Sam Harrington

8th May

We got picked up at 9.20 to get the ferry across to Koh Pangan. The pier was an old rickety pier, very rusty at the end. Not the safest thing that you have to walk down. The ferry journey took us about 30mins, which wasn’t too bad. We had booked our accomodation for Koh Pangan because of the Full Moon Party. A lot of places will only let you book a minimum of about a week. We booked into a place where Hannah and Rev had booked. It wasn’t as glamorous as it looked on the internet but all websites glorify the pics. The tiny little bungalow didn’t have air con, just a fan. It was cooler outside the room than in it, the room at night got up to 30degrees! There was a nice pool though and it was right on the beach.

There was a bar on the beach which 3blokes live at. They did a fire show at night. Was really good, a bit of entertainment as we didn’t have a tv in this room. Very basic.

9th May

This was the day of the Full Moon Party. We had a quiet day by the pool. We met lots of other English people, which was good. A nice group of people. At about 5ish most people went back to their rooms to refuel ready for a long night of partying. I had really bad ear ache this day so I went back to bed, Elliott couldn’t sleep in the heat, so he stayed at the bar getting a head start on everyone. When we were all up there was a group of english girls ody painting everyone. We all participated being decorated! Elliott had some good side burns and tash. Very funny!

The place we were staying arranged travel to get to Haad Rin where the party was. About 16 of us piled into a tiny little mini bus. In Koh Phangan its extremley hilly. To get up the hills you have to crawl up them, the car feels like its going to stop and you’d be stuck on this hill or going backwards. Scary. So you can imagine me worrying that this mini bus is never going to make it up these hills! It did of course.

The party is on a beach called Sunrise Beach, we literally turned a corner and there was about 10,000 people partying on the beach, crazy!

We got our buckets to drink from and started to walk down the beach. Buckets are what you drink from. We had one with Thai whiskey (Samsong) Coke and Red Bull. It was lovely, so strong though.

On the beach there are different bars, all playing different music. It was brilliant.

Now the toilet situation was quite difficult here, it turned out the sea was the cleanest place to go!

We partied till 6am, got something to eat and lost everyone we were with, so decided to go home. We thought we’d done quite well staying out that late. The next morning we found out some people didn’t get back till 10.30am and they watched the sunrise. We weren’t that hard core. lol.

It was a brilliant night, we would def recommend that everyone does a full moon party, we would go back for one!

10th May

After getting 4hours sleep we were in the pool, the sauna was too hot to sleep in! Early in the morning we had been woken by someone turning the door handle, trying to get into our room. Strange, probably someone crawling back from the party, thinking it was their room. There was only one other girl in the pool and a Thai man walking around. The Thai man we had never seen around before. He kept asking us questions, he was a bit of a shady character. He tried to walk off in Elliotts flip flops (he didn’t have any shoes) They were far too big from him. He asked me what room number we were, I played dumb and said I couldn’t remember. I thought this was a bit strange. I thought he was keeping us busy while someone was rummaging through our room. We didn’t have any valuables in there, so it wouldn’t have mattered too much. He walked off so I said to Elliott that I’d check the room. The room was fine but as I turned around he was stood about 5meters away behind a bush smiling at me! This freaked me out, he was practically blocking my path aswell so I just locked myself in the room. I didn’t have a clue what to do. About 1min later there was a knock at the door, I was worried it was him, but I opened it and it was Elliott. He saw the bloke start to follow me. There was no sign of him after and we never saw him again. Very bizarre!

It was a very chilled out day, Elliott was feeling too rough and lazy and ended up burning because he couldn’t be bothered to pur on sun cream, tut tut.

We went out for dinner that night with 6others, it was their night. So we thought we’d see them off.

Weather was amazing on Koh Phangan, although we did have a few storms.

More to come about the moped we hired!!!

Before we got to Chaweng beach we had another night in Mae Nam. We spent the day by the pool and the sun finally came out. We had met another couple, Hannah and Rev who are from Suffolk…small world! We all decided we’d go and watch the Thai Boxing that night. The stadium was in the “adult area” lots of lady boys prying on men! We got tickets each for 800Baht, which is about 16pounds. The seats weren’t anything special, just wooden stands, not very comfy at all! The boxing was good, quite funny watching them get knocked out! I think the boxers were as young as about 14. That was a bit of a shock.

6th May

This day we moved to Chaweng Beach. We had already checked out some hostels when we visited the other morning.  We ended up getting a room pretty much on the beach, was a bit dark and dingy but it was a room with air con, lol. We spent the day on the beach, in and out of the sea. It was lovely and hot and sunny.  Got abit of sun stroke!

