Thailand - Bangkok and Various Islands

Bangkok

We’d opted to buy an extra flight from Luang Prabang to Bangkok, so that we could get a 30 day visa on entry to Thailand. After the short flight we got the 30 day visa no problem, and then got the airport express bus straight to Koh San road, and walked to our hotel around the corner. After check in we went for a walk up Koh San road itself, which wasn’t actually as long as I had envisioned, but was teeming with tourists, street vendors and bars blaring their music. The Koh San road came as a bit of a shock after the comparatively quiet, laid back way of life we’d seen in Laos. However it was a great place to do a bit of cheap shopping from the vendors (swimming trunks and shorts for the warmer weather), and I could see that if we were looking to party (all night long) with a load of other tourists, this would be the ideal place to do it. Saying that we had come to Thailand with visions of gorgeous beaches in mind, so with time now running out on our trip, we quickly decided that 2 nights would be enough in the busy city of Bangkok, before we headed out again.

The following day I went to get my hair braided on Koh San road, and I mean this very literally - I sat on a plastic chair in the street for 3 hours whilst 2 people stood behind me plaiting my hair. As you can probably imagine whilst this was going on, many a curious tourist stopped to watch and some even took photos of me, although Im not sure what they are going to do with a photo of a complete stranger getting their hair braided lol. Anyway the results made me feel more like I was ready for a beach holiday in Thailand, although my head was suddenly a lot heavier and my neck was taking a bit of strain.

We had planned to try and get our PADI open water diving certification in Thailand, and had read in the guidebook that Koh Tao island off the East coast was the place to do it cheaply, so while I was getting my hair done Steve got us some bus tickets and found a travel agency that was offering a good deal with a dive centre on Koh Toa (result). We did a bit of research on the dive centre, which had some great recent reviews, and went ahead and made the booking to go to Koh Tao the following morning.

Koh Tao

We met the transfer at 05h30 and were taken to the travel agency office, where we were given stickers with a number on them (which would become how seat numbers on the bus, how quaint). The bus took around 6 hours to get to Champon (pretty uneventful), and then we got on to a big catamaran for the 3 hour transfer to Koh Tao island (not too choppy yay). The dive resort met us at the pier, put us and our bags in the back of their sungthaw and drove us to the dive centre to check in.

Our first view of the island was excellent, this is more like it, a small island with a sandy beach and some pale green warm water - lovely! Definitely much more like the Thailand we had pictured than the hubbub of Bangkok.

We arrived on the island around 4pm and had paid for one extra nights accommodation before the 4 day dive course was due to start the following day. So we had a day to go for a walk around and get to know it a bit before the course would begin. Koh Tao turned out to be a beautiful island with a row of beach bars / restaurants and dive centres along the water, and then one road up from the beach a kind of ‘centre of town’ with more restaurants bars and shops (clearly aimed at tourists) and all they would need on a beach holiday. At night a couple of the beach bars had shows of men twirling fire sticks in circles, which was completely mesmerising to watch, and a couple of bars had live music on. It had a pretty laid back feel about it. After the super cheap prices in Laos, the prices of accommodation and food were a bit surprising though. Where were the cheap beach huts and food we’d heard so much about in Thailand? Well I suppose compared to London the prices on Koh Tao were cheap, but nowhere near as cheap as Laos had just been.

But I digress back to the dive centre, where we were taken up to our fan room, which turned out to be a bit of a dive (if you’ll pardon the pun), clearly in need of a refresh with a toilet cistern that leaked water all over the bathroom floor whenever you flushed it (class). Saying that we didn’t spend very much time in our room, as the dive course turned out to be pretty intense.

The following afternoon we went down to the dive centre to start our course, the first day was just orientation and we did some paperwork and then watched 2 videos, before breaking at 5pm. Steve had to run around trying 2 different doctors on the island for a medical history letter to be allowed to take part in the course, and eventually even had to fax our doctor back in London but managed to get it in the end, so the course was on. We also had to read a couple of chapters from the manual for our homework, so we had a pretty late night.

The following morning at 09h00 we met our instructor for the first time and went straight to the kit room to suit up and get in the pool for the confined water work. Now I had been worried that I might not make it off the starting blocks (as those of you who have ever seen me in a pool will understand), and this was very nearly the case, as the first requirement was to get in and swim 8 lengths of their little pool, which was a BIG ask for me, but I managed to do that with a little help from Steve. I’ve always been a pretty weak swimmer and by the end my lungs were on fire and my legs had turned to jelly, but that was the swimming requirement out of the way. Only to be asked to get in and float for 10 minutes. I explained that I can’t actually float, and the instructor kindly said that I could try floating the following day in the sea, as I would be more buoyant there. However as I’d never floated before in my life, I thought this was a pretty unlikely scenario.

But for the time being I had bought myself a bit more time, and it was straight on to the open water skills in the pool. We got in to our wetsuits, weigh belts, masks, snorkels, fins and BCDs, complete with tanks and got in to the pool. The first thing he asked us to do was to take our masks off, put our faces in to the water and breathe through the regulator (ie do not breathe through your exposed nose) and when I managed to do this without choking myself, my confidence grew a little. We spent the next three hours working through all the skills in the pool, which included swimming around underwater without the mask on (thankfully I didn’t have to open my eyes), and by the time lunch time rolled around we were pretty tired out from all the swimming, but had both done very well with the pool skills. Our instructor was very patient and easy going and made us feel at ease with the pool skills. After a quick lunch we had another classroom session to cover another couple of chapters, and we had some more homework to do that night. However having spent the whole morning passing all the pool skills, I needed to learn to float ASAP, so Steve and I headed down to the sea to give it a go. As it turned out I was indeed able to float on my back in the totally flat, salty water by the beach, so I managed to pass the flat requirement afterall.

