from LA to Seattle, the place was overcrowded and we ended up sharing a seat and a half. The lady sitting beside Helen needed two out of the three seats on her own....BUT we made it and had an incredible time overall. We will never forget it.

	Bangkok to Hong Kong The plane rom Bangkok to Hong Kong.
	Hong Kong to LA The plane to LA.
	Back in Calgary Two exhausted travellers return home.