Bangkok Take Two.

We returned to Bangkok for our last 2 days in Thailand after a nice ferry ride with a lovely Canadian couple and a long, boring, painful bus journey. This bus was probably the most uncomfortable yet, and definitely not built for 6 foot 2 broad shouldered Irish men. It nearly killed Leigh. 

We arrived that evening and checked into our hotel, which was a bit less swanky than the place we treated ourselves to on our first stop. It was grand though, and on Soi Ram Buttri (our fake Koh San), so we were happy enough. We had a bit of a wander around got some grub and had an early enough night, being fairly wrecked from the days travel. I don’t know why sitting on your ass while someone else drives you around can tire you out, but apparently it does…

The next day we decided to hit up Chatuchak Market, the HUUUUUGE weekend market in Bangkok. It’s a 35-acre market that has over 8,000 market stalls filled to the brim with bargains of all kinds to be had. Apparently over a typical weekend it gets more than 200,000 visitors, so it’s safe to say it was a little chaotic. In saying that I was expecting it to be absolute mayhem, but it was actually a really nice day. It didn’t feel too busy or crowded, probably due to the fact that it is so damn big. We spent about four hours wandering around and checking out the stalls. 
They have everything from watches and shoes to air conditioning units and 8 foot Buddha statues. Basically if you wanted it you could buy it. I couldn’t take full advantage of its awesomeness as I just have my backpack that’s already bursting at the seams, but I got a watch and some sandals. I would love to come back in November some year and do all my Christmas shopping. They literally have something for everyone, it would be amazing. I’d be going over with one carry-on bag and going home with 2 filled suitcases (I could buy them there too you see! ;) ).

After that we decided to experience the awesomeness of a Bangkok cinema. I know it sounds like a boring thing to do when we’re somewhere as exciting as Bangkok but tonnes of people recommended it to me, which I thought was strange enough to warrant checking out.

So we got the Skytrain from the market to the fancy shopping centre we went to for the aquarium and got the lift to the top floor cinema. It was a strange set up. They have normal screens, and then separate box offices for the super fancy VIP screens. We went with the Nokia Ultra Screen because it sounded like the plushest from Leigh’s googling, and we were not disappointed. It was crazy money for Thailand, but just more than a normal cinema ticket would be at home, and starts off with a free drink and brownies in the posh bar. Then we went into the screen and we were blown away! 

The seats were huge electronically reclining leather loungers in private alcoves of two, each one with a blanket and pillow. It was the comfiest I’ve been in so long, probably more comfortable than my bed at home. It was freezing in the screen to allow you to use the blanket, and felt like a strange way for the rich to prove their wealth blasting this air-conditioning to such an extent that you actually need a duvet.

One of the things I was looking forward to experiencing was I’d heard that in the cinemas in Thailand they play a short film in honour of the King before the movie that you must stand for. I wasn’t sure if this was true, or if it was if everyone would really stand, but it was and everyone did. It was actually a nice video portraying Thailand in a very positing light, full of happy children. I mean clearly it’s some form of propaganda, but still it was interesting to see. I mentioned to Leigh that I thought you wouldn’t get that at home, everyone standing up if they played a video of that nature but translatable to Ireland, but he reminded me that everyone stands in the same way, without question for the national anthem at a football match at home. I guess it’s the same thing, and if that was played in a cinema before a film in the same way and was ingrained in us from a young age we would stand up for it. We saw The Hunger Games which was awesome, and it was a cool experience so I’m glad we went.

The next day was our last full day in Bangkok so we did some of the things we wanted to do before we left. I got my nails did! Manicure and pedicure for €4. If it cost that at home I’d get it done all the time and wouldn’t constantly have the nails of a teenage boy…if only! We also took our last trip to Koh San Road in the search on sunglasses as I broke mine that morning and Leigh lost his. We stopped at a million different stalls checking them out because of my indecisive nature and when we finally stopped at a huge Aladdin’s cave of Ray Bans and all of a sudden the guy’s throwing sheets of canvas over the glasses concealing them. So we walked on and half the sunglasses on the road had suddenly disappeared…only the Ray Bans though. And then we saw some police men on motor bikes drive by. Clearly the two were linked, but it was strange that just some of the glasses were hidden. I guess either they were stolen or it was illegal to pretend they were Ray Bans. Not gonna lie, it just made us want them more. We eventually got a pair each and some food and went to collect our bags and get a taxi to the airport. So long Thailand it’s been a pleasure and I have no doubts that we will see each other again.

Koh Tao - Lets go diving!

So the next stop on the trip was Koh Tao. Koh Tao is a small island off the south west of Thailand. There are 3 islands off this coast - Koh Samui which is the most developed and has lots of big resorts and is more for 2 week holidayers rather than backpackers, Koh Phangan which is the party island (home to the famous Full Moon Parties), and Koh Tao which is the smallest, more chilled out island. It is also nick named 'Diving Island' and it's world renowned for its diving and seems to have more dive schools than bars. That's why we chose to go to Koh Tao, to learn to dive. It's something I've always wanted to do. I love, love, love the water and scuba diving just seems like this magical skill to have, giving you a passport to go explore a whole new (under water) world. After all seventy percent of the world is under water, that's a lot to be missing out on! Also the island sounded like it would be right up my street with it's chilled out attitude.

