Tuesday 27 December 2016

Koh Libong Diaries

We decided to rest up on day one on the island, with the goal of aiding Sarah’s recovery high on the list. I did take the opportunity to walk down the beach, wow this place is stunning. I saw one person for the whole stretch of the beach. They were hammocks scattered along the beach, which look rather inviting. I took the opportunity during my meandering to collect some shells, like you do. I spent the rest of the day just doing what you do on an island, bugger all :D

At this point in my writing I realised I haven’t got a clue what I did when, the idea of days just disappeared. The only number I seem to remember was how many days I had left on the island. So instead I’m going to write about the highlights.

Sarah’s first experience of a warm sea! That’s right, Sarah asked me if the sea was cold, I said no, it’s really warm. That was the end of that. However, on one of the days we went down to the beach to watch the sunset and Sarah paddled in the sea, which was followed by “it’s really warm!!!”. It was at this point I learnt that Sarah hadn’t been anywhere with a warm sea. What a place to experience your first warm sea on a Thai island, awesome! We followed this experience by sitting on the beach with a cold beer and watching the sunset.



That kayak adventure. With Sarah feeling better, we decided to take advantage of the fact that the hotel offered free kayaks. Of we set with a little push from the hotel staff. We soon found absolutely no rhythm! To you, to me comes to mind, was entertaining on reflection, but wasn’t really getting us where we wanted to go. However, after a few exchanges we were soon in sync and speeding across the sea. Our first point of call was the island to the left of the resort. We decided to stop on its beach and have a wee explore. Not much to see, however it was entertaining when I looked down and say hundreds of ants of the floor, I’ve never moved so quickly! We explored some of the rock pools looking for live, not much around unfortunately. We hopped back in the kayak and continued around the island, where we saw some local guys diving for what I guess was scallops / clams. As we could see lots of remains from clam shells on the rocks. We made it around to the other side, without discovering much more it must be said, so we turned back.

As we turned back facing the resort, I remember the beach that was to the left of the resort, not accessible on foot, so I asked Sarah if we should go there, it was a deal. This turned out not to be a smart move. It took us agesssssss to get there. I don’t have the exact time, but I’m estimating at least an hour. We were both knackered on the way, I hadn’t kayaked since year 6 or something. We had to take rest and alternate who was rowing. On the plus side, we got to see some jelly fish on the way, I don’t believe I’d seen any in the wild before. Thanks to a solid five-minute row, we made it to the beach, and took a well-deserved rest. We took a stroll part way down the beach and to my surprise there was another person on the beach. We picked a spot and lay there recovered for a while.

In the distance, we could see what was either smoke or water vapour. Part way down the beach we decided it was smoke, therefore conserving some energy and not continuing to explore it. The reason I thought it might have been water vapour was because the hotel gave us a map, and I was sure it had a waterfall on it in that area. Turns out later it was indeed a waterfall, never mind, gives us a reason to go back. Talking about back, it was time to head back to the resort. Something neither of us were looking forward to, it must be said. We must have been about ¾ of the way back, when the sky turned rather dark. We looked behind us and there was just a wall of black cloud, but unfortunately we didn’t have the energy to row any faster!!! So instead we changed tactics. By this point we were alongside our beach, so we headed to show and I decided to pull the boat the rest of the way in the water, this was so much easier then rowing! This wasn’t without fault though, as I fell over a rock. Didn’t notice anything at the time, but when back at the hotel we realised I put a big gash in the heal of my right foot. Ouchie! We did indeed make it back though, not before the heavens opened and we got completely soaked, but I actually enjoyed it, it was rather refreshing after all the rowing.

So, in summary, we had an adventure for sure. One we felt for days, as we both had some sunburn and Sarah had this bizarre heat rash on her arm.

We concluded that day by walking around the local village. One of the things that drew us to Koh Libong was the fact people lived on the island, which would allow us to see that way of live, and experience their culture. It was eye opening, the contrast to our air-coned hut at the resort was vast. Some of the homes were solid brick, while others were wooden and on stilts, and looked like they were one big blow from falling down! That was an interesting encounter with some young children, who were all rather polite at first shouting hello to us. Then it changed somewhat, and one little lad seemed to be pushing us out of the village! All a bit odd. But I know one thing, I don’t believe I could live that way, so I’m really appreciative of what I do have.

