Southern Thailand

Day 8

The last night in Chiang Mai we went to the Sunday market and then to Zoe bar. Saw a guy blowing glass ornaments on the side of the road! At Zoe bar, the dance floor was pretty dead but our crazy dancing brought everyone to the floor! 

Day 9

We had our flight back to Bangkok where the group started going their separate ways. Even though its only been 8 days with these people I've grown really attached to them. Pretty sad. And we all instantly got stressed. Something about the air in Bangkok just puts everyone on edge. 

In the evening we visited the sky bar which is in hangover 2. Really expensive drinks as they're popularity has exploded since they film but we just dressed up and admired the view. 

View over Bangkok at night at the sky bar 

We went to another bar for a show where we nearly got locked inside. They decided to change the price of the drinks and charge us for drinks we hadn't drunk and basically rip us off. Luckily we had Pongs number who told them (in Thai) he was the tourist police. Think that scared them otherwise we would have had to pay £20 each for a beer just to stop these Thai ladies shouting at us! Tried to tell the police what they had done when we got outside and they couldn't have cared less. There advice was to walk 30mins to the station and pay to make a report! And when the manager came out to apologise and I'm pretty sure the police was mates with him. So corrupt! 

Glad to be leaving Bangkok tomorrow. It's just too stressful. Relax on the beaches is what's needed! 

Day 9

Final day in Bangkok, phew! Went with some people from the last tour and some of Pong's new group to the floating markets (where the picture on the lonely planet was taken). To start with it was pretty crazy but when we were paddled on a boat around to quieter canals it was so relaxing. 

Floating markets

When we got back to Bangkok (after a lovey nap in the minibus) we went for a leisurely lunch and chill out by the pool before our overnight train south.  

The train was pretty fun (there was a party carriage!) and I actually managed to have some sleep in my little pod. 

Sleeper train

Day 10/ 11 Koh Pahngag

We made it to the ferry port with 10 minutes to spare and had a lovely smooth crossing and then an off road car ride to the hotel. Loved the free massage we got with it. 

Our hotel was idyllic.  Set if a private beach with hammocks and sun loungers. Spent the whole day and the next reading, swimming in the sea and playing with the frisbee I bought! 

On the second day we climbed up the hill to the view point. Doing the hour up made me so glad our trek was in the rain!  I was sweating buckets by the time we reached the top but the view was amazing. Even if there was a really scary scramble to get there (which I may or may not have had a little cry about)! 

In the evening the owners of the hotel lit is a bonfire and we had a fire poi show. I sat next to he bonfire and saw 3 shooting stars over head. 

Only sad thing was that my camera decided to give up on me. No amount of charging the battery seemed to rescue it. I'm going to have to bye a new one in Singapore duty free and send my old one home with mum since its still under garentee. I was so upset when I couldn't turn it on but it taught me a real lesson about what's actually valuable and considering I've got ages to go it wa probably a good idea to learn to deal with losing/breaking things early on! 

Day 12 Koh Samui 

Had a lovely morning (before the the torretial rain) playing frisbee on the sea and then we headed to the ferry port to go to Koh Samui. Whilst in the jeep to the port It rained so had and i got drenched and I got a real arm work out holding on for dear life with one arm and holding the plastic window down with the other so I didn't get soaked! 

Our hotel was near the main public beach an 'las Vegas' style strip. Had a lovely time on the beach and then we headed home for our swim in the roof top pool!!!! I bought a pair of 'genuine' Ray Bans for £3 after my fat backside broken my old pair in two! Oops! I'm not sure how real they are though! Lol. 

On the evenings we headed to the ark bar on the beach for dinner, drinks and then to party! There were fireworks, fire poi and fore limbo! Basically anything involving fire was there. My old group joined us at the party and it was horrible saying goodbye.

Party glasses. 

Day 13 

Had an early start as 3 of us had booked to go snorkling. The weather closed in on us the further out to sea the speed boat took us and so by the time it came to jump into the water we were already soaked through! 

Saw some colourful fishes, some lovely bays and went for a steep walk to the emerald lake. The steps in Thailand are crazy. They all seem to be perpendicular to the ground, which is fine to walk up but I have a real fear of getting down after. Had to grip the railings until my knuckles where white to get myself down. The view was worth it though! 

