Thailand to Laos, the next adventure!

Hello again! The last post I wrote ended with me leaving the beach life for the next part of my adventure which began with me reluctantly returning to Bangkok on a looooong overnight coach journey from Krabi. I arrivied on Khao San Road, the main 'strip' in Bangkok, where, even at 5am, the streets were littered with Thais and Backpackers alike who had obviously been enjoying the many bars and clubs that line the street. I walked 5 minutes around the corner to find the hostel I had booked into, Suneta, not the cheapest one I could find but one with great reviews and a location close to the coach drop off point (I did not want to make the same journey as last time). I arrived at the hostel at 5:30am and, maybe a little naively, asked whether my room was ready yet. Of course it wasn't! It wouldn't be ready until 11am. I settled down on the sofa and looked around the communal area which really nicely decorated and air conditioned. It was big enough to accomadate people but small enough to encourage people to talk to eachother, I decided that I liked it.

I lay on the sofa and attempted to watch a film to keep myself occupied. Piece of advice: don't try to watch Interstellar on three hours sleep, NOTHING makes sense. When my room was finally ready I moved from the sofa to a very comfotable bed in a small dorm room and met my dorm mate Veronica from the USA. I napped until late afternoon then went downstairs, met lots of people in the communal area and decided to go out for some dinner as a group. I had Pad Thai (classic) and then we went to Khao San Road to experience some of the nightlife. It was overwhelming. Absolutely full of people drinking, buying, selling (everything from fried scorpians on a stick to fake IDs to traditional Thai hats), dancing and talking. After hearing so many horror stories about this area, I actually quite enjoyed the hustle and bustle and I think this was mostly down to the great group I was with. 

During the rest of my time in Bangkok I enjoyed being in my hostel, with its air con and a really nice mix of people. On one of the days I visited the Grand Palace with some of them. Although the walk there was through stifling heat and the Palace was packed with tourists from all over the world, it was a really beautiful site. There were a number of very impressive buildings all decorated lavishly gold and multi coloured mirrored tiles. We walked from one to the other, stopping by the huge electric fans every so often to try and cool ourselves down until we were all too tired, hot and hungry to stay any longer.

I also explored the local market near my histel during my stay there and resisted buying a lot of little souveniry things (the kind of stuff that anyone who has been in my house will know that my bedroom is full of already). On my last full day in Bangkok Grant, a guy from south Africa that I had met in the hostel, and I went looking for a the best way to travel from Bangkok to Laos. I had decided a few days before that my reviewed plan was going to be to travel from the north of Laos to the south where it borders Cambodia in order to meet friends in Cambodia in early June. I had never planned to visit Laos, but from the things I had been hearing from other backpackers, it sounded like an interesting destination and just the sort of adventure I had been looking for. We walked down a road parralell to our hostel which had a number of travel agencies. The first one we went to couldn't offer us a train or coach ticket to Laos BUT was a company called Stray who sold package travel tickets. One route they offered us started in Chiang Mai, took us over the border into Laos, on a private two day cruise on the Mekong river with an overnight stay at a local riverside village, a stop in Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and finally Vientiane the capital where our ticket would expire. We could hop on and off the private mini bus at any of the stops and the ticket was valid for anything up to a year. It sounded amazing and I was convinced, even after we found out the price, which was undeniably more expensive than doing it with local transport. We quickly checked the prices for an overnight train to Chaing Mai and went back to book it. The idea of having a loose schedule, guides knowledge, private transport and meeting other travellers doing the same route sold it to me and I was extremely excited to start the trip. That evening we celebrated our last night in Bangkok with our hostel group, some ludicrously cheap cocktails and lots of dancing.

The next day I lazed around the hostel watching films until it was time to leave for the train station. Stephen, who stayed at the hostel, was travelling from the train station to travel down to Koh Tao (lucky bastard) also came with us. We parted ways on the platform and Grant and I went to find our compartment. We boarded and met an American couple from LA, Christie and Matt, who I spoke with until it was time to retire to my shakey top bunk. Despite the narrowness of the bed I slept surprisingly well and woke up in time to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery that we were travelling through.  

When we arrived at Chaing Mai we jumped in a red taxi and were taken to our hostel where we met up with Isabel and Sydney, two girls who had also been staying in the Bangkok hostel. We went to a small restaurant for lunch and an incredible passion fruit shake then Grant, Isabel and I went for a Thai massage then jumped into the hostel pool (yes, the hostel had a pool!). Later on we met again with Christie and Matt and walked around the HUGE sunday night market which seemed to stretch for miles in every direction. I once again resisted buying anything, but certainly enjoyed window shopping!

The following day we were woken up in our studpidly hot dorm room by Tjeerd, a dutch guy who ALSO stayed at Suneta, walking into the room. Turned out he had been given a bed in the same dorm as us! The final bed in our dorm belonged to a Dutch girl called Suze and that day we all rented mopeds and travelled out of town to a tenple on the hill and the to a 'waterfall' which was more a trickle down a hill, but which we enjoyed anyway.

We wanted to go and get a(nother) massage, this time at the woman's prison, where the inmates were trained in traditional massage in order to give them a valuable skill that they could use when they got out. However, we got so lost in Chiang Mais one way roads and narrow streets that y the time we arrived there were no appointments left. We ended the day back at the pool with Sydney and Isabel to cool down and finally decided that we wanted to go and see a ladyboy show that evening (after my recommendation). We went as a group to the night bazaar and arrived just in time for the start of the show, which was just as entertaining as I remembered it to be.

The 5th was the set off date for the Stray tour bus, so after saying goodbye to people and Chiang Mai, Grant and I set off in the mini bus with a group and our enthusiatic, friendly Laos guide, La. We travelled north stopping at my final Thai destination, The White Temple. This temple was unlike any temple I have seen before. It was designed by a contemporary artist and, as well as much buddist symbolism, also offers pop references, such as a model Predator, Gollum amd Darth Vader. Yes, really. The building itself was absolutely stinning white, covered with huge numbers of mirrored tiles. 

