P-J's Trip Home - Thailand
Thailand my home for the next 4 weeks......
South East Thailand - Tsunami Hit Region
Our first day and night were in Hat Yai, which we used for a rest stop before heading to Krabi. We were picked up at 0900, on the second day, by a mini bus that drove us around Hat Yai for a 10 minutes before we stopped for 20mins, next thing we new we were being kicked out the mini bus and stuffed into a smaller van with more people in so for the 5 hour journey we were crammed in like sardines, stopping once for some food and toilets. The driver was a nightmare, he was over taking as many other vehicles as possible but only waitning until the most dangerous moment to do so, he was even trying to overtake a bus while we were driving through some road works but he couldnt get enough room on the sand to overtake, shame! Once we arrived in Krabi, abit shaken but not stirred, we caught a taxi to the closest and most developed beach of Ao Nang.
Ao Nang is a picturesque beach , even though there are lots of tourists, with a long thin stretch of white sand and large limestone mountains. It was a nice place to stay for a few days a recharge our batterys while we also planned the next part of our trip. On the third morning wecaught a long tail boat around the corner to a beach called Rai Lay which was only 15mins away. It is a beutiful small beach that is not very busy at is is only reachable by boat even though it connected to the mainland. The are two sides to Rai Lay, the west where the big resorts are and rooms start at around 6000Baht and the East, which has no beach but consists of mud and mangroves, where we got accomodatrion for 600baht. This was only a 5 minute walk to the west side, so for 10% of the west price we could enjoy the beach and still afford food! On Rai Lay we chilled out on the beachs o Kathyn could try and tan before we wandered around the base of the Limestone cliffs searching for a track upto a hidden Lagoon, unfortunaltey it eluded us so we gave up!
Next up was the island of Koh Phi Phi, we took a long tail boat out to a ferry which took us the rest of the way. When we got to Koh Phi Phi we were quickly accosted by a accomodation tout who showed us some pictures and prices of some rooms on the island, eventually we chose a cosy bungalow and got him to knock the price down if we stayed two nights, you would never get that in England! The sun was shining still (we had been told it would be thunderstorms every day, but so far so good) so we headed to the beach for most of the day before heading up to the islands Viewpoint in the evening to watch the sunset. On our second day in Phi Phi we booked a boat trip for the afternoon. In the morning we made time for some more sunbathing before heading out for our trip. The trip was a 3-in-1 trip that allowed us to do Cliff Jumping, Snorkelling with Sharks, Visiting the bay that 'The Beach' film was based before watching the sunset on the boat. First up was the cliff jumping, which kathryn chickened out of but i made up for it by doing it 5 times, first and last from 8m, then from 10m, 14m and the biuggest being 20m up, it was so much fun and i will definitly do it again sometime, and mayb even get Kathryn up there! Next we went snorkelling, at first there wasnt any sign of the sharks but soon enough we found some and then we found alot of them! Though they were carnivarous they were only 1m long so didnt pursue in trying to eat humans, although i'm sure if they had all attacked at once Kathryn would have been a good target! we were also allowed to take 10minutes to go off and snorkell on our own, where a found a large underground archway made by the coral and i had to swim through it! We then ventured onto the beach where the film was, which was really nice before watching the sunset on the boat, though like Tanah Lot there were too many clouds. We did get a dvd of the afternoon so you can watch me jump into the sea and see the sharks. We spent our last night eating dinner by the sea and watching the distant thunderstorm light up the sky.
We left the next day to make our way by ferry and then bus and then ferry again to Ko Samui which is in the Gulf of Thailand, as we got closer and closer to Ko Samui the rain started....
The Gulf of Thailand - Island Paradise
..... And didnt stop for the whole time we were on Ko Samui, so unfortunatley we cant tell you what this island was really like, we didnt venture our to the beach but instead watched movies and listened to the unrelentless rain. The only thing we really did other than that was to book our ticket to Koh Pha Nang, which meant walking in the rain with our backpacks on, which dully got wet as we waited for the taxi to the port.
When we arrived in Koh Pha Nang we took our time deciding which beach to stay at, even though it was raining but the locals told us it would clear up over the next few days so we figured we might aswell be near a beach, and eventually settled for a resort called Haat Yao at the beach Hat Yao which was on the east coast. We got a real bargain as we got a tv, air con, hot shower, swimming pool and were right on the beach for only 1000Baht for two nights! Although we wernt allowed to use the aircon unless we wanted to pay another 200Baht a night, but there was a fan right above the bed which was fine. The sun decided to try and poke through the next day and i managed to get a little bit burnt, much to Kathryn's disgust as she didnt! We also at at a table on the beach for lunch and dinner, and breakfast the next day which was cool.
