Vickie's birthday & other less important events

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Koh Lanta

Our trip over to Koh Lanta was done on a very short boat ride of 1 1/2 hours. While we were on the boat we got approached by a guy called Coco who ran one of the guest houses on Koh Lanta. Coco showed us his leaflet for his guest house and we thought it was too good to be true, it looked lovely and it had a swimming pool!
We asked him how much it was and he said they had a special promotion as they don't normally open this time of year. He said it would cost 450 bhat, I then said our budget was maximum 300 bhat and he said 'ok'!

We got driven there for free which is always a bonus and we were very pleased when we got there. We had a huge room with hot water, TV, air conditioning, varandha and a swiming pool.
We spent about 4 days on Koh Lanta and it was really dead due to it being low season but it was great as the guest house did great food, we were right on the beach and had a great place to stay so we had all we needed right there.

As it was so quite we just ended up basically chilling out for the whole time we were there.
It's great having some outside space too as we spent a couple of evenings having a couple of drinks and playing cards (Yes Jack lost most of the time, he he!)

Koh Samui

We arrived on Koh Samui on 14th May, three days before my Birthday. We found a reasonably priced hut right on the beach at the north end. Our first full day we wanted to get a few new bits a bobs to wear as we had been wearing the same few sets of clothes day in day out for six months (lovely!) so we decided to go shopping.

The shopping didn't go too well though as it must have been approaching 40 degrees and believe me thats not good when your trying on clothes! Anyway we ended up going around for about 4 hours and not buying anything so we gave up. In the evening we went exploring and found the main town was full of lots of 'girly' bars but on the beach there were some lovely little restaurants so we ended up eating there.

The next day we took the snorkelling gear out to the front of where we were staying and it was great. We saw quite a few little fish right up close to the shore. Then in the afternoon we decided to try the shopping lark again and ended up getting everything we needed within about 1 hour, how does that work??

On the 17th May it was of course my Birthday! We got woken up at 6am by the sound of heavy rain falling on the lovely tin roof of our hut!
We thought nevermind it'll stop soon but this turned out to be the only day out of 6 months travelling where the rain didn't stop until 6pm that night!

We decided to get up as we couldn't sleep and we popped down to the Seven Eleven for a beautiful cup of tea! When we returned to our hut I got to open up my pressies from Jack which were lovely, two necklaces, a bracelet and an ankle bracelet!

Then the man who was staying opposite us found out it was my Birthday (Well I told him as I always get a bit excited about Birthdays!) and he came out of his hut with his stereo playing Happy Birthday To Ya at full blast!! Bearing in mind this was about 7.30am I was happy but I dont think any of our neighbours were!
It was a brilliant day even though the rain didn't let up. We had a bit of a British theme. For breakfast we had a massive fry up with HP sauce and then for lunch we had roast lamb & yorkshire puds (our first one in six months!) and played a few games of pool.

All through the day we couldn't control our excitment as we had four of our friends arriving from home that same night - Kim, Jody, Jen & Sara.
Kim, Jody & Jen had actually booked us into the same resort as them for 7 nights as a present, we were so shocked when then told us and so happy. The resort was called The Sand & Sea Resort, it was right on the beach and lovely!

Jack and I got to check in at midday and were just amazed how lovely it was. We're used to rooms with literally just a bed inside and a bathroom that's shared with about 10 other people but The Sand and Sea Resort was lovely!

Jack and I were waiting at the bar at the hotel when they arrived, it was so surreal seeing them again after 6 months and in another country. Instantly it felt like they had been with us the whole time.
As the guys had had a long flight we decided to spend my Birthday night in the hotel bar, it was a great evening spent drinking cocktails and catching up, even having a dip in the sea (I wasn't meant to do that I just kind of fell in taking Jody with me!) hence we didn't get to bed until about 4am.

The next day we were all feeling pretty rough. Straight after breakfast Jack and Jody thought it would be a good idea to get straight back on the booze! They had a couple in the hotel bar and then said they were popping to the shops, Yeah right!

