Feeling Crabby in Krabi

In actuality Krabi was great. However, after dealing with the crazy and expensive transportation of Thailand, one can feel a bit crabby. A word to the wise, when looking at a map of Thailand, make sure you really estimate how much transportation will cost you. Staying in the more touristy areas, can save you a lot as you can join Minibuses and other mass transit to defray costs. Tuk Tuks, private taxis and even the ferries can be quite expensive. However, as usual we opted to take the road less traveled as we found an Airbnb that looked very unique in the jungle. We figured since it was listed as being in Krabi, then it would all be relatively close. Well, let's just say we were wrong...Again.

We took a Ferry from Phuket to OA Nang beach and spent the day in the beautiful shallow beach right near the pier. From there we decided to venture to our Homestay and after asking several people how to get to this town (which few knew of without us showing them a map) we took a Tuk Tuk for $20 (US) to Krabi town. In Krabi we were put onto an incredibly crowded bus with standing room only. There was no AC and we had to stand wedged in between people for over an hour attempting to avoid causing a domino effect by falling over either due to the erratic swaying of the bus or heat exhaustion. No one spoke English and it was obviously geared towards locals, but it cost us only $5 each (US), but it was incredibly uncomfortable. From there we were told to get off the bus in a town in the middle of no where. Again, no one spoke English, and none of the cafes had WIFI so we could not connect with our homestay we found on Airbnb. We ended up getting help from a local Thai lady running an internet arcade that was packed full of young Thai boys planning World of War Craft and who knows what. It was a comical sight, despite the fact we were sweating, lost and wondering around a town in the middle of nowhere. What did we get ourselves into this time?

OA Nang Beach

                                                                       Where are we?

                                                  Beautiful sights we found along the way


  

You can't always get what you want

Well, it's been almost our first month on the road. What a crazy few weeks it has been. We visited four countries, had four different currencies/exchange rates, three different languages (thankfully they spoke English in Singapore), took six flights, and countless taxis, ferries and tuk tuks. Why you may ask yourself, why would two girls who have a whole year to travel the world, be running through countries like TP when you have a cold (which we both did recently and used an absurd amount). Well to be honest we don't rightly know... When traveling you are continually looking at the current situation while attempting to be pragmatic about the future. As silly as it sounds, whether it be the fast paced lifestyle of the Western world still running though our veins telling us to move on or a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out). We have just been trying to see it all. While of course still attempting to be mindful of budgets, burn out and legalities such as Visas. We now have to admit above all else, we really just can't do it all. 

However, in the great words of the Rolling Stones, while you can't always get what you want, some times you do get what you need. While this month was absolutely crazy with so many "mistakes" made. We learned some great lessons, that we will take with us moving into the next chapters of our adventures. Through the ups and downs of the travel blitz month, we met so many wonderful people, saw amazing sights and even got a few great cocktail stories to add to the books. Phew, hello 2017 you certainly started with a bang.

 

Walking & Waterfalls

After a long day inside researching, planning, and booking tickets, we decided today was the perfect day to venture to Kathu Waterfall two miles from our apartment in Phuket. Our apartment provides a scooter, but we're hesitant to take it for a spin so we opted to walk to the trail head instead. The hike was short, sweet, humid, and lush. We wore our bathing suits but the pools aren't great for swimming.

We're so glad we walked because stumbled on a gym/spa called Herb Sauna where we got $10 massages with jasmine oil. The setting was beautiful with open air massage rooms where you could get a rub down while listening to calm music and birds chirping.

Navigating SE Asia

Getting around SE Asia is a lot harder than we ever thought. Call it blind optimism or stupidity but we truly thought we could hop around SE Asia like you could Europe. Well, my friends while it is moderately affordable to get around, getting from point A to B is a logistical nightmare. But half the fun I suppose (if you have time to spare). For example, we wanted to see Singapore but due to tight funds, we knew we couldn't afford it. So we intentionally took a 20 hour layover and got to do a free tour of the city! Boom, another stamp in the old passport!

Conversely, traveling SE Asia also means at times you are stuck pondering whether to stay in the outskirts of a town for cheaper or to spend more to stay centrally located. How much is transportation? Is it safe to walk around? Which beach on Phuket is the best to stay by? Every time we decide to move from one location to the next, we open Pandora's box of travel reviews, hotel booking sites and more. It can be daunting, however, if you take some time to do research before you book, it can really save you time and money.

