Paradise Islands

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So, it has been a while since I last blogged. I put that down to the company that we have now, as most of our spare time is now dedicated to playing card games (or drinking) rather than going on the internet. It is such a hard life!

Lucy and Couch's flight got in an hour or so late to Phuket, so this was an extra hour spent at the bar across the road from the hostel, staring at the doorstep and waiting for the taxi to pull up. As well as getting slightly drunk, it was a great opportunity to play the guessing game, lady boy or lady, and observe the weird miss matches of fat, ugly white man, and beautiful Thai bride. As we were sitting there, strangely, a lad who we travelled with in NZ walked past, reiterating how small the world is, once again. When they finally arrived, it was time for catching up over a few beers in some tasteful bars(!!). This was the general theme for the next few days, as they got over their jet lag (they had some sort of ridiculous journey that took 18 hours, including all waits, from home), and as the weather was not at it's best for the first few days. The tail end of the same hurricane that passed through Malaysia when we returned there after Bali was now passing through Phuket. Sitting at the beach front, drinking a beer, we watched the storm approach from out at sea, and as it got closer and closer, it covered everything in a thick grey blanket, obscuring it from view. It moved at an incredible rate, within minutes everyone was running from the beach, and the bars had unleashed the see through plastic shutters to cover the sides of their premises. There was a huge gust of wind and rain hammered down with extreme power. Then five minutes later, it was all over, the shutters came back up, and everyone continued as normal. The only evidence of the monsoon season that I have seen since being in Thailand so far. It was incredible though.

There was a certain busyness in Phuket that I was not expecting, there were streets that felt like we were still in Bali, the ridiculous things they say to try to get you to go in their shops and look at their stalls. At night the prostitutes, female, male and lady boy, came out to play, there was a certain lady boy that liked the look of Couch, poor boy!

Whilst in the area, we took a trip to visit the National Park that is home to the originally named James Bond Island, and what an amazing coincidence, one of the James Bond films was recorded there. We were also taken on a tour of Phang Nge Bay, and the Reclining Buddha Cave Temple, protected by monkeys. Proper sightseeing. This was Lucy and Couch's first monkey encounter, and they loved them as much as we have. We fed them nuts and fruit by throwing them towards them, and they would catch and eat, catch and eat. Our bus nearly left without us because we spent so much time with the monkeys.

In Phuket and Koh Phi Phi, the next island we visited, there is still evidence of the damage that the tsunami caused, although it is being built back up at an alarming rate. Koh Phi Phi was one of the worst affected areas on the east coast, and due to the openness of the main resort area on the island, it remains very vulnerable if it were to happen again. There are tsunami escape routes sign posted in the risky areas, and it had been recommended that the main stretch of beach should not be further built up, although many proprietors have ignored this, with hopes of making big bucks from tourists.

We spent almost a week relaxing on the beaches of Koh Phi Phi, with our beach front bungalows we were never far away, and have been constantly covered in sand. The most memorable experience of it has been the snorkeling, discovering what is swimming with us in that ocean. It is only several meters from the shore where the coral reef begins, over flowing with life. Here I saw my first sea snakes, moray eels, puffer fish, needle fish, lobster and the usual tropical array of butterfly fish, angel fish and sea urchins. It was fascinating, the more I see the more I love it. Along with the other typical beachy stuff, we have done some hardcore sea kayaking against some really strong currents, all in the name of visiting a beach full of monkeys, but sadly there were none there, but the beach was nice enough regardless. Since we were still in celebration of seeing those friendly faces everyday, and since there is a party for every sort of moon cycle in Thailand, we went to a half moon party and experienced our first in a long line of buckets. For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, buckets are the most backpacker friendly way to get pissed in Thailand. They consist of a small bottle of booze (about 35cl), either vodka or Sangsom (which is described as whiskey on the menus, but says rum on the bottle!!), a can of coke or other soft drink, and a bottle of Red Bull. A lot of alcohol for such a small quantity of liquid, in comparison. It is all presented to you in a beach bucket, with four straws, so you can share if you so desire. It does the trick at a cheap price, but is sure to give you a hang over in the morning, we have lost several days due to alcohol poisoning. The half moon party was the start of a long line of fire shows that we have witnessed most days since then, but is the best one that I have seen. A Malaysian guy was throwing the fire poi in the air and catching it, not just in his hands, which would be amazing enough, but through his legs and with his feet, now that was a good show. Since then we have often been scared for our lives when clumsy people have been on the stage with fire, mighty frightening.

