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  • Thailand - April 2024
    Hari 24

    Day 23 + 24 : Homeward Bound...

    28 April, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Day 23 and 24 - Homeward Bound

    Day 23 - 18:00
    We wake up feeling very smug. During the night, I’ve had to snuggle under the duvet a couple of times, so frosty is it. Our day feels like it is going to go well. We grab some breakfast at our hotel, and head back to the room. I briefly think about packing, but read instead. We’ve the sum total of fuck all to do until our cab picks us up at 16:30, and this feels totally deluxe.

    Around midday, I start to consider being a bit more organised, but Vicki suggests popping out for a beer, and who am I to deny my wife what she really wants? We womble over the road to the beach, which is much prettier than we’d perhaps thought it would be. We park at a beach bar, and watch the world go by for a while. It’s still mega-hot. The heat index is up to 47C again, and even sitting in the shade, it’s a little challenging. I grab a couple of beers from the supermarket on our way back to the room, and spend a frenetic 20 minutes getting myself packed, followed by a far less frenetic 60 odd minutes drinking Singha and watching an episode of Shogun.

    When our cab arrives, it is palatial. It looks like an airline first class seat transported to a Thai style minivan. There are brandy glasses in a little rack next to my seat - but alas, no brandy into them to pour.

    Once again, the check-in and security experience at the airport is a breeze. Our cab drops us at 16:50, and by 17:10 we’re ordering a beer and a sandwich in the departure lounge. We congratulate ourselves - particularly as the lounge gets busier and busier. There are 4-5 big international flights leaving within an hour of each other, and the volume of people has grown exponentially. Vicki braves a wine, and it doesn’t immediately upset her tummy, which is great news. She reckons it’s just making her feel a little tired - which is entirely understandable, given her average nightly sleep on this 3 week trip has been over 10 hours…

    Day 24 - 01:50
    Our first flight is a breeze. We meet a lovely guy called Junior from Lisbon, who is sharing the block of 3 bulkhead seats with us. The cabin crew taking care of us are great fun. I manage a couple of hours of half decent sleep. Vicks doesn’t, but her 3 week average will barely take a dent… We have a couple of red wines, but feel like we’ve behaved ourselves pretty well.

    Our transfer in Dubai is a little over 3 hours. When we clear the connection security checks, the concourse feels all but deserted. DXB is a slightly strange airport, in that it’s a 24/7 operation, but has real peaks and troughs of activity through the day. I don’t think I’ve actually ever been here at 23:00. I know for sure that there’s a real rush of people around 01:00. We make for the B concourse, where we find our next departure gate. We pitch up at the Hard Rock Café, and enjoy a couple of beers / wines while we wait. The time passes quickly, as we’re regaled by one of the bar managers doing passable AC/DC impressions. Oooh, we need to go and board the next one…

    Day 24 - 09:30
    Home! The boys are delighted to see us - sort of. They’re definitely pleased to see people who are offering them food.

    The flight back from Dubai is also a breeze. We have another decent companion on the block of 3 seats, who we encourage into having a glass of red wine at what is actually 05:00, but which our bodies think is weird o’clock.

    About an hour out from Gatwick, I pop to the galley to drop off some rubbish, and grab us a quick drink. A couple of guys are waiting for the toilet, looking equal parts frustrated and desperate. One of them asks the cabin crew team to check the toilet, as someone’s been in there for quite some time. A quick knock later, and the toilet is flushed, and a guy emerges looking really pretty shifty. He doesn’t respond to questions about whether he’s ok. Very strange.

    I mention this, because we spend 15 minutes at Gatwick after landing waiting for some customs/police officers to board They’re looking for a passenger, we know not why. Turns out, it’s Mr Shifty that I encountered earlier. He goes quietly, and we disembark.

    Our fave airport driver, Andy, is waiting for us in arrivals, and the drive back to Brighton is blissfully quick. The chilly, rainy weather won’t be to everyone’s liking - but after 3 weeks of temps in the mid to high 30s, and heat index readings in the mid to high 40s, we’re really rather enjoying it…

    Day 24 - 15:00
    Reflections…

    1) Thailand is great. Beautiful place, with some wonderful people. The food is off-the-hook good - and a real eye opener for foodies like Vicki and I. Many many dishes that I’ll recreate for us at home.
    2) Jeez, it’s hot. We both agreed we need to understand more about heat index temperatures, and El Nino heatwaves before committing to another trip to Thailand (or other parts of SE Asia). We definitely ‘coped’ but had to curtail a few things we wanted to do as I think we’d have both ended up pretty sick if we hadn’t.
    3) Island hopping is great fun - and the islands have such distinct characters, even when they’re only 20km apart. Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Lanta are probably our faves at the moment, but there are a ton more to explore next time we visit.
    4) Koh Samui can do one.

    That’s it for now.

