Thailand- Bangkok, Koh Tao, Koh Phangan, Koh Samui

We arrived in Thailand after a short flight from Bali and met our new travelling companion, Luce’s sister, Soph in the airport. I was excited to arrive in Bangkok after spending time in some quieter areas; unfortunately it would be a while before my excitement would be satisfied. It took us about three hours in choc a block traffic to arrive at the infamous Khao San Road and we were all so shattered when we got there that we just booked into the first hotel with space. We actually ended up in D & Ds which is a busy hotel that I think a lot of backpackers are keen to go to. After the not so luxurious accommodation in Bali we were pleased to find a gorgeous hotel room with a roof top swimming pool.

That night we went to find some Pad Thai on the street for our dinner which completely filled us up and cost about 80p. This was also a bit of a luxury after Bali which was slightly more expensive. We had decided to leave Bangkok the next day and spend more time there on the way back when we fly out. As a result we didn't do much more than a bit of shopping on the first visit. It was a lot of fun trying to barter with the Thai people, although it wasn't as easy to bring down their prices as the Indonesians.

That night we had booked a night bus to Chumphon to get a ferry over to the island of Koh Tao that we wanted to visit first. We were all a bit apprehensive about how much sleep we would get on this. I barely slept at all but Soph probably had the worst experience; she went down to use the toilet which was a bowl full of wee, no flush and a load of bottles of water to try and flush your business down with. You can imagine the state of the floor on a moving bus... Anyway she had gone down to this lovely lavatory to find that there was a Thai man on the phone in there who had kissed her on the cheek earlier. After leaving the toilet he spent his time trying to open the door while she was in there and then gave her bum a smack on the way out- nice. 

After this we got dumped in the middle of nowhere at 4.00am, luckily someone else came to get us about ten minutes later and take us to a disgusting cafe to wait for our 7.00am boat journey. The ferry was unbelievable, I'm quite lucky that I never really get seasick but about 70% of the passengers were running to the top deck to be sick during the four hour journey that should have taken two. At one point I opened my eyes and saw the sea level with the boat but just thought, not much I can do about that, and went back to sleep.

After arriving we found a place pretty quickly and spent the afternoon settling in ready to go out that night. The weather wasn't great but luckily the storm from the boat hadn't followed us.

We went out to a place called Lotus on our first night which was as good as everyone we had met had promised. There were buckets of cocktails flowing freely as well as fire dancers performing on the beach that Lotus was on. We tried laughing gas which is basically the same as helium balloons but they make you laugh hysterically for about 5 seconds. I absolutely loved it; it was so funny (obviously). Later on we bumped into a couple of people who were on our kiwi experience in New Zealand which was really surreal but happens more often than you think with people all following similar routes.

The next day we moved rooms to a nice place right on the beach with a lush BBQ restaurant in front of it (where we ate every night).

We didn't go out again but we watched hangover part two the open night which we have been obsessively quoting ever since. We also watched some live music at the Fishbowl bar which was fantastic as it was only two guys and a guitar but they did some really good covers and sang Stereophonics for us because we told them we were Welsh.

On our last day in Koh Tao I was feeling really ill but we had decided to go snorkelling and I forced myself to go. I'm really glad I did as it was a lot of fun; in the morning we went to a private island off Koh Tao and snorkelled there. The beach was beautiful and we saw some things that looked like baby swordfish swimming around. Later on we took a taxi to a place called shark point and Gwenda and I swam in the water for about two hours until we saw three black tip reef sharks. It was completely worth it and Gwenda said it was hilarious watching me chase after a shark to try and get a picture of it.

We left Koh Tao the day after to visit Koh Phangan. Koh Phangan is renowned as a massive party place which is famous for its full moon parties. We were excited to go as we would be meeting up with Chad, Matt, Katy and a couple of other people that we knew. We had found some good accommodation called Thai Dee Gardens in the busy area of Haad Rin and had all managed to squeeze into one room. The first night we were there we went to a pool party which was fun but also disgusting as at one point I saw a condom float past me in the pool. We didn't do much during the days while we stayed here except start drinking. The full moon party was amazing; there were thousands of people all over the beach at different bars and everyone was covered in UV paint. I couldn’t be bothered to spend too much time on my body paint design and ended up with bright yellow feet covered in green spots- I’m extremely creative. On the beach there were also fire throwers everywhere and people limbo-ing under flaming ropes. Unfortunately, as it was completely packed we all lost each other in about an hour after going to the toilet, getting drinks etc so I did spend a lot of my time wondering about and dancing on my own.

After the full moon party we decided to go and see a bit of the island. We didn't really want to hire mopeds as we had heard so many bad things about accidents but the taxis were so expensive and we thought as long as we were careful that it would be fine. It was a good laugh as there were ten of us riding around- Luce, Gwend, Soph, Chad, Matt, and Jon, Brian, Bryce and Robbie (boys who we had met on the island) but unfortunately when we were going down a gravelly, steep hill Matt slipped a bit and scratched his bike which cost him a couple of hundred when we got back, this was a massive shame for him as we had been having a fun day seeing some of the sights.

We've left Koh Phangan now and are on Koh Samui. It seems to be a more resort style place where couples come on holiday so is slightly expensive in comparison with other places. We are still with the boys and have also met up with Katy again so on our first night here we went to a Thai boxing match which was good but absolutely brutal; they give these massive kicks which are so fast you don't even realise what’s happened until the other person is on the floor. The kids competing are also pretty young which isn’t too nice to see. After the match some of the boys had a photo in the ring but when we tried we weren't allowed because we're women- what a nightmare.

