Reset search
South East AsiaSouth East Asia
SatelliteEdit route

South East Asia

February - May 2024
An open-ended adventure by Sam Read more
Currently traveling
  • 97footprints
  • 5countries
  • 108days
  • 1.1kphotos
  • 27videos
  • 33.0kkilometers
  • 20.0kkilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 21

    Day 21

    February 26 in Thailand ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    Koh Tao

    After maybe 2 hours of sleep it was time to wake up and suffer. Not really suffer but oh my god I didn't want to get out of bed. After packing and checking out we hopped on our transfer to the pier and boarded out "speedboat". It wasn't quite as speedy or as small, more of a ferry. We grabbed a weird scrambled egg and tomato croissant for breakfast and then after passing in and out of sleep on the vertical chairs we arrived in Koh Tao.

    Our hostel was about 30 minutes away so we started walking in that direction. Stopping for some Pad Thai and doing some paperwork in Koh Tao Divers for tomorrow, we checked into our hostel. After resting for a bit, I decided to head to the beach whilst Alfie napped. After an ice cream and a short swim around sunset (too cloudy to see) I chilled on a hammock doing some training for my SCUBA tomorrow. That was until I got attacked by loads of bugs so headed back to hostel where I rested for a bit again but this time my bed was sandy.

    Eventually we head out for some dinner, where we go to this Burmese restaurant, treating myself to the national dish of Burma. For pudding I had a traditional Burmese dessert, which was banana in warm coconut milk. I couldn't finish it. We headed to 7-11 for some snacks then back to the hostel for an early night.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 22

    Day 22

    February 27 in Thailand ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    SCUBA 1

    It's a day late but that just means you get 2 posts in 1 day!

    After an 8am wakeup, I pack my bag and head down the beach towards Koh Tao Divers, grabbing a pot of mixed fruits, yoghurt, and muesli. Upon arriving I meet my dive master, a Finnish dude called Mika and my dive buddy, an Italian girl called Claudia.

    First we did some classroom stuff where he went over the basics of what we'd be doing today, as well as the number 1 rule of diving - never hold your breath. The main danger of diving is the pressure difference between the air that you breath and the water so if you hold your breath between depths then your lungs can expand and contract too much and cause alot of damage.

    After our classroom session we go for an early lunch and I sit in a restaurant close to the beach and enjoy a pizza and coconut smoothie watching the sea - which I think has been my first Western meal since travelling. I then head back and we grab our gear from the store room. I grab a mask, dive shirt and flippers - as well as a buoyancy compensator (inflatable vest), regulator (connects tank to stuff, regulating air pressure), air tank, and a weight belt (to weigh you down). We get shown how to set up our gear then we head down to the beach (about 10m away) and hop in the water and go through some basic skills - such as breathing through the regulator, clearing your mask of water, and buoyancy control.

    After some practice, we head on our first dive where we went down to a depth of about 6m which doesn't seem like alot but looking up at the water level you feel very submerged. It was amazing to float (not quite effortlessly yet but I'll get there) and glide past coral and fish. The funniest fish I saw was called a trigger fish which looks as if a cartoonist was told to draw a stereotypical English fish as its teeth were so goofy looking. I wander if they do invisalign for fish.

    After seeing the rain hit the surface of the water above us, we eventually surface when our tank pressure hits a certain point, which must be done slow and controlled as not to suffer from decompression sickness. When we surface we walk onto shore and all of a sudden the feeling of weightlessness is replaced with the feeling of carrying a mountain on your back. I was definitel⁹y feeling like a high gravity individual.

    We walk back and wash our gear in fresh water to stop the build up of salt then that's it, back again tomorrow at 9am. I head back onto the beach and meet Alfie further down where I spend a while lounging and studying the online material as we had a test tomorrow - though it seemed I only had access to half of what I needed which might prove difficult. We grab some food and head back to the beach and watch the sunset.

    We then grab a rotti each (for some reason the island is littered with the same stand with slightly different wording) and we sit by a bar doing a very interesting quiz with questions such as "how many calories in a teaspoon of semen" whilst a fire performer did his thing. The answer by the way is 36 (or something close I can't really remember) but me and Alfie had bigger things to do - planning! After doing some emailing and Google search our quest for a 2 day tour of Khao Sok National Park was seeming more and more unlikely.