My favourite part though was the toilets. Probably the most over the top toilet block in the world, the building is a huge golden palace. Well, why not!

We continued travelling until we reached the border, purchased our visas and then took a tuk tuk to our first Laos guesthouse in a small town called Houay Xai. That evening La took us for dinner at a riverside restaurant where I sampled a Lao dish called Beef koi which was delicious and was happy to find out that Lao food is traditionally less spicy than in Thailand. I also tried Lao beer for the firsttime which was surprisingly nice for a cheap beer, and cyainly nicer than Chang beer in Thailand. I decided I was going to like it here. After dinner La invited us to try some Lao Lao whiskey too, blergh.

The next day was an early tuk tuk ride to the riverside where we boarded our groups private slow boat which would be taking us down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang over the next two days. The day passed with a sleepy ease and I spent it getting to know the other people in the group a bit better. We enjoyed the beautiful hazy scenery which we floated past until we eventually got to the riverside village, Bon Pak Nguey. After entering the village and meeting the chief we were shown around and spent some time at the school playing football or catch with some of the local children. 

The heat in the village was almost unbearable so when we were given the opportunity to jump into the river we gladly accepted. We splashed around in the water for a couple of hours then watched as the sun set behind one of the distant jungle covered mountains. 

That evening we were treated to an unforgettable experience. The chief of the village organised a blessing for us in one of the host houses. We waited patiently for the elders of the village to arrive, some of which looked close to 90 years old. We were ushered into a room and asked to sit on the floor in a circle around a centre piece covered in flowers and plates of food. The chief asked us all to place one hand on the centre piece and uttered a local blessing then passed round a shot of the distinctive flavoured Lao Lao whiskey, one for each of us. We were also given a small plate of food; sticky rice wrapped in a leaf and a banana. Once we had each had a shot the chief (translated by La) said that life has two legs so we must have two shots, to which we were all politely shocked and bravely forced another gulp of the whiskey down. We were then all asked to turn around to face the villagers as they moved around the circle and each tied one piece of cotton string around each of our wrists whilst speaking a blessing which we were told was basically wishing us luck for the future. The sounds of all these people speaking the blessing was unlike anything I have ever heard. After the ceremony we went down to the riverside and sat around the campfire listening to music and chatting under the stars.

The next day we left the village in the very early morning and got back on the slow boat for the second half of the boat trip to Luang Prabang. Towards the end of the journey we stopped at Pak Ou Caves, found in the cliff face by the side of the river and housing 4000+ buddha statues. We gave our flower offerings from the night before and each took part in a traditional fortune telling ritual. This ritual consisted of shaking a tub full of numbered sticks until one fell to the ground. The number on that stick referred to a prediction. 

My prediciton was pretty vague but Grants prediciton was spookily accurate. He had been applying and interviewing for a job in London and was waiting for the final decision to come through. His prediction was translated by La and said that he will be successful in work and will get the job he wants and that afternoon, when we had arrived at Luang Prabang with WiFi, he received an email offering him the job! 

Luang Prabang is a beautiful, world hertitage site, town full of french colonial buildings, temples and great restaurants. Our hotel was cheap and surprisingly nice and I got a huge king sized bed all to myself! We relaxed that afternoon before La took us to a nearby restaurant called Lao Garden. Me and Robynne, a British girl in our group, decided to be daring and ordered a DIY bbq meal. The waiters then transformed the table into a bbq grill and arrived with copious amounts of meat and veg. We had absolutely no idea what we were supposed to do with all this food and ended up nearly choking everyone with smoke. We eventually got the hang of it and the food turned out to be pretty delicious. When dinner was finished we all walked through Luang Prabang to a bar until half of the group decided it was time for bed. The other half (including me of course) continued onto a local Lao nightclub. One word: surreal. We walked into the giant room and found a crowd of people all standing around small tables on the dancefloor. I felt like a giant in this room as I tower over most of the people there. We found a table and suppressed the desire to dance (well, almost suppressed it). When that bar closed La escorted us to the late night bowling alley which, in contrast to the nightclub, was full of falangs (foreigners). We played a hilarious game of bowling, which of course I lost, then piled into a tuk tuk back to the hotel.

To sooth our delicate heads the next day La had organised for us to visit the Kuang Si Waterfall, which was about 45minutes drive from Luang Prabang in a bumpy tuk tuk. When we arrived we paid our entrance fee and walked through a black bear conservation area where there were about 6 bears chilling out, some hanging in huge hammock type things, others wallowing in little pools. We learnt about the bears being used in medical experimentation or killed for the bile which is used in traditional medicines in SE Asia. When we made it to the waterfall my jaw nearly hit the ground. A large idyllic turquoise pool stretched out before us with a beautiful babbling little waterfall feeding into it. Paradise. On further inspection we found a path leading up to another incredible pool, and then another and another. We jumped into one of the pools from an overhanging tree and climbed carefully up the slippery waterfalls to find more and more pools. 

At the very top of all these pools was the pièce de résistance, a giant waterfall cascading down the mountainside. There was a path that kead all the way up and up to the top where you could stand over the waterfall and enjoy the views of the surrounding farm land, jungle and mountains.

 Unfortunately we were running low on time as our tuk tuk was scheduled to leave at 3pm so we begrudgingly walked back to the carpark and drove to the hotel. That evening we decided to sample the French cuisine at one of Luang Prabangs French restaurants. Our whole group came out for the dinner as the next day most of them would be jumping back into a minivan to continue their trip, only me, Grant, Robynne and a newly wedded couple Dave and Hayley would be staying in Luang Prabang. That night there was an amazing storm, with huge crashes of thunder and flashes of lightning that kept me up nearly all night. 

