Diving and Island hopping

The boat from Lembongan to Gili, wasnt the best ride although compared to the boat from Bali to Lembongan, it was luxury. We all piled into this tiny fisherman's boat which took us out of the bay to the real boat for the rest of the journey. It started off all ok, until we got right out to sea. Sooo so rocky, sar got given 3 sick bags just incase...We needed Rach's wristbands!
We arrived a couple of hours later in the boiling hot sun. The beach looked amazing!!! Gili was so quiet, no motorbikes or cars, just bicycles and horse and cart which was cool. With our bags we decided we would stay off the main strip where it would be even quieter. Luckily this Indonesian guy, Montana led us down the beaten track and to his bungalows which were really nice. We agreed a price and made ourselves at home. We were right out in the country nextdoor to all the locals, we had a hammock, and a garden and to top it off we had a kitten to play with! Ki-Ki....she was a cool cat!

The first thing we thought we'd do on our way to the beach was to look for a good diving place to book 2 dives with. I really wanted to do Shark Point as I had heard it was the best site to do, and we thought Manta Point would be cool, to possibly see a manta ray. We booked up to dive the next day and take a camera again with the 1st dive place we found. Later we were on our way to the beach and we passed another dive place, Gili Dives, ran by an English guy and a few english instructors who seemed really cool. It turns out the guy we were talking to (and later diving with) was from Bury and knew Jodie!! small world! He recommended another site where we would be guarenteed to see turtles. This had to be a definite!...We booked up with these for the next day and went back to cancel the first place.
We finally got to the beach around 4 which was a bit pointless, and soon headed back to get ready for tea. Both of us were not hungry at all, purely because nothing on any of their menu's are very appealing anymore...We are just craving a chippy or some real pub food, not noodles, or noodles topped with a fried egg or noodle soup!!



We had to be up and ready for our dive at 8.30am where we got all our equipment ready and headed on the boat to the site. We did shark point first which was cool, although we didn't see a shark, (well we didnt see much really as both our masks had fogged up which was annoying, we had to keep cleaning our masks underwater!! not the best thing you want to be doing!!haha) but we did see a LOT of turtles, and 1 was HUGE! his head was literally the size of mine and he just swam straight underneath us, it was amazing!! We also saw a cuttlefish which was strange, they look more like an octopus than a fish and they change colour etc with their surroundings.....really cool!!
Also as we had the camera we were snapping away, I took a picture of a triggerfish and the flash went off, which set him off....the next thing I knew he was coming for me...and they have MASSIVE teeth!!!
Although we could see a little bit as we kept clearing our masks it was really annoying and ruined the dive for us both, but we were looking forward to our next dive at 12
This time our masks were perfect (before you dive, spit in your mask! sounds sick but works) and we were down for almost an hour as it was a shallow dive. We saw Hawkbill turtles as well as green turtles :-)

We arranged to do another dive the next day, deciding on shark point again and this time we saw a shark which was really cool. The next day we decided to have a day off and lay on the beach ALLLL day! We had a great lazy day and ended up going to watch the Man Utd Vs Liverpool game which was a great game! Even Sar was getting into it by the end! Until Man Utd got the 3rd goal!!!
The next day we decided to do another dive, I decided to go to Deep Turbo which was amazing, it was like being in a different world, the coral was all unspoilt and sooo surreal!..and we saw another shark :-)..Sar went with Max to do Halik again and had the best dive in the world....63mins, and saw lots more turtles, the REAL nemos!! Morays, a banded seasnake (if you get bitten by 1 you're dead in 6 seconds!!!...luckily they only have teeth at the back of their jaw!) and lion fish...I was very jealous when she came back!
As we had done 4 dives they said our 5th would be half price so we planned to have 2 days on the beach and then do our last dive. However when it came round to it, max lauren and Jamie had gone and Dan was busy so we had a french girl take us, who was really cool in the end. We thought at first, it was going to be rubbish but we had fun.

