Advertisement
Published: April 9th 2007
Gene
..Or Emma, Emma or Gene, I just can't tell any more!! So after the last blog I have been a very busy girlie, lots of action and adventure to keep me occupied!
After a lovely trip Kayaking in Krabi we decided we needed some more adventure sports and headed to Railey Beach for a climbing course. After being picked up in the back of a truck full of very muscly guys, all wearing head bands ( really are they necessary?!) we were a little concerned about how we would fare on the course and whether we ( by we I mean me!) may have been a little over optimistic in our ability when deciding to book for a entire day! Luckily, when we got there as we had booked seperately me and Emma were put into our own group with our own instructor/guide. After insisting that the shoes he put on my feet were just the right size - aparently they are supposed to feel like you toes are being shortened considerably whilst being trod on by an elephant! - we headed off, chalk bags swinging, to start our little adventure. Me being cocky started tying my knots and pretending like I knew what I was doing so he decided
that I could belay while he put the rope up and then i could start climbing. Luckily my course in Amersham paid off and I didn't kill him on his first climb up - bonus! though as he didn't fall, i don't think I can really attribute it to my excellent skills! As Emma was not exactly eager to go first ( bless her, she has quite a fear of heights and I keep dragging her to all these places!) I started up the limestone cliffs, though not before smacking my head on the first tiny overhang before I'd even got off the ground - very proffessional!!!
As Emma wasn't bothered about learning how to belay or lead climb, we just had our personal guide for the day, he would climb up with the rope (i was to scared!) and then spend the time you were climbing shouting 'higher, higher' 'strong legs' (dont know whether he was telling me to get some, or congratulating me on my incredible muscles - I'm guessing the former!). I must admit, I did start shouting back at points, and it wasn't always complimentary! when someone is telling you to push up on your
Action girls
Ok so we dont look like we're doing much but we did a hard days Kayaking! right leg which is barely balanced on a tiny ledge and you have no other hand or foot holds, plus no strength in your right leg to begin with, it gets a bit frustrating!! He was actually an excellent guide though (even if a little ;mini dictator-ish!) and he got us up every route, even to the highest point of one part, about 30m - doesn't sound high, but certainly felt it! I ended up with the biggest brusies on my knees and arms though, despite him yelling at me not to use my knees ( as you can see, there was lots of yelling!), sometimes I just needed to haul my ass up there somehow!!
We were definatly achey the next day, so off we headed to Koh lanta for a bit of Island relaxation! we had been coaxed into booking somewhere before we arrived, which we were seriously questioning after a very bumpy long ride finally took us to a dirt road away from every thing else on the Island and to where we were staying. Luckily despite arriving covered in dust and looking considereably 'browner' than we had set out, it turned out to be a
How professional!
does it look like i know what I'm doing? would you trust your life in my hands?! beautiful little apartment, right on the cliff edge of a stunning bay with a balcony from which to watch the most amazing sunsets. The first night we decided a bottle of wine would be a really nice way to enjoy our little view, unfortunatly for us, no-one told us that Thai wine is palm wine, some of the most horrible stuff i have ever drank, strps the back offyour throat and then kicks in with a rather lovely after taste, slightly similar to vomit - beautiful!
We did some very swanky diving while we were on Lanta through a ridicuously over priced resort which gave discounts, not to resort guests but to other hotel guest!! we were treated to free drinks, fruit, a lovely lunch, huge spead boat, brand new equipment and the first people at the dive site - perfect!! on top of that we also saw turtles, beautiful coral and an angler fish which is apparently very rare - no mantas though, very dissapointed - no pleasing some people!!
After a little bit of relaxation we decided it was time to get active again and headed to Kao Sok national park for some more rainforrest trekking
Me climbing
Just about making it up there - Higher Higher!! - I know, you'd think I'd learn, but it seemed a good idea at the time...! Still glowing from our succesful pre-booking at Lanta, we decided 'what harm can it do' for Kao Sok - how different can you get?! we arrived at our place soaking wet as the rainy season came early (admittedly, not the resorts fault, but trust me, i think i could probably manage to blame them somehow!) we were greated by a couple of children who took us to our little shack, dumped Emma's bag on the floor and left. I went to move the bin and found some strange looking biscuits underneath it, at the same time Emma had noticed that her bag had also been placed in what appeared to be soggy cat biscuits, and the smell was increasing all the time. As we looked around we found that the entire floor was covered in cat food, and soaking wet. So back we went to the office, where they were very surprised - not by the cat food, they blatantly knew about that - but by the fact that we actually wanted to move! a very sullen girl came out with us to show
Nearly at the top
Being made to stop and take a photo wasn't fun! us a different room, which as it didn't appear to have a pet shop odour, we gladly accepted. As it turned out the roof leaked and the door didn't even close properly, let alone lock but for some reason we decided as we'd moved once, we really couldn't bother them again, and really we'd been looking for a use for Emma's spare shoe lace - what better use than a door lock?! so we'd just have to stay put (damn being so British!!) We did however steal their towels and a rather handy copy of GQ which was in our room and cheered us up no-end!
