Its a small world

Hallo everyone,

Platten here, thought i'd let you all in on our next moves. Still in Ko Phangnan, moved down to Thongsala which is where the ferry port is, staying here tonight and leaving tomorrow morning. Originally we were going to check out Ko Tao, which is good for snorkelling and i really wanted to try it out there, also recommend by my good pal chloe. Unfortunately, prices have gone up to get there AND the weather/sea's are not in the best condition to get across on the boats, i think the woman actaully said "very dangerous, might get stuck on there yah? have to stay there for long time hahahahaha" i didn't find it nearly as funny as she did, but took her advice and thinking about making our way down south. Trying to find the best route, looking like the night train from surat thani - songkla - malaysia but need to check if those places are still ok to travel through.

Last night at our little remote bungalow place i had a strange encounter, bearing in mind, adam and myself have met only a couple of brits since being here let alone peeps from east anglia, most tourists/travellers appear to be german, aussie or brazillan at the moment. Anyways, sitting waiting for the norwich game to come on and this bloke opposite us starts making convo and we ask him ... "where abouts you from mate?" he says "oh erh place in england, probably not heard of it.....great yarmouth" "i'm from there!!!" i said, a bit over enthusiastically, probably the only time i have sounded enthusiastic about being from GY, "well actually its gorleston to be precise" he says........"no way i'm from gorleston!!!!" turns out he lives near the kevil arms on church road, literally 5 minute walk from my house, this may not seem like a big deal but being out here for a month and barely even overhearing a british accent and then that happens! Its a small world.
So things i miss about britain that i didn't think i would.......Queuing, what an excellent idea, it's ok if you are near the back of a queue, because at least you have that faith and certainty that your time will come! even in small convinient stores here, people do not queue - my inner brit found this hard to deal with at first but i'm learning to be a pusher (queue pusher, not drugs obviously). Orange juice, stuff here just tastes vile - can't even describe it. Oh yeah and toilet paper, they do sell it but like a few sheets for a fiver, i know that tradionally its all about the hand and scooping some water up, which is fine, if you install and sink for afterwards to wash your hands, if not....well green poo happens basically. So essentials for me have become hand sanitizer, tissue and mozzie spray, gone are the days my friends where eyeliner and lipgloss being top priorites in my bag!
This may all be a bit boring to read, but its good talking about the normal stuff. Other than that, everything is fantastic, weather is bliss, food is great and the people are friendly.
Really feel that we have had a good taste of southern thailand and "island life" really now looking forward to getting stuck into malaysia which is very different apparently. Kuala lumpa is where we are heading but stopping at few places on the way, which we will keep you informed on.
Until then, bye for now and have fun getting ready for christmas!!  Have some mulled wine for us, in a nice warm pub.
Love amy xxxxx

Ko Phangan, and the curse of the green poo

so er what day is it ah its Friday again yes last weekend we watched the match...and on sunday went on a mammoth walk to see the most amazing waterfall it was a hard core to get up and see it but it was beautiful.

at this point i must ad that since coming to Thailand i have been embracing all the Thai curries on offer the hotter the better i have absolutley loved them the diffrent flavours the levels of spices the texture absolutley loving it or so i thought as i drifted to sleep in our little wooden shack on sunday night.

i was woken quite rudely by an animated thai lady saying we are late for our taxi to the Boat to Ko Phangan. bleary eyed i explained that we werent and showed her the time that was written on our ticket she just smiled and said "you are late"  so tired and flustered we sat at the pier for 3 hours waiting to set sail for Ko phangan on that Monday morning, the party island and all that jazz and by the look of the clientile on the boat it felt like entering a pams house event. the boat ride was 30 minutes long but felt like a lifetime the boat went up and down like a bleedin rollercoaster water splashed into my emotionless face Amy got a picture ever the opportunist

luckily we found this excellent place to stay on the west coast of  the island called Sea View Rainbow, Srithani, The guy there welcomed us warmly " my brother my sister welcome" he spoke great english and gave stimulating conversation on life language and the fast and furious(maybe the last one wasnt so good but i couldnt tell him).

so two days went by the most relaxing tranquil place we have stayed  everyone says hello its like a small community white sands and the sea which the owner encourages us to swim in " enjoy my swimming pool" he often says. We even have a hammock on a veranda me and amy both get in and read together its so relaxing all was going so well i even said as much.

Tuesday night i became extremey hot " as hot as the sun" infact i didnt sleep a wink all night i couldn't move and i had stomach cramps, the next morning Amy had to get me to a hospital yes i know what your thinking drama queen, we got to Hospital and i had to wait an hour for the doctor to arrive i started to sweat alot but my stomach was now unbearable. and i was getting quite alot of looks from the hospital staff, i think i must have looked a mess, the doctor to her credit covered all bases and gave me quite a cocktail of tablets i couldn't wait to get back to sea view and slump in pain on my bed

my favourite hang outs for the next 2 days were the bed and the toilet Amy become my personal nurse monitoring temperature and giving me the tablets at the right times. my Poo was green and it was a really poo time in my life we were both really worried and i have to be honest its the first time ive missed home.

