On 10th December we arrived in Sydney, over a week ahead of schedule and with a flight booked from Sydney to Buenos Aiers for 24th November we had just over 2 weeks to see as much of Australia as possible. There´s no way that you can see all of Australia in 2 weeks but we were intent on giving it a good go and had a plan to hire a campervan and drive up the East coast to Cairns.
On arrival, we checked into our hostel, Maze Backpackers on Pitt Street which was pretty central. This was my first hostel experience of this trip and after being spolied with 4 star luxury digs for peanuts in South East Asia it was a bit of a culture chock to say the least. It was teaming with backpackers, most of them just out of school and the twin room we were allocated to was like a prison cell with a shabby bunk bed and just enough room to swing a cat. That said, there was an ok bathroom and two kitchens and it was only for sleeping so it wasn´t all that bad.
After checking in we had a mooch round the surrounding area and it´s fair to say that I was less than impresssed. Expecting to see and bit of cosmopolitan Sydney I was a bit surprised to see shit loads of neanderthals walking the streets and bars. Some of the bars were just pure shite, shitter than the shittest bars in Newcastle and others were totally geared up for travellers such as Scruffy Murphy´s! I really couldn´t be arsed with it so, after checking out Kings Cross, which was even worse, I turned in hoping to see Sydney with a fresh pair of eyes the next day.
Next day, we both slept into the afternoon which was unsurprising considering the journey we´d just had. We got up late afternoon and had a walk down to the harbour to check out the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. First of all, I was pretty surprised at how cold it was expecting it to be the height of summer, but it was like a luke warm evening in Newcastle. The Opera House is cool but unlike all of the photos you see, it´s not white, it´s like an off white cream and pretty unspectaculor in that sense. The Harbour Bridge isn´t too disimilar to The Tyne Bridge and if it wasn´t for the fact that there was loads of tourists and attractions such as ferry rides, you could have easily have been sat on the Quay Side in Newcastle. To sum up, I wasn´t that impressed and was keen to move on, Sydney´s a great place but, as we keep finding out, it´s a city just like any other and unless you´re working, there really isn´t that much to do beyond eat, sleep and drink!
The rest of our days in Sydney were focussed on booking our trip up the East Coast and it turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Our first approach was to try to book a Camper of the internet and we sent off loads of enquiry emails and sat back on our lorrels a bit thinking that we were going to get a Jucy camper. These were luminous green and cost something ridiculous like AU$15 per day. Unfortunately that fell through so we were back to square one... After a visit to Bondi beach, which was pretty dissappointing to be honest, we decided to book our trip through Wicked Travel which was located about 2 doors up from our hostel. The guy the the travel agents was awesome and within a couple of hours we were ready to set off that afternoon.
For about 350 GBP each, we had a camper van, a sky dive at Byron Bay, a 3 day 4x4 trip on Fraser Island and a 2 day sailing trip around Whitsundays. These are the key things to see on the East Coast so we were pretty pleased with getting all of this sorted for such a low price. So, an hour later we were in a taxi ready to pick up our camper and set off. The camper was booked through Traveller´s Auto Barn and they messed up royally and turned out to be the biggest bunch of cock knockers ever. On arrival, the tit on the reception desk was ready to give us the keys to a 10 year on stationwagon which was basically very similar to a Ford Mondeo estate car. Not the best for sleeping in!
Long story short, there was nothing they could do for us whatsoever and basically had a ´tough shit´attitude. We´re no pushovers so we managed to negoatiate some free accomodation and decided that we had no other option other than to take the wagon and get on the road. So, about 4 hours behind schedule we started our journey up the Pacific Highway to Byron Bay with the aim of doing the 900km trip over night without a sleep! That journey turned out to be very fruitful and easily one of the most scariest ever!
Monday, 8 December 2008
Singapore
We flew direct from Hanoi to Singapore on 23rd November and because we had a flight out the next morning we decided not to book a hotel. This was largely based on the fact that I have a BA silver card and we were intending to spend the night in the lounge on the internet and getting pissed on free booze. So we decided to have a look into Singapore and get the last train back to the airport at 11pm and stay in the lounge until our flight was due to leave at about 9am - it didn´t quite work out like that courtesy of BA!
What to say about Singapore? Not much really. We didn´t have long there so we obviously didn´t have time to see anything major, but at the end of the day it´s just another city. There was a starbucks which is nice after being in Hanoi drinking coffee that has passed through a weasel (that´s actually how they make it) and there were loads of modern shops and designer gear. It was pretty good to be visiting a city a bit more civilised but the city is so expensive it´s offensive. We paid a visit to The Raffles hotel and paid $50 for 2 cocktails, we tried to get into a bar to watch a footy game and were told there was a $30 minimum spend per customer and then we swiftly left another bar after we clocked the price of a litre of beer at $28! It wouldn´t be bad in normal circumstances but definitely not when you´re on a travellers budget. So we looked forward to that last train while sipping a beer, very slowly, on the terrace of Raffles Hotel listening to the worst sounds in history - Madonna!
Besides the cost, Singapore should be noted for it´s order. If you´ve ever read 1984 by George Orwell then you´ll understand the concept of Big Brother in the sense that you are being watched. Most cities have CCTV, but Singapore uses the latest face recognition technology to enforce its laws. Jaywalking is a crime and if you happen to break the rules, a couple of days later you´ll have a fine on your welcome mat as the CCTV recognises your face, how mad is that!! Also, loads of other things are strictly not allowed: eating or drinking on a train $500 fine, smoking on a train $1000 fine, smoking on the street $1000 fine. I guess in Singapore the laws are to be respected and not taken lightly!
After catching the last train back to the airport, we checked in and were excited at the prospect of 5 star treatment courtesy of BA and Qantas. That was until we got to the lounge and it was closed and doesn´t open until 6.30am, arggghhhhh! So we had to spend the whole night in the normal airport lounge with cattle class, drinking coffee, playing cards and using the free internet. It wasn´t too bad to be fair but a far contrast from spending the night in the BA lounge. We managed to get cleaned up in the lounge after it opened and boarded the 12 hour flight to Sydney.. I slept most of the way so the flight was a breeze and we landed in Sydney on time, got through customs easily and caught a shuttle bus to our hostel. Stage 1 completed!
What to say about Singapore? Not much really. We didn´t have long there so we obviously didn´t have time to see anything major, but at the end of the day it´s just another city. There was a starbucks which is nice after being in Hanoi drinking coffee that has passed through a weasel (that´s actually how they make it) and there were loads of modern shops and designer gear. It was pretty good to be visiting a city a bit more civilised but the city is so expensive it´s offensive. We paid a visit to The Raffles hotel and paid $50 for 2 cocktails, we tried to get into a bar to watch a footy game and were told there was a $30 minimum spend per customer and then we swiftly left another bar after we clocked the price of a litre of beer at $28! It wouldn´t be bad in normal circumstances but definitely not when you´re on a travellers budget. So we looked forward to that last train while sipping a beer, very slowly, on the terrace of Raffles Hotel listening to the worst sounds in history - Madonna!
Besides the cost, Singapore should be noted for it´s order. If you´ve ever read 1984 by George Orwell then you´ll understand the concept of Big Brother in the sense that you are being watched. Most cities have CCTV, but Singapore uses the latest face recognition technology to enforce its laws. Jaywalking is a crime and if you happen to break the rules, a couple of days later you´ll have a fine on your welcome mat as the CCTV recognises your face, how mad is that!! Also, loads of other things are strictly not allowed: eating or drinking on a train $500 fine, smoking on a train $1000 fine, smoking on the street $1000 fine. I guess in Singapore the laws are to be respected and not taken lightly!
After catching the last train back to the airport, we checked in and were excited at the prospect of 5 star treatment courtesy of BA and Qantas. That was until we got to the lounge and it was closed and doesn´t open until 6.30am, arggghhhhh! So we had to spend the whole night in the normal airport lounge with cattle class, drinking coffee, playing cards and using the free internet. It wasn´t too bad to be fair but a far contrast from spending the night in the BA lounge. We managed to get cleaned up in the lounge after it opened and boarded the 12 hour flight to Sydney.. I slept most of the way so the flight was a breeze and we landed in Sydney on time, got through customs easily and caught a shuttle bus to our hostel. Stage 1 completed!
Sunday, 7 December 2008
Vietnam
From Hanoi, after the Air Asia flight (I hate those Bastards!!) from Bangkok, I had a JetStar flight booked to Danang where after a transfer to Hoi An I would have been staying in a nice 4 star hotel. I think there was just over two hours between the connecting flights, easily enough time right? Erm, not if the Air Asia flight is 1 hour 40 mins late and the Vietnam immigration process suffers from inherent retardation disorder.
Air Asia have a policy that they will compensate you if your flight is delayed by over 1 hour 45 mins but as my flight was 5 minutes under that their policy didn´t have any room to offer help to stranded passengers. Even though there is an advertisement at check in at Hanoi stating something along the lines of ´if we´re late we´ll offer you 1500THB cash back´, that still translates to any delays over 3 hours´. Those bastards have cost me a fortune in the last few months. They don´t let you make any changes to flights after they´re booked unless it´s just a date change and their customer service is awful - it´s Easyjet in Thailand and if you know me well enough you´ll have no doubt heard me rant on about how much I hate Easjet too!
So there I am in, Hanoi airport, missed my JetStar connection, hotel booked and paid for in Hoi An, awful Air Asia service, shit loads of luggage, no phone and a shit load of Vietnamese people staring at me constantly. I was kind of expecting Vietnam to be similar to Thailand in that people are generally used to and friendly to travellers, I was a bit wrong on that score. Even worse, my Maestro card wouldn´t work in the 10 ATMs that I tried, fortunately mi tarjeta credito came in very handy. Again a decision had to be made similarly to the one in Bangkok. I was feeling less rough but still had the remnants of a Singh hangover bouncing around. This was was a bit more straightforward - either stay in Hanoi for the night or wait for the next JetStar flight the following morning.
The only remaining chance to get to Hoi An that night was Vietnam Airlines and their last flight was fully booked and they could only but me on standby. That meant I had to hang around the dullest airport in the world for about 4 hours while they see if any passengers didn´t turn up. At that time they conveniently only had business class seats left so I accepted their kind offer and boarded, rather speedily, the 1 hour flight to Hoi An. That flight was painless and the service wasn´t bad although I was a bit pissed off that I didn´t get any Champers for my 100 pounds, even worse NO alcohol was being served, I mean for goodness sakes!
On arrival in Hoi an, the area outside the airport was awash with taxis. There´s quite a bit of information in the guides about taxi scams in Vietnam, such as locals accosting tourists and robbing them or escorting them to an unwanted hotel, so I was pretty dubious about the whole affair. But, as in all of these situations a decision is required, so I chose the taxi driver who looked the most honest and professional, negotiated a price and took a risk. The weather was a sharp contrast from Thailand. I had received news ahead of my journey that there was extensive flooding in most parts of the country and that was realised during the landing into Hanoi, all you could see was water, I´ve never seen anything like it. That was part of the reason that I chose to take a risk and take a flight to Hoi An. But unfortunately, the weather in Hoi An was even worse.
It was torrential rain, rain that some how penetrated the car and soaked me through. The taxi driver couldn´t speak English at all and had to check the map about 7 times for my hotel. Most people would pull over to check the map but this guy just slowed down a little and took his eyes off the road, quite a worry. But one thing about Vietnam is that they drive a lot slower than most other countries, which is why their road regulations actually work, meaning their non existent road regulations! All I could do really was try to look out for signs to check that we were heading in the right direction and fortunately we seemed to be heading for Hoi An although I´m not sure he managed to reach a speed exceeding 60 kmph. About 40 minutes later we arrived in some sort of civilisation after miles and miles of run down looking areas. Originally picking the wrong hotel, we finally arrived at the hotel which turned out to be far less than 4 star.
The short trip from the taxi to reception got me soaked to the skin, I´ve never seen rain like it. Greeted by less than enthusiastic staff and a huge restaurant area with no guests in there whatsoever, I was sure that either the information on the internet was a little misleading or I´d picked the wrong time to visit Vietnam. After advising the receptionist that there was a fresh cat poo near her desk I was taken to the room which was pretty basic which would be fine under normal circumstances but not when you´re expecting 4 star. After check in, I wasn´t exactly sure what to do considering it was lashing down. That´s one thing I´ve learnt, no matter where you are, it´s difficult to make the best of things when it is raining like that, especially when you´re expecting to top up your tan.
The location I´d picked was on recommendation from a few people that had visited before and had defined it as paradise with it´s glorious beaches, ridiculously cheap prices and great weather! Some friends had even been there the week before and had raved about the weather - typical! It´s also really close to China beach which is part of the massive beach that runs for miles up the East coast of Vietnam, China beach is the one out of Apocalypse now! But let´s be fair, beaches are no fun when it´s raining although I managed to have a bit of fun on the beach before moving on to pastures new! So, on the first evening it was decided to have a bite to eat at the hotel which turned out to be pretty dire considering that there was no-one else in the restaurant and most of the staff just wanted to sleep in hammocks or just disappear the scene altogether.
The next day I had a look into Hoi An town to check things out and do some laundry. Laundry negotiations were a bit different than what I was used to in Thailand and quite a lot more expensive but to be fair I think a couple of switched on locals took the opportunity to rip off a ill informed travellers in dire straits. I had a coffee in a local bar after buying a poncho and headed a bit more central to check out some bars, bars which were completely non existent. One of the local cafe owners tried to persuade me to go on a trip with him a bit further inland as he could see I was pissed with the weather and was chasing the sun. I even considered going back to Thailand because the weather was that bad but the outlook for that week was dreadful all over South East Asia. Fortunately I decided to sit it out and had about 4 days of glorious weather and had one of the best weeks ever courtesy of a few things besides the weather!
