This time in Thailand we decide to head south to the islands and all the gorgeous beaches we've heard about and so caught a flight to Phuket. Being me and Mike the day we got there was Lunar New Year, a highly celebrated festival in Thailand, Vietnam etc and so after the first night there wasn't anywhere available to stay! So much for exploring Phuket.... Luckily it was a bit too 'spanish beach holiday' style for us with a million tourists and everything 3 times the price so we didn't mind too much. The only solution was to catch a 5 hour mini bus to the other side to Krabi town and decide what to do from there. When we got to Krabi town we realised that it was 40 minutes away from the beach with p*ss all to do. I was beginning to think we should have stayed in Cambodia...So, with me all stressed and buckets of sweat literally running down between my back and my backpack, I gave up. For once, I was letting Mikey choose the route. This proved to be very interesting as at Krabi town we hailed a truck and threw ourselves on in the 2 seconds it stopped on its was past. Mikey then chatted away happily to the two other people on there while I sulked in the corner. The two men happened to be getting a boat to somewhere called Railey and needed more people to bring the price of the fare crossing down. With Mikey now in charge you can guess what happened. So we followed these guys to the pier, caught a boat with them and another couple, got off the boat at Railey then followed the couple across the town to another beach and then followed them over a gigantic cliff top and climbed down into the most amazing secluded beach ever. It was like something out of a film but with less nudity and no serial killers, David! We ended up in a mini paradise called Ton Sai. Maybe I should listen to Mike more often ;-).
Ton Sai is really famous for rock climbing and climbers come from all over the world so we would spend all day swimming in the sea then watch the climbers as the sun was setting before going to watch the wild monkeys migrate across the jungle to find their evening resting place. It was really a hard life I can tell you! Unfortunately Mikey got sick again for a few days but we managed to find some medicine - written in Thai so god only knows what is was - which made him all better. In the 15 nights that we were there we just basically swam and snorkelled and did a bit of sea kayaking. Mikey was very excited as he saw a Lion Fish whilst snorkelling but didnt realise that there was a great big reef shark just behind him, spotted by someone else!
Eventually we thought we had better move on and see the rest of the islands so we caught a boat back to Krabi town in order to do a visa run. Our visas were gonna run out before we wanted to leave so we had to catch a bus to the border of Malaysia and walk into Malaysia and straight out again. We were officially in Malaysia for about 3 minutes! An extra stamp for the old passport though is always welcome.
Then onto Koh Samui where we brought the British weather with us. There were mini monsoons nearly everyday which at least made the 36 degree heat a bit more bearable. Koh Samui was not an amazing place for us as again it was too commercialised and very tourist orientated. We did however hire a scooter and drive up into the mountains to see a couple of waterfalls and found some elephants and baby tigers to feed and saw our first wild snake on the road.
Koh Tao was our next port of call and it was the most beautiful place we have ever been. We began our stay there by being approached on the ferry over and offered 4 free nights accommodation if we did a scuba diving course with that company. Seeing as Mike was planning on doing a course anyway we got ourselves a bargain! The course started as soon as we got there with us attending classroom lessons. The only reason I was doing the course as well was so that I wasn't on my own for 4 days while Mikey did it. After a full day of lessons we finally went down about 5 metres and all sat on the sea bed learning all the tricks. Breathing through a little mouth piece and sitting on the sea floor is the most strangest feeling ever, especially when you are told to take your mouthpiece out. We actually coped with that ok but one of the skills was to take your mask off and put it back on again. The mask covers your nose as well as your mouth so when I took mine off I would immediately panic and breath in a load of sea water up my nose which meant I had to be taken up to the surface each time to calm down. Its very embarrassing for me not to be the very best at something as some of you well know. Anyway Mikey took to it like, ahem...a fish to water so to speak and was in watery heaven. To complete the course we had to do 5 dives including one deep dive and pass an exam. By the 4th dive I was so freaked out about my mask coming off that I stayed on the boat and had sea sickness over the side instead, it's called 'feeding the fishes', fun huh. Mikey however went down to 27 Metres and saw 2 sharks, baracuda and a mornay eel so he was overejoyed to say the least. On the last 2 dives - with me absent and puking - a videographer went down too and filmed everyone so now we have DVD evidence of Mikey twirling and spinning his way through the deep blue sea with all the fishies. So because I wimped out I only qualified as a Scuba Diver and can go to 12 metres whereas Mikey is an Open Water Diver and can go to 18 metres but I'm just glad I dont have to do it again! We both got 100% on our exam though so that made me feel much much better.
