http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Thailand , South-West Thailand en-us Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:53:40 +0000 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:53:40 +0000 Hi All ... its us again I think we have adjusted to local time as we all slept in today and finally we had others at breakfast with us Most days so far we have been the first to arrive at breakfast ... which of course has its advantages when Scott and I can get our coffee made as soon as we order and enjoy the service of 56 staff for our family of 5 Thailand is 3 hours behind Brisbane s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Samui/blog-792091.html Well first of all I have to say thanks so much for the lovely comments you have made ... it is great to know that people are actually reading this blog and enjoying hearing about our travels Sorry I have not replied ... just been SOOOOO busy doing SOOOOO much and yet still SOOOOO relaxed Also sorry for all the typos ... there is no spell check and lets face it ... I39m on holidays I can hard http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Samui/blog-791887.html Sadly we have now had 4 sleeps at this amazing place in Koh Samui ... which means there are only another 4 left before we continue on our Thailand adventure. Since my last post we have been doing lots of relaxing ... let me share a bit of that with you now ...On Saturday afternoon we headed down to the north coast of Koh Samui to Mae Nam beach again ... we have found this to be our favourtie area http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Samui/blog-791593.html It was Sunday June 9 2013 my first day in Thailand and I was lined up to crash a wedding. Id arrived in Phuket at 1210 AM where Jacob P. Nimit and my schools assistant principal were waiting. By the time Id settled into Phang Nga and was ready to sleep it was 230 AM. At that late time it was a 6 out of 6 on the room heat scale. When I say six I mean that I needed two fans set t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Khao-Lak/blog-791521.html Hi all I39m off to South East Asia in 3 weeks time with my boyfriend getting incredibly excited as the time flies by The loose plan at the moment is a 4 month trip July October doing 60 days in Thailand 30 days Vietnam and 30 days in Cambodia. Also may try and squeeze some time in Laos if I canNow I was wondering if those of you experienced travellers could help me out a little as as mu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-791450.html Last week I moved to Thailand and due to the wonders of the Internet I am taking you with me. Ill even save you the trouble of putting on bug spray I graduated Tuesday June 4th. We packed up the family car with many of the belongings Id accumulated over the past four years highlights include a wardrobe of orange school tshirts a set of fezzes Id bought for my roommates to wear o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phang-Nga/blog-791435.html Well we are starting to feel like we are finding our way a little in this new area that we have never been to before. Hiring a car has given us great freedom to explore and find things that are off the main roads and not otherwise easily accessible. Yesterday afternoon we set off on our first real adventure and the boys got to see a couple of Thai Temples that are well known on Koh Samui. A couple http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Samui/blog-791340.html Well it has been a fun filled 24 hours ... After enjoying a lovely 3 course Thai lunch yesterday at the resort we ventured down the hill to the local town on Bang Po. We walked along the secluded beach this is not a very busy area of the island so we were not around many other tourists and enjoyed a drink in a quiet beach bar whilst the boys played in the sand. There will be more of this as it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Samui/blog-791208.html Well we have finally arrived Our home for the next 8 days is truly unbelievable. The boys think it is heaven on earth. We think it is also heaven on earth Just unpacked and had to do a but of work that39s like swearing really but decided to also add these photos. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Samui/blog-791025.html If you were to blow up a balloon to the point it resists further expansionand then let go it would likely set off around the room in a haphazard screech. Trying to describe and analyze the course that balloon takes would be akin to me writing this blog in its descriptive entirety. I could plough through it trying my utmost to explain every twist and turn but after all is said and done youd be http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Similan-Marine-NP/blog-790678.html Hello everyone once againMy last blog update finished quite suddenly so I will continue about Phuket and the rest of the west coast now.Because we were rather lazy and it seemed rather cheap me and Wanda decided to take the plane to Phuket. Upon arrival we had to face the usual Sorry taxi meter no workscam. After a short search we found a minivan drover who was willing to take us to our hos http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-790554.html Koh Samui 18513We spent a long night at Singapore airport after arriving at midnight. While I love the airport it is not much fun when all the shops shut at around 1 am and all the reclining chairs are taken up by sleeping bodies. I think that next time we might get a transit room if staying overnight.195We left for Koh Samui at 8 am and arrived 1.5 hrs later which was about 8.30 due to time http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Samui/blog-790481.html Saturday was our last day we spent it in last minute shopping in Kata lunch at Kata Mama looking at the beach and just generally relaxing.We booked ourselves into the Coral Lounge at Phuket Airport. This was worth every penny. Staff from the lounge met us at the kerbside when Daj our driver dropped us off and three staff members escorted us through the whole check in and immigration process http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-790287.html Today was to be our day spent in Patong.As I mentioned on Day One of this blog we don39t really like Patong and prefer not to stay there. Having said that we always spend one day here as the Otop Markets and great for shopping and it is always good to have a look around.We had never managed to find the time to get to Junceylon shopping centre before so today was the day. It was pretty much a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-790284.html Today we hired a driver to take us to Rawaii the cost was 600 baht each way for a van for 6 of us. We wandered around Rawaii looking at the market stalls and the view and then hired a longtail boat to take us to Coral Islands Banana Beach. The longtail was 1800 baht for 6 people.This was a terrific day but I would advise going later than we did preferably after 2.00pm. The beach was pa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-790279.html So we set off from Bondi to begin our epic journey to Ko Phi Phi taking every form of transport we could possibly imagine along the way. On our way out of Australia immigration requested a chat with us about staying 2 days longer than our visa allowed ooops Black marks against our names then... Hopefully they39ll still let us in next time we visit.Our flight from Sydney to Bangkok was de http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi-Don/blog-790241.html Today we decided to have a lazy day. Yesterday had been a long day and even though we did nothing except sail around in boats it was still very tiring. We also had our big dinner planned for tonight as this was Mum39s actual birthday.We spent the morning having our complimentary full body massages at the Kata Palm Hotel spa which was so good we had to immediately book another one for another d http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-789617.html On Tuesday we were picked up and driven to the pier for our speedboat tour of Phang Nga with Phuket Sail Tours. We had a organised a private charter as we were a group of nine and we had a wonderful day. It was our second private charter with Mark we went out on the Sakai a couple of years ago.This trip was just as good. The beauty of doing a private charter is that you can choose the start and f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-789616.html We have been to Phuket three times before and we love the place. Hate Patong but love staying down at Kata Beach.As my brother lives in Perth and our mother here in Melbourne with us it was decided to go to Asia for her birthday instead of my brother and his family flying here to Melbourne. Stupidly it is actually cheaper for them to go to Thailand by plane and stay in a hotel than to come to Mel http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-789610.html We39re a group of 4 friends counting more than 30 years of friendship and many trips together. Every so often we39d meet for lunch or dinner or simply laze around in one39s house where we literally spend the whole afternoon just chatting eating and drinking. When the latter passes the limit we engage in some rigorous dancing and singing like most rowdy Filipinos do. We met to plan our http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-789276.html