As it turns out, I have quite rose tinted galsses of the Taman Negara, despite all the sweating and hard work, it was really beautiful and the treks felt worth while. Not so with Kao Sok! after an hour of slipping though mud and rocks i knew I wasn't going to enjoy my time there - and after i found a big fat leach had attached itself to my stomach (how it made it all the way there without me noticing I'll never know!) I had totally had enough! unfortunatley we still had
Right at the top
If you look closely you can see a little white dot, thats Emma at the top - how high?! a couple of days to go so I moaned, slipped and swore my way around for the rest of the day - Emma's a lucky girl travelling with me!!
After a few more leech-infested days we travelled up to Bangkok to break up our beach time in Thailand and to meet up with some friends who were transiting through. After managing to avoid the Tuk-tuk rip-off prices we walked to Koh San Road and found somewhere to stay with all the rest of the nutters which seem to populate the area! Bangkok is a great place for people watching, every type of weirdo you could imagine is there, and unfortunately most of them seem to be English! there's a little guy dressed in a proper Colonial English hunting-style white suit hat and aviator sunglasses riding around on a push bike with occasional (usually british!) drunken tourists hoping on for a ride; a man dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, guns and all; and a whole variety of others! We did take a trip out of our quirky part of town one evening to visit a swanky hotel that friends from home were staying in, where we were totally spoiled and
Koh Lanta
View from balcony in Lanta treated to a huge dinner that probably could have lasted us all week, plus to add to the bonus, they let us steal their soap and toilet paper(quilted!!!!) what a luxury ( i know how scabby i sound, and i just dont care!).
Obviously we didn't spend the whole time people watching and toilet paper stealing and did in fact get in some sight seeing of Palaces and Temples, in which Emma was made to wear a rather fetching grey shirt, starched to within an inch of its life - she was very pleased we got there early as after sweating in it for a couple of hours, she saw it being passed staright to the next unsuspecting tourist - lovely!!!
While in Bangkok we also needed to extend our visa, turns out we could only extend it for 7 days and it was going to cost a fair bit, but we didn't have time to do a visa run across the border and we wouldn't have time to fit everything in with just 30 days. So very disgruntled we decided to fill in the forms, unfortunately it turned out we needed a passport photo, which we had
plenty of.....back in our room. Luckily for us there was a little man across the road more than willing to take our photos for us (oi, not in a dodgy way!). At this point i should mention that we had decided, through the mid-day heat, smog and general yuckiness of Bangkok, to walk to 4 miles or so to the imigration office so perhaps we weren't looking our best. HOWEVER i still stand by the fact that the camera was fixed - you know when you see a picture of someone in the papers who's on trial for murder or some other fairly serious crime and you just know by looking at them that they did it? well if that had've been the case, me and Emma would have been banged up for life, we looked like total nutcases and were just missing the serial number under our mug shots for it to be totally authentic!!! Though when I say 'We' looked bad i do mean it, but Emma, oh dear! somehow she had transformed for her usual attractive, feminine self to.....Gene Wilder aka Willy Wonker in just one flash of the camera - and you thought Stars in their
Looking cool!
Our personal transport around Koh Lanta, courtasy of the boys at Top View Eyes was good!!! We were slightly concerned that when they saw the photos that they would never let us stay another 7 days, luckily Emma went first and got through with no problems, so if they accept hers, then anybody should be ok!!! If i ever have a bit of a bad day, i just look at that photo and it brings tears to my eyes!!!
