Final week of bliss is over - now the real travelling begins

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Back on Ko Samui now. This past week has been pretty amazing, stayed on Ko Tao for roughly 6 nights (can't really remember!) and then headed back to Ko Pha Ngan to check out some Eastern bays before Dan has to catch his flight back home from Bangkok :-(

We hired mountain bikes and popped up to the North-West of Ko Tao to check out Ko Nang Yuan (three little islands connected by a sand bar). Kinda wished we had made it over there so looking at it was a close second. However, the mixture of mid-day heat, uphill climbs and the worst guts I've ever had made for a pretty hairy time. Consequently I had to lie down on a rock for quite a while to recover! Little Singaporeans descended upon us (about 20) and relentlessly snapped away at each other for a good half an hour before buggering off and leaving us in peace again - it was funny at first but I reckon between them they took about 1000 photos...then a storm came in and we watched it from a little bar at the top of the 'hill' or as I like to call it, muddy jungle trail! There were tiny tailboats out on the water that were literally flying through the air at points. Freakin nutters.

The ferry journey back to Ko Pha Ngan was very wet but we were laughing all the way - we were sat up on the deck on the right-hand side and for some reason we seemed to be the only people getting ALL the spray (of which there was copious amounts). This was refreshing for the first few minutes but then it just got downright saturating. Fun trying to move around after we got off the boat in 'pissed-wet-through' clothing. I then experienced my first real rip-off of the trip so far. Thong Sala seems to be the butthole of Thailand, consequently, the taxi drivers are dicks. We got charged 12/13 quid to get to Thong Nai Pan Noi which should have cost more like 6 quid. We were told the journey would take 1hour but then it only took 30 minutes and they dropped us at the wrong bloody beach...it was a nice beach but not the point I tell ya! Anyway, it was late and I was narky and they threatened to drive us back to Thong Sala if we didnt pay so we paid a little less but still far too much...oh well. It was a real pain of an afternoon trying to get to Thong Nai Pan Noi and finding accommodation but oh was it worth it. The best beach so far by a mile. My favourite - I will be back, oh yes, I will be back. I don't know how to begin describing it so just check oot tha photees like. Suffice to say that I will be hard pushed to find a better beach. Its now number one on my paradisical hotspots list. We spent three nights there and just swam, kayakked and sunbathed in the day and ate and drank loads at night. PERFECT. On our second night we had a bit of a pool championship with a couple of Finnish guys, some kiwis and who we thought were local Thais, we later learned they were Burmese. One particularly friendly Burmese dude taught me how to count to 10 in Burmese....I can now only remember one and two. It was ace fun but we spent a lotta moola and got wasted. I had a first-time Thailand hangover the next day indeed but it was ok, I just ate loads and got in the sea, it seems to work. I can't believe how hot the sea is here, being used to edging my way in to scottish waters its almost too hot here!! I want them to cool it down a bit so that its more refreshing! Plus, cause its hot, it aint too sanitary and if you hurt yourself it takes ages to heal if you do a lot of swimming. Other than the sharp coral, occasional little nippy mites and the warm bath effect, I love the sea here!! Its soooooooooo blue. Snorkelling is amazing but not always necessary, in some bays you can see loads of fish just under the surface even after only about a foot of water......oh yeah!

After Thong Nai Pan Noi we headed back on an ikkle speedboat to Haad Rin and arrived at 10am in the blistering heat. Not to worry though - we got ourselves a cushty air-con room in the village and hot-footed it down to the beach AGAIN. We swam and sunbathed and had our last wee game o' frisbee then I saw some wee puppies and gave them some crisps and water.....ok not the healthiest of meals but we have to remember that these are strays...! When I first visited Haad Rin I was seriously unimpressed - it was after the full moon party and the tide was so far in it was right up to all the beach bars. I thought it was really stinky dirty and nasty BUT thats kinda cause it had been stormy and rainy all day. This time around my perceptions altered and Haad Rin was restored as an 'ok' place to be when you are planning to head off to other more idyllic places. We were pretty knackered and had an early one (after checking out some fire dancers on the beach) - plus we were in for our second earliest morning so far. 6.45am to get up in time for our amazing boat tour of Ang Thong National Marine Park (40 islands in the gulf of thailand - this is the place that inspired Alex Garland in writing The Beach).

Despite the incredibly preposterous organisation of this event prior to our boarding the speedboat, we had a bloody good day. It was really rather hot and we spent the whole day in it, even after P20 and factor 50 I managed to get a wee bit burnt (not too much though so nae worries eh). The sights, snorkelling and meeting other really cool travellers made the day just brilliant. I got loads of email addys, recommendations for places in the North and advice on where to go next - it was reassuring to see just how easy it is to meet other folks and Im pretty excited about who I will meet on my trip up North which starts tomorrow.