Christmas Day, ants for breakfast. Yep, I had ants for breakfast. We slept in late, so when I did wake, hunger hit! I knew we had some Oreos so I headed to the fridge. No Oreos to be found. Then I noticed them on the top of the fridge, so I took one and popped in my mouth, as you do. Cookie goodness. It was at that point I noticed lots of black dots all over the surface, it took my blurry eyes a few split second to realise they were ants!!! That’s right, there were ants all over the Oreos, all over the biscuit that was in my mouth! I ran to the bathroom and literally had to scrap ants from the side of my mouth. Turns out Sarah thought that the Oreo’s didn’t belong the fridge. Lesson learnt there.

The day improved though, as we’d booked massages. I’d opted for a Thai oil massage and Sarah for a foot massage. It was an experience. They literally put their whole weight into it, and I’m not very bendy. Having said that though, at the end of it, I did feel rather good.

It was now time to go for a snorkel, with little expectations. Turned out to be great. The coral wasn’t that colourful, but there was life there. We saw lots of little small fish including angel fish as well as several crabs.

We concluded our Christmas Day by going to a BBQ on the beach. We had huge tiger prawns, squid, chicken and some baked potato, all several feet away from the sea. The owner of the bar even put on a fire show for us. Satisfied with our night, we paid up and were heading out when the owner had one more surprise for us. He had a lantern for us to release, and informed us that if we made a wish as we did so, the gods would decide. This was a brilliant way to end our Christmas day.

A photo posted by Sarah Deery (@sj_deery) on

That’s that, back to the big smog (Bangkok) for a few days now, then off to Sydney!

Lots more pictures over on Instagram.

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Saturday 24 December 2016

The Journey To Koh Libong

The next part of our Thailand adventure takes us from the north to the south. The itinerary for the day was a flight to Trang via Bangkok. This would then be followed by an hour drive, a 15 minute long tail boat ride, and a 10 minute tuktuk drive. All in all, an estimated 9-hour journey. Not something we were looking forward to with Sarah still battling against her cold/flu.

The journey didn’t start well. As the sun rose, it caused a patch of fog directly over the airport. First we heard of this was when some other flights around this time started to get announcements about delays. Still nothing on our flight though. So being the aviation geek that I am, I opened an app called FlightRadar24, which shows the planes in the sky around the world in real time. I could see our plane was circling in the hold. I watched the screen, noting its altitude to see if this would give me more information than the staff, as we weren’t getting anything out of them. 10 minutes or so later, I see the plane start climbing and heading back in the direction of Bangkok, it had clearly given up. Not cool!

Then the staff confirmed what the app had already told me a good 15 minutes before, that the flight was indeed delayed. I wasn’t too concerned at this point as I’d left a 4-hour window at Bangkok, as we had to collect our bags and check-in for our second flight, I didn’t want to be rushing around. I would guess an hour had gone and decided to talk to the staff, to see if my connecting flight was at risk, they assured me it wasn’t. This was shortly followed by loud mouth American, who shouted to his friend, ‘come here, they’re sorting us out’. This drew my attention; how were they being sorted out I wondered. I noticed on the app that there was a 10.20am flight to Bangkok also on Air Asia, our flight was meant to depart at 8.20am. Perhaps they’d been moved to that flight? I asked about moving to the 10.20am flight, they informed me it was full. So, we had to sit it out. I did a bit of googling and discovered a flight to Trang from Bangkok at 17.40pm, also on Air Asia. A quick call to the hotel informed me that I would still be able to make it to the resort at that time of night. So, all good. That’s what ended up happening, the flight eventually left Chiang Mai at around 12.30 I think, 5 hours sat in the airport. Air Asia were good in the end though; they gave us all a McChicken sandwich and a bottle of water.

We made it to Bangkok and Air Asia had already moved us to the 17.40pm flight, which was great to hear. However, it did mean another 3.5 hours in Bangkok airport this time! Fortunately, the time flied, some food and a nap saw to that.

I want to take the opportunity to thank Air Asia, aside from the lack of information at Chiang Mai, they looked after us very well. The food at the airport and changing our flight for us.

