Christmas and New Year in Thailand

21/12/09

Early taxi to Cochin airport to catch our 8.30 flight to Mumbai, then a 5 hour wait in Mumbai airport before our flight to Bangkok.

Both feeling groggy and slightly disappointed with the entertainment at Mumbai airport we decided to have a bite to eat. We couldn't believe it when we saw KFC, it was like a mirage we hadn't had fast food for what seemed to be a lifetime. It wasn't as greasy as the chicken at home but we still managed to demolish four pieces of chicken and a Zinger burger - god bless the colonel.

After a small delay we were soon heading to Bangkok on Thai airways. I love this airline; good food, service with a smile and good entertainment. We both played a bit of super tennis before selecting our movie from a comprehensive list (Transformers 2).

The flight seemed relatively quick and we breezed through the notorious Bangkok immigration check point, before we knew it we were in a taxi heading towards Khao San Rd. Checked in to Thai Cozy guest house just off Khoa San where Jenny the transvestite receptionist greeted us. It's quite difficult to differentiate gender with some lady boys, but the only feminine thing about Jenny was her (its) name. It was late and we both felt a bit grim however we decided to go for a quick drink as we'd be leaving on the overnight bus the following evening. The Rd was heaving with backpackers, locals, touts and transvestites; we'd both visited the road before me 6 years ago and Lloyd 2 years ago but it was never this busy. We had a few beers in a busy Irish bar, enjoying the music and crowd.

22/12/09

We woke up and had our complimentary breakfast, fried eggs and toast, this breakfast was really tasty and better than any of the breakfasts in India, we were both looking forward to eating Thai food as we'd eaten curry everyday for 21 days. We booked our overnight bus to Koh Phangan Island for the same evening so we had until 8pm to play around in Bangkok. We shopped most of the day buying new sunglasses and a number of bracelets before heading for a massage. We paid £8 for a two hour Thai massage, my muscles were aching and my back felt like it needed cracking so I told Nancy my problems, she replied 'welcome to hell'. Nancy looked quite big and scary but I soon realised she was a laugh and well trained in the art of massage. After my massage I felt loose and relaxed and floated around for the rest of the day.

19.40; we headed to the bus stand / shop and waited in a large queue to register before jumping on the air conditioned bus. The bus was roomy with reclining seats and plenty of leg room; we tried to sleep but struggled.

23/12/09

5am we arrived at the Jetty but had to wait a couple of long hours before we could board the catamaran to Koh Phangan, which was really annoying and you could see the frustration in everyone's sleepy eyes. We chatted to an Australian couple and Mario a Brazilian dude we'd met at the bus stand, we all had red eyes but knew later that day we'd be basking in the sun.

The catamaran was pretty bumpy and about three people threw up their early morning breakfast, I felt a bit queasy but soon found my sea legs.

We made a drop at Koh Tao then on to Koh Phangan arriving about 10am, legs feeling a bit wobbly and slightly disorientated we jumped on the back of a Jeep stopping off at a nearby resort (Sunset Resort) which accommodated us. £9 a night (900 baht) was a bit on the steep side but this place was like paradise and the view from the bar and restaurant priceless. Had our first Thai curry and a beer at the chocolate bar, which must be one of the most chilled out bars on planet earth. We lay outside on a balcony filled with cushions, I knew I had to get back to my room or I'd be waking up outside like one of the locals.

24/12/09 Christmas eve

After a lengthy sleep we decided to hire bikes and head to Haad Rin which is where Mario was stopping. Haad Rin is pretty commercial and not my cup of tea, however its party central and its Christmas tomorrow so we decided to attend a half moon foam party later that evening. We cruised into Haad Rin on Honda road bikes, everyone else had mopeds but I fell in love with this bike so paid a bit more (approx £6). My bike was throaty and sounded ace, it was effortless to ride and by far my favourite so far. The roads here are a lot smoother than India but unbelievably steep and windy, I'm surprised people made it up the steep gradients on mopeds. We had a couple of beers with Mario and planned our meeting point for that evening before returning back to Sunset Resort, stopping off at the Masons arms 'English pub' for a pint of cold Guinness and game of pool. The owner Sean recognised Lloydy from his last visit two years ago, he must have made an impression.

Later that evening we headed back to Haad Rin to meet up with Mario and celebrate Christmas with a few thai buckets (plastic sandcastle buckets filled with ice and liquor). From what I remember the night was a blast but we definitely paid for it the next day.