    Eventually, whilst Alfie calls Daisy, I lay watching the starts slowly appear, listening to the sound of the waves and the music in the background. I then have a lovely call with Josh, who says apparently the winter in England isn't as warm as Thailand. How weird. After doing some washing and drying (where our clothes came out warm but somehow still wet?) we head to our hostel and chat a bit with some girls where one of them had just been out on a date. If your curious it went well. Then time for bed before another early ish start tomorrow.

    Also, I can't take photos during my course, so the pictures are probably gonna be quite boring compared to what I'm doing.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 23

    Day 23

    February 28 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    SCUBA 2

    Wake up, pack, grab some fruit with yoghurt and muesli and head to the dive centre - you know the drill. After filling up both my water bottles (our hostel doesn't give free water) we head up to the classroom for the start of day 2 of our open water diving course. Originally our exam was meant to be after this classroom session but having told Mika that I only had half the content, he said I could study it over lunch and we could do it at end of the day.

    We go over more theory and rules of diving, which was a bit harder for me today as I wasn't able to see the content beforehand but still we persevered and it made the content that I had already seen alot more clear as it wasn't just a block of text on my phone. The content today was more focused on decompression, and understanding that the deeper you dive the longer you have to stop at different levels on the ascent to balance your nitrogen levels in your body and blood stream. We then have a very early lunch about 11am where I went back to the same restaurant as yesterday with Claudia this time and I ordered some spring rolls and a fresh coconut whilst going over my brand new content. The spring rolls were tasty but the coconut was even better - being able to drink the water straight out the shell then eat the flesh with a spoon whilst sitting next to the beautiful beach under a palm tree was pretty sweet.

    Content rushed through and food devoured, we headed back and grabbed our boxes of gear and headed to the small boat with the rest of the people going for an afternoon dive, to the bigger boat where we took a short trip from Sairee Reef where we dived yesterday to Twins Pinnacle, which was just off of Nang Yuan Island - directly next to Koh Tao. After some water and biscuits from the ship, we prepare our gear and do our buddy checks before stepping off the boat into the water. It was similar to yesterday where first we went over the same skills, including clearing the regulator of water, clearing our mask of water, and sharing air with your dive buddy if they run out. This time we also added removing our buoyancy compensator vest and a self rescue. Highlight of this was seeing a crab that looked like a rock that we were doing our skills next to that we had to move away from rather quickly as it turned out its fairly poisonous.

    We hop back on the boat and have a small break before changing tanks and going for a real dive. I forgot to mention we also had another Finnish dude with us who was completing his dive masters course so was helping out too. In the water the first half went quite well, my buoyancy was fairly controlled and my equalisation wasn't too bad (my damn left ear just doesn't equalise for some reason). We swam past lots of coral and schools of fish - it'd be hard to name them but looking a couple meters to your side and seeing hundreds of fish swim together was pretty cool. The main issue is that whilst learning you focus so much on breathing and buoyancy and equalisation that sometimes you forget to take in your surroundings.

    On the way back though I just couldn't equalise my damn left ear so had to spend a while ascending and descending before it felt even okay ish. This also took alot of focus off my breathing and buoyancy so I was alot less in control. I'm not sure how deep we dove but the max we were allowed is 12 meters so I'm sure it wasn't far off. We eventually surface and my ear returns to normal but there was definitely some residual pain which probably means damage...

    We boat back to the dive centre where we take a multiple choice 50 question test. It went decent but some of the wordings were a bit difficult to wrap my head around. After Mika scanned through each test in about 10 seconds, it's clear he was doing it from memory which was quite funny. I got 2 or 3 wrong on the test which isn't too bad - it's a pass (I think?).

