Thailand

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Sorry to all that it has taken me far to long to get started on these updates! I will try my best to get better at them from now on!



Day 1 - Sat 10.10.09 - BANGKOK, THAILAND



Me and Maz arrived at about 4pm after an 11 hour flight, which seemed to go by extremely fast, after all the constant food that Qantas kept giving us. Great service though. Got hotel transfer back to NEW WORLD CITY LODGE. Nice hotel. Got a bit home sick (already i know, how sad!). Cant beleive the heat, no sun but with the humidity so high it was sweltering! Went for a beer with Maz to place accross the road from the hotel as they dont sell beer, and waited for chris and michelle to arrive. Bar owner freaked us out saying that there was going to be some red shirt protestors in the city tomorrow. Went on internet to check for any signs, but found nothing. Chris and michelle turned up a few hours later. Went for meal, few beers (bit drunk!), then bed.



Day 2 - Sun 11.10.09



No sign of protests surprisingly! Took a boat ride through the canals of Bangkok on a long tail boat. Then went to the grand palace. Then got a tuk tuk ride home in a tuk tuk only designed for 2-3 people max and we had 4 of us! Went for meal and beers and cocktails down Khaosan Road - very crazy and busy place! Got very drunk. Bed.



Day 3 - Mon 12.10.09



Went shopping in Khaosan Road, got some good t-shirts for only 3 pound each! Wish i hadnt packed so much and bought more when i got there! Ate dinner from a street vendor...cant get much more down to earth than eating in the street! Food is so cheap in Thailand...proper Thai dish for about a pound! Better than you could probably get in a Thai restaurant back home! Got bus ride at 9pm until 5am taking us down to Champon, then stood and watched sun rise whilst waiting for the ferry to take us to Koh Tao. Sun came up in about 10 minutes...so quick! First sight of sea and islands, so excited!



Day 4 - Tues 13.10.09 KOH TAO



The first boat stop was at this tiny set of 3 islands just north of Koh Tao...Really amazing looking place called Koh Nang Yuan. Going to visit there later in the week so will come back to that later! (Didnt stop there). We got off at Koh Tao and hoped there would be loads of touts trying to sell us accomodation...nothing! But we went to tourist office and booked accomodation for SAIREE HUT HOTEL. Got taxi to hotel in the back of a pick up truck...just sat on the sides in the back pretty much! All there seemed to be on the islands was 4x4s. Pick up went through the middle of the island to get to the resort...such a beautiful place...all you could see was palm trees and hills in the distance. Got to resort, walked down to the beach and had a swim...amazing beach, palm trees on the edge of the beach and such a nice bay. Really warm water. Could stay there for weeks! Went for sleep in room in the afternoon as got pretty much no sleep the night before on the bus. Went for several beers in the main street near the resort...got quite drunk yet again!



Day 5 - Wed 14.10.09



Moved out of hotel as a bit basic, and moved accross the road to SUN SMILE LODGE, bit bigger room, and a safe, and a TV. Chilled out most of the day. Had swim and walk up the beach. Sat on floor cushions in bar by the beach in the evening and watched the sun set...could get used to that! Had dinner and then bed.



Day 6 - Thurs 15.10.09



Snorkelling trip around the island today with 4-5 stops along the way. Swam with big balls of shoals of fishes when the boat driver threw balls of rice in right next to us! Then went to the small island group at the top of Koh Tao called Koh Nang Yuan - most beautiful place i think i have been. Three small islands connected to each other by sand spits. Me and Chris climbed to the top of the 2nd tallest island (spectacular views), and then walked around the same island on a board walk that we thought went all the way around, but as we found out after walking round most of it that it is still being completed and only goes 90 percent of the way around, so you have to go back all the way you came! When we got back we went and watched the sunset again, few beers and cocktails and then bed.



Day 7 - Fri 16.10.09 - KOH PHANGAN



Up early with a hangover. Got ferry to Koh Phangan. Chose hotel from touts at the ferry port. Hotel called HAAD YAO BAYVIEW RESORT. Had pool right next to the beach...only 800 baht per room (about 8 pound per person. I dont think we paid over 10 pound per person the whole time in thailand!) Really nice place, sea view room. Chilled out by pool. Went for snooze at 4pm, and didnt get up again!



Day 8 - Sat 17.10.09



Up late. Chilled by pool. Felt ill so went back to room. Was pretty ill for the rest of the day. Shame when we had such a nice hotel!



Day 9 - Sun 18.10.09



Stil pretty ill. Think it was because i used the tapwater to clean my teeth! Stayed in room most of the day. Bed.



Day 10 - Mon 19.10.09 - KOH SAMUI



Got boat to Koh Samui. Wondered round the main street with Chris. Sat by pool of hotel (which was right next to the beach again!). Food, bed.