So after convincing them to let us stay, we quickly left Bangkok before the photo police caught up with us and headed back down south to the east coast islands of Koh Tao and Koh Phanang. Fist to Phanang for the full moon party, luckily it was not quite as big as the ones earlier in the year and we managed to find a gorgeous little hut right on the beach front with a hammock to swing in and lovely sunsets for a bargain price. Plus the lady who ran it was hillarous and decided she loved me and Emma so went out of her way for us and as an extra bonus we were far enough away from the beach with the party, but not so far that we were out of
Posh in Bangkok!
we were worried they wouldn't let us in! it all! The party itself was fantastic, though a lot less manic that I assumed. We'd met 2 Canadians and an Aussie guy who we went with, and it was nice being part of a bigger group, harder to loose everyone!! The beach itself was packed with Fire-dancers, tiny fire hot air baloons being sent into the sky and of course, thousands of people! it wasn't quite as trancy as we had thought it would be, and we even managed to find a bit of comercial dance and possibly R &B !! we left at the respecatble time of 4 ish as we were leaving the island that day, a lot of people were passed out on the beach by that stage (some since about 11-ish when we got there!) but huge numbers of people stayed for the sunset and the after party and when we got the bus the next day at 11am lots of very tired drunk peoeple were slowly making there way home. That did mean that all the taxi trucks were very full so Emma and I ended up hanging off the back of one on a tiny platform, backpacks on, clinging on to the railings
Bangkok
Guards at the National Palace - very funny but very painful too!!
So off we headed to Koh Tao for some more diving with a company that wasn't exactly the best organised - but they were lovely and had the biggest, pinkest, campest boat I've ever seen - who wouldn't choose to dive with them!! After the assurance that lots of Whale sharks had been seen there in the last few days, we set off excitedly for our first 2 dives - unfortunately no sharks for us, but excellent diving anyway. The next time we went with them turned into a bit of a joke, on our second dive we went down with about 8 of us, 2 dive masters and a trainee divemaster. Seems plenty of people, but it really should have been split into two groups, the visability wasn't great and when a trigger fish attacked, it turned into a bit of circus - we all started swimming back the way we came, trigger fish in hot persuit, until one girl lost her fin so the divemaster had to swim back towards the fish to retrieve it ( to be fair the girl was really irriatating and kept swimming on top of
All that gliters...
Huge gold (ish!) buddha in Bangkok everyone, I would have left her to get it herself!!) we finally got out of the way of the fish, but every now and again someone got spooked and started swimming, leading to everyone panicked, swimming away again in flight from the now imaginary fish!!! after it had all died down, off we went again only to find that we had lost 3 people. Bizarre dive, luckily it was a freebie as they had a special offer, dont think i would have been happy paying for it!
We then travelled up the now familiar route up north, past Bangkok to Ayutthaya where we stayed for a few days seeing the very impressive ruins. We were staying in a very starnge little place where the man was constantly drunk, asking where you were going, giving you food you didn't order and generally just being a pain! luckily we had bought some poi balls (fire dancing) and spent a few of the evenings practicing in our very large room. Unfortunately i am awful, i know i have no co-ordination so why i do it to myself i dont know. I am now covered in ball sized bruises, though fortunately despite hitting
Beautiful sunset at Koh Phanang
How lucky to have this from your balcony! myself in the face continously( you think i'd try mastering basic swinging before trying to throw them around my head!) i seem to have avoided any black eyes!! (even more fortunately, they are just tennis balls and I'm not yet playing with real fire, i know how freaky people look with no eyebrows!)
So here we are, just arrived in Chiang Mai. Good timing in some ways as it is the Thai New Year and celebrations here are the biggest. Bad in other ways as the celebrations come in the form of one massive water fight, and as we have nothing to defend ourselves with, we are continually drenched by pistols, buckets, hoses, any thing really. It's the drive-by soakings that really get you, just not expecting them!!! plus the tourists are totally worse than the locals, they wont let up until not a single part of you is dry!! it seems to stop in the evening though, so we are hoping to make it out tonight with no further soakings, but we shall see!!! So I am going to say a very wet good-bye and see if I can brave the streets again, I think i'll by a
water pistol tomorrow!!!
Love to you all
Sarah xxx
P.s more water fun today, invested in a pistol after doing a James bond style run behind a car to escape a soaking, twisting my ankle in the process, very 007 - I'm now running with a limp looking a little like Quasimodo!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.221s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 12; qc: 55; dbt: 0.107s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Elly
non-member comment
Sarah Head in a tree
haa haaa haaaa ha haha!!!