    I meet back with Alfie where he picks me up on his scooter and we head to the West side of the island (we were staying on East) - only taking about 10 minutes. I hate being on the back as you have no control but it is what it is. We park up at Ao Tanote Beach which has one of the best cliff diving spots in Thailand. In the middle of this bay lies this large rock (I forgot to take a picture!) where a short swim through the most rapid water I've seen in Thailand - brings you to a small scramble before a rope needs to be climbed before getting to the top. Getting out of the water was definitely the hardest bit as the rush of the waves push you away from the rock and if you time it incorrectly might throw you into another. The rope climb wasn't too bad but at the top I met Austin (from the USA) and Anshul (from India) where it was all our first time on this rock. Poor Anshul had taken 3 attempts to get to the top and had left a small trail of blood from the scrapes.

    After catching our breathes from the swim, we chatted for a bit before Austin took the lead and made the first jump, I followed 2nd and Anshul went 3rd. The jump says online anywhere between 5 and 12m but I'll go with roughly 10. It was scary taking the leap but that's really what its all about. After hitting the water I surfaced and was super happy with the landing. We swim around and climb back up, this time chatting for even longer before making the jump again and swimming back to shore before sunset.

    We join Alfie at the restaurant on the beach and the 4 of us chat for a couple hours whilst eating some food. They were both really cool guys and I hope to see them both again. Me and Alfie scooter back to Sairee, grab another roti before I sat down to write before heading to bed.

    Another sorry for the massive lack of pictures today, being in the water all day doesn't lend itself to taking alot of pictures.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    2111111
    Day 24

    Day 24

    February 29 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    SCUBA 3

    After a devastating first alarm at 4.30am, reminding me fondly of my time at M&S, I begrudgingly got out of bed and packed trying to be as stealthy as possible to not wake anyone. I walk in the dark down to the dive centre, walking past the last few people at bars, where all of a sudden we reach a lively gathering of 20 ish divers ready to go for a morning dive. I say lively but in reality I was just feeling like a corpse compared to the rest of the who probably got more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep.

    I get given my chicken, egg, bacon, lettuce, tomato and ketchup sandwich which was lovely and big enough I couldn't eat it all straight away. We head onto the boat and watch the sun peak over the island. Today we head to a site called Hin Pee Wee first, where there's now 5 of us, Mika our instructor, Jani our divemaster in training, Claudia, me, and a new guy who is also a divemaster in training so he was leading. Our first dive went okay. But we descended too fast for me to equalise properly so I had to faff around ascending and descending and my ears didn't feel quite right for the rest of the dive. Add the residual numb pain from yesterday and my ears were not a happy bunny. We went round some rock pinnacles, where at some point I went too close and almost crashed into one, getting stabbed in the finger by an urchin.

    After a surfacing and a short debrief we waited for about an hour, where I had a small nap awkwardly on an air tank. We move to another close site called No Name Pinnacle, where there was a ship wreck. We could only dive to 18m and that's where the shipwreck started but it was still cool to see it. Also, this was definitely the best dive I had done, my equalisation was good, my bouyancy was super controlled and I had no problems. The shipwreck was super cool, being able to see the turret of a ship with small fish using it as their home was pretty cool, plus Jani was taking pictures with his GoPro so we have some really cool pictures of us diving.

    After surfacing, heading to shore, and cleaning our equipment, we log our dives and get our certification! We then get to chose a free t shirt which was awesome but also 100% cotton so 100% to warm to wear here. I then head to the beach for a while and meet up with Alfie where we spend a couple hours trying to plan our onward travel. Now instead of going straight to Khao Sok, we're heading to Krabi on a night ferry tomorrow.

    We head to a viewpoint called John-Suwan on the South of the island which had a beautiful view of the island with a bay on the left and to the right. After a while we head back down the scrambling path where we find that someone had knocked over his bike and it was now scratched on one side... goodbye deposit. We drige to the restaurant that my diving instructor runs with his wife, and I drop Alfie off and steal his scooter to head to Top View viewpoint to meet with Claudia. The road up was steep and a bit scary so eventually I parked up and walked the rest, going barefoot so I didn't slip out of my sliders. After ascending Everest, I paid 100 Baht to the nice lady who built the viewpoint and got given a free drink to enjoy the sunset with.

    I meet a Canadian guy called Ryan, a Scottish guy called Jake, and an Austrian guy called Cristoff and we chatted for a while before deciding to head down and grab some food together at the same restaurant I dropped Alfie at earlier. Jake left earlier so he didn't join the 4 of us but it was really nice. I was going to go for Mika's Finnish meatballs and mashed potato but they had no potatoes (unheard of as a Brit) so I went for a bamboo shoot curry with rice.