On the morning of day 3 we were up at 9h00 to fetch our gear and got a boat out to the 12metre dive site for our first dive in the sea (well technically second if you count the intro we did in Sharm years ago). Unfortunately the waves were pretty big and the boat was rocking and rolling, so it wasn’t long before I was feeling nauseous and throwing up over the side of the boat. I felt a bit better about this as I was in good company with 2 other dutch girls. We did 2 dives that day and then went back to the dive centre for some more theory and did the final exam in the afternoon to get it out of the way (only 1 question wrong what winners we are!). Day 4 we got up early and met our instructor at the kit room at 6h30 AM. Then it was on to our third and fourth dives. Again the waves were big and I got seasick, but we managed to complete all our skills, and our instructor gave us congrats on our Open Water qualification on the slate board underwater as soon as we were done. We had a new videographer come along with us for the dives, and as it was Valentines Day he asked us to add a bit of cheese to the tape - it is hilarious. That evening we met up with our instructor and his girlfriend, and had a couple of drinks while we watched the video and congratulated ourselves on getting our PADI Open Water qualifications. Then we had one night in another beach bungalow before we caught a ferry across to Koh Phangan island (2.5 hours). The boat was really busy and we had to hustle to get a seat, as there were a load of people that ended up on deck in the sun.

Koh Phangan (the island of the Full Moon Party)

We arrived in Koh Phangan and got on a sungthaw with a group of other people, and for a 100 baht each we got transferred in to the centre of Haad Rin. Fortunately we had found a website specialising in Full moon party accommodation and prebooked, as walking along the main road all the hostels had already put signs up saying they were fully booked, 3 days before the event. There was a minimum 5 night stay over the period of the party, which was a bit longer than we had wanted, but meant we had more time to party. Our accommodation was a shocker, probably the worst place we stayed in over our whole trip - with ants on the walls and holes in the ceiling boards. There was also a sign asking people not to store their things above the ceiling boards but rather to use the lockers provided. 2 Separate people had already warned us about the rampant theft from bungalows during the party so we stowed our electronics in the lockers at reception.
We had one day lying on the beach, which was surprisingly beautiful. Haad Rin sunrise beach is in a little bay with some restaurants and accomodation that open straight out on to the beach, white sand and again some pretty gorgeous water. Then we had a warm up party on the 17th were we made it to 4am (pretty close) and had a fab time as it wasn’t as busy and you could relatively easily move between bars. At one bar they have 2 guys standing on chairs swinging a long burning rope, with people trying to jump rope underneath. It is actually pretty dangerous because you see a load of peole walking around with their feet and ankles bandaged, where the skin has been burnt off, however again it makes for entertaining viewing and apparently people will try anything when they’re drunk. Then we had one day for recovery on the 18th (we‘re not as young as we used to be), before the actual Full moon party on the 19th (it was moved out 1 day due to a holiday). For some reason Koh Phangan is all about the neon. Its like walking around a permanent 80s revival with neon t shirst, hats and paint in all the shops. I didn’t fancy a neon t shirt as I could ever see myself wearin that back in my real life, but we bought some of the little neon paint pots and Steve painted some flowers on my arm (very impressive), whilst I did a big yellow smiley on Steve’s back that said full moon party (probably easier to see the pictures). During the day there were quite a lot of people walking around, but not spans and we thought it probably wouldn’t be all that busy at the party. We were wrong. It was heaving. I reckon because there are so many taxi boats that bring boat loads of tourists in from the nearby islands (so the amount of accommodation available doesn’t limit the number of people attending). We had a great time at the party, where each bar plays its own music and everyone dances on the beach. There are loads of little stalls along the sand that sell buckets of alcohol (the drink of choice) and we spent a couple of hours at a drum and bass bar which we hadn’t done in years. The funniest / grossest thing is that around 2am the ocean turns in to the worlds largest toilet, and you can see a row of men lined up standing ankle deep in the waves! We did manage to stay on the beach long enough to see the sunrise (as opposed to some revellers that had crashed out in the sleep space provided). However the sunrise itself was a bit disappointing. We had expected the sun to come up over the horizon above the sea, but it actually came up behind a mountain so you don’t so much see it rising, as see it getting lighter if that makes sense. Then back to our luxurious (not) accommodation to get some kip in to the afternoon. By the time we got back to the beach later that afternoon we were surprised to find how quickly and how well the clean up operation had gone. When we left the beach was full of general debris, empty buckets, straws etc, and people still dancing, but by the time we returned the same afternoon that had all been swept away apart from the odd straw here and there. Very impressive. I guess they do it every month so they are used to the aftermath by now. It is a bit strange how this whole beach just revolves around people partying. Its not just the one night of the full moon party, there always seems to be some sort of party going on.

Then we had one more day to try and get the lumo paint off ourselves and then sit on the beach in the recovery position, before we caught the ferry to Koh Samui. I’m pleased to report that we didn’t seem to get broken in to while we were out, although that could have been because we were the furthest bungalow up a pretty steep climb.

Koh Samui

We had to get a private taxi from the pier to Chaweng beach where we were staying. The bungalow was clean (a relief after the last place) but it was a bit out to the way and a long walk to the main road and the beach. We went for a look around though, and it was a nice enough beach, with a main road that sold lots of fake bags and fake jewellery (again very touristy). So on the second day we hired a scooter from the hostel (no licenses required it would seem) and we scooted to Lamai beach for a look around. We decided to book a beach bungalow as the beach was a bit quieter and we would be right on the beach as opposed to a good walk away. Then back to Chaweng for a while longer.

As it was our anniversary the next day we went for an oil massage on the beach, which involved a lot of stretching, and was a bit scary in parts, but was rather good. I wasn’t brave enough to go for the thai massage as it looked like they were trying to hurt people. Later we went for a very expensive steak dinner which was good too, so all in all not a bad way to spend a wedding anniversary on an island in Thailand!

The following day we got a sungthaw across to Lamai beach and moved in to our new beach bungalow (definitely an upgrade). We could hear the waves crashing from our beach bungalow and even had an aircon unit - whoop whoop! So we spent a couple of days sitting by the sea and getting some more sun (or in my case shade). On the last night we hired a scooter and headed back to Chaweng beach for drinks with Connie and Loz (that we met on the Gap tour) and a couple of their mates which was great. Although as we had to be up at 6am the following morning we didn’t stay out late.

