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I left Pattaya with my backpack on my back and hit the road, back to proper travelling again!! I had planned to get to Ko Samui by the evening but between leaving here and arriving there, there was going to be a lot of transport and travelling involved. So I was up ay 4am to catch the bus leaving Pattaya to Bangkok, where I arrived at 6.30am. I had planned to get a bus south from the southern bus station but as the bus I had been on had dropped me at the wrong bus station (eastern) I decided to catch the train instead, which I thought would be loads more comfortable!!
Well having finally made my way to the central train station I was informed that the all the trains and all the buses would be totally full today due to the ‘Song kran’ festival (Thai New Year). It’s the only time of the year that everyone is able to stop work, close down there shops and go visit family. So I had chosen one of the worst days as half of Bangkok wanted to leave and travel to see family for the New Year (just look at the
pic of all the people in the train station waiting! It was chaos).
The more I looked into things and spoke to people the more I realized I was pretty stuck and unable to go anywhere for a while, however I did finally manage to book myself on a overnight bus for 7pm that evening, which wasn’t all that bad except that I now had 10 or so hours to waste. Well there was no way I was going to stay in the train station till my bus left so I got on a local bus to the infamous ‘Khoa San road’ and decided to waste a few hours here walking around and seeing what’s changed in the past 2 years. It was quite different however as there were so many banners and flags all the way up and down the street ready for the festivities in 2 days time.
I ended up going to the internet and trying to catching up on a few blogs and booking flights for Laura and I to Ko Samui , but I was so tired from having so little sleep I kept falling asleep at the computer, nearly head butted the screen
and or the keyboard a few times, so decided that I needed to try and wake up so headed to get some food while I could have a look at accommodation in the lonely planet book. I managed to find a nice hotel with a good write up in the street adjacent to the ‘Khoa San’ which worked out well as I really wanted to stay around this area to show Laura. So after my bite to eat I headed around the corner to the hotel to have a look around and then booked it up for when Laura arrived. Just as I did this the heavens opened and it started to piss down, I mean really torrential rain! So I asked the receptionist if I could possible sit in the lobby while the rain passes. I was so unbelievable tired by now I just sat in the chair and passed out for well over an hour ha ha!! I don’t know what I must have looked like to all the other guests slouched down in a chair at the front entrance of the hotel fast asleep but I felt so much better so I didn’t worry about it that
Bangkok CBD
Very new and modern compared to the Khoa Sanmuch. By time I woke up and went to go outside I was totally shocked to see the amount of rain that must have fallen while I was sleeping because now as I stood at the entrance to the hotel whole road had completely flooded and looked like a river down the middle of the street! (check out the pic, one of the tuk-tuk looks like like it about to be washed away by the river of water!)
I wasted some more time around here before finally making my way back to the train station and getting checked in for the long overnight bus trip. As usual I handed my transport receipt to a Thai guy who in exchange gave me a colored stick (everything is done by colored stickers in Thailand) and was told me to stay were I was and for the next 20 mins. I stood in a big crowd of people how had no idea what was going on, who was going where, but like usual in Thailand somehow it just works out and you mostly end up in the right place. Well mostly…..initially i was placed on the first bus next to this Australian
guy named Jason and we were well happy as we had the big chairs with loads of room and we were happily chatting away thinking we had done pretty well, then just before the bus left someone come running on staying that we were on the wrong bus!! So up we got and were pulled of this bus and taken to another bus and shown this time to some very cramped sits at the back - what a bummer we had just gone from such nice luxury seats to these crappy little ones because we were put on the wrong bus, but the worst bit was that that bus went to the same place because 12 hours later at the boat harbor we seen the people that were sat opposite us!!!
