I have now attempted to write this 3 times!!!! Argh!! only slightly frustrating!! As you know, I am completely cursed when it comes to computers!!
So instead of writing it all again, I have decided to tell my story with pictures!!!
Please click on (or copy and paste) the links below to view:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58179&l=650fa&id=724065102
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70001&l=8a239&id=724065102
Only kidding!!!! I will write more. Just watch this space!........
.......So, we arrived back in Bangkok early on the Sunday morning (not that we knew it was Sunday at the time, we wondered why there was hardly any traffic!!!) we headed straight for Khao San Road but this time stayed round the back of the temple, not far away but definitely a lot quieter!!!
Later on we went to the Grand Palace as we didn't get chance to go last time. The Thai people really love their royalty, you see hundreds of people in yellow and pale blue polo shirts. At first I thought it was a work uniform and then found out that infact the yellow shirts signify the King and the pale blue are for the Queen. I'm really not used to people loving their royal family, and trying to imagine people at home wearing curly wigs and glasses because they love the Queen so much does seem a little absurd!! The palace is very beautiful, dissapointingly the royal family do not actually reside there any more, but we got to see the temple and statues.
The following day we decided to travel to Ban Phe (where the random american had recommended us to go) it only took a few hours but when we arrived we realised that it wasn't quite the quiet fishing village originally described to us. We wandered up and down the main street (in the peak day sun, not timed well at all!!) and were unable to find any hotel within our price range the average there being between 800 and 1000 baht.
Feeling a little peeved we got a sawngethaw to the next town, Rayon, in hope there would be a bus that we could get which would take us south. Typically the buses there travelled in every direction excep where we wanted to go. By now we were quite pissed off!!! We got a bus to Bangkok and luckily managed to get on an overnight bus from Bangkok to Chumporn, our next destination.
Chumporn - Our luck (or lack of it) seemed to continue when we arrived in Chumporn. We were woken up at 6:30am and dropped off in the pissing down rain on a road similar to Holderness Road (for those of you in Hull) except without buses or taxis. It turned out that we were 8km out of town so we started walking (with backpacks) until we came across a motorbike taxi rank (still not a huge amount of help). One of them took pity on us and gave us a ride in the back of his pickup truck the rest of the way, we must have looked incredibly pathetic in our rainbow coloured ponchos as we didn't get charged a thing!
We found Farang (nicely means foreigner hmmmmmm) Hotel which literally looked like the only place in town. The over priced food did taste good, though, and we got a room for the night out of the pouring rain. At 6am the next morning we woke up 6" deep in water, Hazel literally had to fish her phone and camera out of it. We decided to leave the room and sit in the bar as the electrics in Thailand are extremely dodgy (you can hear the pylons as you walk by) and the combination of the electrics, metal beds and water probably wasn't very safe. We had planned on getting the ferry to Ko Tao (an island) that night but due to the flood we reluctantly had to stay at the hotel for another night so all of our belongings had chance to dry out. With some persuasion we managed to get the room and laundry for free. The bad weather continued so we decision to travel on further south.
Krabbi - Getting the bus to Krabbi was a huge sigh of relief! I would like to see this place again someday. In good weather it is famous for kayaking around the bay and islands. We only stayed here for one night but we did find one of the best pancake stalls and, amusingly to them, went back twice in one night.
Ko Phi Phi and Ko Lanta - Everyone says that when you visit Thailand you have to visit some islands. I actually wasn't that fussed as I reckon the Caribbean islands are probably the most beautiful in the world and the Isle of Arran is a close second.
We caught the boat to Ko Phi Phi, it wasn't a long journey at all. When we arrived I was surprised how touristy it was, the path leading away from the dock is full of travel shops, diving shops and shops in general! We walked away from it and managed to find more reasonably priced hotels. The area we stayed in is actually still majorly under reconstruction after the Tsunami. Standing on the beach you really can't imagine a massive tidal wave coming towards you, it's crazy! We travelled to Ko Phi Phi at the best time of the year (well not best weather wise, being rainy season) but best because it was very quiet and the prices hadn't started doubling!!!
I will continue this another day, it's Sunday today and our hostel in Melbourne is about to serve free pancakes!!!! perfect when saturday night and early sunday morning was spent consuming beer!!!
xx
I'm sure you're as bored reading this as I am writing it!! so to cut a long story short......
Our last few days in Thailand were spent in Trang and Hat Yai, neither place we desperately wanted to visit but they definitely made the journey to Malaysia a bit more bearable!!