Looking back, having been to Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui on the East coast I have to say that Koh Tao was by far my favourite, as it was the smaller of the three islands and was less developed. You get more of a feeling that you were on an island in the middle of nowhere, and less of the feeling that youre in a tourist trap where everyone is trying to make money out of you. Anyway, Mom C had kindly given us a weeks accommodation in Phuket, so we were looking forward to a weeks worth of luxury, which would make a real change after all the beach huts, so we’d booked our tickets to leave the following morning.

Phuket

We were ready and waiting for the transfer outside our hotel at 6h30 AM however, the minibus only came at 7AM, and had to make about 5 stops for other passengers, before driving us over to the other side of the island to catch the ferry. We snoozed through the ferry ride, and then got a bus on the other side, for what turned in to rather Epic and painful journey to Phuket town. We had thought we were getting a direct bus (as we normally do), but after about an hour on the bus they pulled in to a transfer point, and we all had to get off and wait around. They said we’d wait 40 minutes for the Phuket bus, but it turned out to be more like 2 hours before they got us back on the sungthaw and took us to another bus bound for Phuket. I tried asking the guy at the transfer point how many hours it would take once we got on the bus and he said 5 or 6, which meant a 18h00 or 19h00 pm arrival. I told him we‘d been promised a 15h30 arrival by the travel agent that sold us the tickets. To which he just replied, okay you’ll get there at 15h30 then if that’s what you want to hear. Urgh very frustrating! He basically blamed the travel agent for giving out incorrect information and was in no way apologetic, but I think we had missed the earlier bus, or it was full, so they made us wait until the afternoon one instead (there should have been 2). He also wanted to sell us a minibus transfer from Phuket Town to our hotel for 600 Baht which turned out to be a rip off, so it was good we didn’t buy it from him. What a con artisit and a rather unpleasant man. Anyway Phuket was to be the final stop on the bus. But it turned out to be more of a taxi than a bus, as it stopped for everyone and anyone that wanted a ride, however short along the way. Even though the bus was full and there were no seats. At one point they actually stopped to let a load of school children on to the bus, for about a 100 baht each, and then dropped them off further up the road, so we were getting pretty annoyed, seeing as the bus was already running over 2 hours late for us. By the time we eventually arrived in Phuket town it was 19h00 PM, so we were 3.5 hours late! We got in a a taxi and went straight to the hotel. It was fabulous to get a luxury room (space!), some room service and a comfortable bed (no ants!), and it wasn’t long before we were asleep, exhausted from the epic journey.

We revelled in the fact that the room had a TV (with English channels) and a DVD player (it’s the small things!), and the reception had a box full of DVDs that you could watch for free. We made good use of the couch and the DVD player lol. The only trouble was where the hotel was situated, on a road that wasn’t within walking distance of the beach, or the local restaurants (the restaurant in the hotel was very expensive). However there was a free shuttle bus to the beach, so the following day we caught the bus to the beach and there weren’t may people there (great), with a little restaurant where you could get some lunch just behind you. The beach was pretty hidden down a path so people wouldn’t really go there unless they knew about it (hence quiet). The deckchairs were free, the water was warm, calm and beautiful (my kind of ocean). The perfect place to practice my new float! Thanks again Mom C for a great gift. Just what we needed towards the end of our trip.

The next day we hired a scooter and scooted the 40 minutes to Patong to have a look at the beaches on the West coast. Patong beach was manic with side to side sunloungers, and the water was a dirty brown colour (cant see the bottom) where the waves were churning up the sand (yuck). Also no shade on the beach unless you are prepared to pay B300 for a sunlounger. So not particularly impressed with that beach. Just up the road Karon beach was nicer. There were still lots of people and millions of sun loungers but the beach was a bit quieter and the water a bit clearer. Patong is clearly the main tourist strip for Phuket, as the area is heaving with tourists and agencies, which is good if you are looking to book a tour. So we decided to have the scooter for another day and buy some Muay Thai tickets for the Friday night fights.

On the Friday we spent the day around Patong and then went to the fight early to get some good seats. As it was, the ring was practically empty when we arrived so we got to sit exactly where we liked. We were due to see 9 fights that night, and frankly I was a bit concerned that it would be all bloody and gruesome, in which case I might not make it all the way through. However I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually pretty exciting stuff and not as gory as I’d anticipated. I think the dance music they play between rounds has something to do with it. Lol. We were wondering what we had gotten ourselves in for, when the first fight was between two 10 year old boys. No jokes, we saw two ten year olds with six packs really go for one another. Then we saw a couple of, probably sixteen year olds, and then a ladies fight which was pretty good. Before getting on to the main events. There were a couple of foreigners fighting thai guys, and surprisingly some of the foreign guys even won their fights. There were people taking bets, but we didn’t place any. I figured I’d already paid for the ticket, never mind spending more money on fighters that they would know a lot better than I do. In one fight we got to see a knock out. Although it did happen really fast, and I didn’t think the guy looked like he’d been hit that hard, but on the TV replay he’d actually been hit twice from 2 different sides. We did see a couple of people with welts developing on their foreheads were they had been punched. And I was also surprised that we didn’t hear anyone screaming out in pain. But then I guess they have their adrenalin flowing and will probably feel it later. They just carry on fighting as though they havent just been hit in the ribs. Im sure if it was me Id be whining and clutching my side lol. Then it was a rather hairy 40 minute scoot back to the hotel in Panwa, as it had starting raining during the fights (fortunately it stopped before we had to leave), and we didn’t really know the roads, but we managed to find our way back after stopping for directions at a street side café.

