Crossing The Border From Cambodia To Vietnam- The Most Ridiculous (Yet A True Story) Blog So Far….

June 13, 2017June 13, 2017readysetexploretravel 1 Comment

Before reading this next Blog please be aware everything you are about to read is 100% real. You couldn’t even make this sh*t up!! As unbelievable and exhausting as it was, it’s all part of our travelling experience and makes a killer story to tell back. I just dread border crossings now.

As much as we loved Kampot and Cambodia, we were definitely ready and extremely excited to be heading on to Vietnam, our third country on our travels.

The day started well. We got up early and had some breakfast. We weren’t sure when the bus would stop for lunch, so wanted to be well fed. As always our pick up was late, but this is now a given. Once the pickup arrived, we were then taken to the ticket office where we had to wait for the bus to take us on our long journey over the border and into Vietnam. It was a pretty shabby bus and was really hot, and then every 5 minutes the driver would stop to take a call and then do a 16 point turn in the road then head back the way we had just come to collect random people from their hotels. It turns out they hadn’t been picked up by the previous transfer so our driver was having to go back and pile them on our bus. So after driving off, then turning back to pick up the third person, what had started off as comical was now becoming a bit annoying.

Finally we were on the road, no more calls to pick up strays, no more 16 point turns in the road, we were now back on track….That was until the engine cut out! Because the engine cut it meant no air con, so we all had to get off the bus to be able to even breathe. So then driver makes a call and about 5 minutes later a guy comes a long in his car, hops out with some rope and attached it to his car then the bus, drives along a bit until the bus jump starts. We all pile back on and drive off again. It was annoying but actually pretty amusing. We thought at least we were on the road again. It was even slightly amusing the second time it happened and we all had to get off and when the driver made people push the bus from behind to jump start it. It however wasn’t so amusing the third time it happened and he made people get off and push.

It wasn’t amusing hearing people almost refusing to get back on, and demanding another bus be sent. The most frustrating part was the fact that the people complaining and kicking off were people getting a transfer for a day trip to Kep which was the next town away. They didn’t have a border to cross and then another 8 hour journey to Ho Chi Minh City. So after the fourth time, it really wasn’t funny anymore. By this point the bus was dead, no longer with us. RIP wanky bus. With the driver speaking almost no English, he just shrugs, makes a quick call, then flags down a passing motorbike and heads off in the distance back to Kampot. So now everyone is getting frustrated. None of us know what’s going on or if a replacement will come. After about 30 minutes a mini bus came along, and said they were taking people on to Kep and the bus to Vietnam would be along next. Oh great prioritise the people travelling 20 minutes away. Not those that have boarder to cross. The jammy Gits looked pretty smug as they drove off. So around another 15 minutes later a second mini bus comes and before we even have time to grab our bags, it’s already completely full. So just me and Sam and one other couple are just left on the side of the road. Wondering if anyone is even going to come for us, wondering will we ever cross the bloody border. Another 15 minutes passed and then along pops the woman from the ticket office on her bike. She keeps saying sorry and the bus will be here soon. Finally it arrives and we ask if this is the bus that will be taking us all the way to Ho chi min. she says yes, so at least we know we are finally enroute.

On the way to the border we picked up a few people in kep, who had also been waiting for the delayed transfer. At least we knew it was delayed due to it breaking down. They were expecting to be picked up at 10.30 it was now 13:45! Every time someone new got on and said they were annoyed it was so delayed, we had to explain how it had broken down 4 times and the bus we were now on was actually a replacement.

We ended up sitting next to this German girl who was really pissed off and hungry and kept asking if anyone had any Oreos. We didn’t. After all that, it didn’t even take that long to reach the boarder and getting stamped out of Cambodia and into Vietnam was relatively easy. If the bus hadn’t had to go back and pick up strays and hadn’t broken down 4 times, then it probably would have taken just under 2 hours to cross the border.

So after crossing the border we drop a few people off at a bus station who were heading elsewhere then we were dropped off at a different ticket office. I should have realised this wasn’t going to be taking us all the way to Ho Chi Min. So then another twist in our tale…. We then discover due to the fact we had arrived 4 hours later than expected, that we had missed the transfer to Ho Chi Minh and we had been moved to the night bus which was at 19:00. The time we originally would have arrived to the city! So that meant we had almost 4 hours to wait until the next bus. There really was nothing we could actually do. So instead of kicking off and being a huge brat (which is what I would have done in the past) I just decided the only thing we could do was to have a beer and cool down.

As I recall this story it sounds so ridiculous, but it gets even more bizarre.

So after a while the German girl (definitely remember her name) has calmed down a bit and asks if we want to go find some food. Which of course we did, but we knew it meant we would have to deal with her moaning. She said she had walked past somewhere that was open, while she had been looking for an ATM. Oh so loads of places were closed because it was Tet/Chinese new year. So loads of smaller businesses close to go travel and be with family. So she took us to this place and although she did moan the whole time, the place she had found served the best Pho I have ever had and for that reason I loved her.

After our amazing meal and listening to the German girl moan some more, it was finally time to get our bus. The bus we were on was our first sleeper bus. The seats are like bunkbeds. There are a row of flat seats on the bottom and then a row on top. Out of all the sleeper buses we have experienced on our travels this was by far the best. It didn’t take long before I nodded off and I actually manged to sleep for around 6 hours.

Waking up at 3am once we had arrived to Ho Chi Minh. The bus station was a bit out of the centre so we shared a taxi to near our guesthouse with the German girl and two other people we had met on the bus.

As I recall this story it sounds so ridiculous, but it gets even more bizarre.

After about 15 minutes in the taxi, Sam and me bid our farewells and jumped out the taxi to find our guesthouse. There seemed to be a whole other city of mini streets within each block of buildings. So finding our guesthouse was proving a bit tricky, even with google maps. We then noticed that the shutters were down on all the other guesthouses. We hoped that ours had a 24 hour reception. No such luck. We managed to find it, but the shutters were down and there seemed no sign of a bell or any other way of getting in. we were so sleepy and getting grossed out by the amount of mutant rats that were running about. The only thing we thought we could do was either try find another place that didn’t have the shutters down, and was within budget or find somewhere to eat and kill time until things started opening. We ended up finding the Koh san road of HCM and a guy saw us walking around looking hopeless and suggest a hostel that might be open and have a room. Even as we passed the out of budget hotels it seemed like the light on reception was off! We somehow ended up down a tiny road and saw a security guard. He asked if we needed to find somewhere. We just nodded. He then starts banging on the closest shutter until someone on the other side pulls it up, says something in Vietnamese then said $25. We were like ermm $15 is our max budget. So he says ah okay. Then walks on a bit, we don’t know what else to do but follow him. This random security guard we have randomly bumped into at 4am in the morning. So as we are following him and watching him bang on shutters and be told no avaliabitly, we start to think how we even got in this situation. He kept leading us down these tiny roads. After a while we finally reached somewhere where there was actually a room available. I now know how Mary and Joseph felt. Finally there was room at the inn! We were led up 3 flights of very narrow stairs and taken into a small room. We handed over all the money we had on us, which was about $12. The security guard took his share then handed the rest to the owner of wherever we were. This was the most surreal situation. From the bus breaking down, Sam having to push the bus, missing our original bus, and then ending up following a security guard down alleyways at 4am! What had actually happened??!

