Blogs from South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 12

We’ve hit the last leg of our travel experience; the glorious islands of Southern Thailand. We’ve started at Lonely Beach, on the west coast of Ko Chang island. I’m in love with Ko Chang for its epic beauty, consistent neighbourhood friendliness and surreal sunsets. The tropical white sands and turquoise sea is heavenly on a sunny day, which is almost every day. It’s beginning of rainy season meaning we hear thunder often but rain only comes down for an hour or so and then the burning hot sun reappears. There are many local bars (huts built from wood and a few fairly lights) around the island and along the beach with a real party vibe. It’s been blissfully quiet during our stay meaning we’ve had the beaches to ourselves. This has been my favourite place I’ve ... read more

What would you do on your last day in Thailand? Visit a temple of course! Tiger Cave Temple sits high up on a tall lime karst overlooking the small town of Krabi. We jumped on a local bus right outside our guest house which took us all the way to the temple for 50 Baht each (£1). As we were dropped off the driver pointed to a sheet with times written on and indicated he would pick us up at the time we pointed to. We chose 12.30. Three hours later. Service!! We walked around the temples at the bottom before tackling the 1267 or so steps to the top. Within minutes we were pouring with sweat stopping frequently to catch our breath and take in the fantastic views. Finally, at the top we walked around ... read more

After our quick stop over in Kuala Lumpur we flew back to Krabi. Sharon and Scott were not returning to Ko Lanta for a few days yet so we decided to stay over in Krabi and spend a day visiting Railay Beach. Well 3 beaches actually. It's a place we stayed at a few years ago and wanted to see how it had changed. The scenery is spectacular , a peninsular backed by tall lime karsts. The only way to get to it is by boat. Each time we'd walked out of our guest house near the pier we were accosted by touts getting to take the trip there. By 9am we'd had breakfast and were ready to go. The tout marched behind us yabbering away but we bought the ticket at the main office anyway. ... read more

Nach den beiden doch eher touristischen Orten Phuket und Phi Phi zog es mich dann weiter nach Koh Lanta. Mit der Fähre legte ich auf der Naturbelassenen Insel an und wurde mit einem Tuk Tuk direkt vor das Hostel gebracht. Es scheint als gebe es nur eine Strasse auf dieser Insel, welche die gut 30km lange Insel vom Norden Richtung Süden verbindet – und wie sich in den nächsten Tagen herausstellte, gibt es wirklich nur eine Hauptstrasse. Naja, Naturinsel halt. Sogleich im Hostel coole Leute kennengelernt und dann auch bereits am gleichen Abend eine 4 Island Tour für den nächsten Morgen gebucht. Tagwache 07:30! Und das obwohl ich eigentlich nach der Sauferei im Hangover Hostel auf Phi Phi mal dringend Schlaf benötigen würde. Noch am gleichen Abend ging es mit einer grossen Clique Abendessen und danach ... read more

Our first two months in Thailand hadn’t exactly been the relaxed chill out time we’d envisioned. As described in the previous blog, we were constantly nervous about news of the wildfires and the mudslides back home in California, and then there was my trip to Bangkok for surgery. On top of all this, Jake smashed his finger and couldn’t swim for over two weeks, making us both land-bound on a hot tropical island. We were determined our last two months would be better! Arriving back on Ko Lanta after spending a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur for a visa run felt so good. I remember our first evening back, walking down to the beach to see all the familiar volleyball players and feeling a sense of calm wash over me. We were greeted by our ... read more