    It’ll barely surprise you to learn that my next trip (solo this time…) starts in a couple of days. See ya then x    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    Hari 22

    Days 21 and 22 : Shitsville

    26 April, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Day 21 - 11:00
    Well this isn’t good. I wake up regularly through the night with stomach cramps, and what feels like the beginning of a fever - blowing hot and cold, and my joints all ache. Bugger.

    When Vicki wakes at 09:00, we have a brief discussion about my ailments. My symptoms are very similar to hers a couple of days ago when we attempted to move on to Phi Phi. Having rejigged all of our plans, we really do kinda need to move on today to Phuket, so that we’re in the right vicinity for our flight home in a couple of days. I’m not looking forward to the day. I’ve had no urgent toilet requirements just yet, but it feels like they’re in the post.

    Day 21 - 20:30
    Today has been, by some distance, our most challenging day of the trip. I think on these kinds of journeys, you’re going to have ups and downs - this has been a hefty down.

    We’re back at Sala Dan pier in the heat of the day. My tummy’s behaving itself so far. Badly cramping, but it hasn’t exploded. There’s a café at the pier that has a toilet. My stomach and bum twinge in unison. Rushing to the toilet, I discover it’s the hole in the floor variant that remains fairly popular in this part of the world. I imagine a world where things go horribly wrong, and my underwear/shorts are covered by my woeful inexperience and inaccuracy. I squat and have a try, but my heart isn’t in it.

    We’re on a speedboat that goes to Phi Phi, and then to Phuket. I *think* there’s a bathroom on it, but am not 100% sure. As the boat gets moving, I worry a little about the bouncing and bumping along the waves, and its potential impact on my malady. Weirdly, it feels quite comforting. I chuck on some headphones, and try and achieve some kind of relaxed state of mindfulness. This helps a little…

    Arriving into Phi Phi, we notice a couple of things:

    1) It’s is SO busy. The harbour area is a traffic jam of various types of boats. The streets that we can see on the island look crazy.
    2) The people getting on the boat are in a general state of disrepair. One couple in particular look like they may have actually come directly from the rave.

    All in all, we find ourselves wondering whether we’ve played a blinder by missing out on our planned stay here.

    Our arrival at Rassada Pier in Phuket is straightforward, and we’re quickly planted in the back of a beautifully cooled car for the c. 50 minute drive over to Kamala Beach, on the West coast of Phuket island. As we drive, I read a news story about Bangkok, where a state of emergency has been called, due to the incredible heat. We thought it bad when we were there, but the heat index over the weekend is expected to be 52C, which is in the ‘extreme risk of death’ category. 30 Thai people have died of heat stroke in the past couple of weeks. We’ve been, perhaps a little unfairly, thinking of ourselves as babies for struggling with the heat so much.

    We arrive at The Palms, our hotel in Kamala Beach. Our room looks lovely, but we quickly discover the AC unit is on the fritz. It keeps turning itself off, and when it IS working, puts out a very weak stream of cold air. The room actually feels like it’s getting warmer with us in it. I call the front desk, and ask for another room. They promise an AC engineer will take a look at it first. We wait 1/2 hour. No engineer. I’m seriously overheating, and need to cool down ASAP.

    Frustrated, we book another place just up the road that looks like it will give us what we need. Sadly, we have been a victim of estateagentitis (not a real thing). The description of the room we’ve booked makes it sound like a palace. The pictures make it look glorious. What we encounter, after a very hot walk, is miles from what we’ve been promised. FFS - the toilet is outside. Now, I don’t mind an outside toilet by the beach. I’ve quite enjoyed ‘nature’ toilets at a few places over the years. We, however, are in a built up area, and the heat index is currently at 47C. The A/C unit is struggling to cool such a big space. I’m rapidly fading. We’re both a bit distraught. Vicki negotiates the use of a room with an indoor bathroom as, well, our bathroom. It’s on a different floor to the room we’d booked. The AC unit in there does at least seem to be working a little better.

    I need to lie down. Vicks heads out for a bit of an explore, and in search of some food, but returns not much later, decrying the neighbourhood as ‘shit’.

    We’re on our 3rd room in the past 24 hours, but decide the way through this clusterfuck is to book a 4th. We’ll stay here tonight, but head up towards the airport tomorrow. There are a ton of bigger, more modern hotels within 10-15 minutes of Phuket Airport, and we suspect they’ll meet our needs more effectively. It’s such a shame, because the very vast majority of small, locally managed guesthouses we’ve stayed at while we’ve been in Thailand have been fab. We’re both relieved to have found a new place to stay, and it helps us relax a little. Vicks goes to sleep at 20:30 in protest at the rubbishness of the day.

    Day 22 - 10:00
    My fever gets worse through the evening. I’m reading, anticipating the inevitable, and kinda wishing it would just hurry up and get here. Vicki sleeps next to me. Around 23:00, the brown rains arrive, and honestly? It’s a relief. The next few hours are spent variously hydrating, walking tentatively from my bed to the toilet, and, well - raining. Around 02:00, I’m exhausted. I feel completely empty, and have eaten nothing today. I decide to risk some sleep, in the hope that my body will react quickly enough and wake me up if urgent circumstances arise. Happily, my body plays ball. There’s a minor incident around 05:00, when I nearly ignore the wake up call. Whilst I sleep erratically, it’s still the most sleep time I’ve had for a few days, and is very welcome.

