First (and hopefully last) accident :(

Part of the package we had to buy in order to get the train tickets was a 2 day one night trek. Alex couldn't bare another day of getting eaten alive so I did this one on my own whilst she stayed at the hotel in Chiang Mai.

To get to the trek we all got on the back of two pick up tucks and I quickly found out I was the only English person on the trip so it took a while for me to get to know people as all of them were either speaking in French or Dutch. After a while when I did get to know them, they all seemed nice enough. The first stop was the elephant riding but I didn't participate as I know I would have had a guilty conscience from Cambodia. When people got back they all said they didn't enjoy it as it was so depressing seeing the way they treat the elephants.

When we got to the the start of the trek another other truck pulled up and a load more people got off all of whom were Dutch. One guy with music already playing. It soon became annoying. We stopped for lunch at a river where we all had a swim and food and then carried on, this time a dog decided to join us along the way.

Eventually we got to our accommodation for the night which had a great view overlooking the rice fields. It was a bamboo hut with some thin mattresses all in a line along the back wall. We threw our things under the mosquito nets (mine being the only single one in the corner) and got the beers out. Music playing, food, beers and cards game on the go it was great. At about half 1 in the morning after the 'party' was over, the four French guys and one other Belgian were going to watch the football in the village so I decided to go with them. In a small shed in the village we watched as the French lost in the final. And to bed we went. I soon found out my bed was covered in ants! So I slept on a thin wooden bench. Sure enough I fell off a couple of times but wasn't too bad as we all got woke up 3 hours later anyway.

Tired, we had food and set off on the rest of the trek, this time in the rain. I no longer had any tread on my trainers so it felt as though I was walking on ice the rest of the day. We went for a swim in a waterfall and finally the rain stopped. At the end we also got to do some bamboo rafting which we all had a good laugh at standing up and trying to knock each other off, keeping ourselves entertained.

It was pretty late when I got back so we found a nearby restaurant and went to bed.

We were due to check out the next day so we decided to quickly squeeze in a walk around the 'old city' of Chiang Mai then we booked a bus up to Pai. We had heard so many people saying how good Pai was and everybody told us to go so we didn't really do much research before hand. Don't get me wrong it was a nice quiet(ish) town with lots of shops and restaurants all in walking distance and it did have a calm relaxed feel to it but apart from that there wasn't actually at much there to see and do. Luckily we booked accommodation that happened to be really nice, the only down side was it was about a 10 minute drive out of the centre but the owners actually offered to drive us back and forth for free which was great as the taxis were ridiculously priced! Most importantly the Internet was the best we've had in weeks so we made full use of catching up with family and booking the rest of the trip. The 2 nights surprisingly flew by and before we knew it it was time to head back down to Chiang Mai for our flight. It was such a nice feeling knowing that a journey which took us 13 hours on the train, was going to take just an hour flying.

We arrived back in Bangkok at around half 2 so we had the afternoon to wander around before the train down south.

The night train

It was half 4 in the morning when we pulled into the station at Chumphon. Half asleep, we made our way to the pick up area for the buses that we were then told weren't arriving till 6... At around 7 we got to the boat which then took about 3 hours to get to Koh Tao.

Zzzzz

FINALLY we arrived!! Stepping off the boat and seeing the crystal clear blue water and the sun shining down made it all worth it. Even though it's been still been hot it's actually been cloudy most of the time since Laos.
As we hopped on the back of a taxi to go to the hotel, we were looking around just hoping it was going to be somewhere nice and fingers crossed with a pool. Obviously we always look into where we're going to be staying but you end up looking at so many hotels you kind of lose track of what you actually picked and the hotel descriptions can be so vague a lot of the time. We were driving along and Sean happened to point out one hotel with a pool and bungalows surrounding it and said how nice it looked... Turned out it was ours :D

The view from the hotel restaurant.

We jumped in the pool and spent a good couple of hours just relaxing there. Koh Tao is known for having some of the best snorkelling and diving in Southeast Asia so we couldn't wait to go to a beach where apparently there were even small sharks that you could swim with (harmless of course).

