Just to offer some clarification to folks at home, we're no longer in Bangkok [as of last night], and are now enjoying a quiet life in Phuket courtesy of Rik's Dad, Pete.
We heard about the Grenade attacks, but the most we have to contend with for the next few weeks is sun-burn. Hopefully catch some of you on Skype over the next few weeks.
James and Miranda
Showing posts with label thailand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thailand. Show all posts
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Bangkok to Laos
Tomorrow we're leaving Bangkok, and it's definitely city I would recommend, and come back to. We spent four nights here at the Cha Da hotel, which for 25 sterling a night was excellent value, given the quality - we've done our best to avoid the touristy Khao San Rd, and thankfully as a consequence haven't seen many Euro/US faces out our way.
The best thing about Bangkok for me, is the availability of good cheap (often street) food, and if you avoid the tourist traps you can eat for 30/40 baht (50-70p). If you don't like spicy food, you're likely to go hungry, but I haven't really had a bad meal, or experience (anywhere) from eating where the locals eat... on the street!
The people here are also pretty friendly from what we can gather, hopefully that's a trait that will continue in the final stages of our trip. The city itself is big, much like London, and houses around 8 million heads. Actually, the only real annoyance here we've found are the greedy Taxi drivers. Being good travelers, we read up before we arrived, and knew the Taxi's were good value - providing they switched the meter on. Most of them however, try and agree an 'off the meter special price', which in my reckoning is usually 100% more than the fare if you had them use the meter rate... most of them either just drive off when you say meter, or as we found last night at the Banyan Tree hotel (we visited the Moon Vertigo bar, 59 floors up) agreed the meter to the concierge then didn't switch it on, assuming we'd roll with whatever price he decided when we arrived - at which point, I opened the door, and politely slammed the door for him 100 yards down the road, ahole.
Everything works pretty well here logistically, you have the Metro, the Skytrain (monorail), Taxi, Boats (river & canal), and the 'special price' Tuktuk (see above). As I said, it's definitely somewhere to look at visiting, and if we had more time I'd spend it in northern Thailand, and not the busier southern islands, hopefully on return to Bangkok we can take a look at Ko Chang/Ko Mak and discover more of rural Thailand, if it still exists!
Anyway, tickets booked, hopefully speak to you in Laos!
The best thing about Bangkok for me, is the availability of good cheap (often street) food, and if you avoid the tourist traps you can eat for 30/40 baht (50-70p). If you don't like spicy food, you're likely to go hungry, but I haven't really had a bad meal, or experience (anywhere) from eating where the locals eat... on the street!
The people here are also pretty friendly from what we can gather, hopefully that's a trait that will continue in the final stages of our trip. The city itself is big, much like London, and houses around 8 million heads. Actually, the only real annoyance here we've found are the greedy Taxi drivers. Being good travelers, we read up before we arrived, and knew the Taxi's were good value - providing they switched the meter on. Most of them however, try and agree an 'off the meter special price', which in my reckoning is usually 100% more than the fare if you had them use the meter rate... most of them either just drive off when you say meter, or as we found last night at the Banyan Tree hotel (we visited the Moon Vertigo bar, 59 floors up) agreed the meter to the concierge then didn't switch it on, assuming we'd roll with whatever price he decided when we arrived - at which point, I opened the door, and politely slammed the door for him 100 yards down the road, ahole.
Everything works pretty well here logistically, you have the Metro, the Skytrain (monorail), Taxi, Boats (river & canal), and the 'special price' Tuktuk (see above). As I said, it's definitely somewhere to look at visiting, and if we had more time I'd spend it in northern Thailand, and not the busier southern islands, hopefully on return to Bangkok we can take a look at Ko Chang/Ko Mak and discover more of rural Thailand, if it still exists!
Anyway, tickets booked, hopefully speak to you in Laos!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Update!
Well it's our last night tonight on our little island heaven. Tomorrow we head off in the morning on a new adventure, destination? Bangkok. We're planning I guess to be there for 2/3 nights, as we really need to cover some miles over the next few weeks.
There could also be a change of plan, heading instead to Loas, before Vietnam. We're meeting Rik and Rachel out there in Ha Noi on March 29th, so it makes better sense!
In other news, I'm now also an Advanced Openwater diver, good for 30m, with some additions like night diving, and wreck diving. I'll leave it at that for now, as Miranda is fast becoming a dive widow :o)
Bye for now, J&M
There could also be a change of plan, heading instead to Loas, before Vietnam. We're meeting Rik and Rachel out there in Ha Noi on March 29th, so it makes better sense!
In other news, I'm now also an Advanced Openwater diver, good for 30m, with some additions like night diving, and wreck diving. I'll leave it at that for now, as Miranda is fast becoming a dive widow :o)
Bye for now, J&M
Monday, March 8, 2010
Diver James
Just a quick post to say I'm now a qualified diver, yey! Had some great dives today over on Phi Phi (Koh Bida), I've been lucky enough in the last two days to see Black Tip Reef Sharks, Kuhl Stingrays, Pharaoh Cuttlefish, Seahorses, Trivally... actually hundred's of species of marine life.