    Day 22 - 17:00
    Feels like we’ve made the right choice. After a cool 45 minute drive to the North, we arrive at Naiyana Beach, and a hotel called Bella Nara. It’s exactly the kind of modern beach hotel that could be lifted and dropped on any beach around the world, but for right here and for right now, it’s the right place for us. Our room’s not quite ready when we arrive, so we grab a cautious lunch. I manage a beer, and Vicki manages a glass of Chardonnay. We’re both avoiding heat and spice today, so have a club sandwich and a burger respectively. It’s not the best club sandwich I’ve ever had, but after existing on water and a small handful of peanuts for the past 36 hours, it’s also the best club sandwich I’ve ever had.

    Back at our room, I can feel fatigue catching up with me again. I put my head down for a ‘quick’ 2 hour nap. I wake up at one point, and am cold. Actually cold. I crawl under the duvet with a wide smile on my face.

    Day 22 - 22:00
    We decide to brave the outside world for a bite to eat - and end up at a pizza joint approx 60m from our hotel. I think we’ve had such a rough few days that we’re just not gonna risk anything too adventurous at this stage. We both have a cautious glass of wine, and a more than decent pizza. This part of Phuket looks like it’d be great fun to explore - but we’ll save that for another time.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    1
    Hari 21

    Day 20 - More of what we needed

    25 April, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    13:30
    I sleep terribly. My dreams are (unsurprisingly) littered with loss and chaos. I don’t think I slept till nearly 03:00, and then only fitfully. Vicks, happily, has had a much better sleep, and is feeling in finer fettle this morning, to the extent that she declares she *might* be hungry. I manage to doze off again around 10:00 for another hour, and we then head out for some food. It feels a little cooler today - perhaps psychosomatic, but I’ll take it, nonetheless. There’s also a vigorous and cooling breeze coming out of the South West. As we sit on the beachfront, contemplating the world, it’s a pleasant temperature. Vicki vehemently sticks to the very plainest of jasmine rice, and I have some stir-fried noodles. As we re-enter our room, I smash my shin against the hardwood bed frame. Usually, 10 seconds of swearing and shouting is enough to diminish the pain. Not this time. Suspect this one is a few days of ouch, followed by a lifelong scar. Tremendous.

    18:30
    Vicki has slept around 16 of the past 24 hours. I have been bored and lonely for around 16 of the past 24 hours. I’m conscious that correlation is not the same as causation, but I can’t help but feel there’s a link here. We pop out for a very late lunch/very early dinner. Vicki bravely eats a pizza - stage 3 of her ‘getting back to eating/drinking normally’ campaign. I have a stir-fried duck dish that is banging. Vicks seems a lot better for taking it easy and sleeping so much, and this hopefully stands us in good stead to head on to Phuket in the morning.

    23:50
    We need to grab a few supplies for our journey tomorrow, so head down the beach in search of a mini-mart, and frankly - just to get out of our room for a little while. We stumble upon a little bar called Majestic, whose playlist is basically out of early 90’s Seattle. We hear some Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, LIVE, all washed down with a couple of Mojitos (for me)… It makes a refreshing change from the music at *most* of the beach-bars we’ve visited, which tends to feature bouncy pop covers. Yesterday, I was treated to a shitty pop rework of California Dreaming by the Beach Boys. Best avoided.

    Vicki’s been awake for a full 3 hours, so needs to get back to sleep pretty pronto. I don’t feel like sleep, despite desperately needing it.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    Hari 19

    Day 19 - Phi Phi DENIED.

    23 April, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    17:30
    Phi Phi DENIED. Vicks has not had a good night’s sleep, and feels pretty sub-standard this morning. We’re not sure quite what’s causing her to feel like this - I feel fine (but with out any semblance of smugness), so suspect it’s not a bug. She’s been keeping really well hydrated throughout our trip, as she always does, but we can’t escape the feeling that it might somehow be heat related. She soldiers on, bless her. We get packed up in decent time, and wait in the reception area at Lanta Sands for our midday pick up.

    Stunningly, our pick-up arrives on time. It’s a songthaew that already looks full to bursting. We’re a little sceptical as to whether we’ll fit into the flatbed of the truck, but happily the driver opens a secret door to a tiny compartment for two that we’d barely noticed was there. I can see Vicki is really struggling in the heat, so even 5 mins of A/C in the truck is a welcome gift. At the pier, the heat is oppressive. BBC reckons the heat index today is at 47C, which is just nuts.

