regan trip: part song

anyway, to pick up where i left off (sort of)...

on monday night, amber and mary flew down to phuket (ultimately phi phi bound) and i went back to bangkok so i could get back to suphan and teach tuesday/wednesday. ("well, nicki, that sounds stupid. why didn't you just take the whole week off?" in retrospect, maybe i should've...but i wanna make sure i have enough days off for when kate and wendy come. anyway, onward.) everything went beautifully for the regans over these next couple days. they got to phi phi just as planned, stayed in a little bungalow, went on a spectacular snorkeling trip around the phi phi islands, and kicked it on the beach. aside from a little jellyfish debacle, everything pretty much went as planned.

the same wasn't really true for me. i got back to bangkok around midnight on monday night. i debated taking a taxi all the way home to suphan but it was gonna be WAY too expensive, so i just went to khao san and crashed in a cheap hostel. i slept for like three hours and woke up at 4:40 am to get on the van to suphan. it was still pitch black on my walk from hostel to van and there were some creepy people out and i don't like khao san much to begin with, much less at night by myself...meh, creepy bad start to tuesday. but i got on the van and back to suphan in time to teach the kiddies on tuesday.

tuesday and wednesday are my fave days of the week class-wise this year, so i was actually pretty pumped to teach. after i finished on wednesday, i hopped back on a van to bangkok so i could take a bus down to phuket.

i went with the bus option cuz it was probably 1/3 the cost of a plane ticket, if not cheaper. THIS WAS A BAD CHOICE AND I SHOULD'VE SPLURGED. the travel agency that sold me the ticket said the bus would leave bangkok at 6 pm and arrive in phuket at 10 am. we didn't end up leaving until 6:45 pm, so i figured we'd be an hour, hour and a half late in phuket.

at noon we stopped. i asked someone where we were. "two hours away," she said. TWO FRIGGIN HOURS. it ended up being closer to two and a half. meanwhile, amber and mary are just kickin it at this pier all day cuz i told'em i'd meet'em there around 11 am. amber had my phone so i had no way to communicate how pathetically long this stupid local bus was taking.

when i finally met up with them at like 8 pm (read: actually just before 4 pm) i hooty hooted. of course. let part 2 begin. i wanted to go back to koh yao noi, which was where mom and dad and i went and we loved it--it was all quiet and local and had beautiful forests and it sounded like an excellent break from life. but we were at the wrong pier and it was getting to be too late in the day for ferries, so we couldn't get there. "check out this other absolutely beautiful resort on koh yao yai, though," the travel agent lady on the pier said. (btw, yeah, those are two different islands with very similar names. noi=little. yai=big. if you saw'em on a map you'd understand.)

she showed us the brochure for koh yao yai village. it'd be a little expensive, but i was tired and we all just wanted to go so we were like, "yeah, ok, we're on vacation so let's go." we went to another pier and had some time to kill, so we grabbed a beer and waited until the speed boat came. when we got to koh yao yai, a song tau was already waiting to drive us to the most BEAUTIFUL place i've ever seen. i know i say this way too much, but you have to see it. i'll put up pictures when i have a better internet connection tomorrow. just suffice it to say there was a gigantic infinity pool with a swim-up bar looking over the ocean.

on saturday we went back to phuket for the night cuz we had plans for elephant riding on sunday morning on the island. we got a cab from teh pier to our hostel, which would have been a quick journey if the cabbie had known where he was going and we didn't spend half an hour driving around the same area of town looking for this place...lolz. dinner saturday night was unexpectedly excellent. what i thought would be a mediocre meal turned out to be a fabulous evening with islandy drinks and the thai wait staff playing games with us (jackpot!).

i'm getting tired of writing. dammit, i need to do this more. you guys, don't let me take such long breaks from writing.

ok, ok, the rest of the trip in short form. on sunday morning we went up to the elephant place and since i'd already done this elephant riding thingy, i let amber and mary do the journey. amber loved it but mary was apprehensive. we journeyed back to bangkok later that day and took a cab right out to suphan. they stayed in the apartment building right next door (oooo, the new fancy one) and came to two classes with me on monday--my smartest class (6/9) and my supposed naughtiest class (5/2). the kids clapped for them and guessed their ages wildly wrong. on monday night, we just ate dinner and hung out at farangs across the street and on tuesday, they peaced out for bangkok to explore the grand palace.

in that time we were kickin it for a long time at hte restaurant, the three of us just talking, i realized how much i really really love hanging out with amber. when we saw each other for the first time, we screamed and did one of those huge squeezy hugs. i miss that bitch and i'm so so so so glad they came. BON. DEE.