Thailand - Koh Toa island

below: our bus from Chumphon to the pier. We were packed in like animals.

below: someone drew the short straw and spent the 20 min bus journey hanging on at the back!

below: Songserm ferry

below: Sairee Beach

below: Sairee Beach

below: postcard writing

below: Stray dogs are rife in Thailand. The island ones are friendly enough. This particular one spent a good half an hour playing 'doggy' in the middle with these bunch of lads.

below: we had our own doggy to deal with.

below: Phad Thai for lunch

below: Sairee Hut Resort

Thailand - Chumphon

Today is a full day in Chumphon. Our rough plan is to decide which island to go to, book ferry and research accommodation. We do half of this when hostel owner offers to show us the town in his car. We agreed!

We jump in Suti's Honda Civic where we get shown the town with excellent commentary. We are then taken out of the town to a local fruit farm. The lady owner does not speak any English but offers us two types of fruit we have never seen before. One I like and the other is ok. We have a tour of the fruit farm.

Next up on the agenda is to visit a place near the Lower Tha Chin River. This place I can only describe as some sort of eco centre. It a network of paths, little rivers, fish farms and lots of plants with fruit growing on them. There is also a big pond with lots of frogs sitting peacefully. It was only us 4 and the people who work there building and maintaining the place. The photos will do the place justice.

We had local food by a nearby river for 40 baht (80p). Pork balls and noodles was chosen with water. Desert was the two types of fruit we had earlier, plus another new type that was very slimey and smelled really cheesey BUT tasted ok! Headed back to pick up our laundry and book tomorrow.

Dinner was had in Mister Donut followed by some market browsing.

All for now


below: our hostel

below: on our way to the fruit farm

below: us being given fruit

below: fruit picking

below: the eco centre place

below: meatballs. AF wasn't happy with the amount of flies about!

 below: Chumphon in the evening

Thailand - Bangkok to Chumphon on the train

We got the 0805 train from Bangkok station. It arrived at 0810 so we left 20 mins late. The train was a 2 car diesel sprinter. We were shown to our seats by the hostess. The seats were a old style leather but the best part was the seats didn't even feel secured to the floor of the train! The train was half full as it picks up along the route. It does a 9 hour journey to Surat Thani in the south, we were to get off slightly more north at Chumphon. A bit more about the train... it has at least 1 driver, a hostess, a ticket inspector/security man and a cleaner. Luckily both carriages have air con and fans. We were treated to coffee, pastries and lunch.

The journey had spectacular scenery. After going through central Bangkok we passed through the suburbs and then into rural Thailand. The train ride was very bumpy and often had to stop when cattle wondered across the line. The horn of the train became more frequent and longer the more reluctant the cow was to move out the way... luckily no collisions occured. Chumphon was reached at 1419.

We walked 10 mins to our hostel - Salsa Hostel. It is a very clean and tidy place run by friendly people. A 4 person dorm room with 2 bunk beds does the job. After dropping out bags off in the room we take a wonder around town. As virtually the only non locals we stand out like a sore thumb. The locals do stare at us but not in a menacing way. We bump into a German traveller Bastian who arrived on the same train as us. After a KFC we head back to the hostel for beers in the front bar.

Bastian later walks past our hostel bar and we spend a few hours chilling over a few beers.

below: our train arriving into Bangkok (late)

below: Second class air conditioning! Oh and me with no hair.

below: leaving Bangkok

below: rural Thailand

below: Chumphon! The walk into town from the train station takes you via a couple of old steam trains in the middle of the road.

below: Chumphon

below: Chumphon rail station

Thailand - Bangkok day 5 - change of plan

After a painfully early start we found the train from Bangkok Station to Chumphon (6 hours - 800 mi) was fully booked. After debating whether to wait 10+ hours for the night train or not we decided to check in to a local hotel nearby and get the train the following morning.

A last minute room was found in a very posh hotel nearby called the Prince's Palace Hotel. The map made the hotel look about 5-10 min away so we set off with rucksacks in the heat. In fact the walk took a good 45 mins. We found the hotel in a market area near a river. It was a very grand 32 storey building. We later learned the Royal Princess was visiting the same day as us.