The 2 days in between we lay on the beach allllll dayyy and it was wayyy hot!!! we burnt our noses yet again every day! every morning we would get breakfast, have a lombok coffee (so good...dont drink them in the evening though, you won't sleep!) and lay on the beach. That's where we stayed until around 4-5ish! We even got lunch as a takeaway so we could eat it on the beach and not move!! We rented out snorkels 1 day which was a lot of fun, even though we felt really ill after!. You swim about 15yards out and you see soooo much, we saw a turtle swimming around, barracuda and lots of Dories!!! That made Sar happy!! every dive we have never seen a Dorie and Sar had found them!
After 2 lazy days we had our last dive which was at 3, so we lay on the beach until then and then did the dive, it was around an old sunken wreck/pier which was awesome. Once we had done the dive and got back, we mentioned coming back around February and maybe doing our advanced, and they invited us to do an internship and do our divemaster course with them over the course of a few months which would be really cool!!!
1 More lazy day and we were off back to Bali for our flight to Sydney!! Originally we had planned to go to Gili Meno but we decided not to as we had heard there was nothing there! besides, Gili T had everything, a great beach, dive, snorkel and our bungalow was pretty cool! We had read Gili T was meant to be the party Island but it was dead every night! it was soooo quiet!!! which was definitely a good thing...
As for Ki-Ki, we couldn't get her out of our room the first few days and everytime we woke up and opened the door she would come running in.....after those few days we haven't found her!! Nor has her owner Montana which is a bit worrying!

Nearly 7 months travelling, covering India, Nepal, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia, we are ready to arrive in Australia and have a permanent home for a while! An amazing 7 months and now for leg 2 of the trip!....Bring it on Sydney...

Island hopping

After leaving Thailand with our Diving Licences in hand, we headed off to Bali to hit the beach and dive the sites for 3 weeks before we finally reach Sydney and start working...after nearly 7 months of travelling, I suppose it was time we started to do some sort of work!
We slept for a few hours on the comfy seats in the Bangkok airport, a lot comfier than the Delhi airport!! So we managed to actually get some sleep before we had to check in at 4am. It all went smoothly until we went through passport control. Ofcourse as we came from Laos into Thailand overland, we only had a 15day visa, we were leaving on our 17th day so we were pulled aside by an officer and had to fill in some forms and pay a 2day fine. No doubt we are now blacklisted and won't be allowed back in!!!haha



We sailed on through and caught our flight into Denpasar, Indonesia. We had been looking forward to returning back to Bali after our last trip. The first 5 days we spent on Kuta beach, Tourist central!! but that makes Kuta what it is in a way. Full of Australians left right and center, I guess Bali to them is like Spain to us. The weather was Sooooo hot and we did nothing but spend 5 days on the beach, deciding against surfing this time and thinking more about where to go to dive, especially with the famous Mola-Mola sunfish. Luckily for us it is in season for Mola-Mola's to be around the coast of Bali between July - October so fingers crossed we would be in luck. We also found 3 ridiculously cheap restaurants that were selling plates of fish and chips for just over £1 and local food, (1 day I had 2 whole catfish, chips and vegetables) for about 80p!! awesome stuff!!
Our accommodation was cheap but horrendous!! definitely the worst we have ever stayed in!! at night you could hear rats running around above the ceiling and when we told the owner he just looked and agreed as if it was no problem!haha fair enough. Although, the place was ok, the owners were friendly and they had a pet monkey who was really cool, we had made a friend!
After spending 5 days on the beach, our tans had suddenly picked up!...after 1 day we could tell the difference, the sun is so different here to the rest of SE Asia...Sar was really happy, now she could carry on working on her tan!

5 days was enough and we decided we had seen what we were interested in seeing here on our last trip when we went around the South of the island with James and Hayley who showed us the beautiful beaches, the Uluwatu temple, and the famous surf sites such as Dreamlands and Pedang Pedang. Although there are Volcanoes and mountain villages which would be cool, we had come here to chill out and do nothing but hit the beach and dive.
The next day we decided we would get a boat across to a tiny island called Nusa Lembongan, which had a site called Crystal Bay which is the site to go to if you really want a good chance of seeing a Mola-Mola. The boat ride was a public boat and took nearly 2 hours, it was horrible!! From start to finish it was rocking everywhere, it had 2 floats either side which I guess is used to stabilise the boat but the sea was wayyy too choppy for these to even remotely help!! Sar thought she was going to be sick on multiple occasions and she wasn't sitting next to the side, instead if she was going to be sick it would be all over me or the bags, or herself!!!hahah luckily she wasn't sick and just felt ill, for a while even when we had arrived.