So on Thursday March 15th we got picked up from our hotel in Koh Lanta at 12pm and began our 18 hour (yikes!) trip to Koh Tao. This journey consisted of a mini bus, a VIP mini bus, a pick-up truck, an overnight ferry and another pick-up truck.  Before we headed off I was a little nervous about doing such a long journey as my back was still sore the previous day, but it was so well behaved on the day of the trip I got on fine (Leigh still did all the heavy lifting!). The trip was surprisingly fine (just long), especially the VIP mini bus, which we were in for the bulk of the driving, from Krabi to Surat Thani. It had only 2 other passengers, was fairly swish and had loads of leg room!
What I was dreading most was the overnight ferry (11pm – 6:30am - yuck!!!) from Surat Thani to Koh Tao. The reason it takes so long (and is so cheap) is that it’s actually a cargo ferry that just takes passengers on the upper level. We walked in and were very underwhelmed to see where we'd be spending the next 7 and a half hours. The area consisted only of rows of super thin mattresses beside each other along either side, but once we sat down the couple next to us spotted Leigh’s guitar that he’d just bought in town and we got chatting. The guy played a few songs and his girlfriend gave us some mango and they seemed sound which was comforting to know we were sleeping next to nice people. It put us at ease a bit I think. Well me anyway, whose paranoid brain imagined being stuck next to creeps, thiefs or smelly people. No thanks.
I read for a bit and went to sleep quite easily and got 4 or 5 hours kip that I was fairly impressed with. I had a nice make shift bed with my beach towel as a sheet, sarong as a blanket and a dress as a pillow. Not too shabby.

I woke up at about 6am and watched the sun rise over the sea out the window and we docked about 6:30. We got a “taxi” (I'm pretty sure the taxi drivers on the islands are just random people with pick-up trucks) from the ferry port to Sairee Beach where we were staying. Our hotel obviously wasn’t open yet so we set up camp in the English bar, Brothers, next door and got breakfast. Leigh got his first real sausages since arriving in Thailand. It's strange the hotels and restaurants in Thailand serve frankfurters and cooked ham as part of their European breakfast instead of sausages and bacon, not quite the same so he was pretty happy!.  We got to check in a lot earlier than I expected which was a nice surprise which we celebrated by having a bit of a nap, as the few hours kip on the ferry weren't really doing the job, and then headed off for the beach. On our way out the lady who runs the place made a point to tell me to wear lots of sun cream as I was so pale...I gotta work on that tan!!! #
We had a bit of a wander around the shops, bought some snorkels and set up camp on the beach. We'd read that the snoreklling on the island was so good that you could do it right off the main beach, and the advice was spot on. It was amazing how much we could see just a few feet from shore, in water just up to our knees. I was awed that so shallow on the busiest beach on the island there were dozens of species of fish swimming around us.  The water wasn’t the clearest but it was still really impressive! After an afternoon of swimming, snorkelling and relaxing on the beach we settled into one of the beach bars for the evening and watched the sunset over the sea with some yummy food and pina coladas. Not a bad first day at all! :)

The next day we had two things on the agenda.
1 – Pick a scuba school and book our Open Water Diving course.
2 – Go snorkelling at Nang Yuan Island (where I'd read had the some of the best snorkelling in Koh Tao)

To help us pick which dive school to go with we did our usual Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet scouring and read tonnes of reviews and advice and narrowed it down to two; Simple Life and Scuba Junction and figured we’d go visit them and decide who to go with once we'd checked them out. They both seemed cool, had cheap accommodation for divers and friendly staff, but in the end we went with Scuba Junction. There wasn’t anything huge in the difference that made us go for them, just the reviews were SO good, it was right on the beach and we could start that evening. We signed up for our Open Water SSI course to start that night and we would move into the accommodation the next morning.  It’s a 3 day course, with a brief intro the evening beforehand, that would allow us to dive up to 18 metres once we were certified. It consists of theory, videos, homework, scuba skills and four dives.
So we signed up and were told to come back for 5:30. Off we went via taxi boat over to Nang Yuan Island for some snorkelling. It is a protected National Park and about 10 minutes away by long tail from Sairee Beach and has one resort on it and nothing else but beach.

It’s basically a tropical paradise, and the snorkelling was insane and totally lived up to expectations! Much like Siaree beach day before the fish and coral were in full whammy right off the shore, the big differences though were the water was crystal clear and the abundance of fish was crazy. There were so many fish that were swimming around with us, even some big versions of the ones from the Happy Fish Happy Feet pedicures in Bangkok that got a taste for Leigh’s feet and followed him around biting him. Total bullies! It was the perfect way to spend a day and I would highly recommend a trip there to anyone who goes to Koh Tao, especially those not diving. You get such a view into the underwater world just by paddling out a few feet from a beautiful beach.

After a few hours we were picked up by our long tail taxi driver who brought us back to shore and we headed to Scuba Junction. We had our course briefing where we found out what the next 3 days had in store for us, who we’d be spending them with and our homework (reading and answering questions on the first 2 chapters of our SSI book).They have a maximum of four people per group in Scuba Junction (another plus) and we were in a group with 2 Swedish friends, Philip and Nicholas. We had Gemma as our instructor and Kelly, who was a trainee assisting Gemma for the course. The two guys were lovely, a bit mad but lovely, and absolutely full to the brim with energy. They were 21 year old performing art students and gymnasts and were constantly performing and bending and jumping off things for the few days, providing endless entertainment! Gemma was a good combination of professional and fun, making us feel totally confident, knowing exactly what we were doing and also having a fun few days. Kelly was really lovely and friendly and full of advice for us. Having them there I never for a second had any fear that something could go wrong, which seeing as we were going 18 meters under water for the first time I found pretty impressive.

