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Category Archives: Thailand

Honeymooning in Phuket

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Accommodations, Asia, Hilton, Thailand, Travel Hacking

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After escaping the tetanus-ridden raft houses of Khao Sok national park, Mrs. Selfish and I were ready to high-tail it out of there!  Unfortunately, this meant spending the night in Phuket, one of Thailand’s seediest cities!

After leaving the decidedly-beautiful-but-extremely-rustic Khao Sok national park, we were transported back to the Bamboo Orchid Tree House to pickup our suitcases. Unfortunately, midway through the hour long drive it decided to rain, and we were in a semi-open air pickup truck.  We arrive at the Tree House, slightly soaked, grabbed our bag, and hopped in a car to Phuket!  Two hours later we arrived in civilization at the Double Tree Resort Phuket, on Surin Beach.

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They have baby elephants in Khao Lak!

31 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by in Accommodations, Asia, Thailand, Travel Hacking

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When planning the Thailand portion of our trip, Mrs. Selfish and I decided to spend a week on the west coast of Thailand.  We knew we wanted to dive Richelieu Rock, and visit Thailand’s Halong Bay, the man made Khao Sak lake, but getting there was a problem.  The closest airport to both natural wonders is in Phuket, which is known as one of the seediest places in Thailand – even the natives warned us against going there.

Fortunately, Khao Lak was only a one hour drive north.  While searching for accommodations, I found Le Méridien Khao Lak Beach & Spa Resort with one important benefit: a baby elephant.

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Khao Sok – Trekking Around Cheow Lan Lake

30 Saturday Mar 2013

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Our 2 day/1 night trip to Cheow Lan Lake included two treks. The first trek was to Namtaloo Cave. It took about 45 minutes of hiking through the jungle to reach the cave. Our guide’s name was Ya Ya, and he was good-natured and easy going. When we told him that I was a slow walker, he assured me that we would take lots of breaks for photos.

Trekking 01 Trekking 02Helloooooooo

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Khao Sok – Boating on Cheow Lan Lake

29 Friday Mar 2013

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Other than the accommodations on Cheow Lan Lake, Mr. Selfish and I enjoyed our 2 day/1 night to the lake. Cheow Lan Lake is a man-made lake that resulted from the construction of the Ratchaprapha (Rajjaprabha) Dam in 1988. The lake measures approximately 168 square kilometres and is full of beautiful limestone cliffs. Riding a long-tail boat on Cheow Lan Lake was certainly one of the highlights of our tour.

First, we arrived at Ratchaprapha Dam for our last bathroom break before heading off on the long-tail boat. We had one of our big bags with us, so Mr. Selfish had to haul it down to the boat.

The Lake 01 The Lake 02The Lake 03

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Khao Sok – Freaking Out About Leeches and Trekking

28 Thursday Mar 2013

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I am not much for trekking but I knew that me and Mr. Selfish would at least do one short hike in Khao Sok National Park. When I started googling the best hikes in the park, I came across many blogs about how the trails are crawling with leeches. The blogs told gruesome tales of how the leeches will chase you through the trails, find a way to slither up your legs, and suck your blood even through your socks.

Mr. Selfish started freaking out. He wanted to leave Khao Sok the next day and not even doing any hiking. I attempted to calm him down and told him that it was probably only bad during rainy season. We were there on the cusp of dry season and hot season.

The next day, I somehow convinced Mr. Selfish to do one hike in the park and told him as soon as we saw any leeches on the trail, we would turn back. I am happy to report that during our short hike at Khao Sok National Park, we didn’t see a single leech.

Khao Sok 07 Khao Sok 08 Khao Sok 11 Trekking

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Mr. Selfish Let Me Book Our Accommodations in Khao Sok

25 Monday Mar 2013

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Mr. Selfish and I had a week allocated for the western part of Thailand. We landed in Phuket but knew that we had to get out of there as soon as possible. We stopped in Khao Lak for a couple of days in order to scuba dive at Richelieu Rock and then we headed to Khao Sok to spend a couple of nights in a tree house and one night in a raft house. Khao Sok is a national park encompassing 738.74 square kilometers. It is pretty rustic and not yet overrun with tourists, which means that there are no chain hotels in Khao Sok.

