Thailand
Changwat Surat Thani

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    • Day 135

      Der Moment

      December 11, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

      Jetzt...nur für den Moment. Und schon kommen die 🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟
      Teraz… tylko na chwilę. A potem przychodzi 🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟
      Now ... just for the moment. And then come the 🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟

      Traveler  Seid ihr denn nicht schon die ganze Zeit am urlauben ☺️🌞🐒🐳? Genießt weiter schön und gönnt euch 🦋

      12/11/21Reply

      Traveler  Oh nein leider nicht. Solch ein Reisen auf dauer muss gelernt sein. Fast täglich packen und auspacken, eine neue Wohnung suchen und buchen. Immer abwägen, ob man gerad viel zu viel bezahlt hat...dann will man einfach alles sehen und hat so wenig Zeit, das is auf dauer anstrengend. Das mussten wir erst lernen. ICH lerne noch☺️

      12/11/21Reply
       
    • Day 34 - Room with a View & a Half

      January 12, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

      A decent nights sleep was had by both of us & we headed to breakfast at 9am, already showered & packed. Sylvian cooked us a delicious American breakfast to send us on our way. Sylvian had also booked our ferry tickets to Ko Phangan & Aiye offered to give us a lift to Don Sak Ferry Port for 200 Baht less than the taxi would cost.

      Just after 10am we said our goodbyes & Aiye drove us to the port. We were so glad she was with us, because apart from showing our tickets, she delivered us right up to the pier for our ferry. It seemed that other passengers were having to show passports & vaccination documentation.

      Our Raja Ferry is very old, greasy & smokey, but we managed to get a prime seat at the back. At 11.05am, the ferry pulled out of the port & I was secretly slightly glad that we didn’t see any pink dolphins hanging around.

      The ferry crossing was 2 and a half hours, which gave Jackie time for a bit of personal grooming & me some reading. We docked at Thong Sala Pier on the island of Ko Phangan at 1.30pm & were met by our pre-arranged hotel taxi driver.

      It was 5.4 miles to our next hotel, Salad Beach Resort, a snip at just £21.50 per night. Our taxi driver lugged both our big rucksacks through the resort to reception, where I gave him 300 Baht for the taxi fare. He looked at me a bit funny, then a couple of minutes later returned with my money & asked me what the 300 Baht was for. It would have been a fantastic tip for him, but I was supposed to pay the fare to the hotel receptionist.

      After checking in, the receptionist asked us to take a seat for 10 minutes which actually turned out to be 20 minutes. She then asked us to follow her up a flight of stairs & we followed but were getting ready to complain because it wasn’t what we had booked. She took us to the front room on the 1st floor & to our very pleasant surprise discovered it was a double aspect sea view room with a lovely balcony. We couldn’t believe our luck.

      On the negative side, the room is a bit dated, but it is spacious with a nice bathroom. We will not be complaining & almost certainly be extending our stay. My value for money discussion with Jackie yesterday had definitely paid off!

      After unpacking a bit, we popped next door to Diamond Bar & Restaurant for a Chang & a chicken satay. It was the best chicken satay of the trip so far & we both agreed that Salad Beach was by far the best beach we have visited in the last month. It had a lovely vibe, even if first impressions were that most of the tourists were Russian.

      After our late lunch, we strolled up the beach & counted just 4 restaurants to eat in. We bought some provisions from the local shop & returned to our lovely balcony for a sundowner.

      That evening we walked to the northern end of the beach & had dinner at a little restaurant called Spicy Salad. Jackie had a pork & rice fish, whilst I had a Massaman curry. It was a romantic setting & evening, I even allowed Jackie to have an expensive glass of white wine!

      Unfortunately the mood was ruined by ‘Biscuitgate’. We stopped at the little shop on the way home to pick up a pack of bottles of water. I was just paying when Jackie added a small packet of Dewberry jammy dodgers to our purchases. The shop assistant showed me the new price & I saw that the biscuits cost 65 Baht, but I still paid for them.

