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Thailand is a very diverse country, from manic cities to tranquil towns and beaches. It's a beautiful place with the nicest of people. We have been quite a few places since we last updated you, but will try and keep it short and sweet so you don't get too bored!!
Our first stop was Krabi, famous for rock climbing (apparently), although we didn't see much. We decided on our first day too do an island hopping tour, we wished we hadn't............... On a nice day I'm sure it would be a beautiful experience although we managed to get a freak day in the middle of summer and had torrential rain all afternoon ha ha. The place had 4 beautiful beaches, 1 being Railey beach where we spent a day climbing up to a view point and down to a lagoon, down a sheer rock face using ropes in our flip flops and half way down it started raining, Clever Hey!!!! British Health and safety would have had a heart attack. It was worth the view once down there though. Also they had a strange but amazing penis shrine, we weren't really sure what it was for
Ko Phi Phi
Lagoon Climb - Railey Beach, Krabi
Don't look down dan!!was the next island, which was made out to be paradise. Although we thought it was too touristy for that. The island was totally wiped out by the Tsunami in '04, but it has now been fully rebuilt and thriving once more. You can walk out in the sea for about a quarter of a mile and it's still only up to your thighs. It was like bath water. The surrounding cliffs were beautiful and the view from the top of them was amazing. In one of the bars at night they had a muay thai competition where you could literally fight anyone in the pub for a free drink. Pure comedy value, we think they should get one in Borrowash......
Then we took a ferry to the island of Phuket to meet our families for my brother Andrew's wedding. I was brilliant seeing everyone and catching up with the in and out's of the UK. We chilled out alot by their 5* pools, it was a real luxury after 8 weeks of slumming it. We even went to Alison's (Dans mum's) hotel most mornings and skanked a free breakfast ha ha! It was really sad leaving everyone after
Reached the Lagoon
such a good time.
Dan and Dave (Jen's stepdad) escaped from the women and went off to a fishing lake for a few days, the place was set in a stunning national forest near Krabi and had not fully opened yet so they were quite lucky to catch the monsters that they did. Dave caught an arapaima catfish weighing around 150 kilo which took him about 50 mins to land and Dan caught a minnow of a mere 80 kilo. You can imagine how happy they were. Dan did just want to point out however that he caught the most fish!!! Sorry Dave.
We spent a few days in Ranong a small town on the Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border which is where we had to go to get an extension of our Thai visa. You only get 30 days on entry so we heard about a loop hole in the law where you can leave the country and return in the same day and get an extra 30 days, instead of paying a fortune to immigration. What an experience!! We had to hire our own long boat which took us to the immigration office in the middle of the
Penis Shrine - Krabi
What she is used too?????? HA HAriver where a boy would run off our boat with our passports, get them stamped and we'd carry on to Burma. There we had to pay 10 usd each but this would depend on the quality and condition of the American dollar note, (it had to be perfect) to how much we pay, the Burmese officer seemed quite impressed with ours. Thank God! It was so easy, it was unbelievable!
Then to Bangkok, capital of Thailand. What a interesting city, we loved it. Hawker stalls and tuk-tuk's everywhere from morning till night, this city never seems to sleep. It didn't seem as sleazy as the first time we came, either it has been cleaned up alot or we have just learned to ignore it. Our first night however wasn't so restful. We checked into a 'budget' guesthouse (Dan's choice may I add) with free internet and laundry, a pool, bar restaurant and pool table etc it seemed great. Although when we went to bed in the small hours after a few beers our room was crawling with bed bugs, they were everywhere and big too, it was disgusting, we spent hours killing them, blood splats everywhere, hopefully not ours!
Lap dancing in Patong, Phuket
New lady boy in town, How much did you make????Needless to say we were straight out of there the next morning, we told reception why we were leaving and she just replied OK!!! We moved around the corner to a non tourist guest house which we soon realised was a hoar house and possibly mafia run (we know how to pick them) the hourly room rate gave it away.
We met up with one of our friends Alan from the village and spent a night on crazy Khao San road with him and his friends, we had a wicked time. We went to the worlds biggest outdoor market, Chatachuk, Dan was disappointed though as he had heard they sell tigers, snakes and other endangered species but all they had was pups kittens and squirrels!!!!!!
And finally onto Kanchanaburi, which is famous for the Bridge over the river Kwai (Death Railway). Having never seen the film we headed for the visitor centre to learn more about the history. It was very moving to see the pictures and videos of the POW's, and learning that over 100,000 people died during the building of the railway and seeing all the graves in the cemeterys, which were kept immaculate by the Thai
Dave's Arapaima Catfish, Krabi
That's a whole lot of fish!!!government. The town itself was lovely and the accommodation was great it even had a pool, one of Dan's better picks at only 5 quid a night. We went on an elephant trek it was brill then Dan steered us down a stream on a bamboo raft, he needed L plates though we had a fair few collisions. Last but not least was a visit to the Tiger Temple! The monks there took tigers in from cubs and they are now pretty much domesticated (?) Here you could go and stroke them and get your pictures taken with them, it was scary but something we will probably never get to do again. We were a little concerned about the disclaimer they made you sign and we are not sure whether our insurance would cover us in a fatality!!
