Days 129-131 Friday-Sunday Punta Fuego, Philippines March 18-21

Let's just get it out of the way...Tania and I are the luckiest people in the world.  We are lucky to have the family and friends that we do, lucky to have had the greatest wedding in the world, lucky to be on this trip, and lucky to have found the perfect love with each other.  We admit this, and could never describe how truly fortunate we feel every day of our lives.

Now that that's out there, we'll tell you about our time in Punto Fuego.

After saying goodbye to the Child Fund team in Taal, Hubert and another team member drove us to Annie's sister's, Jenny's, house at Punta Fuego, which is a private coastal town west of Manila.  Jenny is one of the sweetest women in the world, and her house was equally beautiful.  We spent the weekend lounging by the pool, chatting over meals with her other sister and husband, the Colombos, taking the boat out to remote corners of the area for some swimming in the crystal clear water and snorkeling through the exotic marine life, including some giant clams that were opened to expose a transluscent blue inner shell, and just enjoying this incredible corner of the world with some incredible people.

 Sunset on the golf course above Jenny's house in Punto Fuego.

The view from Jenny's house in Punto Fuego.

We could not have imagined a better way to relax after the week we had in Taal.  And on top of that, we couldn't imagine a better way to wrap-up our 5 month journey through this region.  It gave us a chance to reflect on everything we had seen and done, and to prepare for what was about to come when we return back to the US.  Would we be changed people when we got back?  How much would we miss being on the road, experiencing something new and different every day?  What did we miss the most about the US, and what would we do/see/eat during the first few days back?  These were just some of the things that we pondered in the waning days of our trip.  There were no clear or easy answers to any of them, so we decided to relax and simply enjoy the home, setting, and meals that our immensely gracious and generous hosts were providing for us in Punto Fuego.  We could answer the questions when we got back to the US, or maybe during our 22 hours of travel we had ahead of us on Tuesday morning.

 Captain Tony driving our boat around different snorkeling areas.

Tania with the ladies at dinner.

Thank you Jenny, Annie, Tony, and Colombos.  Your homes and lives in Punto Fuego are amazing, and we appreciate you taking us in like you did more than you know.

Vietnam & Cambodia Video

Here's the video we made for our time in Vietnam and Cambodia. This stretch of the trip was extra special since we got to spend so much time with family (Tony and Anna Marie) and friends (Steve, Lisa, Luke, Hugh). 

Music is by The Temper Trap and Hot Chip.

Enjoy.


Honeymoon Phase 4 - Vietnam & Cambodia from Craig Palumbo on Vimeo.

Snorkel trip to Cham Island

While in Hoi An, we decided to hire a speed boat to take us snorkeling off of Cham Island.  Well, the water was freezing cold, so we jumped back on board of the boat and headed for the island, where we soaked in the sun and island breeze for most of the day.  It brought us right back to our Thai island life, where isn't too shabby.

Speed boat to snorkel at Cham Island from Craig Palumbo on Vimeo.

Morakot Cave inside of Koh Muk

During our 4 island snorkeling trip off of Koh Lanta in Thailand, we swam 80 yards into the heart of the island where a mesmerizing beach lives.  Tania gives a great description of it below.


Morakot cave inside of Koh Muk from Craig Palumbo on Vimeo.

Old Town Koh Lanta

Here's a glimpse of Old Town Koh Lanta.  The roads may not have been paved, but the town was so fun to explore.


Old Town on Koh Lanta from Craig Palumbo on Vimeo.

Days 56-59 Sunday – Thursday January 3-7, 2010 Koh Lanta, Thailand

Highlights

-       - Massaman Curry!!!!!!  Man the king has good taste!

-       - Snorkeling was fun, but discovering Morakot cave inside the heart of an island was icing on the cake!

-       - If you’re looking for crazy backpacker fun, head somewhere else (i.e. Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Pha Ngan).  This place has luckily evaded that doom.

The Nothing Else To Do While Tania Gets Another Massage Version

Let’s start by saying that Koh Lanta was our favorite of the Thai islands, but as you can tell from the video of our overnight ferry from Koh Tao, getting there was the antithesis of our love for Lanta.  Along with the ferry, we had to battle our way through a taxi ride from the ferry terminal in Surat Thani, a bus from Surat Thani to Krabi, then a packed mini-bus drive to Lanta.  Yet all of that chaos was forgotten when we arrived onto Lanta.

