We left Battambang early heading for the Thai border near Poipet. As always as soon as we left the city the roads turned into, at best, a bumpy potholed mess and at worse lurching dirt roads with plenty of near misses to be had by our manic mini bus driver. Crossing over the border we hopped on to a choc a block full mini bus towards Bangkok. We left Battambang at 8am and arrived in Bangkok at 6pm with just enough time to get to the train station to catch our overnight train to Suratthani, the port for our boat to Ko Samui. The whole journey from Cambodia to Ko Samui took 28 hours of constant travel. thankfully eight of this was spent asleep on the sleeper train!
After this arduous journey we stepped on to dry land at Ko Samui, one of the larger east coast islands. Whilst naturally beautiful, the island is very much geared towards tourism and partying and we found it for the most part uninspiring. We did however hire a scooter and explore for the day taking in a few fishing villages, a waterfall and some good food. During our last night on Samui we had the pleasure of meeting Angela and Marco, two German friends on holiday, in the late evening food market. An evening of vodka and dancing ensued on the beach at a cheesy club.
All of a sudden we found ourselves up early, after a few hours sleep, Russ massively hungover and Tash feeling rather good still (always a sign of doom to come). Luckily this combined with a rough boat trip and a predispositian to seasickness meant that Tash dry reached loudly in the direction of a very serious and arrogant man who refused to move....ha!
We survived the boat trip and found ourselves on full moon central. Ko Pha Ngan. Unsuprisingly with all the pressure of having the 'most amazing full moon - once in a lifetime - experience' we decided it wasn't for us for us and spent the evening on our balcony with a few drinks. We decided to give the big day a miss opting instead to get a ferry back the mainland , making a beeline to the jungle and hills (Khao Sok National Park) - where we feel most at home.
