Friday, 24 April 2009
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Thailand
The day we flew into Bangkok - What a nightmare!! We didn't want to pay 350 baht plus for a taxi from the airport to our hostel so we had to do things the long and hard way. We managed to do it for 80 baht for both of us!! There is 50 baht to the pound!! We didn't have a hostel to stay in but we knew which area we should be in. Luckily on arrival we found a place for 3 pound a night each. It was a double room with a private bathroom and a fan - bargin. Our dinner that night cost 3 pound as well. It was such a welcome change from Australia which was just so expensive. That evening we bumped into Oliver and he said he had booked a room in Ko Phang Nan for the full moon party and we could stay with him once we got there.
On our first day we went to see the Grand Palace and the relining Buddha. There are many tricks that the Thai people like to play on you in order to get money and we were wise to it. We knew we could walk to the grand palace and reclining budda so we avoided the masses of tut tut drivers that wanted to take us there. On the way we were walking along and a Thai man told us it was closed. This was the trick. They tell foreigners that the attraction is closed and offer to take you somewhere else and then back in the afternoon when it was open. Once this is agreed they take you to the most expensive Gem store where they get commission and make it very difficult for you to leave. Once you have purchased something they take you to the attraction. Emily was not having any of it and kept telling him she was going to the Grand Palace just to see where it is anyway. Tony was much more friendly with the man and we ended up being in a conversion with him longer than we wanted to.
On arrival to the Grand Palace we realised that Emily couldn't go inside in a vest top so she had to pay for a white longsleved blouse and put that over her vest top. She was boiling!!! The palace was worth the hassle. It was full of temples that were just so beautiful. They sparkled in the sunlight. We stayed there as long as we could bear. It was 38 degrees. We then proceeded to walk to see the reclining Budda. He was massive!! He was 46 metres long. It was really impressive. Along the other side of the Buddha were lots of tins lined up. We saw as Thai people take there change and queue to put money in every single tin. Due to the fact that we don't speak Thai we didn't really know what that was about.
The following day was a wasted day. We got a taxi (and told him to switch his meter on as sometimes they 'forget'). We needed to get to the Vietnam Embassy to get our visas. The tut tut driver told us it was closed. We thought 'yeah right'!! However this time he was right. It turned out to be a Thai bank holiday so we took a half hour trip for nothing. However we did get to check out the other side of town which was really expensive. We realised we have picked the best place to stay. Around our area was where all the hostels were and cheap restaurants and clothes stalls.
On return to our area we both had Thai massages. Three pound for half an hour. They washed our feet to begin with which was a bit weird but the massage was good. Tony laughed all the way through as it really tickled him. It made the Thai lady laugh too. Emily thought her Thai lady was going to snap her head off her shoulders at one point but it felt good.
In the evening we met up with Karen and Helen who we meet in Mission beach and Cairns. Emily had emailed Karen and given her direct instructions of how to get from the airport without getting a cab. Karen had passed these details onto Helen. Emily spotted Helen straight away looking at some clothes. However we couldn't find Karen. According to the hostel she had checked in at 17:30. It was now 19:00. Helen put a note on her door letting her know she had found us. We walked long the street. We figured that Karen is Scottish so she will definately be in the pub getting drunk.
We decided to go to dinner without Karen as we were starving. An hour into it she found us. She was with two guys she went travelling with at the start of her world tour. She had randomly bumped into them in the street. They all came to join us. However her friends left early in the night as they had a flight back to the UK - unlucky!! Tony was on a drinking mission and proceeded to get Karen completely shitfaced. It worked. Helen and the two of us had to hold Karen up. Tony got her some fresh orange juice and told her to drink it. She was swaying all over the place. She then argued that she didn't live in the same hostel as us! We had to convince her that she did. We found her room and put her to bed and then went back to ours.
