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
Saturday, 27 September 2008
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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