Maui–Snorkeling

One of the reasons we’d chosen Maui was for the exceptional snorkeling, which we really enjoy.  We snorkeled almost every day of the trip, and we were not disappointed!  Our first major outing was at Black Rock, where we just snorkeled from the beach.  We saw a great variety of fish and coral, a number of sea turtles, and a hypnotic school of fish undulating below us.

Thailand: meh

Thailand was the only country we visited that disappointed us.  There were a number of factors contributing to that.  Numerous people had raved about how inexpensive Thailand is, but after visiting Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, it seemed outrageously expensive—it was no Australia, but we certainly wouldn’t call it cheap!  It was also very Westernized, which was a strong contrast to the countries we’d just come from.  It felt a bit like the Thailand exhibit at the "International Pavillion" of an American theme park.  And it was relentlessly hot, muggy and buggy.  We’d been in other places as hot (though not as buggy) and enjoyed them, but Thailand just didn’t seem to offer much to offset being completely sweat drenched 10 minutes after stepping outdoors. 

For perspective, we still want to return to Bolivia, even after our escape from there, but we have no interest in returning to Thailand.  Unfortunately, we’d already committed to spending three weeks there, thinking it would be an inexpensive place to relax and slow down before diving into 6 weeks of fast-paced travel in Madagascar, Egypt and Jordan. 

The Great Barrier Reef

We were looking forward to seeing the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but we were also a little worried that we'd be jaded after having had such fantastic snorkeling in the Galapagos.  Our concern was unfounded--the reef was amazing, and very different from what we'd seen anywhere else.