Some people don't like Bangkok and there is a fairly good reason. It is overcrowded and you do get pestered to buy things and tut tut and cab drivers will try and rob you. We encountered this a few times. The Vietnam embassy was one of these cases. We needed the visa in the same day and the hostel told us it should cost around 1000 baht (twenty pounds). We got to the embassy and filled in our paperwork. The women was rude to us and told us the visa would cost 3000 baht each!! Was she having a laugh! We couldn't argue with her as we needed the visa the same day so we had to pay her. It made us even more sick when she gave us the receipt and wrote that we have only paid 1000 baht each. We were so mad we were having thoughts about waiting for her after work and getting our money back. She clearly pocketed our cash. We had to go and pick up the visas at four. Emily insisted they get a cab at three because of the traffic. Lucky we did. It was the worse traffic and we nearly didn't make it. The traffic was bad coming back from the embassy as well and we couldn't get a cab. We kept saying put the meter on and they refused wanting to charge us 400 baht! It cost us 80 to get there. We had a bus to catch at 19:00 so we couldn't hang about. We ended up getting a tut tut and managed to get back to the hostel so we could collect all our things.
We managed to get a tut tut straight away from our hostel to take us to the bus station. The traffic was awful. Then there was a massive storm. We got soaked and so did all our stuff but we managed to get to the bus station on time to change our clothes.
The bus to Ko Phag Nan was a nightmare. We got on it at 19:30 and arrived in some random place at 06:00. We were told we had to wait for two and a half hours for the next bus. Emily used the time to make a pillow of Tony's shoulder and fall asleep. When this bus arrived it was so small. People were packed on there like a pack of sardines. Luckily it didn't take long to get to the boat. We were on the boat for two and a half hours and we were starving. We hadn't eaten since 18:00 the previous day. On the boat a woman was going along organising Taxi's so told us it would cost us 200 baht each to get to our hostel. We didn't believe it - each!! She told us she had three more people going the same way and if we asked another cab they would charge us 1000 baht! Thai people can be money grabbing bastards. We were knackered so we did that. After we paid. We got in a cab with the other girls. It was quite a way and when the cab driver dropped the girls off he told us to get out. He refused to drive us up the hill. After paying 200 baht each we were so mad. It was scorching hot, we hadn't sleep in 24 hours or eaten. We then had to put our backpacks on and climb the hill. It took as fourty minutes to climb this hill. We were so sleep derived and hungry that Emily was almost shredding tears. Tony tried hard to keep it together. He was cursing the taxi driver. The greedy, robbing bastard.
The next day we went to find Oliver so we could stay with him. A cab driver took our cash and again didn't take us all the way to the hostel. We had to get another cab and then we realised we had gone to the wrong one! great. We had to balance all our stuff on a motorbike and get to the right hostel that way. Seeing Oliver was great and everything got better after that. He has booked a room with a double bed and single bed so we took the double. The hostel was owned by an Aussie who cooked good food at a cheap price. It was fab!
That evening was the night of the full moon party - the best rave in Thailand. We got ready with Oliver and his friends. They painted Tony and we had a few drinks to get started. The cab drivers outside were filling up their trucks with fifteen odd people and still wanted 100 baht from each person for a 2 mile drive!! we were unimpressed again!! Therefore we got off the back of the truck and ran. We weren't paying!! Sam (Olivers friend) ran with us! It was raining so bad we thought the rave on the beach wouldn't be so fun. However as soon as we got there at 23:00 it stopped. We then went to get the infamous buckets. In the bucket they put red bull, a whole bottle of whiskey and coke in it. It cost us 150 baht (3 pound). The red bull here in Thailand is illegal in the UK. They believe it is so strong that it is too much like doing speed.
The party was amazing. There was 10,000 people on the beach!! Everyone was so drunk at midnight. We didn't think they would make it to see the sunset. We kept drinking the bucket and Tony wanted another one. The party was mad everyone was jumping in the sea fully clothed and naked. People were having sex in front of everyone and onlookers took photos! Sickos! We were offered pills about three times and of course we refused. Oliver got taken away earlier in the night by a random girl so we left him to it. We bumped into two sweddish girls we met in our hostel and Teresa who was from the UK. Tony got really drunk and wanted to see the people selling magic mushroom pizza. He just wanted to see how dodgy it really was. He made Emily and Teresa go all the way to the other end of the beach to find it even though he wasn't intended to actually do it. He was just curious to see it happening. Teresa tried to convince him that there wasn't any. He wouldn't listen. We looked up at the clock and it was 03:45!! The time went so quick it must have been the red bull in the bucket that kept us going all night. An hour later Tony was in a bad way. He was stealing one of the Sweddish girl's beer and taking cigerattes out of peoples mouths that he didn't know and kept wondering into the sea to try and be sick. Suddenly he was gone (mentally). Everyone tried to talk to him but he would stare blankly only saying that he was too drunk. Emily left him with Teresa and ran to seven eleven to get him some water. She got back to see Tony swaying with Teresa holding his arm and swinging it in time with the music. Very funny to watch. At 05:30 he wanted to go which was disappointing to Emily as she wanted to watch the sunrise. However Tony was in a bad way. As soon as we got in the truck to go home Tony was sick everywhere!