After our breakfast on the beach we headed to Koh Tao, where Kathryn did her dive certificate last time she was here and she made good use of it by doin two dives, while i relaxed in a hammock reading a book and enjoying the good weather for a change, although i was banned from being in the sun so Kathryn could catch up on my tan! We left Ko Tao on 30th April to take a Ferry then an overnight bus to Bangkok, this meant it was the last time we would see a beach for a while as we headed north to the capital of Thailand.
Bangkok - A City of Treasures
Bangkok is situated in what would be called Central Thailand and is at the top of the Gulf of Thailand, it has many temples around the city and also many slums, which are quickly being changed into high rise buildings and hotels. The are ahere we stayed was aourn the Khao San road, famous for its abundance of street stalls selling anything from watches, sunglasses, movies, food and clothes all at cheap prices! As we arrived at around 0600 we were wlilling to take the cheapest room available which turned out to be a bit of a pit, but we only stayed one night before moving to a more Kathryn approved hotel! We spent our days walking around the market stalls, not necessarily wanting to buy anything, but just to see what was on offer, we also paid for our visas and flights to Vietnam but as the Visas were going to take a few days we decided to go to Chang Mai for a few days, mainly to do a Cooking school and mayb ride some elephants and take in some Muay Thai Kick Boxing.
This involved getting another overnight bus from Bangkok leaving at 1900 and arriving at Chang Mai at 0600. We were given a brief introduction into Chang Mai by a tour company before we set out to find the hotel kathryn had booked us, that had a swimming pool in the hope it was going to be sunny, well it was raining when we got there, it rained as we made our way to the hotel but it had stopped when we awoke again at 1100 so we went for a walk and to find some food! On the way we booked our cooking course for Monday, which also happened to be Kathryn's birthday and i was forced not to tell anyone incase they started singing and embaressed her. After we booked it we had some lunch before walking aimlessly around the streets and stumbled on the Night Bazaar being set up, we walked around here for 2 hours with Kathryn bartaring with as many store owners in the search fot the right bag, eventually buying one for less then 50% of the asking price, and we walked back to our hotel. Once we dropped off the bag when ventured out once more to the Sunday Night Market, this was a huge street market that went on for, well we never got to the end as after 2 hours we were hungry and tired, so we headed back to the hotel to get an early night ready for the cooking lessons.
When we woke up it was gorgeous and sunny and i gave Kathryn her only card this year, but we were text a few times during the course of the day, and the phone wouldnt stop ringing as her family, and mine who dont ring me, rang her to wish her happy birthday. We had to get up at 0800, which i am guessing is the earliest time Kathryn has got up on her own birthday, so that we were at the meeting place by 0900. At 0940 we were picked up by our cooking teacher, and driven to a local food market where we were shown varieties of thai vegetables and herbs, noodles, rice and coconuts. Once the chef had bought all our provisions we were driven to his home, 15kms from Chang Mai, where his cooking lessons were. We leach had our own cokiong station with chopping board and cleaver and were taught how to cook Tom Yam Soup, Phad Thai, Stir Fry Vegetables and ever Thai Green Curry, or at Kathryn's request, Massaman Curry. We were also shown how to make Spring rolls and Sticky rice for desert. The food was all made from fresh incredients and took around 5 minutes to cook each dish. The best bits were doing 'Advebture' cooking when making the stir fry vegetables as we got shown how to make the huge fireballs you see chefs making when cooking asian food, and aslo making the curry paste from scratch using a Mortar and Pestle to grind up the incredients until we had made our paste. The best bit about the whole course was eating all our food at the end and tasting the others food! Once we got back from the cooking class, it was still sunny so we headed to the pool to sunbath, though the sun was soon replaced by cloud so we headed back to the night bazaar where we filled the night with looking at lots of arts and crafts, Kathryn found a dress design we both loved so will be having it made and we bought some scarfs before heading to bed!
We left Chang Mai on the Wednesday night after spending the day on chilling out by the pool or on the internet, we got another overnight bus back to Bangkok and stayed here until Friday night where we caught a plane to visit the last country on our joint visit Vietnam......
- Posted by d1d2d3_pj on 06/05/2008.
