Ko Phangan

After 4 flights and about 22 hours of traveling we finally arrived in Ko Samui on Feb 2 at around 2pm. We were super lucky on our 13 hours flight from Vancouver to Taipei as we had no one in the seat between us. Scott slept stretched out on the 3 seats and I slept on the floor (not the most comfortable but better than sitting up!). We flew EVA air for the first time and it's a great airline! Nice planes and good food.

We both took just carry on for this vacation as we have 2 tight airline connections later in the trip that I don't want to trust to checked baggage. The last connection on this trip also was a tight 2 hour window between landing in Bangkok where we had to get through customs, run to the domestic check in to get boarding passes then back through security to our gate. We just made it as the customs line was insane, it took over an hour to clear so we were glad we didn't have to wait for baggage too after all that.

We crashed in Ko Samui the first night...we barely managing to stay awake until 8:30pm as we were so jet lagged but we woke up feeling pretty good and enjoyed a nice breakfast on the beach before taking a ferry to Ko Phangan at 12:30pm. Ko Samui is way more expensive and a bit overdeveloped for us but Ko Phangan is a total laid back hippy island and right up our alley!!

This beautiful hotel cost us about $70/night and it was paradise! We spent the last 4 days suntanning and eating yummy food and generally relaxing and getting over jet lag.

While we were just finishing up dessert in a restaurant on the 2nd night,  I look up as a girl walks in and we both freeze as we make eye contact...it's an old friend from high school who I haven't seen or heard from in close to 15yrs! She has been living on Ko Phangan for 6 years and owns a restaurant just down the road from our hotel. We hung out the next night at her restaurant for dinner (very good Israeli food!) and last night she took me to a place called The Dome with outdoor saunas and firepits and hypnotic music pumping, it was a unexpectedly fun night!

Today is a travel day. I'm writing this on my iPhone from a ferry. Thankfully SIM cards are super cheap in Thailand...for $25 we both have 30 days unlimited data. We are heading back to the mainland where a bus will take us 3 hours into one of the world's oldest rain forests! We are staying in a tree house in the jungle and filling the next 3 days with adventure!