haggling with time

after 48 hours without sleep we arrive bankok at 5 in the morning in the zone between day and night were drunks sleep on the corners of kosan road and the hawkers are both packing up and setting up. after 4 attempts we find a place to stay albeit it a 'closet' as described by jordi ( who decided to go for the flashpacker route this time) we decided since we were already up that we may as well go sight seeing- temples, the river, a bird being set free just to be eaten by a cat.. me and em were very proud that we got an incredible bargain form a taxi driver to take us to the quantas office to sort out our flights.. so now we have to come home. 2 weeks !! only 2 weeks..itsa crazzzyyyy to quote ems dodgy mario accent. we have decided to stick the rest of our time out here in thailand- there just simply isnt time or money to go to the other countrys pretty gutted but it will give me and excuse to come back! its so strange looking back at how quickly this time has passed.. a month ago today we had just arrived in singapore- 2 months ago we were in nelson newzealand meeting up with iona and 3 months ago we had just got off the plane to auckland. what a trip! but now is not the time for reminisence i have 2 weeks with very little money to spend and adventures still to be had and people to meet! ( we may be seeing doug again in hongkong! yay)

The Island trap

The problem with being in a place such as this is one doesnt want to leave- for 4 days we sunbathed (em sunburnt..tango styleee) snorkelled, icecream..the odd pinocoldada at a rasta bar round the corner ( weve made friends with the bar staff..probably the most laid back staff in the world..a measure is just a shot..they even made us our own cocktail!) sometimes we would head down the other end of the island to catch a fire show ( guys doing show off things with flaming sticks) and for a bit of a boogie- On the 5th day our feet were itching and we were palnning to hit the orad but Jordi, a dutch guy we have been travelling with on the island came down with a very high fever and couldnt even sit up in bed and we could just leave him by him slef so we stayed a couple of extra day until he recovered. I never thought i would get sick of paradise but its just to nice here to be interesting! So anyways since we were here we though we may as well stay for last night which was the full moon party over in ko phananag, Leaving our stuff here in ko toa we trekked over and spent the day there , exploring a far more exploited area. As the sunset we came acroos a tiny resort bar and stopped for pre party drinks , falling in with the crowd there ( some norweigens, an irish couple the smae age as us and a few others) we chatted, watched the dogs chase each other and made merry until we caught the cab over into what i can only describe as a night of mayhem.. People everytwhere ( and body paint everywhere else) by the time we hit the party at midnight there were already people asleep on the floor being danced on or trodden on- waves of people were being pushed out to dance in the sea- so many sound systems the music blurred into one as we clutched our buckets of samsung( potent thai wiskey) and danced away- earlier in the night we had purchased some hippy pants- my camera was in the pocket of these (along with jordis memory card) and unfortunatly bounced out to join the crowd..never to be seen again - and this was before i was actually drunk. Gutted. Totally. i spent ages scouring the beach for it. >useless< still these things happen. The rest of the night continued in an epic but wierd way- i made friendswith some random welsh as our group took it inturns to loose each other... we danced and danced and watched the runrise on the otherside and naked people frolicked in the ocean..we heard the speakers blare out for the after party and still they danced on. What a night.. we arrived nakered, beaten, dirty and covered in flouresent paint just in time for the 8.30 ferry back to ko tao. ledge.

A piece of paradise

This place has come straight of a postcard and into reality, one glance produces at sigh of content..*and relax* which is just what we needed to do..especially after our journey up here! on Sunday we eventually managed to get our thai visa and head over the border- arrving at the train station just in time to jump n the delayed early train as it pulled out of the station..as we stood in the corridor a though a occured along the lines of oh **** weve just boarded a 13 our train ride with no food drink or entertainment..arg! i was already so thurst i went up to the first (non armed) guard and asked where i could get some water..they only sold beer..beer it is! The army guys protrolling the train then proceeded to laugh at the britishg girls who had started drinking already at 11 in the morning..i feel somewhat pushed into this typical english stereotype! Anyways after a sleepless 13 hours of dashing out to sheck the station stop everytime we pulled up ( as we had no concept of time and or a way of finding out) we arrived in chumphon at 3am, to sit on the platform with a random bunch of travellers waiting to get the next set of transport to Koh tao the next morning.
Needless to say it made this place all the more heavenly when we got here!- for the first time me and em have our own room..with balcony 2 mins from the water..on a quiet little bay called sharks bay..i have even seen a shark! we have great snorkling the clearest water i have ever seen and well, ife really doesn' get much better than this...

