After renewing our visas in Mae Sot we decided to finish off our motor biking with a trip down to a town called Umphang via the "Death Highway". The highway originally got its name due to the guerrilla activity in the area that stalled the building of the highway in the 1980s. The name remains, however, because of its 1219 hairpin turns and steep inclines.
We figured it would be a beautiful drive and our sore behinds would be rewarded with a visit to the largest waterfall in Thailand, which is located next to Umphang. Unfortunately, we had to endure six hours of pain in our backsides only to get to a town that was cute, but not worth it. We also didn't realize until we got to Umphang that the only way to see the waterfall was through an organized tour that cost around 100 dollars. Instead we hung around the town for a couple days and then made our way back along the 160 km of winding, steep roads towards Mae Sot.
From Mae Sot we headed straight back to Chiang Mai, stopping in a quaint town on the Mae Nam Yuam River, called Mae Sariang.
When we got back to Chiang Mai and went to return our motorbike we found out that the rental shop had been worried sick about the whereabouts of our motorbike. The man we rented from was very nice, but a little spacey and he let us take off without putting any money down. Luckily, they were very understanding and were glad that we were okay and the bike was in one piece.
At this point Brian and I decided to make some changes to our itinerary. Originally, we had planned to head back into the southern partof Laos for a week to motorbike up the Bolaven Plateau, but decided we were motorbiked out and thought we should check out a new country. So we packed up, hopped on a train and headed straight south to Malaysia.
It took us 3 days of traveling via train, bus and boat to reach our final destination, the Perhentian Islands, but it was totally worth the trip.
The islands are located off the east coast of Malaysia in the South China Sea. We chose to stay at the smaller, more backpacker friendly island, called Kecil. Our first week we stayed on a small, secluded beach at a hostel called D'Lagoon. It was very relaxing, but unfortunately I came down with a fever for the first 3 days and got severely sunburned on my chest. Basically, I had to cower in the shade the entire 12 days while Brian basked his bronze body in the sun. To make things worse, after my fever came down, I developed a debilitating canker sore on my tongue, I kid you not, and could barely eat for the next 7 days on the island. However, it was still a very beautiful place and I got plenty of relaxation.
There are no roads on the islands so you have to take a boat or hike to other beaches, which is pretty cool. Once you get away from the main beaches it is very easy to find a deserted beach completely to yourself.
We got to do plenty of snorkeling as well, which was excellent. We saw cuddle fish, reef sharks, parrot fish (very colorful) , lion fish, etc. we were bummed that we didn't see any turtles, but it was mainly because we were too cheap to do a snorkel trip through our hostel where you are pretty much guaranteed to see them. We also heard that people spotted a whale shark off the coast of D'Lagoon (of course, after we had already left and switched to a different beach).
One of the days we were snorkeling we came across a very aggressive fish that looked like it wanted to attack us. When we swatted at it, it became even more aggressive. I freaked out and quickly swam to shore. Brian kept telling me to relax because it was a very small, skinny fish with a flat head and probably couldn't do much damage to us, but you never know. Anyways, I guess after I swam away Brian watched the fish take off after me. He was sure it was going to bite me and we watching for my reaction. Luckily, I returned to shore unharmed. However, I noticed a couple of minutes later that Brian was swimming quickly to shore and freaking out a bit in the water. I guess the fish had given up on me and turned to him. We were a little perturbed, having never seen a small fish act so agressively and decided to go to the dive shop and look up the fish. After searching for a few minutes we discovered that our predator was a shark sucker and completely harmless. All it wanted to do was attach itself to us and suck our skin. I'm pretty sure they don't even have teeth. We were slightly embarrassed, but I had to laugh thinking of Brian struggling in the water with a harmless fish after yelling at me for "overreacting".
Besides our experience with the aggressive sucker fish we had a very relaxing time on the islands for 12 days. Now we are back on the train headed to Bangkok where we will be meeting up with my Dad and my sister. I am very excited!
We figured it would be a beautiful drive and our sore behinds would be rewarded with a visit to the largest waterfall in Thailand, which is located next to Umphang. Unfortunately, we had to endure six hours of pain in our backsides only to get to a town that was cute, but not worth it. We also didn't realize until we got to Umphang that the only way to see the waterfall was through an organized tour that cost around 100 dollars. Instead we hung around the town for a couple days and then made our way back along the 160 km of winding, steep roads towards Mae Sot.
From Mae Sot we headed straight back to Chiang Mai, stopping in a quaint town on the Mae Nam Yuam River, called Mae Sariang.
When we got back to Chiang Mai and went to return our motorbike we found out that the rental shop had been worried sick about the whereabouts of our motorbike. The man we rented from was very nice, but a little spacey and he let us take off without putting any money down. Luckily, they were very understanding and were glad that we were okay and the bike was in one piece.
At this point Brian and I decided to make some changes to our itinerary. Originally, we had planned to head back into the southern partof Laos for a week to motorbike up the Bolaven Plateau, but decided we were motorbiked out and thought we should check out a new country. So we packed up, hopped on a train and headed straight south to Malaysia.
It took us 3 days of traveling via train, bus and boat to reach our final destination, the Perhentian Islands, but it was totally worth the trip.
The islands are located off the east coast of Malaysia in the South China Sea. We chose to stay at the smaller, more backpacker friendly island, called Kecil. Our first week we stayed on a small, secluded beach at a hostel called D'Lagoon. It was very relaxing, but unfortunately I came down with a fever for the first 3 days and got severely sunburned on my chest. Basically, I had to cower in the shade the entire 12 days while Brian basked his bronze body in the sun. To make things worse, after my fever came down, I developed a debilitating canker sore on my tongue, I kid you not, and could barely eat for the next 7 days on the island. However, it was still a very beautiful place and I got plenty of relaxation.
There are no roads on the islands so you have to take a boat or hike to other beaches, which is pretty cool. Once you get away from the main beaches it is very easy to find a deserted beach completely to yourself.
We got to do plenty of snorkeling as well, which was excellent. We saw cuddle fish, reef sharks, parrot fish (very colorful) , lion fish, etc. we were bummed that we didn't see any turtles, but it was mainly because we were too cheap to do a snorkel trip through our hostel where you are pretty much guaranteed to see them. We also heard that people spotted a whale shark off the coast of D'Lagoon (of course, after we had already left and switched to a different beach).
One of the days we were snorkeling we came across a very aggressive fish that looked like it wanted to attack us. When we swatted at it, it became even more aggressive. I freaked out and quickly swam to shore. Brian kept telling me to relax because it was a very small, skinny fish with a flat head and probably couldn't do much damage to us, but you never know. Anyways, I guess after I swam away Brian watched the fish take off after me. He was sure it was going to bite me and we watching for my reaction. Luckily, I returned to shore unharmed. However, I noticed a couple of minutes later that Brian was swimming quickly to shore and freaking out a bit in the water. I guess the fish had given up on me and turned to him. We were a little perturbed, having never seen a small fish act so agressively and decided to go to the dive shop and look up the fish. After searching for a few minutes we discovered that our predator was a shark sucker and completely harmless. All it wanted to do was attach itself to us and suck our skin. I'm pretty sure they don't even have teeth. We were slightly embarrassed, but I had to laugh thinking of Brian struggling in the water with a harmless fish after yelling at me for "overreacting".
Besides our experience with the aggressive sucker fish we had a very relaxing time on the islands for 12 days. Now we are back on the train headed to Bangkok where we will be meeting up with my Dad and my sister. I am very excited!
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