Category Archives: Thailand

Asia, India, Thailand, Transportation, Traveling

The End of an Era: March 21st – April 6th

April 12, 2019 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

For starters, this post will be considerably longer than the past ones. This post will cover over two weeks, as opposed to the usual one week. The reasons for this are that the last two weeks have been extremely time consuming, I was trying to truely enjoy each moment I had left on Koh Phangan and with the yoga course being a routine, I will do a separate post for that all together. For the reason of enjoying each moment, my phone didn’t come out very often, so pictures will also be limited unfortunately. If I can find the time, I will continue to do weekly posts before the end of the yoga course, covering some topics I have been meaning to write on (and feel free to suggest some topics/questions you want to be enlightened on since I have been traveling so much). So let’s start where we left off.

Old Friends, New Levels

Ryan and I made our way back to our beloved Koh Phangan (the island from the second Thailand tournament), decidedly one of our favorite destinations from the whole trip. Our taxi to flight to flight to bus to ferry all went very smoothly and just about on time as we imagined. The ferry ride to Koh Phangan from Surat Thani took us into the night, so we got a really cool view of the blood moon, which looked gigantic over the island of Koh Phangan. One of my favorite things about how beautiful stars and the moon are is that it is difficult to get a picture to capture that, which I think just adds to the experience. We arrived to the island and received some inflated taxi prices, but we aren’t new here. We walked away and demanded a price we knew was far. The songthaew driver followed, because he has to drive far either way, so he might as well take any more money he can get. He quietly agreed to our lower price on the condition that we do not tell the other passengers what we paid. Score. We head to Haad Rin, back to SK Guesthouse where we stayed the previous month. A friend from the previous month grabbed us a three bed room for one thousand baht, or thirty three American dollars per night(Thanks, Martin!). Three beds, you ask? Surprise guest from Cleveland, Aaron Tenhuisen.

Aaron and I met playing each other at NEO and when Ryan got hurt, we played a bit together. During a tournament, I mentioned this trip and he mentioned that he was going to travel through Patagonia and India. We also discussed similar views on getting better at volleyball. So when we found training with Olympians in a cool destination, I naturally shot him a message to let him know the option was there if he had the vacation days. We arrived and greeted Aaron, who had already checked into the room. We hit up some favorite dinner spots and got some sleep.

The following day, we went and peppered on the beach and then headed over to Tommy’s, where the camp would take place. We got an early jump on meeting some other camp attendees and got back to moving in the sand after a month on the motorbikes. We had the luxury of knowing the island and some of the people already, so we gave Aaron the run down on where to go and what to watch out for.

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? Practice.

Players from all over the world showed up to learn

The camp started with an introduction to the team running BeachBox Camps. Amongst some other players from Latvia facilitating BeachBox Camps, the coaches were Latvian Olympian Aleksandr “The Lion King” Samoilovs, Canadian Olympian (and now attempting to represent America in 2020) Chaim Schalk, Latvian professional and brother of Samoilovs Olympic partner Toms Smedins, and Russian professional Elena Ponomarev. After a brief introduction, we were split into groups and set off to play sideout. Essentially, you are matched with another person, and you serve to the defending team. If the serving team gets the point, they move to the defending side. If the defending team gets the point, they get a point. Every time you were removed from the court, you would grab a new partner. Ryan and I were on the same net with Aaron on another. I felt fresh and played out of my mind, but not well enough to get moved up a group. The coaches were watching our games and adjusting the groups. At the end, we found we were placed in the second group, with group one being a bit higher level than us.

With about fifty attendees, the coaches did a pretty good job setting the groups from such a short sample size. The only blaring mistake was Aaron, he was placed in the last group. It could have been because it was his first experience with the international ball or the coaches just never saw him doing anything spectacular when they looked. Either way, we told him it would get sorted out. After the trials, we set out on a hike as a group.

Normally, I avoid things like hiking when I know I am about to play a lot. Forcing the muscles I am going to require a lot of power from to show off their endurance skills beforehand is usually not the best combination. Either way, we hiked up one of the smaller mountain paths near Haad Rin and got a cool view of the coast. We even had some local dogs accompany us some of the way. After that, we headed through the city to the southern part to check out the sunset beach. After seeing the makeshift pier, we walked along a boardwalk to a small lighthouse. From there, we head up another large hill to a hotel bar, which included an infinity pool overlooking Haad Rin beach. A quick cool off in the pool (having a bunch of sweaty volleyball players around probably ruined some girl’s nice infinity pool Insta pic, sorry!) and then we headed down the rocks back to the beach. Some lunch and then off to the first day of practice.

Anyone who has played with me knows I prefer consistency. I always bump set to eliminate doubles and to keep things consistent. For training, I figured what better way to learn clean hand sets than to exclusively do them. The first practice was a lot of passing drills with Chaim Schalk. Luckily for me, Chaim’s coaching style is in line with my learning style. My hands had been pretty consistently clean, but hitting the desired location on weird passes was an issue. A few mental cues from Chaim and I was hitting all my hand sets. Day one of training over and we were off for some dinner and to relax.

I’m not very tall, but Toms and Chaim definitely tower over me

After the first day of training, the coaches realized they made a mistake putting Aaron in the last group, so we suggested he be put in ours. The second day of training started at 9:30am, which meant the sun was pounding down on us. Unfortunately, the motorbike trip didn’t keep my nutrition and hydration up to my usual standards. It was hot, I was dehydrated and we were running line to line defensive drills. This training was with Samoilovs and I had no intention of giving up during his training. A little over halfway through, we were doing defense drills followed by hitting. My energy was non existent and we were covering court and then having to jump into the air to hit hard. I tried to play it cool and do some roll shots, but was told to actually swing. Between each drill I would slowly trudge through the sand, saving my energy for the drill itself. Spartan training had taught me that I had much more in the tank when I felt like I had to stop, but that didn’t help things.

After I started to fade, sitting between each drill and running to the water whenever possible, Ryan and another member of the group decided to sit out. Now there were only enough of us participating to properly do the drill, meaning there was no sitting out time. My perserverance had damned me. Post practice, I grabbed my things and walked straight back to the hotel for a cold shower and air conditioning.

The second training later in the day went a lot better. It was still hot but I was more hydrated. My muscles were definitely beaten up by the first practice and now we were doing blocking drills with Toms, the most intense of the coaches. I am a defensive player, so I rarely block and when I do, it is wildly unorthodox. Repeated block jumps left me edging death again. Until I served a ball short on Ryan, causing him to dive and his also dehydrated calf muscle to cramp. He hit the ground in pain and began yelling that he pulled his muscle. Looking at it, I immediately told him it was a cramp and he said he didn’t know the difference so it was pulled. Science. Either way, it bought me some time to relax. Sorry, Ryan. On the bright side, Toms taught us some great footwork that really alleviated the weakest part of my blocking, pulling off the net. Day two of training done, off to Mexican for dinner.

We all ate a small pre-dinner, as we had had Mexican twice on this trip and both times had been underwhelming portion wise. The entire group loaded into songthaews and we road to a Mexican place in Thong Sala. Some decent food and decent portions and afterwards we got to hang out with Samoilovs and Renars, one of the people facilitating BeachBox Camps. Now that we had met people, it became more of training with friends which made it even better.

A Level Player, Olympic Level Smack Talker

Since the start of my volleyball career, I have been known to refer to myself as a “C level player, Open level smack talker”, but my skills have improved in the last two years, and I guess my smack talk had to to. We’ll get to that though.

Two more trainings on the third day and then there was a night tournament planned. We were told it would be fours, but when we arrived it was sixes. Sand sixes, my least favorite version of volleyball. It gets a little more fun when you add olympic players. I was put on a team with Chaim Schalk, Ryan had Elena Ponomarev and Aaron was on a team with Samoilovs.