This post has taken far too long for me to write, I apologise. And as I fall further and further behind, the more work I have to catch up on.... I hope you enjoyed reading it, I will try and get the next post out much quicker :)

Thanks for reading,

Emma x

Sister Act

After a great night in the luxourious (well, luxourious for me anyway) hotel we took an expensive taxi to our hostel in Phuket town where we found we had been upgraded to a private room which was an extremely pleasant surprise. After settling in we decided to take a walk around the town to see what we could find. Maybe 5 minutes into our walk we were approached by a taxi tour guide and offered a trip around the main sights of the city for 100baht each. Bonnie and I exchanged looks and decided that we would take a chance and agree to the tour. We hopped into the taxi and, after having lunch at a restaurant the taxi dirver recommended, were taken to the Phuket viewpoint

After enjoying the panoramic views and a mint choc chip ice cream we drove to the Big Buddha slightly further down the hill than the viewpoint. Next to the giant golden Buddha statue we met a Buddhist monk who had been living there for 20 years! He asked us to wait and went to get his smartphone to take photos with us! He then showed us his room and gave us each an orange, which was an extremely touching gesture (even if the orange didn't taste that good). He offered us coffee in his tiny room but we had to decline as the taxi driver was waiting for us. How much bad karma do you get from rejecting coffee from a monk?

We found out why the trip had only been 100baht when the driver took us to three seperate shops who I am guessing paid him commission for his services. After buying a couple of souveniers that we had planned on buying anyway and skillfully avoiding having to buy the diamond jewellery for sale at one of the shops, we were taken to see the bay and finally the old town. The old town was very quaint and had a rather Europian feel (even though Thailand was the only country in south east asia not to be colonised by Europeans) with beautiful terraced buildings and shaded archways either side of the narrow street. There were many cafes and trinkets shops for the tourists but also shops like a bicycle repair garage which you can imagine has been there for decades. 

The following day was our trip to Koh Phi Phi and after a couple of hours on the boat we arrived at the busiest port I have been to so far. We bustled our way through the crowds and found an information office where we booked our accomodation for the next three nights. Bonnie had never stayed in a dorm room before so we picked the cheapest dorm room we could find on the main beach so she could experience the "joys" of dormitory living. The hostel ended up being one huge room with 25 beds, most of them bunk beds apart from three single beds which me and Bonnie were allocated. The room had wonderful air conditioning which was heavenly after the heat of the afternoon sun outside. That first day we just walked around the town to get used to it and booked ourselves onto a snorkelling tour around the second, unihabited, national park Phi Phi island. That evening we witnessed what Phi Phi is most famous for among our generation, the nightlife. Every street we walked down was full of bars and blaring music but on the beach we found some amazing fire shows, the best I have seen so far, and sat there watching them for a while before we head down the beach and into bed.

Our second day there was the day we went on a snorkelling trip around the second Phi Phi island.We jumped in a longtail boat that afternoon and where taken to a couple of spots for snorkelling. I saw loads of sealife including clown fish, a baby eel, box fish, pipe fish and angel fish. It was nice to be able to name the stuff I saw using the knowledge I had gained in Koh Tao but I have to admit I would have loved to have been diving again. We then went to see the famous Maya Bay which is where they filmed the Leonardo DiCaprio film The Beach. We got there in low tide and had to walk through a cave before we reached the beach. The great thing about going at low tide is that no boats can get very far into the bay itself so most people come during high tide. I have heard from many people that the beach gets unconfortably crowded at these times. We had very few people on the beach and although the bay may look more impressive with the tide in I was glad it wasn't busy.

After seeing the bay we watched the sunset and briefly swam with some glow in the dark plankton before heading back to the main island. That evening we met with some of the people who had been on the trip with us and spent the evening on the beach, ending up in a Muay Thai boxing arena watching two of the guys we were with fighting to get a free drink (quite a surreal occasion!).

The following day Bonnie wasn't feeling very well so we slept in. When we woke up we met two other English girls who had moved into the bunkbed next to us, Georgie and Jess. We went for food with them and then decided to climb up to the viewpoint to see the sunset and climbed what seemed like endless steps to reached the top, extremely sweaty, and see the sun disappointingly disappear into the low mist that sometimes hangs in the air in Thailand (never mind, at least we got some exercise!). That evening we entertained ourselves with more fireshows and even volunteered to be part of a couple which was terrifying and hilarious in equal measures. 

Koh Lanta, known for being much more chilled out than Koh Phi Phi, was our next destination. We said goodbye to Jess and Georgie and took at boat to the island. Our stay on Koh Lanta was a very relaxing and beautiful one. We didn't do much other than lie on the beach, swim in the sea and eat really nice food. We changed the beach we were staying on a couple of days in in order to see more of the island and I definitely preferred the second beach which had lots of cute little beachside restaurants and bungalows. 

 It stormed a couple if time while we were there but watching the storm gather over the sea was worth the bits of rain and the sunsets were phenomenal.

 The main activity we did on Koh Lanta was the cookery course at a place called Time For Lime. Although considerably more expensive than the one I did in Chiang Mai the course was really enjoyable. We learnt how to make a few dishes including coconut chicken soup (now my favourite Thai dish) and fishcakes. We also got to give food presentation a go and learnt in detail about the different flavours that go into thai cooking.

After our stay on Koh Lanta we moved to our final destination as a pair, Railay Beach which is actually on the mainland of Thailand but due to the giant rock formations that encircle it and give it is reputation and one of the most beautiful places in Thailand and a great rock climbing destination, there are no roads into Railay. Our boat took us past many small islands until we reached the beach, the appearance of which is breath-taking. We asked around and found a cheap bungalow up on the hill. It was very basic and I could see from Bonnies expression that maybe I had grown too comfortable with slightly decrepit accomodation. We moved accommodation after a couple of nights and found a much nicer hostel on the east side of Railay. Our time in Railay was spent enjoying the beach which really was unique. White, smooth sand, clear blue sea and the huge rocks surrounding the bay.

