Bangkok

After a long and extremely uncomfortable flight from Heathrow to Bangkok our eagerly anticipated journey had began...

I traveled with my two close friends, Nathan and Jordan. Admittedly we were all novices when it came to Asian culture and none of us had any real traveling experience. Our first mistake was getting in to a taxi without finding out basic fare pricing.... To cut a long (embarrassing) story short, we paid three times too much and got dropped off at a British pub which was without doubt the most expensive pub in Thailand. Luckily for us we learned quickly and got educated by a fellow Brit in a small British pub close to the hotel we stayed in.

The view from our hotel (day and night). **Ignore the dates it was 01/08/2010

Once settled we ventured out into the big city and after a couple of hours the wonderful scented haze of sewage/street food/car fumes/damp became a touch more bearable. Rather than get stuck into the Thai cuisine on the first night we instead played it safe with a universal fast food choice....

Don't judge us yet, we were very hungry and did not want to take any chances so early on. We also found this employee of the month display very cool...

Many crazy things happened that night including a lot of drinking, partying and somehow being tricked into ending up in a lady boy strip club. We did not find ourselves in the strip club by choice... we were horribly mislead by two English lads who initially branded it as 'The Best Night Club In Bangkok'. The worst part of this story is that it took us about 5 minutes to realise that every 'lady' was in fact a man..... Luckily for myself, Jordan and Nathan we were controlled and didn't find out the hard way! We could not say the same for the two English lads, who both remained at the club when we left....

Eventually in the early hours we hopped on to a Tuck Tuck taxi and headed home fantasising  about our month ahead.

Koh Samui

After an incredible night in Bangkok it was time to move on. We headed to Bangkok train station to get our tickets sorted (we were too tight to fly). The conditions at the station were almost inhumane. The toilets consisted of filthy squats, the seating area appeared to have a layer of dirt covering it and we even saw a policeman pushing and throwing water on a mentally disturbed woman who was nervously hiding behind a newspaper advert board.

Anyway enough of Bangkok.... On to the Islands!!

We booked an overnight train, boat and taxi all on the same ticket for a very low fee, sorted!

At night our seats folded out into bunk beds, clearly by the shot above we were very impressed.

20 or so hours later we arrived in Koh Samui with no plan of where to head next. We left the decision to our taxi driver and he took us to a place called Lamei. Later we would find out this decision would be our downfall......

On arrival we booked a few nights stay in a 3 bed bungalow about 100 meters from the beach, perfect! We found a friendly bar owned by an Australian and his Thai wife where we spent the next few nights.

The nightlife was good but consisted mostly of Go Go bars and one nightclub, throughout the holiday our hate for Go Go bars grew stronger. Here is a shot from the night club we found,

Aside from constant partying we often risked our lives on the back of mopeds on the unpredictable Thai roads. In brief I was well out of my comfort zone on a moped over there, falling off a considerable number of times.... Jordan and Nathan found this hilarious!

On the second or third night we decided to try out a local seafood restaurant, surely an unmissable opportunity to experience freshly caught luxury Thai cuisine. We ate lobster, crab, prawns, sea bass and oysters.

The food was incredible and really did taste as good as it looked. Unfortunately now I must refer back to a statement I made earlier on in the blog.....'Later we would find out this decision would be our downfall'

I spent 4 days in hospital joined for 2 days by Jordan. Meanwhile Nathan soldiered on finding out vital information about our next destination..... Chaweng!

Chaweng

After recovering from food poisoning we packed up and headed to Chaweng. After a short taxi ride that included pricing up a few hotels and hostels we found the right place. It was a small 3 bed apartment situated at the bottom of the main shopping strip.

This location meant venturing out in the day and night was very easy for us. During the days the streets were swimmingly busy with tourists from all over the world bartering with shop workers and distinct offers of 'massage' coming from ladies outside the many massage parlours.

In the night Chaweng became a completely different place with endless numbers of bars and restaurants lighting up the the never ending strip. The first bar we visited had an amazing rock tribute band with a female lead singer who honoured every hit almost perfectly.

