Partying under a Half Moon

We tore ourselves away from the lovely peaceful beach and the bungalows run by the incredibly camp, rather strange, betel-chewing men (that's the stuff that makes your teeth look like they're bleeding), in search of a new experience at one of the island's famous parties. They're pretty regular there, with Full, Half and Black Moon parties at relevant times of the month. We were pretty happy that our visit fell on half moon, as it's up in the jungle - a labyrinth of UV paint and food stalls, which lead up to a clearing with a stage, huge sound system, a dancefloor surrounding a big colourful tree, and bars, lighting, fountains and dancing platforms built into the trees around the edges. It was beautiful, and full of UV decorations and happy, friendly people. The music was trance mostly, which was great, especially the dj who was also a saxophonist! We had a good dance, watched the fire performers, met lots of lovely people and got our arms covered in UV paintings of flowers. At some point in the evening, I did the inevitable and dropped my camera, half-breaking it. I've already nearly lost it in the sea a couple of times, so at least I still have something I can work with! We both became rather poor towards the end of the night, but some kind soul bought us food and gave us money for a taxi home, which actually turned out to be us both squishing onto the back of a motorbike with a little Thai lady. However precarious, it got us back safely.

It's bizarre how many people you recognise after travelling around the same sort of area for a while. There have been a few of these cases, but the funniest is a couple of twin boys, around our age. We first noticed them in a bar on Koh Lanta, and pondered whether we'd like to go travelling with our identical other half if we had one. They seemed quite reserved so we didn't end up chatting to them. After bumping into them a few more times, on Koh Phi Phi and then Phangnan, coincidentally being in the same place at the same time, we thought it had got to the point of being a bit awkward. But after again literally brushing past eachother a few more times at the Half Moon party, I used a bit of Dutch courage to say hello and how funny it was that we'd been following eachother around. They looked at me like they'd seen me for the first time, and like I was a little bit nuts. Oh well.

Koh Tao

Another hungover and very sweaty ferry journey brought us to Koh Tao, along with a fair few familiar faces from the previous night. There was a collective sense of exhaustion and dehydration from most of the passengers, which made everyone a bit slow and clueless when getting on and off the boat, which I found pretty claustrophobic and irritating. We clambered to find our rucksacks in the pile that the staff throw them off the boat into, and walked across a series of pretty dodgy looking gangplanks and boardwalks, that the dizziness made feel like an obstacle course. 
We headed straight for Freedom Beach, a beautiful stretch of beach with very little of anything except peace and quiet, and secured ourselves a bungalow overlooking the water. Had a couple of very relaxed days there, a lovely visit to a tapas place, and savoured our last few days near the sea. I'm so used to it now I don't want to be away from it, but I'm also rather excited about the prospect of no sand. Our last day we spent on Sairee beach, swimming, napping in the shade, having an amazing massage (the lady walked on my back, which was much less painful than I'd expected!) and a wonderful long yoga class with a French woman. We were absolutely shattered after that, and just ate baked potatoes whilst watching from afar the chaos down the beach. Koh Tao is the number one spot for scuba diving, and so everything is geared towards that. It felt really Western, full of coffee shops and pizzerias, and large groups of young-ish people.

We've now just arrived back in Bangkok, to see in Songkran in style, and to do a few jobs before the next part of my adventure. Cannot believe it's been a month already!!

Tiger temple - 1,237 steps

The last photo shows the hill we climbed...right at the top you can just see the tip of the monument

