Aaah the Land of Smiles

On the evening of Monday 14 May we arrived in Bangkok. During our six days there we had a great time sampling the city's nighlife.

Going back to a dorm room was difficult after the lovely rooms we had stayed in during our previous week in Cambodia. However, our hostel did have a fab roof terrace and was also right by a Skytrain station so made getting around during the day very easy.

HI Sukhumvit roof terrace

Our local street kitchens

The shopping in Bangkok is amazing, okay so we could only window shop, but it was still good fun to visit those huge shopping complexes that are all linked by the airconditioned Skytrain so that you can hop from one to another without breaking into a sweat (Bangkok was HOT!).

Our time in Bangkok was made more enjoyable as we were lucky enough to be there at the same time as my stepbrother Sean and his lovely new wife, Clare, who were starting their honeymoon in Bangkok before heading off to Samui. We met the newlyweds in their hotel on Wednesday 16 and set off on what I can only describe as an entertaining evening!

Us with Sean and Clare

Note to self: NEVER get in a cab outside an expensive hotel in Bangkok. Also it might help if you don't pile into the cab outside said expensive hotel stating that you want to go to a ping-pong show. Subtle.

Tuk-Tuk and cab drivers in Bangkok are unbelieveble. We wanted to go to Patpong although our cab driver had other ideas. So we did the tour - his mate's resturant followed by the dodgiest club (and we have been to a few so we know what we are on about here) that I have ever seen. There was no way that we were going in and the mafia that were standing outside trying to usher us in was not going to change our minds. I dread to think what would have happened to us in there.

"Erm that's fine we'll walk from here mate."

Then we stumble across a tuk-tuk. Now let me think, what were the warnings that we had read prior to arriving in Bangkok, 'stay away from tuk-tuks at night.....if he quotes you a price that is too good to be true then it probably is'. It's night and he quotes the unbelievably cheap price of 20 baht to take us to Patpong.....so we all pile in. Well Sean and Clare hadn't been in a tuk-tuk yet and there were 4 of us, what could go wrong?

He took us to a brothel. We didn't go in.

"Again, that's fine we'll walk from here mate."

We headed for the nearest bar for a much needed drink. It was getting stressful trying to see a ping-pong show! Luckily the guys behind the bar were really helpful and told us that we were within walking distance of where we wanted to go.

You are not allowed to take pictures in the bars and clubs in Patpong. It's a good job. The women in the show we did end up seeing were truly hideous. I mean really, really bad. Luckily I have had my rabies and tetanus shots as one of the darts actually landed on my leg. Gavin was using a drinks tray to bat the ping pongs away that were being fired in his direction. Gross.

There were lots of bars that had far more attractive ladies (and ladyboys) however they obviously lacked the lower abdominal muscles of the monsters in the shows and therefore just gyrated on bar tops for customer's entertainment.

All in all a hilarious night out.

The following day, a little hungover, Gav and I headed for the shops for a while, although the novelty wears off when you can't actually buy anything, so we jumped on the skytrain and headed to a nearby public park to chill out for the afternoon. We spotted a huge monitor lizard at the side of the lake munching its way through a turtle. We could hear the beast crunching through the turtles shell. We don't get many of them in Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham let me tell you.

We met up with Sean and Clare that evening and were on a mission to go to a good club. Taxi drivers had other ideas yet again. I'll cut a long story short (what do you mean that's unlike me?). We ended up in a crappy club in the @rse end of nowhere that was full of other idiot tourists such as ourselves that had been brought there by their equally dodgy cab drivers.

I had a massive sulk and decided that I wasn't going to play as it wasn't where I wanted to be and I felt that we shouldn't have given the cab driver the satisfaction of actually paying to go in. Then I realised I was the only one not having a good time (apart from Gav who was trying to get me out of my sulk) so I swallowed my pride and busted some shapes on the dance floor along with everyone else. We hit our beds at around 5am the next morning.

