Thailand Koh Samet, Koh Chang Koh Tao and Ko Phangan

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After just 1 night and 16 hours in Hong Kong we managed to squeeze in some tasty Dim Sim, a trip to the night market and another walk down Avenue of Stars! Then it was time to board our penultimate plane and fly into Bangkok! Yay! Its even better then we remembered! As it was my birthday the night we arrived we went for a couple of drinks down Khao San (regretted the next day!!!) the following 3 days were spent visiting Wat Arun (temple of the dawn) Wat Pho (reclining Buddha) and walked up to the Grand Palace but will save looking around till we return to Bangkok before coming home, also managed to squeeze a trip in to my favorite market in the world Chatuchak, spent a good few hours perusing the stalls looking at all the cute baby animals (chipmunks with hats and cute dogs with dresses, sunglasses, shoes - you get the idea!) and trying some of the tasty food on offer - fresh coconut ice cream and tasty iced coffees kept the heat at bay! Then it was off to Siam Square probably my most favourite shopping centre via the Skytrian! I'd worn my contact lenses for the first time in a while and sad to say the pollution really irritated my eyes so had to make a sharp exit to remove them and it was back to Khao San to watch some more amazing football in the World Cup! As we hadn't visited Koh Samet last time here we decided to come and have a look and have been pleasantly surprised, the beach is wonderfully clean and the sand is powdery and white! The food is Incredible really forgot how tasy everything is, we really cant get enough of kaengs, khao and yams Viva Thaialnd!!!!!!!! Unfortunatly I didnt feel the sandflies biting me whilst I dozed on the beach on the first day but soon felt the itch around 3 am when I woke up to be the most itchiest girl in thailand! I HATE SANDFLIES!!!!!!! they pretty much ensured they didnt see me again lazing around on the beautiful white sand but there was plenty to keep us busy from wandering around the small town and strolling along the beach doing some people watching! Next on the agenda was Koh Chang where we had very fond memories from 2007 spending the first night at White sands we decided to swiftly head off to Lonely Beach and its laid back chilled vibe that certianly hadnt changed but the village had a little... no more “Treehouse” our favourite place for tea was gone and nothing remained but a few hippies and hammocks! Having an evening swim I got such a scare there we were frolicing in the surf with my SLR precauciasly placed on the sand in the beach bag, when what do we see 2 huge water buffalows almost panicing as then ran along the beach the stray dogs were barking and the water-bufalows were kicking their back legs, I watched speechless as the stormed towards my SLR and could jt make out from the sea that they had missed...wow that was close! When they had calmed down and moved on we returned to terra firma and I couldnt believe how close they had got, the deep footprints were 6inched away from my camera...how lucky was that!!!!!!! Walking back to our room along the beach we spotted a HUGE dead jellyfish which I wansnt keen on as you can see from the pic it was a whopper and had lost its tentacles, and as it has been stormy in Thailand of late the sea was a bit murky so you cant see what exactly is swimming with you!!!
The next Island we decided would be Koh Tao as we really enjoyed last time here, unfortunatley this was a long way away right halfway down the Andaman coast but it had to be done! We left our room at 9am and had to wait an hour for the Jeep to leave to the port, 30 mins later we are there and waited half hour for the ultra slow ferry to arrive 1hr later we were back on the mainland and bagged the back seats of the jeep so we could rest our bags on the rack outside and have some legroom, little did we know 1. the nus station was a good 20mins away and 2. we were about to have a tropical storm! We were drenched and so was our backpacks! We boarded the bus to Bangkok at 2pm after we had gotten changed out of wet clothes and picked up some snacks at the station we didnt arrive into Bangkok until 8pm darren was sporting his phillipine flour bag shorts and we met 2 very friendly filippino girls on their holidays in Thailand they were real interested to hear about our Philippine adventures we scooted across from the eastern terminal to the southern and were swiftly escorted to a night bus heading our way to Chumphon sad to say that we had to resort to a mcdonals dinner as we had such a good run of having rice or noodles for tea since arriving in Thailand! We were stuck with the 2 front seats on the night bus which didnt have curtains and my eye mask was safely stored in the bottom of my backpack so had to imporovise with my smelly beach sarong and use it as a headband soon I was fast asleep but darren wasnt and later informed me he saw 4 inch long cockroaches crawling along the railing infornt of our seats, when I finally woke up I was the only person left on the bus and we were stationary which could only mean one thing - broken down bus! It was midnight and we'd been stopped for over half an hour. I was informed I had been “catching flies” I must have looked such a sight with my huge bandana and mouth wide open! We waited until 3.30 for the replacement bus to come and collect us, and I was soon fast asleep again only to be woken when the bus driver had forgooten where we were going reconfirmed with us and we came to a sudden stop and saw our bags coming out the hold through the window, 7.30 am middle of nowhere no one speaking english and only my Thai phrase book for assistance we were soon on a bus going back the direction we came from luckily only for 15 minutes or so after a bi of negotiating with an thai man and his truck we were on our way to the ferry terminal and a 4hr wait for the boat to leave at 1pm!!
It was worth it though, Koh Tao hasnt changed that much in 2 years there does seem to be more tourists here but there are still empty bays if you have someone who's good at riding a moped to get you there!! Seems to be a storm most afternoons (good old rainy season!) but making the most of the pretty beaches and sunny morings! Although after 5 nights of sleeping above a very noisy bar we decided to head onto Koh Phangan - good choice, as there was no full moons on and season is low we managed to get a beautiful room for a quarter of the price it normally goes for! Bonus! On the first night we had the fun of going to a half moon party a bit like full moon but in a big field out of town it was really good fun and an excellent night was had luckily for us the weather was better in Koh Phangan than Koh Tao despite the 2 islands only being 30 miles appart. Today we have been on a moped ride courtesy of Darren the driver we saw 10 elephants at different camps. A water buffalow and its baby (what nearly trod on my SLR!) and beautiful sandbar at the northern tip of the island Koh Ma and on the way back stopped at a pretty waterfall (more rain needed for it to be flowing sufficiently!)
We are leaving Thailand in 3 days and is doubtful weather I shall have WIFI again before coming home to all my friends and family looking forward to seeing you and as they say - thats a wrap thanks to everyone who has read! Happy travelling!!!!

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Photos

waterbuffalow footprints and my bag
close does not cut it!