Touts, Tuk-tuks and Trains

The bus door opened and in rolled the damp heat, along with shouted cries of tuk-tuk drivers desperate for fares. It was mid April - the hottest month of the year, and we'd arrived in Bangkok!

This Bangkok visit was just a quick stopover as we made our way from southern Thailand to the north - we'd be back later in our trip. We got straight down to business: stocking up on much needed items. Number one on the list was finding a spare pair of legitimate Havaianas in Bangkok - harder than it sounds. To spare boring you with details we eventually found a stockist: in the department store at Siam Paragon, behind the women's lingerie. Talk about a needle in a haystack!

Next on the list was sorting out transport to the northern city of Chiang Mai. We opted for the overnight sleeper train and since we're cheap and don't trust travel agents (especially around Khao San Road), we flagged down a taxi and headed to the train station. 10 minutes later, we'd figured out which train we needed and booked. Too easy!

Too easy, until we decided to head to China Town for dinner by tuk-tuk.

Now, Bangkok isn't a city known for rules, with a couple of exceptions: don't buy from Khao San Road and don't use tuk-tuks.

Jade ignores the advice and gets in a tuk-tuk. "It'll be fine" he says, I unwillingly follow and we head off towards China Town in search of street food. All is well until we turn a corner and start heading in the opposite direction. Our tuk-tuk driver then yells back to us 'I have friend, good restaurant, we go!'.

Jade and I look at each other. Shit.

"No, we go to China Town!" Jade shouts
"My friend, good restaurant"
"No thank you, we go to China Town" I yell
"Good food, China Town not good food" our driver says, ignoring our pleas

I start feeling panicky, I really didn't want to end up at some scummy little restaurant in the middle of nowhere, or worse!

"Ok, we stop!" I yell
"Good seafood restaurant, you like, my friend"
"Stop, we get off!"
"Stop!" I scream.
So much for saving face.

He shuts up. A very silent 5 minute ride later and he drops us off in China Town. We walk off in search of some dinner vowing not to take a tuk-tuk in Bangkok again.

We had most of the next day to explore the city a little before our train left for Chiang Mai in the evening, so we wandered around markets in and around the infamous backpacking ghetto of Khao San Road.

When the time came to head to the train station we flagged a taxi down. Several in fact - no one wanted to go there. Those that did refused to use the meter quoting us three to four times the meter rate. We eventually got an honest driver and took off, a short 20 minute ride in peak time traffic. But in that short 20 minutes I counted no less than five near crashes! Thankfully our driver had quick reflexes and managed to avoid the other cars coming towards us from every angle, it didn't stop us from gripping the seat and bracing ourselves every few minutes though! When we finally made it to the station it was packed with locals and tourists alike. Our train didn't leave for a while and the only seats we could find was up on the second level over looking everyone. We settled down and waited. 6 o'clock ticked over and the buzz of the train station was suddenly interrupted by a loud whistle. Everyone stood or stopped where they were and the station went silent. Then the national anthem started, blasting out from every speaker and TV for a good minute. As the anthem finished, the station came back to life and everyone carried on with whatever they were doing.

The busy train station

Our train was finally called and off we went to find our carriage and seats. Not difficult: we were seats 1 and 2, right up the the front beside the toilets compartment. Uh oh. There were four beds in each section, Jade had the bottom, I the top and beside us an elderly Thai grandmother named Kae who spoke no English. Some awkward turtle moments followed as the lady sat there staring at us, not saying anything but she soon took a liking to Jade as he took out his Thai phrase book and attempted to introduce us. She also handed us a couple of banana leaf parcels she had in her bag, they turned out to be a coconut and rice mixture that is put into the banana leaf and cooked over a fire, they were pretty tasty.

Jade and his friend Kae

When it came time to get some sleep a nice Thai man came round to make the beds. Yep, that's right he actually made our beds! He pulled out some flat pillows from a small cupboard, tucked a sheet around them and threw a pillow and a thin blanket on top. With that out of the way, I climbed up to my little bunk and lay down. It was like being gently rocked to sleep - just kidding. There is nothing gentle about it, the train didn't go that fast but with every slight bend in the tracks the train lurched sideways. This was going to be fun! Then the smell started to come. As mentioned before, we were right beside the toilets so every time someone opened the door to the toilet compartment the pungent chemical smell slowly seeped out. It was a smell that slightly stung the nostrils, and I may have had to do the lip gloss under the nose trick (Laura and Jess you know what I mean). Yes I was going to have a good nights sleep.

