Round The Globe 2014: March 2014

Hi again,

After Phi Phi we had a small stop off back at Krabi which was lovely because it was such a nice hostel (Pak-Up) and was nice to go back before heading to Kuala Lumpur!

We arrived by ferry from Phi Phi at about 12.30pm and was welcomed by the long walkway and the barrage of taxi drivers and company's wanted our custom.

We had paid for a minibus into Krabi Town already so didn't need to worry about that thankfully. About 20 mins later, we were there.

When we got there though we saw our friend from Phi Phi!! Bless her, she literally was getting picked up at 1pm and we arrived back at 12.55!! Was so lovely to see her again!

We had made a little to-do list of things we had thought off like book a massage (hadn't got round to have one yet), buy a new notebook (nearly full), do this blog post (which again Internet has disappointed us due to the lateness), and just a couple of other things. One of these things was to take a picture of the really amazing traffic lights!!

We have become in love with a certain type of biscuits, Dewberry, and have been surprised at how the prices differ wherever you go. We love them so much!! So we bought some of them as we walked around :)

We grabbed some lunch, was very naughty and got the most western food there probably is, pizza. Was so cheap so couldn't resist!

After the pizzas, we felt like something sweet so settled upon a doughnut!

As we were walking around the shops of Krabi for a notebook, we went into a shop, there were some stairs heading somewhere, we looked and stumbled upon...

Hmm, maybe not a second floor! It was funny because we casually wandered up and no one said anything!!

Upon getting back to the room, we were chatting to a guy in there and after talking we found out we were BOTH from York!! Crazy, York is a small place and for us to meet all the way here was pretty weird. All three of us heading out for some dinner as we were so hungry!!

When we got there we stumbled upon a stall where the guy cooking the food was doing tricks, flips and throwing his utensils around as he was cooking. The thing is he had such a modest person as wasn't smiling and showing off, just cooking and doing it how he does best!

When we got back, due to having organised a taxi to take us to the airport the following morning, we were getting picked up at 6am!! Yes 6am!!

One of the things we had to do was stitch my flag onto my backpack, I will do it for every country I visit and it's just a cool idea that lots of people do. It took ages but I did it with a sewing kit I bought from 711! It was worth it, looks brill!

Next was our massage, we had booked a full body oil massage (1 hour) and a foot scrub! It came to £10 each (500 baht for all that). It was so relaxing and really was nodding off for most of it! The foot scrub was funny because every time they used the file, it tickled so much!!! We had some flavoured tea that they have afterwards which was nice. Not PG Tips but tea (Nat missed her tea!).

Finally before heading to bed, we went to the bar downstairs due to getting a free cocktail voucher earlier in the day. It turned out to be a choice of just ...one. It was Malibu and sprite/lemonade, something fizzy. Didn't really like it but hey ho was fun chatting to our new York friend. :)

In the morning, we got up at 5.15am and got ready to go, picked up at 6 and saw the sunrise from the taxi! Very nice taxi driver and boarded our flight down to Kuala Lumpur, so excited!!

Only a short blog this one, especially after Phi Phi, but hope you enjoyed and next, Kuala Lumpur!!!

:) Rach x

Hello!!

We got here after a two hour ferry journey with our new friend :) . It is spooky how we just met in a dorm in Krabi who had the same plans to come to Phi Phi and we are now friends doing it together. That's the best thing about dorms, you meet people and can listen to their travel stories and exchange tips.

We had to pay 20 baht to get onto the island to pay towards the upkeep of the land. We then had the walk to our Golden Hill Bungalows which was about 10 min walk from the pier. It felt a bit longer in the heat though and with our backpacks on!!

It looked nice though with all the narrow streets, shops, diving places, tour places. It reminded me of Koh Tao but bigger.

The hostel is nice. We have a pool which is a welcomed bonus! Our bungalow is up these stairs - quite dangerous in the dark and after a bucket or two!

We also have a rock in the bathroom whom we have called Bruce! (Don't ask,

the sun must have got to us!)

We unpacked our bags and got straight into the pool! We were soooo hot! It's much hotter and humid here than the other side of Thailand!

We relaxed by the pool which was lovely and quiet. Then headed off to dinner to meet our new friend. The thai food was yummy where we went. I had fried chicken with garlic and peppers plus rice!

We then thought we would head off to the beach to watch the fire show.

I think personally we chose the best show. There were about 5 bars offering the fire shows and ours had the most people which is always good!

We thought they were the best we had seen of all the islands. They had a cute little boy only about 5 doing some moves! He was really good!

They did their moves and then later on brought out the skipping rope and lit it. All of a sudden Rach said I'm gonna do it! I was like 'what?!'

She did so well though and here is the evidence -

Whoever does it get a shot - you need it to calm down the adrenaline shakes!!

I thought about it and thought "yeah I'll give it a go!" So I gave Rach my camera and up I got! I don't know what came over me - it was all a bit surreal! Here's my video evidence!

It was so much fun and I was so chuffed that I did it. The shot is a big help to calm down afterwards!!

Rach got into it that much she did it twice!!! A free shot and we're there!! Ha ha!

The rope was just lit though on her second attempt so it was really, really hot and a bit of fire was on the floor where rach was jumping so this time she said it was too hot and ended up getting blisters! Here's her attempt to make it comfy!

Next up was the limbo! Rach and our new friend went up first and I took the pictures and then we swapped over and me and Rach did it. We had to do it twice though because the first time didn't record and the second time it was lower!! I was like 'Argh! We need to do it now, I aren't going any lower!!!' Luckily it worked the second time - bonus though two more shots!!!

