Phi Phi

When we arrived at Phi Phi we didn't know what to expect, but the first shocker was that we had to pay ฿20pp. Then we noticed that everyone was either hung over or wasted. This must be the party island.

Krabi

It took us 6hours to get from Koh Phangnan to Krabi.
You might of seen Krabi on the news back in 2004 when the Tsunami hit Thailand? Where we stayed the Tsunami effected every person we spoke to. Not far from our bungalow was a monument in memory of all the people who lost their lives due to boxing day disaster.

Ko Phangna

When we got of the catamaran, the heat smacked us right in the face.  For some reason this island seemed a lot hotter than the last one. We had to walk down the pier to the bottom of the drive to find our transfer this walk was about 200 meter, not that far I know but with the sun glaring down on to you and with heat of around 38degrees and with a rucksack on your back it's quite horrible.


We found our driver and jumped in car. The driver could not get the air con on quick enough, he told us he was feeling the heat to.

When we got to our hotel, we was like WOW this is heaven.
It had a nice little reception area, a wonderful restaurant, and a beautiful pool with swim up bar. Shame we was only here for 4 days bummer.

The we got shown to our rooms, wasn't to impressed with the bathroom as there was a leak directly about your head when you went to the loo.


So this is what our room looked like and some of the stuff it offered:

The most expensive mini bar going.

We touched none of this. It was so much cheaper to go
to the superstore down the street

So we learnt that the mini bar was sooooooooo expenisve, all though we did drink all the booze and we just replaced it all by buying it all from the 7eleven store about 5 mins walk away.

The pool so good, nice and relaxing but they did have diving lessons in there for a few hours aday, but they mainly stayed at the other end of the pool.

photo by nikki and ross

 This is where we all stayed for the duration of our few days here. All day in the swimming pool playing with a ball that someone borrowed from a neighbouring house.
You can see the swim up bar at the right had side of the pool, when we wanted happy hour we got happy hour. So we had happy hour from the minute we jumped in the pool GREAT STUFF.

photo by nikki and ross

This is what the swim up bar looks like from the back of the resort. Just to the right of this picture was the hammocks and relaxing area.

We made friends with JJ the barman, he was quite cool to be honest, had some really good song on his iPod to keep us entertained. He invited us to go to a thai all you can eat bbq.

Now when you think of BBQ what do you think of? Some hot coal with a grill over the gop right?
NOT IN THAILAND....

This cooking device is the strangest thing we have ever cooked on. (Not to great if you a veggie or muslim) At the top of the cooker can you see a white thing smoking away?
Well that's pig fat like a wet scratching, this acts as a cooking oil so your meat doesn't stick. You cook your meat just underneath that fat. where the handle is just under there is where they add water, egges and veg this makes a soup and the fat from the meat you cook and the pig fat drips into your soup giving you a nice flavour.

You get the un-cooked meat yourself you can have anything you like chicken pork fish, no beef tho. There's a whole range of noodles too so you can make noodle soup.
Very strange but soo nice 

Aimee, Craig,Sar, JJ, O, Tommy and Lisa lilly took the photo

This is the island we had the run in with the ladyboy, stupid cow.
Was so funny tho, our friend got a  lift from a ladyboy he went just 100m and she asked for 20bhat which he was willing to give. The when he got his flip flop stuck on the mo-ped and they both fell off well this is where she started to kick off. She threatened us with a club with nails sticking out of the end. And told us that she had friends coming down to us.
She then said that our friend touched her down below.. and claimed she wanted money for him doing that.. come on love get a grip. You look like skelator with a wig. She also felt like show us her bits. Yep that right the thing pulled down ther trousers and showed us her gone wrong lady parts.
I never want to see that again NEVER.

The Island of Ko Tao..

This is where our adventure of island hopping beings.

Great island if your into diving and you want to do a diving course.. Apparently its one of the cheapest places in world to do a diving course here. But to be honest this island is not that great if your not into diving and snorkelling.

There's 2 main roads on this island and the rest is dirt tracks. You need mopeds to get around the island or even better a quad bike.

We hired two mopeds for £4 a day, and went to explore the island. We found the best view point Ko Tao had to offer :

When you see it with your own eye's it does actually look a whole lot better.

Chiang Mai To Bangkok To Ko Tao on the sleeper train

So our time at Chiang Mai ended so off we went back on that sleeper train back down to Bangkok.

This time we had some follows this time on the train. Nikki and Ross managed to book the same train and the same bus and boat as us, so we could all travel down to Ko Tao together. 

Nikki's Space here hand from her work

Chiang Mai - one very drunk night

This night actually started out as 6 of us going out for dinner at the night bizzar, after we had eaten the boys went to watch the football and the girls went to do a bit of shopping and to get a foot massage.

