Thailand... Round Two

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Sometimes Thailand has felt like a bit of a boxing match; Boxing with our emotions, our dicky tummies and if Amber had it her way boxing with rude Thai people. Oh, and the odd occasion of wanting to box each other!

We departed Cambodia on the 18th November (our favourite country yet!) and headed for Bangkok. If we had it our way we would have made the 14 hour trip down to the islands (on the Southern Gulf coast) immediately, but our bus took 4 hours longer than expected (which is pretty standard by now) so we missed the connecting bus and had to stay in Bangkok for the night. Ko Phangan is a beautiful island, probably the most beautiful Amber and I have agreed. In Koh Phangan we were reunited with friends we had met along the way and most of us stayed in Haad Yao Villas on Haad Yao Beach. The bungalow wasn't exactly how it looked on the internet, but i'm willing to put that plus the rat droppings in our room to one side because the surroundings were so beautiful. Just a little sidenote, I would just like to list the animals/insects we have shared our room with to date: Geckos, cockroaches, copious ants (the little things are vicious here), a frog (although not technically in our room)... Oh and our resident mouse.

So, back to Koh Phangan. We spent the first day chilling with our friends, particularly the Bucket Bar crew from Laos including our boss Mikey, otherwise known as 'shithouse'. On the second day we hired a moped (you need one to get around the island) - It was loads of fun, Amber and I are pro's! Koh Phangan is very mountainous, and at times I was fully accelerating to get up the hills. We had the giggles and had been warned that we might not make it up some hills, but we did! We used the moped to firstly hunt down 'The Masons Arms'. At this point we would like to say a huge thank you to Amber's cousin Sarah, not only for pointing us in the right direction of the place, but also for the ongoing support and advice you have given us both. The Masons Arms was, well, immense. Not only was it decked out just like an old English Pub, but the food was incredible. It was like someone had flown to me old mans and brought back a home cooked Beef Stew with Guinness Gravy. Absolutely cracking. Considering we were a little bit homesick at that point, it brought us great pleasure to be sat in there reminiscing about memories with our families.

So, the main reason that brought us to Koh Phangan was the infamous Full Moon Party. We spent the day of the Full Moon Party buying our illuminous gear for it, and then from about 6pm we started drinking. From that point until we left our bungalow was, quite frankly, the best part of the night. We had a right laugh with everyone. The Full Moon Party itself was a bit of an anti-climax. Not only that, but I got absolutely blind drunk on those bloody buckets - These things contain a FULL bottle of Whiskey, Red Bull and a can of Coke. We had 4 between us and polished off a bottle of gin before we'd left our villa. Big mistake! I have absolutely no embarrassment in telling you all that I was sick on Mikey's leg, on the beach, in the sea, in the taxi on the way home and in the toilet a few times during the night. I was a mess. All said and done, at least we can tick it off our list and say we've done it, but it really wasn't all that. The next day, as expected, was spent feeling sorry for myself. We were meant to go back to The Masons Arms for a roast but that idea was a complete write off!

So, from Koh Phangan, we made our way to the island of Koh Tao. Or at least we attempted to. We turned up on time for our boat at 12.30pm only to be told it was full. The boat we'd pre-booked was full. Am I missing something here? I went over to one of the ladies giving out tickets to ask what was going on, only to be told we'd have to wait until the next boat which comes at 4pm. This is only my opinion, but once tour companies in SE Asia get your money in their hands, they couldn't care less about you. We've had so many occasions of being messed around that it's just become laughable. I keep telling myself 'it's not the west here' but really, I think Customer Service is paramount in any form of business, wherever you are. Anyway, we got on the boat at 4pm (which didn't set off until 4.50pm) and arrived in Koh Tao in pitch darkness. It then took us over 2 hours to find somewhere to stay, and then when we did check in somewhere, the shower wasn't working. So we checked out, and then somehow it was our fault that the water wasn't working and the old lady wouldn't stop moaning when she gave me our money back. That's another thing here, they never accept fault. Am I being too harsh? I'm just writing from our experiences, I really can't put anything else. As always, Amber and I somehow put on a smile and checked in somewhere at 10.30pm. My stomach was still in knots from the Full Moon Party and she said 'you'll probably wake up and your trumps will sound like a foghorn and wake everyone up'. That day was not a fun day.