Luckily we had Wi-Fi in the room, so found a place on booking.com and decided to go straight there after a few hours’ sleep. After a few hours of rest time we quickly grabbed our bags and got out of, where ever the hell we were. We just wondered to get our bearings and by some miracle came out in front of our new guesthouse. After everything in the last 24 hours we so grateful we had managed to find the new place so quickly.

Even as insane and made up as it sounds, this wasn’t even the worst border crossing story we’ve had! The next boarder crossing involves a broken leg, Pissed of people from Bolton and smuggling hundreds of items into Laos.

Kampot

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017readysetexploretravel Leave a comment

Kampot -Cambodia January 2017

Kampot is a great little town. It’s an ideal location if you’re travelling on to or from the South of Vietnam, as the border isn’t too far away. It’s a relatively easy boarder to cross. Our journey over, however wasn’t plain sailing. That is a long tale that will follow in the next Blog.

Out of all the places we have stayed we spent the most time in Kampot. Not because there is a great deal to do there, but because we had overestimated our time in Cambodia when we applied for our Visas. That and thefact we somehow missed visiting Battambang during time there. We spent a total of 10 nights in Kampot. Which seems like a great deal, especially if you’re on a strict time frame, but as we had time on our side, it didn’t seem to bother us. It actually flew by.

After leaving Koh Rong Samlong we got the short transfer of about 2 hours over to Kampot. The journey went really fast as we played a game where we recalled all the meals we had eaten so far. We definitely couldn’t play that now. I can’t even remember what we ate yesterday let alone a few weeks’ worth of meals.

As we had awhile before we could enter Vietnam we decided to have a few days just out of the town centre in a place called Bohiemez. We had seen it online and had been desperate to stay ever since. We were pretty lucky they even had availability. Bohiemez is made up of a few family bungalows, double rooms and even hobbit huts. It’s set within the Cambodian countryside with views of the nearby mountains. It was absolutely stunning. Also once of the main sellers for us was that it had a fresh water pool. So it meant we could spend the next 3 days lying in a hammock and swimming when it got a too hot.

We got a lot of reading done whilst we were there. One of the good things about the time difference between us as home was that I got to listen to my Friend Alex’s Radio show. Normally I’m still asleep when it’s on, but I’ve been able to hear it while we have been out here. I felt pretty Jammy knowing I was probably his only listener, listening lying in the sun in a hammock.

After 3 days of doing nothing but reading, eating and sleeping we were ready to head back into Kampot’s town centre. We had booked a guest house close by to the Salt workers roundabout. So pretty central and very close to the river. It’s not a huge town. So any accommodation near the river or one of the 3 roundabouts would be ideal.

One of our favourite things about Kampot was a tiny restaurant by the river called Ecran. They made hand pulled noodles and dumplings. During our time in Kampot we went there 3 times. We managed 36 dumplings, 3 plates of noodles and 1 bowl of noodle dumpling soup. I still crave the fried dumplings from there.

The best thing we did whilst in Kampot was hire a bike and visited Bokor mountain, where there is a collection of abandoned buildings. A grand hotel and casino were built there, but abandoned in 1972 when the Khmer Rouge took over the area. The wealthy and the royal family used to visit to get away from the heat from the city.

I get really nervous on winding roads, but the hour long drive up the mountain was very pleasant and the road was is great condition. Towards the top of the mountain is a huge statue called Lok Yeay Mao.

She is a huge goddess who looks out over the ocean. We read that she is the protector spirit of travellers. Apprently she is waiting for her husband to return from his long absence at sea. We also read that because she was pining for her husband to return she waslonging for the “D” (I have no idea if this is true, but we read it in a tourist booklet) so people leave artificial penises or bananas by her as a sign of respect!

You can still visit all of the abandoned buildings Bokor Hill station, which is at the very top of the mountain. We were really lucky that the weather was clear as sometimes it can get really mist so the visabilty is poor. They seem to be developing a lot, so we are glad we visited before it loses its charm. They are even talking about building a cable car.

Visiting all the abandoned buildings was amazing. It felt so earie. It wasn’t even that long ago that it became abandoned, but it felt like we were walking through the land version of the Titanic.

The most random thing that happened in Kampot was that we bumped in to two people I went to Uni with…Laura and Tom! I had known they were in Cambodia as the day before I had seen a post on Instagram. We never saw each other when we were in Manchester but ended up seeing each other in the streets of Kampot over 3 times! We even ended up booking a day trip with them. We had a great day with them swapping travelling stories and visiting different sites.

I really miss Kampot. It’s lazy days. Eating dumplings and wondering about. Sometimes it’s nice to visit some where and just do nothing. Especially when every guide book and blog is telling you to visit so many places.

We actually tried to leave Kampot at one point and headed to have a few days in the next town along called Kep, but that’s a long story so I’ll save that for another blog.

Phnom Penh- Bird Poo, A Flapping Fish & Our Visit To The Killing Fields.

March 23, 2017March 23, 2017readysetexploretravel Leave a comment

On our first full day we wanted to fit in as many activities as possible. We had many lazy days in Thailand and didn’t do a great deal in Siem Reap, so felt like we needed to make up for it. The first thing we wanted to do was arrange our visa for Vietnam. So we headed to an agency who can arrange it for you, for a $2 fee. We ended up paying $42 in total, but heard from other people we met along the way they had paid between $50-$80! When applying for your visa, you had to tell them the date you want to enter. We picked a date towards the end of the month, so we didn’t have to rush and could spend lots of time in each place. After dropping our passports off at the Visa place we headed out for the day. We went to the National museum of Cambodia. As we didn’t pay for the audio tour we had no clue at what we were looking at. I’ll be honest it wasn’t the best museum I’ve been to. However they had a beautiful courtyard in the middle. While we were sat out in it, enjoying the sun a bird released its bowls on Sam. So we now remember it as the museum that Sam got shit on by a bird.

After the bird poo museum we went to check out the central market. It’s massive, hundreds of stalls. It was very similar to the markets in Bangkok. It’s not that fun when you’re not going with the intention of buying something. After the market we went to Wat Phnom, which is a small park with a temple in the middle. We had a little wonder around the park and went to see the temple. Afterwards we headed to towards the river side. I’m not sure what we were expecting, but the river in Phnom Penh was pretty grim. I had visions of it being like taking a romantic stroll down the Seine in Paris. It was more like seeing a trolley float by in the Irwell.