Needless to say the next day Tony felt awful and we sunbathed by the beach for most of the day. Tony couldn't remember a thing.
We left for Ko Samui the next day and didn't get ripped off at all. We found our hostel and it was amazing. A massive room and bathroom. It was like a hotel room. The best we have had! Ko Samui was a beach resort so thats pretty much all we did. However it was Thai New year which meant there was a national waterfight on. We threw buckets of water from our balcony onto the people and motorbikes below. The family across the road loved it and their son who was only about four years old would try and get us with his little water pistol and then hide underneath us. Therefore as soon as he was insight Tony got a whole bucket of water and threw it onto him below. The poor boy nearly fellover from the force. We laughed so much and so did his dad from the other side of the road. He was ruined!! We carried on and Tony got a ladyboy. It come up and started having a go at him about how it had just done its make up. Ha ha. We went out into town that night and got soaked! There was load music everywhere and gallons of water where people could top up. We took a bucket and two litre bottles that we kept topping up. We soaked anyone that walked pass the bar we were in and everyone in the bar soaked us. It was so much fun. At one point the Thai people lined up and did a funny dance. It was like a scene from Slumdog Millionaire. Regardless we threw buckets of water in their faces. A ladyboy wanted to dance with Emily while another Thai girl (not a ladyboy) got some talc and drew lines on Emily's face and kissed her. These Thai people were friendly. When we got too cold we went back to our apartment. At 02:30 when we got back Tony was still wanting to throw water from the balcony.
The next day we knew we were getting soaked again so we went to the beach. There was a massive street party taking place. Some old European man was soaking people with buckets and he was dry. So Emily slowly made her way behind him and threw her whole bottle of water over his head. The man jumped because he wasn't expecting it. His friend laughed and Emily laughed so much so got hiccups. When we got back and opened the door it looked like there was wee on our floor. We put two two together and realised that the Ladyboy Tony had soaked yesterday had come back and pissed on our door. Nice!! We got a bucket and threw water at it to wash it from our apartment. That evening again we soaked people from our balcony. The Thai people living on the opposite side on their balcony did the same thing. Occasionally they waged war and ran up to our balcony with buckets of water. It was so funny we would wait for him behind the wall with a huge bucket and get him. He persisted though and his friends watching from the otherside thought it was so funny. An Irish guy called Dave was helping us with his supersoaker. The Thai people were so funny they were singing to Timbaland's Apologise and dancing in the street.
It was a shame to leave this place. Everyone had been so kind but it was time to move on. Ko Samui has the best airport in the world!!!!!!!! Once you check in you go to the next building. You have to walk down a purpose built quite street to get there. It is like a street in Canterbury filled with cute little shops. Its all outside! Once you arrive in the departure lounge there are massive sofas and free food. Our eyes nearly popped out when they said free.
We arrived in Phuket and we were collected from the airport by our hostel. It was a nice place and English owned. Emily emailed Karen to try and let her know where we were incase she wanted to join. We arrived in the evening so it was a quiet night.
We explored Phuket beach. According to the Sun newspaper Princess Eugene was meant to be there but we didn't see her. The beach was lovely and the waves were massive. Emily went running on the beach and didn't realise how long it was!
The next day we got a boat to Koh Phi Phi. The hostel we were staying at was a bit far out although it was still walking distance and we had to climb up 300 steps to get to our room!! We went and booked a snorkel trip for the next day and went to check out the beach. Wow! The water was so clear and so hot it was like a bath. It really was paradise. No jellyfish or other nasties exist!
Our snorkel trip was great. We stopped at shark bay and jumped straight in to snorkel. The skipper had some bread so he chucked it right near our faces and hundreds of fish come up. There were so many and they were so beautiful. Emily loved the pink, yellow and green fish. They were gorgeous. One of the fish bit Tony's ear! We stopped to look at the Viking Cave which isn't really a viking cave, it's a cave where Pirates used to stop. We also went to monkey beach which was surrounding by monkeys!
