Pai

It is very nearly the end of our travels in Thailand (or is it... I shall come back to this shortly) and I can't believe that nearly a month has flown by. My lack of entries hopefully implies that we have been busy doing things most of the time (true) and not that we begrudged paying the internet fee (sort of true but we do have a budget to consider after all!)
Tomorrow we leave for the the border with Laos for our next venture into unknown waters and it is about time that I share some of our experiences of this fantastic country.

Bangkok 18/04- 21/04

A lot of the time in Bangkok was spent sleeping, avoiding torrential downpours and eating cheap and delicious food. Bangkok is a huge and rather crazy place and to do it justice you need to base yourself in a particular area then explore around on foot (traffic is silly); once you're done there- move on to another area. With only 3 days we didn't really get out to see much, we felt we had to do Khao San Road and actually quite liked it, yes it is completely farang orientated but it does have a certain honesty about itself too. We managed to resist the buckets of "very strong" cocktails and settled for eating at a street stall (scrumptious and a bargain at 30 baht for a good meal- that's 50p to me and you!) The other main site that we saw was Wat Po with the reclining Buddha, quite impressive! An interesting highlight was meeting a couple of genuine hippies (Chuck hadn't shaved since he graduated from high school in the early 60s and had a big old beard on him!) and going for a meal with them, I was expecting more wild and wonderful stories but maybe they have been lost in the mists of time (and other indulgences)!

Tonsai beach, Krabi Province, 22/04- 30/04

Took a 12 hour overnight government 4th class bus from Bangkok to Krabi and was extremely impressed with the service; you get snacks, drink, blanket and a meal all for the equivalent of 10 pounds to travel 600 kms (a bit more than that as driver managed to get himself a bit lost!) From Krabi it was a taxi ride then a longtail boat ride to Tonsai beach, have already started bargaining and knocked our longtail driver down a baht or two! At Tonsai we wondered about and plucked for the cheapest accommodation we could find for the moment, a dark bamboo hut, then went to find a climbing school. We went for Wee's Climbing school as had had some previous contact by email and they seemed professional, once there we found ourselves getting fitted into harnesses and shoes ready to do a half day that very afternoon! No matter that we hadn't really slept or eaten, "no problem buddy" a phrase we were to hear very often. This began our 3 day climbing course that actually spanned 6 days, it also began our friendship with Neung (our instructor) and later with Jesse (a Dutch guy that joined us) To go into too much detail would take far too long; suffice to say it was a great experience which left me covered in dozens of bruises but able to lead climb by the end- quite an achievement for me! A final thrill was going for a deep water soloing day out (where you climb up rock without a rope then jump into deep water) unfortunately it wasn't very thrilling for me as I couldn't get up the rope to begin the climbing so was taken around the corner for some shallow water soloing instead! Chris managed to get up about 8m, I only managed to get one picture of him jumping but it was a good one!

Koh Tao 01/05- 07/05

Another long day travel which included a one night stop on Koh Samui and having to deal with several dive school touts before getting to Koh Tao. We paired up with a French couple and scoured the island for a decent bungalow and dive package. For us it didn't happen on the first night but after a sleep we found a place the following morning- the clincher was the bungalow- literally on the seafront, you had to walk on rocks on the shore to get into the front door. A bit scary when a storm came in- lots of wind and rain beating on the glass doors! Our dive training included a swimming pool session- in which I had a bit of a freak out, is very strange being able to breathe underwater- Chris, of course, was fine (I've yet to find an activity that outfoxes him!) However the actual dives were much better and far more enjoyable, although the visibility wasn't as good as it could have been. The last two dives saw us down to about 18m (the max we can go to) and all done and dusted by 9:30 am, yes that did mean that we were on the boat by 6 am, slightly traumatic! Later that day saw us beginning the long journey to Chaing Mai....

That's all for now, will post the last part of Thailand and Laos at the next oportunity.