Back to Bangkok; Riverview Hotel

After Koh Phi Phi, we were back in Bangkok for a few days before our flight back to Taiwan. We wanted to stay in a different area and at a nicer place this time so we paid some more money and booked at the Riverview Hotel. 

Prior to arriving, I already wasn't too fond of this hotel. I had been emailing them every day while we were in Koh Phi Phi asking for directions on how to get to their hotel from the smaller airport. They emailed me back but didn't answer any of my questions, told me they would get back to me, told me that they would never forget to respond to my emails. And then they just stopped responding. So we arrived in Bangkok, unsure of how to get to the hostel. We called them, they told us if we would've asked beforehand.. they could've sent a car to get us but now they can't... Um.. I did ask beforehand. I emailed for a week straight. I tried to get past it, miscommunication and a language barrier, moving on.

We checked in and headed to our room. I have never been so disappointed. The pictures and descriptions shown on their website are so different from what is actually given to you. The floor was concrete and there was a horrible smell. We tried to make the best of it. Since we had gotten there pretty late, we went to the hotel's restaurant. Which was possibly the one redeeming part of this hotel. The view from the restaurant was amazing. Again, the food was subpar but the view was great so we had a good time. When we went back to our room, it had started to rain and come in through the window, making the smell 10x worse. I had fallen asleep so Rick went down to complain to the front desk and they said we could switch rooms in the morning.

In good spirits at the restaurant

Beautiful view

By the time the morning came, the smell was unbearable. Rick went down to inquire about switching rooms and of course, completely different staff. They had no idea what we were talking about and said that since the rain had stopped, we couldn't switch rooms. I was so frustrated at this point, I was looking at other hotels in Bangkok to switch to. Eventually, Rick kept talking to them about the smell and how horrible it was, it really was bad. They switched our room... to a dorm room. It was definitely nicer than our last room but we had four single beds to ourselves.. it felt very weird.

Not in a good mood.

Our dorm room

Our dorm room

Urinal, anyone?

In the end, I wasn't impressed with this hotel in the least bit. Usually when someone has so many complaints about a room, a hotel will offer a better room. Instead, we were given a dorm room. I would NOT recommend this hotel to anyone. They claim to be in China Town but they are really on the outskirts of China Town. Not a convenient location at all and the staff speak little to no English. Very poor customer service.

Here is the link to the hotel so you can be sure NOT to book there.

The Worst Hotel Experience Ever

Koh Phi Phi: Part Two

We had one full day and one half day left at Koh Phi Phi and we hadn't done the viewpoint yet so off we went. First, I headed to breakfast while Rick figured out the room situation. It didn't take long, the staff there was so nice. They apologized profusely and switched our room right away. I was exponentially happier! Before the room switch, I was feeling pretty upset and just wanted to leave but that definitely made things better.

Happy to be in our new room

We decided to spend the morning snorkeling and swimming at our resort's beach since it would be our last chance to do so. After spending a few hours swimming and relaxing, we took the afternoon taxi boat into the main village for lunch and the hike.

Hanging out on the swing at our resort

We ended up going for Mexican food at Banana bar, a bar we had went to before that sold buckets buy one get one free and the food was great. It was really good food and they gave us a discount because we liked their facebook page while we were there. After lunch, we were off to the viewpoint.

We had talked about hiking the viewpoint from when we first got to Koh Phi Phi because our beach and the main island are connected via the viewpoint but that hike turned out to be not my thing haha too much jungle for me. So we went to the main area and did the smaller hike from there. The hike was hard.. so many steep stairs but it was totally worth it when we got to the top. There were two different viewpoints and they were both beautiful. 

On the way

Viewpoint One

The view from viewpoint one

More hiking to viewpoint two.. 5 minute walk.. liars

On the way

WE HAVE ARRIVED

10 Baht for the toilet please

After the viewpoint, we did some more souvenir shopping and then relaxed at a restaurant which was playing the Friends DVD . Then it was back to our resort.  We spent the night there going for dinner and relaxing. The next day we left Koh Phi Phi at 10AM to head back to Krabi for a flight to Bangkok for a few more days. Our hotel in Bangkok was supposed to be our nicest one yet but we were in for a big surprise.

