Bangkok - Koh Tao - Koh Phagnan - Chiang Mai.... Sorry!

Firstly - i am so sorry for the ridiculously late post, things have been moving pretty fast and lots has happened that hasnt allowed me to get on a computer for a long period of time to update everything, i will try and make up for it on this blog.

Ok firstly Koh Tao... the most beautiful place in the world. This island is what i imagine Jamaica was 100 years ago - no big hotels, one main strip with a few wooden bungalows on the beach and in the mountains and a few rasta shacks for bars which are on stilts in the water. All the restaurants and furnished completly in unmatching wooden crafts and you sit on the floor on cushions for your meals. Emily and i were staying in a small wooden bungalow (thats being nice, it really was just a shack...) off from the beach in the opening of the rain forest, with one bed that took up the whole of the room - a fan that made the walls shake, a loo with no flush (yes it took us about 2 days to get the courage to ask how we flushed it .... the things a shower and bucket can do....) and a shower that also doubled as the sink. Although this was great, beautiful and very back to basics - i had been ill (Bangkok belly) for the last few days and privacy was not something that i was going to get - anywhere.

On our first day as we were walking down the street and beach to get our bearings (after a 18 hour bus and ferry ride) I suddenly heard Emily screaming, only to turn around and see 3 of our friends from school walking along the road! ... It turned out that there was about 15 of them in 3 bungalows just down the road from us... somehow think that our quiet beach days were over!

On the first night there, there was a massive storm and power cut... i am used to these due to Kew Park and Jamaica but i have never felt heat like this or heard rain and thunder like this... Like little girls Emily and i were cuddled up all night scared stiff from th epitch black and the fact that our shack was definately not going to with stand then night - it couldnt. However it did and in the morning we felt a bit feeble for having felt so scared in such a quiet and tranquil place.... needles to say for the next three nights of thunder storms we were still on edge and jumpy... our life line was the AMAZING torch given to me by the langfords which became our night light!!!

For the next few days we chilled on the beach with everyone and had the laziest amazing days on the beach, followed by great nights out - with truth or dare which ended up making me (the only person to take a dare, i will have you know) pretend to be a back up dancer for the live entertainment in one of the pubs... unluckily pictures were taken and i will probably never live it down...

After a few days of doing nothing my friend Lydia and i decided to go snorkelling as Koh Tao is renound to be the best island for snorkelling and scuba diving in the world, the others werent realy up for it so we left them and went for a days adventure. The boat took us to 5 different areas around the island which had the most amazing sea lif ei have ever seen - including sharks which we were thankfully told were vegetarian human loving sharks... Lydia and i stayed in the water here at Shark Point for 10 -15 minutes and then decided that we would get back on the boat, just in case one of them decided some meat may be just what they wanted for lunch. Apparently (from the guide who was taking us, who had lived there for 30 years ... come out on a gap year and never left - mid life crisis? but who can blame him!?) the marine life has completely declined since he first came and when he started diving there - you couldnt get away from the amount of sharks and turtles there were but now you were lucky if you saw one, it was sad to hear, but so inevitable in an area that is so touristy.

We then headed to Koh Phangan... the full moon party island!!! ... Having arrived 2 days before the full moon we had to splash out and stay in a really nice resort, as everywhere along the beach was full. Our room was equipped with the squekiest double bed in the history of the world, a private bathroom (with a loo that flushed - YES!!!) and a balcony over looking the sea... oh and a pool! The days before the full moon were spent with me by the pool, turning like a pig on a pig roast every 30 minutes and only breaking for the rain and food... oh and when feeling a little burnt to put on the factor 4 sun cream (oil) i had bought!

