KOH SAMUI, KOH PHA NGAN, KOH TAO

After our adventures in Koh Phi Phi we headed for the East Coast of Thailand for the infamous islands of Koh Samui, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao. Most people that we had run into had come the opposite way to us as they usually had flown in to Bangkok first before starting their trip. As we had flown into Singapore we have kind of been going against the flow as it were.

Koh Samui
We travelled pretty much all day from Koh Phi Phi catching the 9am ferry back to the mainland, then a bus from Krabi to Suratani (the port where you get the ferry to the islands) and after a wait the final ferry to Koh Samui. We ended up getting there around 5.45pm. We caught a mini-bus at the jetty which took us to check out a place to stay. We found a nice little place called Suratan Palms Resort and checked into a cool bungalow there about 30 secs walk from the beach. Once we had unpacked etc we went on a walk to find some dinner and to explore the local town. After yet another delicious Thai meal we strolled through the township of Lamai (where we were staying) checking out the many tourist shops and little markets. The days travel caught up with us and we decided to call it night and went back for some well earned rest.

The next day we decided that we would rent ourselves a motorbike so that we could travel around the island ourselves and see what it had to offer. Some friends had recommended that we do this as its a cheap and easy way to get around the island so we thought lets give it a go! We hired a little 115 cc automatic and rode off to see the 'Big Buddha' which ended up being about a 15 minute ride away. Man it was so much fun! Even buying gas was fun! There are places to hire motorbikes and cars everywhere on this island and so you would expect that there would be petrol stations everywhere too then wouldn't you...... well what there is instead are these little stalls on the side of the road that have petrol pumps that look like big cordial dispensers and you get your one litre bottles (old whiskey bottles) of leaded or unleaded gasoline from them at around 40 baht a litre! - We found out later of course that the few petrol stations there were charged 32 baht a litre! Oh well!

The Big Buddha was set on a beautiful peninsula and was quite stunning. We had a nice cold Singha there and continued on our trip. We drove to a gorgeous beach called Cheong Mon and parked up and went for a swim. From the look of the hotels here and the clientelle (mostly retired people) this was where you came when you had a few more baht to spare!
Once we were refreshed from our swim, Liv decided that she wanted to have a go driving the bike. So on she hopped and after a little wobble we were away! Man it was so much fun and she had an absolute ball! (What a daredevil aye Ness!)
We went and checked out Chaweng beach which is the main tourist area and werent all that impressed, so we got back on our bike and rode around the rest of the island. We stopped at a cool little restaurant/ bar for lunch and continued on till we got to the first of three waterfalls we were to see that day. It was quite a small one but the water was still refreshing after being on a bike for an hour or so. We also saw some elephants there at the elephant trekking place which was awesome! We rode from there to the second waterfall we visited and is also the second largest on the island. It was so beautiful and had huge deep pool at the base of it that we obligingly took a dip in. It was so picturesque and to cap it all off whilst we were swimming another elephant trekking company brought its latest lot of toursits up to see the waterfall as well. Once we had taken our touristy shots we went back to the carpark and the elephants were being fed in their pen so we went over to have a look. Liv was so excited when the guy asked if we would like to feed them as well - which would cost a mere 20 baht for a bunch of bananas. It was such an incredible thing to watch Liv hand this elephants trunk a banana as it snaked out to grab it from her and her smile lit up her face! I had a turn too and the trunk felt amazing when it took the banana from your hand!

We got on our bike and Liv thought it would be a cool idea to take a video on our camera of us riding. When we got around the corner there were the elephants walking down the road in front of us! It was amazing! In New Zealand its sheep and cows, in Thailand elephants! :) Say no more!
We rode to the bigger of the two waterfalls next and hiked about 15 mins to see it. It was really beautfiul, set back further in the hills and amongst the jungle. We had a dip there in one of the pools then called it a day and went back to our bungalow. We stopped to take some pictures of ourselves on our bike in the sunset and Olivia decided to burn her leg on the muffler - by accident of course. I poured the rest of the drinking water on it and rode her straight back to the bunglow for a shower and more cold water.
That night we rode into the Lamai township and had dinner at some hawker stands and then went to one of Thailand's famous 'LADY BOY' shows. It was a cabaret and was very funny and entertaining. It was especially amusing watching how over the top they were when trying to be feminine. The highlight was a Tina Turner impersonator who was brilliant! At the end of the show they came around the audience shaking everyones hands and thats when the telltale signs showed i.e. big mans hands and some nice deep voices too!
Withthe nights entertainment at an end we rode our trusty 'Harley' (100cc automatic) home and woke the next morning to go and catch the ferry to .............

