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ok so another cheeky bit of back-blogging is in order. Despite buying a shiny new laptop a few days before leaving Thailand, I still failed to actually use my last few days as intended, to update you all with my news. Bad times.
So here goes- let's see how good my memory is (with a little help from my little book of memories)...
Having flown into Thailand with airport pick up all arranged and a nice lazy organised-for-me week long trip with Thaintro, I'd expected a pretty easy ride initially. I think to say Bankok airport is disorganised would be too kind... having got off the plane, I rounded the corner in the direction of customs, to come face to face with a wall of people. Think school hall, think sardines, think elbows... luckily my elbows are sharper than most so I managed to wiggle my way through the crowds at a reasonable rate into... yet another room/ hall with no order/ queue system at all- I joined a line that appeared to have a customs desk at the front and chatted to some friendly Israeli men (I want to call them boys but they were roughly my age and I should start believing I am a grown up!) foir the further 2 hours that I waited. I impressed them with my 2 Hebrew words and they let me cut in front of them in the line- everyone's a winner! When I got through to the meeting point and found the (not at all obvious) tour guide, Alan, I sat and waited with Matt (a fellow Thaintro-er) for 3 other girls whose plane arrived about an hour before mine but clearly their elbows were not as sharp as they were still stuck somewhere in the sea of people (they told me later they'd joined a line with noone serving at the front. Genius move right there!
We were taken to our hotel and checked in- I shared a room with Kate which was nice and made me miss Laura S (from Sydney). We went to meet the others downstairs and were the last down and the last to arrive full stop so it was a little overwhelming, meeting a group of 14 people who had already met each other... but all good- everyone was lovely :) Quick overview of the group:
Alan- Scottish tour group leader. Not so hot on the organisiation and time keeping but friendly enough.
Lyndsay, Tara and Rachel- travelling together- Lyndsay from Kingston, dramatic and very good fun- a big fan of the inapporpriate car games. Tara- Also drama grad-Irish- pretty loud and proud, a big fan of a strange penguin dance. Rachel- sweet Irish girl with amazing lion hair and a very diplomatic way of talking to everyone.
Jade, Kaylie and Vicky- Welshe- all friends from home, J and K sisters- argued like mad but always got over it crazily quickly- all very confident and funny.
Dom- from... Leeds maybe? slightly quirky, very funny and sweet guy.
Matt- English- bit of a lads lad but a secret softie.
Kate- (Laura's sister) Slighty OTT, but a sweet girl with a very similar outlook on life as me.
Ann-(Scottie)- very no nonsense, good fun girl who shared my occasional 'I'm too old for this' moments.
Kate andCharlie- slightly quieter english girls traveling together- both really sweet. Kate very sporty, totally unable to handle any alcohol without appearing to sleep with her eyes open the rest of the night.
Dave- the unoffial team photographer from somewhere near London, with some right good breakdancing moves!
The first night we went to a lovely little Indian restaurant for food and shisha bubbles, followed by a bit of classy bracelt shopping from a trampy lady in Kohsan Road and a little bit of bug eating (maggots are actually quite tasty!)Matt ate a scorpion and pretended it was nothing, but I caught a quick flash of fear, thanks to continuous mode on my camera! ha! We visited a few local clubs and had a few buckets, followed by doing the macarena on the street at about 3am. A good first night I'd say!
Day 2 was a nice boat trip down the river (via the floating market lady) during which a lovely monsoon hit... we were taken around some temples by a Thai claiming to be James Bond, who bit my arm when he saw my bracelet (it was to get me into trouble more than once!). We got tuk tuks back to the hotel for dinner and went for a few drinks at sky bar, enjoying the views of the city at night and feeling very classy, before moving on to a seedy part of town for a ping pong show.
Day 3: A slighty average cooking class with a lovely Thai lady chef and her annoying Canadian husband interrupting her every 3 seconds despite knowing nothing. We had a bit of free time, so Kate and I went to hit the market stalls of Kohsan Road and barter ourselves some bargains... she panic bought some dresses which she immediately said were ugly and she hated but she wanted to buy something... strange choice but each to their own! Market shopping enthusiuasm nearly made us very late back but the pressure seemed to vastly improve my sense of direction and amazingly we didn't get lost at all going back. We got into minibus taxis with our bags and headed for the train station, where most people left their bags with us 'grown ups' (ha!) and went to find food- we looked after the massive bag pile in a very sensible way, taking turns to hide inside it and be covered by bags, taking photos of our valiant anti0theft efforts! We found our train- an over night-er to Surat Thani- and each found a bed- at first I was actually pretty impressed- it was basic, but the seats were in little sets of 2 on each side, facing each other- each set with a small bunk on top for one of the people and the seat backs folded down to become a bed below for the other.We stuck our bags on the bag racks (see- impressive!) and headed (of course) to the bar, for more grown up entertainment- games of 'who am I' and articulate ensued... The actual attempting to sleep part changed my mind a little about the train- the noise, the broken window next to my head that looked in danger of jumping from its frame, the cocroaches crawling on my pillow and the street lights flashing past the windows don't, apparently, make for a very peaceful night's sleep for people like me- others were fine (grr).
We were picked up from Surat Thani station (I believe... my memory is very hazy here due to the lack of sleep) by a taxi (I napped) and were taken to a random man's house to pack an overnight bag to take to the floating bungalows in Kho Sok National Park- we got back in he taxi minus the big bags and then onto a long boat which took us on a stunning ride through the most beautiful river, with huge rocks and cliffs jutting out of the water- we had a bit of a swim mid way (and struggled to get back on the boat by just climbing back over the side- half of us were a little more bruised than we had been after that!) and headed off to our new homes- the cutest little floating bamboo bungalows ever in the most gorgeous secluded spot- it was basically just us and a junch of Thai people who seemed very keen on their karaoke! HAAAA! Amazing. Loved this place the most out of the whole of Thailand!
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