A little break - the Adventures of Janna and Samantha

Janna and Samantha's Adventures

Well well well, it’s seems like so long ago Janna and I started our adventure of visiting a friend’s farm, getting our visas renewed and having a little break from our 4 ½ months of DRIME work, on the beach.

Milking a cow!

We started off our vacation visiting a friend’s home for a day and a couple nights… Our friend Kong’s (who is different than our leader named Kong as well haha) family lives on a farm in the country in Prachuab. It was nice to break up our travels by stopping at Kongs house because it would have been a long bus ride straight to the South otherwise. It was also great to have a familiar face pick us up at the bus station. We had fun at Kong’s house! His parents are so sweet! We couldn’t really communicate much with them because they only spoke Thai but they were very sweet and generous and loved having us around (for some reason haha).We got to experience a couple cool things on Kong’s farm. I got to milk a cow!!! How many people can say they milked a cow in Thailand? I can! And it was my first time! Granted, I wasn’t very good at it… but still it was a fun experience. Also along with 40 cows, Kong’s family owns a pineapple field. We didn’t get to go out and pick pineapples because it was raining in the morning but we were able to join Kong and his dad, aunt and uncle in picking up the tops of the pineapples from the fields. When people harvest the pineapples they cut off the tops of them and leave them in their fields. The cows really like eating them apparently and they are free so that’s why we were collecting them, for the COWS!!! J It was pretty fun, tho, if I ever were to do it again I would wear different clothes (pants and running shoes). We also got to play a game of dutch blitz with our friend Kong which was fun (even tho Kong won haha). We haven’t done that in a while because Janna’s cards got moldy from her drawers and she had to throw them out. So sad! But we had fun at Kong’s house!

Our friend Kong

Saturday morning Kong took us to a bus station where we were headed to Ranong to do a visa run and then to Chumpon to stay overnight because we had to wait for the boat in the morning. That was our original plan. When we got off the bus in Ranong it was around 3:15pm. We were like, “now what?” We looked around for someone to ask. In the restaurant right beside where the bus dropped us off there was a Thai man named Pom who spoke English! He told us that the Thai immigration closed at 3:30pm. But he could help us book a place to stay for the night in Ranong and do our visa run with us in the morning! So, we made an unexpected stop for the night in Ranong! But praise the Lord for sending someone to help us! We stayed at a cute little hotel and we were able to take a walk and explore a little and see the hotsprings area.

view from M.T. Resort's restaurant

The next morning we woke up early to do our visa run. Pom took us to Thai immigration and helped us with our paperwork. There we met Pascal, a man from France who had been living in Thailand for 12 years (so he had done the visa run thing a few times before :P – more like many many times before lol). He was also going across to Myanmar to do his visa run and he knew that you had to tell them you want to get right back on the same boat you came on or you would have to wait an hour for another boat. So we kinda just stuck with him, since he knew what he was doing. It was nice to chat with him as well! God kept providing people to help us! I was amazed by how He was providing. Like I know He does but somehow when it actually happens I become amazed all over again! Our visa trip to Myanmar (Burma) was super quick and then we were on our way to Chumpon. We took a van from Ranong to a train station in Chumpon and then a song tow (truck) to M.T. Resort (which we thought was called N.T. Resort but apparently it’s not. haha) What form of transportation have we NOT taken on this trip??? :P When we got to the resort, it was amazing! We had a view of the ocean in our little bungalow and the staff we so friendly and helpful with everything! They even had a little restaurant by the water! It was very pretty! We walked along the beach and the pier and were even able to get internet for the first time since leaving home in Bangkok! It hadn’t been that long but our days were packed so it felt like it had been more days than it had been.