Koh Pha Ngan
After yet another tuk tuk ride and a 2 hour ferry ride from the Big Bhuddha jetty, we arrived safely on Ko Pha Ngan the home of the infamous FULL MOON PARTY. We had decided that we were going to treat ourselves to a more upmarket room here and ended up at a hotel called 'The Drop in Club'. We had a beautiful room with the all important AIR CONS, pool and the best of all - all you can eat buffet breakfast!! We were in heaven. Our room also had a fridge which is a real novelty if you are travelling, which meant we could stock up on water for our day trips and a couple of cold Leo's for a nightcap. We unpacked our stuff and changed into our togs and went for a swim in our beautiful pool. We took advantage of the free welcome drinks (diet cokes) and then moved onto a cocktail each when happy hour started. Talk about living the life!
The first night we went into town on the free tuk tuk from the hotel which ended up only being about a two minute ride down the road (after that we walked in) and went down to Had Rin beach. There were bars and bungalows galore there and stalls selling 'buckets' too. We chose a restaurant at a hostel at the end of the beach and during dinner met a young Kiwi couple who had just spent 3 months in India. We ended up sitting and chatting with them and some other people that they knew, sipping on 'Happy Hour Cocktails' for 50 Baht each. We all went down the beach and watched a huge fireshow where there were some crazy people skipping a burning rope of fire!

The next day we enjoyed our buffet breakfast and then got our books and lay out by the pool taking it all in. This was to be our typical day while we were here. Hard life aye! Later that day we moved down to the beach and lay there with our books! I had been experiencing blocked ears since the Perhentians and knew that it would be wax so we asked at the front desk if they could take us to the doctor in the free tuk tuk. This was almost embarassing as the doctor turned out to be maybe 500 metres down the road and this journey was even shorter than the last! The doc had a look in my ears and was very excited to see the amount of wax in them. He couldn't believe it. After putting some drops in to loosen things up a bit, he syringed them and called to Liv to come and see all the 'waxy that coming out, many many waxys!'. Liv was shocked as well to see how much there was, but I on the other hand was so happy to be able to hear clearly once again. While she was sitting there waiting for me to be seen to the nurses cleaned up Liv's burn and put a bandage on it for her and instructed her not to swim for the next 2 days which she wasn't very happy about.

That night we went to a POOL PARTY that was being held at the Coral Bungalows. Our trusty tuk tuk driver took us there (and this was a 10 min ride) and dropped us off there. When we arrived there weren't all that many people there but this soon changed as it became very busy, very quickly. We bought a bucket and had no sooner sit down when some people asked us to join them in some drining games. We met a really nice girl from Aussie who is a nurse and on her way to London also who happened to be wearing an almost identical dress to Olivia and a burn with a bandage on her left leg also from a motorbike. :) Liv and her got on real well and we plan to catch up in London sometime in the future.

The next day was very slow to say the least! After struggling to get up for the buffet we headed straight back to bed to get some more shut eye. The rest of the day was spent - you guessed it by the pool and on the beach. We had a nce dinner and then chose to have a quiet night in with our books as we had planned to go on a snorkellin trip around the island in the morning.

Morning came and we met up at 'Chicken Corner' with the 'Munchies' Tour crew. We all loaded in the boat and set off for the first of our stops which was a waterfall about 25 mins away. Amonst the passengers was a couple with their baby who could only have been about 16 months old. All the ladies on board (including Liv) were smitten as he was a very cute young man. At one point I think that everyone (bar the parents) were very worried about him as he was standing at the very low railing at the side of the boat and look almost as if he could fall in at any time. I said to Liv that I was getting ready to jump in after him and she said that she had been thinking the exact same thing too!
We got to the beach where the watefall was and had a short walk up the hill to see it. The water was really deep in one of the pools and yes Brent I finally got to do some bombs there and threw in a couple of staples just for you!
From there we went to another bay where we went snorkelling which was fun. After that we stopped at Bottle Beach for lunch which literally looked like your postcard tropical paradise! On the way back we saw how the rich and famous must holiday as there were some incredibly beautiful resorts with one having a watefall pool that looked straight out to sea.
They offered us all a drink and then the captain asked me if I wanted to drive us home. Of course I jumped at the chance much to Olivia's and the rest of the passengers surprise when they realised who was at the helm!
The half moon party was due to be held the next day so we decided that this was our cue to skip town and head to ..........

