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Published: January 19th 2010
Happy New Year!… and what a happy new year it is!
Apologies it’s taken me so long to get around to making you all hate me a little more but I’m afraid I’ve been having too much fun!
Thailand
So it was first stop Bangkok and inevitably the infamous Khao San Road. Khao San is absolutely mental, a great place to have some fun for a couple of days though it does suck out your soul! Basically you will never get hassled to buy tat more in your life (if I hear another wooden croaking frog I’ll shoot someone!). We hit the buckets which are basically a small bottle of spirit mixed with whatever you want but usually involve the local red bull which truly is hectic stuff. We did head off Khao San a couple of times and this is where the fun really started - tuk tuks! Tuk tuks (named so due to the horrific noise they make) are a great way of nipping about and seeing the city though they really become good fun when the drivers start pulling wheelies so big that the little machine becomes vertical and the number plate is scraping along
Waterfall - Ko Samui
Motorbike Explorationthe floor! Oh and the guys will race against your mates’ tuk tuk for a small winners bonus, really funny stuff after a few Changs.
I won’t go into too much further detail on our time on Khao San...Kier, hehe.
After Chang O’Clock had come around a couple of times it was time to fly off to Ko Samui en route to Koh Tao for some chilling out and diving. We all drifted down on flights throughout the day though Kier wanted to experience some real travel so went ‘directly’ to Ko Tao via bus and boat. Sam and I arrived first in Samui and headed down to the beach for a massage which was heavenly after the chaos of Bangkok, once the others drifted down we hit a few cocktails and then were told the Full Moon Party was the same night just across the water on Ko Pha-Ngan. Naturally there was some debate as to whether to go considering the way we were feeling, naturally I obliged along with my Bro, Tim and Eugene and what a night it was. We got the boat across at midnight (I actually fell asleep on the journey there!) and
then partied the night away on the beach until sunrise, it really does have to be seen to be believed. We got the boat back at about 9.30am and then sat with some locals who let us share their breakfast outside their house before they gave us a lift back on a motorbike with some kind of carriage attached after some persuasion from Tim. Funny times, I didn’t think we’d make it up one of the hills, passed a few monks along the way!
Chaweng in Samui has been a little ‘Bangkokked’ in the sense that there are still go-go bars etc so we were looking forward to Ko Tao and meeting up with our little friend Kier. Unfortunately due to stormy weather the boats weren’t running so we held out for a few days but it didn’t get any better. The highlight of my time here was when Sean, Nick and I got the motorbikes out and headed off around the island, we found waterfalls and elephants and then upon our return to Chaweng we picked up old Eug and he, Nick and I went on an evening ride and stopped at a couple of bars along the
way. At one discreet little bar off the main strip it just so turned out the barman was actually the Asian Champion Bartender 2007 and 2009.... he had some unbelievable talent and was a really nice guy to boot, will post the vids up at some point.
We conceded to the storms and headed to the mainland and to the other side of the coast as the rule in Thailand states that if it is stormy on one coast then the other is fine. We went to Ao Nang for a few days by which point my feet had swollen up due to mosquito bites (yes not for the first time guys!) and I came down with a fever for a couple of days so had to stay in bed whilst the others went kayaking around Railay Beach (where James Bond has been filmed).
From Ao Nang we then went to Ko Lanta and at last we had found what we had been looking for.
We first stayed on Long Beach and found a gorgeous beachside restaurant with a load of lazy seating and amazing staff and food including of course the fish barbecue which was to die
Koh Lanta
Quiet beaches do still exist! for. It wasn’t until we all got the motorbikes out and went for a liitle ride around the island that Nick, Jon and I stumbled across Mong’s Bar. Mong was an absolute hero, he and his rastafarian mates looked after us so well when we moved down there the next day. The bar was right on the beach and our bungalow only 5 yards away though some of us actually just slept outside on the deck or beach or hammock after watching the sunset directly in front of us - perfect. Mong was doing the old knife between the fingers trick but he then moved it up a notch to a meat cleaver and eventually a power drill! Kier and I eventually succumbed to Mong’s constant offering of monkey brain shots, you could actually feel the bits of brain go down your throat, apparently it gives you strength - thanks Mong!
Then it was on to Phi Phi, back to the commercial side of life, though eventually we got to go diving! I was really disappointed with the diving here though did briefly see a leopard shark which was quite cool. I thought though the island itself is beautiful
the settlement between the bays was a bit of a dump, I will never forget those smells, you had to take certain routes through town if your hangover was that bad. Although a bit sick of fire shows by this point the guys here were some of the best I’ve seen plus you can get involved by doing fire limbo and fire skipping and each time successful there’s a free shot awaiting you!
From here it was back to the mainland and Khao Lak, we fortunately arrived on the last day of a festival which was quite good fun, we got the bikes out the next day but the stormy weather came in and we got DRENCHED, we couldn’t even ride in it and took cover at a petrol station for about 30 mins before growing some kahunas and heading into the downpour.