Day 11 - Tues 20.10.09



Boat tour to Anthong national marine park with Chris. The girls were doing a different trip for the day. The marine park consisted of lots of small islands a couple of miles of the coast of the main islands we were at. Went Kayaking for a while around the islands, then went to an inland lake. In the afternoon we went to another island which was just like paradise (everything seems like paradise in the Thai islands!). There was a viewpoint about 500 metres up the island so we tried to get to it. It was a pretty rough walk and i only made it to about 300 metres before dying! Chris made it all the way (git). So i went back down and sat in the shade under a palm tree! Good day! Pub. Bought a cowboy hat (nobody laugh!) as the sun was too hot for a cap alone! Bed.



Day 12 - Wed 21.10.09 - KRABI



Got a bus, then a boat, then another bus and then a taxi bus (basically an old big truck with a couple of rows of benches in the back) to Krabi. Staying at a place called MILD BUNGALOWS. Seemed a bit in the middle of nowhere but only about 5 minutes walk to the beach. I seem to have done so many boat rides over the past couple of weeks that i'm getting a bit dizzy being on land! Chilled out by the pool, then got what they call a tuk tuk - which was actually a motorbike with a large sidecar big enought to squeze the 4 of us in! - to the main street and got some food in a nice italian restaurant, then bed.



Day 13 - Thurs 22.10.09



Took a long tail boat trip (yes another boat!) with Michelle (the other two took a different trip) to see James Bond island and also some of the great limestone rock formations among the mangrove forests that Krabi is known for. The James Bond rock is from the film 'The man with the golden gun', where he flies in in his car plane to the island near the end, and the rock has an antena coming out of it...really cool place...no antena there this time though, and however hard i looked there was no sign of Scaramanga's evil lair, only tourist stalls! Then carried on to another place among the mangroves and did another kayak session, only this time i had a guide who was paddling for me...i could just sit at the front of the kayak and be a proper tourist...we did go in some cool caves though, some gaps to get in i thought we had no chance of getting in, but we fitted into these tiny caves once i'd ducked down and a couple of times grounded on some rocks! After that we went to a floating village for some lunch, then back to land and on to a buddah in a cave and then a waterfall. Not bad but once you've seen one buddah they're all pretty much the same! Really cool seeing the james bond island though! Few beers in evening and then bed.



Day 14 - Fri 23.10.09 - KOH PHI PHI



Got a boat from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi. First boat broke down exiting the boat dock so had to transfer to another one. Phi Phi has no roads so you either walk around the small lanes on the main stretch of the island, or if they need to transport anything, it is put on these oversized wheelbarrows. Nice having no cars for a few days. Really nice island too. It is pretty much to big hills/islands with a big sandspit in the middle which is where the small town is. Got a man with a wheelbarrow to come and pick up our stuff and take me and Chris to our accomodation at THE WHITE. Our accom was pretty basic so the girls decided to live it up a bit at another hotel. Me and Chris walked up one of the hills/islands to a viewpoint looking over the town below...pretty cool view! Weird to think that the whole town was almost wiped out a few years before by a tsunami...slightly unsettling to think it could happen again at any time, but you just gotta get on and enjoy yourself! Few beers at a beach bar in the evening with a fireshow (pretty much people swinging rope aound with a lit flame at the end in time to music...these shows are everywhere on all the islands in Thailand!). Bed



Day 15 - Sat 24.10.09



Chilled out in the morning. Then went and had a fry up at a cafe called 'The little britain cafe'...they basically do a load of british food and play episode after episode of Family Guy...very tourist like, but i dont care, fry up was great! Then me and Chris took a Kayak out around one of the headlands of the islands. Went to a beach full of monkeys, imaginatively tittled 'monkey beach', then carried on around the headland for a while and got to this hidden beach which was behind a cliff front and round a corner of rocks (hard to explain i know!) - it was a tiny beach with nobody there, just a little shack and a monkey up in the trees...strangely eerie. We opened a packet of biscuits we had taken with us, and as soon as we did that, the monkey came down to the beach and was right in front of us. I was going to empty the crumbs out of the packet for it but it snatched the packet right out of my hands! Once it had finished the crumbs it jumped into our cannoe on the beach and went for the dry bag we had our stuff in...cunningly Chris lured the monkey away with some pebbles pretending they were food and i got the cannoe back in the water and we did a runner before the monkey came back! Headed back to the resort, on the way back all the rocks by the cliffs looked like they were moving, turned out to be hundreds of crabs moving around on them! Back to the room knackered! Couple of beach bars in evening with another fire show! Bed.



Day 16 - Sun 25.10.09



Chilled out for most of the day by the beach and had a walk around the resort. Few beers in the evening.

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