We thought the river was a bit too vile for our liking, so decided to cut back to our guesthouse. We made a huge mistake deciding to cut though a local market. The stench was so over powering. It was a mix of the bucket of skinned dead frogs, the still live fish, which were flapping about, mixed with animal heads and other body parts that were on display. One fish flapped so vigorously, it threw itself of the tray it was being displayed on and ended on the floor. The woman selling it just picked it back up and popped it back on the tray. I think that flapping fish and the stench of the pig head/chickens feet will repeat on me for a while.

The main reason people come to visit Phnom Penh, is to visit The Killing Fields and S21. They are extremely somber places to visit, but an absolute must. We were incredibly touched and shocked about what we learnt there. Our Tuk Tuk driver for the day had the kindest face. One of the only smiles we had seen since we arrived to Phnom Phen. Everyone else here seemed very moody compared to Siem Reap.

The dive over to the killing fields is quite long, and really makes you reflect on it on the drive back. Driving though the small villages to get there, we felt we were a long way from the busy city we had just left. The trip was very informative and really helped you grasp what had happened and the full brutality the country had gone though. It was extremely tough to hear some of the personal accounts on the audio guide. We really had no idea before coming to Cambodia the extent in which the Khmer Rouge took over and destroyed so many lives. It’s so hard to even comprehend how it even happened. The experience was very somber but I’m really glad we got a chance to visit. The people of Cambodia seem so positive now and it makes you realise what an incredible Country it is. After the killing fields we went to the Genocide museum, which originally was a school, but was turned in to a prison and place of torture by the Khmer Rouge. We had another audio guide which was very informative. So many people were brought here and tortured for no reason. It’s pretty hard to explain in a blog about what we learnt about as it was so brutal. It was a very tough day, but it really was an experience we won’t forget.

Siem Reap- Featuring: A Birthday, A Beating, Salford Uni Reunion Part 1, Choking caused by Karl Pilkington & A Relationship With Beef.

March 10, 2017March 10, 2017readysetexploretravel 2 Comments

While we were in Siam Reap we celebrated Sam’s birthday. It’s amazing we get to celebrate while we are traveling; it feels like a real celebration. Christmas didn’t really feel like Christmas. Christmas didn’t really feel like Christmas because I didn’t spend the whole of December crying into a glass of Gin worrying about work. It didn’t really feel like Christmas without all the food, drink and crap TV. It didn’t really feel like Christmas without seeing our families. So I was really looking forward to celebrating his birthday.

I couldn’t really bring a gift with me. What could I really bring that he would need whilst our here we didn’t already have? Also there was no way I could keep something hidden in my bag without him noticing. So I decided to message some of his friends and family and ask them to record a birthday message for him. So I could play them all to him on his birthday. I was really excited to play them to him, as he had no idea… I was so happy to see his reaction. I love being a massive cheese ball gimp. Even though we were so far from home, I still wanted to give him a real gift on his birthday.

The best present Sam received was some money from his parents towards doing something a bit special on the trip, so we booked two nights in a beautiful hotel and booked a restaurant for tasting menu. Something a bit upscale from the street food we normally eat. So thanks David and Geraldine, because I got to share that gift 50/50.

After breakfast, we got a Tuk Tuk over to our new posh digs. We were staying in the most stunning hotel. I think I shed a tear when we had to check out. Our room was the size of all the other rooms we had stayed in combined. I didn’t want to leave the room, but we had to head out for some food and to get a massage. This time a full body massage. We opted for an hour with oil. We thought that would be more relaxing than some of the Thai massages we had seen some people receive in Thailand. We were again wrong. I couldn’t relax; the woman who was violently rubbing me was on the phone half the time. Also she kept moving on the matt and it sounded like a fart, and as I’m 5 years old, I find farts absolutely hilarious. When we were in Mexico, an elderly couple were walking in front of us one day and the woman let one drop, she just went “oh scuse me”. We had to quickly turn around as we were laughing so much. Not only is she my hero, that’s actual relationship goals right there! The massage felt like some painful deep tissue sports massage. I get some masochists are into these types of massages, not me. I want to come away relaxed, not feeling like a need to held and cuddled afterwards. Once the massage was over, I couldn’t look at Sam because I knew as soon as I did I would burst out laughing. Which of course I did.

Sam wanted to eat somewhere a bit fancier for his birthday, and we decided we wanted to try a place with a tasting menu. After searching online for a while, we booked a table at what Tripadvisor told us to be the second best restaurant in Siem Reap. The service at the restaurant was incredible. We went for a 5 course tasting menu, with paring wines. I didn’t realise how much I missed wine. I literally savored every sip. When we arrived I mentioned to the host that we were here to celebrate Sam’s birthday. Once we had finished the desert, they came out with a cake singing happy birthday. This was a nice touch. We were so full, that I was almost on the verge of crying. So we were unable to eat the cake, so they kindly boxed it up for us.

We went in to a deep food coma as soon as we got back to the hotel. I’m really glad we were able to celebrate Sam’s birthday while we are travelling.

While we were in Siem Reap we went for a drink at a nearby hostel, where someone called Karim who I went to University with runs. It was great catching up with him, as we’ve not seen each other since we left uni. It’s pretty strange seeing someone I knew so far from home.

We really loved our time in Siem Reap, but it was time to move on. Saying goodbye to the hotel was painful. Farewell my sweet friend.

The next leg our journey was a 5.30 hour bus to Phnom Penh. Which is relatively short compared to some of the journeys we’ve been on. We’ve found the easiest way to deal with these journeys is to listen to Ricky Gervais Podcasts. Karl mentioned something not too dissimilar to the comment he made about hiaving the hair of Chinaman. As he made this comment I took a large swig of water. I knew instantly I had no other option, than to spit the water back out. I just opened my mouth and let a waterfall of water collect in my lap. The comment mixed with the fact I thought what had just happened was hilarious, caused me to start laughing, but I still had a bit of water in my mouth, so I was chocking, but trying not to choke at the same time. One guy turned around and looked like he was concerned that I was about to die there on the bus. Sam was going to ask the driver to pull over, because he thought I was going to be sick. Nope I had just laughed at something ridiculous on a podcast and spat water on myself.

