Last post from Thailand

Just spent my last 3 days in Thailand in the city of Chiang Mai. I wish I'd had so much longer to explore this place and it's surrounding areas but my visa runs out soon so I'm heading off to Laos. I did manage to do a Thai cooking course yesterday and was then so full I couldn't move for the whole evening. But the food was delicious and I so want to make it again soon!

Chicken Soup and Kao Soi curry

The last few weeks have flown by, I can't believe I've stayed in Thailand for the whole 2 months. After Koh Tao I went across to the mainland and Khoa Sok National Park. Here we went on a long boat across a massive lake and did a bit of swimming which was awesome, then we did some jungle trekking which was not so awesome...

After just a couple of days in the jungle we head down to Krabi and Railey beach for a few days, the beach wasn't much to shout about but the night life was very cool. Did a bit of friendly sparring with L in a boxing ring in one of the bars!

Then it was on to Koh Phi Phi, which is as stunning as everyone says, I never made it to Maya bay unfortunately due to torrential rain, but just the view the island from the viewpoint at sunset was awesome enough for me!


I headed back to Koh Phangan a day earlier than the others to secure a room in Haad Rin, I think I may have got the last available room! But I was very glad for that as I didn't have far to stumble home after the beach parties and Full Moon Night.



And that's a brief catch up on what I've done the last few weeks, after the Full Moon I headed to Bangkok for 2 nights and on up to Chiang Mai!

Koh Tao

I fell in love with this island about 10 minutes after I got to the beach for the first time. Me and Lorna were wandering along the beautiful white sand beach thinking about lunch when we came across a little restaurant with tables on the sand. We stopped there for a fruit shake and fried rice and stared out to calm blue sea. It was so quiet, peaceful and relaxing. After lunch I jumped into a hammock strung up on the beach as well and spent several hours just relaxing!

Hammock time!

But that was just the start. Once we started wandering around Sairee village, I realised the whole place was like this! Restaurants opening on to the beach, cushions and hammocks for you to relax in everywhere! It's awesome! Little wonder that's what I've spent the majority of this week doing.

I have also managed to experience scuba diving for the first time. I did 2 dives just off the coast of Koh Tao and I saw my first turtle! It was munching away at something on the coral then swam off over my head to the surface! I can now understand why people go diving again and again! I have plans to go my open water course soon...

View of Sairee Beach from my dive boat

On our 2nd day here Lorna and I got very motivated and decided to hire some mountain bikes and cycle around the island. We got as far as the south coast, saw some amazing views but decided the ridiculously steep mountain "roads" (more like dirt paths, with loads of pot holes) were way too tough.

View from the south coast

Tonight is my last night here, I'm heading off to the mainland on a 8 hour night boat tomorrow night...

Koh Phangan

It's the end of my first month of travelling tomorrow and I'm leaving my Real Gap group and going alone! I've spent the last week on the island of Koh Phangan. It's really awesome here, bright hot sunshine, beaches, clear blue sea and a pool at our resort. So I've spent many days lying on the beach or by the pool.

View from my balcony

We have also been to the crazy half moon party in the jungle. That was a night of neon body paint and crazy dancing till the sun came up. The full moon party is not until the end of the month, though I'm tempted to come back for it as it would be an amazing night. We have also been to a couple of parties on the beach, complete with silly games, fire spinning and a foam party!

Me, L and Laura at the Half Moon Party - Unfortunately the rain washed off the body paint!

The awesome fire spinners on the beach in Haad Rin

My attempt at fire spinning!

I'm off to Koh Tao tomorrow to do some more lazing on the beach, a bit of snorkeling and maybe even have a go at Scuba diving! There's 4 of us staying together for the next week and then hopefully Lorna will come with me for a few weeks of exploring the mainland and the west coast before the full moon party.

Sangkhlaburi

Sangkhlaburi is a tiny town near the Three Pagodas Pass into Burma and has been my home for the last week and a half. We're staying here to do some voluntary work with the children in the Mon village across the lake. The Mon village is predominantly made up of refugees from Burma, These people are very poor and cannot not get Thai citizenship and the benefits that go with it. I've been working in a children's centre for children from 2 to 5 years old. My class has around 30 children and we've been teaching them a small amount of English and generally playing with them all day. The kids are so sweet and really clever. I'm amazed at how much they can do for themselves at such a young age. I've discovered the best 2 ways to amuse them are to pick them up and spin them round, and to take photos of them!

During the day the kids have a nap of about 3 hours and during this time we have been helping to improve the centre. I've painted a flower pot and plant lots of plants, I've helped to paint pictures on the new ceiling and on the walls. And I've helped to make a Bamboo fence to surround the garden. This has been really fun... You have to saw a section of bamboo off the long bamboo stick, then using a machete to break/cut the bamboo into small 1 inch sized sticks. Then the fun bit is using the machete to "sand" down the rough edges of the stick. We then crisscrossed the sticks into the soil to finish the fence! The adults at the school can do this whole process in a couple of minutes, they use bamboo for so much here. We take a little longer.

My picture is the elephant one!

The town is very quiet without much to do in the evenings so we have been rotating between the 3 different restaurants each night. However after a day of picking up children all the time I'm quite grateful for some time to relax.

View across the lake to the Mon village

Kanchanaburi

I met up with my tour group from i-to-i and Real Gap on Friday (1oth June) and spent just 1 day in the capital seeing the sights. We looked around the Grand Palace and 2 temples before visiting Koh San Road in the evening to sample some Thai Buckets!

After this whistle stop tour we journeyed to Kanchanaburi - a town about 2 hours to the west of Bangkok. Here we (my tour group of 22) stayed in an awesome resort with a pool and little bunaglows overlooking the River Kwai.

View from my bunglow

Monday (14th June) was spent at Erawan Waterfalls. There was 7 levels along a walk of about 1 hour. Each was different in size a shape but all stunning. We jumped in the pool at the 7th and swam with little fishes that nibbled our feet! At the 4th we slide down rock slides into a really deep pool - great fun!

Erawan Waterfall - Level 4

On Wednesday we went to another waterfall at Sai Yok, but this time the water was too low for swimming. Instead we went exploring a cave fun of bats and spiders! Not sure why anyone would want to do that, the caverns inside were pretty big and impressive but I don't think I'd go again! In Kanchanaburi I also had a Thai cooking lesson, a Thai massage and learnt to meditate with a Thai Monk! The massage was amazing and I intend to have several more.

Preparation...

Hey Everyone

I decided to create a blog for my travelling adventures to keep everyone update with where I am and what I'm up to. I'm leaving England tomorrow and heading to Bangkok, Thailand, via a short stop over in Dubai. I'm going to be travelling with a group of about 25 people on the Thai Adventure organised by i-to-i. This will include a volunteer project as well as lots of sight-seeing in Bangkok, and partying in Koh Pha Ngan.

After Thailand I intend to explore Laos, Vietnam and possibly a bit of Cambodia before heading to Malaysia and Indonesia. Hopefully at the start of next year I'll be travelling to Australia for 3 or 4 months where I might find some work for a while if the finances are struggling. Then I'll be heading to New Zealand in their Autumn, and a last bit of sunshine in Fiji before I fly back home in June 2011.

I plan to keep this blog updated with some of the more interesting things I see and do, and lots of photos along the way. So to start with, here is a photo of everything I'm taking with me!

This will need to keep me going for 12 months so I hope I haven't forgotten anything!