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Published: November 8th 2009
Bangkok
Our first view of Hualumphong train stationSa Wa Dii Kwap everybody
yes thats right ive actually learnt spme Thai. well its the only thing we all know how to say. Well we've learnt how to say thank-you but its still a poor effort for nearly two weeks. Lazy English i think :-). Ive tried to correct this by learning 1-10 yesterday from a Swedish guy we've met. So here I go, no cheating, nung, sung, sam, si, ha, hock, jet, pet, caw & zip!!! Tadaaaa round of applause for me.
So we're about 12 or days in, to be honest im not sure exactly how many apart from I do know its Bonfire night and my Dad's birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY PA!!!
Since i last updated the blog a lots happened but im going to try and condense it because (as macca said) its a blog not a jack a nory :-). To be honest the last blog was only after the first three days and it took me nearly an hour to type so im going to try and shorten 7 days or so into an hours worth of internet time. 1 baht a minute is scandelous (thats about 2p per minute) :-)
Bangkok
Has everybody gone the toilet or do I smell? The last blog ended as we were leaving Bangkok for Ko Phan Ngan and the Full Moon Party. So we were travelling south towards the South-East Islands on a night train. We arrived at the station and had to wait 40 mins until departure. Kate used the toilet and become accustomed to her first squatting toilet. I wont go into the detail but im sure you can imagine its function. Needless to say it was very weird for her. The train was at 6.25 but at 6 o'clock there was a chiming sound and everybody in the station stood up. Alot of the people were waiting like us and sat on their bags so it was slightly unnerving as they all stood up in unison. We very quickly clicked on that it was the national anthem and it was customary to stand. Think of God Save The Queen blating out in New Street and everybody is stood still.
It was a 10 hour journey where we all had a bed that was suprisingly comfy. So we set off and after the standard bartering for beer we headed up to the drinking carriage. There we met the craziest Thai
Bangkok
All aboad, the night train!!!! guy whos only English phrases were 'SHUT UP' 'WHAT THE F*CK YOU TALKING ABOUT' then 'SHUT UP' again. As you can imagine it was difficult to converse but he was a laugh. Too many acids I think. This crazy guy then bought us a beer which we all agreed was a bad idea. Who wants to be in a round with Crazy Horse for 8 hours??!! We gave him the money back and he eventually went of too annoy somebody else. Over the next few hours we met a group of American Acupunctarists who had been working in China and claim you can cure ANY illness with acupuncture. Im slightly cynical but hey who knows. And a Swedish guy called Fredrik who was writing an audio book about travelling but had the smallest bag ever to travel with. He just had his laptop, dictaphone, 3 sets of clothes and some playing cards. Fredrik was very interesting and kept us entertained with card tricks. He got off the train before us so Dean and I exchanged emails with him cos he wanted to come to the full moon party with us. We had our first bottle of samsung whiskey then went
Hello KPN
We arrive in the rain to bed.
Arrived in Surat Thani at 6am then had to get a coach to the ferry port. The coach pulled into what we thought was the ferry port so we all got off but realised that it was another travel agent trying to sell us accommodation on the island. What im learning quickly is that every journey in Thailand is not straight forward. So after the lady realised nobody was buying anything we got back on the same coach to the ferry. What a waste of time!!! The ferry was fine but was we got off we were nearly attacked by people offering us taxis for 100 baht. In bangkok we were only paying 50 baht max so we thought we would walk for 5 mins to try and get another taxi cheaper. What we realised is that in Ko Phan Nang they charge everybody 100 baht to go anywhere on the island. our place was fairly close but it was still 100 baht. I told them that in England thats called 'price fixing' and I'd get the OFT onto them. They are a very contrary lot but they've got the tourist process wrapped up and theres not
KPN
Ready to tackle the posse of tuk-tuk drivers alot you can do.
Got to our beach bugalows at the blue lotus in the rain :-( (Kate was not happy), but at least we were at the beach. It was very secluded and just what we needed after 4 days in humid Bangkok. The plan was to rest that night and kick back but we heard there was a pool party so our plans quickly changed. The pool party was very good and was our first experience of the infamous Samsung buckets. Its basically a small botlle of whiskey with lots of ice and a splash of coke or redbull in a sand castle bucket!!! yes thats right if you had some sand you could turn it over and create Warwick Castle. As the red bull effectively kills the taste of the whiskey they were drunk fairly quickly and the damage was then done. To summarise... samsung-kate in the pool in her underwear- kate being taken home by me- more samsun for the lads- dean doing the limbo under a flaming limbo stick- dan being carried home by dean after falling over three motorbikes. Good times!!!!