I still wasn’t dry by the time we reached Phnom Penh. Once we had checked in to our guesthouse and done the whole dump our bags routine. We couldn’t be bothered to venture too far, so went to the place across the road. Apparently in this restaurant when you order BBQ Beef, they serve you an entire small cow. I have never seen so much beef on a plate before, and I’ve been to Bem Brazil before. Not only was there a massive amount, it was insanely tasty and cooked. I feel kind of guilty for thinking, that plate of beef was more beautiful than some of the Temples we have seen. I do often think, can you have a relationship with food?! Seriously since writing this post, I can’t stop thinking about that sexy hunk of beef. I don’t care if you think it looks gross in that photo. If that came up on Tinder I’d right swipe straight away. I wouldn’t even bother looking at it’s other photos. I wouldn’t want to be put off seeing in in a group photo from that lads holiday it took last year when I’d be off put by the fact they would all be in matching vests.

Siem Reap- Sunrise over Angkor Wat, 50 cent beer and more 50 cent beer

February 28, 2017February 28, 2017readysetexploretravel Leave a comment

Hello and once again, sorry for the delay in-between posts. I need to start a blog that doesn’t open with this line. I did try to upload this in the last two places we stayed. I could gain access to any site apart from WordPress for some strange reason.

We were now in Cambodia, our second country of the trip. One thing I loved about Thailand was the admiration they showed for their late King. Thailand is in yearlong mourning for the king. It’s so lovely to see how much love and admiration they had for him. He was in reign for 70 years. So in power for many generations. Everywhere we went there were shines for the king and black ribbons.

As much as we loved our time in Thailand, a month of pretty much island hopping, eating incredible food and visiting 7-Elevens; we were ready to see what Cambodia had to offer.

Siem Reap

Once we had checked in our guesthouse, we crashed straight away. It felt like days ago since we left Koh Tao. The next morning we had to find a new place to stay as our current accommodation didn’t have the availability. The main issue was that we needed to find some place close, as we had already arranged for the Tuk Tuk driver to pick us up from there to take us to Angkor Wat the next day. Luckily we found somewhere just down the road within budget, and with air con! The only time we had air con in Thailand, was when we were in our Christmas accommodation.

Once we had checked in the new place, we went for a bit of a wonder. The buildings here are so beautiful. Very French colonial. As we were walking about we started to see signs, obscured signs. Maybe we were still weary from the journey from the day before. These signs were saying beer was 50 cents! We walked past a few more places, and these signs just kept popping up. Beer 50 cents. Beer 50 cents. Once we realised this wasn’t some perverse joke, we headed to the next bar we saw.

We couldn’t indulge in too much beer as we had to be up early the next day for our trip to Angkor Wat.

At 4am our alarm went off, giving us enough time to get ready and meet our Tuk Tuk driver. I was still convinced he wasn’t going to show up. When we head down to the road there were a few other people out on the road meeting their Tuk Tuk drivers.

“Hello Mr Paul?” –No sorry were not your westerner’s.

I did think maybe if our driver was a no show we could go back and pretend to be Mr Paul for the day.

Luckily our driver Mr Kim was there, we hadn’t been scammed. Well actually Kim wasn’t there, he had sent a replacement as we were informed Kim was ill. He had the diarrhea. Our new driver told us this while rubbing his tummy. Poor Mr Kim… I wonder how many times he arranges a trip then suddenly gets the squirts so has to send a replacement?!

Sadly we can’t remember our new drivers’ name, as it was 4.30am and I was trying not to smirk at the fact he said Mr Kim had Diarrhea while rubbing his tummy. So for the Blog we shall call him Mr Fred. So Mr Fred drove us off in the early hours to begin our day exploring the temples of Angkor Wat. We headed to the ticket office first. The queue was already huge. Think Alton Towers and when you arrive and everyone heads to Oblivion or Air first. I wish we had a fast pass. When we reached the front of the queue we had our photos taken for our day pass/ticket. This is what a face at 5am looks like.

We headed back to Mr Fred and he drove us off to the first Temple. Which is the most Iconic and well known of the temples. I didn’t realise the site was so huge. I just thought it was the temple that’s always photographed. When in fact you can get a week pass so you can see all the sites, which are spread across over great distances.

We were dropped off and Mr Fred said to come back around 8am and he would take us to the next site. It was still pitch black. There were other people with torches. If we hadn’t of followed them we wouldn’t have been able to see anything. We walked through a small temple and then down a very long pathway. We noticed hundreds of people sitting by the lake. So you can see the breath taking sunrise come above the temple. We chose to sit on the wall along the pathway, as well, we hate other people. We had a nice quiet spot. Then a group came and sat by us. Another one of those groups who don’t know how to communicate by talking; only shouting. Even if I did a parody of someone talking loudly, it wouldn’t be as loud as them. Luckily they decided to head down to the lake.

Not long after the loud talkers moved, a woman who worked for the Angkor Wat site came a long and moved a large no entry sign that had been up. We were so lucky that we were close by when the sign was moved. It meant we were one of the first 30/40 people inside the temple. We got to explore and take in the incredible beauty without 1000’s of other tourists about. It was so special getting to experience it in such an intimate setting. We have heard so many people talking about how they wish they could have gone to Angkor Wat, but when it is empty, and we actually got to do just that.

It was slightly cloudy so the sunrise wasn’t 100% visible, but it was still pretty spectacular. It will take a lot to top a morning like this one. We had wonder around the temple and then headed back to the Tuk Tuk. On the way back we saw a guy get his breakfast stolen by a monkey.

There were so many other Tuk tuks about. We were struggling to find our driver among them all. We knew Mr Fred had a red hoodie on, so that’s what we were looking for in the area he told us to meet him. At first I thought Fred had, had enough of us and driven off. It was like playing where’s Wally, we were looking for almost impossible. When we did find him, he was having a little nap in the back of the Tuk Tuk. We felt pretty bad for walking him up. He must have been up at least 3.30 am, and he probably has to do this most mornings. Once we had woken him up we realised he wasn’t even our Tuk Tuk driver! Oops!

We eventually managed to find our similarly dressed driver and he took us on our way to our next temple, which is called Bayon. This temple involved a lot of climbing. We are so unfit; it was like we were doing a full body conditioning class at the gym.

One of the temples we visited is where the filmed part of the tomb raider film. By the time we had reached the Tomb raider temple there were so many tour groups about. It felt like they just wanted a photo posing by the temples than actually enjoying them. I mean look at this guy, he climbed over a rope to get a selfie.

By the time we had explored the last temple we were exhausted. We struggled climbing and wondering around after only one day, I’m not sure we could hack up to a week of this. Mr Fred drove us back home and we went back to bed to have a much needed nap. After a good rest, we were in need of a good drink. We wanted to make sure that the 50cent beer from the day before wasn’t just a wild dream we had. This time decided to upgrade to a large pitcher of beer for just $2. After a few pitchers of beer we were pretty drunk and thought it would be a fun idea to get a foot massage. It was supposed to be good after a day at the temples and supposed to be very relaxing. If you’ve ever had a massage in South East Asia, you will know they are far from it. It was almost comical. I swear at one point they tried to pull my toes off. It was only $2 and worth it for the laughter fit it gave us alone.

