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Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Samui May 5th 1989

It was back to the buses and boats again, this time to another island called Koh Samui. As per usual, there were plenty of people to meet the boat. We chose a hotel on Cheweng beach 20km away from the port, which meant a long ride in the back of a pick-up truck. The general attitude towards road safety here, and most other things for that matter, is "who gives a shit", which suited us fine. The skin cancer didn't get much attention here due to the rain, so Tiny, Andy and I hired some motorbikes and set out to tour the island. We visited the main town on the island and the originally named Big Buddha, before cooling off in a waterfall. Andy and Tiny lost control at one point and ended up spread over ... read more
The Big Buda
Luxury Travel

Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Phuket May 1st 1989

The boat back to Phuket made a couple of diversions and took four very tedious hours. Again, we arrived to be met by crowds of people touting for business, and we eventually found one in our price range near Karon Beach. It was still basic by most people's standards, but positive luxury compared to Koh Phi Phi. The shower was just that, a real shower! With the money we were prepared to spend, a hotel with a swimming pool was not an option, however there was a big posh hotel called the Phuket Arcadia down the road and it was quite easy to sneak in and use theirs. It took them until our last day to work-out that we were not actually guests at the hotel, by which time we had befriended an American family who ... read more
Koh Phuket

Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Phi Phi Don April 21st 1989

The bus stopped in the middle of nowhere at some awful, antisocial time of the morning and those of us going to Phuket had to get onto a mini-bus, which was a lot more comfortable than the big bus. I sat with my arm out of the window, which was well stupid as it was burnt to a crisp when we eventually arrived. On our last legs, we started the final part of our journey, a two hour boat trip to Phi Phi (also often spelt Pee Pee) island. We had travelled by every conceivable form of transport in the last three days - train, car, plane, taxi, tuk tuk, bus, mini bus and boat - and finally we could relax. Koh Phi Phi is actually two islands - Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Le. ... read more
Arriving on Koh Phi Phi
Island Hut
Boat Trip

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok April 20th 1989

Despite the lack of sleep we had the energy to do the tourist bit and visit the Grand Palace. To get to there, we took a ride in a glorified three-wheeled lawn mower called a tuk tuk. The combination of this being seriously overloaded and the psychotic tendencies of the driver meant that it was a hairy ride. Two of us had to hang out of each side of it and then grit our teeth as the driver swerved between traffic on both sides of the road. We learnt the hard way that you agree the cost of the journey before you travel as it saves a lot of arguing. That was only our first mistake of the day. The second was to try and get into the Grand Palace in shorts and tee shirts. A ... read more
Inside The Grand Palace
Grand Palace Gold
More of The Grand Palace

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok April 19th 1989

We arrived in Bangkok and got reunited with our backpacks (always a relief) and then proceeded through customs unhindered (always a relief, but then who in their right mind would smuggle drugs or anything else for that matter into Thailand). There were a lot of very stern looking guards with very big machine guns in the airport, but that didn’t stop you being accosted by people offering you everything under the sun. It was basically a case of "spot the foreigners who have just got off a plane and are therefore disoriented, tired and haven't got a clue about the country they've just arrived in. As I will elaborate, this is one of those times when it's handy to have a backpack. It also means that the porters who frequent many airports can't grab you luggage ... read more

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok January 3rd 1989

Asia » Uzbekistan » Samarkand September 27th 1988

Photos of Samarkand, Registan...... read more
Samarkand
Samarkand
Samarkand

Asia » Tajikistan » Dushanbe September 25th 1988

Photos of Dushanbe and Varzob Gorge...... read more
Dushanbe
Dushanbe
Dushanbe

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent September 22nd 1988

Asia » Kazakhstan » East Kazakhstan » Almaty September 20th 1988

Photos of Almaty and Medeo Gorge...... read more
Almaty
Almaty
Almaty




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