Advertisement
Published: September 23rd 2007
Edit Blog Post
Hi.
So... we got the morning bus from Pakse in Laos and made our way west on the short journey to Ubon in Thailand. The plan was to stay there for a night and then make our way over to Bangkok in preparation to meet Catherine. The journey and border crossing were incident-free, it looked as if the Thais were building a brand new border terminal which meant that we officially entered Thailand via a temporary turnstile and booth that wouldn't have looked out of place at a 1950's football ground (or Grimsby's ground today).
Ubon was an odd little place but not without it's charm. We were pleased to see a little bit of North Eastern Thailand before we reached the more cosmopolitan Bangkok. We found a nice little hotel near the centre of town and, without a map, tried to find the actual centre.
I suggested we go left, Jenny suggested we go right, she said tomato, lets call the whole thing off, we decided to go right. You'll all be glad to know that I was correct and right wasn't the 'right' way but it did lead us along a busy main road and allowed
Jungle Rafts
Cheers Goward family!!! :-D us the excitement of crossing an eight-lane highway (a bit like that scene in Planes, Trains and Automobiles) and we got to walk through several puddles so it wasn't a complete loss. Then, in our ever continuing desire to experience local cuisine we tried an Ubon specialty. It was really tasty actually, the recipe seemed quite simple - they make some dough into a circular base, add tomato sauce on top, some cheese and Pepperoni and then cook it for ten minutes. I recommend it if you are ever in NE Thailand.
We were unsure whether to get the train or bus to Bangkok as we were starting to feel a little 'bused' out. In the end, the kind lady in the bus station told us it would take 'about' seven hours (as opposed to the train for twelve hours) so we decided to hop on the bus. It transpired that the bus actually took eleven hours! so we arrived in Bangkok's North Eastern Bus Terminal around 7pm and jumped straight into a taxi towards our hotel.
We had a couple of days until Catherine arrived and in that time we had a look around the Sukhumvit area
Koh Pan-Ngan
So how many buckets you guys actually had? ;o) of Bangkok. This is the upmarket part of town and it was a completely different experience to our time in Laos and Cambodia. We also watched a couple of films, did some shopping and generally got back into city living. It didn't seem long until we were on our way to the new airport to collect Catherine - there were a few tears from the sisters when Catherine emerged from the doorway and Cat seemed in good spirits after the long journey and excited about the trip ahead.
We were now staying in the Khao San Road area which is the main backpacker area of Bangkok. Cat had her first trip in a tuk-tuk, first Beer Chang (rapidly followed by her second, third and fourth Beer Chang). Over the next two days we did the standard tourist trail around Bangkok (Grand Palace, river tour, Patpong etc) and had a very nice time too.
So that was Bangkok. We then headed to a place called Kanchanaburi where Jenny's family had arranged a belated birthday treat for us all to stay in a floating jungle raft resort on the River Kwai, which was perfect. The rafts were stationed on a
Koh Tao
Snorkeling! gorgeous stretch of the river and it was perfect for lounging around and sunbathing (sunburning for Cat), drinking Beer Chang (can anyone spot a theme?), elephant treking, canoeing, sunbathing. We also had an 'experience' in the river. It was possible to hire life-jackets and float downstream for a few hundred metres and then climb back up onto the last raft and repeat. The issue was that the current was VERY strong and we didn't check which raft had the last ladder. We were all swept along and grabbed hold of the last raft, only to find there was no ladder! The current was strong enough to virtually drag us from the handle we had on the raft and there seemed to be no way to climb up. After several concerned minutes yours truly was able to clamber up onto the raft and drag Jenny to safety (no, it wasn't tempting to leave her). So, that happened.
From the jungle rafts we returned briefly to Bangkok to catch our overnight sleeper train to Surat Trani, the jumping off point for the islands. Our first stop was Ko Pha Ngan, the scene of the full-moon party. Unfortunately we weren't there for
Monkey beach
Jay tucking into a watermelon the full moon but we still had a great time on the beach in the day and evening, drinking 'buckets' of cocktails (leaving Jenny and I to heavily regret it the next day!).
From KPN we went on to the island of Ko Samui. We were travelling the morning after my 'bucket' incident so the half-hour bumpy boat ride was not overly pleasant. The weather had also turned overcast but we still had a great time in Ko Samui, snorkeling, visiting waterfalls, hiring a jeep and generally enjoying the beach life to the full.
Which brings us up to date and currently in Phuket. We spent our first day here at the gorgeous beach, playing in the huge waves and sunbathing again. The pattern had been set. We went on a lovely day tour yesterday to Phi Phi Island (where some of 'The Beach' was filmed) and plan to go back to the beach today when I've finished typing this blog entry. Actually, the sun has just come back out so i'll cut off there and head to the beach. I'm sure you understand.
Next stop is Georgetown in Malaysia. Not long til Sydney now!
Jenny
and Jay.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0647s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb