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

Crisis Averted.

As I write this I am in a minibus leaving Bangkok, which has to have been the most stressful time of my trip so far. Not only is Bangkok a hive of activity with cars, motorbikes, buses, coaches, tuc tucs and a scattering of people bustling and dodging eachother but I had my first minor crisis of the trip. But, I will get to that. 

First of all I am glad to be able to talk about my much more relaxed time in Pai, a town north of Chiang Mai. Actually, to just describe it as 'north of Chaing Mai' would be simplifying the fact. It is actually a three and a half hour drive which involves a total of 762 turns as you assend and descend the mountains in a minibus with 10 other backpackers. My journey to Pai was a dramatic one sitting, as I was, next to an 18 year old boy from Luton with severe travel sickness and the hangover from hell. Luckily my role as nurse during the trip took my mind off the roads and, although the patient was as sick as a dog, I felt fine. We arrived in Chiang Mai and I had been informed that the hostel I had booked, Circus School Hostel, offered a free pick up service from the bus staion. As I sat waiting for the shuttle bus to arrive a local man approached me and said 'Circus School?'. I followed him and was shocked to find that there was no shuttle bus, only a dated moped, without much choice I jumped on the back with all my belongings and was taken through the town, across a bridge, up and hill and dirt track until we reached the hostel. I liked the hostel straight away, there was a big open outside space, two bamboo shaded areas and most importantly a irresistible infinity pool. 

I checked in and was shown my bed in one of the bamboo dorm rooms. I decided to chill out at the hostel that evening, sitting in the shade reading my book (Wild by Cheryl Strayed) and saw Marilon and Jolijn, two dutch girls I had briefly met in Chiang Mai and who had recommended the Circus Hostel (the name of the hostel referring to the optional circus skill lesson that the people who worked at the hostel offered in the afternoons). I also met Omer, a guy from Birmingham/London and talked with them for a while before heading for an early night.

The next day I relaxed in the morning and warmed up after the surprisingly cold night and then headed with Marilon and Jolijn to a restuarant called Om Garden in town where we had an absolutely delicious lunch in a beautiful bohemian setting. The town of Pai has a very chilled/bohemian/hippy feel about it, which was perfect for me because I wanted a place where I could sort out my plan in my head and get adjusted to Thailand. I walked back to the hostel and sat by the pool to escape the dry heat. I can imagine that during different times of year the view from the pool is really breath-taking, stretching out to all of the surrounding mountains and jungle but, just like in Chiang Mai, the air was thick with smoke from the forest fires. This did however make for some stunning sunsets as the sun turned the smoke red as it dips behind one of the mountains. I bumped into Leena, a German girl I had also met at my hostel Chiang Mai and that evening a group of us head into town for dinner and to have a look at the night market. 

The next morning I agreed to take Leena to Om Garden for breakfast, which was just as delicious as the lunch I had the day before. Leena and I decided that we would take her moped and travel to a river nearby that one of the guys at reception (who was originally from Brighton!) had recommended. After a 10 minute ride through the surrounding countryside and small towns we arrived at the spot. 

It was made up of dozens of bamboo shacks built in the river which you could hire for the day and food stalls selling a variety of Thai street food. We relaxed by the river all day, reading, swimming and eating. The river was especially nice because it was a local attraction and so we were one of only two groups of westerns there. 

There were also giant catfish in the river whoch you could feed and watch them all splashing around trying to grasp one of the small chunks of fish food. After a few hours there we head back to the hostel. That night there was an party going on in the jungle nearby and most of the people from the hostel were going. We arrived in the jungle and were supplied with the customary neon face paint and danced the night away, at one point Leena found herself being recruited as one of the bar staff! There were people from the hostel there doing fire poi and lots of trance music and it turned out to be a really fun night.

The next morning I stayed in bed for the morning, tired out from the night before. I spoke to Yoeri, from Holland, who had been travelling in South East Asia for a while and told me about the Philippines and Laos, two places I had not considered before, but after seeing his photos and hearing about the places he had seen I would love to fit into my year away. I then spent time relaxing by the pool with Leena again as this day one was of the hottest so far. That afternoon when the hostel got out all the circus equipment I had a go on the poi, which I hadn't done for quite a few years. Turns out that I can remember a couple of tricks and attempted to teach them to some other people. It was nice to do poi again and it reminded me of mum who had been really good at it and had taught me the tricks I was now teaching others. That evening Leena spontaneously decided she wanted to get her nose pierced, inspired by me she said. We walked into town and after trying nearly every tattoo shop, found one who did piercings. We had some street food for dinner at the night market, which, as always, was really tasty.