Thanks for reading. I know it’s not a thrilling read, I promise there will be a bit more to the next post. It’s really nice to know you’ve given up part of your day to read back on our adventure with us. XXXX

Koh Tao-Lazy Days. A New Year. 29 Hour Transfers- Featuring The Boat That Rocked.

February 2, 2017readysetexploretravel Leave a comment

Koh Tao

Woops another long gap in between posts. We are a month ahead of the blog, so not sure when I’ll get up to date. Again I hope this blog doesn’t bore you too much. Thank you to everyone who is actually bothering to read this. It’s great we can share our adventure.

Koh Tao was the last of our Thai islands. This was the only island we visited where we didn’t really explore. We did however fall madly in love with this island. Even from the moment we got off the boat we knew we loved.

We checked out our hotel in Koh Samui and got our transfer over to one of the many piers leaving the island. The pier was really busy, the busiest one we have been to so far. The journey over wasn’t too bad. I shall forever compare any boat to that horrific one to Koh Phangan.

When we arrived even though the port was full of people it already had a different vibe. We didn’t have any accommodation booked, so we got a taxi transfer over to Sairee. This is the main area that people stay on the island, and one that was within out budget. There are always places we would love to stay but just beyond our means. Especially seeing as our budget has to last us almost a year, if we include our trip back to Australia or New Zealand (once we get our working visas in September). It just gives us more of a reason to come back to these places one day in the future. Once we arrived in Sairee we headed off to look for some accommodation. We walked along the path by the beach and found a bungalow to call home for the next few nights. It was slightly pricier than we have paid before, but we already expected that. It really wasn’t that expensive under £18 a night. We were in a central location, by the beach and had two pools, one of which had a slide.

We went for a bit of wonder along the beach front. Even though the beach was lined with bars and restaurants, they all seemed to be more laid back than the ones compared to Koh Samui and Phi Phi. We found a place to stop by for some food and a cold Leo. It was great timing. As our food arrived we were just in time to catch the most stunning sun set we had seen so far.

The rest of the time on the island was spent mainly, relaxing, reading and eating. We did a lot of eating. We found a great place that did delicious food and with huge portions. So we ended up having lunch there most days. Banana pancakes are a well-known delicacy for backpackers in Thailand. We visited the same guy almost every day. One time we said “see you tomorrow” and the other people waiting laughed at us.

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During our time on the island we decided to book one of the many boat trips. They all offer the same thing, for roughly the same price. We were supposed to visit 5 different bays around the island. Ending at Koh Nag Yuan, this is made up of 3 small islands which are connected by a beach. So all waves meet each other in the middle. The trip included pick up/drop off at the bungalows, lunch and snorkelling equipment.

Once we were dropped off at the ticket office, we were given our snorkel equipment and headed to the boat. However in order for us to get to our boat, like any other boat trip in South East Asia, we had to climb across 2 other boats to get to ours. It seems to get a bit more ridiculous every time we get on a boat.

It was lovely seeing the coast of the island. The first stop was called Sharks Bay. We stopped here to go snorkelling. As we have an underwater camera we were able to get some good shots of the fish.

As the sea was quite rough that day, it meant we were unable to get to 2 of the other bays we were supposed to visit. As the sea was so choppy it wasn’t the most pleasant journey traveling between the bays. The last stop of the trip was to Nang Yaun. This was the part that everyone else on the boat, as well as myself was looking forward to the most. When we arrived you could only see one part of the island, a boring cliff face.

Getting off was even more of a joke than getting on. It pulls up to pier, but there is a huge gap between the jetty and the boat. So if you are unsteady on your feet then it’s not an easy task. Once we got off the boat we walked around the manmade path around the cliff of the island. We then saw a sign for the view point. We have such a love/hate relationship with viewpoints. We love the view, but hate the climb. Well apart from the view point in Samui, which was a view of the roof of a Tesco Mega store.

The first part was okay, it was just a long, narrow and painful flight of stairs, with loads of other people trying to pass by on the other side. Then when you reach the top it’s just boulders that you have to climb. Then you have to wait until someone moves a bit or goes down, so you can get a bit closer to the top. The view (when you manage to pass all the selfie sticks and people posing) is incredible though. No wonder there were so many people up there. It’s a sight you will want to remember. I just wish people didn’t feel the need to conduct full photo shoots up there.I was very keen to get a photo to remember the day by, maybe even one of us with it in the background. I didn’t feel the need to pose in about 20 different positions (cough Grivas Kopti . Cough cough). We did ask someone to take a photo for us, but when we looked back at it later on it was like they had taken it to take the piss. It didn’t even have the incredible view in the back ground. The annoying thing is Sam managed to get a great one of the people that took our pic. Truly an instagram worthy snap. #blessed #nofilter #beachdays for them. Ours is more like #closeup #palecouple #noview. #amibeingabrat.

On the way down the queue up had become huge. They would be waiting a good half an hour before they got to take in all that beauty. Probably longer with all the photo shoots taking place up there. We then wondered down the beach where the currents meet in the middle. We had a cold drink in the shade before heading back to the boat. The pier was full of other tourists waiting to get various boats back to the mainland. We spotted ours which was behind 2 other boats. So we had climb back over to get to ours. There is absolutely no health and safety out here. I could barely make the climb, due to being so short and my legs not really reaching the other side. Once we were back on dry land we head to the beach to grab a drink and enjoy another incredible sunset.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We were really excited to be spending New Year’s Eve on Koh Tao. We definitely didn’t think this time last year we would be spending it on a beach in Thailand. Our day was pretty lazy, reading by the pool. Just after the sun set we head down to the beach to one of the restaurants that do BBQS. As we are greedy bastards, we ordered 3 meals to share between us. BBQ fresh squid, prawns and mixed meats. All washed down with a few cocktails and beers. After the meal we had a few buckets on the balcony of the bungalow, then headed down to the beach to see the New Year in. it was incredible. There were fire dancers, music and lights outside most of the bars. In the water they had signs that said happy New Year 2017 on. This would later be set on fire. Due to the death of the Thai king and the country being in mourning, they were unable to set off any fireworks, but all the signs in the water were set alight. I really could never have imagined bringing the New Year in like this. I’m not normally a huge fan of New Year’s Eve, but this was just amazing. Everyone seemed really happy rather than blackout drunk.

We then headed away from the beach to find a bar to watch the city game in. By this point all the buckets had hit me. I wanted to go back to back to the beach and wait for the sun rise, which wasn’t for about 4 hours. So Sam said we could either head to the beach and wait or get some food and head back to the bungalow. Well clearly I would have chosen the second option over many things. So we bought 3 ham and cheese toasties and 2 pancakes and had a feast back on the balcony. This will be a hard NYE to top. We had an amazing meal, saw the New Year in on the beach and had our favourite snacks.