It was about a 10 minute steep walk up the road, just as we got to the steps to walk down to the beach we realised we'd forgotten to bring our water shoes for around the coral but we said we'd just try it without anyway. The thought of walking all the way back when we were both dripping already was not tempting. That quickly changed when we got to the bottom of the steps and realised they went right into the rocks and you had to walk around them to get to the beach. I took one step into the water and scratched all my foot, at least that's all I thought it was. We were about to carry on but the salt water was starting to make it sting like crazy. I lifted my foot out and it was covered in blood. At that point we both realised it was a bit more than a scratch. Quickly we made our way back up the stairs and Sean stopped a guy who was driving past on his scooter to ask him if he could drive me back down the road as it was now killing me. Luckily it was an English guy and he couldn't have been nicer about it. I couldn't have felt worse. I was so gutted. Not only did it hurt so bad that I couldn't walk on it but now we couldn't do any thing we planned, on one of the nicest islands we were visiting :( needless to say there were a few tears... On my behalf not Seans. Although I think he was close when he realised he was going to have to run around after me for the next 2 days.

We were determined to at least spend one day at the beach and maybe do some snorkelling before we left so on our last day we walked back to the scene of the disaster and gave it another go. This time with water shoes. We managed to find a way climbing over the rocks which was better and made it to the beach. After a lot of slow dipping toes in and out to see how much it was going to sting we were finally in the water and even got to see some nice fish, although no sharks which Sean was quite glad about.

The next day we caught the boat to Koh Phangan. We only booked 2 nights here as we're trying to squeeze in quite a bit before we leave Thailand and with the full moon party happening we didn't see the point in hanging around with the amount of people that would be arriving. We were still quite gutted that we weren't going, but at this point in the trip we really can't afford and having to book a minimum of 4 days would mean not seeing one of the other islands. Again the hotel was so nice. It had a pool, steps down to its own little private beach, 5 minutes from a big beach, right next door to a great restaurant. It was perfect.

Finally, the last island we're visiting on the east coast of Thailand is Koh Samui. Currently we're on our last full day here and then tomorrow we are making the long journey to the west coast to go to Koh Phi Phi. Again it's been really nice, it's quite hard to put in words any differences between each island but they've all been good in different ways. The days are all pretty much the same, the first day we spent on the busy beach in front of our hotel playing with a bat and ball in the water, yesterday we walked 40 minutes to a quieter much prettier beach and again played with a bat and ball haha sounds silly but it kept us amused. Today we're going to explore the inland more and get tickets sorted for tomorrow.

We've got just less than 3 weeks before Australia now. It's crazy how quick it has gone and we're starting to reflect back on what we've done a lot more recently. We were saying how because we're constantly doing one thing after another and moving from one place to the next we never actually get chance to think about what we've done so you almost forget about a lot of things. It definitely makes doing this blog worthwhile.

This has been quite a long post so for now, over and out.

:)

Oh My Buddha!

It was time to say goodbye to the pool :( After a couple of days pretty of much doing nothing, we caught the bus into Bangkok. Out of the cities we have been to so far, Bangkok has definitely been the most pleasant. Being such a large city means it's obviously still just as loud and smelly. It was more exciting to be in and much more civilised. We booked a small hotel in an area called Sukhumvit. It was a nice place but for us just a bit too nice. There were a lot of fancy restaurants and shops around but there weren't many that were in our price range. We had only booked for 2 nights anyway so we planned on trying another area after that.

The first day we caught the 'sky train' to Siam Square, known for the many, huge, shopping centres, and they really were. We spent the majority of the day walking around 4 different ones. Even though we couldn't really buy anything it was still good just to have a gander at everything. There was so many things we would have liked to have bought as souvenirs... And just for ourselves haha.

The second day we caught the sky train again to Chinatown. It was absolutely chaotic but an experience in itself.

We changed accommodation as well that day, right over to the other side of the city so that we were nearer to the temples and just to try some where else. This time it was right by the river so we made full use of the ferries which travelled up and down at least every 15 minutes (and only cost 30p). Bangkok is definitely one of them cities where you can easily underestimate how big it is, but we found the sky trains and the ferries great and affordable. There was also an underground system we used a few times. Ideally we would have stayed near Khao San Road which is a major tourist street, lined with bars, restaurants and shops, the main kind of backpacker area, but we were struggling to find cheap places to stay and we've found we prefer staying a bit further away but have a decent room than the other way around.

There were about 3 big temples that we visited the next day. We tried squeezing as much as we could in one day, because we hadn't really planned on spending so long in Bangkok as it was. It was also really REALLY warm, and when you have to have your legs and shoulders covered, it becomes a lot harder walking around all day. Sean wasn't really looking forward to more temples, and I have to admit they are getting a bit repetitive now, but these ones were nice and were worth the visit.