One app we love is Rome2Rio, just about anywhere in the world you want to go, plug in your location and where you want to go and it will tell you how long, how much and the various paths you can take. Yes, it is amazing! It has saved us from numerous folly's and made us realize time and time again, that just popping from one place to the next, is a little more cumbersome than we expected.

Our twenty hour layover was worth it, Singapore was incredible:

S̄wạs̄dī (hello) from Thailand

We made it! After twenty hours in transit we finally have made it to Phuket. For the next twenty-four days we have rented an adorable Airbnb in the town of Kathu. It is a little town tucked out of the hustle and bustle of party towns like Patong. The condo has the most amazing views from our bedroom and we even get a free scooter to get around town on. After being on the move for the last month or so it feels amazing to have unpacked our backpacks for awhile and enjoy a little peace and quite. There is a night market next to our place that opens up every night with a panoply of fresh fruit and vegetables (see photo of our breakfast below...yum) not to mention numerous food carts boasting cheap Thai dishes and shall we say "unique" foods. Next on our agenda is to learn how to ask if dishes are vegetarian and then get to eatin! Yes, this is a little slice of heaven. Home base, how we have missed you!  

Calamity in visa land Pt. 2

We were the first ones to waiting in line to check in for our flight (punctual as always). We arrived 2.5 hour before our international flight, thinking we would have plenty of time to check in, eat a little breakfast and spend the last of our Dong. The ticketing agent then told us we needed proof we were leaving the Thailand on a PLANE. The bus tickets we painstakingly planned and already purchased in conjunction with a domestic flight to Bangkok would not suffice. YIKES!

Running out of time and feeling like to unwilling contestants on The Amazing Race, we agreed to only get our boarding passes to Singapore then get proof of a flight out of Thailand by the time we reached Singapore.With only moments to spare we purchased the quickest snacks we could find with our remaining dong (spending more on peanuts than you do on four Banh Mi sandwiches argh) and ran to the plane.

We flew Tigerair which has an option when you book for "Tiger Connect" it is a fee you can pay so they take your bags from one flight to the next. If you ever fly Tiger air purchase it (you'll see why). Since they refused to give us our boarding passes for the second flight we were told to go out, clear immigration and then get our next boarding passes with proof of a flight out of Thailand. Once in Singapore an airport employee warned us that many times once you leave the secured area, if you have a overnight layover they will not give you a boarding pass until the next day four hours before the flight. So now our bags are down circling the conveyor belt, if we leave the amazingly cush terminal then we risk not being able to get back in until 4 AM and the airport security could ask us to vacate until we had boarding passes. On the other hand, if we stay our bags could go to lost and found, and we miss the tour. Wow!  What a pickle we got ourselves into!

We ultimately, decided the cheapest option for a flight out of Thailand was to hop over to Kuala Lumpur for a few days. It is a visa run of sorts but hey for $128 we get yet another stamp in our passport and have an impromptu visit to Malaysia. Knowing our grave fate of sleeping (hopefully) on a few chairs in the arrival department of the Singapore airport, we did one last Hail Mary and went back to the Tigerair counter. Two new employees working this time, and we asked them just to be sure, if there was anyway we could get our boarding passes now so that we could go on the tour and get back into the terminal. These people were ANGELS. "Of course, one of you already has the Tigerconnect (not sure how this happened), so if the other just pays $40, we will make sure your bags go to Thailand and we can print both of your boarding passes here." What the what?! Never once did they ask to see our tickets out of Thailand, which we just spent several hundred dollars on only moments prior.

We can't help but cringe a little thinking that if we could have just talked to these people originally all the stress and the random trip to Malaysia could have been avoided. On the bright side, which there always is if you look hard enough. We got to go on the free tour (which we highly recommend if you have 5+ hours to kill in the Singapore airport), we had a relatively comfy place to sleep (fo free) and we are goin to Malaysia.

Lessons learned:

1) We assumed a bus ticket would suffice, even the Thai embassy told us so. It seems like we just had bad luck getting a ticketing agent in Saigon that wanted to play by the strictest of rules (in truth, it is the job of the airline to ensure no tourist is staying over 30 days in Thailand, so bring proof, printed if possible).

