Southern Thailand

On leaving Borneo I then had to make a mad dash for Thailand so that I could meet up with my Parents and Dina (Mums friend who currently lives in Singapore). After cheap flight and a couple of overnight bus journeys I made it Phuket in time to be at the designed rendezvous point. Unfortunately the place they chose as the meeting spot didn't actually exist so we all ended up walking round in circles and not being able to find each other, but we did find each other in the end (or in truth my Dad actually found me just at the point that Id had enough and was frantically waving my arms about, neurotically shouting at the unfortunate little Thai guy that just happened to be the hundredth to ask, that no I didn't want a TukTuk and no I didnt want a guesthouse I just wanted to find my Mum!!)

But anyway after a very comfortable drive in the car that they had hired for the trip (I think traveling to Thailand had been a bit of a concession on my Dads part, traveling on public transport was never going to be part of the equation!) we arrived at the resort and well, what can I say it was just pure luxury! We had our own private chalets snugly nestled at the base of a stunning limestone karst, I think at this point I may have turned into a bit of a blithering idiot as I ran around getting very overexcited at such things as hot running water, white linen ( I'd forgotten such a thing even existed) and the one that tipped me over the edge... a spa pool!!! So on Dina's excellent suggestion we had a brilliant daily ritual of finishing off each day with happy hour cocktails in the pool!

For the next few days we visited Khoa Sok National Park vainly searching of the primary Rainforest that they claim to have there, but after a good few hours walking and finding nothing more exciting than bamboo we gave up in our quest to find rainforest and went off in search of Rafflesia instead, (a rare plant that has flowers that can grow up to 1 meter across but only flower for about 5 days) and with the help of a local guide we were fortunate enough to see one on its first day of flowering. We also chartered a boat and and had a very enjoyable day sailing around a nearby lake which is surrounded by stunning mountains and is home to some lovely little water villages.

After spending 4 days with Mum, Dad and Dina it was time to say goodbye and head off back to the delights of public transport and $3 a night accommodation! I swiftly came crashing back to reality when i booked an overnight ferry from Suri Thani to Kho Tao only to find out when I get on it that it was in fact a cargo boat with a mat on the floor to sleep on- hmmm comfy! After a very uncomfortable night where I got about a maximum of 30mins sleep I arrived on Koh Tao and me and a Canadian lad that I had to rapidly become very good friends with due to the fact that he was my neighbor on the boat and therefore we had been forced to spend the night in very close proximity to each other went off in search of some accommodation and a diving school. Whilst we were checking out the various different dive schools i ran into another friend that I had made in Hong Kong and we all ended up at the same dive school which was good as we had a really good time together over the 4 days of the Open Water Scuba diving course. The diving itself was amazing, at first I struggled a bit with equalizing and suffered a bit with my ears but once I had got the hang of it it was brilliant and I was able then to really appreciate the beauty of the coral and all the thousands of tropical fish which came in every colour of the spectrum.

After leaving Koh Tao, myself and my diving buddies all headed over to Koh Pa-Ngan for the travelers institution that is the Full Moon Party. Unfortunately as we only arrived on the day of the full moon most of the accommodation was already full which only left the most expensive and the grottiest places with vacancies. Obviously the choice was an easy one for us and we settled down in one of the worst guesthouses that I have been in to-date (and I have been in some bad ones!) The full moon party was good fun and basically consisted of about 20,000 people all covered in florescent body paint dancing like loonies on the beach until sunrise!

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