When life brings the Coronavirus…

My plan was to spend my first month of this southeast asia diving extravaganza in the Philippines. I had fairly detailed itinerary of all the places I wanted to visit, and more specifically, dive. However, as luck would have it, the Filipino government issued a clarification on its travel ban, which denied entry to the Philippines to any foreign national entering the country who had been to China in the last 14 days, to include Taiwan as part of this ban. This notice was announced as I was soundly asleep, crossing the pacific ocean to my last layover before I arrived in Cebu, to Taipei, Taiwan.

So that happened. Or rather, didn’t. My trip was off to a great start. The airline did try to plead our case, but it was no use. The moment we stepped off the plane, we were doomed. The airline gave us two choices. They could fly us back to US port that we had traveled from, or, they could fly us somewhere else. I was fortunately more flexible than most and opted for the latter.

Now, I had spent months carefully planning my route in the Philippines. I had specific places in mind that I wanted to scuba dive, and I had selected all the locations I wanted to visit, and felt pretty good about it. But in 30 minutes those plans got shoved down the garbage disposal and I had to find myself an alternate locale for the time being.

So, a mere four flights and almost 4 days of traveling later, and I ended up in Krabi, Thailand. The airline got me as far as Bangkok, and I said heck, I’ve already been traveling for 3 days, what’s another few hours, and booked the soonest flight to Krabi the minute I landed. I chose Krabi because I wanted a beach. Somewhere I could chill for a few days and figure out what the heck I was going to do next without having to navigate a bustling metropolis like Bangkok. And I had heard good things about so I figured it couldn’t hurt.

And it was a good first stop. I needed to get me feet under me, figure how out to tell the difference between a 100 baht bill and a 1000 baht bill and just eat some real food.

And once I had gotten that down I had time to explore a few other things! I took a van to a place called the Tiger Temple. The highlight of the temple is the view from the top that overlooks the entire valley below.

And the view was spectacular. And all you had to do was climb a few stairs to get to it.

And when I say a few I mean 1260, to be exact. I SEVERELY underestimated just how many steps 1260 really is. For reference, the Eiffel Tower only has 674 steps. That’s almost double! I thought I was going to die. Not really, but I did consider giving up, but dammit I was going to get my 400 baht worth of excursion I had signed up for. The goal was to be at the top for sunset, but by the time I made it to the top I was just glad to still be standing upright.

Now, I had just spent my afternoon getting a massage and taking a nice shower, thinking I’d want to look good for my sunset-panorama-view-selfies. Jokes on me. That shower immediately went to waste!

My legs were shaking the whole way down, and according to the step counter on my phone I burned 898 calories that day, which I promptly made up for with banana pancakes as soon as I got back!

I had successfully navigated my first 2 days, with a bit more sweat than I had anticipated. With my last day in Krabi I decided to take an island hopping day trip. These seemed to be The Thing to do here, so when in Krabi, Thailand, do as the tourists do. Is totally how the saying goes. I signed up for the Phi Phi island trip, which everyone had good things to say about.

It was a fun, low-key day. We were taken to a few different spots around the two islands of Phi Phi for swimming and snorkeling and chilling on the beach.

I got to see my first fish here! I got a taste of what I could see when I start diving, and that got me excited. Our guide was super friendly and he was great fun to spend the day with. If I ever did this again, I’d want to go with him!

At our last stop, everyone got in front of the boat to get a picture with their significant other, or family. Since it was just me, Tan selflessly offered himself as a stand in. Thanks Tan!

After a few days I knew it was time to move on. I had gathered some of my strength, gotten my Thai massage and needed to find my next destination. This wasn’t the start I had planned to make, and even after 4 days I feel like I’m still walking with my feet behind me, but I’m figuring it out, staying hydrated and trying to sleep when it’s dark out. (I’m not succeeding with the last thing, we’re working on it.)

Bye Krabi!