    We’ve 40 minutes until boarding for our speedboat to Phi Phi, so grab a cold drink for Vicks and a beer for me at a little café. Vicki is deteriorating rapidly. She can barely sit up without feeling like she’s going to pass out, and several times has to lie down on the bench to rest. I’ve already suggested we stay on Koh Lanta an extra couple of days, and head straight from here to Phuket, but she’s adamant we should continue. As our boat departure approaches, I think she’s getting worse. We again discuss changing our plans, and I’m pleased when she acquiesces. Definite hints of heat exhaustion - dizziness, nausea etc.

    We spend another 30 minutes trying to cool her down, which is tricky in a sheltered, inland area. The girls working behind the counter in the café ask if she’s ok, and offer a bag of ice to help cool her, and this seems to do the trick - enough, at least, to enable us to complete a quick 5 minute tuk-tuk ride to the resort at which I’ve hastily booked us a couple of nights of accommodation. It really feels like this is for the best. It means missing out on Phi Phi, and the boat trip we’d planned tomorrow to the neighbouring islands, but health comes first.

    We’re into our room, and Vicks is settled by 14:00. I leave her to rest/sleep, and head out to the resort’s beach bar for some food. OMG - they have Savanna Dry by the bottle. After what’s been a worrying and stressful morning, it’s an absolutely marvellous tonic. I’m conscious I’ve not eaten today, and suddenly am ravenous. I have an amazing dish of minced pork with fried aubergine, which is pretty high up on the chilli richter scale, but which I thoroughly enjoy. I tell myself the second and third bottles of Savanna are purely about chilli heat management.

    Back at the room, Vicki’s dozing. I decide to join her. It’s been a tough old day…

    23:30
    Around 19:00, I head out in search of sustenance. Vicks has requested some water and a can of Sprite for dinner, which I’ll source and take back for her. I always go into this kind of hunter/gatherer mentality when she’s not feeling well.

    I’m not feeling particularly energised or adventurous, so head back to our resort’s beach restaurant where I ate earlier. A couple of ice cold Savannas really hit the spot, and I have a chicken and cashew stir-fry which is tremendous.

    At 20:30 and back at the bungalow, I receive the worst of news. My darling friend Mick has succumbed in his fight against cancer. Even though none of that circle of friends would have been local to me had I been in Brighton today, it somehow feels more of a gut-punch to hear this news from 6,000 miles away. I loved Micky in so many ways, but I think most of all for being the best example of a human that he could be - whether as a friend, a brother, a son, a dad or as a husband. I’m heart-broken, for myself - but so much moreso for his incredible wife, Em, and for his beautiful kids, Bertie and Elsie. The world is an unfair place, and is a much worse world tonight for no longer having him in it. Rest easy, lovely boy. x x x    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    Hari 18

    Day 18 : We are low powered.

    22 April, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    18:00
    We’re both feeling pretty low powered today. We had a moderately boozy day yesterday, but nothing out of the ordinary, and don’t deserve to feel quite like we do. We mooch in bed for an hour or so, before deciding breakfast might fix us. It doesn’t., so we settle in for a day of rest and recuperation.

    When we head out to grab some lunch, the heat is stifling. We’re back in the 40s, and it feels every degree of it. We’re supposed to be heading to a beach party later, but I suspect we may play that one by ear, depending on how we’re feeling. We’ve moving on to Koh Phi Phi tomorrow, and a quiet night might be to our benefit.

    21:30
    We head back to Second Home for dinner. The whole grilled sea bass we had a couple of days ago was smashing. This time, I have a fillet of barracuda, prepared with a hot, sweet and sour type sauce. V tasty. Vicki has some simple BBQ prawns and some fried rice.

    Sated, we walk all of 100m down the beach to Ozone, where tonight’s beach party is happening. Well, ‘happening’ is really not the word. As we approach, there are two customers in the bar. As we arrive, they get up to leave. We turn around and vamoose. We’ve no issues being the only people in a bar, but it’s a little sad to see what I’m sure is a busy night at the peak of the season reduced to just a handful of punters as the season comes to a close. We pitch up, instead, at our hotel’s beach bar.

    After sitting in the uber comfy chairs for about 10 minutes, we both start to notice drops of rain falling. We’ve seen a couple of rain and thunderstorms from our room in recent days. This feels much lighter. Vicks takes cover, but I sit in the warm rain for a few minutes. Being rained on is one of my very favourite things. Suddenly, it’s a deluge. It is THROWING it down. I decide dryness might be for the best, and join the other patrons cowering under the scant cover. The wind is blowing the rain in sideways, so we creep and creep further to the back of the bar. A Korean couple sitting at the bar open their umbrellas, while they’re sat at the bar. It’s comical.

