Thoughts on leaving The Land of Smiles

I was sad to be leaving, I had well and truely fallen in love with Thailand.  Cambodia too, had left it's mark, I only wish we could of spent more time there. Vietnam?  I wont be rushing back to Vietnam anytime soon.  Although I was sad to be leaving I was looking forward to getting home, seeing all my friends and family, my horses and my puppy dog, but most of all my boyfriend, I had missed him loads.

When I decided to come on this trip, I told people it was going to be a 'once in a life time experience'...I was wrong.  If you've ever been to Thailand, you'll under that it's not the sort of place you can ever visit just ONCE.  I will be back soon, as soon as possible.  I can't wait to get back to The Land of Smiles :)

Bangkok, Dubai, HOME!

We were up at 7, out of the hotel at 730 and on our way to the airport.  The taxi driver took us the wrong way and we ended up stuck in traffic.  We thought we might miss out flight so we got out of the cab and onto the Skytrain, we had to run to the gate and got there just in time.  The flight was ok, by now Id gotten over my fear of flying...6 flights in 3 weeks will do that for you.  We had a 90 min lay over in Dubai, just enough time for a chicken bigmac and a stop in duty free...sticking with the trend we almost missed our connecting flight, we had to run for it and got there just as the check in staff were about to walk away.  The Dubai- Manchester flight was just as good as all the others.  It took almost 2hrs to get our bags and clear imeragtion in Manchester.  Then, we were home.

Bangkok weekend market, cake and bed jumping!

We were up early ready to catch the bus to Bangkok, we found the bus station, got our tickets then went to a cafe over the road for breakfast.  The bus to Bangkok took two hours, the others slept, I, just for a change, did not.  When we arrived in Bangkok we jumped straight in to a cab and to the hotel (FX Hotel Makkasan) we had booked this before we left home, we had decided to book it so that we were close to the airport to catch our flight home the following morning.  It was by far the nicest place we'd stayed on the whole trip, it had a hair drier!!  We dumped our bags and set out to find the weekend market...we had some serious shopping to do!  We weren't sure where we were or where we were going so we hopped in a cab, the driver was lovely and told us all about the market.  We shopped until we almost dropped!  I bought 3 handbags, 3 purses and allot of other stuff I didnt need!  When we were all shopped out we sat in a coffee shop and had iced drinks and cake, this was my first cake in 3 weeks, it was good!
Back at the hotel we showered and packed, ready for home.  I had some trouble fitting everything into my 35 litre backpack, I had over done the shopping.  I decided that if I was going to get everything I had bought back home, I was going to have to wear all of my clothes on the plane.

When we were all packed, ready for home, we got into bed.  None of us could sleep, we were excited to be going home, we decided to get up and jump on our beds for a few minutes, this did the job and soon we were asleep.

Bangkok weekend market, cake and bed jumping!

We were up early ready to catch the bus to Bangkok, we found the bus station, got our tickets then went to a cafe over the road for breakfast.  The bus to Bangkok took two hours, the others slept, I, just for a change, did not.  When we arrived in Bangkok we jumped straight in to a cab and to the hotel (FX Hotel Makkasan) we had booked this before we left home, we had decided to book it so that we were close to the airport to catch our flight home the following morning.  It was by far the nicest place we'd stayed on the whole trip, it had a hair drier!!  We dumped our bags and set out to find the weekend market...we had some serious shopping to do!  We were sure where we were or where we were going so we hoped in a cab, the driver was lovely and told us all about the market.  We shopped unti lwe almost dropped!  I bought 3 handbags, 3 purses and allot of other stuff I didnt need!  When we were all shopped out we sat in a coffee shop and had iced drinks and cake, this was my first cake in 3 weeks, it was good!
Back at the hotel we showered and packed, ready for home.  I had some trouble fitting everythign into my 35 litre backpack, I had over done the shopping.  I decided that if I was going to take everythign I had bought home, I was going to have to wear all of my clothes on the plane.
When we were all packed, ready for home, we got into bed.  None of us could sleep, we were excited to be going home, we decided to get up and jump on our beds for a few minutes, this did the job and soon we were asleep.

Cannonball Practice!

Today I almost made the same mistake as yesterday, my watch was once again upside down, but this time I realised before I woke the others up!  When the others woke up we went down to the hotel pool..this was the first place we'd stayed that had a pool, it was quite a luxury.  We order breakfast and ate it by the pool, we sunbathed for a while then took a dip.   We stayed there until the afternoon, around 230 we were talking about home, we worked out the time difference and relised that the Chris Moyles Show would be about to begin on BBC Radio One...we fired up the speakers and tuned in the Ipod.  It was very sureal listening to the Friday Cheesey Song in a 40c, in March.  Back home I'd be listening to it in temps of around 5c, in the rain, whilst mucking out horses stables...this was much better!  I got out of the pool to take some pics, we set up the self timer on the cameras and tried to get some pics of all three of us in the pool.  I decided to liven things up a bit with a cannonball back into the pool, que 2 hours of us taking it in turns to get out and jump back in...it was funny at the time, althought I think it wore thin on the staff and other guests after a while!

Later we walked down the road to see the 'Tiffany show', a cabret show, Id never been to one before so dont have anything to compare it to, Sam said it wasnt very good, although I thought it was ok, it was something different.  After the show we walked into the centre of Pattaya, we shopped for a while, stoped for dinner..I had a curry and it was amazing!  Then we shopped some more, had a few beers on Walking Street and went for a massage.  Before we knew it, it was 2am...We decided to get a cab back to the hotel. 