The nice Thai guy making our beds

Me in my little top bunk

I 'woke' the next morning and ate a terrible, cold 'western' breakfast, watching the northern landscape flash by. Jade sat with Kae and practised his Thai language skills for the rest of the morning. Kae ended up actually teaching him Thai and teaching us some useful phrases. A conductor came by and announced we'd be arriving very shortly.

After fifteen hours on a train with little sleep, a new friend made and some more Thai words under our belt, the train doors opened and we spilled out into the overwhelming heat. It was mid April - the hottest month of the year, and we'd arrived in Chiang Mai!

Playground Paradise

Fresh off the plane from Phuket, having enjoyed our in flight snack (with Bangkok airways it was actually more like a meal, for a one hour flight score!) we arrived in Koh Samui - the largest of three islands in the gulf of Thailand.

Coming straight from the hustle and bustle of Phuket, this was definitely what I'd been looking for. No way near as many people as Phuket, with nice white sandy beaches, a super cheap resort (thanks to the low season, best time to travel!) which even had a pool, you can imagine where we spent most of our time. Yep, for the next 2 days once again we were lying on the beach or relaxing by the pool, this is definitely the life!

No I didn't steal this from a magazine

Unfortunately we couldn't stay too long on Koh Samui as we needed to make it to Koh Phangan for the half moon party. So we caught a ferry over to the next island, landed in the small town of Hat Rin, were picked up by our accommodation and driven up a twisting, turning, bumpy dirt track for 10 minutes. My first thoughts were: "where has Jade booked us?!", but as we were led down a little track to our bungalow my thoughts became "wow". We were blown away. For 700baht (NZ$28) a night we had a little wooden bungalow right on the cliffs edge overlooking the sea, a hammock on our balcony and a million dollar view. There were also two wooden deck chairs on a little platform below us, next to that steps lead down the rocks to the water and there wasn't another person in sight. It was beautiful.

After some chilling on the hammock and a walk down to the rocks, I wanted to take some photos so I walked back up and around the front of the bungalow. It was a grassy area with some rocks and trees and before I know what's happened, I stepped on a snake! It was about a metre long, as thick as my little finger and luckily for me he was just as startled and scurried off. My first up close encounter with a snake and hopefully my last!

That evening we walked back down the dirt track into Hat Rin to go grab some dinner and after being asked half a dozen times if we wanted a tuk tuk to the half moon party, we began to think it was a bit strange. The half moon was tomorrow night, right? We grabbed some dinner and walked around the town to see what was there, still puzzled why they would be selling tuk tuks to a party that was tomorrow. After another couple of 'tuk tuk to half moon?' and a quick check on the calendar we suddenly realised we had our dates completely messed up. We were a day behind! A mad dash followed to get some fluro clothes (a must), down a bucket (same idea as Phi Phi) and get up to our bungalow so we could change and get back down in time to catch a tuk tuk. We made it though (just) and dressed in fluro, covered in body paint with a bucket (or two...) in us, we partied till the sun came up the next morning. So much fun!!

Fluro - check! Bucket - check!

All dressed up and ready to go

Unfortunately for me the next day just so happened to be Songkran, the Thai New Year. To celebrate the new year and bring good luck water is poured over Buddhist statues, but has turned into a giant water fight where everyone must get wet. In different areas of the country it is even celebrated for up to 3 or 5 days - that's one big water fight! On Koh Phangan it's just one day though and we had prepared and bought our water guns the day before. With me possibly feeling a little worse for wear after the party the night before, Jade set off into town his water gun pumped and ready. A couple of hours later he returned completely soaked and his water gun broken, I think that signals a good fight!

