East coast to the west coast

This morning at the resort before leaving koh phangan.

 We woke up early this morning and traveled from Koh Phangan to Krabi. All in all it was some pretty smooth traveling, we're getting used to the way it seems to work here. Like when our resort told us that the tickets we bought would get us all the way to Krabi, which it did but it got us about 30 minutes outside of the downtown area where our hostel was located. So after a ferry ride and a bus ride we stopped at a station that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and we were all told to get off. What's confusing here is that no one ever tells you what's going on they just point and mumble a bunch of stuff and leave you to figure shit out on your own, so we had to buy more tickets to get us to the hostel when we had already spent 1300 baht on the previous ones. 

Our ferry.

Oh well we got there safe and that's truly all that matters and the hostel is so wicked, I think I can actually say that it's my favourite one yet. The hostel is called Ao Nang Backpackers and it's a short walk from where everything is happening but I like it this way because then you don't have to deal with noise and it forces you to exercise when you want to go somewhere. They have a hangout room here with a tv that plays movies all day long and a bunch of mattresses with pillows on the floor for everyone to share and lay on. Somehow we ended up being the only two people in our dorm so let's hope it stays this way! For 11$ a nice this place is golden. 

Chill area.

Our room.

When we got to the hostel we settled in and went for a walk to find some food, we ended up stopping at an Indian restaurant since it's always an easy solution to finding veggie dishes. After our bellies were full and we accomplished some walking around looking at small shops we headed back to the hostel. We hung out in the common room for a good while, I watched a few shows on tiny houses which I always love. I've been researching the tiny house movement for a long time now and I can confidently say that when we return to Canada I will look into starting the building process of the tiny house I designed last year. 

A lot of people may end up thinking were crazy for wanting to live in such a small space but when were away traveling because we didn't have a huge mortgage or bills to pay we will be the ones laughing. Nobody actually needs half the shit they have anyway and most people buy things they don't need to impress people they probably don't even like, you're better off spending your money on non materialistic things. 

I love it when we spot stuff that's misspelled, it happens so often and it never gets old.

After some laying around we decided to go grab some fruit for the morning along with some mango sticky rice, because it's so damn good! Once back at our place we resumed to chilling and now it's time for bed. We are in Krabi for a while still, 6 nights at this hostel then meeting up with Ross on the 8th so this will be our home for a bit. 

A bientot,

Janelle Brine

Last day in Koh Phangan

Resort.

Today was our last day on Phangan island, we literally had the same day as yesterday. More chillin', laying around and eating fresh fruit at the resort with Vee and Mar. We ate at a wicked little stall tonight though! It was called Soul Organics and it was all vegan and super fresh and cheap, couldn't ask for a better dinner. The owner was the cutest little lady ever and the food was so good, we decided to tip her 20 baht and she was so thankful, it melted our hearts. 

Coming into Thailand I knew that our money was worth quite a bit more here but it wasn't until yesterday did I realize how lucky we are in Canada. So we asked one of the workers here at the resort some questions about his job because we noticed that he works like all day. He told us that he works 12 hour shifts every single day and he's on a salary and gets 8500 baht per month which is like 325 Canadian dollars. It made me see why a lot of foreigners come to North America to work and send money back to their families. I gotta say we have it pretty darn good in most ways compared to these countries, but there are also a lot of things I've noticed here that is better than Canada. I love the simplicity of things here and how they just do with what they have and don't question it or anything because it's all that they know. 

Cutie.

I've noticed that it's very rare to see super markets because everyone gets all their food from stalls instead of getting it from big companies like we do. They support the locals by default it seems and if only North Americans would shop more local or grow their own food, the world would be a different place. At first I was annoyed when the hawkers or whoever would ask and bug me to buy wtv they were selling. But now I realize that that's their job and they have to try and sell as much as they can because what they make each day is what's going to take care of them and or their families. 

So much good food here!

Green curry with brown rice.

It's already been quite the experience out here and I was warned before we left that it would change me forever and I can see why now. I truly believe that everyone should experience this at least once in their lives because it's amazing and I wouldn't trade it for the world. So no matter where you are in your life or how old or young you are, if you haven't back packed or done something close to it you have to! People seriously need to learn how to let go and just live. I find that people are so caught up in trying to fit into this mold that society has set out for them. Life is so much bigger than that mold, life can literally be anything you want it to be. The only shitty thing about life is the fact that it's not long enough and that there are too many things to do to be able to do them all.