 We sunbathed and then hid in the shade. On one of the days we hired a kayak and paddled to another beach and then around two huge rock islands just off the coast, getting to see lots of caves, stalactites and wildlife. 

We also had a really good meal on the beach one evening after watching the sunset. I have to say getting to spend time with Bonnie and enjoying such a beautiful place made Railay one of the main highlights of my trip in Thailand. 

The day Bonnie and I parted ways was spent on the beach and at our accomodation before I waved goodbye to Bonnie as she went to get her speedboat back Phuket and onto the airport, all by herself! It was hard to say goodbye to her because I knew I probably wouldn't see her again until December and it meant that I would have to get used to travelling alone again. On the other hand though I was excited for the next step in my trip and to get back into travelling and seeing different things (not just beaches). Bonnies visit was exactly what I needed to boost my energy for travelling again and remind me how happy I was that I didn't have to fly back with her, there is so much more to see! 

I caught a seperate boat to Krabi which was a 20 minute journey away and began my loooong journey back to Bangkok.

Well, I am still really behind on this blog but I think I will save what has happened from Bangkok onward for the next post.

Thanks for reading 

X

The Magic of Thailand

Before you start to read this post here is a formal warning: The following blog post contains descriptions of days spent on beaches and drinking at bars. Emma-Louise Naef apologised for what seems to be repeated content but, in order to stay true to the real events, must brag just a little bit more about life in paradise. 

In order to make this post seem less like showing off I will promise not to leave out any tough or unenjoyable bits which also help me to convince myself that I am not just lazing about on beaches. The first tough bit that I am referring to is my journey from Koh Tao to my next destination Koh Phayam, a small, much less touristic island off the coast on the opposite side of the country from Koh Tao, where I was planning on meeting a fellow traveller who I had met in Pai. After the ferry to Chumphon on the mainland I found myself in a huge crowd of people with no idea how I was meant to get to the Chumphon bus station for my next coach. An employee of the ferry company ushered me towards a coach heading for Chumphon town and reluctantly I paid for the ticket at climbed aboard. We travelled for quite a while until we reached Chumphon train station. Everyone piled off the coach, including the driver, a sign which should have told me the coach was indeed not going to take me to where I needed to go. I stayed on the coach hopeful that perhaps he was just having a break before a man came on the coach and told me I needed to get off, crashing my hopes once and for all. The man who had asked me to leave the vehicle was actually a taxi driver (convenient) and asked me where I needed to go, then told me it would cost 300baht to get there as I was on my own. Slightly disgusted by such a high price, but even more worried that I may never find a way to get to the bus station without this taxi, I jumped into the passengers seat. The driver turned out to be a pretty interesting guy who, amongst a number of things, had trained as a free diver, lived in Canada and been in the Thai navy. He spoke English really well and gave me some tips about Koh Phayam. He dropped me at the station and wished me luck and, after getting to know him a bit, I slightly less reluctantly handed him his fare. The next coach to my next destination, Ranong, was not for a couple of hours so I bought some snacks and sat with my book until it arrived. The coach was air-conditioned and had free wi-fi and so I sat back and decided to take this time to relax and enjoy the beautiful Thai scenary which was whizzing past the windows. I checked my messages on my iPad and saw that the person I was meant to be meeting in Koh Phayam, Yeori, was in fact stuck in Bangkok with no way of leaving. That week was in fact a huge national holiday which encompassed Thai New Year and Songkran (a national festival where people traditionally throw water over one another to wash away sins and bad luck but has, in many places, turned into a giant water fight in the street) so the transport in and out of Bangkok was completely full. This threw me, and made me suddenly realise that I was on my way to somewhere I knew nothing about and sudden doing it on my own. After a couple of minutes of worry I realised that I was always doing it on my own and pulled myself together. 

I arrived at Ranong, another bus staion that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and found a sign, of almost miraculous existence, saying every backpackers favourite word 'information'. Surely in the direction that the sign was pointing I would find someone who could help me get to the town of Ranong and into a reasonable hotel for the night before my ferry to Koh Phayam in the morning. Well, yes, this person was sitting behind the information desk, but this person, along with all the other people at the bus station, did not speak a word of English. This lead to an indefinte amount of time spent attempting to use English words, just repeating the word 'Ranong' and 'taxi' and finally using physical symbols for hotel (the arm triangle over my head to symbolise a roof, which didn't seem to translate and successfully the palms together on one cheek to show sleeping, by which point I had a small audience attempting to decode my charades) after which the information lady rushed to her phone and soon a man arrived who would take me to his hotel in central Ranong! Usually I would not get in a car with a complete stranger, but after the debacle that had lead to his mans arrival I was pretty convinced that he really did own a hotel. The interior of his car made me slightly doubt my judgement though as it was completely kitted out with frog themed car accesories. There were numerous frog statuettes in various freeze-frames on the dashboard, green frog seat belt covers, a fluffy green frog steering wheel cover and even a frog head gear stick cover. It was odd to say the least especially as the language barrier meant that there was no chance of getting any explanation for these objects and so I just sat surrounded by them trying to keep my face relatively neutral, it was a bit of an elephant in the room really. 

The hotel was basic but perfect and the boy behind the reception desk spoke English which allowed me to organise my ferry to Koh Phayam to the next day woohoo! I skyped friends at home that evening and lay on the bed mentally calming myself down. It is amazing that when you get used to staying in one place even for 2 weeks, travelling can become so alien, although I will defend that this was a pretty strange journey regardless.

