4th and 5th February 2011

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We are leaving Chiang Mai today on the overnight bus leaving at 6.30pm. Last nights room may have been the cheapest but it gave us the best nights sleep so far. Breakfasted in Euro Diner again.

Had our last banana and pineapple shake in The Corner and found ourselves sitting next to Peter from Dublin, who had been on the beer all night. We sort of had a convo with him (spitting all over the place), drunker Irish accent is not my favourite. He wanted to know why Mark was having banana shake and not beer. "F**k" he said and everything was shite, even told Mark his hair was shite. Mark and him started to talk about music and he asked Mark to sing him a song, Mark said he cannot sing - funny that he tells me he can!

Just went into an internet cafe to update the blog and upload photos, but it seems that some nasty no-good person has loaded a virus worm somewhere and we have now got it on that SD card and lost our photos of the past two weeks. Why are some people so downright horrible? I am not a happy bunny!! There might not be any more photos added to this blog, we don't want to lose any more.

We had lunch at Euro Diner and tried to waste time until our bus goes at 6.30pm. Went back at 4.30pm and had drinks for an hour. Got sandwiches, crisps, beer and water in 7 Eleven. Then waited outside the travel agent for the bus - an open air taxi arrived, picked us up and made three stops on the way to the coach for six other people. We then arrived at a petrol station and he drove behind it where the bus was waiting (felt quite cloak and dagger). The coach journey wasn't as bad as we anticipated. We stopped once for food and drink at quite a strange place, we don't know where it was.

Then we arrived in Bangkok at 5.07am on 5th February, where we were dropped nobody told us so we asked a taxi to take us to the train station but he wanted 200 baht and wouldn't put his meter on, he went down to 100 baht. We found out we were near Khao San Road and walked to the main road, it was busy at this time of the morning. People were still sitting at bars drinking with hookers and ladyboys (one bloke had had too much and was asleep in a plastic chair on the street), people were also setting up their stalls for the days business and we found a taxi with his meter on and paid 55 baht for our journey.

We arrived at Trat at 3.15pm and got on the ferry for a 20 minute ride over the sea to Koh Chang. The ferry was okay, cars at the bottom, people in seats at the top and a couple of shops selling drinks and crisps.

This bus/boat journey from Bangkok to Koh Chang has taken the same amount of hours to get from London to Bangkok! 22!!

Koh Chang is a nice looking island, we're staying at Paddys Palms hotel with its Irish pub next door. We have booked a deluxe room for two nights (26 pound pn) - large room, large bed, balcony, large wetroom, TV. Although we did have to ask for the maintenance man to fix the AC and a bedside lamp when we arrived. We went for a walk turning left out of the hotel toward BangBao and stopped at a bar for a beer. We made a mistake ordering Chilli Prawns, we just about ate them! Then we walked further up the road and into the seedy area of the town, it was like Brothel Lane. And so obvious with groups of girls sitting in empty bars calling out to passers by. One bar was called Rockhard and was decorated in red.

We turned round and walked down the other past the hotel and found the family area, beach and shops - Thank goodness! I was all for going back to the mainland.

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