to phuket

We checked out of the hotel and i bought a light jacket at a thrift store (80baht=$2). Picked up some shoes and leggings yesterday($8). Ditched some of my warm weather clothes. There's definitely still things i'll end up needing, but i feel like i at least got a head start. Raven told me the Hong Kong airport, which we have an 11 hour layover in, is very cold. Taiwan is supposed to be getting highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s, but i think Japan will be much colder. Im glad we got to spend so much time in this coastal area of Thailand. Raven and I's time in thailand was basically a month split in half between here and Bangkok. We only have 2 weeks in Taiwan and are trying to decide if we should spend the whole time in taipei city or if we should take a week to explore some nature more. Im leaning towards just staying in taipei, but we'll see how we feel and what time allows. I'm under the impression that Japan likes you to book everything a month in advance so thats been a bit stressful for me. We have the first ten days booked in Osaka between an airbnb in the city center and a tatami mat hostel closer to the airport. I want us to rent a car in Japan and do some roadtripping and camping but we havent really nailed that down yet. There's rental agencies which will rent you camper kei cars for between 38-60USD$ per day but i haven't found a good one that will let us pick up the car in Osaka and drop it off in Tokyo yet. Ive been spending time this last week reaching out to people who may have connections in japan to get input and advice. Ill miss thailands laid back nature about things. Booking stuff far in advance never got me anywhere here. Its more of a show up and buy a ticket kind of place. We tried ordering tickets to see the ghibli museum in tokyo and failed. They sell them one month in advance, starting at 8am on the 10th of the month prior. We set our alarm and everything, but the tickets sold out in seconds. We can try again on March 10th, but im not too hopeful. The positive of this system is that tickets are only like $6USD so i guess in a way its fair?? Anyways. I think raven and i both have the blues a little about leaving, but ive been in southeast asia since November, so im pretty sad! We're going to be staying in an airbnb thats a five minute walk from the airport. A lot of downtime coming soon. 3 hr bus to phuket (poo-ket, not fuck-it, lol), and another bus to the airport.. overnight stay then get ready for our flight at 6PM.. 4 hour flight.. 11 hour layover.. 2 hour flight.. and then we land ! On the 29th, around 11am.. at an airport an hour away from taipei!!!! Haha. I entered us both in a raffle to win some taiwanese dollars when we land. I hope we win!

swimming

Attention: this entry has a video to accompany it! give it a look. What a fun dayy!! We did a lot today. The past week we have just been settled in Krabi doing a lot of research on the next legs of our journey. But today it was time to get out there and have a bit of fun as we are leaving thailand in only a few days :( The first place we went was "Thapom Klong Song Nam" its a freshwater spring in a mangrove forest. The water was crystal clear.. Ive never seen anything like it on earth! we could see apl the way to the bottom and saw all kinds of creatures, including a freshwater pufferfish. the walk was shady and really enjoyable. We swam a bit in the spring, and there was a lot of local kids also enjoying the water. The next stop was a short hike to a viewpoint with a small bar. Quite the view! Raven got a smoothie and pad thai. Was ready for more swimming after that (as its quite hot here) and went to Thankiri- which is a natural zone thats has a bit more of a park vibe. There was a large flower garden at the entrance and swan pedal boats at a pond. There was also a river area with a ton of kids and families enjoying. We took a small dip and did a loop on the pedal boat before returning home for the evening. We were really tired after our day and slightly sunburnt. We went to a sushi restaurant for dinner and called it a night.