Thailand, water festival and island paradise - photos to come.

Thailand, what bliss to be heading there again, it always feels like my second home (well third at the moment, after Cambodia and Australia) Our trip starts with Cambodia giving us a hefty kick up the backside as we leave, in the form of $25us departure tax, which we never saw coming, and I accidentally eat my first piece of chocolate in three months but other than that the start of our trip is a smooth process until our taxi from Suvarnabhumi airport stops along the motorway to Bangkok city. The driver gets out and after a while I follow him - we have a flat but it’s ok cause the driver has already rung his mate. We stand on the side of the motorway and wait while streams of bright pink and yellow/green taxis all with tires ready to burst they are so full of air, zoom past us. The motorway police turn up and hospitably pose for a photo and provide Cara with a light for her cigarette. We don’t wait too long before our driver’s friend turns up and us, our luggage and spare tires are swapped between vehicles. Arr, so that’s why he didn’t change the flat. Our driver was a really cheery fellow and assured us “we no have accident” demonstrating by pointing to the Buddhism markings on the ceiling of his cab and the photos of the King and Queen and his mother on his dashboard – apparently we were in safe hands! That made me feel much better, especially as the faint bouquet of alcohol wafts over to the back seat and I’m pretty sure his eyes are closed as he veers precariously across lanes. We decide the best bet is to keep him talking and tried the New Year festivities as a topic. This roused him from his stupor alright but created other dangers for us as he became very animated and proceeded to take his hands off the steering wheel repeatedly in order to clap in demonstration of his excitement! It's reassuring to know there are many similarities between Cambodia and Thailand and the very first we discover is that taxi drivers in Thailand also say they know where your destination is when in reality they have no idea. The nice twin room in our hotel had turned into a grotty room with a double bed during the flight but we decided to make do that night but pay the extra for the upgrade for the following couple of nights. We found a great little restaurant called The Gallery, close to our hotel on Sukhamvit Road that first night. It was all old wood and looked like an old two storey Chinese shanty, lots of character. The menu was huge and the food great although the prices and the chilli I got caught in my throat were enough to make my eyes water. The people watching was also great, I’d forgotten how wild, crazy and funky people in Bangkok can be. We shopped for most of the next day – doing MBK some justice then on to an Electronics mega to buy Cara a laptop. We heard the protestors before we saw them as we crossed the walk bridge between the Paragon Centre and MBK. The trucks crowded with red shirts passed below us, loud speakers blaring and flags waving. We decided to take the tried and tested backpacker route that night and headed to KoSan Road by Tuk Tuk. The Tuk Tuk’s in Bangkok are on speed compared to their Khmer cousins, traveling at, at least double the speed and with twice as much noise. On reaching our destination I soon realized my fashion faux pas as my top became see-through and my jeans soaked as we were not only squirted with water from plastic guns but bowls of water were emptied on our heads! Then there was the Tiger balm talcum powder which relieved aches and pains as it decorated you in traditional New Year fashion. We sat and watched the shenanigans as we ate a meal and tried to dry out although there was really no escaping these festivities as water shots were fired and found their mark as random guns passed by. We found somewhere dry with music and a dance floor later on and danced in soggy jeans and see-through tops in airconditioned air! Brrrrrr. Two sisters good natured and full of fun joined us on the dance floor. Unfortunately the night ended on a bit of a sour note as a fist from an angry partner connected with my face instead of its intended target – one of the sisters. It wasn’t really what you'd call a king hit and I was stunned more than anything. The sisters were horrified and apologetic and there were tears when I told them not to ever let a man treat them like that. They tried to get us to carry on with them for another drink to apologize but I thought that was probably enough excitement for one night and our first in Bangkok - you know how the song goes . . . something about humble . . . I got up the next day with a very sore head (hangover) and sore eye socket (punch) – but was pleased to see no bruising. We managed to stay dry the next day long enough to have breakfast and book a bus to Koh Samet for the next day. We made the mistake of going to KoSan Road again and saw that things were just the same as the night before which meant there was no chance to shop – all stalls were packed away for the duration it would seem. To get away quickly and avoid getting saturated again we made our second mistake of the day and got into a Tuk Tuk! I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so wet with clothes on before. Groups of people lined the streets and if they didn’t have hoses to wet you they had bowls and buckets of water. Cara, until then, fairly hung over was quickly brought back to life after the first bucket filled with ice cold water was thrown at us. Our Tuk Tuk driver was considerate enough, to the crowds, to slow down so they got a better shot at us! It really was pretty hilarious as the mayhem continued along the roads and passengers in Tuk Tuks squirted water at other Tuk Tuks as they pulled up at lights or drove past. If only we were armed! There was one