Vietnam is one of my favorite countries I have backpacked through, with some of the friendliest people and most stunning landscapes I have ever seen. Here is my full collection of posts from Vietnam, including guides, journal entries, and photography collections.
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Koh Tao is one of the best places in the world to get scuba certifications. A Koh Tao scuba certification is among the cheapest in the world (around $320 USD for an open water course), and there are an abundance of excellent dive shops to choose from—there are over 50 qualified shops on the island, most of them PADI, SSI or RAID.
When we arrived to Koh Phangan, we realized that by far the best way to see the island was by motorbike. Everyone does it—it is incredibly cheap (around 6 US bucks a day), incredibly flexible (no need to call taxis for every destination), and safe in that most of the roads are very empty and there aren’t many cars on the island.
Our first day in Ao Nang was supposed to be a rest and relaxation day but we were so excited we ended up exploring the entire town! We walked the length of Ao Nang beach, then hiked past crazy monkeys through the jungle to nearby Pai Plong beach. I was worried our flip flops would fall through the cracks of the precarious wooden planks we had to climb. This beach had a long floating dock at the end of it that moved with the waves, which was fun to walk on and jump off of.
I am writing this sitting in a van making our way across green and sunny southern Thailand to the island of Koh Phangan. Kenzie and I spent our first 3 nights in Ao nang, Krabi, Thailand, after a chaotic 36 hour stretch of straight travel from DC. (This included 27 hours of flights and layovers, a taxi ride, over an hour waiting at a random bus stop on the side of the highway, and a four hour van ride that I had mistakenly made our pickup point for an hour from the airport.) After realizing we did NOT have time to make it to our bus after landing, we luckily were able to get picked up last second somewhere closer. Shout out to the two friendly info desk workers who translated directions for us onto a piece of paper from our stressed customer service agent over the phone who we couldn’t understand. So thankful for friendly people, maybe this is a sign we need to learn some Thai 😂.