We soon realised that Koh Phangan is basically just a big playground for adults with party's galore - full moon, half moon, black moon, after parties, jungle parties and waterfall parties, just to name a few! Then along with diving & snorkeling there are more than enough boat trips to keep you occupied, kayaking, quad bike tracks, a shooting range, zip lines through the jungle and even a wipe out style obstacle course on water!

Obviously we couldn't try them all, but did mange to fit in an island tour, some snorkeling, a couple of waterfalls and of course the half moon party, which we really enjoyed (even if I did have quite a headache the next day). It's a very easy going place where anything goes really and there plenty of things to do. Definitely be back one day to have some more fun and of course there's still the full moon party to be ticked off the list!

Phuket

Phuket: you either love it or you hate it. If you want massage parlours, prostitutes, bars, touts, tailors, and don't mind all the Aussies, you'll love it. But if you're after beautiful beaches and some peace and quite while you relax, it may not quite be the place for you unless you're willing to spend some big money. Love it or hate it? Well I'm somewhere in-between.

Cramped and sore, we arrived at the Phuket Town ferry terminal from Koh Phi Phi, having just spent a few hours sitting on the floor of the ferry as all the seats were full. After a quick haggle with a taxi driver we headed into Phuket Town and found a place to stay for the night. With that out of the way, we went for a walk to explore the place.

Our not so comfortable spot on the floor of the ferry

Jades Phi Phi diving instructor had recommended we have a Thai massage and gave us a name. Since we hadn't had a massage before we thought "why not?". So we found the place and were handed a menu of options. Not knowing what to expect, we settled on a traditional Thai massage and we were shown into a tiny, dimly-lit room, unfurnished except for two thin mattresses on the floor. Left alone, we giggled nervously. A masseuse returned with a blue pyjama top each, along with some matching fisherman's pants which 3 people could fit into. We awkwardly figured out how to tie the pants and then the masseuses got to work.

Ummmm... not my best looking moment

Starting at the feet they slowly stretched and put pressure on different parts of the body; it's wasn't like any massage I'd had before. I glanced over at Jade to see an uncomfortable look on his face as the Thai woman's hands went higher and higher up his thighs. I stifled a laugh as best as I could. We're then rolled over onto our stomachs and our masseuses proceeded to stand on us. This time it was Jade who had to stifle his laughter as a Thai woman twice my size walked all over me! I felt like I was going to come out as flat as a pancake but it wasn't over yet. The finale had us sit up with our legs crossed and our masseuses then sat behind us with their legs over ours. With a gentle swaying like motion they violently cracked our backs. All goes well for me but as I sat there waiting for Jade, his incredibly small Thai woman loses her balance on account of how big he is and toppled over backwards. I started laughing, but the woman wasn't deterred. She climbed back on Jade and went for round two. This time she managed to stay upright but she just couldn't get leverage, after a third try we were all laughing as it just wasn't going to happen. Jade was too freakishly big for the poor petite masseuse.

And with that, our massage was over. We changed back into our clothes, drank delicious herbal tea and joked on Jade's height.

Phuket is huge so some sort of transport is a must. There is a 'bus' system of songtaews who drive around certain areas, but if you want to do things at your own pace a scooter is best. Once again Jade somehow convinced me to hire a scooter; with a quick brake check and a 'don't go over 40km/h' talk we set off. Our first stop was the Big Buddha perched high up on the hill, so big in-fact that you can see him from the beaches down below. From the top you're also rewarded with views looking out over Phuket and can view the sun set over the sea.

Big Buddha is big!

View over Phuket

Next stop was a visit to Patong - 'the' beach, which is just unreal. You can hardly see the beach through all the beach chairs. It's really Little Australia with Aussie bars, shops and tailors all catering to their needs. In fairness I was able to pick up my monthly fix of the Australian Cosmo though, so that was alright (hey, I needed something to read while I sat on the beach!). However the amount of people in Patong was mind blowing, and some of the bars we came across unlike anything we'd seen before. One bar we saw would more accurately be described as a warehouse of sleaze. With 6 long bars complete with a stripper pole every few metres and 50 or more seats on either side, it would fit about 6 New Zealand bars inside. And like I said, that was just one bar!! We dubbed Patong the 'New Gold Coast' and escaped back to Kata beach where we were staying. Away from the worst of the partying Aussies, pushy touts and cheap 24-hour tailors.

