Thailand
We arrived in Bangkok and waited to board our first over night train in South East Asia...
The train was taking us to Chomporn which was the closest train station to Koh Tao Island.
The train was really nice, a lot better than I thought. At 9pm the cabin boy came around and made up everyone's bed. It was very cozy and comfortable.
At 4:30am we were all woken up at our station and thrown onto the transfer bus which was taking us to the pier.
The bamboo pier was beautiful. It was so lovely to see Thailand's stunning coast. So far all we knew of Thailand was crazy Bangkok...
The boat journey to Koh Tao was the worst..I experienced Sea Sickness for the first time in my life. It was awful. At first I thought it was food poisoning, but when I looked around and most people were throwing up over the side of the boat I knew I wasn't alone.
However it was worth it. Koh Tao was lovely.
Koh Tao is famous for it's diving. In fact it certifies 10% of the worlds divers..and its a tiny tiny island so its pretty impressive.
As it was Christmas time we decided to do our Advanced Open Water Course with our lovely friend Lindsey. We met Lindsey in Vietnam but bumped into her at the train station in Bangkok and we all stuck together for Christmas on Koh Tao.
The Advanced course isn't so 'test' like as the first instead you chose 5 areas of diving that you would like further training in. It enables you to dive more dive sites that need more skill and experience.
I chose Night Dive, Navigation, Buoyancy Control, Wreck Dive, Deep Dive.
We finished our course of Christmas Eve!
Christmas Eve was brilliant we went to a beach party and waited fanatstic fire dancers perform, and then a brilliant firework display!
Christmas day was so strange...not having the usual Christmas day routine. Although I really missed home and being with my family we definitely made the most of where we were and enjoyed ourselves. We stole one of the tropical trees from outside our room and put lovely tinsel around the branches..our very own Thai Christmas Tree!
In the afternoon we met up with Lindsey and went for our Christmas Meal Buffet! It was really fun and tacky! They were blaring out Christmas songs and lots of chrissy music. The meal was interesting..they had the works but it was all cold! No way as good as my Mum and Dads (!) but it was better than having another Thai Green Curry!!
A few days after Christmas we headed up to Northern Thailand to Chiang Mai. Here we met up with our friend Jess who we traveled with in Malaysia. It was great to meet up again and chat about our experiences in all the different countries. We all stayed in a lovely guest house called 'Green Tulip'.
We loved Chiang Mai from day 1. It had a really great atmosphere and soo many wonderful things to explore.
We chose 'Mahout Elephant Training Day'. I had been waiting for this day from the moment I begun saving for my travels!
It was fantastic... by far the best day of my travels so far.
We arrived in a beautiful farm about 1 hour out of Chiang Mai. We were given special 'Mahout' clothing (Mahout is the Elephant rider)
After our briefing about the Elephants and their daily routine we headed over to feed them. Th elephants eat 10% of their body weight..so as you can imagine feeding them the bananas took a very long time!
Once the elephants were full our guide taught us the basic commands for getting on and off the elephants and also how to direct them whilst trekking.
It was amazing...such a wonderful experience riding on the elephant bare back amd with bare feet was such a special feeling. Although getting on and off was quite an ordeal..and I wasn't very elegant to say the least. Berwyn made it look very easy!
After a delicious feast of curries, rice and pineapple we met up with our own individual elephant. Mine was 55 years old....a lazy old bird!!!
Altogether we went on a trek. It was beautiful. Through the jungle on our own elephants.We went up and down steep hills and keeping your balance was very exciting!
Finally we made it to the end of the trek safe and sound. We ended up walking through a stunning river. We played water fights with the elephants and other mahouts. Then we were given a bucket and a big scrubbing brush to make our elephants sparkling clean!
It was such a special day I will never ever forget.
New Years Eve was a fantastic day. At 2 pm we headed out to take part in a Thai Cooking Course. It was great fun as this was more like a cooking school. The others we had taken part in were basically private lessons. So it was great to be sharing the experience with a group of fun people.
We made the original Pad Thai recipe, red Thai curry, coconut soup, tom yam soup and sticky rice with mango.
After we finished- we enjoyed a delicious feast we had made for ourselves!
That evening we met up with Jess and Tom and headed into Chiang Mai's centre to enjoy New Years Eve. First we headed to a Temple. When we arrived I was completely amazed. It was stunning. Hundreds of candles were twinkling on the ground surrounded by over 50 monks in orange robes sitting crossed legs. It was a very special image. It the background was the voice of a monk explaining about how they live their lives and how we should try and take a few ideas from them to live in complete happiness.
I was so happy that we went there and experience such a lovely and different thing for NYE.
After we headed to the main square where they had a huge stage set up for the count down into 2012. There were thousands of people and even more Chinese lanterns in the square...so beautiful.
We struggles to get through the crowds. It was so busy because all the locals from the big cities head up to Chiang Mai for the New Year Celebrations. So we made sure we had a beer and Chinese lantern in hand and waiting for 2012! The firework display was fantastic and the amount of Chinese lanterns going up was incredible...a very special NYE.
