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Published: February 21st 2005
Our Kind Hosts
Karen, Richard and Gus try and escape from the stranger in their photoGreetings from Koh Tao (or as the locals would say, "you wanna tuktuk?"), a small island off the east coast of Thailand. We've come here to do a bit of diving and relax in tropical paradise for a few days before we start to head homewards. Let me take you back a couple of weeks....
We stayed in Perth with the very kind Karen and Rich for a couple more nights, long enough to see the World's Largest Australia Day Fireworks Display.
Next stop was Singapore for a couple of nights. Yes it is as clean as you have heard and a strange mix of western and eastern. A few temples, a fantastic night safari at the zoo (you see all the nocturnal animals whilst they're awake) and some cheap shopping. Highlights of the zoo were lions growling at each other and bats and flying squirrels whooshing past our heads. Two days was enough.
On then to Thailand, starting with a couple of nights in Bangkok to get our bearings. To be honest, 2 nights as a taster was quite enough! We caught the night train up to Chiang Mai, about 12 hours by rail, and found a
But What About the Flower Parade?
See what I mean - they're covered in flowers much more pleasant place. The flower festival was on whilst we were there, the highlight of which was a parade of floats through the town covered, and I do mean covered, with flowers. And of course, being a parade, they had bad marching bands trying to play Jesus Christ Superstar on out of tune xylophones!
A couple of days were spent exploring the town and the night markets before we got restless so we filled the rest of our week there with mountain biking (we managed 3 rides), elephant riding, white water rafting and rock climbing. Lots of fun but quite exhausting. I think we earned those extortionately expensive (not) massages.
Our next destination was Siem Reap in Cambodia. The journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap takes about 10 hours along some of the worst roads in the world and that's if you can find transport from the Cambodian border. Being hardened travellers, we faced this problem head on by flying instead!
Siem Reap is a pleasant enough little tourist town but our reason for visiting was just outside, the temples of Angkor. They were absolutely fantastic. We spent 3 full days exploring the numerous 1,000 year
The Bayon at Angkor Thom
Ever get the feeling you're being watched? old temples (with the help of our personal chauffeur/tuktuk driver). The temples were full of intricate rock carvings, trees intertwining with the buildings and a sense of the grandeur that once was.
On returning to Bangkok, we spent another few nights there to see the sights - temples, the Grand Palace and the worlds greatest collection of travellers.
We took a couple of day trips, one to visit the old capital, Ayuthaya, now know as the city of temples (guess what we saw there!) and to Kanchanaburi, home of the Bridge Over the River Kwai, the Death Railway, and a couple of huge cemetaries full of the allied soldiers who died during the construction of the railway as PoW's.
It was then time to wave goodbye to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and welcome a quieter life here on Koh Tao, the only place in the world where you need a PADI card not a passport to enter.
That's all for now folks
Viv and Ness
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