Leigh, Philip and Nicholas

The next 3 days consisted of early mornings (6:30am), class, diving, homework and early nights. This probably sounds like the furthest thing from most people’s idea of a great holiday but I have to say I absolutely loved it. It was amongst the 3 best days ever, with 50% of the time spent in the ocean. I quickly discovered I was addicted, as was Leigh! As I mentioned in a previous post Leigh’s a nervous, and not very strong, swimmer. Turns out though once he’s below the surface and many meters under sea he’s a complete natural, go figure!

Our time on the course was slpit between the classroom and the sea.
On day one we watched the video that went along with the first two chapters we had read the previous night, which covered all of the theory behind scuba diving. We then went out to shallow water for a skills session, where we would put in to practice what we’d learned. It was all about getting used to the equipment (setting it up and using it), getting used to breathing and controlling our bouyancy under water. It was great how quickly we got used to it, but it was quite strange at first. (I have no way of knowing this but I reckon it's kind of what it feels like to be in space!) The next 2 days we did the remaining four chapters in class and then did our 4 dives, 2 per day. During each dive we had to perform different skills, such as removing and replacing our masks, removing and replacing out vests and tanks, pivoting our bodies in a straight line up from the sand, float for 10 minutes on the surface and swim around the dive boat 3 times (this last two being the ones Leigh was dreading, but he did it!). As well as our skills we had 30 – 40 minute dives where we got to explore different dive sites and spot different marine life. We even spotted Nemo and his parents on one of the dives! Nemo is a saddleback anenome fish, and there are 2 adults and their child living at one of the dive sites. The dive schools have cornered off an area for them to protect them. They were really cute!

My Diver's Logbook and my Open Water Certification Card

Here’s a list of what else we saw: Longfin bannerfish, butterly fish, red breasted wrasse, rabbitfish, blue ringed angel fish, titan trigger fish (to be avoided!), parrot fish, Christmas tree worms, white eyed moray eels, damselfish, fusiliers, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, feather stars, smooth tailed trevali, orange spined unicorn fish and porcupine puffer fish. It was an amazing 3 days and we saw and learned so so much on those dives. It was all put to the test back on dry land after the last dive when we had our final exam to see if we got our certifications. We did! I even got 100%. Woohoo! (it was really easy and I reckon that's a fairly common result, but still I was chuffed!).

100% Woohoo

Feeling super happy with our certification and high on the diving rush Leigh and I decided we loved it so much that we didn't want it to end, so we signed up for the Advanced Adventurer course. This is the next SSI diving certification which consists of a 2 day course with 5 dives and allows you to dive to depths of 30 meters we'd been thinking about it since we started the Open Water but weren't 100% sure. It was a tough decision as it meant we'd be stayng in Koh Tao for the rest of our time in Thailand, we'd planned on going to Chang Mai in the north of the country as it was reccommended by a few friends, but I think we made the right decision. Diving courses in Thailand are a fraction of the price that they are elsewhere, and as we loved it so much we knew we would want to dive in Australia. The diving is meant to be amazing there, especially up at the Great Barrier Reef, and a lot of the dive sites are at a depth greater than 18 meters. So we told Gemma that we had decided to do it and she was delighted. She told us she'd be our instructer again, with Kelly assisting, and we could even start that evening with the course intro.

Let's go diving guys!

That night, to celebrate us getting our Open Water Certs, the 6 of us went out to dinner which was great fun. It was also a little strange hanging out together in dry clothes and not in wet suits! After dinner myself, Leigh, Philip and Nicholas walked down to the beach and watched a fire show (well Leigh and I watched, the boys took par becauae they're crazy!). It was a nice night and a wonderful end to a great few days.
The next morning we started our Advenced Adventurer course (doesn't it just sound cool?!).
4 of the 5 dives on the course are specialities and we got to pick which ones we did. We went for Navigation, Wreck Diving, Perfect Buoyancy and Night Diving, along with the mandatory Deep Dive.
That day we did 3 of our 5 dives; Navigation, Perfect Buoyancy and the Night Dive. They were amazing! I felt so much more comfortable under water than on the first few dives. For the Navigation Dive we actually got to lead Gemma and Kelly on a dive. We'd already tried using compasses in the first course where one of the skills involved going 20 metres in one direction and getting back again. However leading a dive was really cool, and made us more comfortable using the compass and visual referencing. Up until then we'd just been following Gemma around the dive sites.
The next dive was the Perfect Bouyancy. Bouyancy is a crucial diving skill, you basically control how high or low in the water you are just by breathing - breath in and you rise, breath out and you sink - it just takes a lot of pracise and was the one thing I was having trouble with so I really benefitted from this dive where we went to a mini under water assault course. There were hoops we had to swim through and an octopus's tenticles positioned in shapes we swam in and out of.