Leena and I had decided to move from our dorm rooms to a bamboo cabin at the hostel, which actually cost the same amount so we checked out the next morning then back in again and moved our stuff to our little cabin which was so cute! 

We could not resist breakfast at Om Garden and so Leena, Jolijn and I went there. Jolijn had to leave to collect Marilon from the local hospital where she had been for the past two nights due to food poisoning she had got in Miramar three weeks previously. Leena and I walked around Pai and I did a bit of shopping, which I had successful avoiding until then. We bumped into Jolijn and Marilon later on who were going to book thier bus to Bangkok. I decided that I would go with them and book onto the same bus, knowing that I could easily stay in Pai forever and taking this as my cue to leave. I walked back to the hostel in the heat and got straight into the pool where I met Leena, Omer and Izzy and Leah from London, who had been in Sri Lanka previously and could not recommend it enough!  That is another place to add to the ever-growing list! I skyped home in the evening as it was Mothers Day and spoke to everyone including my grandparents and cousin Oli before heading into town with a group of people from the hostel for dinner and a couple of delicious passion fruit mojitos at one of the bars in Pai. 

In the morning Leena woke up early as she had decided to do a 10 day silent meditaton retreat in a temple nearby, something I wish I had the mental strength to do. At least I know that whenever she looks at her nose piercing she will remember beng lazy in Pai with me! I checked out not long after and after saying goodbye to people at the hostel I walked with my bag into Pai where I met Jolijn and Marilon for some breakfast before our looooooong coach journey to Bangkok (15.5 hours in total). 

After a pretty restless journey we arrived in Bangkok at 6am and were greeted by the fast pace of city life which I had become completely unaccustomed to during my time in laid back Pai. Nearly instantly I was experiencing the dishonesty that I had been warned about. Taxi drivers asking for a ridiculous fare to get somewhere we knew was much cheaper. I sat with Jolijn and Marilon until their bus to Koh Chang and after a stressful few minutes dealing with taxi drivers who were trying to con me I managed to get a tuk tuk to the skytrain station and then a train to near my hostel. Finally I arrived there but was told that my room would not be ready for another 5 hours, so I had a much needed shower, sat and read my book and attempted to nap in the reception/social area before I heard someone saying 'why is that girl sleeping?'. At long last my room was ready and Islept  until the evening. I met two American girls, Brittany and Amanda who I went to the hostel bar to have dinner and some drinks to celebrate St.Patricks day with. A group of us from the hostel then went to another bar, which was very expensive and up-market and then onto an Irish bar where there was a Thai Irish band, who despite the contradition of cultures were really good, although I definitely missed St.Paddys in London!

The next day, after a delicious mixed berry smoothie for breakfast I went with Brittany and Amanda to a giant mall (one of MANY in Bangkok) where I realised that I did not have my currency card, most probably leaving it in the atm in Pai the last time I had used it (the cash comes out before the card in ATMs here, a common mistake backpackers make). What made it worse was that I had forgotten the pin to my bank card, rendering useless as I held it in my hard squeezing my eyes shut to try and trigger my memory. Brittany and Amanda suggested that we go for a boat ride along the river and I agreed that there was nothing I could do about my card at that moment so I might as well see some of the city. We got a taxi and walked through a market until we found a ferry pier where we paid 40baht (less than a pound) for a trip down the river to central station, passing the grand palace, some of the famous temples and the skyscrapers that Bangkok has to offer. 

After the trip I returned back to the hostel and emptied my bag, desperate to find my card, but with no luck. I skyped my dad who helped me cancel the card and see what we could do. I requested my pin to be sent to my home address and researched where my local western union was. I watched some Alan Partridge on YouTube to confort myself, knowing that I only had 200baht (£4) in my purse. Just before I went to sleep my dad skyped me to tell me that Alice had managed to find the place I had written down my pin for my bank card! Elated, I settled down for bed and slept happy in the knowledge that I could access my money! 

When I woke the next morning I made my way to the nearest ATM with almost a skip in my step. I entered my pin and the amount I wished to withdraw and was confused to find that no money came out. I visited another ATM with the same result. I almost burst out laughing with frustration and had to walk back to the hostel to phone the bank who confirmed that they had blocked the card thinking that the transaction had been fraudulent. After confirming that in fact it was just me desperately trying to get some money, I finally was able to get the money. It felt so good to hold those notes in my hand after thinking that I would be stranded in Bangkok with £4 to my name. I checked out of my hostel and travelled to the bus station where I was due to catch my minibus to Koh Chang, an island South East of Bangkok where I would be meeting Jolijn and Marilon and relaxing on a beach, something I missed from my two months doing just that in Australia. 