Stall that will literally make you a shake with any combination you want.

Ok that's enough ranting for today. Vee and I are off to Krabi in the morning! Goodnight from Thailand!

A bientot,

Janelle Brine

Phangan Day 2

Path to the bungalows.

My bikini bottoms we're getting washed so I borrowed Vee's... My ass is exploding out of these.

Nothing too exciting today, just another chill day on the beach eating fruit and reading in the sunshine. Other than that we went to a night market and grabbed a bite for dinner, that's about it. Since today looked almost identical to yesterday I won't bother going into detail and boring you all half to death. Instead I will talk about other things that are on my mind. 

Market.

First thing well I'm super pumped to say that Vee's brother Jay will be joining us in a few weeks in Krabi. It's always a good time when Jay is around and it will be extra special to be able to share this amazing trip with him and Vee together. 

Since being here I've noticed that a lot of the places we've been are totally a single man's paradise. And if you're a perverted single man, even better for you! We've been seeing so many older white men with young Thai girls (apparently it's ok to rent people around here) and these same men are also the ones you see go into the "happy ending" Thai massages. It's quite disturbing but then again we've seen more disturbing things in the last month than I think I have in my whole life.

Cool wall art.

Anyway enough about pervie men, so our plans for the upcoming week have changed a little bit. We were originally supposed to stay on this island until the 6th of Feb because the hostels make you book for a minimum of 5 days in and around the full moon party dates. But I've had a cold for a few days now and I doubt I'll be feeling 100% by the party so we figured it's probably best that we opt out. We weren't too sure if a huge heterosexual orgy fest was going to be our scene anyway so instead we are most likely going to leave the island early. Marleigh is meeting up with her friend Chelsea for the full moon party so she's gonna be with her for the next week or so. She'll be meeting up with us again after the full moon week and I believe she's thinking of going to Koh Tao after, to go do some scuba diving which is so wicked and will be such an amazing experience.

Cute lil guy we found.

We're not really sure where we're headed but we have all of tomorrow to figure it out so I will keep you all posted as usual:)! That's all for today folks, I'm in bed now and ready to go to sleep.

A bientot,

Janelle Brine

Wingin' it in KP

Koh Phangan from the ferry.

You would think that because we knew we had to wake up early this morning, that we would've gone to bed early. Nope didn't happen we got about 4.5 hours of sleep when we're used to having much more (Thai time aka slow motion). We woke up at 5:30am, finished packing the rest of our stuff and headed out the door. Luckily the minibus was picking us up right at the B&B so we didn't have to stress about going anywhere. The minibus brought us to the ferry terminal and we took a short 30 minute ferry ride to Koh Phangan.

When we arrived we totally had to wing it because we hadn't booked any kind of accommodation. We had to find somewhere to go for the next 3 days before we check in at the hard road hostel for the full moon party. The full moon party is apparently this crazy party on the beach where everyone gets drunk and high out of their minds and cover themselves with body paint. I don't know but I guess we will find out in a few days, were totally going to be the most sober people there for sure. Let's just hope that the music is good and that none of our shit gets stolen, if we can accomplish this it will be considered a success. I've heard some pretty crazy shit about these parties so I want to make sure nothing bad happens to any of us!

Bungalow.

Anyway, once we got our bags we got off the ferry and walked over to get a map of the island. Some random guy came over to us and told us that he would drive us to his resort for free and that we would be able to stay there for 1000 Baht per night. Between 3 people that's a good price so we figured why not trust this stranger right? When we got to the resort, it actually ended up being pretty awesome. The resort is on the beach, has a pool, a restaurant and a bar and we got a wicked private bungalow for 1000 baht as promised by this dude.

Awesome fruit plate from the resort.

(This is Bella she's one of the dogs that hangs around the resort but she seems to like us a lot because she sleeps on our deck. She's the cutest, she only has 3 legs and she's probably one of the best dogs we've met yet.)

After settling in we were all so friggen pooped that we figured it be best to relax and or have a nap. Mar fell asleep In her bed and Vee and I laid on the beach where we got to sunbathe and nap all at once, beautiful. We hung out and chilled all day then we met a guy named Mitchell from White Rock, BC and his friend Pontas from Switzerland along with some Brazilian girls. We had a good chat and some laughs with these lovely people and now it's bed time! 

A bientot,

Janelle Brine

Last day in Koh Samui

Our view from the beach for the last 3 days.

