Thailand

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