We had a short break on land and then got back on the boat for our night dive. We jumped into the water just before the sun set and by the time we desended it was dark. It was a very surreal experience being down in the depths of the ocean in the dark, now more than ever did I feel like I was truly peeking into another secret world. We only had a small torch each for light and we got to see a whole range of life that comes out at night, and see some of the fish we'd seen swimming around during the day aleep. I was a little panicked at first because I couldn't see more than a few inches in front of me, but after a few minutes I got used to it and really relaxed. I actually found it really peaceful under there at night, with hermit crabs slowly going about their business, and parrot fish sleeping under rocks. Everything seemed to move a little slower at night, and I found it both eerie and beautiful at the same time. Towards the end of the dive we all pointed our torches to our chests to hide the light and we got to experience more bioluminocity (like in Phi Phi) but this time 18 meters under water. It was awesome!

After doing 3 dives that day we slept like logs that night and were up bright and early the next morning for our final 2 dives. I borrowed an under water camera for these dives, which was really cool, although the visibility that day was the worst it had been all week so the pictures were way less impressive than I expected. Still it was cool. Our final 2 dives were the Deep Dive (where we got to 27 meters) and the Wreck Dive. We (especially Leigh) were very excited for the Wreck Dive (they sunk a ship there 8 months ago and there's already a huge amount of sea life that have made it their home) but unfortunately the clarity was so bad we just got to see the very tip of it (although this was the part with the guns, so it was a cool bit to see). They were still great dives though, and I felt more confident with each one, and we had good fun with the camera too.
Back on dry land we were told we could come back in a few hours and collect our new, Advanced, certification cards.

I'd gotten loads of mosquito bites in Thailand (for some reason they just loved my blood...grrrrr!) and because we'd been in the water so much they didn't get a chance to heal and had opened up and become infected, so after the final dive we went straight to the clinic to see if I needed an antibiotic. I did. I had to get them cleaned by the nurse, and go back everyday to have them cleaned again. It was a little traumatic, and really sore, as she had to cut the skin off some of the sores to clean them out and encourage them to heal. I was given antibiotics, anti-inflamatories and antihistomines.  So off we went back to our hut, my legs covered in bandages with my bag full of drugs, feeling a bit sorry for myself and mighty pissed off with insects when I lie down on the bed and find an ant colony under my pillow! :( Poor Leigh. I freaked out and sent him off to our first guest house to see if they had a room. They did and we checked out of Scuba Junction that afternoon and went back to Sairee Sairee guest house. I just felt so gross with all my open sores, and sick with the infection that I needed a clean room and a bed free of insects. We took it fairly easy that night, watched DVD's in bed and went out for some amazing pizza.

The next day was my birthday, which I was super excited about spending in Koh Tao as we'd planned on going snorkelling at Shark Island. Anyone who knows me well knows of my obsession with sharks, so to say I was excited about this prospect was an understatment! However I wasn't able to get the bites wet so I couldn't do any smimming, snorkelling or diving. This was an extreme bummer because we were on diving island and there is really little else to do there apart from swim, snorkel and dive. So we spent the morning at a cafe on the beach having ice cream and chilling in the sun, and then went to one of the activities on the island, Mini Golf. It was actually really fun and had Goofy Golf rules you could choose to play (obviously we did!) where we would spin the wheel before each turn and get a goofy golf rule to follow for that shot. Some examples of these are to take the shot like a snooker shot, take your shot on one leg, swap points after the shot and lots more crazy stuff. Leigh won (obviously) but I wasn't as far behind as I expected so it was like a mini victory for me ;)


That night we went out for a mexican feast with nachos, quesadillas, tacos and taquitos (so much cheese!) yummmmmy, and after dinner we went to a pub and played some pool and watched some live music wich was good fun. So it wasn't the birthday I was expecting but it was such a fun day, and definitely nice to spend it in 35 degree sunshiney Thailand instead of cold rainy Ireland March weather. We also booked our bus back to Bangkok for the following day, figuring we might as well head back for our last day there rather than spend it on Koh Tao as there was really nothing left to do on dry land.
So a day and a half left in Thailand and then on to Australia! Koh Tao really was a little home from home and a really wonderful, relaxed, fun place. I'm pretty sure Leigh and I will be going back to have many more fruit shakes on Sairee Sairee beach, snorkel on Nang Yuang, swim in shark bay, dive at Scuba Junction and chill out in the sun. Hopefully next time we can go with some friends or family and we can share how lovely the island is with them!


(there are more diving photos here, internet won't let me upload!: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150755985195259.465834.527440258&type=3)

Koh Lanta

(Warning:Parental Advisory. Contains accident....but I'm fine now I swear.)

We got the ferry to Koh Lanta from Phi Phi and outside the ferry port we ran into 2 couples we’d seen in the office in Phi Phi when we booked the trip. She’d obviously roped us all in. We got collected in a pick-up truck by one of the brothers who ran Top View Resort. 

Riding in style!

As we couldn’t all fit inside the car Leigh and I decided to go in the back with the bags and catch some rays. It was actually a cool drive with a great breeze making the 35 degree heat bearable, and we even saw a monkey on the side of the road eating a banana! When we got to the resort we quickly realised we were in the middle of nature here. Our bungalow was at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea.

The view from our room.

There were lizards everywhere, interesting birds flying overhead and frogs, toads and crabs crawling around. The only downside was the ant colony in the bathroom of our very basic bungalow. Gross.

Millions of lizards everywhere!