    After another glass of wine, we decide it’s time to make a run for it. As we walk into the storm, we very quickly realise we have made a significant error. After 15 metres, we are beyond drenched. By the time we reach the reception area 75m away our clothes are entirely stuck to us, and we are dripping wet. We then have a 10m walk to the building our room is in. It’s like walking into a full on rain shower. I’ve never experienced rain this hard that I can remember. It’s crazy. As we open the door to our room, the icy blast of A/C is actually pretty uncomfortable. We quickly strip off the worst of our clothing, and dry down.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    Hari 17

    Day 17 : Sunday = fun day

    21 April, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    21:50
    We both have brilliant sleeps, in part aided by my going to sleep in the spare room around 03:00, and by there being a thunderstorm around 04:30, which despite us being in separate rooms we join together to watch.

    We head down the beach for some breakfast. It’s warming up, but there’s a beautiful breeze coming off the ocean. When I say it’s breakfast, what I mean is a meal we eat at 11:30, quickly followed by a beer - just so we’re all on the same page.

    Somewhere in the early afternoon, I have a stunning nap. When I wake up, Vicks is nowhere to be seen. I join her at the beach bar, and we have a couple of sharpeners. We’re both in dire need of a shower, so head back to our room to freshen up. We’d thought about going over to Lanta Old Town this evening, which is a 40 minute ride to the East side of the island. We receive intelligence to suggest there’s a very cool sunset bar 20 minutes walk to the South of us, so decide that’s a better bet.

    The walk down the beach is beautiful and knackering. Most of the sand is pretty soft, and we both feel like we’re climbing through quicksand on more than one occasion. The bar we’re heading to (Pangea) is great. A pretty prototypical beach bar, but with awesome house music as the sun sets to the West of us. We order some food, mainly conscious that we’ve not eaten much today, and it’s delicious. We grab another couple of drinks as the sunset dies, and the night sky begins to grow.

    Walking the mile or so back up the beach is no easier, but much more fun. We spot a million crabs running up and down the sand. Near to our hotel, we stop for a vodka+manao. We accidentally end up at our hotel’s beach bar for a glass of wine, before deciding that enough is enough - we need to cool down. Our room is an ice-box. This is a good thing.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    1
    Hari 16

    Day 16 - Southbound, HO!

    20 April, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    07:45
    I’m awake at 06:00. For some reason, my brain just switched on this morning, and wouldn’t let me go back to sleep. This happens quite frequently. It’s rarely something big or scary with which my mind decides to concern itself. Ephemera, usually - and such as it is, it’s enough to keep me awake.

    At 07:30, Vicki declares she’s awake. She’s not slept well, bless her. This is such a rare occurrence that it rather takes me aback. Again, no obvious rhyme or reason - just one of those things. Thankfully, our journey is a pretty straightforward one. Koh Lanta is around 40km to the South East of us, and will take around 2 hours by Ferry from Ao Nang. Our pick up is not until 09:30, so we’ve more than enough time to pack, and do some urgent sitting around waiting…

    12:30
    Massively different ferry experience. The ferry company has offered to pick us up for our onward boat to Koh Lanta. Confirming with them yesterday, they said it would be there between 09:30 and 09:45. As 09:50 rolls around with no sign of our lift, we book a Grab. I suspect the boat guys would have turned up at some point, but it’s not really worth the stress. The pier is a much calmer experience than the Lomprayah ferries we’ve been taking in the Gulf of Thailand. We’re very quickly boarded into a bright, airy cabin that’s deliciously cool. As our 10:30 departure time looms, the cabin is still only about 1/3 full. We depart on time, and cruise serenely along the coast towards Railay Beach, 10-15 minutes away.

    On arrival at Railay, we mate with another ferry, and some passengers are transferred. This is a definite first for me. A few more passengers are dropped-off by longtail boat. Even with these extra passengers, the boat is only 1/2 full for the journey down to Sala Dan Pier.

    Vicks snoozes. After a rotten night’s sleep, I’m barely surprised. When she wakes up, she has fairly impressive indents from where she’s been resting her face on her rucksack. I visit the little snack shop dude for supplies. I’m stunned/delighted when he asks if I want a beer. Er, yes please. An icy Chang is the piece de resistance. I adore this ferry.

    17:00
    We arrive into Sala Dan Pier at 13:15, a little later than planned, but not disastrously so. Our guesthouse have sent a driver to pick us up, but we can’t find him. I call them. The chap at the other end says the driver is there - he’ll call the driver to let him know where we are. 5 minutes pass, no driver. I call the guesthouse again. Apparently, the driver is now ‘on his way’ and should be with us in a few minutes. 5 minutes, no driver. I call back for a 3rd time, and a woman answers. She starts to ask who I am, and what I want, and whether we have in fact asked for a transfer from the boat pier. Eventually, we agree that the driver will be there in around 10 minutes. It’s 10 mins from the guesthouse to the pier, so the driver is clearly setting off now. 10 minutes pass, no driver. I’m just about to phone back again and lose my shit, when a driver from our resort turns up. He is NOT expecting us. He’s here to pick some folks up that are arriving on a 14:00 ferry, 10 minutes from now - and assuming the boat is on time… We are beginning to lose our cool - figuratively and literally. The driver sense this, and says we’ll head straight over.