Koh Tao
This is a much smaller and secluded island than the last two. We found a nice place to stay, not quite as flash as the last one, but it still had a pool that overlooked the beach and sunset! After checking in we jumped straight into that pool for a well earned swim! We had a couple of drinks by the pool and went for a lovely dinner that evening. After dinner we chilled out a bar on the beach on some cushions listening to music under the half moonlight. Koh Tao had a much more relaxed atmosphere than Koh Pha Ngan which we both really liked.
We spent two nights there and had a brilliant time. The highlight of our time there was on the morning of our last day. We went for a fun dive with the Siam Dive Shop to a site called Chumpon Pinnacles which is supposedly one of Thailand's best. We couldn't agree more! It was incredible! The visibility was 30 meters (which is amazing for those non-divers out there!) and you could see the bottom from the surface! We saw two grey reef sharks, some white eyed moray eels, a giant potato grouper, schools and schools of other fish amd many beautiful corals and anemones. Liv had some company on the dive as the cleaner fish decided to clean her wound for her! She is now back to square one thanks to them trying to get it to heal! The dive was absolutely breathtaking and definitely one of the more memorable moments of our trip so far!
We checked out of our hotel and psyched ourselves up for the 13 hour journey ahead of us - next stop BANGKOK!
Arohanui
Liv and Tama xx

p.s. double click any of the images if you would like to see them bigger :)

KOH PHI PHI ISLANDS

From Krabi we took a 2 hour ferry across to Koh Phi Phi Islands which is where we are now. A few people had recommended it to us, and we arrived on the tropical island to pouring rain which was ironic! Koh Phi Phi is a lot more touristy than we had expected. In fact it is the first place we've been where Westerners seem to out number the locals.
It was one of the main places devastated by the big tsunami on the 26th Dec 2004. You can still see some traces of the damage and it is sad to think what it must have been like for the people who were here at the time.
We have been here for 3 days now and we're about 1 month in to our adventure. Unfortunately I (Olivia) must have eaten something dodgy and have come down with the first (and hopefully last) sickness of the trip. It's really, REALLY horrible being sick whilst on holiday :-( I have diarrhea (sorry to be gross), extreme hot and cold flushes, achy joints and limbs and just feel generally unwell and weak. I am writing this while lying in bed to type up later as I'm bored and feeling slightly better than before but still can't do much else. Hett I've been taking your advice and am keeping warm, even if I am warm! I'm wearing a long sleeved merino which covers my 'kidneys' despite the 30 degree heat :-)
So I'll describe our last couple of days. On our first night I was already feeling a little off but thought I'd be ok. We ran in to Tom, Mark and Anna (who we had spent the evening with in Kuala Lumpur a couple of weeks back). We were invited to have drinks in their room and then go to a bar where they had a kickboxing show on. In Thailand they have these things called 'buckets'. They are literally a small bucket that you buy as a set with a small bottle of spirits, a can of soft drink and a bottle of red bull concentrate in it. It also comes with straws and a bag of ice. It was the first time Tama and I had come across them and Anna suggested we try one out. When in Rome/Thailand......... Man it was strong!
The kickboxing was hilarious as the 'proper' Thai fights were obviously staged and choreographed! As well as that anyone from the crowd could volunteer to get in the ring and fight for a free bucket! This was mainly drunk English 'LADS' who got up there and were trying to show off their kickboxing skills - even though didn't have any. It was really lucky that no one got seriously hurt as they got given head gear and gloves but no mouth guards at all. It could have been very easy for someone with a bit of previous experience to give one of the lads a beating had they challenged them. The Canadians tried to egg Tama to get in the ring but for that reason he decided not too. We then went to a bar called Apache for a dance down at the waterfront. Tama and I lasted a little while until the smoke from all the smokers got the best of us and we had to go home.

The next day we went for a wander around to see what there was to do. We planned on going on a sunset cruise that started at 3pm that evening, but by mid-day my sickness had come on so bad that I had to go and lie down in our room for a rest. I woke up an hour or so later still feeling bad, but slightly better. Being determined not to waste the day just because I was sick I got up and went on the trip. It was brilliant! We went past a cave called Viking Cave where swallow birds breed. Thai people go in the cave to get their nests to make 'birds nest soup' sounds yum huh?! We also did some fantastic kayaking and snorkelling. We then had to swim from the boat quite a long way to a beach, crawl through some tunnel like caves whilst being bashed by waves in order to get to our next stop. It was very exciting. Once through we walked through some jungle and came out of it on a beach called Maya Bay. This is where the movie 'The Beach' was filmed - the one where Leonardo De Caprio goes to find the perfect secret beach that only a few people know about. Well as touristy as it now is as a result of the movie, it was indeed a very, very beautiful beach. We swam there for about 45 mins then had the boat trip back (after climbing back through the rocks and kayaking back to the boat). Unfortunately the sunset wasn't all that spectacular as it was quite overcast but we had a great time nonetheless.
That night shortly after we got back at 9pm there was a screening of the movie 'The Beach' at a bar called 007. We thought it would be good to watch it having just been to 'The Beach' that day (even though neither of us really liked the movie much). During the movie I started shivering uncontrollably and felt freezing (even though it was really hot). I was sitting under a fan which can't have been helping but I couldn't move as the place was packed with people watching the movie and we had really good seats too. I was stubborn and sat there throughout the whole movie. I got sicker and sicker from then on and had a dreadful night. I felt completely awful. So this morning I gave in and admitted that I had been stupid doing so much activity knowing I wasn't well and am in bed for the day. I took some pills this morning from our travel doctor kit and it's now 2pm and I feel a little better. Will definitely take it easy for the rest of the day though. Tommorrow we may go to another beach called Long Beach and stay in a nice place over there. It's supposed to be more secluded over there which would be nice. We may get a Thai massage too, although they may need to keep from standing on my calves as they are still sore for walking up and down all those steps! Will keep you posted.
Hope you are all safe and well,