Our first taste of Pattaya

I woke up at what I thought was 1.50pm, I shouted at the girls to wake up, ''we've missed half the day!"...turns out my watch was upside down and it was actually 8.20am, having not gone to bed until after 4, this did not go down to well with the girls!  I was told to shut up and go back to sleep! ...so I did!

We got up about 11 and decided to walk down the road to find some breakfast.  We ended up int he centre of Pattaya, we bought some things to take home, looked in some shops then got some lunch.  We walked down 'Walking street', bought some sun glasses and had a few beers.  Pattaya was a bit of a shock to me, I knew nothing about the place until I googled it just before we arrived.  Every single bar has dozons of girls stood outside toutting for business, most of them are drunk or high on drugs.  If the girls are not in one of the many bars, they are on the arm of a male tourist, on their way to...I guess 'work'.  It was an interesting and eye opening day, we had allot of fun, although I must admit it saddens me to think how these girls have to live.  That night we walked back to the hotel, it was quite a way but it was a nice walk.  The weather was good, much warmer than Vietnam, although not as hot as the Thai islands. 

Hanoi to Bangkok

So, I didnt sleep on the train, not one wink.  It was dirty and uncomfortable and I couldnt wait to get off.  Today was long, the train reached Hanoi at 3.30pm.  We found an 'internet cafe', when we got inside they just starred at us, there was no internet, and it seemed that there were no food either!  We tried to ask where we were, we held out a map but no one seemed to want to help, maybe it was the American thing again?!  We left and found another cafe just down the road.  We ordered pizza and drinks.  About 1 hour later our pizza arrived, on the back of a motorbike, they had sent out for it!  It was a nice little cafe, the restrooms were clean and we managed to wash a little and brush our teeth.  We got online and booked a hotel in Pattaya.

Later we got a taxi to the airport, the driver drove us round and round, we noticed we kept going past the same buildings, he was trying to rack up distance as we were on the meter.  When we got to the airport we said we weren't paying what he wanted us to pay, he was not happy, we argued for about 15 minutes, a local lady who spoke perfect English came over to help.  In the end we paid what we thought was right and walked away, he didnt come after us so that was that.  We got on the flight and headed back to Thailand..I was a happy lady!  When we landed in Bangkok the heat was amazingg!  We got a taxi to Pattaya and checked into the hotel we had booked online earlier.  The room was clean and had aircon, it was around 3am, we went to bed.

Da Nang; a day in the coffee shop

We woke up early, still not really speaking.  We had arranged to meet the Irish guys back at the bar at noon, so they could take us to Hoi An.  I said I wasnt happy about this, I didnt want to ride through Vietnam on the back of a moped.. I wanted to get back to Thailand.  The others agreed we shouldn't go to Hoi An.  We checked out and walked into the town once again, we walked for ages with our backpacks until we found a shopping mall.   Before we went into the mall we stopped at a store to buy a sim card as neither of the phones we had with us would work in Vietnam.  We took a seat in a coffee shop which had free wifi.  We had flights booked from Hanoi to Bangkok for the following week, and we knew that if we could change them to tomorrow we could get back to Thailand and spend the last few days of our trip there, in the sun, with the nice people!  After some googling and a couple of phone calls we managed to change our flights.  It meant we had to be in Hanoi the next day, the only way to get there was an over night train... so that was the plan...get the train, get the flight, get back to Thailand!

We spend most of the day in the coffee shop.  We decided that, once back in Thailand, we'd spend the last few days in Pattaya.  An English family that we met on Koh Samui had recommended Pattaya, they said it was good for shopping, that sounded good to us!

The train was due to leave at round 11pm, we got a cab to the train station as we had no idea how far away it was.  The taxi driver couldnt understand us and we had to draw a picture of a train to get him to understand where we wanted to go! It drew quite a crowd!  Once at the train station we tried to book tickets for the sleep carrage, it was full.  We had to settle for 2nd class seats.  There would be no sleep for me tonight!

While waiting for the train I somehow got talking to a local man, he didnt speak allot of english but enough to strike up a conversation.  he asked where we were from... I ask why they eat dogs... Then I asked why all the locals kept starring at us everywhere we went, why does no one like us?  he told me ''they think you American, Vietnam hate America''.  That made sense, and explained a few things.  He went on to tell me that he had killed lots of Americans, ''BANG, BANG'', he said.  Soon a train arrived and we went to get on it, only to find out that it was the train to HCMC, good job we noticed in time!  We finally got on the right train, and after a mix up with the seats and some policemen, (dont ask!),we settled down for the night.

Danang

I woke up early and jumped straight out of bed to see what the weather was like, it was brighter than the day before, I went outside to see how hot it was, probably about 20c, which was cold compared to what we had been used to.  When the others woke up we walked to the beach, about 20 mins away.  It wasnt very warm, but we decded to lay and sunbathe anyway.  We lay there for a few hours, I read my book, we didnt really talk.  We were all fed up, we decided to go back to the hotel, get changed and go out to get drunk, we said we'd decide what to do next later.  The options were to either stick to our plan and keep heading north through Vietnam, but it was only going to get colder the further north we went.  We all wanted to see Halong Bay, but would the weather be any good when we got there?  Would we actually get to see anything? Or, we could cut our losses and try to get back to Thailand or cambodia.

