I Love Thailand!!!!

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We have been in Thailand for about 2 and a half weeks now. It is very difficult to compare it to Australia, it is completely different, however it is exactly as I imagined it. Very busy in the towns and city's, very laid back on the islands and in the beachy areas and VERY hot!



We flew into Phuket and got the bus down to Phuket town. We arrived during the late afternoon and decided to walk to our hostel. This was our first experience of the Thai heat and humidity. By the time we had completed the 10-15 minute walk to the hostel we were both dripping with sweat! Even walking in the shade had been too much with all our bags. The hostel was nice, clean and air conditioned thank god! By the time we had cooled off and changed it was dark and we decided to head out in search of food. We had a quick consult of the map and discovered that a few yards down the road there was a night market. We decided to head here hoping to discover an abundance of street food that Thailand is famous for. Unfortunately this was not what was waiting for us. The night market turned out to be about six stalls selling an assortments of snacks and curries which all looked a bit sad especially as it had just started to rain. Still, not being deterred we decided to embrace the culture and get eating. We choose one stall that had some kebab looking items. I went for what I thought was chicken and Loz went for a sausage looking item. Here went nothing. My first bite (nibble) made me question whether it was actually cooked. I tried again......bit more cooked but very suspicious tasting. I looked at Loz questionably......she was not faring much better, having to spit several chunks of gristle out with each bite. Yep the worst had happened......I think we just ate dog. So as not to offend the stall owner we walked off before we promptly threw our purchases in the bin. Still it had only cost us about 25p, so at least we hadn't broken the bank with our animal cruelty. We headed down the street until we found a nice looking restaurant and ordered a very sweet dish of mango and sticky rice which was thankfully delicious and got rid of the suspicious tastes in our mouth!



The next morning we gave up on Phuket and headed to the south islands. We were heading straight for Ko Tao where we were meeting up with some of Loz's friends from her time working in Australia. The journey was another long one. 12 hours consisting of 2 mini buses, a big bus and a boat. This was to be another eventful day! The bus journeys were interesting as it gave us a chance to see some of the Thai countryside.....they were also very bumpy due to the large pot holes everywhere! The last part of the journey was on a flat-bottomed, super fast catamaran. The boat journey was a 3 hour journey which stopped at all three of the islands. It was also an opportunity to test out my sea sickness! Turns out that this boat is the worst boat I have ever been on in my life and hopefully ever will be. For those of you that have visited the Isles of Scilly, this boat made the Scilonian look like a pleasant float on a lake. It rocked every which way and our poor stomachs had to endure being left behind every time we went over a wave. I promptly gave up on reading and had to sit back with my eyes closed, gripping the arm-rests telling myself I was fine, I was fine! 10 minutes into the journey the staff came around and handed everybody sick bags. I didn't see one person turn down the offering. 20 minutes into the journey the sick sounds started.....dear god how was I ever going to get through this journey without throwing up! At the first island stop, Ko Samui, a young family, full of smiles, eating chocolate ice creams came and sat next to us. Those smiles didn't last long and it wasn't the last we would see of the chocolate ice cream. Unfortunately for them, they all seemed to be affected by sea sickness including the little 1 year old. In fact it started with her when she promptly threw up her chocolate ice cream all over her mums leg and the floor. It was like a domino effect and after that they all took it in turns to throw up! Unfortunately for us and them our island was the last stop so this went on for a while! 3 hours later we had made it and myself and Loz had both managed to survive the journey without throwing up at all! Hurrah! Walking through the boat as we excited was like walking through the aftermath of a battlefield but instead of their being being blood and bodies everywhere it was sickbags! I didn't envy the poor staff!



The next day having met up with Loz's friends we made our way to the beach to have a chill out day. The beach was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel and was beautiful. Exactly how you would imagine beaches in Thailand to be. White sands, palm trees and colourful long boats drifting just offshore. The temperature of the sea is 29 degrees - unbelievable warm! It's like swimming in a giant bath! The water on Ko Tao is extremely clear so it is a very popular place for snorkelling and diving. It is also very hot! I could only manage about 15-20 minute stints in the sun before having to go and refresh in the sea which was difficult due to the temperature of it! But it was lovely to be on the beach again and I felt lovely and relaxed by the end of the day! Ready for a night of mayhem on the Ko Tao pub crawl! Zoe and Nicole, Loz's friends, had already done the crawl once and informed us it was a great night. Which it was! We went to a pool party, a lady boy cabaret show and at one bar there was an amazing live band who played a couple of Christmas songs and got us feeling Christmassy! Over the next couple of days we explored the island on mopeds, spent some more time sunbathing and saw some incredible sunsets! One day we got a taxi boat over to a little island called Ko Nangyang, which was two little islands joined together by a sandbar. There was a steep climb up to a view point which gave you stunning views across the whole island. Definitely worth the sweaty climb! Once we got down to the bottom we went for a swim to cool off. The sea was so clear here, that lots of people would come across for the day to snorkel. Whilst we were there about 3 boat loads of Asian tourists were dropped off. This made for quite a funny sight as not many of them could swim, so the sea filled up with lots of people swimming about in bright orange life jackets coughing and spluttering as they worked out how their snorkels worked!