The first game should have been easy for us. We made a ton of mistakes, hitting into the net and missing serves. I thought maybe Chaim would kill us all and just play by himself. Game two was a little better but still not a win. The next two games, we got it together and starting putting up some points. Chaim was having a blast running indoor calls with us. Dan did a lot better than I did, as he has played a lot of indoor. I was mostly just smiling and nodding and relying on my speed and unorthodox style to put some points down. Luckily, our losses were to the last place team and the undefeated team, so our victories against the other two teams put us in the position to go to finals. It was a mostly for fun tournament so it didn’t last very long and was just straight to finals. Our team had been making it work but we were facing the undefeated team in finals.

Finals was a blast. Matched against Aaron, our friend from the first time in Koh Phangan, Matias and Samoilovs, you know there was a lot of smack talk. Towards the middle of the game, I served a ball to Samoilovs outside shoulder and it went shooting into the ocean. Everyone began cheering but when they looked back, I was gone. I had started running and yelling “Book me a flight! I did it!”. After the dramatics, we played a close game that ended with us winning. We didn’t get a video of me acing Samoilovs but Ryan did grab a video of Samoilovs refusing to give me my medal because I aced him. The most fun night of sixes came to an end and we all went to sleep and had a free day following.

Learn to Relax

For the free day, the camp offered a trip around the island to see some waterfalls and other sites, but we really needed the break after going straight from the Vietnam trip to training. Ryan and I grabbed breakfast and pretty much hid in the room while Aaron went on a hike and went to play. I got my India visa handled and later headed over to the courts to play. I got some good games in and after a few hours decided that my body needed rest. I went and grabbed two dinners and Dan and I decided to get them to go and go watch more pick up. Samoilovs had been traveling with his best friend and wanted to play some doubles, so we had to get back on the court.

Dan is a pretty good player, so to get points, my hand sets just had to be on point. Samoilovs didn’t jump to attack or serve, unfortunately, stating that he had to see my insurance first. Dan and I both got some aces on him but sadly lost our first game. We played him in the rematch and grabbed the win. We never had a chance for the rubber match, so I guess I can say I’m 1-1 against olympic players. Definitely an experience I likely will not get again.

Severely tired, I laid on the side of the court and said I was done playing. Sandra, one of the girls running the camp, offered me up to play and the other guy ran to change. I felt bad saying no after he went to change, so I played. Big mistake, I woke up the following morning with the tightest hamstring.

Everything is Better With Friends

The next two days were the standard two a days of training, but there was a half moon party on the island on that second day. Our final day of training. We all decided to skip it since it was a bit expensive for Thailand and we had the King of the Beach tournament the following day. The group decided to host some games of sand sixes with some special rules. Any time the ball hit the ground inside the court without being touched by that respective side’s team, that team had to drink. They also had to drink if they lost three consecutive points. Our team was at a slight disadvantage as Aaron and I both brought rum and Aaron is big on sharing. Team Rum definitely was not the most coordinated, but we had the most fun. Later in the night, we ended up playing much better and actually pulling out a win. A second time of actually having fun playing sand sixes. BeachBox has some magic skills. Everyone headed off for the Half Moon Party and we got some much needed sleep.

The following day was the King of the Beach tournament, my favorite tournament format. The tournament was split into groups 1 and 2 and groups 3, 4 and 5. Then everyone grabbed a number and the nets were made in numerical order. I got the unlucky draw and was the only one from group 2 on my net. Even worse, my first game was against the two players that everyone thought would win, my good buddies Matias and Dan. I played the worst I think I have ever played against some really good players and didn’t feel good about any of it.

After getting out, I just watched everyone else. Ryan also played poorly and didn’t make it through. Aaron tied for a spot in the next round but had to play a game of volley tennis to take the spot and didn’t end up winning. So we were all out. The BeachBox logo is a lion (because Samoilovs is “The Lion King”) so Sandra added some art to my lion tattoo. Finals ended up being three of the guys from my net, so I didn’t feel too bad. It was a good end to the camp. Following the finals, we were all given certificates for completing the camp and the winners of the tournament were given medals and actual game worn jerseys from the pros.

After that, we all went to a white party at the infinity pool bar mentioned earlier. I don’t travel with white clothes, so I went and picked up a white tanktop with a skull made of flowers on it. The drinks were wildly expensive even for America there, so I kept drinking to a minimum. We all swam and hung out and said goodbye one last time. On the walk there, Samoilovs mentioned that he had wanted the tanktop I had on when he saw it in the store, so I gave it to him, another cool experience I probably won’t get again. Party over, everyone said their goodbyes.

Ryan is a party animal…that animal just happens to be a cat

Time Flies

The following day was our last day with Aaron and some of the others from the camp. Woken up with demands of what was going on, I stepped in and planned the day. We would all rent scooters, go to Malibu beach (where the other volleyball nets were) and then head somewhere for sunset. We grabbed breakfast and figured out how many people we had. Eight people, so four scooters. Ryan and I were automatically drivers due to our Vietnam experience. I hadn’t missed driving after how much we did in Vietnam, and the lack of maintenance on the scooters there didn’t make me happy to get back on one.

We made out way to Malibu Beach and were all way too tired to do any serious playing, so we played some laid back fours. Honestly, a great way to say goodbye as we were all involved and just having fun. Some of the group left for the ferry and I found us a bar the watch the sunset.

One last day of play at Malibu Beach before people start leaving

We made the trek up to 360 bar in the northwest corner of Koh Phangan. The road up to the bar takes you up some pretty steep dirt roads, but we made it. When you park, there is a beautiful view of the ocean. Everyone started taking pictures and a member of the group, Paul, exclaimed how awesome it was. His girlfriend, Milla, pointed to some garbage and replied “Yes, look at this beautiful garbage.”. “And to think he was going to propose.”, I retorted. “Maybe later.”, he shot back. We entered the bar to see the even cooler view to the west that included to island of Koh Ma.

Prices were reasonable, and a purchase was required, so we all grabbed dinner and I got an ice cream bar. While sitting there chatting, Paul pulled something out of his pocket while facing Milla. Confused, I thought “Paul is so dedicated to that joke from earlier, he even found what looks like a ring box.”. As he opened it, Dan and I both sat there with jaws open. Milla was equally dumbfounded. “You still haven’t said yes.”, Paul blurted out. An awesome day topped off with a marriage proposal. We grabbed a bunch of pictures and watched the sunset before taking off. This week will be a hard one to top.

The following day, we went to check out an insane hotel that we all thought was a temple. Ornate architecture and several pools were scattered along the staircases as the property went down to the beach. We checked everything out and went to sit on the beach for a bit. After that, we returned our scooters and grabbed a taxi to Thong Sala, where Aaron would grab the ferry. A stop to Phantip market for his last taste of authentic Thai food and then we took him to the ferry. Traveling so weird in that you spend all day for several days with someone and then they are just gone. Goodbye never quite covers it.

Aaron showed off his new shorts at the fancy temple hotel

Friendship Catalyst

I have often said that traveling creates my favorite types of friendships. In hostels, you instantly become best friends with people. Especially in a language with a different native language than your own, that person may be the only person you know in that country and maybe even who speaks your language. This creates bonds faster than any other common situation. Ryan was staying on the island after I planned to leave so I shared a hotel with Dan, our new French born American (we’re claiming him) friend from the camp. Dan and I negotiated prices for some scooters near the ferry so we could drop them off when we left. After that, we grabbed a bungalow in one of the western beach towns and headed off to play some volleyball. I played horribly again so I decided my brain needed a volleyball break.

Following the play, we grabbed some dinner and decided to go check out some neighboring beaches. Unlike the always lively Haad Rin we were used to, all of these beaches seemed to die down at 9pm. We rode to several beaches and all of them were dark with no visitors. It was an interesting sight to see the stars with no light pollution and the ocean lit by nothing by boats and the moon. We had planned an early morning hike so we headed home.

