JBs Thailand Holiday
May 2004
Web Report and Pics
We got to Bangkok OK, flight was long (12 hours!) but not too bad, Thai Airways International have fairly new planes, but no video screens in the back of every seat, so had to struggle to see big screen with some shockingly bad films on, so tried to sleep fairly unsuccessfully throughout.
We landed early Sunday morning (16th), so took taxi to Hotel in Bangkok (Viengta Hotel just behind the Ko Sahn Road) is fantastic, air conditioning and good sized room, and it has a pool, so we will probably come back here at the end of the loop round Thailand. We had expected to dump our bags at the hotel and wander around till check in time (2pm?), but when we walked in at 8am they had the room ready for us in a few minutes, so we were able to crash out for a few hours which was really welcome.
Sunday afternoon we have looked into travel for our planned legs and realised that each leg of our planned Bangkok - > Ko Smaui -> Chang Mai -> Bangkok itinery are each 10hr+ journeys by bus/boat, so it will be easier to fly, and flights are very easy to book and good value. So we have booked Bangkok Air flight direct to Ko Samui for tomorrow, then onto Krabbi on Friday for under 75 pounds which I think is well worth it to save nearly two days travelling.
We bought some fantastic silk sarongs for 1.50 pounds (like a big sheet you wear as a skirt like David Beckham or Will Young), to use as sheets/towels/beach towel, as the guide book recommended it. Apparently cheaper hotels don't supply bed sheets so you need to have something to use to keep the insects off and for a bit of warmth during the night (not much though as weather is very warm), they are really nice and we all look alarmingly like david beckham :-)
We also looked into getting hand tailored suits made, as Andrew needs one for a wedding, and found a really nice shop where they are hand making us suits with 2 shirts, with our choice from about 1000 different fabrics, all for 6000 Bhart (£90), which I think is amazing. The suits take 3 fittings, and we had the first fitting this evening,
We will do the other two suit fittings when we are back in Bangkok at the end of the trip, but they look amazing already. Nicola is having two hand made silk outfits, one a full length dress with chinese slanted neck, the other a seperate top and skirt which I think will look fantastic.
Sunday afternoon we were boiling, and as the hotel has a fantastic pool, we went down for a swim, which even though it was raining this afternoon was really nice to cool down and relax.
Sunday evening we had a lovely meal at a busy restuarant on the ko sahn road which is the backpackers hangout and is just round the corner from our hotel, so we have spent most of the day here. There are market stalls on both sides of the roads, and loads of internet cafe's and places to eat, so its a good place to wander around.
Monday 17th, we flew from Bangkok to Ko Samui. Met up with Rachel and Andrew at lovely beach bungalow place (Coconut Calm Bungalows) and had a quiet day swimming in the sea and catching up with Rachel and Andrew who had been on a days diving trip to Ko Tao.
Tuesday morning (18th), went out on jet skis with AndyT which was superb, then took high speed ferry to smaller island of Ko Phan Ngan.
The ferry dropped us on the opposite end of the island than we expected, so we took a pickup truck taxi (called a Sawng Theng), over the mountain road across the island, which was really amazing, and got some great views, this took us to Hat Rin the main beach on that end of the island. We then took a James Bond boat (with big car engine on back and propellor on long pole) round to the next bay from the port (Hat Yuan) which was very quiet and only accessible by boat.
We stayed in the most fantastic stilted bungalows up on the hill over the bay of Hat Yuan with amazing views. AndyT Rachel and AndrewG had normal rooms for 300 bhart (£4.50) a night, but we pushed the boat all the way out and paid 600 bhart (£9) for the most deluxe accomodation with a bigger room, with mosquito screens (so we didn't have to sleep under a net), and a big balcony!!!
We slept OK but had a MASSIVE spider in the room during the night which Nic was a bit concerned about, and I wasn't going to do anything about either !!! The body of the spider was about 1.5 inches across, and with the legs it was the size of a small plate !!
Also had a smallish (6" long) Ghekko (a bit like a big newt but climbs up walls) in the room which started squawking in the night !
Wednesday 19th, took Kayaks out from a place on the beach and paddled round to the next bay (Hat Ten) and the one after (Hat Yua), AndyT and Rachel snorkelled from the kayak and saw a few things but nothing amazing, then took James Bond boat (called Longtails due to the plume of water they throw up from the propellor on a long pole behind the boat) back to Hat Rin and we took a slow ferry to Big Bhudda pier on Ko Samui - AndrewG was a bit concerned about going on a boat, as he gets sea sick, but was fine (a bit quiet though!).
