Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hello again! Still no pictures! Sorry for leaving you on a knife edge last time! Here's what happened...
We woke to our alarm at 4am in the 'beautiful' Penang hoping for the breakfast that we had been promised, but it never came! Little did we know that this was a sign of how the rest of the day was going to turn out. Unfortunately the bus we'd organised did turn up! We knew the journey was going to be approx 12 hours, and had mentally prepared ourselves for this but we nearly didn't last the first 10 minutes! There were 3 of us brits that were thrown into the back of a minibus whilst the locals stretched out in the front! We were crammed in so tight, and Andy had his knees wrapped around his ears! To make things worse every slight bump in the road made our heads hit the roof! We were so close to asking the non-English speaking driver to pull over and let us off! Luckily we stopped every hour for one reason or another, so it gave Andy a chance to unfold, and give our heads a rest! We also had a terrible border crossing, with a Thai women thrusting a piece of paper (in Thai of course!) in Ali's face and shouting something!! Eventually we worked out she wanted our driver to fill in the form and then to return to get our visas, whilst all the locals huffed at our delay! Ali had yet another bad toilet experience! It's just too easy for guys!
The landscape changed as soon as we crossed the border, from beautiful rolling hills to flat dry landscape, with thousands of motorbikes flashing by. After 5 hours in the bus from hell we were thrown out at a travel office in Hat Yai, despite thinking we were on the same bus for the full journey. A woman then gave us a ferry ticket and pushed us onto another minibus. Again we were shoved in the back despite the rest of the bus being empty for the whole journey! Luckily this bus had suspension, so it wasn't too bad! After another 5 hours we got to Krabi, where we were again left outside a travel office. Our greeting was to be told we were late and had missed the ferry (like it was our fault!) and we would have to get yet another bus, for another 3 hours, instead of the 45min ferry trip! By this point we were slightly frustrated to say the least! We boarded a double decker bus with blue decor with yellow curtains and pink trimmings, all very Asian/eighties! Again we were crammed on the back seat next to a coughing phlegmy local, with martial arts thrillers pounding out of the speakers and TV! Nice! We eventually got to the island of Phuket (Poo-ket) off the West coast of Thailand, where surprise surprise we were left outside of another travel office! Despite the fact we had pre-booked a taxi, the driver did not have a clue where he was going and we ended up walking the streets to find it for him! We eventually made it to our guesthouse (Beshert) in Karon after 15 hours, 2 minibuses, 1 double decker and a taxi. We were extremely tired!
Things did get better than that but only for a short time. The area we were in was very busy, with lots of bars and shops. However Ali was struck down with a really bad fever for 48 hours, and Andy got a stomach bug, which left us both bed ridden for almost 4 days! But luckily we had cable TV and wireless internet in our room, to pass the time! When we finally managed to get out of bed, the whole place was celebrating Song khan, Thai New Year - 2055. The tradition is that the younger generation would put water on the elder generations as a mark of respect and to cleanse. However this has evolved into throwing buckets of cold water onto the nearest person, so needless to say we got soaked! But it was all good fun! Unfortunately because of our illnesses we never got to Ko Phi Phi, which is another island where the movie The Beach was filmed.
The following day we got picked up at 7:30am for a 1 night 2 day trip to Khao Sok National Park. We were the only ones on the pick-up list so we were able to spread out in the minibus - Bliss! Our driver was very nice and would point out things of interest, such as water buffalo, and rubber tree plantations. After a couple of hours we started coming into the Khao Sok region and he pulled over so we could take some photos, which was nice. We arrived at our lodge (Earth Lodge) at around 11:00am, where we were greeted by the staff and had a welcome drink and then got shown to our room. It was really cool the bungalows were 2 storeys and built like the local buildings, so were a bit like wattle and daub (can't spell!). The room had a huge 4 poster bed and an en-suite bathroom! It was great! We also had a little garden area to ourselves with hammocks to relax in.