Last night we decided to go and see a ping pong show- briefly this is when you go to watch Thai ladies shoot ping pong balls out of their lady parts. It’s quite gross but we felt like we couldn't come to Thailand without seeing one. We searched for ages and couldn't find one so decided to go to a lady boy show instead, when we couldn't find one of these either of course the boys suggested a strip club. For some reason we agreed to go. It was ridiculous but funny and Lucy, Soph and I ended up putting a ping pong each into a girl’s cleavage (that was apparently how you tipped them)! We soon got out of there and went to Green Mango, a famous open air club in Koh Samui.

Today we thought it was about time to actually get some culture in and went on a tour of the island. It was a weird but fab tour; we started off at some beautiful temples. Again when we tried to take a photo with a Buddha we were told we weren't allowed to touch it as we are women. It’s annoying but I suppose you have to respect their culture. After this we visited the famous golden Buddha which was huge and a really impressive sight. We went from there to a viewpoint where you could see a gorgeous view of the main beach in Koh Samui. Afterwards we went to a "monkey show" which we all found cruel as it wasn't a show it was just demonstrating to us how they use the monkeys to collect coconuts from the trees. It was horrible though because he had the monkey on a chain round the neck which he kept yanking. We did have a picture with one that seemed happier because he was being given lots of food. When I had my picture he dropped his fruit down my top and stuck his little hand down to grab it.

In the afternoon we went to look at the famous grandmother and grandfather rocks- this sounds lovely but it was actually two rock formations, one in the shape of a giant penis and one in the shape of a giant vagina. This was interesting but also quite disturbing. Our last stop was to a waterfall which wasn't overly impressive in itself but as they also do elephant trekking and tiger photos there we got to see both. We leave for another place tomorrow and are excited for April 13th because this is when the Thai New Year begins along with a massive water festival.

Bali

After leaving the Gili Islands we went back to Bali, aiming to spend the majority of our time in Ubud. We had a pretty scary moment in the taxi when our driver tried to charge us more than the agreed price; I was so tired at this point that my argument back when he was asking us to pay more was "No! Just no!" while Katy quietly slipped the bags out of the boot. However, when we arrived at the place we had booked we all had massive grins on our faces because we had an incredible infinity pool and a huge room with our own television. We were enjoying this luxury after our shady accommodation on Gili Trawangan.

On our first day we pretty much just relaxed by our new pool which resulted in me getting bright green hair from the chlorine and burning under my nose producing what looked like a red hitler tash. After another day staying in luxury we thought we'd better look for something cheaper, and did we find it. We moved to some really basic rooms which looked pretty grubby but at three quid a night we weren't too bothered. This was until Luce and I came back to our room and found huge cockroaches running around; after seeing one crawling on our bags we all decided to cram into one hot room for the night. Katy, Luce and I were in one bed, while we pulled a sun lounger in from outside for Gwenda. It was certainly a travelling experience.

Because we are massive cheapskates we kept the room for another night anyway but kept ourselves busy by going to the huge Ubud market, getting some pampering for Katy's birthday and going to a dance show. The dancing included someone boogying around in a load of red hot charcoal which was quite a sight. In addition to this, we had heard quite a bit about the Monkey Temple in Ubud so took a trip there for Katy’s birthday. Luckily we had been advised not to buy bananas for the monkeys and on walking in, seeing a man with a banana getting piled on by some monkeys, I could see why. I know monkeys are supposed to be cute but I have to admit I found them quite scary. They were running around like devils in disguise stealing people’s things and jumping out of every little crevice imaginable. Katy also felt my distress after one monkey took a liking to her and was chasing her round tugging on her sarong. Needless to say we left fairly soon afterwards.

After leaving Ubud we got a taxi to Seminyak for our last night. At this point we had given up pre-booking accommodation as it had been so easy to find it. This was a massive mistake for Seminyak because it is quite an upmarket area and we trooped around in the blistering heat for hours trying to find a place. Eventually Luce and I waited with the bags and Gwenda and Katy went to find a place we had seen in Gwend's lonely planet guide book. When they came back they had got a taxi with them who had brought them back and was waiting to take us back to the place they had found. This taxi driver was insane. He couldn't even remember what day of the week it was let alone where he had picked the girls up from to take us back there. It was a stressful ten minute journey to the rooms and in the end we walked down the street to get there as the taxi driver couldn't understand a word we were saying but just kept grinning and giggling at us. 

Luckily the accommodation was perfect for us and within our budget so we left our stuff and spent the afternoon on the beach. In the evening Gwenda and I decided we wanted to try the local Balinese delicacy- Luwak Coffee. This originates from an animal called the Luwak which looks like a cross between a rat and a cat. The animal has a diet of coffee beans and when it digests these back out they are made into a different type of bean and turned into coffee. I have to say I was impressed with this drink- when you moved past how disgusting the idea of it was it was really nice, all the flavour of coffee but not bitter. 

This was pretty much the end of our stay in Indonesia. It was a nice relaxing time but we spent a lot of time relaxing and not doing many activities so unfortunately there's not a lot to say. The Indonesians were so nice and funny; when you walked past them in the street they would make jokes and wait until you laughed before bursting out into their crazy high pitched cackles which would get you laughing even more. It also seemed like a really diverse place with beautiful beaches but also amazing mountain scenery in places like Ubud. I think I would like to go back as a holidaymaker rather than a backpacker to make the most of all the trips and activities available.