But lucky for me Amy is the most amazing woman i have ever met and she will hate me for saying it on here but i love her very much.

i could go into more detail but i dont think we need to it simply was draining and a experience that makes you appreciate how important your health is i suppose.

so im on the mend now and And Amy is livin la vida loca the sails are back up and we will be moving on again on saturday.

i hope you are all well

yours .... lethargically

Adam

Phuket to Ko samui by any means i mean by a bus

So Phuket I place where the main objective was to avoid people who want to make money from tourists a place full of large buildings and mcdonalds(and we had one).

a place where everyone could potential be a taxi driver at times it felt like i had entered the matrix For example you look at some one and they would transform into a taxi driver... we did see a Big Buddha though.

We spent two nights in Phuket before getting on a bus and ferry to Ko Samui i had the pleasure of putting the world to rights with a mexican fellow on right whilst Amy tucked into book after 8 sweaty hours later we arrived in Ko sammooee( i have been saying it this way as i can imagine Norfolk folk would say this as i am so funny lol)

we arrived at a place called Lamai and went over a rickety bridge to a place called New hut.... it is superb for the price of 6 pounds a night we have this wooden hut which as you open the door you are standing on sand and 10 metres from the sea!!

So that kinda leads me up to today and can i just apologise if i sound a tad american they are like everywhere and im like so worried it may rub off on me.

today we took in the sun and went in the sea when it got to hot... when suddenly it dawned on me that Norwich are playing Arsenal tomorrow so we set off on a mission that Amy enthusiastically lead us on... I can confirm we were succesfully on this mission  the outback bar will be showing the game( the bar is how its sounds)

shortly after this still buoyed by the exciting news we embarked on a massive trek to see some rather unusual rock formations pictures to follow.

hope everyone is well back home have a cracking weekend

kick it off!

Phi Phi

Greetings

Just spent 4 nights in Ko Phi Phi, back to reality after Ko Lanta. Really enjoyed our time there, indulging in western food! The island was pretty at ground level but managed to actually climb to the top of the island's mountains and see from up above - stunning. The walk up was the most excercise i have EVER done, there were about 10 signs just saying "view point this way" and it was never-ending, almost broke down half way up but my inner athlete kept pushing me forward.
Whilst in Phi Phi we visited the smaller southern island Phi Phi Leh which is where "the beach" was filmed, as a die hard Leo fan, i had to check it out even though i knew it would be full of tourists and not really unique in any way. The boat ride to the island was spectacular and we had some nice people on there to chat to also, stopped off to snorkel in a couple of bays/lagoons and saw some cool fish and stopped at monkey bay which is self explanatory-lots of monkeys pissing about. The beach from "the beach" was what i expected but worth the trip, no sign of Leo though - they tricked me by super imposing his head on someones body on the advertising poster. We stayed in a bamboo hut for the 4 nights in phi phi, first time we whipped out our mozzie net (thanks jonny & helen pep, you saved our skins that night) few cockroaches but all in all a really cool place to stay.
Just arrived in Phuket, its er......different, don't think we will be staying here too long and off to Ko Samui and Ko pang ngan next.
Oh and sat next to a group of gay Israeli guys at dinner last night, the leader of the pack WAS in fact "Bruno" i swear!! hillariously entertaining us.
May have missed some stuff out but am pretty exhausted whilst writing this, 4 nights in a hut have taken its toll! Hope all is good in Blightly, missing you all xxx

P.s staying in phuket town, before we found the hostel we are now in, we checked out this other place called "P.s inn" the most horrific place i have ever been! there was barely a ceiling, if i can find a link or something i will post it, should have taken pictures, the staff looked confused when we said we would look elsewhere haha.

koh Lanta

hello there hows it going?

we arrived in Koh lanta in good spirits after some good chat with an Israeli and Germany couple i didn't enjoy the monkey stories though it seems us westerns naively feed and stroke monkeys only for the monkeys to bite a tourist in Phi Phi- monkey island note to tourist Monkeys are a wild animal not a toy anyway, We left them to check into a beach bungalow half way down island. Now at this point i have to say we had a funny old day. First taking in the breathtaking views and sunbathing whilst watching this crabs that comically entertained us with a speedy change of direction ducking and diving into make shift dens to hide.... maybe they knew some thing we didn't.