We had another day at the beach in Panwa and then decided to book a cabaret show with an agency there. Which meant another big scoot to Patong, but by this point we were getting better at the directions. The cabaret show was surprisingly good. Or should I say that the ladyboys in the show made very convincing women. At one point when there were only 3 woman on stage I found myself wondering if they really were woman afterall, and the joke was on us. They don’t really dance very well (a bit stiff) and their lip synching was off in parts, but the costumes and make up where amazing and it was entertaining stuff. I don’t know where they were hiding their manbits in those little g string feathered outfits, and they’d clearly spent a lot of money on a good surgeon. Actually it was a bit sad to think that all those people on stage had paid a load of money to have their bodies changed, but I suppose that’s their bag and they are proud of their bodies now. After the show all the cast lined up outside for photos with the audience, although that part was really a money making scheme, as they demand cash from you afterwards, so we avoided that and managed to snap a couple of pics from afar. Its only when you see them outside in the normal lights, that you realise they really were men. Even the ones you thought might actually be women on stage. That was our last night in Phuket, as we’d booked a ferry to Koh Phi Phi.

The next morning we were up early and got a transfer to Phuket town at 07h30, and then the ferry to Koh Phi Phi (only 1.5 hours). We decided not to book our accommodation in advance, as the places were very expensive online, and we just arrived with our backpacks on our backs. This turned out to be a good strategy as there are loads of ‘tourist info’ places offering spans of accomnodation as you get off the pier. Koh Phi Phi is really beautiful and I could then see what all the fuss had been about re Thailand. I mean we’d been to some pretty beautiful beaches before then, but nothing compared with Phi Phi. The water was chrystal clear, turquoise, bath water warm, and flat as a pancake. In the distance there were tall limestone cliffs covered in green. Just gorgeous and exactly what we had imagined when thinking about Thailand. Clearly the place were all the travel brochures are shot.
The beaches on Phi Phi were a bit quieter than Phuket, which suited me although if you walk into the main tourist area there are still plenty of restaurants and places to stay for backpackers. The accommodation wasn’t cheap though, as we wanted air con in the heat, so we ended up staying in a not so nice shoe box of a guesthouse rather than a beach bungalow. Still we were only a very short walk to the beach. Steve had food poisoning for the first 2 days (we were starting to get used to the regular bouts of food poisoning, there didn’t seem any way to avoid it really).

On the third day we went on the 4 islands boat trip, which involved snorkelling off a long tail boat (with a car engine strapped to the back) and stopping at some REALLY gorgeous unspoilt white sandy beaches, practically deserted except for a couple of long tail boats. The water in Phi Phi is teeming with life, including sandworms, hermit crabs, snails and schools of tiny fishes swimming around your legs in the shallows. On our boat trip we also stopped at ‘The Beach’ where the movie was shot, but by that point the weather had turned so it was unfortunately overcast. It was still great to see it and recognise the cliffs from the movie. Just behind the greenery was a beach bar and a full on toilet lol. One night we went in to the main backpackers strip for a drink and found the Reggae Bar that Connie and Loz had recommended and it was hilarious. They have set up a muay thai ring in the middle of the bar, and any 2 tourists can get up and have a fight. They give you the minimal of protective gear, and a free bucket at the end which seemed to be enough to tempt people in. We saw a couple of girls fighting, one of whom was absolutely plastered and staggering all over the ring in a white t shirt. The referee took great pleasure in giving her a drink from a water bottle and then ‘accidentally’ spilling half of it down her top! We also saw some guys go at it hell for leather, apparently there is no such thing as ‘going easy’ when 2 drunken men get on stage for a fight and one guy even ended up with his eye swelling shut. Needless to say we weren’t very keen to fight ourselves, but it made for very entertaining viewing. The kind of thing that would never be allowed in the UK due to the health and safety regulations!

We could only stay 3 days on Phi Phi, as we had to get to Koh Lanta, to do our visa run from there, so we got the short ferry ride across for 250 baht each. Not bad apart from the fact that there was a strong smell (and smoke) downstairs where the seating was, so we had to sit upstairs on the deck for duration of the journey.

Koh Lanta

We got off at the pier and Steve was immediately approached by a couple of different men trying to sell their various guest houses. He found one guy who was saying 800 baht for an A/C room on Long Beach, so we got in to his bucky for the free 10 min transfer to Long Beach. When we arrived the bungalow wasn’t quite on the beach, but rather their last remaining bungalow at the back by the garden, but we decided to take it, as we could move to the very front bungalow the following morning (sweet).

Koh Lanta had a very relaxed feel to it, and featured more families with young children pushing prams along the sand, and didn’t really have any big resorts with their loungers out. We had planned to stay a week and then possibly head on to Krabi / Railay island, but as it turned out we ended up extending our stay as it was a very laid back, relaxing sort of place with a nice beach and good food on the cheap. We were also staying at a nice family run set of bungalows with some pretty atmospheric tables out on the beach, that played some chilled out music. We came to realise that pretty much every other beach we’d been to had played dance / pop music, rather than the mellowed strains of Jack Johnson et al, so it was a nice change of pace.

After we’d checked in to our bungalow, we went back to reception and asked if there was a visa run the following day (the day our current visa expired). However we were a bit alarmed to find out that they didn’t actually do the visa runs every day, and the next one was scheduled in 6 days time (ouch). We were concerned that we might not be let back in to Thailand for overrunning by that long, not to mention the size of the hefty fine on exit, so we opted to take a moto taxi in to town to look for another travel agency.

As it turned out we found another agency that was doing a visa run in 2 days time (one days overrun) which wasn’t too bad. So we took it easy for a day and also had a look around the night market, which had some very convincing fake designer bags and as much fake Tiffany as you could shake a stick at. 2 Days later it was on to the nightmare visa run minibus. It collected us around 07h30 and after 4 ferry trips and more than 10 hours sitting in the little van, we returned from Malaysia around 19h00 pm! It was totally uncomfortable as there was no legroom at all, and the aircon was practically non existant in the stifling heat. Not to mention the fact that the breaks off the bus lasted around 20 mins in total all day. By the time we pulled back in to Koh Lanta I had total cabin fever and couldn’t wait to get out of that minivan. That’s one day of my life I’ll never get back. However we did manage to get a new Thailand visa for 14 days that would allow us to stay legally until our flight home on the 23rd March. We did get fined 500 baht each for 1 days overrun, but that worked out cheaper than hiring a private minivan to do the visa run ourselves, or the fine we would have had otherwise upon exit. The actual process at the border is a bit of a farce as you simply Exit Thailand, walk over the road to enter Malaysia, and then walk around the building to exit Malaysia again (2 stamps in hand) you then walk back over the road to Enter Thailand again to get your new visa. Still it has to be done as they will only give tourists a 30 day visa for entry by air, or 14 days for entry overland.

