Into Thailand!

Saturday 27th July

Our time in Cambodia had drawn to a close and an early 5am start welcomed another long haul of travelling. We took a 'minivan' from Siem Reap across the border to Bangkok. The journey wasn't too bad - obviously we set off later than we should have because we were in Cambodia and nothing occurs on time here (one evening we were waiting ages for our drinks to come, AFTER we had finished our main courses - which obviously all arrived at conpletely different times). We were glad to have taken the earlier bus though, as crossing the border was fairly quick and easy. People everywhere always try to get money out of you and we had to wait at a conveniently placed cafe for half an hour whilst we changed buses. The second leg of the journey to Bangkok was also alright and we both managed to catch up on some sleep. 

We arrived in Bangkok mid afternoon - a surreal array of civilisation and multicultural refreshment welcomed us, contrasting from the beautiful rural Cambodia we had just left behind. 

I thought we would have plenty of time to casually wonder the streets and see a little bit of Bangkok at a leisurely pace. But as we left the hotel where we dumped our bags, a torrential downpour hit the city and we got soaking wet, desperate to find the Lomprayah  office to book our bus and ferry ticket.  

Nothing is ever simple and I ended up having some trouble with my debit card, which got blocked after I tried withdrawing cash. However, having hardly used my phone for a few weeks I didn't think to check if my bank had tried calling. And sure enough they had...a missed call, text message and answer phone message about checking fraud; leaving me to call them back. Great. Another expensive phone bill to treat myself to. So after stressing all afternoon, turns out it may be safer not to use that bank card at all - off I went to an Internet cafe to transfer money to my other card. 

So in the end I didn't really get to see a lot of Bangkok, but I did get the gist of things whilst rushing around trying to sort everything out.

We took the night bus at 9pm from Bangkok down to Chumphon - a wobbly double decker, in which we moved seats three times - Jessye thought she would fall out the seat and down the stairs at one point!

Sunday 28th July 

Arriving at Chumphon, just gone 5am, we had a couple of hours until the ferry departed, so were able to watch the 'sunrise' over the bay (I didn't actually see the SUN, it just kind of got lighter...)

One ferry journey later and we finally arrived on the island of Koh Tao!! 

This island is a little slice of paradise! 

Although the main port and high street is home to many taxi drivers trying to offer you a ride, our beach is a bit quieter and we can generally wonder about without being too hassled. 

We were glad to have booked accommodation for the first night, as everywhere was full when we looked around! But we were tucked up in a mountain view room, so aimed to find a beach bungalow for another night.

After sorting ourselves out, we had dinner in a beachfront restaurant with spectacular views. Then a bit of cultural entertainment in the evening with the 'queen cabaret' (lady boy) show. 

Monday 29th July

We took a snorkelling day trip around the island and stopped off at 5 bays. The waters are crystal clear here and we saw so many beautiful corals and tropical fish, sometimes completely surrounding you - it was incredible! I really wish I had an underwater camera, it was unbelievable and we definitely want to re-visit a couple of the spots before we leave. 

On return, we found parts of our bodies red raw with sunburn - my back is the pattern of the life jacket I wore and our legs denote where our bikini bottoms were. We thought we reapplied sun cream enough times, but obviously not :-( I am VERY sore indeed.)

In the evening we headed out to an Auzzy bar for live music and 241 alcohol buckets. It was a nice atmosphere, and a couple of hours later, the bar crawl crowd arrived. Conclusion - there seem to be a lot of Irish people on Koh Tao!

We moved on to a couple more bars, saw lots of fire shows, and danced the night away. 

Tuesday 30th July

After a painful nights sleep on my stinging sunburnt back, we had to check out of our accommodation in attempt to find our bungalow. We managed to get one a short walk from the beach :-) 

.......and........relax! Finally - time to just lie on the beach and read (or fall asleep due to the late night before...) so serene.