25/12/09 Christmas Day

Feeling hung-over we managed to get out of our pit and opened up a couple of Christmas cards together. It was really nice to read our Christmas messages; even though it's like paradise here I would have rather been at home for the day, especially after Skyping home and seeing my family and Melx.

We had Christmas dinner in the Masons arms (turkey with all the trimmings) it was good but nothing compared to my mums.

We lazed around for most of the day before crashing in the chocolate bar wondering whether we could stomach another beer, the owner (Jack) had a guitar so I decided to grab mine. When it quietened down he turned off the music and came and sat with us, we played a number of songs together and gelled pretty well. Jack was like a duke box he played song after song whilst I played lead over the top. Other people in the bar sang along and even though I'm quite shy when playing in front of others I was soon performing with a big grin on my face. The guitar case is quite bulky to carry but its time like these when travelling with a guitar is definitely worth it. We played until the early hours of the morning before calling it a night.

26/12/09 Boxing Day

Spent the full day relaxing at Sun Set Resort. Every day since we started travelling we'd been making the most of our days, however we were still drained from the Christmas Eve party, two days to recover we must be getting old, or partying too hard (most likely). Spent most of the day detoxing, playing frisbee and sunbathing, all in all a splendid bit of recuperation before hiring bikes again tomorrow.

27/12/09

After breakfast we decided to walk into Thong Sala town to hire bikes. The last place we hired the bikes from had an array of bikes and they still had my passport so we went there first. It was a double disappointment my Honda CBR had gone and the non speaking English Thai women didn't know where my passport was. After about ten minutes trying to explain and getting pretty frustrated she eventually said 'ahhhh Honda CBR' and remembered me, she went to the back of the store and retrieved my passport phew.

It had taken us half an hour to get to Thong Sala in the blistering heat; we then spent another half an hour trailing round looking for decent bikes. Eventually we settled for a Kawasaki KX 250 and a Honda Degree 250, we were both pretty quiet before setting off knowing that these motocross bikes would be the most powerful things we had ridden on the roads (350 Baht per day approx £7).Koh Phanghan is well known for its hairy roads with many tourists coming off on the sandy hairpin bends and off road tracks, an injury here is known as the Koh Phangan tattoo, I didn't want my body branded with such a scar.

We both nervously set off in a slow manner but soon gained enough confidence to open the bikes up on the straights. It felt amazing passing past all the other tourists on mopeds, we could just squeeze the throttle and past them within seconds. I had to keep reminding myself that I was an inexperienced rider riding on unfamiliar dangerous roads, however what started off to be fear turned into a silly grin which I kept on my face all day.

After fuelling up the bikes (300 baht £6) we visited Phaeng waterfall and trekked to the top, the waterfall was quite disappointing as it was more of a fall without water but the view point made up for it. Trekking back down was quite hard work we hardly spoke to each other as we were gasping for a drink. After an ice cold coke we headed to Paradise waterfall which was a little better, but after seeing Jog falls in India, more of a trickle.

It was getting late in the afternoon 15.00, so we headed to the Amsterdam bar for lunch. Both glad we had crossers we belted up the steep climb in first gear shifting our weight to the front of the bikes to prevent us flipping them. We couldn't believe there were scooters at the top; God knows how they made it up there. After eating some really sloppy Thai noodles which resembled slimy snot we rode up the coast to Koh Ma Island stopping off at an elephant sanctuary to feed the elephants. The elephants were ace but we both didn't like how they were chained to the ground, I'm contemplating going back one night in my Ace Ventura costume and unleashing the beasts.

18.00 It was getting dark now and we didn't have brake lights or indicators, in fact if you amalgamated both our crossers you still wouldn't have a road legal bike but this is Thailand, a place where anything goes and anything is possible. On our way home we stopped off at the Masons arms to watch a live band and sip an ice cold Guinness (which was more expensive than home) we then popped back into the Amsterdam bar for a bottle of Chang before heading back to Sunset Resort for Seafood pizza and Thai curry. Later that evening we retired in the chocolate with two German lads (Daniel and Johannes) and the rest of the locals Jack, Sarah and co.

28/12/09

We wanted an early start so we could ride north back to Koh Ma for an early morning snorkel session. To get to Koh Ma you have to drive off road on dirt tracks, this is when the bikes came into play. A few people were struggling on their scooters but no match for our bikes; we left a big trail of dust behind us, unfortunate for the rest of the traffic.