Back to our plans, well, we've just booked to go to Koh Tao (Turtle Island) on the East side of Thailand, the South China Sea. There I'll hopefully get a chance to log my 5th dive and Miranda will get the chance to do some apparently excellent snorkeling. From there, we really need to get a move on and head up towards Bangkok, preparing for our departure for Cambodia - curiously, having arrived on a boat from Langkawi, you only get a 15 day entry to Thailand, instead of the normal 30 day via an airport, though you can come back in and get it re-stamped if you can be bothered, or pay.
Bye for now!
Back to our plans, well, we've just booked to go to Koh Tao (Turtle Island) on the East side of Thailand, the South China Sea. There I'll hopefully get a chance to log my 5th dive and Miranda will get the chance to do some apparently excellent snorkeling. From there, we really need to get a move on and head up towards Bangkok, preparing for our departure for Cambodia - curiously, having arrived on a boat from Langkawi, you only get a 15 day entry to Thailand, instead of the normal 30 day via an airport, though you can come back in and get it re-stamped if you can be bothered, or pay.
Bye for now!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Langkawi to Ao Nang
Langkawi is a small island up on the Northern tip of Malaysia, to it's West and sits in the Andaman Sea. We spent I think 4 days there at the Lankasuka Resort, and would recommend it as a budget choice without hesitation, around 28 sterling a night for a huge (biggest room I've ever stayed in) premium king including breakfast.
Sadly, and much to my dismay you couldn't use it's seafront due to Jellyfish warning signs - we never actually saw one - and to be honest it's not the thought of being stung that would bother me... I'm just not sure I want to give Miranda an excuse to use her Shewee on me from great high, actually, I can see her smirking face now! You'll hopefully have taken a look at the beach sunset shots of the palm shacks, and writing in the sand , it was a nice beach.
We hired a car on the last day, the dodgiest/best car I've ever hired, depending on how you look at it. I walked down to the airport, basically with 100 RM (17ish sterling), my photo ID and license, it wasn't until I'd bartered them on the price and settled a deal that I realised I'd picked up Miranda's photo ID. Fearing I was onto a loser, I carried on with it anyway and just produced my counterpart (paper bit), she glanced at it, and gave me the key... So there I was, Toyota Vios, 17 pounds for the day, zero deposit (no card swipe) and asked to just park it at the agreed location (the other side of the island), leaving the car open, and the keys under the floor mat.
Anyway, the car worked out really nicely. We did a decent lap of the island, stumbled on the bustling market you saw in the photos (the one with the food that non of you liked), and then watched the sun set at Pentai Cenang beach, and after some Chicken Satay and a badly mixed cocktail headed back to the ranch for our last night.
We departed from the Kuah Town jetty, bound this time for Thailand via the port town of Satun. Arriving there we got the (pimped out) bus directly to Krabi, and from there a collectivo of sorts to Ao Nang, from where I'm writing this.
Ao Nang, well it's Ibiza town/Magaluf kind of affair, lots English, everyone hassling for you to grab a taxi that you don't need, to buy some chince from them, to eat at their restaurant. But actually once you come to terms with the place being touristy, commercial and lively, it's not as bad as it first seems. With that said, if it weren't so well located for getting to the islands of Phi Phi Don/Leh, James Bond Island and Phuket, we'd have more than likely moved on to somewhere nicer. The other draw are the beaches, Ao Nang's is fine, but a longtail boat can get you to Rai Leh (West), Phra Nang, Ton Sai in a matter of 5-10 minutes... so like I said, it's easy to get places from here.
One of my personal goals of Thailand was to get my diving certification, and yesterday after visiting every dive shop in town decided on doing it with a UK fronted firm called Scuba Addicts (established for 6 years, unlike a few of the newer outfits). I enrolled on a 3 day SSI (not PADI, equally respected, though less known) course, and today was my first day. So after spending about 4 hours reading yesterday, today I was back at school, and learning new things in the classroom and swimming pool (24 skills). Tomorrow, I'm going on my first outing to the local islands, and the following day have a day diving at Phi Phi and the exam. All being well, I'll be a qualified SSI Open Water diver, certified to a depth of 18m by the start of the new week. Unfortunately, Miranda decided against it, largely I think due to her concerns over Asthma (which can kill you underwater), and her cold which was still lingering in her inner ear/sinuses over the last week - I'm sure they'll be other occasions if she were to change her mind in the future.
With that said, I reckon she'll be happy with Thai guys pouring attention over her on the beach as she reads her new book, and trying to rival my (mediocre) tan.
Anyway, just a quick update, hope you're all well and good. We'll see you in 6 weeks (sweet baby jesus) and 2 days... I look forward to Miranda supporting my lifestyle as a professional Diver/Playboy/Skydiving/IT Geek for the weeks after we return, bless her!
See you soon!
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