Having made our way laboriously across the border crossing between Siem Reap and Bangkok we finally arrived in our hostel in Silom, Bangkok.
For our first day in Bangkok we decided to take the rather spacious and air conditioned skyline train to the river and caught a ferry to the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace was a very impressive collection of ornate and lavishly decorated buildings and temples, including the emerald Buddha.
Tickets from the Grand Palace allowed us entry to Dusit Throne hall and Vin Man Mek mansion which we visited the following day. The later is a rather ornate country house made from teak constructed without the use of any nails!! Unfortunately on one of our visits to a throne hall, which has been converted into an art gallery, we fell foul of some clothing regulations. Having already bought a sarong for James to cover his legs for the mansion, we then had to swap bottoms so James was wearing ems balloon pants over his shorts and Em had to wear the sarong as a skirt. This was due to the fact that women have to wear skirts in this particular building. This seemed to cause mass hilarity with the local Thai people with James looking more than ridiculous and Em walking very slowly and gripping tightly onto the sarong to ensure there were no more surprises.
More skyline trains the next day took us to South East Asias largest Market, the JJ Market, in which we got monumentally lost! It's hard to think of things that weren't sold here ranging from standard souveniers to pet fish, snakes and lizards and even adorable rabbits, puppies and kittens held in rather cramped quarters. Despite all that was on offer all we bought was some food, which turned out to not be such a great idea!
That evening we decided to head to Cabbages and Condoms - the same chain we had eaten at in Chiang Mai. This restaurant was so much larger and was packed with gadgets, accessories and numerous other things promoting safe sex!
Before leaving the bustle of Bangkok we ventured into the Chinatown wholesale Market, which was even more hectic than we thought possible. Annoyingly, despite wanting to buy some of the stuff on offer we didn't want to buy 6 of each item so unfotunately left empty handed again.
During our stay in Silom, we discovered that we were in Ping Pong central. Every night without fail we would have various flyers, pictures and DVDs shoved in our faces. All the sellers were very persistent with the best one saying to James (in a not so quiet voice!) "Come back later.....alone!"
We then boarded the coldest sleeper train known to man for the trip to the islands.
Initially we planned to go to the South East Gulf Coast but on hearing that monsoon season had started we decided to go to the Andaman Coast instead! We spent a couple of days relaxing on a glorious beach in Phuket.
From there we headed to the more lively Phi Phi, a very contradictory island. On the one hand there are a number of lovely secluded bays with only a handful of people on, and in contrast there are numerous rubbish heaps and the smell of sewage, and finally the upbeat beach bars celebrating the half moon! We took advantage of these beach bars and their fire shows with Emma and Lee, some friends we had met in Hanoi and Saigon.
After spending the first two days being quite sloth like on the beach we decided to head out and do some diving. We did a half day trip with two dives in Bida Nok and Malong Bay. These were by far the best dives that we have done and saw some amazing underwater animals. These ranged from the smaller sea snake, triggerfish and peacock shrimp to the larger and more impressive blown up puffer fish, blue spotted stingray, hawksbill turtle and leopard shark.
We spent the rest of the time clambering up to the viewpoint 186m above sealevel, relaxing on the beaches and watching a film in a rooftop bar.
The following day we decided to rent a moped and tour round the island. Unfortunately it rained for most of the day and we were consequently soaked on this moped! However we managed to visit the old town, the lighthouse and the national park where we were accosted by some monkeys wanting our food! In the evening we drove up to the pier town to get some awesome BBQ seafood overlooking the harbour. You'll be pleased to know that our first experiences of driving a moped were successful and neither of us crashed....well not quite anyway!
The next day we took a longtail boat out to do a four islands snorkelling tour. The islands we visited are on the West coast of Koh Lanta and are very popular. Throughout the day we got three snorkelling stops where there was an abundance of fish swimming right up to your face. We also visited the emerald cave, a place previously used by pirates and smugglers to hide their valuables. The cave itself is nothing special but swimming through it for about three minutes, you reach a secluded beach surrounded by limestone cliffs. The swim both to and from the beach resulted in a lot of thrashing by certain parties on our tour and even a giant Congo line by another tour!! After lunch on a gorgeous, quiet beach, we were due to make another snorkelling stop but this had to be abandoned to flee the impending storm that had built up in the afternoon. Fortunately we avoided it and had dinner on the beach front in our resort.
Our final morning was spent by the pool soaking up the rays and even Em manage to tan slightly more!!
We then took a boat to Railay which is a peninsula off the mainland of Krabi. Again we had not initially planned on going here but heard good things about it so thought we might as well. Here there is no pier though so to get onto the beach requires getting off the ferry onto a longtail boat which took us closer to shore. From here we had to wade trough the sea with all our bags!! We arrived just in time to watch the awesome sunset! The next day we relaxed on a gorgeous beach - our favourite of all the beaches we have visited! In the afternoon we decided to rent a kayak in order to explore a bit more of the surrounding area and get up close to some of the large natural rock formations. We then decided to watch the sunset from the beach we had been on during the day (a different one to where we has arrived and seen the previous nights sunset). This sunset was even more amazing than the night before!!
For our final morning in Railay we decided to visit the viewpoint and lagoon. This entailed effectively rock climbing (with no harness or anything) up some rather steep cliff faces. The view was definitely worth it though! Trying to get to the lagoon was a different matter altogether. Getting down to the lagoon was almost impossible with a number of vertical cliff faces to make your way down with only a piece of rope to help. After much deliberation we decided not to risk our lives and headed back down to the beach for our final few hours of sunbathing! Getting down from the viewpoint however was much more difficult than getting up and James' fear of heights certainly didn't help!
From here we took a boat and a minivan to Phuket where we spent the night before our early morning flight the next day.
Here are some more facts we have discovered:
- There are timers on traffic lights that are not strictly adhered to.
- Despite vein surrounded by water, many Asians can't swim.
- Couples from certain countries like to dress in the same outfits (clothes, shoes, bags).
- Em can actually tan.
- The tax for entering Phi Phi is definitely not used for 'waste management' as described.
- Getting a boat to another destination doesn't necessarily mean you will get dropped off there.
- Some people pay extortionate amount of money to stay in luxury resorts - £5000 a night!!!
- Despite the stereotypical Asian being quite short, steps for everything are ridiculously steep!
- There is no shame in selling sex DVDs and other accessories alongside statutes of Buddha and 'water filtration systems'.
- Priority for locals actually means for just Thais in Thailand rather than all Asians as is the case in the other countries we have visited.
That's all for now! There'll be another post to come soon!
Take care,
X x x
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