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Published: November 29th 2012
We arrived in Thailand after a short flight from Bali and met our latest travelling companion, Luce’s sister Soph, in the airport. I was excited to arrive in Bangkok after spending time in some quieter areas; unfortunately it would be a while before my excitement could be satisfied. It took us about three hours in choc a block traffic to arrive at the infamous Khao Sarn Road and we were all so shattered when we got there that we booked into the first hotel with space. We actually ended up in D & Ds which is a busy hotel that I think a lot of backpackers are keen to go to. After the not so luxurious accommodation in Bali we were pleased to find a gorgeous hotel room and a roof top swimming pool.
That night we went to find some Pad Thai on the street for our dinner which completely filled us up and cost about 80p. This was also a bit of a luxury after Bali which was slightly more expensive. We had decided to leave Bangkok the next day and spend more time there on the way back instead. As a result we didn't do much
more than a bit of shopping on the first visit. It was a lot of fun trying to barter with the Thai people, although it wasn't as easy to bring down their prices as the Indonesians.
That night we had booked a night bus to Chumphon to then get a ferry over to the island of Koh Tao. We were all a bit apprehensive about how much sleep we would get on this. I barely slept at all because there was a hole in the roof of the bus right above me. However, Soph probably had the worst experience; she went down to use the toilet which was a bowl full of wee, no flush and a load of bottles of water to try and flush your business down with. You can imagine the state of the floor on a moving bus... Anyway she had gone down to this lovely lavatory to find that there was a Thai man on the phone in there who had kissed her on the cheek earlier. After leaving the toilet he spent his time trying to open the door while she was in there and then gave her bum a smack on the
way out.
After the first leg of the journey we got dumped in the middle of nowhere at 4.00am. Luckily someone else came to get us about ten minutes later and take us to a disgusting cafe to wait for our 7.00am boat journey. The ferry was unbelievable. I'm quite lucky that I never really get seasick but about 70%!o(MISSING)f the passengers were running to the top deck to be sick during the four hour journey that should have taken two. At one point, I opened my eyes and saw the sea level with the boat but decided the best course of action was to close my eyes and go back to sleep.
After arriving we found a place pretty quickly and spent the afternoon settling in ready to go out that night. The weather wasn't great but luckily the storm from the boat hadn't followed us.
We went out to a place called Lotus on our first night which was as good as everyone had promised. There were buckets of cocktails flowing freely as well as fire dancers performing on the beach. We tried laughing gas which is basically the same as helium balloons but
they make you laugh hysterically for about 5 seconds. I absolutely loved it; it was so funny (obviously). Later on we bumped into a couple of people who were on our kiwi experience in New Zealand which was really surreal but happens more often than you think with people all following similar routes.
The next day we moved rooms to a nice place right on Sairee beach with a gorgeous BBQ restaurant in front of it (where we ate every night).
We didn't go out again but watched Hangover Part Two in a mexican restaurant. We also listened to some live music at the Fishbowl bar which was fantastic as it was only two guys and a guitar but they did some really good covers and sang Stereophonics for us because we told them we were Welsh.
On our last day in Koh Tao I was feeling really ill but we had already decided to go snorkelling and I forced myself to go. I'm really glad I did as it was a lot of fun; in the morning we went to a private island off Koh Tao and snorkelled there. The beach was beautiful and we saw
some things that looked like baby swordfish swimming around. Later on we took a taxi to a place called shark point and Gwenda and I swam in the water for about two hours until we saw three black tip reef sharks. It was completely worth it and Gwenda said it was hilarious watching me chase after a shark to try and get a picture of it.
We left Koh Tao the day after to visit Koh Phangan. Koh Phangan is renowned as a massive party place which is famous for its full moon parties. We were excited to go as we would be meeting up with Chad, Matt, Katy and a fews others. We had found some good accommodation called Thai Dee Gardens in the busy area of Haad Rin and had all managed to squeeze into one room. The first night we were there we went to a pool party which was fun but also disgusting because at one point I saw a condom float past me in the pool. We didn't do much during the days while we stayed here except start drinking. The full moon party was amazing; there were thousands of people all over the
beach at different bars and everyone was covered in UV paint. I couldn’t be bothered to spend too much time on my body paint design and ended up with bright yellow feet covered in green spots- extremely creative. On the beach there were also fire throwers everywhere and people limbo-ing under flaming ropes. Unfortunately, as it was completely packed we all lost each other in about an hour after going to the toilet, getting drinks etc so I did spend a lot of my time wondering about and dancing on my own.
