Hatyai Palace Hotel Hat Yai

... touristy of the three islands and very westernized (if that is a word). The main strip looks like a very big Khao San Road but bigger. The people on the island range from retirees, to honeymooners, to backpackers. I enjoyed Ko Samui a lot. Despite getting a bad rep from backpackers as being too touristy, the beach along Chawang Beach was a sight. It was pristine, with restaurants serving fresh seafood ...

... quick stops for food hawkers trying to sell vegetables and bottles of mineral water, other passengers getting on, getting off, men with skullcaps and thin grayish beards covering their chins look at me in a non-commital way, gone are the friendly Thai smiles beaming from friendly and open faces, gone is the gay and colorfull Thai dress code. I feel like I have been parachuted into a hostile and non-Farang friendly dictator ruled state of fear!!! I try to concentrate on what ...

... over the next ten days, only graciously allowing me to test it out briefly once or twice before sending me on my way with an "Ok, that's enough now"-frown and accompanying nod of her head in the direction of the cheap plastic chairs. She was even sick for about five days (fever, cold) but the only reason I even noticed was that there was a slight decrease in the number of insults I was enduring. Really, the only downside to our new place was the pack of short-legged ...

I left Mum on the 2nd of July and took a bus to Krabi where I was to meet with an english friend of a friend. I actually hooked up with some really cool scottish guys while in the bus. Well I did not understand everything they were saying but most of it...sometimes. We actually stayed in Ao Nang, the beach 30 km from Krabi and had a great time. We rented motorbikes and drove around most of the day, mainly through huge rocks and cliffs as Krabi is the paradise ...

... transferring our pictures to our drives. And we overshot the check out time, which well they were kinda nice and jugs extended without charge. Straight after that we hunted for good noodles to eat, and well we found this one with like meatballs and some meat. It was insane! Well ok after which we walked around and stuff and I was telling JJ well there is like this night market around, we just need to find. Well we walked out ...

... a wave sent them packing though! We took another look through the menu, now that we had the time and space to peruse at our leisure, and found we could have order deep fried or curried snakes head to go with our egg fried rice. Damn!! Once our order arrived from the kitchen we realised the reason for the strange looks as fried rice in Thailand IS egg fried rice, but just to be sure that the kitchen had got our order correct, they'd placed a huge fried egg on top of the piled ...

... get a bus.....it was 10km so we had to cough up our baht and pay the extortionate price. On arrival we found a cheap place to stay for about 200baht (with en-suite..oooohhhhh) and went in search of some food. All we managed to find was the Thai version of Malaysia's Nasi Goreng in a tiny cafe whih was pretty **** but luckily I found an ice-cream parlour in a big shopping centre (if only we'd walked around town first!). We then decided to celebrate our entry into ...

... us. I get bitten by red ants and get soaked by a tap thats facing the wrong way as i wash my hands. I hate this place. Finally someone comes along and takes us in a mini bus to Khao Sok, which i try and sleep on but to no avail. We finally reach the park at 20.30pm and get accommodation straight away thankfully with it being a cool tree house 20 feet in the air being one of many different sorts of rooms all having quirky features.

... free luxury that I'm sure the train rides are that tour through the Rockie Mountains. No no no folks, this is a bumpy-as-heck, need-to-take-a-gravol, babies-craying-all-night, smokey, cramped type of train ride. As I'm sure all other people that have backpacked through SE Asia have experienced, the reason one takes the train is purely for the cheapness - not the comfort! haha ...

... ferry to Satun, on the southern tip of Thailand. Timing things perfectly we managed some breakfast and to change money before boarding a stinky but fast boat for the hour and a half journey. Once in Satun we were issued a visa and passed customs easily enough, but then the issues began. Holding a monopoly in a port 9km from the town itself, the dodgy travel desk extorted a sizable amount out of each of us for the mini ...