Stop, hammock time!

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Chris's Section

Koh Phi Phi, what can I say? It pissed it down for three days. Not all of the time mind, just when we wanted to get on the beach. The place itself is pretty cool, albeit over-developed and touristy (which we expected). It has a good vibe and a great nightlife. We found a great set of bungalows called Garden Home. Fairly basic, but very clean and cheap with funky 'jungle-style' bathrooms. It also had Thailand's fastest internet connection! We downloaded loads of films which will be much appreciated in the future. Phi Phi is a beautiful place, the Viewpoint is definitely worth the hike, but all of this was spoiled by the dodgy weather. A major disappointment was not being able to go on our cruise to Maya Bay ('The Beach'). The weather was so bad we had to cancel - so bad the agent didn't even argue. Not a lot we could do about it.

So we decided to cut our losses and head over to the Gulf side of Thailand, as the monsoon doesn't really hit there until Sept-Oct. We even decided to miss out on going to Railay beach (another of Thailand's 'must see' beaches) because it, again, was pissing down. After a stop-over in Krabi, we set off for Koh Samui. We headed for Mae Nam, which is in the north of Samui and highly recommended by many websites. We weren't disappointed. The morning after checking into our guesthouse, Palm Point Village (450 baht for a fan bungalow - very nice too) we awoke to glorious sunshine and blue skies, and simply the most beautiful beach - which was about 15 feet from our hut. Wow, wow, wow! This is what we'd been looking for. We spent a great few days there.

We did pop over to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party, but I'll let Lou and Gill tell you about that.

We're now currently in Haad Salad, Koh Phangan. It's picture-postcard beautiful here. Hopefully I can upload some photos, but the internet connection is dodgy. We plan to spend a few days here before popping back to Koh Samui and waving Gill goodbye. Of course Lou and I have a couple more weeks of the island life before heading to Malaysia (and more islands). Where did it all go wrong?

Louise's Section

Yep rain like I'd never seen before had arrived in Phi Phi which also meant the Mozzies were out in force, especially the giant one which landed on me on the Viewpoint and had a good chomp!! I looked like I had 5 golfballs under my skin all over me!! I saw it land on me, black and white thing, huge, I'm sure I heard it doing a muuhahaha laugh before sticking me again and again and again!

So, onto Samui, I loved it there, the beach and sea were wonderful and I had many an hour paddling about in my rubber ring and swimming. The only annoyance in the sea was the big blobs of snot like creatures I kept grabbing when I was swimming, can only hope these were harmless jellyfish, oh and I stood on something on the seabed that went mental under me feet and scared me right back out the water...but I returned the next day, I was not letting these creatures stop me swimming or playing with my ring (stop sniggering).

Then came the full moon party which we decided we had to do even though it was a whole days budget for us to get there. We were off to Koh phangan on the speedboat knowing that two had crashed into each other last month, but hey ho. First off all we had to walk through the sea and climb onto the back of the boat (task achieved successfully). Secondly, as all the full on party lot bagsied the back seats, we had to climb through to the very bloody front, squeeze on so very tightly (wearing life jackets though) and cling on for dear life. Cue engine, 30 seconds in and hysterical, girly screaming coming from the dozen people squished in the front (yes this included Chris), many bumps later, bruised ribs and numb or broken bum cheeks we arrived (task achieved successfully = no sick!!). Task number three... exit the boat by getting up, turning around, stepping onto the 20cm wide edge of the wet boat,(in bare feet) leaping across a chasm which ranged from 20cm-60cm every few seconds onto the pier (achieved successfully and many thank yous in Thai to anyone near by and a feeling of overwhelming joy that I had survived the 25 minutes of hell).

Onto the booze that was very much welcomed after the trip. Buckets and beers ahoy. It was mental but unfortunately, pissing it down, again!!! It was good people watching but too much boop boop music for my liking. I liked one bar which started playing cheesey classics but when Justin Bieber (to the oldies out there, he is pre-pubescent, annoying little whiny voiced American who claims he can sing!!) came on Chris dragged us out!!

Now bearing in mind we arrived at 8:30 and it was approaching midnight many of you reading this will be able to predict what state I was in. See picture below for confirmation and therefore, Gill may as well continue this blog...

Gill's Section

…..the sleep master (if sleeping was an Olympic sport Lou would get gold every time - I swear she can nod off anywhere) fell asleep on a table for nearly 2 hrs in the middle of what I can only describe as a rave. Myself and Chris attempted to finish our ridiculously strong whiskey bucket (we failed and gave lots away to some friendly Brits) had a little dance before waking sleepy head and getting much needed pizza on way back to the port for scary ride home. The ride back was less bumpy and a little less scary that was until we had to jump off the boat onto the beach. And I mean jump off - the boat landed on the beach and we had to climb up the front and launch ourselves onto the beach with the hope of not breaking any limbs.

Ko Phi Phi was so beautiful even in the rain, I had one of my many this is paradise moments though drinking buckets (yes more buckets) in Hippies bar on the beach, this was briefly disturbed though when a large crab decided to sit on my lap - I was not amused but of course everyone else was. Shame we didn't get to see The Beach but was not risking life in small long-tail boat in thunderstorm to get there.

Not much to say about Krabi except the night market was good and Chris was ever so pleased to discover they had the sticky rice coconutty things. Which I have to say were really rather yummy.

Mae Nam beach was another slice of paradise - the view through the palm trees onto the beach was breath taking. Could easily have stayed here another few days.

Haad Salad where we are now is yet another beautiful place, I'm going off on my own on Monday for a day trip to Angthong marine park for a spot of sight seeing, snorkling and kayaking - can't wait. x

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Photos

Haad Salad
Postcard or what?

Haad Salad
View from our current hut

Full Moon
With random (but funny) guy.

Sleep Monster
During the middle of the Full Moon Party!