It has been a while since we have had time to write on the blog, but this is a summary of the last few weeks.
On our last day in Bangkok we met the people that we would be spending the next 17 days with. It was a small group of 9, a Scottish lad called Paul, a group from Northern Ireland , Hugh, Debbie, Georgina and Jenni and two girls from Ireland, Lisa and Anna. We met our tour leader Kit at the same time, a Thai man who has been doing tours with Imaginative Traveller for years. We decided to go and have a meal and start to get to know each other. After dinner we went for some drinks, Kit told us we should go and have cocktails in the gas station, as we got there we realised it was a disused petrol station, but all the pumps and signs were still in place, weird!
Next morning we had an early start and headed for the floating market. This is a market that is on the banks of the river about 2 hours from Bangkok. It was a fantastic experience. We got on a boat and floated around the market and passed the boats full with food and souvenirs and they would pull your boat over so you could have a closer look. We spent about a hour looking around the market then we started our journey to the bridge over the river Quai. This was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, still very picturesque, but the story behind the bridge was really interesting. There was a museum dedicated to the Prisoners of War who built the bridge. We saw and read the conditions they had to work in and how people starved to death or died of disease at a very young age. I remember reading a paragraph from a paper whereby a POW survivor told his story of how he tried to imagine the maggots in his Christmas pudding to be currants – yuck! We also visited the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery where the names and ages of some of the prisoners were written on memorial stones. It was sad to see as the majority of people seemed to be in their twenties when they died – it was very moving!
That evening we had to get a train, we all were dreading it, 13 hours overnight on a train is no joke but as we got on the train we were met by the campest man, he introduced himself as Frank and welcomed us to cabin 10. He turned out to be the best entertainment on the train and made the time fly by. We all enjoyed a few drinks and Frank’s singing and dancing in the bar on the train, however it was soon time to go back to our cabin as they locked sections of the train. We made our way back and started to settle for the night. However a girl from one of the other cabins (Caroline) got stuck in our cabin as the doors had been locked so we helped her out and made a bed for her on the floor out of blankets. I didn’t sleep too well on the train and only got about 3 hours sleep. Once we had got to our stop we then went to catch the ferry and then the four by four to take us to Koh Pangan.
As you can imagine by this stage we were sick of travelling and all needed a shower to freshen up, however when we arrived at our resort we all agreed it was well worth it. It was just paradise. We had lovely little wooden cabins, basic but comfortable. The sea was so warm and inviting. We dumped our bags into the cabins and headed straight for the beach which was literally one minute away from our accommodation. We stayed 4 days on the island and had the most amazing time. We all hired canoes and canoed to the other beach, we ate most nights in restaurants which were on the beach and partied a lot in the” Jungle bar”.
We also went on a day trip out. Elephant trekking was the highlight of that day. Adam even got onto the neck of the one we were on and steered our 40 year old elephant along. We were then taken to the beach to go snorkelling but this was a bit disappointing as we had hoped to be taken out to an island by boat but instead had to make our way out into the sea clambering over rocks and coral which was very painful. Lastly we made our way to see and swim in a waterfall, but this too was disappointing as the waterfall had dried up and it was literally a puddle. Still even though the day trip had been disappointing we were still happy to be on such a beautiful island.
The following day we all had a lazy day on the beach as we knew the night ahead would be long. We were all going to go to the pre full moon party. The full moon parties are meant to be the most maddest parties but as we were going to be leaving the day it was on we decided to go to the pre party which is still meant to be brilliant. Kit sorted out a taxi to take us to the other side of the island about an hour away where the party was and we grabbed a bite to eat which was soon followed by consumption of lots of alcohol. Along the beach there were stalls selling buckets which had a choice of different alcohols and mixers a bargain at only 250 baht - £4. We enjoyed the fire dancing and Paul even had a go at skipping with the fire rope – it was scary just watching him! One girl got caught up in the rope and her dress caught on fire so i thought i would give it a miss. We partied hard and when it got to 3am none of us wanted to leave but the taxi to pick us up had been booked and so we had to make our way back as we had to be up and leaving the Island at 8am.
On our last day in Bangkok we met the people that we would be spending the next 17 days with. It was a small group of 9, a Scottish lad called Paul, a group from Northern Ireland , Hugh, Debbie, Georgina and Jenni and two girls from Ireland, Lisa and Anna. We met our tour leader Kit at the same time, a Thai man who has been doing tours with Imaginative Traveller for years. We decided to go and have a meal and start to get to know each other. After dinner we went for some drinks, Kit told us we should go and have cocktails in the gas station, as we got there we realised it was a disused petrol station, but all the pumps and signs were still in place, weird!
