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Koh Phangan:
Friday 13th May (yes unlucky... we know), after another prolonged mini bus journey, with a quick 'service station' stop where Siobhan's squatting toilet session was interrupted by her phone ringing loudly in front of all the queuers, we finally made it 12 hours later to our sea view bungalow on Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan. Considering the pretty negative descriptions we had heard about the island, we were presently surprised to see the beach was pretty cute despite all the nightime beach happenings.
Full moon week absolutely flew by and was generally filled with vodka buckets, pool parties and dancing on the sand trying to avoid the fire throwers. We met some lovely/banterous Irish and Danish girls and were kindly accepted into their tanning brigade (!) and crashed their luxury swimming pool on the days when we weren't too hungover or sunburnt to soak in the rays.
The nights were crazy and we now feel slightly up to date with the UK chart scene. The fire activities were pretty something and so many people were roaming round in bandages, hence the number of clinics about (we even saw one place that gave free t-shirts out to patients). Thankfully escaping all injuries (minus Kate's disastrous/drunken fall up the ladder to our hotel which left the biggest bruise we've ever seen) we had a pretty fun week. Full Moon Night on the Wednesday itself was excellent, absolutely coated ourselves in fluorescent paint and danced until the sun came up but we have to say the nights leading up to the Full Moon were unbeatable.
Krabi:
Friday 19th we got up at 5am (no joke) and strolled down the beach past all the people still up enjoying themselves starting our journey back to Krabi where we were to meet our friend Ellie the following day. The coach journey was horrendous, we were on a local Thai bus with each row seating three rather than two people, not to mention the 40 odd people stood up along the middle (us being 2 of this 40). The guy that was standing up next to us kept falling asleep on us, slightly awkward to say the least.
Our hotel Ao Nang Cliff Resort was in a gorgeous location right next to the cliff side with an amazing (and peaceful) pool. Two or three stunning green feathered peacocks lived around the pool and flounced round fanning their tales, they weren't shy either. Ellie arrived on Saturday bring vast amounts of excitement, her first words to us being 'wow you both look so brown!' score!
The following day Ellie had an uncomfortable run in with her first lady boy, officially in Thailand. We also got a photo with Lisa the monkey who was so cute and baby like, we declined when we were asked to pose with a lizard... too far. The breakfast (free!) at the hotel resturant was amazing, Kate is now openly choosing scrambled eggs on various menus and put it this way, the pancakes at the hotel were better described as cakes…. amazing! The bars around Ao Nang in Krabi were interesting and varied to say the least, we went to one where two fully grown straight men were playing pool in tiny lycra pink and yellow hot pants with a pouch in the front for their wallets and phones. Don't think this was a dare either.
Koh Phi Phi:
After a few days in Krabi we caught a ferry over to Koh Phi Phi (a stunning island where The Beach was filmed- yes we avoided swimming in the sea to avoid sharks for this reason). After a sweaty search for accommodation we eventually found a lovely hotel with an infinity pool overlooking the sea, the only downside was that our room was at the top of a pretty steep hill with loads of steps. This resulted in very toned legs by the end of our stay on the island.
We went out for Mexican food on our first night and started straight away on the buckets. We later found the restaurnt's rooftop bar where we drank more buckets, cocktails and the odd tequila, got involved with beer pong- Siobhan displayed her 'defending' rule resulting in knocking all the cups on the floor and doesn't remember the rest of the night as of this point. We then continued on to the beach party where we danced again with our toes in the sand before Siobhan attempted to steal pizza toppings from the food stalls whoops.
The next few days were filled with a lot of sunning and swimming along with continuous streaming of movie channels, great food and happy nights. Every other shop on Phi Phi seemed to be a tattoo parlour- we met quite a few people who unfortunately couldn't remember getting their tattoos done due to alcohol induced circumstances (Hangover 2 style).
On our last night in Phi Phi, we managed to acquire a drunk (or most likely drugged) Russian girl who couldn't remember where she was staying, we spent hours with her hoping she would sober up but when it got to 7am we realized she generally didn't want our help so we ate Pringles on the way back from the police station and went to bed. On the plus side, after trying her best to find its rightful owner, Siobhan landed herself with 80G Ipod that she found on the sand that night.
Bangkok:
Last Saturday we sadly left Phi Phi and flew to the mental city of Bangkok. We arrived on Khao San Road amongst the evening chaos, quite intimidating whilst carrying our backpacks and not too sure on direction. The next few days involved more eating, lazing by our rooftop pool (!), drinking in open air acoustic bars and copious amounts of shopping in numerous markets. We even got to see The Hangover 2 in a stylish Bangkok cinema with springy reclining premium seats. Ellie's final day on Tuesday was filled with cultural activities, we visited the palaces and temples of Wat Phraew Kaew and also a 43 metre long reclining gold Buddha, stunning. After another night market and our last Thai meal together it was sadly time to say goodbye.
Kanchanaburi:
On Wednesday, after a delayed wait in the sun with all our bags and being fobbed off by yet another Thai man, we eventually got on our minibus to Kanchanaburi for some more family history in a town north west of Bangkok where the Bridge over the River Kwai was built.The sun was even hotter here so we had a drink on the floating restaurant beneath the gorgeous bridge before walking across it. The following day, after a rather horrific ant encounter (Siobhan woke up to thousands of ants swarming around in her backpack) we set off for a safari park where we got to see a rather aggressive crocodile show and then loads of cute elephants, parrots, tigers, lions and giraffes (Kate kissed one!).
We're now back in Bangkok and the contrast between our ant infested tiny twin fan room in Kanchanaburi and our luxury Bangkok Centre Hotel room is striking to say the least- another bath and the most comfortable beds ever! After mistakenly getting here a day early for our Cambodia tour and discovering our names weren't down on the list, we now have extra day to use at our leisure before leaving for Cambodia on Sunday.
Brown Rating: 25% with Ellie's contribution
Lots of Love
Kate and Siobhan
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- comments
Andrea Sounds fabulous girls... Although I note there are a few ommitances from your blogging!! Beautiful weather at home today. Too beautiful for revision! Keep save and enjoy your tour xoxox
Mum/Ginny Thanks girls - don't want to know about the ommitances until you're home! xxxxxxxx
Andrea Kates mum - it's nothing very rude/dangerous! xox
Chris and Cath - Siobhan's mum and dad Very jealous. Sounds a brill place. Keep safe and enjoy Cambodia. By the way its 28 degrees in Leyland today. Siobhan - have you learnt how to whistle Colonel Bogey yet?