Goodnight Bang Niang, Take 2:

Bang Niang
Disclaimer: I'm also bothered by the font changes throughout my posts. I'm doing all of this through the Blogger app and can't figure out why it's happening and am waiting on help from Blogger to maybe fix it. Sorry it's annoying... Thanks for dealing with it!

There were two small stories I forgot to mention before saying goodbye. First, the adorable older Danish woman staying at our hostel. She was just all smiles all the time and so impressed that we were American yet not falling down drunk all the time. Yay us! One run-in, she was wearing this black shimmery dress so I asked, "Where are you off to dressed so nice and fancy?" She grabs the edges of her dress and shimmies her butt and says, " Ohhhhhhhh I just LOVE dresses, eeeeee!! I just threw all of my dresses into a suitcase so I could wear them all through my whole trip, weeeeeee!!" Haha! Not what I was expecting. 

Second, the many songs we were all singing during our dives. Obviously Disney's "Under the Sea" was in my head most of the time, especially because I saw the fish the who inspired "the blackfish she sings!"


My second song comes from another childhood movie, Bedknobs and Broomsticks called "The Beautiful Briny": http://youtu.be/frfadf6LjmE. Yes I'm a very large child. Ryan shared his and Dennis was quickly onboard for The Beatles, "Octopus's Garden": http://youtu.be/YEHBzZsBEvY. Which now I love and have added to the library in my head for underwater adventures. 

We're also waiting on some underwater pics from Dennis to share... So until then, goodbye Bang Niang! 

SCUBA Certs, Check

Bang Niang

We met our Swedish instructor Dennis early Monday morning for course review and taking our written PADI Open Water Certification test. We hopped into the water for the rest of the day for scuba exercises upon exercises upon exercises. When I first put all of the gear on and we were just standing talking I swear I was about to topple over! It's heavy and weighted a lot lower than I expected which my back hated immediately, but getting in the water is a different story. Dennis has been a scuba instructor for 16 years, he's very thorough and repeats everything a million times so much so Ryan and I could now teach this course. Sign of a good teacher and he obviously loves what he does. He and his Thai girlfriend of also 16 years, spend half the year in Sweden where he teaches motorcycle riding and half the year in Khao Lak. Pretty awesome!!! His girl Tek is also a scuba instructor, he introduced her to it when they first met, and she was out on our dive boat working the day trips. We headed out to the Similan Islands for our four course dives and two recreational dives. We decided to stay overnight on the boat and we're so happy we did because, the Similan Islands are BEAUTIFUL!

Do you see the itty bitty people up on top of that rock?? This was the spot for our very first dive called Donald Duck Bay, see why:



Tons of snorkel trips come out here too. There are speed and dive boats everywhere, it's a bit nuts. With all of the diving Ryan did off Okinawa, he never saw a sea turtle, it was the only goal he had for our diving here. Within the first minute of our first dive, we saw a green turtle!! We actually saw three turtles the whole trip so he was pumped.



Our overnight was such a good call (aside from my not sleeping a wink). All of the day timers left, it was only us, Tek, Dennis, the Thai crew and three other overnighters, David, Kathrin and Claudia. David's a Spaniard who moved to London years ago when their economy tanked. He now works in a super posh hotel and had a pretty funny run in with GOT's Cersie! He's also doing his Open Water Cert. Kathrin and Claudia are German friends who work in marketing at the same company. Claudia is a diver but Kathrin is a good sport and came along for the snorkeling. She's the only one of us who saw a shark. They were all so nice and of course spoke fantastic English (we're so spoiled!). We had a blast telling stories, checking out the islands and once we noticed the disco ball, had a dance party. FYI - you should ALWAYS have a dance party playlist on your phone because you never know when a party on a boat in the middle of the ocean needs to happen. I had to take another shower afterwards because the Thai crew was laughing at me sweating through my shirt. 




The reefs in Similan are currently in recovery from a spike in water temperature years back which caused all of the coral to bleach and die. Just now the colors are coming back and new growth is taking off. Even without the intense coral colors, the Similan reefs are really interesting as the islands are made up of HUGE boulders of granite and limestone that have toppled into the water creating really fun areas to swim around. We saw: green turtles, sea snakes, garden eels, clown fish in their lil anemone homes, parrot fish loudly chomping at coral, lionfish, sea cucumbers, blue spotted stingray, a lobster with a 4' antenna span, tuna eating other fish, monster pufferfish, and so many of their colorful friends. I think my favorites though are these little blackfish that live in the branch coral that start out teeeeeeeny tiny and closest to the coral, then their slightly older and bigger versions are the next layer and then the slightly bigger ones are the next moving farther and farther out from the coral almost in rings. They all move together and it's like you could capture 10 generations all arranged by height in one picture of this coral. 
Staying overnight allowed us to have sunset and sunrise dives. So quiet and so beautiful. 



