I’ve kind of been in denial that my trip is over so I’ve been putting off writing the final post about it.
My week in Thailand was a solid final week, although I didn’t do too much. For my birthday, I spent the day scuba diving around Koh Tao. I saw tons of fish and coral and it was a successful day of diving. I got a massage afterwards and then just hung around my hotel for the night. They were having a huge party the next night so I decided to take it easy before that. I tried to just treat my whole trip as my birthday; I didn’t want to put too much pressure on the day-of because I had no idea what I’d be doing.
The day after my hotel’s pool party I went on a day-long “road trip” with some French friends I made at my hotel. We went to a couple beaches, a waterfall, and a viewpoint for sunset. For my last day, I was planning on going around the island on a motorbike with a friend I made from New Zealand but the bike broke down about 5 minutes into the ride. Luckily it broke down in the middle of town where we could easily catch a taxi back to the rental place and had them come pick up the bike.
We ended up hanging out at the hotel pool for a bit, went into town and did some shopping, and then had a perfect ending to the day. My friend mentioned there’s a bar on the island that sells joints and you can sit at the bar and smoke without worrying about the police because they pay them off. I decided why not, it’s my last night of the trip and it sounds fun. He just walks up to the bar and says “Hi, can I have a banana shake and 2 joints?”, and they just hand us the joints and smile. The bar has an amazing view and we got there early enough to get a perfect seat. Since I live in California, I’m very used to being able to smoke weed in public or in bars (dispensary smoking lounges) and not worry about it. But doing that in a foreign country was a new experience.
It took 48 hours for me to get from Koh Phangan, Thailand back to San Francisco. I had to take a boat from Phangan to Koh Samui, fly from Samui to Bangkok, spent 5 hours at the Bangkok airport, then had a 5 hour flight to Seoul, South Korea. I had an 8 hour layover in South Korea that I spent taking a free tour of the city provided by the airport. It was pretty cool considering it was a free tour. I finally made it back to San Francisco on Friday morning local time after my 12 hour flight from Seoul.
Overall, this was without a doubt the best month of my entire life. I can’t believe that everything worked out so perfectly my entire trip. I didn’t have any canceled or majorly delayed flights, all of my accommodations were impressive, I spent less money than I was planning, I made tons of new friends everywhere I went, and I didn’t lose, break, or have anything stolen from me. I really couldn’t imagine this trip going any better than it did.
Since I spent less money than I was planning on spending, I’ve decided I’m going back to the Philippines in May and June to see the places I didn’t get to see on this trip. I also might have a job waiting for me there which I will definitely do if the opportunity arises.
I might make a couple more posts over the next few weeks on how I organized a trip like this by myself, how much this actually cost, and more things I often get asked about my travel habits. Thanks to everybody who kept up with my blog throughout my trip, it makes me happy knowing people are interested in reading about what I do :)
My week in Thailand was a solid final week, although I didn’t do too much. For my birthday, I spent the day scuba diving around Koh Tao. I saw tons of fish and coral and it was a successful day of diving. I got a massage afterwards and then just hung around my hotel for the night. They were having a huge party the next night so I decided to take it easy before that. I tried to just treat my whole trip as my birthday; I didn’t want to put too much pressure on the day-of because I had no idea what I’d be doing.
The day after my hotel’s pool party I went on a day-long “road trip” with some French friends I made at my hotel. We went to a couple beaches, a waterfall, and a viewpoint for sunset. For my last day, I was planning on going around the island on a motorbike with a friend I made from New Zealand but the bike broke down about 5 minutes into the ride. Luckily it broke down in the middle of town where we could easily catch a taxi back to the rental place and had them come pick up the bike.
We ended up hanging out at the hotel pool for a bit, went into town and did some shopping, and then had a perfect ending to the day. My friend mentioned there’s a bar on the island that sells joints and you can sit at the bar and smoke without worrying about the police because they pay them off. I decided why not, it’s my last night of the trip and it sounds fun. He just walks up to the bar and says “Hi, can I have a banana shake and 2 joints?”, and they just hand us the joints and smile. The bar has an amazing view and we got there early enough to get a perfect seat. Since I live in California, I’m very used to being able to smoke weed in public or in bars (dispensary smoking lounges) and not worry about it. But doing that in a foreign country was a new experience.
It took 48 hours for me to get from Koh Phangan, Thailand back to San Francisco. I had to take a boat from Phangan to Koh Samui, fly from Samui to Bangkok, spent 5 hours at the Bangkok airport, then had a 5 hour flight to Seoul, South Korea. I had an 8 hour layover in South Korea that I spent taking a free tour of the city provided by the airport. It was pretty cool considering it was a free tour. I finally made it back to San Francisco on Friday morning local time after my 12 hour flight from Seoul.
Overall, this was without a doubt the best month of my entire life. I can’t believe that everything worked out so perfectly my entire trip. I didn’t have any canceled or majorly delayed flights, all of my accommodations were impressive, I spent less money than I was planning, I made tons of new friends everywhere I went, and I didn’t lose, break, or have anything stolen from me. I really couldn’t imagine this trip going any better than it did.
Since I spent less money than I was planning on spending, I’ve decided I’m going back to the Philippines in May and June to see the places I didn’t get to see on this trip. I also might have a job waiting for me there which I will definitely do if the opportunity arises.
I might make a couple more posts over the next few weeks on how I organized a trip like this by myself, how much this actually cost, and more things I often get asked about my travel habits. Thanks to everybody who kept up with my blog throughout my trip, it makes me happy knowing people are interested in reading about what I do :)