For dinner we walked down the beach. All the restaurants put out tables and chairs up to the sea. We ate at one which was 3 sunloungers pushed together and a little table on top. We had a thai meal, we are loving the thai food.

During the night we were woken to a cockroach crawling over my arm! Needless to say we didn’t sleep that night, every movement we thought was the cockroach. We hadn’t managed to get rid of the one that woke us up, during all the flapping and squelling it disappeared. A very bad nights sleep!

7th May

It was our last day in Chaweng. The weather was extremley hot and we had to sit in the shade. I still managed to burn in the shade wearing factor 30, ridiculous.

Elliott had another thai green curry that night, it wasn’t hot enough for him. He still hadn’t found one as hot as his mums!

We got up quite early to get to Bangkok train station. To get there we used Bangkoks Sky Train and Underground, both surprisingly clean! When we got to the station we were told that all trains were fully booked for at least 2 days. This was a bit of a pain as we were dieing to get out of there and to the beach. We were told we could get a bus, which would take 12hrs, thats longer than our flight from Heathrow to Bangkok! On the off chance we decided to get a taxi to the airport and see if there was a flight available. Not really the BAckpackers way to do it but oh well, we were on a flight within 2hrs and in Koh Samui in 3hrs! We booked our accomodation for when we got there, in Mae Nam. It was a lovely bungalow, with a pool, just what we needed.

On our first night in Koh Samui there was a massive thunderstorm, cut out our electric. A bit bigger than the storms at home.

The next day we got a taxi to Chaweng Beach, the real touist area. It was lovely there, nice beach too. It wasn’t too busy either. It was a bit overcast but still managed to burn my back…oops. I was in pain for days!

There wasn’t much to do in Mae Nam, its a bit quiet. On the map there was an Italian restaurant. I chose to go there and it was the most expensive meal ever. Elliott still not letting me forget it!

Any how, more later about Chaweng Beach. It’s too hot sitting here. We’ve managed to find the internet in a room with no air con…hot!

xx

We landed in Bangkok safe and sound.

We got to our hostel, which Elliott booked. They took us to our room, which was four walls and no window!  We had a shower in there at least, along with the ants that wanted to join us for our stay! After a long flight we thought we’d get something to eat. The hostel owner recommended a food stall round the corner, which looked like somewhere a tramp would get his weekly soup from! We were open minded though and thought we´d give it a try. I had an amazing pork curry and Elliott had curried crab. Elliott enjoyed his crap, I wasn´t too sure, not surprising, but I tried it! The meals with 3 drinks cost 6pounds! Amazing!

Next morning we decided we were going to see the Grand Palace. We got the canal to the last stop then a Tuk Tuk around the city. The Tuk Tuk only cost 40Baht which is 8Op, as the Thai Government were paying their gasoline for the day as it was a public holiday. We had our own tour guide! We first saw the Tall Buddha, then the Happy Buddha then a Temple. He also took us to a Jewellery Expo. They show you round the building, where they make the rings and the show room. So much jewellerey! A ruby stone in a white gold ring starts at 16Opounds! We then went to Koh San Road, loads of restaurants and stalls, people trying to sell things. A bit like a London market. Oh and trying to sell us tailor made suits.

The Grand Palace….You have to cover up pretty much everything. A shop loaned Elliott some wacky trousers (pics to follow later) It was a lovely building, but we couldn´t appreciate it as well in the heat, my god it was hot. Thats why we took pics of the buildings rather than each other, too much sweat! lol.

We couldn´t wait to leave Bangkok, the smell was unbelievable.

I’m just learning how to sad photos to my blog from my camera. It’s called planning ahead.

What am I going to want to wear for four months? I’m finding this quite difficult, not only what I’m going to need but whatever I take needs to be carried on my back. Limiting myself is a challenge…essentials only!

2009 is going to bring alot of different experiences to me.

I’m going travelling with my boyfriend, Elliott, for 4 whole months! Me roughing it in foreign countries, I still think it’s funny myself.

We are starting off in Thailand then travelling  to Singapore. This should take us 3 weeks. From there we will be going to Sydney for 6 days then on to Brisbane for 4 days. After Brisbane we will be flying up to Cairns and making our own way down back to Brisbane via Campervan! This part of our travels should take us roughly 3 weeks. We will spend another month in Brisbane, then after, we fly to Christchurch, NZ for about 3 weeks. After 3 weeks in the cold we fly to Fiji for 6 days, then to LA for 1 week, then back home!

What are we looking forward to most? I’m looking forward to travelling down the Gold Coast in a Campervan! Elliotts looking forward to our time in Thailand the most.

Sam Harrington

I’m off and blogging…well, nearly.

I’m setting up this blog to tell you about my travels to Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.