The next stop was Loh Samah Bay where Tony did cliff jumping. The cliff was about 20 metres high. He got up there and then had second thoughts. However he had told everyone in the boat he was definately going to do it and they were all shouting for him to jump. He went for it!! There was a massive spalsh!! We then went snorkelling in the area. We saw a lot more fish and hammerhead fish. Finally we went to Maya Bay where they filmed 'The Beach'. Again it was clear water and hot like a bath but this had such beautiful surroundings. Large green cliffs engulfed it. We watched the sunset.
We went back to Phuket the next day and finally met up with Helen and Karen again and went for dinner. Tony tried to get Karen drunk again but she wasn't having any of it. We sat outside our hostel and drunk. The next day we hit the beach together and went body boarding.
Our next stop in Thailand was Chiang Mai. The first thing we did was go and visit a temple. It was so beautiful and two of the budda's in the temple are 2500 years old! Older than Christ!! Outside the temple there were a litter of puppies so we went to play with them. In the evening we met up with Tony's friend Richard and he took us to a buffet. There was no other white people there. It was completely off the beaten track. It was only 1 pound 20. There was raw food where they put a small BBQ on you table (yes on your table) and you cook it yourself or they was cooked food like chicken drumsticks, fish, noodles. There was so much food and free doughnuts, cakes and ice cream. Brillant!
Chiang Mai was where we did our trekking. We were in a really nice small group with only 3 other people. We went to see a waterfall where we all stood underneath and went swimming. It is so freshing as it was 38 dgrees. Then we went to see a hot spring. Obviously it was too hot to get in at 99 degrees!! We then did a three hour trek to the village. We stopped at a few tribes on the way. They are completely self sufficient. They have their own rice fields, cows, chickens, pigs etc. They had the most gorgeous little chicks and little puppies. Our camp was much the same. We stayed seperate from the tribe that lived there but the room was so nice and lit by candles. (see the photo).
The next day we were up at 7:00 and trekked to see the Elephants. On arrival we had our Elephant rides. It was quite uncomfortable!! We were on them for a hour and a half!! Then we went to get on a Bamboo raft for two hours. We all had to stand up on it and the boys helped steer the raft at the back. We ended up getting wet!! After some lunch we travelled back to Chaing Mai. We met up with the people from the trek for some dinner.
The next day we left Thailand for Laos.
On our first day we went to see the Grand Palace and the relining Buddha. There are many tricks that the Thai people like to play on you in order to get money and we were wise to it. We knew we could walk to the grand palace and reclining budda so we avoided the masses of tut tut drivers that wanted to take us there. On the way we were walking along and a Thai man told us it was closed. This was the trick. They tell foreigners that the attraction is closed and offer to take you somewhere else and then back in the afternoon when it was open. Once this is agreed they take you to the most expensive Gem store where they get commission and make it very difficult for you to leave. Once you have purchased something they take you to the attraction. Emily was not having any of it and kept telling him she was going to the Grand Palace just to see where it is anyway. Tony was much more friendly with the man and we ended up being in a conversion with him longer than we wanted to.
On arrival to the Grand Palace we realised that Emily couldn't go inside in a vest top so she had to pay for a white longsleved blouse and put that over her vest top. She was boiling!!! The palace was worth the hassle. It was full of temples that were just so beautiful. They sparkled in the sunlight. We stayed there as long as we could bear. It was 38 degrees. We then proceeded to walk to see the reclining Budda. He was massive!! He was 46 metres long. It was really impressive. Along the other side of the Buddha were lots of tins lined up. We saw as Thai people take there change and queue to put money in every single tin. Due to the fact that we don't speak Thai we didn't really know what that was about.
The following day was a wasted day. We got a taxi (and told him to switch his meter on as sometimes they 'forget'). We needed to get to the Vietnam Embassy to get our visas. The tut tut driver told us it was closed. We thought 'yeah right'!! However this time he was right. It turned out to be a Thai bank holiday so we took a half hour trip for nothing. However we did get to check out the other side of town which was really expensive. We realised we have picked the best place to stay. Around our area was where all the hostels were and cheap restaurants and clothes stalls.