But after a few big jumps off the sun deck, we had to say goodbye to this lovely place. I can't wait to come back with more experience and dive in some of the other locations known for manta rays.




We got back to town and went out to dinner at the slowest restaurant in the world!! We both had finished our drinks and we're ready to drop money and just pay for those and leave when we realized we didn't have small enough money to leave, we would need change... So we waited it out. This family sitting next to us was staring at us, like really staring at us and watching us... Ryan suspected that they were interested because we're American, I thought it was because we looked like a couple of zombies freaking out over being so tired and so hungry. I mean we're sweating, we're rubbing our faces, my shirt was on inside out and I didn't even know it. We were stupid tired. It was weird. And then an older couple hopped out of a cab walked three steps to the first table on our other side and almost DIED falling into the chairs. They were grasping at the chairs and wheezing... It was three steps, what are they even doing out of the house? To add to the weirdness, Ryan went to the bathroom in which there are three partial walls around each urinal. He was encouraged with some local artwork to do his business:



Another fun nightlife thing in Bang Naing is these rival bars on opposing corners trying to beat each other out in twinkle lights. And dogs and cats do not care about you or anything that's happening around them It's like they're dead on the sidewalk.



Except for one who was the cheeriest doggy with her little bow. She would hop onto her owners scooter for rides to and from town.



Anyways, I slept great that night and took many naps the next day. Goodnight Bang Niang.




Life is beachy

Bang Niang

We've been taking it easy lately. It's been way hot and Ryan's heat rash is not happy, so we've kept it to short outings to markets, warm ocean swims and nighttime dinner strolls. If only we had a kitchen to take full advantage of the fresh and crazy produce. 


Banana pancakes are a sweet find that combine a roti dough with dessert crepe filling. Ryan's new favorite is mango and raw honey, yummmmmmm! My go to are these coconut cakes that taste like really gooey coconut oatmeal... maybe that doesn't sound so great but I love them!


Saturday night we walked out of our hotel to a seemingly horrible live cover of The Cranberries "Zombie". But it was an all kids band so horrible quickly became adorable. Next up was "Don't Worry Be Happy" which really is the perfect song for our journey and we've been singing it ever since. 



Khao Lak was practically erased by the 2004 tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 14 countries. They have rebuilt and survived and are now equipped with a warning system and several evacuation buildings, like the one below, all over town. I know, fantastic photography skills here.


Ryan was telling me about a top ten article from a travel agent recounting stories of the worst nationalities to deal with for travel and why. Americans were near the end of the list but mostly because our heavy tipping excuses much of our bad behavior. But according to this person, the worst part of American travelers is that our expectations are high and when something doesn't go according to plan or meets those expectations, we then expect our money back. The very first American I meet here, from PA, tells me how his girl got "food poisoning" from a restaurant in Bangkok and he went back the next day to demand his money back... And he was appalled that they asked to see a doctor's note and said he needed to speak with the owner. Ughhhhh GTFO.

Second American we met was from Abington, PA and he was awesome but that might have something to do with he's lived in Sweden for the last 30 years.  Rick and Hellen from Stockholm overheard our accents at dinner and we're so surprised to hear Americans in this area of Thailand, they had to ask about us. They're in their early 60s and he's a land surveyor and she's been a flight attendant for 30 years, which is how they met in the Virgin Islands. But before that, she was a total badass who traveled through Canada, the US and Mexico and back via Greyhound bus! Since this is an election year he was concerned over our absentee ballots and we were off and running on political discussions. They are so appalled at our gun control situation and we couldn't agree more. They were lovely, offered us a place to stay in Sweden and we ended up closing the restaurant with them as we giggled over the statues that came with our bill. 



Sunday is for fishing. Quiet, easy fishing. We went north of Bang Niang to the White Sandy Beach which is quite white, covered in coral and so untouched. Two local men were our guides and they knew what they were doing with this longboat. The motor and rudder were separate poles that he held in opposite hand and foot. At times he was spread across the back of the boat, steering with his fingertips and between his big and second toe. We caught coral grouper and some kind of snapper. The only conversation between us was as follows:
Him: Australian?
Us: USA America
Him: Obama!!!! (Thumbs up)
Us: Obama!!! (Shaking heads)
Him: ISIS (beheading and gun shots hand motions)
Us: ???
Him: (Thumbs down) 

Until the end when he said "Bar. Be. Que!" And so we went in search of a restaurant that could cook our catch. 


Our favorite noodle lady did us a solid, understood what we wanted and cooked up some of our fresh catch for dinner. She's the best and it was SO GOOD!! 


Dipping our toes in

Bang Niang

A waterfall hike was on the docket first thing in the morning. We were told we should rent a scooter for any of the hikes but that seemed ridiculous especially when the trailhead was only a few blocks away and the hike in was only 5 or so miles. We got this, they don't know us... Efffffffff it is HOT. And that trailhead is really just a long winding paved road (read HOT) and not through the shade of the jungle as expected. Oh well, onward. It did sting every time we saw a couple zoom right past us on their scooter... We got there, slightly miserable, but nothing a lil waterfall swimming hole can't cure. 