We were joined at the last supper by stray cats

Saying goodbye to our resort during our last breakfast

Goodbye Rantee Beach

Goodbye hammock

While in Koh Phi Phi, we stayed at Rantee Cliff Beach Resort. I would definitely recommend this resort to anyone who is not interested in the crazy partying that goes on in Koh Phi Phi. The rooms have an amazing view and the staff are very helpful in all aspects. But, like I said, you are not on the main village so if that is where you want to be, it can be difficult and expensive to get back from there very late. We weren't really interested in getting drunk so it was perfect for us. 

Koh Phi Phi: Part One

Koh Phi Phi was the place where we were staying still for the longest amount of time; four days and three nights. We decided to stay not in the main village but on Rantee Beach. We decided this because Rick wanted to make sure we were right on the beach and this was recommended from our guidebook. We got off the ferry and found the taxi boat to our resort; Rantee Cliff Beach Resort. We had to wait a few minutes and we were off, 15 minutes later, we had arrived at the resort.

The island had so many stray cats!

Waiting to be taken to our resort

By the time we got to the resort, it was after six o'clock so we decided to spend our first night on our beach. There were three other resorts on our beach and they all had their own restaurant. We were both tired from a long day of traveling so we went for dinner at our restaurant. While the resort in general was great, the restaurant left a lot to be desired. Safe to say, we didn't go back there for dinner after the first night.

Our resort had their own monkey

Our bamboo hut

The next day, we woke up bright and early to take the taxi boat from our beach into the main one BUT we missed the first one at 8AM. Noon it was! Instead we spent our morning enjoying our free breakfast from the resort, Rick snorkeled a lot and I sat in the sun and read. The reason we chose Rantee Beach out of all the beaches was because of the great snorkeling which was apparently right off the shore and what we had read didn't disappoint. Rick rented snorkeling equipment from our hotel and got right to it. He had an amazing time and I got to enjoy the sun. Win win.

We headed into the main town, Tonsai Village and our first stop was lunch. We went to a restaurant recommended by our guide book, Cosmos, and we were so far from disappointed. Rick had ravioli and I had gnocchi.. probably the best pasta we have both had in over a year. If there is one thing that Taiwan can't get right its pasta but boy did this place get it right. 

Next we hung out at the main beach for a bit, enjoying the water and the sun. After the beach, we went for dinner at a great Thai restaurant and then headed to a bar. We took our time because we had decided to stay in town until a bit later and take one of the taxi boats back (not provided by our resort). We knew it would be a little expensive for Thailand standards, around $20 CAD, but we really wanted to check out this one bar we had heard about. The bar offers free buckets of alcohol to any one who volunteers for an amateur Muay Thai fight so obviously we had to check it out. It was definitely an experience and I'd recommend going to anyone who is in Ko Phi Phi. The fact that guys are actually willing to get beat up just to save around $10 still surprises me but everyone is different, right?

Rick made a lot of monkey friends

Buy one get one free!

Then, it started to rain. We thought hey we better get out of here so we can take a taxi boat back. Then it started to pour. Then it got worse as we were running to the main pier. Then the streets were starting to flood. The streets that were once full of people offering their services of a taxi boat were empty. I stopped in a store and Rick kept going to find out if anyone was left. There was one taxi boat driver who said he could take us but not until the rain stopped and for $1500 Baht so around $50 CAD. Rick haggled him down to just over $30 and we began to wait out the rain. We really didn't want to have to pay that much but we also wanted to go back to our resort. Finally the rain stopped and so began the scariest boat ride of my life. I was literally convinced we were going to die, Rick was reassuring me but after the ride, he informed me the whole time he was thinking about the easiest way for us to swim if the boat had tipped. Thankfully, we made it back safely. And we never stayed in the main town past the last taxi boat provided by our resort again.

