It was an easy ferry ride over and we reached the campground nestled in its own cove south of the main resort beach area. No dock, just jump off the front of the boat. Private beach: check. A pirate and Malaysian flag, hand painted signs all over the place, several bamboo structures, and tons of friendly people greeted us as we made our way to the reception counter.

We met the other volunteers (including a Danielle from California…this was about to get confusing) and the owners who all seemed like incredibly laid back people. We were given the rundown: the cafe and bar has to be manned, tents and bathrooms need to be cleaned, and labor needed to be completed. Easy. In exchange for our time, we were fed and housed for free for a month. Kickass!
 We learned that the couple who we would be replacing slept in the treehouse, which is also where we would be staying. It came equipped with three of the most massive geckos I had ever seen (later to be named Ali, Mercury, and Falsto).

In addition to geckos, there was much more wildlife walking, flying, or swimming around our campground. Giant monitor lizards, sea eagles, stingrays, and black tipped reef sharks were things that we saw daily. Vipers, territorial monkeys, and sea turtle tracks on our beach were special sightings. I had to continue to remind myself that we were staying in a rainforest, because some of these sightings became so commonplace. Turtles and amazing snorkeling: check and check.

We learned more about the island as we explored around. Long beach is a fairly dirty, party beach where nightlife (including crappy house music) can be heard well into the early morning. It makes for great sunrises though, as it is east-facing. Coral bay, on the west side of the island is a bit classier with nicer eating and resort options. We would walk over to coral beach for milkshakes and wifi as needed. Our beach was a 25 minute walk south of coral bay, on a beautiful path leading through the rain forest. This island is unique in the fact there is not a single car, truck, or vehicle of any kind on it. Boat taxis are plentiful however, and many times we could hear tourists screaming as the drivers tend to go as fast as possible between point A and point B. The fishing “village” on the south tip of the island, is is more like a local town.

Our days would be spent snorkeling, hammocking, hiking, exploring, kayaking, or relaxing as wanted.

A couple of times we made it to the fishing “village” for breakfast (always before 8 AM to snag local prices).

We also spent a day scuba diving, which is always awesome. One spot had horrible visibility so we spent the duration of our time diving through underwater caves. It was a lot of fun. The day we spent kayaking was great because we could spot good snorkeling areas as we were cruising over them.

Another highlight was putting up a volleyball net on our beach so we could play in the evening (the daytime was way too hot). While there, an Italian couple that were patrons-turned-volunteers, spent all day preparing for homemade pizza night (cheese included). We all ate way to much that night. They also taught us how to make homemade pasta and gnocchi!

And we ended up seeing the bioluminescent plankton! Check. Apparently, it is always in the water but there is so much light pollution on other beaches on the island it is impossible to spot elsewhere. For 4 or 5 nights in a row, around the new moon, we grabbed snorkel gear and headed to the beach. It was incredible to see the little bits of light spiraling around our moving body parts. The light from the stars in the sky and ocean were almost interchangeable. It was also hilarious to see grown adults flailing around as much as possible to disturb the plankton into glowing bright. Shouts of “You’re a wizard, Harry” were screamed. We were surprised to see fireflys floating through where the rainforest hits the beach. We were surrounded by points of light in the sky, ocean, and air around us. It was one of the most magical things I have seen.

Even though my days weren’t spent doing all that much, I still found myself wishing there was more hours in every day. The volunteers, patrons, and owners of the place were all really great people to talk to and I often spent an entire day sitting in the cafe chatting with whoever was down there. Rainforest Campground is beautiful, and attracts beautiful people in return. It wasn’t uncommon to hear about folks deciding to stay with us after wondering down to our beach randomly, or extending their stay by a week or so once they see what the place has to offer. We had so many laughs there as well as deep conversations about internal struggles, politics, and dreams. One of the volunteers led beach yoga sessions in the mornings. One patron painted a beautiful mural in our cafe. People were often seen meditating on the beach. Our place was magical. I’m going to miss Rainforest quite a bit. 

But, it was time to move on after a month. I feel grateful to have the memories I will take home from this place.  Hopefully we will meet again, Rainforest.

Danielle and Grant

The post Perhentian Island – Volunteering, Snorkeling, and Geckos appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

Let's start with the good.

Phong Nha is a awesome park that has some of the largest caves on the planet hidden underneath it. It has an great hostel called Easy Tiger that has good live music and there are a few nice restaurants on the main drag. The town is nestled in a little canyon surrounded by shear cliffs and karsts on one side and river on the other.

Amusingly, Phong Nha has been finding a new biggest cave every couple years for the last 8 years, and now hosts the largest known cave on the planet. One of the ex-biggest caves, Paradise cave, has been rigged and lit by the park service and anyone can visit, no guide needed. It goes back over 7km, I think (The biggest goes back something like 35km). When we dropped by, it was nothing short of awesome, and our photos will do it little justice.

We also rode to a trail for Gio Waterfall and some monkey spotting. Success.

Despite the thin mist and light rain that I'm almost use to by now, our motor bike ride was gorgeous. We rode through farm land, over canyon bridges, amongst huge karsts and through cow herds.

What an awesome place.

Now, the bad, the worst accommodation I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing…

Remember that we were showing up to the national park sick with body ache and a cold. We were aiming for a private room and a days rest with pho and tea. The night we arrive, we quickly find a room, but we are next to a bar with karaoke and rest doesn't come easily. To boot, the next morning we are greeted to hammers and saws.

Fair enough, this is the life of travel, so we hiked down the road and found a place away from the noise. Unfortunately, we end up finding the worst accommodation cesspool in the history of accommodations.

The pain comes on slow. We show up and they take us to a room in the back corner of the hotel. It has one window that opens to a brick wall with a pile of trash beneath it. All good though, the bed looks clean and it's quiet. A place to recover.