We hired flippers and made our way to Koh Ma. Koh Ma was linked to Ko Phangan by a small strip of sand, this short distance walk would be more difficult at high tide, but fortunately for us it was relatively low so we could easily wade our way to the picturesque island.

We perched on a rock and put our flippers on before launching ourselves in. It was quite cloudy and felt a little cooler than previous days however the water felt warm and invigorating. The first thing we noticed when submerging our faces into the water was the complex shapes of corral below us. There were plenty of fish around, we could swim into them and separate the large shoals before they'd regroup again. We saw angel fish, barracuda, neon's and many more I couldn't name, we decided to try and swim around the island. The further round we swam the choppier the water became and visibility was now decreasing, the next thing I knew I felt a tingly feeling all over my back and shoulders, I could see Lloydy to my right also itching. We were swimming through weed which was at the top of the water, I knew whatever was attacking us was amongst the weed. I took a deep breath and swam down kicking hard, when I submerged the weed was now behind me and the electric feel had almost gone. We were told later that at the back of the island there was a large amount of Jelly fish and jelly fish larvae (sea lice) with stinging cells. We were quite fortunate that our skin didn't react with the bites. After that incident we headed to the bikes swimming back through a labyrinth of plantation and coral.

We headed north and spotted a sign to another view point which wasn't on the map so we decided to go off road to try and find it. The paths were getting very rough and the climb was unbelievably steep, both our rear wheels were slipping but we needed to keep accelerating, stopping on this climb would have been disastrous, eventually I made it to the top forehead running with sweat. We climbed up some steep steps and found a tree house bar / viewpoint, perfect ice cold drink and Pink Floyd playing in the background; with surroundings like these you couldn't play a more fitting soundtrack. I don't know how high we were but pretty high, we chatted to a couple who had somehow passed us on the way, his bike had chunky tires and he looked like he'd been riding all his life. The tree house was gorgeous with a floor made from palm trees and a swing hanging below; it reminded me of Ewok village.

We then had to make the hair raising decent, If I was off roading in a car I'd select the lowest gear / ratio and drive down the slope not touching the break or clutch, so we adopted this technique with the bikes. I started off well but the slope was getting steeper and my speed was increasing so I applied a bit of pressure to the rear break knowing full well if I touch the front I'll be on the floor in an instance. We managed to skid / ride down the majority of the slopes before hitting deep sand and stalling, the worst was over and once we'd snaked through the sand we were soon on tarmac again.

We rode further north to Ao Chaloklum then to Haad Knom knowing that we'd run out of road pretty soon. On the map the road finishes but then after a few hundred meters starts again, we figured at this point we would just off road. The roads at this point were lovely, quiet and great fun then all of a sudden nothing, the road just stopped as though it had been bombed. From tarmac to rocks and rubble we could see that other bikes had dropped off the small ledge onto the dirt track so after a little hesitation we dropped off and drove down the sandy track. Our bikes were all over the place and the track was just too loose for our slick like tyres so we turned around and returned back to the road but we were now faced with having to get back up the ledge. I took a small run up and managed to get the front onto the tarmac but the rear wheel was slipping, take two was the same I had to hit it harder but ifI messed it up I'd end up falling into the rocks with heavy bike on top of me. We built a step from stones onto the ledge and I pushed my bike back a few metres before taking a small run up and hitting the step at speed, the bike bounced back onto the road and the tarmac below felt so nice. Lloydy took a lengthy run up and joined me back on the road, my forehead was sweating so much and my legs feltshaky we were hungry and very thirsty so we rode to the famous food market at Thong Sala.

I could have eaten anything and we did, starting off with eight fried chicken feet followed by noodle soup and meat kebabs washed down with a fresh fruit shake (pineapple and strawberry). All very tasty - even the chickens' feet, they just look slightly disconcerting.

Fully charged we got back onto the bikes and headed North East as we were unable to visit this area because of the road coming to an abrupt end. This area seemed to be predominately off road, we couldn't believe people were trying to ride the tracks on peds, we past endless people pushing their bikes up and down these steep tracks. We stopped off at another waterfall; this one had a bit more water and a nice pool to take a dip in, it felt great washing the off the salt and sand in this cool secluded pool

When we got back to Sunset Resort all I wanted to do is get into bed for an hour after an adventure packed day, however the local lads wanted us to play beach football and we felt obliged to play. We played three aside for about an hour using canes for the narrow goals. There were more people watching than playing, it was nice to play on this narrow bit of sand whilst the sun was setting however I'll be sticking to proper grass pitches in the future as I've cut most of my toes ouch.

