South West Thailand: The Start Of Our Journey

BANGKOK

Having travelled for three weeks in New Zealand, Lauren, Grace and I landed down in South East Asia. We stayed at Bodega hostel in Bangkok but there’s two Bodegas in the city (one by Khaosan Road and one by Sukhumvit; we stayed in the latter). Ours was further out of town but right by the blue metro line which takes you to all the main places (it’s very easy to navigate the metro system). However, it would probably be best to stay at the Khaosan Road hostel as this is the generic road everyone goes to in Bangkok and is very central (we were jet lagged so were thankful for being in the quieter of the two hostels)!

The only way I can describe Bangkok is it being an assault on every one of your senses. The smells of sewage mixed with street food mixed with sweat, the heat blanketing our bodies, the noise of cheeky tuk tuk drivers on chockablock roads, the murky sky which was lit up by glowing neon lights at night. It was surreal.

As we only had 24 hours we arrived and wanted to get straight out so we took the blue metro line to Sanam Chai and got a tuk tuk to Khaosan road. It was wild, with people selling fried scorpions alongside skewered crocodiles spinning like a hog roast. It wasn’t as crowded as we’d expected though, so we sauntered down feasting our eyes on every part of the street. We decided to get a Pad Thai (when in Thailand ey) and then went back to Sukhumvit to explore Soi Cowboy Road where the infamous Hangover was filmed. It had ladyboys lined up outside bars with stripping poles and drinks flowing like there was no tomorrow. The red light district in Amsterdam seemed positively PG in comparison...

The following day we went to Chinatown because as luck would have it we’d come to Bangkok on the Chinese New Year! It was buzzing with Chinese lanterns, performances with acrobatic dragons, music blasting from all areas and banners hanging from the sky. It was brilliant (but sweltering heat), so after a morning exploring the area we went to Sanam Chai to see the temple there. Then all of a sudden, just like that, we were off to the airport for a flight to Krabi. Other things we would have done had we stayed longer would be a few more temples and the turning Buddha so I’d say the ideal length of time in Bangkok would be two nights but we certainly weren’t complaining that we were heading to the beach, and, more importantly the sea. It definitely is a love or hate place and the rest of Thailand has a lot to offer.

KRABI

We landed in Krabi at 7PM so stayed at a nearby hostel called Pak Up; it was seriously nice and not loud or raucous at all (another good night sleep yes please). It was so easy getting a transfer to the hostel from the airport as there is a reasonably priced minibus system at the exit of the airport. It took us right to the door of our accommodation so was definitely worth doing. You can also get the transfer to take you to Ao Nang so personally I’d suggest going straight there.

As I said Krabi really isn’t a must, but it works as a stop over. We made the most of our one night by going to the night market which had a great gig on and cocktails made up in coconuts and bamboo (both of which we purchased).

Ao Nang (which is in the Krabi province) is the best place to be (it’s only a 20 minute drive away and is far more lively and just generally nicer). If we hadn’t arrived late and known that it was Ao Nang you want to be at, we’d have gone to straight there.

AO NANG

So now the partying began. We stayed at Slumber Party hostel for three nights and it was a great location, right by the beach and surrounded by bars and restaurants. Every night we’d have reps bring in shots which would then be poured into our mouths (I mean free alcohol so why not)!

Ao Nang was a great base as you can get a boat to effectively anywhere! We did a four island boat tour for 900 baht (including the National Park fee which is 400 baht). This took us to West Railay Bay, Poda Island, Tup island and Chicken Island. We chose to go on a long boat as it was cheaper and I (wrongly) had the impression it would be relaxing. But no, a long boat is definitely not a calm slow boat (it was really fun to be ok though)!

At Railay there was a large rock with a little bay so I swam there which was far further than I’d calculated! However, it was worth it to see all the fishes twirl around my feet as crabs shuffled along the rocks. There was also a shrine and rock climbing so having an hour was perfect to see it all. Before we got to Poda island we had a snorkel and whilst it wasn’t mind blowing, I did see a jellyfish which was pretty funky. I definitely liked Poda the best, but maybe that was because it was this island where our wonderful guide laid out a buffet fit for kings. Apparently his mum had cooked up the banquet at 3AM that morning!