On return to our area we both had Thai massages. Three pound for half an hour. They washed our feet to begin with which was a bit weird but the massage was good. Tony laughed all the way through as it really tickled him. It made the Thai lady laugh too. Emily thought her Thai lady was going to snap her head off her shoulders at one point but it felt good.
In the evening we met up with Karen and Helen who we meet in Mission beach and Cairns. Emily had emailed Karen and given her direct instructions of how to get from the airport without getting a cab. Karen had passed these details onto Helen. Emily spotted Helen straight away looking at some clothes. However we couldn't find Karen. According to the hostel she had checked in at 17:30. It was now 19:00. Helen put a note on her door letting her know she had found us. We walked long the street. We figured that Karen is Scottish so she will definately be in the pub getting drunk.
We decided to go to dinner without Karen as we were starving. An hour into it she found us. She was with two guys she went travelling with at the start of her world tour. She had randomly bumped into them in the street. They all came to join us. However her friends left early in the night as they had a flight back to the UK - unlucky!! Tony was on a drinking mission and proceeded to get Karen completely shitfaced. It worked. Helen and the two of us had to hold Karen up. Tony got her some fresh orange juice and told her to drink it. She was swaying all over the place. She then argued that she didn't live in the same hostel as us! We had to convince her that she did. We found her room and put her to bed and then went back to ours.
Some people don't like Bangkok and there is a fairly good reason. It is overcrowded and you do get pestered to buy things and tut tut and cab drivers will try and rob you. We encountered this a few times. The Vietnam embassy was one of these cases. We needed the visa in the same day and the hostel told us it should cost around 1000 baht (twenty pounds). We got to the embassy and filled in our paperwork. The women was rude to us and told us the visa would cost 3000 baht each!! Was she having a laugh! We couldn't argue with her as we needed the visa the same day so we had to pay her. It made us even more sick when she gave us the receipt and wrote that we have only paid 1000 baht each. We were so mad we were having thoughts about waiting for her after work and getting our money back. She clearly pocketed our cash. We had to go and pick up the visas at four. Emily insisted they get a cab at three because of the traffic. Lucky we did. It was the worse traffic and we nearly didn't make it. The traffic was bad coming back from the embassy as well and we couldn't get a cab. We kept saying put the meter on and they refused wanting to charge us 400 baht! It cost us 80 to get there. We had a bus to catch at 19:00 so we couldn't hang about. We ended up getting a tut tut and managed to get back to the hostel so we could collect all our things.
We managed to get a tut tut straight away from our hostel to take us to the bus station. The traffic was awful. Then there was a massive storm. We got soaked and so did all our stuff but we managed to get to the bus station on time to change our clothes.
The bus to Ko Phag Nan was a nightmare. We got on it at 19:30 and arrived in some random place at 06:00. We were told we had to wait for two and a half hours for the next bus. Emily used the time to make a pillow of Tony's shoulder and fall asleep. When this bus arrived it was so small. People were packed on there like a pack of sardines. Luckily it didn't take long to get to the boat. We were on the boat for two and a half hours and we were starving. We hadn't eaten since 18:00 the previous day. On the boat a woman was going along organising Taxi's so told us it would cost us 200 baht each to get to our hostel. We didn't believe it - each!! She told us she had three more people going the same way and if we asked another cab they would charge us 1000 baht! Thai people can be money grabbing bastards. We were knackered so we did that. After we paid. We got in a cab with the other girls. It was quite a way and when the cab driver dropped the girls off he told us to get out. He refused to drive us up the hill. After paying 200 baht each we were so mad. It was scorching hot, we hadn't sleep in 24 hours or eaten. We then had to put our backpacks on and climb the hill. It took as fourty minutes to climb this hill. We were so sleep derived and hungry that Emily was almost shredding tears. Tony tried hard to keep it together. He was cursing the taxi driver. The greedy, robbing bastard.
The next day we went to find Oliver so we could stay with him. A cab driver took our cash and again didn't take us all the way to the hostel. We had to get another cab and then we realised we had gone to the wrong one! great. We had to balance all our stuff on a motorbike and get to the right hostel that way. Seeing Oliver was great and everything got better after that. He has booked a room with a double bed and single bed so we took the double. The hostel was owned by an Aussie who cooked good food at a cheap price. It was fab!