So, Koh Tao! People have said to us that if we don't like somewhere, we shouldn't feel obliged to stay there just because it's on our list of places to go. Really, unless you're in need of a diving course then there's no need to go there. We weren't there for the diving, so we left the next day and headed to Krabi (on the mainland). When we got to Krabi, we decided to head straight for Hat Rai Leh beach, on the coast of Krabi. We struck gold. The place was absolutely stunning. We stayed there for 2 days and didn't do much apart from kick back and enjoy the beach. It was the most beautiful beach we have been to in Thailand as well as its neighbour Phra-Nang beach. You had to keep reminding yourself that you were still on mainland and not on an island. OH... Apart from our little furry friend on the second night. We met a lady who was next-door-but-one to us and she had found a mouse in her room which the staff had apparently removed. Our next-door neighbours had bed bugs, so we felt that we were next to find something! I put the torch under my pillow just in case. And I was right to do so. I woke up in the early hours to a rustling sound, and I knew straight away that something was in the bin, so I shone my torch on the bin only to witness a little bloody mouse scuttle away in to the wall! True to form, I screamed and woke Amber up, and then she went straight to sleep again whilst I kept guard for most of the night. I need to man up!!!

We then headed to the island of Koh Phi Phi, one of the islands that was heavily struck of the devastating 2005 Tsunami. If you weren't to know about the Tsunami upon your arrival on the Phi Phi, you wouldn't even know about it. They've built it right back up, and every little bit of it is catered to tourists, so much so that it feels quite claustrophobic. I find it hard to blame them for doing so, as they're simply making a living, and if their niche is tourism, then fair play. It was another island that simply didn't blow us away. It became too 'Malia' for us. If you weren't up for getting drunk every night, then you really weren't catered for. And further to that, we stayed in a place that might as well have been at the top of Mount Everest! We really should've known what was coming as the name of the place was 'Uphill Bungalows'. However, we did have an amazing time when we went snorkeling for the day. We did lots of island hopping, visited Maya Beach where "The Beach" was filmed, visited Bamboo Island (stunning) and snorkeled with lots of Nemo's. Amber really couldn't get the hang of snorkeling, she kept forgetting to breathe when she went underwater and would come up choking! I loved it and at one point had hundreds of fish all around me. The best part of our stay on Phi Phi was Skyping my brother on his birthday. We felt well and truly homesick, but it was fantastic to see all my family (and the cats) so happy and healthy. Love you all!!

After Phi Phi, we headed back to the mainland and stayed at Ao Nang, which is in Krabi. It was just what we needed. Ghilled out, reasonably priced and lined with a beach. We also stayed in a lovely little bungalow just off the main street. We really enjoyed the 2 days that we spent there and we spent one of the days there chilling at another guesthouse with a Thai lady called Jenny (she was from the North which explains why she was so nice!) and is married to a man from Maidenhead! And on that note, our Thailand travels finally came to an end.

What now? Malaysia? Yeh, why not! We arrived in Langkawi yesterday, and on first impressions, we like it here. It's quite laid back and the people seem really friendly.

We hear that it's like the North Pole back home! Well we've had snow here as well! Oh... err.. No, it's the white sand!! On a serious note, i'm a lover of snow, and seeing the snow back home has made us both realise that we'll both really miss Christmas back home - But a Christmas in Australia will be a new experience for us.

We're both safe and well, and looking forward to the rest of our travels in Malaysia... So until the next update..

Love to all at home, keep warm!


PS - We seem to mention a few people on here whilst we travel around, and there's one person i've missed that i'd like to mention. And that person is my mum. I know that she'd have been very proud of what we're both doing, and I know that she'd be smiling away in the knowledge that we're doing what we've wanted to do for a very long time. I miss her dearly, and I love her dearly. We did it, mum.

Mat & Amber xXx

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Photos

Again...
Rock climbers flock here - you can see why.