Mr. Selfish has been expertly collecting airline and hotel miles and points since September 2011, which has enabled us to stay at some really nice hotels during our selfish year. Because we could not use any points for Khao Sok, I was left in charge of planning the accommodations.

For our tree house, I booked the Bamboo Orchid Tree House at Khao Sok Tree House. It had air conditioning and an outdoor rustic bathroom, and cost 4,000 baht ($136 USD) per night.

Khao Sok 01Khao Sok 02BathroomKhao Sok 05Khao Sok 06

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Diving in Thailand at Richelieu Rock and Koh Tao

22 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in Asia, Thailand

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Scuba diving is a very time-consuming hobby. After spending so much time and resources getting scuba certified, you want to go diving as much as possible. You start planning destinations and vacations around scuba sites. Moreover, scuba diving is an expensive hobby. It typically involves a boat, a boat, a crew, a guide, and lots of scuba equipment. It all adds up to lots of time and money to scuba dive. However, as cliché as it may sound, it is a whole another world under the water. It can be amazingly peaceful and beautiful under the water.

Mr. Selfish and I planned part of Thailand itinerary around the scuba sites in Thailand, in particular Richelieu Rock. Richelieu Rock is usually rated as one of the top diving sites in the world. In truth, Richelieu Rock was the most beautiful place I’ve ever dived. There were tons of schools of fish and the most luxurious purple coral. We even saw the elusive yellow seahorse, the difficult to find sea whip pipefish, and the more common Moray eel.

Richelieu RockRichelieu - Yellow SeahorseRichelieu - Sea Whip PipefishRichelieu - Eel

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The Delicious but Expensive Food at the Conrad Koh Samui

21 Thursday Mar 2013

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Mr. Selfish and I truly enjoyed our stay at the beautiful Conrad Koh Samui. The only downsides were: (1) the location and (2) the food.

As to location, the Conrad Koh Samui is quite far from the airport and pretty much everything else on the island. Mr. Selfish already went over how we hired Mr. Samui Samui to solve the issue of transportation. However, the location also made it very expensive and inconvenient to leave the property. As a result, other than a diving trip that we took, we stayed on property, which meant that we had to eat on property.

The food was tasty but man, was it expensive! Luckily, I am a Gold Hilton Honors member so we had free breakfast at Zest. We typically ate breakfast as late as possible to make it into a brunch and then had an early dinner. The breakfast spread was quite impressive. You could order an egg selection from the menu, including eggs benedict, English breakfast, etc., and then still eat from the buffet.

Koh Samui 263Koh Samui 269Koh Samui 271Koh Samui 267

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Beyond the Infinity Pools of the Conrad Koh Samui

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Accommodations, Asia, Thailand, Travel Hacking

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After a week of roughing it at the Sanctuary, Mrs. Selfish and I packed our bags and left Koh Phangan, heading for its sister island, Koh Samui. While planning the Thailand portion of our trip, I scheduled us for 4 nights at the Conrad Koh Samui.

Why?

Three words: Private infinity pool.

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Exploring Beyond the Sanctuary

19 Tuesday Mar 2013

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Mr. Selfish and I loved our week-long stay at the Sanctuary. We attempted to explore Koh Phangan outside of the Sanctuary, but we didn’t really do that much. Here are a few of the places that we tried beyond the Sanctuary.

First, we walked to Bamboo Hutt for traditional Thai food. Although the food at the Sanctuary was delicious, their strong point was the vegetarian food, not the Thai food. However, you had to walk across a very rickety pier to get to the Bamboo Hutt so we only managed to go there once for lunch.

The Sanctuary 085The Sanctuary 088The Sanctuary 090The Sanctuary 091The Sanctuary 107The Sanctuary 097

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I Didn’t Know Vegetarian Food Could Be So Tasty!

18 Monday Mar 2013

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During our week-long stay at the Sanctuary, Mr. Selfish and I ate many meals at the Sanctuary’s restaurant. The Sanctuary specializes in vegetarian fare and even offers detox packages as an extra option for a yoga holiday. Mr. Selfish and I did not opt to detox but we did enjoy the vegetarian food very much.