    Eventually we head back to our hostels for a shower and meet again at a bar on the beach, with Ryan's friend too. After a couple beers and lots of chatting (making me feel super young as they were all about 30), my 6am dive was catching up to me and we head home to sleep.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    1
    Day 25

    Day 25

    March 1 ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Mango Bay

    After waking up to Alfie telling me I had 30 minutes before checkout, I quickly put together my stuff and we checked out, storing our bags not so securely at our hostel. Alfie had returned his bike that morning, having to pay 3500 Baht for someone else knocking over his bike and scratching it - ouch. We wandered down the beach and we found a restaurant overlooking the beach for some breakfast. We both got a very peculiar "breakfast burger" which was a half deconstructed beef and egg burger with various veg. Strange but highly rated - plus maybe the first time I've ate a burger with a knife and fork.

    After that me and Alfie split up, he had already been to Mango Bay whilst I was diving. First I did some shopping around for a snorkel mask and a GoPro casing. I land on a midrange snorkel as I knew I was going to use it for a while, and find a decently rated case that let's me take my GoPro down to 30m which would be more than enough. I then rent a scooter from our hostel where she took a 3 minute long video of the condition before I set off.

    This was most definitely not a simple approach. There are options to take the boat round but I went for the spicy option. First I had to take my bike half off roading which was very interesting with dodgy brakes going up and down steep dirt trails, dodging rocks. I had definitely not been pumping my brakes as one of them was quite slack after a while - quite worrying so I took it very slowly. Eventually after reaching the end of the track - I had no signal and Google Maps had given up by then.

    I follow 100s of stairs downwards before reaching a scrambling section through a boulder field round the edge of the bay. This was fine but would have been a hell of a lot easier had I not been carrying a snorkel in 1 hand and wearing nothing but sliders on my feet. Eventually I make it to the beach and sit on a sunbed. I see I still had signal and needed to try and contact Alfie so I made my way up to the restaurant with the promise of WiFi, so I ordered a mango shake only to be told it doesn't work. Putting my thousands of pounds of student debt for a computer science degree to good use, I guessed the password on my first attempt. Feeling quite smug about "12345678" I was quickly humbled again when it really didn't work in the slightest. Oh well he'll figure it out.

    I set up my snorkel - having no idea what I was doing and put it to use almost immediately. Someone on the sunbed next to me suggested I go to the left hand side with my snorkel so I went for a swim and it was amazing to see the fish and coral that were so close to the shore. I swam back to set up my GoPro in its new casing and went back out to grab some photos and videos of the colourful parrot fish, stripy banner fish, yellow butterfly fish, and what I believe to be some small barracuda.

    After a while I head back, chat to a Chilean guy called Pedro before heading out again - not seeing as much on the other side of the bay. After heading back, it was time to make the trek back as I didn't want to drive in the dark and wanted to make sure Alfie's bookings had gone well. I make my way back along the rocks, made even harder this time as my feet were wet and sliding around in my sliders. Then, up the 100s of stairs I had flown down. Smartly, near the top where I had paid for entrance they sold drinks as well, where I had no choice but to get some much needed water as by now I was sweating like I had been on a run. I get back on my bike and make my way back up the dirt track, being careful not to end up in the surrounding jungle, eventually I make it to the main road.

    A jeep attempted to go down the road but soon after reversed back up having realised its mistake. There was a random dude who was gonna pay this taxi 300 Baht just for a 5 minute drive down the hill, so I offered him to just jump on the back. Apprehensivly, he agreed and asked me to go slow which I happily obliged with - I'm not the biggest fan of riding with a passenger as it throws the balance and weight off completely. I drop him off then drop my bike off getting the okay for conditions - luckily she didn't try the brakes.

    I meet with Alfie and after getting gnawed by mosquitos, we go for some dinner where I go for a Spaghetti Bolognase (very Thai I know) meaning both my meals today were super Western. Although everything was super expensive, so this was a money saving move more than anything. It was a yummy Spaghetti and Alfie made fun of me but I have no regrets. We then pick our bags up from our hostel where I sneakily go for a shower and we grab some snacks from 7-11 before boarding our night ferry.

