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Our plan is to chill out in Thailand for a few weeks then head to the UK to spend time with family and friends. We will also be going to Italy for a friend’s wedding in June. Of course one of us is very happy to be in the UK for the football World Cup :-) We will then fly back to Sydney via an extended trip around part of Central America :-)
There seemed to be a lot of bad things happening before we left: Volcanic eruption in Iceland - Train crash in Northern Italy - Earthquakes in Mexico - Civil unrest in Bangkok !! Do you ever get the feeling that someone is trying to tell you something?!
We arrived in Bangkok late at night as usual, the taxi ride from the airport to the Banglampoo district gave us a glimpse of the effects the red shirt protest was having. Streets were eerily calm by Bangkok‘s usual crazy standards-, the police presence was very noticeable , road blocks and armed guards wherever you looked, yet the locals still sat at their roadside food stalls, everyday life still going on. Khao San Road was quiet. Every time we
come here it’s alive but tonight reminded me of a party that was ending, most people had gone home but there are always a few that will party on. We booked into a good clean hotel (Erawan House, 850 baht a night) and got some sleep.
We started the next day with fruit museli and yoghurt from a nearby food stall, it was great and at 35 baht well worth it. We used this food stall three years ago and since then they have expanded from one to three stalls so business must be going well. We spent the day noticing other changes that have occurred in our time away, whilst organising our onward travel and getting supplies. That evening while we waited for our night bus, we had our trip’s first Thai meal. The streets around here are normally heavily populated with farangs (foreigners) but tonight the local Thai presence was a lot more noticeable, I found out later another riot and shooting had occurred a few streets away!
The night bus was great. We used the Songtran company which is the cheaper of the two operating out of Khoa San Road, 800 baht bus/ferry
ticket to Koh Tao. Our luxury bus was less than half full so we spread out, reclined our chairs and pretty much slept all night. The ferry over to the island left Chumphon on time at 7am and the 2 ½ hour crossing was a lovely way to spend a morning, calm seas and clear skies no need for those sea sickness tablets today.
We decided to walk from the Mae Haad Pier to Sairee Beach. It’s about a 15 minute walk and we needed to stretch our legs. Later we collapsed into a beach restaurant, the short walk was harder than expected with the weight of our backpacks and the humidity sapping our energy - breakfast was needed! The restaurant looked after our packs whilst we hunted for accommodation, it turned out Koh Tao was extremely busy, many places were full or only the worst rooms were available! Apparently we timed it perfectly to coincide with the full moon party on Koh Phanghan, hmmm great :-(
Two hours later we returned to collect our packs - the Sun Smile Hotel found room for our weary souls and now we were ready to relax, Koh Tao style :-)
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Emma House
non-member comment
Love it!
Love your blog, it is making me very sad and I haven't even finished the day off work-wise! I was thinking of you during the red shirt riots but, then I thought, they will be fine, they will blend in with their own red shirts. I only know you two to be extremely clever, so I know, you will be wise enough to red shirt it and blend in. All is well in Emma House world, my sister, Claudia got a promotion so I'll be joining a new gym in August. We have a new additional to the House clan being baby Tara, she is so cute (just like aunty em). Baby Tara was early/premi so it was a good early mother's day gift to sister Rebecca. As you can imagine I've been taken up with Aunty duties. Apart from that, things track along, I've been catching up with Jilly, as usual no men, well there are, but, they're all gay! Will enjoy more of your blogs and please travel safe, missing you guys a lot and can't wait til the summer when you are returned with lots of new stories and fresh thinking. Love Ems