The storms kept coming so Nick, Sean and I headed out on a 2 day live-a-board diving trip on the Similan Islands and the other guys headed off on a camping and snorkelling trip on the Surin Islands. The Similan islands are home to some of the best dive spots in the world and we
were not disappointed, it was simply incredible!!!! As soon as we arrived at the live-a-board boat from the speedboat there were turtles all around and people snorkelling with them, fortunately for us they came back the next day so we got in with the snorkels and Sean’s underwater camera, have some awesome photos, great vid on Facebook too. Just before we went to bed the heavens opened but luckily they had stopped by the early hours of the morning because we had heard on the grapevine of a meteor shower that should give us a display of 500 or so shooting stars. We whipped our bedding up onto the top deck at and through the clouds managed to spot about 10, was wonderful waking up in the morning outside with that scenery though! A great trip.
After this it was back to Bangkok and the Khao San Road for one final session on the buckets before saying goodbye to the lads and no offence guys but this is where the real fun started…..
So I moved to a street a stone’s throw away from the Khao San, a really nice leafy street without all of the chaos of
The Lads
Khao Lak Khao San but I still hadn’t escaped those damn frogs! It was a bit strange not having the lads about at first but there was a Premier League triple-header on that day so soon met a couple of fellow football fans from Torquay, the three of us then met 3 local girls who took us to a local club, we were the only farang (foreigners) in the whole 3 floors of chaos, was a good laugh. The next night I met a lovely girl and actually ended up staying at her place for a couple of nights (free accommodation, result!) before doing a 14 hour overnight bus to Chang Mai in the north. The bus broke down about 6 times on the way though we still made it in on time, they were obviously expecting the failures!
Chiang Mai is famous for the trekking in the hills around the town so I booked myself in for the following morning leaving at 9am and headed out for a stroll. I met some nice guys at a rooftop bar who were doing a 3 month climbing tour of Asia, we ended up going to a nightclub and one thing led to
Snorkelling With Turtles
Similan Islands live-aboard diving trip another and I didn’t get back to my hotel until 7.45am! Fortunately they were very understanding not to mention extremely amused with my antics and postponed my trek for a day free of charge. Oh my word the hangover I had the next day was unrivalled, I can’t even write about it as it still haunts me now.
Trekking - Day 1 So we started off the trip with a visit to a snake farm and watched a show of this guy prancing about taunting the snakes, was pretty funny but they don’t treat the snakes too well, I was laughing my arse off when a guy tried to kiss one of the snakes and it bit his tongue! After this was a trip to the long-neck village where we learnt about this tribe, so touristy hardly worth it. Then the trekking began, uphill through the jungle and rice fields for 4 hours to a tribal settlement at the top of the hill where we stayed in a longhouse. The view from the outside decking was beautiful, we watched the sun set over a few Changs (and some whisky that some of us had chipped in on at
Chiang Mai Nights (and mornings!)
The sign actually read 'No Ladyboys', a pleasure to have safezone! the market!) and then did the whole singing round a campfire thing (except it was Oasis and Bob Marley as opposed to Kum Ba Ya!). Cracking group of people, there was an old Japanese guy there who couldn’t really communicate very well with anyone but soon came to life after we dished him a bit of whisky! I had a bit of a scare when I went out to the toilet and in the hut were 3 mammoth spiders, good job I was hammered as otherwise would have really put me off!
Day 2 After being rudely awoken by chickens and kittens underneath the hut and realising that there were about 6 million gremlins eating away at my stomach it was banana pancakes and some strong coffee before a downhill (thank God!) trek to a stunning waterfall for a morning shower, what a cure to the gremmies that was! After that it was a little further to our new mode of transport, the horses of Asia, elephants. Once again not too happy with how they treated them but was quite cool chilling on the back of one of these beasts for a bit whilst feeding them bananas. Once
Mother & Baby
Tribal Village - Trekking I’d said goodbye to my new buddy it was on to white water rafting, then a bit of bamboo rafting, a few boardings and capsizings made it good fun.
On the way back to town I met a few Irish lads so went out on it with them after booking up the three day ‘slow boat’ trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang in Laos the following day. I wanted to cross the border to Laos the next day as my visa was expiring but unless I had left that evening then this was not possible. As I had arranged to go out for beers I decided to go the next day and pay the $7 fine for overstaying my visa. We went to this huge club and then I ended up going to some rooftop bar with some locals to watch the sunrise over breakfast, got back to my hotel at 10.30am and on the bus for 11am with no sleep! Slept all day on the bus and in the evening met a couple of nice guys who I travelled with for the next 3 weeks, next stop Laos.
Thailand done… for now!
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Dad
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Wonderful!
You really are having an action packed time! Watch the liver which may itself turn to monkey brains! I am inspired again reading this to travel soon, so may well see you in Bali after you have given India some of the same treatment.