We arrived and we met with beautiful sunshine and the bluest water we had ever seen, it was AMAZING! quite a few boats mind you but we had been warned by Lonely Planet, because of the local seaweed farms. The seaweed was a big industry here as we later found out, it is used for their ice-creams!! oo errr!
We walked along the seafront and tried to find a cheap room. This proved impossible and we had to settle at the end of the beach at a place where it was about £10 a night...A little bit priceier than we thought but we figured that must be the island as a whole compared to Kuta. although we were paying more the rooms were pretty big and impressive, no rats and really really clean, luxury in a way that it was similar to the standards of Rainbow in Pha-Ngan which is, GOOD!!
That day we headed straight to the diving centre and arranged a day to do 2 dives and hopfully see a Mola-Mola. I still had 2 days left where I wasn't allowed in the water or in the sun because of my tattoo so we arranged it for our 4th day there to be safe!
The beach was awesome, the waves and the surf was all set about 100yards out and from there to the shore it was really shallow and no waves....paradise. We still couldn't believe how blue it was and spent most of the day on the beach. We headed out for tea and had Barracuda which was pretty good although I think my plate was the 1 that some people next to us had turned away because it was overdone, so I guess they just brought it to me, it was nice nonetheless but not compared to Rach's in Tao!
The next day we moved rooms where we paid the same but had an even better room and a balcony! it was cool and owned by some Australians who were really friendly.
We spent the next couple of days on the beach, and didn't move apart from to get food, from where we were staying. They did the BEST fish and chips and at a good size too! lots of chips and lots of fish...perfect.
There's not much to tell for the next couple of days as we didn't move from the beach, I was finally allowed to swim, and so we sunbathed and sat in the sea all day and would watch the sunset in the evening before getting a quick shower and having tea.

Diving came around, and bright and early we were up and at the diving school for 9 o clock. We got all our equipment and checked the sizes before heading on the boat. We decided to rent a camera too to get some pictures. We were joined by a group of advanced divers and a group of open water divers. It turned out our group was me Sarah and the divemaster which was great news! the bad news was, we had been told before we got on the boat that we were going to Crystal Bay only to find out once we were on the boat and on our way that we weren't :( so our chances of seeing a Mola-mola were pretty slim, still we kept hope.
Our first dive site was called Buyuk, and it was amazing, we dropped down around 23m and saw a lot, massive schools of fish, huge fish, and the highlight, was a Shark!! We had seen a black tip shark! It was awesome, it was coming straight at us which sent the heart going, such an awesome feeling. We had the camera too so were snapping away while this shark was coming towards us. It soon lost interest and headed away. We then saw some lionfish which were pretty impressive and then headed up to the surface. Sar had found her new hobby, playing with the camera under water, keeping her occupied for the whole dive!!

Back on the boat and we got a free lunch (if you can call a handful of rice lunch) and had an hour wait until our next dive. We set off hoping to be at Crystal Bay but we stopped too soon so it was official, we weren't going! We stopped at a bay called Toyapakeh which was an interesting dive, the current was sooooo strong, so most of the dive we were just floating with the current which was cool until you get too far away from the coral and it becomes hard to control and you're in the full force of the current!! still quite fun but we had no control over how fast we went and struggled to look for fish. We did see some Nemo fish which were cool to play with and ofcourse we had the camera so were playing around with that. A good day but sadly no Mola-Mola's, but still 1 amazing dive and 1 strange dive and 400 pictures to go through when we got back!! It turned out that they didn't charge us for the camera so we got it for free!! that evening we had tea and were met by an Australian couple and a guy from Belgium who we chatted with. They were on our boat from the open water dive group. The Australians ran a caravan park in Rode, between Adelaide and Melbourne and invited us to come and visit over Christmas so that's an option!!
The next morning we had booked our boat to go and see the Gili Islands. We both didn't want to leave Lembongan but at the same time were excited to see the Gili's and do some more diving

