thailand: day 7

we were exhausted from doing so much the day before, so we slept in, packed our stuff, then went back to the korean restaurant for lunch. we met our friend troy in the afternoon.  troy started a non-profit called speak up, which is something like ijm.  he showed us the university where he teaches a criminal law class, and a new office space for his non-profit near the university.  his vision is to get thai students interested in justice issues and have them work on those issues.  we met one of his students, and his summer intern.

then the three of us went to get middle eastern food.  we ate till we were stuffed.  then we parted ways with troy and went back to the hotel.  from there we took a cab to the airport for our red eye flight to seoul.

thailand: day 4

we had breakfast early and w went diving in the morning to complete his open water certification.  he said he saw a shark and 2 barracudas.  he also learned more skills.  meanwhile, i took a nap, read a book and got familiarized with the area. 

when he returned we had lunch and went snorkeling around the island.  then we went swimming at the pool, went back to our room, washed up and relaxed until dinner time.  we had a pasta buffett dinner and regretted not getting thai food instead.

thailand: day 3

by now we were wishing we had planned more time in thailand.  the weather is slightly cooler than vietnam, and everything is a little nicer, but still different.  the food is amazing.

we got up early and got on a boat to go scuba diving.  we were to do 2 dives that day in two locations.  i was feeling nervous.  the boat was rocky and i started feeling a little nauseous.  we went down for our first dive.  it was pretty amazing - saw tons of fish and a barracuda.

then the not so fun part began.  we came out of the water and breaked for lunch.  before eating, we were to do more tests: swimming around the boat twice and floating in the water for 10 minutes.  i completed the swim but during the float i started feeling nautious.  i got back on the edge of the boat and began puking.  i puked until all my breakfast came out.  the fish loved it and all came to eat the "food".  sorry, i know this is tmi!

i didn't eat lunch.  i wasn't going to go back down but the instructor encouraged my to go down just for 20 minutes.  i reluctantly agreed and went down.  we ended up staying down there for 40 minutes.  i'm glad i went because that second dive earned my completion of the PADI scuba diving certification.

we got back to the island and chilled.  we ate gelato, did some shopping and ate phad thai.  w went back to the school to continue on with the Open Water certification, which i decided not to get.  this means you can dive alone, but i don't think i'd ever want to go down without a guide.  w loves scuba diving, because he loves animals and you really do get to see a lot of cool stuff down there.

while he finished class i walked around, got some gifts and chilled at a bookstore.  lots of used bookstores here where travelers buy and sell their books.

w and i ate a grilled fish for dinner, then took a long boat to our second hotel, which was about a 30 minute boat ride.

thailand: day 2

we got up early in the morning, had breakfast at the hotel, then got picked up by a truck to head to the port.  from there we took a 2 hour boat to phi phi island.  immediately we headed for the diving center to sign up for scuba diving.

we had classroom instruction while enjoying really good fried rice and pastries from local vendors, and then went into the water for skills learning.  i panicked at first but was able to complete all of the skills.  then we went back for more classroom instruction.

then we checked into the hotel and explored the town.  had dinner (green curry, chicken and papaya salad) at a place called papaya.  the food was really good.  we already started falling in love with thailand. 

we went back to the hotel and went to bed early.

vietnam day 11 / thailand day 1

so the night before we took a van from sapa to laocai.  then we took the night train from laocai to hanoi.  we took a taxi to the airport.  we then waited 5 hours at the hanoi airport for our flight.  i saw 2 rats at the airport.  by this point we were tired and ready to leave vietnam.  we finally got on a plane from hanoi to bangkok.  we waited 4 more hours at the airport, then flew from bangkok to krabi.  then took a cab to our hotel. 

after checking in we went to the night market where we had really good phad thai, mangosteen, honey chicken on skewers and durian for the first time.  we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

already we could see a big difference between vietnam and thailand.  thailand is much more developed and even the street food is cleaner.