It's ma birfday today! Well here it is anyway so I guess I'll have two birthdays this year since it'll only be my birthday tomorrow in Canada. I had the best birthday yet for sure, we did what we do most mornings and dicked around until noon then got I ride into town with Steve. 

When we got to town we ate some Thai food then off to the beach once again! For the first bit we just played like a bunch of kids in the waves and it was epic. The waves were so huge today, every couple of minutes a really big one would come towards us and if we were at the right place at the right time it would slap us around and drag us to shore. There's just something about this wave slapping game that was just way too much fun and I don't care that I'm an "adult" because I had a blast and could've stayed in there for hours.

Once out of the ocean we all plopped our asseson the sand and chilled for a long while, I made myself a little chair in the sand and fell asleep (best nap ever). I probably would've laid there for a lot longer but it was already 5:30pm so we decided to walk to the big rocks before dark. These rocks were huge and climb able so that's always fun, apparently there's a rock in the shape of a penis and a vagina somewhere close to where we were but we never got to see them lol.

Big rock.

Pretty Palm tree.

Gotta pistol something once in a while.

Love birds.

We made our way back to town so we could grab some Indian food at the Curry Pot Restaurant, everything was delicious. After dinner we walk down the street a bit, Vee and Mar wanted to see the lady boy cabaret show. I joined them for a few minutes until they told me I couldn't stay unless I bought a 16$ drink so I went for a walk and left the girls to fend for themselves HA! Thankfully I saw everything I needed to see within the 5 minutes I spent in there and Vee got some good shots and videos of the talented lady boys.

 

After they finished their drink and had enough they came out and we walked home. We are all packed up now because we leave at 6am tomorrow morning for Koh Phangan, another island about a 30 minute ferry from here. Time for bed! Peace out Koh Samui!

A bientot,

Janelle Brine

Lamai'in it up!

Slept in this AM and it felt wicked! We were lazy again today and didn't get out of the room until 2pm, lots of procrastinating happening on our end. When we found the energy to get movin', we finally got dressed, ate some fresh watermelon and headed downtown. We did a bit of walking around then we realized that the watermelon didn't quite keep us full so we stopped at Samui Kangaroo, a restaurant on the main strip. I had yellow Thai curry with rice, Vee had pad Thai again with fried morning glory (her new fave veggie) and Mar got a soup thing that I can't pronounce, we also all had a fresh strawberry smoothies. 

Time to head to the beach for a little bit! We laid on the sand and made a few trips out into the water to jump some waves. Thankfully it wasn't as sunny today since we were all a bit burnt from yesterday's beach day. The clouds really came out and covered the sun after a while and we weirdly enough got a bit chilly, so time for some delicious mango sticky rice! 

Guy with a pet monkey, apparently he paid 7000 baht for him which is like 280 CAD.

At some point during the day for some foreign reason to me, the girls feel the need to go shopping for who knows what (I don't even think they know). So while they shop I sit outside and people watch until they're done buying or looking at wtv it is caught their eyes. 

Fish spa!

That was pretty much it for today, we've really just been chilling and enjoying this place. It's been so much fun and I'm super stoked to be spending my 24th birthday here tomorrow (I'd say I'm getting old but Vee wouldn't like that very much, even though most of the time people think I'm older than her!). 

Anyway, after shopping we bought some fresh passion fruit, bananas, oranges, and pineapple for breakfast. Once back at the hotel we went for a short swim in the pool and now we are going to bed so goodnight!

A bientot my friends,

Janelle Brine

Bitchin' beach time

First beach day today!!!!! It was awesome!

We woke up and dicked around for a while then Steve drove us down to Coconut Beach. By this time we hadn't eaten yet but it was already 11:30 am so we had to put something in our bellies before getting our tan on. We all had some smoothies with fresh watermelon, pineapple and banana, we've been getting fruit, fruit juices and fruit smoothies almost every morning and they're always so good! 

Coconut Beach.

Piña colada.

Goofing around.

This might sound weird to some people but one of the main reasons I've wanted to come to Thailand was for the abundance of fantastic fruit here. In May of 2012 I started my veganism journey and it changed my life completely in the most wonderful and positive way possible. I went from moving out of my parents house and eating chicken nuggets, pizza and mcdicks every day to being paleo for a year to becoming Raw Vegan that may of 2012. 