Koh Samui and Bangkok

We could all agree that we didnt want to leave Koh Tao...especially Sairee Cottages and the beach, but we were and we were off to Koh Samui. Rach and Mike wanted to do some elephant trekking and we wanted to show them around the waterfalls. So off we set on the 'high speed' boat...it was a very fast boat that was for sure. We arrived there in under 2hours and luckily I slept the whole way, after our busy morning of diving :)

We were greeted by rain...as per usually on Koh Samui, but we jumped into a taxi and arrived at New Huts around 45minutes later. We settled in and once the rain had stopped took a walk into Lamai town centre to check out the food markets and shops. It was so quiet around the town, we had a stroll and bought a few things (no change there) and grabbed a bite or two to eat at the market. The food was scrummy. Mike and Dom even found McDonalds (MikeDomalds hahaha) and bought a few cheese burgers (they later did sample the TRIPLE cheeseburger and DOUBLE BigMac!!! Crikey) We later turned in for an early night after far too many early mornings.

The next day Rach and Mike had planned to go on an elephant trek, so while Dom and I sunbathed they went trekking. They came back 2 hours later with huge smiles on their faces saying that they had an amazing time. They fed their elephant 'beer' with bananas and got loads of snaps taken by their driver, which was cool!! Many pictures on there for Josie!! :)
To finish off the afternoon we rented 2 motorbikes out and took a whizz around to the mumified monk...it was a little strange as this mumified monk sits in a glass cabinet with raybans on!!...But we did get our monk bracelets and we set off again to go to Namung Waterfall.
We parked our bikes and began the 'hour' walk to the top...(it wasnt actually 1 hour but the staff at the bottom where telling us it was so we bought a ticket to get a ride up in a fancy truck) the wolfpack being troopers opted against this idea and took the hike! So almost half an hour later we arrived at the top, where you couldnt actually swim (that came later) but admired the 80m view. We took a few steps down and came to the swimming pool, where we all jumped in and had a swim (I especially jumped in as I was desperate for a wee), Rach had even bought her 'sea shoes' (very funny indeed) so while she took around 15minutes to put them on and get in...and also take all the pictures for us, we were ready to leave! hahaha!! Only joking. We stayed there for a while and when it got a little nippy we headed back to get on the bikes. So after a fuel stop at KFC...much needed I'm sure...we set back off to our huts to get a change of clothes, do a little packing ready to leave tomorrow and headed out for another whizz around to Chaweng Beach.

We went straight to the first bar and grabbed some drinks...luckily for us it was happy hour, so we had some yummy cocktails :) We did yet more shopping, where we drove a hard bargain and had a little walk through the town. It was a lot busier than Lamai...full of lady boys really, we had to turn down the Thai Boxing since they were charging over £20 per ticket :( but to make up for the loss we headed to McD!! Cheesy chips were on the menu as well as the huge burgers which the boys opted for, McDonalds impressed us more when we saw the Singha bar out front!! The night was drawing to a close so we headed back and did our final packing ready for Bangkok tomorrow!!

So we were checked out at 10am and after another little walk around...a few more buys :p ...our pickup came and we were off...Goodbye beaches :(
We were dropped off at the ferry pier, where we randomly got onto another coach and then boarded a ferry...we didnt quite realise it was a car ferry we were going on, it was different but nice, we were across the ocean within 1 and a half hours and we set off in the coach to Surat Thani. 1hour later we were told to get off and wait...luckily we were at a restuarant, which was kind of them. We got the Uno cards out, of course, and played a lot of games, we ordered food, lots of tea and played with the two kittens that lived there. 2hours after we were dropped off our VIP bus turned up. The bus was empty and only about 10 of us got on. We got front row seats for the films (well film...after Dom told them to turn it off after already watching it once, only for them to miss hear him and presume he wanted to go to bed at 9:15!! hahaha!! Night then!!)