    Last night when I booked our ferry it got cancelled so I had to book with another company who happened to not have any pictures so it was a risk but we had no other choice. Upon boarding it was extremely obvious why they had no pictures. Small bunk beds and thin mattresses lined the floor and I thought to myself- it can't get worse than this. Spoiler alert - it did. The dude showed us that we were infact sleeping outside of the boat on the floor of a narrow walkway. It's a hilarious situation that to me is all part of travelling but I'm not sure Alfie had the same perspective.

    I chatted to some fellow boat mates about how funny it was before settling into my short mattress (having to climb round the outside of the boat to get to my bed). On the negative side, we had no space or AC BUT on the positive side, no one could walk over us and the ocean breeze was our natural AC. I lie here now actually quite enjoying the peace of the breeze, sound of the waves, the night sky, and the occasional spray from the water.

    Also, my pictures are all stuck on my GoPro still so you'll have to wait to see my expert marine photography.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    Day 26

    Day 26

    March 2 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    Krabi

    I woke at about 4am, still on the side of a ship. Surprisingly it was actually quite a cosy sleep, the ambience of the ocean breeze and sounds sends you to sleep quite nicely. If only I had more than 4 hours of sleep though. We hop off the ferry and wait for our transfer to the van office, where we wait a bit longer before eventually boarding a van around 6.30. The van wasn't too bad and I may have slept a bit but I can't super remember.

    We eventually land in Ao Nang at 9ish and after checking the longboat schedule, we find some real food for breakfast having had nothing but snacks for the last 12 hours. A stacked plate of chicken fried rice filled me up and I was ready to go. We brush our teeth in the public loo and get our small bags ready and go to find a place to rent a scooter. Dropping our bags off at the scooter place, we rent 2 Honda Scoopy's and we head off to the Tiger Cave Temple.

    This drive was fairly fun, driving past the huge limestone cliffs and caves, until we reaches a traffic diversion that Google wasn't aware of. Using my expert navigation (I selected another route on Google Maps), we got past and arrived at the bottom of the Tiger Cave Temple. The main attraction was a giant gold Buddha statue at the top of 1260 stairs up a mountain. I was quite looking forward to powering up them. Then disaster struck. I started to feel by back getting wetter and wetter. I hadn't screwed on my bottles lid properly and it had leaked into my bag. Not too much had leaked but it had gone directly over my portable charger and earphones. Disaster aside, we pushed onwards, passing sweaty and out of breath visitors. Sweat and suncream dripped down my whole body and I was pushing my lungs to their limits but eventually we got to the top in about 24 minutes, averaging just under 1 step a second - not quite beating the fastest known time of 9 minutes.

    The top had somewhat disappointing views but was still nice nonetheless, but my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. We chill for a while, before we head down. I opt for the quick and somewhat risky gallop, making it down in maybe 5 or 10 minutes with only my knees suffering the consequences. After watching some monkeys for a little while, Alfie makes it down and we head to check out some caves further along. A nice circular nature trail through the jungle lead us past some monk's huts, some small caves and some massive trees.

    We head back to the main square and get some Thai tea and then try and get some food before leaving but the food hadn't even started cooking for 15 minutes. Whilst waiting I spent some time watching the monkeys mess about with stolen food - including one of them drinking out of a coke can as if they were straight out of an advert.

    We then make the very not fun journey to the Emerald Pool, an hour drive with most of it on a terrifying dual carriage way. Eventually we arrived and it was time to quickly pay our parking and get there before it shut. We hastily make our way down the 1km trail and arrive at a very Emerald coloured pool filled with kids. It's as if every local takes their kid to the Emerlad Pool instead of a swimming pool. We quickly check out the Blue Pool, a very blue natural hot spring with no swimming allowed, with temperatures between 40 and 50 degrees. The Emerald Pool was just downstream from this hotspring, so we head back and go for a quick dip before quickly making our exit, with no time to grab lunch as we needed to drive an hour and a half back, return our bikes and grab a boat to Tonsai before 7pm otherwise we were stuck on Ao Nang.

