Bangkok

Nice hotel in Bangkok with a pool and aircon!! Spent the first night in MBK shopping centre. Blue water and Pitsea market all rolled into one!!! A bit overwhelming when you've just spent a month on the beach, but a few bargains to be had!! The next day we went to the Wat Po temple and checked out the 15m reclining budda and then set ourselves up for the spectacular sunset shot that didn't really materialise. Still a nice day eating Pad Thai and drinking coconut for pennies in the market!!        

   














Today we are making ready for Sydney flight leaves very soon and Mike's job is to stop Laura bouncing off all the walls with excitement!! Happy to leave Bangkok and very excited about seeing everyone in Sydney!! xx

Its CHRISTMAS!!! I hope santa can find us!!

The sand people then took a boat ride to Phuket, where they arrived looking like tramps into their 5 star hotel!!! The faces of the receptionists were a picture when we walked in!!!!! The cold towels and fruit punch were a nice welcome at reception. Although white towels may have been a bad idea on the hotels front as they were just mud and sand when we gave them back!!

When the golf cart then took us to the room we knew we had landed!!! The bags then followed by porter and we had a good intro to our home for xmas!!

Christmas eve was spent relaxing by the infinity pool looking out to sea, sipping cocktails!!

 

we took the bike's from the hotel and had a cycle to nai mai beach.

 

 

Xmas eve night we went to Patong and brought presents for each other, wrapped them up and put them under the palm tree loo decorated in our room. She's a cutey!!

 

Christmas day we woke up to a stocking that had been left by the hotel,

 

...... then went down to breakfast, opened our presents,

 

........felt very full so had a christmas nap on the sun terrace looking out over the adaman sea.

 

we returned to our room just in time to watch mike's favourite christmas film... home alone!! We then made our own christmas roast,

 

we had mince pies for dessert, that mike's parents bought us.... a welcome taste of home!!

 

 

Weather report christmas day:

 

Although it was very nice living in luxury, christmas doesn't feel the same without your friends and family. we missed everyone and wished we could have brought everyone out here with us!!!! x

Boxing day was a relaxing travelling day. We had a nice breakfast taking full advantage of the buffet filling every corner of our stomachs, legs, cheeks and checked out like a couple of happy hamsters off to find what Bangkok has to offer!!

Laura was a little reluctant to return to Bangkok after her last encounter with the smog and naughty tuk tuk men but she was brave and we found a nice hotel where we write this blog from flashpacker styly!!

Goodbye to Rach and Chris

After lunch on Phi Phi we had to say a sorry goodbye to Rach and Chris who have brought us many wonderful things/ words like bla, stonkertron, man mountain and Bromance!! Sad to say goodbye but we'll definately be seeing them again maybe in NZ or maybe london baby!!

Loo's B'day!!

From Railey we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi........Thai paradise!?!
We arrived on Phi with no accomodation going against the lonely planets advice----- ooooo daring!! Lonely planet, smonely planet, we did just fine. After an hour or two of searching around the island we decided to up the budget and buy into some luxury........air con and a hot shower, wow wow wooey!! The first hot shower in 3 weeks.....UNBELIEVABLY goooood!!!!!

We celebrated Laura's birthday in style with a night of free BBQ food and buckets. Rach and Chris broke their Chang beer month long abstinence!!! The singer at the restaurant was amazing and a random dutch singer song writer got up and did a couple of songs and stole the show!! Mike got everyone to sing happy birthday in the restaurant and as you can imagine Laura hated being centre of attention!!????!! The evening went on with a fire show, lady boy show and too many buckets to remember much else!!.....coz tonights gonna be a good night!!!!!

Loo woke up for her birthday day in our luxury pad (ie hot shower) and we went across the island to a tropical beach to sweat out the hangovers!! We took a rasta-ferry in the afternoon over to Ao Maya beach (the beach used in that film .....oh the one with Leonardo di whats his name....you know the one.... well as you can imagine it was amazing)!!!

We arrived on the island as the tourists left and we set up camp and played a very important game of international footy bringing the different nations together (mainly mikes shins against the Thai players shins, damn they were quick, but no one gets past Mike, Laura and Rachel were a couple of hotty cheer leaders on the side lines, after all the exertion we had a big thai feast, washed down with plenty of Chang and buckets in the drinking games, sat around camp singing to someones guitar.

 

We checked out the bio luminescence (i think thats how you spell it Camilla but feel free to correct us on that one)!!??!! Then we slept out under the stars on the beach with our Thai sized/ child size/ Thai child sized (short, v short) sleeping bags!! This was lovely though as it allowed the wind to sand blast us and clear all that dead skin from our upper torso's, faces, ears and nostrils!!!! Picture to follow!!

