Lazy Days, Crazy Ways!

After spending about 5 days in Chaweng in cheap run down accommodation without much sleep - as it was too hot (apparently the hottest April for years) and a fan doing nothing but blow the hot air around the room we decided to up-grade ourselves and find an air conditioned guest house - which are a bit more expensive as you could imagine. It came down to money or our sanity in the end and we chose our sanity ha ha! We spent a good 2 hours trekking up and down the main street for a guest house at the hottest part of the day, big mistake! We found Penny Lane, it was completely luxurious for us - air con, tv, clean bathroom - definitely no cockroaches in there, we couldn't believe our luck when the woman said that it was 500 baht (7quid) woo hoo we would get our first good nights sleep in a while!!

Ko Samui beach

We realised with being situated on a little street (or soi as they are known here) just off a strip of bars we expected it to be a little bit noisy - no! We were above a night club and it was Friday night - we had to listen to sort of techno/gabba music (basically a complete racket and high pitched noises) till 6am in the morning arghhhhhhhh! I thought I was going to go insane through lack of sleep but Matt kept it together thankfully and after a strong coffee and a good lunch I felt better and it gave us the kick up the bum we needed to get out of Chaweng!! We had paid for 2 nights in advance at Penny Lane - advice to any fellow backpackers, only book 1 night at a time!!

We realised how lazy we had been and hadn't actually explored anywhere else on the island - we had been taken in by how nice the beaches were here and when we finally get the pictures downloaded (we are still having problem), you will be able to see for yourselves. We jumped on a local bus (sawngthaew) basically a small pickup with a row of seats down each side and headed for Mai Nam, which is North of the island. The beaches weren't as sandy here(sea was clear blue and warm though!) but it was so laid back and just what we had been looking for. We found the perfect beach bungalow, we could see the beach & sea from our balcony, it was quiet at night, chilled out in the day without people trying to sell you things left, right and centre. We found our paradise! It was very quiet in the evening too - we went to a restaurant one night and were the only customers the whole night, we stayed and played pool with the 2 Thai girls that worked there - it was close but we beat them in the end, I think Matt potted most of the balls, the only one I seem to pot is the white!!

After lots of relaxation on the beach and me finding a cockroach in the room we decided we wanted to move again so we headed up to Bo Phut and stayed in a little fishing village, it was really nice here but it was right by a harbour so the beaches weren't as great but the night life a little bit better! After much deliberation we decided not to go to Ko Pha-Ngan for the time being but the good thing is we are coming back to Thailand before we go to New Zealand, so can still go to places we have missed.

It was really nice staying on Ko Samui but we were both craving a bit of culture and decided we wanted to get up to Chiang Mai (North of Thailand) before our visas run out. Here we hope to do a 3 day jungle trek and meet some of the Thai hill tribes.

We left Ko Samui on Friday - managed to book a trip back to Bangkok the same day. The trip was an absolute nightmare - we thought at one point we were being filmed for a Thai version of Beadles About! I'll break it down best I can. We got picked up by a mini bus - me and Matt had to sit in the front with the driver, this was a pretty hair raising experience - thought we were going to have an accident about 3-4 times! Thai people are crazy drivers!! We got to Na Thon and got put on an old decreped coach with leather seats that we stuck to and thought this was what we had to spend 12 hours on. It drove us about 10 meters to the ferry where we had to get off and walk on - what was the point). At the end of a 2 hour ferry journey we got back on the coach and were taken for another 2 hour journey to Surat Thani we think. We had to get off the coach in the middle of some main road, didn't know where we were and were then taken in a pick up truck type thing with our backpacks strap to the top and we were advise we were going to the coach station. We were driven to a little cafe in the middle of nowhere and no one could tell us when our coach was due to pick us up. What a joke!! We waited there for 2 hours and were then taken by the same pick up truck to another areas where we got on the coach to Bangkok - luckily this one had air con and reclining seats. We got a little sleep but the journey was made worse by the suspension breaking half way through and it made us feel pretty rough - it was a pretty bumpy ride!! So we left Ko Samui at 13.30pm and arrived in Bangkok at 5.30am - so it was a 16 hour journey in total.

This is all part of the experience I guess and we are enjoying it and learning from it. Can't wait for you all to see the pictures - when we finally get it sorted out.