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Thailand to Cambodia. Boat-10 hour bus-5 hour wait- 10 hour bus

Today was our last day on Koh Tao and saw the end of our time the beautiful Thailand. I wasn’t feeling great, so not the best feeling ahead of a 29 transfer we headed to our usual place for lunch but I couldn’t stomach any food so just opted for a smoothie.

We then began the 29 hour journey, which was made up of a taxi to the port, a boat, a bus to Bangkok, a bus to Siam Reap then a transfer to the guesthouse. So the first part was fine, just a short trip down to the pier. We had to wait a while at the port as the boat heading in land was running late due to choppy waters. There were hundreds of other travellers waiting so it took a while to get everyone off then load it back up again. A lot of seating had already gone by the time we managed to get on, and we had to put our bags on the top deck as all other places were full. We managed to find a seat, but it was right at the bottom of the boat.

Remember in the other Blog when I said the boat over to Koh Phangan was the most horrific journey and I would forever compare boat journeys to that one?!? Yeah that boat was like visiting Disneyland. As the water was so rough the boat was extremely rocky and the waved were going right up across the boat. As we were on the bottom it probably felt worse, as the waves hit the side of the boat pretty hard. I tried really hard to remain calm, but had a panic attack. I found it very hard to breathe and was contently crying, but trying to stop so I could breathe properly. Sam helped calm me down and get my breathing back to a normal rate. I have never been so scared; I honestly thought the boat was going to capsize. Once I had stopped crying I started to feel really sick. Sam tried to help me get to the toilet, but I was almost too scared to move. We did attempt to go, but I knew I couldn’t make it. I had to quickly sit back down on the first empty seat I could find. A very kind girl passed Sam a bag and some tissues. I was pretty embarrassed. I was just crying and bring sick into a bag with loads of people around me. The boat was encounting some really rough bits at sea, so the journey wasn’t getting any easier. Someone else passed Sam some sickness pills to give to me. Not only did they stop the sickness, they helped calm me down. I don’t have a clue what they were but I would pay good money to have them again. They even helped me get some sleep. By the time I woke up we were just about to reach dry land. We were lucky that our bags were on the top, as there were huge piles of bags everywhere else. The people that had pushed past us to get on fist had to wait ages until their bags would become free.

Once we got off the boat, we had to wait for our connecting boat to Bangkok. We were given a sticker with a number on. Ours read 6. There were others starting from 1 and going to 8. Number 1 and 2 were called then a while later 4 and 5. Not sure why they missed 3 out, but people with a 3 sticker were not happy. About an hour after getting off the boat numbers 6 and 7 were called. We already had a tactical plan. Sam would get our bags on and I would run on the bus and grab the seats we wanted. We wanted the seats behind the stairs. As it means on one is in front of you, and means no one can push their chair all the way back so they are basically giving you a lap dance. I managed to get a few hours’ sleep in, probably due to whatever magic pill I had taken before, but Sam didn’t get much as he was feeling really ill/needed the toilet.

When we arrived in Bangkok we were just dropped at the side of the road. We had a print out of where we were supposed to get our connecting bus on Koh San Road from so headed there. At the transfer office said it would be at 7am, and then the woman at the port said it would be 8am. So we had 4 hours to kill until our next bus. It was nice to have a bit of a break but we were unsure how to kill 4 hours. Koh San Road was in my opinion the vilest place we have seen so far. To some backpackers it’s a must. I just don’t see the appeal. There were so many people still our from the night before. People were just sat in the street, which was totally filthy. We spotted several rats. We headed to maccys to try find a toilet and use the Wi-Fi. Sadly the toilet the toilets didn’t open until 8am. There was only so much time we could kill in McDonalds. We enjoyed the best chicken nugget meal. It was just what we needed.

There was only so much time we could kill in McDonalds. So we headed out to find somewhere else, a place with a toilet. I’m not sure how but Sam managed to hold it in all the way from getting off the boat. That boy must have buns of steel! There were loads of places still open, some still had people in drinking from the night before. It was a mix of other sleepy backpackers killing time and people still out from the night before. We keep encountering people that don’t actually know how to communicating by talking, just screaming at each other. Even though they are sat next to each other. For those who live in Manchester it was like being in a Thai sports bar version of 7 oaks.

I managed to stomach some breakfast, while Sam spent some time in the bathroom. We then headed to get our bus to Cambodia. Only to be told our bus wasn’t for another hour. We were too far gone to even care by this point. One hour later our bus was ready to take us over to Siem Reap, Cambodia. If you Google map the directions it says it takes just over 5 hours by car. This leg of the journey was to take us 10, with the stop at the border. The crossing wasn’t too bad, a bit slow but an easy process. 29 hours after leaving Koh Tao we were finally in Siam Reap.

We were offered a free Tuk Tuk from the bus station to our accommodation. This is so they can push the Angkor Wat tour on you. We had done some research about roughly what you should pay for the trip. So with having the fear of over paying for a tuk tuk, we over paid for a tuk tuk. For the sake of $5 it didn’t really matter. We were just too tired from the journey to work out the price. It also meant we didn’t have to arrange with anyone the next day.

As soon as we got in our room, we got into bed and crashed. It felt like a long time since we set off from Koh Tao.

Honestly thank you so much for reading this to the end. We really do love you for giving your time to follow us along on our journey. x x x

Koh Samui- Christmas Day, A Murder, A Tattoo and lots of driving back and fourth.

January 19, 2017January 19, 2017readysetexploretravel Leave a comment

Firstly, sorry for the huge gap between blogs, hopefully I will be able to keep more on top of it. I didn’t realise putting time aside from doing, well nothing to write would be so hard. I’m still a few days behind on my journal, but will hopefully catch up on that too. As I write this we are well ahead of the Blog (It’s probably even a month behind L). I’m enjoying reminiscing on the different adventures we’ve had so far as I write though.

Also this blog might get a bit tedious as it’s the longest one so far. Sorry if I bore you along the way. Maybe read in two parts so I don’t put you to sleep.

Koh Samui

Today we were heading across to Koh Samui. The boat over to the island only takes around an hour. You can actually see it from Koh Phangan. On the boat over there were a few guys who had clearly been to the half moon party. Which take place in the jungle. They were still covered in UV paint and one guy was dressed like Mr Motivator, but more day glo, and with a bright bum bag.