Emerald lake

We joined up with the rest of the group at the port to head back to the mainland. We stayed at a sleepy town called Nakhorn Si Thanarat ready for our earlier start (and after partying on the beach until late I needed the rest). 

Day 14 - Thai part of it

Definitely was tired last night. I feel asleep pretty much as soon as I hit the bed and didn't even notice that all the lights in the room were on or notice when my room mate, Valerie, returned. Valerie is so lovely and we never seem to shut up around each other! She is a Swiss mix of Ronja and Maddie so it feels like some of the frisbee girls are here with me! 

Driving through the town in the morning it really reminded me of Tanga in Tanzinia. The signs were in Thai rather than Swahili but everything about it just seemed so familiar.

Read an entire book on the way to th boarder and then we went through immigration into Malaysia as the rain started hammering down on the minivan. A theme seems to be developing! Turns out it rains quite a lot when it's rainy season!! 

Bangkok, Chiang Mai and northern hill tribe trek

Managed to get some sleep on the second flight which was great :) meant I only needed an hour nap when I got here to function. Other than that the flight was pretty boring as per usual!

Day 1 - Bangkok

Forgot to get a map at the airport which  was a bit of an issue but made it out the airport and to my transfer all fine. 

When I arrive at Bangkok Centre Hotel I couldn't get into my room so headed across (via some nervous navigating) the road to the main station to get a map, some water and people watch for a bit. 

When I came back I was able to get in but had the awful " how much do I tip the porter" moment. Had a little nap just to reboot  and then headed out for my first adventure.

Went to see the golden Buddha at Wat Traimit

and then headed down near China town (not sure if I was actually in it or not!) where there were loads of streets stalls selling foods and pretty much anything else you could ever need. 

I stopped for lunch at the end of the road where I chatted to an American for I bit (I can make friends) before aiming back for the hotel. 

On the way back I passed a massage place where I was able to get an hours foot massage (hardly laughed or winced when it turned a bit 'Thai massage') and use their Internet for £4. Bargin. And my feet felt great! 

Day 2 - Bangkok 

Second day alone and I decided to brave a tuk tuk. It tuk (hehehe) a bit of getting used to but I think I perfected the holding on and looking cool whilst flying around corners!

Visited 2 temples, Wat Po where the (very huge) reclining Buddha is and Wat Arum (the temple of dawn), and the grand palace.

Steep steps at Wat Arum

The steps up to the top of Wat Arum were so steep! I was so proud of myself when I climbed all the way up to admire the view and back down (although I was clinging onto the rope for dear life). I hope you're proud of me Will! 

I had to rent a shirt at the grand palace as I wasn't appropriately dressed and using a scarf to cover up apparently didn't count. I think they were only targeting tourists as locals were far more indecent than I was at the start but still were aloud in! Not fair. They also have two prices for everything, water etc, one for the locals and one for tourists. 

I took a boat down the canals of the river and saw the wonders of the Thai lock system - it was actually pretty exciting! My driver was far more safety consious than all the others (not a bad thing really) as I had to wear a sexy life jacket throughout. 

Met my tour group in the evening where we hit the tourist strip but we never made it to an infamous ping pong show. 

Day 3 - Bangkok to Chiang Mai

I decided to join the group tour today and so was able to get on a free(!) public bus. Didn't feel brave enough trying it by myself. Unfortunately one of the group was feeling a bit worse for wear so ending up vomming everywhere. The reaction was so different from that in the UK. Everyone was offering local tubs of green smelling stuff to help. You'd never get people reacting that nicely in the UK.  

Everyone went for a wonder around Wat Pho but I just sat next to the fan in the entrance catching up on my diary. CH you'll be pleased to know I'm perfecting the art of fan and shade hopping! 

Got another boat tour around the canals and I was definitely ripped off yesterday. I paid 700bht less for everything today compare to what I paid for just the boat ride yesterday. 

I think Pong, out guide, was on a mission to put us on every type of public transport as we got a boat and the sky train to lunch, then the Subway home. 

