Thailand
Apr 4–9 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
Below was written whilst at Ko Samui Airport, forgot to post!! (currently in Byron Bay, Aus)
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got some time at the airport in between flights so doing my first penguin of the trip!
day 1 was pretty much all travel, I left the flat in edinburgh at 2am and then didnt get to bangkok till 3pm next day after some stops in london and sweden . Immediatley felt the heat of bangkok when I arrived, and took me a bit of time to remember how everyrhing works with getting through immigration/getting sim card/cash etc. but got through
then went to see my friend's flat for a few hours before our night bus together from bangkok to Koh Samui. He has been living in bangkok for the past 6 weeks and was in chaing mai before that. He rents a really nice penthouse flat, which includes a coworking spaces, a gym and a swimming pool! And its in a rrally good area of bagkok, next to some huge parks. The rent for all this is £400 a month.. altho he is paying a bit more as he is airbnb'ing it.
Also went for dinner to a place ali recommended and had one of the best curries i have ever tasted, masaman chicken curry so peanut based. Was so good (and £5)
Night bus to bangkok was really nice and spacious with good AC so managed to get a cpuple of hours of sleep before we arroved at Ko Tao
We stayed in a really nice hostel on the island, just outside of the main area (main part is v loud in evenings cause of parties). We hired scooters which is only £4 a day. Whole island is pretty small so you can drive round in not much time which is nice, means we could explore loads of places. Some amazing beaches and crystal clear blue water, can see straight to ocean floor.
Day 2 we did a snorkelling tour which was really good, saw a load of colourful fish, baby sharks and a huge turtle which must have been a couple of metres wide. The tour went round five spots including a stop at a beach on a smaller island and lasted the whole day. I did sadly get sun burnt on my shoulders and upper back despite trying to keep reapplying my cream, was painful for a couple days but getting better now. Also went for food at a highly rated duck speciality place. I got duck and noodles and it was incredible, super flavourful and not at all fatty
Day 3 we did a muay thai class in the morning which was intense but rly fun! Ive not sweated that much in a long time, was an outdoor gym but shaded thankfully. Learned the basics of striking and kicking and how to put together combinations. Ended up being pretty much a private lesson as there were 3 trainers for 5 people. I kept getting my lefts and rights mixed up when we were doing quick combos, the coach kept slapping me with the glove when I would mess up or make me do push ups 😅! Was all in good fun though and i had it down by the end. Really enjoyed learning and would definitley go again, was a greeat workout. And made me realise how unflexible my hips are!
We also did a pub crawl which was pretty crazy, apparntlry its the biggest in thailand (tho not sure i believe that) so was very busy with people. Quite a young crowd so we were a bit of the oldies! But good fun regardless, we didnt stay for all of it but still didnt get back to hostel for 4am and i had to be up at 8am to catch my ferry to ko samui were my flight was from. Was not feeling good on the ferry as you can imagine..
But made it on time to ko samui airport. Very cool airport, basically all outside with loads of nature and trees. Theres nothing stopping you just going on to the runway and you can watch the planes taking off from close. Everyone is very relaxed and no one seems to be in a rush which is big contrast to UK airports!
Now off to Aus!
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Byron Bay
Apr 10–16 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
new day new 🐧
I am currently back in Scotland but doing these retroactively.
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After my very very long journey from Thailand to Brisbane, I finally headed to meet up with Jodie using the a quick train from Brisbane to Gold Coast. Great transport links in Aus, the trains and busses are all only 50 cent (25p). Didnt see much of brisbane before i left for gold coast, we decided not to stay there as it isnt on the coast.
Once I arrived in Gold Coast, I had to walk a bit to get to our car hire pickup spot. We decided to hire a car for a week as we had heard it can be tricky to get around without one.
All the cars here are automatic and the roads are all so wide, so quite easy to drive luckily.
Once I had the car, I went to pick up Jodie. She was staying in a place called 'Surfers Paradise' in gold coast which is renowned for being quite tacky. Jodie only stayed there for one night but she didnt like it at all! I picked her up aand then we picked up one of Jodie's closest friends from Glasgow that lives in Aus. Since I handt properly slept in a few days at this point, I let jodie take over the driving and we all headed down to Byron Bay.
Byron Bay is south of gold coast, we both loved it there, amazing beaches great food spots and cafes and a very laid back surfer vibe. Its become a bit of a celeb hot spot (Chris Hemsworth, Margot Robbie etc. have houses there) and thwere are some huge houses there which have amazing views. They are all worth several million!
The coffee in Aus has been amazing so far, some of the best I have had. A lot of the cafes even ask for your bean preferences. My go to orders have been flat white and capcuccino.
We stayed in Byron for 6 days, the first 4 days we were in a hostel right on the beach front. You could borrow surf boards for free as part of the hostel so we had a go at surfing a couple of times. The hostel also had a cold plunge and sauna which was nice!! Altho it was a bit too big of a hostel for my preference. During the first 4 days we also took some day trips to nearby wateralls and really nice hiking spots. We got really lucky with the weather so every day we have been here so far has been sunny and clear and around 25-30 degrees with a breeze.
We also went to a few bars in Byron, one of which had two face to face massive grand pianos in the middle with two guys who took song requests all night. It was super busy in there and lots of people singing along to different genres of songs (lot of taylor swift, chapelle roan etc. + some older stuff). Was like a massive communal karaoke bar.
I also booked a last minute skydive on day 5 as I had heard Aus was a good place to do it! Skydive itself was amazing, never felt anything like the feeling of jumping out a plane, the scariest part was the build up of watching other people jump out and knowing you were next! The plane journey was also really nice, and got some great coastal views of Byron and north east australia. Weather was perfect. Freefall was 60 seconds and then i had a few minutes of gliding with the parachute. When I landed, I was ready to jump again!
Some people in my group didnt like the experience as much. One guy had lots of ear pain on the way down due to pressure and some others felt very naseuous.
Definitley something I'd recommend though!
Our last 2 days in Byron we stayed in an airbnb and Jodies friend had to go back to Brisbane for work. Our airbnb was rly nice! in a quiet area but everything is super accessible im Byron with the car. We went to some more rly nice beaches and watched the surfers. The beaches are all huge and not very crowded which is ideal. Also managed to see a Koala up in the trees!
We rented surf boards for the penultimate day in Byron which was fun, went to some beginner friendly surf spots to try and keep learning. Did mean we had to drive around with 2 surf boards in the car which was tricky to say the least!
Our last day in Byron we took a day trip to Springbrook national park which is where they film "I'm a Celeb!". Its actually only an hour away from Byron and not as remote as I thought! We drove to a view point using some very steep and very bendy roads which were really fun to drive. Sadly Jodie was feeli g quitr sick because of all the twists and turns. Seems to be a popular motorbiking spot! The view from the top was amazing and we learned how the valley was formed from an active volcano as Australia was drifting millions of years ago.
After Byron we went back to Gold Coast to see some friends for the weeeknd but I will save that for the next penguin as this one is alrrady way too long!
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TravelerIt all sounds amazing! What an experience!"Make sure that you keep shoulders and back out of the sun for a while and apply sun block next time in Australia. Enjoy your adventures 😁🥰
TravelerIt’s the typical male thing of not wanting to ask another guy to put suncream on his shoulders! 🙄
TravelerAli’s flat looks amazing! 🤩 Fab pics. 😍 Like the Thai boxing clip. Take it easy on those bikes! 😬🤞🏍️