It was here that Emily and i heard very bad news. A girl, in the year below us that we had lived with at school for 5 years had died in a car accident and a boy that we were very close to in our year was seriously injured with a broken neck and spine and in a coma at hospital, the girl driving has been arrested for DUI, GBH and manslaughter, she also went to our school. This was a huge blow to both Emily and i and calmed our pre Full moon party buzz straight away, especially as the boy was meant to be at the party but had gone home early. It was such a shock to us and horrible that we couldnt do anything - leaving us wanting to go home but knowing it would do no help as there were so many people who cared for them back home that we really would be insignificant. It is also horrible to think that there was a girl who died in my brothers year at xmas time from drink driving - how many people does it take in a small circle to die from drink driving before people learn??

Anyway the next day was the full moon - which was the most amazing party in the world! ... 25000 people along one beach with each guesthouse/bar/shack playing a different genre of music! Emily and i had the most amazing glow paint - we were definately the best painted there! By 6 am and we were walking back... people were passed out on the beach and in flower beds and pots on the side of the road - while we watched and laughed at peoples own fault and we went home to our beach front villa with ac.

The next day we were off to chiang mai in northern thialand to stay with my family friends for the Songkran (The Thai new years at the beginning of the rainy season) which is the biggest water fight in the world, the moat (which the whole city is surrounded by) is blocked off for cars and everyone has a huge water fight - people walking with super soakers, people from shops with buckets on the road and people in pick ups with massive tanks of ice cold water that they throw at people who are just walking by.

We flew into chiang mai, and were picked up by my dads best friend who we were staying at and taken back to their amazing house just out of the main city with a full fridge a clean bathroom and amazing people! We spent the next 3 days in a constant water fight, where we just couldnt stay dry for more than 30 seconds and super soakers were filled at least 20 times a day - and emily and i targeted small kids about 3 or 4 years old (the only people we could win against!) until their parents and uncles and aunts came out and completly soaked us with ice water - making us run away!

Whilst we were doing this there were some issues in Bangkok with riots etc. We were completely safe although the situation was getting worse and worse... it smoothed over in a couple of days and now we have just been told to watch our selves while we are in Bangkok.

On the last day of the Songkran festival my dad came to visit!! ... He has always been planning to come over for the water festival and stay with his friend Rick, and seeing as i was here this year he just came over for a week! It was great to see him having not really seen him since before xmas - just after i got back from Australia, and we had a great week together.

We went up to a town called Pai which is North West of Chiang Mai and is a small town/village in the hills. The ride up there was a bit of a joke and we shared a bus with 30 other Thai's and sat in seats that were made for Thai sized people, and we were pulled over by the thai national army to check ID cards... they werent too worried about ours for some reason.

We stayed in an amazing resort called Pai hot springs resort which was about 8 km away from the main area, so we had to rent motor bikes to get our way around. Me and emily (after our experience in Vietnam... we were slightly hesitant - all i can say is i got my own bike this time...) got the smallest - automatic mopeds - named "the pussy bikes" and Dad got a Harley Davidson wannabe - the Honda phantom! ... Our resort was surounded by lush thai vegetation and amazing natural hotsprings. We were the only people in the resort so we were thoroughly spoiled! ... Thai massages and oil massages by the completly empty pool and hot springs followed by lunch (courtesy of daddy dearest!!)... pretty average 3 days to be honest! On the last day Dad and i left Emily (who wanted to stay at home and read) went on a elephant trek. It was incredible - but seriously not the most comfortable way to take transportation... not really sure how people went to war on them for months at a time... both dad and i ended up having severely bruised bums at the end of it ... no hard surfaces to sit on for a while is all i can say!

In the last few days we have met up with a friend from school, Scams and her friend she is traveling with, we have been up to the amazing national park - about 30minutes on the bikes from where we live and had a very romantic picnic. Today Emily and i then went to the zoo and were complete tourists and children and walked the whole way around the zoo/safari - instead of taking the bus or train that were both offered!! ... our legs are very sore this evening!!!

We leave to go to Bangkok tomorrow with Scams for my bday and the girls are plannign a big day and night so i am sure i will have more news soon!! ... this is either my last or penultimate post as we leave in 4 days...i am sorry this post hasnt been particularly upbeat, but thought this is better than nothing and as i said before lots has been going on!!

xxxxx