It's a small world...

We've managed to meet up with a few friends here that we didn't expect to see but it was lovely to catch up with Stefanie whom i had met before in Amsterdam...

and then later Helen and 'eye-an' from London (we know how much you love that nickname Ian!). Hope you're not working too hard Stefanie and that Amsterdam is treating you well. Helen and Ian - hope the rest of your travelling is going well. It was great to catch up!


Then one early evening we decided to go and have a sunset beer and Matt stumbled across an old school friend from Eastbourne!! Eve Woodeson for those of you from that time... I think it's safe to say they both looked pretty shocked and spent the evening catching up on the last 15 years....

'T' Day!

As a few of you have seen from the flickr site photos, I had my tatoo done last Thursday! (15.02.06). It was always the plan to get something done on our travels, with Japan being the favourite option given the origins of the style i wanted and also the best artists in the world. We did however (due to the massive cost of visiting Japan) keep our minds open to having it done else where. We stumbled across the Burning Tattoo Studio which was basically a beach bungalow.

We talked to them and had a look at a few designs and kept going back after visiting other places on the island. It wasnt until the fourth or fifth time of going that we saw some new fish designs and one in particlar jumped out. So after a bit of chat and some ammendments to the design the decision was made to get it done in Koh Tao.

We were originally told that I would have the piece done in two sittings of about four hours. Anyway, ten and a half hours later we finish the first sitting!

The only thing left to do was the colour the next day which was the most painful bit as it was going over stuff from the day before! Ouch!

Time for some luxury - Valentine's Day 2007 (awww)

Since we've been here we've heard a bit about the 'best spa on the island' called the Jamakhiri Spa & Resort as they offer some bargain deals on pampering packages (suitable for both boys and girls!). Seeing as Valentine's day was due we both booked ourselves in as a suprise for the other. Quite sweet really (Matt is cringing beside me).

The journey there was a hairy one (we were picked up by a 4x4 pick up from our bungalow as there are no roads, only very steep and rough tracks to and from the secluded spa in the mountains) but was brilliant fun.

It was lovely to have some luxury for a change. The package we chose consisted of a sauna which was incorporated into the rock face and smelt of lemongrass (and was very very very hot). We were then had an aloe vera wrap, followed by a facial massage and mask from heaven topped off with an all over oil massage. Lovely.

Punch, kick, kick, punch

Whilst on the island we've managed to get to the Muay Thai Boxing Arena for an evening of thai boxing. They're tiny but they're hard as nails!

Snorkelling around the island

As I have not had any urge to do any diving whatsoever (very strange) and Matt has really been getting into the snorkelling, we decided to go on a snorkelling trip around the island on a boat. Some of the sites were superb with lots of colurful marine life and coral.

We were supposed to stop off at Shark's bay to see the black tips that swim near the sea bed but it was 'too choppy'. Yeah right!

Our last stop was at an island very close to Koh Tao called Nang Yuan where we were dropped off for a couple of hours to entertain ourselves.

And that we certainly did, not only with the beautiful underwater world but also with the interesting array of tourists on the island.

At Last.. the beach! Koh Tao, Thailand 31.01.07

After a days travelling by Bus, and Boat (very choppy high speed Cat, with loads of people puking all over the place!!) we arrived in Koh Tao.

For those that have been here before (Lars..), it has obviously changed as places do (a few more upmarket bungalows, shops and restaurants, more holidaymakers rather than travellers in comparison to before and more families with young kids) but is still as chilled out as it was before. Patrick (who lives here) greeted us off the boat with the 'best mix fruit shake in town' (very refreshing) and had already found us a beach bungalow to stay in for a few days. We decided to move after three days (to another beach bungalow) as the one we were in was a tad close to the bars and the music that supposedly 'ends at 1am' (hmmmm).


Our mornings consist of pretty much the same routine of walking down the beach to have a relaxing breakfast on the white sand beaches facing the beautiful sea (what a crap way to start the day), followed by a slow walk back to the bungalow to lay in the hammock while our food settles. Matt tends to have a morning swim to cool him down and excercise the old muscles.



We've been out and about on a motorbike that we rented (matt did the driving), down to some different beaches on the south coast of the island and into the main 'town' (which consists of two roads) where we've found 'the best noodle soup in town'.

Matt has had a few firsts here, the first of which has been to go snorkelling!! I think it is going to become his new obsession... Especially as he looks so sexy in his new mask and fins!!


The next was yoga. Yes, believe it or not, Matt is doing yoga!!