3:30am we arrived in Bangkok...we did find a room for us all and hit the deck until 10 the next morning. We had a busy day of spending lots of money shopping, Dom was getting his tattoo and Rach, Mike and I were going to get a final Peddy :) Dom got his tattoo booked for 12:30 and while he waited we all went to get our pedicure...they were addictive. Mike even had a foot scrub again, but no polish. Dom's time was up and he was waiting for the guy to start, he had to lie on the bed face down through a small hole. It was funny as Mike photographed him while he was getting it done, his face was all scrunched up, but it was worth it in the end, it looked so good. In between Dom getting his tattoo Rach and I went and shopped, we bought A LOT!! But returned to meet the boys who thought they had deserved a beer...Dom had got a tattoo and Mike had got a pedicure (he thought he had better restore some dignity, he did this by downing his beer) We grabbed a bite to eat before booking a taxi for Rach and Mike to get to the airport, we had a final drink and a few games on Uno and before we knew it, it was time to say our goodbyes :(
The wolfpack would be split in half, so it was an emotional goodbye, I cried after they left, off they went in their taxi to the airport....hopefully we would be back as a pack soon...Thailand in February?? Yeaaaahhhhhhhhhhh :)

Diving Adventures in Koh Tao

Sorry for the halt in blogs...Rachel Marie Wain and Michael Graham Humphreys are responsible for coming out to meet us and having too much fun to even think about the blog!

While we were waiting for our boat to Tao, we got chatting to a guy about Crystal dive resort. We could get a good deal as well as 2 rooms on the same site at the beach we wanted. once we arrived (Rach and Sar had survived the boat trip!...thanks to those wristbands!!haha) we were escorted to Crystal. It turns out there were no spare rooms on Sairee beach so we had to spend a night at mae haad and then move to Sairee the next day. We werent very happy about this as the only reason we picked Crystal was because the guy on the boat had guarenteed us a room. They decided to tell us once we had paid for our diving so we had to stay with them.
The beach itself wasnt too bad, it was just on the boat port, and not where we wanted to be. We had already had a poop morning with the passports so we werent in the best mood. Mike especially wasnt, after waiting all morning to get the passports and then to arrive on Tao and hear the bad news!! We made it clear that if we couldn't get a room at Sairee beach then we wanted a refund...we werent asking anymore, we were telling them!! haha...I think this got through to them and by the end of the day they were promising us rooms. We had even gone to Sairee Beach that evening, to eat at Sairee cottages...sooooo goood!! and stopped off at the Crystal resort on the beach to make sure we would get first pickings by speaking to their manager!...All seems a little extreme looking back, but we got what we wanted in the end!! hahaha!

The next morning we were ready at 10am to check out, and we had 2 rooms confirmed at Sairee beach :) WOOHOOO!!! we got some breakfast and then got a free taxi to the other resort. The rooms were bungalows which was good, but still no Rainbow on Pha-Ngan!! they would do, for free...Me and Sar had to get a taxi (free again) back to the other Crystal as that was where all the diving happened. Yep every day I had to get a taxi there and a taxi back in the evening...a bit tedious but we were on the good beach!!
We got some bad news when we arrived, all psyched up and excited to be doing our diving, only for Sar to be told she wasn't allowed. She admitted she had fainted in the past 6months and their medical guy said she wouldn't be able to dive for atleast 5 years!!haha! So Sar got another free taxi back to meet Mike and Rach on the beach.
That put a downer on the day and I really didn't want to be there. I wasn't allowed a refund as there was no medical complications so if I backed out to do it elsewhere with Sar, I would be throwing my money away, whereas Sar got a full refund so could look elsewhere on Sairee beach. It didn't help that the rest of the afternoon I was stuck in a classroom surrounded by french people watching videos and answering questions about what we had just watched (yep exactly like being at school again! not good!...6months of no work or anything so this came as a BIG shock!)....the other 3 had it easy just sunbathing on the beach....and to rub it in, when I got back at 6, I got a little message in the door saying they were having cocktails on the beach!! a hard day for them aswell hey!!..I joined for a beer.
We had an amazing evening, me and Mike went onto another bar to watch the grand prix and have a few changs while the girls got ready. We ate at the usual, Sairee cottages and got there in happy hour, ordering beer and kebabs. The girls went crazy and had a whole Snapper to share and 2 of the biggest prawns they could find!...So GOOD!!!
The next day I went off at 8 o clock to my class!! today we got split up into our groups of 6 and spent the day with our instructor. In my group were 2 guys from Birmingham, Matt and Tom, 2 french guys, Gary and Mikael and a girl Inbal from Israel. Our instructor was from New Zealand and his very original nickname was Kiwi..what a guy! He seemed a bit of a headcase, telling us how he fights with triggerfish by kicking them in the head and is MAD about sharks, which I guess is good for an instructor. So enthusiastic....at 8am I wasn't feeling the enthusiasm and as we were still doing theory all morning I wasn't going to! All afternoon we got the gear on and hit the swimming pool....at first I didn't like it, the beathing underwater was SO loud and I didn't feel comfortable, but it was ok! once we had done skills (such as taking your mask off underwater and putting it back on, breathing without your air supply etc) I was loving it! I left with some enthusiasm at last!! I couldn't wait to get in the ocean the next day...although my diving partner was Gary, a french guy...and a hero!! haha purely because he was either always lost in translation or didn't listen! He never quite knew what we were doing and I knew if I needed his help in the ocean I was screwed!