And loads of these guys around

We put our bags in the room and went out to the bar/ restaurant/ open area and got some delicious sea food pad thai and fruit juices and got talking to the other brother who runs the place, Lipe. He has to be one of the loveliest, most helpful, interesting and friendly men I’ve met. He spent about 45 minutes chatting to us about the island; all about his family’s history there, the nature and wildlife, as well as the best snorkelling spots, best beaches, the fishing, the shark and dolphin migration patterns and tonnes more. He truly made us feel at home, and as much as the rooms really were under whelming, the welcome he gave us made us feel we could stay there for ever.

Then we walked down to the beach where I gave Leigh a swimming lesson that went surprisingly well! I was very impressed with how quickly he picked up what I was teaching, and he seemed impressed with my teaching, maybe I missed my calling! We spent ages playing in the waves and swimming about it was lovely to be in the sea!

Another beautiful sunset.

That night we watched the sun set from our place (it was called Top View Resort after all, as is known for being one of the best sunset viewpoints on the island), which was gorgeous, and had the BBQ where we got barracuda and loads of rice and veg and salad, delicious!!!

The next day, after being told by everyone we spoke to (tourists and locals) that scooters were the only way to get around we rented one from the brothers. We were going to get one each but when I got on one to give it a test run and failed disastrously we went with one. (Turns out we should have gone with zero). So we scooted down south of the island to a beautiful picturesque beach with white powdery sands and gorgeous turquoise ocean and got lunch and went swimming. Then we headed up further along the beach and rented hammocks and got fruit juices and pure chillaxed for a few hours.

Relaxed!

It's a hard life, eh?

Then it all went downhill.

We got back on the scooter to head home and coming up a big hill the bike was slowing down to a stop and Leigh went to change gear and something went wrong and the front wheel went up in the air and I fell off the back! I landed flat on my back, on my small backpack, picture an upside down turtle. The whole thing happened in slow motion and as soon as I landed on my back it was so sore I was pretty worried. But as soon as Leigh got over to me and a lovely German couple stopped to help and I managed to move to the side of the road I knew that it was really sore, but that it wasn’t broken or anything so there was a little relief (this was soon outweighed by the pain!). So many people stopped I was mighty embarrassed. Someone called for an ambulance which arrived fairly quickly, but when they got there they weren’t a proper ambulance so had no stretcher or room for someone to lie down so they called for another one, and that took ages. I was lying on the side of the road for about an hour I’d say, bummer!

Boooooo!

But once it got there I was on the stretcher and in the back fairly promptly. It was a little scary being in the back (it was essentially a slightly converted pick-up truck) just seeing trees and buildings go past, and at one point the driver got out and got stopped for a few minutes and my panicked brain started running through crazy scenarios of me ending up god knows where, but of course it was all fine, and when he got back in the car he stopped and make sure I was ok. If fact he stopped twice more on the 30/ 40 minute drive just to check on me. When we got there I was checked in on straight away, where it took me about 5 minute and various charades-esque attempts to explain what happened, and then I went into X-ray. Turns out I was right, nothing was broken (phew!)  I’d just badly bruised my back and had inflamed muscles. I’ve had muscle inflammation in my back twice before, so I obviously just have shite muscles that are prone to it. The hospital experience was way better than I expected. I was in and out, including getting X-rayed and a prescription in about a half hour and €40. It put Tallaght hospital/ the Irish health service to absolute shame! Leigh had to drop the scooter back so he couldn’t come with me, but the dad of the brothers, Papa, drove him to the hospital and insisted on waiting on us and drove us home. SO NICE!

That evening and the most of the next day we just hung out in the room as I couldn’t really move much. We watched the whole first season of Party Down (thanks Neena!) and a few movies.

As I already mentioned the room wasn’t the nicest in the world, in fact it was full of ants and got a cockroach one of the nights, and the resort is way up a super steep hill, so as I was fairly out of action we decided to leave the following day and booked into a fairly posh villa in a fairly posh resort. As I’d be spending a good bit of time in the room I wanted a nice clean one, and if I wanted to be able to do anything or go anywhere I needed something more accessible. It’s not the sort of place I’d choose to stay normally, especially somewhere like Thailand, but it was amazing to be in a big, clean, insect free room with a lovely bathroom. It was also about 10 steps from the pool which was awesome, and after a few swims and lounging by the pool in the sun reading my book I started feeling loads better.

Our posh room

That’s basically all we did for 2 days, we only ventured out for dinner and to book our tickets out of Lanta. When the time came to leave I was still feeling sore but was so ready to be going somewhere else!

Since the accident whenever something’s been a bit crap or disappointing we’re calling it the “Scooter of Lanta”. I think it’ll stick around! It was crap that it happened, but it could have been a lot worse, and if that’s the worst travel related experience I have (fingers crossed) I’ll be doing pretty well! I was well looked after by Leigh who carried everything (2 big backpacks and 2 small ones) on the move to and from hotels and on whole trip to Koh Tao (2 buses, 2 ferries and 2 taxis). As well as putting up with a lot of moaning, getting me food and drink, helping me get dressed, and being at my general beck and call. Thanks babe!  J

Onwards and upwards we went off to Koh Tao, which I expected to be my favourite island. Spoiler alert; I was right!