Spending many days this way, lying on the beach in the blazing sun, playing volleyball or cards, swimming, trying not to melt, we took a trip to the other island, Koh Phi Phi Lai, an uninhabited island, National Park with swallow breading program, and also the home of the famous beach where 'The Beach' was filmed. It was a random decision to go on this trip, and it turned out to be an excellent decision. The first stop was to another Monkey Beach, where we kayaked to from the main boat, which did actually have monkeys this time. In fact they were quite aggressive. Been fed by too many tourists, so the monkeys expected to be feed by everyone. Poor Lucy was subjected to the aggression from two monkeys, who ran at her and tried to take a bite out of her thigh and shins. I did not see it happen, but I saw the teeth marks afterwards. Luckily they did not pierce the skin, and other than being a bit shook up, Lucy was fine and laughed about it afterwards. We quickly got back to the boat and set off. We stopped at an incredible snorkeling spot, and as I exited the boat I was surrounded by these small yellow fish that I do not know the name of. The guides on the boat were throwing in rice by the ladder and the fish were lapping it up. I don't remember much about the rest of the site, but as I swam back to the boat to get out, Adam and Couch were throwing the rice on top of my head, and I was instantly swarmed by fish trying to eat off my hair. They got a bit disorientated and swam into my goggles, looking me in the eye. We visited the beach after that, and swam in the 30 degree sea until it was time to leave. Proper paradisaical spot, absolutely stunning.

I am loving the Thai food, been making sure to try most things, as long as I know what it is first. My favourite must be the curry though, hot red, mild green, and coconut and pineapple, mmmmmmmmm. I am salivating just thinking about it now. The noodles are top notch too. It is just a shame we don't get to eat all together most of the time, well, we are sitting together but we hardly ever seem to get our food at the same time. Unfortunately Couch has found out that it is bananas that he is allergic to, after watching us drink banana shakes in envy he just had to have one. Nothing na antihistamine can't fix, but now he hates it when we eat the delicious banana and honey pancakes that are so popular. Poor Couch, it would suck suddenly becoming and being allergic to bananas.

The next island that we visited was Koh Pha Ngan off the east coast, home of the infamous Full Moon parties, a traveler's right of passage. We stayed at Bon Kai beach, just down the road from the main beach Haad Rin, where the party is held, far enough away not to be disturbed by it, but close enough to get there easily. Stayed in the most amazing accommodation for really cheap, with a restaurant that served top notch grub that was always served at the same time. The party was something else, exceeded all expectations (well, I was expecting to hear only trance, but there was a much wider spectrum of music). We partied it a bit too hard at the pre party, and literally spent the whole of the next day trying to sleep it off and recover from it. The drunk stories are best left for when we get home, but we certainly did have a giggle. The beach is lined with bars, and each one had a loud sound system and set out low tables and cushions outside, with a fire dancing stage at the end, the layout was pretty standard, but there were illuminous and UV decor hanging everywhere, resembling the Glastonbury dance village and a beach rave. There was a sleeping section in the center to allow people to pass out safely, since the area was guarded, stopping people from being pick pocketed or stood on if they got too hammered. If I needed to pass out, the last thing I would be thinking would be to find that spot though, not sure if it was really used that much, too drunk to notice at the end of the night. The bucket stands were hilarious. There were about 20 stands, all selling the same drinks, set up right next to each other in a long line, every time we walked past them it was like a Mexican wave of shouting to buy from them. I would like to say that we danced until the sun came up, but I woke up the next morning without remembering, so it would be a lie. Fun nights though. Since they have a party for each type of moon, and pre parties, and after parties, there is just one long party on that beach. I am glad I didn't go swimming in the sea on the day that we arrived, since there were so many males pissing in it during the parties, would be like swimming in a sea of urine, nice.

When we had recovered from the partying, we checked out the rest of the island, mostly the beaches. It certainly became evident why there were so many people at the full moon party bandaged up and covered in grazes. The roads on the island are incredibly bad, really uneven, and mostly look as if a giant hammer has fallen from a great height and smashed the roads up. We had to hold on tight to the back of the pick up truck transporting us to the other side of the island, it must be really hard to keep control on a motorbike, especially since you don't even need to prove that you can drive to hire one.

Thong Nai Pan Yai beach was really nice, completely clear water and white sandy beach that was too hot to walk on. Spent a lot of time swimming and dunking each other as it was too hot to lay in the sun all day. We went for a walk to look at a waterfall one day, to find that some one had a built a dam near the top of it, and had pipes to cyphen all the water. We decided not to visit any more after that. Bluebottle beach was a really nice spot, since it is only accessible by boat it is really quite and peaceful, more so that the more built up, touristy beaches. Our bungalow overlooked the sea, great to wake up in the morning hearing the sounds of the waves crashing. Moving further round, the last place we stopped was Haad Yao. The snorkeling here was out of this world. Really close to the beach front was an octopus bouncing and slithering around on the sea bed, incredible. It surprised me at how much life there was, so close to the shore. We have also begun to practice our acrobatic skills in the sea, standing on each others shoulders and somersaults from push offs, the things we do to pass time. I love the designs in bars here, often very original, there are not many places in the world where you can lay in a hammock in a bar, or not in Couch's case. In an attempt to get into it, he managed to spin around in slow motion and fall on the floor, the whole bar turned at the sound of the thud, and everyone burst into laughter. Priceless comedy.

