First it was the sunglasses. I didn’t take my aviator sunglasses with me because I figured I’d buy new ones during our trip. We spent days, daaaaaays, looking for sunglasses that would fit the description of what I wanted and eventually we found a decent pair while at the Night Market in Chiang Mai. The search for the perfect pair was getting a little out of control (three hours at the mall, stopping at numerous stores along the road and almost four hours at the market) so we were both relieved when I finally picked up a pair of greenish-blueish wayfarer style glasses and said “I’ll take these”.
Then it was the hat. A few days later I decided I needed a hat since we were going to go on a hike during our tour of the beautiful Koh Samui islands. We both cringed at the idea of spending hours and hours looking for yet another item. We were on a busy, touristy street so initially I had high hopes but after the third, or fifth, shop we tried I was frustrated and had given up. I hopped on the back of our moped and said “let’s just go, I don’t need a hat.” Half way down the block and two seconds later we pulled over because I wanted to check “just one more store, I really need a hat. Maybe I’ll just get a floppy hat…”
Turns out I only wore the hat for a few minutes during the rest of our trip. I didn’t need it for the hike, I couldn’t wear it on the boat ride to Ang Thong and eventually it broke because I tried stuffing it in our luggage. I brought the broken hat back home with me because I promised myself that “I’m going to fix it. I will!” (Nope, no I won’t). And the sunglasses that we so desperately searched for? I accidentally left them on the plane.
So there’s that. Eddie has incredible patience and I complicate things.
Our one-day trip to Ang Thong National Park turned out to be nothing like my search for useless items. It was completely worth the many hours of travel to get there and more beautiful than anything I could have imagined. Ang Thong Park is a protected area in the gulf of Thailand composed of about 42 islands so the only way to get there is via approved tour companies. We were in complete awe during our boat ride as we floated next to beautiful limestone mountains, thick jungle and white sand beaches. Our first stop was a small beach where we went up hundreds of wooden stairs to see Emerald Lake, like nothing I’d seen before. About an hour later we were back on the boat heading to the second beach where we would hike up to an incredible viewpoint…seriously, like a dream
At Emerald Lake…
Here’s another photo of the hat I told you about… at least it made for cool pictures…
We didn’t plan every step of our vacation before arriving in Thailand so we spent some mornings planning our itinerary. Given my history with indecisiveness when I’m too excited and there’s too many options we’re so grateful to some amazing travel blogs that helped us create an itinerary for our trip. We used these awesome resources and guides to plan our time in Chiang Mai and Ko Samui…
AWESOME TRAVEL BLOGS: THAILAND
–HAPPY COW to find vegetarian/vegan options in Chiang Mai & Ko Samui.
–7 DAYS IN CHIANG MAI awesome self guided itinerary by Chris & Angela from Tieland to Thailand
–THE KOH SAMUI GUIDE by Alex & Charlie from Koh Samui Sunset
–THAILAND TIPS by Matt from Nomadic Matt
The long, scary and dangerous hike was 100% worth it…I mean just look at this!!! GAH!