So here I am, a survivor of my first minor crisis. During the stress of thinking I had no money, I really questioned my ability to do this for a whole year. If I couldn't even look after one plastic card how could I look after myself? But, in the end, I have realised that this is what travelling is about. It isn't just about washing elephants, eating delicious food and meeting great people but about overcoming challenges. This time around I was very lucky to have my dad on the other end of the line helping me through it but hopefully over the course of the next year I will learn to rely less on my family and more on my own abilities. This will be one of the most valuable lessons I could learn from my time away. So yes, it was stressful, but with a bit of confidence, common sense and Alan Partridge I'll get through it and be able to enjoy all the experiences I have waiting for me.

Thank you for reading! x

From Melbourne to Thailand

Going to Melbourne felt a bit like going home. The city has a very European feel about it, reminding me a lot of London, with seperate boroughs, street restaurants and a very liberal feel. Also, I was there to meet up with Sarah, a friend from university who was living with her friend, Livvy, in a shared apartment for three months before they set off on their own tour of Australia and South East Asia. When I arrived I had a couple of hours to settle into my new hostel before Imet up with Sarah and Livvy for dinner. On the way we picked up their new found Melbourne friends Julius, from Kenya and Elliot from Kent. We made our way to a Korean chicken restaurant and ordered two giant platters of fried chicken which was far more delicious than I ever expected fried chicken to be.

The following day I went to Sarahs flat which was in central Melbourne right next to Flinders Street Station, which is a large yellow building that reminded me of the spa buildings in Budapest. At their flat I met Sydney born Max, another friend Sarah and Livvy had made since being in Melbourne. We all set off around town to the trail of the street art that the city is famed for. 

Afterwards, Max took us to a rooftop bar where we could take in the Melbounre skyline and share some summer sangria. 

On the 4th Sarah met me at my hostel and we went for breakfast nearby and walked to Fitzroy, an area of Melbourne which is the Melbourne equivalent of Shoredich. We had a very delicious coffee and headed back the the centre to meet Livvy, Elliot and Pablo, from Spain. We had lunch and watched some TV before making a move to the twilight market in Queen Victoria Market. We wandered around and had dinner from one of the many stalls and then head back to my hostel. 

That night Sarah won a free Fraser Island tour at the Irish bar we went to by wrapping Elliot up with tissue paper like a mummy. I walked back to my hostel in the freezing cold rain and had to sleep in a dorm with a man snoring very loudly AGAIN. Thank god for ear plugs.

The next day was the day I had set aside to sort out my Thailand 60 day visa, so after watching Homes Under The Hammer at Sarahs flat I set off to the Thai Consulate. On the way I had to have a passport photo taken at a chemist and I turned out looking like an alien, but I was beyond caring.  The lady behind the desk at the consulate looked unsure, which I assumed was to due to awful photo but it turned out that she was unsure whether they can get the visa finished in such a short amount of time but said that if I came back tomorrow they would try their best. Livvy and Sarah came to meet me at the Consulate and we got a tram to St.Kilda beach. We walked down the high street and had sushi (Sarahs first time) then headed to the beach, which after the beaches of the east coast was a little bit underwhelming and FREEZING! Regardless of the temperature, we ended up having a quick nap by the sea before having a look around the market in a nearby park and heading to Abbotsford for dinner. The dinner we choose to have was at a place called Lentil As Anything which was a vegetarian restaurant which was seriously delicious and, better yet, was pay-what-you-can. The majority of the staff there are voluntary which give the place a really relaxed and friendly atmosphere. We all had a starter, main and shared a dessert while the sky got darker then hopped in the tram back to the hostel for the night. 

The next day, after checking out of my hostel and moving my stuff to Sarahs flat for my final night, I headed back to the Thai Consulate to collect my visa, which thankfully had been done in time and then went back to the flat to watch some TV before we met Elliot and decided to check out someing called the Moomba Festival on the Southbank. It turned out just to be a tacky fair but it did boast a wakeboarding conpetition whcih we sat and watched for a while, and a giant fairground ride which Elliot and Sarah braved while me and Livvy watched on. We moved to Fitzroy to meet up with Phil and Max for a few drinks. We went to a really cool bar called The Black Pearl which played 1930-40s music and sat there for a few hours and talked until we couldn't deny that it was bedtime. 