I ended up staying in the hotel from hell for one more night before moving to another 4 star hotel close by, although this one truly lived up to its 4 star reputation. That day the weather picked up and 4 days of bliss followed and I ended up finding out why people rave about Hoi An and Vietnam so much. The new hotel was lush, I walked along the massive beach with the sun blaring down, spent time by the pool and found the real Hoi An old town with some really nice restaurants and bars. I met up with a friend from back home too and dutifully got very drunk and had a good time for a couple of days before she buggered off back home to the freezing cold and Orange.
There´s far too much to say about that week, loads happened and it ended up being the best so far during this trip. At first I had a major culture shock as things are so different in Vietnam than Thailand, that may sound a little short sighted, but it´s only a short flight from one capital to the other. The people are far less sure of tourists and being stared at was a common occurrence. Some of the people selling goods in shops were plain rude and other locals were very untrustworthy. That said, I met some great people, seen some great sights, topped up my tan and overall the positives far outweighed the negatives - not sure that was entirely to do with Vietnam but that´s another story.
After Hoi An I flew back up to Hanoi to meet Kev and ended up spending about 4 days there while we organised the next step of our trip. Beyond Kev´s holiday with Laura, we had nothing planned so it was back to the drawing board. After chatting for about 10 seconds we both agreed that the best plan would be to get to South America as soon as possible. That was quite a big change to the plan as were were intending to travel in for another 3 weeks in Vietnam before moving onto Cambodia. For Kev, it was pretty straight forward as he wanted to cut his trip short so he could get back to Laura sooner but he wanted to see South America first. For me, I would rather have seen the rest of South East Asia accompanied and I wanted to spend as little time in Australia as possible so I could save money and try to see out the ten months I had planned to stay travelling.
So after a a couple of days we had cut down our Australia trip from 6 weeks to just over 2 avoiding the expensive Christmas period and we had booked a flight to Buenos Aires for 24th November. To summarise Vietnam, to be honest I didn´t enjoy it as much as Thailand. The culture is completely different and at some times unfriendly and a bit unnerving. I had one of the best weeks ever in Hoi An and I would love to go back at high season when the weather better. Hanoi was a complete shit hole, let´s be honest. The traffic was mental, even worse than India, and the city was just dirty and quite unpleasant. There were a few nice bars and cafes to chill out in and a few good areas to visit but overall I think Hanoi should go down as a place to pass through. I haven´t written off Vietnam completely and I would really like to give it a second chance very soon.
Air Asia have a policy that they will compensate you if your flight is delayed by over 1 hour 45 mins but as my flight was 5 minutes under that their policy didn´t have any room to offer help to stranded passengers. Even though there is an advertisement at check in at Hanoi stating something along the lines of ´if we´re late we´ll offer you 1500THB cash back´, that still translates to any delays over 3 hours´. Those bastards have cost me a fortune in the last few months. They don´t let you make any changes to flights after they´re booked unless it´s just a date change and their customer service is awful - it´s Easyjet in Thailand and if you know me well enough you´ll have no doubt heard me rant on about how much I hate Easjet too!
So there I am in, Hanoi airport, missed my JetStar connection, hotel booked and paid for in Hoi An, awful Air Asia service, shit loads of luggage, no phone and a shit load of Vietnamese people staring at me constantly. I was kind of expecting Vietnam to be similar to Thailand in that people are generally used to and friendly to travellers, I was a bit wrong on that score. Even worse, my Maestro card wouldn´t work in the 10 ATMs that I tried, fortunately mi tarjeta credito came in very handy. Again a decision had to be made similarly to the one in Bangkok. I was feeling less rough but still had the remnants of a Singh hangover bouncing around. This was was a bit more straightforward - either stay in Hanoi for the night or wait for the next JetStar flight the following morning.
The only remaining chance to get to Hoi An that night was Vietnam Airlines and their last flight was fully booked and they could only but me on standby. That meant I had to hang around the dullest airport in the world for about 4 hours while they see if any passengers didn´t turn up. At that time they conveniently only had business class seats left so I accepted their kind offer and boarded, rather speedily, the 1 hour flight to Hoi An. That flight was painless and the service wasn´t bad although I was a bit pissed off that I didn´t get any Champers for my 100 pounds, even worse NO alcohol was being served, I mean for goodness sakes!
On arrival in Hoi an, the area outside the airport was awash with taxis. There´s quite a bit of information in the guides about taxi scams in Vietnam, such as locals accosting tourists and robbing them or escorting them to an unwanted hotel, so I was pretty dubious about the whole affair. But, as in all of these situations a decision is required, so I chose the taxi driver who looked the most honest and professional, negotiated a price and took a risk. The weather was a sharp contrast from Thailand. I had received news ahead of my journey that there was extensive flooding in most parts of the country and that was realised during the landing into Hanoi, all you could see was water, I´ve never seen anything like it. That was part of the reason that I chose to take a risk and take a flight to Hoi An. But unfortunately, the weather in Hoi An was even worse.
It was torrential rain, rain that some how penetrated the car and soaked me through. The taxi driver couldn´t speak English at all and had to check the map about 7 times for my hotel. Most people would pull over to check the map but this guy just slowed down a little and took his eyes off the road, quite a worry. But one thing about Vietnam is that they drive a lot slower than most other countries, which is why their road regulations actually work, meaning their non existent road regulations! All I could do really was try to look out for signs to check that we were heading in the right direction and fortunately we seemed to be heading for Hoi An although I´m not sure he managed to reach a speed exceeding 60 kmph. About 40 minutes later we arrived in some sort of civilisation after miles and miles of run down looking areas. Originally picking the wrong hotel, we finally arrived at the hotel which turned out to be far less than 4 star.
The short trip from the taxi to reception got me soaked to the skin, I´ve never seen rain like it. Greeted by less than enthusiastic staff and a huge restaurant area with no guests in there whatsoever, I was sure that either the information on the internet was a little misleading or I´d picked the wrong time to visit Vietnam. After advising the receptionist that there was a fresh cat poo near her desk I was taken to the room which was pretty basic which would be fine under normal circumstances but not when you´re expecting 4 star. After check in, I wasn´t exactly sure what to do considering it was lashing down. That´s one thing I´ve learnt, no matter where you are, it´s difficult to make the best of things when it is raining like that, especially when you´re expecting to top up your tan.
The location I´d picked was on recommendation from a few people that had visited before and had defined it as paradise with it´s glorious beaches, ridiculously cheap prices and great weather! Some friends had even been there the week before and had raved about the weather - typical! It´s also really close to China beach which is part of the massive beach that runs for miles up the East coast of Vietnam, China beach is the one out of Apocalypse now! But let´s be fair, beaches are no fun when it´s raining although I managed to have a bit of fun on the beach before moving on to pastures new! So, on the first evening it was decided to have a bite to eat at the hotel which turned out to be pretty dire considering that there was no-one else in the restaurant and most of the staff just wanted to sleep in hammocks or just disappear the scene altogether.
The next day I had a look into Hoi An town to check things out and do some laundry. Laundry negotiations were a bit different than what I was used to in Thailand and quite a lot more expensive but to be fair I think a couple of switched on locals took the opportunity to rip off a ill informed travellers in dire straits. I had a coffee in a local bar after buying a poncho and headed a bit more central to check out some bars, bars which were completely non existent. One of the local cafe owners tried to persuade me to go on a trip with him a bit further inland as he could see I was pissed with the weather and was chasing the sun. I even considered going back to Thailand because the weather was that bad but the outlook for that week was dreadful all over South East Asia. Fortunately I decided to sit it out and had about 4 days of glorious weather and had one of the best weeks ever courtesy of a few things besides the weather!
I ended up staying in the hotel from hell for one more night before moving to another 4 star hotel close by, although this one truly lived up to its 4 star reputation. That day the weather picked up and 4 days of bliss followed and I ended up finding out why people rave about Hoi An and Vietnam so much. The new hotel was lush, I walked along the massive beach with the sun blaring down, spent time by the pool and found the real Hoi An old town with some really nice restaurants and bars. I met up with a friend from back home too and dutifully got very drunk and had a good time for a couple of days before she buggered off back home to the freezing cold and Orange.
There´s far too much to say about that week, loads happened and it ended up being the best so far during this trip. At first I had a major culture shock as things are so different in Vietnam than Thailand, that may sound a little short sighted, but it´s only a short flight from one capital to the other. The people are far less sure of tourists and being stared at was a common occurrence. Some of the people selling goods in shops were plain rude and other locals were very untrustworthy. That said, I met some great people, seen some great sights, topped up my tan and overall the positives far outweighed the negatives - not sure that was entirely to do with Vietnam but that´s another story.
After Hoi An I flew back up to Hanoi to meet Kev and ended up spending about 4 days there while we organised the next step of our trip. Beyond Kev´s holiday with Laura, we had nothing planned so it was back to the drawing board. After chatting for about 10 seconds we both agreed that the best plan would be to get to South America as soon as possible. That was quite a big change to the plan as were were intending to travel in for another 3 weeks in Vietnam before moving onto Cambodia. For Kev, it was pretty straight forward as he wanted to cut his trip short so he could get back to Laura sooner but he wanted to see South America first. For me, I would rather have seen the rest of South East Asia accompanied and I wanted to spend as little time in Australia as possible so I could save money and try to see out the ten months I had planned to stay travelling.
So after a a couple of days we had cut down our Australia trip from 6 weeks to just over 2 avoiding the expensive Christmas period and we had booked a flight to Buenos Aires for 24th November. To summarise Vietnam, to be honest I didn´t enjoy it as much as Thailand. The culture is completely different and at some times unfriendly and a bit unnerving. I had one of the best weeks ever in Hoi An and I would love to go back at high season when the weather better. Hanoi was a complete shit hole, let´s be honest. The traffic was mental, even worse than India, and the city was just dirty and quite unpleasant. There were a few nice bars and cafes to chill out in and a few good areas to visit but overall I think Hanoi should go down as a place to pass through. I haven´t written off Vietnam completely and I would really like to give it a second chance very soon.
Bankgkok again
I flew into Bangkok from Phuket on 26th October with a view to heading over to Vietnam to meet Kev after his holiday with Laura. I only had one night in Bangkok so I booked into a lush 4 star hotel called the dream hotel which was only something stupid like US$60 per night. I had an early morning flight to Hanoi booked for the following day but that didn´t stop me going out to a few bars and getting a bit messed up.
I also re-discovered the night market which I tried to find when I was in Bangkok with Kev but got it confused with the weekend market. The night market has a massive courtyard area where locals meet up for drinks while watching premiership games on huge TV screen at each end. You can sample local beers and culenary delights for cheap as it´s more of a local meeting place than a tourist spot. The market is awash with copy gear from Tag watches, Mont Blac pens to Gucci bags and North Face rucks sacks. A lot of items are of low quality but there are some that you could tell from the real thing. I got a Tag copy for about 15 GBP which I have since spotted in a real shop and it´s almost impossible to tell them apart.
I also caught the end of the the Liverpool Chelsea game which Liverpool won 1-0. I have totally lost track of the premiership since being away and seeing a Liverpool game is a rarity so it was awesome even to catch even last 10 minutes, although the person I was with was a bit of a winghebagnonfootballlovergay. After the night market a rather bad club was frequented after an escort from the Tuk Tuk driver from hell. Seriously, this guy was nuts. He was driving like Lewis Hamilton through traffic, usgin his handbrake to do u-turns and even had the thing going sidewards at one point. He ended up being our escort for the night although he ended up dumping us at a shit hole club.
After a heavy night´s drinking, I slept through the alarm and woke up at just affter 9am - my flight was at 10.20am and it was an hour taxi ride to the airport! Shit! So, with a very very cloudy head, I had to make a logical decision. Either go back to bed and lose the flight or dash to the airport and hope it´s delayed. The latter seemed to be more logical so I was packed within 2 minutes, checked out within 5 and in a taxi within 6 asking him not to spare the horses and a healthy tip would be in it for him. I got to the airport about 10 mins late but fortufnately the flight was delayed and I even had time for a mooch around the airpoirt and a, yes very unlike me, big fat double wopper, fat coke and chips. I have to say, it was the best breakfast I´ve had in a long time.
What can I say about Bangkok? Same same I guess, it´s enterntaining and jaw droppingly engaging but only for a couple of nights.
I also re-discovered the night market which I tried to find when I was in Bangkok with Kev but got it confused with the weekend market. The night market has a massive courtyard area where locals meet up for drinks while watching premiership games on huge TV screen at each end. You can sample local beers and culenary delights for cheap as it´s more of a local meeting place than a tourist spot. The market is awash with copy gear from Tag watches, Mont Blac pens to Gucci bags and North Face rucks sacks. A lot of items are of low quality but there are some that you could tell from the real thing. I got a Tag copy for about 15 GBP which I have since spotted in a real shop and it´s almost impossible to tell them apart.
I also caught the end of the the Liverpool Chelsea game which Liverpool won 1-0. I have totally lost track of the premiership since being away and seeing a Liverpool game is a rarity so it was awesome even to catch even last 10 minutes, although the person I was with was a bit of a winghebagnonfootballlovergay. After the night market a rather bad club was frequented after an escort from the Tuk Tuk driver from hell. Seriously, this guy was nuts. He was driving like Lewis Hamilton through traffic, usgin his handbrake to do u-turns and even had the thing going sidewards at one point. He ended up being our escort for the night although he ended up dumping us at a shit hole club.
