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.
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!
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.
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 :)
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