The next day we woke up early and went back into town because we had booked a half day tour around some islands, bays and it included some snorkeling. This half day tour was such an amazing aspect of our time at Ko Phi Phi. First we went to Maya Bay (the beach where the movie, 'The Beach' was filmed). After which, we went to a few beautiful bays and some amazing snorkeling spots. I am not generally interested in snorkeling. I have tried it multiple times in the past and it has given me a lot of anxiety, I could never get used to the idea of being able to breathe through my mouth under water. But, Rick really wanted me to try again so I did and I finally succeeded! It was amazing. We had so much fun snorkeling together, I was even able to see my favorite fish, NEMO! Rick was super excited that I finally got the hang of it because he loves snorkeling and now he could drag me along with him.

Maya Bay

Our half day tour ended at Monkey Beach. This beach is known for being rampant with socialized/wild monkeys. Tourists visit the island every day and feed the monkeys bananas, pineapples, anything. My friend had recommended that we go here so we were excited. When we arrived, there were a few other boats there visiting the island but no one else was getting off their boats. We decided to be brave and go try and feed some monkeys. They were totally willing to come up to anyone, as long as they had some food to offer.

After our day trip, we were exhausted so we headed back to our resort. When we got back to the room, we had the unfortunate experience of finding a tree frog on the walls of our room. We told the hotel staff and they removed it, unfortunately, that wasn't the end of my experience with creatures in this room. We later realized there was a major gap in our hut, hence the entrance of the tree frog. As well as so many mosquitoes that we were forced to use the mosquito net every single night. But that wasn't the end. 

The gap in our room 

How Rick fixed the gap; curtains, blankets, and rugs

We relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the night eating at a restaurant near our resort. In the middle of the night, I woke up to use the washroom. As I was leaving, I noticed a massive spider (about the size of the palm of my hand) right on the floor beside the door of the bathroom. With this bathroom, you had to lock the door every time you used it if you wanted it to fully close. I panicked. Started screaming. Woke Rick up and he was freaking out because the door was locked from the inside so he couldn't get in. Once I finally escaped the bathroom of horrors, I had the worst night sleep of my life. I knew the spider was there somewhere and I felt so sick with fear. 

The next day, Rick examined the other rooms and saw that only some of them had the gap which allowed all sorts of creatures in. We were switched to a new room for our last night in Koh Phi Phi and I was pretty happy about that.

Koh Phangan: How We Spent the 20 Hours We Had There

We had to take a ferry to Koh Phangan and it didn't suit either of us very well. I felt nauseous while Rick spent his time vomiting. Lovely start to Koh Phangan. We arrived there and it was beautiful. Upon arriving to our hostel, we really wished we had more time there. It was great. We had our own hut with a hammock out front. The hostel had its own little beach, a beach bar, tons of lounge area. It looked awesome. 

The Half Moon Party is a party that happens once a month in Koh Phangan. These parties started with just the original Full Moon Party, also once a month, but I have no idea why it started or who started it. But as I said, they have expanded to the Half Moon and also the Black Moon Party. I think that they're just looking for any reason to have a party. Regardless, everyone we talked to who had been to Thailand and one of these parties said we had to go. Lucky for us, the Half Moon fell right in the middle of our trip so off we went.

Koh Phangan was where we had planned to meet up with a former teacher from Gloria, Emily. She finished her contract a month ago and thought she would be travelling Thailand alone so we were all really excited to meet up for the Half Moon Party. An even better part of it was that she ended up traveling with Amber, Ashley (two more former Gloria teachers), and their friend Kelly. Since the Half Moon Party was closer to our hostel, they would be coming there later. So we headed to their beach for the afternoon.

They were staying on Haad Rin beach which is the main one. This beach is where the Full Moon Party usually is and I could see why. It was a massive beach, and it was beautiful. It was really nice to see some familiar faces! We relaxed on the beach, ate lunch, and caught up. Rick and I were pretty exhausted from our major day of traveling so we headed back to our hostel to take a nap, and have dinner and planned to meet back up with the girls later.

They came to our hostel at around 10 PM and we had lots of fun drinking and painting each other with some crazy designs. The Half Moon Party is full of black lights so everyone paints neon paint on themselves. Another thing I thought was funny was that all throughout the town, stores were selling shirts that said, "Half Moon Party!" or "Full Moon Party." And I thought to myself, no one would actually wear that shirt TO the party! Boy, was I proven wrong. I couldn't even count how many people were wearing those shirts, to each his own I suppose. 