 

We only had single entry visas for Cambodia so Thailand was the only option...I was more than up for that. We walked into the town and found a bar, we ordered food, (the girls had dog burgers, I had a vegi option), and talked about what to do next.  After a few more drinks we went upstairs where there was a pool table, I cant play pool, but I gave it my best shot!  Later on we were joined by a group of Irish lads, they were travelling on motorbikes, and were loads of fun.  The said we should go to Hoi An.  They offered to take us there in the mornig on the back of there bikes...I wasnt sure about this, I didnt want to become a stitisic.  Later we were join by a group of American Soldiers, they were fun too, things got a bit roudy and somehow the three of us ended up falling out...we'd been travelling for almost 3 weeks and this was our first fall out.  We were all fed up of Vietnam, all dissapointed and all drunk...and thats how these things happen!  We got a cab back to the hotel.

Da Nang; Where they eat dog..

So we woke up early, none of us having slept very well.  We talked about getting out of HCMC and heading further north today rather than hanging around.  The plan had been to spend the day in HCMC then get the overnight train to Danang, then a cab to Hoi An.  The train was 17 hours, none of us fancied that, plus we didnt really know where in HCMC we were.  We found a flight that would get us to Danang in 1 hour, this was much more appealing than an 17 hours on a train, so we booked it.  We got a bus into the city, we walked around the market and found somewhere to eat, we had burgers and ice cream which was nice and very much needed after the last few days, we basically lived on crisps and rice.

After lunch we still had a while before our flight so we looked in some stores and had our nails done, then took a bus to the airport.  The flight was ok and soon we landed in Danang. We got a taxi to the hotel we had booked the day before..The Sea Wonder.  Check in was eventful!  The woman on reception was the only one who spoke any English, and she was totally, 100% mad!  She made us laugh though and soon we were shown to our room.  

So far I wasn't liking Vietnam, I had been looking forward to this part of our trip and was really dissapointed.  The biggest things putting a downer on it was the weather, it was cold and overcast, and the people, they were rude and uninviting...the total opposite to the Thai and Cambodian people we had spent the last few weeks with.
 
We unpacked and washed some clothes, we took a walk to find something to eat.  On the way we saw some people at the side of the road spit roasting a dog, it was disgusting, and I'll never, ever forget it... That was it, for the rest of our trip I was a vegetarian.  We found the centre of Danang and ordered food and beers in a little bar along the river side.  Everyone was looking at us, we trid to talk to a few people but they weren't interested.  The food was good, we ordered way to much.  We got a cab back to the hotel, it was late when we got back, not sure what time.

Siem Reip to Phom Phen to HCMC

This was another long day of travelling.  We woke up early to catch our boat, but the people at the hostel had booked us onto the bus instead, we argued the toss for a few minutes, but it was to late to get to the boat by this time and we had to settle for the bus.  I was pretty gutted as I'd been looking forwards to the boat ride down cambodia, it was something Id told people at home I wanted to do, I was really loking forwards to it, and due to a simple mix up there was now no chance of doing it. 

Anyway, we made it to the bus station minutes before the bus was due to leave.  It was a 6 hour ride to Phnom Penh.  In Phnom Penh we had a 1 1/2 hour wait for our next bus, we found a travel agent to book the bus, and got online to find and book somewhere to stay in HCMC, then got some sandwiches and drinks in a cafe next door.

  The next bus would take us over the border.  The crossing wasnt great, we were the only white people, and the only women.  At the border we had to get off the bus, get our bags, go through security, where the man who was scanning the bags demanded $1 form us for no reason.  Sam told him, in no uncertain terms to get away from us and he left us alone! After the border we were sent back onto the bus, which took us into HCMC, Vietnam.  The traffic in the city was crazy, a bus crashed into the back of ours but both buses just kept going, no swapping of insurance details or whiplash claims here!

 We stopped at the side of the road and the bus steward told us that this was our stop, we got off and he told us to get in a waiting taxi, we gave the driver the address of the hotel we'd booked earlier.

The hotel, was called the 'Apple hotel' the logo was the same as Apple (the Ipod people!), no copywrite laws in Vietnam!  Checking in was a bit of an ordeal as no one spoke English.  We were shown to our room, as the door opened a masive cockroach ran across the room and under the bed.  The room was pretty grim, there was a note on the back of the door that said 'lock door', the only problem with that was that the door didnt really lock, there was a lock but the door frame was broken.   We were starving so we went out to look for food, we walked for ages but everywhere was closed.  We eventually found a small cafe, we had fried rice and something that claimed to be chicken, which was actually quite good.  When we got back to the hotel we decided to give the shower a miss, it was grim.  We also decided that we would sleep in our sleeping bags for the first time, the beds were also grim.  Steph actually slept on the litlte sofa as she really didnt like the look of the bed! 

Angkor Wat and the Night Markets

Our alarm went off at 3.30am, not what we needed after the last couple of days of travelling, but there was a good reason for it..today we were gong to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. 

To be totally honest, all I knew about Angkor Wat was what I had read in the Lonely Planet book.  We had arranged for a tuktuk driver fro the hostel to take us around Angkor for the day, it cost just $5.  Our driver was late getting out of bed and we were worried we might miss the sunrise..we jumped into his tuktuk and he put his foot to the floor, or what ever it is you do to make a tuktuk go fast!  We were there in plently of time.  It cost $20 for a day pass, $20 is a hell of allot of money in Cambodia, I thought 'this must be good if it costs that much!'.

We headed to the main temple to watch the sunrise, it was a strange feeling, there were 100's if not 1000's of people there, it was dark and almost silent...you dont find yourself in situations like that to often!  When the sun had risen we explored the temple.  I should of done more research before we went as I didnt really understand the significance of where I was and what I was looking at.  As the day went on I listened, read the info boards and became allot more interested.  I found myself with lots of questions going round my head.  I planned to find out more about this place and return one day to see more.    I will do an blog about Angkor Wat, where we went in what order etc.