One major fall-back however was that Dan did himself a bit of a mischief (and when I say a bit, I mean a lot) on a piece of incredibly sharp coral. This was towards the end of the day before we were about to get back on the boat. Dan and I got out our kayak and swam at a very deep bay and just as he was pulling himself up onto the sand he caught the bottom of his foot all along the nasty stuff....I won't go into too much detail but think blood and flaps of skin. I freaked out (of course) and had to call our guide over to look at it who promptly wrapped my entire sarong around Dan's poorly wee foot (and when I say wee, I mean huge). We then had to get Dan back into the kayak - he had to paddle to the boat for a good half kilometre where he got it cleaned up and gauzed. Not a nice experience for him and for those of you who know how squeamish I am, it wasn't the best experience for me either!!

Im now writing this entry from Bangkok hospital (in Ko Samui) after having to come here (missing a ferry and a bus back to Bangkok) so that Dan could receive a multitude of stitches and even more drugs for his injury (that happened last night though and we are back today for a re-dressing). Its a good thing he has travel insurance and Bangkok hospital shure takes a bite! It does happen to be the best hospital in the world though so by Dan's own admission it was worth it!! He was wondering whether to even go to hospital when we got in last night but when it took half an hour to stitch him up (after removing a tidily sized piece of coral from INSIDE his foot) I guess he came to realise very quickly that it was a good choice. Fortunately after the hospital visit his foot was numb so we went and had an amazing slap-up all you can eat meat fest in a brazilian restaurant on Chaweng. The best meal I've had yet! Its a great wee idea, you have a coaster that has green on one side and red on the other. Green means bring me lots of meat (which they slice from a barbecue scewer straight onto your plate!) and red means gimme a break......you can turn it over as many times as you want....bonza. The meat was cooked to perfection, fall off the bone stuff and they also had the tastiest salmon steaks known to man...well thailand man anyway! they also had beef, duck, chicken wrapped in bacon, spciy pork, thai pork and a well stocked salad bar full of mediterranean fare........kalamata olives and feta ahoy!! Dan couldnt drink(!) and so that was our wee alternative treat to booze...and it was GOOD.

Anyway, just about to fly from Samui to Bangkok where we will stay tonight. Dan needs to be back at the airport for about 8am so we aren't gonna go too far into the city methinks. After he goes tomorrow Im heading to the North/North East bus station and hopping on a 10/11 hour bus to Chang Mai. After that I reckon I will either check-in to a recommended meditation retreat or hop onto a jungle tour. Alls I know is whatever I do it has to be cheap for a while to balance things out...

Thanks to everyone who is commenting and messaging, it makes me a little emotional but its so good to read your bits. Im sorry if I don't reply to you for a while, my time on t'interweb is very limited each time. Hopefully I will get around to doing a big stint soon and write to you all seperately. Love you and miss you xxx

Watch this space for more to come from THE NORTH.

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Photos

Best beach in the WORLD
Thong Nai Pan Noi

Sarong House
cute ickle shop with lots of weird things in it.

The beauty of hurting yourself is...
that you get special services at the airport, we were treated like royalty innit

Comments

[becky]

oh pissheed stop poisnin the puppies lol,gott luv ya xxx

[anne]

nasty coral!!.............
But good he was so well looked after. I must say I was a wee bit worried what with the tropical storm that his Burma but Darren was quick to point out that that was nowhere near you - but still!! Anyways hope you have great next stage of adventure and really look forward to the next installment xxx

[anne]

nasty coral!!.............
But good he was so well looked after. I must say I was a wee bit worried what with the tropical storm that his Burma but Darren was quick to point out that that was nowhere near you - but still!! Anyways hope you have great next stage of adventure and really look forward to the next installment xxx

[Dad]

It's a giant onion (Allium) of some sort!
Hi lovely - glad to see you are still enjoying. The beaches and the water look pretty damned inviting and I am going to "The Best beach in the WORLD" someday! Sounds like you need to stay off the coral tho, hope Dan's a quick healer cos that didn't sound nice at all. I've looked on the map and Chang Mai aint that far from Burmah - but there were so many other possible places to visit I wondered how you decide where to go next? Keep on bloggin' girl - I love you to bits. X

[Hayley]

The Baan Thai Cookery School is ace
Ekk that coral cut sounds nasty! I can totally recommend this cookery school in Chang Mai called the Baan Thai Cookery School, I have put the web link below. Me and Luke spent the day there and had loads of fun learning how to make thai curry. http://www.cookinthai.com/ Have fun!!