       

From one extreme to the other but oh so worth it, when I went from paleo to raw vegan I immediately went into detox mode and lost about 12 lbs in 2 weeks and leaned out about 5% body fat. All that meat that I was eating on the paleo diet was definitely clogging me up and preventing my body from working properly which is why I detoxed as much as I did. The difference in how right this new way of eating felt was so massive that within the first a couple days I knew that I would be vegan for the rest of my life (I didn't know I could feel so good), other than coming out I had never before been so sure of something. My body had never felt so light and whole, my head so clear and all of a sudden I saw everything in a different way and I started appreciating the smaller things in life, plain and simple it made everything better. Now, you can believe what I'm telling you or not but I guess you won't really know unless you try it for yourself and I highly recommend that you do, just to soothe and strengthen your body, mind and soul. 

I was raw vegan for 10 months, I wanted to rid my body of all the crap I had put it through for the last 20 years. Being raw vegan truly improved my life and once I felt good and like my body was well recovered from the previous year's damage I started reintroducing cooked foods, still keeping them fully vegan. Since then I've been living a fully vegan lifestyle, It started out being more about the health benefits then evolved to being about health and ethics. With all the research I constantly buried myself with, I quickly realized that there was way more to veganism than just better eating habits. Being vegan is about not consuming or buying any animal products or by products in addition to showing love and compassion for all living sentient beings. At the end of the day without them none of us would be alive and really for me, I not only feel better eating this way, I also feel better in my heart (cheesy I know but it's the truth). This way I'm not harming anyone or anything, and why would I when humans can more than thrive this way and have for a very long time. 

Now that you all know part of my vegan story, I'll get to the point I was trying to get to HA! So my two vegan idols are Freelee the Banana Girl and Durianrider (those obviously aren't their real names) who are vegan YouTube icons. I've been watching them online since day one and I've grown with them over the past 3 years, they've really paved the way for all of us vegan newbies. Freelee has been vegan for 8 years and Durian for 13 years and they are both so vibrant, healthy and inspiring. Anyway I would watch videos of them when they'd be traveling to Thighland twice a year and they would eat loads of amazing fruit that I had never even heard of, but all I knew was that I wanted to do just like them. So here I am back packing through Southeast Asia enjoying every second of it, surrounded by good food and even better company, life is good.

OK! So after getting to the beach and ingesting our fruit smoothies we went down to lay in the sun and jump into the waves whenever we would get too hot. I had forgot how much I love playing in the waves, I hadn't done it since I was like 12 Following a few hours of this, we ate some pad Thai (again! So good!) at a resto on the beach then went back to sunbathe a bit more. We all fell asleep and once we woke up it was already 5pm so we packed up and headed back to the B&B. Tired from the day and being a little more sun kissed than planned we knew that I would be an early ish night tonight. We showered, ate at the hawkers, went to watch Steve play live music at island cafe in DT Lamai then finished the night off with a 1 hour Thai massage (12 bucks later). 

Bed time ya'll!!!!! 

A bientot,

Janelle Brine

Where the cool kids go

                       

So I woke up about 6 times last night from feeling the springs of the bed stabbing my side, that was fun...! We definitely knew that we wouldn't be staying at this pathetic hostel again, so the accommodation hunt was on the list of things to do today. First, food! We packed up and headed out to grab some grub to get us going after a long previous day and night.

On the positive side I got my ideal breakfast and it made everything better by leaps and bounds, nothing like the wonderful fresh taste of fruit that hasn't travelled across the world. With satisfied and full bellies we resumed our search for somewhere to stay that didn't suck a big one like the last. Luckily we did find a place that suited our needs so we hopped in a cab and made our way to Lamai Beach which is about a 15 minute drive from where we were.

Once we got to the new place we immediately loved it, for 40 CAD we scored a private room with two twin beds, a deck and a pool! CRUSHED IT! To add to the awesomeness of our new home, the vibe on this part of the island is wayyyyy better and we are excited to be here. After settling in the owner (nicest guy ever!) informed us that he would be driving everyone from the B&B into town in a few hours if we wanted to join. 

With a couple hours to spare we did some Tabata squats, hand release push-ups and burpees then jumped in the pool to cool off. Can life get any better? 

At 5:30pm Steve(the owner) drove us along with a family of 6 from Manitoba into town so we could grab some dinner. We had Thai green curry with loads of veggies and some rice, we def need to get used to the spiciness of the food here because my mouth just about fell off. 

                                 

                                          After Tabata!