Sean and Clare

The following day we decided to move to a double room in the hostel. It's not much more expensive than two dorm beds and we were getting told off by the young 'uns in the room for coming in so late each night. Surely it should be the other way around?

FA Cup Final day, Saturday 19 May. We started our day with a webcam chat with the Curley family. Gav's parents were in the UK for his Nephew's Holy Communion so it was a great opportunity to get everyone together for a catchup.

For the football we headed for a British style pub that had Guinness on tap and a large screen showing the match - Gav was a happy man. Whilst in there we met a lovely couple, Steven and Fiona, from Sydney. We ended up going out clubbing again to a great place called Bed Supperclub. It was hillarious that the doormen made Steven run to the local supermarket to buy a pair of socks to put on with his flip flops before they would let us in. Girls can wear flip-flops but men cannot...'dems da rules' but boys wearing socks with flip flops makes it okay? We'll let you judge....

Steven & Fiona

Bed Supperclub

After the club, typical us wanted to carry the night on and went on a mission to find somewhere that was still open. We did find an afterclub but as the entrace fee was steep and people were buying shorts by the bottle rather than individual drinks.....we gave it a miss.

CHIANG MAI

Why oh why did we go clubbing the night before travelling? Hungover and tired we arrived in Chiang Mai airport on Sunday 20th May and jumped in a cab to a guest house we had read about called Julie Guesthouse.

Now lets get something straight. Yes we are backpacking and we can slum it with the best of them but this guest house, no way siree. It was not happening. We spent our first day in Chaing Mai looking for somewhere else to stay. We did have to spend one night at Julie Guesthouse - we didn't sleep at all. (Shudder).

The following day we moved to Jonadda Guesthouse and spent the day mooching around Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai has a really laid back, almost hippy feel to it, entirely different to Bangkok.

Sunday Market

It turns out that one of the guys we met in Hanoi, New York Greg, was also staying at Jonadda and we bumped into each other that evening. It was great to catch up and chat about what we had all been up to duiring the last month.

In Chiang Mai they seemed to be obsesed with Bob Marley and reggae in general. It must be a ganja thing. Anyway, we ended up in a reggae bar for dinner that had a Thai band singing Bob Marley songs. Hilarious!

Chiang Mai is great for outdoor activities and the next day we decided to hire moutain bikes to explore the city. Gavin said he has never ever seen me sweat so much in all the years we have been together - well it was very hot! I didn't make things easy for myself either. Not content with riding around on the lovely flat roads in the city, I decided that we should try to cycle up the Doi Suthep Mountain. We didn't even make it to the foot of the mountain before I admitted defeat.

Help me!

That evening we met New York Greg for a few drinks in a bar near to our hostel. It was difficult to sit on those wooden chairs after riding that bike all day. Ouch!

By hook or by crook we were going up that mountain so on Thursday 24 May we hired a moped. At times we didn't think the little moped would make it with both of us on but we got there and were rewarded with some great views of Chiang Mai.

C.H.I.P.S.

Views from the mountain

On the way back down we decided to stop at the entrance to a National Park for a gentle stroll to find the waterfall. An hour of serious trekking later (in flip flops) we found a trickle of water pretending to be a waterfall. Ah lovely, an hour trek back then.

Gav was eager to do an organised mountain biking tour, I of course was not. On the Friday Gav set off on his mountain bike day whilst I had a day long Thai cookery course. Both of us had a great time (and it probably did us good to have a day apart after 2 months of travelling together!).

I had a tour around the local market as part of my cooking course.....bacon buttie anyone?

Gav had arranged for us to meet a couple of the guys from his mountain bike tour for drinks that evening. An evening of drinking games followed, as did another 5am finish.

Drinking games

We (Gav) decided that we were booking onto a three day jungle trek. I personally would have opted for the safer two day trek but was up for the challenge (Gav knows how much I love walking). It's something that we have both been really looking forward to and on Monday 28th we set off on our mini adventure into the Northwest Mae Teang area of Chiang Mai.

