Pure Paradise on Phi Phi and Doing Drugs in Thailand....

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G'day!

Well you're probably a bit puzzled by the title of this blog entry - but fear not, I was not in a drug induced haze while visiting Thailand - well I sort of was, but it was only the over the counter variety :-( Picked up a bad tummy bug towards the end and had to make good friends with the local pharmacist who kept giving me packets of Buscopan telling me my stomach would come good 'soon soon'! 'Soon soon' turned out to be 3 days - very not cool when you want to enjoy Thailand, let me assure you! However, before that bad few days - Thailand trip was amazing!!! A more beautiful country I have not seen yet - as well as having the most friendly people I've come across in all my travels to date! Add this to having a GREAT exchange rate with the British Pound and you have the makings of a great, relaxing holiday in the sun!!

Of course no trip of mine would be complete without a mild panic attack though, however by travelling to Thailand on my own to meet up with Kimmi and Storchy, I managed to not stress anyone out with my worrying! Left Gatwick on time and set off on the first leg of the trip, which was to end up in Doha, in the State of Qatar (in the middle eastern desert for those not in the know!) for a 'quick' transfer to then head off to land in Bangkok to meet up! However, on getting to Doha it became apparent that there was something wrong with the plane for the onward journey and we were delayed on the ground for 3 hours! At this stage, I was starting to bite my nails - I had a pretty small window from getting off the plane in Bangkok, meeting the guys and then onto another plane for our onward journey to Phi Phi! Trying not to panic and reassuring myself that there was nothing I could do to change the situation (this did involve a lot of huffing and puffing and pacing around!), eventually we were led onto a new plane - before the cabin crew realised no one had been given seat allocations! On a large plane, that was nearly full, you can imagine the abuse they were copping!! Then up in Business Class, 4 young blokes started yelling and screaming in another language (really not cool in this day and age) so a further delay ensued as they were escorted from the plane!! Finally, we were in the air and on our way to Bangkok and I STILL hadn't had a drink! :-)

Got to Bangkok and found Kimmi (in the smoking room, no less!!) and then Storchy, so panic over - the real holiday was about to begin!

Let me just say that for anyone who HASN'T been to Thailand - - it is somewhere you just HAVE to go!! HAs to be one of, if not the best country I've visited yet - just ticks all the boxes! And I'm saying this even after having got sick there - so you know it must be stellar!! Ko Phi Phi, which was our first port of call for the 1st week, was fairly badly damaged after the Tsunami in 2004, but they have done a magnificent job of rebuilding a lot of the infastructure and life has got back to normal....well as normal as it will ever be for the survivors. The area we stayed, in Tonsai Bay, is the main area for tourists - but it never felt built up and really retains a village feel! We had great accommodation at the end of the beach - complete with it's own bay and private beach, which was lush!! Unfortunately for us, we did not heed the warning of many and decided that our first night we would have the (in)famous Singsum (not sure of the spelling!) buckets - which in a word were LETHAL!! Storchy ended up losing his thongs and shirt (though he swears he gave them to us to look after - what a school boy error that was!) and ended up swimming at some ungodly hour and Kim and I ended up laying on the beach making sand angels - and shooing away pesky strange men! Well apparently we were, the only one who really remembers is Storchy and he could very well be fitting that story to make himself look better!! We awoke the next day with RAGING hangovers and made a decision then and there not to get smashed up for the rest of the holiday, lest we then waste precious beach time!! (just a p.s to that last part - the pact didn't quite last and there was at least one other VERY drunken episode which culminated in Storchy having to drag my arse up the hill to our villa and me falling over and scraping my knee AGAIN!!! I'm leaving the details out of that story, because I simply have nothing else to go on other than Storchy's word!)

Anyone who says that Thailand in October is bad weather is only partly right!! It's the end of the wet season, so we did have a bit of rain - but mainly in the evenings after beautiful days and every day was warm and humid! Air conditioning is a must - humidity is great for a bit, but it does sap the energy after awhile! With the weather being so good - Storchy set off for a dive and Kimmi and I sunned ourselves on the beach, swam and had some amazing Thai massages on the beach as well! The best part is they're so cheap - you could almsost indulge in one every day (I think I had the most while we were there for that exact reason!). We took a half day boat trip as well and went snorkelling in some absolutely crystal clear water - such a great place to swim and the amount of reef around the island ensures that any sharks you see are of the smaller variety!! The boat trip took us cliff jumping, feeding monkeys on Monkey Island and finally to Maya Bay, where a lot of the opening island scenes for The Beach were shot! This bay is very touristy now since the movie, so it was a bit of an anticlimax to be honest, but still very beautiful all the same!

Our second last day, we farewelled Storchy, who was off back to London and then it was onto Ao Nang Beach, Krabi for the second part of our holiday! Getting to Krabi was NEARLY a disaster, with our hotel porters taking our bags to the port 3 hours before they were meant to - meaning we had a mad dash from our hotel down there to make sure they didn't end up on the boat without us! All was fine in the end - lucky for us, Kimmi had her bright pink suitcase, so we were able to spot it a mile off! Spent the afternoon sitting at a beach bar near the port, drinking cocktails, playing cards and listening to Ben Harper and Bob Marley tunes - couldn't ask for a more relaxing time!!

Krabi itself is no beauty compared to the paradise of Phi Phi - but it did have its benefits! Our hotel, for a start was an amazing 5* resort that was just beautiful!! It pretty much rained the entire time we were there - so have to say I wouldn't recommend Krabi if you're looking at chilling on the beach (there was hardly any pretty beach) however, it's probably a great spot if you're not really a beach goer! We went elephent trekking in the hills/jungle - which was just great! The actual spot we went, was where they shot ANOTHER part of The Beach - the scenes where they find the weed plantation and one of them is shot was filmed at this place and though the weed is long gone (they used real plants, apparently!) you can definitely see where it was! The area is so beautiful - it was so good to see Thailand beauty that wasn't necessarily the beach or marine life! The elephants were too cute too - - they are really well looked after and pretty much just cruise around eating and drinking all day!

Spent loads of time shopping as Krabi is great for it's shopping and generally just laying like Broccoli! We frocked up one night and treated ourselves to a fancy meal @ the resort - Kimmi had lobster and was still only the equivalent of $16!

All in all - besides the embarassing drunken debacles and the getting sick towards the end - it was an amazing amazing AMAZING trip and I cannot wait to go back just as soon as I can! The Thai people are so hospitable - it has renewed my faith that people can be friendly!! After living in London, you start to forget what it's like to see genuinely smiling faces!

The pictures really do not do this place justice at all - - so hard to capture the true beauty of it all, though it does give you an idea! My advice would be to go there - you will not be disappointed!

My next trip - to make sure I didn't suffer too badly from post holiday blues (though that is easier said than done, it's cold, dark and rainy here @ the moment!) is to New York for the American Thanksgiving weekend in November! Should be a great trip - doing all the touristy things of course and the highlight - a New York Knicks vs Chicago Bulls game @ Madison Sqaure Garden!! I can almost hear the Haylocks drooling over that one! ha ha!

Cheers n' beers,

Ames x x x x x

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