After a heavy night´s drinking, I slept through the alarm and woke up at just affter 9am - my flight was at 10.20am and it was an hour taxi ride to the airport! Shit! So, with a very very cloudy head, I had to make a logical decision. Either go back to bed and lose the flight or dash to the airport and hope it´s delayed. The latter seemed to be more logical so I was packed within 2 minutes, checked out within 5 and in a taxi within 6 asking him not to spare the horses and a healthy tip would be in it for him. I got to the airport about 10 mins late but fortufnately the flight was delayed and I even had time for a mooch around the airpoirt and a, yes very unlike me, big fat double wopper, fat coke and chips. I have to say, it was the best breakfast I´ve had in a long time.
What can I say about Bangkok? Same same I guess, it´s enterntaining and jaw droppingly engaging but only for a couple of nights.
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Where did the blog go? - Leaving Thailand
It's been a long time since I updated my blog but I'm about to start getting it back up to date. There are a couple of reasons why I haven't updated it for so long. First, the last week or so in Thailand was bit of a challenge (understatement of the century) so I didn't have any urge to update my blog. Second, in the last 4 weeks I have been so busy that I just haven't had the time.
I left Thailand on 26th October and since then I've been to Bangkok again, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia arriving in Buenos Aires on 24th November. I think the best way to get this blog back on track will be to take things in chronological order. Fortunately I've been logging in a journal so not a lot will be forgotten although, as always, some things will be left out seeing as my mother reads this blog ;0)
After Phi Phi island we headed to Phuket arriving on Tuesday 7th October with a view to staying a day or so before heading to a surfing beach nearby. Pretty much everyone we had spoken to about Phuket had described it as hell on earth but on first impression I thought it was one of the nicest placest I've been to in Thailand.
I now think of it as a combination of heaven and hell. I spent about 3 weeks on Phuket in total, most of which was absolutely awesome. I stayed in some great hotels for next to nothing, had a quality little moped, was right next to the beach and enrolled in a local gym. I met some new friends who I hope I'll stay in touch with for a long time and I had a few brilliant dives to add to my tally. So for the most part it was bliss and I had the chance to take it completely easy.
The last week was probably one of the hardest weeks I've been through and I was very close to throwing the towel in and coming home. Since Thailand, just over 4 weeks ago, I've been to so many different places and had so many different experiences that it seems like a bit of a blur. It will be really hard to catch up on this blog but I'll make sure that I get as much as possible done over the next couple of weeks so I can update on South America as we go.
To summarise Thailand, I would say that it has been my favourite country so far. It's got so much to offer such as beautiful, untouched national parks, gigantic limestone cliffs both in the ocean and inland, stunning islands and breath taking beaches. The culture is great and although there are many annoyances the people are generally very friendly and welcoming. There are places to party, places to chill out, awesome cuisine and chances to explore all over the country. The diving is also the best I've experienced so far, even better than the Great Barrier Reef.
In my mind, it wouldn't be a bad thing to go back to Thailand towards the end of my trip but I won't be taking that decision lightly and want to see a lot of South America first.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Phi Phi Island
We caught the ferry from Ao Nang to Koh Phi Phi Don early doors on 3rd October. Most people know about Phi Phi as it was where The Beach was filmed a few years ago with Leonardo Decaprio. It's made up of two small islands, Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley of which only Don is inhabited. We arrived on Don pretty early and had to find somewhere to stay as we hadn't booked anything, so we were walking around for a bit with our rucksacks on in the blistering heat which isn't exactly fun. There's a couple of things that set Phi Phi apart from some of the other locations in Thailand, firstly both islands are absolutely stunning and second there are supposed to be no vehicles.
Apart from a couple of mopeds that rings true but it still doesn't stop loads of Thai's trying to run you over with their push bikes. There's shit loads of them, most of the bikes are a mess and it's not unusual to see a guy on the gayest, pinkest bike with a basket on the front. Anyhoo, we haven't done a lot on Phi Phi yet apart from loads of sunbathing, getting pissed, watching dodgy Thai boxing and a half day trip. I have to say, the night life is awful. There's a few nice beach bars but they are just pumping out the biggest pile of shite music I've ever heard so we're getting a bit pissed off with that.
One of the most entertaining bars is Reggae Bar, which incidentally has no Reggae influence whatsoever, as it hosts Thai Boxing every night. This is not the same level of Thai Boxing we watched in Bangkok, it's basically holidaymakers kicking the living shit out of each other. It's absolutely mental that it's allowed as most fights end up with a couple of guys throwing haymakers at each other with the end result being one of them getting sparked out. There was one Irish guy who fights every night, and to give him credit he wins most fights as he's clearly done it before. The guy is a total cock end though and he's strutting round the place like some kind of Kung Fu warrier.
Anyway, he had two fights that we saw on the first night, the second fight being with a handy professional Thai Boxer. T'was quite funny seeing the little Irish prick having the shit kicked out of him. The only downside is that there's inevitably a fight between two so called professionals but it's a proper fix like WWF so it's very disappointing. The Thai staff weren't too happy with the boos coming from the crowd, namely from me and Kev.
The highlight of Phi Phi had to be the half day trip that we embarked upon on the second day. There were three main activities: snorkeling with sharks, cliff jumping and a trip over to Maya Bay on Phi Phi Ley where The Beach was filmed. After kitting us out with masks and fins Owen, our Thai guide, took us down to the pier and piled us into a long boat to head out for the shark snorkeling. It wasn't very far and we were soon in the water snorkeling in crystal clear waters looking for sharks. Almost immediately Owen popped up and said he caught sight of one. I was right behind him and to be honest I thought he was taking the piss as I couldn't see anything.
A few minutes later we started to see loads of them. They were black tip reef sharks I think between 3 and 4 feet long. I have to say I shit my pants the first time I clapped eyes on one as they were really close and they looked like mean little fuckers. Harmless apparently though - my arse! I would say we must have had around 20 sightings but of the same 6 or seven sharks and it was such an awesome experience to be so close to them. Both Kev and I had a few moments when they started circling us and in particular in the last 5 minutes we both decided it was time to retreat as one swam past with it's mouth open.
After that we headed to another small island to do some cliff jumping which, for the uneducated, is jumping off cliffs into the sea! There were 3 jumps that we were allowed to do, 8 metres, 10 metres and 12 metres. 8 metres doesn't seem that high but it kind of does when you're standing on the edge of a cliff but we both did that one no bother. Kev was unscathed but I thought I'd popped an eardrum or something so decided to take 5 minutes and jump from 8 metres again. In that time Kev had done the 10m and 12m jumps; I managed a couple of 10m jumps and decided that was about enough for me.
Maya Bay was absolutely stunning although it looked totally different than in The Beach but apparently it was digitally enhanced and it was damaged quite severely in the Tsunami. We hung around there for a bit and then tried to catch the sunset, which we missed, before heading back to our resort. The whole thing was filmed by Owen and we watched it back afterwards which was pretty cool but we aren't buying it coz were tight arses. That's about all we've done on Phi Phi as we've spent the last couple of days lying on the beach - I hate Mondays!!! Next we're off to Phuket for a night before we go to Hat Rai which is a surfing beach really close to Phuket town, can't wait for that...
Apart from a couple of mopeds that rings true but it still doesn't stop loads of Thai's trying to run you over with their push bikes. There's shit loads of them, most of the bikes are a mess and it's not unusual to see a guy on the gayest, pinkest bike with a basket on the front. Anyhoo, we haven't done a lot on Phi Phi yet apart from loads of sunbathing, getting pissed, watching dodgy Thai boxing and a half day trip. I have to say, the night life is awful. There's a few nice beach bars but they are just pumping out the biggest pile of shite music I've ever heard so we're getting a bit pissed off with that.
One of the most entertaining bars is Reggae Bar, which incidentally has no Reggae influence whatsoever, as it hosts Thai Boxing every night. This is not the same level of Thai Boxing we watched in Bangkok, it's basically holidaymakers kicking the living shit out of each other. It's absolutely mental that it's allowed as most fights end up with a couple of guys throwing haymakers at each other with the end result being one of them getting sparked out. There was one Irish guy who fights every night, and to give him credit he wins most fights as he's clearly done it before. The guy is a total cock end though and he's strutting round the place like some kind of Kung Fu warrier.
Anyway, he had two fights that we saw on the first night, the second fight being with a handy professional Thai Boxer. T'was quite funny seeing the little Irish prick having the shit kicked out of him. The only downside is that there's inevitably a fight between two so called professionals but it's a proper fix like WWF so it's very disappointing. The Thai staff weren't too happy with the boos coming from the crowd, namely from me and Kev.
The highlight of Phi Phi had to be the half day trip that we embarked upon on the second day. There were three main activities: snorkeling with sharks, cliff jumping and a trip over to Maya Bay on Phi Phi Ley where The Beach was filmed. After kitting us out with masks and fins Owen, our Thai guide, took us down to the pier and piled us into a long boat to head out for the shark snorkeling. It wasn't very far and we were soon in the water snorkeling in crystal clear waters looking for sharks. Almost immediately Owen popped up and said he caught sight of one. I was right behind him and to be honest I thought he was taking the piss as I couldn't see anything.
A few minutes later we started to see loads of them. They were black tip reef sharks I think between 3 and 4 feet long. I have to say I shit my pants the first time I clapped eyes on one as they were really close and they looked like mean little fuckers. Harmless apparently though - my arse! I would say we must have had around 20 sightings but of the same 6 or seven sharks and it was such an awesome experience to be so close to them. Both Kev and I had a few moments when they started circling us and in particular in the last 5 minutes we both decided it was time to retreat as one swam past with it's mouth open.
After that we headed to another small island to do some cliff jumping which, for the uneducated, is jumping off cliffs into the sea! There were 3 jumps that we were allowed to do, 8 metres, 10 metres and 12 metres. 8 metres doesn't seem that high but it kind of does when you're standing on the edge of a cliff but we both did that one no bother. Kev was unscathed but I thought I'd popped an eardrum or something so decided to take 5 minutes and jump from 8 metres again. In that time Kev had done the 10m and 12m jumps; I managed a couple of 10m jumps and decided that was about enough for me.
Maya Bay was absolutely stunning although it looked totally different than in The Beach but apparently it was digitally enhanced and it was damaged quite severely in the Tsunami. We hung around there for a bit and then tried to catch the sunset, which we missed, before heading back to our resort. The whole thing was filmed by Owen and we watched it back afterwards which was pretty cool but we aren't buying it coz were tight arses. That's about all we've done on Phi Phi as we've spent the last couple of days lying on the beach - I hate Mondays!!! Next we're off to Phuket for a night before we go to Hat Rai which is a surfing beach really close to Phuket town, can't wait for that...
Friday, 3 October 2008
Khoa Sok National Park
We finally left Ko Toa on 30th September to head for Khao Sok National Park where we had booked a two day trek. The last couple of days in Ko Toa were pretty chilled; we sunbathed a bit, had another Muay Thai boxing session and got pissed. We also ate at 'Hippo' restaurant for about the 234th time running - chicken skewers were top notch and we kind of built up a bit of rapore with the lady boy waiter which kept drawing Kev back.
So we checked out and headed to Mae Head pier to catch a fast boat to Ko Samui, then the 6pm ferry to Surat Thani where we'd be staying the night before getting picked up the following morning for the trek. All of the travel agents were trying to get up to take a longer route but we'd worked out the quickest way ourselves and bough the ferry ticket separately. Everyone is on the take, even the bloody travel agents!
On arrival at Surat Thani, we jumped in a taxi and asked for the 100 Islands Resort with a few others heading for the centre. There was an old Thai guy sitting behind us and he just wouldn't stop coughing which was really starting to wind Kev up. Kev asked how far it was to our resort and the driver said 84k! We thought it would be about 5 mins so were a bit pissed that we'd have to endure 84k with the coughing cock end!
Anyway, we arrived at the National Park at about 10.30am and were greeted by a nice Dutch chap called William. The drive into the park was amazing, when we weren't asleep, with superb scenery pretty much all of the way. There were huge limestone hills similar to the ones found at Railey Beach and around a lot of Thailand. Apparently, according to William, about 25 million years ago they were all coral reefs, pushed up in later years by tectonic shifts (every day's a school day). Anyway, limestone cliffs are common throughout Thailand, Vietnam and China so we'll hopefully see some more sights before we leave South East Asia.
After we met up with another few people to join the trek, we were frog marched off down to the river which was about 5 minutes walk. The resort looked pretty basic with rustic bungalows but we'd have to wait a bit to check in. At the river we were greeted by our guide, a tiny Thai chap who was charged with paddling the canoe with Kev and I in the front. The river was pretty cool with loads of overhanging trees and fairly quick currents. We didn't see a lot of wildlife, except a frog and some fish, and we couldn't feel our legs after about 10 minutes with pins and needles, but all in all it was a good experience. Took loads of photos but looking back they all look exactly the same so I'll only post a couple on facebook.
After the canooing we stopped off for a bit of lunch close to the river and where the next trek would start, an elephant trek. After some nice Thai fodder, the elephants started to roll back into the resort after completing an earlier trek. There must have been about 20 elephants and everyone was in awe taking photos and feeding them. After a bit of spiel from William about the history of these particular elephants and the tribes people that look after them we were ready to get onto our elephant. To cut a long story short, the tribesmen have looked after elephants for generations, they used to be used for logging but as that's not allowed anymore in Thailand they cart rich westerners round the jungle for an hour or so, blah blah blah!
So we finally mounted our elephant with the little Thai man riding on the elephant's head with his legs behind his ears, and Kev and I got on a seat tied to the elephants back. The driver had a sort of stick with a hook to keep the elephant on course and to hit him with if he's being naughty. You might think that sounds a bit cruel, and I guess we did too, but surely it's no worse than strapping a massive seat onto his back and making him carry about 40 stone in weight around the jungle. So after a bit of a moral tangle, we were carted round the jungle by Nellie and his assistant. It really was an awesome experience, although we didn't see a lot of wildlife, just being so close to such beautiful animals.