Day one of the trek started very easily with an hour or so in a pickup truck to a market for supplies followed by lunch in a riverside hut. Then came the difficult bit. Now, I knew it was going to be a trek although for some reason I didn't think it would be 3 hours of uphill hiking. I started off at a great pace but 3 hours later I thought I was going to die. By the grace of God there was a couple who were struggling more than I and we had to stop every now and then to wait for them to catch us up which gave me a sneaky opportunity to catch my breath!

Ray Mears and Nora Croft

The night was spent with the Lahu Tribe, under mosquito nets in a communal hut. Before hitting our sacks we sat around a fire with our guide. Firstly the hill tribe children came and performed for us, singing sweet little songs and dancing. Even the tiniest children were involved. Then we had to sing for them, very embarassing. We then played a few games (sort of drinking games but without the drink) with the loser having soot from the bottom of a cooking pot smeared on their face. Guess who was the overall loser?

Loser!

Our fellow trekkers

The children's performance

Sleeping in a bamboo hut with 10 other people is near on impossible. Every time one person moves the whole hut moves and any sound echoes through the bamboo. Also it seem that each village must have a million (okay that's a slight exaggeration) cockerels. The purpose of the cockerels is simply to cock-a-doodle-doo from about 4am in order to wake up anyone who may have managed to snatch a few minutes sleep in a communal hut.

On day two of the trek our group was reduced to 7 as some people had opted for the sensible two day option. A 1 1/2 hour trek in the morning, a swim in a waterfall, lunch in a pig sty (well not exactly, but not far off) and finally a 3 hour trek in the afternoon. Although we trekked for longer, it was a lot easier than day one as there was less uphill hiking. We followed the river so there was lots of scrambling over rocks and wading through the water which was really good fun.

Our bed for the second evening was also a communal bamboo hut in a beautiful setting. It was completely open fronted overlooking the river. In the evening we were able to sit and watch thousands of fire flies in the trees opposite. It was gorgeous. By 9pm we were all in bed, absolutely exhausted.

Day three consisted of elephant trekking, white water rafting and bamboo rafting. The white water rafting was the best activity, we had great fun throwing ourselves into the rapids as fast as we could. We both thought we would enjoy the elephant trekking but we actually just came away feeling very sorry for them.

The hardcore three day group

And so it was time to move on again. On Thursday 31 May we flew from Chaing Mai Airport to Koh Samui and then jumped on a ferry to our first Island desination, Koh Pha Ngan.

THE ISLANDS

We met a group of South Africans on the ferry who were all on holiday for a 40th birthday celebration. I stayed with the group and our bags in Thong Sala whilst Gav nipped off on a moped to find us somewhere to stay. By the time he got back 3 hours later a number of beers had been consumed and it's fair to say I was a little tipsy. Our first night we stayed in a room that Gav had found that actually had a bath tub...bliss. However, as it was quite pricey (by our backpacker standards), the following night we decided to join the South African group at a place called Boom Cafe which was just 5 minutes away.

Views from Boom Cafe

Our host, Nok, and our South African friends

Friday 1st June was a full moon and so we along with the group of South Africans headed to Haad Rin for the famous Full Moon Party.

I think to really enjoy the Full Moon Party you need to be there during high season when the larger crowds would create a better atmosphere. We thought that the music was great but there were lots of young kids in awful states (yep, worse than us). You know, sort of 'Ibiza Uncovered' style where they have drunk and drugged themsleves to the brink of hospitalisation. There was a 'casualty' tent where the real bad cases were dumped and left on the ground until the effects wore off. Also, I couldn't get over how many blokes were using the beach as a toilet. Just stood there in full view, urinating on the beach. Obviously we are getting too old for this lark. The group of South Africans, who are all at least 10 years our senior I might add, put us to shame. Gav and I sneaked off at about 4am, they didn't roll in until 10am the next morning!

