Travel Plans, Not Planes

This is the standard small Buddhist alter/shrine you see outside a Thai home:

- they have them lit up at night with fake candles or chirstmas tree lights. But on this particular one, we noticed a few statues that were a bit odd...


The road about two minutes after it started when I had to log off yesterday:

We even had the luxury of pool last night!

Here's our other luxury on this wee island, pancakes smoothered in everything from our friend from Bangladesh:

- pretty sick looking, but pretty damn tasty! :) 60cent for one of these.

The real main drag on Koh Tao, that's Ass talking to me there, and the jungle starts at the top of the hill:

Koh Tao - Singapore.

That's the plan.

Looking at spending about 1,200Baht(25euro) to get to Koh Samui, and then a flight from there to Singapore would cost 17,000Baht(around 350euro) - no thank you!
I'd be home in a week at that rate.
As Koh Tao is pretty expensive, we have to leave fairly lively.

We wanted the train, but it's booked out for a few days.
We wanted a cheap boat/bus combo, but it's booked out for a few days.
So it's a slightly more expensive boat/minbus/bus/bus combo. Which works out at 4,500Baht(95euro) all in for both of us.
It takes 36 hours - which is alot better than the cheaper option(by 8 euro) coming in at a cool 56 hour journey.

Koh Tao is a tiny island at the top of this map:

View Larger Map

- you'll have to zoom in to see the name, it's straight out right from Ranong.

And if you click the map and drag down, you'll eventually see Singapore. It's an epic journey!

We're going to Singapore to see if we can live a very specific dream we share in common.

Stay tuned... :)

Chillin' In The Heat

I love these guys:



I forgot to mention, we've rented a wee manual moped for getting around the island. Tis gas craic. 3 euro to fill the tank from empty,which doesn't seem to b going down at all as I drive!

Your average street in the built up part of Koh Tao:

Kids having the craic:

- water temperature is like a warm bath here. Wetsuits aren't necessary for dives up to 20 metres. Madness!

Jammin' on the beach:

A couple of views from restaurants around the island:

Here's one of the dawn pics from the boat dock in Chumphon, back on the mainland:

The bar where Ass works: (Read on for that one...)

An arty farty pic by Soupy Dave (Formerly Dave Disprin)

Ahh yes, it's veerrry hot here now, so this time I don't think the mossies will eat me alive!

My first two dives went great, it had been two years since my last dive, so I was rusty. You usually perform a 'Buddy Check' before you dive, but as I'm a Rescue Diver(For all that that means! I can't even feckin' swim properly and have forgotten pretty much everything about CPR etc) my instructor, Des, obviously felt it wasn't necessary, as when I turned around to do it, he was already in the water!

Suffice to say, I was about to jump in, when I put the reg in my mouth... 'Sure we'll give one quick inhale to make sure...' - lucky I did, my air was off, and I had none in the BCD( the inflatable jacket a diver wears to keep buoyancy) so I would have sunk 20 metres like a stone, with four lead weights and heavy equipment. A bad dose of the bends at best I'd say...

Dave called it 'A bad day for Bean's skin' as I had cut my leg on dead reef, got bitten all over by mossies, burnt my forehead and shoulders, and ants were making little treks on me as well. But twas gas craic anyway.

Here's a few funny pics, note the hair:

We had a great night of encounters these last few nights. We befriended a few locals, one of which is a bit of an activist, Ass was his unfortunate name, and he explained a bit about what is going on politically. Riots in Bangkok broke out the day after we left, so that was good for us!

There was also a young fella, about 22 or so, working where we are staying. Goh was his name, we got to talking outside as he played guitar and had heard us playing. Later that night he came down to us in the restaurant, where we were busy making plans still.

It was then we found out the shocking truth of how he came to work there. He works 14 hour days outside in the sun, general garden maintenance etc. He is actually from Burma(Myanmar)

He learned to speak English on the sly in Burma, reading a dictionary over and over, as the government(which is a military regime) don't like their own people learning English as it generates money, so they're the only ones who are aloud to use it freely. Bastards.

He had no visa so he was put into a container with 70 people and snuck across the border into Thailand, of the 70 people in the container, only 40 survived the trip. With a smile on his face he told us he was one of the strong ones. His Uncle was also working somewhere else on the island, and I was afraid to ask had he any more family in the container, just in case they had been one of the ones who didn't make it. The Thai police regularly chase them down(When the tourist season is low, and bribes from tourists are hard to find) to get bribes for staying in the country. He works out on the island as the the police bribe here is cheaper. Doesn't it just boil the blood.

Here's a picture of Goh:

Today so far has been spent looking into our plans for getting further down south, and eventually across the equator into the southern hemisphere. Dave is busy on the other PC here, finding out about Indonesian Visa shtuff and flights in this neck of the woods. It sounds as if everything is going swimmingly. The plan is to boat south from here, to Surat Thani. Get a train down through southern Thailand, that will continue down through Malaysia, and end in Singapore. From there, we will head out to Borneo, and see East Malaysia, Kalimantan and Brunei.

- Whale bones.

Wow a serious storm as just hit the island in the last few minutes....the roads are already filling up with water. This is a satellite internet connection, so I better post this before the clouds cut me off.

Bye!

Boats, Buses & Bye Bye Bangkok

It feels great to get out of the city.

