Playing Games in Phuket

There are so many bars in Phuket and I'm guessing keeping customers or even getting them at the start must be very difficult, especially for the smaller street bars.
When ever we found a spot, they would always make us play games. I'm thinking this is their little plan or way on making customers stay longer - and to preferably buy more drinks.

Rock City

I was told by so many people to visit Rock city.
The music was great, but the drinks where ridiculous (150 baht - usually only 50)

Ever plan on visiting Phuket? i guess The Aussie bar and rock city are a must.
The street bars are also a bit of fun.
Expect lots of games, cheap Chang beer and pole dancing.

phuket

We flew out to Phuket on the Friday...

It defiantly had a different feel compared to Koh Samui.
I wanted to leave straight away... but we decided to stay.
I guess the only thing that kept us interested was the colorful and loud night life.
Beautiful lady boys paraded through Patong street, alley ways led to streets full of small dirty bars - with bar girls swinging around steal poles.

Last night in Ko Samui

We decided to take it easy on the last night.
So we bought our food from the local food store, then made our way to the beach, along with Tiffs guitar. We met up with another Australian who was traveling by himself, so we asked him to join in... he also brought along his guitar.
So After stopping off at7/11 - with a snacks and cheap beer, we all made a home on Chaweng beach.

After a few hours - a Danish couple asked to join in.
Apparently he was apart of a popular rock band when he was young, so he whipped out a few songs while is wife was the back up singer...

It was a really beautiful night.
A great way to end our stay in koh Samui.

big buddah

We decided to hire our scooters on the Wednesday and headed north west to check out the famous Big Buddha.
The road leading to the entrance was quite bumpy and looked over the west coast of the island - where most of the locals where found fishing with their nets.

Just out side of the shrine their were small markets.
We spent a couple of hours looking through the bits and pieces.
Danielle and Tiff bought a few presents for the family.

It's amazing how they can make something so simple so beautiful.

One lady was making flowers out of bars of soap.
Another was making beautiful necklaces and jewels our of dirty sea shells that where simply found on the beach.

Angthong National Marine Park

We all decided to organise a day trip to the Marine National Park.

A Jeep picked us up from our hotel early in the Tuesday morning. We where all pretty tired, but we quickly woke up as we where thrown from side to side in the back of the Jeep. We arrived at Fisherman's Pier where we jumped on our speed boat "Chad".

It took us only 45 min to actual arrive at the marine park. Our first stop was in the middle of the all the islands. After we where anchored we were given our snorkels but no fins. I was pretty keen to check out the coral - but was pretty disappointed with the murky water. While Danielle decided to stay on the boat, Tiff and i decided to head for shore. The water eventually got clearer and the fish became more vibrant with colour.

We were then taken to another island ( i think Koh Woa). It was absolutely beautiful - and so remote - it seemed untouched. There was a trail that led into the middle of the island. After the many steps and a couple of tight squeezes through rocks we where exposed to a lake "Emerald Lake" (also known as "Talay Nai").

It would have been great to have been able to spend the afternoon just swimming in its Crystal clear water, but it was barricaded off. I guess they have a right to protect their natural environment. You could see left over rubbish from previous tourist and the anger in the tour guides eyes.

We finished off having a lazy afternoon at the beach. I could seriously stay here for ever.

Namuang Water fall

I remember dad taking us to all these water falls last time we were in Ko samui.
So the three of us hired our own scutas and made our way to Manuang Water fall.

It was about a 25km drive from where we were staying and we actually kind of stumbled into it.

After realising our little automatic bikes couldn't handle the heat of the rocky hills we decided to walk the 150 mtrs to the water fall. It was beautiful. We got lost a couple of times, but as soon as we stopped walking and complaining you could hear the water rushing carelessly past its banks. The water was fresh and cold, the palms shaded the rocks and no one was there to disturb us.

Chaweng Beach

Chaweng Beach is the longest strip of sand on ko Samui. I wouldn't say it was the most beautifulest, but its crowd defiantly indicates it's popularity. The north end of the beach is where all the backpackers stay. It's kind of like an American Spring break film where the girls bake topless and the guys play volley ball. We're located on the east coast of the island, and the south end of Chaweng beach.

On our first day on the beach and after a big night out, we decided to relax and get a manicure and perdicure (only costing 200 baht).

We sat up on the bamboo deck surounded by pillows for our comfort. The ladies smiled as they cleaned our dirty feet. I felt kind of bad and tried my hardest to not be just another spoilt tourist. But as i asked them questions, they blushed and laughed, embarresed by their lack of english.

The young lady who polished my nails was only 15. She was beautiful.

Ko Samui

After a 11 hour train ride, a 2 hour bus trip and a very unwelcoming 1.5 hour boat ride we were absolutely stoked to touch land. Tiff spent of the time in the bath room on the boat. I was trying to sleep and was just focusing on keeping my breakfast down and Dan just sat very still... lol.

The local taxi (costing us 60baht each) took as straight to hour Villa hut. I guess the girls were not really expecting anything fancy after our three night stay in Bangkok. But we were all really happy when they took us to our beautiful home for a week.

The bed is huge. The toilet is clean and the shower actually runs. It's about a 5 min walk to Chaweng beach and we are located on the quite end.

Were staying at Sumiu lagoon bay. :)

water markets bangkok

We caught a bus that took as 1.5 hours out of the city. We all fell asleep on the bus - and we all felt a bit seedy after having our first big night out. But as were sat on our little canoe boat, engined by a 60 year old auntie and her paddle stick, we all realised why we decided to get out of bed. All of the aunties and uncles where selling all of their bits and pieces. The tourist where buying their little souvenirs - and where getting completely ripped off. You would see them smile as they rolled up their money and put it in their pockets. We decided to miss the snake show and sat down by the river, eating our home made spring rolls and noodles. It was nice to watch the world go buy. You could tell who had been their, paddling the oars the longest, from the very beginning and those who were there to make money from the tourists. The houses sat on top of bamboo sticks, on top of the water. And the local families would just sit there, eating food or completed their chores.

It reminded me off the Philippines.

freeing the birds

"in this temple if you give freedom to the birds you will have good luck and happiness in your life" - never new i could buy happiness and good luck- but in this temple it only costs 90 bht (5aud) so we decided to give it a try.

We where given a cage with 4 little birds in it.

I guess it would have been cool to have taken them home - but we saw them fly away into the distance behind the large buddah.

Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok early Monday morning. As soon as Tiff arived from china, we caught a taxi straight to ko san road.

We stayed in a backpackers inn. It had a bed and a toilet. I guess it was all a shock to all of us. The bed was hard. There was a window that faced a concrete wall. And around 3 oclock in the morning you heard the girls and the boys stumble up the stairs. We saw a few temples - but we didnt really get to see much of the city. Ko san road and its surrounding streets where pretty exciting. You would get lost in the alley ways - destracted by the shops and markets, and the smell of exotic foods, that you would end up kms from the hotel.

The main thing that stood out were all of the took tooks. They were usually a rip off - but they were a bit of fun.

insomnia chijmes

We finished off at insomia - chijmes.
They had two filo bands that played through the night.
They had so much energy - it flew through the crowd like electricity.