Finally time to move on we caught the boat to Koh Tao, a tiny island slightly north. I find the concept of this island quite funny. It seems as if it is built for tourists to learn to dive, since the whole perimeter is lined with dive shop after dive shop after dive shop. But with the dive sites as incredible as they are, who could blame them really. Couch and Lucy have done their Padi Open Water certification, and Adam and myself have just completed the Padi Advanced course, so are now advanced divers. I've had the most incredible time on this island, really enjoyed it. We dived with Sunshine Divers on Chalok Baan Kao beach, beach would be a bit of a optimistic word to use, since there was only a meter width of beach when the tide was in, but about 50 meters when the tide was out. It was really beautiful though, and we were too busy to laze on a beach all day. For the advanced course we had two compulsory units which were navigation and deep diving. For the navigation we had to use a compass to follow some basic dive plan patterns, and then find our way back to the boat at the end, luckily we managed to find it. The deep diving was really fun, went down to 30 meters, and did a test to see if we had nitrogen narcosis, a comparison to a task we did on the surface, although realistically, it was not a valid test, as increased times at completing the test would always occur, due to water resistance. Regardless of the test, I did not feel narked out at all, so it is safe for me to deep dive. Being that deep it makes the colours appear darker, more blue. For example, our instructor took a tomato down with us, and instead of red, it was really dark green, I was the only one in our group that recognised it (I know my tomatoes good and proper after working in Oz). It was on this dive that I saw a 2 meter long shark swim by, as we were sitting on the sandy bed, it was so cool, a grey shark. For the third unit we choose to do peak performance buoyancy, where we learnt to control our buoyancy by breathing in to go up, and out to go down, and playing fun games like swimming through hoops and balancing stones on spoons. Also had to practice hovering in different positions, loads of fun, makes it feel like you are actually flying under the water, or experiencing anti gravity weightlessness in space. This especially felt this way when we did a night dive, another elective. I was expecting to feel really nervous for the night dive, but by the time we actually did it, I was incredibly excited. It was actually more calming than anything else, and although it was dark it was still possible to make out the outlines of the coral and any fishies swimming by. The torch light actually made the colours appear more accurate and easier to see. When we descended the sun had just set, and the sky was still pink, reflecting the colour onto the sea, but when we came up it was pitch black, with only the light of the dive boat nearby. Didn't see a great deal on that dive, but saw blue spotted sting rays swimming around, rather than sitting under a rock, and the blue ringed angelfish were more stunning than they normally appear to be. Our final elective dive was the underwater naturalist dive, where we swam around with a slate and fish identification board and identified the vertebrates, invertebrates and coral that we saw, and hardly surprising, I have learnt so many more fish names than I knew before. Without boring you with a long list of fish, the most interesting new fish I have seen are harlequin sweetlips (black with large white polka dots), christmas tree worms in lobed pore coral, honeycomb grouper, sixbar wrasse, trigger fish, six banded angelfish and yellowtail barracudas. Even saw schools of tuna swimming around, made my stomach rumble.

Since completing the course we have been out on a few fun dives, and spent the whole day yesterday on a dive boat, which has been great fun. Defiantly found my knish. Adam has managed to swim into and dive onto jelly fish on two separate days, receiving minor stings, and Lucy also got stung whilst ascending on her last dive of her course. One day we sped past hundreds and hundreds of them on the boat, all about 5cm in length, crazy stuff!

Leaving Koh Tao, we have just had to say goodbye to our pet dog. We had a stray called Nemo living on our porch at the bungalow. The girl who stayed next door gave us food and a water bowl when she left, and since then we looked after him. Poor boy had been neutered, and seemed ill, but we brought him back to life. He recognised us too, frequently escorting us up and down paths, and finding us at bars further down the beach, he would sit with us for company. When we got in the taxi to leave he chased the tuk tuk down the road for a bit, then went humbly on his way. I'll miss little Nemo.

I'm sure some of you are wondering about how our dear friends are getting on in respects to loosing possessions, since notorious for it, well... Couch left his iPod in the bungalow in Haad Yao, and has now gone to fetch it on the way to Koh Samui. Lucy left her room key at the counter of a shop, but we were behind and noticed. And I think we have all locked our keys in the room at some point of another. Other than that, all good!

So, on Koh Samui now, and it is still hot as you like. Best go, see you later XXX

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Photos

Four Little Ravers
Half Moon Party, Koh Phi Phi.

Half Moon Fire Show
Koh Phi Phi.

Tuk Tuk Boats on Longbeach
Koh Phi Phi.

The Beach Beach
Koh Phi Phi Lai.

Thai Fisherman Walking On Water
Bon Kai, Koh Pha Ngan.

Indeed
Full Moon Party, Koh Pha Ngan

Full Moon Party
Fire dancers in background.

Comments

[christine kettle]

advanced diver ...wow
wow weee an advanced diver now ... cangratulations ... everything sounds ... looks ... is .. just great you make everyone at home so envious ... but also so pleased that so much fun is being had by you all . keep having great ( if boozy ) fun. love you ... mum xxx