      As we walked away the actual cost of the biscuits sunk in. Normally we had been paying just 10 Baht for the exact same biscuits. I was furious & blamed Jackie for not checking the price before giving them to me. Jackie in turn was angry with me for blaming her when I paid for them already knowing their cost.

      We returned to our balcony for a nightcap & we sat and ate the £1.50 biscuits in silence. At least it was a nice view!

      Song of the Day: Room With A View by Billy Vera & The Beaters.
      True Romance by She Wants Revenge.
      Read more

      Andy and Teresa Mays  The playlist is 4hrs 45 mins long now - so covering most of my daily free time. A few duffers in there mate 😂. Also on an admin note, can you please ensure you have the daily blog completed and posted by 6am UK time - allows me to read it in bed with a brew before facing the day ahead. When you are late it throws my day out 😂 Good to speak to you both yesterday and have a shave . . . Jax 😂

      1/13/22Reply

      Simon and Jackie Annals  I’ll do my best. The playlist is a journey!

      1/16/22Reply
       
    • Day 152

      Blinki und andere Tiere

      December 28, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

      Ob man will oder nicht, man begegnet diesen Tieren und obwohl die alle harmlos sind, erschreckt man sich immer wieder, wenn ein Gecko um die Ecke flitzt oder ein Affe auf deinen Rucksack springt, oder ein Frosch auf deinen Schuh hüpft. Dave, der Hund hat übrigens keine Nase und schnarcht wie verrückt😆
      🇵🇱
      Czy ci się to podoba, czy nie, spotykasz te zwierzęta i chociaż wszystkie są nieszkodliwe, zawsze boisz się, gdy Gekon świscze za rogiem, małpa wskoczy na twój plecak lub żaba wskoczy na twój but. Pies Dave, przy okazji nie ma nosa i chrapie jak szalony😆
      🇬🇧
      Whether you like it or not, you meet these animals and although they are all harmless, you are always frightened when a Geko whizzes around the corner or a monkey jumps on your backpack or a frog hops on your shoe. Dave the dog, by the way, has no nose and snores like crazy😆
      Read more

    • Day 37 - Right Place, Wrong Time

      January 15, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      After another decent sleep we went down to reception at 9am for a much needed breakfast before our scooter arrived at 9.30. The timing couldn’t have been better, because as soon as the scooter arrived and I was required to complete the paperwork & go & check the scooter for damage etc, our breakfast of eggs on toast were going the other way to our table. By the time I returned to breakfast, Jackie had finished her poached eggs & my scrambled eggs were just lukewarm. Not the start I had been hoping for!

      Our trip commenced by heading south to (not so) Secret Beach followed by Yao Beach. The tide was high so we couldn’t see the beaches at their best, but we decided they didn’t match up to our Salad Beach. On their plus side, they certainly had more eating options within walking distance of the beaches.

      We stopped fleetingly at several other beaches, including Ao Chao pao, before driving through the busy centre of Thong Sala. After stopping at a pharmacy for a couple of bits, we stopped at a 7-11 store for some snacks for our room. I bought several packets of Dewberry jammy dodgers at just 10 Baht each. Just saying!

      The roads on Ko Phangan are very hilly & steep with lots of potholes, which makes riding a scooter extremely treacherous, particularly when at the bottom of each slope you have to drive through what can only be described as a sandpit. Understandably there are frequent scooter accidents resulting in the loss of skin on limbs which is known as a ‘Ko Phangan tattoo’. We have seen plenty of evidence of this with many people walking around with bandaged limbs, including one poor sod who had all 4 limbs & his chin bandaged! For these reasons, it is the law to wear a crash helmet & I had read that it is strictly enforced by the local police.

      The roads from Thong Sala to the south of the island were the trickiest to navigate, due to large cracks & potholes in the road, but we arrived safely at Hat Rin Nok Beach, better known as the famous Full Moon Party Beach. The next Full Moon Party is scheduled for two days time on Monday 17th January. We parked up & walked most of the length of the beach. Despite being deemed to be a beautiful beach it didn’t particularly do much for either of us. The beach front resorts were a mixture of nice to damn right awful & the town behind it was run down & soulless.

