Sunday, April 29, 2007

After Bangkok, Greg and I headed down South to the island and after a very bumpy and load bus, ferry and long boat taxi ride we arrived in Koh Tao where we spent the next five days. Koh Tao was amazingly beautiful, great snorkeling, peace and quiet and although hot very relaxing. Greg did a diving course and got his open water while I must admit that I did not very much except lie on the beach, swim and explored the town.

After Koh Tao we moved on to Koh Pangang which after Koh Tao was a great disappointment - too many Israelis, farang food (though to be fair we did have very good falafel for shabas...), bad music and too many tattoo parlours. Oi va voi! Time to head south again and after another long journey via Krabi we crossed the mainland and headed to Koh Lanta. Here we trekked though the jungle ( while being eaten my mozzies) and went exploring some underground caves with a local guide. While the cave is totally unspoilt and unlit, you still get a rush when you are balancing over a bamboo pole on the edge of a cliff in the darkness, clambering down ladders into the unknown and crawling out in the mud. After lunch we explored the old town, situated on a mangrove swamp and ate amazing prawn fritters and lunch on the water.

Then it was back to Bangkok for two days of viewing temples, Jim Thompson's house and making plans to head North. We honestly were very please to leave as the constant totes, scammers, noise and being constantly ripped off were starting to get to us and when Greg's sunglasses were stolen is was the final straw. We have spent the last two days in Kanchanaburi exploring the town which is situated on the River Kwai with the famous bridge just north of the town. Yesterday we took the train to Hell Fire Pass and explored the museums which detailed the use of Allied POWs as slave labour in building the railway in WW2 - unfortunately little mention is made of the thousands of Thais and Burmese who also died building it.

We arrived in Auytayya this afternoon, which is the ancient capital of Thailand and will rent bikes tomorrow to explore the temples around the old city. After that we are heading further North to Sukothai and Chaing Mai.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So exciting Alex. Wish I was you but without the scamming and stuff.
cheers

talya chalef said...

allly!!! yaya to seeing all of your adventures! and to seeing a new blog post!
missing you in mels...
:-(
but you'll be back
:-)
xxxxx
talsss