The bucket list: Island Hopping!

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Koh Tao

From Bangkok we took another night train down to Chumpon, on the east coast of Thailand. This time we were not so lucky and all the sleepers had been sold out, as well as all other decent seats on the train. We got seats in third class, one up from cattle class. The journey was a very uncomfortable, cold and dirty experience, not so good when you've got bronchitus! We arrived at Chumpon early the following morning and jumped straight on a ferrry to the island of Koh Tao which took about three hours.

The first couple of days on Koh Tao we spent in the south, which is the more quite part of the island, in order for me to get well. After two days recovering, we hired a moped and relocated to Sairee Beach, which is the main and nicest beach on Koh Tao. The first night on sairee beach we had to stay in a dirty guesthouse in the middle of the village because all nice and cheap accomodation were full. Luckily after a lot of nagging we managed to get a nice bungalow at sairee hut the day after, we were so happy!

Sairee Beach is beautiful and the sea is so blue and cristal clear. Most restaurants along the beach have big verandas built on stilts, where you sit on pillows around low tables. The restaurants serve a mix of thai, bbq and western food for a very cheap price. In the evening the restaurants turn into cinemas and shows the latest films before the real partying starts.

As I mentioned above we hired a moped to relocate and we also used this moped to explore the island. We go the cheapest moped going (180 Baht = 3.50 pounds) it was great, but we soon realised that it was not suitable for the extremely bad roads gon Koh Tao. A scrambler for off road biking would have been more appropriate. On the way back Steve even used a trick he had learned from Ray Mears to get us up the sandy hills, he let air out of the back tire to get a better grip, it seemed to work ok, however, we visited a very nice place on the east coast called Tanote Bay and had a nice lunch on the beach, it was a hell of a drive back! We ended the day with a fierce competion in crazy golf, Sweden against England. England won, suprisingly, by one point.

The last day on Koh Tao we hired a long tail boat to take us to Nangyuna island, which is located just north of Koh Tao. Nangyuna is three small islands connected by sandbanks, which serve as the beach. The snorkeling was amazing, hundreds of fish and even some soft corals. The only bad thing about the island was the restaurant, they charged treble everywhere else for a pad thai, they even charged for ice! On out way back home it started raining, first rain we have had in Thailand, it was soooo nice and cool.

Koh Phangan

From Koh Tao we took the boat to Koh Phangan, the home of the famous Full Moon Partys. We stayed in Haad rin, which is on the south of the island. Haad rin has two beaches sunset beach and sunrise beach, sunrise beach is the best of the two beaches and in the evening you can watch fire shows and try the notorious skipping rope on fire whilst getting drunk on buckets of rum and coke and vodka and red bull. The bucket shops are everywhere and really funny (see photos).

During our stay at Koh Phangan Steve also tried the local sport of kick ups, this sport is really popular in Thailand and usually played over a volleyboll net, but can be played anywhere, often on the beach. After watching the locals play it, Steve and two Swedish guys decided to have a go. The ball is made of plastic (nowadays) or wood (originally) and is very hard, apparentley it was really painful and they soon got an injured player.

We only stayed three nights on Koh Phangan because we had arranged to meet some friends (Sean & Carley) on Ko Samui. Sean and I knew each other from Uni and me and Steve met Sean and his girlfriend at a wedding last summer and decided to try and meet up when we where out travelling.

Ko Samui

We had decided to stay at Nids bungalow on Chaweng beach. The bungalows where really nice and clean and every morning the owner came with free water and fresh fruit, small things like that makes a difference.

Our time on Ko Samui with Sean and Carley was great, it felt like we had known each other for ages. The days were spent on the beach (avoiding the horrible dogs) and the evenings on the balcony drinking beer and sharing travelling experiences. They were telling us about Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia and we were giving them tips on Thailand. Me and Steve are so excited about the next leg off our trip after hearing all the great things about it (especially camper vaning around NZ!!) We had so much to talk about that we forgot to both eat and sleep, but it didn't really matter.

We celebrated Steve's 28th birthday with beers and local rum, listening to music and playing cards. We were suppose to have gone for a nice meal, but we forgot the time and ended up in McDonalds, which was perfect! We redeemed this by going for a nice indian the day after.

We're now back in Ao Nang missing our newest travel buddies Carly and Sean. We're here for a week before we head down to Malaysia. We've been so lucky to get upgraded to a penthouse apartment at the guesthouse for the same price as a room, because we're just the best guests haha!

