Chad and Sharon Moore

We were in Bangkok for about 3 days which was enough time to do a bit of shopping and chill out before flying back to the UK.

Gino and Emma travelled with us to Bangkok and we were fortunate enough that Gino had a thai friend (Icky?)  living in Bangkok.   We met up with Icky and he took us to a cool thai restaurant and then we went to a club called Route 66.  The club was amazing -  it had heaps of different rooms for different types of music and also a live band who were great.  The ladies toilets even had a quartet playing :-)  We were joined by Icky's girlfriend, Min, and all shown to a table in the R n B room.  As the beer is very expensive in clubs, it works out cheaper to order whiskey for groups.  So we ordered a large bottle of whiskey, bucket of ice, soda water and coke.  The club was rammed and there was hardly any westerners (we only saw one girl) but the DJ's were western and spoke english all night. 

We managed to finish one bottle of whiskey and started on a second and I don't even like whiskey but "when in Rome" :-)  Icky and Min were soooo lovely and very attentive.  Min kept topping my drink up so I had to hide my glass a few times so that I wouldn't get too wasted :-) 

We left when the club closed and headed back home. Min haggled in thai with a taxi driver and managed to get us a taxi back to Khao San road really cheap, sweeeet :-).  I was starving when we got back so we had to stop off at our favorite food stall for a plate of chicken and vegetable fried rice... yum and only cost 20 bht :-)

We arrived in Bangkok in the early hours after getting the night bus/ferry from Ko Tao and stayed in the same Bangkok hotel as before, the New Siam II.  We checked in at 6am and certainly got our money's worth that day :-)

Bangkok didn't seem as stressful as before and we actually felt quite comfortable this time around.  It is amazing how familiar surroundings can put you at ease straight away.  

I had planned on having a bit of pampering and have my hair coloured and cut whilst in Bangkok so that I would arrive in the UK looking my best.  Chad and I went into a salon in the MBK, which is a huge shopping centre.  The salon I chose looked really trendy and everyone had free internet access even for Chad).  After a few minutes of trying to explain that I wanted highlights and a cut, which involved talking to about 5 people, we were off.  They sat me down in front of this massive monitor and then got started.  It was cool having internet access whilst having my hair as I was able to talk to Nicola on Messenger at the same time :-)  I had two ladies working on my hair and they seemed nice enough.  Was a bit worried that we hadn't discussed the whole colour thing but thought that they must know what they are doing. 

After about 15 minutes, I looked up to see one of the ladies wheeling over the heater thingy.  I looked up into the mirror and saw that they had put the foils on the blonde bits of my hair and left the dark roots..... nooooooooooooo.  This is how our conversation went: 

Me: emmmmmmmm, you haven't coloured the dark bits
1st lady: frowns
Me: pointing to my roots and saying "blonde here please"
2nd lady: frowns
Me: pointing to my blonde bits and saying "same, same"

More people arrive and I explain that I need the roots coloured, etc

4th lady:  lots of thai words to the other women.  She then tells me that they can't get close to the roots as it will spot.  She then tells me that they have put brown on my hair.
Me: so I have brown on my hair and not blonde then?  I then point to her hair and say "brown"???
4th lady:  yes, brown.

Me: ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Her version of "brown" is actually blonde for some strange reason.
Me:  there is no point me having blonde on the ends as it won't look any different!

After more thai talking the 1st/2nd ladies then start to unfold the foils and proceed to push them up my head and try to spread the colouring up to my roots!  eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek !  By now I was starting to stress out.  I even emailed Chad and said that they didn't know what they were doing!  Luckily they couldn't read english!  I asked the 4th lady if they had actually done foils before but she just frowned at me and said the ladies hadn't finished with my hair yet.

When the foils came out,  (some of them actually fell out!) I had lovely (not) random bleached stripes on my hair ! I was going to have a cut as well but thought better of it.

I don't think I will ever have my hair done again in Thailand!

If you want to learn to scuba dive then this is the place to come, the PADI certificate is cheap and divers from all over the world are attracted to the unterwater meccas that surround this rustic island. (I've been reading the tourist guide)

Of course we don't dive, but I'm loving snorkling and Sharon doesn't need to be told twice when sunbathing on the beach is concerned.

Ko tao is only 21 sqkm and has a few isolated bays where you can easily slip into the laidback lifestyle (it helps when there is not 24hr electricity in many places). We stayed in Hat Sai Ri, the largest and busiest area on the island, we needed internet as we had been out of touch for a while ( Don't want to scare my mum)

We travelled over with Gino and Emma, our new buddies, catching a ferry and watching the movie The Hills Have Eyes remake, not exactly family entertainment!! :-) I found a tout for our selected beach area and promised to view their place for a free lift. We all jumped in the back of his truck, 10 minutes later we are storing our stuff with him for free whilst we found something better up the street. We are becoming pros at this now :-)

Hat Sai Ri is cool, it has good nightlife, pubs showing the latest movies (Spiderman 3, Next and Shooter for example) beach bars, literally on the waters edge so at hightide you wade from one bar to the next! There is a wide range of restaurants where you can get pretty good western food, I had a homemade burger with mushrooms and blue cheese and chips, first non thai meal in ages, it was heaven :-) Of course we are still loving Thai food but occasionly you fancy a change. We also had some lovely bbq kebabs on the beach, big plates of meat, salad and baked potatos for 100bht, yummy!

