The Hotel that just keeps giving !

Well that's nearly it. Twenty six days after leaving our suite at the Vie Hotel in Bangkok (nervously anticipating the Cambodia Express) we have returned. The Vie have been great. They have upgraded us again to a luxury suite on the 22nd floor with stunning views over Central Bangkok.

We woke up to blue skies and sunshine in Hua Hin. The morning was spent by the pool until check out time saw us move to the beach (beautiful white sand - lots of litter) Then the 150 mile train ride up to Bangkok. This time second class and a special express train.

Not a patch on third class. No live animals or pungent food stuffs allowed in  second class by order of Thai National Railways.

Obviously we were late arriving but only 40 minutes. So it was check in - dump bags then a tuk tuk to the Kohsan Road for the final chicken Pad Thai of the trip. Plus a final last look at the strangely uninteresting  'freaks' we occasionally  saw, and more than often heard, on this trip (but not in Kota Bharu, Sungai Kolok, Phattalung or on the roof of the boat in the middle of Cambodia).

We are now back in our room preparing for tomorrow and our trip to the airport and our 11:40 flight back to London.
Stay with us for our final couple of posts and thank you (fellow without a netters) for sharing our trip with us.

Just like England

We found sunshine again yesterday. Upon arrival at Hua Hin, 150 miles south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand. We spent the afternoon by the pool in glorious sunshine after a four hour minivan trip from Chumphon yesterday morning.
Travel sickness is either a real problem in Thailand or Sue and I are always on a minivan with the only Percy  (Thrower) in the region on his way to the national vomiting finals.
Sue fell down a few stairs in the hotel and after an initial scare, we think she has just sprained her left wrist.
We are off to the beach this morning then it's the train ride back to the Siamese capital.

Hip Hip Hua Hin

We have arrived in Hua Hin and it's sunny !!!

Enough of Tao

We awoke yesterday to more rain and the constant threat that the weather system over Koh Tao would continue all day.

Making a bold move we decided to get off the island a day early and got the afternoon boat to Chumphon on the mainland. We stayed in a hotel that has all modern amenities including a pool and air conditioning but looks architecturally like a gift to the people of Chumphon from the Soviet Union in 1977.

Chumphon is a transport hub and not really a place travellers stay the night. We had dinner in karaoke restaurant where the singers sing from their tables. All the songs were Thai classics and all sounded like a cat being slowly strangled.

By the time our meal was over, that type of death was preferable to desert so we ran back to the hotel.
This morning, the plan is a minivan to Hua Hin, further North, where the forecast is hot and sunny. Let's see !

Wet pics

No pictures of the warfare due to unreliable camera when completely soaking wet.

Wet Wet Wet live in Sairee

We awoke today after a lovely sleep to cloudy skies. Today on Koh Tao is the day the locals celebrate New Year (Songkran) by soaking each other with water. 

Ironically, the rain came and soaked everyone on the island far more than Songkran did. 

Sue and I walked up to the Nangyuan viewpoint and got there about half ten. Then the rain came so we decided that if we were going to get wet then we should take our weaponry into Sairee village and join in the soakfest.

The journey in was quite relaxed, just the odd watergun trained on us while we returned 'fire'. However, when we entered Sairee it was a different story. Almost everyone had waterguns and were arriving on the back of trucks with vats of water on board. Some locals were either standing outside throwing bowlfulls of water or with a garden hose trained on anyone who walked, drove or rode past on mopeds. Of the westerners involved we were about twenty five years older than the other participants.

We were involved in house to house waterfights and my objective was to aim at cigarettes. There were battles in every alleyway and we would have got less wet if we had jumped fully clothed into our pool.

It is still raining and it's twenty to five in the afternoon. We have never been subjected to rain effecting our holiday up until now. 

I feel more sorry for the Thais as it is their public holiday. Still, the objective is to get wet !

Koh Tao photos

Yo

Youngest bike rider ever??

Mobile kitchen on Koh Tao

!!!!!!

