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Soaked!!!
The rain begins The BBC website was telling us otherwise, but we refused to believe it could be raining on Thailand's famous beaches in the south. But as usual, the Beeb were right.
Our first port of call was the island of Ko Phang Nang. We got there using practically every mode of transport available to us - taxi, plane, bus, boat and then a taxi again. The full moon party was about to kick off, which sounds about as much fun as a point in the eye, so we headed to Chalok Lam in the north, which is nice and secluded and not to busy. On arrival the usual 'see how much money we can scam from the tourists' competition began, so we took shelter in the nearest bar and probably made ourselves a little too comfortable, as we were there for some hours. The girls were dispatched to find us accommodation on beer no.2 and did a very good job in finding us Rose Villa's.
That evening, it began. A torrential rain storm. For the remainder of our time in southern Thailand this rain continued, so unless told otherwise in this blog, assume it was raining. This was really
Rose Villas
Our accommodation on Ko Phang Ngan annoying as the monsoon season doesn't start until October on this side of Thailand, this was just a freak cyclone. Global warming is really screwing things up.
We spent the rest of our time here playing scrabble, drinking beer and enjoying some fine cuisine.
We decided to try our luck on the island of Koh Toa. We got there on a scarily full ferry that made Paul regret that unnecessary last beer the evening before. Again we decided to go remote in choosing the Coral View Resort in the south of the island - to get here we had to get a lift in the back of a 4x4 as the road was seriously rough and ridiculously steep in places. A particularly heavy burst of torrential rain and we were all soaked. It was great fun though. Those water proof backpack covers were finally paying for themselves.
Coral View Resort was really nice - we had some cool beach huts - but considering the rain there wasn't a lot we could do except play scrabble, or cards, and drink beer. There were brief attempts at kayaking and snorkelling but the conditions just won't right.
We decided
Coral View Point
Our accommodation on Ko Tao to move to a more lively area and after much faffing, the lads found a place on Sairee beach. Unbelievably the sun came out so we spent the day tanning ourselves and wallowing in the ridiculously warm sea. One of the highlights of our time in the south was our team Thai massage. We each had our our masseuse and were lined up along side each other on the floor. Thai massage is quite fierce, and you get bent in some challenging positions, but you feel great at the end of it.
There are some cool bars on the beach here - lots of twinkly lights, so Vicki was happy, fire dancers, people setting off Chinese laterns, all of which can be enjoyed from the comfort of a bean bag, cocktail in hand. Some excellent seafood as well - bbq barracuda and giant prawns were particularly tasty.
Our last destination in the south was on the other side of the country, Krabi, and it took a whole day of boating and busing to get here. Krabi town isn't particularly nice and not even on the beach so we headed south to Koh Lanta.
It is actually the
More rain
At breakfast trying to fight the urge to start drinking Singha and play scrabble beginning of the monsoon season on this side of Thailand but amazingly the sun was out. We found an excellent beach resort called the Sanctuary and spent another day loafing on the beach and swimming in the amazing sea. What the Lonely Plant fails to mention, however, is that there is a very definite high and low season in Koh Lanta - and maybe the whole west coast - and on the 1st May, the beginning of the low season, everybody seems to literally drop what they are doing and abandon ship. Everything was closed. And then it started to rain again....very hard.
Luckily the Sanctuary was still up and running, but definitely on the run down, so we did the now familiar thing and drunk Singha beer, played scrabble and ate their excellent food.
The journey back up to Krabi to catch our flight back to Bangkok was an interesting one - the local rude boy with his lowered suspension, tinted windows and boot sized bass box decided to play taxi and give us a lift. Hopefully he'll now be able to afford some neon lights for his undercarriage.
Back in Bangkok, Matt & Sarah's last
night, we braved the Koh San Road which is where all the backpackers hang out. Its very loud and very hectic but was a good place to pick up some soveniors for back home i.e. the standard issue backpacker Singha beer t-shirt. It also gave us a good opportunity to send Matt & Sarah home on their 15 hour flight with sore heads - that Singha beer tower was a big mistake!
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Mrs T
non-member comment
hello
Enjoyed the drowned rat one! Kind of looks like the weather we are having this bank holiday! Not long to go now...