Throw those curtains wide

As it turns out, it was actaully one of the best couple of days weve had- Russel a kiwi we met in Kl met up with us and took us on a whole host of adventures . he is what he likes to call an experience junkie and we tagged along. First up we met this local called Abu who took us round the city by night in his car - serenaded by the crazy frong album! he took us to a huge down town market, then out to the beach ( a more local malay version of blackpool minus the roller coasters) here we came across a group of all ages having a jam - we were immediatly scooped up into the hubub- handed instruments and played..it was alot of fun and far less intimidating than the expeirence with local we had had before! heading back to the hostel we arrived at 10 minutes to 12- the supposed closing time to find they had locked us out and that there were several gates meshes and padlocks that were just not going to let us in- dashing back to where we left Russel we managed to catch him and crash at his hostel-which the obliging owner let us do for free.
Next day we headed out to a small coastal village that russel had been recommended- again we hopped on bus with no real idea where we were going just a name..one the bus driver didnt recognise- he actaully stopped the bus several times to ask people were this place was! eventually he dropped us somewhere random..we meandered along in a vague direction- eventually a band of teenage boys rocked up on mopeds and escorted us to a random car which said they would give us a lift.. turns out it was only round the corner! Here we bumped into another Abu who offered to teach us to surf- as there were quite alot of muslim school children around me and em felt we would have to do it fully clothed and that it would be an impossible task so while russel went for it we struck up a game of frizzbee with the local kids, it was really really grate watching them slowly come out of their shyness and join in until we were all leaping about all over the place..they all waved and called as we had to leave but we left them the frizzbee ..they had obviously never come across one before. After a spot of questionable food Abu took us on a tour through his qaintly ramshackle village..goats cats and cow roamed free- there was a monkey sitting eating watermelon on an old fridge and hundred of fish laid out to fry amounst the rustic fisher boats. Beautiful. At one point we stopped at his friends house as the boys called out to russel to play footy- they produced tea and a traditional malay marble game which i tried and failed to conquer, we finished the trip by meeting Abus 90 year old grandmother, an amazing lady who we found crosslegged on the porch of the house with her cat.
This is the type of traveeling that we really want to do..and all the time it was waiting round the corner for us.
Back in khota bharu, we headed to this amazing nightmarket for food then round the corner to a bar..i say bar i mean table out side a garage in a backstreet - drinking is actually illeagl here as its a muslim state but they have to be leaneant towards the chinease but it certainly makes it more entertaining know that if they were caught there would be lashings and canings involved. seriously. Yesterday we stopped via an off lisence which was litterally a dodge iron gate which you made the exchange through, Russel bought alhol for a group of 19-28 yrs old..they passed around a beer with a straw between them. It really is a whole different world.

Kotu Bharu

Kota Bharu for a city has very little in it. Even the jungle had more places to eat than here! Worst of all we have to stay for another 2 days as the muslim weekend means that the thai embassy is shut friday-saturday. Already we have resorted to buying colouring books to while away the hours... nothing like a good bit of old fashioned fun eh?
Had a real interesting breakfast on the way back from the embassy..tea that tasted like chocolate as it was sweetend with condensed milk..toast which was crispy bread buttered with some weird sticky stuff and a 'half boiled egg' which i presumed to mean soft boiled. How wrong; It was so runny i actually checked that it was hot. served in a bowl with some vinegar..i swear there was even a raw egg mixed in as well..just for good measure. In typical fashion i ate it..if locals and body builders can do it then so can i.. apparently no i cant. yuk. Em is already ill..currently in bed with what we think is a mild migraine. this is going to be a very looong long couple of days.

Im a celebrity- get me out of here!

In the last couple of days we have been papped more than britney on a bad day- sometimes sly, sometimes they actually ask..we were mobbed be a group of 20 guys whilst swimming in a river and had to make a hasty exit (and even then we were swimming fully clothed!)..hence now 'im a celebrity' is now our code word for suddenly becoming very interested in the opposite direction! minus this bizarre part of being in the middle of a muslim country the jungle has been amazzzzing, starting with our 3 hour boat to get to the heart of the tasman nagara reserve were we saw crocs, huge lizards and a double rainbow..always a good sign. weve done a bit of trekking here and there but didnt venture out for more than a days walk fom camp simply because hiring a guide was to expensive and even with compass we got lost on the short walks. We did do a night safari..saw some boars, byson..birds and what our guide swore was a 'leopard' cat, though i maintain it was just a cat..bit dissapointing but i got to zoom along sitting on the roof of a truck under the stars so it was still pretty cool!
Me and em spent a very quite chinease new year and valentines day in the main village ..on one side of the river was the posh peoples resort and a boat ride away on the other was the village with the locals where we stayed(who are all very friendly..though our hostel guys were slightly obsessed with eric clapton songs) ..anyway in the middle they had a selection of floating barges which was pretty cool! we became very addicted to the pancakes at one of these (it was that or rice for breakfast) so we actually managed to have pancakes on pancake day..success!
Last night we took the night train to kota baru on the thai border..it was supposed to arrive at 2.30am but was 2 hours late..yup 4.30 am train...ouch..we arrived four hours late..luckily we are travelling on whim and had nothing planned but to explore the city.. which we tried..but then became to self concious as all our clothes are in the wash apart from our skirts that dont quite cover our knees..as mundane as that is in england i feel quite the hussy here!! oh my! ( just so you know the pic above is actually my best elephant impression..not a random spasm)

Stomache Vs. food

Food = not good..I've had one instance doubled up with stomach pain..another woke up in the middle of the night feeling incredibly ill and now i've got such a bad headache after eating some noodles and dumplings that i'm contributing it to msg. It's enough to make me want to eat macdonalds for the rest of my stay here! bleurg. On the upside the food did taste really good at the time! KL is ruthlessly hot, even my sweat is sweating..I don't want to move or do anything and when we do it's by playing leapfrog with the shadows. As expected its nowhere as clean as Singapore though has a more natural hustle and bustle about the place. The hostel just about borders on ok, though I expect the worst is yet to come..although its clean the beds are deadly uncomfortable and me and Em have mega cracking sessions when it sounds like our spines have been replaced by a set of Chinese fireworks!! We are based in China town, its pretty quite during the day but becomes a glowing market at night..my first attempt at bargaining was successful in the fact that Imangaged to purchase some sunglasses but I was completely ripped off. Damn my white skin ..I paid 50 ringits (about a tenner but there where some round the corners for 5 times less. do'h) still gotta start somewhere! As it is me and Ems age and race means we are targets for everyone trying to sell something.. people actually stare at Em's hair because its so rare to be blonde..very very creepy! hair dye maybe purchased soon!!