Once off the boat, we got a taxi transfer to our hotel. We were staying in a place called Samui Lagoon bay. My mum and dad had paid for the stay as a Christmas gift (Thanks mum & dad). We were right on the beach and had a huge room with air con. It makes such a difference compared to a fan. Once we had had some food we spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool. That night we headed to the local night market, which sold a range of seafood, Thai dishes as well as fake handbags and cheap cocktails.

This is the largest of all the Thai islands, it even has its own airport. So to get around we were defiantly going to need a bike. The walk from one end of our resort to the other is long enough journey alone. We spent a lot of time on our bike heading back and forth for Lamai, which is about a 25 minute drive away. We got to know the route over pretty well during our time on the island.

We went for a bit of a reccy, to see if we would want to stay there after we had to check out our Christmas accommodation. Also I found a tattoo studio I wanted to get a tattoo from, so we headed there to look for that too.

After driving though Lamai, we knew we didn’t need to come back and stay as it was very similar to the resort we were already in. We did however stumble across the tattoo studio I was looking for. Unfortunately the artist wasn’t there when we popped in. So we jumped back on the bike and went to explore further afield. We headed to a place called Boput or also known as Fisherman’s village. It really reminded us of the old town in Koh Lanta, just everything cost twice as much. It was very sleepy and chilled out. It seemed to run at a different pace to the rest of the island. The shops here sold lovely trinkets I wanted to buy to fill our home with, then I remembered that our home was no longer ours (it’s in very safe hands) and our home for the foreseeable future was whichever guesthouse, bungalow, hostel or hotel we found ourselves in for the night. We would have loved to stay there, but it just seemed a bit too expensive for what it was. A basic fan room here was x3 the price that we paid in Haad Rin.

We couldn’t bare the sound of our tummies rumbling any more so headed back towards our “home” to look for a food stall. Luckily it didn’t take too long as we were both stating to get hangry. We found a vendor in a car park of a Tesco (they actually have Tesco’s out here). It was a bit different to the burger van you might find in a Tesco car park in England. On the way back we got a bit lost, but it’s always fun as it means you get to see more of the island that way.

After relaxing in our glorious air con room for a bit we headed back to Lamai to see if Mr Tak the tattoo artist was there. Thankfully he was this time. He asked if I had any ideas or designs, so I showed him two on my phone. He said okay and to come back tomorrow. Which was fine, as I wanted to get it done on Christmas day anyway. On the drive home we noticed a sign for a view point and waterfall. So headed in that direction. It cost us 100 baht each to see a basic waterfall, then climb for 10 minutes to see the view point, which was just a roof of a Tesco mega store. We were pretty disappointed.

Later that night we headed back to the night market and enjoyed some freshly caught Red Snapper. We then came back to get in the festive spirit by watching Elf

Happy Christmas!! Christmas day, didn’t really feel like Christmas Day. It felt extremely hot though. I guess it doesn’t feel like Christmas as we are away from our families for the first time. It felt odd but not sad. It just felt like another day of the year to us. One important tradition we wanted to keep, was to make sure we ate lots of food, just like we would have done back home. We really wanted Banana pancakes for breakfast. There are just as many stalls selling fruit shakes and pancakes as there are Tuk Tuks. That morning however, we couldn’t find a pancake stall for love or money. They clearly come out later in the day and not at 9am. We drove around for ages looking for one. We finally admitted defeat and went to treat ourselves to a Ham and cheese toastie from 7-Eleven . I say treated, we pretty much eat them most days, but I’m not sure they sell them in any of the other counties we will be visiting, so we had to make the most of them. I mean, we love our food, any food. We are more than happy to try pretty much any local cuisine. We won’t be eating any other western food out here. There is just something about these toasties.

For the first day in a while, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. A Christmas miracle. So we spent the morning in the sea, Christmas in style. After relaxing in the lovely Christmas day heat we headed back to Lamai to the tattoo studio. Mr Lak, had designed two ideas for me. I literally had shown him the two ideas/designs on my phone for seconds. He had come up with two beautiful ideas. One of which was far better than I could have even imagined. It was exactly what I wanted. The only downside was he was in the middle of working on someone else so we had to come back again later on. I was already getting bored of this drive back and forth from Cheweng to Lamai.

We grabbed some lunch on the way home then had some family Skype time, which was lovely. It was lovely getting to see our families and see and hear what they were up to on their Christmas days. I don’t think anyone was that keen to hear I was getting a tattoo though. Then for the fourth time, we drove back over to Lamai for my tattoo with Mr Tak. It was a great Christmas gift from me, to me. So now I have a beautiful arrow with shaded feather on the end on the top of my left ribcage.

The demise/murder of a snake- Warning contains actual snake murder.

Today we were the witnesses to a snake murder. As we were leaving to buy some beer we spotted a snake just outside the room next to ours. The snake was slim but around 12”. That’s a footlong subway! So when we got back from the shop and it was still there, Sam bravely informed the notified the security guard. He had no idea what we were on about, and pointed at the reception. So we informed the woman. We weren’t sure if it was dangerous or not. She passed the message on and the security guard. He went off, to what we thought would be to get a device to move it on. Nope. He came back with a huge plank of wood and bashed that footlong snake in its head. We had to just turn away at this point. We were scared as we didn’t know if it was poisonous (it could have been) but we didn’t need him to be hit in the head with a plank of wood. It was Christmas day, a day of giving. Not snake murder. Then he got it on the piece of wood and flicked it in to the hotel next door. RIP Mr Snake, we are sorry we are part to blame for your death.

We decided that we would go out, out tonight to celebrate Christmas, as we hadn’t really been out properly yet. We had a few cocktails from the night market at they were only around £2. We knew there was a big party on at a place called Ark Bar, which was the other end of Cheweng beach to us. We wish we hadn’t though. One it took bloody ages and two I almost shit myself. Not in a I was scared way, in a I almost went to the toilet in my pants way (too much information?! Sorry I did want it to be an honest blog). When we finally reached Ark bar, we saw a row of bars across the road, so went to see if we could have a drink there first. Everyone was about 12 and it looked like a stag do down the strip in Malia. Lots and lots of vest and fancy dress. Then Sam got grabbed by a go go dancer. Excuse me hands off!! When we made it to the beach where the Ark bar party was, it was playing some terrible trance and everyone was twisted, so we decided to just leave and walk back along the beach and go home. We were walking for ages until we realised there were no cut troughs, as all the hotels back on to the beach. We tried to get though one, thinking we would come out by a reception, but there was just a locked gate and we had no fob. So we wondered aimlessly back along the beach. After what felt like a lifetime we finally found a cut though back to the main road, not as far down as we had hoped, but still to where we recognised. Also we came out on the road right next to a pancake stall! Jackpot. It was many hours on since our breakfast craving. The craving however was still there. By this point we were pretty worse for wear. So attempting to order seem pretty difficult. Sam managed to somehow order us 3 pancakes, of which we couldn’t remember what we had just ordered until we saw the guy making them. As we had 3 but only needed two, Sam said we could give one to the security guard at the hotel as a treat. I on the other hand wanted to have one and half pancakes to myself. It was a good thing we ordered 3 as Sam managed to drop his all over the floor.

