Travel Log 10

So back to Thailand I went to meet Luke and Sabrina on Koh Phangan. Having just caught the same boat as the others across to the island our host picked us up to taxi us across the island to our amazing chalet which was situated on a beautiful beach at Had Khom. There we swam in the clear blue sea, kayaked out to the rocks in the sea, took a boat trip around to another beautiful beach, bathed on the beach and ate at the excellent restaurant the resort has. Then came the night of total madness – The Full Moon Party. I won’t go in to much detail needless to say I went crazy lost my phone and wallet and … well clothes.

After recovering from visiting hell we hired two scooters and went into town to buy some clothes (I had to buy some shorts and flipflops which I had lost at the full moon party) After town we rode to Paradise waterfalls which was a nice little stream trickling down some rocks.  

I would put more pictures on here but I didn’t take many and am waiting for Luke to upload his to facebook.

Travel Log 9

Just a quick post about Christmas. Well Christmas in 35 degree heat didn’t feel the same at all and I did miss being at home for the celebrations. On Christmas day I had a Korean Christmas dinner which although it was very nice it didn’t match the dinner I would have had back home.

Travel Log 8

In Chiang Mai I stayed with Chris a friend from uni. Most days during my stay Chris would be busy with his Thai course and his English teaching job luckily I had been in contact with a CSer that was a tour guide to Chiang  Mai. So on the first day Chris dropped me off at a bike rental shop and I picked my Yamaha Fino which I rented for 5 days. I biked around town a few times to get used to the scooter and then met Nicky in Starbucks. She took the reins of the scooter and lead me to lunch. Over the course of the next few days she gave me the tour of the town and took me to dine at local restaurants and drink at local bars and cafes. Most evenings I hung out with Chris and his friends and zoomed about town on the bikes. One night I went to pick up Nicky so that she could join Chris, myself and the others at The Warm Up club unfortunately it started raining just after I set off and I got soaked all the way through and had to dry off at Nicky’s with the help of her hair drier. Nicky also took me to a cool Thai bar called Tha Chang where it seems she was quite a celebrity and we get a table specially brought out from the back  for us to be seated at. I find out later that this is because a big time Thai celebrity has been chasing her and told the bar management to take good care of her.

My tour guide Nicky

On Sunday Chris’ day off we drove to the hot spring to soak in the hot water. Unfortunately being Thailand these weren’t as nice as one would hope for and we had to settle for the swimming pool rather than a private hot bath once getting over this and the eggy smell the water had it was quite soothing. Once we got back into town Chris and myself took a Thai massage which I found quite painful.

On Monday I went on an epic journey back to Penang for Christmas. 

Some Machines

Travel Log 7

We were thrown off the bus at 5am at some random place in Bangkok. Turns out that a lot of tourist buses don’t terminate at a bus station in Bangkok but near Khao San Road a famous Bangkok hell hole where it is easy to find all sorts of scum and a cheap place to stay. However I was hoping to stay at a couchsurfers place and so decided to wander around Bangkok towards where the CSer lived hoping that this would pass a few hours until it was late enough to call the CSer. However although I had looked up the way on the net when I was in a coffee shop I soon got lost having not got a map. I ended up walking about 10km around town with all my stuff and then went I did call the CSer it turned out that they already had someone staying and couldn’t host me. So it was back to Khao San Road in search of accommodation. However when I returned I remembered another couchsurfer who lived in a hostel/squat called the overstay which the internet said to be very cheap. So I got a taxi there and it turned out to be very cheap indeed in fact free for those willing to sleep in the dormitory. The place was not very clean but you get what you pay for.

As I was in Bangkok I thought I’d relax and have a few beers and as a few of the guests were having beers for breakfast (1pm breakfast) I thought I’d join them and drink most of the day waiting for the Saturday night party to begin. At the party I met a beautiful Thai girl by the name of Gra Dai (or rabbit) who could speak fluent English and German and was there with some of her German friends. Over the next few days I spent time with her and we went to a market island on the river and ate in the local restaurants nearby her house and chilling out in the overstay popping out from time to time to see some sights in Bangkok.

Bangkok I found to be quite a smelly, ugly city with very few places I found interesting and I probably shouldn’t have stayed as long as I did.

The day before I left to go to Chiang Mai, I took a train to Ayuthaya to see the ruins of the ancient capital. There I hired a bicycle and saw all the beautiful ruins before heading back to Bangkok.

The next day I took a sleeper train to Chiang Mai

Travel Log 6

So Phi Phi island was beautiful.

The island is expensive however and I could only afford to stay for two nights. However whilst I was there I did go swimming with the tropical fishes and get absolutely soaked on the long-tail boat trip back in the pouring rain and rough seas.

I am currently in Krabi a town on the main land near Phi Phi islands not much going on here - went to the beach met a ladyboy at a restaurant - you know the usual. The ladyboy looked just like a girl only thing that might have given him/her/it away was his/her/its feet and maybe hands but I didn’t get to see his/her/its hands close enough. He/she/it invited me to join him/her/it at the bar he/she/it worked at after his/her/its first job at the restaurant where I was drinking beer. So I though hey ho why not I don’t have anyone else to talk to and he/she/it was intriguing enough and I might get to quiz him/her/it a bit over a beer. So he/she/it said that he/she/it was going to go home and that I should met him/her/it at the bar at 11. So I went back to my room and lay down for a second. I woke up at 1am and that was the end of that story.

Then off I went to Bangkok.