Thailand Part 4: Once You Go Samui, You Will Go Back

Koh Samui was pretty uneventful to be honest! Unfortunately a bug (pretty convinced it was the dengue) hit most of our travelling group pretty hard and I was no exception, so the majority of the time we were there was spent in the loo. But we did manage to squeeze out a couple of good nights out and some moped renting and riding which was super fun. We only spent a few days here, mainly just waiting for the big one on the next island, Koh Phangan: the infamous Full Moon Party (discussed next time!).

One thing definitely worth noting was the hotel we stayed in, called Go Samui. After the dank hostel rooms we had during our stay on Koh Phi Phi, the luxury of Go Samui was incredible. We never wanted to leave! In fact we loved it so much that after Full Moon we went back to Go Samui for a whole lotta r and r. Just what the doctor would have ordered had we seen one. Comfy beds, the (AMAZING) Lotus TV channel, friendly staff, a pool and only a minor red ant infestation – we were in absolute heaven. And if those things weren’t enough, because it was low season, we got a family sized room for cheap! 

Part 1 of our family room

Part 2, complete with sofa. We spent a LOT of time in front of that TV

Anyway, after our first stay in Go Samui we were to head over to Koh Phangan (on yet another ferry). To say we were disappointed with our accommodation there would be a grave understatement. HA.

But that’s it for now! Only a little one today!

xoxo

Thailand Part 3: Pure Shores

Arriving on Koh Phi Phi after all that fuss was like some kind of miracle. Even from the first glimpse, I knew this place would be paradise… And it was!

After paying the island ‘entry fee’ (of 20 baht) and having not pre-booked accommodation, we followed the crowds off the pier and towards the action! Seeing as there was a pretty large group of us (11 now!) we were hounded by representatives of numerous hostels. We finally settled on the one offering us the best deal and let them lead the way. In hindsight, it was probably the wrong choice. Colour scheme aside, it was pretty dank in there…

Dank, sandy little room. With weird beds.

But despite our iffy digs, nothing was raining on our parade! The beaches were absolutely beautiful, the sea was clear and warm and the coconut shakes perfect.

Paradise!

And once again we organised a little tour! Koh Phi Phi – or at least an islet nearby – was used in that Leo DiCaprio film The Beach. So first stop on our all-day tour was The Beach beach. We met at the port in the morning and (along with about 12 other tourists) climbed aboard our boat for the day. Other than fearing seasickness, I was feeling pretty good about the day ahead, but that then took a turn for the absolute worst when I suddenly realised I have a dreadful fear of water I can’t stand in. We were told there was only one way to get to the beach, and that was to swim across about 20 metres (maybe – I’m not good with distances) of treacherous water. And that moment is when I had my first (mini) panic attack. Needless to say, I passed on that part of the fun and stayed safely on the boat.

Next was snorkelling. More deep water; terrific. But this time I was determined to at least try to conquer my fear, so I decided to get off the boat. I strapped on a life vest and climbed down the ladder. Hanging on the end, the panic attack feeling came back and I really thought I’d have to climb back up the ladder, but once (after a lot of reassurance from my friends) I let go and realised that life vests do actually keep you afloat, I had the time of my life. It was so much fun swimming around and having the occasional look under the sea. Didn’t see too many fish, but who cares?! The feeling of triumph I felt made it all worth it.

I'm doin' it!

Ah, the sweet taste of victory.

And the third and final stop was Monkey Beach – so named for the, well obviously, monkeys living there. And not friendly ones I can tell ya!

The one on the right reminds me of the Lion King. Am I right?

Then we topped the day off by watching the sun setting over the ocean. Beautiful.

We spent the next couple of days on this wonderful island paradise, going out at night with lethal (and VERY cheap) alcohol buckets then relaxing and tanning during the day. Absolute heaven! One afternoon, a few of us did decide to climb up to the viewpoint near our hostel. Fantastic view of the island! I then – possibly foolishly – decided to try and head down to another beach. 45 minutes and an awful jungle trek later (I may be exaggerating, but only slightly) I arrived, covered in dozens of new mosquito bites of course. It was practically deserted over that side! 