Eight years ago when I was traveling through Europe, I randomly met a Brit named Emma in a sandwich shop, and we spent a day touring Valencia, Spain, before she left town.  Somehow through the magic of email, blogging, and Facebook, we’ve stayed in touch through the years.  When we learned that she was now living on Lanta teaching scuba diving, Tania and I decided to skip over the touristy Phuket and Koh Phi Phi and spend our time on the west coast on Lanta.  And boy are we glad we did. 

Emma was kind enough to find a hotel for us to stay at, the NT Lanta Resort, which had just opened a few months prior, meaning our bungalow was brand new with all of the amenities a weary traveler could desire; AC, hot water, satellite TV, fridge, and most importantly, new and clean furnishings.

Emma also introduced us to the best restaurants in Long Beach, the nicest stretch of beaches that hadn’t already been trampled by tourists.  We fell in love with the king’s favorite dish, Massaman curry.  It’s a peanuty curry served with potatoes and onions, and basically the greatest thing your pallet can swim in.  We also ate delicious seafood and rice dishes over meals with her friends Claire (don’t call her a life coach), Magnus (www.tapper.com), and the rest of her scuba friends.  We even got to partake in trivia night with all of the expats at Bar Racuda (get the play on words?).  We got third place, out of about 10 teams, basically because Tania doesn’t know as much about Lord of the Rings as she thought she did.  She let all of her D&D friends down on that one.

Aside from eating the delicious food, Tania obviously got a beach-side oil massage (I think she is in the midst of setting the world record for most massages in a month’s time), we scootered around the island, down to Old town, walked along the picturesque beach, and boated around to 4 islands for an incredible day of snorkeling.  Our new gear came in handy to see stunning coral swarming with schools of brightly colored fish.  Getting to wade in the water as the fish swim around you as if you’re part of their clan has quickly become one of our favorite things to do, which we’ll greatly miss once we head up north to Chiang Mai.

The highlight of the snorkeling trip was when we visited Morakot cave inside of Koh Muk, which requires a 10 minute swim through a pitch black tunnel that eventually leads to a hidden beach in the heart of the island.  Once inside the cave on and standing on the beach, you can spend an hour notching your head back and gazing the perimeter of the walls that stand around you, reaching hundreds of feet above with a lining of lush shrubbery and plant life.  Stunning, absolutely stunning.

We were sad to leave Koh Lanta because after the resort feel of Kohs Samui, Pha Ngan, and Tao, we really started to get into the groove of quieter island life that Lanta provided over the others.  Yet, we had a flight to catch out of Phuket, so we hopped a high class ferry through Koh Phi Phi so we could stay the night in Phuket before our early morning flight on Friday.  

 

Days 50-55 Monday – Saturday December 28, 2009 – January 2, 2010 Kho Tao, Thailand

Highlights

-       - Quiet getaways are nice, but not being remotely close to any civil/socialization may not be optimal during the new year period.

-       - Things in Thailand don’t happen on time, they happen on Thaim (meaning you better get comfortable when sitting down to dinner).

-       - WE SWAM WITH SHARKS!!!!!

The Thai Restaurant Version

After being at the Mango Bay bungalows on Kho Tao for 24 hours, I (Craig) have realized two things…

1.     1) When perched on the cliffs of a desolate Thai lsland resort, it’s tough to tell the difference between the blue ocean and the equally blue sky above the horizon.

2.     2) Things don’t happen here on time, but they do happen on Thaim.  Meaning, our dinners may not come out as hoped at the same time as each other, but they’ll each eventually get to your table.  One possibly 20 minutes after the other.  Also meaning that you pay $5 more for the quicker 1pm ferry, but after watching the cheaper 2pm and 2:30pm ferries load and leave in front of you, you finally board yours at 3pm and arrive at your destination over 2 hours late.  That’s Thaim, and that’s just how it happens around here.  Thank God it’s the most relaxing place on the planet, because the difference between time and Thaim isn’t that big of a deal when all is said and done.

The Mango Bay bungalows are at the north tip of Koh Tao, and it’s as remote as a resort can get.  The rest of the island is easily connected by roads and quite active, but the only activities happening at our resort are snorkeling between the bungalows and distant beach, and watching the power turn off between 10:30am and 5pm, which basically forces you out of your hillside bungalow during the day because the fan is non-functional and the room becomes a sauna.  Therefore, no lazy days in bed, which are nice to have once in a while.