      We didn’t stay long & instead rode back to Ban Tai, just south of Thong Sala, then headed into the mountainous jungly heart of the island. This provided an exhilarating ride which took us to Than Sadet-Ko Pha-Ngan National Park, where we were forced to pay 100 Baht each entry fee. The road took us down to Hat Sadet Beach, which is highly rated in my guidebook. The beach was very pleasing on the eye with large boulders at either end & large waves crashing on to the beach. On the downside, the beach faced east & the tall palm trees behind the beach were shading it from the sun. After a quick beer in the beach restaurant, we sat on the beach for 30 minutes in a small sunny spot & snacked.

      As were were helmeting up back at the scooter, two wild boar sauntered past, but true to form they had virtually disappeared before I could lay my hands on the camera.

      We rode back up the road & parked up to walk a 100 metres to a waterfall. Halfway along the rocky path, we decided to stop because we could see in the distance that the waterfall didn’t look that impressive & there were Thai families & kids playing in & around it. Instead I leapt from rock to rock over a couple of raging torrents (streams) to get a better photo of it, when to my amazement a stark naked western man & woman emerged from the water where the kids were playing & started drying off on the rocks. I’m not a prude but that was seriously taking the piss in a country where even topless sunbathing is seriously frowned upon.

      We continued up the east coast to Thong Nai Pan Yai Beach, then to Thong Nai Pan Noi Beach, which was decidedly more upmarket. We parked our scooter up alongside Anantara Rasananda Koh Phangan Villas & walked to the beach. As we did so I became aware of a security guard blatantly watching our every move. We walked up & down the beach & declared it the best beach we had visited today, but it also suffered with the afternoon sun disappearing behind the palm trees. I later checked the starting cost to stay in a room at Anantara with a sea view which turned out to be £494 per night.

      Still under the scrutiny of the security guard, we left the beach & headed home. We passed an afternoon rave in the jungle north of Thong Sala, then we stopped at a Lotus (Tesco) store to buy masks & snorkels but 30 minutes later emerged with enough wine & Hong Thong to sink a battleship. We passed another pool party rave with lots of bright red, pissed-up kids & we made up our mind there & then that we wouldn’t bother with the Full Moon Party.

      Heading home we chanced upon a Police roadblock & they were stopping everyone, presumably to fine them for not having a crash helmet or a face mask or both. At least 8 people had been detained at the side of the road, but after we had stopped we were waved on. It felt good & justified us wearing our uncomfortable helmets all day.

      We rode to KC Kitchens, a roadside restaurant we had spotted when we first returned arrived on Ko Phangan, because it was heaving with diners mid-afternoon. It was rough & ready, but the food was fantastic & plenty of it. I had a pineapple curry with chicken & rice, whilst Jackie ordered a crispy pork dish. We had also ordered a starter of spring rolls which arrived after the main course & we struggled, but managed to eat.

      After being out & about for around 11 hours, the evening ended with a much needed shower, several large glasses of passable white wine & 2 more episodes of Afterlife.

      Song of the Day: Right Place, Wrong Time by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
      Karma Police by Radiohead.
      Read more

    • Day 38 - Message in a Bottle Beach

      January 16, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      We both slept for over 10 and a half hours straight. I belatedly wrote up my blog & realised that we had failed to visit Bottle Beach the previous day. Disaster, especially when I discovered that to get to it by road was 18 miles away & yesterday we had been within 2 miles of it.

      We had an iced coffee for breakfast & the resort was noticeably busier, so Jackie negotiated with Pat to rent a ‘superior’ bungalow for 8 days when we returned from Koh Tao at a discounted rate. Nice work Jackie.

      It was gone 11am before we were back on the road again. We headed north to Chaloklum Beach where we found what appeared to be a number of nice waterfront restaurants & decided we would return that evening for dinner.