Patong beach, it was absolutely packed earlier in the day though

Since we like trying all the local food we kept our eyes out for a dish we'd heard was amazing: mango sticky rice. Our luck paid off when one night on our way home we saw a lady selling it on the side of the road. We opted for the small size just in case we didn't like it, but with one bite I was hooked! It's a sticky rice that's cooked in coconut milk, served with fresh mango and more of the delicious sweet coconut milk syrup for you to pour on top. So good that we had to go back the next night and get a large one!

So yummy, mango sticky rice!!

It was Easter while we were there, and being a largely Buddist country it isn't celebrated. That didn't stop us though, we started Operation Easter Bunny: find Easter eggs or hot cross buns. Seeing as there are a lot of western expats who live in Phuket, we were confidant we'd find something. We were wrong. After searching high and low for Easter eggs the best we could come up with was a bag of small marshmallows filled with chocolate. With a shrug we claimed it as a success: inside-out Easter eggs! They weren't bad but they certainly weren't Cadburys. With Easter eggs ticked off, we turned our attention to finding hot cross buns. After a lot of googling I came across a five-year old blog post that mentioned an Australian owned bakery selling hot cross buns. With fingers crossed we hopped on our scooter and set off, praying to the Easter Bunny that 5 years on they'd still be there. Luck was on our side: the bakery existed, and it made hot cross buns! But they were sold out. Bugger. Fortunately they were making more the next morning, so we pre-ordered and picked them up on Easter Sunday. Not quite the same as back home, but they were still very good!

Hot cross buns!!

Our luck turned when Jade came down with a case of the old travellers tummy, which forced us to stay a couple more days until he was better. By that stage we were itching to leave Phuket, but the only bus to Koh Samui on the other side of Thailand left at 9am, and it was 11am. We were going to have to stay another day. Then Jade had a sudden brilliant idea: we could fly! A quick search on-line and we found a flight leaving at 4pm. Perfect. Three times the price of a bus and ferry - it'd blow our budget out of the water - but we'd be there in an hour versus eleven. An in-flight snack sealed the deal and we took off for the airport.

So that's all from Phuket. Love it or hate it, you'll have to decide for yourself but for me it's a place I'd visit again, but I won't be in a rush.

Monkeying around on Phi Phi

A trip to the famous Koh Phi Phi island obviously had to be done. Yes it's true these days there are lots of beach bars filled with drunk 18 year olds (it seems mandatory after finishing high school), but Phi Phi is a gorgeous island and certainly not to be missed. If you get away from the backpacker ghetto you'll discover where all the postcards pictures come from. And trust me, it really is that beautiful in real life.

With white sandy beaches, crystal clear blue water and massive limestone cliffs rising out of the water, it's easy to see why it's such a popular holiday destination. Koh Phi Phi Le, the smaller island near Koh Phi Phi Don, is the more famous one in recent times as it's where 'The Beach' with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed. Now days boatloads of tourists (mostly from Phuket) are dumped onto this beach in the morning to spend their time in the shade waiting for their evening boats to depart.

Postcard shot

The famous beach, Maya Bay

Phi Phi is also a pretty well known spot for its diving, so of course Jade had to try it out. After trying to talk me into it and failing off he went. Personally I had a very enjoyable day laying on the beach finishing my book but 7 hours later, Jade comes back and he can't stop raving about it. After a bit of umming and ahhing he decides he liked diving so much he wanted to become an official Scuba Steve and do the PADI open water diving course, involving 4 days of study, tests and practical work. He still hadn't given up on getting me into the water either, so after some more convincing I nervously took a test dive in a swimming pool - and passed all the requirements with flying colours. Apparently I'm a natural!

With that out of the way we were taken by longboat out to a bay on Koh Phi Phi Le. I was geared up with everything: on went my mask, snorkel, flippers, weight-belt, BCD and gas tank. I was then told to sit on the edge of the boat, cross my flippers, hold my regulator in - and next thing you know I'm pushed off the boat! I tumble backwards into the water in a very James Bond style entry and sink in a cloud of bubbles. Thankfully my inflated BCD brings me back to the surface, I give the OK signal and I'm Scuba Sarah for the day!