    Cue the most anxious riding of my life, not because of safety but because of time, seeing the ETA slowly creep up as we hit more and more traffic. Luckily we get back and our deposits were returned with enough time for us to board a longtail boat to Tonsai. Sweaty, thirsty, and hungry, we tread through the water with everything we own on our backs and get on the boat. 15 minutes later, with the sun fully set we land on the rocky low tide of Tonsai beach. It felt as if we had landed on the beaches of Dunkirk, having to wade through water avoiding the rocks digging into our feet before we finally made it to shore. Our journey was not over yet though. With Google telling us to follow a non existent road up to our resort, we went off road until we hit an imposing concrete wall with seemingly no way over (unless you're Google in which case walk straight through). In one direction there was no luck, and having spotted some fallen trees we had a backup option to scale the wall with. Heading back on ourselves we eventually find a ladder staircase that went up and over. Giving immense Berlin Wall vibes we climbed over and found our resort before checking in.

    We check in and go for a quick swim under the stars, surrounded by no one but couples in this seemingly romantic resort . Quenching our thirst, we buy some ice cold water from the shop (literally it was a frozen block of ice) and head to a restaurant for some surprisingly reasonably priced food. Alfie, having missed lunch, decided on 2 mains, a burger (spelt berger) and chips as well as a Thai dish. His eyes proved bigger than his stomach as he gave up halfway through his 2nd dish, claiming nomatter how much he ate it didn't go down.

    We head back for a shower and shave (this time much faster than my 1st attempt), then head to bed where I had a very puzzling conversation with Alfie sleep talking about "Queen Dough" whatever that means.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    1
    Day 27

    Day 27

    March 3 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Railay

    We went for some breakfast next to our resort, then headed to the Rock Shop, meeting Austin (from Koh Tao cliff jump) there. We rented some sport climbing gear from a seemingly reputable store and headed over to Railay, as apparently Tonsai was all super hard. After a short trek through the jungle, we had arrived on Railay West Beach. We headed up a path until reaching a crag called Diamond Cave.

    This crag was recommended by the dude at the climbing shop for some nice easy climbs. It wasn't in the most aesthetic of places and had lots of beginner classes but it was nice to ease back into rock climbing outdoors, having not done any since October. I got a couple leads in on some easy routes before we headed more towards East Railay and stopped for some lunch. After lunch, we headed towards a couple crags called One-Two-Three and Muay Thai but it was the peak hotness of the day and it was chock a block with people so we decided to head towards Phra Nang Beach instead.

    This was an amazing idea as upon getting onto the beach we were met with an immense towering overhanging cliff with massive limestone stalactites hanging from the ceiling. A family that we met at Diamond Cave suggested a couple routes for us to try but warned us that the heat would make us feel like death. Both routes were fantastic 3D chimney style coming in and out of the strangely formed rock. From the top of the routes, being disgustingly sweaty was made up for 10 fold from the amazing view of the beach, overhanging cliff above, and the islands. The beach was named after a Hindu woman where there were a couple shrines dedicated to her next to where we were climbing. What was interesting about these shrines is that there were hundreds of wooden penis dug into the sand and piled up next to the statues of her. This had something to do with fertility but I saw lots of people having a lot of fun taking pictures with the field of dicks.

    Eventually the heat was too much, and a swim was much needed. Instantly, I was cooled down to a human level one again. Austin and I swam over to the next bit along and went exploring round the rocks. We met an Aussie called George and after chatting for a bit he jumped off the rock into the water, only guessing it was deep enough. We thought fuck that and climbed back down the way we came. We wandered a bit further down the beach for sunset and eventually grabbed our stuff and headed back to the same restaurant we ate lunch at for some dinner - this time I grabbed shrimp fried rice served INSIDE a pineapple.

    It was then that I realise I had lost my hat. We assumed I had left it at Diamond Cave so we went back to search for it. Secretly I hoped it was lost so I could have an excuse to buy a nice Patagonia knock off but another part of me liked the history me and my dirty, sweaty hat had gone through. After a quick search I couldn't find it, and it wasn't until I was about to give up and planning its obituarythat I saw it hiding under a bush.

