Thailand (June 24th - July 24th) - Tambon Patong, Thailand
Tambon Patong, Thailand
Our first destination in Thailand was the capital city of Bangkok. We decided to treat ourselves and book an air bnb for 4 nights there as they were cheaper than hotels but a lot nicer - Ash booked one in a good location and was so modern and clean we fell in love with it immediately, especially the bedding and luxurious pillows, so much so that we spent our first day there in bed ALL day! We didn't arise until the evening which we spent having drinks in the red light district and ended up watching a ping pong show as they are infamous in Thailand. I wasn't expecting it to be classy but it was far worse than I expected it was absolutely horrendous! All of the women were middle aged and had clearly given up on life, it made me feel extremely sorry for the women who clearly didn't want to be there and is not an experience I will go through again! But one to tick of the bucket list I guess... The rest of our time in Bangkok is a bit of a blur, and we ended up spending 6 nights in the city in total (more than we had originally planned). We spent one day seeing all the sites by getting on a hop on/off ferry down the river to see the grand palace, chinatown, and a few temples called Wat Pho and Wat Arun which was cool but nothing too special compared to others I've seen. One day we stumbled upon the BIGGEST shopping centre we had ever seen - it literally was gigantic and had every store you could imagine - and we ended up spending a whole day there revamping our wardrobes and spending too much money! One night we stayed up until 2am and went to Khao San road to watch England play Iceland in the Euros (obviously we lost). Our last night in Bangkok was probably my favourite. We went to Asiatique which was a boutique market filled with stalls/restaurants/fairground rides, the food we had was incredible and Ash even bought me a ring I loved. We then watched a Muay Thai show which is the Thai version of boxing and is the countries most popular sport. The one we went to was more like a show and explained the history and the specific moves they use which was interesting, followed by two live fights. The first match I got asked to go up at the end and be the 'ring girl' and put the victory necklace on the winner, the second match didn't last as long as one of the guys got knocked unconscious in the first round. We ended the night by going to the sky bar, which is a bar at the top of a huge building on the 64th floor which looks out over the whole of Bangkok. Although the drinks were a rip off it was absolutely incredible with amazing views and showed how huge Bangkok really is! After an overnight bus (one of the worst ones I've been on as someone was snoring the whole way and kept me awake) we arrived in Phuket and stayed for 3 nights. We were excited to be back by the beach again after being in a big city. We went to Patong beach to relax one day and spent another day at Phang Nga elephant park. I did a lot of research beforehand as I wanted to go to one that was ethical and treated the elephants properly and they really did. There were 12 elephants in total that had been rescued from logging camps. Ash and I got to look after our own elephant, a male called Barambee. We got to ride him bareback (as that's better for them) around the park whilst he grazed for food, and got to feed him a bucket of bananas. He was the greediest and as soon as we finished feeding him he went onto another elephants bucket. We also got to meet a baby elephant just 7 months old who was adorable, he was kept behind a fence with his mother but kept trying to get out and getting his leg/head stuck! The best part was bath time - the elephants got taken into the pool and we got to scrub and wash him, whilst sitting on him and he kept splashing us, it was so much fun and one of my favourite days of my whole travelling trip so far. Next on our list was the island of Koh Phi Phi which took a 2 hour ferry journey from Phuket. When we stepped off the boat it immediately brought back memories of when I went there the last time I was in Thailand 4 years prior. It was a small island with beautiful beaches and longboats parked up, and was filled with tourists and lots of market stalls selling clothes/souvenirs. Ash needed to buy some new clothes as some of his got stained in the wash so we went to look round and both bought some new clothes. The next day we climbed to the top of the cliff to Phi Phi viewpoint (and got eaten alive by mosquitoes on the way) which was really cool as it looked over the whole island, followed by drinks on the beach in the evening whilst watching a fire show. Unfortunately we were well and truly into rain season at this point so our next 2 days were a bit of a flop as we'd planned to go on a boat party to Maya bay (the beach from the film 'the beach') but it got called off due to the weather! Our next stop was Krabi which was just a short boat ride back to main land where we stayed for 3 nights. We visited the famous 'Railay beach' both days which was cool, the weather wasn't that great but we snuck into one of the hotel pools on the beach front, and had lots (too many in my case) of cocktails at the local bar which had card games and connect 4 where I beat ash 7 times to 1 :) Like Ko Phi Phi, Krabi did not have good weather whilst we were there and was torrential rain for some of the time which did put a slight dampener on it as it limited us with what we could do. But onwards and upwards, onto our next destination, back on an island called 'Koh Samui' for 3 nights. As soon as we arrived it felt good to be back on an island and surrounded by the sea again. Our first day we made the most of it not raining and spent at ____ beach, and wandered round the markets in the evening. The markets were pretty good and we ended up staying for a good few hours as both Ash and I managed to buy our presents for our family there. Our next day was spent at _____ marine national park. We had to get a boat ride to a series of small, beautiful enclosed islands where we went kayaking and snorkelling, and hiked to the top of a viewpoint which looked over a green lagoon. The weather was fantastic so it was nice to top up our tans a bit on a secluded beach. That night Ash treated me to an amazing 3-course meal at a beautiful restaurant (I don't know why as I'd shouted at him in Krabi) but it was one of the best meals I'd had whilst travelling so far. Our next destination was the nearby island of Ko Tao, where I had booked to do my open water diving qualification, something I had dreamed of doing since my first dive when I was a little kid. We booked the ferry there and were given a paper receipt, so when we arrived at the waiting area Ash went to the help desk and politely asked if the paper receipt was the ticket. The fattest, most insane Thai woman I had ever seen started shouting at him about a table, refusing to answer his question, screamed if he 'had eyes' to see and was being so so rude. I was having none