Island hopping in Thailand

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Ok so we actually flew into Kuala Lumpur which is Malaysia I know. We flew with Air Asia the budget airlines and it wasn't too bad but it wasn't great either. We got to our pension at about 10pm, our room was tiny 4 walls, air con, and a bed. We crashed out straight away but woke up at 3am with lovely jet lag, we tossed and turned for so long that by 8am we got up to explore KL. The pension offered us breakfast but we were a little put of by the brown water from the tap, disgusting. So we headed out and had a traditional Malaysian breakfast....Mc Donald's, haha you have to have it sometime.

We walked around China Town and the central market like zombies, by 5pm we gave up and went back to the hotel to have a cat nap. Well we set the alarm and when the alarm went off neither of us could get up. It was awful we just kept on sleeping for hours. We finally managed to get out of bed at 9pm! We headed to the Suria KLCC shopping mall for food and for the movies, I know you don't travel across the world to see a movie, but we it was our little treat, actually we saw two (for $4/£2 each). We walked out of the cinema to an empty massive mall at 2am, a bit scary.

The next day we checked out and had some time to kill so we headed to the Lake Gardens, on the way we went past the Merdeka Square, a formal parade ground, the old train station and Masjid Negara one of the largest Mosques in South East Asia. We also stumbled across a local market next to the Mosque which was full of local cuisine's and delights. We were actually the only foreigners there, it was great. We continued our long walk to the gardens the place is huge and has an array of parks: Bird Park, Butterfly Park, Orchid Garden, Hibiscus Garden, etc. When we got into the park we saw a bunch of cute monkeys playing together which made the walk worth it, but it was so hot and humid that we didn't stay very long and headed back to our hotel to take our flight to Thailand.

THAILAND

We arrived in Phuket and well it budgeted down with rain, welcome to Paradise.

The next day we had some lunch and caught a Thai bus to Patong Beach, the bus was more like a giant Tuk Tuk it was full of tourists and locals and we were packed in there like sardines with a miniature fan trying to keep all of us cool, I think we lost 1L of water in that 40 minute ride. Anyway we got into Patong and instantly realised we were staying in the wrong part of town, but you get that. Patong was great, full of bars, shops, hotels, cafes, everything. So we wondered around the shops and then we found a massage shop and I finally after years of pestering Dean for a massage got a massage. Dean waited at a nearby bar whilst I became a massage junkie. We then headed to a nice restaurant and had a lovely meal by the water. Ohh how romantic!! (hehe) After our meal we meet up with Simone (Dean's mate from Perth) and her cousin and work colleague. By chance they were on holiday in Phuket at the same time as us, which was great. So we all headed out to Bang La Road which is the most famous road in Phuket, its full of bars, clubs, go go girls, strip joints and people trying to sell ping pong shoes and other crazy unmentionable things.

That night New Zealand played South Africa for the Tri Nations so Dean being the proud New Zealander wore his All Blacks shirt and had to watch the game, earlier that day we met a kiwi guy who told us that the Aussie bar was playing the game, so thats were we headed, but the bar was noisy and Dean and the kiwi wanted to hear the commentary. So we headed to another bar, but we lost the ultra keen kiwi guy (I swear he was running to this bar not wanting to miss a minute). 20 minutes went by and we still had no idea where the bar was and started to head back to the Aussie bar and then we found it. Yeh. But the game wasn't on for another 2 hours! So Dean bought all of us a drink and we chilled out playing pool and caught up. Finally the game came on and I can't remember who one. After the game we hit the bars and clubs, we went into one club and Dean started to dance, yes people don't all of your chair he was actually dancing, it was hilarious! Simone and I were in tears with laughter, he was doing MJ moves and sliding all over the dance floor. We stayed there pretty much all night, I was trying to work out if the women were women, prostitutes or other. We then wanted to head to another bar and some how ended up ending the night at 1am. Just as we got into out Tuk Tuk that beautiful Thai rain came in.

We woke up late the next day and planned a chill out day, we got some food and found a professional massage parlour and booked ourselves in for a 1 hour dual traditional Thai massage. They gave us clothes to change into and the relaxation began. It was wonderful. I catched a glance at Dean and had a bit of a chuckle the poor 4-ft Thai masseuse was trying to lift Dean by his arms from behind but struggled so much she only moved him about 10 cm. It was so good, we didn't want to leave and well went for a walk up the road got a sundae and some how we ended up back at the shop and had 1 hour foot massages!! Ohh life is good. After all the pampering we went back to our hotel and had an early night.

