South Thailand

We said goodbye to the elephants and spent one last night in Pai. To our surprise we bumped in two friends from Germany we had met in Australia (actually it is the same guy we bought our van from – small world). We had a few drinks and some dinner, before exhaustion kicked in and it was time to call it a night. If you have every ridden a horse for the first time you know how we were feeling (I didn’t think I would ever walk normally again!).

Next day we caught a 3 hour mini bus to Chang Mai bus station (on 5km from the train station). We decided we weren’t going to pay for a Tuk Tuk and would get the bus instead as we had 2 ½ hours until our train. We found a bus and it was free, so Jo and I hi fived and jumped on after talking to the lady in charge… We said ‘train station’, she said ‘Yes’. Anyway 2 hours later and after a tour of the city we were back where we started, with only 20mins to catch our train and we hadn’t bought a ticket yet! So we scowled at the lady who was surprised to see us and ran to a Tuk Tuk. Told him ‘Train Station, fast’ and pointed on the map. We managed to get 2 beds for the sleeper train and get on with 5 minutes to spare. Just enough time to grab some fruit.

We arrived back in Bangkok at around 8pm (45 mins late) This meant we couldn’t catch our connecting train and had to wait 5 hours for the next one. 5 hour in Bangkok? So we did what anyone with 5 hours in Bangkok would do and hit the Air-conditioned shopping malls. After 4 hours of wandering and dreaming (remember we’re on a budget), we made our way back to catch our train.

5 hours later we arrived in Chumphon, a sleepy stopover town. We were staying one night before catching our boat to Koh Tao. All I will say it the room cost 160bht (about £3) and I wouldn't stay again!

We had an early start to catch the 3 hour boat to the island of Koh Tao. KT was a very pretty island with lots of nice bungalows lining the beach - we stayed a little inland from the beach for 1 night before upgrading to a more secluded part of the island where we stayed 1 more night. We liked KT but felt a little discriminated against as we weren’t diving.

Next stop Krabie.

After a boat and a bus we arrived in Krabie. We found it a lot quieter and cheaper than KT although there wasn’t really a beach or much to do but we needed a day of doing things like haircuts and calling home.

Next day we arrived in Koh Phi Phi. This is a small island with no car/bikes and great beaches (in fact the beach was filmed near here). It also has a great night life. We bumped into some old friends we had made in Vietnam and needless to say decided a night on the town was in order. Jo and I weren’t planning anything too big but after 1 bucket and a game of 5s it was out of our control. One bar I do remember was the Reggae Bar which had a Thai boxing ring in the middle. Basically anyone who wanted to could sign up to fight another punter or your mate? Very entertaining and luckily we were all sober enough to not do it. Oh I forgot to mention everyone who fights gets a free bucket whether you win or lose, and protective gear is worn!

Buckets are basically the same as a bucket from making sand castles, only instead of sand or sea water they are filled with large quantities of alcohol and served with a straw.
The night ended on the beach at a ½ moon party (any excuse) about 3pm, although the party was still pumping when we called it a night. We were supposed to be on a 10am boat… needless to say we caught the 2pm instead
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We had one more night in Krabie before heading to Satun, where we got a boat to Langkawi, Malaysia. Nothing really anything exciting about Satun, in fact I would visit again but was nice to break up the travelling.

Malaysia to follow- 4 days until Borneo!!!!!!!!!!