of it and got up and told her not to be so rude to him and said she shouldn't speak to him like that, but she carried on screaming at an increasing volume so everyone in the waiting area was staring. It was kind of embarrassing at the time but soon afterwards she started shouting at someone else as well and one girl went up to her and said the way she spoke to me was disgusting. Clearly she was insane but it's funny looking back! When we (finally) arrived in Koh Tao we were met by our driver to take us to 'big blue' diving school so I could start my course. Koh Tao was a lot smaller than Koh Samui with much less shops and no tarmac main roads. I had to sit through 2 hours of videos that night then the following day do more academics and training in the pool. We had to be able to do skills like mask removal and replacement, exchanging air with your buddy and emergency exits. Whilst I was busy on my course, Ash hired a scooter to get around the island. Unfortunately he had an accident going up a steep hill and ended up down a ditch with the bike on top of him. Thankfully he wasn't harmed too seriously, just a couple of cuts but still it could've been a lot worse. It felt amazing to be diving again and each dive (we did a total of 4) my confidence and enjoyment grew. There was 6 of us in my group (Belle, Mau, Ricardo, Nico, Max and I) and our instructor was called Phil. We saw loads of marine life including an eel and trigger fish so it was definitely worth it. On our final day when we had finished they showed us a video which was really cool and we all chipped in to get a copy as it was such good quality, our videographer was applying to work for the discovery channel. The rest of my group stayed on an extra few days to do the advanced diver course but as we had already booked and paid for our accommodation for Koh Phangan, our final destination in Thailand, we had to leave! Both Ash and I were really excited to be in Koh Phangan, just in time for the infamous full moon party which takes place every month. Although it did feel a bit bittersweet as it was our last place in Thailand before heading to Malaysia. Our hostel was called 'slumber party' and we had decided to stay in a dorm room, it was known for being a party hostel and it certainly lived up to its name as the music played at full volume until at least midnight with drinking games, dj's and Fire throwers for entertainment. As Ash had opted not do to his open water licence in order to save some money, we decided to do a 'fun' scuba dive whilst we were here as it was near to sail rock which is meant to be one of the best diving locations in Thailand. We headed to the diving school so he could learn some of the basics then went on our two dives the next day. It was so much fun to be able to experience it together, our first dive Ash was kind of taken round with the instructor to maintain his buoyancy but the second time round we could stay together. We saw loads of marine life and colourful coral which admittedly was better than Koh Tao. Our guide even showed us some shrimp which nibbled on your hands to clean them, and I got to dive down a 'chimney' which was a small opening which led to a window underneath. It was an experience we'll never forget, however when the dive finished Ash had a problem with one of his ears and couldn't hear clearly so we had to take a trip to the hospital but still, totally worth it! The following day we took a tuk tuk to 'the challenge' which was basically a huge inflatable assault/total wipeout course. It started off with a swing, then a twisting ladder, rolling barrels, an inflatable climbing frame, red balls and finally a huge inflatable mat which you had to lie on and staff members would jump so you'd go flying into the air. We were on our first go round and we'd both just got to the top of the climbing frame when some girl sat between us lost her balance and slipped, knocking into me and sent me flying back down over the edge. It was such a shock that when I hit the water I had my mouth still open and swallowed loads which was not pleasant. But nonetheless we carried on and even went round again. However this time I ran at full speed to get over the rolling barrels, and on the last one slammed right into the metal frame at the end. It knocked the wind out of me so I went under and couldn't breathe, and bruised one of my ribs. This time I called it quits and sat out whilst Ash carried on and went on the inflatable mat so went headfirst into the lake. That evening was the night before the full moon party, but as it had been a Buddhist national holiday for the past 2 days (where it is illegal in Thailand to drink alcohol), we decided to have a few drinks and head to the jungle party which was meant to be almost as good as the full moon. I got far too carried away with what alcohol I can handle after not drinking for a while and ended up horrendously drunk, so I kept wandering off leaving Ash alone which ended up in a huge argument the next day. The situation was massively made worse by the fact that we were in a dorm room with 4 others so we couldn't even talk about it properly and sort it out until the next evening (when we temporarily broke up). But as it was our last night in Thailand and the night of the full moon party, something that we had both been looking forward to all month, we decided to remain friends and still go along with the people sharing our dorm. It was exactly as I expected - people covered head to toe in fluorescent paint, fire throwers and absolutely rammed with Westeners. I had decided not to drink (after last nights events) and wasn't really in the mood to party so headed back earlyish. Thankfully the next day Ash and I left Koh Phangan and headed back to Surat Thani to get the bus the next day as our visa was due to expire, so it gave us the chance to talk and (after lots of tears) decide to stay together. By this point we had had a few nights of little/no sleep and Ash wasn't feeling well at all so we made the decision to get a nice hotel for the day with a spa bath and have a much needed 'chill' day, although this meant overstaying our visa by one day and having to pay 500 baht. It really helped and made him feel better, we were both so relaxed that we couldn't be bothered to leave the hotel for food so I ordered a KFC delivery - only for it not to arrive - so Ash then ordered a Pizza Hut delivery instead. Then we hear a knock on our bedroom door and the KFC delivery is here with 2 chicken buckets (meant for 2 people each), then 5 minutes after the Pizza Hut delivery arrives as well. I have never seen so much fast food in my life and I never want to look at either of them ever again. Ash and I were sad to be leaving Thailand; on the whole we had had an awesome time, seen some beautiful beaches, played with and bathed elephants, scuba dived and partied at the full moon to name a few. But there hasn't been as much culture and was definitely a lot more touristy than Cambodia so we felt a month was a perfect amount of time to spend there.