Thailand

After a fantastic week off from travelling spent in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with the Herriotts and Liesegangs it was time to pick up the backpacks and head on to Thailand. We were really sad to move on as Tommy (Al’s dad) had arranged us a lovely apartment in his hotel block which was really luxurious and had a fully stocked kitchen with all the creature comforts from back home (i.e normal tea which makes Greg very happy).

Greg and I spent 6 weeks in Thailand a few years ago so with agreement from Al and V we decided to just do an island hoping tour round Thailand. Our first stop being Ao Nang on the Andaman Coast – we spent the first day doing a snorkelling tour around the islands of Phi Phi, Monkey Island and Bamboo island. It was brilliant but from the last time we were here (after the Tsunami) and it being December, the crowds were unbelievable. The type of people who head to Thailand now has also changed a lot as the big resorts have popped up everywhere. The islands are still beautiful and it was great to be on the beach again when the sun is out. Our second day was spent on Raleigh Beach topping up the tan and exercising (this to us means swimming to the buoy, playing bat and ball, playing Frisbee and walking to the food & drinks boat and back). On New Years Eve, Lara and Leise met up with us again to celebrate the New Year together. We didn’t really plan anything and just ended up doing a pub crawl which ended at 4am in Macdonalds (enough said!).

After a very lazy New Years day by the pool and a downloaded copy of Invictus in the evening it was time to say goodbye to the Gangs (Lara & Leise) again and we headed to the Gulf of Thailand. First stop Ko Samui were we spent time on the beach, hired scooters for a cruise around the island. We found this place called Beach Republic who let us use their pool for the day if we had lunch there so V& I read around the pool while the boys battled it out on the chess board.

After a few days it was time to move islands – just a quick 45 minute boat ride and a long taxi journey and we were at Baan Panburi in Koh Pangan – one of our favourite places from our previous visit here. This time there were even waves so we spent all 3 days in the sea body surfing until our bodies were starting to shrivel from the salt.

After 3 days we were gutted to be leaving as Baan Panburi is just so relaxing but we only had to move up to the next island in the Gulf, Koh Tao where we also got to meet up with my friend from school, Shev, and her boyfriend, Jeff. After some ridiculous directions from Shev (for those of you who know her you know how these can be!) we finally found each other and thought it would be a good idea to consume buckets (buckets filled with vodka, whiskey etc)(for those of you who have been to Thailand you know what a bad idea this is). Anyway a lot of dancing on the beach and in the sea, a good time was had by all but we all felt a bit worse for wear the following day. The next day we took our motorbikes for a ride round the island – we went to the North of the island to watch the sunset and then headed to the south of the island to New Heaven for a lovely, quiet dinner. The following day we went diving. Shev signed up for a discover Scuba dive and loved it and V finally is thinking she could enjoy it so a good day all round. The rest of us were just happy to be diving again.

Sadly our time in Thailand was up so we left on the overnight train to Bangkok and then a flight to our next country Laos – where we are meeting up with even more friends who we can’t wait to see...

P.S Over a couple of beers one night the Herriotts and us have come up with a good description of our trips....it’s like waking up in the morning and realising its Saturday.....EVERY DAY. So we are onto nearly 8 months worth of Saturdays and life is good!!