Steve got a 3/4 size guitar for his birthday so he's mega happy with that and we're planning to just have a quiet relaxing last week in Thailand, beaching, eating cheap thai food and watching knock off DVD's! Can't believe that our 8 weeks here is almost up but we feel we've really made the most of it, seen so many places, and made some great friends!

The next blog will be live from Malaysia, home of cheap indian food...

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Photos

Koh Tao
..view from one of the restaurant's balcony

The Gang
Me, Steve, Carley, Sean and a Israeli girl we met.

Nangyuna beach
Three islands connected by sandbanks..

Comments

[dad]

Another great blog as usual cant wait to see malasia and aussie blogs as you said its amazing how fast the time has gone but you have so much to look forward to. Look North are doing a special on THE MINERS STRIKE ,STEVE was 3 when that was on we were in America . I am just going out for final rehearsals for Colins party 10 songs altogether ,lets hope it gets better than Liverpool! PART 1 over PART 2 tomorrow xxxxxxx

[Gunhild og Kristoffer]

Vuhu!
Saa herlig at dere ogsaa er ute og reiser! Det er flotte saker, det maa jeg si! Vi var ogsaa paa Koh Tao og Koh Pangan, det var utrolig snorkling og late dager, herlig sted! Droppa Ko Samui, men det ble mer beach i Sor ost asia, saa vi overlevde da det:) Naa koser vi oss i Guatemala, det er veldig anderledes enn Sor ost Asia, men fantastiske tider er det her ogsaa! Vi er saa heldige! Har kjopt billet hjem, lander i Norge 17 april, etter 14 maaneder paa loffen!! Veldig fornoyde med det:) Vi vaska dass i Australia, naer Darwin, stedet heter Jabiru, resorten heter Aurora Kakadu Logde, slaa det opp paa internet og ring sjefen, han heter Peter. Det er en dritt jobb, men vi fikk jobbe mange timer, vaska dass i 7 timer paa dagen, saa hadde vi en vaskejobb for et vaskefirma paa stedet ogsaa, der fikk vi betalt svart, saa det var bra, ogsaa fikk vi jobbe ekstra paa kveldene i baren eller restauranten, saa det ble mye penger paa 3 maaneder! Tjente 18 dollar i timen paa vanlig dag, 25 paa lordag og 30 paa sondag, og bodde billig, saa det var bra, bedre betalt enn mange jobber i Australia!! Er midt inne i Kakadu National Park i Northern Territory, veldig fint sted, men vi hadde ikke bil, saa fikk ikke sett saa mye. Jabiru er et lite drittsted, 1500 innbyggere, men det var gode penger, saa anbefaler det:) Eller provde vi oss som fruktplukkere paa Tasmania, men fikk sparken etter 4 dager, for fruktsesongen har vaert vanskelig detta aaret;) Tasmania var et konge sted, bortsett fra fruktplukkinga;) Vi brant oss forresten med skatten i Australia, man maa vaere der i 6 mnder eller mer for aa faa tilbake penger, og vi var bare 4, saa vi la igjen en del tusen kroner i skattepenger der ja.. Saann er det jo:) Lykke til med jobbing og reising! Vi folger dere fra bloggen:) Kos! Gunhild og Kristoffer:)

[Ingrid]

Always love reading your blog and looking at the lovely pics. Can't believe you're leaving Thailand now when I'm going there. Leaving for Phuket, Kata, on Tuesday night. Me Chris, Östling, Christian, Linda, Millan, Empa, Hjärner and loads more peeps are going. Most of Lindas family. Anyway, such a shame you won't be there. You'll have to give us some good tips on what to do though. Have a lovely time in Malaysia and take care! Miss you both! x x x

[dad]

part2
hi kids , hope you are well,by the time you read this you will be in yet another country,have you taken the guitar with you ? We had another nightmare last night at royal Calverley it was shocking everything that could go wrong did go wrong Ithink it was acase of too many cooks spoil the broth so back to drawing board.We got atext from Eric and Christina they went to se BUDDY Ihope they enjoyed it.IHOPE YOU HAVE a great time on the next leg of your journey,you seem to be really in love with Thailand and I am sure you will be back for holidays in the years to come.We are missing you guys but its smashing seeing you enjoying your journeys ,the blogs are fantastic especially the photos .Good luck ,love mum dad and Anna-Marie

[Sean & Carly]

Hows it going?
Hi Guys! Hows Malaysia for you? Hope Rainbow lodge is ok for you? What you been up too? We had an amazing time on the trek with Mr Good- thanks for your tips! We amazed ourselves by the cooking course too-but not sure we could repeat it! We cant belive the suite you got- it looked amazing. Well we have 9 days left so not long to go, enjoy the rest and keep in touch! xx