    Our room is great. The benefit of booking so many travels this year via one website (booking.com, I don’t receive payments etc etc) is that I get discounts and upgrades at some of the places I’m staying - and Lanta Sands is one. We’re in a family room, with two bedrooms. Crucially, our room has a plunge pool attached which is actually cool and refreshing. I spend a deliriously happy 10 minutes paddling up and down, and cooling off.

    We head out, down the beach for some lunch, stopping at a very jaunty place called The Funky Fish. An ice cold beer is quickly followed by another ice cold beer. They bring us some great food. Some weird clay pot contraption contains prawns and glass noodles. They are fantastic. Another dish has some fried yellow (egg) noodles with prawns - also wonderful.

    We’ve dumped and run at our room, and need to get ourselves just a little sorted/unpacked for our stay. Back at the hotel, I briefly consider a nap, then decide against it. We want to get out to watch the sunset, and it’s already 17:30. We pad down the beach to a bar appropriately called Sunset Bar. We graze the cocktail menu with mixed success. The views of sunset are (once again) spectacular. Around 19:00, we head up towards the main road where many of the local bars, restaurants and shops are located. It feels a little like a ghost town. Many are simply not open at all, whilst those that are open tend to have a maximum of a handful of customers. We’re at the very tail end of the season, and this is the first island where it’s felt like it. Dinner denied, we head back down to the beach, and walk this time to the North, and find a great little place called Second Home. They have some fresh wild sea-bass, which they grill whole for us with garlic and pepper. Sensational.

    It’s getting late (21:00!?) so we wander back up the beach, where the incoming tide is rapidly encroaching, and head back to our room. We chill out with some wine, and a couple of TV episodes, before falling into the deep sleep of the deserving…    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    Hari 15

    Day 15 : A little more than not a lot...

    19 April, Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    11:45
    I have a slightly rough night’s sleep. Some bad news from back home pervades my dreams, and I wake in a bit of a tiz on more than one occasion. I generously allow Vicki to sleep till 09:24, before deciding enough is really enough. She’s banked another 10 hour plus sleep, and frankly, it’s getting a little ridiculous now.

    While she’s slept, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re not staying exactly where I thought we were. The main Ao Nang town is a couple of kilometres to the East of us, alongside Ao Nang beach. We, rather, are staying next to Nopharat Thara beach, which is just not the same thing at all. We decide to head over to Ao Nang proper for some breakfast, and find a very cool little café knocking out decent brunch type stuff. It’s a lot busier over here - tons of knock off shops selling fake branded goods. We decide Nopharat Thara, with its idiosyncratic night market, small Thai run bars and restaurants is more our speed.

    We’re deciding what to do with our single full day in Ao Nang. The conclusion is (perhaps unsurprisingly) not very much. We’ve both really enjoyed taking some time out to properly rest on this trip, and it’s been a while since we’ve been able to do so together. We’d thought about getting a longboat over to Railay beach, a couple of headlands further East from us, and only accessible from the water. A combination of feckless layaboutery, and concerns over Vicki’s skin combine to dissuade us from this strategy. We’ve already decided we’re going to come back to Thailand, and have been building a healthy and growing list of stuff we want to do when we do…

    19:30
    We’ve become ‘not doing very much’ ninjas. I have an amazing nap around 12:30, and wake at 14:00 full of very few beans. We mooch for an hour or so, then decide there’s a day out there at which we should probably go and have another look. We mosey as far as Pink Lady, and get sucked in by our new friends. There follows a very intense few games of shut the box (which I appear to have misnomered 'shit the bed'), with Vicki the winner of a tight competition, 3-2. We move onto Connect 4, and this time, I’m the victor. All this accompanied by some ultra chilly beers. It’s past 16:00, and we’re feeling some hunger pangs, so we head back to Chomlay for a late lunch. More delicious food follows - a black pepper chicken stir-fry for me, and some simple soy fried noodles for Vicki.

    We reason that it’s been close to 3 hours since someone had a nap. It’s Vicki’s turn, so back at our guesthouse, she’s quickly out for a 60 count, while I read contentedly next to her…

    Not 100% sure what our evening plans will entail, except that we’re both in need of a shower, and some wine.

    23:30
    There’s something not quite right about Team Irvine today. I think we’re just both feeling a bit under-powered. Perhaps just a touch of fatigue after a couple of weeks on the road, maybe the hint of a little bug keeping us both a little deflated. Whatever it is, it pervades our evening plans. We pop out to an Italian restaurant for a quick bite to eat, neither of us quite fancying spice and heat tonight. Don’t think either of us are particularly hungry, but we’ve a boat trip tomorrow, and will avoid eating till we arrive at our next destination. We’re back in our room by 22:30, and Vicki turns in not long after that. I’m not quite sleep ready yet, so read for a while. I’m conscious that Vicki is not dropping off to sleep in her usual, almost instantaneous fashion. Crikey.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    Hari 14

    Day 14 - From there, to here

    18 April, Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    09:50
    Learning much from our experience of getting up too early, and having too much time to pack when leaving Koh Tao, we once again get up too early, and have too much time to pack when leaving Koh Pha Ngan. Not *quite* as much sitting around time today, so I guess that’s progress. We’ve checked out of TropiCoco, and are waiting for our taxi to the ferry jetty, for onward travel to Krabi. Today is our last really chunky bit of travel before we head home, and it’ll doubtless feel a bit of a slog.