Dan had been the one really pushing to wake up at 7am to do the big hike, so when I woke up at 8am, I assumed he wouldn’t be happy with me. When I sat up and saw him laying in his bed, I didn’t feel as bad. We grabbed free breakfast at our hotel and ate looking out onto the beach. In general, I do not appreciate things in the moment as much as I think I should so on this trip I have tried to be very conscious of appreciating things. Eating delicious food on one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet was definitely something I made sure to appreciate.

After breakfast, we met up with Ryan at a nearby waterfall. Due to it being dry season, there was pretty much no water, so it was just rocks. What was supposed to be a short hike turned into over two kilometers. The lack of water let us scramble up the rocks where the water usually runs, making it more of a climb than a hike. After over an hour of walking, we hit a viewpoint of the entire western coast of the island.

The view of the western half of the island

Ryan climbs up where a waterfall should be

I stopped up to the beach to watch Matias and Dan play, but resisted the urge to play to give my brain and body the much needed break. After they were done playing, Dan and I grabbed some Indonesian food that was recommended to us and checked out the night market. I had forgotten how much I missed getting a bunch of different foods for cheap at street markets. On the way bck from the night market, we passed what looked like a carnival at one of the wats. We checked out a bunch of local games, including a ring toss where you could win entire bottls of liquor. I saw soft serve and got a huge vanilla strawberry cone for less than a dollar. This is something I will be sad to leave behind when I leave Asia.

Dan headed to Koh Samui for the day so I planned to take it easy that day. I remembered that Treva, my old neighbor from Ohio State, the one we randomly ran into in a tea shop in Chiang Rai, happened to be on the island that day so I messaged her and found out she was staying at the same hostel as me. She didn’t have a motorbike yet so I offered to scoot her around. Not feeling safe riding without her having a helmet, I stopped at some rental shops to get her a helmet. We stopped at three and all of them wanted more money to rent her a helmet than to give us another bike and a helmet included or just straight up told us no. We opted to get breakfast near where I rented the bike and just got her a helmet where I rented my bike.

After we rode around a bit, I decided I should do some snorkeling. I asked the hostel clerk where I could rent a snorkel and for how much, especially since I had been meaning to try out those new full face snorkel masks. He gave me a confused look and handed me an older style snorkel and separate mask and said I could just take them for free if I brought them back. Not exactly what I wanted but I always down for free. I rode to the nearby beaches that had been suggested for snorkeling. I walked into the water and began swimming through, passing all sorts of different fish and coral. I forgot how beautiful marine life is and was thankful it is so easy to float in salt water. I also remembered why they suggest not have a moustache when wearing a snorkeling mask. It makes it near impossible to form a seal between the mask and your face. Constantly, my mask was filling with water. I continued to breathe through the snorkel and ignored the burning as the salt water filled the nose area of the mask. I walked across the sandbar to Koh Ma and then road off to a few other beaches.

I took the snorkel back and picked up Treva and back to Malibu beach we went. Ryan and I saw some of the people from the volleyball camp and played some sideout with them. After Ryan stopped playing, it was me and three Swedish players who were all better than me. They made a bet on the game in Swedish and then I was notified of the bet. We lost the game and somehow I ended up buying beers for everyone because of it. Thank god Thailand prices are cheap. Back home to take care of some things for India and finally get some sleep.

The End Approaches

It is always funny to me how motivated I become as a deadline approaches. I was fine to lay around the island and do nothing until we played volleyball for days and in the last few days, I had to do everything I could. I made some plans for us to go learn some archery on my second to last day. An older German man named Thomas ran an archery range near where we were staying. For five dollars per person, you got thirty minutes, which included the owner helping you calibrate the sights and teaching you the proper way to shoot an arrow. After each of our bows were calibrated, we went six rounds of shooting. After everyone finished shooting, we retrieved our arrows and Thomas taught us how to add up our scores. As a child, I loved shooting bows and it is still a very satisfying thing to do. Before I left, I had wanted to buy a bow and start that as a hobby but it was a decent investment when I knew I would be fleeing the country (bows don’t really fit in a forty liter backpack and airports probably don’t like them). Side note, there are some really cool places to go shoot in Cleveland if anyone has interest in starting it as a hobby. After the thirty minutes, we all had sore hands so it was the perfect amount of time.

We all went to play and I finally felt like I was back to playing better. Malibu beach is tucked in the Northern coast of Koh Phangan, so sitting in the water post game was a nice relaxation. I had wanted to hit my favorite Haad Rin restaurant, Mama Schnitzel, one last time but no one else wanted to, so I made the thirty minute ride alone. Afterwards, I stopped at the night market for one last sticky rice and mango. We made some plans to do the big hike to the highest viewpoint on Koh Phangan that we missed earlier in the week early in the morning. We were all set to meet there at 7:30am.

When I woke up at 8:15am, I was filled with a bit of regret. It was my last day on the island and everyone was hiking without me because I slept through my alarms. I dropped my bags off because Dan and I were again splitting a room for my last night and stopped off to grab water and snacks. The hike took an estimated one and a half to two hours. I sidelined my regret for missing the hike with everyone and remembered that most of my friends are humans. Lucky for me (and thanks to Jeff), I have that Spartan blood and my body is always ready to blast up mountains. I rode to the hiking trail, strapped my sandals tight, removed my shirt and put an audiobook on my headlines. One hour later, completely soaked from the hour of steep hiking, I arrived at the top to find my friends. They had only beaten me by thirty minutes. The viewpoint was honestly underwhelming, but the hour hike alone was something I had forgotten was such a calming experience for me. We grabbed some pictures and then headed back down the trail.

We headed into town for lunch and then all met back up to play some volleyball. Ryan and I played our last game together and then we all headed to Zen beach so see why it was so popular for sunset. The beach was filled with yogis, people practicing poi, juggling and other skills, and a drum circle. I grabbed a big ear of grilled corn and we all sat and watched the sun creep down behind the ocean. I will never get sick of sunsets over water. We grabbed dinner and ice cream and I said some goodbyes. I headed home and made sure everything was packed and everything was in order for my journey in the morning.

I get why people go to Zen Beach every day

The Storm Before The Calm

I woke up and rode to return my bike. Ryan and Dan met me for breakfast and I finally tried Thai rice porridge. My day would consist of a ferry, a bus, a flight, a taxi ride, another flight, a layover, flight, layover, one last flight and then a taxi ride. It would be about twenty four hours from leaving Koh Phangan before hitting my ashram in Rishikesh, India. Ryan joked that something obviously bad would happen with all of those moving parts, mostly because I was involved. I let my anxiety about the situation subside and enjoyed our final breakfast together.

They walked with me over to the ferry and Ryan and I took a picture together in front of the port together. Over three months of being together every day and it came to an end just like that. My deep love for films and literature always leaves me feeling unsatisfied with goodbyes. I always feel like they should be grand or somehow notable. Three months of adventuring through three countries, countless new friends and a ton of new skills that most people never even think to learn in their lives. All of that has to end with something crazy, right? The action packed trip of a lifetime with your best friend doesn’t just abruptly end…in the movies. We hugged and said goodbye and I walked to the ferry. Hollywood leaves us with such high expectations.

After over three months, this is our final picture together

I sat on the ferry and the wave of emotion and anxiety overcame me. Either of us will be quick to tell you that I handled all of the planning and things for the trip, so I wasn’t worried about being stranded or having to handle anything for the remaining travels alone. Now, I was truly alone. My anxieties were not about dealing with the bad things alone, but not having someone with me to experience the good things. Had I appreciated the time as best I could? Three months is a lot of time to spend nonstop with a person, I am sure there are a ton of situations that I could have handled better or enjoyed more. Other than try to appreciate the insane amount of things that we did in the past three months, there was little I could do while sitting on the neverending ferry ride than reminisce.

