The Lou Bon Voyage

Roy, Paul & I drinking a bucket. Click the image for more photos.

Hi folks and sorry for the uber-long break in blogging. I’ve tried to start writing this post probably a dozen times, so have decided just to go for it!

I can hardly believe it’s mid-February as I’m writing this, but Pre-Christmas was lovely.  After travelling from Cambodia we spent a few days on the Thai island of Koh Chang, pottering about, Paul driving me around on a moped and me trying not to flip off the back (the roads were extremely steep in places).  We ran into a couple we had met during the border crossing from Cambodia, Roy and Ivonne, and spent a couple of evenings with them.  We enjoyed their company, but I personally did not enjoy the hangovers that followed (they liked a drop of Sang Som whiskey!).  We had a look at a waterfall inland – check out my photos for a series of Paul taking a dip.

We travelled from Koh Chang to Bangkok, where we eagerly awaited the arrival of Rich, Simon and Carly (Paul’s cousin, brother and sister).  We were also expecting my friend Jane, but very sadly she was unable to fly over after an accident at home.

The three days of arrivals were brilliant and mostly involved eating street food and drinking a lot of beer.  Most cultural, I think you will agree.  Topping off our travelling exploits was a visit to Nana Plaza, which is essentially a shopping centre for…umm…ladies of the night.  Seedy it certainly was, but there was actually quite a fun atmosphere; the boys enjoyed the attention and we girls didn’t feel any animosity.

Christmas was always going to be out of the ordinary – spent in the sunshine by the pool at Paul’s dad’s house – but it didn’t disappoint.  The five of us agreed to a Secret Santa, heading to the night market in Hua Hin to make our purchases to an agreed deadline (half an hour, starting and ending with a cocktail at a street bar).  On the day itself, we lounged by the pool and opened our presents, drank beer, and were joined by some of Paul’s dad’s friends for bit of a knees up.  The day was topped off by two things: first, the discovery of an extra present that had winged its way from the UK.  From T, R & B this was quite literally Christmas in a Box; crackers, hats, napkins and little presents – there were even chocolate pennies! It was the most touching wonderful gift and I basically cried when I opened it.  Thanks again my lovely friends.  After an enormous roast dinner with all the trimmings – cooked by one of Paul’s dad’s friends who was a chef in the Merchant Navy – was the chance to speak to said friends, as well as my parents – who had positioned the webcam so that I could see the tree and everything – and P, R and N who played We Wish You a Merry Christmas on their shiny new kazoos!  I was even privy to P’s first drink in a month – we all virtually chinked glasses and it made me feel a lot closer to home.  Thank you so much, all of you for taking time out of your Christmas day!!

Boxing Day was spent in a similarly lounging fashion, then on the following day – mine and Paul’s last in Hua Hin – we did some go karting.  I am quite notoriously bad at this, and true to form came last in the first race.  The second race, however, was a Turtle Race comprising the four slowest from the first, and I managed to come second!  It was excellent and the health and safety was right up to Thai standards; there was plenty of beer available and after donning the slightly ropey crash helmets, we were let loose with karts that felt like they went about 60mph on the straight!  It was a really fun afternoon and thankfully everyone survived unscathed.

Due to a change in immigration law, we found we only had 15 day visas when we re-entered Thailand from Cambodia; they ran out on New Year’s Eve.  This was no good whatsoever, and we came to the conclusion that the only solution was a border run.  We took off from Hua Hin a day before everyone else and headed for Chumphon, further down the coast.  Here, we found the agency that would take us to Burma the following morning.  Rising at 4.30am, the bus left at 5am and took us on a hair-raising, corner cutting blast to Ranong.  Here, we borded a longtail boat that listed heavily and chugged over to Burma.  We disembarked, to the small town of Kaw Theung; the immigration formalities were taken care of by the agency staff and we hung around, hassled to a small degree by people wanting to sell us stuff, but less so than at other borders.  The return journey followed; we were back in Chumphon and ready to get on the catamaran for Koh Phagnan only a few places in the queue behind Carly, Simon and Rich!  It was a slightly bizarre experience, it almost felt a bit weird on the Burmese side, knowing that we were literally only there for a passport stamp, but it was worth it to buy some extra time in Thailand.