The next morning I got up early and got a taxi bike to the ferry terminal. The 'ferry' turned out to be a boat thats primary function seemed to be to deliver fresh food to the island and the boat owner had decided that they may as well take some passengers along for the extra cash. I spent most of the long long journey squeezed between a basket of watermelons and some courgettes. Yes, I had booked the slow boat to save some Baht but nothing prepared me for how slow it really was. I watched as speed boat after speed boat sped past all taking passengers who had paid 200baht more than me directly to the island, bastards.

When we finally arrived I was the only westerner on the ferry pier. All the other holiday-ers were Thais from various parts of the country visiting with their family over the holiday period. It was interesting to see the Thais who were so obviously from Bangkok next to the local Thai people. There was a completely different uniform it seemed for the two groups. The Bangkok group all wore brilliantly clean, bright, eye-catching clothing, some of it stylish but a lot of it so outlandish that it looked like some sort of costume. The island group wore dusty flip flops, cut off shorts, jeans, bandanas and smiles on their faces. I was approached by one of the island group as I got onto land and he convinced me to come and see the bungalows he had to offer. He was an old, friendly, wise looking Thai guy, with whisps of grey heir escaping from under his dusty navy blue baseball cap and a nearly toothless smile which often let out a brilliant, infectious laugh. His name was Yudi, I learnt that he was fluent in German as he had studied engineering there when he was younger 'in the British part of Berlin', and after a very bumpy ride on the back of his rusty little moped we arrived at Palm Beach Bungalows, the accomadation that he managed. The bungalows were absolutely beautiful and I fell in love with my little seaside shack almost immediately. 

I took a well deserved nap in the net hammock that hung on my 'balcony' and when I woke up Yudi offered to take me for a tour around the island, which of course I accepted. We rode to the pier again and he took me to see the buddhist temple and large buddha statue, there was also a temple built on the end of a pier, something I had never seen before.

We then travelled up into the hills to a little cafe with panoramic views of the island and the mainland in the distance. Huge plumbs of dark cloud began to appear over the mainland and the rumble of thunder and flash of lightning made for a pretty beautiful show from where we were sitting. Yudi laughed and said 'so much rain there, we have had no rain for 6 months!' We drove in the sunshine down into the town so that Yudi could buy some supplies and the wind began to pick up, it looked like I may have bought the much delayed rain with me because after a few minutes huge drops of it started to fall onto the dusty surroundings. It rained heavily for about 15 minutes and as soon as it showed signs of stopping Yudi and I jumped onto the moped and headed back to the bunglalows. That evening I walked down Aow Yai (Long Beach) and found a restaurant with wifi. The beach itself is 4km long but compared to other island beaches I have visited it is very quiet, only a handful of resorts line the beach with only a smattering of guests, which made me wonder where all the Thai tourists had gone to. Another thing about the beach was that it seemed to be solely inhabited by couples on romantic holidays, in fact I didn't meet one other traveller who was here alone. Brilliant. However, as if by magic, the restaurant that I went to on that first evening not only had wifi but 10 ridiculously cute, very little, very fluffy puppies. And what does every single girl who finds herself alone in a couples retreat need? That's right, she need a load of puppies.

Awwwwww.

On the 13th I decided to venture out and walk the length of the beach to see what was going on. The answer was not much, but it was a gorgeous beach and so I enjoyed it regardless. I went and sat at one of the many beachside restaurants and had an ice coffee while I watched some people take to the waves for the surf. This beach is one of the very few (if not the only) beach in Thailand that offers the waves needed for surfing. Ok, it was not the same standard that I had witnessed in Aus, but people were enjoying it none the less. I walked back down the beach to the bungalows and asked Yudi fir some advice about how I would get to Phuket Airport in order to meet my sister, Bonnie, in a couple of days time. He instantly started dialling a number in his phone and speaking to the person on the other end. He passed the phone to me quickly introducing the voice as his 'sister'. Every single person Yudi had introdiced me to so far had been his sister or his brother, but as he hadn't introduced me to too many people, I assumed he must have a big well-connected family. The woman on the other end spoke quickly in heavily accented English but I managed to gather that I would have to take the speed boat from Koh Phayam to Ranong, then she would send someone to pick me up and take me to her hotel where I could catch a coach to Phuket Airport. Brilliant! Another wonderful show of Thai hospitality and resourcefulness!

The 14th was an extremely lazy day due to the constant rain. It was actually pretty beautiful when the rain first sweeped over the ocean and I sat in my hammock and watched but it got pretty old pretty pretty quickly.  Nothing much happened except I finished reading Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (good book) and that evening Yudi made all the residents in Palm Beach an absolutely delicious Thai buffet, including spring rolls, thai red curry, papaya salad, friend rice, noodles, and deep fried banana fritters for dessert! 

Over dinner I met a journalist and photo journalist who were living and working in Myanmar (Burma) and I spoke to them about the new book I had started reading that day The Trouser People which was a autobiography of a journalist who travelled through modern Burma and learnt about its troubled past and equally troubled present (great book, seem to be on a bit of a lucky streak with my books at the moment). 

The following day was more rain, when the rain stopped I attempted to snorkel in these but the silt on the sea bed and the rain churning up the water meant that the visibility was rubbish, and I saw a  suspicious looking jellyfish, so I gave up. I retreated to my little shack and began to pack my bag for my trip the next day. It goes without saying that I spent my evening playing with puppies.

I woke up early the next morning in order to hitch a lift with Yudi to the ferry pier for my speed boat to Ranong. I said farewell to Yudi and jumped aboard the little boat and enjoyed a very speedy crossing back to the mainland. As I got off I expected to find someone waiting there to take me to Yudis 'sister'. I waited and waited until I gave up and spoke a man who had been organising taxis for people. I told him I had been waiting for someone to collect me because I needed to get to Phuket airport. He nodded his head and instantly dialled a number, which I presumed was for a taxi, and handed me the phone. A voice on the other end said 'Is this Emma?' and I felt like laughing. It was Yudis 'sister'. Perhaps, I thought, she is my guardian angel. How she ended up on the other end of this call I still have no idea but the man gave me a lift to her hotel where I ordered an ice coffee. Without meeting the sister or even mentioning that I needed to get to the airport, when I got the bill it included 400baht for my coach ticket. Thailand has a way of seeming as though no one knows what they are doing but always getting you where you need to be. It's almost like magic.