A few days later Berwyn and I hired bikes to explore the golden triangle. I was very scared to have my own bike as I had never really ridden one before.
However I put my fear behind me, as I thought you have to take risks on the travels, otherwise you'll miss out too much!
I'm so glad I did. It was beautiful driving around Northern Thailand. On the first day we drove 300km to Chiang Rai. It was a sweet little pplace but in the evenings was like a little ghost town.
The next day we headed to Chiang Dao which isn't even in our guide book, but was half way on the map! The journey to this town was through the mountain. It was only Berwyn and I on the wining roads for hours. It was so peaceful and for once in Thailand we were away from all the tourists!
The next day we headed for the hardest ride of all..up to Pai in the mega mountains. Many had said how difficult the ride was. 724 hair pins!!
We took it slow and it was amazing, I felt so proud of myself that I did it! I had a few near misses with cows and dogs but apart from that it was easy!
Pai was one of my favourite places in Thailand. It was very chilled out and hippy. It was a tiny mountain town- with great restaurants and a brilliant market.
We spent the days lying in hammocks looking over the stunning views. One day we headed up to a very high view point, my bike didn't make it......! So I walked and left the bike at the bottom.
From the very top of Thailand we headed on a 48 hour back down to the Islands.
Firstly we went to Koh Phi Phi, which is where they filmed 'The Beach'. It was beautiful but way too touristy, and the prices were extremely high. We planned to stay for a week but left after 2 nights!
We headed to Koh Lanta which was cheaper and more chilled out. We stayed in a lovely apartment in the jungle and the owner gave us a free motor bike to get around the island which was great!
In Lanta we took a day snorkeling trip around the islands and even went to a place called the emerald cave. We had to swim about 200m in through the caves in the pitch black...it was so worth it, we came out the other side to paradise...it was lush little beach which had been discovered by pirates!
After Koh Lanta we headed to Railay and Tonsai Beach which is located just next to the mainland Krabi.
We were so glad we came here if only for one night as we had run out of time. It was truly beautiful. And by far our favourite place in southern Thailand. The beach was surrounded by incredible cliffs and walls. Hundreds travel to this area for rock climbing. We didn't have time to try it out ourselves, but when we arrived the tide was in and we couldn't walk along the beach to our accommodation- so instead we had to climb over the hill and down the cliff with our rucksacks! It was so hard and we were sweating pints! But it was a achievement and at least we experienced a rock climb!
We arrived in Bangkok and waited to board our first over night train in South East Asia...
The train was taking us to Chomporn which was the closest train station to Koh Tao Island.
The train was really nice, a lot better than I thought. At 9pm the cabin boy came around and made up everyone's bed. It was very cozy and comfortable.
At 4:30am we were all woken up at our station and thrown onto the transfer bus which was taking us to the pier.
The bamboo pier was beautiful. It was so lovely to see Thailand's stunning coast. So far all we knew of Thailand was crazy Bangkok...
The boat journey to Koh Tao was the worst..I experienced Sea Sickness for the first time in my life. It was awful. At first I thought it was food poisoning, but when I looked around and most people were throwing up over the side of the boat I knew I wasn't alone.
However it was worth it. Koh Tao was lovely.
Koh Tao is famous for it's diving. In fact it certifies 10% of the worlds divers..and its a tiny tiny island so its pretty impressive.
As it was Christmas time we decided to do our Advanced Open Water Course with our lovely friend Lindsey. We met Lindsey in Vietnam but bumped into her at the train station in Bangkok and we all stuck together for Christmas on Koh Tao.
The Advanced course isn't so 'test' like as the first instead you chose 5 areas of diving that you would like further training in. It enables you to dive more dive sites that need more skill and experience.
I chose Night Dive, Navigation, Buoyancy Control, Wreck Dive, Deep Dive.
We finished our course of Christmas Eve!
Christmas Eve was brilliant we went to a beach party and waited fanatstic fire dancers perform, and then a brilliant firework display!
Christmas day was so strange...not having the usual Christmas day routine. Although I really missed home and being with my family we definitely made the most of where we were and enjoyed ourselves. We stole one of the tropical trees from outside our room and put lovely tinsel around the branches..our very own Thai Christmas Tree!
In the afternoon we met up with Lindsey and went for our Christmas Meal Buffet! It was really fun and tacky! They were blaring out Christmas songs and lots of chrissy music. The meal was interesting..they had the works but it was all cold! No way as good as my Mum and Dads (!) but it was better than having another Thai Green Curry!!
A few days after Christmas we headed up to Northern Thailand to Chiang Mai. Here we met up with our friend Jess who we traveled with in Malaysia. It was great to meet up again and chat about our experiences in all the different countries. We all stayed in a lovely guest house called 'Green Tulip'.
We loved Chiang Mai from day 1. It had a really great atmosphere and soo many wonderful things to explore.