After the full moon party we decided to go and see a bit of the island. We didn't really want to hire mopeds as we had heard so many bad things about accidents but the taxis were so expensive and we thought as long as we were careful that it would be fine. It was a good laugh as there were ten of us riding around- Luce, Gwend, Soph, Chad, Matt, and Jon, Brian, Bryce and Robbie (boys who we had met on the island) but unfortunately when we were going down a gravelly, steep hill Matt slipped a bit and scratched his bike which cost him
a couple of hundred when we got back, this was a massive shame for him because we had been having a fun day seeing some of the sights.
We left Koh Phangan on another boat to Koh Samui. This island was a more resort style place where couples go on holiday so it was slightly more expensive in comparison with other places. We were still with the boys and had also met up with Katy again so on our first night there we went to a Thai boxing match which was good but absolutely brutal; they give these massive kicks which are so fast you don't even realise what’s happened until the other person is on the floor. The kids who compete are also pretty young which isn’t nice to watch. After the match some of the boys had a photo in the ring but when we tried we weren't allowed because we're women.
The following night, we decided to go and see a ping pong show- briefly this is when you go to watch Thai ladies shoot ping pong balls out of their lady parts. It’s quite gross but we felt like we couldn't come to Thailand
without seeing one. We searched for ages and couldn't find one so decided to go to a lady boy show instead, when we couldn't find one of these either the boys suggested a strip club. For some reason we agreed to go. It was ridiculous but funny and Lucy, Soph and I ended up putting a ping pong each into a girl’s cleavage (that was apparently how you tipped them)! We soon got out of there and went to Green Mango, a famous open air club in Koh Samui.
Lastly, we thought it was about time to actually get some culture in and went on a tour of the island. It was a weird but good tour; we started off at some beautiful temples. Again, when we tried to take a photo with a Buddha we were told we weren't allowed to touch it as we are women. It’s annoying but I suppose you have to respect their culture. After this we visited the famous golden Buddha which was huge and a really impressive sight. We went from there to a viewpoint where you could see a gorgeous view of the main beach in Koh Samui. Afterwards we went
to a "monkey show" which we all found cruel as it wasn't a show it was just demonstrating to us how they use the monkeys to collect coconuts from the trees. It was horrible though because he had the monkey on a chain round the neck which he kept yanking. We did have a picture with one that seemed happier because he was being given lots of food. When I had my picture he dropped his fruit down my top and stuck his little hand down to grab it.
In the afternoon we went to look at the famous grandmother and grandfather rocks- this sounds lovely but it was actually two rock formations, one in the shape of a giant penis and one in the shape of a giant vagina. This was interesting but also quite disturbing. Our last stop was to a waterfall which wasn't overly impressive in itself but as they also do elephant trekking and tiger photos there we got to see both.
After leaving Koh Samui in we headed towards Krabi. I didn't really know what to expect here because it is ont he mainland and, apart from Bangkok, we had only visited islands.
We spent our first night at a hostel and met two nice girls from Rugby; Nic and Jess who we ended up spending all our time in Krabi with. I loved Krabi because we did so many activities there. On our first night we climbed up to Tiger Temple which is 1,327 steps to the top. It only took us half an hour but we were absolutely exhausted when we got to the top. It was completely worth it when we took in the view and witnessed a gorgeous sunset. We had also taken beers up there to celebrate when we got to the top... we didn't realise the entire thing was a temple until a lady walking by told us off and said it was as bad as drinking in church. On our way back down (which we thought would be the easy part) we got caught in torrential rain and ended up wading through calve deep water to get back to our taxi-bus.
