Sharon and Andy's World Tour 2006

19 - 20 March

Koh Samui was only intended as a brief stopover point, as we were flying from there to Phuket then immediately catching a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Approaching Koh Samui

As such, we hadn't booked any accommodation; we'd planned to spend the night in the airport in order to check in at 06:00. Upon landing on Koh Samui we decided that maybe this was a bad idea... but a quick sortie soon found us a cheap and comfortable double-room for the night.

Room taken care of, we decided to make the most of our last night in Thailand by taking in a romantic meal and, of course, a few drinks.

We had been plagued upon arrival by hordes of business-hungry taxi drivers but at dawn the next day, needing to get to the airport, there were none. Stumbling around in the dark, laden down with heavy backpacks, a kindly moped driver came to our aid by offering to sort out our ride. Lo and behold, within five minutes a taxi had magically appeared.

Koh Samui International Airport is a rudimentary wooden affair, and we realised with relief that our decision to find a room instead of crashing out had definitely been the right choice...

And so at 08:30 on Monday March 20 we bade a fond farewell to Thailand and took to the air bound for Malaysia.

16 - 18 March

We'd been looking for a bit of 'beachy' relaxation after the breakneck tour of Cambodia, but Koh Tao left us feeling somewhat drained due to the unavoidable heat. So it was with trepidation that we took the ferry to our next island, Koh Phangan.

We'd literally just missed the infamous 'Full Moon'(rave) Party which takes place on the island each month, and to our surprise we found our resort virtually empty as the partygoers had moved on.

We thought Koh Tao was beautiful, but Koh Phangan is positively paradaisical. We instantly fell in love with this place; there is nothing to dislike.

Our villa - (we stayed at the lovely Rung Arun resort)

- had aircon, cable tv, a big bath (and how we'd missed a bath!) and a fridge for storing much needed water and drinks. After Koh Tao, absolute luxury. And as for the beach (as seen from our villa)...

This is the first place I've ever been where the water is literally blood-warm, and as calm as a mill-pond. A cooling breeze blew from the sea as we lazed in our deck-chairs... and merrily burnt ourselves. Youch!!! Red legs, shoulders and faces all round; the cooling breeze had been highly deceptive. But, even slightly charred limbs couldn't detract from our sense of joy at being in this beautiful and restful place - (cue gratuitous sunset picture):

Plus, we found an excellent beach bar called the Spunky Monkey, where we sat watching the aforementioned sunset with cool beers while the soothing guitar riffs of Pink Floyd oozed from the speakers behind us. It doesn't get much better than this.

All too soon our couple of days here was over, and it was time to move on again.

11 - 15 March

We returned to Bangkok, Thailand from Cambodia by taxi to the border at Poipet and then onward by bus. On the largely unsurfaced road from Siem Reap to Poipet the taxi had to negotiate some of the scariest potholes and diversions ever devised.
Luckily, we had an entertaining travelling companion - Shaun McLoughlin, an ex-BBC drama producer of 30 years' experience - whose anecdotes, views and advice on everything from travelling to producing TV and stage drama made a potentially painful journey very enjoyable.

With our time in Thailand nearing it's end, we decided we would make our way south to Malaysia via a few of the islands off the east coast. First stop was the tiny island of Koh Tao, a five-hour bus journey to Chumpon, and a two-hour catamaran ride away from Bangkok.

Our accommodation was in a secluded bay in the south-west of the island, reached by taxi-boat. The room itself is best described as a glorified wooden shed! - no hot water, no electricity, no flushing loo and definitely no aircon. However, the immediate surroundings made up for these shortcomings...

The big problem, though, was the heat; easy enough to cool off in crystal clear waters during the day, but totally inescapable at night thus making sleep nigh on impossible.

Anyway, we thought it would be a really good idea to hire a bike each and cycle around the island to take in some of the sights, and hopefully tire us out for a good night's sleep. Yeah, right. We forgot you had to be fit to do stuff like that; Koh Tao has some pretty unforgiving hills, so not only did we totally knacker ourselves within 15 minutes, but we were also saddle-sore for days afterwards.

Apart from the cycling episode we did a fair amount of walking, as the nearest town lay a good 40-minute trek away on an undulating coastal/forest path. Did this additional excercise contribute to a restful night? No. Because the nocturnal prowlings of a (large) univited guest in our hut forced us to remain vigilant...

Our last few days in Chiang Mai were spent exploring, and it's surprising just how much interesting stuff there is to explore.

One experience that had been recommended to us was the night market, and so we took a stroll out one evening to see what it was all about. Wow! Every street in the old part of the city was turned over to market stalls selling as many local handicrafts as you can imagine and fantastic food (we pigged out on incredibly cheap and tasty chicken satays and juicy sausages, all cooked to order).

The market was busy when we arrived, and being huge it took us a few hours to cover, but when we left the place was absolutely packed! As a browsing/shopping experience We'd recommend this to anyone - it's just a great way to spend an evening mixing with locals and other travellers alike in a secure friendly atmosphere. And, of course, there are bargains to be had if you like haggling.

Finally, we visited Doi Suithep, a Buddhist Temple set high on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. Of course, Thailand is liberally dotted with temples and we'd already seen a few, but Chiang Mai is such a great place that we felt we couldn't leave without visiting one of it's most famous sites.

Here are a few images to give you a feel for the place:

Strangely, this place gave us the taste for visiting a few more historic temples; but where in the world would we find those...?

Wednesday 1 March

After the rigours of yesterday's trek to the Karen Village, we were pleased to learn that today would be all downhill. We were joined for this final leg by another couple - Shirin and Mike from New York - who thankfully were the same age as us and had roughly the same level of fitness! They also had a great sense of humour which made the going fun.

The walk down from the village was a comfortably paced two-and-a-half hours, with the heat dictating some much needed stops, one at (yet another) picturesque waterfall-cum-rockpool place.

Eventually we were pleased to reach a small hut selling cold drinks and snacks with a handpainted sign reading "Jungle 7-11". We knew that the actual 'trekking' part of our trek was over.

Next stop was at an elephant camp, reached by a somewhat rickety wooden suspension bridge over the river we had rafted down on the first day of the trek. This was our first close-up experience of elephants since South Africa, and this time we got to take a ride!

Again, we were slightly dubious about the treatment of the animals but in the end it seemed that they were happy enough; particularly when ours was allowed a bath in the river and didn't want to come out again...

The ride itself was pretty uncomfortable; the seat was rudimentary and as the elephant climbed up and down some fairly steep and rocky hillside paths it was all we could do to hang on! Luckily, Mike and Shirin volunteered to take some photos of us from their elephant and, all things considered, they did a pretty good job.

Feeling even more in need of a clean up than our elephant, we took a slow ride back to our hostel and after long, blissful hot showers, a trip to the laundry, a good meal and a few beers we sank once more into a soft bed in an air-conditioned room... oh yes, hardened travellers we are. Not.