After a bit of difficulty equalising my ears we finally reached the sandy ocean floor, a very strange feeling. Breathing underwater is also very weird and you feel like you've suddenly become an asthmatic. It's quickly forgotten once you start looking around though, there are soooo many fish! Big, small, colourful, quirky, cute. The coral was also healthy and brightly coloured, a very pretty sight. On our second dive after lunch we even saw a giant turtle just swimming around happily, munching on all the coral. I have to admit it was pretty cool but don't think I'll be becoming an official scuba Sarah unlike Jade; I'll stick to snorkeling thanks.

A trip around to Monkey Bay was also on the list so we hired a kayak (managed to haggle them down to a reasonable price, starting to get the hang of this haggling thing!) and paddled around to the bay. Soft white sand covered the small beach with water so clear you could see the fish swimming around, but no monkeys to be seen. We'd hired a snorkel so we could swim around the bay and investigate what was hiding in all the rocks. Jade managed to find a very territorial fish which was guarding his rock with a fierce sense of purpose, it even took a bite at Jade when he got too close! When we came back to shore the monkeys had emerged from the trees. Cute little things on first inspection but get between them and what they want - mostly your things - and you'll think differently! Luckily for us we had been smart and tied everything to our kayak before we went for a swim, other people had not been so lucky. The monkeys were raiding bags, taking food and any water bottles they could get their furry little hands on. One girl was especially unlucky when her whole bag disappeared up a tree, and I don't know if she managed to get it back! The monkeys also know exactly what to do if you try to stop them: they hiss, growl and take a couple of steps towards you and you go running. Well nobody wants rabies do they!

I'm a cute little monkey...

...but I'm actually going to go through all your bags

And steal your stuff!!

Another thing that seems mandatory to do on Phi Phi is have a bucket. A bucket of alcohol that is. Come night fall just about every shop on the island sets up a stall with all the necessary ingredients, so a quick look around to see who had the best price and we were set up with our first Phi Phi bucket. It's pretty simple: a small plastic bucket filled with vodka, Thai whiskey or rum (whichever takes your fancy), add in some Thai Red Bull and your choice of coke, sprite or juice. Pretty simple really but be careful, they'll quickly sneak up on you!

The necessary ingredients

My first Phi Phi bucket!

Our last night on the island we splashed out and went to an upmarket French restaurant on the recommendation of Jades diving instructor. I had duck with a mango sauce and it was delicious - but the thing I was really excited about (and never thought I'd say) was that it came with mashed potatoes! As nice as all this Thai food has been, you still can't beat some decent mashed potatoes. It's small things like this that we are starting to miss, especially dark chocolate and good wine!

Well Phi Phi has definitely been my favourite place so far and I really did not want to leave; we came for three days and stayed eight. I think it just has a good mix of everything and is such an incredibly beautiful place. I'm already planning when I can come back!

Relaxing on Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta. Ahhh, Koh Lanta. Possibly one of the most chilaxed islands ever - or at least the most chilled out in Thailand. With such a spread out population, it also feels like there's no one around so it's easy to see why so many people love it. The only downside is getting around requires a motorbike - or a large travel budget.

We arrived in Koh Lanta on the ferry from Railay. After being made to pay an island 'cleanup' fee of 20 baht each and pushing our way through the hordes of tuk-tuk drivers trying to sell us accommodation, we wandered into town to grab some lunch. Afterwards, managing to find a tuk-tuk driver who wasn't charging the earth, we jumped on his motorbike sidecar and took off for our guesthouse, a 15 minute ride along the concrete highway. We checked in, then after a wee break from the heat set off to explore on foot. A few hundred metres up the road we came across a small dirt road leading through farmland and disappearing into the palm trees. A simple wooden sign was nailed to a fence post with 'bar' painted on it. With nothing better to do we walked down the track, through the palms and onto the beach.