We’d arranged a pickup with the hotel at Trang, so the final part of our journey went far smoother! We were greeted at the airport by a man holding a sign with Sarah’s name on, and he escorted us into a minivan. This wasn’t your average minivan though, it had reclining seats, bottled water for us and an entertainment system if we’d so wished. So, we took the opportunity for a nap!



We then boarded a long tail boat, with just us aboard. Our own private boat to the island! Epic. Then they were two hotel staff waiting at the pier, then helped us of the boat, took our luggage and drove us to the resort.


We final arrived at 8.50pm. So, it took us 14 hours in the end! Not fun, but the view in the morning when we woke was well worth it.


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Three Days In Chiang Mai

The writing of this post ends 3 days in Chiang Mai, a populous city in the north of Thailand. The first thing I noticed when arriving in Chiang Mai was the air, it was so fresh and clean compared to Bangkok, it was enjoyable to breathe again!

We booked a delightful hotel called the Shewe Wana Resort and Spa, I highly recommend it for several reasons that will become apparent in this post.

We started our stay in Chiang Mai by taking a stroll into old town. A large part of Chiang Mai is still surrounded by the old city wall. I expected more history to be in the city walls then there was, but it was still very pleasant.  We just strolled around, exploring things that looked interesting. We found a tiny market in the grounds of a Wat, which was a pleasure to explore compared to Bangkok, less people! No one bashing / knocking into you. We ended the evening in a fantastic shack style restaurant that we discovered via TripAdvisor. I’ve become to rely on TripAdvisor for restaurants a bit too much, need to break that habit, but it’s a heuristic that seems to work. The place was called the Coconut Shell, it was incredible food, highly recommend it if you go. On the way though we got to observe some monks preparing to pray in a local Wat, that was awesome.



Sarah was feeling a bit sick on the Saturday and it was raining, so we decided to take a chill day, and plan the other days. We’d heard there was a Saturday night market though, so we added that to the agenda. I spent the afternoon in a little café with good food and Wi-Fi, and worked on a few pieces while watching Chiang Mai pass me by. Sarah wasn’t feeling great in the evening, but agreed that we would go to the night market, so we took advantage of the free tuktuk offered by the hotel. They run it in the morning and the afternoon, great resource. The market was rammed! Bangkok levels. We battled our way through to an area that was less quiet and found some food.

We sampled a lot of street food, something we would later regret! We had, not in this specific order (my memory isn’t that good!), pork on a stick, sticky rice and mango, banana fritters, fire chicken, pad thai, some bright orange cordial/drink thingy, a watermelon smoothie, a zombie cocktail, and Sarah concluded the feast delights with a roasted quail on a stick! The market was great, certainly worth exploring, but it’s vast and parts are incredibly busy. We headed back to hotel, working half way and grabbing a tuktuk the rest of the way. Called in early, as we’d booked to go to an elephant sanctuary the next day and the pickup was at 8am.

Unfortunately, during the night Sarah was sick, the market food had got her! We don’t know what the cause was, but our money is on the quail, as this was the only thing I didn’t eat. She is rather brave when it comes to food, which I admire, but unfortunately it back fired this time.


We gave it serious thought about if we should still attend the elephant sanctuary, which we’d already paid for. After much discussion Sarah insisted that I still went, which I will be forever grateful for, and she decided it was best for her to stay at the hotel.

I wasn’t feeling great as I left, I felt guilty, as it was me that encouraged us to attend the night market, but I having said that the rest was out of my control. Sarah comforted me, confirming that it wasn’t my fault, it’s just one of those things.

The reason why I will be forever thankful is I had one of the best days of my life, which again leaves me with mixed emotions as I didn’t get to spend this with Sarah, but I’m sure we will return one day! I went to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, camp 2 specifically. There were 5 elephants at the sanctuary, four females and one male. The oldest, grandma, was 40! The youngest, was a 3-year-old female, who was incredibly cute. The day started by being shown how to feed the elephants. The local carers, of Karen family, had prepared some sugar cane for us to feed them. They informed us, that if we shout BONBON the elephants will lift their trunks allowing you to put the sugar cane in their mouth. I tried this a few times, but most of the time they were super greedy and just grabbed the sugar cane with their trunks!