Visiting the infamous beach

Koh Phi Phi

We spent our last night on Koh Phi Phi at the Banana Bar, eating mexican food then settling down on the cushions with a jug of Chang beer to watch the film they show at sunset on big projections. It was The Beach, which I haven't seen in ages, and seemed remarkably appropriate. Later that night on the way home, we ate a huge slice of pizza and had another little complain about the atmosphere on the island, whilst watching people crowd around a man with a monkey in a diaper on a lead.
The next morning we had planned to get up at half 7 and go on a boat tour, but we woke up late (possibly due to the barman taking a shine to us and giving us free drinks) but conveniently the morning was wiped out by a big storm and it was cancelled. The torrential rain and thunder was quite exciting, until we had to check out and wander into the town, most of which was flooded and grimy. Fag buts floated in the suspiciously dark water, which I had to wade through barefoot, because I'm stubborn and don't like flipflops. It was not a pretty sight. It made for a cooler day though, which we both appreciated. After breakfast we found a much cheaper hostel in the town, dropped our stuff, and went on the later sunset trip. The beautiful long tail boat took us around the edges of some really stunning mountainous islands, stopping first in a sheltered bay where we jumped off for a swim, then to another spot for snorkeling. I've have never seen so many beautiful and interesting fish so close up! It was an incredible experience. The water was so salty you could float with no effort, just hovering over the surface of this incredible underwater world. The first fish we encountered were 4/5 inches long, striped yellow and blue, big eyes, and totally unafraid of us. They swam close to the surface, so close they would occasionally bump into your hand or face. We floated about over the coral, manically gesturing to each other underwater when we saw something new. Bright orange and black striped starshaped things stuck to the rocks, big fish up to maybe 15 inches of purple, light blue, indigo, yellow and grey. My favourite was the occasional 'Arabian angelfish'. It was so amazing, such a surreal experience, I kept wondering if I was really seeing it. After about half an hour, we climbed back onto the boat (with difficulty as the boatman threw some food next to the ladder when me and Beth were there, causing a huge school of the yellow and blue fish to crowd around, which we had to fight our way through. I didn't like the feel of their slippery scales on my body, didn't want to hurt them and also thought it was a bit irresponsible feeding them rice). 
The next stop was Ao Maya, a bay on the smaller Phi Phi Leh island, the inspiration for the Beach film. I'd always wanted to see it for myself, whilst knowing that I would most likely be disappointed and saddened by how heavily touristy it now is. It was an exciting climb up some dodgy steps and through a bit of jungle, to what is without question a stunning sandy beach and a beautiful clear bay enclosed by tall rocky mountains. But I spent most of our allotted hour there wishing we were the only people there, and that tourism or rubbish had never been inflicted on the beautiful scenery. I left feeling rather hypocritical. On the way back, the boat stopped in the middle of the sea and we all fell under a wonderful calm spell as the sun set on the horizon.

The next morning we left Phi Phi rather happily, catching a ferry over to Krabi. Found a very cheap hostel, and set off to the Wat Tham Seua - the Tiger Cave Temple. It's set into a valley between incredibly steep rocky hills, apparently previously a tiger lair. We'd heard that if you climbed to the top of what was essentially a cliff face, there were incredible views and a huge golden Buddha statue. We found the steps, all 1,237 of them, some of which were the size of 3 steps by my standard. It was very very hot, and I can safely say that I have never ever sweated as much. We were particularly unimpressed when three young monkeys, who we were ahhing at until they stole my bottle of water and bit a huge hole in the top. We managed to get it back by distracting them with another empty one, and I was forced to drink it to keep from passing out, even though I was convinced it smelled a bit of monkey saliva. They were everywhere, and disconcertingly unafraid of us. I love monkeys, and didn't feel scared working on my own in a cage full of them in Guatemala, but these were wild animals who had become accustomed to being given things from tourists, we saw some feeding them (stupid stupid people), and therefore they could easily be aggressive to get what they want. We had to stop/collapse increasingly often as we reached the top to curse and catch our breath, but we finally made it, the colour of beetroot and with burning legs. That much exercise in the heat was a bit of an unexpected shock to our bodies. It was so so worth it. The views were insanely good. Again, it was too much to actually take in and believe. We wandered around barefoot on the hot floor, taking it in from all angles, admiring the Buddha and smaller shrines. There were a few other people up there - the two Chinese lads who had overtaken us asked for a celebratory photo, and just as we were having a peaceful, awestruck moment, a few very loud Americans came and ruined it. We heard thunder not too far away over the hills, so we started back down, which made our legs uncontrollably shake. We are both now feeling like old ladies, hobbling about, struggling with steps and our rucksacks, but having a good giggle about it. As we rode away on the songthaew, the tip of the Buddha came into view on the mountain top, and we literally could not believe that we'd climbed to the top. Incredible.
That night we ate Pad Thai in the outdoor night market down by the pier for ridiculously cheap, and watched all the locals fussing around in the popup kitchens. We discovered something that was described to us as 'Chinese donut things', that people kept coming up to buy bags of. They were 3Baht each, and really tasty, like a sweet yorkshire pudding with a dip made from carnation milk. We bought a bag to take with us on our journey the next morning, but accidentally wound up playing drinking games with some English guys, and then later ate them all in bed. The morning was incredibly stressful. Our alarm, set for half 5am, failed to go off (or be noticed) and we woke with a start and very late. Ran down bleary-eyed to the meeting place with our rucksacks, and luckily the bus driver was late too. Also very luckily, I realised just as he was pulling up that I didn't have my tablet, and managed to leg it up the road to the hostel, find it hidden under the blanket on the bed, and make it back to the bus just in time but unable to breathe. To prevent similar potential mishaps in the future, we don't think we'll aim so early or optimistically with travelling times.