My ferry finally arrived and I sat at the port and waited for my bus. I took my bus to the airport and made sure I made it to the correct gate. I watched Thai hard court volleyball nationals on a fuzzy television while I waited two hours for my flight. The plane arrived, but boarding didn’t begin. I had three and a half hours for my next layover, and the airport I would land at was thirty five minutes from the airport I had to leave from. Thirty minutes later, we still weren’t boarding. The women at the gate desk informed me it would leave any minute. Thirty more minutes and we took off. Over an hour delay for less than a one hour flight. Now I was down to just over two hours to get to my next flight. The delay also pushed my journey between airports into rush hour time.

I arrived at DMK and had to make to BKK. I acknowledge that the free shuttle would be too slow and headed to the taxi area. The airport taxi area had a queue system and I definitely had no time for that. I opened grab and called a cab and walked ten minutes from the airport for it to pick me up. When I told the cab driver my flight was in two and a half hours, his eyes got huge. I wouldn’t be at that airport for two hours. I told him I have to try. Google said it would take one and a half hours and Google hadn’t failed us yet.

The driver spent the first ten minutes of the ride telling me how I probably won’t make my flight. Great social intelligence from this guy. Google suggested hoping off the expressway and taking streets to avoid a blockage. When I mentioned it, he said no, Google is wrong and continued forward. Google’s predicted time shot up twenty minutes. My anxiety skyrocketed.

We continued forward and Google suggested another change of route that would knock off six minutes. I looked at his GPS and it suggested the same thing. I pointed out that it would save six minutes and he told me six minutes was nothing. I explained that when I am down to twenty five minutes, six minutes is huge. This started a huge argument that ended in me asking him to please take the route the GPS was suggesting. Angrily, he got off the highway…at the wrong exit. Now we sat at a red light while he yelled about me not trusting him and how I would definitely miss my flight now. I tried to explain that he got off at the wrong exit but he was too busy yelling. Cool, now I am late and am getting yelled at. Why didn’t I call a motorbike taxi? They don’t care about traffic and I don’t have to converse with them. My mistake for turning my back on motorbikes.

The driver continued and Google suggested he get back on the expressway. He passed it, exclaiming “Oh, now you want expressway? I thought you didn’t want to be on the expressway before. You make no sense.”. I started some breathing techniques, because I was clearly not going to explain to this man how GPS directions work and I really didn’t want to continue an argument and end up ejecting him from his own taxi. I called Citi to see my options, and they told me that because I was checked in, I had to deal with the airline. I called the airline and they failed to pull up my flight at all, so there was definitely nothing they could do. I hopelessly sat in the backseat watching my ETA approach my flight time.

As we neared the airport, I pulled out money to pay him. He looked at the money and said “What? No tip?”. My usual disdain for people expecting tips was compounded by the fact that this man had actively cost me time and added to my anxiety. I threw him an extra twenty baht and started putting my bags on. As soon as he pulled up, I hopped out and sprinted to the international departures security line. I asked them if I could still make the flight, they waved me through. Twenty five minutes until departure time. I got through security. My bag beeps. That damn screwdriver from Vietnam had made it through four flights, of course it would get stopped now. I reach in, throw out the screwdriver and run off with my bag. I hit passport control. I make it through. Fifteen minutes until departure time. I made it through security and passport control in ten minutes, I got this. I see my flight on the board. “Final Call”, it flashes. I am in C and the flight is in E. I start sprinting wit my almost thirty pounds of bags. It must have been about a kilometer. I began breathing heavy. My legs wanted to quit. I reach the gate, I see the plane. I arrive as a man is locking the gate. “I am on that flight, please let me in.”, I tell the man. “Closed, get another ticket.”, he replies. I plead, telling him I have three other flights. He again responds to get another ticket. I tell him the plane is still there. Another no. Two attendants come out and tell me they have to take me back to immigration. For the first time in I don’t know how long, I genuinely wanted to cry.

They take me the long walk I had sprinted back to immigration and cancel my departure stamp. I am defeated. I walk to an outlet to charge my phone and call my mom. I just want to talk to someone who is not involved to refrain from yelling. I have had Chase handle similar issues with ease, but now I have a Citi card. Not a mistake I will be making again. The flight I missed with a rewards flight booked through Citi. I had another flight in the morning through Citi rewards that had been booked within twenty four hours, and had been eligible for a full refund of points. The initial delayed flight that caused the whole ordeal was booked with my Citi card. I called them, and dealt with the horrendous mess that is their automated system. When I finally got a representative, they immediately transferred me to travel rewards. I never ended up figuring how to dispute the initial delayed flight. I discussed with travel rewards about options for the flight I missed. They explained that they couldn’t help and I had to discuss with the airline. I asked them to cancel my morning flight and refund my points and book me a later flight. Again, they told me that because I was checked in, they could not help. Great, I am doing a myriad of travel planning on poor airport wifi.

I call the missed flight. They tell me that for one hundred and sixty dollars I can have the morning version of the flight I had missed. That’s the best price I had seen. I took it. I checked the AirIndia site for any signs of being able to check out, but all of the reference codes I had been given, including the one to check in to the flight, did not find my flight. I called them and waited on hold for forty minutes without ever reaching a representative. It was now 10pm, I had a flight at 8am and still had to book a hotel. I figured I had done my due diligence, a Citi supervisor could override something. I dealt with their horrible automated interface again. The representative heard my story and apologized, putting me directly through to a supervisor. Immediately she told me she could not help me. I explained to her that none of the numbers they gave me worked and I was on hold for forty minutes with no reply. She told me to wait for longer. Never again will I get a Citi card.

I sat on hold for another hour with AirIndia while booking a hotel and waiting for the shuttle. I finally got a representative. The English was not the best. I explained that I needed to check out of the flight. She asked to cancel the flight. I said no, just check me out. She said she would do that I would receive a confirmation. I asked a second time about the confirmation, she replied yes, I never received one. I arrived at my hotel at midnight. I offered to carry in the bags of an older American couple. While I was carrying their stuff, they were arguing with the front desk about an accidental double booking they needed to cancel. I just wanted to sleep. They walked away to try to cancel while I checked in. Right after I paid, the woman said they couldn’t cancel their room so I could have it for free if I wanted it. Right after I was done paying, the cherry on top of my day. I went to my room and showered.

I called Citi and this time was not my usual polite self. I explained that it had been four hours, Citi had been the opposite of helpful and I just wanted my points refunded. The representative apologized and said he saw that things had been fixed (thanks to my calls earlier). I explained that I had a flight in eight hours and was done dealing with this stuff. He understood and put me on hold for twenty minutes. I resisted my urge to gain psychic abilities and kill him through the phone. Upon returning, he said he could cancel the flight if I gave him permission. I said of course. He replied that I was still checked in and he couldn’t. I almost snapped. I told him I had done more than my due diligence and it needed to be handled. He offered to call the airline for me. I was dumbfounded that the other three representatives couldn’t do that. He offered to call me back in twenty minutes with my options. I told him I would be asleep. I told him I wanted the points and wouldn’t be dealing with anymore phone calls. I still have to call Citi and handle the initial flight and inform them of the nightmare their customer service had been.

The Road to Peace

I woke up in the morning before my alarm. The earliest shuttle was full, so I grabbed a taxi. I got to the airport to find out that my second flight was unable to be checked in. I called the airline again and asked them to settle it. They told me that I had to wait until the layover airport to fix it. A supervisor at the Bangkok airport offered to fix it if I could show her all the necessary documents. Finally, a helpful person. Flights settled, I headed to my gate. It took me about forty five minutes to get through security and passport control this time. I spent the rest of my baht on two slices of pizza, a muffin and a coke zero. The simple comforts. SriLankan Airlines had a good selection of movies on the flight, so that occupied me. At the layover airport, I drank a milkshake while waiting for my two hour layover.

