Holly and Matt's Travels

Hello again,

An update on our time after diving in Koh Tao, we left from Koh Tao, our new favorite place hoping to find another at Koh Pangnan. Initally we were disappointed, after leaving the ferry a local ex pat told us we were in paradise, although our first choice of resort was far from it!!!

Coral bungalows were recommended through a friend of a friend and on first impressions looked ok, the rooms were large, very large infact and for aircon it was only 500bht, a bargain. However on closer inspection cracks appeared, the pool was dominated by drunken irish guys "on tour", the food was cheapish but of poor quality. The staff all had dodgy cockney accents which was most off putting, and their solution to the sewerage smell from our bathroom was a can of Glade, which frankly couldn't mask the horrible oder. We stayed 2 nights and that was plenty.

Our second choice was far better, Sunset Cove was the paradise we were looking for, we stayed 5 nights and loved every second. beautiful resort set around a jungle garden with lovely bungalows and the most epic breakfast ive ever eaten. Sausages, Bacon, eggs, toast followed by waffle/pancakes with sides of fruit, juice and coffee all included in the room rate of 1200bht. An infinity pool on the beach fringed with palm trees and teak sun loungers, as you can probably tell we were more than happy. It was the little touches like an outdoor bathroom/shower and the supply of DVDs to watch in our rooms that made it. We did venture out once or twice to find bars and restaurants all of which were excellent, the psychedelic pirate bar was perched in a tiny cove along the beach was great from beers even if the hard trance music was a little unnecessary at 7pm! On Hat Yao beach in the neighboring cove we watched the most exceptional sunset i have ever witnessed and took some amazing photos (to come soon!) All in all a great place to stay and it took a lot to pull us away, but alas other places called, we headed along to Hat Salad, reputable as an amazing beach and it certainly was lovely if not a little overcrowded. We stayed at Cookies Salad resort for one night which we would of been perfectly acceptable if we had come from Coral Bungalows but compared to Sunset cove it was average, though the views with hammock made Matt very happy!

After our night at Cookies we headed back to the south of the island for teh black moon party at Ban Tai Beach, we stayed in the Rainbow Bungalows which were fab, really laid back and very accommodating, very much a family affair, without a pool but on a lovely beach with views of Koh Samui. Shared our room with Emily and Webby so the cos was a few 100bht each. The biggest bonus was the short walk to the black moon party just along the beach. The food was some of the best we had and we spend the 2 days there relaxing playing cards. The team whist world serious was a serious business, there were no prisoners!

The Black Moon party was pretty good, expensive to get in, around 500bht each, but full of people. there was some pretty intense dance music and dancing, and some typical British trash identified by their lack of clothing which did nothing for them, as there were most definitely not of the supermodel variety! Webby managed to located a typical (read chubby) American who commandeered his chest to practice her body painting, the resulting "tiger" maybe reflected her inebriated state, this caused much hilarity the following morning when Webby reflected upon his conquest, Webby had pulled a fatty. Max and Joe (webbys friends) who we had also met at sunset cove came with us and the 6 of us had a great laugh and danced until around 4ish. We left in dribs and drabs as people got tired. We both left the others and walked back along the beach, slighty worried for the guard dogs at our resort, probably the biggest Rotwiler and a young (snappy) Alsatian, however after our trek through the dark we found both, waiting for a belly rub outside our door! They did however show there form keeping poor Webby, after he detached from American girl, stranded on the beach for 20mins with some loud barking, he eventually snuck back when the other returning along the road distracted them. All in all a great night!!

We stayed another day at Rainbow before catching the early (7am) boat to the mainland!

The next lot will be from Krabi and the west coast, photos will follow soon, promise!

Matt and Holly!
xxxxxx

Hi guys,

Hope all is well, we are currently in Koh Pangnan but though we should let you know how our week of diving went on Koh Toa!!

After our epic journey from the north down to Chumpon, which involved 2 trains, 6hours waiting and several dodge train meals we arrived at Suda's Guest house for a well earned kip before our midday ferry to Koh Tao.

After a truly epic sleep we awoke to fiend that Emily and Webby had managed to get some travel insurance and were in fact in Thailand and only about 5 miles away in another resort. After some rushed phone calls we arranged to meet to head over to the island to start our dive courses as originally planned.