Preparing for Songkran

We spent this morning sunbathing in our tiny piece of paradise up in the top right hand corner of Phangang.  Got a taxi (free due to the 'debarcle' yesterday with Ang Thong) to Thongsala port then a glorious ferry trip across to a very different island - Koh Tao. It's not as Cosmo as Samui, Lanta or Phangang but has a certain swagger all itself.
Our place is great. Koh Tao Heights Villa. We booked it ten months ago and it has wonderful views of Sairee beach and bay.
Tomorrow is the Thai new year 'Songkran' Sue has come prepared as she prides herself on stealth like sniper qualities. She has secreted herself in an alcove underneath the home of an unsuspecting six year old boy and tomorrow will let him have both barrels !!.
I'm so glad we chose to stay here it is a lovely place. Pete 

When you look at the photos look out for the two people who obviously have never used a kayak before! Need to go to Sea Cadets eh Andrew! (Sue)

It's all gone Ang Thong !

Was it written in the stars? The decision to take a day trip to the Ang Thong archipelago was a finely balanced one.
Do you lose a day on a beautiful beach and with all the facilities we have in our villa to go to a place you hadn't planned to go to in the first place?
Not prone to impulse, we decided to visit Ang Thong (!). However, on arrival at Thongsala, the port, we discovered that the hotel had forgotten to book us a place on the trip so we were driven back to our resort.
Actually, when we arrived at the port, I did think - 'this is a mistake'. It looked like we were being sub contracted out to a squad of cowboys who probably only cared about the profit margin. Still we escaped through an error not of our own making and Ang Thong will forever be a mystery to us as we are unlikely to make this pass again.
Theatrically upset we accepted a free 30 minute ride to Thongsala tomorrow morning, so all in all the mistake worked in our favour! We've got a free ride and we got to spend our last day on Koh Pha-Ngan doing what we wanted, namely taking a kayak out on the high seas before relaxing and alternating between the sea, our sunbeds and our plunge pool.

Tomorrow Koh Tao; our next place was booked a year ago all by ourselves (without a net).
We leave on the Songserm Express Boat at half past noon.

Moonrise

Sue and I watched a wonderful moonrise last night. Pictures to follow as the Internet is not the best up here in North Eastern Phangang.
Today was a day spent topping up our tan then getting an exfoliating massage which took it off again.
I got distracted by wedding fireworks last night hence the problems posting.

We are off to Ang Thong on Saturday.

Paradise

I think that this is the best hotel room we have ever stayed in. The Anantara Beach Resort in the North East corner of beautiful Koh Phangang. We arrived by speedboat this morning and have been put up in their Ocean Villa with pool. OK, I know it's a bit Disneyland but it is special. I will let the photos speak for us.

Sawaasdee Samui

We have travelled across Thailand from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean at Koh Samui.
As we explained our travel plans were altered and altered further as we unexpectedly journeyed by minivan across from Koh Lanta Yai across Koh Lanta Noi and onto the mainland.
Arriving at Krabi (in an indusrial park) around half ten. The coach then came to take us across the Thai mainland - the bit that goes fat after the Isthmus of Kra or like a python that's swallowed a rat!.
Anyway we got across to Don Sak in the province of Surat Thani and into the Ocean on a Car Ferry. Ferry romantic.
It's only a couple of hours to Samui from Don Sak and due to the lovely calm sea we were at the port of Nathon by half three.
We took a taxi to Bo Phut and checked into the Smile House (everyone say cheeeeeze) then cocktails on the beach. In fact at the 'Beach' a bar run by Mancunians who recommended a lovely place to eat called 'The Hut'. We will go to Koh Phangang with happy memories of our 20 hours on Samui.
Goodnight/morning/evening my fellow without a netters.

Hat Khlong Dao

Today we ventured out to the beach at Hat Khlong Dao. The sea was as warm as a bath and the sand almost as nice as Swanage.
We had a massage on the beach before heading back to our own pool.
Nothing from the hotel regarding a change of room and tonight is our last night. We are off to Koh Samui on the Gulf of Thailand side (East coast) so sunrises will replace sunsets so this is our final West coast sunset of our entire trip and I have captured the start of it for you.
Tragically, we had to pack this afternoon too.

Lunar Eclipse

We picked up our laundry today and everything white Sue sent to be laundered (if that is a verb) came back pink. Talking of laundering, we exchanged half of our unused Malaysian Ringits for Thai Bhatt, then observed a total lunar eclipse.
Swim up bar today Ian !

No Saawatdee Phi Phi !