Next was ring of fire and Rach was there straight away! When it was my turn it was a little higher and was a bit too high causing me to topple over in the sand but hey ho I wasn't the only one and at least I gave it a shot! And got a shot!

Well it was bedtime after all that excitement!! Plus Rachael's 6 shots!

DAY TWO

Today was a beach day which was nice. The tide goes out about 3.30 and it doesn't take long at all! The water is very shallow so you have to go far out for the water to get to your waist! It was just nice relaxing in the shade though taking it easy.

We went out for dinner at a roof bar cinema. We enjoyed a Mexican and watched 'The Internship'.

Was a great night and an early to bed one due to wanting to see sunrise from the view point tomorrow! 5.15am! I don't even get up that early for work!!

DAY THREE

Up bright and early for our trek to the view point. We had gone equipped, torch at the ready! We knew where the stairs leading up to the entrance were but beyond there was a mystery!!

We heard cockerels and monkeys and just kept on going. It was quite scary come to think of it but it must of been adrenaline again pushing us through and the fact we wanted to see sunrise from an amazing view!

We started the ascend up the stairs and my god was it tough! It all you could see in front were steps!!

We paid 20 baht for the pleasure too!! On the way we had our torches out and looked like right trekkers - all we needed were our hiking sticks! It was the air that made it tough - it was very humid so much less oxygen than what we are used to but we made it!!

We were the first ones there and it was lovely - so peaceful apart from the sound of cockerels and monkeys! So breathtaking - well that was the trek up!! We could see the sun coming up so sat there just taking it all in and getting our breath back! :)

On the way down we decided to leave our mark on a tree as many others had.

There was also a viewpoint 1 that we went to on the way down which wasn't as spectacular as it wasn't as high up but still worth a picture.

We made our way down and I counted 275 steps to just get to the entrance! No wonder we were pooped! We deserved a well earned breakfast after that morning activity!

We went to the pool and enjoyed a game of volleyball with a ball we found until it went over the edge and down to the bottom of the pool! We asked a gardener if he could get it and he said yes but then he ended up bouncing it in the dam behind him!! He went in and got it though - bless!! We were very thankful and will keep the ball for the beach from now on!!

We headed to the beach after our dip and set up a pitch for a game of volleyball in the sand. It was so funny! After our entertainment we rested in the shade!

After getting ready for dinner we watched the sunset at a bar which was lovely!! Watching sunrise and sunset in the same day - very memorable!!

We enjoyed watching the fire shows from a distance over dinner and had a game of pool and a swing in a hammock. Over dinner we had a unexpected dinner guest sit behind me too! We named him Sooty!

After all this we were ready for bed!! Sad goodbye to our friend - stuck with just Rach now but sure ill manage! After all that's what I signed up for! Ha ha!

DAY FOUR

BEACH DAY - Not much to say about this :)

Oh and booked a tour of the islands for tomorrow by longtail boat.

DAY FIVE

Our full day snorkelling and sunset tour by long tail boat.

Our first stop was Snorkelling at Shark Point. People were throwing food in so you could see all the fish! Loads of different colours!

Next was Bamboo island for 1 hour - it was lovely and not too over crowded so you could enjoy your time there and relax.

Mosquito island - No Mosquitos luckily because we didn't have our repellent! Ha ha! Here we did some snorkelling which was lovely. It's fab due to us having bought a Go-Pro. Here are some underwater shots!

Monkey Beach - This beach was spectacular. I have never felt such smooth sand, you feel like your melting it when you walk on it. It was pure talcum powder sand!!! Never mind snowmen...someone had built a sandman!!

We went past Viking cave. A cave in the rocks.

Phi-leh Bay (lagoon) was lovely - turquoise waters and so shallow I'm surprised a boat could go round.

Loh Samah Bay - another chance to snorkel.

We then headed to Maya Bay where The Beach was filmed - we didn't see Leonardo Decaprio though - gutted!! Went for a swim though and took it all in.

We then carried on towards a sunset point but the longtail boat engine broke down!

We soon learnt that to be a long tail boat driver you need to be a mechanic too! Luckily a similar boat came and towed us to a little bay and we time to do some snorkelling

We were back up and running - he was a happy driver once again!

And headed off to see sunset.

What a fabulous day and all for £10! Crazy!!

DAY SIX

Beach day! Decided to go out tonight. Watched a film (Anchorman 2 - very funny!) at Banana Bar and then bought a famous bucket.

You can buy them everywhere but we decided to buy them at a bar - sensible!

Buy one get one free - bonus! I had 'Sex on Phi Phi' and Rach had a Mojito! It was very yummy actually but by heck watching it been made, it was FULL of alcohol!!

We watched some 'beer pong' and headed off to the beach for the fire shows! Ohh it hit me when we left the bar! A lot of alcohol and not having it for about a month - it doesn't take long to get you dizzy!!

Rach fancied a late night pancake as shown below -

Then the walk home...

DAY SEVEN

Had an adventure around the island to see what the other beach was like (Ton Sai Bay - pier side) a lot nicer than our side!

On a night time we have seen a few people carrying around monkeys for photo opportunities. The monkeys are dressed up which we don't like and this isn't really the atmosphere for them! It's a shame I have so many clothes or they could have fit in my rucksack! Today on our walk about we bumped into them and they had a baby one!