Due to the tour I booked down to Singapore being cancelled, I booked another one with Intrepid that was very similar although it did mean that I would go Back to Kao Sok National Park for a couple of nights (see previous blog).

So my last tour started with another overnight train down to Surat Thani then a minibus over to the park. Since I had so much fun last time, I convinced everyone we should go tubing down the river again. Didn’t see many snakes this time but we did stop off at the monkey temple again. We found a little cool bar that was ran by English guy selling large 750ml beers for 50 baht (£1) so spent the evening there getting a little tipsy with the Irish couple Steve & Maria.

I decided to spend the next day by myself just chilling out in the jungle, had a little wonder in the stream and watched the wildlife go by. I was really impressed that they had Wifi, so spent a large part of the day sitting on my porch playing on the internet. We went back to the same bar for dinner and a few beers; it was pretty cool having English style chips again with brown sauce.

The next three days we spent in Krabi which is a beautiful area full of islands and beaches (they actually filmed The Beach one of the islands) it’s also really overrun with Tourists. We did spend one day touring all the islands and lagoons on a speed boat and snorkelling around all the coral. I’ve never snorkelled before and it took me quite a while to get used to breathing underwater. Matters weren’t helped by the guys on the boat throwing bread at me causing the fish to go into a feeding frenzy around me (even having a little nibble at my fingers). We even stopped at a beach that was inhabited by a tribe of monkeys (that seemed to like coke). It was a really amazing day that I’m not likely to forget in a hurry.

Like I said in my last post, I had a week to fill before my next tour started so I headed down to Ko Phanganfor a little bit time on the beach. Ko Phangan is an amazing almost Paradise like island that is host to the infamous full moon party, because of this 5 days either side of the party all the prices double of everything. It’s understandable up to a point as I was there on the 5th day after full moon and was the only person in the entire hotel. I just felt I was being ripped off a lot, especially during the times I was by myself and had to pay £20 for 8 seater taxi to take me 20 mins across the island when in other parts of Thailand the same ride would cost around 80p. Inventive local pricing aside, I did have a good time on Ko Phangan.

Eating out in Ko Phangan is a little strange; all the restaurants show the Simpsons, Friends or Family Guy all day, then movies at night. It makes for the most antisocial restaurant experience but I guess it’s more for kids resting there hangovers. We also went down to the beach where the full moon party is held and I tried my first bucket which consists of a bottle of Rum (that they call whiskey), a really thick red bull syrup and a can of coke all mixed into a little plastic sand castle type bucket which you drink through a straw. I left the group after 1 of these, but somehow ended up in a bar singing along to Oasis songs with a totally random bunch of people. Then got incredibly lost trying to find my way back to the hotel and found myself in a police station trying to get directions. It was really hard saying goodbye to the Matt, Sarah, Casey and Maddy. We’d spent the past 3 weeks together and I think you sort of get used to travelling with people, especially with guys as great and friendly as they were.
I ordered a ride back to Bangkok through one of the hundreds of travel agents on the island which sounded like a bargain. For £17 a taxi picks you up from the hotel and takes you to the ferry landing, from there it’s 4 hours to the mainland then a coach takes you overnight back to Bangkok. You have to wait at a mosquito ridden bus terminal for 6 hours and the overbooked bus to Bangkok smells worse than a sewerage farm. I also got my phone pick pocketed which didn’t help matters.
I arrived back into Bangkok at 6am and checked into the hotel, luckily they had a room available so I crawled into bed and didn’t really leave it for the rest of the day.

I went to meet Pam at the airport the next morning, I was a little worried because her flight time had changed and I wouldn’t get to the airport until after she had landed but we seemed to find each other without too much hassle. We spent the rest of the day wondering around the Ko San road, having massages and getting a little drunk on cocktails.
The following day we had to meet up with the tour group in the evening, but had the day to ourselves so I showed Pam the water taxi, sky train and park that I’d been to previously then went to meet the group.  Everyone in this group was under 35 and there was a good mix of couples and singles, we ended up on the Ko San road again for dinner and a few drinks in a bar just outside the hotel.
We where catching the train at 6pm that evening so we had the day to fill. Our guide Pun-Pun (pronounced Pan-Pan) took us for a little walking tour of the city, which was mostly through markets and a little dull but we did go to Wat Po, which is home to the famous golden Reclining Buddah. We were going to try and see the Grand palace as well but we didn’t really have much time.
The overnight train wasn’t nearly as bad as I had envisioned, each carriage has about 3 seats that convert into bunk beds when you ask the porter. They are fairly comfortable but could do with a little more legroom, but I guess they were designed for the slightly smaller Thai people. There was even a party car that was full of westerners.