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It is Tuesday 18th December and we arrived home back in England yesterday morning! I cannot believe that we are finally home. Our last blog is about our time in Thailand over our last three weeks travelling.
Bangkok: The first two things we noticed when we arrived in Thailand were the humidity and the foreign alphabet; we had hit Asia and the atmosphere was new. For our first two nights we stayed in a private room in a small hotel. It was lovely and cost only £7 a night for the room, airport transfers, wifi and breakfast - crazy!!! This was going to be fun. We spent some time making plans for the our stay in Thailand and headed off on the Monday down to our first island.
Koh Phangan: On the way down, we took a ten hour over-night journey on a luminous/flourescent lit-up bus before arriving at the ferry port at 5am! We then waited in the rain for a couple of hours to catch the boat which was INCREDIBLY rocky. Laureen managed to sleep whilst Sarah had to stay up on the top-deck in pouring rain for 4 hours because she felt too sea-sick. When we eventually made it to the island, the rain was still pouring. We took our first tuc-tuc to nearby our hotel and were dropped in the streets. We lugged our bags for twenty minutes or so, lost, until we eventually got rescued by a car who took us up a huge mountaintain hill to our bungalow where we were staying. It was a horrible journey, but at least we had made it in time for the full moon party that evening! Even if it meant that all of our clothes and belongings were now soaked and smelt... Boo. We spent the day under shelter having food and beers with some Australian guys who were also staying at the resort, before we later got ready for the party. The resort gave us paints to play with and we painted our bodies with bright, luminous patterns and headed down to the beach around 11pm. It was absolutely MAD. The beach was packed with drunk Europeans and Thai's who were bright with neon paints/clothes and were dancing to the blaring music all down the strip. You could barely move, it was like being at a crowded gig. We had heard that these parties go on until sunrise on the beach and so we wanted to make sure that we lasted all night... so we delayed our heavy drinking. We went back out to the street for dinner first and then bought our first 'bucket' just after midnight. These buckets consist of a spirit bottle, a mixer and an energy drink (eg vodka, sprite and red bull) and you share them between you. We had two of these over 4 hours or so but didn't really feel the effect as we drank too slowly. We still danced, met lots of people and even had laughing gas (which wasn't quite the laughing gas we had before! - but it was fun) throughout the evening. The rain had stopped apart from a few heavy showers that couldn't be avoided so we were soaked through. We decided to get another bucket (they were £3!) and this time we would try the redbull that everyone had warned us about... This pushed us over the edge. Finally we had hit our level, just as the sun was coming up. We danced on table tops outside a bar for around 5 hours with all the other people who stayed up longest and it was the BEST and free'est feeling. Before going back up to our room, we got some lunch and made it back to our bungalow for around 1pm. We fell asleep and didn't do much else until 10am the next morning!!
We spent what was now our third day down in the main town where the shops are. We started to do a little bit of christmas shopping and explored the backstreets. In the evening, we both got an one-hour back, neck and head massage for £5! They put us in some strange positions and Sarah's back hurt a lot afterwards! They spent most of the time trying to get rid of a knot. It was still relaxing though. We got dinner in the town before heading back to our resort for an early night.
The next morning we had breakfast at our resort. The sun was shining so we sat out on the mountain deck that had incredible views of the ocean and the party beach. When the rain hit once again, we took shelter until it was time for us to catch our ferry out at lunch time.
Koh Samui: The boat ride was a little shorter and smoother this time and we reached the island within 2 hours or so. The pier was gorgeous and the atmosphere of the island seemed a lot more peaceful already. We took a taxi to our resort which was 10 minutes away. When we arrived, it was bliss. We saw the swimming pool, recieved a welcome drink and then our bags were taken to a large studio apartment that looked brand new! Laureen couldn't hold in her exctiement when we got shown around. It was luxury compared to what we had been used to!
We were supposed to spend 4 nights on the island before moving on to Koh Tao but we had a slight problem which meant we were there for a week and a half!!! For the first few days, we relaxed by the pool, took walks around the local surrounding areas and went and saw a few attractions. Nearby the hotel, there was a group of incredible temples all next to one another. We walked there in the day and the heat was unbearable but the sights were glorious. The temples were huge, bright and shiny with large buddha's and paintings decorating each building. So beautiful. We explored 4 or 5 of them before crawling back to our air-con! It was one of our favourites parts of Thailand. We also went out one evening to the main strip and headed for dinner first before a few bars for some drinks. We danced a lot in the heat before getting a tuc-tuc back around 4am.
The next day there had been a power-cut on the whole island! The hotel didn't have a generator at this point and so there was no water, no toilet-flush, no air-con, no food and no lights. It wasn't very pleasant in the heat to say the least! That evening, we were driven by the hotel to a powered restaurant and compensated with one night FOC. At dinner, Sarah started to get stomach cramps and felt very hot and sick. She ignored it hoping it would go away and managed to get to sleep later when we got back to the room. She then woke up at midnight and was being very sick and could barely walk with the pain. She woke up Laureen who went and got on-site nurses and they took us to the hospital. On the way, Sarah was very sick again and lost feeling in her arms and legs, and her hands even cramped shut. Laureen had to feed her an allergy tablet as Sarah couldn't hold anything with her hands. Sarah then almost passed out so the hospital got a wheelchair for us before she was put on a bed. All very scary. Anyway, Sarah was then put on a drip, injected strong painkillers and started on a course of anti-biotics and god knows what else. We were given our own little private room with an ensuite and a bed for Laureen and rested for the night. Sarah felt absolutely fine the next day apart from being a bit weak! We can't believe how quickly the medicine kicked in. The doctor kept us in for another night to monitor Sarah's progression and diagnosed her with acute gastroenteritis. She was all better though after the medication and luckily the hospital had power, water and air-con!!
