Thailands Islands and Beaches
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2008
1
9
22
Trip End
Jan 20, 2009
Bangkok,
Thailand
Friday, May 23, 2008
At last the torrential monsoon rains have eased, the palm tree bending cyclone winds have vanished and the sea has returned to it's original turquoise-thank God.
The Islands and beaches of Thailand are exactly the picture postcard. Acres of almost dust like, fine white sand bays/beaches, clear turquoise seas, blue skies that suspend fluffy white clouds effortlessly whilst colourful long tail boats pitch and humm by the massive limestone rocks, pinnacles and Islands that jut from the seas, covered in lush, pristine tropical rain forest. It's also true that 'lady boys' are common, Western men both young and old come in search of Thai brides and pad Thai is delicious. Wanting to replicate pad Thai I've done a Thai cookery course which was fantastic and left me feeling very full. We look forward to serving up some toong tong, tom yam goong followed by pa-nang gai served with khao pad moo when we get back. But I will make absolutely sure that you don't accidentally munch on a very innocent looking small Thai green chilli. Oh My God. It was like a nuclear bomb had exploded in my mouth. I didn't even have the courage or politeness to swallow it. Smoothies, copious amounts of water and lots and lots of ice cubes later my mouth was still fiery and tingerling but on the up my sinus's have never felt so clear. Fruit wise, we've enjoyed tucking into lots of seasonal mangoes and we've also been introduced to 'Durian' season-'the King of fruits'. It looks like a spiky, prickly skinned, football sized thing. And we can smell the aroma/stench (far more accurate), easily before we see it. It smells like vomit and is banned in many hotels because of this. And with all that said, we just had to try it...surprisingly good.
Apart from lazing on the beaches or running like Olympic athlete competitors to shelter from the monsoon rains we've,
-sped around the Islands exploring on a moped, I'm hoping to progress to a Harley-passenger comfort and all, but I have my persuasive work cut out
-Visited very inviting, crystal clear waterfall pools but shyed away from a refreshing quick dip due to the 3 ft unidentified snake that had planted itself on the rocks besides the pool. Of course it looked and was in all our minds a highly venomous type that would kill a person in 3minutes flat
-Michael has been diving in Koh Tao. Disappointed. visibility was down to around 3 meters and he ended up rescuing a couple of divers that got lost heading out into "the blue"
-Continued on our '007' travel theme. After staying in Udaipur, India were 'Octopussy' was filmed, we've visited 'James Bond' Island were 'The Man With The Golden Gun' was filmed
-Been deafened on a long tail boat over to Koh Panyee-the floating Island where we sampled noodles and satay and politely declined the offer of fried chickens feet.
-Lazed on the beautiful beaches of Koh Phi Phi, which are sadly backed up by 'Blackpool' style tourism. With Tsunami scars still easily evident
-We've followed in the footsteps of Leonardo Di Caprio, and watched the sunset from Mayo Beach "The Beach"
-And finally we've been involved in a travelers mutiny on board our bus back to rainy Bangkok. Instead of the luxury VIP coach with reclining seats, air con and DVD player, a battered 12 seater mini bus with window style air con and welded upright position seats rolled down the road and parked in front of us all. Smiling, we all climbed aboard, but we soon lost our smiles as we went around town gathering up adults, children and chickens. This was a 14hour journey back to Bangkok. Once 3 people had been crammed into the front passenger seat, the mutiny began-No one else! And no one else dared to climb over the well placed legs, rucksacks or pay the 100 Baht we were asking!
Tomorrow we head off in the direction of Cambodia and definately not by bus! Really looking forward. We'll keep you posted.
Must go now, I've already had to slip another 10 baht into the slot machine next to the computer, but the good news is, my typing no longer costs us a nights accommodation just the air conditioning unit!
Love to you all, and we can't wait to catch up when we get back to Blighty-9th August then jet back out 9th September.
Suzy and Michael
xxxxx
