This week my fellow travellers and I have been sunning ourselves on some of Thailand's most beautiful southern islands, and it has been wonderful.
From Chiang Mai we stayed one night in Patong near Phuket, which didn't float our boat, but after the world's most tiring day on multiple buses, tuk tuks, minivans, coaches ferries and a taxi we arrived on Ko Samui; a stunning island with a buzzing nightlife on the east side of Thailands southern strip. Samui was beautiful but quite commercial, and we had a fun night out here where we shared our first notorious Thai "bucket'', played pool and wondered who was a tall thai woman and who was a (convincing!) ladyboy.
After Samui we got the ferry to Ko Phang Nga where the infamous Full Moon Party takes place. Here we met 3 friends from England, making our terrible twosome into a fabulous five (soon to be an excellent eight!). As I was meant to be meeting three friends and staying with them but this fell through, I bought a lilo and camped on the other girls' floor in their luxury beach apartment. To thank them I bought lots of buckets, straws and a big bottle of "vodka" for us to share (it did not turn out to be vodka but it definately was alcoholic!). We had a fantastic night out on the beach drinking buckets, watching the fire poi shows and laughing at those silly enough to skip in a fire rope only to trip and land on the flames.
The next day we did a day trip to Ko Tao, which is a smaller, less commercial island to the north of Phang Nga. Our guides took us snorkelling, which turned out to be fabulous after I had recovered from a bout of sea-sickess (or hangover maybe) and aside from my first experience of being sick in the sea this was actually pretty fun! We also went to a STUNNING island and had a delicious buffet lunch then sunbathed on white sands and in turquoise waters :)
That night we went to the Coral Bungalows pool party, which started well but ended on a dull note when a guy jumped from one table to another, slipped, banged his head and had to be taken, covered in blood, to hospital. We left and returned to the atmospheric beach where my friends were tackled by some crazed men and one lost her flip-flops, so had to scrounge around for another pair for the journey home!
We stayed on Ko Phang Nga for the Full Moon Party on the 26th June (my birthday is the 27th!), for which I bought UV paints to decorate my roomies (and inadvertently the room itself) with. Not that all our efforts lasted the night- it rained! We just had to "embrace it" and dance on the beach with wet faces and soaking hair. I learned the verb; "to Dub", and will be "Dubbing" a lot more on this holiday I am sure!
At 5am we showered and got ready for our journey across sea and land to the east islands at 6am, finally arriving around 5pm (!) and in the evening we watched the England game (4-1 = embarrassing, but made better by Mai Tai cocktais and the biggest shot I've ever had- thanks girls) and watched the mesmerising fire shows on the beach
Today we were meant to be kayaking around the island and snorkelling on the beach where they filmed 'The Beach', but as it is raining we have to go tomorrow instead! Then it's back to Phuket to meet 3 of our other friends at last and travel to Cambodia via Bangkok.
Written with love and happiness from the Thai Islands!! x
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