After the elephant ride we were greeted by our guide for the rest of the trip, a young Thai girl called Kong, probably about 25 years old. That afternoon we were taken to a nice waterfall and to 'monkey temple' where, as you might guess, there were a lot of monkeys at a temple. They were wild monkeys, scores of them in fact, and we fed them bananas, the little twats were just taking them out of our hands, pretty cool I say. We have loads of photos of all of this so I'll post some on facebook to piss you all off, hahaha.
After the trek, I had to ask Kong if it would be possible for the chef not to feed us as the quantity of the food being served was ridiculous and all we were after was some fruit. She was ok about that but I think the chef was a little offended but we're trying to eat healthily and fried food every day is kind of off the menu. After a bite to eat we were taken to our next destination, Ao Nang which is very near to where we started at Railey Beach. We stayed in a pretty low key hotel with basic mod cons and after checking in we took a long boat to Tonsai Beach which is the exact same place that we visited straight after Bangkok.
We'd both forgotten how awesome the boat ride into Tonsai was with it's massive limestone cliffs covered in greenery, crystal clear green waters and white beaches. We only had a couple of hours to spend on Tonsai as the last long boat departs at 6pm but we wanted to go back and see some of the local guys that we met at The Kasbah. Even though we'd only been away from Tonsai for about 3 weeks we were both shocked at how much it has changed. New bars were being built everywhere and Kasbah had closed - unbelievable how things are developing so fast. We met up with a couple of the guys for a few hours then headed back to Ao Nang for the evening. We had a pretty quiet night and caught the ferry to Phi Phi the next day.
Saturday, 27 September 2008
Koa Toa ctd
We're still in Ko Toa having moved to a different part of the island on Sairee beach but we're thinking of staying for another couple of nights before moving on to somewhere else. We were looking to head to Ko Samet and Ko Chang, two small islands South of Bangkok, but after a bit of research they sound like mini Ko Samui's so a wide berth is required.
So we're at a bit of a cross roads right now; we could either go back over to the East and head to Phi Phi, or we could head up North to do a bit of trekking - decisions decisions ;0). Kev and I will only be travelling together for another couple of weeks as Laura is coming over to see Kev on 13th Oct so we'll be travelling solo for a bit, meeting up again in Vietnam to finish off South East Asia.
Yesterday I finished my 2 day advanced scuba diving course which means I can dive to 30m. The course was purely practical, no classroom work and 5 dives in total. On the first day we took part in 3 dives. The first dive was all about buoyancy and we had to carry out a few exercises such as swimming through a small square without touching the sides. The second was navigational with a few exercises again using a compass and getting back to the boat. The third was a night dive which was the most memorable dive of the day.
On the night dive we caught the dive boat at about 6.30pm just as the sun was going down and it was practically pitch black when we got into the sea. There were 5 of us with our instructor, all armed with torches and a bit of apprehension to boot. To be honest I was pretty shit scared but it didn't take long to settle down. In terms of wildlife, we didn't see much except a few sting rays and barracuda but it was a totally surreal experience being underwater in the dark. Just before surfacing, we all got in a circle on the ocean floor and switched our torches off. We all waved our arms around for bit and there was a fantastic light show with all of the plankton and spores lighting up - that was probably the best bit of the dive. Surfacing was a bit hairy as the sea was pretty choppy and it was hard to see the boat and each other but fortunately we all got out of the water safely. Pleased I've done it but I don't think I'll be bothered about doing another night dive.
Yesterday we had the two best dives to date. There were only 3 of us, myself, Craig and our instructor, Gannon. The first dive was the deep dive where we were due to descend below 18m for the first time. We actually went to 28m which is only 2m off the allowed limit so we were pretty deep. The ocean changes so much with just a few extra metres and we saw all sorts of different wildlife. Mainly, I finally got to see a turtle; a green turtle about 1m long, he was huge! The second dive was called a naturalist dive which essentially entailed us doing whatever we wanted with Craig and I leading the dive. We saw all sorts of stuff again including sting rays, a sea snake and loads of obscure smaller fish including a box fish and a few clown fish. For me, the best thing about the last two dives was that I finally sorted out my buoyancy to the point where I was just hanging weightlessly looking at all of the weird plants and animals; awesome!
In the afternoon Kev and I endured another Thai boxing session after having a look around the island on mopeds. To be fair, I could hardly walk after the last session as my calf muscles have pretty much ceased to function but I went for it anyway. I found the second session miles harder than the first, even the 10 minute skipping session at the start has us sweating buckets. The little bastard instructor really pushed me, he knew I had nothing left in the tank but he kept laughing and making work harder - fair play to him. Think I'm going to have a day off today and have one more session tomorrow.
I think it's about time for me to catch a few rays now. I might even treat myself to a massage after a session in the gym (Mother, it'll be a nice old Thai lady not a 'special massage' in case you're worried :0). Can't be arsed doing much tonight as I'm still tired after a good few days of exercise but I get the feeling it's time to move on from Ko Toa
So we're at a bit of a cross roads right now; we could either go back over to the East and head to Phi Phi, or we could head up North to do a bit of trekking - decisions decisions ;0). Kev and I will only be travelling together for another couple of weeks as Laura is coming over to see Kev on 13th Oct so we'll be travelling solo for a bit, meeting up again in Vietnam to finish off South East Asia.
Yesterday I finished my 2 day advanced scuba diving course which means I can dive to 30m. The course was purely practical, no classroom work and 5 dives in total. On the first day we took part in 3 dives. The first dive was all about buoyancy and we had to carry out a few exercises such as swimming through a small square without touching the sides. The second was navigational with a few exercises again using a compass and getting back to the boat. The third was a night dive which was the most memorable dive of the day.
On the night dive we caught the dive boat at about 6.30pm just as the sun was going down and it was practically pitch black when we got into the sea. There were 5 of us with our instructor, all armed with torches and a bit of apprehension to boot. To be honest I was pretty shit scared but it didn't take long to settle down. In terms of wildlife, we didn't see much except a few sting rays and barracuda but it was a totally surreal experience being underwater in the dark. Just before surfacing, we all got in a circle on the ocean floor and switched our torches off. We all waved our arms around for bit and there was a fantastic light show with all of the plankton and spores lighting up - that was probably the best bit of the dive. Surfacing was a bit hairy as the sea was pretty choppy and it was hard to see the boat and each other but fortunately we all got out of the water safely. Pleased I've done it but I don't think I'll be bothered about doing another night dive.
Yesterday we had the two best dives to date. There were only 3 of us, myself, Craig and our instructor, Gannon. The first dive was the deep dive where we were due to descend below 18m for the first time. We actually went to 28m which is only 2m off the allowed limit so we were pretty deep. The ocean changes so much with just a few extra metres and we saw all sorts of different wildlife. Mainly, I finally got to see a turtle; a green turtle about 1m long, he was huge! The second dive was called a naturalist dive which essentially entailed us doing whatever we wanted with Craig and I leading the dive. We saw all sorts of stuff again including sting rays, a sea snake and loads of obscure smaller fish including a box fish and a few clown fish. For me, the best thing about the last two dives was that I finally sorted out my buoyancy to the point where I was just hanging weightlessly looking at all of the weird plants and animals; awesome!
In the afternoon Kev and I endured another Thai boxing session after having a look around the island on mopeds. To be fair, I could hardly walk after the last session as my calf muscles have pretty much ceased to function but I went for it anyway. I found the second session miles harder than the first, even the 10 minute skipping session at the start has us sweating buckets. The little bastard instructor really pushed me, he knew I had nothing left in the tank but he kept laughing and making work harder - fair play to him. Think I'm going to have a day off today and have one more session tomorrow.
I think it's about time for me to catch a few rays now. I might even treat myself to a massage after a session in the gym (Mother, it'll be a nice old Thai lady not a 'special massage' in case you're worried :0). Can't be arsed doing much tonight as I'm still tired after a good few days of exercise but I get the feeling it's time to move on from Ko Toa
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Ko Toa
Ko Toa is a really small island north of Ko Pangan. From Samui we paid 500 Baht each and caught a high speed catamarang to Ko Toa via Pangan which took about 1 and a half hours, pretty quick considering it takes about 40 mins to get to Samui from Pangan on a normal ferry. Both of us were absolutely delighted to leave Samui and we had been hearing pretty good things about Ko Toa so things were looking up.
I was still a bit under the weather on arrival and hadn't touched a drink in a few days and to be honest I was, and still am, pretty bored of getting wrecked all of the time. So I had been thinking about signing up for a 4 day scuba diving course as a few people that we've met are divers and recommended I give it a try. On arrival at Mae Haad pier, I walked into Easy Divers and sat down with Gannon, an american instructor who talked us through the pricung structure and what the PADI Open Water course entails. It costs about 150 GBP for a 4 day couse, 6 dives and 4 nights accomodation which is pretty cheap for the course and it's supposed to be cheaper than most places in the world.
The accomodation we're staying in is easily the most rustic we've had. A small bugalow with double bed, dodgy bathroom in the middle of a small jungle. Fortunately we upgraded to air con and we're the first hut on the resort so we're doing well escaping contact with all of the critters. A couple of Australian lads we met were staying a bit further up the resort and had been eaten alive by mosquitos, had rats eating in their bungalow and had the pleasure of living with a couple of resident spiders.... so I think we're doing ok with a few mozzies, ants and roaches.
So, I had ahead of me two 8.30am starts in the classroom follwed by a 7.30am start for the last day of diving. All of the academic stuff is a load of bollocks. We've watched too many videos of amercianised bull shit it was starting to get tiresome. Fortunately, Gannon is a quality instructor and talked through the techincal stuff in baby talk and we all started to get our heads round it. There were 5 of us in the class, myself, Craig from the Isle of Man, Lyle from Sydney and Sally and Leanne from the UK. It was a pretty good group to be fair and we worked well as a team.
On the first day the plan was to take a boat ride to one of the small bays on the south side of Ko Toa. Kev joined us to go snorkling, he didn't sign up for the course as he's tried it before and suffered from claustrophobia. After getting geared up, we had to jump in the water and swim to the shallows, keeping afloat while we waited for everyone else. We had to breathe through our regulators on the way to the shore to practise. For the first 5 minutes I thought that there would be no way that I could do it, I found it really difficult to breathe out through the regulator. Moreover, we had to take our masks off and breathe through the regulator and I could help but try to breathe through my nose so I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to do it.
After that, we had to go down about 2m in the shallows and do a few excercises. I was starting to get the hang of it a bit by then so I was gaining confidence and starting to enjoy it. We took a swim underwater back to the boat for about 10 mins for a bit of a fun dive before getting back on the boat. After a shaky start I was really starting to enjoy it. We had another dive later that day and since then I've had 4 proper dives in total with 2 fun dives. I've seen about 4 or 5 different sites, loads of lushreefs and beautiful fish, a 3 clown fish (nemos), 2 sting rays and a sea snake. I passed the exam so now I'm certified as an PADI Open Water diver which means I can dive to 18m anywhere in the world with no professional assistance. I enjoyed it that much I'm starting a 2 day advanced course tomorrow which will enable me to dive to 30m and go on night dives. There's no classroom bollocks, it's just 5 dives in 2 days, can't wait ;0)
I've had a day off from diving today so went out for a few beers with Kev last night, didn't have a late one though. Today, we've caught a bit of sun and grabbed a bite to eat, but the hightlight was a 1 hour Muay Thai Boxing training session at the local ring with some local trainers. Fuck me those guys worked us hard, ended up dripping in sweat hardly able to stand up. I have a grading in Muay Thai so it was coming back to me a bit with the roundhouse kicks; we've both signed up for another 3 sessions so looking forward to them.
Ko Toa is beautiful. It's a proper diving resort so there aren't many dick heads and it's not overly commercial. Given that the diving's awesome and we're both into Thai Boxing I reckon we might be staying here for a few more days.
I was still a bit under the weather on arrival and hadn't touched a drink in a few days and to be honest I was, and still am, pretty bored of getting wrecked all of the time. So I had been thinking about signing up for a 4 day scuba diving course as a few people that we've met are divers and recommended I give it a try. On arrival at Mae Haad pier, I walked into Easy Divers and sat down with Gannon, an american instructor who talked us through the pricung structure and what the PADI Open Water course entails. It costs about 150 GBP for a 4 day couse, 6 dives and 4 nights accomodation which is pretty cheap for the course and it's supposed to be cheaper than most places in the world.
The accomodation we're staying in is easily the most rustic we've had. A small bugalow with double bed, dodgy bathroom in the middle of a small jungle. Fortunately we upgraded to air con and we're the first hut on the resort so we're doing well escaping contact with all of the critters. A couple of Australian lads we met were staying a bit further up the resort and had been eaten alive by mosquitos, had rats eating in their bungalow and had the pleasure of living with a couple of resident spiders.... so I think we're doing ok with a few mozzies, ants and roaches.
So, I had ahead of me two 8.30am starts in the classroom follwed by a 7.30am start for the last day of diving. All of the academic stuff is a load of bollocks. We've watched too many videos of amercianised bull shit it was starting to get tiresome. Fortunately, Gannon is a quality instructor and talked through the techincal stuff in baby talk and we all started to get our heads round it. There were 5 of us in the class, myself, Craig from the Isle of Man, Lyle from Sydney and Sally and Leanne from the UK. It was a pretty good group to be fair and we worked well as a team.
On the first day the plan was to take a boat ride to one of the small bays on the south side of Ko Toa. Kev joined us to go snorkling, he didn't sign up for the course as he's tried it before and suffered from claustrophobia. After getting geared up, we had to jump in the water and swim to the shallows, keeping afloat while we waited for everyone else. We had to breathe through our regulators on the way to the shore to practise. For the first 5 minutes I thought that there would be no way that I could do it, I found it really difficult to breathe out through the regulator. Moreover, we had to take our masks off and breathe through the regulator and I could help but try to breathe through my nose so I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to do it.