There were little fish in the pools that eat all of the dead skin from your feet and legs, so we received fishy pedicures for free! Sometimes they took a little more than what you were ready to give... The only other wildlife aside from lizards I saw was a banana spider but no, I don't want to talk about it.

The way back seemed shorter, although Ryan was draped in a towel and I fashioned a lovely bandana cape to keep from getting sunburnt. We passed all these tree groves along the way where each tree had a section of bark cut from it and a bowl attached right below the cut, but the bowls were turned on their sides. We haven't figured out yet what exactly these trees produce but I bet harvest season is fun when someone has to walk all of those tree lines and turn the bowls over. Other than Ryan's intense heat rash and my blisters, sitting in waterfalls is awesome. 



There's a night market here three days a week with food, clothes, toys, soap sculptures and more. If you ever wondered: what is the dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget equivalent in SEA? We have your answer: shrimp and crab on a stick which we're pretty sure there's no differentiation of shrimp vs crab here, it's all imitation factory shaped something. 



Funny enough, we met the man and his kids in the foreground the next day! He's German, just like almost everyone else who's visiting here. So many Germans and Scandinavians! Businesses have signs promoting that they speak German. Restaurants have German translations on their menus. There must be some good Khao Lak advertising going on over there. FYI for clarification - Khao Lak is the overall 19 mile stretch of beach and we're in town of Bang Niang in Khao Lak. 

Apparently we're the old heads here because we're up and looking for breakfast at 830am and no one opens until 10... Ever had hot noodle soup for breakfast in 90degree heat? It was delicious but not exactly what we were aiming for. We met an Englishman named Ben over our hot soup breakfast who's on a similar journey as ourselves. The night before, Ryan was trying to access Netflix and it wouldn't work because Netlfix was open to many other countries. We were talking about cancelling it but in the morning, literally 8 hours later,Netflix  opened services up to all, woohoo! Turns out Ben did the exact same thing that night and but actually cancelled his membership! So funny. We love this noodle shop, it's the cheapest deal in town, so good and the lady is so sweet. 



Our hostel owner is Kok, and he's a P.I.M.P. Ok, not really, but he's a smart businessman for sure. He's from Bangkok but moved here for his wife and now owns our hostel, a painting/roofing supply company, a motorbike rental company, a night club and is building a yoga retreat. He came to the US in his early 20's and worked in a national park in Nevada. He must have learned how the white man spends his money and is putting that knowledge to good use here. The other night he was waiting for us to go out to dinner and drove us to a neighboring town with their night market, which happens to be right beside his nightclub Build Factory where he treated us to drinks. It's a slick modern club for sure who's bathroom sinks have a little too much water pressure which I and my clothes learned first hand. He's made arrangements for us all over the place and it's been really helpful. 

Are you for scuba?? Getting scuba certified was one of my goals for this trip and Bang Niang is known for diving so no time like the present! Ryan's scuba certified from his years stationed in Okinawa, Japan but since that was 11 years ago, he's taking the course again with me. We just got out of 4 hours of video instruction and I have a headache but I'm pumped! Pool training on Monday with four dives Tuesday and Wednesday and we'll be set "for scuba" forever. Unda da sea! 

More Little Mermaid references to follow. 


Gooooood Morning Bang Niang!!

Bang Niang
We took an overnight "VIP" bus to get to Bang Niang and it was awesome! Blankets, snacks, water, Thai comedy tv shows, fully reclining seats. So comfy. Even our bus attendant (like a flight attendant but for a bus, get it?) went from her bright orange and blue skirt suit with her cute little hat, to Mickey Mouse sweatpants. We missed our stop but only by a mile or so, walked the rest of the way to hostel and woke up the housekeeper, whoops! We were there before the whole town was awake so we dropped our bags and headed to the beach for a swim and some food.


We settled into our place and glory glory we have our own A/C in our room!! In our hostel in Bangkok we had A/C but it was shared between two rooms and we were in the farther away one. It was a constant battle of us turning it on and others turning it off. We'd wake up at 4am sweating like crazy which we could deal with if there weren't perfectly good cooler option. I kid you not that when I went to our outdoor shower on a 85degree morning, it was cooler and nicer outside than in our room. Grrrrr. Different strokes sure but we even talked with other guests about it and they just didn't care. 

We spent the rest of the day swimming in the ocean, playing frisbee, eating, talking with a German family and watching the sunset. There are a surprising amount of Christmas decorations around, my mom would be so pumped!! Except that it's done in a more silly string/Xmas throw up kind of a way... Still festive so I'm for it! 


The party on the beach was just beginning but considering we woke up the town, we opted for massages and bed. Tomorrow is another day.

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