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Published: August 7th 2010
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Three little boatsWe left Cambodia feeling like we were going home despite never having been to Bangkok. We arrived nice and early after a long bus journey crossing the border without problems. We got dropped off in a random place with Taxis waiting, but we walked to Khoa San Road and found a hotel fairly quickly. It was really busy with people leaving for The Full Moon Party the next day. Prices were high so our hotel wasn't quite as good as we were hoping for. We decided that we would spend a few days in Bangkok, mainly so that we would escape the crowds that would be around the islands for the party. There is also quite a lot to do so we weren't too fussed about staying.
We took our time to explore the city and as it is so vast we could really only scratch the surface. However most tourists stay around Khoa San Road where an all day market lines the streets along with restaurants and bars that stay open late as well as a burger king and Mcdonalds. Quite westernised. We set about first by confirming our flights home before we made any plans and once that
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Spider at the market was sorted we were a bit more relaxed and really started to enjoy the atmosphere. Despite our room being a bit too close to a substantial sound system from the street we were quite happy.
We visited the weekend market, the biggest in the world, with some 200,000 estimated daily visitors. It really was huge, busy, hot and humid. We found that a lot of the stalls were like small boutiques selling one style of t shirt in just ine size. It was like a snazzy London shopping street at times. However we soon found what we were looking for - row upon row of stalls full with replica souvenirs, cheap clothing and hand made bags. We walked around for a while getting completely lost, despite the clear floor plan the vastness and close proximity of all the stands made navigation impossible. After a quick lunch which ballooned Mark's lips - don't worry all is fine- we headed back into the throng. It seems that in Bangkok they use a different oil possibly which Mark is allergic to. It is quite strange as almost every meal after briefly testing it on his lips made them swell. Fortunately nausea did
not follow and gave us an excuse to eat western food! Anyway the market was great fun and we found a few good bargains with our nags now full of bits and pieces.
We also visited the City palace which we werent allowed into, but we strolled around for a while and went into a temple instead. we arrived on Buddha day, a few days in the month when locals cannot drink and religion takes over. The Wat was busy with locals and a few monks were leading prayers. It was a huge place, with some great buildings and a huge reclined Buddha which had vast queues around. We walked home, which was slightly further than we hoped, but nice as we went through a park and thrugh another small market back to Khao San.
We went to Chinatown which consists of an area full of chinese in a massive market place. The road we walked down was wide enough for two people and was jammed. It was good fun until again Mark found lip problems. It wsa a really good atmosphere, there were lots of strange things for sale and foods that looked both inedible and tempting
at the same time. This is where we saw the large fish.
We spent the rest of the time around Khao San, enjoying the lively atmosphere. We had Mcdonalds because Suz had been good and booked our tickets to go down south to the islands on the East coast.
Our bus departed at 7pm, an hour later than we were told as per. It was beginning to grate that after being so organised for buses in Oz and Nz we now had to wait for when the driver decided he was going to turn up. It was an uncomfortable journey, a couple of chaps behind us were drinking all through the night but we did get to watch a good film. We arrived an hous early at the port in Chumphon an hour early. We are not sure how seeing as we started an our late. We were directed to a small hut that had cushions on the floor that we slept on for three hours before our boat departed. The boat was fine, arriving into Koh Tao at 9.30am. We quickly got out of the touters and hubbub and headed away from the port along the main
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Massive fish head beach. The pleace was quite busy because of the full moon party, during which time aorund 50,000 people swarm around the islands looking for hotels. Buddha day had put the party back a few days, so our plan to avoid the rush backfired a bit. We found a nice place anyway, they wanted us to take a diving course with them as diving is very popular on Koh Tao.
The island was really nice and we found a popular restaurant where we spent a lot of our evenings. The weather was good and we spent most of our days on the beach sunning it up. We had to move out the next day as they wanted to keep space for divers. We went along the beach and luckily found a small place with friendly staff and a few dogs that had a small hut on offer. We had to accept, and when we were moving in we were told by a nice man next door in a much snazzier hut that they were moving out later that day so we ended up there instead, happy days. The place had a strange feel about it. CDivers are again a different
dort of people. Combined with the Moon Partayers the fashioned switched from boardies to shorter shorts, large watches and tattoos, which were adorned by everyone. Feeling the need to fit in Mark got Mother written into his neck and Suzanna got Love and Hate on knuckles of both hands. We found a nice spot on the beach, surrounded strangely by Germans and French, needless to say towels were down early doors.