Post feeding them the prepared sugar cane we had to go and get some whole branches from the store and carry them down the hill for the elephants. This was great fun apart from the ants!!! The cane was covered in them, I got of lightly, but some just throw the cane straight up on to their shoulders and then discovered the ants! I gave mine a quick shake before doing this, thanks to their warnings! We then got to watch the elephants prepare the cane, stripping the leaves and using their sheer power to snap the branches into manageable pieces. Incredible to experience this at close quarters.

We then returned to the camp for lunch, some fantastic food prepared by the Karen family. After lunch we had to make some food for the elephants. Being in the sanctuary they don’t get to roam as much as they would in the wild, which means they lack some nutrition from certain plants/herbs. So, the carers prepare what they called medicine balls for them. They consisted of tamarind, cooked rice, banana and whole grain rice. We had to mash up the tamarind by hand using a pestle and mortar, and break down the whole grain rice using a foot powered pestle and mortar due to the volume. This wasn’t to de-husk the rice, but to remove the sharp edges from the grain. We then rolled them in to balls and got to feed them to the elephants.

Post the feeding it was time for a mud bath and a swim! Yep, I got to give an elephant a mud bath and then play in the river/waterfall. They looked so happy playing in the water. We were splashing them and just watching in amazement about how cool this was. This brought the elephant experience to an end. But not before the crazy drive out of the camp. The dirt track down to the camp was rather muddy on the way down, on several occasions we were just sliding down, I’m not convinced the driver had control, but we did make it. So, all out thoughts when we got out of the truck, was how the hell are we going to get back up? Answer, all the horse powers! Our driver just literally floored it, something none of us in the back of this truck were ready for, this resulted in many bruises, a small reminder of this awesome day, as far as I’m concerned.



I've posted lots of pictures on Instagram from the sanctuary.

Back at the hotel, it was great to see that Sarah was over her food related sickness, still battling this horrible cold though.

We spent our final day in Chiang Mai relaxing, doing our best to aid Sarah’s recovery. Was needed, after all the traveling and from my point of view the excitement of the elephant trip. I want to thank the staff of Shewe Wana, as they were very considerate after they learnt of Sarah’s sickness. They offered to make her anything for breakfast and gave suggestions on what to eat, also pointing the local pharmacy to me, which I’d already been too, but I still appreciate their concern.

That’s Chiang Mai, certainly a much nicer experience then Bangkok but still a very busy place. Next up for us is a day travelling to Koh Libong, an island in South Thailand.
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Saturday 17 December 2016

Bangkok Day 2

Having spent day one being productive in getting clothes and things, we decided today was a day to play tourist. Only one item on the agenda, the Reclining Buddha. Post that, we would see.

We decided to take an Uber to the Buddha, as it was over an hour walk. Normally not a problem for us, we like to walk and explore at the same time, however, we hadn’t dealt with the jetlag properly yet and didn’t wake until 11am!!!

It took about 35 mins, again weaving in and out of traffic. Experiencing the roads of Bangkok is something I won’t forget. I honestly don’t believe I could drive there, I probably wouldn’t even be willing to try. The journey costs 139 baht, that is like £2.50, utter madness, we gave him a bit more as a tip.

So, we get to Wat Pho, and pay our way in, an absolute steal at 100 baht plus a free bottle of water (which was very much needed!). This place is impressive, such beautiful structures. The colours are stunning. There are also lots of different style buddhas and statues around with some fantastic facial expressions. The first large Buddha we came to, was stunning and had many people meditating around it and offering gifts. Due to not doing much research we thought it was the Reclining Buddha, so we sat and took a moment and both felt rather underwhelmed. After all it was the number one thing to do in Bangkok. Sarah piped up that she was confused that the Buddha wasn't reclining. Anyhow, we continued to explore.



Turns out it wasn’t the Reclining Buddha, we found the Reclining Buddha, yep we did, and I think due to thinking we’d found it earlier, we were blown away. It was huge! It barely fit in the temple! And was actually reclining, go figure :D.


