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Here's a summary from the 11th-24th Dec:
Bangkok: Stayed here twice at the great HI Sukhumvit both before and after Koh Samet thanks to its amazing links on the sky train and the best street food in bangkok at Soi 38. We did the No.1 thing to do on tripadvisor; Escape Hunt. This involved being locked in a room and having to find clues to get into a further 2 other rooms to then escape! We spent the first 20 mins not having a clue what we were meant to be doing but then got the hang of it and escaped 9 seconds after the 1 hour time limit- we were GUTTED but it was an interesting way to spend an hour! We visited the patpong night market to stock up on fake Havaianas and looked around many of the malls including the MBK (fake goods), Siam paragon (most instagrammed place in the world) and Terminal 21 (with each floor being a different city). It was clear that the new young elite Thais had plenty of places to spend their money. One evening we met with our travelling friends from Chiang Rai and Luang Prabang for drinks at a bar that looks over Siam. At the Siam Paragon we visited the amazing food court and the best aquarium ever where the rather steep entrance fee included a glass bottom boat over the shark tank!
Who needs the Khao San road when you have all this on your doorstep!
Koh Samet: A very pretty island only 3 hours from Bangkok, that is the holiday destination for rich Thais and day trip Russians from Pattaya. It seems such a shame that this island is overpriced and that the north is so condensed with sunbeds. The sea was crystal clear and the sand was white and powder soft on foot. The three highlights were:
- finding cheap street food away from the beach.
- walking to Ao Nuan bay, to find it much much quieter than anywhere else not the island.
- when 8+ puppies ran over to us on the beach and we gave them lots of cuddles, we named the runt Jeffrey and wished we could take him home!
Khao Lak: A national park area above Phuket which has stunning golden sand beaches and rainforest that spills over into the ocean. Why go to Phuket when you can come here? We chose khao lak for its world renowned dive sites (Similian National Park), to continue our new and very expensive hobby. With the Seadragon divers we visited Koh Bon about 60km from the mainland. It is a small island made of limestone which drops into the sea, allowing lots of creatures to hide inside. We witnessed the best diving yet. Although no manta rays turned up, we were blessed with 20 metres of visibility and huge schools of colourful fish, my favourite being the porcupine fish.
Khao Sok: The two of us made our journey to Khao Sok via a comfortable public bus, accompanied to Peter, a 56 year old Australian teacher, someone who we would see a fair amount more of in the coming days. Our guesthouse was named Smiley's and was set within Khao Sok town, just outside the national park containing a 160 million year old jungle, numerous caves, a gigantic man made lake created in 1982 and various unusual flora and fauna. The bamboo hut on stilts we were renting was excellent value at only 250 thai baht or £5/night! Although hardly luxurious, it sure ticked all the essential boxes!
On our second day we headed out on a 2 day, 1 night expedition to Smiley's Lakeside floating raft house (along with Peter, who was coincidently staying here and booked on the same trip), the long tail ride out to the lake house was visually stunning and reminiscent of Halong Bay, Vang Vieng and Phong Nha all rolled into one scenery! There were misty mountain clouds, spectacular stacks, glorious jungle hanging on for dear life off the side of huge rocks and toucans, as well as eagles soaring above our heads. Around an hour later the longtail chugged alongside the floating raft house, of which the rooms were surprisingly spacious. We then went kayaking on the lake to spot wildlife and an evening safari which included a beer stop at the local floating village. Early the next morning after a safari boat trip, we trekked for roughly 2 hours through the dense and sticky jungle. I unfortunately managed to attract 2 leeches, the first wasn't on long but the second had had a teaspoon full of my blood before I noticed, so I demanded (rather loudly) that it should be removed. I bled for an hour! The next part of the day was a cave called Nam Tu Lu Cave. This had a river flowing through the middle of it which was neck deep in parts. There were many bats and spiders with bright green eyes glowing in the pitch black. There was also a rickety ladder to manoeuvre over where the river was too fast to balance in and the crevice was too small to fit through! That wasn't in the description of the trip! It was a relief to see daylight again but well worth it. Khao sok was one of the highlights of our trip!
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