We also found a bar playing the rugby and screamed our way through the Wales v Ireland match to get the Triple Crown. There was only 4 of us welsh in the whole bar and a million irish, one of whom was calling us various names to do with sheep and the C U next tuesday word. Anyone who knows my temper after drinking beer will be glad that I was very restrained and acted like a lady whereas Mike, friend of the world, was shaking everyone by the hand. Come on Wales!!!
This brings us to March 13th. Mikey went off on a dive all day and was gone for about 7 hours. Since we started our trip we have only been apart for about 2 hours maximum in the 24 hours, 7 days a week and 3 and a half months. It was traumatic I must say. Anyway when he got back we were so excited that we bought bottled beer and girlie drink and went and sat in the sea to watch the sun set. When it got dark people were setting off lanterns on the beach and they were floating over us and off into the distance. Anyway I dont know if it was the beer or what but Mikey got down on his knee - the left one I think! - and asked me to marry him. The fact that I was sat on my butt on the sea floor and a lot lower than him didn't matter and after confirming that he wasn't pulling my leg, I happily said yes! At bloody last! And to make things even better we were meeting Tashie and Danny 2 days after that.
The Sherwen Browns flew all the way from Abu Dhabu Darling to meet us on Koh Phangan for a week of vodka and fun. This was also to be our final week in Thailand before flying to New Zealand. The guys surprised us by booking us all in to a luxurious resort called the Green Papaya. It was sooo clean! And we had a shower that wasn't going to make you dirtier just by stepping in it! The free breakfast and infinity pool also made our week. But most of all it was being with Tash and Danny that was the best. If you know Tash, you will know that a lot of alcohol was involved as well as a lot of laying by the pool. Bliss! We also all hired a jeep and explored the island and got to feed more nelliephants. One evening we went to a Reggae festival which had no Reggae. It did however have a photographic - and I mean graphic - display of haemorrhoids! Very very bizzare! And of course lots of dead bugs to eat. By this point Mikey has eaten deep fried grubs and crickets, eww. We also went sea kayacking to the next beach and in all saw an octopus, lobster, baracuda and a blue stingray! Amazing. There was also a weird naked man but we'll talk no more of him. On our last night together we went to the Full Moon Party at Hat Rin. By the way, the version of Red Bull in Thailand has got something very strange in it.....which makes you a bit loopy, so not much of the party was remembered afterwards. The beach was crowded with about 20,000 party goers and and we managed to meet up with Bonnie and Tyler, you know, the Canadians, for one last time before we might never see them again. The six of us and B&T's friend got rip roaring drunk on buckets and I think we must have had a good time. I can remember Mikey sitting on Danny's shoulders like a child does and a very crazy Thai lesbian with wandering hands stalking me! Tashie is gonna go back and beat her up apparantly!
The next day once we had left the place I realised that someone must have come into our room whilst we were at the party and stolen all my knickers out of my backpack. Our passports and credit cards were in the room just sat there saying 'steal me, steal me' but no, the pig took ALL my knickers. Very very strange!!
Anyway thanks Tash and Danny for an amazing week and a fab end to our time in South East Asia. We love you! xxxx
And goodbye Bonnie and Tyler, we'll miss you so.
So, on the move again with a truck, a ferry, a 13 hour coach, a 9 hour flight to melbourne, a stop over at the airport for one night then 2 more flights to get to NZ finally arriving at midnight followed by a sleep on airport chairs til 6 in the morning when the bus can take us into Aukland to pick up our hire campervan at 8am!! All this with a massive hang over too!! Phew!!!