I have to say even though it was very cramped, it wasn’t that bad a journey as I spoke to Jason for ages then I followed that with one of the best sleeps I have ever had on a bus, so within no time at all we had arrived in place of Sarat Thani. We were all dropped off in the darkness at 5.30am and had to wait
around for a few hours till we had to then catch another bus to the harbor where we were then finally able to catch a boat to the island of Ko Samui. It was then only 1 small taxi journey to Chaweng beach where I was going to stay. I couldn’t believe that it had taken me 33 hours to get from Pattaya to here via 5 different buses, 3 taxis’s and a boat!!! God what it was like to be back travelling in Asia again!
I cannot tell you how happy I was to have finally arrived, during the journey down I had got on really well with Jason, so we decided to get some accommodation together to save us both money, so we just dumped our bags and headed straight for the beach. It was an absolutely scorching day and so sunny, as soon as I seen the beach I was blow away, it was more beautiful that I was ever expecting, there were no big high rises, no roads running next to the beach, just thousands of palm trees, gorgeous white sand and crystal clear water. It was also so quite compared to Pattaya, I knew
straight away that I was going to love it here, it was so nice to be able to just walk into the sea and for it to be so warm!!! (around 28 degrees I think)
For the rest of the day we just chilled out relaxing by the beach, I was just over whelmed by how incredible beautiful and peaceful it was here, it had far exceeded my expectations and kew I was going to be enjoying up time here.
That evening Jason and I had our first taste of Song Kran, as we had heading into the centre of the town for a couple of quite beers. As we started to walk along the street and nearly every 3rd or 4th person had a big water gun and were spraying it at anyone that they walked past, along with that there were a few shops with huge black dustbins outside full of water and these people were using big bowls to scoop it up and then launch it at anyone walking past. It was crazy and so different from anything I have ever experienced and this was only the night before, I couldn’t wait for tomorrow!
This was Jason 6th time coming Ko Samui and I can defiantly see why he has kept coming back. Because he has been here so many times he has made quite a few friends with the locals. So Jason had arranged that the following day we were going to be able to travel around in the back of one of his friend’s pick-ups with a few others and throw water at people as we drove around the town. This was really exciting and I would never get to be able to do this back home without getting into trouble and its great opportunity to act like a big kid! (Like I need an excuse!!)
So the day of Song Kran was finally upon us, we got up and prepared ourselves for getting very wet, we had bought a couple of super-soaker water guns the day before so filled them up and headed out of the hotel to see what was going on. Well we got 2 maybe 3 steps outside of our hotel before we both got a bucket of freezing cold water down our backs!! It was complete mayhem, I thought yesterday evening was pretty crazy but now
there were so many people up and down the main street with water pistols, huge super-soakers, hose pipes or big bins full of water which they scooped water out of and tipped over your head and this was just on the sides of the street, the car, trucks and mopeds that were driving up and down were all armed too, so there was absolutely no escaping from getting wet from any angle!!!
We made our way down the street and met up with a few of Jason friends and stood with them on a part of the main road where we were able to soak anyone that went past. I have never seen so many water pistols in all my life, there were little battles and skirmish’s everywhere it was like watching a computer game. It felt so strange to be stood here on the side of the street armed with a big water gun soaking any moped or person that pasted me, while in around 40 degrees of heat. It got a whole lot stranger however when someone started playing Christmas tunes, wishing you a happy new year etc. It really was the funniest feeling soaked to the skin,
being part of the biggest water fight I have ever seen while listen to Christmas song’s in the background, it is definitely one of the moments that I will never be able to totally describe to everyone because you really have to be there to fully understand what its like!
It was really amazing to see so many people out enjoying themselves, I swear every person on the island must have been on the main street, everyone from small children to old grandparents were all out enjoying it, everyone was smiling and having the best fun it such an fantastic atmosphere. I could never see this happening in the UK with all our health and safety bollocks and there would always be miserable bastard going ‘I’ve just had my hair done I don’t want to get wet’!! or something like that.
