I'm Going On An Airplane

The Clichéd Islands

francesca_kelly — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:08:00 GMT

Dear All,

Let me first just say how appallingly i have behaved in leaving this till very late! I apologise completely. Last, I left you on the night before Full Moon Party. We had a great time spending the night with our Thai friend Ken, and two Swedish friends Olivia and Livia. The crazy music vibrated around you and sellers of buckets (buckets are a drink you have in a bucket) yell at you to visit their stall, promising the cheapest rates on the beach. I found that Full Moon is exactly like every other night, just another excuse to party and spend money. People's morals and ethics go out the window here and it's kind of sad to see it happening, just to get a guy or girls attention.

So Christmas came along and we had signed up for one of their scrumptious dinners. We decided to have the English-Ozzie dinner which was amazing! For entree or starter we had sweet potato/pumpkin soup (which Regan didn't have because he doesn't like sweet potato or pumpkin). For our main we had roast turkey, roast beef, roast potatoes, carrots, pickled cabbage, creamy sauce with cauliflower, Yorkshire pudding and gravy! Just when we had managed to finish this all, they arrived with dessert! I don't think they knew that you were meant to have at least half an hour break in between each course! Dessert was deeeeeelicious! It was bread and butter pudding with whiskey. Usually i can't stand bread and butter pudding but this was amaaaaaazing! Regan and i rolled up to bed to have a siesta and then joined the party-goers downstairs. The next day we had decided to leave Koh Phangan earlier and go back to Koh Samui, a place we loved so much! The staff at the hotel laughed when they saw us because we came back to them after a week away! We relaxed until New Years Eve came around and made plans with Ken to meet him after his fire shows. The buffet dinner at our hotel was pretty good, not as good as dinner at home though. We went to Monkey Bay Bar to meet Ken for 12 but it ended up just being Regan and I watching the fireworks together. We wandered down to Hush Bar afterwards and hung out with our two British friends Sean and James. Sean worked behind the bar and gave us cheap drinks! We met up with Ken and some other Swedish friends of his and went to Sound Bar, the place to be if you wanted to keep partying after 3am. After dancing and chatting away, Regan and I made our way back to our hotel and slept for the day.

After a day or so more in Koh Samui we awoke early to leave for Phuket where we were to meet our friend Liz. We were picked up at 7:30am even though the pick up was for 7am. And transported to a huge ferry where the bus rolled on to as well. we were then moved across the water and over to Surat Thani, the stopping place to get to everywhere. We arrived at 10:40 and the lady promised that the bus would arrive sometime between 12pm-1pm. So we waited and waited and of course the bus arrived at the reasonable hour of 6pm!!!! We didn't get to Phuket till 12am, which was just great! (Sarcasm being quite strong here). The next day we walked along the promenade trying to locate Liz's hotel, finally a tuk-tuk took us to her. That night we went out and savoured the scene of Phuket, which included young Thai girls trying to cajole passers-by to come in and have a drink while old, yucky men eyed them up and down. We ended the night at the Hollywood Bar after dropping Liz off at her hotel. We grabbed a burger and headed back to our hotel. The next day we stayed with Liz and her hotel and watched Law and Order. We had to leave the following morning for Phi Phi where we were to meet friends from Oz.

We arrived in Phi Phi by boat and i had come down with a flu so i spent most of the trip sleeping. We got into our hotel and spent the day and night sleeping trying to recuperate, me from the flu and regan from a bad tooth ache. Next day we met up with Annie and co. and they had paid for a day trip to see the beautiful lagoons and beaches of Phi Phi (http://www.spidermonkeytravel.com/1_day_excursion.html). We left at 1pm and the boat took us first to Monkey Beach where cute and ugly monkeys stole coconut from our fingers, they didn't like the water so we could always retreat there if they got feral. Next stop was cliff climbing and jumping, we needed special shoes as the cliff face was sharp and would've teared our feet to pieces. We all jumped off the 4m jump into the water, me being stupid landed in the water on my butt and ended up getting massive bruising on the back of my thighs. The boys however decided to jump off the 18m cliff and we all watched from the boat scared shitless they would drown or hit their heads on the rocks, luckily neither occurred. After this the boat took us to this beautiful lagoon! The water was serene and the perfect turquoise colour, we ate lunch on the boat and chilled out there for an hour. Afterwards we went to Maya Bay on Phi Phi Ley island which was made famous from the movie The Beach with Leo DiCaprio. We wandered through the forest and relaxed on the sand as the sun was setting, the boat slowly took us back to Phi Phi to a night of contentment.