    We’ve both loved Koh Pha Ngan. It’s difficult to think of another place that so effectively combines blissed out relaxation with a hedonistic party life-style. We’d come back, for sure - but would want to explore more of the island, and perhaps stay on one (or more) of the other beaches around the island. And lovely though TropiCoco has been, there have been times when it’s felt it could have been a beach resort pretty much anywhere. It’s quite a family oriented place, and also has one of the few pools along the beach. The owners are more than happy to welcome customers not staying at the hotel to use the pool and beach bar facilities, which has left it feeling a little crowded at times. Our guesthouse in Ao Nang looks a decidedly more adulty affair…

    15:00
    Our taxi down to Thong Sala jetty transpires to be a Songthaew, the ubiquitous covered pick-up truck with benches that roam the Thai islands. It’s a far cry from the air-conditioned van that met us on arrival. The journey down to the pier is fairly bumpy, and requires the passenger to hold onto a roof rail for dear life to avoid being deposited out of the rear of the truck. I enjoy it perhaps just a tad more than Vicki.

    There’s a small amount of confusion at the pier when a ferry arrives which we assume to be ours, but isn’t. We’re quickly boarded onto the correct ferry though, and grab some space in the shade on the outside deck. The crossing to Koh Samui is blissfully quick and smooth. Today is looking good. At Koh Samui though, far more passengers board than depart for the onward journey to Surat Thani, and the boat suddenly feels full to bursting. A family with small child ask to share our bench, which is kinda ok - I guess, but leaves us hemmed in a little. We end up moving, and skulking inside for the last 40 minutes of the journey, which has the upside of being air-conditioned.

    Surat Thani is the boat’s last port of call - all change please, all change. Disembarking the boat is a bit of a clusterfuck. No one is really sure where to go, where to collect luggage etc etc. Vicki and I are briefly separated while I head off to grab my rucksack - her wheeled luggage will be waiting for her on the dockside. We make off to find our coach to take us down to Krabi. Buses are numbered 1 to 8. 1 is going to Surat Thani airport, 2 is going to Surat Thani train station, 3 is going… and so on. Buses 7 and 8 are going to Krabi, so we need to jump on one of these. Rather unhelpfully, the buses are also numbered with completely different numbers. Bus number 7 for example, also has large stickers on it declaring it is bus number 14. We find a helpful driver who is loading luggage onto what seems to be bus 7, and he agrees we’re in the right place.

    The drive is around 2 1/2 hours. The bus has air-conditioning, but it’s a little lacklustre. Vicki decides to sleep through as much as possible, in some kind of snoozy protest. I envy her. No matter how much better I am at sleeping than I used to be, sleeping upright on a bumpy coach is, I think, always going to be beyond my powers of nap. I instead, read, watch some TV and watch the world go by. This is the first properly rural part of the Thailand mainland that we’ve travelled through, and it’s fascinating to see the changes in scenery, architecture and land use as we pass.

    20:00
    At Krabi, our cab is waiting to take us onwards to Ao Nang, a beach about 10km to the South. We arrive at our new accommodation, Blue Bayou around 16:30 - just coming up on 7 hours since we left our room at TropiCoco. Our longest journey from here on in should be less than half that.

    Our room at Blue Bayou is lovely, but HOT. The ‘feels like’ temp down here is 42C, and the A/C has not been running in our room ahead of our arrival. It’s just starting to cool down as we leave to find beer, food and breeze. The seafront is a short, 3 minute walk away. There’s a warm but cooling breeze (no, I don’t know how that’s possible either) running along the wide boulevard that separates the beach from a row of bars and restaurants housed in shipping containers. We park ourselves at the first that has some jaunt - a pretty kitsch place called Pink Lady. We request, nay - we demand ice cold beer, and it is forthcoming. Sweet, sweet Jeebus it’s good. Our first beer lasts next to no time. We order another, and continue to devour it’s icy coldness. We’ve eaten nothing today beyond a handful of peanuts or cashews en-route, and are both suddenly hit by a famished hunger. Several containers down is a traditional Thai place called Cholmay. We bowl in that direction in urgent search of sustenance.