2) Ask someone, and then ask again and again. We were seconds away from leaving that Holy Ground of the Singapore airport and condemning ourselves to a sleepless night in the arrivals lounge or worse. We are so fortunate, we listened to the tour guide who warned us not to leave unless we were sure to get boarding passes first.

3) Sometimes, paying those extra fees does save you in the long run. For us, the $40 for Tigerconnect was well worth not having to clear immigration and wait till the morning for new boarding passes.

4) Stress kills, it is so hard to remove your emotions from a stressful situation. However, at the end of the day whatever it costs, or the discomfort it may bring you. At least we are traveling the world together and getting to spend this year with all of its trials and tribulations doing something that many can only dream about. We are so fortunate, even in these frustrating times we wouldn't rather be anywhere else. It's important to take a step back and have a little perspective.   

Calamity in visa land

Well, let me start this story by saying I am a bit embarrassed by our actions and I do take full responsibility for my part in it. However, there is a lot of misinformation and "regulations" seem to be up to the person you deal with at times. However, let our folly be your word to the wise.

We landed in Saigon with a great plan. Enjoy a long weekend of taking in the sights and then on Monday pick up a 60 day visa from the Thai Embassy and on Tuesday zip off for a month+ to Phuket and the South of Thailand. On Monday morning after reading many travel reviews saying getting a visa was super easy, we woke up early and planned on being the first ones at the embassy office so that we could get our visa processed and be on our way to enjoy one last day in Vietnam, getting massages, eating Pho and taking in the sights. 

Upon arrival, the lady noted that we had to prove we had tickets out of the country, we asked if bus tickets would be okay and she said yes but they had to have a printed copy as evidence. We had read so many posts about border runs in Phuket we had assumed we could just take care of staying slightly over the 30 days once we were in the country. Especially for a 60 day visa, it is really hard to book a ticket that far in advance when you are trying to live life on the wild side (you know sans itinerary).  After hours of running different scenarios and price checking each option to find the cheapest most effective way to leave the country. We decided to fly from Surat Thani Thailand to Bangkok then take a bus to Cambodia. 

Armed with the necessary documents we got another Uber back to the embassy. Filled out the documents with ferocity knowing we were nearing the end of the day, only to be informed that we couldn't get the Visa in time before our flight. 5 Ubers later and our last day wasted in Vietnam we discovered a few frustrating truths that could have saved us a lot of time and money if we knew them earlier:

1) Visas take at least two days! We should have gone in on Friday so we could have picked them up on Monday. Plan ahead for unforeseen bumps in the road and take care of business first! Usually, our M.O If you know us, then you know how shocking it is we dropped the ball like this.

2) Ask more questions. People tend to be short with you when there are language barriers but take the time to make sure you fully understand the situation. When we went in that morning to get the Visa, we should have made sure, if we did indeed get the printed proof of tickets out of the country, could we get the visa done in time?

3) Don't trust everything you read. We read so many reviews and blogs, that said it was very easy to get a Visa and that they did not have to show proof of an exit ticket. That pared with the advertisements of border runs we figured it would be easy. When in doubt be over prepared, especially when it comes to something as important as a visa.

4) Laugh at yourself, learn from the mistake and move on. Traveling with a companion it can be easy to get mad at each other of take the frustration of the situation out on each other. However, after spending so much time and money on a completely moot point we left the embassy and just had a good long laugh. 

At the end of this exhausting/stressful day. We remembered a vegetarian restaurant we passed in one of our Uber rides and decided to go look for it and at least take the opportunity to eat in a new part of town. Retracing our steps we were quite proud of ourselves. High fiving each other and reveling in our awesome internal GPS systems. Until... we landed right back at the embassy. We did a huge circle, didn't eat all day (our last day to enjoy the amazing foods of Saigon no less), and it started to rain. Late, tried and slightly depressed, we splurged to get yet another round of Ubers to our favorite Bingsu place (amazing Korean dessert). Two heaping portions of shaved ice, fresh fruit and condensed milk later, the world was looking a little brighter.

Thinking back to all the things we could have done differently could literally make you go crazy. Coulda, woulda, shoulda all you want. However, the only thing to do is to learn from the mistake, share your story with others so you may save them the hassle, treat yo self and move on.