we enjoyed a relaxing meal followed by a romantic walk along the sand then from the shadows i saw something running towards Amy i bravely put myself in between Amy and the Animal. My mind came to the conclusion in fact i was sure it was a monkey i let out a girly scream( people who have watched horror films with me will know this scream)

we started to run and i didn't look back lucky Amy did and tried to reassure me because the mysterious animal was in fact a pet cat... Amy then fell over in the sea as i came to terms with the news. my story doesn't do it justice if you would have seen us we liked a right state well i did for sure

we then had to stay up all night as the almighty finale of the rainy season hit Koh Lanta with a bang. The Thunderstorm was massive it felt like our bungalow was shaking the rain wouldn't let up for 5 hours. the light display was better than tusting close and the thunderstorm was even bigger than the great thunderstorm of 2001 Cromer carnival.

we spent one last night there which was less dramatic very chilled place

then on to Klong Dao Beach absolutley unbelievable sea sun lovely long beach with a back drop of palm trees and mountains in the back ground in the distance we can see Phi Phi where we are heading next,

i dont know what else to say really we have to get pics on soon in the mean time google image the beach as im off for another swim

wish you were here

Adam

Ok, so day 3 in Krabi-booked a small tour for some local sights. Early start and breakfast at the hostel toast and coffee (black) still need to learn "is the milk pasteurised"?!?! Anyway, we were the only brits in our group of 9, the others were estonian and italian (tough crowd) Adam tried to make convo but i just ignored them, i find that the best way to deal with foreigners (joke).

First sight was "tiger cave temple" loads of buddhist monks hang out here and live basically in the trees in huts, they (along with the locals) worship this temple and think its amazing, i thought it was "very good" my highlight spotting a mammoth spider! which i will upload the photo, it was definitely the biggest in the world, sorry jen jen and mum. I pointed it out to the italian lady who replied "mama mia!" yeah they do actually say that in real life.

Second stop was Emerald crystal pool, this completely natural spa with blue waters and the most amazing backdrop of mountains in mist, the rocks were very slippery and i fell over, in a bi-kini, in front of a lot of people.

Third stop was my fave, hot spring waterfalls, again a natural spot of lagoons of hot water at 40degrees, where we were advised to spend 20minutes, i think i managed 5, can't really complain as the guide did say that the water is "verwy verwy hot" then you slide down various mini waterfalls into a cool water area at the bottom, this was beautiful with natural rope swings hanging from the trees. We ate lunch after this in a kind of tree house but not in a tree, green curry and rice, i did my best to eat a lot of it but my bowels were regulary reminding me that i was in a tree house, in the middle of the jungle eating chicken, and i saw NO cooker. 

Lastly! we rode some elephants, truly horrifyingly spectacular. We couldn't work out if we thought it was a bit wrong to strap seats to the elephants back and then hit them on the head with a.....well a crow bar every now and then BUT we paid for it so we got our moneys worth......ha again just kidding.....Then we saw a baby elephant called Coco, he was mega cute and they taught him to clap, i would upload me and coco but i look horrific in the picture.

So, there you go. Here tomorrow but off to Koh Lanta on sunday.

P.s we saw a brown snake too, apparently deadly but our elephant guide just laughed the little cretin off, adam, i think papped himself.

Until next time, love amy xxx

sewatdee

so this is it After 20 hours flying we arrive in Krabi yesterday.

the journey was ok. I sat next to a slightly racist spaniard who found it highly amusing to put a cloth round his head every now and then on a arab airline To his amigos down the carriage who found it highly amusing. but the old alfredo did lend us  a pen....lets take the positive.

The highlight of the flight has to be waiting in amman in Jordan for our flight here. What a fantastic mix of people one of wish was a tough looking arab with a soft side yes my friends and family as his phone rang his ring tone was george micheals careless whisper...... smooth.

so once in Bangkok we were straight on another flight to Krabi,i had the pleasure of seating next to some newly wed aussies as Amy slept over the walk away bloody oath. everything was heaps good!

So on arrival in Krabi my limited Thai enabled me to get 50 baht off the taxi ride
limited thai= how much+ never mind

The good dream at Krabi has been excellent so far thanks Naomi and Gary for recommendation our thoughts are with you.

1st night we walked down to the night market but passed on the crickets. Amy then brought my attention to father son duo that whos performances gathered such a crowd with the music they had been playing. As we inspected further they were both severely disabled and it beggared believed that most of the audience stood there laughing. But they certainly  deserved my money.

we then went on to watch a rock concert great performance from the man in the pink trousers. As we walked on it would have been rude not to pop into a bar were a band was performing bob Marley classics on request  they played u2 with or without for us which was nice.

3 hours in Krabi sanok mak
(im having fun)
 

today Thursday 3rd November

got up at 1:00pm jet lag for once Amy was getting me up we went straight to eat were I ate the best red thai curry for 50p moo mak mak indeed
 we went for a walk and got caught in the heavy downpours which was refreshing to be honest... went have highlighted what we want to do next so we are all booked for tomorrow to see tiger temple and emerald bay plus hot springs we cant wait . we will also be heading to koh lanta on Sunday then we will go on to explore all the islands. we have settled in well i hope this is an ok read

khub kuhn krab

Adam