We had a buffet lunch where we met the other people on our tour; it was a family of 5, believe it or not from near Scunthorpe!! They were very nice. In the afternoon we jumped in a land rover and got taken down to the river where we canoed all through the jungle and the mountains, it was breathtaking. We stopped half way for tea and coffee, heated in a proper wrought iron kettle over a fire and served in bamboo cups, with little bamboo paddles as spoons! Awesome! We then carried on down the river, watching the wildlife and taking in the views. Next we went to an elephant sanctuary, where we went elephant trekking in the jungle. It was a very slow process and very bumpy, but good fun! We learnt that the Indian elephant goes a pinky colour around its face a trunk when it gets older, so it is like us going grey! At the end we got to stroke the elephants and feed them.
The next day we got up to go trekking in the jungle; we were given bamboo sticks to help us along the way. The first part of the trek was to cross a knee deep river, which was interesting! Throughout the journey we learnt all about the vegetation and saw lots of fruit growing like bananas, pineapple, coconut, and jack fruit. We also got to taste some traditional fruits/vegetables that were awful; it instantly dried our mouth out leaving it feeling like you had woken up with the worst hangover! (Not that we would know!!). Eventually we got to our camp where Liam (our canoe guide) met us, and e had a mini Thai cooking lesson. Liam showed us how to get into a coconut and to make coconut milk, and then to make Thai soup. We also had delicious pork cooked over a fire that had been marinated in salt, pepper and turmeric, it was seriously good! After lunch we started walking back but this time followed what will be a waterfall in rainy season, back down. We also stopped off at a rubber plantation, which had 'cheap' rubber production so it really smelt bad!
We had organised for the tour to then take us to Ko Samui rather than back to Phuket, so it was back into the minibus (a very nice big one as the family were with us as well), to Don Sak pier to get the ferry across to the island of Ko Samui off the East coast.
We had booked for a couple of nights at a place called Embossy at Chaweng bay. It was a very busy area, with loads of bars, and restaurants, and shops, and market stalls. The following day we spent the morning trying to find somewhere to stay on the next island on (Ko Phangan) as it is supposed to be beautiful, however at the weekend there was a full moon party there and so everywhere was full. So we decided to move on to the next bay, Lamai as it was a bit quieter, especially the beach! We then spent the afternoon on the beach, topping up the tan!
We stayed at a place called Lamai Inn 99, where we had our own little bungalow, which was gorgeous! There was also a pool!!! We were so happy about it as in our 7 weeks away this was the first one!!! So it did get used a lot! The next day we went to see Hin Yay (Grandmother rock) and Hin Ta (Grandfather rock), which amusingly look like male and female genitals! Was hilarious! On Saturday we went on a tour to the Ang Thong National Marine Park, which was cool. We got picked up in the morning and had breakfast on the pier then jumped on a speed boat across to the cluster of islands making up the park. We then went snorkelling around the corals and saw loads of pretty fish and parrot fish. Then we went sea kayaking around the islands, and right under the overhanging rock! Unfortunately this was all in the rain and with thunderstorms surrounding us so Ali was a bit nervous! We stopped for lunch on an n island and had a very nice curry, with a lovely view to look at while we ate. We then went to a lagoon, where we had to climb loads of rickety old ladders up the hill and squeeze through rock gaps to get to it, but it looked so serene and beautiful, so was well worth the scrabble! Then it was back onto the speed boat for a very bumping journey back, so bumpy that we were in agony with our backs, and Ali was almost sick! It is kind of a shame the tour didn't finish here, however we were then taken to what I can only describe as a zoo/circus, but they called a safari. Where we had to sit and watch an elephant show where they got them to sit and do head stands, and quite funnily play the harmonica with their trunks. We also had to watch a Thai boxing performance and then had elephant rides. But the elephants weren't in the best condition, not too bad otherwise we wouldn't have participated, but not as good as the sanctuary in Khao Sok. However, the day had been good.
As we couldn't get onto a sleeper train to go up to Bangkok, according to the tour operators they were booked until next month, we decided to book a flight. Which ended up only being a little bit more money and going to take 10 hours less to get there! So next stop Bangkok...
- comments