After landing in Bangkok I took a taxi to my hotel which was on the famous Kaoh San Road. I arrived in the evening so the road was absolutely buzzing! I checked in then headed out to get some food and had a few beers then called it a night around 1am as was knackered, but I could hear the music from my room go on till about 5am!
The following day I headed out to find a tailored suit. After hours and hours of research on the net I whittled it down to three, then visited each. I decided on a tailor called Exquisite Tailoring. I chose the design of suit i wanted, which was very detailed, picked my colours and lining (ended up getting two suits!) and managed to get two shirts and two ties included for free as well as a discount on the overall price, then had my measurements taken. I spent that afternoon having a wonder around some of the markets then headed back to the hostel, I was absolutely knackered that evening so just had an early one!
On the Wednesday I was up early and headed to the Chinese Embassy to try and get a visa for my trip to China in July. After filling in about 100 forms, finding an internet cafe to print off other info needed, then returning to queue for an hour and a half, I was told I was unable to get a visa as I was unemployed and that was that! To say i was rather annoyed is an understatement! I headed back to the hostel then to a bar to calm the nerves! This is where I tried my first Chang and finally understood the whole Chang thing! A bottle of Chang is 6.4% but a pint seems to range from anything 2% either side of that! So after a few pints and some food I was feeling a little better!
That evening Lizzy arrived, so we headed out for some dinner and had a look around the street markets as well as trying out a lot of the bars!
Thursday we bought some river boat tickets and spent the day going down the river jumping off at the different stops and seeing the sights. My favourite was the Wat Pho, the largest and oldest Wat in Bangkok, holding the most Buddhas In Thailand. This is also home to the reclining Buddha, which was just spectacular. Thursday evening we headed over to a different hotel which was in the shopping district of Bangkok. This hotel was just 7 months old and was very nice indeed, the view from our room over Bangkok was amazing! (Nice hotels seemed to be the norm over the next three weeks, when there's two of you you can get a nice hotel room for roughly the same price per person as a dorm room! I was definitely 'flashpacking'!)
Friday was my Birthday! That morning I woke up to cards and pressies from back home that Lizzy had brought over which was nice. Unfortunately I then had to spend the next 2 hours in the Chinese embasy again! This time I just said I was employed, so after re-filling in all the forms and queuing for ages again, I was then told I needed a letter of employment! Nightmare! (Round three to take place next week with my 'letter of employment'!) After getting back to the hotel around mid day, we went for some lunch then headed back to the tailors for my fitting with the suits and shirts. After this we went shopping in some of the malls, the things you could get here were crazy cheap! I picked up a gorgeous pair of dark brown leather hand made shoes for 40 pounds! I then headed to the hotel gym while Lizzy chilled on the decking! When I got back to the hotel room there was a card waiting for me and a gorgeous chocolate gateaux birthday cake from the hotel!
That evening we headed out to a restaurant called cabbages and condoms (on the advise of my sis!) and it was actually really nice! You are on a courtyard outside with the whole place lit up and the food was gorgeous. The whole point of the restaurant was to raise awareness of HIV so with the bill, instead of mints you got condoms! After this we jumped in to a tuk tuk (honestly thought I was going to die!) and headed to a ping pong show. The things I witnessed here will never leave my memory, quite an extraordinary show! We then headed over to a club and danced / drank the night away till the early hours managing to get a free bottle of rum from a table of girls (possibly boys)!
The following day was a little hazy, but involved my final suit fittings and then heading to Bangkok train station to catch our overnight train down to Krabi. The train was rather compact but the beds were comfortable and private enough!
We arrived in to Krabi the following morning, then after 3 buses and a taxi we finally made it to our hotel, 20 hours after leaving Bangkok! The hotel was lovely with a huge pool and when we went to check in it turned out i booked us in for the following night, oops! So what was meant to be a one night stop in Krabi turned in to two nights!
The first day we spent just chilling as we didn't get there till late, then the following morning was spent with me in the hotel gym, Lizzy getting a massage then the afternoon in the pool! We ended up meeting an English couple at the pool bar who were on their honeymoon and spent the whole afternoon drinking with them. We then met up with them that evening in the local bars, where I had my first bucket and a ridiculous amount of shots!
On the Tuesday we headed out to Ko Phi Phi on the ferry and I had a hangover from hell. The ferry was like a greenhouse and I was suffering big time! We checked in to our hotel, headed out for some food, then got a much needed early night.
On the Wednesday it was raining, so we just seemed to spend the day in an Irish pub drinking and playing pool! Wednesday evening I tried the burger challenge in one of the bars which involved eating 800grams of beef (7 quarter pounders) with sides of onion rings, fries and coleslaw in half hour. I got through the burger in 5 minutes and thought I was on to a winner, but then I hit the onion rings! They weren't normal onion rings, they had a layer of dough inside which was horrible and filled you up straight away, there was about 15 of these things as well! When the 30 minutes was up I had gone through everything bar the coleslaw and 2 remaining onion rings and felt horrendous!
The following morning it was raining again, so the boat trip we had planned to do was canceled, but luckily it cleared up in the afternoon so headed up to the view point over Ko Phi Phi which was stunning. We then headed out in to the bush and found another view point with hammocks, so we chilled on those, laid back with some beers and enjoyed the sun set!