Upon arriving in Delhi, I needed to get the money out for my yoga tuition. The ATMs only let me take out one hundred and fifty dollars at a time and there was a line, so I grabbed a chunk to cover my taxi and some extra. The ashram had booked me a taxi and told me where to meet them so I headed there. Twenty minutes of waiting and no replies to my messages and I began to worry. Finally, they called. He would arrive in ten minutes. I thought the ride would be five hours but he informed me it would be seven. I planned to sleep in the backseat but as we got to the car, he opened the front seat for me. I felt bad telling him I wanted to go in the back so I sat in the front.

The roads in India are not the best maintained, there were limited lights and its similarly aggressive to Thailand, but with mostly cars as opposed to motorbikes. I pulled my buff over my eyes and put headphones on. Every time I woke up, it was to oncoming headlights, which was unsettling. Gas stations in India require you to fully get out of the car, so that didn’t help either. We made a pit stop at the driver’s home for me to meet his family and have some chai tea, which I appreciated but at this point, I had no interest in being social. We got back in the car.

Two hours left, I fell back asleep. I woke up with around an hour left and the driver informed me how tired he was. Yikes. I did my best to hold an interesting conversation. Asking him about himself and asking him to teach me some Hindi. He got me to Rishikesh and informed me that cars can’t cros the bridges over the Ganga river so he would have to go around or the ashram could get me. He got me to the bridge and someone from the ashram picked me up on a motorbike. As he rode through narrow passages and over crushed bricks, I acknowledge that I am not the lightest person and hopped off or pushed off walls whenever we would get stuck. He got me to the ashram. It as 2am and he informed me I could check in in the morning. The days start at 5:30am but lucky for me, the orientation day started with breakfast at 9am. I had booked a shared room but he took me to a private room. I decided to deal with that in the morning and passed out.

That’s the end of the story of the journey to Rishikesh. For the next month, I will be living in an ashram, learning about yoga. This will include learning Hatha and Ashtanga Yoga, as well as meditation, mantras and other aspects relating to the topic. It also includes a yogic diet, much to my dismay. I can get meat in the town but am dedicated to trying to follow the experience as it is presented to me. I will write one big blog post about the whole experience, but intend to get back to the weekly schedule, so I will write some extraneous posts in the next two weeks. Feel free to message me if there is a topic you want discussed or I will write about some other travel related things that never make it in to these.

Asia, Thailand, Traveling, Vietnam

A Long Way to the Bottom: February 21st – February 27th

February 27, 2019 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

The View From The Top

Due to some miscommunication (and definitely not Ryan leaving his computer on US time), we set our return to Bangkok a day earlier than we needed it. We had the perfect set up in Koh Phangan, and neither of us were fans of Bangkok, so we ate the cost of the non refundable ferry/bus/train tickets and booked for the next day. With our extra day, we grabbed scooters and headed to Malibu Beach. This is the location of the other group of volleyball players on the island. Far from the tourism of Haad Rin beach, a low key area held a beautiful landscape and a much quieter beach area. We checked out the two courts, one free near the water and one for reservations surrounded by trees near a restaurant. The sand was nice, but we didn’t have time to play. Our new friend Florian was about to play at a ping pong tournament nearby.

We took off for the ping pong tournament, had to make an emergency stop for gas and a necessary 7/11 run, so we ended up arriving right as his game finished. The ping pong tournament took place at a little boutique homestay called Carpe Diem. As we walked up the finely manicured gravel path, we saw a small pool and bar and private rooms. As we turned the corner, we saw the ping pong table and a group of people, some familiar faces from volleyball. We wanted to just watch some points, but the level of play was so high that we ended up staying to watch through finals. Afterwards, Maria offered to show us a more private beach on the island.

The private beach provides a solid sunset view

A short ride and we walked down a long set of stairs to a private section of beach with open water, just in time for sunset. The view was insane and Maria and her family offered to teach us to play Kubb, a Swedish lawn game where you throw wooden rods to knock over other wooden pieces. We played two games (I won both, Ryan did not.) and enjoyed the sunset. Hunger kicked in, time to have Indian for the first time since it poisoned me. Last night of beach, so we grabbed some drinks on the beach and laid around under the moonlight until it was time to get up. Florian wanted us to come play doubles, so we had to get moving early.

In the morning, we took off to Malibu Beach and played some doubles while Maria grabbed some more cool shots. Then we took off and returned our scooters, checked out of our hotel and haggled a songthaew to take us to the ferry port. Two hours on a ferry boat and then we got into a mini bus to the train station. Like a fool, I made a comment about this being the first public transportation that went well and arrived on time. We had a few hours to burn before our train would come.
We were in an area entirely devoid of tourists. Local markets were strewn about. Somehow, Ryan found the nicest coffee shop I have ever seen and we posted up to use their electricity. While we charged, we took turns roaming the shops. We got entire packets of homemade snacks for ten baht, which is about thirty American cents. Ryan had been looking for a power bank, so he picked up a pink one with a dog on it for super cheap and I tried out a bunch of different food. An hour until our train, time to head to the station.

Around this point, I messaged Dani to tell her how great my week in Koh Phangan had been, and that I was genuinely worried that things were going to well and something had to go wrong. We arrived early to the train station, asked a worker where our train would come and began to wait. Our train arrived slightly behind schedule and we got to the door. People began unloading things so we continued to wait. A woman stood in the doorway. The train made some noise, so we decided it was time to get on. The woman shook her hand no. We showed her the ticket and she shook her hand no again. The train left. We asked a guard, he called over the walkie, the train slowed down and then continued moving. He took us to the ticket counter.

I explained the situation as best I could with the language barrier, but it wasn’t going well. They wanted us to buy another ticket and we just wanted them to let us on the next train due to the worker telling us no. All the while the next train is arriving. We are basically arguing at this point so I just asked to buy a ticket and will handle the money after. She tells us there is no second class (padded seat with fan/air con) for the next three trains. We tell her just to give us a ticket. We get on the bus with the locals. It is just benches in an open train car. Each seat is wide enough for my butt to dangle over the edge with my head against the wall. The sound of the train is so loud that I can’t hear music with noise cancelling headphones on. I chuckled as I message Dani that I was correct.

The Snowball Effect

We power through the train ride. I don’t necessarily know that I slept at all on the twelve hour night train ride, but I do know that I was unconscious. We arrive in Bangkok and feel a tinge of happiness. They opened a Taco Bell in Bangkok since last time we were there. We head there and get some food. It’s like a knockoff of American Taco Bell, but good enough. Thai people love spicy, so of course their Taco Bell comes standard with Fire sauce on everything. A coworker from Rockwell tells me she is staying a few minutes from where we are staying.

I walk over to see Robyn and check out where she is staying. She is in Southeast Asia doing some work for Rockwell. The points she’s accrued from all the travel have her in a two bedroom suite, a little different from where I am staying. We trade some Asia stories and I think about what I walked away from. She heads to the airport and I go get Ryan.

We have seen Bangkok and the sand courts don’t have any play going on, so I suggest we find a gaming cafe. We search google results for a few hours, all to no avail, but we find one as we are about to give up. Fifty baht for three hours, less than two American dollars. We spend a few hours playing Apex Legends and then head home. I mention that the sleep on the train probably left my body all wonky, so I am worried about waking up for our 7:40am flight.

I wake up at 8:10am, I head over to Ryan’s bed, he’s asleep too. I tell him I slept through four alarms, he tells me he never even set one. We book another flight and I head out to get breakfast, call my dad and finish the blog post I was days late on. I come back in a better mood and we hit Taco Bell a second time. Then we head back to the gaming cafe. We come back early and get some sleep. A short flight and we arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Good Morning, Vietnam

We make it through immigration and take a local bus to Old Quarter and throw our stuff at our hostel. Now we begin our search for our rides. We are looking for Honda Wins to take all the way down Vietnam, over two thousand kilometers. Like always, I do a ton of research. There are no real Honda Wins in Vietnam. You can find some reliable Vietnamese and Indonesian copies and some unreliable Chinese copies. We scour Facebook, Craigslist and local shops looking for the best deals. We find some bikes for under three hundred dollars and decide to grab them the next day. We check out the city a bit, but after becoming so comfortable on the islands, the city immediately makes me irritable.