Next morning we had an early start and headed for the floating market. This is a market that is on the banks of the river about 2 hours from Bangkok. It was a fantastic experience. We got on a boat and floated around the market and passed the boats full with food and souvenirs and they would pull your boat over so you could have a closer look. We spent about a hour looking around the market then we started our journey to the bridge over the river Quai. This was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, still very picturesque, but the story behind the bridge was really interesting. There was a museum dedicated to the Prisoners of War who built the bridge. We saw and read the conditions they had to work in and how people starved to death or died of disease at a very young age. I remember reading a paragraph from a paper whereby a POW survivor told his story of how he tried to imagine the maggots in his Christmas pudding to be currants – yuck! We also visited the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery where the names and ages of some of the prisoners were written on memorial stones. It was sad to see as the majority of people seemed to be in their twenties when they died – it was very moving!
That evening we had to get a train, we all were dreading it, 13 hours overnight on a train is no joke but as we got on the train we were met by the campest man, he introduced himself as Frank and welcomed us to cabin 10. He turned out to be the best entertainment on the train and made the time fly by. We all enjoyed a few drinks and Frank’s singing and dancing in the bar on the train, however it was soon time to go back to our cabin as they locked sections of the train. We made our way back and started to settle for the night. However a girl from one of the other cabins (Caroline) got stuck in our cabin as the doors had been locked so we helped her out and made a bed for her on the floor out of blankets. I didn’t sleep too well on the train and only got about 3 hours sleep. Once we had got to our stop we then went to catch the ferry and then the four by four to take us to Koh Pangan.
As you can imagine by this stage we were sick of travelling and all needed a shower to freshen up, however when we arrived at our resort we all agreed it was well worth it. It was just paradise. We had lovely little wooden cabins, basic but comfortable. The sea was so warm and inviting. We dumped our bags into the cabins and headed straight for the beach which was literally one minute away from our accommodation. We stayed 4 days on the island and had the most amazing time. We all hired canoes and canoed to the other beach, we ate most nights in restaurants which were on the beach and partied a lot in the” Jungle bar”.
We also went on a day trip out. Elephant trekking was the highlight of that day. Adam even got onto the neck of the one we were on and steered our 40 year old elephant along. We were then taken to the beach to go snorkelling but this was a bit disappointing as we had hoped to be taken out to an island by boat but instead had to make our way out into the sea clambering over rocks and coral which was very painful. Lastly we made our way to see and swim in a waterfall, but this too was disappointing as the waterfall had dried up and it was literally a puddle. Still even though the day trip had been disappointing we were still happy to be on such a beautiful island.
The following day we all had a lazy day on the beach as we knew the night ahead would be long. We were all going to go to the pre full moon party. The full moon parties are meant to be the most maddest parties but as we were going to be leaving the day it was on we decided to go to the pre party which is still meant to be brilliant. Kit sorted out a taxi to take us to the other side of the island about an hour away where the party was and we grabbed a bite to eat which was soon followed by consumption of lots of alcohol. Along the beach there were stalls selling buckets which had a choice of different alcohols and mixers a bargain at only 250 baht - £4. We enjoyed the fire dancing and Paul even had a go at skipping with the fire rope – it was scary just watching him! One girl got caught up in the rope and her dress caught on fire so i thought i would give it a miss. We partied hard and when it got to 3am none of us wanted to leave but the taxi to pick us up had been booked and so we had to make our way back as we had to be up and leaving the Island at 8am.
5 comments:
Ah the beach... good memories.
Hey Kids,
Glad your having a agreat time .... Its nice to see that Ziggy is still with you all the time !
Weve just come back from Centre Parcs with the Boys, It was brilliant fun with Dan, and Charlie. Dan has got such bruised, legs & arms though from going up and down all of the adult water slides on his own all day !! oh and he even split his lip when his slipped running around by the pool ! Poor Lil' soldier.
Even got to say Bye to your mum & Dad before they left for Singapore, which was nice.
See you in a few weeks !! :-)
hey tj and adam
we hope you are having fun and enjoying your hoilday
keep us in touch
from sharon
Hey from the UK, just found a bit of paper with "Caroline Dawson (Colorado)" on it, that will be train-floor girl, but I can't find her on facebook.....
I have ever go to floating market since April 2009. I have tasted many kind of thai fruits such as mango, durian,rambotan,pomalo,coconut. Morover i have seen thai villagers and leraned to their simply life. And your traveling blog have make me remind to floating market. Thank you for sharing your story....
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