South Thailand

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(Written by Kerry, then Graham, then Kerry and Graham at the same time on different computers and then stitched together at the end. Hence there may be some confusing uses of the words "I", "We", "My", "Kerry" and "Graham" as well as some interesting changes in narrative style along the way - sorry!)

Back into Thailand
After a week of trying to arrange a replacement passport for Kerry from Vientiane, we finally gave up and decided to head to Bangkok to sort it out in person. After 3 or 4 working days we'd secured the necessary emergency travel documentation via trips to the Aussie Embassy, the Laos Immigration Office, the Aussie Embassy again and finally the Thai Embassy - a police report, a letter of recommendation from the Aussies, a Laissez Passer (bizarrely written in French rather than Laos) from the Immigration Office and a free 60 day visa from the Thais.

We hopped on a bus and crossed the border without a passport - Kerry was almost but not quite treated like a V.I.P. with her Laissez Passer, although the immigration officials were a bit confused as to her circumstances (presumably not helped by the fact that the Passer was written in French not Laos). We got there eventually!

I got a my 15 day visa on arrival on the border, safe in the knowledge that it could easily be extended once I got to Bangkok. Oh Graham, Graham, Graham - when will you learn.......?


Bangkok revisited
We headed straight to the Embassy when we arrived early on Friday morning but found it closed (public holiday).

Checked into the Atlanta Hotel, an establishment that appeared to be so up it's own arse on it's website (vehemently against sex tourism but also against anyone else that doesn't meet it's stringent standards) that we just had to see what it was like in person. Views were ok and lobby area nice, but apart from that nothing much to write home about. Stayed one night and then checked out.

Headed to Suk 11 Guesthouse off Soi 11, Sukhumvit which was excellent (despite the resident mouse in the reception area) - stayed there for 5 nights (I think) whilst we tried to sort out......

....our "DHL Hell" - seriously they should make a TV series. I can't be bothered to explain in detail but it eventually took 11 days for a package containing marriage certificates (evidence required to get Kerry's passport in her new name) that should have taken 3 days to arrive in Bangkok - by which time we'd left the city...and sent another package to replace the one that had apparently gone missing but couldn't track because the tracking system didn't work....and dealing with two different help desks in two different countries........no, I don't want to think about it, the scars are too fresh. Just don't ever use DHL, ok? Good.

Went to the movies, twice, mainly because we wanted to experience the pre-movie segment again (the hilariously entertaining "Come try this, yeah! It's so chic, yeah!" advertising theme tune to a bowling complex next door to the cinema and the homage to the King piece where everyone has to stand as a mark of respect).

Watched "Surrogates" and then the awesome, awesome, AWESOME "Michael Jackson's - This is It". Go and watch it if you haven't yet, it's brilliant. Definitive proof that MJ was 1. genuinely a bit strange, 2. genuinely ridiculously talented and 3. incredibly hard working. Inspiring and entertaining stuff.

Kerry also took part in a public Michael Jackson dance class that was being held outside the cinema to promote the movie - very entertaining 😊

(By the way, the bowling alley adverts obviously worked because we ended up there after the MJ movie)

Went drinking (and discovered the dangerously potent "Negroni" cocktail) on Soi 11, ending at the very impressive (and expensive) Bed Supper Club which was a fun night with great music but we were a little surprised (and disappointed) when it suddenly closed at 2am - we'd been holding back on the drinks in anticipation of a 6am finish! Oh well.......

Foods - amazing spicy lemon sea bass at the restaurant outside Suk 11 Guesthouse (forget the name now) and visited Little Arabia around Sukhumvit, Soi 13 to get a much needed curry and dhal fix which had us reminiscing over India - it's definitely left me with a dhal fry addiction!

Tried to get my visa extended and, after several hours at the Thai immigration office, was told that I could only get 7 days extra at the max (as compared to the 3 weeks I needed) - damnit! My own fault - should've followed Kerry's example and got my visa sorted out in Laos but I stupidly decided to stay in bed that day.

Went to the British Embassy when it opened again on Monday morning and Kerry's application was pretty painless. We had 2 weeks to kill before her new passport would be ready so...........


Ko Phi Phi: Island paradise with tourism
.....we took an overnight bus route south from Bangkok to Krabi which was, unfortunately, waaaay longer than advertised, poorly administered (connecting bus didn't exist), involved an attempted scam at the Krabi end by the bus operator and was generally made pretty horrendous by a group of pissed up Brits abroad......but lets not focus on the negatives 😊

Rather than stay in Krabi we jumped on a ferry and headed straight to Ko Phi Phi - which is GORGEOUS. A little bit touristy (we were there for the end of Oct/beginning of Nov transition from off-season to on-season and witnessed the hotel price hikes) and definitely pricier than the rest of Thailand, but beautiful nonetheless, and recovering well from the terrible tsunami disaster back in 2005.

Ban Ton Sai beach is truly a sight to behold - a cove surrounded by high cliffs, forest an filled with clear, turquoise water. The water doesn't get above waist height until you are nearly outside the cove and into the Andaman Sea, so you can wade out, sit or lie in the water in the middle of the bay, soak up the sun and take in the beauty. Hopefully the photos do it justice.