The Sanctuary’s restaurant is set right next to the beach. There were even hammocks on which you could lie and doze.

The Sanctuary 066The Sanctuary 068The Sanctuary 071The Sanctuary 217

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Getting To and From the Sanctuary

16 Saturday Mar 2013

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Yesterday, I posted about how great the yoga holiday at the Sanctuary was. However, I had quite a bit of trepidation about actually getting to the Sanctuary.

Our flight to Koh Samui landed rather late in the evening, and February is known for rough waves at Koh Phangan, which is the island where the Sanctuary is based. I wasn’t sure that we were going to find affordable transportation to the Sanctuary. I also found the directions on the Sanctuary’s website to be missing critical information, such as pricing and photos.

So, I’ve decided to break it down here in this post. Here’s a map of where we needed to go:

The Sanctuary

First, we landed at the Koh Samui airport. Second,  we had to take a car taxi from the airport to Big Buddha Pier (red dot). Third, we had to take the ferry from Big Buddha Pier to Haad Rin on Koh Phangan (green dot). Fourth, we had to take either a car taxi or a longboat taxi from Haad Rin to the Sanctuary (home symbol). Due to the multiple modes of transportation we needed to take, I was sure that we would be scammed along the way.

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Our One-Week Yoga Holiday at the Sanctuary

15 Friday Mar 2013

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Right after our honeymoon in 2009, Mr. Selfish and I decided to take up yoga. It was quite difficult at first, but of course, it gets easier the more you practice. During the month of June 2012, which is when I was studying for the California bar, I did yoga almost every day. It kept me sane.

I decided that I wanted to do a yoga retreat during our selfish year. I soon discovered that yoga retreats are a little hard core with early morning chanting, fasting, etc. Instead, I decided that we would take a week long yoga holiday at the Sanctuary at Koh Pha Ngan. The yoga holiday at the Sanctuary seemed a bit more chill and relaxing.

For both Mr. Selfish and I, the yoga holiday at the Sanctuary includes:

  • * 1 week accommodation
  • * 14 yoga classes
  • * 4 private yoga classes
  • * 10 spa treatments
  • * 10 herbal steam and plunge passes
  • * 2 healing sessions
  • * 2 meals

This was my splurge so I opted for the executive yoga holiday package since the accommodation included air conditioning. The total cost for 2 people was 47,410 baht (~$1,598.88 USD).

Our accommodation was certainly nice. We could’ve fit probably three extra people into our Ocean View Round House. We had a cozy outdoor patio area with a dining room table, a couch, a hammock, and even a kitchen.

Yoga Holiday 07Yoga Holiday 01Yoga Holiday 02Yoga Holiday 03

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The Best Cup of Coffee in Asia: Ristr8to in Chiang Mai

14 Thursday Mar 2013

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I don’t know what it is about Asia but they sure do love their Nescafé (instant coffee) here. I personally find it quite disgusting but have been nevertheless drinking plenty of it to get my caffeine fix in the morning. When I found out that Chiang Mai had a fancy coffee shop, I knew that Mr. Selfish and I would try it.

We visited Ristr8to twice during our week in Chiang Mai. It was far away from our apartment but worth the trip. The coffee was perfectly brewed, had beautiful latte art, and was absolutely delicious.

The menu was a little intimidating at initial glance, but there are basically two steps to ordering coffee at Ristr8to. First, you choose the type of coffee you want – e.g., caffé mocha, flat white, cappuccino, etc. Second, you choose the type of beans – e.g., Ethiopian, Brazilian, blended, Thai, or decaf.

Chiang Mai 124

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Visiting the Wats in Chiang Mai

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

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Although the weather was hotter than predicted, Mr. Selfish and I still managed to tour the notable wats in Chiang Mai. First, we took a songthaew (a pick-up truck converted into a taxi) up Doi Suthep to visit Wat Phrathat. The elevation at the wat is about 3,500 feet, and I already had problems with my breath as we were going up the mountain. I have certainly learned that I am prone to elevation sickness.

Temples 23

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