Anyway us girls had a great day sunning ourselves on the beach and around the pool but didn't see Jack and Jody until about 6pm and they weren't in the best condition when they got back but we all went out for a bite to eat at one of the restaurants in town.
After dinner we ended up at one of the 'girly' bars where we proceeded to drink lots of Sangsom rum and dance around poles! Not the men of course but that would have been fun to see.

Sara ended up drinking a little bit too much though and had to be chaperoned home by Jody, it took them two taxis to get back as she was going to be sick in the first one but they made it in the end, although Jodys shorts got sprayed a little!
Sorry Sara I had to put something on here about that night!

Kim and Jody's hut was right on the beach and had the biggest veranda so we normally all met there before heading out and the next couple of nights pretty much went the same way, lots of lovely food, drinking and great conversations.

On the 20th Jacks Dad (Roger), brother (George) and sister (Esther) came out to meet us as well which was great. They turned up quite late in the evening but we all sat up drinking again until the early hours.

The next morning we woke up to find it was raining really hard with thunderstorms so it was a bit of a wash out for any activities.

We did end up doing a trip on the last day that Kim and Jody were with us. We all wanted to do something different so Jen & Sara went off on an all day trip visiting various places around the island, Roger & Esther went on a snorkelling trip to a nearby island and myself, Jack, Kim, Jody & George went to visit the Big Buddha and a waterfall.

The waterfall was pretty scary actually, well for me anyway. We all thought we would literally turn up and see it, none of us expected to have to do rock climbing as well!
Anyway, I didn't actually make it up to the top as I got really scared due to the height of it so I ended up turning around and George bless him came down with me!
George and I had a great time though as there were lots of levels to the waterfall and we still ended up having a bit of a dip (Although we were a bit worried when one of the locals told us not to step on the bottom as there was broken glass everywhere!)

Jack, Kim & Jody all managed to get up to the top. Jack said he was pleased I turned back when I did as apparently it got harder and harder to climb up, hence why the trousers that Kim had brought only that morning split! But they all enjoyed themselves.

The next day all of us were moving on. Kim & Jody to Hua Hin and the rest of us to Koh Tao. We all ended up getting on the same boat. Our stop was first and we had to say goodbye to Kim and Jody. It was very difficult to say goodbye as we hadn't seen them in so long and didn't want to wait another six months to see them but I held back the tears and off they went.

Koh Tao

So we arrived on Koh Tao. Jen & Sara had had their accomadation booked before they left England and were staying in the only five star hotel on the island (Jealous!) Whereas the rest of us didnt have anything booked. The girls went off to their hotel and we arranged to meet later that day.

Myself and Jack left the others in a restaurant while we went looking around the island to try and find us all somewhere to stay. We were gone for ages and couldn't find anywhere that had four rooms together and for the budget we had. Then Esther went off for 10 minutes and found somewhere straight away! Annoying!!
We all had little huts right near to the beach. At night for some reason our bathroom stank like a sewer which wasn't great but we put up with it!

On one of the days Jack, Esther, Roger and myself decided to go to a beach called Ao Tanote which was on the other side of the island to go snorkelling. Oh my god, it was a bit of a hairy ride. When we got the taxi we were shocked with how much they were asking to take us such a short journey but when we got off the main road we realised why.

It was quite scary as all of us were in the back of a pick up truck with no sides and nothing really to hold onto and it was going up and down, up and down bumps and nearly coming off cliff edges, when we got off I looked at my hand and the skin had come off two of my figures from trying to hold onto the seat!!
Hence why I asked to go in the cab with the driver on the way home!
The snorkelling here was great though. There were so many fish just a couple of feet away from the shore, lovely!

Also myself, Jack, Roger, George & Esther all went to visit another island just off Koh Tao called Koh Nang Yuang where we had heard was great for snorkelling.
Myself, Jack, George & Esther were all feeling really rough as us and the girls all met up the night before at a place called the Fish Bowl where we consumed far too much alcohol and some of us even ended up dancing on the bar (I wont tell you who!)
Even though we weren't feeling great is was a brilliant day. Jack and I had only recently started snorkelling and it was so amazing at this place. There were fish everywhere, parrot fish, baracudas, nimo fish........just amazing!