On my last day in Melbourne I felt sad to be leaving, the city had been so much fun, very expensive, but I had really enjoyed getting to know it and spending time with Sarah and all the people she had met so far. We had a very lazy morning in the flat but managed to muster the energy to go to the shop to get some supplies for the picnic we had organised to go on with Max and Phil later that day. We met Phil and grabbed the tram to the Botantical Gardens. We waited for Max as long as we could before starting to eat the food and were then given a load of food by a group of people who were celebrating a birthday nearby. Max finally arrived and it wasn't long until Sarah and Livvy had to leave to get to their waitressing shift. It was strange to say goodbye to Sarah, not only because we had spent a lot of time and had a lot of fun together over the past few days but because I knew that she was the last person I knew for certain I would see from home until I got back to the UK in 9 months time. After they had left Phil, Max and I discussed the evils of the world, covering the crisis in North Korea and globalisation. We then went to have a look around the WW1 memorial, The Shrine Of Remembrance before heading back into the city.

I said goodbye to Phil in town and went with Max to change some money into Thai Baht then to find somewhere we could kill some hours before my flight out of Melbourne Airport. We walked through the city and into Chinatown and found an art gallery/bar where we had a cider. Max then took me to another bar called Croft Institute which was themed to look like a labartory/old psychiatrict hospital where we had a cocktail which you we encouraged to drink though a plastic syringe. 

We walked to the transport station said goodbye and I hopped on the airport shuttle bus and got to my airport with time to spare! My flight included a 6 hour stop-over at Kuala Lumpar then a short three hour flight to Chiang Mai, a city in the north of Thailand. As we came into land we passed through a layer of what I assumed was fog but what I later found out was smoke from the burning forests this time of year. I caught a taxi to my hostel, Julie Guesthouse, which had been recommended to me by my friend Jess and rightly so because I liked it straight away. I was staying in a single private room for 180 baht a night which roughly equates to £3! I decided it would be a good idea to familiarise myself with the local area so went for a walk that evening and was lucky enough to walk right into the weekly twilight market which took place on the roads which winded pass delicious looking restaurants and some stunning temples, which seemed to be on every street. 

The next day was spent mainly relaxing and adjusting to the temparature, which was HOT. In the evening, once it had cooled down a bit I took part in a thai cookery course, learning to make 5 traditional dishes including Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, Thai Green Curry and Hot and Sour Soup. Even though I chose not to out much spice in the food, it still ended up being a bit too firey for me but I realised that if I am planning on staying in Asia until December I better get used to spice pretty soon! 

At the course I met a group of Gemans, a kiwi, an American, a Canadian and a Brit and we decided that that night we would go and see a ladyboy show. We travelled to the night market and it wasn't long until we spotted the eye-catching ladyboys ushering people into the show. 

We took our seats right at the front of the audience and enjoyed about an hour of lip-syncing, glitter, partial nudity and fabulousness sometimes having to remind myself that I was watching a group of men performing (although some of the acts certainly suspended the illusion better than others). We left the show and spent a couple more hours chatting in an Irish bar before calling it a night. 

On the 10th I had a dream come true. I finally got to get close and personal with some elephants! There are many elephant companies to choose from in Chiang Mai, and I can imagine in Thailand as a whole, but the one I chose (although it was slightly pricier) was called Elephant Retirement Park and was set up to look after elephants who were retired from work either in farming or entertainment. I decided to choose this one as you didn't ride the elephants, which can be done cruelly in some cases, and you got to have a mud bath with the animals at the end! We started the day by learning a bit about the 4 elephants they have there, one teenage boy, two 2 1/2 year olds and one big mamma who was actually in her final month of pregnancy. We then got meet the elephants, get hugs and very sloppy  kisses from them and feed them a ton of bananas. 

After that was lunch and a nap before we got to get muddy! The mud pool was full of deep thick clay mud which the people who worked there assured us was good for our skin. The elephants got in one by one and we covered them in mud as well as getting absolutely covered in mud oursleves (mostly by the workers playing tricks on the westerners). After the elephants were sufficiently covered we all lay down in the mud and had mud fights until it was time to wash ourselves and the elephants in the pond. (Photo below shows the moment one of the people who worked there dumped a load of mud right on my head)

The whole day was really magical and something that I have wanted to do for a long time. It was also really great to see the elephants being cared for so well and having such a nice connection with the local people who worked at the park. That evening I was so tired from all the excitement but had organised to meet up with the germans and go to the night market and a reggae bar. I bought a bracelet with an elephant pendant on it to remind me of the day and we played a very intense game of Jenga at the bar before I finally succum to my tiredness. 

I think I will pause there, even though a lot has happened since the tenth, as this post is turning out to be a mammoth read. I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless and I will attempt to write a new one as soon as I find the time, although time seems increasingly hard to find. I have said farewell to Australia, which will always hold a special place in my memory bank and sawadee ka to Thailand, a place which I can tell still has a lot to show and teach me, and that is bloody exciting!

Thank you very much for reading! 

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