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Published: March 2nd 2011
After much deliberation on where to spend my 40th Birthday we decided upon two countries, two cities and two islands; the itinerary is a short one compared to what we’re normally accustomed to, but with only having limited time off from work we did some research and came up with the following:-
Fly to Bangkok, spend a couple of nights there before heading off to Koh lipe a small island in the south west of Thailand and then on to Vietnam where we’ll spend some time in Ho Chi Minh city and finally on to Phu Quoc a large island on Vietnams south west coast.
On my train journey down to London to meet up with Barry I was informed by the Virgin Train Manager that my seat in first class had been changed to a different carriage, the reason for this was that the Everton Football squad were travelling down to London to play against Chelsea in the FA cup and they had to be seated together, anyway they went on to win the match so I reckon I must’ve been a good luck charm for them!!
We flew with Etihad from Heathrow’s terminal 4, the flight was good, we
Standing room only
The ferry on the Chao Phraya riverstopped over in Abu Dhabi for an hour and then managed to sleep quite a bit during the second leg of the flight and finally touched down in Bangkok the following afternoon. Immigration in Bangkok was hectic and we somehow managed to pick the slowest queue with the most miserable officer on duty but then the taxi driver that we got to take us into the city made up for it by being a really nice guy, he was called Mr Wijit,he didin't even attempt to rip us off and managed to get us to our guest house and avoided the Red Shirt protestors who seem to make a habit of protesting on the days that we fly into the city.
We stayed at Roof View place our favourite guest house in the the Khao San Road area and the staff remembered us from our previous stay two years ago…….not quite sure what we did last time to make ourselves so memorable but it’s always nice to be welcomed back with a big smile.
We spent our time in Bangkok just wandering around not really doing anything touristy; we’ve actually lost count of how many times we’ve been here so
there’s not a great deal left for us to see. We took the ferry down the river and had a ride on the clongs, did some shopping, nosed around the food stalls and sampled the nightlife in the Khao San area, well actually we much prefer Soi Rambrutti these days, it has a mellower feel to it with less touts and a little less hassle; we sat one night in a bar, if you can call a VW van with a TV attached to the back windscreen a bar, and watched Everton beat Chelsea…..told you I was a good luck charm!!
After a couple of days we were ready to leave so headed south on the overnight sleeper train to Trang, we love the trains in Thailand, there’s always something going on to keep you amused and make the 15 hour journey fly by. The train pulled into Trang at 8.25am and we negotiated a deal with Jip from “Trang Happy Trip” travel agency to take us from Trang to Koh Lipe by Minivan and Ferry via Pak Barra Pier, the journey cost us 650 Baht each and was well worth it, the ferry that Jep had booked us on
to was really comfy and clean and left on time which is quite rare in Thailand. We met a couple from Holland on the transfer to Lipe, Rianne and Robert who have just embarked on a twelve month round the world trip…….sooo jealous!!!!
So next stop is Koh Lipe nicknamed The Maldives of Thailand, we're planning on not doing a lot on Lipe apart from sunbathe, swim, and catch a few sunsets..........we'll keep you posted :-)
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John Redmond
non-member comment
Take me with you next time!
Hãy đưa tôi với bạn tiếp theo thời gian! Tôi cần phải có được từ những đám mây trên Fiddlers Ferry! Có một thời gian tốt đẹp! John XXX You need Vietnamese to read this (I did it at school-came first!!!)