Around lunchtime Jason and I met up with his friend AJ and we climbed into the back of his 4x4 along with 5 others and we headed off for a circuit of the town. The traffic was bumper to bumper and the progress was very slow but it was great sat in the back spraying anyone
I wanted with my gun. The only bad thing was many of the bar had this huge deep freezers with blocks of ice in, so when they chucked water over us, it was bloody freezing and took your breath away!! Also we were sitting ducks for anybody wanting to cover us in this white chalky powder, which more people seemed to have as the day went on.
I really wished I had got more pictures of the mayhem on the streets but there was so much water flying around from every direction, there was absolutely no opportunity to get a picture without getting my camera soaked.
I should really mention why the New Year is celebrated in this way, it’s because as one year ends and the next year starts the pouring of water over people heads signifies the washing away of all the sins from the previous year so you are able to start the New Year cleansed and sin free. So really the wetter you get the more sins are washed away!
By the end of the afternoon we had been constantly soaked from the moment we had left the hotel that morning and now
added to that we were plastered from head to toe in this white chalk and pretty burnt from being in the sun all day, so decided that we would head to the beach for beer, a bit of shade and to finally try and dry out.
I had the most awesome day, it was really incredible how happy everyone is. They really get into the spirit of it so much and really had the most awesome time. I met a Thai friend who I would chat to most days as I walked up and down the street, he was one of the suit tailors and as we were speaking one day, he mentioned that that the 2 days over Song Kran is the only 2 days he gets off the whole year!!! I couldn’t believe it, I get bored with working Mon to Fri each week but he works every single day and only has 2 days off the whole year!!! We really are luckily with certain things in the western world.
It really was an incredible experience to be here and to be part of the Song Kran festival, it’s now the 3rd different type of New Year’s
festival I have experienced and I would definitely say it’s the most fun. I would recommend anyone coming to Thailand to be here and experience it - it will be like nothing else you will have ever experienced!
The next couple of days I relaxed and enjoyed the island lifestyle, drove around the island and up a few mountains on a moped (certainly easier than walking up them like I usually do), went a visited a big Buddha etc but all the time counting down the hours till I would head back to Bangkok to meet Laura. I was really looking forward to seeing her again as it is 7 months since I had last seen her.
During the couple of days that I was in Ko Samui, the protests between the army and the ‘red shirts’ had really kicked off, all the news stations were showing overturned burning buses and huge riots etc. Many nations including the UK and Australia were told to cancel trips to Thailand as Bangkok was declaring a ‘state of emergency!!’ I couldn’t believe it, so I had to have a couple of phone calls to explain to Laura that it’ll be ok
and it’s not as bad and it appeared on the news and luckily the day I headed back to Bangkok the protests stopped and disappeared. I was so luckily that I was here the day before the protests, in Ko Samui the 3 days while protests were real bad and arrived back in Bangkok just as they stopped - how’s that for timing!!
When I arrived back in the Khoa san area there was absolutely no indication there had been any problems there at all as everyone was still celebrating Song Kran. The festivals in Ko Samui only lasted a couple of days because as it’s an island there is a water shortage, however in Bangkok the festivities keep going for 5-6 days. So I checked into my hotel and headed off to the Khao san road to see how the festival was going. It was like a huge concert was on, it was shoulder to shoulder with people everything was covered in white and as I walked through the crowd I had so much water tipped over me and my face painted in the chalk so many times. There was music pumping out loudly from many bars, people
dancing on tables and there were people up in the balcony’s with electrically pressured water jets spraying into the crowd and somewhere in amongst all this was a small baby elephant dancing to the beat - only in Asia could you experience something like this - it was awesome.
Finally the day had arrived where I was to pick up Laura from the airport, not only was I really looking forward to seeing her again after such a long time but I was really excited about all the things I had planned to show her as it was her first time in place like Thailand. It was so amazing to see her again, I had missed not seeing her for the past 8 months and it felt so strange to be with here again after all this time, especially here in Thailand.