Further down the strip we entered the clubbing zone and we dropped the beers for something slightly more... exotic,

To our taste buds it seemed as though these buckets consisted of about 60% vodka, wow!!

On the third night we went to a huge night on the Island called, 'The Black Moon Party'. This was a perfect warm up for the world famous 'Full Moon Party' (which we will go on to discuss in later blogs).

After a brilliant few days in Chaweng it was time to move on to another island, Koh Phi Phi!

Phi Phi

Now on to a quieter part of Thailand, Phi Phi!! But first I have to share with you a couple of wonderful views en route to the peaceful island.

 

 The boat trip was extremely long and bumpy so the breathtaking views really made some parts of the journey a real pleasure to take our minds of it.

On arrival in Phi Phi we were bombarded by Thai hotel reps all fighting to get our custom. We were tired and took the first offer, ending up in an absolute dire joint where we spent one night only. The next day after a small venture we found luxury bungalows by the beach for a small amount extra.

The bungalows were air conditioned with satellite TV and comfy beds, not to mention being situated about 100 meters from the beach. Phi Phi was a more peaceful location with no cars or roads, just push bikes and smalls walks necessary. Night life on the other hand was wild with limbo competitions and late night beach parties every night.

Before hitting the beach we would enjoy a crate of cold Changs to warm up for the mayhem that would usually be in store for us. After a couple of days we decided to venture out to a famous island named simply, 'Monkey Island'. A lot of people chose to hop on a boat taxi, we decided to Kayak..

 

The monkeys were very friendly, perhaps too friendly. You would be a fool to leave your belongings unattended as they were able to open backpacks, food packets and were even able to open closed bottles to drink out of.

Contrary to wild monkeys we also came across a civilised monkey on the main strip,

Unfortunately this was the only photograph we could take because they wanted money from us to take anymore.

Despite drinking and partying every night in Phi Phi it was still quite a quiet scene compared to the other locations and often left us plenty of time to just sit back relax and reflect...

Full Moon Party

On arrival we checked straight in to the highly recommended Coral Bungalows. It was such a great place to stay with regular pool parties, all day breakfast, 5 meters from the beach and Thai members of staff trained to speak in a cockney accent, brilliant!

Linn (above) was such a great guy constantly getting involved with the party and winding us all up.

We spent most of our nights with Irish lads either in the pool all day or playing in the beach football tournaments. On the second day on the Island we ventured to the famous 'Mushroom Mountain' to see what all the fuss was about... The mountain overlooked the main beach in Koh Phangan and sold regular mushroom shakes that would turn reality into some sort of dream world for hours and hours.... (that is a story for another day). Below is a picture of the view from the mountain.

On the night of the Full Moon party we went for pre drinks with a group of German lads we had met. These guys were great fun and not to mention a little bit crazy. They taught us a number of German drinking games thus leaving us all in quite a wild state as we headed to the party.

 

Unfortunately we never took any contact details from these guys but at least we were able to share such a wild night out together.... Anyway back to the Full Moon party...

On arrival we were led to believe there was up to 18,000 attending, the idea of this was insane and once on the beach it felt as though we could see people for miles and miles. The first thing to happen at the party was to get swarmed by a couple of Thai girls who were very 'hands on'. We were suspicious of these girls as the party had a reputation for pick pockets so we held on to our wallets in our hands.

The two main ways to blow cash was by spending on vodka buckets or on glow paint.

This was surely the wildest party I have ever been to or will ever go to. We spent most of the night either bouncing to the loud music, skipping over fire ropes or losing count of how many buckets we had consumed. A constant error we kept making was stopping and talking to meet new people and in a flash losing each other one by one. Need I point out if we lost one another it would be an almost impossible task to find each other again, therefore clinging on to new friends was vital for a fun night.

After about 9 hours of wild partying it was time to head back to Coral to ensure catching our early morning trip back to Bangkok. A fantastic end to what was truly the holiday of a lifetime.