That evening was the night of the full moon party - the best rave in Thailand. We got ready with Oliver and his friends. They painted Tony and we had a few drinks to get started. The cab drivers outside were filling up their trucks with fifteen odd people and still wanted 100 baht from each person for a 2 mile drive!! we were unimpressed again!! Therefore we got off the back of the truck and ran. We weren't paying!! Sam (Olivers friend) ran with us! It was raining so bad we thought the rave on the beach wouldn't be so fun. However as soon as we got there at 23:00 it stopped. We then went to get the infamous buckets. In the bucket they put red bull, a whole bottle of whiskey and coke in it. It cost us 150 baht (3 pound). The red bull here in Thailand is illegal in the UK. They believe it is so strong that it is too much like doing speed.
The party was amazing. There was 10,000 people on the beach!! Everyone was so drunk at midnight. We didn't think they would make it to see the sunset. We kept drinking the bucket and Tony wanted another one. The party was mad everyone was jumping in the sea fully clothed and naked. People were having sex in front of everyone and onlookers took photos! Sickos! We were offered pills about three times and of course we refused. Oliver got taken away earlier in the night by a random girl so we left him to it. We bumped into two sweddish girls we met in our hostel and Teresa who was from the UK. Tony got really drunk and wanted to see the people selling magic mushroom pizza. He just wanted to see how dodgy it really was. He made Emily and Teresa go all the way to the other end of the beach to find it even though he wasn't intended to actually do it. He was just curious to see it happening. Teresa tried to convince him that there wasn't any. He wouldn't listen. We looked up at the clock and it was 03:45!! The time went so quick it must have been the red bull in the bucket that kept us going all night. An hour later Tony was in a bad way. He was stealing one of the Sweddish girl's beer and taking cigerattes out of peoples mouths that he didn't know and kept wondering into the sea to try and be sick. Suddenly he was gone (mentally). Everyone tried to talk to him but he would stare blankly only saying that he was too drunk. Emily left him with Teresa and ran to seven eleven to get him some water. She got back to see Tony swaying with Teresa holding his arm and swinging it in time with the music. Very funny to watch. At 05:30 he wanted to go which was disappointing to Emily as she wanted to watch the sunrise. However Tony was in a bad way. As soon as we got in the truck to go home Tony was sick everywhere!
Needless to say the next day Tony felt awful and we sunbathed by the beach for most of the day. Tony couldn't remember a thing.
We left for Ko Samui the next day and didn't get ripped off at all. We found our hostel and it was amazing. A massive room and bathroom. It was like a hotel room. The best we have had! Ko Samui was a beach resort so thats pretty much all we did. However it was Thai New year which meant there was a national waterfight on. We threw buckets of water from our balcony onto the people and motorbikes below. The family across the road loved it and their son who was only about four years old would try and get us with his little water pistol and then hide underneath us. Therefore as soon as he was insight Tony got a whole bucket of water and threw it onto him below. The poor boy nearly fellover from the force. We laughed so much and so did his dad from the other side of the road. He was ruined!! We carried on and Tony got a ladyboy. It come up and started having a go at him about how it had just done its make up. Ha ha. We went out into town that night and got soaked! There was load music everywhere and gallons of water where people could top up. We took a bucket and two litre bottles that we kept topping up. We soaked anyone that walked pass the bar we were in and everyone in the bar soaked us. It was so much fun. At one point the Thai people lined up and did a funny dance. It was like a scene from Slumdog Millionaire. Regardless we threw buckets of water in their faces. A ladyboy wanted to dance with Emily while another Thai girl (not a ladyboy) got some talc and drew lines on Emily's face and kissed her. These Thai people were friendly. When we got too cold we went back to our apartment. At 02:30 when we got back Tony was still wanting to throw water from the balcony.
The next day we knew we were getting soaked again so we went to the beach. There was a massive street party taking place. Some old European man was soaking people with buckets and he was dry. So Emily slowly made her way behind him and threw her whole bottle of water over his head. The man jumped because he wasn't expecting it. His friend laughed and Emily laughed so much so got hiccups. When we got back and opened the door it looked like there was wee on our floor. We put two two together and realised that the Ladyboy Tony had soaked yesterday had come back and pissed on our door. Nice!! We got a bucket and threw water at it to wash it from our apartment. That evening again we soaked people from our balcony. The Thai people living on the opposite side on their balcony did the same thing. Occasionally they waged war and ran up to our balcony with buckets of water. It was so funny we would wait for him behind the wall with a huge bucket and get him. He persisted though and his friends watching from the otherside thought it was so funny. An Irish guy called Dave was helping us with his supersoaker. The Thai people were so funny they were singing to Timbaland's Apologise and dancing in the street.