We are currently on our way to Ayutthaya, Thailands old ancient capital, then north to Chaing Mai and Laos. So til the next time, hope every body is well and hope the weather is picking up. We won't leave it as long next time. TTFN.....................
Our first stop was Krabi, famous for rock climbing (apparently), although we didn't see much. We decided on our first day too do an island hopping tour, we wished we hadn't............... On a nice day I'm sure it would be a beautiful experience although we managed to get a freak day in the middle of summer and had torrential rain all afternoon ha ha. The place had 4 beautiful beaches, 1 being Railey beach where we spent a day climbing up to a view point and down to a lagoon, down a sheer rock face using ropes in our flip flops and half way down it started raining, Clever Hey!!!! British Health and safety would have had a heart attack. It was worth the view once down there though. Also they had a strange but amazing penis shrine, we weren't really sure what it was forKo Phi Phi
Lagoon Climb - Railey Beach, Krabi
Don't look down dan!!was the next island, which was made out to be paradise. Although we thought it was too touristy for that. The island was totally wiped out by the Tsunami in '04, but it has now been fully rebuilt and thriving once more. You can walk out in the sea for about a quarter of a mile and it's still only up to your thighs. It was like bath water. The surrounding cliffs were beautiful and the view from the top of them was amazing. In one of the bars at night they had a muay thai competition where you could literally fight anyone in the pub for a free drink. Pure comedy value, we think they should get one in Borrowash......
Then we took a ferry to the island of Phuket to meet our families for my brother Andrew's wedding. I was brilliant seeing everyone and catching up with the in and out's of the UK. We chilled out alot by their 5* pools, it was a real luxury after 8 weeks of slumming it. We even went to Alison's (Dans mum's) hotel most mornings and skanked a free breakfast ha ha! It was really sad leaving everyone after
Reached the Lagoon
such a good time.
Dan and Dave (Jen's stepdad) escaped from the women and went off to a fishing lake for a few days, the place was set in a stunning national forest near Krabi and had not fully opened yet so they were quite lucky to catch the monsters that they did. Dave caught an arapaima catfish weighing around 150 kilo which took him about 50 mins to land and Dan caught a minnow of a mere 80 kilo. You can imagine how happy they were. Dan did just want to point out however that he caught the most fish!!! Sorry Dave.
We spent a few days in Ranong a small town on the Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border which is where we had to go to get an extension of our Thai visa. You only get 30 days on entry so we heard about a loop hole in the law where you can leave the country and return in the same day and get an extra 30 days, instead of paying a fortune to immigration. What an experience!! We had to hire our own long boat which took us to the immigration office in the middle of the
Penis Shrine - Krabi
What she is used too?????? HA HAriver where a boy would run off our boat with our passports, get them stamped and we'd carry on to Burma. There we had to pay 10 usd each but this would depend on the quality and condition of the American dollar note, (it had to be perfect) to how much we pay, the Burmese officer seemed quite impressed with ours. Thank God! It was so easy, it was unbelievable!
Then to Bangkok, capital of Thailand. What a interesting city, we loved it. Hawker stalls and tuk-tuk's everywhere from morning till night, this city never seems to sleep. It didn't seem as sleazy as the first time we came, either it has been cleaned up alot or we have just learned to ignore it. Our first night however wasn't so restful. We checked into a 'budget' guesthouse (Dan's choice may I add) with free internet and laundry, a pool, bar restaurant and pool table etc it seemed great. Although when we went to bed in the small hours after a few beers our room was crawling with bed bugs, they were everywhere and big too, it was disgusting, we spent hours killing them, blood splats everywhere, hopefully not ours!
Lap dancing in Patong, Phuket
New lady boy in town, How much did you make????Needless to say we were straight out of there the next morning, we told reception why we were leaving and she just replied OK!!! We moved around the corner to a non tourist guest house which we soon realised was a hoar house and possibly mafia run (we know how to pick them) the hourly room rate gave it away.
We met up with one of our friends Alan from the village and spent a night on crazy Khao San road with him and his friends, we had a wicked time. We went to the worlds biggest outdoor market, Chatachuk, Dan was disappointed though as he had heard they sell tigers, snakes and other endangered species but all they had was pups kittens and squirrels!!!!!!
And finally onto Kanchanaburi, which is famous for the Bridge over the river Kwai (Death Railway). Having never seen the film we headed for the visitor centre to learn more about the history. It was very moving to see the pictures and videos of the POW's, and learning that over 100,000 people died during the building of the railway and seeing all the graves in the cemeterys, which were kept immaculate by the Thai
Dave's Arapaima Catfish, Krabi
That's a whole lot of fish!!!government. The town itself was lovely and the accommodation was great it even had a pool, one of Dan's better picks at only 5 quid a night. We went on an elephant trek it was brill then Dan steered us down a stream on a bamboo raft, he needed L plates though we had a fair few collisions. Last but not least was a visit to the Tiger Temple! The monks there took tigers in from cubs and they are now pretty much domesticated (?) Here you could go and stroke them and get your pictures taken with them, it was scary but something we will probably never get to do again. We were a little concerned about the disclaimer they made you sign and we are not sure whether our insurance would cover us in a fatality!!
We are currently on our way to Ayutthaya, Thailands old ancient capital, then north to Chaing Mai and Laos. So til the next time, hope every body is well and hope the weather is picking up. We won't leave it as long next time. TTFN.....................