The next day we journeyed to Phi Phi island where the famous The Beach was filmed. So we put on our bathers, got our towels and jumped on the ferry. At first the weather was wonderful, we even got burnt and then in typical Thai weather it bucketed down before the boat even left the dock. But all was not lost and the weather came good again (as my Gran would say). So we were pretty excited to go to "The Beach" beautiful secluded Island with pristine white sand and deep blue water but our boat sailed past and the Captain told us to look to the left, bugger our tour didn't include a stop, should have asked the non speaking English receptionist at the hotel!! But the day was not lost we went to a spot with the other cheap 200 tourists and tried to snorkel. If there wasn't an Asian with a life jacket in your way then it would be a flipper in the head. Dean and I swam as far away as we could and actually saw some cool fish, as soon as you get into the water there were beautiful orange fish everywhere. We then went to the beach front had lunch and walked along the beach. On the beach I saw a crazy crab! Do you remember those crabs you could get from the pet shop, I had a few of them when I was a kid but managed to kill them all. Anyway after relaxing on the beach we took our ferry back to Phuket and then back to the hotel.

The next day we headed to Ko Samui for a few days, we caught a bus and a ferry and arrived in the afternoon. We got a map and asked for some directions, the man said our pension was far away but we thought it can't be that far, 45 minutes later we were dripping in sweat and we finally found our accommodation. We had showers and headed out on the main drag for food and shopping. Our pension was located right next to a dodgy bar that played the worst music all night long. And to top it off the guy in the room next to us took a prostitute home and well you can imagine the rest.

DEAN'S 27th BIRTHDAY

Well its was Deans 27th birthday and I woke up late, I let Dean sleep in and we had a lovely English breakfast and then chilled out on the beach for the rest of the day. For dinner we had cocktails and some yummy Thai food. We then bought knock off DVD's and watched them until we fell asleep. Not a big celebration I know, but a lovely day.

The next day we headed to Ko Pha Ngan for the half moon party, which is just an excuse to drink Thai whisky and party up. We took a ferry and transfer to our very own beach bungalow and it was amazing. It was right by the beach, with palm trees, hammocks on our deck and by the beach. This is the type of the place that you don't want to leave and the owners were so friendly and their meals were wonderful.

That night we had a lovely meal at our bungalow restaurant and ordered our first Thai whisky bucket. The bucket consists of 1 small bottle of Thai whisky, 1 small bottle of CONCENTRATE Red Bull and one can of cola and comes in a cute bucket about the size of a small pot plant (see pics). We got the bucket and proceeded to drink but this thing seemed like it would never end and the combination of the Red Bull, whisky and cola was well interesting....We got changed and jumped in a Tuk Tuk to go to the party at the entrance we bought another bucket and headed inside. Somehow in our slightly intoxicated state we hadn't really thought about time and well kinda got to the party a little too early. But we didn't seem to mind, we sat down and chilled out and slowly slowly more people came to the party. The actual venue was an outdoor stage area and there were fire thrower dancers and people with fluorescent paint all over them and of course a massive dance floor. It was great, I had a bit of a boggie and Dean chatted to a Will Ferrell look alike. But all good things must come to an end and we took a Tuk Tuk back to our Bungalow. When our driver dropped us off Dean ran down the driveway and feel into a ditch, me being the good girlfriend tried to help him and fell into the ditch, giving him a cork thigh. haha

The next morning we were nursing some serious hangovers, I guess we hadn't really had a big night out for a while and those Thai buckets felt like the had something else in them, I guess all the sugar and booze. Well you get the picture, so we spent the day in bed, drinking soft drinks and when the tide came in we went for a swim. Actually the remainder of the time in Ko Pha Ngan was strolls by the beach, swims, eating and nothing else. I seriously could have stayed there for a week. But we moved on to Bangkok.

To get to Bangkok we had to take a ferry and then a bus. The ferry started out ok but got really rough, I wasn't really feeling sea sick until the girl in front of me began to vomit and then it was like the domino effect, another girl near me vomited then the guy next to me, people were vomiting everywhere. I turned green and Dean who was not effected at all just laughed at me. It was awful and I couldn't wait to stop, finally after an hour and a half we stopped. I ran upstairs for fresh air and dreaded the next 2 hour journey to Chumphon, but the Gods were looking down on me and the different route seemed to be far smoother and I was even able to watch the Iron Chef. After that lovely ferry ride we jumped onto an 8 hour bus to Bangkok.

Bangkok is a massive city and full of shops, so our last few days in Thailand we did what most tourists do shop until we drop, but we didn't buy that much. We went to the MBK at least 3 times. We also went to the lively, crazy China Town and had a yummy Dim Sum lunch. We walked through a massive local market selling so many strange and wonderful foods, I was too scared to try but still soaked up the atmosphere. On the last day we headed to the Grand Palace where the King used to reside, but we arrived too late and it was closed. The only pictures I could get were of the top of the buildings, I was so disappointed, but oh well.

And that was our adventure to Thailand, soon to follow is our trip to Vietnam.

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Photos

Our Thai Whisky bucket
It started out well