We took an 8 hour bus journey down the coast to a small town called Chumphon. There we waited two hours while the day dawned...

After a high speed catamaran out to the island, we finally arrived in Koh Tao.

It's been three years since I was first here, and the difference is huge. My favourite bar was gone, demolished to make way for a big dive resort. The beach hut I stayed in was gone, this was in it's stead:

- so we booked into that! 4 euro a night, not bad for Koh Tao.
The day was spent snorkeling for me, and relaxing for Dave. A few beers by the beach then -
We awoke to this guy making an awful racket:

I had booked in a few dives for myself last night, so after a morning snorkel, I went out on the dive boat. I was the only person with them today so it was just me and the dive instructor, pretty sweet! I got on of those poxy wee cameras to take underwater pics, so if I can get digital development on those I'll stick a few up.

Check out how clear the sea is:

Sorry folks, it's taken almost an hour to get those few pictures uploaded, the auld internet on the island here wouldn't be the fastest, so I'll have to leave the rest of the pics for another day. The mossies are making light work of me in here too!

The plan is to stay another few days, do a bit more diving and snorkeling for me, and some trekking and cave gawking with Dave.

Hope all are well, and thanks for the comments! :)

Temples, Tuk-Tuk & The Like

Ahh yes.


- a new spin on post-drinking litter. :)

With last night spent wandering around, perusing the stalls, enjoying a beer with food, and getting a feel for the place, we had a surprisingly good sleep; about nine hours or so.

Into a tuk-tuk:

- and straight out again, as the cop in the background of the picture stuck a clamp on it!

The first thing I wanted to take Dave to experience, was the centre for traditional Thai massage, which is in Wat Po.

-to give a scale of the Reclining Buddha, the smile is 16feet wide.

- this guy wasn't all ears, but he was all feet!

- Pagodas

I got a massage myself whilst Dave was busy achieving nirvana in the nearest temple. I joined him shortly afterwards...

Monk goes up!

Monk goes down!

It was a quick dash(As I hadn't put on sunshtuff) through the traffic back to the bags (And the internet!) and it's a short wait now for the first leg of the journey south.

Abu Not-So-Crappy

Take this! U.S. flight restrictions:

We were tossing around the phrase 'Abu Crappy' before we got there. I have to say, the four minutes we spent in the airport say otherwise...

However when I took a picture here: - they didn't really like it, as you can see:

- and they confiscated my camera after whipping those two shots! An explanation that the picture was actually of Dave got my camera back, and so it begins. :)

After the next flight, I was feeling pretty embarrassed about my fellow countrymen. On both flights, drunk Irish Dubliners made a scene. I won't go into it now, but suffice to say, a air conditioned Buddhist taxi ride into Bangkok had left the experience behind.

And here I am! Dave wanted a bit of comfort for tonight, to be fair, it was a great idea on his behalf. One step at a time as the fella says, and the first step was finding the place, which is pretty swanky for us backpackers:

- at a whopping 16 euro for the room, it'll be the last time we spend that much on accommodation, at least I hope so! Dave insisted he would pay for it, he's very good, but we won't be makign a habit of shite like that either. Tis always easier to keep the auld money on the level when backpacking.

Anywhoo, I saw a lady who was fixing dreds on the street outside, so I got a bit of a makeover....

Note the awesome new backpack too. No more headbands for awhile ;)

So we're here safe and sound, alive and well. No problems, or heat stroke, or diarrhea, or stomach bugs, or mossie bites...yet!

On a random note, here's some flags:

I'm going to go and get some food, and tuck into a Singha. We've been doing a bit of research into island hopping through Indonesia, and it looks extremely doable. Sweet!

Oh yeah, almost forgot, we've booked a bus and boat to take us down south to Koh Tao. Koh Tao is a wee island in the Gulf of Thailand, I think it's about 7 miles long, in the shape (and colour) of a turtle(Tao) We're heading there tomorrow at 7.30pm, arriving at around 9.30am the next day. We're going to be back in Bangkok to fly home so will stay awhile then.

Bye for now!

So many places, so little time.

Plans are finally in motion.

A budget was devised this morning, to see what spending money I could expect to have for the three months.
Honest truth, it's looking like it will be around the €500 mark. Let's see how long it lasts!

Yesterday was the first day I had time to think about anywhere I'd like to go when we get there.
Bali came to mind, there's an active volcano there that I'd like to hike. It's just over 10,000ft elevation. Should be a larf!

Here's a view of Mt Agung from space:


View Larger Map

Look at that shape, talk about cliché! (By the way, the maps are interactive, so feel free to use the zoom or click-and-drag function etc. to see what's around)

From Bali, you can head on down to West Timor. For ten points can anyone guess what's east of West Timor?...

Well, we won't be going there. The plan is to try catch a cargo ship, cruiser or small plane from Kupang(On West Timor) to Darwin!

That's right folks. My favourite country will hopefully make it into the trip. It's best to hope for a small plane as real pirates (That's right Frenchy!) are to be found in these waters. But the advantage of going by boat is you can usually get your journey for free, or at least a greater chance of it, by helping out out.

Have a gawk at it here on the map:


View Larger Map

I could go on about loads of plans, but those two are highly likely, and also close to both of our hearts.

Anywhoo, welcome to the site!
Please leave the auld comments, the more of them received, the better chance spirits will stay high enough to post a decent blog entry.

:)