Koh Phangan

The ferry arrived at noon, and we were met by a troupe of locals ferociously trying to help us with accommodation. This level of attention is pretty annoying if you've just woken up from somehow sleeping on an upright plastic seat and are now battling with the midday sun. Despite knowing we prefer to just get somewhere and find our own place to stay, we were tired and flustered so eventually went along with it and ended up at a guesthouse on the West coast quite far from a built-up area, and with it's own very pretty but very stony little cove of a beach. We decided to rest and regroup there then move in the morning. Before breakfast we began walking in the direction of a beach we'd heard was beautiful. We didn't get too far before realising the roads were rather too hilly for our liking, and our legs weren't dealing very well with the weight of our rucksacks. Eventually a songthaew (shared taxi/jeep) picked us up and took us up the coast to Haad Salad. After exploring the little place for a bit, and deciding the beach was too rocky and small (I think we've become far too picky now) we thought we'd travel up to the next one...and it's much nicer. Haad Mae Haad, or Ao Mae Haad, or whatever you like, I think they're interchangeable as Haad means 'beach' and Ao means 'bay'. We've been living in a little bungalow, for 500bht a night (about £9), with our little wooden balcony facing the sea and the beautiful tiny island, Koh Ma, which you can walk to sometimes across a sandbank. It's a lovely sheltered bay calm water, so lovely for swimming if you can avoid the coral.
It's less than 30 seconds walk from our front door to a massage place - a sort of open air hut on stilts near the water. So naturally I took advantage of that this evening. I went just at sunset, when it was really quiet and I was the only one there. It was just after a huge bout of rain which lasted for an hour or so, but the thunder was still going. I lay there while she worked absolute magic on my shoulder blades, listening to the rolling thunder and the ladies chatting softly in Thai. When it got dark, they turned out the light because of the bugs, and the lightning became really fierce, I could see it through my closed eyelids. Me and Beth watched it for a good hour at least after that...huge forks over the ocean all around us, which was incredible but a little scary. Also later that night, I was kept awake for a long time by the waves, which were the loudest I've heard!!

More beaches

Exploring Thailand's south coast

Waking up at half 3 in the morning, after a hot and restless sleep, was made totally bearable by wonderful Seetha, the guesthouse owner lady. She was just so motherly and sweet, woke up with us and hugged us when we left, the perfect place to have stayed on our first and last nights. Sri Lankan airlines really are nice. It was only a four hour flight but we had breakfast and snacks galore. Arriving in Bangkok was slightly stressful, lost a couple of very hot hours getting stuck in the airport unable to find the exit, then navigating ourselves to the city by public bus, which was a confusing affair but totally worth it as it's so much cheaper than a taxi alternative. Straight away realised that Thai people are also very willing to help two lost-looking sweaty english girls.
We spent one night in Bangkok, staying on a street just off Khao San road, the famously touristy crazy area of town. Met a couple of Beths friends from shropshire, and spent most of the night with them, eating good curry, drinking Chang and Singh by their rooftop pool, and sitting in the street on plastic chairs being slightly overwhelmed, but also loving, Bangkok. The little kids there were the cockiest I've ever encountered -forcing tourists into games of rock, paper, scissors and trying to sell them little roses. It was crazy, and crazily cheap. We had massages for less than £2, and let ourselves do a tiny bit of shopping..with tshirts for a pound its hard to resist.