Took a boat trip around Ko Phi Phi and to some neighbouring islands - brilliant day where the highlights included Graham being attacked by monkeys on Bamboo Island beach (ok, this wasn't entirely my fault - I was helping out some Japanese tourists who were being attacked by said monkeys and they turned on me instead. The Japanese guys helpfully ran away! Queue a comedy scene of me running down the beach being chased by a dozen monkeys. Kerry nearly wet herself), Kerry being bitten by a fish (made especially funny by the fact that 24 hours previously she had insisted that fish do not bite and that I was being paranoid thinking that they do), snorkelling in crystal clear waters amongst brightly coloured fish around Phi Phi and Phi Phi Leh (Phi Phi Leh being especially memorable) and visiting Maya Beach (the beach used in the filming of "The Beach") which is, despite the number of visitors it receives, incredibly well maintained.

Spent the rest of our time there lying on a beach topping up our tans which was tough, obviously 😊

The low light of Phi Phi was Kerry's waterproof camera breaking, drama! The shockproof, waterproof camera that we got for travelling got water inside the mechanism and did not survive - we assume that it didn't close properly. Fortunately the memory card is ok and we have my compact Sony to use until we find somewhere offering a bargain replacement. Bangkok was expensive for cameras! It was a canny little camera so we'll probably get another of the same and just be extra careful before taking it under water.


Ranong visa run
My visa was running out so I needed to leave Thailand. We left Ko Phi Phi and took a bus north to Ranong which borders Myanmar. spent the night there and then made a 3 hour round trip (starting at 6.30am) from our hostel to Ranong port, through Thai immigration and out of Thailand, hopped onto a fishing boat, across the Pak Chan River, through Myanmar immigration (where I paid $4 for a one day Myanmar visitors visa), stayed in Myanmar for about 5 minutes (the Myanmese are a lovely people, based on the two that I met), jumped back on a fishing boat, back to Ranong harbour and back through Thai immigration where I duly received another 15 day tourist visa.

Kerry got her revenge and stayed in bed, safe in the knowledge that she had another 40 odd days on her visa before she had to leave Thailand.


Pak Song: Runs N Roses eco jungle hideaway
Headed here for 3 nights, an eco outpost in the middle of the Thai jungle that runs volunteering projects (building schools, teaching English etc etc) although we were there are tourists only (in fact we were the only tourists there).

It was very, very off the beaten track and our room, which overlooked a river and backed onto dense forest was bloody noisy at night (think sounds of the jungle plus unknown animals crawling over the roof). In fact, our bathroom was in the jungle - we could walk out of the bedroom's back door and the toilet, shower and sink were surrounded by nature. Kerry hates spiders so getting up to go to the loo in the middle of the night proved an adventure for her 😊

We were given mountains of (very tasty) food 3 times a day by an onsite cook and spent our first evening drinking and playing guitar with the volunteers (mostly Dutch and French) and workers that were living there - good times.

Lots of reading, mostly of a fascinating English & American history Italian school text book (in English). How patriotic it made us - bloody brilliant us Brits (mostly)! Especially with regards to teaching the rest of Europe how to be civilized, apparantly 😊

And also made it out for a bit of a trek into the jungle.


Ko Chang: Island paradise without tourism
Heard about Ko Chang (on the west side of Thailand, as opposed to the more famous Ko Chang on the east side) whilst in our Ranong guesthouse. Headed back to Ranong and caught a boat to the island where we were dropped off at Contex Resort - a dozen chalets on a beach in a secluded cove on the north of the island.

Spent 4 really relaxing days here - beautiful by day, dark but relaxing by night with limited electricity supplied by a small generator and plenty of time spent in hammocks or swimming of one of the two small beaches that were about 20 metres from our chalet. Nice! Hardly any other tourists to be seen, either in our cove or around the rest of the island.

We also found out what lizards sound like (they croak) and we had one regular visitor that left a big (for a lizard) daily poo on the top of our mosquito net. Nice!

In summary, it's not the most picturesque and it may not have the clearest water, but still very beautiful and relaxing and not yet discovered by the tourist route - definitely recommended if you're in the area.


Bangkok revisited, again
Ok, Kerry's passport was finally ready and DHL had (finally) managed to get the marriage certificates delivered to Bangkok.

A very productive morning upon arrival in Bangkok: DHL collection, new passport collection and a transferred visa in the new passport at the immigration office all before noon. Amazing as the three places were nowhere near each other.

Spent a couple of days catching up with blogging, shopping around Siam Square, eating pate, cheese and french bread and drinking red wine (courtesy of the Gourmet Food Hall in Siam Square - think Waitrose but bigger and better) and generally recharging our batteries.

On our last night in Bangkok (and Thailand) we treated ourselves to a swanky seven-ish course dinner at a posh hotel to celebrate our 6 month anniversary - figured we deserved it after finally overcoming the lost passport disaster 😊

And then we jumped on a bus headed east to Cambodia.........a little sorry to leave a city that we'd spent so much time in but glad to finally be able to get into another country.

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Photos

Koh Phi Phi
the amazing Ban Ton Sai

Ko Phi Phi
one of the island stopoffs on our snorkelling trip

snorkelling trip
on board

Ko Chang
private beach #1 at sunset

Ko Chang
private beach #2

Stop.....hammock time
Ko Chang

Bangkok - posh meal
for our 6month anniversary