      We then followed a road up a high headland until we reached a car park full of scooters. We weren’t sure why or where everyone was, but a young lad informed us it was possible to walk from here to Bottle Beach. It would take at least an hour & the path was through jungle & up over a mountain. We decided against it on the grounds that we didn’t have any water with us. Just so we didn’t feel entirely lazy, we embarked on a 200 metre climb to a viewpoint looking down on Khom Beach, which was bloody knackering.

      We then drove the now 17 miles around the island to Bottle Beach. We found the correct turning off the main road, which for the next 2 miles took us along a bumpy dirt road until we reached a sign that read that only 4x4 vehicles were allowed to continue. We therefore parked up our bike with several others & continued on foot.

      For the next 500 metres (I measured it) we slipped & slid down the very steep loose gritted track. I effectively ‘snowploughed’ down in my adventure sandals. Our relief at reaching the bottom was short-lived when a couple coming the other way informed us we still had another 3/4 of a mile to go. This last leg was actually a pleasant undulating walk through coconut trees & the occasional sighting of a monkey.

      Dripping wet, we arrived at the very scenic Bottle Beach & made straight to the bar/restaurant for a much needed beer & food. Jackie had a Niçoise salad & I had spaghetti carbonara. It was all very pleasant apart from the flies attracted to our sweaty bodies. We noted that beach front huts with a fan could be rented for just £9 per night. We decided that we would stick to our aircon, but visit the beach again, but next time by taxi boat.

      After lunch we had a swim in the sea and wrote a message (in the sand) on Bottle Beach. I took photos of the message & Jackie, then I asked Jackie to take a photo of me with the message. Somehow she managed to adjust the camera settings from automatic to manual focus (As can be seen in the subsequent photo).

      We then steeled ourselves for the trudge back to our scooter. It took us half an hour of serious toil to complete the journey, particularly for the ridiculously steep last bit. At least we could now cool off with the air rushing past us on the scooter!

      We had gone no further than a couple of 100 yards when the rear wheel started to have a life of it’s own. My fears were realised when I looked down to see we had a flat rear tyre. Brilliant, on a Sunday, in the middle of nowhere & with absolutely no-one around.

      We had no choice but for Jackie to get off & walk, whilst I rode on ahead & turned left to find somewhere to get it fixed. I then crawled along the dirt track leaning over the handlebars to preserve the rear tyre. Luckily you are never too far away from a scooter repair shop in Thailand & less than 2 miles from where I left Jackie I found such a repair shop.

      The young mechanic undid the exhaust pipe to remove the wheel, then he replaced the inner tube & put it all back together again in about 30 minutes, by which time Jackie with her helmet in hand had caught me up. It would seem that a small sharp stone had caused the puncture & the cost of the repair & new inner tube, just 200 Baht. Less than a fiver, bargain.

      The afternoon was now pushing on so we rode back to Ban Tai & stopped at Lotus for more provisions, booze, mixers & a token bag of grapes. Opposite Lotus we found a shoe shop & we each bought a pair of Crocs to wear between the house & The Lemonery, for just 100 Baht a pair. Well we have to keep up with the Joneses (Clarkes & Rushes)!

      Pleased with our latest bargains, we sped north through the island back to Chaloklum Beach, but not before we had been waved through the police road block set up in exactly the same place as the previous night. At Chalokhum Beach we narrowed down our 2 favoured restaurants & chose the right hand one. It was the wrong one, next door was bustling with diners, so we had a quick relaxing beer on their empty waterfront tables, paid up & went next door to Cucina Italiano.

      In Cucina Italiano we ordered Italian food, Jackie had penne with ragu sauce & I had gnocchi with my favourite carbonara sauce, which didn’t really work & a garlic bread. It was very nice & warrants another visit.

      It was then a cold scooter ride home, where we ended the night with a nice hot shower & the remaining episodes of Afterlife.

      Song of the Day: Message in a Bottle by The Police.
      Nostalgie by Viken Arman.
      Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell.
      Read more

      Traveler  Garden clogs is where it's at! All the cool kids are wearing them...