We chose 'Mahout Elephant Training Day'. I had been waiting for this day from the moment I begun saving for my travels!
It was fantastic... by far the best day of my travels so far.
We arrived in a beautiful farm about 1 hour out of Chiang Mai. We were given special 'Mahout' clothing (Mahout is the Elephant rider)
After our briefing about the Elephants and their daily routine we headed over to feed them. Th elephants eat 10% of their body weight..so as you can imagine feeding them the bananas took a very long time!
Once the elephants were full our guide taught us the basic commands for getting on and off the elephants and also how to direct them whilst trekking.
It was amazing...such a wonderful experience riding on the elephant bare back amd with bare feet was such a special feeling. Although getting on and off was quite an ordeal..and I wasn't very elegant to say the least. Berwyn made it look very easy!
After a delicious feast of curries, rice and pineapple we met up with our own individual elephant. Mine was 55 years old....a lazy old bird!!!
Altogether we went on a trek. It was beautiful. Through the jungle on our own elephants.We went up and down steep hills and keeping your balance was very exciting!
Finally we made it to the end of the trek safe and sound. We ended up walking through a stunning river. We played water fights with the elephants and other mahouts. Then we were given a bucket and a big scrubbing brush to make our elephants sparkling clean!
It was such a special day I will never ever forget.
New Years Eve was a fantastic day. At 2 pm we headed out to take part in a Thai Cooking Course. It was great fun as this was more like a cooking school. The others we had taken part in were basically private lessons. So it was great to be sharing the experience with a group of fun people.
We made the original Pad Thai recipe, red Thai curry, coconut soup, tom yam soup and sticky rice with mango.
After we finished- we enjoyed a delicious feast we had made for ourselves!
That evening we met up with Jess and Tom and headed into Chiang Mai's centre to enjoy New Years Eve. First we headed to a Temple. When we arrived I was completely amazed. It was stunning. Hundreds of candles were twinkling on the ground surrounded by over 50 monks in orange robes sitting crossed legs. It was a very special image. It the background was the voice of a monk explaining about how they live their lives and how we should try and take a few ideas from them to live in complete happiness.
I was so happy that we went there and experience such a lovely and different thing for NYE.
After we headed to the main square where they had a huge stage set up for the count down into 2012. There were thousands of people and even more Chinese lanterns in the square...so beautiful.
We struggles to get through the crowds. It was so busy because all the locals from the big cities head up to Chiang Mai for the New Year Celebrations. So we made sure we had a beer and Chinese lantern in hand and waiting for 2012! The firework display was fantastic and the amount of Chinese lanterns going up was incredible...a very special NYE.
A few days later Berwyn and I hired bikes to explore the golden triangle. I was very scared to have my own bike as I had never really ridden one before.
However I put my fear behind me, as I thought you have to take risks on the travels, otherwise you'll miss out too much!
I'm so glad I did. It was beautiful driving around Northern Thailand. On the first day we drove 300km to Chiang Rai. It was a sweet little pplace but in the evenings was like a little ghost town.
The next day we headed to Chiang Dao which isn't even in our guide book, but was half way on the map! The journey to this town was through the mountain. It was only Berwyn and I on the wining roads for hours. It was so peaceful and for once in Thailand we were away from all the tourists!
The next day we headed for the hardest ride of all..up to Pai in the mega mountains. Many had said how difficult the ride was. 724 hair pins!!
We took it slow and it was amazing, I felt so proud of myself that I did it! I had a few near misses with cows and dogs but apart from that it was easy!
Pai was one of my favourite places in Thailand. It was very chilled out and hippy. It was a tiny mountain town- with great restaurants and a brilliant market.
We spent the days lying in hammocks looking over the stunning views. One day we headed up to a very high view point, my bike didn't make it......! So I walked and left the bike at the bottom.
From the very top of Thailand we headed on a 48 hour back down to the Islands.
Firstly we went to Koh Phi Phi, which is where they filmed 'The Beach'. It was beautiful but way too touristy, and the prices were extremely high. We planned to stay for a week but left after 2 nights!
We headed to Koh Lanta which was cheaper and more chilled out. We stayed in a lovely apartment in the jungle and the owner gave us a free motor bike to get around the island which was great!
In Lanta we took a day snorkeling trip around the islands and even went to a place called the emerald cave. We had to swim about 200m in through the caves in the pitch black...it was so worth it, we came out the other side to paradise...it was lush little beach which had been discovered by pirates!
After Koh Lanta we headed to Railay and Tonsai Beach which is located just next to the mainland Krabi.
We were so glad we came here if only for one night as we had run out of time. It was truly beautiful. And by far our favourite place in southern Thailand. The beach was surrounded by incredible cliffs and walls. Hundreds travel to this area for rock climbing. We didn't have time to try it out ourselves, but when we arrived the tide was in and we couldn't walk along the beach to our accommodation- so instead we had to climb over the hill and down the cliff with our rucksacks! It was so hard and we were sweating pints! But it was a achievement and at least we experienced a rock climb!
