Bangkok Round Two and Koh Tao

Helloooooo (shouts and waves from Thailand!)

Sorry its been a while we have been awfully busy! I hear the weather at home has been a bit stormy :( I hope the sun comes back soon! We are currently in Koh Tao a small island in the south of Thailand. So from Chiang mai we headed back to Bangkok on Thursday evening. We had booked to go on the train as we heard it was a little easier to sleep as they had beds. We arrived at the station ready to get on the 530pm train. Chrissie went to ask about the train to be told it was late and wouldn't arrive until 730pm. We had been told by many travellers along our way that the trains in Thailand are notorious for being late! But we thought oh well two hours isn't too bad. We then heard an announcement that it was delayed some more until 9pm and if we wanted we could get a refund which was rather good. As this meant we wouldn't get to bangkok until 12noon the next day we opted for the refund and jumped in a cab to the bus station. Luckily we got on a bus just about to leave. I had a bit of a to-do with a grumpy french man sat behind me as every time I reclined my seat he was tapping me saying he didn't have enough leg room. I did feel a little bad for him but he shouldn't take the bus if its really an issue! I explained I needed to recline the seat to sleep and he got super stroppy and moved seats! The bus was nice and quick (only 10 hours :-) ) and we arrived in bangkok at 5am. We got to the hotel around 6am to be told we couldn't have a room until 1130am. I have now become quite a pro at falling asleep in hotel lobbys so I did just that. Our hotel was just off the famous area in bangkok for back packers which is koh San road. Lots of party's going on! We had some drunk dutch guys offering us beers at 730am! After we politely refused they finished them with their morning toast ha! At around 8am I woke up thinking I wonder when John will arrive from the airport to hear his voice attempting to check in! We surprised him, don't think he realised it was us asleep on the chairs. He was a bit jet lagged and dazed but we all went for a nice breakfast to try and kill some time before check in. As we were all quite tired we spent the day seeing a couple of temples but mainly just recovering. Having John there and seeing him after 6 weeks of being away was so lovely but at the same time I was a bit sad knowing it was only a couple of days before Chrissie had to leave . We spent the next day exploring Wat Pho (big temple) and also went to a famous restaurant called cabbages and condoms. It was pretty cool and quirky- lots of statues made of condoms. It was set up by a charity to educate people and raise awareness about pregnancy and how to reduce unwanted pregnancy. Sunday was a sad morning as Chrissie headed to the airport to go to Kuala Lumpur for her flight home. Was very strange her leaving after spending 24/7 for the last 6 weeks with her I felt a bit like i had lost an arm! John and I had to get a bus at 6pm to Koh Tao so weren't too sure what to do for the day. We ended up wandering into an art center which turned out to be so interesting! There were a few small art exhibitions but lots of quaint arty shops selling all sorts from lamps made of absolute vodka bottles to a cats autobiography (I kid you not!) . We spent ages just absorbing the atmosphere and even got a drawing done by a local artist which turned out quite funny! As we were leaving there was a big protest going on against the government which was quite interesting. Lots of people in freaky white masks and a lot of police with riot shields!

So on Monday morning we finally made it to Koh Tao- bit of a manic journey! The bus took us from bangkok to chumphon where we arrived at 3am. We waited about an hour for a local taxi type thing to take us to the harbour. We then had to wait til 6am for the boat. There was nothing to do and we were both shattered. I'm quite lucky as can sleep pretty much anywhere (great skill on this trip) so I slept on my rucksack but poor John hadn't slept much on the bus and now had to wait and couldn't sleep either. The boat finally came and it was a bit full so we had to sit on the floor. This turned out better really as I was able to set up a little bed with bags (felt like a child falling asleep on the coats at a wedding!) And went back to sleep. The boat got quite choppy and a lot of people vacated seats to go to the deck. We were fine thanks to magic travel sickness pills! Hoorah for those on this trip!! I think we were still glad to be on dry land though. I had left John in charge of booking the hotel for Koh Tao and when we arrived I was seriously impressed! Its on the east side of the island near a few snorkelling bays. Its on a hill and made up of a few bungalows all with sea views! We've got a balcony with a hammock and waking up to the sea view and falling asleep to the croaking of the resident frogs is just heaven! Its run by a Scottish guy who was really helpful too. Monday and yesterday we explored, went down to the main beach- sairee beach. We ate some food and just relaxed really. We had a bit of a spider drama (more like tarantula drama) but luckily John was brave enough to remove it. Today we went down to Aow Luek bay near the hotel to snorkel. I was much less wimpy than last time (apart from a brief moment when I thought a scuba diver was a giant squid) and we went pretty deep. The coral was beautiful and there was soooo many fish! My favourite was a big parrot fish who swam towards us looking like he was smiling- this made me chuckle quite a lot! There were small black and white fish too who were very curious and kept swimming up to our masks! After snorkeling and lunch we headed down to sairee to watch the sunset. Tomorrow we are going to another bay to do some more snorkeling. We keep having to blink and remind ourselves that we are actually here as its such a little paradise. We were told the whole island is almost full with respect to the hotels yet this morning we were saying how surprised we were at how empty the island seems so definitely a destination for anyone who wants a chilled break away from the crowds!

Tomorrow is our last day here before Friday we start our journey to Malaysia. We didn't want to get a night boat with the choppy seas so we have to stop at a port town for a night before getting the bus to Penang on Saturday morning. We have decided to alter the plans a little and miss out langkawi. This is a bit sad as it looked lovely but we just couldn't figure out a guaranteed way of getting there and most of the travel agents here said it was difficult. The last thing we wanted was to end up stranded in a port town in southern Thailand what with all the recent trouble and clashes down there. So the next leg of the journey awaits. I will be really sad to leave thailand. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I did actually love it here especially after loving Cambodia so much. We only managed to fit in a couple of places so will definitely be back to see more of this country. I hope everyone at home is doing well. We are missing you all lots and lots and looking forward to being back to catch up. Lots of love to all xxxxxx PS attached is photo of view from our bungalow and guilty creature of tarantula drama, oh and our resident cat she hasn't left our bungalow since we arrived!