After Angkor we went back to our hostel, our tuktuk broke down on the way and the driver had to phone a friend to come and collect us! 
When we arrived back to the Tom and Jerry Hostel we booked our tickets for the 6.30am

 river boat to Phnom Pehn for the followng day. We showered and changed, the other two had a nap but I couldnt sleep so I sorted out my backpack and plucked my eye brows!  Later that evening we went to the night market, we got a tuktuk down there but it wasnt very far.  The night market was ace!  The poeple were so friendly and funny and we bought some cool things to take home.  We got another foot massage which was awsome again, she even put a plaster on a blister I had gotton from my flipflops!  At the far end of the market there are a couple of bars and places to eat, we got some food and had a few beers.  We decided to walk back to the hostel, it took about 30 mins, we stopped at a store on the way to get some bottles of water.  The Tom and Jerry Hostel is down a small side street, about 500 yards from the main road, we felt safe walking down there at night, although I wouldnt of wanted to do it alone.  It had been a long day and after getting back to the hostel it wasnt long before we were all ready to sleep, alarm was set for 5am.

From Bangkok to Siem Reap..Train, TukTuk & Taxi!

We arrived at Hualamphong train station at 3am, expecting to be able to wait for the 5.55 train to Aranyaprathet.  As we paid the tuktuk driver, he told us that the train station is closed until 5am...he could of told us that earlier hey?! So we had no choice but to wait.  We went into a 7/11 and got some drinks and then made our way back over the road to the train station.  There were litteraly hundreds of people sleeping rough outside the staion, we couldnt find anywhere to sit.  We finally found some spare ground and sat down.  The floor was dirty, as you would expect, there were lots of rubbish and some of the biggest rats I have ever seen in my life! We sat and talked, we played 'who am I' by writing names of famous people on the back of some playing cards and sticking them to our foreheads, this drew some attention from the locals, I thought this wasn't necessarily a bad thing though, I somehow felt safer knowing so many people were looking at us.

The doors to the station opened about 430, the locals who were sleeping rough were actually really nice, they told us that the doors had opened, as we hadnt noticed, and ponted us in the right direction.  We got our tickets, found a seat and waited some more... We got on the train at around 5.45am.. and that was where we stayed un til 12 noon.  The train was hot and dirty, the others went to sleep but, as you know, I cant sleep unless i'm horizontal! The only way to achieve this would of been to lay on the floor, and believe me, I wasn't that tired! There was an overhead fan which was just blowing warm air and dirt around...I was glad to get off that train.

From the train we got in a tuktuk to the boarder. The boarder crossing was quite an experience, so many people!  I was hard to tell who was trying to sell us things and paperwork we didnt need, and who was actually telling us the correct way to go.

It took about an hour to get through, I guess it was a pretty smooth crossing.

So, we are in Cambodia!
An American guy came over and asked if we'd like to share a cab with him into Siem Reap, we said yes. He was a med student who had gone to Thailand to work in a new hospital for the winter, but when he got there the hospital wasnt ready to open, so he'd packed up and gone travelling.  The cab ride was about 2 1/2 hours, we stopped half way at a little roadside store, I think the driver had an agrement with the store owner, we bought food and drinks, and he got his cab washed for free!  We finaly arrived at our hostel in Siem Reap at around 5pm.

The journey from Koh Samui, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia was a 712 mile, 29 hour experience! ..it's a really, really long way!  The shower I had just after we arrive at the Tom and Jerry hostel in Cambodia was the best shower of my life!

We got food at the hostel, which was cheap and quite nice, we ordered our food as we checked in and as we'd been telling them about our long journey, they insisted on bringing it up to our room for us! Later we walked into the town, found an ATM and got a foot massage, which was heavenly!!! 

From Samui to Cambodia- Roughing it in Bangkok

We had booked a Taxi/Boat/Bus combination ticket from a travel agent on Koh Samui yesterday.  The Taxi collected us from our hotel at 12noon, he was half an hour late and we were worried that we may miss the boat.  We arrived at the pier in plenty of time though, and boreded the boat.  It was a 4 hour boat ride from Koh Samui to Chumphon.  I liked the boat rides and was a bit sad that this would be our last one.  Sam didnt like boats when we first arrived, on the first one to Koh Phangan she wouldnt even go outside, now she didnt seem to mind.  It was a long way form Koh Samui to Chumphon, we had to go to Koh Phangan and Koh Toa before heading north.  We arrived in Chumphon at about 16.30 and had about a 30 minute wait before our bus turned up.  There was a little shop where we got a sandwich and drink.  The bus from Chumphon to Bangkok was long and boring, about half way we stopped at a service area.  We were hoping to get something to eat but everything looked disgusting so we gave it a miss.  Shortly before this stop something totally random happened... A guy who had been sitting in front of us all the way turn around and asked if we were from Manchester.  It turns out he grew up in the same village as I did! Litteraly a few doors up on the same road!  He lives on Koh Samui and was heading north for a Kite surfing competition.

The bus arrived in Bangkok at 1.30am.  Our plan had been to go to Khao San road.  We wondered around trying to find out where we were, we couldnt find Khao San road.  We were drawing allot of attention to ourselves wondering round clearly not knowing where we were going.  We ended up in a 24 hour Burger King.  We order food but I think we were all to tired to eat.  We sat there for a couple of hours then decided to get a tuktuk to the train station, we thought we'd be able to wait inside the train station until out train at 5.55am... It was now about 3am.

Day trip to Koh Nang Yuan.. A-maz-ing!