It has been good to have someone to snorkle with as Sharon doesn't like going out of her depth or too far out. I've been out on my own a few times but it feels safer when theres two snorkels for the long tail boats to avoid :-) Ko Tao has lots of reefs to explore and with the clean water and high visibility its quite easy to spend literally hours in the water.

Thailand has plenty of fire shows on the beach in the evenings and on our travels we have seen plenty. We saw our best one, so far, here at the Lotus bar. The local fireman was very good but another traveller type dude appeared on the scene and next thing you know there was like a fire show duell! Each man displayed an amzing array of moves with the firesticks, balls and ropes to the beats of various tunes. They then started working together, juggling with the flames etc, it really was an amazing night. Shame I didn't take my camera that night but I did manage to get a few photos on another night.

We are heading back to Bangkok next for a few days then it's off to the UK.

After a scary walk with my heavy backpack along a wooden pier which soooo wouldn't pass any safety standards in the western world, we enjoyed a lovely 50 minute ferry ride to Hat Rin, Ko Pha Ngan. 

This island is renowned for its full moon party and attracts thousands of party goers each month for its beachfront and jungle raves.  We fancied something a bit more suitable for us old fogies and chose the laidback and more isolated beach of Thong Nai Pan Yai in the north east part of the island.

We hooked up with a kiwi couple (Gino and Emma who are stopping off in Thailand on their way to london for a working holiday) we had met at our previous resort and shared the cost of a taxi along the jungle track north.  45 minutes later, having survived a very bumpy and twisty dirt track, we arrived at our beach (with me feeling slightly sick). 

We did our usual room hunting along the beach, this time with our new friends.

We all decided on the Dreamland Resort (400 bht - wooden/brick bungalow).  This beach was my best so far on our journey as the water was very calm and had a gradual slope - perfect for someone like me ! 

We settled into a lovely routine of early morning swims, late breakfasts (chicken pad thai and coconut shake for Chad), lazy afternoons reading in a hammock and energetic early evenings of frizbee, running (me) and bat and ball. 

Socialising generally means an excuse for drinking more alcohol, yeyyy, and it was here that I tried my first infamous thai bucket consisting of thai rum, redbull and coke.  Of course, I did my usual "crash and burn" :-)

We had a fantastic time in Thong Nai Pan Yai and it was hard to leave, but leave we must.

On the way to the pier, we were put in the back of a Ute (feeling like Indiana Jones) taking the jungle route through the middle of the island and catching the ferry to Ko Tao.

After an easy bus ride and a few hours on a large car ferry, we arrived on the east coast island of Ko Samui.  We are greeted by rain, heavy rain and I discover my backpack has a raincover, cool, well apart from it being a very bright neon yellow ! 

According to the travel books we can avoid the south-west monsoon season if we skip over to the eastern side of Thailand, well, it didn't go to plan.  We endured pretty much uninterrupted rain for five days, thank god we stayed in a hotel with cable :-)  We initially stayed in Hat Lamai, a nice enough town, pretty beach and more than enough restaurants and bars (for some reason it is popular with the French).  We stayed in the Bonny Hotel where the owner was extremely helpful and friendly.  She recommended a great fried breakfast from Harry's Cafe, the problem was we had it every morning! 

Ko Samui seems to be another place in Thailand where the girlie bars and "sex-tourists" are commonplace.  Call me a prude, but it does make the place feel a bit seedy at times, especially when, in general, the guys seem to be alone for a reason.  Of course, I'm sure that is not always the case. 

After exploring Lamai during the tiny breaks in the rain, we moved to Hat Ban Rak, also known as the Big Budda Beach.   It is on the north of the island and is one of the departure points for our next stop, Ko Pha Ngan.  We were at the Mermaid Resort for 6 nights, another great deal, 2 big pools, cable tv (more rugby league and football) in a detached bungalow all for 400 bht per night.  The downside was it is at the start of the Ko Samui airport runway :-) 

We spent time at the Wat Phra Yai (Temple of the Big Buddha) listening to the monks chanting and witnessing the various rituals of the visiting budhists. 

 We had lovely long walks along the beach, although sometimes we felt like the pied piper only with stray dogs !  At one point, we had eight, these animals can be a bit intimidating and are extremely difficult to get rid of.  When all you have is a pair of thongs (flip flops) to defend yourself with, the dogs teeth tend to look that much sharper!  On one occasion, we posed as potential customers in an expensive health spa just to lose a manky looking mutt, it still followed us in though.  We looked through the treatments enjoying a free herbal tea and slipped out unnoticed leaving the dog sniffing away in their incense garden :-)

Next stop, Ko Pha Ngan, a 50 minute ferry ride north

PS. Sorry for the delay in the journal updates, we stayed somewhere a bit isolated on Ko Pha Ngan, will update again very soon!

PS. Hope everyone is keeping well, missing you all :-)