Don’t let that make you think this place isn’t enjoyable, because it very much is, just in its own way.  Just like Koh Pha Ngan was a progressive step more relaxing than Koh Samui, Koh Tao is the ultimate pit for leaving the world and its stresses behind.

During our first day at Mango Bay, there was no Internet.  No TV.  No stroll through town or hike to a waterfall.  It’s you, the cliffs, some snorkel gear, and a restaurant who's speed matches that of things happening in the lazy and disconnected world outside.  We still have 4 more days here, and we're already unwound like a broken watch, and we can’t wait to find out the depths of how far this unwinding can go…

(fast forward 2 days) Okay, it’s day 3, and this place is starting to get to us.  Yes, we love our little bungalow hideaway, but we can’t stand the fact that electricity is off from 5:30-6:30am (shutting off the fan that keeps us cool at night) and 10:30am-5pm (shutting off the fan that keeps us cool during the day).  Yes, we love the beautiful sunset and incomparable snorkeling out front, but we can’t stand the fact that the only restaurant choice we have within reachable distance without a 40 minute long and $20 boat ride is our resort’s restaurant, and the food is getting worse every day and the owner is the world’s grumpiest and least accommodating person we’ve ever met.  He makes us feel bad that his (advertised free) wifi is down and that his staff screwed up your order after it took an hour to get to your table.  He’s like the soup nazi who bought a pair of flip flops, sold all of his upper body clothing, and decided to open a joint in the middle of BFE Thailand.

Enough of the bitching, but this guy is bad, and we needed to get it out in the open after the way he just treated Tania.  If I hadn’t stepped into their conversation, the guy would have ripped her off and treated her like and a-hole without realizing how he was acting. 

Okay, 10…9…1.

We had a great day taking a tour boat with about 30 other people today around the island, stopping at all of the key snorkeling spots.  We got to test our new snorkeling gear that Tania convinced us to buy yesterday.  Thank God she did because having good gear makes the whole experience so much better.  Breathing is easy, even when water gets in the tube.  Seeing is clearer because the mask fits your face and doesn’t leak water.  Spending 30 minutes face down without coming up for a breathe is the right way to view shallow waters, without going all out and take courses to go scuba diving.

(Parents, time for eye muffs.  Cover ‘em up for the next paragraph)

The first stop during the tour was at Sharks Bay.  Yes, you can guess why it’s named that.  As we jumped out of the boat and paddled a few feet away, we saw two sharks swim 4-5 feet directly below us.  They skimmed the floor of the ocean, while we skirted the surface.  After picking our jaws up off the ocean floor and changing our shorts, we both looked at each other the way two people face down in the water do and pointed at the sharks in the same direction in pure astonishment.  We were actually swimming with sharks!!!! Bucket list, check!

Two more stops of some more amazing snorkeling led our tour boat up to Mango Bay, where our hotel is located.  After some shifty maneuvering to get our gear from the boat across the bay and up to our hotel, we left the group at this stop so we didn’t have to find our way from the docks to our hotel, which is a 40 minute, $23 long boat ride.

We relaxed on the deck and read our books to finish the day.  Time to rest up tonight before tomorrow, new year’s eve.   Our plan is to meet Jackie (from Tucson) and Leon (Aussie) for a quiet dinner on Sairee Beach before the festivities begin.

Fast forward to January 1, 2010.  We had a great time with Jackie and Leon on Sairee Beach last night.  We partied on the beach amongst the fire dancers and floating torches until we caught a long boat back to Mango Bay at 2am underneath the full moon.  Somewhere on a nearby island (Koh Pha Ngan), there were 50,000 party animals adding to the legend known as the Full Moon party.  We were not part of that crowd, and we were instead happy to have had a fun island night capped off with a good night’s rest.  All we can say for our last day on Koh Tao is that it wasn’t too active.  We’re sure it had nothing to do with the night before or anything.

We’re taking off for the western Thai coast tomorrow.  Catching an overnight boat to Surat Thani, then a bus to Krabi.  Then we’ll be on Koh Lanta to meet up with a friend of mine from traveling through Europe 9 years ago, Emma Jones.  Should be fun to see an old friend, and the difference between the western and eastern islands.