slightly sobering moment for us though, just after leaving KoSan Road we saw a road blocked off and at the entrance to it, a bus on fire. We could see smoke billowing from each end and flames devouring the tops of the seats inside, it was completely incongruous with the fun and celebrations two minutes down the road. With two sets of soaking wet clothes I headed to the rooftop pool and dried myself and my clothes out while I listened to the high-jinx’s going on many storeys below me on Sukhamvit Road. Away from the craziness (or so we thought) we headed in our mini-van (that amazingly was right on time), the two and a half hours south to Koh Samet Island. People were having water fights from the back of their 4x4 utes along the highway – don’t these people ever stop? We had to wait two hours for the next ferry so did what we do best and shopped. We were back at the pier in plenty of time to catch our ferry but had received no instructions on what part of the pier to wait at. Turns out we were in the wrong spot which we luckily discovered, after asking about a million people where we were supposed to be. A girl (our savior) knew English enough to race off on her motorbike and make a call to the ferry which had only just left (late) and was happy enough (well maybe not happy as such) to come back for us – thank god! On arriving on the island we too climbed on the back of one of those 4x4 utes with our luggage and proceeded to once again be soaked to the skin. Starting to get a little over it now, especially when luggage and electronic equipment is involved. The driver stopped, bless him, and his wife loaded our smaller bags and Cara’s new laptop into the cab with them. The resort was a welcome sight but unfortunately we were once again taken to a double- bed cottage and what seems to be an oft repeated enterprise – "of course we could have a twin room but unfortunately they’re only available in our more expensive rooms". Let us just say the final outcome of some fairly intense discussions involving the booking agency and the resort manager saw us upgraded to a lovely deluxe cottage with twin beds and a much nicer outlook! Game Title: “Try-it-on with Single Tourists”, Competitors: Cara & Jacqui vs Thai Hotels, Current Score: 1 all – thank you very much!!!! Koh Samet turns out to be a lovely small island, not too commercial or built up and with a pretty good mix of foreigners and Thai’s on holiday. We have a fantastic 5 days here and don’t wont to leave. We start the holiday with cocktails instead of dinner at a resort just a stroll away from ours. The prices are really reasonable but the English owner’s girlfriend-come-chef has gone AWOL. We get an (expensive) taxi 10 minutes along the road to another restaurant/bar on another beach where we sit cross legged on mats laid out under squat tables – brilliant! We venture to a couple more bars that night on the same beach. One which was a bit quiet saw the barman entertaining themselves by putting talcum powder on all the guests faces and at another we met two Cambodian barman who we got to practice our Khmer with. I also got taught some of the fundamentals of fire twirling and we had fun dancing in different wigs courtesy of the Thai couple who were the owners. Given the price of taxis (300 Baht – about $12aus for a 1/2km ride), we decided to hire a motorbike for a couple of days. The only paved road is on the part of the island where our resort sits but is not where the better beaches are. So we headed over the dirt and deeply rutted roads on a mission of discovery, building up my arm muscles as I struggled to keep myself, Cara and the motorbike moving in a straight line and upright! It was great fun and we did some great exploring, discovering a couple of beautiful, pretty, deserted beaches. We also found a sign saying “Sunset” and headed there the next night to watch the sun go down across the great expanse of ocean. We also did some walking, one day heading around a couple of peninsulas and some serious rock traversing to get to a secluded beach. Unfortunately it wasn’t a great beach and with concerns over the tide coming in and us being stranded we headed straight back. It was an absolutely steaming hot day and we followed our trekking with a swim at the beach in front of our resort. The water is like a bath but it still better to be immersed than sweating in the heat. I went to stand up in the water and put my foot straight onto a sea urchin. God, did it sting! I had no idea what a sting from a sea urchin entails so waddled to reception to ask their advice. One of the guys sat me down on the decking and dosed my foot in vinegar and then proceeded to tap it on the four puncture wounds with a beer bottle, luckily it was kind of numb. He told me what had entered my foot would come out of its own accord in about three days – oh good, at least I wasn’t going to keel over or anything. The rhythm of the island is go out late, stay out late and get up late, so that’s what we did. We met a local tattoo artist called Gai who also did a fire show at night so we went and checked that out. I have to say it was one of the best fire shows I’ve seen in Thailand and in 9 visits I’ve seen a few. There were 6 of them who shared the limelight and stretch of sand in front of the Silver Sands bar. They were all brown as berries with buff bodies bathed in perspiration so even without their fire show skills I think myself, Cara and every single female there, would have been kept entertained. There was cute factor as well as Gai’s nephew aged 7 put on his own fireshow – he was awesome, full of confidence and his own tricks! There were also gorgeous little puppies wandering around the beach mats so my world was pretty much complete – hot bods and cute puppies! We ate like kings, drank like fish and slept like babes – the perfect holiday!