 

Still we did get to wake up in Paradise which was all ours, until the first tourist boat arrived around 9am!! I think those tourists were a little shoked to find the sand people strewn all over the beach with samsong bucket hangovers, not what they got up early to see!!! lol!!! We had our wash in the sea and then got back on the boat and back to Phi Phi!!! Not a bad birthday for B as Birthdays go!!! xx

 

National parks..........Elephants, bats ,sharks and Leaches

So we decided to guarantee a sighting of a large mammal and booked an elephant tour in Khao Sok national park........ great to meet another mammal with a larger nose than mike's!!

Chris and Rachel caught us up in the afternoon from Samui and joined us on the night safari!! This was looking to be a sadate adventure with no large scary animals anywhere to be seen, until our guide made us roll up our trouser legs and we discovered leaches all over Chris's leg. Luckily it wasnt quite a Stand by me moment but pretty nasty/ funny all the same!! Nasty little buggers!! Almost as nasty as the bat that shared our residence in the bamboo hut!! We tried to be accomodating as i'm sure he had been there long before us but when it decided to make use of Mike's bag and laura's bed as a toilet for the second day in a row we had to get really mad......out came the insect repellant!!

The next day we headed over to a huge lake (name escapes me) 165km square. Lots of islands to explore on the long boat. We did a sweaty jungle trek in the morning, lunch on a floating bamboo village- amazing place and feast, then kayaking and cliff jumping in the afternoon a great day, possibly the best so far!

Early to rise from our bamboo hut the next day and off to Koh Lak to start our next national park adventure!!

This adventure was out of the jungle and into the water about 1 and a half hours speed boat ride from Khao Lak to the Similian islands!! The two dives were along coral reef with loads of sea life including sharks and turtles. Lunch was on an amazing beach, we had a massive feast prepared for us, played some beach games and sunbathed for a couple of hours before swimming back to the speed boat!! Nice!!

Our next destination was Railey, we spent two nights here and one full day. We had a mad Thai man, who clearly had escaped from a secure unit, with Lewis Hamilton as his idol, pick us up and drive at top speeds from Khao Lak to Krabi where we caught a long tail boat to Railey. But hey it was cheap and we're still alive!!

We recovered from this experience the only way we knew how with a samsong bucket or two that night playing ring of fire and relaxed on a beautiful beach the next day!!

Ray Meares r us!!

So We managed to stay a few more days than expected in Koh Samui......largely down to having an excellent time with Chris and Rachel- Legends!!

Mike was massively dissappointed to loose in the crazy golf to Chris by only two points......personally he feels it was down to some dodgy counting and not just coincidence that Rachel was keeping score for the front 9!!

Had an amazingly exuberant day yesterday at Beach resort spa on Koh Samui, a bit of a treat.....but potentially the best massage Laura has ever had!! Obviously Mike's massages excluded!! Mike, well, Mike was more than happy with an all you can eat buffet from 10 - 5pm......even had roast diner!! Very Thai!!??!!

Had a night out in the lights of Chaweng to say goodbye to Chris and Rachel......turns out we got them drunk enough to agree to come and meet us on our next leg, which is here in Khou Sok national Park.

We're staying in bamboo huts, with a bamboo shower (only cold water) and big bamboo gaps for the man eating pythons to crawl through. Even though the hut is full of bamboo gaps it sure remains hot hot hot!!

Off trekking tommorrow to find the bears, tigers, monkeys and worlds largest flower!! Laura is now very proud of her hiking boots and is throwing her Lara Croft styly all around the place!! Something tells me the flower maybe our only thing we tick off the list of must sees here, boots or no boots!!

Leatherman penknife at the ready,

Ray Meares out!! x

Sharks, guns and motorbikes...

So we made it to Koh Tao in one piece from Koh Phanghan on the ferry of death as Laura called it. In fact this time it wa a very sedentary crossing and we're both glad we made the trip as we had an amazing time diving in Koh Tao.

Laura did her PADI open water and I took my advanced PADI qualification. Had a great time on the island... met some awesome people from all over the world. Laura buddied up with Diana, an Aussie, for her diving lessons and they even managed to develop their own underwater sign language in 3 days. Her group were a great laugh and we spent evenings chilling with them and other new friends at the sea front bars. It was much like the first week skiing with ski school atmosphere.
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

I managed to dive with a 2 metre Bull shark on my 30m deap dive which was amazing. Did a night dive which reminded me of the visibility diving in the UK.

We're now on Koh Samui where we have hooked up with some of the people we met while diving. We drove round some of the island yesterday on Mopeds and found a shooting range where got to further extend our repertoire of JAmes Bond skills learning to shoot a machine gun!!! Crazy place!!

 
 

I broke my Karaoke duck last night and banged out a Stereophonics number (Dakota) at a very drunken Karaoki night with my new pal Chris. What a duet.....while Laura and Rachel had to have the microphone forcibly removed from there grasp.....they were on fire!!!??!! Kind of!!??!!

 
 
 

Looking to make a move from here soon, maybe Phuket and then up to the Similan islands for a spot of diving.......budget permitting!!

Divers out!! x