Koh Phi Phi

We got the bus to the airport, very handily right outside our hotel in Bangkok on Tuesday, and had the smoothest and quickest check in and security. All flights should be as stress free as an internal Thai flight. On the flight itself which is about 70 minutes long, you get a meal and everything. Total madness. When we arrived in Phuket I immediately knew I didn’t like it (it’s ok I was expecting not to, hence just the once night stay). As soon as we were outside (walking straight to the Airport- City Bus that stops outside our hotel and was cheap as chips) SOOOOO many taxi drivers tried to get us to go with them. And they didn’t  take no for an answer like in Bangkok, they even  told us the 4pm bus was cancelled (they’d even gone so far as to stick up a poster at the bus stop!), but I stuck with my instincts and held out and surely enough it shows up 5 minutes early.

We chose to stay in Phuket town, rather than go to the touristy coast as we were just staying one night before catching the ferry to Koh Phi Phi and seemed like the simplest option. We got a nice guest house for next to nothing and got collected the following morning and brought to the ferry port. Simples. Boy am I glad it was only one night. Phuket town was, in my humble and oh not so eloquent opinion, crap. There was nothing to do and nowhere to eat. A total right off. We eventually got a KFC and headed back to the guest house, tail between our legs and made the most of the free wifi.

The ferry the next morning was grand, and I used it to get some sleep and I’ve been waking up at 6 am every morning since arriving. When we started getting close to Phi Phi I could see how gorgeous it was, just like the tropical paradise I’d been expecting.

First spy of Phi Phi from the Ferry

We’d decided that we wouldn’t book accommodation beforehand, deciding instead to wing it, like the experienced backpackers and see what we found when we arrived. You can get the best deals this way and see the room before you take it. In theory this sounded great. Never again. It was a nightmare, in 35 degree heat, carrying a backpack…yuck. We got talking to a woman in an official Phi Phi Travel Agent t-shirt who gave us prices of a few places. When we said we wouldn’t pay her before we saw one she passed us onto a man in the same “official” t-shirt. He had an air conditioned room in our price range, he’d walk us there and if we like it we could take it, if not there were others close by. Sounded like a plan. Except the place was a 15 minute walk away in that heat with those bags, and the place ended up being a kip, that he owned! Ptcctchhhhh  he was as much an official agent as I was. Disaster. And it was in the middle of nowhere. We couldn’t walk around with the bags in that heat anymore, so we split up, I stayed with the bags, Leigh went off solo on the hunt for a room. After nearly an hour of searching half the town he came up empty handed and dehydrated.. The scandalously cheap prices we’d expected were obviously from low season, this was high season. Completely disheartened but not willing to take the first place I went off, leaving Leigh with the bags, for a quick stroll in the opposite direction. My famous lucky streak kicked in and I found somewhere nice, and just about affordable in 10 minutes. It was a cute, albeit rustic, wooden hut right on the beach. They probably weren’t worth what they were charging but they were nice, and the location couldn’t be beaten. And it meant we could have a cold shower and a lie down.  Bliss.

View from our bungalow

That night we had drinks in the bar attached to where we were staying and as it got later we sat on chairs on the beach as the tide came in, sea lapping at our feet, with lightening flashing above, it was pretty amazing.  Sitting there in that moment completely washed away how stressful earlier that day had been, and we were delighted to be there and made it all worth it. Gotta take the rough with the smooth. J

Day 2

I woke up early, again, and went to the beach and read my book for a while, defiantly making the most of having the beach at my doorstep. By the time Leigh got up (at a normal 11am for a holiday) it had started raining and proceeded to rain for most of the day, which ruined our plans for a chill out day on the beach. Instead we walked around the town and took in the sights. We booked our ferry and accommodation for Koh Lanta, our next stop, and booked a boat trip around Phi Phi Ley (the smaller uninhabited baby sister island to Phi Phi Don where we were staying) for the following day. That night we got dinner in a great place along the water, we both got fried rice in a pineapple, how cool?! And delicious.

Our waiter then recommended  a Fire Show back near our place, as the once near the restaurant we were planning on going to was apparently not very good. I’m delighted we took his advice because it was incredible. They put on such a show, including a tight rope walker, multiple acts, crazy moves and fireworks. It turned out to be some sort of full moon party, and we decided to go with it and get locked and dance the night away. We had our first buckets (a kids beach bucket filled with booze, mixer, ice and straws) and dancing in the water. It was a really fun night!

Day 3

Captain Bob’s Booze Cruise

Sinead, Stephen, Steph and Sandra who were in Koh Phi Phi in December pretty much told us we HAD to do Captain Bob’s Booze Cruise. So when we’d seen him the night before we stopped and got chatting to him so decided to go for it. There are possibly hundreds, definitely dozens, of day trips around the islands so to pick one without a recommendation would have been like picking straws. I’m sure most of them are fine, but many are huge boats filled with 50+ people and look fairly impersonal. I’m so glad the guys told us to go with Bob as there’s a max of 14 passengers on his sail boat (that he sailed there from Canada), so you really get to know people on board and the guys working on board really take care of you. It was such a great day! We were out the night before so getting up and out on time was a tough job. In fact we nearly missed it! We arrived at the pier at 5 past, and we saw them untie the boat from port and panicked! I called out “BOB” in a blind panic, which seemed to do the trick and caught someone’s attention long enough to stop them sailing off and gave us enough time to run down the boat it was tied to and hop aboard. Talk about a dramatic entrance!