Unfortunately Loz, Zoe and Nicole were all heading back to England so after a week together we parted ways. I had decided to stay on the island and do my open water diving course. Ko Tao is incredibly popular to do this course mainly became it is so cheap. For a course of four days I only paid £150 and this included my accommodation as well. Cheap as chips! It's normally at least double that in other places. I was in a group with 4 other people. 2 Scousers called Billy and Adam who were absolutely mental! And a Dutch couple called Sem and Olga who were lovely! Over the 4 days we would be doing a mixture of theory, pool work and then finishing it off with 4 dives. The course was great and I loved every second of the diving. After my experience in Australia I was a little bit nervous but Billy and Olga had also had bad experiences so our instructor took everything slowly until we were all confident. Whilst underwater you had to do different skills, including taking your mask off completely underwater and putting it back on. This was what I was most nervous about but by the end of the course i could do it confidently. The dives were brilliant. We saw loads of different types of fish and coral. At the end of our 2nd dive we were waiting to get back onto the boat when I felt a sharp sting on my knee. I shouted out and Adam told me I had just been stung by a jellyfish. Turns out it was a box jellyfish as well! It was only a little one though so it didn't hurt too badly. My instructor seemed impressed that I was more bothered by the fact I really needed a wee! I still have the mark on my knee and I'm hoping I get a scar so that I've got an impressive story to tell!! There were 3 other groups also doing their Open water course and over the 4 days we all became really close and I met some great people! After our last dive myself and the rest of our group all decided that we wanted to do our Advanced diving course. We decided to have a day off between so that we could go out that night and celebrate with everyone else. During the course you are encouraged not to drink too much so we had only been having a couple. We all had a brilliant night out and it was lovely to have a lazy day the next day to recover!



The following day we started our advanced course. During the course we did 5 dives and got to learn new skills such as using a dive watch, navigation under water and diving to 30 m. We also got to try different dives including a night dive and a shipwreck dive. The night dive was cool, although I prefer diving during the day as you get to see more. At one point during the night dive we put out torches to our chest so there wasn't much light. Then when you waved your hand in front of your face the bubbles and plankton around you would all glow green. This was probably one of my favourite moments as it was pretty magical! My favourite dive overall was probably the shipwreck dive. The wreck was an old war ship used by the US navy during the Vietnam war. It was then given to the Thai government who sank it to create a diving site. It was really cool to swim around and over the boat. It had huge guns on the front of it and the fish that we saw while we were down there were much bigger than some of the others we had seen. On our first day before we had started doing any dive disaster struck me again. I honestly have the worst luck! The boat was pretty rocky as there was a storm coming in and the sea was quite choppy. As I was heading off to get suited up for the dive when Adam called my name, I turned around to talk to him, as I did the boat rocked suddenly and I fell sideways kicking a plank of wood that was underneath the seat. I swore loudly and hobbled around trying to walk it off. When I eventually looked down at my foot my pinky toe was sticking out at a right angle to my foot! I couldn't believe it! Then the instructor told me I wouldn't be diving today. I was devastated and desperately wanted to dive so I asked him just to click it back in. He agreed but told me it would hurt quite a lot. I didn't mind I just wanted to dive! I gave him my foot and looked the other way whilst glowering at Adam who felt terrible! It didn't hurt too much having it put back and I was happy I'd be able to dive. I thanked him and stood up, only for the boat to lurch again and I fell into a girl just nudging my toe slightly and the damned thing popped back out again! This was getting ridiculous! I swore, sat back down and told the instructor to do his work again! He popped it back in and we taped it up to try and make sure it didn't pop back out again! They were all very impressed with my pain threshold as it really didn't hurt that much! I am now convinced I will find childbirth a breeze!! However the pain did get worse as the day wore on and it made it very difficult to get my fins on. I would have to climb into the water put one on and then roll around in the water for 5 mins trying to squeeze my swollen foot into the other fin! This was probably more painful than when I actually dislocated it! At the End of the two days we had all completed our dives and are now certified Advanced Divers! I'm so glad I did the diving although it does mean I now have a very expensive hobby and I will now be planning my holidays around where the best dives are!



As soon as we had finished the course I was leaving Ko Tao to head up to Bangkok to meet back up with Loz. I had another long 12 hr journey consisting of another rocky boat ride and a bus journey. The boat was not as bad as the boat over, I swore I was never getting on that thing again, but it was still rocky due to the bad weather. I was ok though and I'm beginning to think I've outgrown my sea sickness hurrah!! I arrived into Bangkok at 3am earlier than scheduled. My friend Megan from my school in London has moved out to Thailand with her husband this year to teach and I had arranged to go and stay with them for a couple of days. However they weren't expecting me this early and I felt very guilty when I rocked up outside their house at 4am in the morning! Their house is lovely and we had a lovely couple of days meeting their friends and receiving a few home comforts! They seem to have a lovely life out here in Thailand and Megan convinced me of the benefits of teaching abroad. It's definitely something I would consider if I can persuade Tom! Loz arrived back from her quick trip home to surprise her Dad for his birthday and the next evening we headed back into Bangkok for another long bus journey up to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand where we will be spending Christmas and then moving onto Pai for New year! I'm really excited for Northern Thailand. Everyone says it's really chilled out and laid back! Right up my street!



I hope everyone has a brilliant Christmas and New Year! I'm not feeling Christmassy at all but am very jealous of you all eating your Christmas dinners!

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Photos

Moped time!
Me and Zoe out on the mopeds!

Pub Crawl!
Loz, Nocole, Stefan, me and Zoe before things got messy!

Ko Nangyang
The view after a sweaty climb!

Sunset
The view from Sunset Bar

Out on the dive boat
Getting up at 5:15 was worth it for this!