Today was an early start, we were picked up by taxi at about 6am, and taken to the pier..here we had breakfast, (cheese sandwiches!), and were given our stickers and wrist bands.  We were herded onto the speedboat and set off for Koh Nang Yuan!  We docked at Koh Phangan to pick up more tourist then headed to the island, once there we were herded once more onto a smaller boat, then back again on to our snorkel boat, we werent exactly sure what was going on but just went with the flow.  Once apparently on the correct boat we sailed off towards Koh Toa, we stopped just short of Koh Toa and after a quick demo on how to work a snorkel we were allowed into the water.

Now, Im not a big fan of fish, I dont eat them, I dont like to look at them, I'm not sure why but fish just creep me out!  Im not sure why this didnt accure to me earlier in the day, or when we booked to trip but it certainly accured to me when I stuck my snorkelled head into the water and saw fish all around me!  I freaked out a little, screaming and laughing, I got over it pretty fast and enjoyed the next hour or so in the water.

  After a while we went back onto the boat and decided to jump into the water from the deck, this again proved a problem for me, a 50 year old woman had to ask me to move out of the way so she could 'work on her bombs', as I stood at the edge claiming that someone would have to push me to get me to jump from that height.  After lots of piss taking and chanting 'Donkey kong... Donkey kong', (a nick name I had been given somewhere along the way, I forget why), I finally jumped...Im such a wimp!

 After a couple of hours n the water off of Koh Toa we were taken back towards Koh Nang Yuan, we were told to help our selves to the buffet, snorkel, explore the island and given a time to bee back at the boat.  The food was great and I ate enough to feed a small family.  After lunch we snorkelled in the waters around the island then walked up the the view point, its a bloody long way up!  I was expecting some sort of platform at the top, I couldnt wait to get there to get that special picture I'd googled so many times!  The top is actually covered in boulders, and quite hard to get to, especially in flip flops! After treking all the way up there though, I wasnt going to let a little pile of 8 foot boulders get in my way! We made it to the top and got 'that' shot.

  We practically had to run back down the mountain to the boat and just made it in time.  The ride back to Samui was pretty uneventful and a nice time to relax and laugh about the day, when we docked at Koh Phangan we bought ice lollies from a woman on the dock..you shout to her what you want, she holds up a bucket on a 20 foot stick, you put your money in the bucket, then she sends up your ice lollies!  Simple but effective! We were all worn out by the time we got back, after a quick wonder around the shops, and some nutella and bannana crepes we were early to bed.  Great day!

Jungle Safari Day!

So today was Jungle Safari Day!  We were picked up by our driver at 8am, we werent ready and he was sat outside our hotel waiting for us, we grabed are cameras, ran down stairs and jumped onto the back of the truck.  After picking up some other tourists, (one older lady who was travelling on her own, and a group of middle aged, totally purvy men), we were off into the jungle!

First stop was the safari park, there was an elephant show, where the elephants do tricks, hand stands, play football and give massages!  It sounds great but to be honest it sadden me, I love animals, I work with horses and animal welfare is important to me, I dont like to see anything sad, sick or badly treated.  The elephants looked in ok heath, but there was one tied up by the enterance, with no food or water (I'm no elephant expert, maybe this is ok?), but it was rocking back and to, back and to, as if it had lost its mind.

  I asked one of the men why it was rocking like that, he told me 'he's dancing for you!', which totally pissed me off, it clearly wasnt a happy animal.  Then there was a monkey show, the monkeys, like the elephants did tricks and played games, this didnt sit well with me either.  Next there was a Muai Thai demo, basically two thai men kicking the crap out of each other, this was fine with me!  After that we were taken to a platform to wait for our elephant ride... this was fun and lasted about 20 mins, although I stilll couldnt help feel bad for the way the elephants were treated and felt kind of bad that I had given money to fund it...Although, without money from tourists, what would happen to the elephants?  Its a hard one, and it bothered me.

 

After our elephant ride we piled back into the truck and were driven to the Big Buddha statue, we had about 45 mins here to see the statue and surrounding areas, this was a nice experience and I was glad to get away from the whole rocking elephant and dancing monkey situation!  I had to wrap a beach towel around me while we walked up to the Big Buddha, as in the rush to get out of the hotel I had forgot to pick up a shirt and was only wearing a bikini top and shorts..no boobs allowed in front of Budda!!!

Next we were driven up a mountain, we stopped at an amazing little palce for lunch, the food was good, (Thai green curry mmmmm!), the views from this place were stunning, I took loads of pics and videos but the beauty of the place had to be seen to be believed.

  After lunch we were driven further up the mountain, we went higher and higher, it felt like were in the clouds!  Finally we arrived at another park, it was busy and our driver said we would come back here later on the way back down the mountian.  We drove even higher and eventually the road ended and we were told to follow the path to the waterfall...This was amazing, so beautiful, I cant actually find the words to discribe it! We played in the waterfall and took more pics.  On the way back down the mountain we got to sit on top of the truck, I guess it was safe, but still quite a rush.  We stopped at the place we had driven past earlier, this was the tiger park, simliar to the elephant park, although this time the tigers were clearly drugged.

  There was one lay on a boulder, chained to the floor, very drousey and breathing heavily, it was very clearly drugged up to the eyeballs.  You could pay 300bt to have your picture taken with the animal, when someone handed over their money the man would shake the tiger, hit it with a stick or poke it in the eye to wake it up, then the tourist could sit next to it while someone took a picture.  This sicken me, it worried me that this tiger was so heavily sedated, in those temperatures, with no fluids or proper monitoring. I guess its not for me to judge, but it bothered me.  There were also baby tigers, about 8 in a tiny cage, you could also pay to have a pictre taken with them.  And the was a leopard, tethered to a boulder.

