Wednesday 10 April 2013

Islands

It has been a while since we have updated the blog but we have been so busy travelling around the islands! We started our island hopping on Koh Chang! Koh Chang is in the eastern region of Thailand so the journey from Chiang Mai was pretty hefty... Roughly 27 hours.

Koh Chang was a beautiful island, we stayed on Lonely Beach in a tiny bungalow not far from the sea. Lonely Beach is known to be the backpackers destination so there was lots of bars around and it was pretty noisy.
When on the ferry to Koh Chang we recieved a text off Za and Roger 'Guess where we are!?' we knew straight away that they too were on their way to Koh Chang! It was so lovely to see them again!
We didn't do much on Koh Chang, we swam, ate, sunbathed, saw a fire show one evening, canoed to a deserted island and spent a day on the resort Roger and Za were staying on which was pure luxury! We really enjoyed our stay on Koh Chang but were really excited to head down south!

In order to get down south we had to endure a 32 hour trek to Phuket we travelled by coach, red truck, minibus and tuk tuk. It was a horrendous journey, alot of the time we had no idea where we were or when we were to arrive at our destination. Also for a large chunk of the coach journey we had a cheesy foot poking through. When i say cheesy i mean stinking bishop cheesy.
We did eventually arrive in Phuket we were basically dumped at a bus station where we picked up a tuk tuk to take us to a hostel in Phuket town called Phuket Backpacker. The staff here were so friendly and helpful it was a relief to experience some proper customer service! There is a picture below of melted chocolate buttons which we treated ourselves with! The button had travelled us all the way from Uganda! We were given bed in a 4 bed dorm with a chinese man, he was a individual to say the least. We did not do much touring in Phuket town, we decided to use the time we were there to sort out accomodation and plan the remaining 3 weeks of our trip.

From Phuket we got a ferry to Koh Phi Phi! We had heard a lot about the island and were excited to see it for ourselves! On the ferry over we met a group of Australians and Americans who were all in Thailand for a wedding. They gave us some priceless advice on where to stay on the island. There are two sides to Phi Phi the party side and the pier side. We stayed in a bungalow on the pier side which was much quieter than the party side but still only a 15 minute walk away from the clubs and bars.
In Phi Phi we spent a lot of time on the beach which was stunning. We visited the view point which was postcard perfect, i dont think the photos do it justice. We also experienced a Phi Phi night out with our Australian/American neighbours which was pretty messy. We saw Thai boxing and even Sophie got in the ring! We got home at 4am, it was a good night out!
The next day we had to be up for 8am to go on an all day snorkelling boat trip! we had an amazing time visiting all sorts of surrounding islands such as bamboo island, mosquito island and monkey island! We also went to Maya beach where the movie 'The Beach' was filmed we attempted the photo but it wasnt that great! The beach was stunning. After the boat trip we did a spot of shopping again!

The next morning we left for Koh Lanta, an island we'd heard was on its way to being the new Phi Phi. We booked ourselves into a resort which has two pools and its own beach! Sorted! We are still in Lanta now and leave for Koh Jum on the 12th, we plan to do lots of relaxing here! There is a photo of our bungalow below its so big!! Livin' the dream!

Just been caught in a thunder storm, first rain we've seen here!