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Published: April 20th 2008
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(Catherine)
After a mammouth 23-hour journey that involved a coach, two minibuses, two tuk-tuks and two ferries, we finally arrived at our first beach destination - the island of Koh Lanta. We checked into a bamboo hut with an open-air bathroom which meant that if you needed to go to the toilet in the middle of one of the nightly thunder storms, you got soaking! Koh Lanta is a very quiet island so we spent a relaxing few days sunbathing, reading and watching some of the most dramatic sunsets I've ever seen.
Our next move was to Phi Phi where "The Beach" was filmed. It's an absolutely beautiful place with white sands, clear waters and lots of colourful fish. On the first day, Matt went snorkelling and saw a shark that was as big as himself! We asked around and apparently a whole family of about 15 sharks lives in the waters near the beach where we were staying! The next day, when we went on a snorkelling trip to some nearby coral reefs, I kept a close eye out - luckily none of the shark family made an appearance!
Our final Thai beach was West Railay in
Krabi, a pretty beach surrounded by stunning limestone cliffs. On our last day in Thailand, we moved to Krabi Town to celebrate Thai New Year, which basically involves throwing water over people! Traditionally, dripping a small amount of water on someone's face was a sign of respect, however, things have moved on since then. These days, instead of a few drops of water, locals roam the streets with massive water pistols, buckets of ice-cold water and hose pipes! They also drive around on the back of pick-up trucks with barrels of water to throw at everyone on the street! It was great fun for about an hour but the Thai's didn't seem to tire of it and were still going strong well into the evening. We, on the other hand, dried out in our hotel room then hid in an internet cafe until it was safe to go outside again!
From Thailand we headed towards Indonesia via the Malaysian island of Langkawi. This was a detour that we hadn't originally planned to do. We were going to travel into Southern Thailand through the transport hub of Hat Yai, then into mainland Malaysia, but were advised against this as Hat
Yai is in one of the four provinces in Southern Thailand that is currently plagued by political unrest. In fact, the Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to this region and our insurance company told us to avoid that particular town as it has experienced a number of attacks over the last few years. So imagine our surprise when the minibus that we thought was heading to the town of Satun for our ferry to Langkawi started following the signs to Hat Yai! Sure enough, an hour later we were dropped off at Hat Yai bus station - the one place we'd been trying to avoid! From here, we were put on another minibus heading for the port at Satun. It was really frustrating as we'd been assured when we booked our ticket that the bus definitely wasn't going to Hat Yai, but thankfully we got through without any problems.
Luckily our expensive, time consuming (and in the end, pointless!) safety detour to Langkawi turned out to be very enjoyable. It was Matt's birthday while we were there so we splashed out on a lovely tree-top chalet with a balcony overlooking the beach. We spent an extravagant
Koh Lanta Sunset
Every night we were treated to a dramatic sunset followed by a huge thunder storm. day enjoying a champagne breakfast, drinking cocktails on the beach, visiting an aquarium and eating in an award-winning restaurant. It was a bit of a shock having to go back to reality and back to budget the following day.
From Langkawi we caught an afternoon ferry to Panang, a large Malaysian island with ferry connections to Indonesia. We had just one full day so decided to do the island's top-rated attraction - a trip to the spectacular viewpoint of Penang Hill on a the funicular railway. As our bus got closer to the station, ominous grey clouds started to appear. By the time we boarded the train, we were in the middle of a full-blown rainstorm! Needless to say, the views when we reached the top weren't as spectacular as we'd hoped! But we still enjoyed the tree-top canopy walk which consisted of four wobbly walkways high above the ground (it was just like being on "I'm a Celebrity"!). By the time we took the funicular back down to the bottom of the hill, the rain had stopped, the clouds had cleared and the view was actually quite impressive - but we were rushing to get on the train
Long Walk Home
Our hotel in Phi Phi was at the top of a hill so we had to climb about 100 steps to get home (not much fun in the midday heat!). before a massive group of school children piled on so there was no time to take any photos!
Our next stop is Sumatra in Indonesia, which will be quite a different experience to the well-trodden tourist trail of South East Asia. In fact, we've only met two people so far who have actually travelled through Indonesia so we're expecting to be in the minority! But after making it through India, we're confident that we can survive a month without tourist buses, banana pancakes and 7-11 convenience stores!
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tonya
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do you recall the name? or location? headed there in a few weeks. thanks!