After that, we had to go down about 2m in the shallows and do a few excercises. I was starting to get the hang of it a bit by then so I was gaining confidence and starting to enjoy it. We took a swim underwater back to the boat for about 10 mins for a bit of a fun dive before getting back on the boat. After a shaky start I was really starting to enjoy it. We had another dive later that day and since then I've had 4 proper dives in total with 2 fun dives. I've seen about 4 or 5 different sites, loads of lushreefs and beautiful fish, a 3 clown fish (nemos), 2 sting rays and a sea snake. I passed the exam so now I'm certified as an PADI Open Water diver which means I can dive to 18m anywhere in the world with no professional assistance. I enjoyed it that much I'm starting a 2 day advanced course tomorrow which will enable me to dive to 30m and go on night dives. There's no classroom bollocks, it's just 5 dives in 2 days, can't wait ;0)
I've had a day off from diving today so went out for a few beers with Kev last night, didn't have a late one though. Today, we've caught a bit of sun and grabbed a bite to eat, but the hightlight was a 1 hour Muay Thai Boxing training session at the local ring with some local trainers. Fuck me those guys worked us hard, ended up dripping in sweat hardly able to stand up. I have a grading in Muay Thai so it was coming back to me a bit with the roundhouse kicks; we've both signed up for another 3 sessions so looking forward to them.
Ko Toa is beautiful. It's a proper diving resort so there aren't many dick heads and it's not overly commercial. Given that the diving's awesome and we're both into Thai Boxing I reckon we might be staying here for a few more days.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Ko Samui - hell, if there was such a thing
From Ko Pangan we took a small ferry from the port closest to our hotel at Haad Rin. The sun was shining and we were feeling hopeful at the prospect of new surroundings and some new discoveries. Hope that remained unextinguished until the sun went down and we discovered the real Samui.
The ferry ride took about an hour and we arrived in Samui having benefited from about an hour's sun to top up our tans. We jumped in a taxi with a couple of British lads and arrived safely at our new hotel, AKWA. We were greeted by Shane, an Australian, who appeared to be a nice chap bringing us up to speed on local amenities and hotel procedures... later we found out he was a useless twat but that's of no interest really.
It was about a 5 minute walk to our room which was located in AKWA 2. The room was awesome, except for a double bed again, with a DVD player, hot shower, air con.. really good for the price. We got showered and had a look out to the beach. We stayed on Chewang beach which is the most popular resort in Samui. The beach is about 6k long and stretches as far as the eye can see. We went on a reccy and first impressions were that Samui is pretty cool despite what everyone says and we were pretty happy with everything we saw. We took in some sun, had a few drinks and took a wander back to the hotel to get ready to check out the nightlife.
Come evening time, my impression of Samui had changed from 'contemporary Thai paradise' to' biggest shit hole I've ever had the pleasure of frequenting'. For me, 4 things sum up Samui: Whores, Tailors, Hawkers and Taxis. Let's start with the tailors..... So in Samui, there are more tailors than in Bangkok, New York and London put together, I mean there's shit loads of them. Not many are of Thai origin but ALL of them are standing in the street touting for business. "This is the right place for you sir, come inside 5 minute". The first tailor to stop us was met by two very patient, outgoing and enthusiastic British travellers... The last tailor was lucky he didn't get his face smashed in....
The first guy had a chat with us and both of our responses were similar, "we're traveling, we haven't got room in our back packs etc etc". I mean, why would anyone want to by a shitty suit when their traveling, it just defies all logic for me. Even though the nice chap said he could post the suit back to us we both politely declined and said we might have a look back tomorrow. Two minutes later, we're having the same conversation with another tailor, then another, then another... you get the picture, there's loads of these annoying little fuckers. They even shake your hand and don't let go. The only way to avoid such a confrontation is to ignore them completely, and then they have the cheek to act offended. I changed my behaviour towards them before Kev who was a bit more patient. My tact was something like this: Tailor - "sir, this is the right place for you, come inside 5 minute"; Me - "why, do you serve food? we're going for something to eat. so unless you serve food how the fuck is this the right place for me dick head"..... Anyway, that's not exactly how I want to behave overall so I think you might start to get the picture as to why we only stayed for 2 nights, 2 nights in Hell!
No need to elaborate on the other major annoyances. Hawkers aren't too bad, you get used to every taxi driver beeping at you and shouting "taxi, taxi" even after you have just stepped out of one. Whores you can put up with for a while but there were no other bars to drink in except a couple of scabby English pubs which aren't exactly what we're looking for. So in summary, there's fuck all to do on Chewang beach unless you're looking to pay for sex, get a new suit, buys some shit off a hawker or get a taxi ride.
We gave Samui the benefit of the doubt on the last day and hired mopeds to ride around the island. The island really is beautiful with loads of long sandy beaches and quiet resorts. I guess if you're looking for a really quiet holiday, staying in one place, Samui might be worth a look. The best part was when we found a small town with a big port call Lipa Noi. There wasn't a westerner in sight and we stumbled upon an open air food market, got some Thai food and sat and took in the surroundings, that's what travelling is about to me, not commercialised shite you can see in the UK. The rest of the evening was pretty awful and we were both looking forward to making tracks to Ko Toa the following day.
The ferry ride took about an hour and we arrived in Samui having benefited from about an hour's sun to top up our tans. We jumped in a taxi with a couple of British lads and arrived safely at our new hotel, AKWA. We were greeted by Shane, an Australian, who appeared to be a nice chap bringing us up to speed on local amenities and hotel procedures... later we found out he was a useless twat but that's of no interest really.
It was about a 5 minute walk to our room which was located in AKWA 2. The room was awesome, except for a double bed again, with a DVD player, hot shower, air con.. really good for the price. We got showered and had a look out to the beach. We stayed on Chewang beach which is the most popular resort in Samui. The beach is about 6k long and stretches as far as the eye can see. We went on a reccy and first impressions were that Samui is pretty cool despite what everyone says and we were pretty happy with everything we saw. We took in some sun, had a few drinks and took a wander back to the hotel to get ready to check out the nightlife.
Come evening time, my impression of Samui had changed from 'contemporary Thai paradise' to' biggest shit hole I've ever had the pleasure of frequenting'. For me, 4 things sum up Samui: Whores, Tailors, Hawkers and Taxis. Let's start with the tailors..... So in Samui, there are more tailors than in Bangkok, New York and London put together, I mean there's shit loads of them. Not many are of Thai origin but ALL of them are standing in the street touting for business. "This is the right place for you sir, come inside 5 minute". The first tailor to stop us was met by two very patient, outgoing and enthusiastic British travellers... The last tailor was lucky he didn't get his face smashed in....
The first guy had a chat with us and both of our responses were similar, "we're traveling, we haven't got room in our back packs etc etc". I mean, why would anyone want to by a shitty suit when their traveling, it just defies all logic for me. Even though the nice chap said he could post the suit back to us we both politely declined and said we might have a look back tomorrow. Two minutes later, we're having the same conversation with another tailor, then another, then another... you get the picture, there's loads of these annoying little fuckers. They even shake your hand and don't let go. The only way to avoid such a confrontation is to ignore them completely, and then they have the cheek to act offended. I changed my behaviour towards them before Kev who was a bit more patient. My tact was something like this: Tailor - "sir, this is the right place for you, come inside 5 minute"; Me - "why, do you serve food? we're going for something to eat. so unless you serve food how the fuck is this the right place for me dick head"..... Anyway, that's not exactly how I want to behave overall so I think you might start to get the picture as to why we only stayed for 2 nights, 2 nights in Hell!
No need to elaborate on the other major annoyances. Hawkers aren't too bad, you get used to every taxi driver beeping at you and shouting "taxi, taxi" even after you have just stepped out of one. Whores you can put up with for a while but there were no other bars to drink in except a couple of scabby English pubs which aren't exactly what we're looking for. So in summary, there's fuck all to do on Chewang beach unless you're looking to pay for sex, get a new suit, buys some shit off a hawker or get a taxi ride.
We gave Samui the benefit of the doubt on the last day and hired mopeds to ride around the island. The island really is beautiful with loads of long sandy beaches and quiet resorts. I guess if you're looking for a really quiet holiday, staying in one place, Samui might be worth a look. The best part was when we found a small town with a big port call Lipa Noi. There wasn't a westerner in sight and we stumbled upon an open air food market, got some Thai food and sat and took in the surroundings, that's what travelling is about to me, not commercialised shite you can see in the UK. The rest of the evening was pretty awful and we were both looking forward to making tracks to Ko Toa the following day.
Full schmoon party
It's been so long since I've updated my blog I'll have to do it in three.
To start off I'll cover the last few days in Ko Pangan... So we went to the full moon party, full of beans and excited at the prospect of a good party. We'd been to our favourite bar, Mellow Mountain Bar, for a few shandies and there was loads of prep going on with the local Thia's putting up stages and setting up sound systems. So at first, it looked like there was a bit of potential there for a decent party although Kev and I were still sceptical considering the shite we'd been putting up with for the last few days.
On arrival at the beach our nightmare was realised; 8 sound systems playing equally cheesy commercial wank dance music, all overlapping - what kind of tit likes that kind of night, unreal. The recently built stage which we thought had potential was the setting for a psy trance gathering. For those of you who don't know what psy trance is, it's goa hippy trance music for middle class dick heads who don't know their arse from their elbow. It was good in 1982 for about an hour but the Ko Pangan massive seem to lap it up, fucking arseholes!!!
The only option was to head up to our favourite Mellow Mountain Bar thinking it'd be up to it's usual standard, blasting out quality house tracks, good atmosphere and good banter with the local Thai bar staff. Low and behold, it seemed to be a spill out area for all of the dick heads from the main party who were tired of drinking 200 Baht buckets of shit spirits and fancied a nice mushroom shake from Thailand's finest psychedelic fungi... And they were charging 20 Baht to go to the toilet, which incidentally are on a par with the infamous Scottish water closet in Trainspotting. Anyway, we got pissed up and had a laugh anyway, mainly at other peoples' expense but some it can't be helped sometimes ;0)
So, as anticipated, the full moon party was a crock of shit but that didn't stop us enjoying the last last few days in Ko Pangan. It really is a beautiful island and we fortunately got to see most of it a couple of days later when we hired a couple of mopeds and drove up to the top of the island. It's the best way to see proper Thailand, getting out of the main commercial resorts and seeking a bit of local culture. We drove all the way up the east coast in about an hour, the island is so small it can be done in about 20 minutes. There were loads of nice, quiet resort with gorgeous, deserted beaches and quality bars, perfect for a romantic holiday. Considering that, we decided to head off to Ko Samui for a few days as we didn't really fancy a gay couple of days together, well I didn't anyway, haha
On the way back to our resort we also seen about 5 elephants which were the ones used for elephant trekking. We paid about 50 Baht to feed them and got some quality photos. It's nice to see something like an elephant but it was a bit off putting as they were clearly being exploited, chained to a pole looking old and ragged... Nevertheless, it was awesome to see and feed them.
Two weeks of carnage had taken it's toll and I had a really bad throat and swollen uvula and decided to visit the doctor. I have to say it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences for me yet. It cost 2000 Baht to even so the doctor, about 30 GBP, and that was without the fees for medicine. There was a strange little Thai woman at reception who asked "do you want to see doctor 2000 Baht". I waited about 5 minutes and the doctors door opened, a hand peeked out and waved me in. Inside the room I was starting to question whether the surgery was a legitimate practise. The doctor had a surgeon's mask on, sat in a strange plastic red chair and there was medication boxed up everywhere - a complete shit hole to be honest.
On the information card I had recorded "sore throat and uvulitis" as I've had it before I knew what I needed, antibiotics. He lay me flat on a black leather doctor's bed and had a look into my throat and concluded that I had a throat infection - no shit sherlock! Next he said "doctor need to take blood, find out what infection is and doctor can treat well". I was thinking, 'fuck me why does he need to take blood, how is he going to find out what it is without sending it to a lab', but I let him take it anyway. Then he disappeared into a room for about 10 minutes with my blood sample and returned announcing the latin name of my infection by which time I was pretty sure he was a fake quack with a few psychological issues.
All the same, I let him continue as my throat was fucked and I needed it sorted. Next on the bill was an antibiotics injection.... i was shitting my self at this point as I thought it was standard practise to give out a week's worth of tablets. I let him continue as this is Thailand and not the UK and he pulled out a massive needle with loads of yellowish liquid inside. The needle must've been an inch and a half long and I was sure it was going to be a lethal injection and I'd be on Sky News in a couple of days. I don't mind injections but I have to say this one was a fecking killer, I mean it was totally painful and uncomfortable. He gave me 3 different types of tablet and said I had to come back for another injection at 6pm!!! For fuck's sake!
I hobbled off to meet Kev who was pissing himself as I couldn't really walk or sit still. We sat in the sun for a bit before I headed back for injection number 2. Dr then pulled my shorts down to reveal a massive bruise where the first injection went in and chuckled to himself "oh dear doctor mistake" while pulling out another massive needle full of lethal injection! In my mind, that sort of vocabulary should simply not be allowed in the medical world. Injection number 2 was even more painful than the first and I hobbled off with my tail between my legs hoping to stay alive for the next 24 hours..... The whole experience cost me about 100 GBP and a couple of bruises but it was worth it as I'm back to full health now!
By this time we were both ready for a change of scenery and we booked travel and accommodation for Ko Samui for 2 nights even though we were warned that it is the biggest shit hole since Stockton town centre.
To start off I'll cover the last few days in Ko Pangan... So we went to the full moon party, full of beans and excited at the prospect of a good party. We'd been to our favourite bar, Mellow Mountain Bar, for a few shandies and there was loads of prep going on with the local Thia's putting up stages and setting up sound systems. So at first, it looked like there was a bit of potential there for a decent party although Kev and I were still sceptical considering the shite we'd been putting up with for the last few days.
