Pez and Noony go away

Sunset by the sea.

Night time camera fun à la Nick Howes.

Koh Phi Phi Ley (or “The” Beach “island”)

You have a woman’s legs, m’Lord!

View from the “beach” beach.

The Japanese really know how to party.

What we really didn’t want to show you. The other tourists.

The only swimmer in the shark bay. Idiot.

In a bay for the day.

Our stone hut, a Noony and a kitten.

Our very own street prostitute.

Sleeping off a heavy, dirty night.

Dinner.

The pier to see-a the sea.

Beach trees.

Excellent for high fives.

Full of disco biscuits.

Patrick, good things come to those who tell us what the hell this is.

View, lol.

Just a very short note to say what we have been up to whilst you guys have been pushing through New Year blues. Boo.

Bangkok
We went back to Bangkok for four days after Chiang Mai and stayed at the beloved Atlanta Hotel once more. For those not familiar with this from our previous rambles, it is Bangkok’s oldest hotel and swimming pool and hasn’t changed in 60 years. The little black kitten we left in October has now grown into a slightly larger black kitten and is still as ruthlessly cheeky chasing shadows and ankles. They also have a new recruit; a little puppy who liked to sleep on the sun loungers with you. His tag said “rabies free”, it’s a really crap name for a dog.

We spent a day in the commercial district and ploughed through about 6 malls, ranging from top end (there was a Ferrari in the window of the 10th floor) to absolute bottom knock-off tat (the fake iPhone 4s looked too good to be true). We bought more things for our house, which technically hasn’t been bought yet, and our backpacks are now brimming with paper umbrellas, lanterns, lights and other horrifically flammable objects.

We had a little run in with the police that day and taken to their police hut, but that is another story for home. Parents reading this, don’t fret, police love bribes and we are free again.

Krabi
We took a sleeper train for the first time as we encountered tourists with horror stories of the night buses and have vowed not to travel that way again. We forgot how train stations and airports differed, so after getting there two hours early to ‘check in?’ we boarded the train and made our way to the bar as there was more room… and drink. We met an American couple who are making their way to Seoul to teach English. They were only 23 and already had been married for six months. We spent a good few hours chatting with them before making our way back to our bunks. It was surprisingly clean and comfortable, even though we had the top bunks. Neither of us slept much but I think that had something to do with the beers, rather than the train.
We got into Surat Thani early in the morning and then took a bus for 3 hours across Thailand to Krabi. When we arrived the bus dropped us miles out of town and the taxi driver insisted our hostel was 60 Km away. We were not fooled and instead called the owner to come pick us up, it was only about a 20 minute drive.
Our hostel was really lovely, we had booked a fan room but the owner (a very gay German guy called Olli, who stood on one leg, waved one hand while the other sat on his hip, and in a high pitched tone exclaimed “Alles Clar!” [sic.]) upgraded us from the bamboo bungalow to a stone one with air con for no extra charge. We also had a deck and a pier over a private beach where you can swim only when the tide is in. When the tide goes out the area is covered with wildlife and millions of different crabs. We even saw a strange creature that featured on the Guinness adverts a little while back, it looks like a cross between a frog, a lizard, a snake and a fish. Patrick, I insist you tell me what this thing is called (not so great photo to follow).
Krabi is a beautiful province of Thailand, we were out in the middle of nowhere but took a motorbike to town and the very popular Ao Nang beach. It was strange to see a Burger King, MacDonalds and a Starbucks amongst all the locals stalls selling beach tat.
Back at the hostel, Olli made a huge communal dinner both nights we stayed which was really delicious and a nice way to hang out with everyone there. Pez loved the food and had 3 helpings of chicken curry and rice. Although I realise most of our posts feature cats in some way, we must tell you about the kitten at this hostel. Olli had rescued her from the side of the road, where she was lying with her sibling who had been killed by a car. He doesn’t like the cat one bit but had to take her in anyway. He called her the Thai word for a female prostitute as she loves everyone and is a big flirt. Pez fell in love with her instantly and we both wanted to put her in our back pack. Olli said we could, but somehow I think travelling with a cat isn’t the best idea.

Koh phi phi
Early in the morning we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi from Krabi port, and we knew that we may see Jean and Val, 2 people we had met at Halong Bay in Vietnam. Strangely enough we were picked up by the same tuk-tuk and travelled together on the boat. We spent 3 awesome days with them on Koh Phi Phi, despite it being the most expensive place we have been so far. There are no roads, so you have to catch taxi boats around the island and we were really lucky to find somewhere to stay for £25 a night, which is the most we have spent on a room so far. For over double that price you can get air con, so we just settled for a fan. We hired a private long boat with Jean and Val and ventured to the smaller uninhabited island of Koh Phi Phi Ley where you can visit “The Beach”, Maya Bay and some other empty bays for snorkelling and swimming. At the snorkelling bay we were happily spotting some small fish when the boat driver said, “Hey! Swim over there, there is a small shark you can see!”. His idea of small was 5 feet and I promptly sprang out of the water back onto the boat! This island was absolutely stunning, but instead of me rambling on about it we will just post the photos.

Koh Lanta
We then moved onto to Koh Lanta which is further south than Koh Phi Phi and about 50 times larger. The beaches are no where near as spectacular but there is a lot more to see around the island. We hired a bike again and spent one day travelling around the whole island. We stayed in a bamboo bungalow, and were frequently visited by amphibious friends. A huge lizard (without its tail it was a foot long) lived in the bathroom, which Pez didn’t believe, until he was about to take a shower and it ran across the wall. He yelped at the size of it and I spent the afternoon gloating, “I told you so!”. Each morning we were also visited by a frog in the bathroom. He must have been annoyed to be shunted out each day just to sneak his way back again during the night. Even though there were huge gaps for the creatures to venture in, there were no bugs and we had a mosquito net so neither of us were bothered. In fact, lizards are my new friends as they eat Mosquitos and moths!

Langkawi
Yesterday we arrived at Langkawi, an island off of Malaysia, and said our goodbyes to Thailand. Our resort is again a bungalow but we have air con and a swimming pool so it is much nicer. Already, we have noticed a big difference between Thailand and Malaysia. The language and food is heavily influenced by India and it feels less backpacker orientated, more a place for rich people to come on holiday. We do have free wifi here which we haven’t had for weeks so we can do the blog and upload photos again – hoorah!!