The following day dawned and it would be the day Barry
KPN
Our first view from Blue Lotus & Elaine arrive on KPN. Due to the previously mentioned price-fixing scandal we thought it would be better to hire mopeds. The taxi to the port and back would be 200 baht and te mopeds were 170 for the whole day!! No everybody is on the scam then. So we drove down to the ports on and met the guys off the ferry. Obviously Barry wanted his first pint with the boys so we treated ourselves to a cold Chang. After the guys checked themselves in Dan, Sam, Dean, Kate and myself decided to take a tour of the island and take in some sights. The first stop was some waterfalls, although when we arrived there was no water :-). We stopped at some amazing beaches on the way round then ended the day at an English pub called the Masons Arms!! It wasnt quite a pound a drink but they did sell Westons cider which went down a storm. After 10 days of Chang & Samsung it was a treat. The only downside was that it was 200 baht but it was worth it.
The night before the full moon party was Barry & Elaines first night so
KPN
Our first view from Blue Lotus we went down to Haadrin (where the full moon party is) so see what it was going to be like the following day. Little did we realise that the Thais celebrate the day before full moon, full moon and the day after. Very canny but I liked their style. So it was samsungs all round and we partied all night on the beach. I remember very little of the last hour or so but Barry informed me the following day that we were rugby tackling each other and ended up in the sea!! Hilariously Elaine told me that she saw Barry rugby tackling me but then realised it wasnt me as the guy got up. This poor guy was just minding his own business and ended up with a face full of sand. Luckily he had a sense of humour.
The gang was understandibly groggy the next day so Kate and I decided to try and do something to clear our heads so we went on the mopeds to a beach abut 30mins away that was recommended by Pong, the guy who owns Blue Lotus. It was an awesome beach and just what our hangovers required. By coincidence as
KPN
Newbies- Catherine, Laura and Pong (in the background) we were walking down the beach we bumped into Fredrik the swedish guy from the night train. It turns out that he had been emailing me and Dean to make arrangements for the Full Moon Party but neither of us had replied. We had both been checking our facebooks accounts and forgot about our hotmail accounts. He was getting very despondent when we hadnt replied but chance had led to us meeting him again. Very random!!! We spent the day at the beach with Fredrick then headed back to get ready for the infamous full moon party.
The full moon party had arrived, the reason for us being in KPN and we prepared the usual way of a Thai curry, some chang and painting ourselves with neon paints (see facebook for the pics). We went down to Haadrin in our 100 baht taxi each (can you sense im still sore about this price fixinggate) with our gang, two girls that we had met at the Lotus called Laura & Catherine, Fredrik and Jade our Aussie neighbour. Buckets of samsung were sold in dozens of stands on the beach. It has to be seen to be believed. These crazy thais
KPN
Our first go on a moped just before Barry nearly killed himself screaming at you to buy this crazy whiskey from their stand. The night was awesome and everybody had a really good night. Please look at the facebook pics to see what I mean.
The following day was our penultimate day because we hd decided to leave KPN on the advice of Pong. There was bad weather due and it is not advisable to be stuck on the island during bad weather as all the boats are cancelled. So to make sure we enjoyed the last day Barry and Elaine wanted to visit the beach where we met Fredrik in Had Yao. Kate and I still had our mopeds so Barry & Elaine rented one as well. Now anyone that knows Barry will know that a) the man cant even ride a pushbike b) is a danger to himself (and elaine) and c) should not be trusted with anything faster than a skateboard (ref to the jetski incident when Barry nearly killed Ben). So with some tredpidation Elaine had agreed to let Barry hire the moped. So I go through the basic instructions with him ie. how to start & stop and tell him to practice before Elaine gets on
KPN
North part of the island cos they are quite fast. What happens next can only be described as one of the funniest/scariest moments of my life. Barry sits on the moped, starts the engine and releases the stand. After specifically telling him the throttle is sensitive Barry gives it the biggest rev, he shoots off onto the opposite side of the road just missing oncoming traffic, mounts the gravel on the other side nearly falls off and blasts down the road. I turn around to see Elaine screaming to stop and the lady we had hired the mopeds off shouting NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Hilarious. So to make sure he didnt crash again further down the road I chase after him bibbing the horn for him to pull over. I pull up next to him and he takes his helmet off p*ssing himself with laughter. What a chancer. Needless to say Elaine was as white as a ghost when we went back and she only agreed to go on the back with him if he drives 20 mph!!!!
We met Fredrik at the beach again and spent the afternoon there and left as the bad weather was picking up. We met Dan, Dean & Sam in Haadrin
to book our tickets for the next stop in Kraabi. We would be leaving the following day to get a taxi, boat, bus, tuk tuk and minibus to Kraabi. This would be another trip that shows that getting anywhere in Thailand is not straightforward...
I havent quite achieved doing 7 days in an hour so im admitting defeat but i will be back to continue our journey to Krabi and then onto Railey. Sorry about the Jack A Nory Macca but I cant help it :-)
Kap Kun Krap and goodnight
Kieran
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Carl McNally
non-member comment
Loving It!!
Quality update Key, despite it making me and Kel very, very, very jealous. Glad you are having a cracking time, and loved the pics on Facebook too. Keep the updates coming, and more importantly enjoy yourselves ;-)