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We've just spent the last 2 weeks in paradise, so that's always a good start :). After a 26 hour journey from Chiang Mai, we arrived on Ko Pha Ngan, one of the three islands off Thailand's southern gulf. The weather was amazing when we arrived and I got sunburnt just looking out the window at the sun! We were on the island for a week in total but stayed in 2 very different places. The first few nights we stayed in a beachside bungalow in Baan Tai, about half way between the two main towns. We had a gorgeous beach all to our selves! Relaxing after all the activity of Chiang Mai was brilliant, but I must say it did take me a while to get into it - I think my London obsession with always doing something hadn't quite left my system. It definitely has now though and I can't wait for the next 5 days of sunbathing that we have lined up. Although the deserted beach was stunning, we moved into the town to get closer to the action and other people! We stayed in a very nice guesthouse in the main town of Haad Rin (where the full moon party is). The main beach there was picture perfect and full of beautiful bronzed people! I felt I stood out just a little in all my sunburn streaked whiteness for the first day or two :)
After a week in Ko Pha Ngan we headed to the island of Ko Tao. This island was definitely my favourite place on our trip so far. It's still relatively untouched by tourism, with lush green trees all over the mountains and tourism restricted to largely the west side of the island. I did my PADI Open Water diving course here and absolutely loved it, so I think that's part of the reason too. Rick didn't like the diving so much, so he played beach football and went rock climbing up a crazy looking mountain instead. We met some great people from the diving course and their friends too, so we had some very good nights out. Rick and I went snorkling around the island on the last day. We didn't actually see any sharks (which we were expecting!) but saw baraccudas, clown fish and swordfish, and some amazing coral. Only down side was the sunburn (again!).
We've been on Ko Samui for the last three days. This island is the biggest of the three and by far the most touristy and developed, which isn't a good thing. There is a few McDonald's, Starburks, Burger King....everything. We've staying in a gorgeous hotel though, which is lovely after backpacker accommodation! It was a perfect place to stay when we went to the Full Moon Party on the 20th, which was on in Ko Pha Ngan. We only had a 20 minute speed boat trip (which was class itself) and we were right on the party beach. It was a great atmosphere, with thousands of people dancing and drinking on the beach. Then we had the Champions League Final last night (which finished on 5 a.m. our time). I think we probably woke half the hotel when we were celebrating!!
So back to Ko Pha Ngan for another few days tomorrow and then to Bangkok. We fly out to Beijing on the 31st May to start our few weeks in China. We'll try to put up another update before then.
Kerry xxx
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