The first stop of the day was Monkey Island. We dropped anchor a whiles a way from shore so me and Leigh kayaked over. I’m very proud to say I was first to jump into the water, with Leigh a close second! J There was a little bay filled with trees all brimming with monkeys. There were lots of tiny adorable babies, and also larger (and when antagonised by annoying men, aggressive) adults. It was kind of surreal how many of them were there, hanging off tree branches, enjoying the visiting humans who brought them a free banana buffet lunch!  Some of them got pretty curious with our kayak and made themselves at home, covering it with banana mush and throwing our oars into the sea. Cheers for that, monkeys!

Monkey Island

Next stop cliff jumping!

It was quite a climb up the cliff, and once I got up there I was way more scared than I expected! I’m not scared of heights, and I’m a good swimmer, but the standing up there on the edge looking down past the cliff edge into the ocean there was a (quite logical and sensible) block stopping my body from jumping. But this was something I’ve always wanted to do so I was doing it. Also it was way more appealing that climbing down that jagged cliff!  I did it from the lowest height,10 meters, I think,  and after nearly psyching myself and taking A LOT of deep breaths I did it!  I have to say it was terrifying but super exhilarating. Leigh went before me and I was super impressed as he’s not a great swimmer and was worried about not coming back up! But as soon as he stood up to jump he pretty much went for it straight away not a bother. I’m such a chicken!

Leigh after his cliff dive

Then back on boat, the hangover combined with sea sickness set in! Not fun!  Drinking buckets the night before spending an entire day on a boat was a terrible idea! The day was still great but I felt rubbish and nauseous and generally fairly crap. Although once I was in the water I was totally fine, just being on the boat in the choppy waters, not so much fun.

After the cliff jump we went snorkelling over towards Maya Bay (aka the beach from the movie The Beach, with Leonardo DiCaprio!). We saw THOUSANDS of fish. I can’t even explain how many were swimming right alongside us. There were fish of every colour imaginable, all sizes and shapes, so much coral, it was unreal! Then we got to land and walked through the grounds. It was a spectacular beach. The white sand was like velvet and the water was crystal clear. I was just glad to be on land for a while so I was more than happy to lie on the sand for a little while.

Maya Bay

On the way there we saw the army’s camps set up along the cliffs of Phi Phi Ley, they are there protecting against poachers trying to steal the nests of the Swifts which are made entirely of their spit. Sounds gross but they are apparently a Chinese delicacy that’s supposed to improve your health and act as an aphrodisiac, and a single nest sells for $1000 on the black market. Bob told us stories of how men climb the bamboo here, 100 metres to get to these nests, and how some have fallen to their deaths. Until recently the mafia had control of these cliffs, but the army stepped in and they now protect the area and the soldiers protect the island 24/7.

Next stop was back to Phi Phi Don and we stopped along the cliffs to watch the sun set. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced. It was totally stunning. There are a few pictures here to give you an idea. Just gorgeous, and a perfect end to a great day….or so we thought!

Sun Set

Leigh and Chang buddy Anthony

Beautiful sun set over Phi Phi

As we were nearing dock after the sunset one of the American girls mentioned to Bob about bio luminescence, and asked him if we could stop and try check it out. He agreed, I think mainly because he was curious! I’m so glad he did because it was amazing! It felt like magic! We were in the sea in the dark and there were these twinkling glow-in-the-dark lights (coral) appearing when we moved. It felt like I was in space swimming amongst the stars, if that makes any sense at all? 

Then we were back to dock and arranged to meet up later at Banana Bar for some Mexican food and hanging out. I’m so glad we went, because I was feeling so crap during the day I was a bit crap at making much of an effort chatting to people, and had a brilliant night getting to know the group, one of which we’ve met since in Koh Lanta, and a few more I’m sure we’ll see again in Aus. So after some delicious beef burritos and some drinks Leigh and I headed back for our last night in our Phi Phi beach hut to get some (much needed) sleep before our ferry in the morning.

First stop Bangkok!

So we've gone! Woohoo! We flew out of Dublin on Friday evening after a super busy week, including me passing my driving test (YAYYYY!) and packing up everything we own and dumping it on our poor mothers to try an magically fit in their attics (sorry and thanks Mum). After a few tearful good byes we flew to Heathrow for a few hour layover and then onto the big flight.

Family Byes :(

Airport Goodbyes.

We arrived in Bangkok on Saturday afternoon, after a long, but fairly uneventful, 10 hour flight. We got a taxi to the hotel, which was lovely, and headed out to what we thought was Kaoh San Road (more on that later!) which was just a 5 minute walk away but on a quieter road, super handy. We had an amazing dinner, where I had the most deliscious Yellow Curry ever (for approx. €2!!!), and discovered the yummy Chang beer! J

Cheers! Leigh's first Chang.

Yummy Thai beer.

After that we just wandered around looking at the market stalls and took in the madness and energy of the area. 

On Sunday I got up bright and breezy, much to my surprise, and had breakfast and read my book at the roof top pool and went for a swim. Leigh got hit by jet lag and was awake most of the night so I left him to it. Then we got the river taxi to The Grand Palace. 

River taxi.