So new visas in hand we had a walk around town and made enquiries about some fun diving off Koh Lanta. We were surprised to find out the cost of the fun dives in Koh Lanta as compared with the prices on Koh Tao (much more expensive) and Phi Phi (slightly more expensive), as most of the dive boats make at least a 2 hour journey back towards Phi Phi to reach the dive spots. However we decided to book a dive with the dive centre that was attached to our hostel, as they rather conveniently left right from the beach outside, rather than having to transfer in to town. We had been to the pharmacy to get some sea sickness tablets for me (eager to avoid a repeat of my open water dives) and were set to go at 07h30 at the dive centre.

It was a pretty comfortable boat (big boat with 2 levels so you could sit upstairs away from the dive gear) and it was to be my first dive after finishing our open water qualification so I was a bit nervous about how it was going to go.

After about 2 hours on the boat, we arrived at Koh Haa (the divespot) and our instructor briefed us and we started kitting up for the dive. However it turned out my BCD (inflatable vest) wasn’t working properly (didn’t actually inflate when you pushed the button), so at the last minute they had to take the BCD off and replace it with another one. After which we were hustled in to the water before we could finish our checks (so not terribly impressed with that). However when we got in to the water we had a fab dive and saw a giant puffer fish and a hawsbill turtle (amongst other things). The water is really teeming with life out there. During the dive I was swimming along and the instructor came over to me, went around the back and felt like he was tugging my BCD from side to side. I didn’t understand why, but after we got up the others told me that my tank had come loose and was floating up behind me in the water (clearly as a result of them having swapped the BCD out in a hurry). We had a small lunch on the boat and the second dive was without incident, with us seeing loads more cool stuff in the water including a pair of lion fish and a very cute baby yellow cube fish (darn, no underwater camera). I had a bit of a buoyancy issue when we got nearer the surface (5m) as I just started floating up to the top when I inhaled despite having no air in the BCD, which was a bit scary, as it can be difficult to get yourself to sink down again, and you are warned about the dangers of popping up to the top like a cork. Basically I need 5 weights instead of 4 for any future dives there. Saying that we have seen more sealife on the West coast, than on the East coast of Thailand and we were keen to do one more dive before heading back home.

One of our days on Koh Lanta we hired a scooter and tried to scoot down south to find the national park. We got a bit lost and ended up at a restaurant called the Panorama. The owner was quite lovely and very helpful, and we could see an island across the water and asked where we could rent a kayak to get there. He said how much you want to pay and we got a kayak from him for 100b and paddled across to our private beach for the afternoon. I mean how cool is that, we were the only ones on the island! Then back on the scooter to see the terminal point of koh lanta, where we got ripped off at 100 baht for a fruit shake as we didn’t ask the price before we drank it (it was about 40 B everywhere else) so they doubled the price.

It was around this time that we met up with the Owens again (that we met in the Galapagos) and we spent our last couple of nights having dinner with them. It was great to have some company for our last couple of days and catch up with them about their travels. We also arranged some diving together to another dive spot in Koh Haa called the chimney. I didn’t like trying to swim through the hole, as my tank was scraping against the rocks and there was a bit of a diver pile up, however you could then swim up to the top and out of the chimney, and the light was very pretty when you go to the top.

That day we saw a yellow seahorse which was awesome and stacks of baby clown fish. Also loads of moray eels, which seems to be in every hole and a ghost pipefish which is apparently quite rare, and would have been impossible to spot had it not been for the instructor. The diving really takes it out of me so I was knackered that evening when we got back. Great to be able to have a second dive day though, which brings my total dives up to 8 now, and steve has done 10.

The next day we took a morning Thai cookery class which was really good. He showed us how to make Pad Thai, Green Thai Curry (and paste) and Chicken with cashew nuts, which have been firm favourites of ours whilst in Thailand, and gave us a little recipe book to take away afterwards.

On our last day in Koh Lanta we hired a scooter again and drove towards the national park, where we found a little beach hidden down a hillside, that only had 6 people on it. It was awesome. That night the Owens were very kind and bought us a farewell dinner, so we said our sad goodbyes to them. They are travelling for another couple of months, with the last stop in London so we are hoping to see them again then.

The next morning we set off on the long journey back to Bangkok. We got a minibus to Krabi, and then another minivan to Surathani (which we weren’t told about), before getting the overnight bus to Bangkok. The bus wasn’t too bad for me as I got a bit of sleep, but Steve was awake the whole way as he just doesn’t fit behind those little seats. Steve had emailed the suit shop in Bangkok, so we had arranged to fetch his suit and my coat before we left.

The bus arrived in to Bangkok at 5am, and we walked back to the same hotel near Koh San road, where fortunately our room was ready so we could get a couple of hours sleep. Then we went for a final suit / coat fitting, and also went to see the MBK shopping centre. Which is a bit bizarre in that it’s a bit like a flea market with little stalls, but inside a shopping centre. We did a bit of last minute shopping and then met up again for the sung thaw back to the hotel.

Then we did the last big repack (whoop whoop) of our backpacks (bursting at the seams, and in Steves case literally), before catching a minibus transfer to the airport for our return flight to London.

And so we came to the end of our 9 month trip around the world! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the blog, as this is the last instalment!