We found our room on the 28th floor with a fantastic view of Bangkok. After a visit to the hotel's posh restaurant we had a nap. After a good recharge we decided it would be a good idea to do a DIY haircut as we had a good mirror and a power socket nearby. Although I had mine cut 2 weeks ago for my sister's wedding I thought I might aswell seize this opportunity to have a trim. I made a bit of a hash of it so decided to start from scratch (see photo). Dave is also sporting a new look while Adam played it safe. Needless to say when we returned to the same restaurant for dinner the people who had greeted us earlier must have been thinking 'what on earth have they been doing?!'.

We had post dinner beers around the pool on the 11th floor overlooking Bangkok. Bliss.

below: after a long walk in the blistering sun we finally got a glimpse of the hotel!

below: the swimming pool seen from one of the restaurants. Looks a bit like titanic??

below: the view of Bangkok from our room

Thailand - Bangkok day 4 - River Boat ride

As we didn't get to sleep til 3am (due to a late night coffee and general hyperness) we overslept again. We had breakfast in the hotel for once then went up for the usual morning swim. Today's time in the pool included:
i) a long conversation in the deep end about future haircuts (see future photos) we might sport on our travels.
ii) Adam sitting on the jet stream and a minute later us finding a waterboatman in the pool. Or what we thought was a waterboatman...
iii) who can hold their breath for longest underwater. (AF 18 secs, DG 24 secs, me 30 secs).

As there was no plan for today I suggested a boat ride on the major river in Bangkok - the Chao Phraya River. This had been recommended by the couple in the Jazz bar a few days ago.

We left the hotel just after swim and lunch when all of a sudden it started raining really heavily. Our original plan was to Sky Train it to the end of the line (missing out congestion) then taxi it to the port. Instead we ran to a nearby taxi and told him to take us to the Chao Phraya River. Rat running parallel to the BTS line we then went down a dodgy looking road and could see the river at the end of it. I had intended to go to the built up ports with big boats, not a pot holed road with dogs and a little wooden boat. Anyway we spoke to the boat people who originally quoted 2100baht. I thought this was a barter moment so said 1500baht which was agreed straight away.. So we set off just the 3 of us plus the 'captain'.

The river was a lot more choppy than we thought. We were bumping up and down which made a worrying noise, this was mainly due to the weather but also because of the big tourist boats creating waves. After ten minutes of guessing how far it would take to swim to the bank if the boat broke we turned off the main river and down a smaller one. The next 35mins involved navigating the small canals which was a stark difference from the main river with skyscrapers, bridges and big tourist cruisers. We saw peoples' riverhouses (mainly neglected), the closed night markets, kids swimming in the river and even an aligator/lizard creature. A slight worrying moment was when AF thought he saw a man's head bobbing up and down in the water but fortunately this turned out to be a hairy coconut.

After a quick blast down to the main river we returned to port. We thanked the people but as we didn't have any money for a taxi we had to walk (quickly) through some poor neighbourhoods. We found a MRT station (underground) and headed to the nearest  BTS Sky Train station. We got off a few stops down the line and entered a big department store. At the top floor we found the 'Foodloft' which served all sorts of food and drinks. The eating area comprised comfy seats, lots of waiters, lots of water features and a great view of the skyscrapers (hotels, malls and banks), BTS and main road. We reflected how we had seen extreme poverty and were now experiencing such wealth in such a short time.

We Sky Traind back and are now getting ready for tomorrow's early train journey down south to Chumphon. 

below: DG holding on for dear life.

below: entering the small canals

below: feeding time for the fish

below: overgrown river houses

                                          below: back on the choppy Chao Phraya

below: as the locals keep secretly taking photos of us on their phones and giggling we have started doing it back 

below: Foodloft in department store with view

Thailand - Bangkok day 3 - Temple of the Emerald Buddha

After breakfast we went in the pool. Todays pool was different in that we were in it during a very heavy rainfall!

Visited the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace. It was a 50min taxi ride in bumper to bumper traffic which cost 1.15 baht (GBP2.30). We had to wear trousers, socks and trainers so we found it quite tough with the heat. A university had graduation that day and lots of students were in the grounds. I got someone to take a photo of me and DG, and everyone nearby was photoing us on their cameras too! Several students also requested photos next to me (as I'm the tallest I think).

After a long walk around the surrounding roads of the Palace we stumbled across Khao San Road, which is a well known tourist hub. I thought it was overated and somewhere I'd go to again unless I was after a cheap suit. One of the suit floggers commented I needed a new shirt, cheeky git! We stopped off halfway down the street for a beer to watch the world go by for an hour or so.