Much love
Livi and Tama xx

THAILAND

Hat Yai

............we got a taxi to the border of Malaysia and Thailand and walked between the two countries. It was quite a cool feeling, just as it was when we crossed the bridge from Singapore to Malaysia (because us Kiwis have to fly to go to any other country it makes it a bit of a novelty!)

After getting another stamp on our passports (yay) we got a bus to Hat Yai which is a big city where all the trains and buses meet. We got there quite late and basically just stayed the night and caught up on email there. Of course we also had our 1st thai dinner here which was delicious, definately more spicy overall than Malay food. We also caught our first tuk tuk there!

Krabi

Then we headed to Krabi which is on the East coast of the mainland and is the place from where you can get to many beautiful islands and beaches. We spent 2 days and 3 nights there and had a fabulous time. We stayed in a nice place called The Green Tea House. On the first morning we woke there we were pretty tired from all the travel so continued on our blog site and backed up some more of our photos on CD/Ipod. We had planned to go to a beach called Rai Lay that day but the lady who served our breakfast recommended we go on a 4 island trip the next day and go to a place called 'Tiger Cave' that afternoon. The place where we had the breakfast was called May and Mark's and they had started the business when a Kiwi guy was living with them. He had taught them how to make bread (sourdough etc) and they were so lovely and the breakfast so incredible that we had breakfast there all 3 mornings we were in Krabi. We have almost always been eating only Asian food while we've been here but sometimes it can be a bit hard to stomach for breakfast (unless it's fruit). So we indulged in eggs on toast and proper espresso coffee with real fresh milk not powdered creamer!

The Tiger Cave that afternoon was amazing. There was a temple that was only partially built and was supposedly 30 years away from eing finished. This didn't surprise us having seen how much detail and extravigance goes in the the temples over here. There were 2 main uphill paths to take. The first one we took had some huge cliffs and incredible caves to see. Monks were living in the sides of the cliffs and there was a big Buddha too. Was really interesting although the monks must get sick of tourists walking past their homes. The was also a massive old tree that had been hit by lightening and fallen. It was all burnt from the lightening which was sad to see. We were told the second pathway had amazing views at the top but was 1237 steps to get up there. Some of the steps were very steep and shallow so at times it was like climbing a ladder. It was pretty hard work especially in the heat and we were sweating heaps when we got to the top about an hour after setting off. It was so worth it though as the views were as amazing as promised. A dog had stayed with us the whole way up, stopping when we stopped and keeping at our pace which was a laugh! Throughout the whole afternoon there were monkeys everywhere. We even saw some baby ones. This English girl was pertrified of them, poor thing! I love them, they are so cute! Probably wouldn't like them so much if we hadn't had our rabies shots though.

The next day we went on a 4 island boat trip. The 1st island we stopped at had big cliffs and cave formations surrounding the beach which was very cool. It also had some kind of shrine with all these huges woodern penises next to it which was very bizarre! We had a swim there and fresh water was dripping on to us from the cliffs a few hundred metres above. It was really beautiful. The 2nd island was called Chicken Island as the formation of the island looks like a chicken. Here we went snorkelling and it was gorgeous, saw so many varieties of fish, coral and anenome. The 3rd island was stunning. The water was really clear and there was a ridge of sand that joined to the next island which you could walk across at low tide. We had lunch and a nice swim here. The last island was lovely too and we got to do more snorkelling. It was unbelivable here, so many cool fish. There was even some puffer fish and one of them was a really big one.They are one of my favourites as they look like little puppy dogs with big brown eyes! Tama had had a bit much sun and felt like sitting under the shelter but I kept snorkelling until we had to go. We also fed some fish there with some stale bread they had kindly given us that morning at May and Mark's. The fish swarmed all around us!

Two of the nights we were in Krabi we had dinner at a place with all these local stalls on the river. The first night Tama had a crab fried rice that was undoubtedly the best fried rice either of us had ever tasted! The next night we went there with an English couple and an Australian couple who we had met on the trip to the islands. They were really nice people and we had a great night with them enjoying beers, food and cocktails.

Much love from Livi and Tama x