      1/17/22Reply

      Simon and Jackie Annals  We’re joining the club!

      1/18/22Reply

      Andy and Teresa Mays  Nostalgia - where did you see that track? You losing the plot? Too much sun?

      1/17/22Reply

      Simon and Jackie Annals  It was playing during lunch on Bottle Beach. Probably doesn’t travel well to a cold winter’s day in Sussex.

      1/18/22Reply

      Andy and Teresa Mays  Obviously helps when you spell the artist correctly. You sure your Mr Arman was a Viking 👀 😂😂😂

      1/18/22Reply

      Simon and Jackie Annals  Bloody predictions spelling!!

      1/18/22Reply
       
    • Day 39 - The Oldest Swingers NOT in Town

      January 17, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      The alarm was set for 8.30am & at 9am, I was laying out towels & sarongs on OUR sun beds. I then went into the restaurant to write up my blog & wait for Jackie. I returned the bike key which was collected without incident.

      We had an iced coffee & returned to our sun beds to find a Russian girl had moved her sun bed to within 2” of mine so she could also share the sunshine. I moved my bed a couple of inches away from her while she pretended to be asleep.

      We sunbathed all morning & noticed that all the Russian women around us resembled floor mops, a big head of hair & stick thin bodies, unlike us. We headed to Dubble Duke for lunch for a cheap beer. Jackie had a fried squid salad, whilst I had an Indian chicken curry.

      The afternoon was much of the same, but there were noticeably more young children around, mainly Russian. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Russian families all talk so incredibly loudly & I struggled to concentrate on reading my book.

      Sunset was a cracker that evening & warranted a couple of photos. Around the same time I also checked my emails & felt obliged to make more of an effort to complete a vetting form that had been sent to me that couldn’t be opened & completed on any Apple products or phones or tablets.

      With new determination, I popped down to reception to enquire with Pat if she had a computer or laptop I could borrow. She didn’t. She even rang another hotel, but they couldn’t help. I then knocked on Mandi & Jude, who had an Apple laptop that they were happy to lend me & Jude downloaded Google Chrome on to it for me. I took it away then had a touch of the seconds, because they were leaving the following morning. Mandi then introduced me to a Swedish family who had been staying at the resort for the last month, which ultimately resulted in the mum, Julia, agreeing to lend me her currently not working non Apple work laptop once IT had remotely fixed it. Hopefully this will be the following day.

      After all this running around, l relaxed with a chilled white wine on our balcony & we watched the full moon make it’s first appearance over a mountain. We tried to take photos of it, but it didn’t like it.

      We returned to the restaurant on the beach, where I ordered for both of us, a large Chang, a starter of No Name (vegetable tempura) & a Pad Thai. The waiter then turned to Jackie & asked what she would like. He was incredulous that we were sharing. He obviously thought that I looked like a greedy bastard!!

      After we’d finished dinner, we discovered that there was hardly anyone about & certainly no raving going on. We were definitely in the wrong place at the right time!

      We finished the evening with a quick nightcap on the balcony.

      Song of the Day: The Oldest Swinger in Town by Foster & Allen.
      Full Moon by The Kinks.
      Wrong Place, Right Time - No 2 by The Fall.
      Read more

    • Day 40 - No Techno to Technophobe

      January 18, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      At 8.30am, the alarm sounded & I rushed down to our sun beds to put our towels out. I was particularly nervous, because I could hear the noisy Russian family up & having breakfast. They were still free, phew.

      Once ensconced on my sun bed, I checked my emails & saw to my horror another request for the completion of a vetting form for a different job. Happily I had all the information I needed available & I was able to complete this vetting form on my IPad without leaving my sun bed. I was quite impressed with myself.

      Over breakfast of poached eggs & French toast with iced coffees, Jackie & I looked at accessing our emails through the Sky website on the internet. Try as we might, every time we tried to sign in we were denied access. After lots & lots of googling, we established that it was something to do with our IP address & we needed to contact Sky through their website that we couldn’t access. We went round & round in technophobic circles for the remainder of the morning.

