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.

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.

The post Ko Lanta – Spoiled Monkeys and Laid Back Vibes appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

From what we've heard, this is the place to go for a PADI cert. The island seems to be 1/3 tourist, 1/3 dive instructors, and 1/3 locals. It's all diving all the time. Awesome.

To get there, we took an infamous night train from Bangkok to Chumpon. The train was cool, and though a bit cramped for someone 6'2″, pretty nice. We were dumped off the train at 4am and loaded on to a bus that looked like it was meant for moving migrant farmers from field to field. Then onto the ferry. This was the first time since Santa Barbara that we saw the ocean, and Danielle's smile said it all. Little mountain islands were scattered in the distance with a beautiful sunrise in the background. It was a great relief to see after four days of city life.

After docking, we signed up for a dive school (Simple Life), and started that same night with Jason, our instructor, and two others.

In the mean time, we started snorkeling. Our first site was a 60' sail boat wrek just off the coast. Here the coral was plentiful, the fish were colorful, and the water was warm. Some fish were small with vibrant blue stripes, some were big and every color of the rainbow, others pretended to be eels and backed into corners so I couldn't see where they ended. Each was unique and beautiful in its own way.

The SCUBA certification was fun. After learning how to avoid dying and understanding why flying after SCUBA will kill you, we were able to start in the swimming pool. Fun fact: Chinese nationals don't know how to swim. Apparently the school system is set up in a way that doesn't give second chances, so it's study-study-study with no time for swimming. So while we were practicing mask clears at 2 meters, a girl was struggling to stay afloat above us.

The next day was the first day in the ocean. 12 meters. What a thrill to look up and see nothing but water for that distance. We saw so many things, but most notably, a moray eel, a mega grouper (2-3'), sting ray, parrot fish, and a 1' wide jelly. No sharks, but we did we run into loads of trigger fish. A trigger fish is a territorial fish, that has a trigger fin that sticks up when agitated. They are common. Apparently if you make it mad enough it will get under you, swim straight up at you, and bite what ever it hits. Defense: rubber fins. I had little faith in my defense, but luckily they didn't get too agitated.

The next day was even better than the first, despite the rain. We hit 18m, did full gear on/off at depth, and learn about Jake the Barracuda, who loves bubbles and loves bumping divers. Ha. The next day our dive instructor spotted a whale shark, but we were not so lucky.

*Side note – Danielle is lining up her shot…she knows to hit the cue ball.

On our way to the next snorkel spot.

On our way to the next snorkel spot.

Dinner ocean-side.

Dude fishing with a string wrapped around a waterbottle ha.

The post Ko Tao – SCUBA, SCUBA, SCUBA appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.