I thought the Thai lads would have been pretty poor at football but they were pretty quick on the sand and must have leather skin on their feet to play for so long; we all ended up back in the sea to cool down and wash the blood from our toes.

After fried chilly and onion washed down with a few bottles of Chang and Singhar I was ready for bed.

29/12/09

I got out of bed like a cripple, yesterday was none stop and my tired legs were full of cuts and bites, after a shower I felt a bit better and we headed to Thong Sala for breakfast. We had fresh fruit followed by mixed meat kebabs, 'insides of a chicken' - kebab (which wasn't that bad it tasted a bit like kidney) washed down with fresh juice (lemon and ginger) all for about 100 baht (£1). Our only concern was that when we threw a bit of meat to the begging dog, it sort of looked at us thinking 'I'm not eaten that s***', I picked it back off the floor and swallowed it (joke).

After a stroll around the shops we dropped the bikes off. After a thorough examination of our bikes we were handed back our passports.

We walked back to our resort via the beach which was a much nicer walk than the roads, we had to wade most of the way but this was refreshing as the heat was pretty intense. Back at Sunset resort we had more food fried pineapple and squid and an ice cold milkshakes then we took a dip in the sea before a mid afternoon siesta.

In the evening we relaxed in the chocolate bar, we all played dice and poker followed by a late night jam session with Jack the owner. We discussed a number of topics including the King of Thailand's ill health. Everyone in Thailand loves the king with the majority of shops displaying his picture , King Bhumibol Adulyadej, has won the hearts of his subjects for being an all-wise, all-knowing father-figure. It is to Bhumibol that Thais turn when the country is in trouble.But that was not to be on the eve of Bhumibol's birthday, Dec.5, when instead of the speech he customarily delivers, there was silence.In recent years, his speeches have included warnings about the evils of smoking, concerns about the spread of narcotics and a statement that nobody is above criticism -not even a king.

The public reaction to the king's silence on the evening before he turned 81 has been a mix of shock, worry and tears. Such feelings stem from Thais being forced to accept that Bhumibol is in his twilight years and ailing. His silence on December the 5th was the result of a bout of bronchitis and an inflamed oesophagus. It isn't easy getting the Thai people to talk about the royal family as Harsh lèse majesté laws have been used so frequently to silence critics, sometimes with prison sentences of up to 15 years; some people are terrified of discussing the current situation publicly.

If the king dies the country will be in mourning for many weeks with shops, transport and businesses shutting down, we would be stranded on Koh Phangan which is probably one of the best places in the world to be stranded, however with our onwards flights pre-booked we could run into a few logistical problems.

The other taboo subject in Thailand is drugs, everyone knows the penalties and have heard horror stories about using drugs on the islands however the only place where I've been with more spliffs being passed round is Amsterdam. The local lads smoke weed all day and all night and also make magic mushroom milkshakes for any tourist who dares to drink the potent beverage. We saw the affect of the mushroom shake as we reassured a middle aged British bloke that he was still on planet earth at the chocolate bar, Koh Phangan.

30/12/09

We had breakfast at the Sunset restaurant, nice eggs and bacon with coffee before deciding to go kayaking. We chatted to our German comrades 'Daniel and Jo Jo' and hired two kayaks for the afternoon; we wanted to visit the island of Koh Tae Nok which was probably a couple of hours away. As we were about to set off on our maiden voyage we were informed that Koh Tae Nok is a no go area and if we were to get to close to the island we would be scared off by M16 machine guns, we really wanted to visit this island but as an unarmed 'already scared' civilians we decided to change our route.

Koh Tae Nok is famous for its islanders collecting birds' nests for the famous Chinese 'birds nest soup' market which is lucrative business.

We headed to the nearer island of Koh Tae Nai which probably took us 45 minutes to reach; I don't think any of us would make a successful rowing team. Jo Jo and Daniel capsized three times, we laughed and took pictures then realised we should really keep the camera in my dry bag as we were now rolling slightly. We went to help the capsized Kayak but only made matters worse as we struck Jo Jo to the rear of his head, disorientated and confused he managed to clamber back on the Kayak minus his sunglasses and snorkel which are now at the bottom of the Gulf of Thailand.