    We then wander back to Tonsai, awkwardly scrambling through the jungle with nothing but our phone's torches. We return the gear and head back to our hotels, wishing Austin good luck on the rest of his travels if we didn't bump into eachother again. It was at this point that after a full day of drying, my portable charger still wasn't working and I had declared it officially dead - which is very annoying as its one of my most useful items I own. Priority number 1 was to find a good replacement. After a much needed shower it was time for bed.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    11
    Day 28

    Day 28

    March 4 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    Railay > Khao Sok Village

    After grabbing another Thai omelette from our regular place on Tonsai, we go back to our hotel and pack, as well as apply for our Cambodia VISAs as it won't be long now till we're done with Thailand! How sad. One thing I had noticed about today was that it was hot and humid. Eventually we leave and make the walk through the jungle from Tonsai to Railay with our big bags. With the heat this was extremely uncomfortable and the new priority was to find somewhere in the shade with a fan. So, we go back to old faithful and go to the restaurant we were at yesterday and I order even more food and a ice cold watermelon smoothie.

    Eventually we head to the pier and grab a longtail boat over to a pier in Krabi, ready to wait for our minivan to Khao Sok. After being eaten alive by bugs, we realise we were in the wrong place and head to the right place to wait. The air was uncomfortable to exist in, with temperatures as high as 35° but feeling like 42° so you can imagine the relief of sitting in an air conditioned minivan. After lots of diversions to pick and drop people off, we get to Khao Sok and we walk to our hotel and check in. Somehow we had scored 2 double beds. Downside is the bathroom smelt like human shit.

    We head out for some food where I get some beautiful yellow noodles followed by the biggest portion of mango sticky rice I've ever been given. We head back and shower in the stinky bathroom then head to sleep. Around 2.30am I had my mosquito net fall down and smother me, so that was interesting to put back up.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    1
    Day 29

    Day 29

    March 5 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 34 °C

    Khao Sok National Park

    After waking up bright and early for our breakfast, we head to "Our Jungle Camp" HQ and wait for our van to be ready to leave. We drop our bags and board the minivan and head towards a 7-11 to grab and water and snacks we needed for the trip. A short trip onwards and we arrive at Rajjaprabha Dam where we meet our guide for the next 2 days. After paying our fees we eventually board our longtail boat and head into Cheow Lan Lake.

    Cheow Lan Lake is a 185 square kilometer man made lake. In 1987 they built a massive dam and flooded the forest for hydropower, flood control, and fishing. This lead to a beautiful clear lake with towering cliffs and jungle both in and around it. Our longtail boat took us through part of it, until we reached our small village of floating raft houses. There was a clear scale of luxury as you looked along. Me and Alfie were staying in their basic package, a small bamboo house with mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets (which for me is still plenty enough) but others had fancier materials, with bed frames, and ensuites.

    The little village had more amenities than I expected, with toilets, showers, and even electricity during the day. First things first we put our stuff in our little hut then I stripped down to my swim suit and jumped straight into the water. It wasn't long until I was diving, front flipping and back flipping from the walkway into the water. The walkway however, felt like fire as it had been baking in the sun all day, so you either had to be very quick or wear flip flops. On my 2nd attempt of a backflip I got a little close for comfort to the walkway and Alfie banned me from any more flips.

    It was lunch time, where were served to a beautiful mix of rice, noodles, vegetables, fish, and omelettes with mango and dragon fruit to finish off. Even better is we could have as much as we wanted. After lunch, we headed straight for the kayaks where I was expecting to have one each, but Alfie wanted to go for a 2 in 1. This was a mistake. When I kayaked before it had been easy to control, but with 2 people it was chaos. At first we tried padding together but we couldn't go 5 meters before we meandered uncontrollably to the side. We eventually turn back and go back to swimming before it was time for our afternoon activity.

    We head back on the longtail boat to a section where there was a short hike before we would enter a cave. When we landed, the first warning we got was that there were wild elephants on the path yesterday and if our guide saw any elephants, or recent evidence there was a 2 step plan. Step 1: be very quiet. Step 2: run as fast as we could back the way we came. Very exciting.