The following day was the start of the Thai celebration of the New Year that they call Songkran. The first day of this is basically a nationwide water fight- what could be better?!
So we spent the morning standing on the corner of the hostel throwing buckets of water at people passing by and getting equally soaked by the locals. At lunchtime we went to Railay beach which was a short boat ride away and is absolutely beautiful. We got further soaked when we arrived and had our faces covered in clay. I wish we had a festival at home like this, it was great fun.
The next day, after listening to a tip from one of the guys at the hostel, we hired bikes and cycled to a small fishing village. We cycled about 14km to a five star infinity pool we had been recommended and were lucky enough to use it for free. The village was such a contrast from what we had seen of Thailand so far- there were goats everywhere and little children running out to wave and shout hello to us. After leaving the pool we decided to go to a fish restaurant that we had seen signs for. This was a real novelty because it was one of those restaurants that I have only ever seen in pictures that float on water. The tables all surrounded
a netted area where they kept the fresh fish. I think the staff could tell it was a first for us so fed the fish while we were there which meant we were able to see small sharks jumping out of the water and a huge blow fish. The only thing the restaurant wasn't built for was the torrential rain we then had as we were eating our dinner; luckily it eased off enough for us the get the boat and cycle back.
The last activity we did in Krabi was rock climbing. This had been recommended to us as its one of the top ten places in the world to do it and you are climbing on real limestone cliffs. I really enjoyed this and would probably say it’s one of the best things I did whilst travelling. I was also thrilled because both Gwend and I succeeded in climbing a thirty metre wall. It was so tough and at one point I was clinging to a flat piece of rock like a lizard moaning that I couldn't do it, but with a bit of encouragement I got there. I was so glad that I did as the
view from the top was beautiful and I whooped excitedly the whole way down.
The following day, before we left Krabi we had a real treat. One of the boys from the hostel (they had become a bit of a family as so many people had stayed there weeks longer than planned) cooked twenty four of us a roast dinner. It was a welcome change from noodles and we also got the chance to catch up with the three girls who we had met on our Whitsundays sailing trip in Australia who were staying in Krabi at this time.
After leaving Krabi we took another boat ride across to the party island of Koh Phi Phi. As I've said, it is a big party island so there's not a huge amount to say about what we did in the day because we were mostly hungover... It was my birthday whilst there though and a big group of us did a snorkelling trip to Maya Bay for it. Maya bay is infamous for being the location where 'The Beach' was filmed. It was a really spectacular beach and the trip, combined with the night out after definitely made it
a birthday to remember.
After five nights of partying in Phi Phi we finally said a sad goodbye to Bryce, Brian, Jon and Robbie and went off to relax in Koh Lanta where we were lucky enough to find accommodation for £5.00 a night which had its own pool and gardens. We didn't see much of Koh Lanta because it was quite expensive to get around but we had a bit of a stroll along the beach and it seemed quite a quiet place. After two nights here we had another tiring journey all the way from the south of Koh Lanta up to Bangkok. There was a bit of a contrast in the room we paid a fiver for in Bangkok... we were down rabid dog alley which I hated walking through.
As we had arrived in Bangkok at 6.00am we had a pretty full day in the city and spent some time taking a tuk tuk around- lucky we had time on our side here because he kept taking us to shops where if we bought something he would get a free gas coupon. It was a good time to be in Bangkok because it was
a bank holiday so there was a mini celebration happening at a big temple. As a result of this when some people gave us food to feed the pigeons for "good luck" we believed it was part of the celebration, not that they would snatch ten pounds out of my hand to pay for the corn.
We spent our last day in Bangkok visiting the famous floating market which was really interesting. We were fairly spent out by this time so didn't buy a lot but it was good for the novelty. Another positive was that we had a free lunch included and there were some really snobby people on our tour who didn't want any so we got double- jackpot. In the afternoon we went to visit the River Kwai Bridge. It was really good because they run a train across it but you can still walk along at the same time.
This was pretty much the end of our Thailand experience; once again it was a country I was devastated to leave because of all the friends we made there and the beautiful and unique sights that we saw. It is definite backpacker territory though, drinking
included.
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