Koh Tao

So I think its important to get this out of the way at the beginning of this post. From Chiang Mai, Vic, Justine and I were headed to Koh Tao, an island in the south of Thailand, but before catching a train from Bangkok, we had to fly there. And yes I booked the flights for the wrong day, £200 later and running through an airport we made it to Bangkok to catch the overnight train.

The overnight train was surprisingly comfy, which each had our own bed, so compared to getting the overnight buses where you only have a seat it was fantastic! We finally arrived after a boat and taxi ride (of course in the back of a pick up) to our idyllic bungalow overlooking the sea! We spent the rest of the day chilling and sunbathing on the beach. that evening we explored the main strip and picked a lovely restaurant on the beach for a delicious meal.

The next day we went to explore the other side of the island with snorkels in toe. We found a tiny beach to base ourselves and spent the day rock climbing, sunbathing and swimming with the fishies!

We ventured home to glam ourselves up for a cheeky night out. This night was pretty epic after consuming many a bucket of cocktail, watching people play with fire, jumping in a swimming pool at 5 in the morning and ending the night watching the sunrise on the beach!

We spent the morning sleeping and the rest of the day on paradise island nursing our hangovers while taking in the last of the sun with a beautiful sunset to finish our time on Koh Tao.

The next day it was time to head back to my apartment in Bangkok, we arrived at about 2 in the morning and crashed untill the next day. I woke up with my tourist guide hat on ready to show the girls the sights of Bangkok. I took them to the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun all along the river so we explored them by boat. We then did some last minute tourist shopping at MBK before having dinner at my favourite local Thai restaurant on the corner of my road. To finish our final evening off together we went to the Marriott Skybar on the next road to see the Bangkok skyline at night. I then had to say goodbye at the airport to my gorgeous friends Vic and Justine until we would be reunited back in the UK. Thank you so much for coming to visit, I had the best time ever.

This is my last post from Thailand as I spent the next few days cleaning my apartment and saying goodbye to friends and the country I have loved and called my home for the last 6 months. But it is now time for a new adventure. See you in Vietnam.

With Love from Thailand xxx

UMWHC come to Thailand

After Cambodia I returned to Bangkok as two friends who I played hockey with and went to Uni with were visiting. Vic and Justine arrived on Saturday and on Sunday we flew up to Chiang Mai to met all my TEFL friends and celebrate Songkran. Songkran is Thai New Year and one massive water flight. We spent 2 fantastic days being soaking wet and squirting people with water! We purchased some great water guns ready to take on the fight!

One day in Chiang Mai we escaped the mayhem and had a day trip to Chiang Rai to see the white temple. We also saw the black house, which was very spooky and creepy. There where snakes and owls in the grounds and weird bones and things.

We then went on to the boarder of Thailand with Myanmar (Burma). Hanisha need to do a visa run and we thought we would get an extra stamp in our passport so ventured across the boarder to check out a different country. We where literally there for 3 mins and headed back as the Burmese were also taking part in Songkran and wanted to soak us!

Next stop was the Golden Triangle. This is on the Mekong River at the most north point of Thailand where the boarder meets Laos and Myanmar. it was cool to be able to see all three countries at once. After a quick bite to eat it was time to head back to Chiang Mai as it would take us a good couple of hours.

Throughout the few days in Chiang Mai I made the girls try some great Thai food, including Pad Thai. I also took them back to Lert Ros a fantastic street food restaurant that I went to with my family a few weeks previously. We also had an awesome drunken night out to Zoe in the Yellow, a cool compilation of bars and dance floors!

Cambodia - Phnom Phen

After an amazing few days in Siem Reap, I was brought down to earth while learning about the history of Cambodia. During school in history lessons we never covered any Asian history, I guess there is not enough time throughout school to learn every countries history, so it shocked me the extreme pain and struggle the country has been through. During the 1970's Cambodia was ruled by a nasty dictator called Polpot and the Khmer Rouge. Anyone who he thought was a threat or he didn't like he would kill or send to a labour camp. This went on for 5 years. No one in Cambodia could get in or out of the country. People lived in awful conditions and if they weren't killed by a Khmer Rouge solider they died of starvation, diarrhoea, malaria or something else. Over 2 million Cambodians died over a quarter of their population. I read this great book "First they killed my father" that gave me a huge insight to what went on.

While in Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia I went to the filling fields. This is one of the sights where people were taken to be executed. They found huge mass graves. Some of these graves have been left in peace while others have been excavated. In the middle of these fields a memorial has been built to house many remains. As you walk around the sight you could listen to a very informative audio guide.

