Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 2

This 2 week tour, organised with g-adventures, was the most fun and stress free part of my trip so far! It was soo good to be able to sit back and let others organise my accomodation, transport and activities etc. We went cycling through the backstreets of Ayuthaya and Kanchanaburi and hiked up in mountains in Chang Mai. We stayed in a raft house and hilltribe house and went camping on our own island in Kong Hong. We kayaked around huge cliffs on the ocean and visited the markets and bars in Chiang Mai. We had a really good group of 14 people and we all got on really well. This was a super fun trip and the best birthday presant! (thanks dad!!)... read more

Had a good flight over from Brisbane on Thai, we are a group of ten this time all newcomers to Thailand except for Tony & I. Staying at Furama Silom, good location & 5 minutes walk to Skytrain, . Showed the mob how to get to MBK & in the evening we had a dinner cruise down the Chao Prayha river. It was great, very good value for money great entertainment & the river is spectacular at night. Today they are going to Grand Palace, Reclining Buddha, Flower markets, which are really amazing & a canal cruise. Tony & I are off to check out where we can watch a live screening of the first State of origin game which is played tomorrow afternoon Thai time. probably the Aussie Bar over Sukhumvit way. Everyone is amazed ... read more

So, lots of things have happened since my last blog post! We spent quite a few days in Chiang Mai which was amazing. We went elephant trekking for the day which was amazing (even though I was definitely scared of them at the beginning! Washing elephants in the water is an experience I will never forget! We also went to tiger kingdom and played with baby and big tigers (and when I say big, I mean HUGE tigers!) I don't think i wuld have had the courage to go if Brin and Harriet hadn't gone in with me! After Chiang Mai we headed to Phuket for the evening before getting the bat to Phi Phi. Getting off the aeroplane in phuket was an awful experience. We were hassled frm every direction possible, being pushed around when ... read more

Day 4 ...in which we wandered around, got led astray by Lonely Planet, got geographically embarassed, got coaxed by a travel agent, and got a massage... The train was running two hours late when it finally got in. We had transfers organised and the travel agent picked us up and drove us to the hotel. she then preoceeded to try to fill our diary for the four days we were here. We managed to convince her that we were just a little too tired for this so she agreed to come back later. We attempted to find a Buddhist Vego restaurant which sounded great according to the Lonely Planet, but it didn't appear to be there. Of course by then we were hot, hungry, tired, slightly lost and rapidly heading towards grumpy. :) Thankfully we found ... read more

After a very relaxing sleep (in which we werent swept out to sea) we met up with Ricky and his two new friends Samantha and Scarlet for breakfast and some time on the beach (somthing we were all slightly hesitant to do). We had discussed getting a longtail boat to take us to various snorkel sites around the island but after the previous day, we all decided it was just a little too soon and settled on sitting in the water and drinking a few beers. Niki busted out a hoop session for us, drawing a round of applause from all in view on the beach. After a litte more sunshine we walked up into the streets and hit one of the better restaurants on the island called Cosmic for some pizzas and a few more ... read more

We got up relatively early and packed a day bag to head over to Phuket for Songkran. Since we were just going for the night we cleverly took our dry bags as overnight packs. We were headed down to the bakery to grab some breakfast snacks for the boat ride and as we were coming around the corner we saw that the artists who work at the local art shop had set up a road block, stopping everyone who tried to pass and politely dousing them with water. It was somewhat comical to see as they were really trying to be polite about it; just wetting the hands of an elderly couple that went by or the arms of those that really didnt want to get wet. Niki and I approached hoping to get by with ... read more

We filled our guns and left the cafe behind as we made our way into town to look for Amber. We plowed our way through the crowd and made our way up to Patong's main street, Bangla Road. Bangla was cut off to vehicles for Songkran so it was just jammed with people, all soaking wet and having 5 second water battles with people as they walked past. Every shop, bar and restaurant on the street was filed with people defending themselves, shooting out into the crowd - the whole thing was a real sight to behold and was incredible fun. About every 100 feet or so enterprising people set up garbage cans to fill your tank at for a fee; 10 baht for normal water, 20 for ice water. Ice water is absolutely the way ... read more

The next day Amber mentioned she had a couple days off before she had to catch an overnight bus back up to Bangkok. Niki and I had initially planned to stay in Phuket for just one night but since Niki rarely gets to see Amber I opted to head back to Phi Phi and make sure our room there was paid for and give Niki and Amber a day together to party and catch up. We grabbed some breakfast and I hopped on a motorcyle taxi to take me back to the harbor on the other side of the island. If you ever get a chance to take a motorcycle taxi in Thailand I highly recommend it, it was possibly one of the funnest 20 minute cab rides I ever took as he sped through the ... read more