We met the boys in the Irish bar, (as you do) we started to talk to Michael and Eric two fun loving piss heads from the south of Ireland.

The Irish bar closed at two and we had only just started. So we all went insearch of an other bar. We came across a gay bar and I've never seen 5 straight guys move so fast.

We jumped in the nearest two tuk tuks and asked us to take us to the nearest 'Reggae Bar'. This is where the madness happened. Craig Matt and Ross jumped in one and Nikki, Eric, Michael and myself jumped in another one.

 In the reggae bar we found the DJ was a thai dread raster how fecking mad..If you don't go into a reggae bar when your travelling you might as well just go home.

Chat's at the table

Eric and his new love. THE BUCKET

Sam song and coke with a hint of lime

Ross' Normal face Nikki doing FRIENDS

The after party. went on till gone 7am

Chiang Mai - Temple.

We went to see this temple, and lucky enough we actually made it in time to watch a nice relaxing prayer time. Stupid me didn't get the name of the temple, so we don't know much about it.

But we did speak to a man who worked in the temple called Ben and he told us a few things. He kept saying Oh My Buddha which made me giggle, because we say oh my god, or omg and they say omb.


You should see the actual work that goes into the buliding these temples. Just look at the ceiling work.

Ben told us that this man was disrespecting the Buddha as his legs was crossed.

chaing mai - atv treck

23 june 2010

Today is the day England played there last qualifying match. They kick off English time 1500hrs but in our time in Thailand 2100hrs. So me and Aimee had time to kill before kick off. This is what we done with our day.

The day before (22nd) we went to monkey school and on the way back to the hostel we stumbled across a centre that does tours of the mountains not by foot but by atv ( quad bikes) ha ha our faces lit up at the thought of climbing a mountain on a 4x4 and both of us having our own bike and a guide called Singh.

The day started off really early for us, and it had been raining so we both knew the terrain was going to be wet and muddy but we cracked on and went after a spot of breakfast eggs bacon and toast.

The car turned up to pick us up.
we got in to the car to be greeted by 2 young lads who introduced them selves as Singh and Bond and what characters they were what a laugh Bond had been on the whisky the night b4 and to put it nicely was still shit faced but in good spirits singh on the other hand was the driver and our guide 4 the day.

When we arrived at the centre we was given our bikes a helmet and a quick how to guide. We was sent off around a small track to see how good we was. Then off we went in a cloud of smoke one behind the other venturing up the mountain.

We had our first pit stop and singh showed us the views and explained how the fields used to be opium fields. But the king was horrified with his and offered them the chance to grow tea and cabbage.

This is the fields where the king buys his tea from

Don't be fooled by the slum look village

The King buys his tea from this field he pays up to £23 for one cup of tea. So to be honest this village isn't short of cash. Even tho the village looks like a slum they all drive around in high lux wagons and cars.

When we got to the top, Singh took us to a sacred place where the Sikh's and Buddist's both go to give offerings to the King and the princess he won in a battle between 3 other kings. This is the king that founded the city.

When Aimee took a picture of this monument he started to go mad. He told us that we should not laugh at this photo as it will bring bad luck on to his people.

Monkey School

Never ever ever ever ever go to the monkey school we went to.

I think the tuk tuk driver took us here so he could get a bit of commission.

Now if you thought the tiger temple was bad, then get a load of this. These monkeys had a hoop around their neck's and on that hoop there was a lead. Just like a dog lead. 

The staff kind of made you do things, there wasn't that many people watching the show to be honest, I had to sit down on a chair 2 times. The first time I sat down was so that the monkey could undo a knot that tied my hands together. But the rule was that I was not allowed to look at the monkey or touch the monkey.

 One lady reached out to touch the monkey and he kind of went ape (haha had to drop that one in) The people kept repeating do not touch the monkey, but the monkey can touch you.

This place also Bragged about having the only monkey in the world that could dive in the water and pick up some coins you throw into this little pond. Another way of making money from you... i do have a video of this which I will post once youtube uploads the video.

This school made the monkeys ride bikes do maths and act like Michael Jordan. 

Please if you ever go to a monkey school in thailand please don't let it be this one.
I rate it 0/10.

This place was pretty bad although the best part about it was that we got to hold one of the babies and feed it. But I feel sorry for these little babies as they will have to go through the same torture as its parents.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is such a beautiful city, this is the real Thailand.

What the locals told us about Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai means 'New City'

It was founded by one of their King's in the year 1296.
The city is surrounded by a moat, the moat was put here to defend the city from being invaded by Burma.

Religion:
There are over 300 Buddist Temples, there are 20 Christian Churche's, 13 Mosque's, 2 Sikh Temples and one Hindu Temple.

