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Published: July 24th 2010
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Chris's Section Gill is here. We met her at the airport and quickly introduced her to the craziness that is Bangkok. A few buckets later on Khao San Road and she was well initiated. We got up bleary eyed the next morning (maybe afternoon) and set off to see the Grand Palace. Wow - this place is amazing. Really beautiful. Hopefully the pics do it justice.
We chose to fly to Phuket as we couldn't face a 13 hour bus journey. The flights only cost £25 each with Nok Air, so we thought it was a good deal. The contestants for Miss Thailand were on our flight. Let's just say it caused a bit of a commotion. They were sat all around us. One of the most pleasant flights ever, hehe.
After arriving in Phuket we made our way down to Kata beach. This is one of the more upmarket resorts on the island, but as it's low season we were hoping to find a bargain place to stay. We struck gold with a lovely triple room for 1000 baht (£20) between us. The placed had a fabulous pool and was just a few mins to the beach.
We also got really lucky with the weather (the Andaman coast of Thailand is currently in the wet season) as we had three days of glorious sunshine. The tan is here! The beach is great but the water was a little rough and not that safe for swimming. Kata itself is very nice but has more of a Mediterranean-resort feel. Lots of flabby middle aged tourists (I felt right at home) and homogenous, overpriced restaurants. We made great use of the 7-11 shop - particularly for cheap lunches and beers.
We took some strolls to the nearby beaches, did some sunbathing, reading, sunbathing, etc. Pretty laid back times were had. This is what island life is all about. Phuket is not the authentic Thai island experience, but we enjoyed it all the same. Our next stop is the paradise island (but still tourist mecca) called Koh Phi Phi.
More about that in the next blog.
Louise's Section So yay Gill is here!! She is defo well into having a bucket or 3 now 😊
Bangkok was the same madness as before but I finally managed to get some trousers (even if it means
Kata
Mmmmmm pool Chris sings Mc Hammer at me).
The Grand Palace and Wat Po were huge and amazing and we had the scariest tuk tuk journey back with the driver gurning away definitely on somert!!
Phuket was nice but as Chris says, very touristy and not many local stalls to get Thai food from and despite Kata being on the beach the fish was more expensive to eat than in Bangkok!
So hours were passed sunbathing at the pool or nearly being swept out into the ocean by 6 foot waves and spending time trying to avoid jellyfish which we weren't sure if they could kill us.
Shock of the Kata experience...beach towels costing £7!!! and we haggled it down!!! Tip for other travellers, bring one with you from home!
So onto Phi Phi next, ahhaaaa more beaches, how will we cope?
Gill's Section Thought the 16th July would never arrive but it finally did and now I'm a week into my holiday. The guys have said it all really so not much to add. I was met at the airport with a banner 'GillyWilly' that Lou had spent ages making which was a lovely
touch after my long flight from Heathrow via Delhi.
Thailand is just as beautiful and amazing as I thought it would be and getting back into the back-packing life has been easy (especially as there hasn't been a bunkbed in sight - no need when the bungalows are so cheap at this time of year).
If I were to have one wish it would be that the sun made an appearance a little bit more, but it is the wet season so we've actually seen more than expected.
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rob
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moby
there she blows!