Thailand Island Exploration! 21st -30th March

Our exploration of Southern Thailand started with a boat trip from Langkawi in Malaysia to Satun, one of the southernmost towns in Thailand. From here we got a bus up to Krabi, a hub for tourists wanting to visit islands on the west coast of Southern Thailand. We spent two days here and checked out a local festival, watching the street entertainment and eating market food which was delicious and cheap, we ate our fill with some beers for only 150B (£3). Our main purpose in Krabi was to plan and book our route through Southern Thailand, once we had it planned we got swiftly on our way.

Our first Island stop was Koh Phi-Phi; one of the islands on Thailands Andaman coast that was devastated by the 2004 Tsunami. It was surprising how quickly the island had been rebuilt, the coast was lined with bungalows shops and hotels. The only problem was that, being recent builds the bungalows were all quite expensive to stay in but it was well worth it for the stunning scenery and beaches the island has to offer. Our stay was short but we had time to catch a long boat out to do some snorkeling (I saw a leopard skin octopus!). Check out the pictures to see the views we had while eating breakfast.

After Ko Phi-Phi we had to get a boat back to the mainland so that we could scat across to the east coast hop onto another boat and get to Koh Samui. In Samui we stayed in the quieter district of Hat Lamai, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel to relax in for a few days before heading to Bangkok and starting our loop of Indochina. For that reason a lot of our time in Samui was spent sipping cold drinks by the pool/beach. We did get time to do a half day excursion to swim at the base of a waterfall in the middle of the island. Climbing the steep slopes in the humid forest to get to this poorly signposted waterfall was not what we had bargained for and we were certainly ready for the dip when we finally found the damn thing!

From Samui we hopped across to another island called Koh Tao, the plan was to do a days snorkeling here but unfortunately Sophie got a bit illL. After sorting a room out I managed to do a few hours of snorkeling where I met some friendly Thai people who agreed to take some photos for me to show Sophie (Maybe some consolation)!

Every island we went to was beautiful and our overwhelming feeling coming away from these 'paradise' islands was that we didn't have enough time! A little more beach bumming and snorkeling would have been very welcome but, the show must go on.

Hope everyone at home is ok,

Love Alex and Sophie

xxxx