Koh Phi Phi from the viewpoint

Empty beach

 A positive to my solo exploring was that by the time I made it back to the viewpoint, the sun was setting and the whole scene was breathtaking.

A few parting shots

And again

Then that was it for Koh Phi Phi! Next on to Koh Samui – and one of the best hotels in the world. 

再见!

xoxo

Thailand Part 2: Phuket, Schmuket

Phuket, Phuket, Phuket... What can I say?

But before I get to our time here, I feel like a paragraph (or two) should be dedicated to the agonising journey from Bangkok to Phuket that three of us had to endure. It all began on a rainy Bangkok evening…

Seeing as a coach was a fair bit cheaper than a flight, we went ahead and booked one with a tourism company. Now the company we booked through SAID the coach would depart from Bangkok at 6pm, arriving in Phuket around 11am the next day. It SAID. We left Bangkok after a slightly annoying delay but had a whale of a time at first! Comfy, spacious seating and a couple of good films to watch (in English no less). We’d also packed snacks enough for a dinner and breakfast so we were well prepared!  

Relief at discovering we had plenty of room and comfy seats.
Little did we know...

And then things took a turn for the worse with a very loud and obnoxious wakeup call at 6am. We had absolutely no idea what was going on at this point, but little did we know this wasn’t the only surprise we’d get! We were woken up because we had reached Surat Thani, where we were to change coaches unbeknownst to us. I have to say we were not impressed. Picture this: sunrise, being harshly woken up, kicked off a comfy coach, not knowing where we were and a mad woman hulla-hooping in the house opposite the make-shift coach station. It wasn’t a pleasant morning. But the worst part was not having the faintest idea of what was happening next. So we waited!

After a little while, a man shouted our destination and ushered us towards one of the larger tuk tuks, which we feared may be taking us the rest of the way (still no explanation as to what was happening). After a short journey on the tuk tuk we arrived at a sort of tourism office and waited once again… Some random guy then turned up and walked us to a coach station about 10 minutes away, gave us instruction to wait and we did until a new coach pulled in, apparently bound for Phuket, so we hopped on. Definitely feeling less and less confident about ever reaching our destination by this point.

On the tuk tuk. Tired, hungry and confused, 
but chins up!

11am came and went without us being anywhere near Phuket. We were all talking about writing some VERY strongly worded letters! But eventually we started seeing road signs with Phuket on them, counting down the kilometres. It was around 4pm by the time we actually got there. 22 hour journey in total. And because of the extra 5 hours that came out of nowhere, the food we had planned to last us obviously didn’t, and we ended up taking turns gnawing on what later affectionately became known as the group carrot. A sad day for us all. 

But we made it! We finally reached Phuket! Things were only going to get better now right? WRONG! Our brief stay there was HORRID. It rained constantly and there was nothing to do. It sort of reminded me of a beaten-up coastal town in England. So we hightailed it outta there after a day or so and made our way towards the island of Koh Phi Phi (one of islands we’d planned on visiting). Unfortunately, I was in no way prepared for the journey that was to come, which in a way, was so much worse than the 22 hour coach trip: a ferry. I hadn’t been on a ferry in years until then and didn’t think about seasickness at all. How foolish of me! I don’t know what happened but it was one of the worst experiences of my life. In the space of a 2 hour journey I threw up 3 times, and have never been so relieved to be on dry land after we arrived. 

But that’s all for this post! As a spoiler, all I’ll say is the island of Koh Phi Phi was well worth all that throwing up and misery.

TTFN

xoxo

Thailand Part 1: "Hollaaaaa, City of Squalaaaaaa"

I arrived in a sunny Bangkok around midday, but by the time I reached my hostel (about 3 hours later due to reasons TOTALLY out of my control) it had chucked it down with rain and had become a very miserable first day in Thailand. I have to say, it was very unnerving being in a place where my language level was zero and I knew absolutely nothing about the culture. How do long-term travellers do it? Eh?