..she was walking back and to, in a similar way to the elephant from earlier on.  We left the rest of our group and waited at the truck.

 Next was the 'Mummified Monk'... again, not sure how felt about this!  Its that really a real person?? Apparently he died while praying, they mummified him, and stuck him in a glass tank for people to look at...??  The weirdest thing is that he's wearing a pair of Thailands best 'Ray-bans'!


Then it was on to the Grand father and Grand mother rock..just google it!

By this point we were all exhusted!  We thought we were going back to the hotel but we were taken to the 'Buddha magic garden', basically a garden with lots of butterflies, statues and a little river, it was very pretty but to be honest I was to tired to take it in!

We got back to the hotel at about 5, it was a day of ups and downs, a great experience but one that messed with my head a little.

Chilling on Koh Samui

This morning we had a massive lay in, I'm not sure what time we woke up, I'm not even sure it was still morning.  We walked to the beach, sunbathed, jumped waves and just generally had a laugh and chlled out.  Later we looked around the shops and wondered around, it started to rain, which was actaully quite nice.  We kept walking and the Thai's were all calling us into their shops to get out of the rain...a clever way of getting you to buy somethng!  We told them that we were English and this was not proper rain, it was mearly 'spitting', that confused them and we kept walking.  We got pizzas and crepes and ate them back in our room.  We decided to book a couple of day trips, we wanted to go into the jungle and we also wanted to do a trip to Koh Nang Yuan, we tried a few tourist agents and eventually found one who did us a good price for booking the 2 trips.  We planned to go out to see a 'lady boys' cabaret show...but all 3 of us fell asleep!

A move to Koh Samui and sampling Thai food.

Steph and I got up to watch the sunrise, although it was slightly dissapointing and as we told Sam 'It just came light'.

Around 11am we begun are journey to Koh Samui...We packed our bags and walked to the pier, there was a boat just about to leave for Samui so we quickly bought a ticket and hopped aboard.  The boat trip was pretty uneventful, soon we docked at the Koh Samui Pier, I forget the name of the pier but it was the one rght near 'Big Budda'.  We jumped in a taxi to Chaweng, once there we looked at few different places to stay, we treked for what seemed miles in the mid-day heat to find a place we'd seen on the interenet, eventually we had to admit that the place we were looking for didnt exist, or if it did it was far to well hidden.  We ended up at the Chaweng Centre Budget Hotel, at 1200bt per night for the 3 of us we were expectng something allot nicer than where we'd stayed recently..We got what we paid for, comfy beds, a good shower, a fridge and clean towels.  We booked to stay for 4 nights.

We went to explore our new surroundings, walked down the beach, and did a little shopping.  We found a restaurant where all Thai dshes were 100bt, so we ordered half of the menu and tucked in...I think this was when I realsed that I actually love Thai food! The waiter was great and explained everything on the menu, it took him ages but he was happy to stand and chat.  Later that night we went to a Thai boxng fight whch was awesome, much more hardcore than Thai boxing back home; the earlier fights were kids classes, unlike back home n the UK kids are allowed to flght until one of them is knocked out, this happened in one fight and I wasnt sure how I felt about that!
We walked back from the boxing statum and had a much needed early night.

Massages, Pizza & Haad Rin Beach Party

From left to right; Sam, Steph & Me

We had planned to get up early and move on before the sun got to hot but due to the amount of Chang consumed the night before things didn't quite work out like that, we checked out about noon.   We walked for a few minutes before a taxi stopped, we negotiated 300bt for the 3 of us which was a good price.  The taxi already had people in so we had to drive to their hotel before heading to Haad Rin, although their hotel was in the opposite direction to what we were going we didn't mind as this meant we got our fare pretty cheap and we got to see a bit more of the island.

When we arrived in Haad rin the taxi driver tried to take us to Sunrise beach, we had told him we wanted to go to Sunset beach so after a quite a heated Thinglish discussion he took us to where we wanted to go, as it turns out, he was right and we were wrong.

..we had to walk to Sunrise beach.  It didn't take long but we were annoyed that we had to walk when we cold of been dropped off there, if only we'd listened to the man in the know!

 We walked onto the beach and stopped in at a few hotels and hostels, prices were all around the 1000bt mark, one place we looked at was 600bt per night, it was basically a shop window with 2 bunk beds, the bathroom was at the other end of the street..and it looked grim!  We decided against this and went for a beach bunglow a few blocks down at 950bt between us.

After we checked in we went for a walk around Haad rin, sunbathed on the beach, jumped waves in the ocean, bought some new flip flops, Steph Steph and I had an oil massage and Sam had a pedicure (her back was so sunburnt, she didnt want to endure a massage!).  We got a pizza and ate it on the beach.

Steph and I after failing at the ballon game!

Then we went back to our hut and got ready to go out.  We walked out onto the beach and found that the nearest bar to our hostel was literally a 30 second walk away, we got ourselves a table.  

Drinks at the bar were double the price of the 7 11, so Sam went to the store up the road and bought 6 bottles and a bottle opener.  When they had gone we went back to the store.  The bar we had stumbled upon happened to be the main bar on the beach, it got very busy later on.  There were fire spinners, fire spitters and some games.  It was a good night, we met some girls from the UK who told us the best places to go on Koh Samui, which was where we were heading next.  We laughed, drank and danced, we drew our names in the sand.  later on we were hungry again and I think we got some fried chicken although I'm not sure where from or what it tasted like.