We got a taxi back to the big mall and had dinner there. A Hong Kong restaurant was chosen which had an excellent variety of seafood and meats. We then slowly wondered back to the hotel. I am now on the PC planning our journey on a sleeper train down south.

Thailand - Bangkok day 2 - Pool and Margharitas

So far spent the day by the pool lounging about and swimming.

We plan to go to the Emperor's Palace soon and maybe a river boat ride.

All for now.

continued....

After a good 4 hours swimming, lounging about and getting burnt we got ready for the Temple of the Emerald Buddha only to find it shuts mid afternoon. Instead we got the BTS in the opposite direction we usually go and wondered around an American style park. As we hadn't eaten for 10 hours we retreated into a Mexican restaurant overlooking the busy street/road/BTS. Here we had a great meal and enjoyed the free margahitas. We then got one of the last BTS back at 11pm.

*** today from DG's view (snippet from his blog) ***

Up early in the Thai heat and off to the local supermarket to grab some breakkie; I don't know how the locals can survive this heat on the way to work.

Today was spent in and out of the pool, with coffee breaks on the sun loungers.  Smithy has been voted as the sun cream man and he has to keep rubbing suncream into Adam's back (although not very successfully as Adam has a burnt back).  In return Adam did help apply cream to Smith, however he has now developed a strange burnt pattern, resembling Adam's hand/fingers.

Smithy, who seems to be a viewed as the perfect male specimen in Asia, was continually wolfwhistled by the cleaners of a neighbouring overlooking hotel, as they made their way up each hotel floor.  He decided the best response to was to flex his muscles at them.

We decided to head out and find food as we had not eaten lunch. We headed out to unknown parts by way of Sky train, and found a mexican restaurant which looked airconditioned.  We had all stupidly decided to wear trousersand, coupled with a 10 hour starvation period, were almost about to pass out in the heat.  So we decided to scratch the 'local food only' rule and get a fajita.  Smithy tucked into his with delight, which soon turned horror when he realised he hadn't washed his hands (germs are proper nasty over here).  This was hilarious for Adam & I.

Adam then realised he had been drinking water which included local ice; he didn't seem impressed.

The waitress and the staff were very friendly (although Thai's don't make very convincing mexican waitresses), and we asked to have our photo taken with her. Photo to follow.

We were drinking beer at 60 baht (1GBP) a bottle and were provided with glass after glass of free margarita.

Thailand - Bangkok day 1

We arrived in Bangkok about 7pm on Wed night. The two flights and the couple hours break in Dubai went well. The A380 flight from London to Dubai was very comfortable and smooth during takeoff/landing.

We got to our hotel fine last night. We ventured out for a beer and then had an earlyish night. Our hotel is on a dodgy road but it is nice inside. We are here til Monday then wil venture out of Bangkok.

Today (Thurs) we explored Bangkok and the culture. Kicking off the day in Starbucks we soon got on the Skyrail - an elevated metro system. We headed to the main shopping areas. Explored a massive mall and walked to the sports stadiums. We went in a massive mall with an enormous amount of shops and restaurants. We had a nice a nice meal and drink for the equivilent of GBP1.40.

Anyway we are now back at the hotel having a recharge, will go in the pool in a min and head out this evening.

Over and out.

continued....

After a few lengths in the pool we had dinner in our hotel. We had local food and 'light beers'. We are picking up some phrases and we are perfecting the little bow when saying hello/goodbye. We then headed out to the Skytrain (BTS - Bangkok Train Sky) to Victoria Monument a few stops down the line. I had decided I wanted to check out a live jazz bar and this had been recommended. It was called Saxophone Pub, located next to a big market place and under the BTS station. It has two floors so is reasonably big. We were seated to our table and ordered 3 beers. The room place was cosy, warm, had great music and an even better atmosphere. A Thai couple next to us started talking to us - asking us where we were from etc. We asked them for information and top tips too. Turns out the man went to uni in the UK in Hastings years ago! A few hours later we left. As the BTS was closed we got a taxi back (57 baht), which was cheaper than the BTS anyway (90 baht for 3 of us) !

We leave Bangkok Monday so internet/blog may be limited for a while. Photos are in the pipeline but this hotel PC doesn't have SD card slot. Watch this space.