The ferry was great, and left from a really beautiful secluded beach straight out of a film set, it took 2 hours to make the trip and time passed relatively quickly. Koh Toa on arrival looked a little run down and we fought our way through the usual touts and taxi's trying to attract business to the resort 4x4 which came to collect us. We had picked Ban's Dive Resort on a recommendation by friends and Lonely Planet, all courses are the same price on Koh Tao so it was really down to personal preference. Ban's was certainly what we wanted, a relaxed but lively resort on the main beach with a raft of facilities and an excellent reputation. Our rooms were simple but exactly what was required. We elected to have a day on the beach before starting so Emily and Webby could adjust to the time difference having only arrived the day before. The beach was beautiful, sprinkled with bars and restaurants, and had that azure coloured water and white sands that is wished for when choosing somewhere to chill out. It was however blisteringly hot with an onshore breeze which led to some "minor" burning!! That evening our course began with an introductory video of around 2 hours, which was somewhat cheezy but at the same time quite interesting. After the video we had homework, although it was relatively simple, it turns out its not all fish, swimming and sun!

Our instructors Rich and Jimmy, both Irish guys where great, they explained everything excellently with a pinch of humour and a laided back attitude. Our class had 7 others of a similar age, 2 english gap year lads, and irish couple, english girl on holiday, a japanese/irish guys (what a mix) and a kiwi, all were great fun and of a similar age.

Day one started early with a full day of classroom work which was the basic physics and the associated risks, a long with some information on the equipment and skills we would be learning in the pool and in the water. The day finished with a relatively simple exam, which we all passed, we were all set for a day of diving.

Day two started early around 8.30 getting our kit sorted and fitted accordingly. We then walked to the swimming pool (looking like idiots with masks and BCDs on). In the pool we ran through a few ours of drills which introduced the basic skills required to dive. This included clearing the mask (from various stages), breathing from a free running regulator, controlling boyancey, sharing air and equalizing pressure. All went smoothly for all of us though Matt had a broken BCD (Boyancy Control Device) so kept inflating and floating, quite a pain when trying to kneel on the bottom of the pool!!)

After a decent lunch we were ready for our first attempt at actual diving, we headed out to the dive boats and then onto Twin Peaks, one of the better dive sites in Koh Tao and visible from our resort. Our first dive was to be 40mins at a depth of around 10m, and would involve practicing the skills learnt in the pool and then a swim around the coral garden. The skills went without a hitch although most people had trouble finding the best way to equalise the pressure in the ears, everyone is different and some ways work well and some others dont. Finding buoyancy proved a little tricky as our weight belts where a bit of a guesstimate but after some changes we were all set for a trip around the reef.

In our buddy pairs, Holly and Matt, Emily and Webb we followed our instructor (of which there were 3). On this dive we saw some clown fish (finding nemo), mummy, daddy and baby (who was about 1cm in length), some young barracuda, plenty of pretty corals, trigger fish (which are agressive but harmless), some eels and rays and hundreds of other fish i couldn't attempt to name! Before long we reluctantly had to surface again .
After an hours pause on the surface to avoid the bends we headed to a second dive site 1km away called White rock, a huge white rock rising from the sea bed to around 5m below the surface. Again down for 40m in our group of 4 we took a tour around the rock looking a cleaner fish, eels and many fish tank style tropical fish. We also realised how sharp coral is with a few knocks while negotiating some tight gaps through the rocks. The sight of green blood (red light cannot penetrate past a few meters) had been explained to use but was still somewhat of a shock!!
That evening was spent rattling on about how amazing it was and watching a movie at one of the numerous beach bars.

Day 3 started later at around 11:00 with some paperwork to complete our licences and dive logs before a quick lunch and then on two our boat for 2 dives that afternoon. We visited the same dive sites but this time dived to a depth of between 18-22m so seeing a lot more variety of fish and coral. In a group of 6 this time, still in our pairs with the addition of the english lads we swam through rock arches, chased down puffer fish and hunted for baby leopard sharks. We also practiced a few more skills such as sharing air and a controlled ascent with no air. No proficient divers these were easy and it allowed us more time to explore the reef. After the second dive everyone was suitable chuffed to of completed the course without drowning or being eaten by sharks (Webby's fear). There was also the added bonus of having the last days diving filmed to take home which was great!

The following evening was spent celebrating (probably to excess!) and chatting with the instructors and course members. Consequently we felt a little worse for wear the following day and decided to stay and extra night before heading off to our next stop Koh Pangnan.

All in all it was an excellent week on a beautiful island and we cant wait to return in the future to do the next stage of the course!!!

Currently im sitting by the pool in Koh Pangnan looking at the most amazing view, will fill you in with out Koh Pangnan tales soon.