I came home really excited but didn't want to rub it in to Sar how much she was missing out so I said it was alright, told her about my day and then asked how hers was, on the beach all day!...Sar pulls out her PADI book and it turns out she went and got on a course at Sairee Cottages with 1 on 1 tuition!! I couldn't believe it! great news!! we were both finally doing what we had come to Tao to do, just unfortunatley not together!! Mike and Rach moved to Sairee Cottages as we no longer had 2 free rooms, and they were loving it aswell so everyone was happy....another great meal and evening followed.
The next day me and Sar both went diving into the ocean to do our dives, I did my first 2 dives, Sar did her 'confined water session' which was basically a dive and another dive. Rach and Mike also were off to snorkel around the island including shark bay. By the end of the day we were all on a high! The diving was AMAZING. As soon as we finished a dive I just wanted to get back in and explore to find different fish. The coral was so colourful and there were soooo many fish, 1 minute I would find myself in the middle of a school of fish!. Kiwi pointed out a triggerfish but luckily it wasn't mad so no fights were needed. Also we saw a spotted stingray which was awesome!
We did some skills 1 at a time, such as switching to our alternate reg, and breathing underwater etc.Just after we had got in from our 2nd dive, an instructor said there was a turtle and if you want to jump in and see it do so. We all jumped in but missed it by a minute!...DAM!! When we all got back, I headed to Sarie beach to find Sar and the others to hear about their day. Everyone had had an amazing day, Sar couldn't wait to get back in a dive the following day. Rach was adamant she wasn't going to eat and was going to be sick after the boat back!...2 hours later we did go for tea, and Rach had the biggest meal in the world!!haha



Our last day diving was cool, the first dive, Gary went off and we couldn't find him for a while! he was at the surface waiting!hah...the 2nd we had a videographer following us for the last dive, which caught us jumping in backwards etc. It also caught us doing forward roles and backwards roles underwater! this was all well and good until I attempted a backwards role and faceplanted the coral!...looked around and the camera was next to me! sweet!! After the 2 dives, we were officially qualified open water divers!! what a feeling!! I just wanted to go back and do it all again. I met the others and Sar felt the same, she wanted to dive again especially after seeing a turtle and swimming with nemo, How amazing! i was sooo jealous but hopfully in Bali we would see some more!! So we managed to set up 2 more dives for the morning before we got our boat to Samui. This way we could dive together, be buddies!!haha...That night me and mike went back to Crystal to watch the video of my group diving, and had a few drinks. By the time it was all over, we got back a bit later than expected, around 9. We picked the girls up and met the others from my group at a bar for a quick drink. Up at 5.30 the next morning a bit worse for wear, we got on the boat for 6.15 to go and do our 30m dive!! The deep water dive!...where we would see real fish!...It was amazing, we were on the seabed at 28m! it was so cool to look up and just see blue!...fish swimming above you!..The best feeling in the world, better than a skydive, paragliding or anything I've ever done. Swimming around and we saw a few box fish, stingrays, unicornfish, batfish, oh and just the 400lb grouper fish! he was HUGE!!! his mouth must have been atleast a metre wide!! awesome! before we knew it, it was over and we had our 2nd dive, at 16m which was a lot of fun, before heading back and catching the boat to Samui.

