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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Since our last blog we have celebrated Christmas in Phuket, travelled east to Koh Phangan and then made our way to Thailand’s capital to see in the New Year. Our time in Phuket was very relaxed. We met up with Nic & Si once more and enjoyed a few days of sunbathing, Thai massages and cocktails in a beautiful resort in Kamala Bay. Although very different to a traditional Christmas back home it was great fun and we developed a taste for Pina Coladas in the swim up bar! The resort was located right on the beach and boasted 12 swimming pools and we had a nice room with a balcony facing out to sea. However we were all very aware that the whole bay had been devastated by the 2004 Tsunami and on Boxing Day memorial services were taking place all along the beach to commemorate the tragedy 5 years on.
From Phuket we took a bus from Phuket Town to the harbour town of Surat Thani on the east coast where we spent the night. In the morning we got a ferry to Koh Phangan, a lovely island about 2 hours ferry ride off the coast. We got off the ferry to be greeted by lots of taxis/tuk-tuks and as we had not booked accommodation decided to just choose a beach and go with one of the crazy taxis! We chose Hat Yao on the west coast which turned out to be a beautiful beach and had a nice balance of places to eat/people but that wasn’t too noisy. We walked along the beach road and struggled to find anywhere with rooms available until we reached a hotel called Bay View resort at the end of the beach. We ended up staying there and paying about £30 a night- a little more than we would have liked ideally, but it was a great place. It looked out over the beach and had lovely rooms with nice breakfasts and a nice pool overlooking the beach. We had a very chilled 3 days there lounging around on the beach and by the pool but on our second day decided to venture off to the other side of the island for a look around. The easiest way to do this was to hire a scooter-something I (Laura) had sworn to never do, we decided to brave it and made sure we had a decent bike with helmets and made our way on the windy but quiet roads going very slowly around 30km/hr! We had a good day looking around and saw a bit more of the island.
After a few relaxed days we set out on a long journey all the way to Bangkok. We had booked a joint ferry-bus combo as it was the easiest way to do this. We got the ferry which was very relaxed but then after we got back to the mainland it all went a bit pear shaped. To keep it brief we basically had to wait around in a not very nice “bus station” (cowshed) for a few hours. When we finally did get going we were taken to a random restaurant where we spent an hour or so before being picked up by the bus. On arrival in Bangkok at 5am we made our way to the hotel only to realise when we got there that Laura’s main bag had been rummaged through during the bus trip. Luckily nothing was taken and we slept from 6am until about 2pm when we awoke and explored some of Bangkok. The area of Sukhumvit where we stayed was a little bit interesting to say the least and full of bars with single western men and much younger Thai women (need I say more)!
In the evening we headed to Central World Plaza to celebrate New Year which was great fun and very busy. We also managed to meet Paul, a guy we had bumped into in Krabi. We met him in a nearby bar and had fun chatting until the early hours of the morning. Yesterday we had a lie in after a late night new years eve and eventually headed off on a bus to Aranya Pratchet a town near the Cambodian border where we found a nice family run motel to stay in. Today we are off to Cambodia feeling refreshed after our first proper night’s sleep in a few days! Will write again from there in a few days.
We hope everyone had a great new year.
Take care,
Laura and Stani xxxxx
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