It was hard at first to conceive how we were going to spend our time with not much to do but it seems that we have found it pretty easy to pass the days... sunset drinks on the beach, yoga, reading, the food stalls, beach ball etc etc as you can imagine.... very hard work basically!

Ting Tong Like Ping Pong

For our final evening out we decided to visit a strip full of Go Go Bars. The whole strip was bustling with food stalls and even an elephant being lead around for people to feed!


We walked up and down with all sorts of scantily clad girls trying to coax us into their bars, but one place in particular had been recommended to us (cheers Derek), so we went inside. Lets just say it was an eye opener, with various objects being played, smoked and propelled around the place! The most impressive being darts being shot to pop balloons stuck to the ceiling! Very entertaining, although strangely enough Dipi was the only other woman in there apart from the girls that "worked" there.

Its a Tourist Thing

We then had a few days to kill and take in a few of the famous sights that Bangkok has to offer in the shape of the Grand Palace, The Reclining Buddha and a couple of other spots along with the mass of shopping that can be done here in the huge shopping centres, some being all brand makes and "proper" shops and others being all very cheap mr, same same mr, i sell half price etc etc.

The sky train is a very good way of getting around and is very cheap (the sky train does exactly what it says on the tin, its basically a train thats in the sky above the streets on massive concrete pillars.... i wonder if there is a job going at Ronseal....?) So we took the sky train to the river (the Chao Prahya, which is huge and teaming with fish, mostly catfish from what we could see).

We boarded a large river taxi that took us north towards the Grand Palace (where the King lives, surprise, surprise) which was the first destination on our list. Within the grounds of the palace there is also the Emerald Buddha which is housed in a very impressive temple.

Out of respect for the religion all girls have to have their shoulders covered, thats why Dipi is wearing a mans shirt and looking stupid.

The whole place is stunning and the facades are all decorated with reflective mosaics and gold leaf, its all too much to describe in words, we hope you can see from the photos.....



There are also Buddhas that people can pray towards, you can pick a flower, stick gold leaf to the Buddhas and light incense sticks.....


The grounds are kept in tip top order with amazing looking sculpted trees in front of the main Grand Palace...

On leaving the palace we were seconded by some bloke who informed us that the Reclining Buddha was closed as there was a Buddhas holiday on! So he recommended that we take a Tuk-tuk up to another Buddha (there are a few!), this one being the Lucky Buddha. He ushered us into the contraption and negotiated a good price for our tour, 40 baht (about 55p) for a whole afternoon! This would take us to the Lucky Buddha, onto a tailors (all part of the blag really), and then onto TAT which is the Thai travel board basically. Our final stop would be the famous Khao San Road. The Tailor experience isnt worth talking about, but it turned out that we were really fortunate on the Buddha front. As it was a Buddhist holiday all the monks were just chilling out at the temple of the Lucky Buddha and we were allowed to take photos and we were the only tourists there!



With our next destination in mind we were dropped off at the TAT office in order to find out about some coach and boat journeys that we could take in order to get to Koh Tao (Turtle Island) which is in the south, off the east coast. We thought this would be the safest and possibly cheapest option to use but no... they quoted us a price double of what he had seen, and informed us that if we bought a ticket from anywhere else we would be 'drugged' on the way down (poison in our water apparently!), waking up at the end of the bus journey with 'empty pockets'!! Hmmmm.

So we called my friend Patrick in Koh Tao who told us the story was a load of b@##ocks and gave us the address of where to buy our tickets on the Khao San Road, where we also had our first taste of the infamous thai banana and choclate pancakes. Yum!

The Main Event! The Bangkok Patana reunion, 27.01.07

After a few nerves and checking make up and hair (dont forget I lost all my make up in Madrid) we sat in the hotel check out waiting for one of my old 'best' friends from school, Charissa. She rolled up in her 4x4 and off we went!
Turning the corner into what seemed like a nice area Charissa blagged some parking in a nearby fancy hotel and we made our way to a smart looking Tapas Bar (which pleased Matt no end as tapas is his favourite! amongst other things).
I was pretty nervous, as you can expect, but it was great to see so many people turn up, most of whom I hadnt seen in a LONG LONG time (you know who you are).





I don't think I ate much (too nervous - Matt even tried to feed me at some point as he knows what a light weight I can be sometimes)but I drank enough! It turned out that Marie was the manager of a trendy club there called the Q Bar so special thanks to her for ushering us in and looking after us. So a few of us made it down there and had lots more to drink and did a bit of bad dancing. Excellent fun and so good to see you all!!