I arrived at the airport 7 hours early so skyped my friends and ate the most expensive meal I have had since being in Thailand, Burger King. I sat by the arrivals gate watching lots and lots of people walk through until I saw a pale Bonnie-shaped person walking towards me. I pounced on her and hugged her maybe a bit too tightly, it was so great to see her. That night we stayed in a nearby hotel curtesy of Dad and we ate a whole easter egg that Bonnie had bought with her.

I think I will leave it there, even though 2 weeks have passed since Bonnie arrived. I think those 2 weeks deserve their own post!

Thank you for reading!

Emma x

Island Life

Hello! I am sorry it has taken me so long to write this post but my schedule has been absolutely chocka. When I last wrote for the blog I had just got through a very stressful period of the trip bit now, thankfully, I am completely relaxed and really able to enjoy Thailand in all its beauty. Bangkok seems like a million miles away.

After surviving a minibus ride from Bangkok (a journey that I was assured would only take 4 hours but in fact took 7, classic Thai transport) I arrived in Koh Chang, an island in the east of Thailand which literally translates to Elephant Island, although I saw no elephants during my time there. This lack of elephants may be down to that fact that my time on Koh Chang was mainly made up of sitting/lying on the beach and eating food. I found Jolijn and Marilon on my second day and checked into their accomadation which was a resort (in the loosest sense of the word) made up of individual bungalows right next to the beach with a nice restauramt and bar area on the sand.

 

I really did just relax on the beach and in a restaurant slightly further down from our resort with the only main event being a beach party at the resort on the night of the 20th where we saw some amazing fire poi skills and danced to a lot of very loud dance music. On the 22nd I said goodbye to Jolijn and Marilon who were travelling to Bangkok for a few days before heading back to the Nederlands. I hope they enjoy being back home and wish them good luck with finishing their university degrees, hopefully one day I will be flying to Holland to meet them again :).

The following day I booked myself onto a snorkelling trip around the surrounding islands. I had found that lying on the beach, achieving nothing was lovely for a couple of days but made me feel unenergised and a little bit homesick after a while and the only remedy for it was to DO SOMETHING! I was picked up by a minibus from my hostel and met two British girls, Harriet and Alex who were living in Thailand teaching English and visiting Koh Chang for a holiday break. We got on instantly and it was great to hear some sarcasm and self-deprecating humour to make me feel sane again. We reached the port and boarded a large ferry which travelled to another island where we all jumped in the water and were met by huge numbers of fish. At first I found the numbers of fish absolutely incredible but soon realised that the men on the boats were throwing pieces of bread in for the fish, which I personally think counts as cheating! 

We visited a few more spots, my favourite being the island of Koh Mai. The beach there was pure white sand with the misty mountains looming in the background and if you swam only a few metres from the busy beach you found a great little coral reef where Harriet and I were lucky enough to see two octopus (octopi?). There were also lots of parrot fish and beautiful black and white striped fish darting here and there. 

That evening Harriet, Alex and I decided to meet for dinner and drinks and ended up dancing like idiots (seems to be a running theme) in a cheesey Thai club. 

The next day I reverted back to beach bum mode and spent it reading my book with Harriet and Alex on the beach. Why not, one day of activity a week seems fair enough! 

On the 25th I embarked on the horribly long journey from Koh Chang to my next destination, Koh Tao. During the night there was a huge storm and the downpour continued into the morning which, in a way was quite beautiful to see over the ocean. The first portion of my journey was the minibus ride from my hostel to the ferry port via other hotels picking various hokidaymakers up along the way. The minibus driver was absolutely hilarious speaking a mixture of Thai and broken English constantly which lead all the passengers in the back seats to sit and nod politely. Luckily one woman seemed to understand what he said and duely translated for the rest of us. We all got onto the ferry and travelled to Trat where I waited for the coach to Bangkok to arrive. I managed to swipe one of the 'V.I.P' seats downstairs and tried to catched a few zzz's before we arrived in Bangkok that evening. When we arrived there a couple of us were sheparded from that coach to a travel agents where we were told to wait until someone came to get us. After worrying that no one was even going to come a small smiling Thai woman turned up and lead us to another coach where, once again I was lucky enough to get a sofa on the ground floor of the coach where I could lie in the foetal position quite comfortably. While we were waiting to leave Bangkok a guy got on and sat in the seat opposite me. We got talking and I soon found out that he had known my university flatmate as a kid which was absolutely crazy! After trying to sleep we arrived at the ferry port for Koh Tao, however, we arrived at 3:30am and the ferry wasn't until 7:00am. This was something that none of us were warned about and none of us were happy about. I slept a bit on a hard wooden bench before a stranger woke me up to say the ferry was ready for boarding. When we arrived in Koh Tao we sailed right into an absolutely gorgeous port with crystal clear water and blue skies and I instantly fell in love with the island. A man from the dive company lead me and a number of other people to a taxi and drove us to the dive centre where we checked in. I dumped my stuff in my room and went to... you guessed it... lie on the beach. The beach in Koh Tao, Sairee Beach, was a step up from the beach in Koh Chang with a long white beach which really gently sunk into a bright turquoise, bath temperatured sea. 