We saw, without doubt some of the most beautiful buildings I’ve seen in my life. Some with Chinese influence, some European and even a mini Angkor Wat. It was built in 1782 and is the official residence of the King; however the King hasn’t lived there for 150 years. Now it’s used for coronation ceremonies and the King’s Birthday celebrations. The temples, though, are still used by locals for praying. 

Mini Angkor Wat

 I had read previously that you must cover your legs and the tops of your arms to visit the Grand Palace, so I went prepared with leggings under y dress and a light blouse on top. But I STILL didn’t get through the Modesty Police, Apparently they don’t believe in the 90’s fashion revival that is leggings! I had been super prepared though and had a big scarf-come-sarong in my bag, just in case.

 We walked in 10 minutes before a free English tour was due to start so we decided to go with that, and I am SO glad we did. The tour guide was so nice and friendly and knew so much about the all the different buildings and their history. We learned so much, and definitely made it more enjoyable than if we were aimlessly wandering around by ourselves.

Our tour guide

The only thing that wasn't enjoyable was the insane heat, over 35 degrees! And we were walking around in the sun for 2-3 hours. It was nearly unbearable and as soon as we left we went into the nearest looking restaurant that looked like it would have air conditioning. It did. And it was beautiful!


Then we walked back to the hotel and had a much needed nap after the day in the heat, and then went back down to “Our Kaoh San Road”. We had a great night, we got more deliscious and cheap Thai food, including “The Best Spring Roles In The World”! I have to say they were definitely the best I’ve ever had, and deliscious Pork Satay to start…YUMMY!!! 

SO TICKLY!!!

Then we got a fish pedicure (where you put your feet in a pig pool of water filled with Garra Rufa fish that eat your dead skin cells, for those not in the know). At first it was insanely tickly, but once I got used to it, it was pretty cool. After that we got our first taste of Thai massage, a back, shoulder and head massage for me and a foot massage for Leigh. It was about €2.50 for a half an hour and was incredible! She got rid of all the sitting at a desk tension in my shoulders, which I was really suffering from and pulled and stretched me in  all sorts of ways, and cracked the length of my spine. I can’t wait until I get a full Thai massage, as this was such an amazing half hour!

Fish Pedicure

 After that the Manchester United – Tottenham match had just started and we settled down with some Changs at a make shift outdoor bar set up with a big TV in the back of a van showing the match. There was a great atmosphere, and surprisingly large number of Thai fans around, as well as fellow backpackers.

Watching the match out of the back of a van!

The yesterday, Monday, we decided after how wiped we were after the day in the heat (I reckon we’ll need a few weeks to get acclimatised!) we decided to spend a day at one of the coolest (amazingness and temperature wise) at Siam Ocean World! The aquarium is in the basement of the super swish shopping centre Siam Paragon. We later went exploring in the shopping centre and it was FILLED with high end designer stores and one super posh department store spread over 5 floors. One floor of the shopping centre was entirely a food court! Mental!

Some of the highlights for me: Seeing a baby (3 years old) Hammerhead shark, seeing Tiger shark eggs (you could see teeny tiny sharks moving inside) and the new borns on our back of house tour (some of which they release into the ocean), floating inches about huge rays and sharks in the glass bottom boat, and the tunnel through the aquarium where you feel like you are under the sea. 

Shark eggs with little tiny shark embryos inside

A new born shark

Anyway, the aquarium was absolutely brilliant, so fun and interesting. There was a about a fiver in the difference between the standard ticket and the Premier Package, so we naturally went for the Premier Package, and it was the best fiver ever spent, it came with heaps of extras like a back of house tour, a trip over the tanks in a glass bottom boat, a Pepsi and Popcorn, a Happy Fish Happy Feet fish pedicure (yup our second in 2 days, those tootsies are so soft right now!) and a viewing of a film in the 5D theatre.

Happy Fish - Happy Feet! :)

What a view to have during a pedicure!

A hermit crab                                    

 We easily spent about 4 hours here and weren’t bored for a second. It’s one of the best, well designed and facilitated tourist attractions I’ve been to with equal focus on learning as fun, as well as plenty of opportunity for cheestastic photo ops (much to my pleasure, and possibly unfortunately for Leigh!).

    Playing in the kids section 

 

Ooooooh!

Happy Thai New Year!

Vrooooooom.

   

That morning we decided to head down to Khao San Road to try and get our hands on some student cards (apparently will get us oodles of discounts and tourists attractions in Australia). We couldn’t see anywhere that did them, so eventually I asked someone unlocking IPhones (that was the dodgiest thing I could see going on so seemed a logical choice in my mind). Once he understood what I was on about he said “Ooooh, you want Kaoh San!”….yep ladies and gents we were on the wrong street the whole time! Turns out on our first night there when we followed Google Map’s directions, and a street sign we came across a street filled with market stalls open air, bars and restaurants, hostels, street vendors selling all sorts of yummy street foods etc, so we just assumed this was it. Ooops! So we headed around the corner for the real deal and got some student cards. Turns out though our road (turns out it’s called Soi Ram Buttri) is way nicer! Much more chilled out, with a cool, relaxed vibe. Never the less we went back to Koah San that night as it was our last night and walked around and enjoyed the buzz and some yummy Pina Coladas!

This morning we left the hotel and headed for Phuket. We’ll be here for one night as a stop on the way to beautiful Phi Phi! I cannot wait to get to a beach and swim in the sea, it’s been far too long!!!