We head over to the shop that offered us the best deal. The woman working tells us the bikes are at her other shop and they will send someone to get us. Silly us, we thought they would send a scooter and we would each ride on the back of a scooter. This is Vietnam. We both got on the back of one scooter. No mirrors and the driver never turned his head. We whipped onto the highway and blew red lights. Arrived in one piece for the owner of the shop to tell us that the deal the woman offered us was insane. Tried to talk us into the real prices, but we were good. We did some more research. Most of the people posting blog posts about buying the Vietnamese bikes for low prices either got extremely lucky buying from other travelers or they were sold Chinese copies with Detech (Vietnamese company) engine covers. We meet up with the English guys who offer to sell us some scooters.

We learned to ride motorcycles in Laos, but we have gotten plenty of scooter experience on this trip. Motorcycles are way cooler. They look cooler, they feel cooler and changing gears feels cool. Realistically though, the scooters tend to be more reliable and we have much more experience on them and don’t have to worry about gears in the insanity that is Vietnam. The bikes the guys offer us have a few more issues than we care to deal with so I message dealers about the scooters.

The mechanic we were going to take whatever bike we bought has some scooters for sale so we check them out. We look at the Nuovo 3, but for a little cheaper we grab the Nuovo 1 and an Attila. We grab them for a price that we should easily recuperate upon hitting Ho Chi Minh City. We ask that they be washed and have a few things added and looked at and we head back to the hostel. We head to check out the Old Quarter area and grab some dinner. Mostly travelers partying, but there are some cool hidden things. We head to the Skyline bar to check out the view from the rooftop bars and then head home.

On the Road Again

We wake up and check out of our hostel. Quick taxi to the shop and we grab our scooters. Ryan cracks a joke about how no matter what bikes we got, his would be fine and mine would have problems. That has been the theme since I met him. We leave the shop and go grab some gas. My blinkers are already not working. Oh well. We find some helmet shops and I go back and forth on the three quarter helmets I have been wearing or a full motorcycle helmet. After feeling around, we both decide on modular helmets, a full sized helmet with raising face shield, where the bigger place part covering the chin also raises. Heavier than the other options, but a good mix of safety and breathability.We head on our way to Ninh Binh.

Taking the highway, Hanoi to Ninh Binh is about two hours. The highway is where all the cars and trucks go wild. We stick to the other roads and it’s about four hours. Around the two hour mark, we stop to grab food. The area we are in doesn’t seem to use much English, which is where I usually just use a smile. Ryan doesn’t have that luck, he uses Google to tell them he is a vegetarian. They laugh at us a bit and bring him a large plate of vegetables and fried tofu, me a plates of fried eggs and what I assume is pork, and some rice to share. Ryan grabs a Red Bull and we devour the plate full of food. The whole thing ends up costing us about three American dollars. We head off the next two hours.

Vietnam looks like someone told designer to use all of the available landscapes to make the most beautiful thing they can imagine. It’s all rivers and mountains and rice paddies. I lead the way and every few seconds think “I wonder if Ryan wants a picture of that”. Even if we stopped every five minutes, we would still miss pictures. We stop once or twice and make our way to Trang An. Hidden among small mountainous hills similar to those found in Halong Bay, we find our homestay. Ryan informs me that my rear lights have not worked the entire time.

I head to a nearby mechanic and they fix my blinker and lights in under ten minutes for less than two dollars. We take off to find an ATM. About a kilometer later, I feel something give, my bike slows and my throttle has no resistance. Ryan is leading and continues to the ATM, I sit in the dark and text him what happened. I figure it is the throttle cable and start walking the bike back to the shop. This is standard, I just left a shop and this happens. I walk the bike back the kilometer in the dark. Ryan shows up and begins to crack jokes and ride behind me. As we arrive, the shop is closed. Ryan rides around to find another shop and the shop workers begin to leave the shop. They recognize me and fix my now busted throttle cable. In starting up the engine, it floods and kickstarting is required. He tells me the price and I just hand him a handful of money for working on it after they closed. My total for the two repairs is still under four American dollars.

We head home and decide to stop for dinner. Ryan sees a restaurant with a sign with the word that means vegetarian, so we stop. He orders what he thinks is vegetarian rice and I get goat with rice on recommendation for our waiter. The food arrives and Ryan gets what looks like rice crispies and some soup. I get a sizzling plate full of goat and garlic, and a big bowl of white rice. Ryan dips the rice into the soup and eats a bit before asking me to try the mushrooms. I have eaten a good amount of mushrooms in my life, and these mushrooms are definitely beef. The karma for teasing me about my bike has come quickly. I eat my food with a smile and Ryan tries to figure out what else to eat. We get up to pay and realize this restaurant is about six times more expensive than all of the other ones we have seen. A reminder not to follow Ryan places.

We head back to the hostel where Ryan gets more food and I get some Oreos. We make some plans for what to do in the Ninh Binh area the following day and what route to take to the next city the day after that and I head to bed to write this post. So meta.

Asia, Thailand, Traveling

Life’s a Beach: January 31st – February 6th

February 7, 2019 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

Hotter Than Hell

The irony of the dubbed “Real Sin City” being as hot as Hell (near the top, if you’ve read Dante’s Inferno) is almost poetic. When we arrived, Google warned us of the number of school closings due to extremely high pollution levels. They are trying many things to counteract it, but there are just so many cars, scooters and people in a small area, it begins to feel futile. We have spent days in the direct sunlight, but you can feel how the pollution traps the heat in the city. It’s like walking through jello, the humidity is overwhelming. Day two of Bangkok and we decide to do some sight seeing. We begin to walk around the city, checking out a highly rated bookstore that is closed when we arrive. We walk to the Grand Palace to check out the hype. A beautiful and massive complex with ornate buildings, but like most valued places in Thailand, knees and shoulders must be covered. We assumed this would be the case, but it’s so hot and we’ve seen so many similar places, we decide the outside views will suffice.

Two staples of my childhood (ignore the no pictures sign)

A further walk to Chinatown finds us in a big shopping mall filled with Chinese/Japanese culture items. Floor after floor of video game and character statue shop. Bad news for Ryan. He gets to spend about an hour listening to me exclaim all of my favorite characters cast in intricate details at shockingly low prices. A quick shoot around and we find many places that will likely contain meat or fish sauces and not know that it matters and kill Ryan, so he grabs some noodles from a place describing themselves as vegetarian and we begin to head back towards our hostel. I find a little touristy looking restaurant by the river and grab some Massaman and rice as Ryan yells at me for letting him buy the street side noodles. A quick lunch and we head next door to a kitty cafe so Ryan can get his cat fix and we can hide in the air conditioning.

We head back to the hostel and grab our stuff. We grab a night at a party hostel away from Khao San Road and closer to Nana Plaza. Party hostels in Europe/South America tend to be more of “Get to know all of these people over drinks and then go out together in the city and let anyone not going out enjoy the peace”, whereas our experience in Asia has been more of “Everyone here will awkwardly push drinks at you and yell all night and maybe you can overpay us to take you to some bars”. We arrive at the highly rated hostel and the beds are super comfy and the dorms are separate from the bar area. It’s been a long hot day so I start reading and Ryan takes a nap. The lights flip on and two girls are in our room offering to pour shots in our mouth and telling us that if you go to the bar without pants on, they will give you free vodka. Upon entering the hostel to check in, it was all guys at the hostel check in. Nothing sounds less inviting to me as an adult male than a group of men getting free alcohol for not wearing pants, so I can’t even imagine how offputting it would be if I was a female, especially solo traveling. We pass and they offer us some insane prices on going on a bar crawl later, double pass.