I sat on the sand and soon experienced every solo travellers nightmare.... having to ask a stranger to put sun cream on your back. I asked a girl next to me whether she could help me out and she hesitantly accepted. She soon headed out into the sea to join her friend, and, I assumed, run away from the crazy suncream lady, but they soon returned to the beach and started talking to me. They introduced themselves as Mette and Kristin from Norway and when I decided to leave the beach and grab a shower they invited me to have some drinks with them at their bungalow that evening which I was really happy about, as it meant I didn't have to spend the evening doing nothing. I went back to my room to freshen up and met Vashti, an Irish musical theatre actor who was staying in my dorm room with her boyfriend who was doing his open water course. I met the Norwegian girls at their place and we went to a big beach bar called Lotus bar where we met loads of people including a guy from New Zealand who I made sure knew that he was from the best country in the world, a group of people from Holland who joined in when we initiated a limbo competition, Markus, an Austrian (not Australian) dive instructor who was working at a dive centre down the beach and Jack and Adam two British boys who were doing their dive course with Markus. The music was turned down really early so we ventured down the beach to another bar that Markus knew but that seemed to be really quiet too. We ended up sitting on the beach and the tide was all the way in so I could sit on one of the 90' angled palm trees over the water, you can't do that in Brighton! 

The next day... another beach day. I bought a new book at a book store, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, and was instantly hooked (recommended read for anyone). I bumped into Markus on the beach and planned to go up to a bar near his dive centre that evening. The bar was called The Rocks nd the best bar I have been to so far. It was quite small and situated between to two huge rocks on the beach (hence the name). The staff there put in the most impressive fire show I have seen so far throwing the poi from the ground up to a man standing on top of one of the rocks and doing some really impressive tricks. Adam and Jack, the two British guys were also there along with lots of people who had finished their dive course at Markus' dive centre. There was a video, filmed at that days dive, and I got a chance to see the type of thing I would be doing during the course I had booked myself onto at another dive centre. That group were lucky enough to see a whale shark, the biggest fish in the world, and the footage was absolutely magical.

The next day, it's getting a bit embarassing to admit, I spent sleeping or on the beach. In the evening Vashti and her boyfriend Dave suggested I should join them for dinner in town. I met their friend Cathal, also from Ireland, the guy who Dave was doing his course with. We went to a beach front restaurant and I splashed out a bought a vegetarian pizza! 

The 29th was an exciting day because I had my dive introduction that afternoon at the dive centre, Big Blue Diving. We sat in one of the dive schools classrooms and met Ant, our instructor who talked us through the coyrse and then made us sit through some incredibly dull diving instructional videos. However, no matter how dull they were, I still left feeling extremely excited for the days to come.

The following day was the first dive day. My group consisted of me, a group of British guys on a short boys holiday and another British woman called Rebecca who was doing a trip around South-East Asia and would be my dive buddy during the course. We spent the morning in the pool getting used to the equipment, breathing under water and becoming familiar with the skills we would be asked to complete on one of the dives in order to pass the course. The skills included, removing and replacing the regulator (breathing thing), removing and retrieving the regulator from behind our backs, and clearing our regulator of air, clearing our mask of a bit of water, completely flooding our mask and clearing it and removing and replacing our mask then clearing it, we also had to learn some buoyancy skills including hovering and the fin pivot. The afternoon was spent in a ridiculously hot room watching more dull instructional videos. That evening was the Koh Tao bar crawl which lead us around the Sairee Beach bars including a pool party, where the group I was with were the only ones cool enough/stupid enough to jump in the pool and a lady boy show, which was brilliant! 

The next morning was an early start for the first ocean dives and I woke up with a smile on my face, which is rare when I am required to wake up before 10am. We boarded the boat and set up our equipment using what we had been taught the previous day. Our group spent the first dive just getting used to buoyancy, breathing and staying in formation. I was really thankful for the try dives I had done before with my family because I felt comfortable under the water and so found it easier to focus on technique. The second dive we were asked to repeat some of the skills we had learnt in the pool the day before and we all managed to do them without a problem. That evening I got back to the hostel and went to bed almost immediately, readying myself for the 5:30 alarm the next day.

What made this alarm even more painful was that it was my birthday! I woke up reluctantly before remembering that it was my birthday and I had a lot to look forward to. I found the cards that my family and uni flatmates had given me before I had left and opened them, it was really great to have the messages from home on a day when I am used to being surrounded by family and friends. My dive group met at 6:30 at the dive centre and had a briefing about the days dives before climbing aboard the boat and setting up the equipment again. As this was the last day of the course we had one of the employees of Big Blue filming our dives to make a souvenir video. We saw a blue spotted stingray and a porcupine fish during the dive as well as a Persian Carpet Worm, which was really cool. During the second dive we had to show some more of the skills we had learnt including the mask removal and replacement during which I got the mask dramatically caught in my ponytail and spent some time frantically tugging at my hair underwater without being able to see, which was great footage for the video! In between the two dives my instructor had arranged for a little cupcake with three candles to be brought out while the boat sang me happy birthday. Obviously this was a massive highlight of the trip so far as it involved cake and people singing for me. That afternoon I said goodbye to Markus before he had to get his flight back to Austria and met Vashti for lunch in a nice little cafe. I skyped home wishing dad a happy birthday and bragging about my dive course. At 7pm my dive group met to watch the film of that days dives and laugh at ourselves then Vashti and Dave came to the bar to start celebrating my birthday. We stayed at the dive bar for a while then moved on to go and watch the lady boy show, which was much better this time around than when I had watched it with the bar crawl, Vashti's jaw was on the floor for most of the show and we both had the songs going round in our head for the next few days. By the end of the night I was so tired from such a long day but it had been such a brilliant and memorable birthday! 

On the second I enjoyed a lie in before Vashti and I head to the beach. That evening, when we were walking to get some dinner we bumped into Mette and Kristin, the Norweigian girls I had met when I first arrived in Koh Tao. We all planned to go to the Full Moon Party the following day on neighbouring island Koh Panghan so I went with Mette and Kristin to book them onto the same boat as me. We went for dinner and watched a brillaint fire show at Rocks bar where we were one of only a few groups of people there as the island was really quiet thanks to the party. 