Thailand, Koh Phangan and Bangkok

So our two week stint in Thailand had come around wayyy too quick, and after 5 and a half months of being away from home, we had our first visitors :) YAYY. Rach and Mike were meeting us in Bangkok and after about an hour of waiting and some dodgy directions we met them on Khoa San Road. It was soo great to see them...finally some familiar faces.

We set our bags down and made our way to the main street to grab a Pad Thai...as this had been the main talking point for some time prior tho the trip ("Its a fruit" hahaha). I think everyone throughoughly enjoyed the street food, even Rach, who wasnt too keen, as she didnt want to upset her stomach!! haha! We spent the rest of the night drinking from the famous Chang Beer towers (although Dom and Mike got San Miguel as there was no Chang lady) and eating banana and chocolate pancakes :)
The following day we had some free time on our hands before we had to make our way on the overnight bus to Koh Phangan, so we treated ourselves to a fish eating spa...extremley strange, definitely not theraputic, but our feet felt great afterwards...well Dom's especially, ALL the fish enjoyed nibbling on his feet a little too much. We obviously had to top that off with a pedicure...even Mike. Dom wasnt too keen on the idea, Im not sure why, as it was sooo good!! So our feet were neatly cleaned and painted with small little flowers on too and now we were ready to shop!!!..well Mike didn't finish it off with a pretty little flower...Although it would have looked good!

We definitely shopped for the rest of the day...Rach and Mike probably spent the majority of their money...only joking!! They did buy a lot though throughout the whole 2weeks!! hahah. We hung around until 6pm when our bus was due to pick us up...Thailand being Thailand obviously it was late. We had to wait until 7:00 for the bus to turn up but we couldnt complain after only actually paying for 2 tickets, not 4, after the lady didnt count our money properley and Dom had actually short changed her by 500baht...£10!! hahaha.

So after a pretty sleepless night, two rubbish films...Independance Day being one...a lot of games of uno, a million bags of crisps, a VIP bus, a local bus, a mini bus, a boat and a tuk tuk we arrived in Koh Phangan Rainbow cottages at around mid-day!! The place was amazing, we were definitely spoilt by this one. The rooms were little bungalows in an amazing garden, right next to the beach....which was basically our own beach as no one else was there. It was heaven. We threw our bags in the rooms, grabbed some lunch, which again was beautiful, and ran straight into the sea. It was like a bath, we had to wade out quite far to get some depth and even then we were still only knee deep. But we couldnt complain, the sun was beaming and we were in the middle of Thailand :)

The next few days were spent sunbathing, eating lots of food, playing beach ball with the owners two dogs, Max and Roly (who Rach had willingly adopted for 4 days), playing Jenga and drinking Chang and milk....(not in that order) ..mmmm. It wasnt until the Full Moon party that we got dressed up and opened our cheap (75p) bottles of whiskey from Laos...the drink was suprisingly nice. We painted ourselves in neon colours and got our raving clothes on ready to experience the full moon!! We arrived around midnight and stepped out of our taxi to be greeted by a girl throwing up all over herself...lovely sight as you can imagine. We headed to the beach and took lots of snaps of our raving gear under the UV lights!! There was a huge mix of all different music kind of mixed into one, from one bar to the next. Everyone seemed to be wasted, we must have been late starters beginning to drink at 7pm, it was fun though. We had a bucket on the beach, while trying to avoid the drunken stumblers from falling over us. It was one of those moments where you could laugh at every single drunk person who walked past because they were all a mess!! Before we left we got some chips...it felt like we were in huddersfield again hahah, and headed back to get a taxi. Mike and Dom had other plans and finished the bottle of whiskey off back at the bungalows,staying up until 7am!! They were definitely the ones who were rough in the morning. hahaha!!

