WELCOME TO THAILAND!!

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Hi folks,

It has been a while since our last blog post so hopefully there is plenty to tell.

Our first stop was Bangkok were we stayed one night and got the heck out. Being green behind the ears when it comes to Thailand and having heard all of the horror stories of Bangkok we thought it best to take on Bangkok when we became a little more savvy to the Thai ways. We headed South on our first sleeper train ( not as bad as other tourists make out) and i slept like a baby. We arrived 12 hours later and jumped on a 4 hour bus to Phuket where we had to sit in the aisle on little baby stools because they had over filled the bus ( WELCOME TO THAILAND!! ) We stayed there for 3 nights and the weather was miserable but we ventured out to see the Big Buddha on our scooter and dodged the rain as best we could. We decided against going to Phi Phi as the weather was too rough and for some reason Thai longboats don't make me feel safe in rough waters. So we hit the road and headed for Koh Tao...paradise!

Another over crowded journey but this time on a boat for 4 hours ( Thai people are a health and safety nightmare). We arrived on Koh Tao and checked into our fanned beach bungalow and it would seem that we had found our Thai version of Gili T. We had booked in to do our advanced open water diving course but Holly had fallen ill with another dodgy tummy and sickness so had to bail out. She recovered/chilled on the beach/drank water while I ventured into the deep blue. Unfortunately our experiences in Gili have set rather a high precedent meaning that in comparison Koh Tao was distinctly average (not helped by the fact that my dive instructor was sick as a dog too). My first day was so bad that it started to put me off diving but thankfully I got a better (non sick) instructor for the second day and things started to look up, I'm even considering doing my dive master so I can do some work along our route.

{tag in holly}

The Koh Tao journey gave way to Koh Samui where we were joined by 4 of Holly's friends and rented out a lush villa with an infinity pool on a discreet hillside. We rented scooters, saw bits of the island, took a day trip round a couple of other islands, drank rum, attempted to get to the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan but actually just spent £20 on a ticket for a boat that couldn't carry enough people and was never going to get us there. We sat in the water for 3 hours holding our wallets on our heads, fighting in vain for a place on the next boat. Eventually we lost our sense of humour and gave it up as a bad job.

We toddled back to Kate who was hauled up in bed for 3 days with vommy sickness.

From Koh Samui we jumped on another night train to Bangkok, hung out there for a few days, visited Koh San Road, drank buckets of rum, went to a ping pong show (horrendous), had a Thai massage (ouch!), said goodbye to the girls, visited some temples, bought some art, sorted out our Vietnam visas and bought a sexy camera.

Bangkok is a nice enough city when you begin to know your way around but cities cost money so we headed north (another night train) to Chiang Mai. We booked ourselves onto an organic cooking course out on a quaint little farm. It was a brilliant day, we cooked under a corrugated iron roof but surrounded by banana trees, chilli plants, ginger bushes, papaya trees, lemongrass, hammocks and rice field upon rice field. Sammy, our host let us pick and smell everything. He is rightfully very proud of his farm and his produce. It's so serene and such a nice place to spend a day. We all got to cook a different curry - I chose jungle, Kate chose yellow potato curry. We made the pastes ourselves, and knowing how tear jerkingly hot their curries are, neglected to add in all the chillies and their seeds! We also made spring rolls, papaya salad, pad Thai, chicken with cashew nuts, pumpkin custard, mango sticky rice and banana in coconut milk. It soon became apparent that a lot of the same ingredients go into most dishes but the exact amount and the way it's cooked make the difference.

Pretty Delish!

We became friendly with an Aussie girl who we have welcomed to the fold and hung out with for the past few days. Yesterday we all rented scooters and drove the 50miles across to Pai . The drive was incredible. Beautiful green views aided the 4hour journey through the windy mountains. Unfortunately, Amy had picked an old bike thinking that they wouldn't be able to determine the new scratches from the old! It struggled up the hills and ran out of petrol at inopportune moments but we made it eventually! And thank god we did. Pai is gorge. The streets are lined with small boutiquey shops selling cute trinkets and market stalls selling delish treats - banana pancakes, BBQ meats on sticks, fresh fruit shakes. Every bar has minimal people in it but wicked chilled out tunes flow down the street. It feels almost like the 80s, like we should have a doob in hand and flowery bandanas. We could quite happily while away a few weeks here but would worry we'd never leave!

Next stop will be Laos where we will welcome our rugby pal Ele to the fold. She's likely to do Cambodia with us too which will be a nice change from just the pale to pale chat....

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