      In the end we’d lost the will to live, so gave up & had lunch on our balcony, 2 cans of beer & some peanuts, whilst the IPads were recharged. The afternoon consisted of reading our good old fashioned paperback books back on the sun beds.

      The Swedish lady didn’t make contact with me during the day & I didn’t bother to hunt her down, because I needed access to my emails on her computer to get started. I’ve conceded defeat. The vetting forms will just have to wait until I get home.

      Just after 5pm, we had a few drops of rain, so we ran for shelter to our balcony. We then had a disagreement over accommodation in Koh Tao, Jackie was dithering, so I took charge & booked The Miracle Guesthouse & Dive, which had an excellent 9.2 rating on Booking.com & cost just £95 for 5 nights. Jackie accused me of only picking it because it included a superb breakfast. I took offence when she tried to make me promise not to have a Full American breakfast every day!

      That evening we returned to Salad Villa Restaurant, the restaurant on the beach for some barbecue food. I ordered a chicken skewer & Jackie chose a whole squid to accompany a large corn on the cob each. The restaurant was really busy which was possibly detrimental to the food because neither of us were particularly impressed with our dinner. Jackie’s squid was over cooked & very chewy, whilst there were more onion & peppers than chicken on my skewer. Still it was cheap & a lovely setting with the green lighted fishing boats out in the bay

      Song of the Day: Computer by Toyah.
      No Surprises by Radiohead.
      Read more

    • Day 41 - Sod Ukraine What About Thailand

      January 19, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

      Woke up to discover that I had an email from the vetting people to say my Apple IPad may actually be suitable to complete my vetting questionnaire. Oh god, here we go again!!

      The first thing I had to do was cut & paste a link into Google to open up a portal. I failed at the first hurdle the WiFi in our room was not strong enough to upload the portal. I spent the next hour walking around the resort trying over & over again to upload the link without a glimmer of success. Totally f¥cked off, I resorted to begging a friend who has gone through the process to try & upload it for me in the UK.

      We had a liquid breakfast, Jackie had an iced coffee & I had a fresh mango shake. During breakfast, Swedish Julia found me & informed me that her computer is totally knackered & she cannot now work for the next 2 months until they go home. We are all being held hostage by technology!

      After breakfast we returned to our sun beds & read our paperback books. We are now fighting off Russians from all sides as they grow in numbers around Salad Beach. The point couldn’t have been emphasised any better than a Russian girl who at lunch was wearing a Russian army hat & just a skimpy bikini. Are they planning an invasion here as well?

      We had a relatively early lunch at Crystal next door & to mark our last lunch on Ko Phangan for a while, we ‘splashed out’ on a sandwich & french fries to share. The sandwich was onion confit, bacon, cheddar cheese & homemade pastrami, all in rye bread. It was absolutely gorgeous. Just 2 small beers accompanied it.

      Apart from the odd stroll along the beach we did nothing during the afternoon & ended it with a sundowner. Against my better judgement, we had a quick Hong Thong, then Jackie attacked my Pompadour with my beard trimmers on the balcony. I am now too scared to look in the mirror!

      After another Hong Thong we went out for dinner at Salad Hut, which Swedish Dad had recommended for it’s pizzas. When we arrived, the annoyingly loud Russian family were just leaving & it left us as the only diners. Not necessarily a good sign.

      We ordered a chicken satay starter followed by a margarita pizza with extra ham & garlic. The chicken was plentiful, but a bit chewy & the satay was not to my taste. The pizza then arrived & we knew we had made a mistake. Effectively it was a frozen pizza heated up in the oven & at some point ham slices & raw garlic slices were dropped on it. It was the second disappointing meal we had had in a row.

      We paid up & drowned our disappointment with Hong Thongs & a packet of 10 baht jammy dodgers. Just saying again! After a couple of Hong Thongs, Jackie felt the need to attack my Pompadour again, but now with a pair of nail scissors. My best white grandad shirt was covered in clumps of grey hair & blood. I’m never looking in a mirror again!