On arrival at the beach our nightmare was realised; 8 sound systems playing equally cheesy commercial wank dance music, all overlapping - what kind of tit likes that kind of night, unreal. The recently built stage which we thought had potential was the setting for a psy trance gathering. For those of you who don't know what psy trance is, it's goa hippy trance music for middle class dick heads who don't know their arse from their elbow. It was good in 1982 for about an hour but the Ko Pangan massive seem to lap it up, fucking arseholes!!!
The only option was to head up to our favourite Mellow Mountain Bar thinking it'd be up to it's usual standard, blasting out quality house tracks, good atmosphere and good banter with the local Thai bar staff. Low and behold, it seemed to be a spill out area for all of the dick heads from the main party who were tired of drinking 200 Baht buckets of shit spirits and fancied a nice mushroom shake from Thailand's finest psychedelic fungi... And they were charging 20 Baht to go to the toilet, which incidentally are on a par with the infamous Scottish water closet in Trainspotting. Anyway, we got pissed up and had a laugh anyway, mainly at other peoples' expense but some it can't be helped sometimes ;0)
So, as anticipated, the full moon party was a crock of shit but that didn't stop us enjoying the last last few days in Ko Pangan. It really is a beautiful island and we fortunately got to see most of it a couple of days later when we hired a couple of mopeds and drove up to the top of the island. It's the best way to see proper Thailand, getting out of the main commercial resorts and seeking a bit of local culture. We drove all the way up the east coast in about an hour, the island is so small it can be done in about 20 minutes. There were loads of nice, quiet resort with gorgeous, deserted beaches and quality bars, perfect for a romantic holiday. Considering that, we decided to head off to Ko Samui for a few days as we didn't really fancy a gay couple of days together, well I didn't anyway, haha
On the way back to our resort we also seen about 5 elephants which were the ones used for elephant trekking. We paid about 50 Baht to feed them and got some quality photos. It's nice to see something like an elephant but it was a bit off putting as they were clearly being exploited, chained to a pole looking old and ragged... Nevertheless, it was awesome to see and feed them.
Two weeks of carnage had taken it's toll and I had a really bad throat and swollen uvula and decided to visit the doctor. I have to say it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences for me yet. It cost 2000 Baht to even so the doctor, about 30 GBP, and that was without the fees for medicine. There was a strange little Thai woman at reception who asked "do you want to see doctor 2000 Baht". I waited about 5 minutes and the doctors door opened, a hand peeked out and waved me in. Inside the room I was starting to question whether the surgery was a legitimate practise. The doctor had a surgeon's mask on, sat in a strange plastic red chair and there was medication boxed up everywhere - a complete shit hole to be honest.
On the information card I had recorded "sore throat and uvulitis" as I've had it before I knew what I needed, antibiotics. He lay me flat on a black leather doctor's bed and had a look into my throat and concluded that I had a throat infection - no shit sherlock! Next he said "doctor need to take blood, find out what infection is and doctor can treat well". I was thinking, 'fuck me why does he need to take blood, how is he going to find out what it is without sending it to a lab', but I let him take it anyway. Then he disappeared into a room for about 10 minutes with my blood sample and returned announcing the latin name of my infection by which time I was pretty sure he was a fake quack with a few psychological issues.
All the same, I let him continue as my throat was fucked and I needed it sorted. Next on the bill was an antibiotics injection.... i was shitting my self at this point as I thought it was standard practise to give out a week's worth of tablets. I let him continue as this is Thailand and not the UK and he pulled out a massive needle with loads of yellowish liquid inside. The needle must've been an inch and a half long and I was sure it was going to be a lethal injection and I'd be on Sky News in a couple of days. I don't mind injections but I have to say this one was a fecking killer, I mean it was totally painful and uncomfortable. He gave me 3 different types of tablet and said I had to come back for another injection at 6pm!!! For fuck's sake!
I hobbled off to meet Kev who was pissing himself as I couldn't really walk or sit still. We sat in the sun for a bit before I headed back for injection number 2. Dr then pulled my shorts down to reveal a massive bruise where the first injection went in and chuckled to himself "oh dear doctor mistake" while pulling out another massive needle full of lethal injection! In my mind, that sort of vocabulary should simply not be allowed in the medical world. Injection number 2 was even more painful than the first and I hobbled off with my tail between my legs hoping to stay alive for the next 24 hours..... The whole experience cost me about 100 GBP and a couple of bruises but it was worth it as I'm back to full health now!
By this time we were both ready for a change of scenery and we booked travel and accommodation for Ko Samui for 2 nights even though we were warned that it is the biggest shit hole since Stockton town centre.
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Koh Pan Ngan
We've finally left Tonsai and have made our way over to Koh Phangan, a small island on the east coast of Thailand.
We left yesterday morning at 8.30am from Tonsai beach and endured a 12 hour journey to get to the island. First we caught a long tail boat to Ao Nang before getting a pick up truck to Krabi with some Spanish people we met on Tonsai. They couldn't speak very good English but it was clear that they were a bit nuts given that Andreo was drinking whiskey at 9am on the side of the road outside a police station!
After the pick up truck we caught a coach which was supposed to be headed for Surat Thani but ended up being taken to Don Sak to catch a ferry. We had to wait for about an hour and by then we were both getting a bit pissed off at waiting around and being taken from place to place; saying that it was pretty well organised for the Thais.
We weren't exactly sure which ferry to catch and I don't think many of the Thai staff were sure either so we just jumped on the one that everyone else seemed to be getting on. Bought a couple of beers and just before it was due to leave we had a bit of a panic attack that we were on the wrong ferry as we were seeing a few cars getting on with Koh Samui signs in the window. Fortunately we were on the right one but we would have to change ferries at Koh Samui to get to Ko Phangan - nightmare!
The ferry ride was a bit bumpy and it was leaning a bit too far starboard but we were confident in the Thai health and safety policy - NOT! We finally arrived at Koh Phangan in the dark and were hussled into a taxi by a nice Thai woman, aka "scary money grabbing witch". There must have been about 14 people trying to get into one pick up truck, not ours incidentally, and then the nice Thai woman tried to get us to change taxis. There was absolutely no room in the other taxi but she insisted we got in it, so annoyed at this point we just walked off into town to get a taxi.
On the taxi ride to our resort the driver picked up a few other people. The first three girls were from Carlisle which was a bit bizarre; more bizarre to hear Cumbrian accents so far away from home more than anything. On arrival we met up with Pooch, one of the lads we've been traveling with and he showed us where our guesthouse was. Quick shower and straight out on the tiles with a group of us.
I have to say, Koh Pangan is basically Benidorm in Thailand, nicer of course but totally set up for western tourists to party like they would back home. There's loads of beach bars selling cheap booze and playing commercial shite music, right next to each other so you can hear about 7 different DJ's playing at the same time which is just awful. Saying that, we still got wrecked and had a laugh watching fire dancers and fire limbo which was pretty cool. Not quite sure what happened after the beach, it's a bit hazey to say the least and we didn't get in until about 5am. Buckets of JD & coke were 400 Baht, which is about 6 pounds, and included a third bottle of JD, coke and red bull.... heavy going!
Contrary to Tonsai and everywhere else we've been so far, some of the people here are proper arseholes - middle class rich kids spending daddies money, crying and arguing with each other over nothing. Think I was told to "fuck off" at one point by a charming young lady - how rude! Loads of the bars are playing friends re-runs and they're just packed with western tourists - can't believe that some people come to Thailand and decide to sit in a bar watching friends - sad or what.
Anyway, we've taken it pretty easy today with some quality Thai food and a few beers. The highlight had to be seeing Liverpool beat Man U - hahaha. Once we've finished on t'interweb we're off back down to the beach to be tortured some more. Full moon party tomorrow so don't think I'll be updating the blog for a few days, although if it's anything like last night it has the potential to be a load of shite.
We left yesterday morning at 8.30am from Tonsai beach and endured a 12 hour journey to get to the island. First we caught a long tail boat to Ao Nang before getting a pick up truck to Krabi with some Spanish people we met on Tonsai. They couldn't speak very good English but it was clear that they were a bit nuts given that Andreo was drinking whiskey at 9am on the side of the road outside a police station!
After the pick up truck we caught a coach which was supposed to be headed for Surat Thani but ended up being taken to Don Sak to catch a ferry. We had to wait for about an hour and by then we were both getting a bit pissed off at waiting around and being taken from place to place; saying that it was pretty well organised for the Thais.
We weren't exactly sure which ferry to catch and I don't think many of the Thai staff were sure either so we just jumped on the one that everyone else seemed to be getting on. Bought a couple of beers and just before it was due to leave we had a bit of a panic attack that we were on the wrong ferry as we were seeing a few cars getting on with Koh Samui signs in the window. Fortunately we were on the right one but we would have to change ferries at Koh Samui to get to Ko Phangan - nightmare!
The ferry ride was a bit bumpy and it was leaning a bit too far starboard but we were confident in the Thai health and safety policy - NOT! We finally arrived at Koh Phangan in the dark and were hussled into a taxi by a nice Thai woman, aka "scary money grabbing witch". There must have been about 14 people trying to get into one pick up truck, not ours incidentally, and then the nice Thai woman tried to get us to change taxis. There was absolutely no room in the other taxi but she insisted we got in it, so annoyed at this point we just walked off into town to get a taxi.
On the taxi ride to our resort the driver picked up a few other people. The first three girls were from Carlisle which was a bit bizarre; more bizarre to hear Cumbrian accents so far away from home more than anything. On arrival we met up with Pooch, one of the lads we've been traveling with and he showed us where our guesthouse was. Quick shower and straight out on the tiles with a group of us.
I have to say, Koh Pangan is basically Benidorm in Thailand, nicer of course but totally set up for western tourists to party like they would back home. There's loads of beach bars selling cheap booze and playing commercial shite music, right next to each other so you can hear about 7 different DJ's playing at the same time which is just awful. Saying that, we still got wrecked and had a laugh watching fire dancers and fire limbo which was pretty cool. Not quite sure what happened after the beach, it's a bit hazey to say the least and we didn't get in until about 5am. Buckets of JD & coke were 400 Baht, which is about 6 pounds, and included a third bottle of JD, coke and red bull.... heavy going!
Contrary to Tonsai and everywhere else we've been so far, some of the people here are proper arseholes - middle class rich kids spending daddies money, crying and arguing with each other over nothing. Think I was told to "fuck off" at one point by a charming young lady - how rude! Loads of the bars are playing friends re-runs and they're just packed with western tourists - can't believe that some people come to Thailand and decide to sit in a bar watching friends - sad or what.
Anyway, we've taken it pretty easy today with some quality Thai food and a few beers. The highlight had to be seeing Liverpool beat Man U - hahaha. Once we've finished on t'interweb we're off back down to the beach to be tortured some more. Full moon party tomorrow so don't think I'll be updating the blog for a few days, although if it's anything like last night it has the potential to be a load of shite.
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Railey Beach - lazy days
Not a great deal has happened since my last post as we've had a couple of lazy days around the resort.
On Sunday evening we had a bit of a hedonistic night in a new bar we've found called 'The Kasbar' with some locals. We were starving hungry when we got back to the apartment and I didn't get much sleep as Kev couldn't stop talking about food. I bet him that I could eat 20 Kit Kats so he went for a walk at about 3am to see if the mini market was open - the tactic worked for me as I got my head down for a bit while he was away ;0)
Kev then stayed up all night and headed down to get some breakfast when the first bar opened. I follwed a bit later and then we hired a couple of Kayak's and had a mess around for a few hours. We paddled over to a nice bit of secluded beach on a different part of the island when there were only a couple of people. The weather was ok to begin with then it started to pour down and we stood on the beach getting hit by the weather!
After Kayaking we had a siesta and headed down to The Kasbar again. The locals guys who work there are pretty cool and we sat around pretty much all afternoon in hammocks watching them make bongs - 'pre ordered batch' I think the term was. It was amazing to watch as they had one made within about 15 mins and then they would test them for a bit before starting on the next one.
They made us some food after a while, a really hot chicken and pineapple curry which was awesome. It was pretty cold after that so we headed back for a bit before we went back to the same bar to meet Pooch, Sophie and Cassie who we got talking to a few days ago. We also met another girl and her Dad, Sophie and Jim, who are from Newcastle. Sophie is coming to the end of a 7 month travelling stint and her Dad met up with her for the last week - quite funny actually as her Dad was partial to a bit of the old Thai special.
Today the weather is very poor, windy and rainy since we got up so it's not looking good for the tan. We've decided to stay on Railey Beach for another 2 nights before we're making a move for either Ko Samui or Ko Pha-Ngan as there's a full moon party on 14th Sep. Check out the resort we're staying at now - Tonsai Bay Resort, Railey Beach.
On Sunday evening we had a bit of a hedonistic night in a new bar we've found called 'The Kasbar' with some locals. We were starving hungry when we got back to the apartment and I didn't get much sleep as Kev couldn't stop talking about food. I bet him that I could eat 20 Kit Kats so he went for a walk at about 3am to see if the mini market was open - the tactic worked for me as I got my head down for a bit while he was away ;0)
Kev then stayed up all night and headed down to get some breakfast when the first bar opened. I follwed a bit later and then we hired a couple of Kayak's and had a mess around for a few hours. We paddled over to a nice bit of secluded beach on a different part of the island when there were only a couple of people. The weather was ok to begin with then it started to pour down and we stood on the beach getting hit by the weather!
After Kayaking we had a siesta and headed down to The Kasbar again. The locals guys who work there are pretty cool and we sat around pretty much all afternoon in hammocks watching them make bongs - 'pre ordered batch' I think the term was. It was amazing to watch as they had one made within about 15 mins and then they would test them for a bit before starting on the next one.