    Along the trail to the cave, our guide pointed out various animals and plants along the route, even showing us the tracks for where elephants had walked, bamboo they had eaten, and trees where they had itched themselves. We're then taught some basic Jungle survival, and he showed us that with a "small knife" (it was a machete) you could get water from young bamboo, as well as find "bamboo worms" for a small snack. He then pulled some barely alive white worms from his backpack and asked if anyone felt hungry. With no one else volunteering, I thought "might aswell" and went for it. Feeling the poor little guy explode in my mouth wasn't a nice feeling. Neither was his chewy little body.

    We eventually make it to the cave where we are handed headtorches and warned about the many many big spiders that called the cave their home. Deciding to wear my big boy pants, I ventured down. Oh my god they were fucking massive. Disgusting little spindly creatures I can't believe I got as close as I did to the. By close, it wasn't close atall, I made sure I socially distanced as much as I could from those things, treating them like patient 0 of COVID-19. As we get deeper we see hundreds of bats flocked on the ceiling squeaking away. We turn back and it wasn't until we had left that I realised how tense I was.

    We wander back down the trail and board our longtail boat, ready for an evening "safari". I'm gonna be honest I'm not sure if our guide just didn't see any animals to point out but it was more of an evening snack eating festival. I'm not complaining of course I love snacks. We had dried rice crackers, banana in sweet sticky rice, and oreos taking in the serenity. That was when the massive diesel engine wasn't blaring.

    We get back to our floating raft houses and after another swim, it was time for dinner. It was similar to lunch, but we had a full on fish that had been fried and put on a plate. With none of us knowing how on Earth to eat this thing, we just started cutting small chunks off as best we could. I was terrible at this and almost ate maybe 5 small bones. The table next to us evidently had some experience as they had a perfectly meat free fish skeleton still intact. After chatting to a Canadian dude about travelling in Canada and Africs, we went to bed ready for our 6.30am safari.    Read more

  • TravelerSouth East Asia
    1
    Day 30

    Day 30

    March 6 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Khao Sok > Phuket

    After waking up at 6am for our 6.30 morning safari I felt like a train had hiy me, but it was all worth it for being able to see the beautiful sky when I opened the door to our hut, still laying in bed.

    Our safari was okay, we saw some monkeys and some birds but honestly I was so tired I kept falling in and out of sleep even sitting on the hard wooden planks. Eventually we got given some binoculars which helped keeping me awake but not by much. We returned back at our camp where I went for a quick wake up swim before being treated to a lovely pancake breakfast with maple syrup and jam.

    We checked out of our huts and got back onto our longtail boat before reaching the original dam again. We said goodbye to our guide (unfortunately I never got his name) and hopped into a van headed towards a restaurant for a very early lunch. We sat by this nice bridge surrounded by fans and had a free 100 Baht budget to chose from.

    After what felt like way too long, our driver says its time to go and we headed back to HQ. It was about 1pm now and our bus was scheduled at 4pm, but there was another at 2pm which meant we were gonna try and go to the bus station and see what they could do. To our suprise, the lady at the desk called ahead and said if we could get there on time there was enough space for us to get on. She then arranged travel for us and we hopped in the back of a truck and we arrived. However, once arriving it turned out that apparently there wasn't space for the 2pm bus so we had to wait for the 4pm.

    After a boring wait, we made it onto the bus and it definitely was far from luxury. The AC barely worked and there were alot more people than seats. So after sweating my ass off on the leather seats, drinking water than had been heated by God knows what, half the people get off which let's me move seats and stretch out a little for the rest of our journey.

    We get into Phuket just before 8, and having been told that busses into the Old Town were finished for the day we order a Grab and make our way to our hostel. There had been a slight mixup with our room but it meant that me and Alfie got a private room to ourselves for 1 night all it meant is that we had to share a bed. I saw this as an upgrade though I'm not sure Alfie agreed. The bed must have been a Super King as it was the size of 2 singles. We dropped our stuff and headed to Phuket Indie Market to grab some food. At this market they had a very enthusiastic dancer on stage with the musicians which was so funny I could barely watch.

    We headed back and it wasn't long before I had showered and passed out as I was that tired.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English