Next up was Tup island which had a sandy path leading you between two rocks. There wasn’t much to do other than swim and sunbathe but it was beautiful. Finally, we went to Chicken Island which doesn’t actually have a beach but you can snorkel. We went in and were flooded by green scaly fish (turns out they love pineapple which was the fruit being thrown into the sea for them)! It was wonderful, and by the time we got back at 4PM we were ready for a massage. Onto the beach we went and relaxed for a soothing hour of head, back and shoulder massages ... for a grand total of £3.50!

That night we got chatting to a couple of lovely girls (Courtney and Lauren) who joined us for dinner and a drink (a drink that turned into 3 shots and five cocktails)! We found a great veggie restaurant called Govinda’s that had curry to die for! A definite must go to in Ao Nang.

The next day Lauren, from the previous night, joined us in going to Railay Beach (we met her again in Koh Phangan). Before we headed off we went to a really great place for breakfast called Cafe 8.89 which did smoothie bowls amongst a whole host of other delicacies.

Then we got a return boat for 200 baht (£2.50 each way) to Railay. I really liked it here and could see why so many people recommended it but one day felt like enough. We sunbathed, swam and then explored the road which had street food, shakes, cocktails, shops and so much more. We also walked to the east side but that had little to offer so we thought we’d stick to the west. You could rent out kayaks and go to the bay around the corner too, but we’d done that yesterday so gave it a miss!

KOH PHI PHI ISLAND

This was probably my favourite of all the Thailand islands. We got a transfer from Ao Nang to Koh Phi Phi which was so easy. They picked us up from our hostel, took us to the ferry in Krabi and then sailed us for an hour and a half to the island. Be warned though, on arrival you have to pay 20 baht to get on the island (which to be fair is less than a pound).

Whilst this gorgeous place was hands down my favourite, it definitely is not for you if you don’t like drinking and clubbing. The island was beautiful and our hostel, Blanco’s Beach Bar was in the best location possible. The reception quite literally spilled out onto the beach with views of the sea for miles.

We started off by going for food at a veggie restaurant called DOW. I got pineapple rice (a popular Thai dish) which I enjoyed so much more than I had anticipated (I wanted to give everything a try but I never expected to enjoy the food as much as I did)! We then went back and I got chatting to some people at the bar, a lovely girl from Iran who now lived in California and a Danish guy. we saw them many times during our stay on the island as we were now at a proper party hostel and amidst plenty sociable, like minded travellers (my idea of heaven).

That evening we went out and got a bucket (yes, literally a bucket) full of alcohol. By the time we got to Blanco’s, the beach parties along the sand were in full swing. Fire shows, free shots, loud music. It was like being at freshers but everyone was older and about 10 times more wild. Honestly, I’d never had a night like it. We met up with the Iranian girl, Nikki, from earlier and a couple guys from our dorm before having shots poured into our mouths as we did limbo and skipping competitions. Absolute madness.

The night just seemed to get crazier from then on in and at 6AM our whole dorm ended up awake due to a bit of a situation (I’ll leave it to your imagination with that one). Thankfully, it had us all laughing together as if we’d all been friends from birth, honestly we all just lost it with the giggles (I think we were all still drunk). One guy, Gerard, actually stumbled in during our hysteria and he ended up travelling with us for three weeks and becoming a very close friend to all us girls travelling together.

The next day we went on the Blanco Boat Party (I couldn’t recommend this enough) with Gerard and Nikki. We became quite a group and I had the best day I’d had in as long as I could remember.

The first stop was Monkey Island but we had to be careful here as rabies and having your belongings stolen by the cheeky buggers is a regular occurrence. The monkeys were so sweet though!