Love to all our friends and family around the world.
Kirst x

Laos - Don Det, Pakse, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang

Don Det

We caught a bus from Siem Reap to Don Dhet, and we were lucky enough to find 2 seats next to one another. The people that got on after us weren’t as lucky, and we had a couple of people standing in the aisle and one man sitting on the stairs for a while, until someone got off the bus and they could have the empty seat. Unfortunately Steve had a dodgy stomach on that bus, so it wasn’t a very pleasant journey for him, but he managed to hold it together okay. The road between Cambodia and Loas wasn’t very good, and although part of it was tarred, it still felt as bumpy as a dirt road. After an otherwise uneventful journey we finally arrived at the Loas border. A guy came around on the bus (that worked for the bus company) and showed us a printout that said a UK passport would have to pay $40 for a Laos visa, which was about double what we were expecting to pay. However he swore blind that as it was an on arrival visa that required immediate processing, it did cost more. I’m still not sure whether to believe him. I reckon he probably paid $20 for the visa and pocketed the other half, but who’s to know. Everyone else on the bus handed over their passports , visa application forms and fees, and rather than bucking the trend, so did we. When we got to the border we didn’t even have to get off the bus, the guy just went inside, sorted out our visas and came back with them inside our passports. Then it was another hour on the bus before we reached the 4000 Islands stop.

We got off the bus in the middle of nowhere and transferred in to a small minivan, which drove us to a port. Actually we were pretty lucky to get in the minivan as the other guys were crammed in to an open backed sungthaw, with their luggage on the roof, and the last couple of brave aussies were on top of that. By this point it was pitch dark and the minivan took us down a little road to a port where we would get on a small boat to transfer across to the island of Don Det. We couldn’t get very much of a feel for where we had landed, as it was pitch dark, apart from a couple of lights on the edge of the river.

I might mention that we’d tried our best the day before to pre book some accommodation in Don Det. However as the online booking website that all the hostels shared wasn’t working, and the phone numbers listed in the guidebook were no longer in service, we had no choice but to arrive in the dark, and walk around with our luggage looking for somewhere to stay.

Steve had read up and found one place that was recommended by a number of travellers, so we asked the guy that was dropping us all off, which direction it was in, and off we raced with our backpacks, leaving the group behind. There is a definite sense of urgency / competition at these sorts of times, when a large number of people are dropped off in a new place, and you are all competing for the same rooms. Nobody really knows just how many rooms there are available, and whether everyone will be accommodated (also the nicest ones go first), so its every man / woman for themselves, and the faster you get cracking to find a room the better.

After asking for directions 2 more times, we managed to find it, and thankfully they did have a room available, although unfortunately not with a river view. The room was very basic, a wooden bungalow up on stilts with a mosquito net over the bed and a floor of wooden planks that you could see through to the ground through. There was also an old fan to stave off the sweltering heat. Oh and an ensuite bathroom (what luxury lol!) with a hand shower that only had 1 cold water tap, and a toilet (not a squat one so again what luxury) that you need to ’flush’ by pouring a jug of water down it from a big bucket! Rustic was not the word. After seeing the basic accommodation, I was wondering what in the world we had come to.

However the next morning when we got up and went to see the view of the river just a couple of doors down, we understood what all the fuss was about. The island is really beautiful and the views out and down the Mekong river are fantastic. We decided to hire a couple of bicycles, so that we could cycle around the island and we got as far as the old French bridge, where we crossed over to Don Khon island to go and see the waterfall there. Although it wasn’t a very tall one there was actually quite a lot of water moving through the crevice which was cool.

On our way to the bridge, we noticed that there were bungalows all the way along the river, although they all looked just as rustic as the place we were staying in. That night we headed back to the hostel for sunset over the river, which was really beautiful. Afterwards we went for dinner in a restaurant overlooking the river and got chatting to some people that were sitting next to us. We ended up spending the night with them, chatting and drinking which was fun. The next day we’d booked to go kayaking, and we did manage to get there for the 9h00 start. In fact, we can proudly say that we haven’t actually missed a plane / bus / train / tour that we’ve booked on the whole trip as yet.

The guide gave us a dry bag to transfer all our stuff in to, a helmet, a life jacket and a paddle and off we went to find our kayaks. Unfortunately our guide didn’t really speak any English (contrary to the advert for the tour I might add). At one point we tried asking ‘So what are we going to see next?’ which was met with a blank look, so we stopped trying to speak to ask questions, and just had a quiet day paddling along the river instead.

It did turn out to be a long day of paddling, and although it was downriver, the water was pretty low so there were long stretches without much current where we were paddling for ages and it was pretty exhausting stuff. Saying that the views were fantastic, and when we stopped for a packed lunch on a big rock in the middle of the river we got to see a number of Irrawaddy river dolphins swimming past us. I might mention that the packed lunch consisted of beef with fried rice in a styrophome container, that had been sweating in the guide’s drybag for a couple of hours ( you might be able to guess where this is going?).

After lunch on the rock it was back in the kayaks, with the sun beating down on us for a bit more paddling punishment, although we were rewarded with a stop at a big waterfall (most volume of water in South East Asia), before they loaded the kayaks in to the back of a sungthaw and started us on the drive back. However we didn’t actually drive all the way back to Don Det as I’d thought we would, the guide had one final surprise in store for us. We were actually dropped off on the far side of the river, so we had to do one final paddle to get ourselves back to Don Det (groan). I have decided that a full days kayaking is not really for me - its somewhat beyond my fitness levels and the novelty wears off around the time your shoulders start to ache and the blister on your thumb starts to set in. Saying that we had some beautiful views and I’m glad we got to see the dolphins.

That night we were pretty exhausted from all the paddling, and tried to get an early night. However following the sweaty beef I’d dared eat for lunch, it was my turn to get food poisoning and I was up all night throwing up - yuck. We did decide to stay an extra day on Don Det, before getting the bus on to Pakse, as it was very quiet and relaxing after the madness of Siem Reap and felt like more of a hidden backpacker destination than a lot of the places we‘d visited. We spent the extra day pretty much lying in a hammock, then eating, followed by some lying around at a low end table with those typically South East Asian triangular floor cushions. We did manage a brief swim in the Mekong in the afternoon which was refreshing in the sweltering heat before returning to the low end table where we met an English couple on a RTW trip and sat chatting to them.

The next day we queued up to get the small boat over to the mainland, and we only just managed to get the first boat out before it filled up. Then we were virtually dumped on the other side of the river to walk ourselves up the hill with our backpacks and find the bus. We managed to find a queue of people sitting outside a shop and showed a man our bus tickets, but he just shook his head and walked away (not to helpful then). We asked another man and he pointed us back down the road we had just come from. Organised chaos!

