Stuck in Bangkok - The Centre of the World

---

Hi everyone,

So last time I wrote we had been refused entry into Burma so we left Bangkok the next day and headed down to Koh Tao a diving Island where we just relaxed at the beachside bars on bean bags, one night we went out to a beach party and had our first bucket (a lethal concoction of alcohol served in a bucket with red bull and slurped through a handful of straws) and everyone ended up dancing on a table in the middle of the sea with the waves crashing over it. The next night we sat at a lovely bar on the beach where they set off these mini paper hot air balloons (like they do in “The Beach”)

Next we headed down to Koh Phangan. We headed straight for the fullmoon party beach, Hat Rin, but found a bungalow close enough to the action but far enough to get a way from the madness. Well what can i say about the party island of Thailand, it's got great chicken baguettes that formed an important part of our diet, and have more buckets than B&Q and HOMEBASE put together. Our fist night here we bought and drunk a 3lt bottle of red wine while playing a drinking game we have now named "The game". Not only did this game get us drunk but we also ended up wearing each others clothes in ridiculous ways. They really go all out for the full moon parties, there must have been 10,000 people on the beach with giant flaming skipping ropes and fire limbo, which gets really and really low, but Aaron managed to win a free bucket for getting the lowest.
We didn’t get drunk the whole week though, we did go on an adventure through the jungle on a green dot walk, where you just follow the green dots on the trees, it took a lot longer than they said it would though and we got bitten to death by mosquitoes, we made it to the other side eventually though even though there was a monsoon for half the walk.

After our week of partying we're ready for some relaxation on Ko Samui. So we splash out on a real nice room at the end of the quite, Lamai beach, where we sipped cocktails by the empty pool and thai wine high up on he bolders over looking the ocean. Here they also have some amazing rock structures called the Grandfather and Grandmother rocks, shaped remarkably like the respective genitals. Another day trip was made to Tescos, where we got a roast chicken for a pound and the ingredients for the biggest sandwich in the world.
After all our island hopping we headed back to the main land and to Khao Sok National Park, where we stayed in a little bamboo hut on stilts in the jungle next to a river and huge limestone cliffs. I got huge blisters so couldn’t walk anywhere in the National Park so I left Aaron in the jungle for an extra night while I headed off to Phuket-Patong beach.
When Aaron arrived the next day we went to FANTASEA, a grand buffet and show. The food was great and we ate so much, but the show wasn’t as good as we expected, except for the dozen or so elephants doing tricks. We both then meet up with Gerry (Aarons father) in Phuket town, where we stayed at the On On Hotel where part of the Beach was filmed, and actually stayed in room 38 which was used as Richards (Leanardo Dicaprio’s) room, it was pretty horrible!
Then we skooted off to Ko Phi Phi, and we introduced Gerry to buckets and managed to get him up dancing in the Apache Bar. One night we dined on lobster and the other stuffed ourselves on a japanese buffet. Our last stop in Thailand was on Ko Lanta, an extremely quiet island where we just relaxed by the pool and let the cocktails flow.

We left Koh Lanta and were off to Malaysia, our 11th country we had to be out by midnight because our visas ran out that day. So we got the two ferries, two busses, a 7 hour train then another ferry across to Penang Island but we made it without having to pay the overstay fees. While in Penang we went up Penang hill in a rickety old tram which gives an amazing view of the Island and mainland and then visited the butterfly farm and fishing village and the next day we wondered around little India, which really made me want to go to India. (One Day!)

Then it was off to the Cameron Highlands, the drive was lovely all through the foresty mountains, except the driver liked to think it was his own personal grand prix course which was quite scary when there are sheer drops right on the edge of the road. So we though ourselves lucky that when the wheel exploded and fell off we were going up a very steep hill very slowly! We were stuck in the middle of nowhere for 3 hours waiting for another bus which didn’t arrive so they just replaced the wheel instead, we were all sat waiting at this little shed which was like someones house and drivers café, and there was a cute little Malay kid I was taking pictures of, as we left my camera bag wasn’t done up and I smashed my camera on the concrete floor! Oooppssss! Eventually we left on the now fixed bus and we had about 40km to go, about 10 minutes later we went down a hill really fast and the driver stopped, we though we had arrived but he said the bus is going no further as the brakes had failed- so everyone got off and had to pile on the public bus full of locals with all there luggage!

The Cameron Highlands was lovely, all rolling hills full of tea plantations and because it was so high it was about 26 degrees, a lovely break from the heat. We went on a tour to the tea factory, walked through a mossy forest (me in my bare feet as I have no boots anymore) it felt nice though walking through the mud! Then in the afternoon we went to a traditional Orang Asli family, Aaron and I were the only ones there, there pet monkey had an infactuation with my camera and wouldn’t leave me alone and we ended up dancing around in there little bamboo house while they played there bamboo instruments, drums, a guitar and the mother playing a bamboo flute with her nose! We ate a Durian which is disgusting, imagine fleshy fruit that tastes like milky off cheese!! Urgghh! And smelly beans which are supposed to flush out your stomach.

The next day we went for a round of golf at the Cameron Highlands Golf Course, which was hilarious because we cant really play golf, everyone was really posh and we were in our muddy jeans! After the first 3 holes the daily monsoon started and it rained for the next two hours, it was so great though, except we got a little cold because were waiting for the bus home, we realized it was Sunday so it night not be running so we started walking in the dark and then the bus went by, so we ran after it waving our arms and thank god we managed to get it to stop.

Next stop was Taman Negara which is a National Park in the middle of the rainforest, it’s a tiny little town and we stayed in a crazy house painted all different colours and we had giant tropical fish painted all over our walls. We walked to the Canopy walkway which is basically a ladder with a plank of wood on it suspended from the trees by some netting and ropes 45 metres up, it was pretty scary for me as I’m not great with heights and every so often the whole thing would creek but I managed to get the whole way round.

Aaron really wanted to spend the night in a hide so we booked one that some other people were staying in so it would be a bit less scary. We set off in the jungle for our 4 km walk to get to the hide, after about 10 seconds a massive flying beetle landed on my arm and then Aaron spotted this huge centipede it was about a foot long and an inch wide it had a red head and a black and yellow striped body, it looked so creepy and very poisonous. I was so happy to spending the night in the jungle with all these creatures! We saw lots more spiders, bugs and monkeys on the way. We finally arrived at the hide with a few leeches still managing to get through my socks and jeans and the place was full of spiders, and some were big turantulas, as the sun started to go down the other people hadn’t arrived and I decided I would go back to our hostel as I was really frightened, so Aaron started to wlak to me to the closet jetty, but something really big like a boar started to run at us so we ran back into the hide, there was no way I was going anywhere! It was like being in LOST. We made it through the night, it was very noisy we only got a couple of hours of sleep. We ahd to be at the jetty which was 20 minutes walk away at 7.30 for our boat, but I was woken by Aaron shouting its 7.30! So we grabbed our stuff and ran through the jungle to the jetty but when we got there we realized we were in the wrong place, our boat didn’t come, but we managed to hitch ride in this mans boat for free and just made it in time to get our bus. We had all day traveling and no sleep, so when they told us the train was 6 hours late we weren’t very happy! We eventually arrived at Kota Bharu at 1 in the morning with no accommodation booked and no money but we managed to get to a hotel that was open and they let us pay in the morning, it was quite a day!!!!!

Hope everyone is well, lots of love Sarah xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

---