It wasn't much of a swimming spot thanks to all the sharp rocks in the water but it seemed popular with the local fishermen, as we sat and watched all the boats coming back in from a long day out at sea. With the sun starting to disappear quickly we turned back up the beach and found the tiny beach hut bar. Run by a very relaxed Rastafarian local guy we stayed and drank cold Chang and chatted with a French-Canadian programmer and a New York student, all the while watching the sun set behind the horizon. 'This is the life' we kept saying.

Jade climbing on the rocks, watching the boats.

The pretty sunset we couldn't take our eyes off.

A few drinks later and the sun now long gone, we realised we hadn't eaten since lunch time. Not knowing where we'd find dinner we asked. "Walk up the beach, lots of restaurants" rastaman said. So we set off up the dark beach. It was a still night with only the sound of waves crashing lightly onto the beach, a rustle of palm trees and an occasional crunch under our feet. We drunkenly walked up the beach for a good ten minutes, with only the faint moonlight to guide us - then I remembered I had a torch app on my iPhone. I pulled it out and lit up the beach in front of us. The worst thing I could have done, the beach was moving!

Crabs! Everywhere!

Seconds ago we were blissfully unaware that there were crabs literally covering the beach only just moving out of the way before we put our foot down. Now with the light turned on we could see that we were actually surrounded by them. I don't like crabs at the best of times but I like them even less in the dark, when the beach is one crawling mass of them. Our slow walk become a painfully slow and very careful walk for the rest of the way, as we tried not to step on them or have them run over our feet. You can imagine our relief when we eventually came across a beachfront restaurant for dinner, we didn't care what it was as long as we could get off that beach!

Seeing as the island is so spread out there's really no use in walking and with no public transport the only options are get a tuk-tuk or hire a scooter. Tuk-tuk's are fine, but relatively expensive. Scooters are cheap, but we'd seen a lot of people hobbling around covered in bandages and scraps thanks to a unfortunate scooter ride. With a lot of the roads being pretty terrible over here, a decent bump or hole is enough to throw a careless rider off their bike. Unlucky riders crash when their brakes stop working. So after some serious convincing by Jade I finally agreed to hire one for the day. Luckily (or sensibly) we had no accidents thankfully, except we did end up getting exceptionally lost and very confused when we took off for the south end of the island, and ended up at the northernmost end! I think we were meant to turn down a small side road instead of continuing on the main road which loops back up the island. Oops! Oh well, it's hard to tell when there's no sign posts!

Finally having lunch after getting exceptionally lost!

Now with all the yummy food over here we thought we'd take a Thai cooking class. We rang and booked and an hour later a ute turned up and we jumped on the back. At the kitchen we were presented with ten options to choose from, with the class having to decide on our four favourites to cook. So after some deliberation the winners were: a chicken and coconut milk soup, ginger stir fry with chicken, massaman curry and deep fried bananas. All of them were delicious, the secret I think being the very fresh ingredients picked that morning. Favourites for me were the chicken and coconut milk soup (Tom Kha Gai) and the massaman curry - both so good. The only cooking mistake of the day meant I left with a nice burn over half my elbow, as Jade wasn't being too careful about where he was flinging his very hot wok - thanks Jade.

Chicken and coconut milk soup (Tom Kha Gai), yummy!

Soon enough it was time to move on again, but after a slight hiccup with accommodation confirmations we found ourselves having to stay on the island another night. Luck was on our side this time though as we found a simple rustic bungalow surrounded by palm trees, a hammock on the porch and a minutes walk to the best beach on the island.

The next morning we left Koh Lanta this time with accommodation confirmed, a newfound knowledge of Thai cooking and a fear of dark beaches. With the relaxing over for now, let the party being - Koh Phi Phi here we come!

Welcome to Thailand!

We took the ferry from the Malaysian island of Langkawi back to the mainland, stepping off into Thailand and the town of Satun. Made it through customs without a hitch, just a long wait in the heat while two officials processed all the passengers. Not wanting to stick around in this small southern town we tried to get to the bus station - only to find that the only bus north until late that night was leaving at 3pm, in 10 minutes. And we were still at the port! After a quick haggle with a tour operator, we snatched our tickets, jumped into a car and sped off to the bus station. The driver had no time for rules as he zipped along the winding jungle road, overtaking on corners, weaving in and out of the two lanes. We felt like Hollywood stars escaping from the baddies! 3 o'clock ticked over as we pulled up next to our bus, grabbed our bags out of the boot and clambered aboard. Phew made it! A minute later the bus started up, the doors shut and we trundled off through the bus depot and out onto the road, our next stop: the town of Krabi.

