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| Haad salad beach |
We spent our second full week in Thailand on Koh Phangan, which was the neighbouring island to where we'd been staying: Koh Samui. We took a ferry there (once again waiting longer than we were being transported) and arrived at our accommodation during a heavy downpour.
The place we stayed at was a proper resort hotel, which was a whole different feeling to the beach bungalows we'd had the week before. Beach bungalows are great because they have a great vibe - especially if there's a hammock - but there are some things they lack which is why we were glad to be at the hotel. A pool being one: whilst I love the sea, I think Claire's fear of being bitten etc by anything I'm the sea has rubbed off on me down the years and as a result I too now freak out if something even brushes past me, meaning that being in an empty pool is a lot more reassuring! Also regular cleaning of rooms is another commodity you don't realise you miss until it's absent.
The week on Koh Phangan itself was actually pretty uneventful - which I didn't care about in the slightest! We mostly lazed by or near the pool, jumped/bombed into it and splashed everyone else in it. We also frequently walked to the village nearby to take advantage of cheap prices at the 7-11 to keep costs low (theory being, spend less in Asia, spend more in Italy!)
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| Pool life |
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| Haad yao beach |
We were on the beach of Haad Yao, which was absolutely gorgeous - especially at low tide and during sunsets. We did often get bombarded by insects just before sunset a few times which meant we often had either very early or late dinners!
We also visited the nearby beach of Haad Salad after we found out Claire's brother stayed there when he visited a few years ago - so we replicated the photo he took there! There were loads of sea cucumbers at the beach there, which while isn't threatening is weird simply as to their numbers, but the beach is really good there too.
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| Beers at sunset |
I spent one day dreaming about running the London marathon again (as it'd just happened that week and all the Facebook posts were making me very inspired to do it again) - and I was so motivated I went for my first run in months even though I had no proper running gear. I did 4 laps of the beach in about 25 minutes (no idea on length), which wasn't bad as I've never ran in 36 degree heat before and I'm out of shape! Plus my trek shoes gave me blisters so I felt my running urge might be satisfied until we return to Europe (where I plan to run regularly when we stay with our host family).
Come the end of the week we had both really unwound, but that was soon to end: ahead of us was an energy sapping, sleep deprived journey via planes, trains, automobiles and ferries to Bali.
The long, long journey
We went there via Kuala Lumpur as the flight from there (air Asia) was the cheapest option by far even with the costs of getting from the Thai islands to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
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| The shipping container accommodation in Surat Thani |
To get there we took a ferry to mainland Thailand and stayed overnight in converted storage containers in Surat Thani, then got the 8am train to hat yai, where we had to wait and switch trains (and worry if they'd accept our e ticket as it is clear as mud whether they do - but they do thankfully), we were then on another train at 4pm from there and rode that until 5:30am the next morning when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur sentral station after only about 3 hours completely interrupted sleep (you have to get off and get back on the train at the border). Then we had a Macdonalds for breakfast as nothing else was open, we got to the airport by coach to wait quite a few hours for our 3:45pm flight (having a SECOND Macdonalds for lunch - none for months then two in one day!), we then finally realised an ambition in crossing the equator on that flight before touching down in Bali. We then got picked up and taken to our place in Ubud by car and finally arrived at 9pm local time.
Safe to say the journey was exhausting, but we've finally hit Bali - a place we've both long heard stories of and dreamt of and the last major leg of our south east Asia tour before we head back west (via a one day stopover in China). We've got 17 days here and we can't wait to see if it really is the paradise we've always heard of.
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