We decide to check out the other go to places for debauchery in Bangkok, Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza. Luckily, Ryan and I have similar stances about these types of thing. I don’t want to take part, you can’t have my money but I do want to at least see what it’s all about, so we go people watching. Soi Cowboy is a brightly lit street lined with bars. Outside of the bars are scantily clad Thai women dancing and grabbing at your arms to bring you into their bar. Most tourist places in any city in Thailand are filled with white males in bars with young, pretty Thai girls, nothing new. We shoot over to Nana Plaza, a three story structure filled with what amounts to strip clubs. We walk through and evade the grabs into each bar. We pick one and hop inside for a drink. Girls dancing, interludes for solo/duo acts and more Thai girls sitting with white males, convincing them to by the exorbitantly priced drinks. That’s enough for us, there has to be something worthwhile around here.

We see a sign for a rooftop bar and do some quick research. There’s a super high rated rooftop bar called Octave that is just a short train ride away. We’ve been wanting to take the rail line, so this is perfect. We shoot over and arrive to a Marriot hotel. One of my favorite travel tips is that acting like you belong somewhere will usually get you into most places. “Excuse me, I forgot my keycard in *insert place you want to be*, can you swipe me in?” will get you a lot of places. We head up to the forty fifth floor of the building, where we are greeted with “Dinner or bar?” to which we reply “Bar”. The women motions us to another elevator. Up to the forty eighth floor. The drink prices are insane, but so is the view. In all of Bangkok, we can see a small handful of buildings that are at the same height as us. A quick trot up some stairs and we are at the forty ninth floor, the top, filled with modern lighting and tables filled with nicely dressed patrons. We grab a table and snap some pics of the view. A waiter brings us a menu, no need. We hop to the other side for some more pics and to enjoy the breeze and then head back. One more day until the beach.

Day three, when a trip extends past a week or two, it requires you to live your life as normal. Things like laundry and haircuts have to be factored in. Days to relax and just lay around become treasured. Before I left, I learned to how to give myself the exact style of fade haircut I like, only problem being that there is nowhere in a hostel to cut hair without blasting hair all over everything. That being said, Ryan and I head to a Thai barbershop, show the barbers pictures of us with the haircuts we want and they go off. It ends up costing about four dollars and comes out pretty near perfect for there being no exchange of words. We find a big mall for Ryan to grab some clothing items and for me to check out the movie “Glass”.

Travel In Your Dreams

After the mall, we go on a search for some food, we end up taking a route that takes us the long way back to our hostel. Almost an hour of walking and we fail to find a Thai restaurant….in Thailand. Bangkok isn’t my favorite. We get back to the hostel and I check the route to the bus station. It is 5pm at this point and our bus is at 6:30pm. Google informs me that our thirty minute taxi to the bus station is now just under an hour. Oh no, no time for food. We walk down the street and deal with a few taxis offering us flat rates to the bus station. Word to the wise, don’t ever take those deals. We find one offering to use the meter. We are currently at 5:12pm and the ride has jumped to over an hour. We sit in the backseat as I watch Google slowly increase the trip time and watch our ETA slowly slip past 6:30pm. Online, this is shown as the last overnight bus down to Phuket.

We arrive at 6:40pm and throw the money to the taxi driver and begin frantically searching for the ticket booth for Phuket to exchange our confirmation for an actual ticket. As we walk up, a woman looks at us from a distance and yells “Phuket?”. We head to her and she keeps saying 6:50pm. We tell her “6:30pm” and show her the ticket. She laughs, tells us we are good looking and has the girl behind the counter print us two tickets for the 6:50pm bus. It is 6:50pm then, she tells us to run. We run to the bus. As we walk up to the upper deck of the bus and grab our seats in the front, we remember that we didn’t eat before our haircuts to save room for a good Thai meal after, which didn’t end up happening. We sit on the bus for twenty minutes waiting to leave when we could have grabbed snacks. No luck. The bus takes off. The overnight bus lets us recline and we are right against the front. Pretty terrifying to watch the bus swing around corners and too close to other vehicles in the night from that view.

At midnight, we hit a rest stop. We hop off to use the restroom, grab drinks and an unhealthy amount of food. As we get back on, I find out I can fully recline my seat without being in the person behind me’s way. Straight to sleep. I wake up around 4am, watch an episode of the Punisher and fall back asleep. I wake up around 6am and realize we are supposed to arrive at 7am so I stay up. Nothing in Southeast Asia runs on time and we have been picking up and dropping off locals, so we arrive at the bus station around 10am. The bus terminal is nowhere near the downtown area, so we hop in the back of a songthaew (converted truck) and get to the downtown area for 15 baht (about $0.50). We hop out near some scooter rental places.

All of the scooter places in touristy areas charge crazy prices compared to the rest of Thailand, but we aren’t rookies anymore. We are staying a thirty minute ride away from the rental places but plan to come to that part of town before leaving the area. We rent two scooters for six days, so we have leverage as far as bargaining. We grab the scooters at 75% of their usual rate. Here comes the tricky part, we have our entire bags with us and the scooters have no storage. Time for those bike lessons to be worth it. We throw our bags on our back and whip through the traffic, weaving around cars stuck in traffic like some real locals. We arrive at our beachfront hostel and drop our stuff. We have noticed that the hotter an area, the less likely the common areas of the hostel have fans/air conditioning, and this is no exception. We head to the beach.

Remember: No Russian

The water is a blue that looks almost fake. The sun causes the sand to feel like hot coals and it stays about eighty five degrees. We hop in the water and it’s the perfect temperature. Just a little cool. The sand underneath is soft with seemingly no debris. I don’t think I have mentioned it in any of these posts, but after realizing that everyone else traveling is bilingual, we decided to pick up some Russian to have a second language to discuss things in when we need some privacy in public. As we walk down the beach, all we hear is Russian. It seems everyone we encounter is Russian. The restaurants and stores all have signs in Russian. We are on the southern coast of Thailand. We do a little research and find out Phuket has been less than affectionately nicknamed “Little Russia” due to the high number of Russian tourists.

As we got off the bus, my stomach felt like I might possibly die. Drink some water, eat some food, no luck. Food poisoning again? Perfect. We see on Facebook that there is volleyball in the afternoon on the beach we are staying at. I’ve been through worse for things I like less, I self induce some sickness relief and go swim in the ocean, body feels much better. Off to the beach we go. Some doubles but mostly games of threes, which is uncommon anywhere we have ever been. We sit around and wait for our chance to get on a court. With all the Russian we have learned, we haven’t gotten to “Can we play?” or “Does anyone have next?”, homework for later. We wait around like shy children. We finally get our chance to get on the court and realize that no one is going to warm up. We have next to no experience with the FIVB ball, haven’t played in the wind since the summer, haven’t played at all in almost a month and it is humid as hell. The first game does not go well. The court reverts back to the same six people playing. There are a slew of courts down the beach, and no one is letting new people in. A few failed attempts to buy our own ball with no luck. We go swim and head home.

Day two, we check out a hotel we booked for later in the week that we heard doesn’t match its online pictures. Definitely not, very low quality, time to get a refund. We find a new one that is advertised for gamers, but has high quality amenities at an insanely cheap price. It matches its online persona, life is cool. We zip around on scooters and check out another beach and an awesome viewpoint of the beach we are staying. Back to the beach to track down a ball. We ask around and are told someone there sells balls. Just our luck, he has none with him. A little better luck, he offers to let us come play fours. Usually my selling point is endurance, I don’t get tired easily. Add in a lack of eating, subtle dehydration and an insane amount of humidity, and that all goes out the window. We play for five or six hours and Ryan and I are both unable to stand when they finally offer to let us play doubles. Back to the hostel for some food and rest.

It is hot and I am out of shape, but it is pretty

The player we met to sell us a ball finds me on Facebook. He sees we have a mutual friend in the tournament director for another island and we chat about the tournament. He is playing the same one as us in a few weeks and offers to let us join in on training. We meet up with him and buy a ball. Finally, we can get some unobstructed practice time with this new ball. We practice a bit and head home to take care of some stuff.

