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Published: December 13th 2008
it's about time we started putting some stuff on this blog!
latest update is ... we've been having pretty much of a chilled out beach type holiday in ko lanta, south thailand and it's great. we can't get our heads around the fact it's going to be christmas soon at all as feels like we are on our summer hols.
we got here from penang in malaysia and we were v happy when crossing the border that we had got our visas sorted before we left the UK as the thai govt had just changed the visa terms 2 days before we crossed which meant anyone coming into thailand from Malaysia had only 15 days as opposed to the usual 30 days. 15 days would have scuppered a lot of our plans around xmas and new year so we were v happy.
we made our way into thailand by mini bus - early start at 4am from our guest house in penang and we didn;t arrive here until about 5pm! took way longer than they said it would plus the tiny minibus was packed to the rafters and stank big time. poor niall wasn;t happy but we made it in the end. they drive like absolute maniacs here so best not to look at what the driver is doing...
so we have been in ko lanta now since about monday evening. finding accomodation was tricky but we stumbled upon a restaurant/bar that was renting rooms out . we've got to know the people who work there who are quite characters and just really lovely and smiley. on wednesday we both got hit bad with some sort of stomach upset - not nice when you are sharing a small confined room together... the girls running the restaurant downstairs however where brilliant. they gave us dry toast and also told us what antibiotics and energy drinks we needed to get. we were both so ill we couldn't even get out of the bed unless it was to the toilet but an australian guy staying in one of the other rooms got us the stuff as he had been in bed for four days with the same bug. it seemed that quite a lot of people on the island had the same thing - thankfully we are all sorted now and happy to have lost a few pounds if we're honest from all that food and partying when we were at home!
we hired a scooter for a couple of days too (4pounds a day) which was fantastic. poor niall had difficulty getting a helmet to fit as they are all quite tiny here! was great to just check out the island and scoot around the place for the breeze. defintely looking forward to doing that again soon. we also had to stock up on the essential beach gear as we didn't bring any swimmers with us. managed to get a couple of things way cheaper than at home.
we are now heading to krabi tomorrow first thing - still debating whether to go by ferry or by bus. we'll spend a few days there going to ko phi phi and west/east raleigh beaches which are all meant to be gorgeous. also doing some snorkelling! then we;ll head to phuket for the 19th/20th and spend xmas with some mates from home plus niall is looking to do some diving.
it still feels like we are on a 2/3 week holiday but slowly starting to realise that we aren;t heading back to work or anything else for some time! it's been good that we've not started to do a lot of the travelling until we find our feet. we've really just been chilling out and taking it easy - reserving our energy and money for phuket.
budget wise it's all going well. everything is so cheap if you eat as the locals do which is always much better anyway. we are getting excited though about everything we have to see and do in the rest of SE Asia which will be a world away from all these gorgeous beaches. can't wait for that. happy too that we're not as white as we were so not sticking out like newbies quite so much. saying that we are both sitting here totally glowing from a day on the beach. temperatures must be around the 30 mark. not as busy here as you would think and the locals have been saying that numbers are way down on what they should be. i think what with the economy and the mess at bangkpk airport it certainly hasn't helped.
we'll blogg again once we hit krabi and get settled. hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to speaking to the folks' at christmas. xx
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Lesley
non-member comment
Hey you too! Good to hear you've survived the first stomach bug. Have a fantastic Xmas and a very happy start to 2009 (and a great birthday as well of course,Lorraine!). Lesley xxx PS: House still standing. :)