Got To Be There

---

Thailand; Bangkok, Koh Samui, Hatyai

Namaste!! And welcome to the land of thai green curries, floating markets and beach parties! A country where I have visited on numerous occasions in which every time it seems to have delivered a totally different experience.

Day 54-55 Bangkok, Thailand

After our 3 hour flight from Calcutta we were greeted by our Thai rep and taken to our hotel in the Banglamphu neighbourhood. With intentions to sus out the local area a few of us popped out for a bite to eat and then decided to check out the infamous Khaosan Road bars. Not feeling totally in the mood for a party me and Una left the group to then have a facial. It was an hour’s worth of scrubbing and rubbing and washing, I thought my face was going to blend away. I felt very much a new woman- with a new face… until all the impurities decided to surface. The facts of life are harsh ;p

Moving on swiftly, the next day we had a busy sightseeing schedule first stop being the Damnoen Suduan floating markets. It was highly entertaining to be haggling souvenir prices with stall holders from a canoe but the truth of the matter was that the markets were all very much targeted towards tourists, failing to capture the true local culture. We then were carted off to a coconut and teak carving factory, which was interesting but yet another tourist trap. In the afternoon we had lunch at a pleasant riverside restaurant before heading up to Kanchababuri and learning about the Japanese involvement in WWII and the history behind the bridge on the River Kwai. We got to catch a train over the bridge in question which was built by the prisoners of war (British, Australian, Dutch and Americans) and sat the in original carriages used back in the 1940’s.

Arriving back to the hotel late evening I just wanted to have a quick bite to eat and then hit the sack, but that all went to pot when the girls dragged me out for drinks of vodka buckets. It’s a genius idea they should introduce it to the pubs in England… can you imagine??!! Errr no!

Day 56-61 Koh Samui, Thailand

As I have been to Bangkok a few times now it wasn’t really in my interest to spend the next 2 days in the city and another whole day travelling down to Surat Thani to then catch a ferry across to Koh Samui. So me and a guy from the group James booked a flight straight down to Koh Samui giving us 3 more days on the beach : ) Me like : ) Unfortunately James got a really bad fever and ended up going into hospital for most of his time in Koh Samui which then gave me plenty of ‘me time’, well at least till the rest of the group came down.

I had a beach front bungalow looking out to turquoise waters with a never ending horizon.. It was bliss. The trip so far has been pretty intense in many ways. There has been a lot to adapt to in such short periods and having to do it in a group of 20 is not as easy as you would think, so I really saw this time as a total break.

Hold that thought, a total break minus one night, surely I couldn’t miss the black moon party! The neighbouring island Koh Phangan is famous for its beach parties so it had to be done. The night could be summed up with the words body paint, vodka buckets and sand castles.. It was a good night to be had.

Day 62- Hatyai, Thailand

It was sad to be packing all my stuff back into my backpack after having such a nice 6 day break. We had a 2 hour ferry crossing over to mainland where we then travelled to Hatyai to spend our final night in Thailand before moving onto Malaysia.

Till next time. xx

---