Here we stayed in tranquility for a few days. Surrounded by lovely scenery, horizontal palm trees, whitish sands and warm blue seas. It wasn't difficult to spend the hours here. Our hotel also had a snooker table which added to the enjoyment. We found a good place that did cheap Fry ups for breakfast that we visited more than once. There isn't much to write about here as we did very little,but it was a fantastic place.
We left for Koh Phangan, the party island a few days later and luckily was quiet after the monthly party. We found a beach that we wanted to go to and got picked up by a tout that had a hotel there. We have stayed here ever since. The family
are really friendly. We have a really good and very cheap room with a couple of hammocks outside on the beach. There's been about four rooms booked on average here and the food in the restaurant is surprisingly good and very affordable. The beach is nice and the sea is calm, blue and nice and shallow for wading around in. The weather has been good and we are both browning nicely. Its nice to relax before heading home. a lot. Mark has started pre-season training with runs on the beach. These have been brief and painful.
After a very relaxing stay on Koh Phangan we got on the boat at 7am to the mainland anfd Phuket. The boat was fine, however when we reached the mainland we boarded our bus, to stop 1 minute later for a break. We then boarded again and headed inland to Surat Thani, which took about an hour. Once we arrived here we got off and had to wait an hour and a hlaf for the next bus to take us to Phuket. Eventually this turned up, was actually more of a mini bus and we sat next to a strange man from Oz
who had just met a Thai lady for 10 days who he insisted he was going to marry. We didn't have the heart to talk him out of it and it was quite an amusing trip.
When we arrived in Phuket, which is an island, but a lrge one on the west coast of Thailand we decided we would stay in the less popular town rather than head to the supposingly less than classy beaches. The town was small and pretty, full of buildings of Portuguese and French origins. It was very quiet when we arrived and after looking around we wre a little disappointed that there wasn't a good market to finish up our shopping. We did do a nice walk that we found recommended in a map that was really enjoyable, taking us through the town and highlighting points of interest such as small shrines, chinese temples and good photos snapping viewpoints.
A couple of days was enough and after booking our accomodation for when we returned in a couple of days before heading to the airport we went to Patong. Patong is a busy and crowded beach town, packed full of tourists, markets and scantily
clad Europeans. There were lots of Aussies, Kiwis, Frnech and Italians. The English seemed to had stayed away. We found an amazing hotel, our room came with a tv, comfortable beds, fridge, clean bathroom and maid service for 6 pounds a night. Happy days! The weather by this time had started to deteriate, with monsoons on the way and weather is Asia bad anyway we had to avoid the rain in the markets. There were lots of good bagains to be had and we managed i think to find most of them! On the third day the weather cheered up and we hit the beach. There were Speedos aplenty but the rest of the scenary was perfect. The sea was cool and despite having to sit inbetween the rows of hired deckchairs we were quite happy. We again managed to sniff out the cheapest restaurant which supplied us with all of our needs. We also met a nice Kiwi chap that was on holiday taking his mum to have cheaper dental surgery. He was in need of company and we walked the markets together. He was very funny and made a nice addition our two man company. In the night
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Reclining Buddha time the place comes alive, with hordes of people walking the streets lined with bars and questionable ladies. It was all good fun but left us feeling slightly uncomfortable.
We returned to Phuket Town for one night, just to sleep really before heading to the airport. Unofortuantley when we left we were hit by monsoonish weather. The brief walk to get the bus left us saturated. When we arrived into Phuket the town in places was underwater making ur bus go a different route. Roads were under a foot of water. It was all very fun, the locals seemed use to it and viewed it as a mild inconvenience. An hour later and sun was poking through the clouds. Crazy. We fly in the morning so we should be in Singapore for midday.
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maureen/mum
non-member comment
only a week to go!
Only one more week to go, it does not seem possible! Glad to hear you are having a relaxing time before coming back to the real world. Hope you have not had any more allergy probs, mark - any excuse to eat burgers! Delighted and honoured to hear you have 'mother' tattooed on your neck!?!?! Make to most of your last few days, take care, love mum x