But then we smelled cigarettes, and then we found cigarettes, and then the kids started yelling and stomping and crying, and then the hammers started, then the saws, and then we switched rooms and the staff are jaded and apathetic to our condition, and then Christmas music, then toddlers music, all at full volume, then random children were barging into our room and doors slamming…As it drew cold, I went down to ask for real blankets (apparently not included) and recieved nothing but glances from the staff/family as they ate dinner in the other room. I looked around and found both of our passports sitting out in the open, not in a safe, ready to be stolen, so I stole them back.

Eventually it dies down just in time for bed and we think our awful hard spring beds were the end of it… How wrong we were….

…I woke up at 3am covered in hives. HIVES. When was the last time these sheets were washed? I slipped into my silk liner for protection, and try to go back to sleep, but just to add insult to injury, at 4am, I'm greeted to Christmas carols on full blast from a loud speaker downstairs. (Who listens to Chistm- it doesn't matter.) We luckily didn't catch anything permanent from that cesspool, but Danielle came out with 40 bed bug bites and turned into an itchy mess for the next two days. Hammers, trash, bed bugs, hives, Christmas carols… I hope that place burns to the ground. I hate that hotel with passion.

Fin.

Phong Nha was still awesome and I still recommend it, just be careful where you stay.

See you in Hanoi!

Grant and Danielle

P.S. As a reminder, our full res photos are in Dropbox. Find the link through either of our Facebooks.

The post Phong Nha – The Highs and Lows appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

On the way to Krabi, we were jammed in like sardines into a 14-person van, and somehow I drew the short straw and ended up in back. At least I had the support of the kid sitting next to me. He seemed extremely interested in my work as I wrote the blog posts for Ko Tao and Ko Samui.

In Krabi, we stayed in the Hogwarts Hostel (Awesome, I know), and ate some delicious street food. The next morning was a mad rush to make the last ferry, but we made it. With 60 seconds to spare, we headed to Ko Lanta.

Note to self, landing in a random location with no room or plan seems to workout for the best…At least in Thailand. As we docked in Ko Lanta, we were swarmed by resorts offering us rooms, and because there were so many, we were able to haggle a private room for a ridiculously low price.

After settling in, we went to a local spot for lunch and over heard the afternoon call to prayer. Ko Lanta is a Muslim island with prayer intercom, pork free menus, and halal food. It was awesome seeing an area, despite the tourism, hold onto its culture. Despite many American and nationalist opinions recently, we were treated like family at every restaurant and venue, just as we had been everywhere else.

We also discovered the simple luxury of Lassi that lunch. A delicious blend of fresh fruit, ice, simple syrup, and a scoop of plain yogurt. So good and filling.

After exploring the beaches around our room, we quickly began to uncover a new reputation that Ko Lanta held. We heard Ko Lanta was a low key beach town before we left. After stumbling upon bars called “hippie bar” and “mushroom bar”, and seeing signs for “happy milk”, spliffs and “mushroom shakes” we began to see why the island carried such a laid back reputation.

After a day of getting comfy, we spent the next 4 days adventuring.

First, with the help of a motorbike, we headed to the national park. On the south side of the island the national park features stunning views, fine sand beaches, nature trails, and a host of spoiled monkeys. After watching a family of monkeys play in the water, playing their own version of hide and seek, dunking, and jump contests, you almost felt they were a little human. They clearly held a family dynamic, and despite fights here and there, all was usually resolved with some good ol' grooming. As you became comfortable around then however, you started to notice how spoiled they were. They'd approach you for food, and the bigger they were, the more willing they were to bare teeth and stand their ground as they approached your bag. We saw one tourist carry rocks just incase, so I did the same. (I'm not losing a fight to a 20lb monkey.)

Another day we took a tour of many of the small surrounding islands. The snorkeling was great here, with massive schools of fish that would disperse and collapse as you swam through, but never swim away. This just made me want to SCUBA more however.

On this trip we visited this mysterious beach that was isolated by a 80m cave entrance (Emerald Cave). Apperently, after being a great place to catch swallows, this was a prime pirate stash, so this is probably the closest I'll get to treasure hunting. We also met Bryce and his girlfriend (sorry I forgot your name) who were awesome people and we hope to see them again.

On the last day we visited a spectacular cave in the jungle. With a guide, we found the entrance (a 1ft wide crevass) and squeezed our way in. The cave was insanely tight at times, forcing us to drop bags and get on our bellies, and at other times it opened into huge rooms, with bats, side caverns, multiple levels, and the occasional giant cave spider.

Why did the water monitor lizard cross the road?

To get to the other side apparently, or that seemed to be the reason for the 5' behemoth that cut me off on the highway while I was motor biking.

The night life in Ko Lanta was just our speed. Present, but low key. Bars played classic rock occasionally and a ton of reggae. They offered good drinks and had an atmosphere for card playing and talking at a normal volume. The Chang's (beer of choice always) were cheap and plenty, and the times were good. A marketing scheme they have going is a party every quarter moon cycle. We bit, stuck to the cheap drinks, and received a free display of fireworks, poy, and fire fountains. Worth it in my opinion.

Ko Lanta was an overall great island. Very low key, but plenty of adventure once you start looking. The locals are just like the island as well. The resort owner was usually outside playing a strange hacky sac game, and we caught the staff casually climbing huge coconut trees barefoot and with no safety. We were sad to leave the island, but stoked to get front row on a double decker bus as we headed back to Bangkok and eventually flew to Vietnam for the next act in our Quarter Life Excursion.

Oh, I nearly forgot. I scared Danielle so bad that she hit me and shattered my glasses. Too good.

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