On the 27th Jacks Dad, brother and sister had to return to Koh Samui to catch their flight back to Singapore. The five of us went out for a really lovely meal the night before to a restaurant near to where we were staying. We all had a big meal of BBQ chicken and beef which was lovely.
In the morning we all met up for breakfast to say our good byes and it was really sad to see them go.

So we then had three days left with only Jen & Sara. The first day we had on our own was a really grey and rainy day so we decided to have a bit of a boozy day so we went to a few bars and went out for dinner in the evening.

While at Jen & Sara's hotel, Jen said that he had seen some puppies that were living underneath the hotel so we went and had a look. There were five puppies and they were so cute. The Mum and dad were always there but they didn't seem to mind at all that we were picking them up and playing with them. Every night we took food for them as we were worried they may have gone hungry. We soon realised we didn't need to worry as practically everyone on the island was doing the exact same thing.

The next day the sun was out so we went to the island called Koh Nang Yuang again to do some more snorkelling which was great and in the evening we went to watch the Thai Boxing. It was a lot different to the one Jack and I watched in Chang Mai. It was a much smaller affair and all of the fights were England v Thailand. All of the English fighters had been training locally and this was all of their first ever fights and it was very strange that the English won every fight!!

On the last day with the girls we just topped up the tans and chilled out.
The morning they left we all had breakfast together and went and saw the girls off which was very sad but we all had a great time!

Jack and I then spent one more night on Koh Toa then headed to Koh Pha Nang.

Koh Pha Nang

When we arrived on Koh Pha Nang we first went to a beach called Mae Had. We got a little hut for 300 bhat (6 pounds) It wasn't too bad but we did have a giant lizard living with us in the bathroom so when it came to showering we had to keep one eye open!

We spent two nights on Mae Had beach, it was quite peaceful but there wasn't even really anywhere to get food other than our guesthouse so we decided to get a taxi down to Haad Yao beach which we read had a bit more going on.

We turned up really early in the morning at about 7am as this was the only time the previous guest house said they could take us. So obviously is was quite dead when we turned up so we decided to grab a bit of breakfast in the first place we found. It was a guest house but all of the rooms looked really plush and we both said we would look elsewhere after breakfast but when we were eating the guy who works there, Si, asked if we were looking for a room and he said their rooms where 400 bhat a night so we said we would have a look.

When we looked around it was amazing, just like a proper hotel, really clean, hot water and a television so we went for it.
We later found out that they normally charge 800 bhat a night for this room but because it was low season we got it half price.......excellent!!

We spent 8 days on Haad Yao and made friends with all of the guys that worked there - Si, Ham & Pan, they were all really cool. Ham's wife also was the only cook at the guest house and did lovely food. It was a great spot right on the beach with sun loungers at the front.
We spent quite a few nights sitting out the front watching the sun set with a lovely cold beer in our hand.

We also made friends with a Welsh couple called Dre & Lauren who were also travelling. They were really lovely and we spent a few nights with them chatting until the wee hours. We all ended up going to the full moon party together which was quite an experience. We even managed to drag along Ham who had been working on the island for 2 years and never been (or never been allowed to by his wife).
I have never seen Jack dance to drum & base before! (I think that was the buckets making him move!)
It was a lot better than we had expected it to be, there were so many people there it was amazing, people fire dancing, people dancing on the tables, although we didn't get any pictures I'm afraid as we didn't want to get the camera knicked!
When I woke up the next day I was wondering where my flip flops had gone and Jack had to remind me that I lost them somewhere on the beach the night before.

It was really nice to stay in the same place for a while and just chill out.

From here we then booked our tickets to go to Penang in Malaysia, more about that on the next entry.

Lots of Love

Vickie & Jack
xxx

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Photos

Koh Lanta
We managed to get a photo of a cat with a particularly deformed left ear

Koh Samui
A grey & rainy birthday for Vickie