Koh Tao,Koh Phanang,Koh Samui,Koh Phi Phi and Phucket

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Hey everyone,

Koh Tao

So for the past few weeks we have been completely chillaxing on the islands around Thailand. We started off with a night bus journey from Bangkok, on a bus that was crawling with ants (Ian might say i'm exaggerating but i'm not!!) I spent the whole night watching the ants crawl all over the window.....I got NO sleep. We got to the ferry port at about 4am and the boat was not leaving until 7am so we sat and watched the sunrise and gave the mosquitos some breakfast lol! We used Lomprayah Catamaran fast ferries to make our way around the islands and found them fantastic, very efficent servive. Once we arrived on Koh Tao we checked into Asia Resort, we were really looking forward to jumping in the pool that had been advertised on their website as it was sooo hot but we were told at reception the pool was out of use....when we walked past we could see why it was a dark green colour and was so murky we were raging! Koh Tao was great fun, we went on a day trip snorkelling and we both loved every minute of it. We chilled on the beach and watched the fire shows at Lotus bar. We also got to meet up with Orlagh and her cousin Siobhan and friend Elaine was so good to see Orlagh again. After 2 nights it was time to head on to Koh Phangan!

Koh Phanang

We loved it on Koh Phangan, we stayed for 4 nights in a cool resort in Thongsala called Lime n Soda, it had many little bungalows which were TINY but clean, the best part about this place was how backpacker friendly it was. Their was a lovely pool plus it was right on the beach and they provided a box of things to occupy your time in the water beach balls, snorkells etc they also had 3 ping pong tables and lots of boardgames so we had a very relaxing stay here. We found a beautiful cafe called Niras which had the most amazing pie and mash haha!! We also rented a scooter and explored the island on two of the days. We drove to Hadrin to see where the famous full moon party takes place and were very suprised at how small it was. We did not get to go to the full moon party as the next wasnt on for a couple of weeks.

Koh Samui

Next stop was Koh Samui, we met up with Orlagh, Siobhan and Elaine again here, and with the Irish girls we met from Cork Ash n Jessica. We stayed in the Samui Beach resort in La Mai. We were not overly impressed with this hotel plus we had to say goodbye to Orlagh again until April and the weather was awful so our time on Samui wasn't that great. We did rent a scooter and go and see a waterfall and drove into the main party town Chaweng to have a wander around the markets, unfortunately rainy weather when your on an island makes for a pretty boring few days lol but it was nice to catch up on some reading and sleep during the torrential rain showers!!

Koh Phi Phi

Next stop for us was Koh Phi Phi. We decided it was time to treat ourselves to some very nice accommodation so we booked 4 nights in the BayView Beach resort and after a long day of travelling with 2 ferrys, a bus ride and a water taxi we were so disappointed with the room they had put us in when we arrived especially for the money we were paying it looked nothing like what we saw on the website and the staff were all so rude. So for once we piped up and complained and it got us an upgrade to a very beautiful room so we were happy but we would not reccomend anyone to stay here apart from amazing views which you can find all over the island this place has nothing to offer. While on Koh Phi Phi we did a day trip snorkelling and we got to visit Maya Bay where the movie The beach was filmed. It was extremely beautiful just like a postcard. We also hiked up to the Tsunami village where many of the people who lost their homes when the Tsunami hit have been housed. Koh Phi Phi is very beautiful, its a very small island with small streets packed with markets, bars and restaurants we really loved our time here one of the nicest places we have been so far.

Phucket

From Koh Phi Phi we took a ferry to Phuket we stayed in the Cello hotel in Patong, the hotel was nice but neither of us enjoyed Phuket the strip of bars in Patong is like any canary island and was full of go go dancers and lady boys. We stayed 2 nights and we were ready to leave. From here though we had a tricky time trying to plan how to get to our first stop in Malaysia. We had to take a bus from Phuket to Krabi, then a bus to Hat Yai then we were put on a public bus to a ghost town called Satun thank god for some English speaking locals other wise who knows where we would of ended up. We booked into the Pinnacle hotel and it was awful, the hotel looked like no one had stayed their in 50 years, it was dirty and musty thank god we only had to spend a few hours there. We went to get food and we ordered chicken and rice, we got deep fried chicken feet, neither of us could eat them so we headed to the local 7/11 for the old reliable ham and cheese toastie, they always save the day lol

Next morning we headed to the ferry port to start our trip to Malaysia!!

Hope all is well with everyone at home, we are having such a fantastic time but missing everyone at home too. Hope your all enjoying the updates, sorry we are so far behind, its hard to find time to sit down and write the blogs!

Chat soon, love Laura n Ian xxxxxx

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