Wednesday afternoon we booked into fantastic terraced bungalows with a pool at a posh resort (Montien House) in Chaweng which is the busiest beach on Ko Samui and haggled them down to 15 quid a night per room which is considered expensive here !! As May is the hot month and low season, we have been really lucky with accomodation, as everywhere is empty, so we have haggled well under the guide book estimates for rooms which has been really good !!
Thursday 20th we took a fantastic kayaking trip to kayak in caves in a national marine park which looks amazing !! click here for Blue Stars website we made several stops and kayaked round caves and ledges from the most amazing limestone islands that jut out vertically from the sea and look amazing, we went through a 20 Metre tunnel through an island, and also to a hidden lagoon inside an island which was big enough for all of us (about 20 Kayaks) to get into at once !!
Friday 21st, from Ko Samui we flew to Krabi on the mainland to avoid a 5 hour bus/ferry journey, as we got the flights cheap (20 quid), also the airport at Ko Samui is superb as it is just 3 big straw huts with no walls, right next to the runway and they have some funny trams to take you out to your plane !
Got to Krabi mid afternoon and waited for Rachel and Andrew who did the ferry/bus cause it was cheaper and had a nightmare journey and ended up on the wrong bus so took a minivan to Krabi which sounded like the journey from hell.
Friday evening went out in Krabi and ate at the night food market on the quay, which is where the locals eat, so we all had a full meal with drinks for about 100 bhart (£1.50) each, and it was really nice and good fun.
Saturday 22nd we had an early start as me, AndrewT and nicola took a taxi out to the Tiger Cave Monastry, which is about 5 miles away from Krabi. The main cave is a superb pillared room full of artifacts, with steps up to a small 'tiger' cave which was a bit creepy. Then AndrewT wanted to climb up the stairs to the top of the cliff where there is a huge buddha statue and viewpoint. I was hoping we wouldn't do this, but felt I should go along too, and Nicola started coming with us, but after about a hundred steps Nicola decided to turn back (very sensibly) and we carried on up 1200 steps, to climb 600 meters in pretty hot conditions. I nearly puked twice !!! Finally got to the top which was empty and splendid, massive tiled floor on 3 main levels with a big spire covered in gold leaf, a massive buddha and smaller shrines around the place, also the most amazing views out over krabi and the coast, including all the rubber plantations so it was well worth it and we took loads of photo's from the top !
When we got back to the bottom and met up with nicola, we looked like we had been under a shower, so headed back to the hotel for a shower to cool down and then popped into Krabi for AndrewT to burn his pics onto CD, then checked out of the hotel.
Monday 24th we took a minivan from Krabi up to the next big bay Ao Nang, which looked nicer in the guide book than it is, but the trips out to Phi Phi islands leave from here so we found a fantastic hotel with pool and haggled them down to 15 quid a night including breakfast, and it is nice to have a good hotel for my Birthday tomorrow !
Monday afternoon we went to an elephant sanctuary 'Nosey Parkers Elephant Trekking' where they look after 8 beatiful elephants, and they are amazingly pampered in beatiful forest with a fantastic stream and pools running through it for the elephants to bath and swim in. We took about a one hour ride on the elephants, where the keepers just let them wander where they want with us on board, and they stopped to eat frequently which was absolutely amazing, and we have taken hundreds of digi-pics to bore you with when we get back !!
We then fed banana's to the elephants, and they put a hat onto Nicola's hat which was amazing, but she looked a bit nervous, then we walked round the forest, seeing rubber tree's being tapped.
We wandered back through the small village the keepers live in with the elephants close by, and saw some of the other elephants and watched them being fed, and also washed - two with hoses and buckets, another went into a deep pool in the river with its keeper on its back and went right underwater for about 2 minutes holding its breath - it was just incredible !!!
There are lots of 'disneyland' elephant trekking places around here where the elephants are kept in appalling conditions and treated poorly, so we were really glad to go to somewhere nice, where the elephants were being pampered so obviously !!!
Saturday evening we ate on the waterfront at Ao Pang and booked a boat trip for tomorrow, so we will be going to the two Phi Phi islands which are supposed to be amazingly prety and snorkelling off Phi Phi Ley which is the smaller island, and having lunch on Phi Phi Don.
We had a superb day on Sunday from Ao Nang (near Krabi) where we stayed in a really nice hotel with balcony view over the beach, and a nice pool.
As it was my birthday after Breakfast right on the beach, and some really nice cards and presents from home and the others, we took a boat trip to the Phi Phi islands, first stopping at larger Phi Phi Don, where we had a swim and a wander, then back on boat to smaller Phi Phi Le where we snorkelled from the boat and saw some nice fish. I also had a pee pee on both Phi Phi's :-)
My birthday evening I had McDonalds and then watched the Monaco GP on a MASSIVE projector tv in a pub, which was a good race, we saw the second half from Alonso's crash overtaking Mr Accident (Ralf Schumacher), and was a shame Button couldn't have a chance to overtake, but still a good result and a good race.