Random street performer at the night market.

Local tattoo shop.

Fried insects anyone?

We got super lucky to have got to Lamai beach today because it just so happens that every Sunday they close down this one street and put together a huge night market. After we were done eating din din we walked around to market for a long while and got a few things for super cheap. 

Back at the B&B now and ready for bed, goodnight errbody!

A bientot,

Janelle Brine

  

Bad pad, good pad Thai

Keluar=exit, left malaysia today.

Had to wake up at 4am this morning to make sure we had enough time to get ready before catching the minibus to Koh Samui at 5am. Thankfully we weren't expecting much for this bus to our next destination, but we never thought it would be quite as bad as it was. When they say minibus they really mean MINI! Good thing were are all under 5"6 in height and not overweight because this vehicle was not build for tall or big people. We rode on this bus for about an hour, it was crowded with us three plus a family of 6 in the back with a few other strays. 

First stop they checked our passports (we bought a 40oz bottle of absolute vodka for 18 Bucks...SCORE!), second stop was at the Thai boarder, where we stood in line for what felt like a super long time, we must be done and about to head out right?... Nope! We stopped and had to get out of the minibus a third time to get our passports checked and stamped again? We were the only ones needing to get our fingers scanned too, are Canadians dangerous? Lol. 

After I was done at the counter it was Vee's turn, she goes up and he just waves his hand in a "shoo-fly" type of manner and tells her to go with me without getting her Thai visa stamped like me and Mar. When she told me that he just sent her through, I definitely thought it was strange and once telling Mar what happened, we came to a family decision that something wasn't quite right and that she should go check why he passed her through like that. We never actually found out why but he ended up taking her passport back and stamping it like he should have done the first time. We kept thinking back to it for the next little while because it was just so sketchy, like what if someone somewhere had to check our passports and sees that me and Mar have the proper docs and not Vee. Basically, it would look like we snuck her into the country and the las thing we need is to get arrested.

After finally getting back on the bus we drove for maybe an hour of more, got woken up by the driver slamming not the brakes and pretty much telling us to get out... We had no idea what was going on because he was being rude and not helpful at all, and the owner of the hostel in Penang had told us that the ticket we purchased would get us straight to Koh Samui. After a few minutes this other lady came to the bus and told us that we just had to transfer to another bus and that we would be on our way in 30 minutes from then.

At this point we were in Hat Yai in Thailand, on the ride there we met a guy from Belgium and a girl from Finland with the sickest tattoo ever. They were sweet and had both been traveling alone for more than 3 months. I'm loving meeting all kinds of people! Oh and we all miss Ross already, he said bye to us last night because he was headed to Cameron Highlands and we were going the other way, but we will see him in Krabi in a few weeks (don't let this get to your head if you read this Ross.. Ha!).

When we finally hopped on our transfer bus we were so crammed in there that I felt like Shaquille O'Neal trying to fit in a smart car. To say the least it fit in TOIGHT! And the driver drove like a maniac for 4 hours straight before stopping to let us out to use the loo and stretch out our legs. We stopped for about 15 minutes and we needed to take out money, so I stood at the ATM for a while trying to figure out what to take out. I ended up taking out 6500 Baht which was actually only 250 CAD (I love that our money is worth so much here!) 

Anyway when I said "like a maniac" I meant we were scared for our lives, he was going so effin' fast and when cars were in his way and he couldn't pass them in the other lane he would just make his own road rules and pass them on the narrow ass shoulder.

Good news is that we got there safe and just on time, I guess there was an upside to the crazy driving because when we got there the ferry was leaving in 10 minutes. The ferry ride over to Koh Samui was smooth and about 1.5 hours in length, the view of the island from a short distance was amazing and the green/blue colour of the water was something I had only ever seen in magazines. Once on the island we took a taxi to our hostel which is definitely the worst one yet by a long shot! When I lay on the bed I can feel every spring in the mattress and I'm never one to complain about this type of thing because I can sleep on and through anything usually.

We got as settled as we could and went on a hunt for some LEGIT pad Thai, we found some and it was no doubt a food porn moment. To add to the deliciousness we ordered some smoothies made with fresh strawberries and passion fruit. After we were done we walked through the market and then somehow ended up on the lady boy/prosty street so we quickly turned around and went back to our shitty hostel. Bedtime now and sorry for the novel today guys but I hope you'll still enjoy it.

A bientot,

Janelle brine