Thailand!

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So a quick update on thailand so far - spent the first 2 days in bangkok while i waited for michelle to arrive, stayed on khao san road which is backpacker central, lots of cheap places to stay (3 pounds a night!!) I arrived late at night from the airport but the bus dropped me off at the top of the road and there was so just so much life!! It was also St Patricks Day but there were so many people everywhere so i walked all along the street just people-watching before i went to bed! Ho Chi Minh City was nothing like this, Bangkok is massive and much more modernised, arriving at night meant i could see the huge glittering temples out the window as i travelled on the bus from the airport, so stunning!!
The next day i met two dutch people who had just arrived and we did a tuk tuk ride around the city for an hour to see some of the main highlights (read "temples"), quite a fun way to travel altho beacuse petrol is so expensive now they ask you to make up to 3 "stops" at jewllers or tailors just for 10min cos the shop gives them vouchers to buy their petrol, was ok but one of the tailors was really rude when we didnt buy anything!!
Next day I went to meet michelle at the airport and we got the overnight train down to Surat Thani and then a boat out to Ko Phangan (island off the eastern side of the mainland) Unfortunately we had booked our train tickets too late and were not in sleeper berths but rather "reclining chairs"!! The windows of the train were open all nigth and in the morning we were covering in dust and grime from flies and stuff coming in the window all night - lovely!! Sent michelle to the kiosk to buy something to eat on the train - she comes back with cuttlefish-flavored peas which were absolutely disgusting so we bought a beer from the man on the train instead!! I slept not too badly but michelle's jetlag meant she couldnt sleep till we got on the boat and then just passed out!!
On Ko Phangan we had a lovely little beach-front bungalow to ourselves, picturesque beach, very quiet away from the main town, relaxation paradise!! Went into town in the evening for dinner and a drink which was nice but the town seemed very lacking in people which was strange as we'd heard thousands of people descend on the island at this time every month, so we decided to check out the beach as we'd heard there was a "warm-up party" in anticipation of the full moon party the next night....it was incredible!! This is where all the people were! You can either buy a drink in a bar or you buy a bucket from one of the roadside stalls - literally a small plastic bucket you would use on the beach and they fill it with vodka red bull or whatever you want, the cheapest option is the local thai whisky but we stayed away from that!! Decided to get an early night ready for the real thing so went back to the bungalow.
Spent the next day on the beach then met Olivia and Georgie in the evening, 2 girls who i had met travelling in south africa and knew were going to be here at the same time so that was great, decided the cheaper option rather than buying a small bucket each was to buy a big one.....the size you would wash your car with! Vodka, red bull and lemonade, 4 straws, set for the night! So we found ourselves a spot on the beach and spent the night either chatting to each other, chatting to random people, dancing for a bit, people-watching...All the beach-front bars play loud music onto the beach, lots of different genres so you just find one you like and stay in front of that bar. Apparently they get around 30,000 people for this party each month and the atmosphere was just incredible!
The funniest bit is when the sun comes up at 6am and you see the state some people are in when they can no longer hide in the dark...! We got to bed at 7am but the DJs don't stop playing till 11am, fantastic night.
The next 2 days we stayed in Ko Phangan and moved closer to the centre of the town so we didn't have to get a taxi anymore, then for the last 2 days on the islands we went over to Ko Samui, the original paradise island. Unfortunately we decided to go to Hat Chaweng which is the main beach and therefore the most touristy, most commercialised and most expensive...!! You can't lie on the beach without being asked "ice cream? bracelet? tablecloth? henna?" every 3 minutes, it was that bad, there were so many of them!!!! and restaurants were more expensive there as well but never mind, we were only there for 2 days. If we had gone to any other beahc on the island it would have been much more postcard perfect but maybe next time!! It was still nice tho, all the beach-front bars have little fairy lights lighting up their outdoor seating areas in the evenings which was lovely to sit with a cocktail while the sun goes down.
Thankfully I had managed to book sleeper places for the train back to bangkok so we both slept really well and managed to check into the hotel before going to the airport to meet mum and dad...!!

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