So needless to say, we woke with a bit of a hangover, but sorted it with a quick swim and breakfast. We didn't have a solid plan, so decided over our mango juice that we'd put our faith in the 'Mr Thai' tour operator across the road and bought tickets to travel down to Koh Lanta in the south. Before the trip, we found our way to the Grand Palace, a beautiful collection of buildings, so colourful and interesting. Inside was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which is actually made from solid jade, and is set in a room with walls covered in intricate, beautiful depictions of significant events and such. It's a shame you're not allowed to take photos, but there you go. Afterwards we looked around the museum of textiles, mostly to take advantage of the a/c, which turned out to be really interesting. The current Queen of Thailand (the royal family are adored and treated with utmost respect) set up this wonderful foundation called Support, to help poorer communities build sustainable businesses in making and trading fabrics. They seem to be pretty involved in things like that, what a nice lady.

3 buses (one broke down), 3 minibuses, 2 little ferries, and 20 HOURS later, we arrived on Khlong Nin beach on Koh Lanta. We stayed a night in a rather beautiful hotel, with a pool barely 30m from the sea, drank mojitos and watched the sun set over the sea. Then later, ate more spring rolls (we have decided to sample as many as we can from different locations, you know, just to check they're all up to standard) sat on the beach and watched the stars and a little kid doing brilliant fire staff, who was about 8 years old, I kid you not. We were knackered but very happy, it was so peaceful.

The next day we moved to beebeebungalows, on the next beach up, Khlong Khong. It's so lovely. We have our own beautiful wooden and bamboo hut on stilts, with an outdoors bathroom, a couple of hammocks (or hangman if you're german) and lush big princess bed (by that I mean a crappy pink mossie net that just makes it look pretty). The staff are lovely and it's just chilled out backpackers and a gorgeous array of little seating areas, some on stilts, some with roofs for shade, and a bar.. leading down to the beautiful sea. It's pretty rocky here, and when the tide is out during the day you have to carefully pick your way over them to get to a clear bit, where you can bob about in the warm rock pool shallows. But just before sunset until late morning, the tide comes in really far and its much easier to swim without injury. The food is lush and so cheap-can get a huge plate of noodles or a green curry for 100baht or less. We have  also decided that our sunset drink is a mojito, sipped whilst reading our books and ahhing at the sky. Then when it gets darker out comes the bug spray and we go find dinner. For the past few nights there's been lightning and thunder but no rain. It's really quite impressive and beautiful. As far as wildlife goes, we've only really seen a hell of a lot of cats, beautiful ones too, and thousands of tiny crabs. We only noticed them walking on the beach one night, then I felt nervous walking because they were everywhere and probably very squishable. They make these really cool little balls of sand when they go in and out of their holes, and it leaves the beach beautifully patterned.

After 3 days of relaxing, we moved on. Was feeling pretty stressed about money as we're not having the best luck. Beth lost her credit card within a week of being away, and both Lloyds and the post office have royally pissed me off with top up limits and 'routine account blocking' (although I have told them 3 TIMES now that I am away), all as if they want to make it really difficult for me to get my money out. Oh well. We were picked up by a jeep/songthaew, already busy. By a stroke of luck we were chosen to ride up front in the airconditioned bit with the driver, and things got great when we picked up a couple of french backpackers who sneakily changed the music to bob marley, remixed in a fat freddies drop styley :) After a pretty short ferry ride, we arrived into the chaos of Koh Phi Phi, and were instantly hustled into booking a place to sleep by a very competent 13 year old businessman. It's really lovely, set on the hill a bit away from the busy part of the beach, and again we have our own little bungalow hut. It is however a bit of an uphill walk back from the town, and occasionally the shower will come out hot...in weather where you dry/sweat instantly and crave at least 6 showers a day, hot water is not even a funny joke. I just want to lie in a bathtub of cold water. But I do love it.
Last night we did whats expected of you on this party island - drink buckets and dance to shit music. We did have crazy amounts of fun, but mostly chatting to eachother, and playing our new game, bogies with 'yolo'. Its where you have to shout 'YOLO' (a phrase completely ruined by incredibly annoying young people, hence therefore embarrassing to say in public) louder than the other person. Highly amusing. We weren't a whole lot impressed with the beach bars, full of fresher and 'lads on tour' types, but we had a damn good giggle. Got a brilliant slice of pizza on the way home, and tried (and failed) twice to sneak into hotel outdoor pools. The security guards are completely on the ball on that front unfortunately! Today we are suffering ridiculously for it, and all we want when we're recovered is to escape to a nice quiet beach again. Plus, the sea here is rank..lots of floating 'misc' items.
Time for a nap under the fan.

Happy