Thailand - Chiang Mai and the Islands

The UK's Foreign Office website states that "Travel by Lao Airlines is strongly discouraged". So it was with some relief that we safely touched down in Chiang Mai (Thailand) aboard Lao Airlines flight QV645. We made the short journey from the airport to the Seven Suns guesthouse and were somewhat bemused to discover that we'd been given their rainbow-themed room. Clearly Gaz must have sounded somewhat camp on the telephone when he made the room booking. The guesthouse was also somewhat unique in that it seemed to actively encourage guests to bring back any Thai ladies (or lady-boys for that matter) whom they'd met whilst out on the town. Whilst in Chiang Mai, we indulged in some traditionally backpacker excursions such as a Thai cookery course, and a Muay Thai boxing evening. The cookery course was a lot of fun and we learnt to cook a number of delicious dishes including Green & Red Thai curry, Pad Thai, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, and Chicken with Basil. However, la creme de la creme of our cooking exploits was Tara's spring rolls, which no doubt she will be forcing you all to try upon our return. The Muay Thai boxing was somewhat disturbing as the first three fights involved children no older that 12 kicking lumps out of each other. This was then followed by an exhibition bout where they blind-folded six fighters and then left them to blindly punch each other until only the victor was conscious. Even the referee of this bout was on the receiving end of some vicious blows. When we thought it could get no worse they then brought out some female fighters, which was when things got really ugly. Once all the fighting was over, it was then the turn of the lady boys to take to the blood soaked boxing ring and entertain the crowds. A fitting end to a bizarre yet strangely riveting evening.




From Chiang Mai we then flew down to the island paradise of Ko Samui. We checked into a hotel called Montien House, which is by far the most luxurious place that we've stayed thus far, with the only downside being that we had to share our room with some particularly hungry mosquitoes. We spent our first day lounging around on Chaweng beach and also made good use of the pool in our hotel. On the second day we rented a scooter and went beach hopping around Ko Samui. We also managed to coax our wheezing two-wheeler up to the Na Muang waterfall, and some of the highest points on the island. According to the Thailand Lonely Planet, the only noteworthy site on Ko Samui (excluding the beaches) is a mummified monk at Wat Khunaram, so naturally we had to go and see him. The monk is preserved in a glass case and sits in the lotus position with a pair of sunglasses perched on his nose. Outside the temple a Buddhist monk insisted on throwing some holy water on us, before charging us 50 baht to tie some string around our wrists. We were told that the string would protect us whilst we are travelling, so we were somewhat disappointed when a local man pointed out the flat tyre that our scooter had acquired whilst we were being blessed. Conveniently the local man that pointed out the flat tyre also knew of a repair shop next door where they could repair our tyre for us. The bike was unrideable (is that a word?) though so we had no choice but to make use of his conveniently located repair shop, and we were pleasantly surprised when they only ripped us of to the tune of 150 baht (GBP 2.50).





From Ko Samui we caught a catamaran over to the neighbouring island of Ko Phangan, and made another valiant attempt to "rough-it". We checked into the cheap and cheerful Same Same Lodge on May 9th, and the promptly checked out of it again on the morning of May 10th. The room was infested with Geckos which were feasting on the dead flies on the underside of our mattress. So we doubled our accommodation budget and moved into the comfortable and clean Sea Breeze bungalows. We had intended to travel onwards to the island of Ko Tao within a day or two, but we've enjoyed Ko Phangan so much that we've thus far not managed to get on the ferry. Ko Phangan is home to some of the best scuba diving sites in Thailand, so we decided it would be a good venue to undertake our PADI Open Water Diving qualification. Gaz had completed his Open Water diving course 8 years ago, but had not been diving since so we decided it would be more fun (and safer) if we enrolled on the course together. The course took three days, the first two of which were traumatic for Tara as she struggled to clear her mask without swallowing half the swimming pool or bay that we were in. She struggled through though, and had mastered the skill by the end of the second day. She was struggling to see the point of diving though, as visibility on our first two dives was never more than 2-3 metres. On the third day, it was Gaz's turn to be traumatised. We boarded our dive school's boat and sailed out to the dive site at Sail Rock. Our boat was somewhat ill-equipped for the conditions though (mainly because it was a river boat and never designed to travel on anything rougher than than a boating lake), and by the time we'd swayed our way across the Gulf of Thailand Gaz had turned a nice shade of green. Gaz discovered that the fun is quickly taken out of diving when you're sick in your regulator. Somehow we both survived the experience and managed to successfully complete our PADI course. We now intend to become fair-weather divers and will only be adorning ourselves with scuba gear when the ocean is as flat as a pancake and the underwater visibility is in excess of 20 metres. To celebrate our diving achievements, we decided to head into the jungle and party the night away at the Half-Moon party. This was without doubt the best night out that we've had in Thailand, and we didn't stumble home until the sun started to rise at 5am. We paid the price of burning the candle at both ends the next day though. Tara didn't make it out of bed all day, and Gaz would have stayed in bed as well if he hadn't found some strength in the bottom of two or three bottles of Chang beer.




Tomorrow we travel from the idyllic island of Ko Phangan to the hustle-and-bustle of Singapore. Re-adjusting to city life is bound to be difficult.