Thailand June/July 2011

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We arrived into Bangkok, and immediately went to check out the infamous Khao San Road...it didn't disappoint! A hectic street covered in street vendors, bars and as many westerners as a night out at home. After turning down many offers for "puh puh" (ping pong show) and tuk tuks we settled down for our first bucket. After this we didn't look back, joined by some other Nap park guests we toured the bars of Bangkok and even made it to a ladyboy Cabaret on one evening (although the most eventful aspect of the night was the tuk tuk driver on drugs doing wheelies across the city).
Although Bangkok was a bit of a party week (much deserved after our indian endurance) we did manage to get a river taxi to see Wat Pho, a temple with a 50ft reclining buddha and enjoyed the "reserved for monks" sign on our boat, one we would become fairly familiar with over the next month.

After a couple days in the chaos of Bangkok (the hangover 2 isn't far off!) we headed down to the island of Koh Samui on the night train. We spent a couple days just chilling out on the beautiful Lamai beach which was pretty empty, the nightlife was fairly interesting though to say the least. There were basically a load of circular bars surrounding a boxing ring, all of which owned by a variety of prostitutes, strippers and pole dancers who got extremely lively during the Saturday night free boxing. The boxing was a bit of a mixed bag, it was definitely entertaining but the first 2 up were two boys who looked about 11, so you didn't really want them to hurt each other!

The next stop was Koh Phangan, an island north of Koh Samui and host to the infamous Full Moon Party. The party lasts all week with pool parties, foam parties and beach parties all night, every night. We got a bit lucky with our hostel, stuck in a 22 bed dorm with a great group who we continued to travel with following a great week in Phangan.The only drinks you really have much access to on the islands are buckets, these are filled with a local drink called Sangsom, god knows what it is or what percentage, this is then mixed with M150 (an alternative to red bull but with amphetamines, pretty illegal in britain but the usual choice in Thailand!) Heading to Koh Phangan you should expect to see some fire skipping ropes, fire limbo and a lot of glow paint all week, ultimately pushing to the night of full moon. Covered in glow paint we all headed down to the beach, Paul "Colorado" Hayes was looking for a wife, Selene was celebrating her birthday and Adam was getting his thighs out again, whether he wanted to or not! The full moon party was basically a combination of all the above, a lot of fire, a lot of glow paint, but most of all a lot of drinking, after seeing the sunrise from the beach it was definitely time for bed. The whole week was a complete mix of late nights and 2pm lay ins, a lot of laughing some awesome people and just a great time.

Finally we left the craziness behind and headed to Koh Tao with 10 of the hostel lot for a bit of snorkelling and a much needed detox. The island is incredible, its centre is just one path running along the beach fringed with bars, bungalows and massage parlours. The snorkelling trip was a definite highlight, amazing visibility and thousands of fish everywhere, bryan even saw a shark! We swam for the whole morning and stopped at a private island called Koh Nang Yueng which was pretty cool, the others sunbathed whilst we snorkelled some more with Andrew this was all going well until the mother of all storms hit. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face for all the rain, which physically hurt as it hit your skin, we made a survival huddle and decided to ride it out, after about 30mins we decided to make a run for the bar.

Koh Tao was the most beautiful so far (as we hadnt been to Phi Phi yet!) white sand, clear water which turned blue as it reached the coral and all these longtail boats just parked up along the shore. Picture paradise and you won't be far off.

Next stop... Koh Phi Phi!

After an interesting sleep on the night ferry (basically just mats all over the floor, not a huge amount of space especially when you're sharing with the cockroaches and rats too!) we made it to Phi Phi. An island that was definitely worth the 19hr (ish) journey, as we stepped onto the beach and saw the mountains coming from each end, the clear water and the fine sand we knew we loved it. We met up with another couple friends from Koh Phangan here, Paul and Adam, along with a few from Bangkok. Together we all headed off on a day trip around the island (some more snorkelling, Maya Bay and Monkey Island), the trip was on one of the longtail boats which was pretty interesting when the waves were about the same height as the boat, luckily we never capsized...just got extremely wet. After a short snorkle we sailed round to Maya Bay (where they filmed "The Beach"), on arrival we were told to jump off the boat and swim towards some rocks, climb up a rope ladder and walk to the other side, this was all made worse by the HUGE waves that smashed us into rocks and did their best to drag us under every now and again, this resulted in a fair few injuries but was a bit of an achievement once we made it! We then headed to Monkey Island, and saw a grand total of 1 monkey much to Seb's disappointment.After such a long day you might think we would have a quiet night in? You'd be wrong. With a mega bucket (see the photos) and a deck of cards we engaged in one hell of a game of ring of fire then headed to the beach once more for some partying.

Sarah went on to Phuket with our friends from Bangkok, whilst Vicky decided to stay in Phi Phi with the Koh Phangan friends, although our nights were a bit different. Whilst Sarah stayed in a luxury hotel with a Pool and a continental breakfast, Vicky had to squeeze into a 4 bed room with 6 other people.

We were next headed to Chiang Mai, but we'll save that for the next blog! The photos for the islands are all on Sarah's profile.

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