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Published: November 3rd 2011
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Luckily we are not writing this blog in Bangkok, we left literally two days after the floods hit the city so we got out just in time.
From Bangkok, we caught a bus to Chumphon, which is the port where we were to catch the ferry to our first ‘Ko’ Island, Ko Tao!
The ferry to Ko Tao wasn't the most pleasant experience, Natalie had her face in a plastic carrier bag for most of the trip, during which Chris was sleeping through the whole journey.
We stayed at a dive resort on the island called Crystal Dive Center, which is definitely a must to anyone that is heading there. We stayed in a basic bungalow right on the beach front and if you want to learn to dive, the instructors are great and you can have a great laugh with them.
We booked an Open Water Course, which was over three days and even included some revising for an exam at the end. We began our course in the classroom and it was a lot like being back at school, but we didn’t take it too seriously. We learnt about the different techniques we needed to show underwater and also
about the equipment. This was all presented on a few tutorial videos.
On the Saturday we began straight in the deep end (literally), as we were practising new skills in the swimming pool at the resort. The skills included; taking out the regulator and putting it back in underwater, communication and team work. Our instructor, Liran, was happy with our progress and set us off on the 12pm boat to do our first open water dive.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great for our first scuba experience into the big blue as the dark clouds came over us and lightening started to flash. Liran, thought that we should wait for the next location the boat was heading to and we would do our three dives the following day instead. He did however think it was appropriate for us to show that we can swim and test us in these conditions. Two hard laps around the boat and 10 minutes of tredding water later, we hopped back on board and headed to the 'three rocks'. It was an amazing experience diving especially when you first put your flippers on the sea bed and look around and realise where you are stood. The
three dives the next day offered us a lot more as we had better weather conditions and more visibility and of course more fish. Once all our dives were completed and we passed our written exam, our course was over and we are now Open Water Scuba Divers! This qualification is going to come in very handy for the Great Barrier Reef as we can almost just jump straight in when we get there. The celebrations were short lived for Chris that night however, and improved for Natalie as it was the Manchester derby, which we watched in a bar with both our shirts on (only one was still on by the end of the game!).
The next day was a relaxing one, where we explored the island a little and found a great stretch of beach with bars/restaurants along it. We spent that night having a drink in a bar with a live band playing and watched a fire show. Overall, we would definitely come back to Ko Toa and at the moment it’s our favourite place of the trip so far.
The next day we headed to Ko Phangan, which is known for its Full Moon Parties.
We were based a little far from the action but managed to go to a Black Moon Party during our time here. We were so glad we had the opportunity to do this as it is one crazy event. There was a live DJ on the beach and we had buckets in our hands which contained a full bottle of Sang Som and very little Coke and chatted to other travellers. A great night!!
During our trip we have started to get used to Geckos in our rooms and around the places we've eaten but in our hotel in Phangan there were GIANT GECKOS!! Look them up on YouTube, they are huge and apparently can bite.
Apart from the Black Moon in Ko Phangan, we just chilled in the day by the pool or the sea. From here we went to Ko Samui, which is the largest of the three islands in the gulf of Thailand. This was a lot more popular than the previous island and had a lot more going on. We stayed in Marine Bungalows, which again had bungalows metres away from the beach. Plenty of lady boy cabaret shows going on in town at night and
bars and restaurants were close by as well. On one of the days in Samui, we hired out a kayak which sounds nice and straight forward, however Chris thought it was a fun idea to 'Kayak Surf' the waves that were around the island. On the biggest wave, we flipped the kayak and scraped our feet on some coral and worst of all broke our waterproof, shockproof and life proof camera! We found out later that the pictures were fine but the camera wasn’t so. Natalie would like to apologise to her girls who bought the camera as a present but we have now replaced it (Thank You Mark Capelle).
We then had to set off to Phuket as we didn’t have enough time left on our visa’s to enjoy Samui any longer and it was a whopping £80 to extend both our stays for just 7 days. In Phuket, we were advised by Natalie’s cousin Paul to stay in either Karon, for a relaxed time or our choice …Patong! His words were that Patong was ‘mental’ … he was not wrong . Walking down the main strip at night we were bombarded with leaflets of various ‘shows’ that involved
ping pong balls, tennis balls and a turtle! (We couldn’t work out the last one either) and even more lady boys than Koh San Road, Bangkok. There was a shopping mall there which Natalie was magnetised too but we just bought the camera and Chris said no more! (no need to thank me Mark, it was your wallet it was going to come out of).
The following day we were both very excited. If you have seen the film ‘The Beach’ you will understand why we were. We had organised a trip to Phi Phi islands and more importantly it included Maya Bay! Maya Bay is where Leonardo Dicaprio wrestles a ‘shark’ and when we got there it was just as beautiful as in the film, it was perfect!!! The sand was white, the sea was crystal clear and the sun was shining. There were a lot of tourists but it didn’t take anything away from the picturesque island. From Maya Bay we went snorkelling and saw an abundance of fish swimming around the group, it was incredible and with our new camera we had some great shots for you to ‘pond’er at (pun intended). After half an hour pretending
to be a fish we headed to Monkey Island where we stopped and fed some wild monkeys. They were so intelligent; one was given a bottle of Pepsi and drank out of it, another caught a banana in mid-air. We had dinner at Phi Phi Don after that, where we had a buffet. This island was gorgeous as well and we are both gutted that we ran out time to stay there but it’s an excuse to head out again at a later date. The trip ended at Egg Island where there were tonnes of fish, even more than near Maya Bay. So we grabbed some bread and in an instant we were surrounded by schools of fish.
Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time in Phuket and so headed off to Malaysia, which is where we are now. We are in a place called Penang and there isn’t a lot to do. We went for a walk around town but headed in the complete opposite direction we wanted so returned back at our hotel. Tomorrow we will be going to Langkawi, which sounds amazing and we are lucky to have a week there as we have time to
make up. We will keep you informed and enjoy the photos!!
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mark capelle
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FULL MOON/BLACK MOON PARTY....
...i'm sure on the day after the derby BLUE MOON PARTY would of been more appropriate!!! LOL, dad x