Thailand- Phi Phi Island and Krabi

After our night in the homestay we moved onto stay in Krabi for two nights, this is the part I was most excited for. We started it off by taking a day island tour by boat, visiting a few of the Phi Phi islands including Bamboo Beach and Maya Bay where the film 'The Beach' was set. The speed boat was very bumpy especially at the front, one of the ladies on our trip nearly flew off, it was a great way to see all the amazing views though! The water was clear blue with white sandy beaches with lots of small cliff-face limestone islands, it was literally paradise! 

We then snorkelled for the afternoon, which wasn't as great were expecting due to the water not being as clear, however there were still loads of fish, and jellyfish! 

We spent the rest of the time here getting cheap Thai massages (they are so worth it), exploring the area and seeing what the bars were like, it's definitely a place that everyone should get the chance to visit in their lives, well Phi Phi more than Krabi.

Thailand- Khao Sok National Park

So I've been a bit behind on blogging for the last week due to being busy and sickness (it's bound to happen when your here). So my next few posts may be a bit random and of varied things throughout the week.

On Wednesday 17th we took a day lake trip around the Khao Sok national park, I had seen pictures of the beautiful rocks and cliff faces before so was pretty excited! We arrived and as soon as we got on the boat we found ourselves in torrential rain! It stayed like this for pretty much the whole day which made the views very different to what I had seen in the pictures! However it was still amazing too see, we got taken to the famous three friends rocks first, before going to land to hike to catch a bamboo boat to a coral cave. 

The coral cave was a lot bigger than I expected and the inside did actually look like large fry bits of coral. However the darkness and the spiders did make it a bit more scary. 

We then tracked back through the rain over the hills, to get back on the boat to head for lunch, by this point in the day everything was wet, it is weird being in a place where you are soaked but can still manage to sweat at the same time! 

They had many little 'resorts' dotted around the national park made up of little wooden huts floating on wood and barrels, we stopped at one for lunch and a swim and kayak in the beautiful and warm green lakes they water was 28 degrees! After this all I was looking forward to a nice warm shower, turns out ours didn't fancy being warm, so it was a cool one for us! 

Thailand- Over night sleeper train

16/06/2015

The over night sleeper train was an experience and something I am actually glad to have done, I probably got about 2 hours sleep, due to the lights being on all night, and the fact at the train swayed from side to side and jolted a lot! I tried to sleep for most of the night with my hoddie on backwards to block out the light but everytime I was drifting off the train jolted! If you happen to go on one, I would advise you to avoid the toilet as much as possible, everything goes straight into the tracks, and as the journey goes on the smell gets worse!

We arrived at Suratthani rail station to stop for some breakfast before getting a lift in the back of a truck for the 2 hour journey to the hotel, all I would say is it wasn't the comfiest! 

We arrived at the hotel and had the rest of the afternoon to chill and see what was around, after a dip in the pool and lunch we all decided to go Canoeingn. It was really good, we stopped to swim in the river and jump off a rope, we also got to see the amazing views of the Khao Sok national park. Followed by dinner and a few cocktails and pool in one of the few bars in the area.

Thailand- Canal Journey

15/06/2015
Still in Bangkok we headed out to the canals by public bus, luckliy for us it wasn't so busy! We got to the canals and I was shocked to see the amount of pollution in the area and river, especially as it is the Kings river! The water was brown with the sides were full of rubbish, we then got onto and long thin boat and were told to wear life jackets, worrying, the river is the last place I wanted to end up! The boat trip was actually a lot better than I was expecting, we saw loads of fish (God knows how they survive in that water), we also Water Monitors some were huge, they are like lizard kind of animals!

We then went onto the Pho Wat temple which was huge and we saw the largest lying down Buddha in Bangkok it was 46m long and 15m high! It was huge! 

We then walked around the rest of the temple and learnt a bit about monks, I did not know that they can stop being a monk in order to have a family and then become an monk again later in life, because as a monk they cannot touch females! 

We then got a proper Thai massage, she managed to click bones in my body that have never been clicked before! And then went back to Koh San Road for lunch before spending the rest of the afternoon in the pool before our over night sleeper train.

We then headed to the train station for our overnight train! It was a lot better than I was expecting, I had visions of hot dark and mouldy, but it was actually very clean, cool and light, I will update you on the next blog to how we slept...

Thailand- Bangkok

So yesterday we decided to venture out in the morning for a wonder, this wasn't a good idea when we soon realised everywhere was shut because it was a Sunday! So after a short, smelly walk around the block we spent the majority of the day by the pool!

At 6pm we then met up with our next group, there is a range with ages, but everyone seems lovely so far! We all went for dinner and then headed onto koh San road, by bus (that's an experience). The road is know for travellers. It was packed with bars and shops, with lots of people selling fried spiders, scorpions and cockroaches! You also see a few ladyboys and get offered 'ping pong' shows, they are not ping pong! I will let you look them up yourselves! We did a bit of shopping in this busy street and then stopped for a cocktail and to use the wifi (you have to pay for it in the hotel!) before getting a tuk tuk back to the hotel, it has to be done in Bangkok! 

Thailand- When in Bangkok

13/06/15

After spending out last day in Bali at Potato Head beach club again, relaxing all day and then watching the sunset, we said goodbye to Lara and then got an early night for our flight in the morning. 

It had been so good having a week in sense hotel, actually being able to unpack our rucksacks, but this was now over to head to Thailand. For a change our flight was pretty smooth and roughly on time arriving in Bangkok at 11.30am. This however was about to change upon arrival! We thought our safest bet would be to book a taxi through the airport, we after an hours driving and lots of traffic we appeared at a hotel, we both had a bad feeling about it and checked with the driver, who was sure we were at the right place. 

Turns out yet again, we had been dropped in completely the wrong place! We then had to get another taxi, luckily he spoke better English so there was no confusion as to where we were going. 

We are staying at the Royal Princess Larn luang, it is actually a very nice hotel which we were glad about as from what we hVe seen on Bangkok from driving through, it is not the nicest place! I wouldn't come for a holiday. It is crazy how different parts of the world can be from home. 

After getting some lunch we decided to book a ladyboy show, it's got to be done when you are in the capital for ladyboys! As we had some time to kill the hotel driver took us to Gems Gallery, the worlds largest jewellery store, we got to see how they make all the jewellery and see the Gems, Ruby's, Silver and Gold. 

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos but in production they hD a few rows of people carefully shaping, cutting and adding the stones onto the jewellery, it must be difficult due to the size of the pieces themselves. They then had the showrooms full of all the jewellery you could imagine which you could then purchase, I don't think they quite understood when I said I couldn't afford a £4000 ring as she just said, it's okay you can pay on card! 

It then got to the time of day we were most excited about, the ladyboy show. We got dropped to the area by the riverside which was a lot nicer than what we had seen of Bangkok so far, it was full of restaurants and markets, along with its own 'Bangkok eye'. 

The show went was held in an amazing theatre with 5 seats to a table. It was amazing how much they actually looked like regular females. Of course it was very glitz and glam and they played songs from a raver of cultures. My favourite part had to be the Beyoncé set, one of the Ladyboys had dressed to look like Beyoncé, and he/she really pulled it off! 

I would say it is definitely something you have to do in Bangkok, even though  parts were quite cringy!