    The food at Cholmay is top notch. A green shrimp curry for Vicki, and a southern yellow seabass curry for me. The green curry is excellent, but I’m really taken by the yellow curry. It’s unlike any other Thai curry I’ve had. There’s no richness of coconut milk (which I had assumed there would be), but rather the sourness of tamarind, the sweetness of pineapple, and the heat of chilli. The curry ‘sauce’ is more of a broth, but none the worse for it. It’s fabulous. One of my fave meals of our trip so far. We have some stir-fried morning glory (fnarr) to accompany it which is also excellent. Morning glory occupies a place somewhere between broccoli and spinach, and is the most common everyday green vegetable in Thailand. It’s simply stir-fried here with chilli, garlic, ginger, soy and fish sauces, and finished with a little oyster sauce. Brilliant.

    We’re planning / hoping to meet Pete while we’re in town, who is the younger brother of our dear friend Debbie. Conscious we need to freshen up fairly markedly before we encounter other humans, we head back to Blue Bayou. A shower seems an utter waste of time, so I have a dip in the pool instead. It’s warm and luxuriant, and right outside our terrace doors…

    23:30
    We successfully find Pete, and end up back at the Pink Lady, where a half-decent band are covering the likes of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand. Pete’s a very easy drinks companion, and tells us many stories of his 12+ years living in Thailand. He’s here for the duration - he and his Thai wife have plans in play to build a retirement home in the North of Thailand, and holiday homes for rental in the South. We spend a delightful hour or so shooting the breeze, before Pete heads off to meet Ffa, his wife.

    We’re not quite ready for our day to end, so head down to the daily night market. The nightly market? I don’t know. You get me, right? Here, there is a less than half decent band murdering the likes of U2, The Police, Bryan Adams. They are not good. Vicki has earplugs, which we both employ. We have a little wander around some of the market stalls, but will come back for a more complete look around tomorrow. Vicki has her mind slightly set on replacing one of her thumb rings, and this could be a good opportunity.

    We stop in at Dragon’s Breath on the way back to Blue Bayou - one of the many weed dispensaries we’ve seen. Strictly speaking, these are intended for the sale of medically required cannabis, but from what we’ve seen, heard and read, no one is asking for a prescription. The range of weed on sale is both impressive, and daunting. Neither of us is a big smoker. I had my time when I was younger, but very rarely smoke these days. Mainly outside of the UK to be honest. Vicki has just never got on with smoke - doesn’t like the feeling of being stoned. We’ve agreed to try once more, with (hopefully) something not too strong, and we’ll carefully moderate our intake. The guy in the shop gives us a few different options for Sativa strains, and we plump for a strain called Black Cherry, on the basis that we like the fruit, and it smells nice. He makes us a ready rolled with the precision and speed of one who has done it countless times before, and we’re quickly on our way back to our room.

    No bifta tonight though - it’s past 23:00, and Vicks is ready for more sleeps.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Thailand - April 2024
    Hari 13

    Day 13 - Flaming Flamingo.

    17 April, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    08:20
    I sleep fitfully. My stomach has been griping and cramping through the night, and it’s woken me up on a few occasions. I give up at 07:00, and ready myself for a somewhat dull couple of hours until I can wake Vicki up. I spend a little longer than I really should wondering if I can engineer a wake up for her earlier than the agreed 09:00, but suspect this will come at a considerable cost.

    22:45
    We’re just back from the Sea Board beach party, which was great fun. Our day has been a very chilled affair. Well, apart from the drum and bass Vicki is playing when I wake up from my afternoon nap. But you know - other than that…

    I’m taking it easy on the food and booze front today, mindful that my stomach still doesn’t feel like it’s operating at full whack. Breakfast is a fairly sedate affair, and we share a pizza for lunch. I’m parsimonious when it comes to beer/wine, until 18:00, when we head down to the beach bar for a light dinner and some wine. I’m overtaken by the urge for a Penang curry. It’s not super-spicy, but has a lovely warmth and fragrance. I demolish it. We end up down on the beach watching another beautiful sunset. Just 100m up the beach from us, we can hear the Sea Board party starting to get rolling. The music is very floaty and fairly ambient in the lead up to sunset, and then starts to kick-on once the sky darkens. We’d originally planned to head back to the room, get ourselves a bit ready for our departure tomorrow, and then head out. Instead, we’re sucked in earlier.

    The set-up is great - there’s a covered dance floor with a bar to one side of it. To the other side is a little market/bazaar of local traders, selling jewellery, sunglasses, weed… The music is cranking up. It’s not quite to my taste, though Vicki loves it. A bit too glitzy house for my liking. We have a few vodkas and Manao, and I spend a delightful little while couched on a Flamingo, and people watching. The music gradually improves (for my tastes, at any rate). The temperature is dropping, which is welcome. It’s been pretty steamy today… Conscious that we’ve a *relatively* early start, and haven’t done a jot of packing yet, we head back along the beach to TropiCoco, stopping at the bar for just a couple of quick Café Patrons. They only have the ‘Incendio’ version at the beach bar, which has a little chocolate and some Arbol chilli in it. It’s not hot hot, but noticeably warm as you drink it. Very pleasant actually… We need to get ourselves sorted, so a tad grumpily head back to our bungalow.    Baca selengkapnya

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