The up side to having checked into a bunglow right near the party was that we could use our own toilet, instead of paying 10bt to use the toilets in the bar (which were disgusting!), the down side was that there was a speaker right next to our bunglow, which blared out loud music until 7am.  The party went on well into the morning.  We eventually called it a day about 3am, I think the lack of sleep and food, and the amount of Chang we had drank over the last few days had taken its toll, 3am was way to early to be heading to bed but we didnt care.  The music was so loud that it shook the walls of our little bunglow.  I put my iPod earphone in, turned it up loud and drifted off to sleep, the other girls didn't sleep so well though, Sam was most annoyed at this fact!

Once again we planned to get up early before it got to hot, tomorrow was a move to Koh Samui...

Chilled day on Koh Phangan

We sunbathed in the bar area of the Blue parrot for a while then took a walk down the beach, we found a bigger hotel/hostel which had a pool.  Most hotels which have pools don't mind non guests using their facilities as long as you buy a drink from their bar, so that is what we did and we stayed most of the day.  We sunbathed and messed about in the pool. We met an American couple who had been travelling around the islands, they told us they had been to Krabi and Phi Phi, and that there wasn't much there.  They told us the there was plenty to do on Koh Samui which was a good thing as that was where we were heading.  I'd still like to head to Krabi and PhiPhi one day though.

Later that day we took a walk down into the town, we actually walked past the pier where we had gotton off the boat the day before, it was in easy walking distance at night but we defiantly did the right thing in getting a taxi when we first arrived, it would of been to far in the mid-day heat, especially with our backpacks.

  As we walked along the ocean front towards the town we could hear some loud music, as we got closer we could see people dancing, two on a platform and about 8 others in front of them copying the steps, it was a Zubma class! 

 We wondered around the shops, bought some more friendship brackets and some bottles of water and then found somewhere to eat.  I had a Greek salad which was really nice and the girls had a selection of Thai dishes which they shared.  The whole sharing concept seemed to totally baffle the Thai's, they couldn't understand why we wanted all the food in the middle of the table.  This was a good night, the food was great, (I even tried some of the Thai food!), we laughed, tried to learn Thai off our waiter, took pictures and laughed our arses off when Steph Steph totally freaked out when she though she had a lizard on her foot, when she'd calmed down a little I tickled her leg with my flip flop and screamed 'lizard' and we all cracked up again!

My first impressions of Koh Phangan were that the people were so friendly, the weather was amazing, and I loved it, they have gym classes on the beach for god sake!  There are lots of stray dogs, but they keep themselves to themselves, they don't beg for food and don't follow people about, they aren't thin and look happy, as far a stray dogs go they looked in pretty good condition.

The streets smell, but no where near as bad as Bangkok. On our way back to the hostel we picked up some beers and sat outside our room until the earlier hours, drinking and laughing.  We called over to a scotish guy, who was in the bunglow opposite ours to come and join us, he was travelling alone and seemed quite shy, we nick named William Wallace.  At some point in the night we packed our bags ready for moving on the next day, we planned to get up early and move before the sun got to hot...

Our first taste of parridise.. & the Half Moon Party

Ban Tai beach

We arrived at Surat Thani at around 730, an hour late, but time doesn't really matter here.  After getting off the train, I was sick. Nice!  We went to a little shop where we bought biscuits and some water.  We got on a bus which took us to the dock at Don Sak, and then the boat to Koh Phangan.  This is where I felt the trip had begun, Dubai, Bangkok, the plains, tuktuks and trians were all just a way of getting here, not actually part of my trip, this was what I came for; deep blue ocean, clear blue skies, green islands and baking heat.  I was so excited on the ferry over to the island, the sun was so bright even through sun glasses, I couldnt stop staring out at what was ahead, where we had been, all around, it was pure parridise and I couldnt quite get my head around the fact that I was in it!

                                                                 

On the boat

We arrived at Koh Phangan, I think about 11am.  I'm not sure of the name of the peir, there are two, we were at the one on the west of the island, at the apposite end of the island to Haad Rin.

 

We had prebooked a room at the Blue Parrot Hostel on Koh Phangan, we knew this wasnt far from the port but were not sure if it was within walking distance or not.  The taxi driver we asked wanted 300bt to take us there which seemed like allot.  We couldnt decide what to do, we were a bit overwhelmed I think.  We decided to go to a cafe that was close by to get some lunch.  I had a tomato salad, (about all I could handle at that point!), it was de-lish-ious!! The fruit in Thailand is amazing, I guess because its so fresh.  I told the waiter where we were staying and he told us it was to far to walk with our bags in the heat so we got in a taxi, we managed to get the price down to 200bt for the 3 of us.

The veiw from the bar at the Blue Parrot

Taxi's on the islands are basically pick up trucks with benches down each side of the pick up bit.  There are no tuktuks on the islands but taxis are as cheap.  

When we got to the Blue Parrot we checked in, dumped our bags and ran straight down the the beach, we went swimming in the sea for the first time, it was so warm and clean, absolute parridise.

Later that night was the Half Moon Party.  Sam wasnt feeling well so she decided to stay at the bunglow.  Steph and I had a few drinks at the bar with other backpackers that were also going to the party.  Later, the hotel manager (an Irishman!), called a taxi and we all piled on... There were about 10 to many people on the back of that taxi, some had to stand on the back bumper, and were simply told to 'hold tight!'. I thought it was a bit dangrous and was glad I'd got a seat.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from the Half Moon Party, that wasnt the reason we were there, it just happened to be on on the days we were, and I guess it would of been rude not to go, yes?!  The party, or more of a rave, is in the jungle, the 'club' is built into the mountain, the 'ceiling' is the tree tops.  I think I was expecting it to be on the beach, but it was in the jungle.  Ive been to plently of raves before, but this was my first in the jungle, and the first I had attended in my flip-flops!  On the way in some girls passed us some pots of UV body paint and we cover each other in the stuff, There wasnt much skin showing by the time the pots were empty! The party was something I'm glad I experienced, although it wasnt really my thing,  It was a good night, something I would of loved 10 years ago, but not really the kind of thing I'm into now.

