'Koh Lanta Banta'`'

Koh Lanta  29/06/13 - 02/06/13

We arrived off the night boat into Surat Thani at 5am and were all crammed into tuk tuk's and taken to a travel cafe where we waited for our bus to Krabi and then onto Koh Lanta by ferry. When we made it to Krabi there was some mix up with our bus and although all the other travellers had left we were stranded here for 3 hours. This is to date still the worst and only problem we've really had with transport so I think myself lucky :).

We'd already booked ahead with accomodation here as a giant friendly Thai lady insisted it would be cheaper and easier as we would be dropped off right at our chalet (It's a pretty big island). When we arrived it was pretty stunning, the warm sun made an appearance for most of our time here which we were thankful for, as I have mentioned before the west side was mostly rain and gloomy skies which made it hard to get out and do anything!

This was the view from the bar/restaurant where we stayed, we could see the beach and the sea from our chalet, we chilled on the futons for a couple of hours just watching the waves and chatting about all sorts of rubbish.

  It was called the friend'ship' bar which reminded me of where I work at home :)

We took a stroll along the beach in the sunshine, it was really pretty. One of the better beaches on the island.

In the evening we rented a baby pink moped much to Olly's delight, it was mostly so we could use it the following day to explore what Koh Lanta had to offer. 

He really was happy...

The next day we took the moped all around the island we came across some stunning beaches and we found a quiet little town where the sea gypsies worked. We had lunch and took the moped south of the island where there was a national park. We found a beautiful secluded beach here and chilled out while the waves crashed against the rocks. It was very peaceful.

This is dried squid, this stuff is the thing of nightmares and violates my nostrils. Avoid it at all costs

Everywhere around the island were tsunami evacuation points and safety zones a sign that it was still a very real risk, a lot of the land is very low level and was devastated along with phi phi in 2004.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....

A bit of down time with mother nature :)

Our next stop was Phi Phi.

'K total'

Koh Tao 25/06/13 - 28/06/13

Ferry from Koh Pahgnan to Koh Tao took 1.5 hours, I didn't realise how hot and sunny it was and we were both a little pink when we arrived, first impressions of Koh Tao were not so good, it's over glamourised full of westeners and 7/11's!!! The beach on the main side of the island was stinky and dirty, I knew they were famous for their diving though, so maybe this was what drew the crowds. I still haven't been diving anywhere... I'm a bit dissapointed in myself but it's been so expensive everywhere, and up until we get to the north of Thailand (which you'll read about later) we have been soooo tight with our budget. Maybe in hindsight... AHHH! I will do some in Bali I think :) sorry... having a bit of an argument with myself there!!!

Anyway... we wandered around to a few places that had been recommended to us, we got offered one bungalow on the beach for a reasonable price but we were determined we could get better!!! We couldn't ... and by the time we had gone back to the original place all the rooms were taken!!

Another stroke of luck and an old man who loves cheese picked us up in his truck and drove us along the dodgiest road to 'Hinwong Bay' where he owned some apartments. I couldn't help but think while i was being thrown around in the back of the truck... 'I hope there nice because I am not walking all the way back along these steep roads with my 13kg bag... oh god i hope there ok!' SUPRISE! They were beyond beautiful, hanging over the edge of a beautiful bay with clear turquoise water, all modern amenities we had a huge fridge, gas hobs, sofa etc etc.. my favourite was the bathroom where I could stand naked in the shower or have a poo and stare out at the ocean without anyone seeing me, hehehe! Sorry if that put mental images in your head haha...

We were so far away from everything it was really beautiful, but it meant we would have to rent a bike for the few days we were there to pick up supplies and explore the island. I actually had to dismount the moped on the road back as it was so steep and the wheel kept slipping out, the roads were nasty, Olly had mastered it by the second day though :).

On the second day we were going to hire the kayaks but two guys had got there before us, fortunately for us it ended up saving us money as the kayaks were so old they just kept going round in circles. On top of that it took them a good half an hour to actually get into them because they kept sinking, which was amusing to watch. I had to dive down and save his sunglasses at on point!