But luckily, I wasn’t alone! Met some pals at the hostel and slowly eased myself into Thai life! Tried Pad Thai for the first time (LIKE, SO DELICIOUS) and we visited Chatuchak Market and picked up a few bargs. Then the next day we were joined by a few other pals and after the not-so-emotional reunion was out of the way, we headed out to the infamous Khao San Road for a big night out LOL. I’m not too sure what I was expecting, but it was pretty crazy down there. Covered with the typical neon signs and full of restaurants and bars it was a total tourist area. Dozens of market stalls covered the road too, selling souvenirs from novelty t-shirts to fake electronics. There were also men every step you took trying to sell you ‘the best quality’ suits. WE DON’T WANT YOUR DAMN SUITS. And there were a heck of a lot of coconuts too. 

Then came the most uncomfortable part of the evening: a ping pong show. Now we’ve all heard stories about the things that go down in these places, but the thing I remember the clearest is the unshakable feelings of shame and misery that hung about the club. As a woman, I found it all very depressing and degrading. But little did I know, that dirty feeling would be a lot worse after our visit to Soi Cowboy… 

Khao San Road

Mad tuk tuk ride (I do love a good tuk tuk though)

Anyway, first real night out down, we were all a bit worse for wear the next day so just chilled out by our hostel pool, then wandered about drinking shakes and window shopping. The next day was MUCH more productive! Thanks to the enthusiasm of one member of our little travelling group, we booked a real tour and everything!

It began early doors with the Floating Market in Khlong Latmayom, outside of Bangkok – a very impressive sight I must say! There was everything you could imagine (if you’re realistic with your imagination) being sold on small little boats that floated gently down the stream. Seems to be very popular with tourists as it was pretty busy, but wasn’t too bad luckily. I didn’t buy anything myself, but it’s a very interesting idea I think! And the sellers weren’t anywhere near as invasive as some I’ve encountered in China. 

Some snaps from the market

More pics of the wares available

After the market we floated down through a residential area. Would be mad living in one of these houses

Then after this, we headed to the Bridge on the River Kwai, in Kanchanaburi. For those who don’t know the story of the bridge, it was part of the Burma (or Death) Railway which went from Bangkok to Rangoon (Burma, or now Myanmar). During the early 1940s, the town of Kanchanaburi was under Japanese control and they forced Allied POWs (as well as Asian labourers) to build the bridge – most of whom died during construction due to accidents, disease or maltreatment (thanks again Wiki). 

The Bridge on the River Kwai and what looks to be a temple on the other side of the river

Me! (handy now I had people to take some
pics of me!)

Last on the agenda was the Tiger Temple. This was easily my favourite part of the day. I know all the controversy surrounding the treatment of animals in places like this, but to me it didn’t seem bad. The fact that there were foreign volunteers there at the time also reassured me a little of the treatment of the tigers. Anyway, the tigers themselves were absolutely beautiful. I’m not really a cat person, but I would love a pet tiger. Such amazing creatures! So when we arrived the most important thing on all of our minds was the classic gap yah photo with a tiger. We came across the tiger cubs first and had cute pics with them. There was then some difference in interests, so the larger group of us broke off into smaller groups and my roomie and I wandered around trying to find the actual temple of Tiger Temple. After finding it, and being very disappointed, we carried on wandering and stumbled upon the adult tiger enclosure. JACKPOT! There were about 12 tigers in total all lying around having photos with the tourists, and we eagerly joined the queue. It was a strange set-up, though I suppose all for safety: we handed our camera to a member of staff and then you took another’s hand and they guided you around the enclosure, positioning your hands on the tigers for the photo. Initially I was quite reluctant to be as playful with them as the staff were being, but I did warm up to it later and it was definitely very fun.

Water buffalo and cows!