Population: 148,477 this figure was taken in 2008

Chiang Mai get's over 1million tourists a year, this is one of the city's you need to visit if you ever want to go to Thailand.
There is so much to do, you can take a ride in a tuk tuk (these tuk tuk's go a lot faster than the ones in the capital.) or you can try your hand at cooking. Or take a trekking tours to see the tribes that live in the mountain or take the easy way of getting up the mountain on a quad bike.

The Sleeper Train

Our next destination is Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is 435miles north of Bangkok so to get here the cheapest option is to jump on the sleeper train.

The sleeper train is pretty cheap it costs around £14/£16 for the top/bottom bunk in second class with air con.
If you want a good nights sleep pay the extra £2 for the bottom bunk, as on the top bunk it does get cold, and I felt that I was going to fall out and land in the isle of the train. It's that bad some people actually take valium to get them to sleep.

Another tip do not buy the food on the train, if your budget is tight I'd buy some beer (that's if you want to) and food with you for the journey. As it will save you a heck of a lot of cash.

Craig and I made this mistake and brought the meals from the train we had a evening meal each 1 beer 1 sprite and breakfast with coffee it set us back a good 1250b which works out to be over £25.

Now if you have never seen a ladyboy chance's are you will get a ladyboy waitress. We did and she was fairly boisterous. Although she didn't take a shinning to Craig but our pal Matt shit out. Everytime he fell asleep the ladyboy would rub his feet and legs. We think he enjoyed it. Didn't you Matt :-)

So more about these trains, they tend to leave the station at the time stated on your ticket. But they move off one station then you can wait there for up to an hour, like we did. I think I would of enjoyed the sleeper train more if it was a tad bit cleaner. But hey you get what you pay for I suppose.

If you have to be somewhere at a certain time, please do not count on the sleeper train to get you to your destination on time. I suggest that you either get the train the day before or you fly up to Chiang Mai or where ever your next port of call is to.

How does the sleeper train work?
Well when you buy a ticket you pay for your seat and your bed.
When you find your seat you will be sitting opposite the person who is sleeping under/above you.

Then when you are ready to go to bed, the top bunk come's down and the seats where we are sitting in the above picture fold down into a bed too.

If you don't like the idea of this you can always buy the 1st class ticket, this ticket allows you to have a cabin, in the cabin there are two beds just the same as the beds you see above, but you are in your own 'room'.

Kanchanaburi - Raft + Old Suspension Bridge

Gosh we're so freaking bad at this blogging thing we're nearly two weeks behind. How's you all doing?

So here we go..............

To top a great trek off we jumped on a raft made of bamboo and travelled down the river to the pick up point.

It was the most relaxing thing we have ever done. Sitting on a raft having no care in the world travelling around 7 mph some times it would be 15 mph depending on the current. We was on the raft for a good 90mins.

The sun was so hot there was just a little breeze, it was so beautiful.

You could swim in the river but we didn't chance it. The locals use the river for washing and laundry oh and doing toilet business.

These little kids started to sing to us when we drifted past.

When it come to the end of the journey we had to jump off the raft on the other side of the river. To get over the river we had to us the oldest bridge I've ever seen.

I personally was shitting myself crossing this bridge, as there was gaps where there was missing planks of wood, one wrong move and that's it your floating down the river. Plus it didn't help when some of the planks of wood moved under your feet. I'm so glad we don't have to cross it again.

Kanchanaburi - Elephant Trek

19th evening

20th
Wow what an amazing morning to the start of an amazing day, well the evening wasn't so much amazing.

So the day started off with a bit of a lie in. Then breakfast cooked by a woman who lives on the river where we stayed. She cooked us scrambled egg on toast. Then off we went to do our day's first activity. We all jumped in the back of the people carrier and off we went.

We drove down this little dust track and there stood one of the worlds most wonderful animals the Asian Elephant. There was four in total and the one we was riding was called Somboy he was 25 years old. And we had a little driver called Nanda, she reminded me of Mogley from the Jungle Book.

Somboy kind of liked to eat and eat and eat so we had to wait around all the time for him to have some grub then walk a few meters then have some more then walk another few meters. The other 3 elephants had to wait around for him.

We was on the elephants for around an hour and a half. To be honest it was one of my funniest 90mins of my life. The elephant could do anything at anytime. One min the bad boy was slow and then the next min he could be running down the hill and Paul the guy who sat on the neck was clutching on to the seat what we was sat on if not he's be sitting underneath..

After the treak we got to spend some time feeding and taking photo's of us with them.. such an amazing day..

We spoke to some people who we have met over the past two weeks and they said that the elephants that they rode was treated badly we was so  lucky to have rode these elephants as they was looked after so nice and their keepers was so friendly..