We pulled both Kayaks onto the sandy beach of Koh Tae Nae and were amazed that nobody else had ventured out to this beautiful uninhabited island. After a swim and snorkel we got back into the kayaks and travelled all around the island stopping off in caves and remote beaches dotted around the jungle dominated atoll.

On our way back to Sunset Resort we were all hungry and fatiguing, we had all put sun cream on but were feeling weary and burnt as though the sun had sucked all the energy from us. Back at the resort we ordered a seafood pizza each and demolished it, we were all happy with our little exploration but too tired to talk to each other, we needed a sleep before we could share photographs and stories.

That evening we ate seafood fried rice and had one well deserved beer before having an early night 'yawn'.

31/12/09

New year had come round pretty quick and we still didn't have a costume so we hired a crappy 125 bike and headed into Thong Sala with Pubet and Bao, two of our local buddies and also legends here. We managed to get sorted, I'd wear a blanket I stole from the overnight bus and wear it like a poncho with a cowboy hat and Lloyd would convert his cowboy hat into a pirates and cut the sleeves off one of my shirts and wear it as a waistcoat with a few pirate accessories such as tattoos, eye patch and bandana. We ate at the market again before returning back to the resort for what turned out to be a brandy fuelled afternoon with the local lads. Two other lads from the UK turned up and joined us in the quest to finish the bottle; we arranged to meet John and Charlie later that evening for the Full Moon Party. Me and Lloyd had peaked too early and knew if we were going to make it through the night we'd need to sleep off the Brandy which we did. We woke up and got into our costumes before meeting Jo Jo and Daniel in the chocolate bar. We all got an overpriced taxi to Haad Rin stopping off for John and Charlie on route, the taxi picked more people up I counted 13 heads. The driver was making £40 a run and every vehicle was the same - crammed with bodies, the Hi Lux seemed to struggle up some hills whining and spluttering, a large convoy followed on what looked like a scene from Mad Max.

We entered Haad Rin and already felt tipsy, we all applied illuminate paint which seemed to be the norm, Lloydy tattoos and me a large purple dirty Sanchez tash. The streets were packed full of boozy tourists and we could have been anywhere, Magaluf, Zante, Blackpool, still the atmosphere was electric and everyone seemed friendly and excited. We drank from buckets and when the buckets were empty we topped it up with liquor which was sold everywhere. The beach was packed full of fire lit signs, DJ's, parties, games, you name it was here, it had a festival feel to it but obviously on a gorgeous beach. The full moon was huge and Chinese lanterns lit the sky like a peculiar star formation, when 12 O'clock came the sky was lit with a spectacular fire work display which looked ridiculously close to the people below. I wish I'd taken a camera out with me but on nights like this getting yourself home in one piece is a task never mind expensive items of property. The night was awesome if not a little commercial however I'm glad I experienced a full moon party which fell on New Year's Eve and I'm glad I can remember a bit of what happened that night. We got back to the chocolate bar early that morning and carried on drinking with the locals, I even managed to Skype Mel in my drunken state at 12 O clock GMT to bring in UK New Year. Two New Years in one night.

01/01/10

I managed to absconder twice that day once to eat some rice and prawns and the second time to have a non alcoholic drink on our balcony with Pubet. Feeling sorry for my self inflicted illness I crawled back into my sandy pit and woke up on the next day.

02/01/10

Our last day in Koh Phanghan, it's always a chore packing stuff up especially from somewhere you've fallen in love with. Koh Phanghan is a place where anything goes, you could visit this island and have the most relaxing experience lapping up the sun on a quiet beach drinking ice cold cocktails or you could party twenty four seven. The island sells t-shirts stating 'anything is possible' and I think the t-shirt sums up this beautiful island. On our last day we decided to relax at the resort, we'd taken a few risks whilst being on the island and we didn't want to push our luck.

Shrimp Pan'ang curry for lunch, this had become one of our favourite meals and Pubet knew what we wanted before we'd ordered.

Watching the full moon from the chocolate bar whilst playing the guitar with Jack was a regular activity whist we'd been on the island, still it seemed to be a perfect way to end our time here.

03/10/10

7.00 start, bill settled = £200 each which wasn't too bad, that was for 10 nights' accommodation, food and drinks.

Joe the owner took us down to the pier after saying goodbye to Bao and Pubet. We fought our way onto the catamaran and just about got a seat, we had to switch boat after about half an hour, we didn't realise this and sneaked into the air-conditioned VIP section. A young girl kindly advised us to disembark and get on the next boat, she thought we'd been in the VIP section all the way and gave us a red ribbon allowing us access to the VIP section on the next boat - bingo.