The next couple of days in Phi Phi were spent renting kayaks, swimming, snorkelling and relaxing. Next stop was Koh Lanta.

Regan and I arrived in Koh Lanta at 1pm and as we were being driven over to our hotel by the tuk tuk guy Annie, Josh and Liz came roaring past on scooters. They followed us to our hotel and we got a scooter to drive around the island. The place we stayed at was beautiful, quaint little bungalow near the water. They had loads of hammocks on the trees beside the sand and we spent a day reading and snoozing in them. After Annie and Josh left, Regan Liz and I took a day tour around the surrounding islands. We went to Morakat Cave where you had to swim 80ms through a cave that was pitch black in some parts to reach the inside of the island where there was a little beach and surrounding jungle. Next we went to different locations to snorkel and Liz was petrified of the fish that swam alarmingly close especially if there was pineapple thrown into the water. Next couple of days was spent relaxing and then we headed to Krabi.

Krabi is a place like no other, vertical rock formations appear out of the water and are only accessible by long tail boat. The place is a hubbub of go-go bars, street food and markets. We dined every night on noodles/fried rice, banana and honey pancake and watermelon or mango shake for $4. As cash was running low we climbed to the top of Tiger Cave Temple (http://wattumsua.thaipulse.com/) a painful experience but one i'm proud of. We left Krabi, looking forward to seeing our friend Nick who was on the way over from Oz-land.

Now i'm in Koh Phangan, we left from Koh Samui a couple of days ago to go to Half Moon Party. The view from our hotel is beautiful (http://www.bluehillphangan.com/) and we have spent days lying beside the pool or checking out the street stalls on Haad Rin. Tomorrow we leave for Koh Samui and only in a couple of days am i going home!!

Lots of love,

Francesca and Regan

The Islands

francesca_kelly — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 20:33:00 GMT

Hello from Koh Phangan!

I last ended the post with we rented a motorbike! That night Regan and I decided to stroll on down to Bondi Bar who had the DJ Roger Sanchez playing a set. Luckily we did because not only did i learn to play pool better (courtesy of regan) but we met up with a friend of a friend, Andrew and his mates Jeffrey and Tim. We ended up dancing all night and hitting up Ark Bar no it's not like the one on Oxford Street, it had low tables with matresses on either side where you could either lie down and drink your bucket or dancing on top of! Which is what we did, we ended up getting 3 buckets between us and a couple of jelly shots! Elchah (Andrew) tried to woo some Russion girls that didn't go down as planned. We ended the night around 4am.

We met up again on the beach at 12pm and chilled out there and at their hotel pool where we again met some more aussies. We all decided to meet and go to the Green Mango (a club). Regan and i meet the boys earlier and went for dinner at Andaman's Bar and Grill where the boys got a seafood platter which had 2 lobsters, 3 tiger prawns, plate full of mussels, a whole fish, a crab and a plate of calamari. Regan ordered a plate of calamari and chips and i ordered a whole fish fried with garlic yummm! we then went to Bondi Bar where we met up with the girls and headed to Viking Bar then Green Mango! Around 3am Elchah, Tim, Laura and Alicia went home. Regan, Jeffrey, Mel and I headed to Sound Bar where we partied and played pool till 5-6am.

Regan and I spent the day in bed watching good old Law and Order SVU. The boys left that day to go home and the girls to Koh Phangan. We then spent the rest of our time on Koh Samui relaxing and listening to the rain. We left on 19th December and caught a ferry to Koh Phangan.

On Koh Phangan we're staying at Same Same Hotel, run by two Danish girls Heidi and Christina who are so lovely! The food here is amazing you can get everything i.e. burgers, mexican, thai, swedish, english everything! last night they did a roast! they have a swedish christmas lunch on 23rd, swedish/danish christmas dinner 24th, english/aussie dinner 25th. And a massive dinner and party on 31st for New Years Eve.

Last night we checked out the scene on the beach and partied in a bubble machine and watched as flaming ropes were used as a skipping rope, hoops on fire that people jumped and flipped through and high jump where the poll and ground was on fire! Tonight is the Full Moon Party! I'll let you know how it goes...

Love to everyone,

Francesca and Regan xo

The Start of Everything

francesca_kelly — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:11:00 GMT

Firstly i just wanted to say sorry to everyone for writing this so late!