After a delay of a couple of hours at the port – which we naturally spent in a pub – the catamaran journey to Koh Phagnan followed.  It was a pretty smooth journey, but the horizon was not easily visible to me, meaning my seasickness hit me full pelt – I spent a good portion of the journey being blasted by spray on the rear deck, but feeling much better for being outside.  Once on dry land we arrived at our resorts (Simon & Rich opting for a more deluxe place up the road from Paul, Carly and myself) which were close to Haad Salad beach and actually found someone to sub-let Jane’s bungalow (this was a result, since they kept 100% of the payment if you cancel).  The bungalows were nice enough and served us well for the few days that we were on the island.

We had some nice relaxed days here and I snorkelled in the bay which was excellent; but the main event was always going to be the Full Moon / New Year’s Eve party on Haad Rin beach.  For those of you who haven’t heard of them, the Full Moon parties happen throughout the year and have a reputation as the best beach parties in south east Asia; add to that that this New Year’s Eve was the first in fifteen years to coincide with a full moon, and it’s safe to say that this party had been hyped good and proper.  We booked our taxis to and from the beach (these were actually 4×4s with benches in the back, designed to cram as many people in as possible) and began drinking in earnest.  Once there, we wandered through the town and around the beach; taking in the atmosphere, doing a bit of red-bull induced dancing and generally having a brilliant time.  Midnight came and there were fireworks, but we had been a bit distracted by the collapse of a stage behind us – this probably makes me sound like a terrible person, but it was actually quite funny (and no-one was hurt).  There were lots of randoms dancing on a stage at one end of the beach; someone realised it was going to collapse and kept telling people over a loud speaker to get off.  People didn’t seem to move so in the end they brought out some big Alsation guard dogs to chase them off!!   Paul made a video of the escapade and should be uploading it at some point.  We wished eachother a Happy New Year as the fireworks lit up the sky.

The rest of the night involved a lot of silliness; sometime in the wee small hours Paul and I decided to go back and managed to grab a taxi that we hadn’t booked.  We got a few hours sleep and then decided to go and see how the others were doing.   They had not long been back from the party but far from turning in, they persuaded us to join them and carry on drinking.  Thus, New Year’s Day was.

The following day, hangovers were rife but we had seen a flyer for a Moonset Party on a secluded cove on the island; Carly bowed out of this one but Rich, Simon, Paul and I went and had a great time.  The bar hosting the party felt like a pirate bar, there was lots of surreal UV lighting and the music was really good, proving that virtually any phase of the moon is worth celebrating!

Our time on Koh Phagnan drew to a close and we took a ferry to Koh Samui.  Paul and I had visited this island several years ago and to say the island was nothing like I remember would be a bit of an understatement – everything seemed more developed, and not in a good way.  Naturally we spent some time drinking and trying out a few different restaurants for the couple of days, until the time came for Simon and Rich to leave.  They flew to Bangkok for their flights home while we opted for an overnight train the following day.  This was fun but for all the wrong reasons.  We arrived at the station and were told to board on one of two carriages that sat on the far platform.  Without a train attached to them.  We figured the train would come soon to get us so we settled in.  Time passed.  The jokey train attendant kept telling us we’d move in twenty minutes.  Eventually after a couple of hours we shifted into motion, travelling about a hundred metres down the line…and then back to the station.  Where we sat for another couple of hours.  We finally got underway at 11pm, by which time we had consumed a number of beers in order to pass the time!  This was a prime example of working to ‘Thai time’.

We arrived in Bangkok a little train-lagged but fine, and after making some visa arrangements we enjoyed a couple of good days and nights there; we went to the cinema to see Avatar, did a spot of shopping – stumbling across a Rubik’s Cube championship as we went – and went to a few bars that constituted Bangkok’s answer to Shoreditch.  Carly and I also had a fish massage, where you dip your feet into a pool filled with hungry mini catfish; the little fishes then swim around your feet, attaching to the skin and munching the dead bits off.  Some of you will know that I am incredibly ticklish, especially on my feet, so a lot of our time was spent giggling our heads off (to the point where some people came in from the street to find out was going on).  It was a very bizarre experience and my feet didn’t feel magically soft afterwards, but I’m glad we tried it!  So Bangkok was fun, but our time there really served one purpose, which was to wait for our Laos visas to come through.  Wait we did, and through they came, and the next part of our adventure began!

To be continued…