It was a shame to leave this place. Everyone had been so kind but it was time to move on. Ko Samui has the best airport in the world!!!!!!!! Once you check in you go to the next building. You have to walk down a purpose built quite street to get there. It is like a street in Canterbury filled with cute little shops. Its all outside! Once you arrive in the departure lounge there are massive sofas and free food. Our eyes nearly popped out when they said free.
We arrived in Phuket and we were collected from the airport by our hostel. It was a nice place and English owned. Emily emailed Karen to try and let her know where we were incase she wanted to join. We arrived in the evening so it was a quiet night.
We explored Phuket beach. According to the Sun newspaper Princess Eugene was meant to be there but we didn't see her. The beach was lovely and the waves were massive. Emily went running on the beach and didn't realise how long it was!
The next day we got a boat to Koh Phi Phi. The hostel we were staying at was a bit far out although it was still walking distance and we had to climb up 300 steps to get to our room!! We went and booked a snorkel trip for the next day and went to check out the beach. Wow! The water was so clear and so hot it was like a bath. It really was paradise. No jellyfish or other nasties exist!
Our snorkel trip was great. We stopped at shark bay and jumped straight in to snorkel. The skipper had some bread so he chucked it right near our faces and hundreds of fish come up. There were so many and they were so beautiful. Emily loved the pink, yellow and green fish. They were gorgeous. One of the fish bit Tony's ear! We stopped to look at the Viking Cave which isn't really a viking cave, it's a cave where Pirates used to stop. We also went to monkey beach which was surrounding by monkeys!
The next stop was Loh Samah Bay where Tony did cliff jumping. The cliff was about 20 metres high. He got up there and then had second thoughts. However he had told everyone in the boat he was definately going to do it and they were all shouting for him to jump. He went for it!! There was a massive spalsh!! We then went snorkelling in the area. We saw a lot more fish and hammerhead fish. Finally we went to Maya Bay where they filmed 'The Beach'. Again it was clear water and hot like a bath but this had such beautiful surroundings. Large green cliffs engulfed it. We watched the sunset.
We went back to Phuket the next day and finally met up with Helen and Karen again and went for dinner. Tony tried to get Karen drunk again but she wasn't having any of it. We sat outside our hostel and drunk. The next day we hit the beach together and went body boarding.
Our next stop in Thailand was Chiang Mai. The first thing we did was go and visit a temple. It was so beautiful and two of the budda's in the temple are 2500 years old! Older than Christ!! Outside the temple there were a litter of puppies so we went to play with them. In the evening we met up with Tony's friend Richard and he took us to a buffet. There was no other white people there. It was completely off the beaten track. It was only 1 pound 20. There was raw food where they put a small BBQ on you table (yes on your table) and you cook it yourself or they was cooked food like chicken drumsticks, fish, noodles. There was so much food and free doughnuts, cakes and ice cream. Brillant!
Chiang Mai was where we did our trekking. We were in a really nice small group with only 3 other people. We went to see a waterfall where we all stood underneath and went swimming. It is so freshing as it was 38 dgrees. Then we went to see a hot spring. Obviously it was too hot to get in at 99 degrees!! We then did a three hour trek to the village. We stopped at a few tribes on the way. They are completely self sufficient. They have their own rice fields, cows, chickens, pigs etc. They had the most gorgeous little chicks and little puppies. Our camp was much the same. We stayed seperate from the tribe that lived there but the room was so nice and lit by candles. (see the photo).
The next day we were up at 7:00 and trekked to see the Elephants. On arrival we had our Elephant rides. It was quite uncomfortable!! We were on them for a hour and a half!! Then we went to get on a Bamboo raft for two hours. We all had to stand up on it and the boys helped steer the raft at the back. We ended up getting wet!! After some lunch we travelled back to Chaing Mai. We met up with the people from the trek for some dinner.
The next day we left Thailand for Laos.
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