We began our trip in Suvarnabhumi Aiport, when we arrived at 11pm we were dazed by everything. We had to find our shuttle bus to the hotel and we couldn't work out where the hell to go. We ended up jumping into a taxi, hoping he knew the way to go. Turning down a dodgy street we wondered if he was taking us to someplace not 'very' safe... We were wrong of course, the hotel staff were lovely and showed us to our room which had said on the internet that we had a garden view... More like trees and a dirt road! We fell asleep watching a movie ready and nervous for the next day.

We got a lovely breakfast, Regan not realising there was normal food (i.e. bacon, eggs, toast etc.) had started filling up his plate with noodles, fried rice and other things that i wouldn't really classify as breakfast. The hotel staff called us a cab to take us to Khao San Road. Zooming down the streets we realised Thai people haven't heard of anything remotely close to road safety and the RTA would've had a heart attack seeing motor cyclists racing in and out of cars, cars switching lanes and driving on to oncoming traffic just to avoid driving less than 80km/hr. The taxi of course broke down along the way but the guy was great and hailed us another cab. Finally we arrived on Khao San Road nervous and drowning in the sense of absolute loss as to where the hell we go or stay! Smells of so many stalls of food, sweating bodies in the heat and drunken disorder followed us. Tuk-tuk drivers shoving maps in our face telling us they'll take us here and there for 20 baht (less than $1). Then we met Bing-Lee (well his name sounded like that anyway) whose constant laughing and smiling young face convinced us to ride with him. We got in and he took us around to the temples and statues. He convinced us to go to the TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) where we would meet a person who could organise our trip. So we went and bloody hell am i glad we did!

We meet Mr T. (he said it would be easier to remember) whose friendly attitude won us over. He organised accommodation plus travel (i.e. buses, trains, ferry's) from the 11th December-24th January. He fitted in everything that we wanted. The plan was to go to Koh Samui first for a relaxing time, then Koh Phangan (accommodation we had already booked), Phuket (to meet Liz and Annie), Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Krabi then back to Koh Samui to meet Nick. He also recommended a place to stay at on Khao San Road the D&D Inn:

http://www.khaosanby.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=38

We both keep thinking about if it wasn't for him i don't know what we would've done! So we booked in everything and Bing Lee took us back to Khao San Road where we booked into the superior room at the D&D Inn. The place was beautiful! It had a pool deck on the roof and a great bar. The first night we bought beers and sat on the roof top drunk on the fact that we had two months of travel ahead of us! We made our way down to the revelling that littered the street below. We saw people drinking at the main pub there Khao San Central, beer towers (in otherwords 3L towers filled with beer! Don't worry we only drank 2.5L then went to bed haha. Next day we again wandered the streets of Bangkok with the help of Bing Lee and again we walked around at night marvelling on how cheap everything was! We got a fish foot spa which was quite strange and ticklish.

Next day we were to leave Bangkok under the guidance of Mr T. who believed you don't need so much time within Bangkok. We meet up with Mr T. who gave us separate envelopes for the different parts of our trip which he labelled and numbered! AWWW!! We ended up staying with him at his office drinking a whiskey called Blend with Soda water and ice, it was so nice to chilll out and contemplate the fact that Australia has everything that's remotely deadly (i.e. snakes, spiders, sharks). We then made our way to the train station and got on at 2nd class which were supposed to have bunks but there was just seats. However later that night around 8pm or earlier (we have no sense of time) a man came around and pulled out bunks out of the walls of the carriage! Brilliant! So comfy and we passed out, we both woke up every hour or so thinking we missed our stop which we hadnt of course! We arrived at Surat Thani station at 4:30am and caught 2 buses to get to Donask Pier (and by this time we never wanted to see a bus train or ferry for a long time) to get to Koh Samui. We finally arrive and caught an AIR CON shuttle bus for 150 baht ($3). We finally arrived at Koh Samui.

Koh Samui is beautiful, it's definitely a chill out-ish kind of place. Everyone on the island pretty much gets around on motorbikes and after spending two days on the beach and wandering the streets, we got our own bike.

Quick note to Mum and Papa: don't worry we were safe and didn't drive like Thai's.

We ended up spending today driving around the whole island and it is something i completely and utterly stand by to do when your on Koh Samui, you really feel like you can go anywhere and see the world! And bloody hell was it beautiful to see the island, as the wind swept through your hair and you could smell the sea and food stalls that whisked by. We had to stop as we had driven into weak rain, but it turned out for the best as there was the most amazing little stall with a noodle, pork, dumpling and soup dish that i immediately ordered and scoffed down in half a second and how much did it cost me?? $1.50!!!! My stomach is completely in heaven right now!!

Well that brings everyone up to date, will be back on in another couple of days or a week,

Love Fran (and Regan)