      Thank you Alka for getting me registered on the portal. Infuriatingly, I still can’t access the portal with the resort WiFi. Hopefully I’ll have better luck at our next stop!

      Song of the Day: Russians by Sting.
      Dominion / Mother Russia by Sisters of Mercy.
      The Best by Tina Turner.
      Read more

      Andy and Teresa Mays  You think I’m joking about my running bill for IT consultancy. Let me know how you get on once you’ve moved. 😎

      1/20/22Reply
       
    • Day 43 - Like A Bat Out Of Hell

      January 21, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

      We had a decent nights sleep & I had to drag myself out of bed at 8.40am, when scooter rental man came knocking on our door. I signed my life away & was given the keys to an orange 125cc scooter.

      We got ourselves ready & went to the breakfast room for our ‘superb’ breakfast. Silly Ninny gave us a coffee & then disappeared without asking what we wanted. I had to find her to tell her I didn’t eat fried eggs. She later returned with 2 American breakfasts with scrambled eggs that were definitely not superb. At the time of writing we will probably just have coffee in future!

      The German owner, Tom, made an appearance with a baguette, which he had bought from somewhere else which probably told us all we needed to know about our free breakfast. Whilst he was present & knowing that he owned a personal laptop, I innocently enquired with him if he knew of anywhere where I could borrow (or rent) a laptop or computer for a few hours. His reply was “Impossible “. Thanks for your help mate!

      After breakfast, we hit the road on our new scooter like a ‘Bat Out Of Hell’. We zoomed over to Sairee Beach to find Bo. We walked up & down the promenade & eventually found Sairee Beach Cabana. We enquired about Longtail boat trips around the island & we were given a price of 2,300 baht, about £60. I asked if Bo was still working & the receptionist didn’t really understand what I was talking about. We did try!

      We then embarked on a tour of every beach that we could reach on our scooter. Our first planned stop was Mango Beach, but we soon discovered that it required riding for quite a few miles down a rough dirt track. We bottled it on the basis that we had suffered one flat tyre already on this trip. Instead we continued to Hin Wong Bay, which took us down an incredibly steep road to a little car park. There was a 20 Baht charge to leave our scooter, but in exchange the lady gave us a small bottle of water. The beach was quite nice & there were free beds if you were a customer at the restaurant. The sea was very choppy, but we decided it was probably worth a return visit.

      We then headed towards the south of the island & completed a comprehensive tour of all the reachable beaches in an anti-clockwise direction. We started at Tanote Bay, a wide sandy beach with a huge rock in the bay & then Lang Khaai Bay, which was down a 600 metre track & the abandoned & derelict Yang Bungalows. Next was Aow Leuk Bay, where a road sign as we came away from the beach warned that only one person was to be on a motorbike going back up the extremely steep hill. I chanced it with Jackie on the back (see the 1st photo) & we actually made it. It the bike had come to a standstill we would have been in trouble!

      It was then Sai Daeng Beach, which had 2 hotels including Coral Beach Resort. We were seriously considering booking our stay on Koh Tao at Coral Beach Resort, but we are so glad we didn’t, because it was in the middle of nowhere & it looked like no one was staying there. From there we went to Thian Og Bay & parked up & walked through the posh, but also virtually empty Jamahkiri Resort & Spa, which had a stunning view over Shark Bay. We didn’t go down to the beach, but rode to Freedom Beach, where they wanted 50 Baht entrance fee. We decided to save that for another day & so we head back into town.

      We had to make an emergency toilet stop at our Miracle Guesthouse suite, then we drove down to Ko Tao pier for some urgently required refreshment. We parked up & selected Bro & Sis Restaurant & Bar which looked out over the bustling Ko Tao Pier & bay. Over the next hour or so we shared a.couple of large Changs & watched the world go by.

      Around 4pm we headed over to Sairee Beach to purchase the cheapest, nastiest sets of mask & snorkel that we could find. 250 Baht (about a fiver) each bought us a dodgy snorkel & mask.