The next day (26^th December) we were still unsure if we wanted to find somewhere else to stay on this island or just head straight to Koh Tao. We went to look at some other areas besides Lamai, which we had already been to about 20 times. While on the lookout for another potential area we somehow missed the turning point and ended up driving to pretty much the other side of the island. We decided it probably was time for us to move on. We were ready to see what the next island had on offer for us. So we decided to book the transfer over to Koh Tao. It meant we could just check out, then get picked up by the transfer taxi and taken over to the ferry. However we couldn’t leave koh Samui without one last trip to the night market.

Congratulations on making it to the end of this blog. I hope it wasn’t too painful. I’ve never written a Blog before, so not sure what to add, or what I should probably keep out. The next one won’t be too far off.

Bangkok to Krabi… A 12 hour bus and breath taking sights.

December 23, 2016January 19, 2017readysetexploretravel Leave a comment

It was another restless, jet lag filled night. Maybe it was because we knew we couldn’t sleep in until 2pm. We were both awake and watching episodes of The Office at 2am. Michael Scott was our saving grace to the pain that was jet lag.

When the alarm went off it felt like we had just fallen asleep. Luckily we had packed the night before so we could easily check out and leave our bags for the day. We logged on the Wifi to get ideas of what to do for the day. We narrowed it down to heading to the river or going to Koh San Road. We decided on the latter. We started walking to the bus stop and gave up. We were just too hot and sleepy. Anything that involved even the slightest bit of effort was just too much for us. We thought we would jump on a Sky train and head to Chit Lom as there was lots going on there. Turns out it was just more shopping malls. Hunger got the best of us (This won’t be the last time I use this phrase) so we tried to find some street food. We found a place outside one of the malls and bought some chicken and pork skewers.

I started to feel a bit sick, the combination of the heat, walking and round and lack of sleep had gotten to me. We went to look for a toilet for me to vom in (This won’t be the last time I mention being sick either). After a delightful vom, we decided we just needed to kill some time before the 12 hour bus to Krabi. We hopped back on the sky train, but by this point I was ready to be sick on a small child’s head, so we went back to our stop called Nana. We found a Starbucks so Sam could have a coffee and I could have a sick. I bet you’re thinking what a delightful Blog this is!

We decided to just head to the bus station and wait for the bus there, rather than in a Starbucks. Sam logged on the wifi and ordered an Uber. After a bit of confusion to where we were going, the Uber started taking us to the Southern Bud Terminal. We drove though loads of parts of Bangkok we hadn’t seen yet. Mostly more shopping malls. The driver took quite a while so I was worried to how much it was going to cost. Turns out about £4.

When we arrived we had to walk through more market stalls. It’s a shame we weren’t here to shop. We then found the ticket hall. We booked the next bus to Krabi with the first booth we found. The bus was leaving in less than an hour and only cost us around £14 each. As we walked past the other ticket booths we realised there were many other operators to choose from. We thought we had made a huge mistake as the price was so cheap. When we got on the bus we were surprised to good it was. We had a decent amount of space. However the guy sat in front of me pushed his chair so far back I thought he wanted me to perform a dental procedure on him. I didn’t fancy checking out his moulers. Just after setting off we were given a bottle of water, a snack and a blanket. For £14 this was turning out to be a bargain. The journey wasn’t too bad. We had a few small naps between us. Around midnight we told, well more like shouted at, to get up. We were at what I guess is a Thai service station. We got off the bus and were told “Free food” then were guided in a large room full or round tables. There were a few other backpackers on our bus but none of them had ventured in this room. We sat with some of the Thai people from our bus at one of the tables. There was a lazy Susan with food on and a bowl of glupy rice in the middle. If you’ve seen the Hangover 2 it’s the kind of Rice Stu is described as in the wedding speech from his Father in law. We have no idea what we ate, but it was pretty tasty. We just looked at what everyone else was eating and followed suit. For £14 this was totally top trumping The Mega bus.

Once back on the bus we watched some more of The Office before finally getting some sleep. For a 12 hour bus journey it wasn’t so bad. We woke up about an hour outside Krabi. We were too excited to go back to sleep. We arrived at the bust station and got a bus to Ao Nang. It was similar to the Colectivo we used in Mexico. You sit in the back of a lorry and they try sqeeze as many people in.

As we were getting closer to Ao Nang we could see the limestone mountains and cliffs, they were amazing. When we pulled up to the ocean it really did take my breath away. It felt like a different universe compared to Bangkok. It was how I had imagined Thailand to look.

We got off the bus and went to look for a place to call home for the next few nights. Sam spotted a place called Adam Bungalow, which he thought we had seen online. So we headed there. It was the right decision as we had a Bungalow. Now we have stayed in many more I guess it’s not that incredible, but as it was my first one of our travels I was over the moon to be staying in one. We had a stunning view of the limestone cliffs.

After a small nap we went for a wonder and a bite to eat. As we were exhausted from the journey down, we just chilled out. That was the night we finally said goodbye to the bitch that is jet lag.

The next day. The 12^th December to be precise. We decided to head to Railay Beach. We had read so many great things and been recommended by many people to visit. We would have loved to have stayed there but accommodation that part of Krabi was out of our Budget. We caught a longtail boat over to Railay. The journey over felt unreal. At one point I actually pitched myself. Do people even do that?! It just felt so unreal. The lime stones cliffs coming out the water are just beautiful.

Once we arrived at West Railay we had a bit of a wonder. We past bars that sold “magic shakes”. We wanted to find the view point as we had read there are amazing views from there. So we followed some signs, but couldn’t seem to find it. We kept wondering which was a good thing as it probably meant we saw more of the place than we normally would. On the way to the East side of Railay we saw some monkeys. My first encounter with them. I can see why Michael Jackson was best friends with one.

The East side is so beautiful. I was deeply in love with this place. They had some of the longtail boats that were selling food. So we had lunch on the beach with an ice cold Singah. It was the best setting we’ve ever eaten lunch in. Any stress we had from work before had literally melted away. I will always treasure that lunch on Railay.

We never did find the view point. The only thing close was a point, but you had to do a two hour climb up a cliff to get to. We can barely climb stairs let alone a cliff.

Before heading back we decided to do some scrambling along the beach. Not the best idea in sandals.

It was a sad moment to say goodbye to Railay, It was such a beautiful place. The highlight of our adventure so far. As our day on Railay was coming to an end so was our time in Ao Nang, as the next day we were off to our first island, Koh Lanta.

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