We then hopped back on board, got drinks in and music going, and chilled out as we went to the Vikings Cave. Here we learnt about how birds nest soup is massively sought after in Thailand and worth a fortune. The birds nest was taken from this spot and we all got to see what it looked like (not sure I’d be trying it anytime soon). We then went on to have an hour of jumping off the boat, kayaking, paddle boarding and snorkelling. The five of us all floated along the sea and chatted away learning about each other’s lives.

Our last stop was Maya Bay where the film ‘The Beach’ was filmed. Again we could snorkel, kayak and paddle board and we then all settled at the front of the boat, drinks in hand and watched the sunset. It was the most incredible feeling having my closest friends with me alongside gorgeous people we’d just met whilst the heat of the sun melted away behind the sea.

When we arrived back there was a buffet for us all at Blanco so we wolfed that down and then decided to be proper generic travellers and get tattoos, including our newest addition, Gerard (could we get any more basic, probably not). We all went for bamboo stick and poke which was definitely more painful than machine tattoos but it was so worth it. There’s so many tattoo parlours in the town but we went for Skull Tattoo as it had very good ratings and they really did not disappoint.

That definitely sobered me up so we got water, reunited with our new mates and then somehow stayed out until 1AM, once again doing the limbo but dancing with the occasional sip of water (who says going out sober isn’t fun)?

The next day we went up to the Phi Phi viewpoint. There’s two and you definitely want to do both (the second is only a 300m walk from the first and you get to see the whole island from it). Unfortunately, Deli belly struck (thankfully not me) but the other two girls were not in a good way. Luckily, we didn’t have much planned, just a transfer back to Ao Nang so it was a pretty uneventful afternoon of me worrying that I’d suddenly catch it and the others trying to get to a toilet before they were sick every half an hour. But hey, that’s travelling for you!

KOH SOK NATIONAL PARK

Dodgy tummies were to last a couple days but both my girls started improving (and by that I mean the girls were managing to just about keep a cereal bar down). We got a transfer to Koh Sok (which is in between the west and east islands) that we’d booked from Ao Nang before we went to Phi Phi. Two minibuses and four hours later we arrived.

We had a cute little Bungalow in the town which was luxury compared to the hostels we’d been in and that evening I met a few guys who invited me to play cards, so although it was a quieter place, I still managed to find people to socialise with (everyone, everywhere, is so friendly)!

The next day we were up early for the Smiley Lake Tour which started with us having breakfast before being introduced to our guide who was efffectively a Thai David Attenborough (except he was completely off his rocket which meant we had a seriously entertaining day)! His name was Ruki Ruki and he took us to the National Park which was about an hours drive away. We met a couple of lovely lads from Nottingham and a Dutch couple so we had another great group now we‘d left the others in Phi Phi (we were meeting up with Gerard on the next island as he hadn’t booked Koh Sok).

There was an hour cruise down the river whilst admiring the beautiful park which really was breathtaking. When we got to the Smiley Lakehouse (which you can stay at if you do the two day tour, we just didn’t have enough time to fit that in), we kayaked with the Notts guys and swam in the lake before a buffet lunch. We were then herded back into the boat and taken to the jungle.

We trekked for 1.5KM, during which Ruki Ruki decided to turn me into a jungle queen which consisted of him putting mud all over my face whilst singing The Lion King. He also had a strange hat made of leaves which was apparently protecting his head from monkey pee (it was at this point that I also decided to put my hat on).

We made it to a mini pool and waterfall, and whilst some people decided to stay there, I ventured with a fair few of our group and Ruki Ruki into the Nam Talu cave. We were inside for 45 minutes, during which I held a scorpion spider, cricket, saw the roof of the cave caked in bats, and waded through neck high water. It was incredible.

We made it out and back to the boat where we were taken back to the mini van and, eventually, our bungalow. We didn’t make it home until 8PM so it was a long day and we were pretty shattered. After some grub we were out like a light, ready to venture to the west tomorrow. If you wanted to, you could miss Koh Sok National Park and go straight to the West islands from Ao Nang but I’d really recommend the National park, especially the two day tour where you actually stay on the lake. it was a great chance to detox! Now it was to meet our other three travel girls and then head to the East Islands; the wild side of Thailand ...