South Islands

The diving in Koh Tao was not quite as good as expected, but we still made it fun. The conditions were really bad (apparently due to the recent full moon) but we were diving with a group of lads from Sarah's open water course, and as they were typical lads we ended up spending the whole time doing Underwater Kung Fu Fighting and gymnastics (there were literally only about 10 fish)!!

One of the afternoons we had off from diving, we decided it would be a good idea to rent out some motorbikes (it's the done thing in Thailand - everyone has one) and go and investigate a beach which has some good cliff jumping. On the map, the route was one of the few proper roads so we figured it would be fine - the fact that I'd never ridden a motorbike before was clearly not an issue for the Thai people hassling me to rent one! After about 50m of practice on a proper tarmac road, we reached a dirt track. Thinking that it must just be a short section, then lead back on to the main road, we decided to keep going on the motorbike. This carried on for about 20 minutes, and every time we turned a corner or got up a hill, the track got worse! Due to my lack of experience on a bike, half of the time one of the guys had to take their bike up and come back for mine (Sarah was sensible and didn't get one!), until we gave up and left them half way.


Even the quad bike was struggling with it! So we had to walk the rest of the way (about 45 mins in the blazing heat up a dirt track - not fun!) but the beach was awesome once we got there and we did get a chance to do some cliff jumping. The next day, however, I discovered maybe the bike renting wasn't such a good idea when I took it back to them and they tried charging me 6000B (120 pounds) for a few small scratches on the bottom of the bike! This is clearly how the Thai's make their money - hire the bikes out to inexperienced blonde english girls then rip them off for all the money they have. Luckily we managed to agree on only 2180B (44 pounds), but still a rip off!



We only stayed one day after the diving then headed to Koh Samui (yet another hungover, not fun boat ride) for a couple of days. Koh Samui is very pretty with nice beaches, but much more touristy which also made it much more expensive! There were less backpackers and more holiday people, so we didn't stay too long. I did, however, make the most of the amazing shopping there and managed to get almost all of my Christmas shopping done (you're all getting socks! lol).

Phi Phi was the next stop, which we absolutely loved. It's such a beautiful small island, no vehicles are allowed (apart from push bikes), so everyone walks everywhere. It only takes about 10-15 minutes to walk from one side to the other in the main section. We did a sunset boat trip which included visiting monkey beach, snorkelling, kayaking, and visiting Maya Bay (the setting for the film "The Beach") which was amazing.
We also got to do several dives - in much better conditions than Koh Tao. We got to see a huuugggeeee wreck from a passenger ferry which sank 12 years ago, several turtles, and oh yeah...about 10 leopard sharks! They ranged from about 1.5m to 2.5m and would literally just sit right next to you minding their own business. I felt like giving them a hug but thought maybe that wouldn't be the best idea seeing as their closest relative is a reef shark which could eat me!

The evenings on Phi Phi were surprisingly busy. We spent most of the time in a place called Banana Bar which did amazing banana buckets (basically tasting of banana milkshake), and a bar which had Muay Thai boxing every night. One of our friends got in the ring one night to win a free bucket, it was an awesome atmosphere. We would then spend the rest of the night dancing in a beach bar with lots of english music - I've heard quite a few songs now that weren't released before I came, so I've got lots to catch up on!

We are now in a place called Railay which is just around the coast from Krabi - this is the most well known place for rock climbing so we're gonna give that a go! The next stop will be a small island where a James Bond film was set, and then back to Bangkok before flying home. Can't believe how quickly the time here is going!

Sawadee Ka xxxx

Koh Phangan - Full Moon!

I'm now on Koh Tao, which is a nice rest after a very hectic and drunken 6 days on Koh Phangan for the full moon!

The last week of volunteering was fun, but also pretty sad as we realised how much we were going to miss Surin, it literally felt like home to us after living there for 2 months and we'd made so many Thai friends as well as other volunteers. So I'll definately be back to visit as soon as I can!

Almost all of the other volunteers were easily persuaded to join us at the full moon, so we all headed down together on an overnight sleeper train with beer to start the trend for the week (yes, I was forced to drink beer and can now actually tolerate it ok!). Our hotel was pretty good for Thailand standards, we had hot water, air con and a flushing toilet (!!) and was the centre for all the pre-full moon pool parties so was always filled with travellers.

We quickly got in to a routine of pool parties and drinking on the beach until the early hours of the morning when the sun came up, then sleeping until early afternoon and lazing around, shopping, eating, and preparing to do it all again that evening. The atmosphere was amazing, with UV paint, fire dancers and lights everywhere. On the actual full moon night there must have been around 30,000 people on the beach, and we all managed to survive with no thefts or injuries or anything (we were being very sensible!).

The day after the full moon (after having no sleep) we had to get straight on to a boat to get here to Koh Tao - possibly the worst boat journey I've ever had! It was full of post-full moon travellers and there was a lot of sickness going on! We eventually made it here safely though and have checked in to a hotel right next to our dive centre. It's now just me and Sarah again, she starts her open water course today, and I'll be diving from tomorrow. The dives here are ridiculously cheap, only costing 15-16 pounds including equipment, tank etc!!

Everyone down here in the South find it amazing that we can speak some Thai, even the Thai people are surprised when we order food which is really cool! Oh, I also love fact that it's now december so I get to open my (very squashed) advent calendar!! We're celebrating it properly by playing christmas songs very loud and wearing a santa hat while opening each day.