Lots of Love

Matt and Holly

xxx

Hi all!

Writing this in Koh Tao while waiting for our diving induction.

Had a manic last few days! We left Bangkok for Kanchanburi and stayed in this really nice hotel overlooking the river Kwai. It was sooo hot there- the lady who ran it told us this has been the hottest dry season in Thailand for years and that temperatures were hovering around 44 C! And we thought Bangkok was warm! The day after we arrived was far too hot to do anything so we had a chilled morning and then visited the Death Railway museum in the afternoon (obviously we there due to its historical significance but the air conditioning did also have a part to play!).

The next day we went elephant trekking which was so much fun despite the fact we had the naughtiest elephant who just wanted to eat constantly; then he proceded to show his indignation at not being allowed to do this by pooing in the river while we sat on him! Nice. Then we did some bamboo rafting and nearly capsized. The two spanish men sitting behind us seemed oblivious until one of their shoes floated past them! We managed (just) to stay afloat though. Then we did a trek up to the Erawan Falls (meant to be Thailand's most beautiful waterfalls) - which was a total mission to the top! We jumped straight into the pool at the top only to find ourselves being eaten and bitten by lots of (reasonably sized) fish - needless to say I did not handle this too well. On the way down we seemed to have acquired a troop of small Thai children following us! Think two tall blonde ppl were a bit of a novelty. The amount of older, overweight, very semi naked, sweaty Europeans coming up towards us was a little traumatizing. Then our guide tok us for a ride on the Death Railway- which name implies a much more dramatic stretch of railway then we actually saw! All in all an exhausting but amazing day.

We left Kanchanburi for Chumpon (the port where we would get the ferry to the islands) which was an epic 15 hours day of travelling- mainly due to the randomness of Thai trains. Our first train at 7 am was late so we missed our next connection which meant we had a 5 hour wait at the train platform for our next train- also late by an hour, so we eventually turned up in Chumpon at about 10 pm. Luckily we stayed in a reccommended guesthouse and the lady Suda (who was lovely and spoke perfect English) picked us up from the train station and took us to her guesthouse. The next morning was a bit manic as we only found out at 9 ish that Emily and Webbie were also in Chumpon so we bought ferry tickets for us all to get to Koh Tao together that morning. After a bit of a rush we were all packed off in a 'taxi' - more of a pick up truck with us and our backpacks all bundled in the back clinging on for dear life! - and got the ferry to Koh Tao. During which we were subjected to some of the worst films ever created and air con turned down to -50.

The small island of Koh Tao is really an amazing and beautiful place. Turquoise sea, white sand, everyone is really chilled out and friendly here. We have rooms next to each other and they are clean, en-suite and 5 mins from beach and bars Good times! Very excited about starting our diving!

Missing you all at home xxxx

Hello everyone

We're here safe and sound in Bangkok- this is our last night now.

Totally mental here- so noisy, smelly and hot! Our hotel is lush- very clean, with friendly staff and has lovely tranquil gardens compared to the chaos outside! There are food venders everywhere- we are struggling to decipher between fruit/fish/chicken/meat/veg atm whihc is proving to be a little difficult! And some of them look like food poison central- padthai a la fly?

Have stayed away from the dodge areas so have encountered no riots/demonstrations etc and because we're on the opposite side of town to all the drama there are hardly any police around either.

Yesterday was not a blistering as today so we did all the sight-seeing stuff - got a boat to the Wat Pho, Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace and then across the river to Wat Arun (needless to say we were slightly templed out by the end of it!). We also went to the Khao San road which is like hippy heaven- great place for people watching though to my disappointment we haven't seen any lady boys yet! Apart from one man in high heels but don't think he counts.

Today has been immensely hot- we went to Dusit Park this morning but have chilled out a bit this afternoon to prevent melting! Thank god for the air con in our room As have seen through some of the typical Bangkok tuk tuk scams are feeling very bangkok wise :-p

Tomorrow we are heading to Kanchanaburi by train (for the mums we are staying at www.applenoi-kanchanaburi.com) and going to stay there for three nights before heading to the islands.

Have decided that Bangkok is a pretty random and crazy place but having lots fun going with the flow and (fingers crossed) no icky tums yet (Have a feeling toilet habits may become a major feature of this blog!)

Missing you all very much,

Lots of love Hols and Matt xxxxxxxxx

Hi everyone,

After much chaos and waiting around we are finally off today!! So not too much later than planned

Just finishing packing now then off to the airport!

Love Hols xxxx