On the third I went with Vashti, Dave and Cathal to lunch then to a beautiful bay on another part of the island called Aout Leuk where the water was absolutely crystal clear and turquoise.

At 6pm I got a taxi to the ferry pier and met Mette and Kristin aboard the boat that was taking us to the party. The boat had large speakers and a 'fully stocked bar' which turned out to be some cans of beer in an ice cooler. We spent three hours getting to Koh Panghan (an hour more than they said  it would take) and when we arrived we were met with how busy the island was going to be. 

Hoards of people filled the streets, getting various patterns painted on them with the customary neon paint, buying street food and drinking from the brightly coloured buckets which were for sale everywhere you looked. We went for a quick dinner and made our way through the streets to the beach. The actual beach was really gorgeous, long, soft white sand and warm shallow water, however it was hard to see the natural beauty through the crowds of party-goers and flashing multi coloured lights blazing from the numerous bars located on the beach front. As we walked down the beach we went through the pockets of different music playing from each bar and saw just how diverse the population of the beach was. There were the typical young holiday makers who have flown to Thailand especially for the party, wearing their neon Full Moon Party t-shirts and not much else, you had stunned looking families who must have been caught up in the excitment of the event and groups of older partiers who seemed to have the best dance moves of all (I joined in on one of their conga lines of course). We bumped into Vashti and Dave, which was crazy as there were 50,000 people on the beach. The night was spent at one bar which played the cheesiest music we could find. It got to about 4am and we were all feeling fatigued but had to wait until our 9am ferry back to Koh Tao. On the ferry I managed to get some shut eye and when we got to Koh Tao I spent the day in a zombie like state until it was a reasonable time to go to sleep again. I can now tick Full Moon Party off the bucket list! 

On the 5th I started the advanced dive course, something I had not planned to do when I first got to Koh Tao and had certainly not budgetted for, but I could not resist, diving is addictive. I met my group that morning including my instructor Tim (from Brighton), a young couple (from Kilburn!), an older American gay couple and a Brazilian guy who would be my buddy during the course. To my delight there were absolutely no instructional videos to watch and we were going to be doing three dives that day. We spoke through the dives and were taught about how to use a dive computer, an underwater watch that tells you details of the dive. The first two were brilliant 18m dives but the highlight of the day was the third dive which was our night dive. We left the shore in the evening and entered the water just after sunset. Descending through the water in the dark was like being in an alien movie, seeing the beams of light cast by other divers torches. We saw loads of fish I hadn't seen during the day time including a huge great barracuda. When we saw the barracuda the instructors torch also lit up a fish who was innocently swimming nearby. This resulted in the barracuda instantly pouncing on the unsuspecting fish leaving the decapitated fish head flapping around on the ocean floor, which was pretty amazing to see, if not a bit gory. At one point the instructor asked us all to stand on the ocean floor (something that requires a lot more skill than you expect) and hold our torches towards our chest. We then moved our hands around in front of us and were able to see the bioluminescent algae light up like glitter. It was a truely magical moment.

The next day we had two more dives, our deep dive and the shipwreck dive. We left really early for the first dive and spoke about the importance of staying at the right level and doing a safety stop when diving to 30m because the nitrogen levels in the blood can become dangerous. The deep dive was incredible. Being able to get deeper means you can see a lot more ocean life and when you are at depth the sight of the fish and coral reaching up to the surface above you is a truely beautiful sight. The dive sight was really interesting and when my group got to the surface we were all in awe. For the wreck dive, the visibility wasn't quite as good but I actually liked it that way, it gave the shipwreck a creepy almost ghostlike quality. We saw less fish at this site but the wreck made the dive seem much more adventurous.

After that dive we returned to the shore and were certified as advanced adventurers (which is definitely going on the CV).

I gave myself a break of one day before I went diving again. I signed up for two morning fun dives to Southwest Pinnacle (reknowned for being the best local dive site) and Shark Island (the last place a whaleshark had been spotted). Southwest Pinnacle offered the best site and visibility so far, the dive master I was diving with reckoned it was 25-30m visibility. As a certified advanced diver you get a lot of freedom to just enjoy the dive and explore the reef and we spent much more time inspecting the reef to find interesting animals rather than just focusing on technique. The second dive to Shark Island was the most amazing dive yet, the site was beautiful and absolutely FULL of life (maybe due to the choppy surface water), visibility was good and most of all I was comfortable enough to completely forget about buoyancy and breathing and really spent my time enjoying the dive, I was even the fist one to spot a blue spotted stingray!

I finished the dive feeling really happy with how far I had come since my first dive and just wanted to keep diving forever, if only! 

The following three days I spent with Kristin and Mette. One day we decided to venture away from Sairee beach and visited a beautiful little bay called Freedom Beach. We walked up to a viewpoint and found an awesome view of two large bays, although we were stupidly sweaty by the time we got to the top! 

Freedom beach was really chilled and we relaxed in the shade or played with the extremely cute dogs (every beach seems to have them) which we named Mozzy and Doctor Octopus. 

The beach had lots of low trees with coral mobiles hanging from them so we found a couple of spare pieces of string and made our own to leave there.

The other two days were spent in Sairee beach relaxing (because I definitely needed to do more of that! Haha) but if that isn't what being on a tropical island is all about then what is the point? 

I am now sitting on a ferry back to the mainland after more than two weeks on Koh Tao, and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I met some wicked people, including Mette and Kristin who were just brilliant to spend time with. I have to leave Koh Tao before I just just stay there forever but I don't think that will be the last time I see the island (did someone say Dive Master course?).

So in conclusion, I went diving, sat on a beach, drank Mai Tais and met some great people. No wonder it took me so long to write this post! Island life is hard. 

Thank you for reading xx