When we returned back to the hotel, the hospital held Sarah's passport for a week until they got the insurance guarantee from England. So we got a bit stuck. We spent a few days by the pool just relaxing and taking it easy. On one of the days, we decided to take a day trip which was incredibly fun! We firstly went Elephant trekking, before seeing an elephant and a monkey show! We were then driven to a couple of view points including 'grandfather and grandmother' rocks, taken to an incredible waterfall (largest on the island) and met Charlie the tiger!! We had a traditional Thai lunch (which Sarah avoided) before going to a Budhha's 'magic garden' and ended the day on a mountain safari hike up to an incredible view point of the island! It was awesome and we're so glad we had the time to do it! We then spent the next evening at Fisherman's village; a cute street filled with markets and beautiful restuarants on the shore. Another must!
We finally got Sarah's passport back so when went to collect it, we then carried onto a large market for the evening which was wonderful. We got dinner afterwards and spotted a Bob Marly reggae bar on the riverside which looked huge and SO cool. We were gutted that we hadn't spotted it before our last night when we were knackered!
Koh Phi Phi: We made an early start around 6am (Laureen couldn't get to sleep the night before and so had done an all-nighter!) and finally left the island! We travelled by various buses and ferries until we eventually reached Koh Phi Phi early evening. We traipsed our heavy bags through the busy streets and across and even busier beach (how embarrasing) until we ended up at our new resort; Apache Beach House. Our first impression was that the island was going to be so much fun! The streets were filled with market stalls, tourist attractions, bars, restaurants and lots of young people who already seemed drunk! The beach was covered in hammocks, mats, lanterns filled with people smoking shisha and drinking beer. It was just the coolest atmosphere. We made friends with the staff at our resort and had a beer with them early evening. We then got ready for the night and came down to watch the fire show! Our friend was one of the main guy's in the show and got us both up on stage! Laureen lit a cigarette with a ball of fire close to her mouth, Sarah limbo'd under a fire bar and when the bar got lowered to the ground, Laureen was lifted up and carried under by the stunt men. So much fun! We had a few drinks there before the guys then took us out down the strip, where they one of them had to perform another fire show! Sarah got up again as he danced with fire around her. She got a slight burn on her shorts! We then had various beers, wines, shots and buckets throughout the night and could feel a rather large buzz! Now we can't tell you much more of this night as our memory is a little hazy but we danced a lot on the beach and chilled out at a rooftop bar later in the evening. On the way back to the resort, we walked passed a tattoo parlour and Laureen tried to persuade Sarah that they should both get 'Sawadee Ka' (Hello in Thia) inked on their ankles!!! Sarah was so close to be swayed so it is a miracle we both resisted using the ounce of soberness we had left inside us.
The next day, we woke up spinning. We refused to sleep, as we didn't want to miss out on the island so we showered and went outside. The weather was beautiful but we had no patience for sun bathing. We played with one of the bar ladies babies at the resort before going to the markets and having a pub lunch. We attempted to buy a few christmas presents but we weren't really focusing too well... Laureen started to feel really faint and unwell and decided she should go back to the resort to sleep. She assumed it was a combination of lack of sleep and the malarone tablets but even so, she could not sleep yet again. Sarah napped for a short while. When evening came, we had little energy and so decided to have a quiet second night. We went for an Italian dinner on the beach and had a couple of drinks.
On our last day on the island, we went back out to the markets in hope that we had a little more energy this time. We bought a few presents, went for lunch and got hair braids!!! (Sarah's first one in her life.) In the afternoon, we took a ferry back to the main island and spent the evening on a bus travelling back up to Bangkok for our very last night travelling!
Bangkok: We arrived at around 5am and took a taxi to our 4* hotel for £11 a night! We couldn't check in as it was too early but after we fell asleep in their lobby, they woke us up to say we could go up to room at 8am (instead of 1pm which was very kind)! We spent the morning catching up on sleep as we didn't get much on the bus and then got some lunch and visited the pool in the day. In the afternoon, we put on nicer clothes and headed to MBK shopping centre which is absolutely massive. The journey there was around 20-30 minutes and the taxi only cost us 90p each! We spent a couple of hours finishing our christmas shopping before we got a tuc-tuc to Koh San Road, which is a popular strip in Bangkok. We had a pie dinner at an Irish bar before we wandered down past the bars and markets. We met a Canadian guy who was also on his last night travelling after over a year and so wanted to see a ping-pong show before he left. All three of us took a tuc-tuc to the show and had a couple of beers. I won't go into details but there were a lot of props used and we saw a LOT more than we were expecting!!!
We spent our last day packing our suitcases ready for the flight and trying to catch some rays, which we didn't as there were too many clouds! In the evening, we wandered down to a local market that had posh restaurants and stalls scattered about. It was beautiful and by far the most sophisticated place we had come across in Thailand. There was a ferris wheel right on the riverbank as well with a large christmas tree next to it. We spent the evening eating dinner listening to a live band and had a look through the quirky and vintage stores afterwards.
We then returned to the hotel to get our bags and took a taxi to the airport. Our time was up and we were returning home to England for Christmas!!!
The last 5 months have been the most spectactular times of our lives and we couldn't have hoped for anything more. We made some wonderful friends, saw some stunning sights and had many incredible experiences. The world is beautiful and we cannot wait to explore more of it. We are the luckiest, most blessed girls to have had this opportunity and it is something we will remember every day.
Thank you for sharing a little bit of it with us xxx
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