We docked at Chumphon (Thai mainland), bolted down a plate of rice and chicken into our hungry tired bodies and embarked onto the bus for what turned out to be a very long journey. The only good thing about the bus ride was that we had the full backseats to ourselves, we could sprawl out and be reasonably comfy. Door to door it took us 14 hours to get back to Thai Cozy in Bangkok.

04/01/10

After eating the delicious complimentary breakfast and sorting out our laundry we hit Khoa San Road for a bit of shopping. It was too hot to shop and the endless calls of 'do u wanna buy a suite my friend' was wearing us down. Some of the suit men won't take no for an answer forcing us to be rude, I try to remember my manners when addressing anyone but with these guys you really have to show them you're a nasty b******. The other game we like to play is to see how long we can get Mr. Suite man to walk with us, it's pretty cruel but kept us amused.

My feet where aching so I decided to have a foot massage, the one I opted for wasn't a conventional massage, it was a fish massage. Sat on the side of a huge tank I slowly dangled one of my toes into the water, to my amazement all the fish swam towards my toe and began nibbling it. The sensation was a little ticklish but I managed to get both feet in and found it pretty relaxing. My feet had a number of little scabs from motor biking and snorkelling, the fish seemed to target these first, ripping the scabs clean off before demolishing the dead skin. I inherited a bad pair of feet from my dad and felt slightly sorry for the ravenous fish especially when two of them floated to the top, I spent about half an hour in the tank before calling it a day, I didn't want any more fishes lives on my conscience.

After the fish massage we both had a proper massage back at Thai Cozy, the women who massaged us where better than the younger girls we'd had previously at Thai Cozy. The women targeted every pressure point on our fatigued bodies, we both came very close to falling asleep especially when our backs were massaged with some kind of tiger balm, which we purchased once the massage had finished.

Later that evening we visited the roof top bar on Khoa San Road and ate street food before returning back to our windowless room at Thai Cozy.

05/01/10

Complimentary breakfast finishes at 11.00, we always arrived at 10.55 and managed to eat the two fried eggs, toast and coffee in minutes. Stomachs full we did some final shopping on Khao San, souvenirs for us both and a pair of Paul Smith trainers for Lloydy.

Had a cheeky beer in the afternoon at our local 'Shamrock Irish Bar' and some street food before spending the evening back at Shamrock watching the hustle and bustle of this electric street.

Feeling pretty drunk we decided it would only be right if we spent our last night indulging in the selection of insects sold by the mobile street vendors dotted about on Khao San. We took the bag of creepy crawlies back to Thai Cozy and dished them out in the lobby, a French lad called Alex joined in the banquet and Jenny the transvestite receptionist and her colleague also joined us.

Some of the insects tasted like pork scratching but others especially the large cockroach / beetle were pretty disgusting, me managed to polish of this collection of bugs for our supper.

Still slightly tipsy we packed up our gear ready for an early morning flight to Beijing.

Summary....

Gaz

Favourite area - Koh Phangan

Favourite accommodation - Sea Sun Set Resort (Koh Phangan)

Favourite beach - Koh Tae Nai, Remote beach where we Kayaked

Favourite person - Jack owner of Chocolate bar

Favourite food - Pan'ang curry - Sea Sun Set

Favourite drink - Bucket cocktail - Haad Rin

Favourite moment - Playing the guitar in the chocolate bar and off roading on the bikes

Worst area - None

Worst accommodation - None

Worst beach - None

Worst person - Annoying Australian girl at the fish massage place

Worst food - Insects in Bangkok

Worst drink - None

Worst moment - Trip from Koh Phanghan to Bangkok - 14 hours

Lloyd

Favourite area - Koh Phangan

Favourite accommodation - Sea Sun Set Resort (Koh Phangnan)

Favourite beach - Koh Ma beach (where we snorkelled)

Favourite person - Pubek (one armed waiter at Sea Sun Set)

Favourite food - Seafood pizza (Sea Sun Set)

Favourite drink ice cold singha beer

Favourite momentoff-roading on my Kawasaki kx250

Worst area - n/a

Worst accommodation - n/a

Worst beach - n/a

Worst person - everyone trying to sell me a suit on khao san road

Worst food - deep fried cockroach

Worst drink - tap water

Worst moment - bus from koh phagnan to Bangkok (coach rage)