Chilled out by the poolside in the evening before our flight Chiang Mai. Once we were there we hit the busy night market. Chiang Mai is far less busy, less smelly and generally a much nicer place than Bangkok. 

Day 4 Chiang Mai

Today was a busy jam packed day. We took Song Tau (You say that like you're angry and that's how you say it. Even if I spelt it wrong.) to Tiger Kingdom. I got to stoke lots of cute tigers. It was really scary to begin with and one rolled over as I was stroking it and slapped me in the face with his tail which scared me but it turned out he just wanted his belly rubbed! 

My and my new friend 

In the afternoon we visited a beautiful temple and we able to read our fortunes Thai Buddhism style. You shack a container that has bamboo sticks with numbers on it. Whatever stick falls out first that number corresponds to your fortune. I got a nice one about being lucky but Flo got one saying no one likes her. Luckily you're allowed to do it again to change your fortune. 

The Sunday night (the time I was born) Buddha

In the evening some of us went to a Thai cooking course. It was amazing, I never knew I was such a good cook! Some of it was very spicy when we tried her dishes, I made mine much milder. If anyone ever wants spring rolls, green curry, pad Thai or steamed banana cakes I can sort you out! 

In the evening we went to the market (small fortune has gone) and then to the ladyboy cabaret show!

Day 5-7 - Hill Tribe Trek

Having checked in with the tourist police we walked to a beautiful waterfall and swam underneath it in the freezing waters!

The trek was not a hard walk but it rained all day so the path was very slippy. All. Will's help paid off again as everyone said I looked like I knew what I was doing and asked my advice as to where they should put their feet. Unfortunately there were lots of leaches and 3 managed to get in one shoe and 2 in the other! Disgusting! And they have a really strong bit so you can't flick them off. I must taste really good or my fortune was wrong because no one else got them! 

One the first night we stayed in one village where they fed us green curry and spring rolls. No where near as good as mine!

It rained all night. And carried on raining the entire day. And not just drizzling.. Proper raining. Imagine being fully dressed including hiking boots and swimming in a pool for about an hour and you'll get a hint as to how wet we were! 

We walked for 3 and a half hours, much  quicker than all of out guides previous groups, to the elephant sanctuary. I guess we all just wanted to get there and get dry so walked super quick! It's much better here than the sanctuary as they're in the jungle where they belong rather than a sanctuary near a city. So cool being on its back swaying side to side as she walked. The other elephant was so cheeky and put his trunk into a field and pulled out a whole corn plant! 

Nelly the elephant

It was so good to put clean clothes on in the village when we got there! Played some great games in the evening. The group was such a great group to trek with! 

Kettle soot on our faces from the games we were playing! 

The second day we went bamboo rafting. I think ours was half raft half submarine. I don't think the water was lower than my knees at any point and we kept steering into trees and the river bank. Great fun though! 

Rafting 

Day 8 - Chiang Mai

On the final day I just explored the city on foot. Visiting all the temples and stuff. Even saw on open air concert. Who ever he was the old women were goin crazy for him! 

Tomorrow morning we fly back to Bangkok where the 2nd half on my adventure in South East Asia begins! 

Airport (so this didn't post the first time...)

Woke up this morning and the excitement for this trip hit me. Managed to have a stress free time getting to the airport and only a few tears where shed when I left everyone. 

I'm going to miss you all so much. I promise to try my best to keep this up to date (and hopefully slightly interesting too) so you can see what I'm up too. 

Me and my backpack/life for the next 8 months! 

The back pack

So my bag is finally packed! Cannot believe it actually closed! Taking far less stuff than I originally intended too!

I put out everything on the bed like all the packing guides tell you to and it looked like hardly anything. Then I tried to fit it all in the backpack. Was not going to work! No amount of sitting on the bag or turning it to a different angle to 'let gravity do the work' was ever going to get that closed. 

Will went through everything and cut it right down. Apart from my medicine bag... He was going no where near that. I guess the tough love, considering I'll be carrying it for the next 9 months, was far better than mums "well you may need it". 

A few pieces did sneak back in after he left though! But shhh don't let him know that! I don't want to have to admit defeat when he was right and it wasn't really needed!