A tiger cub

Big-headed tiger

Tiger BFFs

King of the pride (though they actually
don't live in prides I believe)

Although we were all tuckered out from our jam-packed day – not to mention the time spent on the minibus – it didn’t end there! We went out for dinner (had my first real Thai green curry! AWESOME!) then headed to Sky Bar - famous for having a fantastic view of the city, and appearing in couple of scenes of The Hangover Part 2. The view from up top really was something though. Spectacular I would go so far as to say!

Bangkok by night

If I can draw your attention to the steps
below the dome, you'll see them here...

Unfortunately these steps aren't actually part of Sky Bar,
so people were very snippy about photos being taken on them

Two of my beautiful besties -
having the time of our lives

See - told ya

One more part of the day to go: a visit to Soi Cowboy. I shudder to remember. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty fun at first, but then after about half an hour of watching the many (and there were SO many) old men escort young Thai women off I was really ready to leave. So a few of us did! And that was the end to our very hectic day! Most productive of the whole holiday by far I’d say. 

Red Light District

Having planned to leave Bangkok for our next stop the following evening, we only had the morning and afternoon to see a little of the cultural side of Bangkok. At first we had planned to visit the Grand Palace, but seeing the entry price (if I remember correctly, it was about £10) we decided to scratch this and instead, head to the Reclining Buddha Temple with a much more reasonable entrance fee! (A fiver I think) And it was very interesting as well! Very different to the temples of China, which was a welcome change to me I must say. All bejewelled and sparkly. Very pretty.

The Grand Palace, outside looking in...

From outside the Reclining Buddha Temple

The Buddha!
As to the right photo, you had to be appropriately covered, so they handed out nifty florescent green robes if you weren't!

From the temple complex

Diggin' the top hat

Pretty spiral things in the courtyard

Very pretty detail and buddhas!

Weird lion/dog/deer thing which
looks to be on fire...

So after Bangkok it was on to Phuket! And I’ll save THAT gem for next time!

Peace out

xoxo

Post-Fúzhōu Fun Part 4: A Brief Tour of Guăngzhōu and Hong Kong

After another bus back into Guìlín (passed through that city a lot on this trip!), and another ghastly super long train journey I arrived in Guăngzhōu. Very nice city! Clean, modern (at least the areas I saw and visited) and pretty western – I’d imagine because of its close proximity to Hong Kong. Only here passing through on my way to HK, so didn’t have a huge amount of time to explore and visit places. I did go to Guāngxiào Temple though, one of the oldest temples in the city, and had a nosy around. Nice place – but pretty darn similar to the other temples I’ve visited in China. 

In addition to the temple, I spent a lovely lunch in Starbucks (favourite place ever) and then went to Shamian Island – a man-made island in the heart of Guăngzhōu. Given in joint ownership to the French and British during the 19^th century (thanks Wiki!), it is well-known for its European colonial architecture. Very pretty area, with well-kept courtyards and walkways and a very fancy Starbucks. Loads of statues too. Another thing, there were a LOT of fashion photo shoots going on the day I visited for some reason. 

Some of Shamian Island

Another pretty building and a fiddler in a chair

Statues of a dancing Chinese girl (left)
and European girl (right)
(They were placed side-by-side in the courtyard - how sweet)

Then after my brief stay in Guăngzhōu I boarded a train to Hong Kong! And it wasn’t like any other Chinese train, this one was FANTASTIC. Super comfy and clean and spacious. The journey was only about 1 hour and 45 minutes, but I wish it had been longer. Anyway, long story short, I did basically nothing of note in the big HK. Unfortunately the weather was appalling so once again, I did not get that damn night-time skyline photo from Victoria Peak. One day I swear to you, it WILL happen. But alas, not this time round. Spent the few days I was there in a blur of Starbucks and western food. I did visit the Museum of Art again though, and with an audio guide, the trip was very interesting.

                                           ___________________________________________

So that’s my post- Fúzhōu fun in a nutshell! It may not be for some people, but I really enjoyed travelling on my own – even if it was only for a week and a bit. Definitely convinced I’ll be doing solo travel again! Anyway, from Hong Kong I flew to Bangkok, and that friends, is another story for another post.

xoxo