Was such an incredible thing to see. The Buddha was built in 1832 by Rama III and is 15m high and 46 long, spectacular. There are 108 bronze pots inside the temple where it appears to be good luck to change money into small coins and put one inside each pot. This creates a fascinating noise throughout and outside the temple, just add something special to the whole experience. We spent little over an hour at Wat Pho, I highly recommend it, if you ever visit Bangkok.

Next it was time to see some water. I love water. Not sure what it is about it, might be the sound it makes, but I find it rather relaxing. So, I could see on the map that we were close to the river, so we decided to head there. While attempting to get to the shoreline, we ended up in a bar, don’t you just love happy accidents? We decided to take a break and have a drink. Turns out the bar was directly on the river and had a great view of the Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn).

We did a bit of research whilst we were at the bar and realised we weren’t far from the Flower Market, so we drank up and headed off in search of some flower power.

Neither of us is still convinced we found it, there were people selling flowers, beautiful brightly coloured flowers, but it looked nothing like the pictures in the brochure (Google images ). It was a fascinating place though. It was like a lot of the industrial / market areas we saw; they look like they're in complete disorder. Or would I class it as chaos? I can see some structure though, so perhaps they're more complex. The way somethings worked was obvious, but interwoven in the complicated (Just for you that Martin/Vernon ). But amongst all this is contentment and people just getting on with it. It was a hive of activity though, incredible produce for sale, fruits and vegetables I’d never seen before, some I didn’t even know their name. Still don’t.

We then looked at heading back to our district and thanks to the awesomeness of Google Maps, we discovered the quickest way back was to get a boat! “I’m on a boat mot$%^@££$”. Sorry about that, it just happens when I say the word boat, “I’m…NO!”. So, we boarded and enjoyed a short cruise down the river, and took the opportunity to take some pictures of Bangkok from the water. The journey for two was less than a pound, so I would recommend this if you're visiting, you get to see a lot of the city for your money.

It’s turns out our stop was right next to the state tower, the home of the Lebua hotel which featured in the film Hangover 2. Google informed us that there was a Sky Bar here, the highest open air bar in the world! So, we thought, 'let’s have a drink'. After some enquires we make our way to the lift, where a very polite gentleman calls the lift for us and in we get. Few more people get in on the way to the top floor, including what turns out to be a member of staff to the Sky Bar. As we get to the top floor and the doors open she asked us if we’re heading to the Sky Bar, to which we respond yes, and she very politely goes, oh we have a dress code. I look down at me shorts and walking boots, while thinking, is there a problem here? Turns out there was, I, my clothes were the problem. Apparently, I needed trousers, and a shirt. Sarah had trousers and sandals and could have stayed, but she decided against it :D. We’re going to try and go back there next week as we have a few more nights in Bangkok before heading to Sydney.

The night ended with a stroll to get some food. We headed to Patpong Night Market. Turns out the name of the market is only 50% correct. You could argue it should be called the Ping-Pong Market, as we must have been asked a dozen times if we wanted to see a Ping-Pong sex show!! For the record, we didn’t go. I've spoken to people who have been and there are some things you just can't unsee! The market was good, but much like all the other markets, just at night.

Next things took an odd turn. Or to be more accurate, we took a wrong turn! We ended walking down a street lined with what can only be described as gangs of prostitutes. A street which, rather oddly as we turned on to it, a Thai man informed us this "is for the Japanese only", we ignored him. The whole road was full of establishments with 10-20 women outside. Then whomever was in charge had a card with the faces of the ladies on, to help you choose perhaps. It felt plain wrong, proper seedy! A spot of power walking got us of this street sharpish. We found some food, had a beer, and called it a night.

Next up we head north to Chang Mai.

If you use 'the gram', then we'll be posting pictures on there using #friendlytravellers. 
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Friday 16 December 2016

Bangkok Day 1

So, that’s two days in Bangkok done. It’s a fascinating place, full of discovery. It’s also insanely busy, far too busy for me. There is literally people everywhere, at all times of the day. Oh, and the roads, the roads are madness. Drivers are millimetre accurate, moving between lanes whilst avoiding the mopeds and motorbikes. Don’t forget the TukTuks weaving in and out as well!