Instead we hired snorkels and went exploring the bay, I've never seen so many fish (without diving) thousands and thousands of fish, it was funny swimming through them and scaring them all :) mwhaha!!

The last day we spent just hanging around waiting to get our night boat to Surat Thani where we would make our way back to the West (Rainy side) coast of Thailand to Koh Lanta.

The boat was hilarious, just hundreds of backpackers all laid out like little sardines. We hoped we wouldn't wake up to find that we were cuddling some random people, it was actually ok, the waves were pretty rough but we did sleep quite well!

'Just cope and hang'

Koh Pahgnan 17/06/13 - 25/06/13

Before I start, to all my friends who are reading this. WE ARE COMING HERE TOGETHER. Party central, the best weather we had in Thailand, amazing food and on top of that you can rent a bungalow/house on a beach for about 35 pounds a week. It's pure amazing!! LOVELOVELOVE.

This is Baan Tai beach a short walk from our hostel you can see Koh Samui in the distance.

So we arrived quite late after taking the bus to the boat port and then the ferry to the Island, we met a couple of  girls and all chipped in for a taxi to Baan Tai where we found a dorm room for 350 Baht each a night, it wasn't cheap but we decided to go room hunting the next day, all accomodation in Koh Pahgnan doubles if not triples over the days before and after the full moon party so we new we had to do some digging.

H will appreciate the picture below, we left our mark!!!! 

We chilled out in the commune area of the hostel and Olly and I got a few beers, unfortunately we were trying to save pennies and ended up getting some cheap beer that was actually flat and way too strong, i had the worst headache the next day. Because of this we didn't get up to much we took a walk to the beach and went for a swim, but mostly we just watched movies.

We found a slack line outside a club on the beach so we had a few goes, my balance is terrible...

In the evening we went for pizza and I got chatting to the owner of the restaurant, she said she used to live in these bungalows which were just up the road and  cost only 450 Baht a night. We were beyond lucky to find this accomodation as even the dorm room we were staying in would have cost us 1,250 Baht a night each as the prices rose for the full moon party.

When we got there it was amazing just off the main road 3 minutes walk to the beach and we could cook our own food. We had a huge fridge and an on-suite bathroom with a porch area outside to relax in.

Even better was that we were meeting up with Nikki and Jon a couple we had met in Vietnam and they were looking for somewhere cheaper to stay so they managed to move in next door, yay hello neighbours. We spent the evenings chilling out with a few beers, getting ready for the parties and hanging out together the days after it was really sweet. :)

So day 3ish the day of the Jungle party and we decided to rent a moped in the day and explore the island. We found some amazingly secluded beaches, fishing villages, temples, water sports, diving, and some amazing food markets. Again, I love Koh Pangnan.

Below is Had Rin beach where the full moon party is held, quite small considering the 30,000 people they manage to cram onto it, in the distance is mellow mountain the bar where most people end up in the early hours of the morning after the party. Olly and I went up there to watch the sun rise at around 6am and stayed there dancing until gone 10am. 

 

This was in the north of the island, a huge group of bikers on some amazing bikes came roaring past us. This is the tale end of the mass as i couldn't get my camera out quick enough. They hold a motorbike festival 3 days before the party and all the bikers come out in force, it was an impressive site, somewhat similar to an earthquake as the engines all rumbled past us at high speeds. I really want to ride a mean bike one day!!

A man making fishing nets in the tiny village we came across by accident.

In the evening we went to the jungle party, a large rave in the woods, similar to a free party only it's not free. Candles on the side of the road light the way to go as you follow them down a winding road into the jungle, when we arrived colourful UV decor was strung from every branch, The DJ booth was perched between two trees, fire poi and fire staffs were everywhere. It was quite a magical setting and i spent all night dancing, i was so engrossed in the music i barley drank anything. Happy liver!