Once we got to the hotel I took her to the Khoa San road and luckily the Song kran festival was still going, it wasn’t as busy as the previous night but Laura did still get to experience this crazy festival and got completely soaked in the process! I think she felt really shocked to have
all these random people she didn’t know coming up and tipping water over her and covering her face in white chalk. I really don’t think she was expecting anything quite like this but all the same she loved it. I think it was great way to get over a long haul flight!!
The flowingly day I had planned to show her as much of Bangkok as I possibly could as we had only one day here before flying to Ko Samui the day after, so unfortunately Laura never got the chance to be jetlagged as she was going to be too busy!
The first place I had planned to visit was the Kings palace and temple complex, which having already seen with Owen a few years ago, I knew Laura would be love as it is one of the most incredible and beautiful set of temples I have seen. She walked around amazed by all the buildings, temples, colours and statues surrounding her, she never realized there were places that looked like this, it was so different from anything back home that she was used to.
We managed to get a Tuk-tuk there which was a type
of transport I had to let her experience as the Tuk-tuk drivers are totally crazy and drive like maniacs in and out of all the traffic. I really don’t like using them as there are the worst people at trying to rip you off by either taking you to jewelry shops, tailors or other random places you really don’t want to go. As I am already fully aware of most of their scams, I said from the start I didn’t want to go to any such places and he was pretty good up until we left the palace and he tried roping us into doing a boat trip down the river which was going to cost us 800 baht each!! I said not a chance and ended up having a row with him and ended up making our own way down the river as I knew I could get it much cheaper, it turned out to cost us 13 baht each!!! Slight difference between 13 and 800 baht the cheeky bastard!! You really do have to be so careful of the scams here, especially from the Tuk-tuk drivers, I bloody hate the scamming bastards, but Laura had to experience a
Tuk-tuk ride though so it was worth it!!
The boat taxi down the river was lovely as the weather had been brilliant the past few days and today was no exception, as we went down the river we past such contrasting buildings, there were new expensive apartments blocks right down to these were old worn out wooden houses that looked like they could collapse at any moment, there were old temples, new temples and such a different array of different boats. Thailand really is such a country of complete contrasts, beauty and poverty.
We jumped of the water taxi right next to Chinatown and had a nice walk around some of the markets here, one of which is down this really narrow and very crowded street that seems to go for miles and miles selling everything from gold necklaces and jewelry to clothes to anything else you could possible imagine you would ever want.
I had hoped to take Laura to an area around here I went to last time which had the most amazing collection of street vendors which sold all these amazing little foods that I have never seen anywhere else but for some reason
I just couldn’t find them again. I did how ever get Laura to try many other different foods, it felt like every 10 mins she was experiencing something new, whether it was a new type of drink, food, place or transport, it was so funny. So continuing on we jumped back on to the river taxi to take us farther down the river and round Bangkok where we were then able to jump of the boat and on the sky train that could take us up over the city and into the modern part of Bangkok which makes up the central business district (CBD).
I was quite excited about heading into the CBD as I had actually never been to this part of Bangkok and I was really surprised at how modern and new it all looked which huge modern skyscrapers everywhere we looked, such a contrast from the Khoa San area. I did however know that there were some big shopping centers here but even I was surprised at how big the were!! I mean I have seen some big ones in Singapore and Hong Kong but I think this one had to be one of the biggest
I have ever seen with around 9 levels and an area that was interlinked with another couple of shopping centers from every direction. All in all I think it would have taken days maybe even weeks to walk around all the shops within the complex, you could literally walk miles in this place without stepping foot outside!