They made us some food after a while, a really hot chicken and pineapple curry which was awesome. It was pretty cold after that so we headed back for a bit before we went back to the same bar to meet Pooch, Sophie and Cassie who we got talking to a few days ago. We also met another girl and her Dad, Sophie and Jim, who are from Newcastle. Sophie is coming to the end of a 7 month travelling stint and her Dad met up with her for the last week - quite funny actually as her Dad was partial to a bit of the old Thai special.
Today the weather is very poor, windy and rainy since we got up so it's not looking good for the tan. We've decided to stay on Railey Beach for another 2 nights before we're making a move for either Ko Samui or Ko Pha-Ngan as there's a full moon party on 14th Sep. Check out the resort we're staying at now - Tonsai Bay Resort, Railey Beach.
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Bye bye Bangkok, hello paradise!
Bangkok has been and gone and we have spent out first night at Railey beach near Krabi.... as anticipated, loads has happened since my last post.
We arrived in Bangkok on 4th Sep with two nights booked in a 4 star hotel called Hotel Asia which was a nice hotel connected to the sky train. On the first night we had a look out onto the streets of Bangkok where we tried to find a big market that I've visited before although we couldn't find it at all later to find out that it was the weekend market we'd been after.
We walked a fair way and decided to get a tuk tuk to one of the markets and decided to head for Pat Pong market after some bartering with the tuk tuk driver. We didn't know this but at Pat Pong is one of the main markets associated with the sex industry and every tom dick and harry was trying to get a piece of us - it was very funny but we ignored it all and headed down a more quiet street to get a beer. Half way through our beer we both noticed that there seemed to be quite a few men in couples and the waiter was a bit camp - so after all the lure of women and lady boys we'd walked straight into the gay scene which was funny. We even asked for a map off the waiter and we received the gayest map ever to be made, obviously we left this behind!!!
Swiftly moving on we went for a wander looking for that bloody market and we got accosted by a Thai chap called Dan. He asked us what we were looking for and we said we needed to get hold of a Thai sim card each so we could keep in tuch with our ladies back home. So off he wanders with us in tow looking for a mobile shop which we found instantly. We bought the sims and then said to Dan that we wanted a bite to eat, Thai food obviouisly and a couple of beers so he took us to a little street bar for some local food and beer.
Dan was a bit of a drinker, on us of course, so pretty soon we were a bit drunk but re-fueled on some good quality Thai street food. A bit jet lagged and tired we said we only wanted a couple more beers and followed Dan to another coule of bars. The next one was a kareoke bar which even though it was proper cheese, turned out to be a good laugh even though the owner was trying to fix us up with soe local working girls which we politely turned down. We sat outside the bar having a beer and a guy walked up to us with a small elephant and even though the poor thing was being exploited for tourism it was still a pretty cool thing to see - he kept blowing his trumpet when we gave him a stroke and some food!
Dan then dragged us to the gay scence again and we gave him the slip and went back to the hotel - he showed us some good local bars and he got free food and drink out of us so he did pretty well out of it. Back at the hotel, neither of us were tired so we played poker til god knows what time for whiskey. Kev is the luckiest man alive so I drank almost all of the whiskey and collapsed on my bed at about 4am I think. I woke with the worst hangover in history to the hotel phone ringing at about 5pm - 5pm!! Low and behold it was our friend Dan waiting in reception to exlpoit the tourists again. We had a shower and met Dan again for a couple of hours. Only a couple of hours though as we had to catch an 8am flight to Krabi on the next morning, Sat 6th Sep.
We went to a local Thai restarant and had Thai green curry which was awesome and took a look over to Ko San road. That was a pretty cool experience as it was really busy with tourists and locals and I took some good videos and pics. Next we decided to see a Ping Pong show, if you don't know what that is use your imagination - think sticky vicky with Thai girls (and lady boys). We went back to Pat Pong market and went in a bar called 'Super Pussy'. I have to say that it was the most uncomfortable exerience ever and after one beer and our pockets being emptied we decided to take a b-line for the door - not my idea of a good time but I guess we had to do it in Bangkok.
Next door was a bar with a boxing ring inside and some people on the door were trying to lure us in to watch some Thai Boxing. Having been ripped off for about 25 pounds in the last bar we were very wary but found out it was 100 Baht for a beer which is miles cheaper at about 1 pound 50. Inside there were still a lot of working girls but we just ignored them and waited for the boxing. We thought It'd be just a show but once it started we reailsed it wasn't as two young Thai guys started beating the shit out of each other - it was unreal. I've caught most of it on video and some of the punches were landed hard, one of them was caught clean on the chin and we saw the whites of his eyes as he hit the floor!! The atmosphere was electric and we watched two fights in total before the ring was removed and the bar turned into a pole dancing club!! Fortunately the girls were just dancing on tables unlike the last bar where they were going for our pockets so it was less intimidating. Both tired, we decided to head back to the hotel as we had an early flight to catch. We paid Dan a nominal fee, which is wasn't entirely happy with, and we got a taxi back to the hotel.
Our body clocks were screwed and neither of us were tired so we decided to have a couple more beers in the rock bar opposite the hotel. This was at about 1am and considering we had to leave the hotel at 6am we headed back to the hotel for a bit.... neither of us were tired so we headed downstairs for some food and checked out without having any sleep. The taxi ride to the airport was pretty relaxing as the sun was coming up behind us although the driver was a bit too hapy with his brakes!
Thai Airways to Krabi was a pleasure and we landed in sunny Krabi just after 9am and caught a taxi to Ao Nang where where we were to catch a long boat to Tonsai Beach resort on the west side of Railey beach. We met two young travellers, James and James, who we caught a long boat with and we got dropped off about 100m from our resort. The sun was out and it was a lush boat trip and we got a good chance to take in the beautiful scenery along the way - what a contrast to Bangkok!!
We checked in to our beach hut, really small and simple but at 12 pounds per night we weren't complaing - although there is only one bed which I guess we're going to have to get used to. We also found out that there is no electricty until 5pm, which means no hot water, and that the internet cafe isn't open until 6pm so we had a bite to eat and caught a long boat to the main part of Railey Beach. I was here last year and to say that it's changed would be an understatement - I hardly recognised anything and the west side looks like it has been hit by a hurricane or something.
Later on we found out that it's development for tourists! We found this out after talking to an English guy called Terry - an absolutely nuts guy who's been in Thailand for 8 years - he told us some stories that we can't reallt repeat on here! We drank with Terry and some locals until about 6pm when we went for the last long boat. Still having had no sleep since the first night in Bangkok, we headed back and caught a couple of beers near our resort and had the longest game of checkers in history - we're both stubborn and competitive, determined not to lose and we ended up calling it a draw :0).
We woke to gailforce winds today and too much rain for sunbathing so we stayed in bed until about 3pm and have been waiting around for the internet cafe to open. Kev's getting stressed out as the speed is horrendous and the woman working here looks like she has only just been introduced to PC's. We're working out what to do next, deciding that we can't be arsed with Phuket as we've just found out it's worse that Bangkok for the sex industry. There's a half moon Party in Ko Phang Yang next Sunday so I think we're going to aim for that.
The Elephant, Thai Boxing and Terry have been the highlights for me so far but I'm hoping that some sunshine and a bit of Kayaking will overtake that tomorrow.
LeeBangkok has been and gone and we have spent out first night at Railey beach near Krabi.... as anticipated, loads has happened since my last post.
We arrived in Bangkok on 4th Sep with two nights booked in a 4 star hotel called Hotel Asia which was a nice hotel connected to the sky train. On the first night we had a look out onto the streets of Bangkok where we tried to find a big market that I've visited before although we couldn't find it at all later to find out that it was the weekend market we'd been after.
We walked a fair way and decided to get a tuk tuk to one of the markets and decided to head for Pat Pong market after some bartering with the tuk tuk driver. We didn't know this but at Pat Pong is one of the main markets associated with the sex industry and every tom dick and harry was trying to get a piece of us - it was very funny but we ignored it all and headed down a more quiet street to get a beer. Half way through our beer we both noticed that there seemed to be quite a few men in couples and the waiter was a bit camp - so after all the lure of women and lady boys we'd walked straight into the gay scene which was funny. We even asked for a map off the waiter and we received the gayest map ever to be made, obviously we left this behind!!!
Swiftly moving on we went for a wander looking for that bloody market and we got accosted by a Thai chap called Dan. He asked us what we were looking for and we said we needed to get hold of a Thai sim card each so we could keep in tuch with our ladies back home. So off he wanders with us in tow looking for a mobile shop which we found instantly. We bought the sims and then said to Dan that we wanted a bite to eat, Thai food obviouisly and a couple of beers so he took us to a little street bar for some local food and beer.
Dan was a bit of a drinker, on us of course, so pretty soon we were a bit drunk but re-fueled on some good quality Thai street food. A bit jet lagged and tired we said we only wanted a couple more beers and followed Dan to another coule of bars. The next one was a kareoke bar which even though it was proper cheese, turned out to be a good laugh even though the owner was trying to fix us up with soe local working girls which we politely turned down. We sat outside the bar having a beer and a guy walked up to us with a small elephant and even though the poor thing was being exploited for tourism it was still a pretty cool thing to see - he kept blowing his trumpet when we gave him a stroke and some food!
Dan then dragged us to the gay scence again and we gave him the slip and went back to the hotel - he showed us some good local bars and he got free food and drink out of us so he did pretty well out of it. Back at the hotel, neither of us were tired so we played poker til god knows what time for whiskey. Kev is the luckiest man alive so I drank almost all of the whiskey and collapsed on my bed at about 4am I think. I woke with the worst hangover in history to the hotel phone ringing at about 5pm - 5pm!! Low and behold it was our friend Dan waiting in reception to exlpoit the tourists again. We had a shower and met Dan again for a couple of hours. Only a couple of hours though as we had to catch an 8am flight to Krabi on the next morning, Sat 6th Sep.
We went to a local Thai restarant and had Thai green curry which was awesome and took a look over to Ko San road. That was a pretty cool experience as it was really busy with tourists and locals and I took some good videos and pics. Next we decided to see a Ping Pong show, if you don't know what that is use your imagination - think sticky vicky with Thai girls (and lady boys). We went back to Pat Pong market and went in a bar called 'Super Pussy'. I have to say that it was the most uncomfortable exerience ever and after one beer and our pockets being emptied we decided to take a b-line for the door - not my idea of a good time but I guess we had to do it in Bangkok.
Next door was a bar with a boxing ring inside and some people on the door were trying to lure us in to watch some Thai Boxing. Having been ripped off for about 25 pounds in the last bar we were very wary but found out it was 100 Baht for a beer which is miles cheaper at about 1 pound 50. Inside there were still a lot of working girls but we just ignored them and waited for the boxing. We thought It'd be just a show but once it started we reailsed it wasn't as two young Thai guys started beating the shit out of each other - it was unreal. I've caught most of it on video and some of the punches were landed hard, one of them was caught clean on the chin and we saw the whites of his eyes as he hit the floor!! The atmosphere was electric and we watched two fights in total before the ring was removed and the bar turned into a pole dancing club!! Fortunately the girls were just dancing on tables unlike the last bar where they were going for our pockets so it was less intimidating. Both tired, we decided to head back to the hotel as we had an early flight to catch. We paid Dan a nominal fee, which is wasn't entirely happy with, and we got a taxi back to the hotel.
Our body clocks were screwed and neither of us were tired so we decided to have a couple more beers in the rock bar opposite the hotel. This was at about 1am and considering we had to leave the hotel at 6am we headed back to the hotel for a bit.... neither of us were tired so we headed downstairs for some food and checked out without having any sleep. The taxi ride to the airport was pretty relaxing as the sun was coming up behind us although the driver was a bit too hapy with his brakes!
Thai Airways to Krabi was a pleasure and we landed in sunny Krabi just after 9am and caught a taxi to Ao Nang where where we were to catch a long boat to Tonsai Beach resort on the west side of Railey beach. We met two young travellers, James and James, who we caught a long boat with and we got dropped off about 100m from our resort. The sun was out and it was a lush boat trip and we got a good chance to take in the beautiful scenery along the way - what a contrast to Bangkok!!
We checked in to our beach hut, really small and simple but at 12 pounds per night we weren't complaing - although there is only one bed which I guess we're going to have to get used to. We also found out that there is no electricty until 5pm, which means no hot water, and that the internet cafe isn't open until 6pm so we had a bite to eat and caught a long boat to the main part of Railey Beach. I was here last year and to say that it's changed would be an understatement - I hardly recognised anything and the west side looks like it has been hit by a hurricane or something.
Later on we found out that it's development for tourists! We found this out after talking to an English guy called Terry - an absolutely nuts guy who's been in Thailand for 8 years - he told us some stories that we can't reallt repeat on here! We drank with Terry and some locals until about 6pm when we went for the last long boat. Still having had no sleep since the first night in Bangkok, we headed back and caught a couple of beers near our resort and had the longest game of checkers in history - we're both stubborn and competitive, determined not to lose and we ended up calling it a draw :0).
We woke to gailforce winds today and too much rain for sunbathing so we stayed in bed until about 3pm and have been waiting around for the internet cafe to open. Kev's getting stressed out as the speed is horrendous and the woman working here looks like she has only just been introduced to PC's. We're working out what to do next, deciding that we can't be arsed with Phuket as we've just found out it's worse that Bangkok for the sex industry. There's a half moon Party in Ko Phang Yang next Sunday so I think we're going to aim for that.
The Elephant, Thai Boxing and Terry have been the highlights for me so far but I'm hoping that some sunshine and a bit of Kayaking will overtake that tomorrow.