      To celebrate our bargain purchases, we popped in to Blue Water Cafe to take advantage of their happy hour. We ordered a ginger mojito & a bamboo cocktail with a plate of cheesy chips & basked in the late afternoon sun. It was bliss, so we ordered a second round of cocktails, I had a gin ‘n’ jam, whilst Jackie had a pineapple margarita.

      Being responsible, after just 2 lovely cocktails, we sadly had to pay up & rode back home on the scooter. Back at the suite, we learnt the sad news that Michael Lee Aday had died at the age of just 74. Whilst getting ready, we played our own musical tribute to Meatloaf.

      We went out for a walk around town that evening & went back to the same restaurant that we dined in last night. We had a Pad Thai, a chicken & cashew nuts & a large beer that cost just a fiver.

      We picked up a new bottle of Hong Thong & coke & returned to our suite for an early night.

      Song of the Day: Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf.
      For Crying Out Loud by Meatloaf. (One of Wedding 1st Dance Songs).
      Read more

      Traveler  Love Ko Tao! Pictures look great. Sorry you couldn't find Bo. He used to work by Ko Tao Cabana, which is at the far north end of Sairee. Was that the hotel you found? It's definitely worth another stroll up there, if only for a bit of snorkeling. There are loads of fish around those rocks...

      1/22/22Reply

      Simon and Jackie Annals  Hi Steve, yeah we did find Ko Tao Cabana & asked there for Bo. We have now already booked a snorkelling boat for Sunday.

      1/22/22Reply
       
    • Ein Packerl aus Österreich

      January 18, 2022 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

      Wie kann man/frau mir bzw. uns eigentlich ein Packerl aus Österreich schicken?

      Das ist schon ein ziemlich schwieriges und zudem sehr, sehr ungewisses Unterfangen.

      Einerseits "hoppen" wir ja ständig von einem Ort zum nächsten.
      Andererseits ist die Distanz von Österreich bis Thailand gerade die weiteste seit Beginn dieser Reise.

      Wie lange braucht ein Packerl von Österreich nach Thailand? 🤷
      Und dann wär auch noch der Zoll, wo es so einige Formulare zu "beackern" gibt. Und wie viel das wohl auch kostet?

      Also da gibt's so einige Fragezeichen.

      Dennoch hab ich vergangenen Dienstag dann ein nachträgliches Geburtstags- und Weihnachtsgeschenk in meinen Händen halten dürfen.

      Angelika hat tatsächlich die Kosten und Mühen auf sich genommen und mir ein Packerl geschickt.
      Am 15. Dezember abgeschickt, hat es uns leider nicht mehr in Pattaya in unserer Unterkunft erreicht.
      Als ich kurz vor der Meditationswoche bei einem Hotelmitarbeiter per WhatsApp nachgefragt habe, ob denn zufällig ein Paket für mich angekommen sei, schickte er mir prompt ein Foto davon 😱
      Und gleich am nächsten Morgen hat er es zur thailändischen Post gebracht und noch darum gebeten, dass ich ihm Bescheid geben solle, ob denn mein Geburtstagsgeschenk auch wirklich bei mir angekommen ist . ☺️

      Nach der Meditationswoche gab's also neben den Freuden des Redens, des länger Schlafens, ... auch was ganz besonderes 😌

      Mannerschnitten, Raffaello, selbstgemachte Erdbeermarmelade, die Gemeindezeitung von Ober-Grafendorf (😅), gut durchdachte und leichte Reisegoodies (u.a. Pflaster, Fleckenentferntücher), Glücksbringer fürs neue Jahr und einen lieben kleinen Brief.

      Unsere Freude war riesig ☺️

      Und so wurde tatsächlich Angelikas Erdbeermarmelade erstmals unter den Palmen am Strand von Koh Samui genossen 😋

      Danke Angelika!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Changwat Surat Thani, จังหวัดสุราษฎร์ธานี

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