On Saturday 2nd, feeling holier than thou as we were up with the birds with no hangovers (unlike our South African freinds) we decided to go out on the moped to explore the island and decide where to move on to next. We first popped back to Haad Rin, it looked awful after the party, we definitely would not be staying there. We then went to Haad Salad and Chaloklam before having to turn back as our little moped couldn't make the steep dirt tracks with both of us on.

Haad Salad

Views of Kho Pha Ngan

We decided that Hat Thong Nai Pan on the North East of the island was where we wanted top go next and on Sunday 3rd I jumped in a pickup with the bags and Gav followed on the moped.

Thai style taxi and ice-cream van

We headed straight for Dolphin Bungalows which was in a glorious setting, you simply could not get more chilled, but our bungalow had the hardest mattress imaginable and the mozzies were eating us alive. We stayed there for two nights before moving on to a gorgeous little beach side bungalow which was only 300 baht a night. We honestly could have stayed there for weeks. The beach was perfect with powdery white sand, the weather was perfect, the sea was bath water warm and great for swimming in and there were little local restaurants serving great Thai food for next to nothing within walking distance. It was peaceful, chilled and we met some really cool people there. Have you ever been somewhere that you are so taken with that you don't have to do anything, you can just sit back and relax? This was one of those places for us.

Hat Thong Nai Pan

Okay so the downside, our gorgeous beachside bungalow had bed bugs. At first we thought it was mosquitoes, or maybe sand flies.....no, it was bed bugs. The room had twin beds so Gav and I slept seperately, he luckily didn't get a single bite whilst I was covered from head to toe. My God, they itch.

View from our bungalow

Our little friend

Maybe it was for the best as we probably would never have moved from there otherwise! You would have heard from us in a few years time. We would be earning money by working as a Bob Marley tribute band (Gav would be Bob) and sleeping on the beach with the stray dogs.

Our last night in Hat Thong Nai Pan

Reluctantly we headed back to Thong Sala to jump on a catamaran to Koh Toa. The main thing we were heading to Koh Toa for was the diving. It has great dive sites with reef sharks and whale sharks often sighted. We headed straight for Ban's Diving Resort on Sairee Beach. Our room was fairly basic, a bed, a fan and no hot water but we are well used to that by now and we did have use of a lovely pool. The beach didn't seem to be as nice as where we had come from but that was no problem as we had come for the diving rather than the beach.

Our hotel pool

Catastrophe! I'd picked up an ear infection and couldn't go diving. Cue a little sob. I insisted that Gav still went for his dive as there was no point in us both missing out (oh I'm such a brave little soldier). I sat in our room feeling very sorry for myself with my antibiotics and ibruprofen whilst Gav went off on his two dives and guess what...he only went and saw a shark! It was a Grey Reef Shark and around 2 metres in length. I was gutted to have missed out.

Talking of sobbing, I didn't mention that I have broken my little toe did I? It's now slightly deformed but no longer painful. I basically kicked a brick wall (accidentially) and knew immediately it was broken - toes are not supposed to bend in that direction. You know the sort of pain that takes your breath away and it feels like your heart stops beating for a couple of seconds? Well that's what it was like. I didn't cry at the time, however, I did cry a couple of days later when I skidded on a wet floor in my flip-flops and bashed the bugger again. Gav laughed. He said it looked like I was ice-skating. I did laugh a little too but tears were falling at the same time.

On Friday 15th we jumped on a Catamaran to Koh Samui. We are staying in the Chaweng Beach area in a little bungalow just off the main strip. I have to say we've been living a little like hermits since we arrived. There are plenty of great bars and restaurants but it all seems to be a little out of our price range and other than eating and drinking there seems to be little else to do (what do you mean that's all we do anyway?). We are missing our little beach on Koh Pha Ngan!

We will probably spend a couple more days here catching up on 'admin' before heading on to Malaysia by train where we are hoping to spend the best part of a month. Gav will take over for the next update. Until then here are a couple of extra piccies to keep you entertained. Now why did we call our blog Afros and Sunburn........?

Gav take that vest off!

Oh Dear God, it's a GHD emergency!