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