The party was very cool and I am really glad we went. The atmosphere was really cool. Lots of black lights, lots of people wasted. So many European bros were there, shamelessly hitting on any girl in sight. One of them just walked up to one of my friends and started kissing her, no hello, nothing. Rick saw it and pushed him off of her. So that was an interesting experience. Another interesting part was that they sold laughing gas for $200 Baht for one balloon, we didn't partake in this.

About halfway through the night, we lost two of the girls we were with. Cue panic. So many random people. We searched for them for over an hour and were starting to stress out but finally, they came back. They had found some guy passed out behind the bathroom and got him sent to the hospital. After that, the party felt over for Rick and I so we headed back to the hostel. Taking a taxi back was a challenge, the driver wouldn't leave until he had a full van so people kept leaving to look for another ride. So frustrating. Eventually we made it back to our hostel, slept for two hours, and woke up in time for our 7AM ferry ride.

Wasn't feeling too great about this 7AM ferry ride

This guy was sleeping waiting for the ferry, it was clear he had been at the party as well

We had a ferry ride, a bus ride, another ferry ride and we arrived. Ko Phi Phi was our next destination.

While in Koh Phangan, we stayed at Coco Gardens. It had its own beach, their restaurant was amazing, a beach bar, each hut has its own hammock, more hammocks near the beach. Would have been amazing to stay longer. The staff was really nice, answered all the questions we had and hooked us up with a taxi to take us to our early morning ferry. If you are going to Koh Phangan and don't want to stay on Haad Rin Beach, this resort is perfect for you.

Travel Travel Travel: Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Koh Phangan

We left Chiang Mai bright and early to get back to Bangkok where we then had to wait until 9:00 to start our 12 hour bus-ferry trip to get to Koh Phangan for the Half Moon Party. A mistake we made when planning this trip is we booked all of our accommodations first and then booked our transportation around the country; not knowing that it would sometimes take a full day to get places. Live and learn.

We decided to make the most of our almost full day in Bangkok. We went to the Siam Paragon shopping mall where they will watch your luggage for free, presumably so you are free to shop as you please but as soon as it was safe, we were out of there. We headed to the Jim Thompson House. When we had first been planning our time in Bangkok, we had originally ruled out the Jim Thompson House but after reading a bit more about it, we were both really interested and excited.

Eating in Bangkok

It was only 100 baht to get in but because we were both under 25, it was half price. We headed in and were told we had to wait a half hour for the next English tour which we were fine with. We decided to head to the restaurant, and I would definitely advise against this. While the admission price to Jim Thompson is cheap, the restaurant was so expensive! 300 baht ($10 CAD) later (for only TWO drinks), accompanied by rude and slow service, and we were on our tour. Now that I am reading this, I think living and travelling in Taiwan has made stingy...

The house was beautiful and the story of Jim Thompson was interesting. I am glad we changed our minds and ended up going here. If you are ever in Bangkok, I would highly recommend making a stop here. There are two souvenir shops here and they are very different. The one outside of the actual exhibit is ridiculously expensive for all different kinds of silk, purses, Christmas ornaments; not really worth it unless you are very into silk. However, the store inside is definitely worth a visit. They sell reprints of the original paintings that Jim Thompson collected for very reasonable prices.

After our souvenir buying, we were off to explore a bit more. We ended up just walking the streets for a bit before heading to where we were taking the bus to Koh Phangan. We decided to go there early to check in and eat some dinner. We booked our combination bus and ferry ticket through Lomprayah. After booking this but before the trip, I had read some horrible reviews online about Lomprayah and I was actually terrified for this trip. I insisted we buy a lock for our suitcase and was scared to fall asleep for the fear that someone would mug me. But this was not the case, it really is true that more people take the time to write reviews if they had a bad experience. Our experience with Lomprayah was not perfect (how could it be with an overnight bus ride and a ferry ride at 5AM?), but it was nothing even near the horrors I had read online and subsequently scared myself with.

Exploring Bangkok

Carrying around luggage made Rick crazy

Waiting for our bus

Finally on the bus

Sketchy rest stop

Long lines

13 hours later.. we were in Koh Phangan.