It is with some trepidation that Sue and I will be venturing to the hotel's very own 'Fire Show' tonight.  We have been partly seduced by paradise and without thinking it through, at breakfast this morning, we agreed to book a table for the evening's entertainment that commences straight after sunset and bizarrely includes a Mongolian BBQ.

Now whenever we have gone to some lovely hotel (it is rare but it happened in the Dominican Republic, on Cyprus, in Egypt and in Mexico) we have agreed to watch a performance of 'traditional' dance/music/cultural history and have always come away saying 'never again' - The main reason for going was to show our children something of the place they were visiting but we don't have that excuse (and we didn't have that excuse in Mexico) now and we are still going along. Mainly out of politeness (to the performers who we would hate to see performing to no-one and would therefore have to seek other employment, but also to remind ourselves that we don't really like 'that sort of thing'.

Right, onto travel matters. We confirmed our booking with Phutet Ferries and Ferry Samui and the replies came back from one company, Livagroup. On Monday we had planned this stressful little number - Phuket Ferries from Lanta at 8am to Phi Phi arriving at 9am followed by a ferry/bus/another ferry combo with Ferry Samui leaving Phi Phi at 10:30am. Now our experience with South East Asia arrival times did not fill us with any confidence. In fact the only thing that has been consistent has been that all forms of transportation have arrived 50% later than expected, with the notable exception of our arrival at Kota Bharu (and that hotel room was a bit 'rent by the hour'); though the staff were nice and so was the city.

Back to the story - Livagroup suggest an easier, cheaper and stress free alternative as they are the parent company. We leave Lanta in the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) at 8am to Krabi on the west coast of the mainland then a bus to Don Sak in the province of Surat Thani on the east coast followed by a ferry to Samui in the Gulf of Thailand (Pacific Ocean). Plus, they will pick us up from our hotel.

Bonus !!

A lovely day here, cloudless and hot. We have undergone serious sun bathing today. Still no news about our move to the actual room we booked. We are making the most of our upgrade and not mixing with other people as you would expect!

Addendum ...
Fire show was crap!  :-) 

No Saawatdee Phi Phi photos

Photos of: view from breakfast table; Sue in our very own pool and the fire man (twisted fire starter) from tonight's show (which was OK, but a bit short ... Sue said it wasn't all that!).

Lanta Sunset

Our first full day on Koh Lanta. A time to get our bearings for a few days after two weeks of travelling.
We are still acting as if we have broken into someone else's suite and they could return at any moment.
After breakfast we ventured out of the hotel to Ban Saladan, the port we arrived at.
Sue got a manicure and pedicure and I got a foot massage. We located a laundry and after a day of soaking up the sun, I went to the gym and then we watched the best sunset of our holiday thus far. The sun sets between Ko Phi Phi Lei and Ko Phi Phi Don (which is where Leonardo Di Caprio went in 'The Beach'. We took the sunset pictures from our own private pool !!!!
Dinner was taken at Country Lao in Ban Phra Ae about a third of the way down the west coast.

Jackpot photos

Jackpot

This morning was a full on lie in with nothing to do till half eleven morning. We woke at Haad Yao beach under an imposing limestone karst that juts impressively out onto the Andaman Sea.
Breakfast consisted of a cross between porridge and chicken soup with proper bits of chicken in it. I thought it was lovely but Sue wasn't so keen.
We got some serious sunbathing in on a beach which would have been paradise but for a ubiquitous football pitch and so much rubbish.
We re packed and checked out, then headed down to the pier at the allotted time of 12:15. One by one the westerners started to appear out of taxis and Tuk - tuks they came until by departure time of 1pm the pier was full of tourists.
The boat was inevitably delayed and didn't set off until 3pm which was a bit frustrating but out of our control. We set off into the Indian Ocean and arrived at Ko Lanta at half six.
When we got to the hotel they had upgraded us to a 'sunset supreme suite with pool' for the first three nights - Jackpot !.
We were straight in. Later we had a complimentary bottle of Champagne arrive at our door. Now this is the life.
We ate Pad Thai by the beach as an electrical storm played out in the sea. Then it was back to our room for - you guessed it and would do the same - another swim and cos I can, I went sans pantallons ! Mon Droit.
I think England did OK as well today with a one all draw in Turin against Italy.