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Thailand, the place where travellers go to rummage around the black markets, whiz up and down the streets on tuktuks and enjoy the potent smells of the food stalls where the chicken has sat for days basking in the sunshine!
We arrived late on Friday on the 17th November, overwhelmed that the taxi to the hotel had only cost us about £3 (we had been in it for an hour). We knew we were going to love this country!
A twin room, all the space we needed, a shower that worked, we felt like we were cheating backpackers, but this was Thailand, a place of fascinating culture where the sterling pound stretched a very long way.
We headed out to the Chatuchak market on the weekend and bought an array of new clothes and Christmas presents. We rode on our first Tuktuk, an unforgetable experience, but little did we know that the tuktuk rides were to get more vigorous later on the trip.
We then went to visit the KoSahn rd, the main street for backpackers and bars. This was an experience in itself, we will never forget the Thai rock band singing 'dohn lhook bachhhk hin hanger', luckily we kept well clear of the famous Thai buckets on this evening.
We journyed up to Chaing Mai on the Tuesday on the night train. We went on quite a posh train, where we enjoyed the company of a lovely Thai lady and her boyfriend who was American (these sorts of relationships became a regular sighting throughout Thailand). Upon arrival at 6am, we met a girl names Rosy, a fanatic photographer. We spend the next 3 days with her and learned how to take some decent photos at long last! Whilst here, we took a trip to the Golden Triangle where the Burma, Laos and Thailand borders meet on a river. We were excited about this, but disappointed when we got dropped off to take the photos. The best viewing point was 1km down the road, which we learned when we got back on the minibus. Why the driver had dropped us here we don't know, but our confidence plummeted on the high hopes of what was to be of the Village tribe visit.
To be frank, it was great to see the Loooooong neck tribe, and the women with black teeth, but the fact they were stood the other side of a market stall was disappointing. We had had enough of markets and this was the icing on the cake. We took some great photos but never got to experience and understand the reasons behind their slightly unusual behaviour.
We decided we were going to risk doing the rest of Thailand just the two of us! no tour guides, no minibuses, no trips to places we didnt want to go!............Out came the Lonely planet Guide! We headed back to Bangkok on the funniest night train we will ever encounter. There was a Party Bar Cabin where we danced down the aisles to the Venga Boys!
We spent a couple more days in Bangkok and visited the Grand Palace and then decided to fly to Krabi on the South West side of Thailand, a lovely town, very up and coming. Although there was terrential rain at one point we enjoyed the beach and the laidback vibe of the South. Less traffic and more sociable. We spend one day diving the small rock islands where we did our first cave dive. We saw sea snakes and other wonderful sealife, a very different diving experience to Cairns.
We then took a bus to the East side of Thailand where we went to Koh Samui for a few days and Koh phan Gan. Here we enjoyed the sunshine and the calm sea. We also undertook the Thai bucket challenge. They were very tasty at the time, but extremely alcoholic, a fun night ended in......well, a paraletic Jo and a fractured toe Lou. Looking back id say that was an achievement!
The full moon party on the 6th December was a top night out. We returned home covered in Uv paint, with glowsticks and some funny memories. With 10,000 people partying on a beach, one can only have a good time!
The 8th December saw us back to bangkok, where we spent the last few days shopping ....again,we risked booking a tour to the Bridge over the River Kwai. It ended up being a fantastice trip, really informative followed by a short trek on an elephant...............................the final thing to tick off on our list.
On our last night we met with Abby and Anna (whom we kept bumping into) and Tim, a perfect way to end the trip. Lou and I chatted about our achievements over the last 9 months, we had fulfilled our dream, we'd experienced so much and we were now ready to return home.
Thankyou to everyone for all your support on this big adventure, Happy Christmas and all the best for 2007!
Lot of love Jo and Lou xx
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