To finish the day’s sightseeing I had decided to head to the tallest building in Bangkok, sky tower which is also the 28th highest building in the world at over 300 meters or 996 feet (yes that’s nearly kilometer straight up into the sky!). This was funny as Laura doesn’t like heights and I didn’t give her the option of saying no. As we got in the lift at the bottom and started to ascends to the top, suddenly the elevator went from being completely enclosed to glass fronted on one side were we could then see out on the city as we went higher and higher. Laura at this point nearly had a heart attack!! She had never been up anything like this before she was petrified and couldn’t look out the window because she couldn’t believe how high we were
and this was before we even got the 35 floor (about half way up) but she had no choice as the elevator wasn’t going to be stopping till we got to the top but when we finally arrived there we were treated with the most incredible views over Bangkok. Laura was completely shocked at how big Bangkok was it sprawled out as far as the eye could see in every direction, it certainly answered her question she had said earlier in the day - ‘how long would it take to look around the whole of Bangkok?’ to which I replied a ‘heck of a long time’ and now she could see for herself. Even I was quite shocked at how vast it was I knew it was big but from up here we could see for miles and mile but still couldn’t see where the city actually finished in the distance.
We got to have a good amount of time up here, walked around the revolving desk and then decided to stay up here and have a drink or two and watch the sunset, which was really amazing after such an awesome day sightseeing. It was so great to be
Me and my new mate
He's not much conversation though, he's a little stoned right now! back with Laura and showing her all these incredible sights, I loved seeing how amazed she was by it all.
We finally left the sky tower and made out way back to the Khoa San area, to try some traditional Thai food etc than I planned to show her some of the different bars I knew around the area. We eventually ended upstairs in a bar where a really great live band was playing. We sat here for quite a while listening and singing along to some great classics and downing Chang beer after Chang beer, till for some reason I decided Laura had experienced and tried many things today but she hadn’t yet experienced a ‘happy bucket’, I don’t know why I decided to get this as I know how bad there are and how messed up they get you but I had had one too many Chang’s and thought it would be good idea. Well a few minutes later our bucket of Thai Whiskey and Red bull arrived and as usual I happily drank through it with Laura thinking that it wasn’t all that bad and not the strong but it took us from merry to absolutely
smashed in no time at all, I woke up the following morning not remembering hardly anything after finishing that bucket!!
It really is the most dangerous alcoholic drinks, every time I have had one I seem to lose hours of my life, I do vaguely remembering taking Laura to Gulliver’s nightclub/bar but that is really about it. I woke up in the morning with one hell of a bad head and thinking there was something important to do this morning. My brain was so fuzzy and working a lot slower than usual (yes I know!! Really slow now!!) and I was still trying to piece together what happened last night, then suddenly it hit me like a sledge hammer, we had to catch a fight to Ko Samui at 9.40am!!!!! I ran around the room like a headless chicken, shouting at Laura to get up and pack her bags immediately as it was 8.40am and our plane left in 1 hour!! I couldn’t believe it, I have missed so many forms of transport, buses, boats and taxi’s but never a plane flight!! We packed our bags in mins, checked out of the hotel and jumped in the first taxi
I seen and told he to get us to the airport ASAP and there would be an awesome tip in it for him. I know the Thai’s are fast drivers but this taxi driver drove his socks off, he defiantly qualified for the ‘drive it like you stole it’ award, he over took and under too anything in his way and got us there in under 30 mins (normally takes us 45 mins).
Although we had got there very quickly I pretty much knew we had missed the flight as it was due to take off in 20 mins by the time we arrived at the airport. We tried to check in but unfortunately had missed it, luckily however the flights run every 1 hour to Ko Samui so we were checked in on a later flight - so all was well in the end, it also gave us a chance to have some water and eat something as I was feeling rough as a dog after last night.
Can’t believe I actually missed a plane, I was really regretted having that bloody happy bucket! that was defiantly a first for me but luckily of all the plane flights I
have ever been on this was probably the best to have missed as we were on another flight 1.5 hours later and it only cost 1000 baht (20 quid) to change the flights - so really we were very lucky that it was so easy to fix.
We were now in our way to Ko Samui for Laura to really experience what paradise is like but as I have gone on and on far to long now and you are probably half asleep by now reading this (if you have managed to get this far!) I will leave Ko Samui for my next blog.
[b[ PS - there are more pics on the next page
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