Travelling in a "Song Tow"

In the morning we got up early again (to check out) and then took a boat to the island: Koh Tao. Apparently the accommodations that Janna had booked had not been completed online because we didn’t choose which dive we were doing with Big Blue. So Janna called the resort and they said someone was waiting at the pier in a blue shirt (that’s helpful :P) to pick us and other people who arrived at the pier up and bring them to Big Blue Diving Resort. We headed towards people with signs but we didn’t see any for Big Blue. However even people from other resorts are helpful, they always ask “Where you go?” and then they helped us find the truck to Big Blue. On our ride to the resort we met Michael, a Korean (I’m guessing) from Australia with only a slight Aussie accent and is going to be living in Thailand for 2 months doing his dive masters at Big Blue. Then he’s travelling around Asia for 4 more months. We got to Big Blue and someone asked us what we needed help with. We told them we’d booked online but we didn’t know for sure if it worked. Apparently you can’t stay at the resort unless you are in a diving course because it is a diving school. We wanted to do the Discovery Dive (one day dive) and he said they could work something out with that for a few nights but they don’t normally do that. Janna kinda wanted to become fully certified to dive on her own anyways so she decided to take the course. And I only was doing the one day dive; mainly because of my ears and my back.

Discovery Dive

After my ear infection in June, the doctor had told me to come back and see him if I ever decided to go scuba diving (or if I was going to be flying) so I did. The doctor in Bangkok said I could scuba dive as long as I told the instructor that my middle ear could not equip the pressure well. So when I got to the dive resort, I had to go to the doctor on the island to make sure I was okay-ed for scuba diving. (liability reasons mostly) Oh doctors stuff! I’ve had too much of that this trip! But it was quick and easy – almost too quick and easy. Looked in my ears, asked me to blow on this tube (b/c of my asthma) checked my heart with a stethoscope and sorta karate chopped my back and said “good” and that was that. I was in and out in about 5 mins.

Snorkeling Tour: met Fiona & Shane from Ireland 

My time on the island was a lot harder than I expected or thought. With Janna taking the scuba course I was alone a lot. I kept myself busy by snorkeling and doing the Discovery Dive and I would see Janna in the evenings. But she was tired and had homework so we couldn’t really relax together. And I couldn’t just go to the beach by myself that would be weird. Which those first days were okay and fun… I think I had enjoyed the snorkel tour the most… Scuba and my ears and being underwater just made me nervous. But I kinda got the hang of it and my ears never exploded – praise the lord! Panicked a little my second dive because I was looking at a fish and then all of a sudden I looked up to see where my instructor was and a big school of fish swam by and I couldn’t find her. I did a complete 360 degrees turn and then tried to calm myself… The thoughts going on in my head were, “Oh my gosh, you are lost underwater, no one knows where you are and you are far down under so much water!” But I tried to calm myself because I figured panicking under water was not a good idea.

God was stretching me even on vacation and equipping me for who knows what but for something that’s gunna be hard to come. This part (at Big Blue) of my vacation was one of the hardest vacations I’ve had. I haven’t fully processed the why of it all… But I definitely didn’t feel relaxed or rejuvenated. I felt emotionally and physically exhausted.

On Nangyuan beach

Therefore the fact that the office was closed for another week due to flooding was kinda a blessing in disguise… We were able to extend our vacation a few extra days due to the fact we didn’t know if it was safe to go home or not. We had the opportunity to go to a beautiful island called Nangyuan Island and I was able to feel a little bit more refreshed from the hard part of my vacation at Big Blue.

Before we came home we checked with our friends about the situation at home in Bangkok. We had called P’Natti a few days before but she told us to call her before we planned to come home to make sure it was safe. We did just that and she confirmed that it was okay to come home (and a good thing too because I missed our home! We had been away from it too long). That along with the fact that the bus didn’t cancel our tickets, we knew that we could get home safely. (The bus would have cancelled our tickets if the station was flooded – so we knew it wasn’t!) At around 9pmTuesday night, we arrived at home and were so thankful to come back to a dry home! Praise the Lord! Home at last! And praise him for having the opportunity to have adventures in Thailand!

Miss you!