5 hours later, after transferring buses in Trang, we arrived in Krabi mid evening. Thankfully we'd booked accommodation in advance and our guesthouse had said they would pick us up from the bus station. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Turned out the bus station is closed at night. With no idea where we were, we had a sudden realisation that Thailand was nothing like Malaysia. Nothing was in English, no one spoke English and with the exception of Jades ability to awkwardly count to 10, our Thai skills were non existent. Not very useful. Luckily we had purchased a Thai SIM card so we called our guesthouse. They didn't know where we were either. Oh. With desperation we turned to a tuk-tuk driver. With hand gestures and some pointing to our phone our tuk-tuk friend spoke to our guesthouse and was able to tell them where we were. Half an hour later we were finally picked up, it looked like we wouldn't be sleeping on the street after all!

Jade with the crabs in Krabi

The next day we had a bit of a look around the town but without transportation it was difficult to go too far. Come dinnertime, and some googling for where to eat we came across a Thai restaurant that looked quite good and not too far away on foot. We quickly noted where it was on Jades phone and left. After walking up a road that didn't look like it was the right way for half an hour, with no map and Jades phone suddenly deciding it didn't want to work after all, we discovered we had no idea where we were. Luckily for us a couple of minutes later we just stumbled upon it, and what a find! It was set in a little jungle with only a handful of tables, a little stream running through the property, lights hanging from all the trees and the food was absolutely delicious! Sticky ribs with roasted garlic, a spicy mango salad and a green curry, we wished we could stay longer just to try some more dishes.

Some of the pretty suspended bamboo lights in the jungle like restaurant

The next day we took off for Railay beach, a small peninsula not far from Krabi. Only in order to get to the beach means a short boat ride - it's cut off from the mainland by giant limestone cliffs. To get there we took our first songthaew ride to Ao Nang, passing the sheer limestone cliffs on the way. After a quick bit of shopping, we then boarded our first ruea hang yao - the classic long-tail boat - and noisily putted our way around to Railay Beach. It's a gorgeous wee area which feels like an island with two beaches and a lagoon with a jungle path connecting all three sides. Once again a lot of lying on the beach, reading, relaxing and swimming was done here. We were also starting to get a bit of a tan; we were no longer the whitest people on the beach!

Our first songthaew ride - a ute with seats on the back and used as a bus

The massive limestone cliffs of Railay & the long-tail boats used to get there

Even the towels were crabs!

On our last day we wanted to do some snorkeling and thought the sunset tour looked pretty good. With a small group of people we headed out to a couple of spots to do some snorkeling. Unfortunately the coral was close to dead - no thanks to the group of Russians who stood all over it. But I've never seen so many fish! Schools and schools of them. Our tour guide chucked bits of watermelon into the water around us (the fish go nuts for it), which meant we were completely surrounded by 100s of fish as they all tried to gobble up the fruit. Small ones, big ones, blue, yellow, orange, rainbow coloured fish (and a couple of jellyfish we made sure to stay away from). So many fish! After that we headed to a small island to watch the spectacular sunset and have a BBQ on the beach for dinner. With the sun having finally set and the mainland a twinkling line of lights we boarded our boat for the last item of the tour - swimming with the biolumescent plankton. We anchored offshore from the eastern side of Railay, in the middle of the bay far enough away from the light pollution - it needs to be pitch black for you to see the plankton well. After a quick explanation of what to do: splash, and the plankton will glow, we all grabbed a mask and snorkel and dived into the inky black water. The boat lights were switched off and we started splashing. Wow. The ocean was completely black in the darkness but our arms, hands, legs and feet were lit up as thousands of tiny specs glowed and swirled neon blue-green around us. An amazing sight and definitely a highlight of the trip so far.