Monday 24th we took a minivan from Ao Nang to Phuket island (which is about 100 yards from the mainland, so the main road runs over a bridge straight onto the 'island'), and we chose to stay at Kamala Bay, which is a quieter bay above the busy resorts of Patong, Karen and Kata. At Kamala beach where we checked into a really nice but almost completely empty resort which was recommended in the lonely plant guide book, and had a wander on beach, lunch in a nice cafe and swum in the resort pool in the afternoon. Afterwards we had a shower and I had a fairly alarming moment when I opened my eyes after washing my hair to see a moderately enormous cockroach on my foot climbing up my leg, I did what anyone would have in the circumstances - screamed like a girl, kicked it off and tried to kill it by hosing it with the shower - and when that failed I managed to squash it with a soap tray :-) Another equally sized example came up the plughole a few minutes later while Nic was having a shower, so it was soapdish 2 cockroach 0 :-)
Monday evening we went to the Phuket Fanta-Sea evening show with dinner, which is a fairly startling combination of a Vegas style show with loads of traditional Thai costumes and a ton of elephants, the show was really glitzy and very impressive, and the animals all looked OK, but I hope they weren't being treated badly to be trained to do the tricks !!! Show was stunning though, and we counted 108 people on stage at the end, a Tiger, and 12 elephants !!!
Tuesday 25th we woke up to see it chucking down with rain, and it looked like it had settled in for the day so we decided to go back to Bangkok a day early, rather than waste a day not being able to do much in the rain.
We checked back into the Viengta hotel, and for the evening we headed over to Siam Square (us in a aircon taxi, Rachel and Andrew took the extreme sports ride which is a tuk tuk journey at rush hour). We then took the skytrain over to a mall to have some dinner at a Japanese restuarant.
We then took the skytrain back to the Asia hotel, as we were going to the famous Calypso Caberet, a girly boy show which Thailand is famous for, which was amazing. AndrewT spent the entire show asking 'thats never a man is it' to which me and AndrewG repeatedly and patiently explained, they are all men, thats the point of the cabaret show :-) Some of them were munters, but several looked fantastic, and you really couldn't tell - they even all went topless under a strobe light which had everyone reaching for camera's - just too late :-)
Wednesday 26th May, we took a half day trip out to a floating river market, about 90 minutes drive from Bangkok, which is said to be the biggest daily floating market in Thailand. The market was really busy (mostly with tourists though) and we got loads of amazing pictures. On the way to the market we stopped at a tourist market where they showed us how they make sugar from coconut plants, and on the way back we stopped at a Royal Woodcraft centre and saw some amazing carvings being produced, some of them taking over a year to produce from a single piece of wood !! The weather has been pretty hot so we have spent most afternoons lazing by the hotel pool which is superb.
Me and Andrew took the final fittings for our suits on Wednesday and they look fab. Nicola has had two outfits hand made and they are amazing too, she had first fittings and there are some tweaks to be made, but they should be ready on Thursday evening.
Thursday 27th we took the river boat and saw the two main temples in Bangkok, the enormous Grand Palace complex, including the Emerald Buddha temple which contains a carved jade buddha which was once thought to be made of emerald.
We took tuk tuks over to Wat Po, which is a temple containing an enormous reclining gold buddha, which was very impressive.
Thursday night after we collected Nicola's two silk outfits, we went to Patpong which is the go go bar area, and also has a big street market, so we got some good bits and bobs there, and laughed at all the go go bars from outside, as Andrew didn't fancy it (neither of them!).
Friday morning we took the river boat again and went right round to the chinatown area of bangkok, we went to visit a 'proper' market on Sampeng Road which actually fans out and covers an enormous area of chinatown.
At the Sampeng Market, we saw all the things we have been haggling for in the Ko Sahn road market (tourist area) for about 1/5 of the price we have been paying, which is funny - everything has been so cheap we are not that bothered as we had a good laugh haggling for stuff anyway !
Saturday morning we had an early start, took a taxi to the airport, and hung around till our 12.30pm flight took off. Flight back was long and films were even worse than on the way out, hard to say whether Torque (fast and furious with less wheels and brain cells), or Silver Hawk (crap chinese attempt to make a female super hero starring Luke Goss, but basically seemed to be an advert for BMW Bikes and Cars and Maserati's, but the cars were never driven fast - even during the comedy chase sequences !! Glad to be back in blighty, and Andrews dad had very kindly driven up to Heathrow to pick us up, so apart from having to bypass the M4 being closed (for no apparent reason we could see), it was a smooth run back, and we crashed exhausted.
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