Lee
We arrived in Bangkok on 4th Sep with two nights booked in a 4 star hotel called Hotel Asia which was a nice hotel connected to the sky train. On the first night we had a look out onto the streets of Bangkok where we tried to find a big market that I've visited before although we couldn't find it at all later to find out that it was the weekend market we'd been after.
We walked a fair way and decided to get a tuk tuk to one of the markets and decided to head for Pat Pong market after some bartering with the tuk tuk driver. We didn't know this but at Pat Pong is one of the main markets associated with the sex industry and every tom dick and harry was trying to get a piece of us - it was very funny but we ignored it all and headed down a more quiet street to get a beer. Half way through our beer we both noticed that there seemed to be quite a few men in couples and the waiter was a bit camp - so after all the lure of women and lady boys we'd walked straight into the gay scene which was funny. We even asked for a map off the waiter and we received the gayest map ever to be made, obviously we left this behind!!!
Swiftly moving on we went for a wander looking for that bloody market and we got accosted by a Thai chap called Dan. He asked us what we were looking for and we said we needed to get hold of a Thai sim card each so we could keep in tuch with our ladies back home. So off he wanders with us in tow looking for a mobile shop which we found instantly. We bought the sims and then said to Dan that we wanted a bite to eat, Thai food obviouisly and a couple of beers so he took us to a little street bar for some local food and beer.
Dan was a bit of a drinker, on us of course, so pretty soon we were a bit drunk but re-fueled on some good quality Thai street food. A bit jet lagged and tired we said we only wanted a couple more beers and followed Dan to another coule of bars. The next one was a kareoke bar which even though it was proper cheese, turned out to be a good laugh even though the owner was trying to fix us up with soe local working girls which we politely turned down. We sat outside the bar having a beer and a guy walked up to us with a small elephant and even though the poor thing was being exploited for tourism it was still a pretty cool thing to see - he kept blowing his trumpet when we gave him a stroke and some food!
Dan then dragged us to the gay scence again and we gave him the slip and went back to the hotel - he showed us some good local bars and he got free food and drink out of us so he did pretty well out of it. Back at the hotel, neither of us were tired so we played poker til god knows what time for whiskey. Kev is the luckiest man alive so I drank almost all of the whiskey and collapsed on my bed at about 4am I think. I woke with the worst hangover in history to the hotel phone ringing at about 5pm - 5pm!! Low and behold it was our friend Dan waiting in reception to exlpoit the tourists again. We had a shower and met Dan again for a couple of hours. Only a couple of hours though as we had to catch an 8am flight to Krabi on the next morning, Sat 6th Sep.
We went to a local Thai restarant and had Thai green curry which was awesome and took a look over to Ko San road. That was a pretty cool experience as it was really busy with tourists and locals and I took some good videos and pics. Next we decided to see a Ping Pong show, if you don't know what that is use your imagination - think sticky vicky with Thai girls (and lady boys). We went back to Pat Pong market and went in a bar called 'Super Pussy'. I have to say that it was the most uncomfortable exerience ever and after one beer and our pockets being emptied we decided to take a b-line for the door - not my idea of a good time but I guess we had to do it in Bangkok.
Next door was a bar with a boxing ring inside and some people on the door were trying to lure us in to watch some Thai Boxing. Having been ripped off for about 25 pounds in the last bar we were very wary but found out it was 100 Baht for a beer which is miles cheaper at about 1 pound 50. Inside there were still a lot of working girls but we just ignored them and waited for the boxing. We thought It'd be just a show but once it started we reailsed it wasn't as two young Thai guys started beating the shit out of each other - it was unreal. I've caught most of it on video and some of the punches were landed hard, one of them was caught clean on the chin and we saw the whites of his eyes as he hit the floor!! The atmosphere was electric and we watched two fights in total before the ring was removed and the bar turned into a pole dancing club!! Fortunately the girls were just dancing on tables unlike the last bar where they were going for our pockets so it was less intimidating. Both tired, we decided to head back to the hotel as we had an early flight to catch. We paid Dan a nominal fee, which is wasn't entirely happy with, and we got a taxi back to the hotel.
Our body clocks were screwed and neither of us were tired so we decided to have a couple more beers in the rock bar opposite the hotel. This was at about 1am and considering we had to leave the hotel at 6am we headed back to the hotel for a bit.... neither of us were tired so we headed downstairs for some food and checked out without having any sleep. The taxi ride to the airport was pretty relaxing as the sun was coming up behind us although the driver was a bit too hapy with his brakes!
Thai Airways to Krabi was a pleasure and we landed in sunny Krabi just after 9am and caught a taxi to Ao Nang where where we were to catch a long boat to Tonsai Beach resort on the west side of Railey beach. We met two young travellers, James and James, who we caught a long boat with and we got dropped off about 100m from our resort. The sun was out and it was a lush boat trip and we got a good chance to take in the beautiful scenery along the way - what a contrast to Bangkok!!
We checked in to our beach hut, really small and simple but at 12 pounds per night we weren't complaing - although there is only one bed which I guess we're going to have to get used to. We also found out that there is no electricty until 5pm, which means no hot water, and that the internet cafe isn't open until 6pm so we had a bite to eat and caught a long boat to the main part of Railey Beach. I was here last year and to say that it's changed would be an understatement - I hardly recognised anything and the west side looks like it has been hit by a hurricane or something.
Later on we found out that it's development for tourists! We found this out after talking to an English guy called Terry - an absolutely nuts guy who's been in Thailand for 8 years - he told us some stories that we can't reallt repeat on here! We drank with Terry and some locals until about 6pm when we went for the last long boat. Still having had no sleep since the first night in Bangkok, we headed back and caught a couple of beers near our resort and had the longest game of checkers in history - we're both stubborn and competitive, determined not to lose and we ended up calling it a draw :0).
We woke to gailforce winds today and too much rain for sunbathing so we stayed in bed until about 3pm and have been waiting around for the internet cafe to open. Kev's getting stressed out as the speed is horrendous and the woman working here looks like she has only just been introduced to PC's. We're working out what to do next, deciding that we can't be arsed with Phuket as we've just found out it's worse that Bangkok for the sex industry. There's a half moon Party in Ko Phang Yang next Sunday so I think we're going to aim for that.
The Elephant, Thai Boxing and Terry have been the highlights for me so far but I'm hoping that some sunshine and a bit of Kayaking will overtake that tomorrow.
LeeBangkok has been and gone and we have spent out first night at Railey beach near Krabi.... as anticipated, loads has happened since my last post.
We arrived in Bangkok on 4th Sep with two nights booked in a 4 star hotel called Hotel Asia which was a nice hotel connected to the sky train. On the first night we had a look out onto the streets of Bangkok where we tried to find a big market that I've visited before although we couldn't find it at all later to find out that it was the weekend market we'd been after.
We walked a fair way and decided to get a tuk tuk to one of the markets and decided to head for Pat Pong market after some bartering with the tuk tuk driver. We didn't know this but at Pat Pong is one of the main markets associated with the sex industry and every tom dick and harry was trying to get a piece of us - it was very funny but we ignored it all and headed down a more quiet street to get a beer. Half way through our beer we both noticed that there seemed to be quite a few men in couples and the waiter was a bit camp - so after all the lure of women and lady boys we'd walked straight into the gay scene which was funny. We even asked for a map off the waiter and we received the gayest map ever to be made, obviously we left this behind!!!
Swiftly moving on we went for a wander looking for that bloody market and we got accosted by a Thai chap called Dan. He asked us what we were looking for and we said we needed to get hold of a Thai sim card each so we could keep in tuch with our ladies back home. So off he wanders with us in tow looking for a mobile shop which we found instantly. We bought the sims and then said to Dan that we wanted a bite to eat, Thai food obviouisly and a couple of beers so he took us to a little street bar for some local food and beer.
Dan was a bit of a drinker, on us of course, so pretty soon we were a bit drunk but re-fueled on some good quality Thai street food. A bit jet lagged and tired we said we only wanted a couple more beers and followed Dan to another coule of bars. The next one was a kareoke bar which even though it was proper cheese, turned out to be a good laugh even though the owner was trying to fix us up with soe local working girls which we politely turned down. We sat outside the bar having a beer and a guy walked up to us with a small elephant and even though the poor thing was being exploited for tourism it was still a pretty cool thing to see - he kept blowing his trumpet when we gave him a stroke and some food!
Dan then dragged us to the gay scence again and we gave him the slip and went back to the hotel - he showed us some good local bars and he got free food and drink out of us so he did pretty well out of it. Back at the hotel, neither of us were tired so we played poker til god knows what time for whiskey. Kev is the luckiest man alive so I drank almost all of the whiskey and collapsed on my bed at about 4am I think. I woke with the worst hangover in history to the hotel phone ringing at about 5pm - 5pm!! Low and behold it was our friend Dan waiting in reception to exlpoit the tourists again. We had a shower and met Dan again for a couple of hours. Only a couple of hours though as we had to catch an 8am flight to Krabi on the next morning, Sat 6th Sep.
We went to a local Thai restarant and had Thai green curry which was awesome and took a look over to Ko San road. That was a pretty cool experience as it was really busy with tourists and locals and I took some good videos and pics. Next we decided to see a Ping Pong show, if you don't know what that is use your imagination - think sticky vicky with Thai girls (and lady boys). We went back to Pat Pong market and went in a bar called 'Super Pussy'. I have to say that it was the most uncomfortable exerience ever and after one beer and our pockets being emptied we decided to take a b-line for the door - not my idea of a good time but I guess we had to do it in Bangkok.
Next door was a bar with a boxing ring inside and some people on the door were trying to lure us in to watch some Thai Boxing. Having been ripped off for about 25 pounds in the last bar we were very wary but found out it was 100 Baht for a beer which is miles cheaper at about 1 pound 50. Inside there were still a lot of working girls but we just ignored them and waited for the boxing. We thought It'd be just a show but once it started we reailsed it wasn't as two young Thai guys started beating the shit out of each other - it was unreal. I've caught most of it on video and some of the punches were landed hard, one of them was caught clean on the chin and we saw the whites of his eyes as he hit the floor!! The atmosphere was electric and we watched two fights in total before the ring was removed and the bar turned into a pole dancing club!! Fortunately the girls were just dancing on tables unlike the last bar where they were going for our pockets so it was less intimidating. Both tired, we decided to head back to the hotel as we had an early flight to catch. We paid Dan a nominal fee, which is wasn't entirely happy with, and we got a taxi back to the hotel.
Our body clocks were screwed and neither of us were tired so we decided to have a couple more beers in the rock bar opposite the hotel. This was at about 1am and considering we had to leave the hotel at 6am we headed back to the hotel for a bit.... neither of us were tired so we headed downstairs for some food and checked out without having any sleep. The taxi ride to the airport was pretty relaxing as the sun was coming up behind us although the driver was a bit too hapy with his brakes!
Thai Airways to Krabi was a pleasure and we landed in sunny Krabi just after 9am and caught a taxi to Ao Nang where where we were to catch a long boat to Tonsai Beach resort on the west side of Railey beach. We met two young travellers, James and James, who we caught a long boat with and we got dropped off about 100m from our resort. The sun was out and it was a lush boat trip and we got a good chance to take in the beautiful scenery along the way - what a contrast to Bangkok!!
We checked in to our beach hut, really small and simple but at 12 pounds per night we weren't complaing - although there is only one bed which I guess we're going to have to get used to. We also found out that there is no electricty until 5pm, which means no hot water, and that the internet cafe isn't open until 6pm so we had a bite to eat and caught a long boat to the main part of Railey Beach. I was here last year and to say that it's changed would be an understatement - I hardly recognised anything and the west side looks like it has been hit by a hurricane or something.
Later on we found out that it's development for tourists! We found this out after talking to an English guy called Terry - an absolutely nuts guy who's been in Thailand for 8 years - he told us some stories that we can't reallt repeat on here! We drank with Terry and some locals until about 6pm when we went for the last long boat. Still having had no sleep since the first night in Bangkok, we headed back and caught a couple of beers near our resort and had the longest game of checkers in history - we're both stubborn and competitive, determined not to lose and we ended up calling it a draw :0).
We woke to gailforce winds today and too much rain for sunbathing so we stayed in bed until about 3pm and have been waiting around for the internet cafe to open. Kev's getting stressed out as the speed is horrendous and the woman working here looks like she has only just been introduced to PC's. We're working out what to do next, deciding that we can't be arsed with Phuket as we've just found out it's worse that Bangkok for the sex industry. There's a half moon Party in Ko Phang Yang next Sunday so I think we're going to aim for that.
The Elephant, Thai Boxing and Terry have been the highlights for me so far but I'm hoping that some sunshine and a bit of Kayaking will overtake that tomorrow.
Lee
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Arrived in Bangkok
Arrived in Bangkok today - the weather's not that great, it's a bit cloudy but it's still hot and humid. The hotel we're staying in is very nice indeed, attached to the skytrain so we're off on a mission of discovery this evening. Looking to get a Thai sim at Siam square as I've had LOADS of problems with my Orange phone ;0)
Staying in Bangkok for 2 nights before we make a move down to Krabi to a lovely beach resort to get started on our tans - not sure what we're going to do after that which is a pretty cool feeling.
Lee
Staying in Bangkok for 2 nights before we make a move down to Krabi to a lovely beach resort to get started on our tans - not sure what we're going to do after that which is a pretty cool feeling.
Lee
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
The day before the off!
Just about sorted on the packing front now ready to go; flying tomorrow evening to Bangkok from Newcastle via Heathrow.
Feels very very strange, a mixture of anxiety and excitement. I'm sure these blogs will get a bit more interesting once we're away so not going to write a lot now.
Take care
Lee
Feels very very strange, a mixture of anxiety and excitement. I'm sure these blogs will get a bit more interesting once we're away so not going to write a lot now.
Take care
Lee
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