We got a taxi back to the Blue Parrot with some of the other people who were staying there.  Slightly tipsy, and never one to miss out on an experience, it was now me standing on the back of the taxi, 'holding tight', laughing and dancing all the way haha!  When we got back we went swimming in the ocean, it was still so warm.  It was just starting to come light.  We went back to the bunglow and after a good half hour or more of scrubbing the body paint off, it was time for bed zzzzzzzz

A day on Khoa San & our first over night train

We landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok at around 8am.  We cleared imergration, had our passports stamped and collected our bags without to much trouble.  We left the airport and walked to the metro station (MRT).  We took the MRT into the city centre and got a tuktuk to Hua lamphong train station to buy our tickets for the overnight train.  We checked our bags into the luggage safe at the train station and walked to Khao San Road, which took quite a while as we had no idea where we were going!  When we found Khoa san, we wondered around for a while, bought each other friendship bracelets and generally took everything in... After a while we settled in a bar where we logged on to facebook to 'check in' to the famous street and let people back home know that we had arrived safely.

Scoffing the best pad tai in the world!

..then we ordered a beer, then another, then another.
We bought somemore friendship bracelets, I dont know why, we had already done this earlier! We had a fish pedicure, (I hate fish!) which was discussing and I couldnt keep my feet in the water for more than a few seconds!  We went to another bar and chatted to other backpackers.  They told us about the over night train and said we should take some food and plenty of water as the shop on the train opens and closes at random times.
After a few more drinks and some street food (which was awsome!), we decided we probably should get to the train station.  We staggered into a tuktuk which took us back to the train station.  Our train left at 19.30, they ask  you to be on the train 30 mins before it leaves, we were late and just about made it in time.

When we arrived at the platform, after retrieving our bags, one of the train station staff had obviously noticed that we didn't know where we were going and he offered to walk us to the train.  He actually walked us on to the train, and right to our seats!

We had bought tickets for the 2nd class sleeper train, you get a bed for the night and air con.  Inside it looks like a train back in the UK, then around midnight, a man came along to change the seats in to beds.  These were comfortable and a blanket and pillow was provided.

In the drunken rush to get from Khoa San Rd, get our backpacks and find the train, we had forgotten to pick up any food or drink.  I was starving all night, I felt sick from the constant rocking and jolting of the train and the amount of Chang I had swilling around my stomach.

Sam, shufflin'!

  Backpacking Lesson no1; Do not get to drunk to remember to feed yourself when your about to board a 12hr train.

One last thing I should mention about the over night train...the toilets!  There were 2 at the end of our carrage, one either side of the isle.  One is a western style toilet, the other is a 'squat hole', the latter is exactly as it sounds; a hole in the floor, you can actually see the track! Which ever you choose to use, you'll need your own toilet roll, a steady pair of legs and a strong stomach.  On that night I had none of the above!

Dubai

We were up and out of the hotel by about 10am.  We took the tube into the city and looked for the nearest shopping mall.  We looked around the shops for a while, everything was very expensive, even more so than in the UK.  We decided to find the beach..after about 2 hours of walking, in search of the beach, we had gotten our selves well and truely lost.  We asked for directions but no one would help us.  We hailed a taxi and asked to be taken to the beach, the taxi driver was not very friendly either.  We eventually made it to the beach, it was kind of dissapointing! There wasnt much there, just the sand, the sea, and a few tourists.  We saw a helicoptor land on the Burj Al Arab Hotel, took some pictures and that was about it. We got another cab back to the shopping mall, wondered around for a bit longer then decided to see a movie..we saw 'The Vow', it was ok, just a way to pass time really.  Before heading to the airport we watched 'The Dubai Fountain' do its thing...The Dubai Fountain is
choreographed fountain system set on the 30-acre manmade Burj Khalifa Lake.

We got to the airport in good time for our flight, we decided on McDonalds for dinner.  We each had a chicken big mac meal...something you cant get in the UK, it was pretty lush!

The flight to Bangkok was uneventful, again we failed our 16 drink challenge!  I cant sleep on planes so it was a long night, I watched allot of movies.  Then it was morning, and we were finally in THAILAND!

Leaving home...Let the games begin!

Sam's mum dropped us of at the airport, we checked in and found the bar.  After a couple of beers our flight was called, we made our way to the gate, I left my boarding pass in the bar and had to run back for it...Good start Kat!

Our flight was 30 mins delayed, Steph works in the travel industry and was excited about flying on the A380, I was scared of flying and wasnt so kean!  As we waited to take off we worked out that to get back the price of our flights we each needed to drink 16 drinks per flight...Challenge accepted! I think we failed the first phase of our 16 drink per flight challenge but we gave it our best shot and thats what counts!

We landed in Dubai around midnight, we had been advised to get a taxi from the airport to the hotel we had booked, but it was so close, we decided to walk.  I can now say that as 3 girls, wearing shorts and vest tops, wondering around dubai at midnight is not a good idea!  We had to cross 3 duel carrage ways, and only had a vague idea of where we were going, all the divers were beepng there horns at us, it was pretty intimidating if I'm honest.  We finally found our hotel and checked in, it wasnt long before we were in bed and fast asleep.