Cruising round the islands looking for the best snorkelling spots

The beautiful sunset we watched while eating our beach BBQ

Well time to move on again, we now start the island hopping part of our travels so there will be plenty more golden beaches to explore.

The beautiful Island of Langkawi

Our last stop in Malaysia was the island of Langkawi. Thanks to Jade not wanting to take the simple direct route of a 3 hour boat ride from Penang, we instead took the commuter ferry from Penang over to Butterworth on the mainland. From there we purchased bus tickets to Kuala Perlis  - a small port town right near the Thai-Malaysia border, and a 3 hour drive away. We arrived at Kuala Perlis in the early afternoon and bought our ferry tickets, but with the ferry not departing for over an hour we had to wait around in the tropical heat. Eventually though, after almost half a day spent getting there we made it to the gorgeous island.

Ferry heading to Penang

But we were not quite finished in our travels yet. Langkawi is actually a pretty big island, so a final 30min taxi ride to our accommodation and we could relax! But maybe not luxuriously in our extremely basic room which consisted of: a bed, sink and shoilet (my new name for a shower over the toilet, they are surprisingly very common, guess you can save time and do two things at once!). With no where to put anything it was going to have to be a floordrobe, but I guess you can't complain for 45 Ringgit a night (NZ $18). Then night fell and that's when the real fun started! The room filled with mosquitoes and then a symphony started playing. A symphony of insects and animals that is. Turns out there was a swamp right behind us and this was the favourite hangout of many mosquitoes, frogs, birds and any other animal you can think of that likes to come out at night (to be honest, I really don't know what came out at night, I wasn't going to investigate!). We gave up and went to get a pizza, but it seemed someone really didn't like us as just as we were about to leave a tropical storm hit: the skies opened up and torrential rain poured down, lightening flashed and thunder cracked. Half an hour later we realised the storm wasn't going anywhere, so Jade being the brave one donned his trusty poncho and off he went. On his return, he was the funniest sight: hair plastered to his face, clothes absolutely soaked, water pouring off him. He'd given up on the poncho as it obviously wasn't helping much, but to his credit he'd saved the pizza by wrapping the saturated plastic poncho around it. After eating the surprisingly not wet pizza we tried to block up the gaps where the mosquitoes were coming in (unsuccessfully, need to bring duck tape next time), and slaughter the hundreds which had already breached our security. We were going to need to find mosquito coils. We went to bed. The storm thrashed down outside.

Example of a shoilet

Aside from the rain and the mosquitos, Langkawi is just so relaxing. It's really hard to do anything much apart from lie on the beach, read and relax. And of course cool down with a much needed swim and refreshing drink afterwards. Having said that we did manage to pull ourselves away from the beach long enough to get to Oriental Village, at the foot of Mount Mat Cincang. Many shops, stalls, a petting zoo, bumper boats and you can even ride an elephant if you like! Reminded me very much of Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, just without all the roller coasters. The main attraction though is the cable car which takes you to the top of the heavily forested mountain - but it's a very very steep ride, I definitely would not recommend you look down. Once you make it to the top you can either get off at the small view point, or stay on and be taken over a valley to the main view point at the highest peak which is spectacular. You can look out over the whole island, and on a good day even see islands of Thailand.

Langkawi at sunset.

Where you'd find me most days

View from the top. You can see the orange roofs of Oriental Village below.

Islands of Thailand in the distance.

Coming back down from the cool mountain, we hit a wall of heat - it had gotten very very hot! So we thought we'd walk up the tree-lined road to the Seven Wells waterfall that we'd seen from the cable-car. A few minutes later we were in the shade of the forest, when Jade spotted something moving above us. We looked up to see a squirrel running across the power line. Then a bush up the road started rustling and out popped a monkey! He casually crossed the road and leaped up into a tree, then the rest of the troop followed closely behind. After wondering if that really just happened, we cautiously walked on by and then up a short jungle path to the waterfall. Other people obviously thought it was a good idea also as there were plenty of people cooling off in the rock pools, and it was so refreshing.

View of the waterfall from the top of the cable car.

Jade modelling some swimwear...

After some more lying on the beach and swimming we thought we had better make a move else we might never leave this place. So onto our next adventure... Thailand here we come!