Ok, so I didn't keep up with this last year but will now. And I will start where I left off last summer.....
Thailand.
What can I say? The most beautiful, exciting and exhilarating country I have visited so far. There is so much to do and see around this absolute jewel in Asia.
My trip started at Heathrow with my two gorgeous friends. We boarded our Boeing to Bombay to start that dreaded long haul flight. The excitement was so overwhelming, beginning with the inflight entertainment system! What a God send that was. The food was terrible, thanks Jet Airways! Who would've thought you could be served curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner? After a brief stop in India (guards with guns and holes in the floor to use as toilets!) we headed for Bangkok!
The international airport there is stunning: so clean, easy to get around and plenty of travel desks so you can book internal flights/ferries/trains and so on. We met two more friends there who had just flown in from Chaing Mai. After attempting to book some flights down to Koh Samui with absolutely no luck (I would advise you book in advance, especially if you're trying to get down for the Full Moon Party), we headed for the central train station across the other side of the city.
My first shock of the trip came when we went to KFC to get something to eat, I couldn't stand the thought of another curry yet, and I sat down while my pals ordered their food. To my complete horror, a rat bolted through the restaurant and in to the kitchen where dinner was being cooked!!! Needless to say, I didn't order a single thing. My friends still ate theirs though, yuck!!
We booked a train and ferry trip to get us down to Koh Samui. It was a sleeper train that took 7 hours to Chumphon, then a three hour ferry to take us to Samui, which was to be our home for the next 5 days. The train was such a fun journey, even though we had been awake for about 40 hours, we were still singing and laughing, joining in with banter from some drunk lads from Melbourne, Australia. The highlight of the train ride had to be the bathroom: a metal floor with a simple hole, which you had to crouch over to pee in, with no toilet roll, just a mini shower head to 'rinse' with. What a culture shock! And not ideal when I had travelling in my floral Palazzo pants!
After arriving in Chumphon, we were welcomed with a chaotic organisation system to get us to the port to catch the ferry. We were put on what I would describe as a giant truck, and our backpacks were just chucked on the top. We were all hoping our bags wouldn't fall on the road, they drive like maniacs out there.
A short time later and we were on the ferry, we had now been awake for over 48 hours, and it was scorching! None of us had any sun lotion on us as it was still in our backpacks from the flight, so we got a wee bit burnt. As we were some of the last ones to board, we had to lay on the top deck floor, crammed in like sardines, nonetheless all part of this fantastic adventure we had just started.
Eventually, after unloading endless tourists at the three islands of Koh Nangyuan, Koh Tao and Koh Phangnan, we had finally docked in Koh Samui. And it was love at first sight...
