Pad Thai

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After a long day of aiport transits we had our next country stamped in our passports and made our way through Bangkok to Khao San Rd. A crazy tuk tuk drive through the morning traffic got us to our bus south to Krabi just in time, smoking and engine overheating from our dash across town.

Krabi was the stepping stone to Railay and its imposing limestone rock faces. We spent a few days on the beach sipping on cocktails in coconut shells and getting acquainted with chang beer at sunset. It wasn't all lazing about, the muscles were put to the test during an afternoon of rockclimbing after which the arms were weary and the legs were shaking.

The ferry down to Ko Lanta was piled high with backpackers and their luggage with no apparent maximum capacity. Headed to the southern secluded tip of the island for some downtime and fine dining on the beach at 'Same Same but Different' (anyone who's been to Thailand will know that this is one of their favourite catch phrases).

Back into civilization, we met up with Mates, Mike & Carlen in Phi Phi to join in Carlen's 30th bday celebrations. The fact that we are all getting older didn't seem to slow us down or maybe it was just the pure redbull syrup in the buckets (booze in a bucket...cheap and nasty!) We enjoyed the beach bars and fire shows, staged thai boxing and managed to keep ourselves occupied in all the rain. When the clouds dispersed we took a sunset boat/snorkel tour around the local islands feeding monkeys and saw colourful fish and stunning beaches.

From the West coast we moved to the East side just in time for the craziness of the full moon party on Ko Pha Ngan. Had an eventful trip of multiple ferrys/minibuses/bakkies and a coach bus, which came with its own personal thief hidden under the bus who kindly rummaged through our bags. The fullmoon party lived up to its reputation of hedonistic beach action with thousands of people dancing to the beats of the beach bar DJs, flourescent tattoos, fire shows and overflowing buckets.

We retreated to Ko Tao for some scooter assisted beach hopping and an awesome sunset bar perched over the Sarie Bay below. Caught a long boat out to Nangyuan, a cluster of 3 idylic little islands with white sand walkways connecting them, to enjoy the snorkelling and hilltop lookout.

From the beaches we headed north to the mountains of Chiang Mai for a trekking trip in the jungle. We piled out of our crammed bakkie and onto elephants feeding them bananas and getting wet from the spray
at the watering hole. Then it was time to carry ourselves all the way up to the local village, past the refreshing waterfall and green mamba. We were greeted by friendly faces and entertained by the local
guitar man, who knew the tune to all our western songs and made up "english" lyrics...very entertaining.
Our guide Willow, the original mountain man served up pad thai lunch on a leaf with reeds for chopsticks. We tried brown water rafting and then went back to basics on a bamboo submarine/raft for a float downstream. Was a really memorable trip, learning the rural ways with an awesome group of travellers.

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