31st January
Hey there Thailand! Safe to say our tans are firmly back on from the last two weeks of resting by the beach on the islands. We arrived nice and early in Thailand after our night in the airport to a very VERY efficient bus and 4 hour ferry journey to Koh Tao where we were staying for 6 nights. Unfortunately we arrived to it pissing it down and very expensive taxis that put us in the back of the truck with our bags with no cover from the heavens!
Thanks to Gee we stayed in a room of 3 in a very well positioned “hostel” which felt more like someone’s house with kids toys everywhere and no one to help you anywhere. We also got access to our own bit of beach which we used daily.
The highlights of our stay was definitely the pub crawl (said to be the best in Asia and 5th best in the world) which we did twice and paid for once ?- we also say a Caberet show by the lady boys! – the best veggie burger ever, and our sunrise trek up to Mango viewpoint. We decided we would wake up at 5am to beat the heat of the day to start our hike at 5.30am. Safe to say we would not have done it if it was in daylight, Pips would collapse at the sight of the incline on the road! We got to the top in about 45 mins, 300m high, and thought we would actually catch the sun rising which we weren’t planning on but then stopped suddenly to the silhouette of a very large dog who started barking at us. We scurried back down the road and waited for civilisation to rescue us, we did some meditation to cool down and pass time. We then got escorted passed the dog and got to the top to see Sairee Beach and Koh Tao. We also took some cheesy photos ?
After 6 nights we got a ferry to Koh Phangan which was choppy to say the least ? and arrived to our 16 dorm at Slumber Party Hostel. The island was not what we were expecting at all – no particularly nice cafes or restaurants, very western and no real centre. Other than that we got to the beach during the day and pretended to be at a different hostel so we could use their beach and have cheap breakfast – Cici and Gee are obsessed with hash browns for some reason ?.
The HIGHLIGHT was the Jungle Experience party which was insanely fun – we had a slight dilemma though as there was Buddha Day where no one could sell or drink alcohol for 24 hours so the party didn’t start until 1am but we had so much fun in a really cool setting of a dance floor surrounded by a river and the jungle. This was the night before the famous Full Moon Party which was a let down. We were told by a lovely couple we met in Koh Rong Samloem that the Jungle Party is better than the Full Moon Party and they were so right. The high of the night was spending an hour with ex-Love Islander Josh Denzel and his friend’s stag do – Ceec got a free bucket and Gee was offered free trainers – Ceec and I were in the background of his Instagram story! The low of the night was Cici got pick-pocketed and lost her cards and money from her bum bag ? we went back after that. What came about from our two heavy night outs was “giggles with the gallies” where once we are ready we all pile into one of our small bunk beds and gossip, and then “morning snuggles” where we do the same but slightly less revved up and reminisce of our previous night.
We then decided we would stay a night in Haad Rin – where we thought it was happening – but found it as dead as where we were previously and had a very sweaty night’s sleep with no air con ?