It’s amazing how quickly you adjust to the laid back, slow pace of south east asian life!’ Only a week away and already we can while away several hours doing nothing in particular.
Our journey began in Bangkok, where we immediately made our first error.’ Despite being told to only use the meter taxis, we found ourselves heading…
away from the airport in a private car, weaving our way precariously in and out of lanes in the notorious Bangkok traffic.’ What should have been a 300 baht journey was suddenly 500 baht!
Bangkok was hot and sweaty and hectic.’ The skyrail was a welcome pleasure.’ It was always a huge relief to step into the air conditioned carriages and’see some great views of the city from above.’ One of the many interesting sights was a huge, well groomed golf course in the middle of a city’ -a haven of calm and still amongst the busyness.’ The food stalls around Ari station served delicious, cheap food.’ The owners were amused by our confusion as to whether the sauce should go in the soup or on the meat that we had found ourselves served, not understanding the menu!’ They were further amused when only chillis were left on my plate at the end of the meal!
On our second day in Bangkok, before boarding a train to the south, we spent a few pleasant hours in Lumphini’ Park.’ It is on the metro line, but also walkable from Siam skyrail station.’ We sat and read our books by the lake and took endless photos of the monitor lizards and their attempts to eat a cat fish!
We were on our way to Ko Phagnan and had planned to take an overnight train. We had, however, failed to book in advance and so instead of 12 hours in an air conditioned sleeper carriage, we had 12 hours on seats in carriages with only fans and open windows for relief from the sticky heat.’ While we each saved 400 baht travelling this way, the extra money would have been well spent, ensuring perhaps a little more than 20 minutes sleep! The pleasant part of the journey, however, was the dinner of thai soup, duck curry and chicken stir fry cooked on the train and brought to your seat for 150 baht!’ Puts the food we get on British trains to shame!
The next boat trip was also long, but arriving on Ko Phagnan made it all worthwhile!’ We now had to await the Full Moon Party!’ After making some last minute party friends, we headed over to Hat Rin beach.’ We arrived at midnight to carnage!’ There were already people face down in the sand and there were literally thousands of people dancing on the beach!’ The beach was split into different areas, which each bar playing different music from their impressive sound systems.’ All types of’music taste were catered for.’ We introduced ourselves to the infamous ‘buckets’ of thai whiskey (Samsong), red bull and coke adn then danced the night away, finally heading back to the tranquil Haad Yuan at half 5.
We spent 4 nights on the beautiful Haad Yuan on the south eastern coast of Ko Phagnan. We stayed at Bamboo resort, which had an excellent restaurant.’ The Penang and Masaman currys were especially tasty.’ The restaurant was on the rocks overlooking the bay and the views were absolutely stunning.
And now we find ourselves on Bottle Beach in the north of the island enjoying some tropical storms.’ Our stomachs are tender after we upped the spice levels last night – I had a spicy beef salad, which truly set my mouth on alight.
So, now its back to the hammock and book… ’til next time
Harriet and Ben
xxx
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