Friday was meant to be our last day, but as our boat trip to maya bay (where the beach was filmed) was cancelled again due to bad weather forecast, we decided to extend another night to try and do it the following morning before heading to Ko Tao in the evening. Friday morning was quite nice and we laid on the beach, but then it poured it down that afternoon! After a foot massage, we headed back to the bars and spent the afternoon drinking! That evening we dropped in to the famous reggae bar to watch some fights. (They have a ring in the middle of the bar and people can go in and do Thai boxing!) after watching a few fights, I volunteered to go in.. Looking back it wasn't such a good idea after an afternoons drinking as it was frigging knackering! They paraded me round the ring but nobody volunteered to fight me. A few fights later I thought I wasn't going to get in, but then they said I was up! I came up against an Italian guy and it was awesome fun! It was just 3 one minute round fights, and I nearly passed out at the end!
Saturday morning we finally, thankfully, got the ok for the boat trip and headed down to the marina ready to leave at 8am. First stop was Maya beach, but our boat was quite small and the water was too rough to go through the main entrance, so we went to a cove around the back, anchored up and had to swim in to what I can only describe as a cliff face with a makeshift ladder going up it! This was quite an experience as waves were crashing up against the ladder, but we all made it up with only a couple of cuts! (Health and Safety clearly isn't a big deal here!) When we eventually got to Maya bay it was all worth it, the scenery was just breath taking. We stayed here for a while, taking tonnes of photos an enjoying a swim in the idiotic water then headed back to the boat for another adventurous cliff decent and swim!
After this we did some snorkelling in the lagoons then headed to monkey beach! This is basically as it sounds, a load of monkeys that live on the beach! The monkeys were awesome and very cheeky jumping on to the boats trying to steal good and drink!
We got back in to Ko Phi Phi at 1pm, managed to find some public showers where we changed, had some lunch, then headed back to the marina to get our 3pm ferry back to Krabi where we then got a bus across country and then a night ferry to Ko Tao! The night ferry was very interesting, the width of the bed just about fitted me lying on my side and the space between beds was about 2 inches. These were just mattresses on the floor, about 50 down each side! The bottom level of the boat was for locals transporting things, so ranged from mopeds to chickens!
We arrived in ko Tao on the Sunday at 6am and managed to find a cafe that was open so got a nice fry up here. Sunday was also the day I was starting my PADI diving course, so we headed down there after breakfast to sign me in. After checking in to our hotel I went back to the dive school and spent the whole afternoon in the classroom watching videos and reading text books! (While Lizzy laid on the beach in the sun with a cocktail!)
The following 2 days were very similar, it involved me in the dive school from 9-5 doing class work in the morning then out diving in the afternoon. The second morning was my exam, just the 96% in that ;-) then Wednesday saw my final 2 dives down to 18m and me achieving my open water diver qualification! The diving in Koh Tao is awesome, the range of fish and coral is just unbelievable. I absolutely loved it, got the diving addiction and decided to head back the following week to do my advanced, meaning I can dive deeper down to 30m!
That evening Lizzy and I headed to the Ko Tao Festival, which was very colourful and involved a lot of shows and a lot of lady boys! Was good fun though.
Thursday we were back on the ferry and headed over to Ko Phangnan in preparation for the full moon party! We had a garden bungalow in a resort that was on the haad rin beach, which is where the full moon party takes place. We checked in then headed to the beach, beer in hand. The Friday and Saturday were very similar, the day spent on the beach in the sun and the evening on the beers experiencing the night life! The nights leading up to the full moon party were just as good as the full moon party in my opinion!
When Sunday arrived we headed in to the town and bought our attire for the evening. Mine involved blue shorts, orange vest, yellow head band and green wrist bands! We then spent the afternoon drinking on the beach then had some dins and headed to get ready! After the outfits were on we then painted each other in the neon colours, grabbed a bottle of rum, mixed it in a bucket with red bull and coke and headed out! The night was just plain mental. There were soooo many people on the beach it was crazy, we managed to stay away from the fire skipping ropes and had an awesome night strolling back home at about 6am avoiding all the sleeping bodies on the beach!
The Monday was rather funny as at mid day when we surfaced there were still people going, people bandaged up from skipping rope burns or people just passed out in random places!
On the Tuesday it was time for Lizzy to head off back to the Uk, (and also time for me to go back to backpacking!) so she left in the morning as I spent the morning asleep in the sun getting a lil sun burnt! I decided to stay out the sun in the afternoon so I found a Muay Thai boxing school and spent the afternoon training there! That evening I was staying at a different resort as it was just me so needed something a bit cheaper. This place was a mission to get to and was nestled in the side of a mountain. The views however were outstanding, luckily for me my hut was the last before the sea so when I laid in bed I just looked out over the ocean!
Today is Wednesday. I was up early and left the hotel at 7am to get an 8.30 ferry back to Koh Tao which I am currently on now writing this! I'm heading back to Koh Tao to complete my advanced PADI diving course, then need to do an overnight border run on Saturday to Burma to extend my visa, before an overnight train back to Bangkok on Sunday and then start my adventure up through Northern Thailand on Tuesday before heading over to Laos and down through Cambodia! Speak soon! x