After the Laos experience it was great to be back in an
Asian country exhibiting that strange blend of first world and third
world. It’s so easy in Thailand - the
people are naturally friendly and used to tourists.
We liked Bangkok for its built up bustle while you are still
blown away by sights like the Royal Palace and the world’s largest reclining
Buddha. We made it out the day before the city started flooding. It wasn’t the
greatest idea to build a massive city at the bottom of a vast alluvial plain
but Bangkok has disappeared off the news since we left so we hope and assume
the city is getting back to normal.
Two of the strangest sights were seeing the locals building
knee high brick walls in front of all the shops to keep the water out and the
other was relaxing in the main park to be surprised by massive monitor lizards crawling out of the water around us.
Once we were city-ied out, we headed for the famous Thai
beaches.
All your life you hear about Phuket but once you get there
you find it has been overdeveloped so it is now the Asian equivalent of
Magaluf/Kos/Kefalonia/Aya Napa etc. It’s bad enough having these places in
Europe, so after a few days we headed to Ko Phi Phi.
Ko Phi Phi village itself was not really our scene – full of
rough party hostels overflowing with white douchebags in dreadlocks
disappointing their fathers with every breath they take and girls with
hummingbird tattoo’s on their legs going out with aforementioned white buffalo
soldiers and worrying their fathers with every step they take. So we took a
very exciting “Longtail” boat to one of the secluded bays further up the
island. These boats are crazy - they take five year old car engines from
Bangkok and strap them to a wooden boat with propeller swinging wildly all over
the place out the back.
The beach we were at was stunning and incredible value –
eight pounds a night for a double room bungalow twenty metres from the beach!
Check out the pictures – just awesome. The sea was like walking into a warm
bath and the weather was perfect every day.
We did a day trip snorkelling and visiting the beach where
they filmed, er, “The Beach”. At this point, most people start beach hopping
and playing top trumps on all the Thai beaches they have visited. However, our
spot was so perfect we knew shifting anywhere else was only going to be, best
case, as good as what we already had – so we extended our stay there and
chilled out for ten days in a truly magical spot. If you’re super nice – just
might tell you where it is ;-)
Once we were so relaxed we could hardly stand up, we packed
up and headed onwards to Malaysia!
So, if you want a fantastic holiday, fly to Bangkok/Phuket
and take the easy transfer down to the beaches – you won’t regret it. Thailand
is a great place for a holiday.
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