Talking about TukTuks, they are incredibly great fun, so much fun I decided to share my joy of them on Facebook, to which one reply mentioned how dodgy they are, and a con. So, let me share our first involvement with a TukTuk.

We were walking towards Chinatown, blindly following Google Maps like a proper tourist. When we remembered what one of our goals was for the day, to get some new and more suitable cloths for us both. So, we stopped by the side of the road, and I started to google the nearest shopping centre. We were stood in front of a closed shop/house, when some old guy comes up to us, with what seemed good intentions, asking us if he could help. He was an old guy, wearing uniform style trousers. We told him that we were looking for a shopping centre, to which he started reaming of options for us. During this whole time, he was repeatedly touching my arm nearest to him, which on reflection, was rather odd. The talk continues for a bit longer, he makes recommendations about night markets, and continues to point to locations on my phone. He then randomly turns his attention to me, and my apparent need for a suit... because apparently, I sometimes have to wear suits.

I repeatedly tell him that I have no need for a suit, not on this trip and very rarely back at home, this went on deaf ears. He then shows me his work badge, and he explains how he works for the government tourist board, and knows all the best places to get a suit. Also informing me that at the moment, due to the kings death, there is no tax on suits and I can save a fortune! I give in to the suit talk and say, yes sure, perhaps I need a suit. Or perhaps I’ll just go take a look like you do. His face filled with delight and he tells us to go to Royal Boss Tailors. He then changes to explaining TukTuks to us, as apparently, that would be the quickest way to get there and get this all-important suit. How we should only use the blue ones, as their government ones and you should never pay more than 40 baht a journey. Then BOOM! Just like that, he has flagged us down a TukTuk, and told him to take us to Royal Boss and then on to the MK Mall. We are now on a TukTuk, rather be-dazzled on our way to get a suit! That I don’t even bloody want.

At this point, rather enjoying the TukTuk, I shout to the driver to go straight to the mall, I don’t want to go to the tailors. He is insistent we take a look, repeatedly telling me they are very cheaper and good. I remain insistent on going straight to the mall, but to no joy. He says “just have a look, as I need to refill the gas”. So, we get to this tailors, which was all rather awkward! Three guys trying to sell me suits, repeatedly informing me of the price and quality, and even the fact that they would send it to the UK to me. I’ve had enough at this point and tell them no, and start to leave. On the way out, he changes from suits to shirts, to which Sarah says “Oh, a shirt might be good!”, hell no I snappily respond, and finally we are out! TukTuk driver is still waiting and finally takes us to the MK Mall.



Now I encourage you to read the link that was sent to us on Facebook after my TukTuk comment.

The MK Mall is a shopper’s mecca. Eight floors full of independent stores, brand stores and market style stalls. If you’re in to novelty t-shirts, this is the place to go. We weren’t able to get all we needed here, but did get some nice stuff, but we decided to head to another mall over the road, which had more branded shops in it, for a few other specific things.

On route to this mall, we had to pass through another mall. The first mall, was the other end of the scale from MK Mall, it was full of designer brands. The mall we were heading for, was more like the Trafford centre in the UK. But I can relate that short journey, from one mall to another, passing through another mall, to an analogy of Bangkok. Bangkok is vast, but as with most of the cities on this scale I’ve been to, skyscrapers next to run down streets. But throughout those streets and the malls, everyone I saw in Bangkok seems very content with life, at all ends of the scale. People are social and joyful.


We ended the mall trip with some squid! What an odd blog angle change Richard. Indeed. But for those who have dined with me, I love squid, even joked about building a squid rating app. Well, as we were strolling through the food area of the mall, I spot a squid stand, but not just any squid stand, this one sold a whole deep friend crispy squid, a whole squid!!! I wimped out on the whole squid, but I did get some tentacles, was good squid, but not great, a steady 6/10. Sarah however, ordered these weird baby octopus pancake things, they didn’t go down well, judge for yourself. This reminds me though, this is normal for Sarah, she is sometimes very unfortunate with food, but she is also brave and willing to try things which I admire. She has been unfortunate so many times that she has started a hashtag on Instagram #SarahJaneEats.



So day one done, I skipped the flying here part, not much happened apart from me fainting and my face turning white and my lips blue. It's all good now though, so we'll brush over that.

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