The HUGE reclining Buddha.

The final morning we spent arranging the journey up to Chiang Mai. We really wanted to get a sleeper train as it was going to be at least 12 hours, and we hadn't tried the sleeper ones yet but they looked really good online. We started panicking a bit when we realised that you're actually meant to book weeks in advance or at least a few days, and this was the morning of :/ We later found out that the tourist information centres buy the majority of the tickets and sell them with 'package deals'. In the end we booked the train up to Chiang Mai, accommodation for 1 night, then a 2 day 1 night trek, another nights accommodation, then a flight back down to Bangkok where we will then get the sleeper train to the south of Thailand and then a bus and a boat to Koh Tao. Even writing it there seems exhausting, but having some plans made for us is actually a nice change. Also, because the full moon party (huge beach party) is happening right when around the time we're heading south to the islands, we really needed to book accommodation and transport well in advance as there are literally hundreds, if not thousands that do the exact same journey.

Chiang Mai and the trek turned out to be really good but more about that in the next post. We're currently in Pai for a couple of days before we fly back down to Bangkok. Strangely enough this is the best internet we have had in weeks and yet probably the most remote place we've been to so far.

:)

ELEPHANTS!!!

As it had been throwing it down with rain almost constantly since we arrived, we had already pretty much given in to the fact that it would most likely be raining when we were going to spend the day outside with the elephants. We got up at around 6 and went for breakfast. Yes it was raining, but luckily it's was only a drizzle, then we went to meet our guide for the day who drove us to the Elephant Valley Project site. For the first part of the day there was just one other Australian couple with us. After telling us about the history of the project, and where the money from visitors went, we began the hike down the valley where we met a group of 4 elephants.

We followed them around as they took baths in the river and continuously munched their way through the greenery. The project are currently look after 11 elephants in total all who have been taken there to retire from hard working lives. Some of their stories we were told were really heartbreaking but it was so nice seeing them finally in their natural environment. A couple of the elephants are actually quite famous in Cambodia as they had worked for so long with the public in the busy tourist spots.

You could really see the effects that came from this. It's not actually natural for elephants to carry so much weight on their backs, which is what they were primarily used for and still are in some villages. The pressure causes their rib cage to compress pushing their spines up. Even carrying tourists around all day in the baskets does this to them. Some even had the ends of their tails cut off because of the value of the hair :(

After following them around for a few hours we headed to base camp where we had lunch with all of the other groups who were volunteering. We had time for a rest and to dry out, then headed back out to meet some of the other elephants. The sun came out for the rest of the day right up until 5 minutes before we got back to the van. It rained, this time torrential and we were soaked. It wouldn't be so bad, but trying to dry everything after is just impossible.

It was such a good day, and although it was definitely on the pricey side, we would recommend it to anyone. We'd also recommend never taking elephant rides at tourist spots!

That evening we started to feel the effects from the long day, and by that I mean from the insects bites :( Sean had on shorts and I had on full length leggings and I still managed to get bit so much more than him. I've honestly never had bites like it before. It was agony. My legs were covered in them and they were huge! Even putting on antihistamine cream didn't fully stop the itching. Eventually I found out that toothpaste was the only thing that stopped them itching.

From Mondulkiri we had to get the bus back to Phnom Penh to then move on. We originally wanted to go to Sihanoukville, a beach and island area at the south of Cambodia but there had been continuous storms there for over a week so we decided to by pass it and booked a sleeper bus to go straight through to Thailand. It didn't leave until 10pm so we left our bags at the hotel and spent the day in a restaurant at the riverfront drinking 75cent beers.

In total the journey took about 16 hours. 8 hours on the sleeper bus, 3 hours crossing the border (the majority of that time queuing at immigration), then another 5 hours in a minivan, then 20 minutes in a tuktuk. The past couple of weeks took it out of us a bit so we decided to stop here in Pattaya which is a couple of hours out of Bangkok before heading in to mainland Thailand. It's a really quiet city in comparison to where we've been, with lots of beach resorts, but we decided to treat ourselves and book a hotel with a pool so needless to say where we spent all day yesterday and today. Might as well make full use of it :)

We're staying here 3 nights then probably going to Bangkok. So excited to finally be in Thailand!

:)