Eventually we found the right shop we should have been waiting at, and then after an hour or so of sitting around in the sun (Laos time) on the side of the road, a small minivan arrived. After he‘d loaded all the people for the other destinations, he asked the Pakse people to fill up the remaining space. So we climbed in to the back of the minivan, and the guy in front of Steve folded his little seat back down, so that it leaned against his legs (oh dear). About 2.5 hours later (only half an hour late result) we arrived at Pakse and were once again dumped outside a travel agency, with the bus speeding away. So we went inside and asked them to point out exactly where we where on the map in our guidebook. We managed to walk and found a hostel (one of the few times we hadn’t pre booked as there weren’t any hostels on the web). The first hostel we went to that was recommended in the book was fully booked, but the second one we found had space so we were relieved to put our bags down rather than walking around in the heat. I must say I much prefer to have a hostel booked and go straight to it, than wander around the streets carrying all your bags in the heat.

We only had one night in Pakse to break the journey to the capital city of Vientiane, as we didn’t fancy the 6 hour wait in Pakse on the ‘direct’ bus service. There wasn’t really very much to do in Pakse, so the following evening we caught the night bus to Vientiane. It was a sleeper bus and our first and only one in Laos. It was a little different to the sleeper buses we’d taken in South America, in that a ‘double’ bed wasn’t really wide enough for the two of us to lie down shoulder to shoulder, so one of us had to lie on our side to fit in. Thank goodness we weren’t on a ‘double’ sharing with a local stranger as that would have been awful. Apparently they do fill up the bunks, whether you know one another or not. We ran in to an aussie girl that we had met on Don Det, as she was on the same bus (bunk across the aisle) so we caught up with her a bit before settling in. We were pretty much in bed with the covers pulled up by 20h30 as it turned out there were no overhead lights on the bus, so you couldn’t read or play cards. So once we’d run out of conversation it was bed time. The bus did have air con and a nasty little toilet (I suppose better than none) along with a kind of bus hostess that handed out water, juice and biscuits (which we were very surprised with). Despite the cramped accommodation we did manage to get a little bit of sleep before the bus pulled in to Vientiane at 07h00 (only 1 hour late, not too bad). We had booked for one night in a cheap hotel (the guest houses weren’t on the hostel websites again) so we had something to go to. But basically everyone got off the bus, picked up their bags and then transferred over to a sungthaw, which then took us to the centre of town for $2 each. Well they said 15,000 kip each before we got in, and then when we got out and gave them a 50,000 kip note the guy tried to short change us with a 10,000 note for change. We noticed they were trying to extort more money out of nearly every passenger that got off the truck regardless of how much had been agreed upfront.

Then we walked the wrong way for about half an hour, until we eventually got our bearings and made our way to the cheap hotel we‘d booked. It wasn’t too bad, apart from the smell of damp and all the mosquitos (lol) but it turned out to be quite expensive compared with many of the guest houses in the area. So we went looking for a guest house that had a room available for our second night and prepaid so they would keep us a room. Vientiane turned out to be really busy with most of the guest houses fully booked (despite the fact that hardly any have pre booking on the internet). So we had 2 days in Vientiane and I’d like to say that we did something really touristy and went to see their temples etc, but we were a bit templed out, so we tried to get tickets for a local traditional dance performance, but that theatre had closed down (cant have been very good then) so we never did see that. Instead we went for a walk along the new riverfront promenade they are building and later on we tried some street food. This was the first time we were brave enough to have some genuine street food, where they actually cook on the streets, and you sit at little tables on the pavement in the middle of nowhere. I had the thai beef noodle which was very tasty (no resulting stomach sickness either) and Steve had the chicken cashew which was good as well. Its amazing that they can actually cook there in the middle of nowhere, and they even had electric lights hanging from poles above our tables! After dinner we went for a walk along the night market that mysteriously shoots up along the road side come nightfall and looked at their wares, which mostly consisted of very loud travellers handbags, cushion covers and slippers so we didn’t fancy anything.

On the second day we moved to the guest house we‘d paid for (slight downgrade as we lost the TV, but not too bad considering so much cheaper) and full of good intentions, we hired a couple of bicycles and went for a ride around town. We are finding that hiring a bicycle is really a great way to get out and explore a city. However we didn’t make it to a temple, instead we went to a local shopping centre to have a look around which was an experience. We cycled around the shopping centre, which looked like a building sight (we weren’t even sure it was open), until we found a place to tie up our bikes, and then found a tiny entrance between some stalls. It turned out there were 3 floors of little market like stalls inside, so we perused all the fake goods they had on offer. Then we went for a cycle to Laos’ version of the Arc de Triomph which interestingly was built with the cement donated to build an airstrip, and then managed to find our way back home again in time for dinner. Who needs a map when you’ve got a large river running down one side of the city for direction!

The following morning we caught the 09h30 bus to Vang Vieng, which is where people go for the tubing on the river. The whole way along our travels in S.E.A we have seen guys with vest tops for the tubing in Vang Vieng, so we had high expectations of a fun time. Well either that, or one company was handing out a lot of free t shirts! Thankfully it was only 4 hours on the bus to Vang Vieng. We decided not to book a hostel for the night, as the website only had 1 hostel available there and it got some really bad reviews. We would just have to turn up and walk door to door. We were arriving in the afternoon (1pm) so at least we’d be walking around in the daylight.