After the killing fields I went to Tuol Sleng the Genocide Museum also know as S21. it used to be a school but was turned in to a prison where they kept and tortured innocent people. Parts of the prison have been untouched and being in those cramped dark places where people were kept was very moving and hard to comprehend. On the walls throughout the rooms there were pictures of many prisoners who came through the doors and died.

My time in Cambodia made me think a lot about the human race and what people can do when in power. I hope that we can all learn from history and let it not repeat it's self. I think its very important to learn about what happened in countries such as Cambodia so we don't treat humans like this every again.

Phnom Phen didn't have much else to offer as a city. There was a lovely night market of which I found deep fried Oreos apart from that the city was a bit of a disappointment. Therefore it was time to head back to Bangkok.

Cambodia - Angkor Wat!!

So the adventures continue and this time all on my own. I was a bit apprehensive to start with but got use to meeting lots of new people with in seconds. So after taking my sisters advise and befriending any white people you see I met a really great girl called Corinne from the US. We met on the bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap at the boarder crossing. I'd read about scams at the boarder online so was a bit nervous and decided to befriend Corinne. We made it to Siem Reap after travelling all day and we were booked in to different hostels so went our separate ways for now.

I stayed in One Stop Hostel right next to Pub Street in Siem Reap, and it was a great location for everything. The next day I booked on a tour to explore the magnificent Angkor Wat and surrounding temples. The day was extremely hot but packed full with interesting facts about the temples from our tour guide. There was also 12 other people on the tour so was great to chat to people from Australia, Brazil and Russia!

We also visited the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed which had great giant trees growing up through the ruins. Following this we went to Angkor Thom where there were loads of faces in the stones.

After climbing a hill to see a failed sunset as it was too cloudy we ventured back to the town.

That evening I met up with Corinne for a pub crawl with a few other people we had met at the hostel, Maya, Steph and Angela. The night was so funny, they took us to this strange Cambodian carnival/funfair where we had a few drinks and then made it back to pub street and continued the drinking games! I was with a few Canadians and Americans and they have slightly different drinking games rules to me, but just about managed to keep up. After a failed attempt to find drunk food in the form of Pizza it was time to sleep.

The next day (after sleeping in till noon) I met up with Corinne and we went for a great hangover lunch at the Blue Pumpkin followed by chilling at a local hostels pool. That evening after meeting more people in the hostel we went for street food dinner and a few drinks. but as Maya and I had to get up early the next day for another temple tour we decided to call it an early night. Corinne was headed to Phnom Phen that evening on a night bus. (We meet up again in Phnom Phen)

The grand tour of more temples was great, but I could help feeling a little bit templed out! They where still all amazing and great to see. We got back to the hostel about 3pm where I chilled until I was getting a night but to Phnom Phen.

The night bus of HELL!!! Ok maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was certainly an experience. It was a sleeper bus, but it was like sharing a bed smaller than a small double bed with a smelly male stranger, I think at one point he was spooning me. And although you can lie down it was still very uncomfortable. My advice to anyone travelling on your own, get the "Hotel Bus" I guess it would have been fine if you are with someone you know and your not cuddling a complete stranger!

With Love from Cambodia xxx

Part 4 - So long, Farewell.

After we returned to Chiang Mai from the 3 day trek we got to enjoy a little bit more of the city before we flew back to Bangkok.

In the evening we went for a lovely dinner by the river followed by a stroll around the Night Bazaar and an early night as we were shattered from the trekking.

Our last day up north I took the family up to see Doi Suthep a temple on the top of a hill over looking the city. Unfortunately (like when I went at New Year) it was smoggy so we couldn't see the city. It is a beautiful temple and was lovely to wander round. After we climbed back down the steps to the songtwao waiting for us we got him to drop us at a gorgeous flower market.

We loved the Tea House that we had visited a few days before so we decided to go back here for a bite to eat before we had to catch the flight back to Bangkok. On returning to the capital city we went back to the street food restaurant we went to on their first day for some delicious dinner.

For the families last day in Thailand it was a chance to tick off the last bit of site seeing and visit Wat Pho the reclining Buddha and Wat Arun just the opposite side of the river. We also climbed up Wat Arun for a lovely view over the city.

That night for our last night together I wanted it to be lovely and special. Unfortunately the political protests, annoying taxi drivers and an alcohol ban made the evening start off very disappointingly. However we soon got over it by having a cup of tea and a lovely meal at Asiatique. This was followed by a trip on the Bangkok Eye a big wheel over looking the river. I'm not sure why we went on it as it was particularly scary when stopped at the top, but nether the less a lot of fun.

It was awesome having the family to visit and see all the places I'd been experiencing for the last six months, but saying goodbye at the airport was very hard! Only 6 weeks till we will be reunited again in the UK. I have to say I think I'm ready to go home now, but I've got a little more exploring to do first........

With Love from Thailand xxx