I don't really have much to report over the next 2 days, I felt a bit ill so we relaxed and sunbathed (well.. tried too, maybe for an hour?)

The night of the full moon party we spent with Nikki and Jon drinking and getting ready with our UV paints. I haven't got any photos of the parties as we didn't take our camera. It was messy to say the least :)

My backwards ? ...

The day after the full moon party we left to head to Koh Tao, in search of a bit of culture. (Yeah....)
Haha, I'll end this post with Jon's beautiful knees. :) :(

'Don't be getting too crabby'

Krabi 14/06/13 - 17/06/13

Having left Langkawi, Malaysia early on the 14th we made our way across the border by boat and into Thailand. I had really high hopes for Thailand as I've heard so many good things about the lifestyle, culture and people. We arrived into Hat Yai south Thailand 4hours after leaving Langkawi and as we haven't been booking rooms anywhere we started to wander around, Olly and I both got the feeling we didn't really want to stay here, it was grubby and dull. On top of that we knew there wasn't much to see here but thought we'd check it out anyway. After an hour of wandering in the rain and finding some nice noodles with beef balls we decided to book a bus to Krabi just north of Hat Yai. We got ripped off but were glad to be leaving.

We arrived in Krabi really late that night and had now been travelling most of the day so we dropped our bags and crashed out. We spent 2 full days here, although there are loads of tours the weather was horrible, torrential rain poured down for pretty much 48hours straight (maybe longer but we had left by this point). Thailand has too opposite rainy seasons on the east and the west coast, so you can at least have some dry spells somewhere. It's low season all over the country as the weather is cooler and even if there isn't rain it's very cloudy. Writing this now, a month since we started our Thai adventures (I know i got behind on my blog again) and i can easily say out of the 35 days we have spent here about 10 if that have been sunny without rain or cloud, we like it this way though as there are less tourists, hostels are cheaper and even in the rain it is still 30 degrees.

So that's Krabi... If you keep reading you'll find out that we actually come back here twice more although we have few photos of it due to the rain and the reasons why we returned.

Unfortunately most of southern Thailand is like this if we weren't hindered by rain we were partying like crazy animals and spending the day recovering, I do have some beautiful photo's of Thailand though some of the islands and beaches were just jaw dropping. Looking back I wish that we had come to the north of Thailand for longer as I absolutely love it here. The trekking is amazing, the jungle is just wild and the tiny hippy towns that are scattered all over the north offer welcome retreats from the crazy alcohol fuelled party islands of the south. 

Any way here are my photos of Krabi... This is pretty much all of them haha.

'Land of the kiwi'???

Langkawi 11/06/2013 - 14/06/2013

We arrived in Langkawi quite late, we managed to find a Hostel with ease, called gecko. The sheer amount of animals in this place was crazy. I think maybe 20 cats, ducks, frogs, lizards and one of the owners had a sugar glider... cute!

Day 1

We decided to rent a moped as it was amazingly cheap and you can do the island with one tank of petrol, which cost the equivalent of 1 pound.
First stop was the steep cable car that lead up to the highest mountain on the island, 700m above sea level, it was actually really scary how steep the climb and drop were. The views at the top were amazing though and i forgot my fear of not wanting to go back down.

This is the sky bridge, unfortunately it was closed for a year to do maintenance, but you can get an idea of how high it is. I think it's featured in an action movie, not sure of the name!

Back on the moped and off to seven wells water fall.

Then to the better waterfall, temurun.

More monkeys. Olly took this photo, amazing shot.

Don't worry I didn't ride the moped, I tried and failed. Even with it being automatic... The helmets are really flattering as you can see!

We met up with a half Malaysian half Kiwi guy who said we could follow him and his tour bus. We went to a night market and then back to his Hotel for a few beers. We were so lucky not to have rain all day. It rained all the next day but I had a stomach bug and was in bed for most of it, I'm still suffering from it now but i have bought some medication and hoping it goes away. 

Next stop THAILAND!