Vang Vieng

We got off the bus and managed to find a cheap hostel pretty quickly which was good. Then we went for a walk around and found the road that leads down to the river. There were some really beautiful views of the wide shallow river rushing over the stones, with the mountains looming on either side. It was clear that regardless of the beautiful setting, Vang Vieng is a party place for the young backpacking crowd. As it was filled with twenty year olds walking around with writing on their arms (from the previous days tubing), and a number of backpacker aimed bars and restaurants that were playing Friends episodes almost 24/7. That night we booked on to a tour for the following day that went to 4 caves, a Hmong village walk through, and ended with tubing for a couple of hours. The tubing is great fun. You are basically given a large tractor sized inner tube and you climb inside that and float down the river at your leisure, until you come across a bar that you like the look of. Of which point you put your hand up and a barman throws out a plastic bottle on the end of a rope, and pulls you in to their bar for a drink. There’s also music blaring out of each bar (the bars run down both sides the length of the river) and there are rope swings and slides that hang out over the river that make for interesting entertainment. We did see a couple of people in town with their legs / arms in splints, and I’ve no doubt that the low level of the water combined with the buckets of alcohol and the rope swings had something to do with that. We had a fun time, although the weather was a little overcast that day and the tubing was over all too quickly. We met a nice English couple (newly weds) on the tubing tour and decided to stay another night in Vang Vieng, so we could meet them the following day and go tubing again, in the hope of sunnier weather.

The next day we met up with the English couple again at 12h00 but it was still pretty overcast so we decided not to go tubing again afterall. Instead we booked a minivan to go to Luang Prabang that very afternoon. It turned out to be a private minivan journey as there was just nobody else booked on that day. It was a very winding bus journey and we arrived in Luang Prabang around 7pm in the dark, and went looking for a guest house. It turned out there were loads, but a number of them were fully booked or very expensive. After walking around for a while we were relieved to find one with a free room and put our bags down.

Luang Prabang

The next day we walked around Luang Prabang and went down to where the two rivers met which was very pretty. The town is situated on peninsula which makes it easy to navigate and it is an unusual mix of rather cosmopolitan western cafes and Buddhist temples, which means there are a lot of orange robed monks walking around. That afternoon we booked a 2 day Mahout tour, with one night in the elephant camp which I was looking forward to. We’d realised that we weren’t going to have enough time to go to Chiang Mai where the elephant treks normally run from, so I was happy to be able to fit in the asian elepahant trekking in Laos. Luang Prabang also has a great night market so later we had a walk around there and stopped insie for some street food, which was really tasty. It was basically a long corridor filled with different vendors‘ tables of food (with people making or braaing the food right there), and you would buy your food on one side and then sit down at their benches on the opposite side to eat it. The food was so tasty that we went back and ate there again the following night.

The next morning we got up at 6am to see the monks taking alms (rice) from the local people. It was interesting to see the local people kneeling down on mats and holding up chunks of cooked rice to the passing monks (who were all in a long line in their orange robes), and the monk would put it in to a kind of basket they were carrying and rapidly move on. Apparently the donated rice is the monks’ main diet. However it was really early, so we headed back to bed afterwards for some more kip. Later we booked a flight to Bangkok and then we’d arranged to meet up with the guys from the tubing tour (the glory of email), so that we could share a tuk tuk to a massive waterfall for the day. The colour of the water at the waterfall turned out to be really beautiful and it had multiple levels with pools that you could swim in (although a touch cold). There was also a bear sanctuary there were we got to see some black moon bears which was pretty cool.

The following morning we went on the mahout course. They were meant to pick us up at 8h00, and at 08h30 a man rolled up, whereupon he just walked us down road to their offices, with us carrying our bag - humph. After another wait we got a minivan to the elephant training camp, where we checked in to our rooms overlooking the river (great views) and got changed in to our standard issue blue denim mahout outfits (hilarious). Later we got to ride on the back of an elephant in one of those big box seats. Then we got to learn some of the Laos mahout commands (Bai means go!) before riding on the back of the elephants necks which was great fun if a little scary. I half expected the elephant to shake their head, or put their head down suddenly which would have resulted in a big fall, but they were very well behaved and did none of the sort. Steve and I were riding on the biggest (lead) elephant of the group knicknamed Katoey. Katoey is the word for ladyboy, as although he was the biggest male in the heard apparenty he showed no interest in the ladies lol. Later we went to see Henri Mahouts grave site which was a total non event and after a spot of lunch were in for some real fun. We got back on the elephants necks and rode them down to the river, were it was their bath time. Or our bath time depending on how you look at it. You are sitting on the elephats neck and their mahout is standing on their back behind you, shouting commands like Bon Bon, which basically causes the elephant to dip down in to the water or spray water over its head from its trunk, totally soaking you. It came as a bit of a surprise that my elephant was a snorkelled and insisted on dipping his head completely underwater each time, rather than just spraying water. I actually fell off the elephant a number of times and the trainer had to drag me back on to his back again. At this point Steve was on another elephant next to me, and his clearly loved the water and was going mental throwing his trunk in to the water and liberally spraying water over Steve - awesome fun.

The next morning we got up at 06h00 to meet the elephants and take them back down to the river. They were covered in sand from having chucked it on to their own heads the night before. So we had one last ride on the elephants necks in the early morning light. However we opted out of bathing them as it was just too cold and we couldn’t face the freezing river water that early in the morning. We had some brekky and lay about until 11h00, before we we kayaked back to Luang Probing ( I know, I know more kayaking but they promised me a shorter easier paddle this time lol). We stopped at a couple of villages and saw blacksmiths making knifes and cow bells out of steel and some women weaving with wooden looms which was pretty cool.

When we got back to Luang Prabang we picked up our bags at the travel agency and took a tuk tuk to a new hostel (cheaper and on the river), that some friends had recommended. That evening we met up with the Owens family, who we’d met in the Galapagos and had a great time catching up over dinner in the night market.

The following day we put a load of laundry in, and then visited the national musuem which is the old kings palace. The mosaics in the throne room made of Japanese glass on red painted walls are really beautiful. There was also a gorgeous gold temple at the entrance of the museum with the usual pink borganvillia tree flowering outside. Then we went to a Wat (temple) overlooking the river, which was beautiful too and had more of the glass mosaics, and the funerary building which was painted in gold. We saw some monks that were resident at the temples looking out of the windows, and some of them are pretty young. Apparently most men in Laos will spent at least a few months in a temple as a monk at some point in their lives.

That was pretty much it for our time in Luang Prabang, and Laos for that matter, as the following day we had a 05h30 pickup for the airport to catch our flight to Bangkok. Our next and final country stop would be Thailand! Bring on the relaxing time in the sunshine with the beautiful beaches!

Love to all at home,
Kirst x