Most of the other cities we have been in have been super cheap. Like full portion meals for one dollar cheap. Phuket is insanely touristy, we are paying close to American prices for meals. I decide to track down a supermarket. A quick zip around the city and I find a miniature Sam’s Club. Similar prices to the local marts, but a much larger selection. As a reference, the “English breakfast set” at our hostel is about one hundred baht, or just over three dollars. This set is two pieces of toast, what looks like one egg, two pieces of bacon and tea or coffee. At the hostel, we have a kettle, a toaster and a microwave. I pick up a pack of noodle cups, a bag of Chinese carrots (as thick as my wrist), a loaf of wheat bread, two sticks of salted butter and eight hundred milliliters of chocolate milk for one hundred and seventy baht, or just under six dollars. I remember that I have to carry all of this back on my scooter, time for another learning experience.

This is not what it usually looks like when I sit down to write this stuff

Ryan and I make some dumb decisions but our favorite one is to wait until around noon to go outside and walk around. The sun is out in full force and we always regret. Today, we decide not to do this for likely the first time in over a month and hide at a cafe with a beach view to relax. I worked on this post (super meta) and Ryan worked on some stuff. Ryan decided to continue on his computer and I headed to volleyball.

Like Riding A Bike

It’s been a over a month since we have played with any consistency, the air here is super thick and the ball is completely different, so playing started as a bit disheartening. Plays I would normally make with relative ease had become impossible. My normal Spartan level of endurance had dwindled to a sickening frailty when you add the weeks of sitting on buses, humidity and direct sun. So training has been in order. After a few days, things start feeling like normal. Movements because muscle reactions instead of thought about choices. At this point, we’re playing four or five hours a day. We make some locals friends and feel a little more confident about the tournament coming up.,

Some of the friends we made from volleyball invite us out for barbeque. I am never one to turn down an invitation to get food. Mostly because I love food, but also because it’s always such a joyous occasion to be socializing in. We arrive at the location they sent us and they are sitting in front of table top girls with basins of buttery looking liquid around them. We immediately notice that it is all meat and seafood. Sorry, Ryan’s stomach, but they promise there are vegetables and eggs. The Asian people as a whole seem to have a very fast and loose approach to how they view vegetarianism, rarely seeming to understand that vegetarian dishes shouldn’t be cooked in animal fat or eating the broth of a soup containing meat is basically still eating meat. Ryan has done his best to be diligent about avoiding any meat or seafood, including regularly asking for no fish sauce or oyster sauce to be made with any of his meals (a very common base for Thai sauces). As the grill is loaded up with shrimp for me (even though I have already grabbed myself a plate of meat as I do not really take to seafood), Ryan adds vegetables, noodles and eggs to the surrounding basin. Our friends assure us this is vegetarian but Ryan and I whisper back and forth about his impending demise. He eats the delicious concoction as a eat plates of meat and we continue to socialize.

Ryan throws some more food into the water as I begin to cook red meat. The others inform me that I need to add something to the grill to keep the meat from sticking. They begin swabbing it with a chunk of animal fat, double sorry, Ryan’s stomach. The fat begins to dribble off of the red meat I am cooking, cascading down into the liquid, triple sorry. Ryan and I discuss how it is worth it and how it is likely that he has slowly been microdosing meat and seafood this entire trip. A theory to be tested in the morning.

We finish up and they bring us a handful food of these tiny colorful cones. Cold to the touch, popsicles, we assume. Rip them open and the consistency feels like that of tapioca bobas. Each flavor is better than the last. One of our friends walks over with a bowl full of ice cream. Sorry abs, we have found all you can eat ice cream. Two bowls of ice cream and about fifteen jelly popsicles later and we all pay and get ready to leave. After a short conversation, we realize we will likely not get a chance to play with our new friends. We exchange social medias and bid them farewell.

This Is Sam Luck

One of the first days in Phuket, a couple was leaving our hostel to go to the nearby party area. They were quoted five hundred baht for a taxi which would take them fiften minutes. This is equivalent to about seventeen American dollars. Their other option was to take a local bus for less than one hundred baht, but would take two hours. Them being two travelers with big bags, I couldn’t really help, but wasn’t pleased with the extortion of travelers.

A roommate of ours was heading to the area and I could hear him being quoted a similar price. An exorbitant amount for a long term traveler. He was just one guy with two smaller bags. Time to rack up some good karma points. We offered him to hop on the back of Ryan’s scooter with his smaller bag on his back while we strapped his bigger bag to the back of mine. My first experience with riding with a strapped down bag just to be ready for future travel. A quick fifteen minute ride to save him a handful of money and we checked out an area of the island that we didn’t see. He paid for our lunch and we parted ways to go play volleyball.

On the last day of the week, we moved to a nicer hotel. One geared towards gamers, which is funny given Ryan’s and my own penchant for wasting hours gaming, but with their amenities and competitive price, it was a no brainer. Three pools, big rooms, a rooftop terrace and a gaming room, luxuries we haven’t seen in a while. The top floor contained murals of Overwatch characters, a PS4 with new games, a Nintendo switch and rows of gaming rigs with peripherals, some even including streaming equipment. I guess gaming will be required at some point.

We went to pick up a friend from the harbour and Ryan met to bring the bag back and she got on the back of my scooter. As we started the thirty minute journey, a local stopped me, pointed at the exhaust on my scooter and made a concerned face. The exhaust and handle bars of my scooter shine with a case hardened paint job, so I thought he was referring to that. He began to point more furiously at the back and as the look of confusion on my face increased, he grabbed the back tire. I asked Ryan to take a look and he assured me everything was fine.

As we rode, I knew things like sharp turning would be difficult, as that requires a precise shifting of the body weight, and now there is another body at a different location on the bike. As we took the first sharp turn, I feel the back tire attempt to go straight. When turning, if you apply throttle, the back tire wants to go forward and the front tire is what makes it turn, so I assume the added weight to the back tire causes this scenario. From then on a begin to take the turns a little more carefully. Then I begin to feel the back tire sliding on small faults in the road. It’s okay, only fifteen more minutes to ride. Then the bike starts kicking like a wooden rollercoaster that is far past its maintenance point. I pull into a nearby parking lot and see that the tire is entirely flat. Ryan’s diagnosis has failed me.

Ryan comes to get our friend while I attempt to find a motorbike shop as several locals give me entirely separate directions. Without the added wait, the bike is basically hopping with each rotation of the wheel. I go a few minutes down the road to where Google says there is a local shop, closed down, damn. I stop in a nearby hotel and they inform me it is a ten minute ride to the closest place. Ten minutes on a functioning bike, I bet. I start riding and realize my little, hoppy, no tire scooter has to take me down this main road. Cars are stopping in front of me, scooters are whizzing around, and the normal dexterity allotted by riding a scooter is completely removed without the back tire. About ten minutes of white knuckling my handlebars and I get stuck behind a stopped car as everyone refuses to let me go around. I look at the woman next to me and point to my tire and ask where to get it fixed, she yells twenty baht at me. Damn you, language barrier. A nearby man comes over and points in the direction I was headed and says five minutes. Five more minutes? So I am half way. I go around the car and another block down I see the shop. I have never been happier for someone to give me false information.

I roll into the shop and point at my tire. The young Thai worker immediately throws the bike on the back stand and pops the tire off. I sit there sweating as he works, waiting to hear what my grand total will be for this little adventure. A quick fifteen minutes and my tire is fixed with nail removed. I pull out my wallet and he says one fifty, which is about five dollars. Awesome. I hand him his money and head back on my now functioning scooter.

A day or so of relaxation and I will be heading to Koh Samui on a bus a day or so before Ryan. I am a bit more neurotic about training stuff so want to get there early. Then the real training starts and we will be gearing up for our back to back tournaments.