We had a few days left and rented some mopeds out, we took Rach and Mike to Koh Ma beach, where one strip of sand connected one island to another, it was soo amazing. The weather, yet again, was beautiful and we decided to rent out snorkels. The coral reefs were so coool, we swam around for about 1 hour looking at so many differnet fish. This definitely got me excited for scuba diving!! Rach and Mike had gone to get a aloe vera massage on the beach since they had burnt themselves for the last 3days while me and Dom sunbathed. We headed back around 6 just before the sunset and had amazing views over the island on the windy roads back to the hotel.

We were ready to leave the next day for Koh Tao...yayyyy!! and after attempting to give the bikes back to the lady who rented them out to us, the boys realised that her shop wasnt open, we stayed as long as we could before we had to be at the boat jetty and Mike opted to stay to collect the passports while me, Rach and Dom got the boat to Tao (turtle island)...we thought the lady had done a runner, as she charged two girls at our hotel £500 for falling off their bikes!! haha...apparently she had gone on holiday though.

So off we went to our second island...my favourite out of them all...Sairee beach here we come :)

Vang Vieng - Tudding (Rachel wain's reference to tubing)

We arrived from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng at 3ish with the eye(s) infection still intact, in the pouring rain. Possibly the most bizarre bus journey we have had yet. Our bus stopped off at a streetside restaurant for some lunch which was fair enough. As we got back on the bus to carry on, they decided the bus would stop there for good!..sure
That meant about 15 of us had to squeeze onto another bus which had 2 spare seats! 1 at the back in the middle of the 'boyz' (locals) and another well, half a seat next to some, how shall we put it....large Lao who wasn't going to make any effort to make space!...Luckily as we were first on we claimed those 'good' seats and the rest sta on plastic stools in the aisle way. Chickens and everything were on this bus, sqwarking every bump of the way and as I volunteered to take the middle seat on the back row... 1 of them slept on my shoulder the whole way....a little bit strange!
Anyway, we had arrived in the rain which meant getting on a tuk-tuk and heading to the centre of town, what a shock from 2 years ago!! Last time there was about 1 tarmaced street and the rest were dirt tracks. Vang Vieng had become this modern tourist town full of typical English f-ing and blinding every second. The only thing that was still recogniseable there was the Family Guy and Friends cafes (although there was about 10,000,000 showing these shows now). The only good thing that has come of the sudden tourism overload is the surrounding countryside...Still as amazing as we remember and this time we decided we would get away from all the tourists and head off on foot (ofcourse) away from the town to a nearby cave across the river.



We had 3 full days in Vang Vieng; the first consisted of us arriving and deciding how to spend the other 2 days, while we walked around, stopping off for pancakes and baguettes and before long we ended up watching family guy and having a pineapple shake and a beer Lao. We had found the cheapest cafe in the word with the most amazing food! 10,000kip for each meal, and I never thought I would say this but I found my new favourite dish that beats a Pad Thai...a Pad Lao (Original I know). It literally was a Pad Thai but with curry sauce on it....and the curry sauce was just like the 1 in the Golden Fry chip shop! We have been craving a chippy for 6 months now and the closest we got was that taste of curry sauce....soooooo good!



On our first day we contemplated going tubing but based this on the state of Sar's eye(s)....a slight improvement but decided it would be best to go the following day with hope that her eyes will have cleared up by then! (no chance, we are now 2weeks into our stay in Thailand and they're still there :-(). Instead we thought we would go for a walk to a cave, an apparent ex hideout from the Chinese. About a 20min walk away from the town and crossing the river via a suspension bridge we arrived. Just outside from the grounds of the cave were some springs, turquoise water - a dip was a definite, for free too! after a cool off we got into the grounds of the cave and were greeted by about 100 huuuge steps up a mountain where the cave was! Sar wasn't too happy!haha (usually I don't tell her if there is a climb in advance and she finds out as we arrive...that way it's too late to turn around! :-p).
Nevertheless the cave was pretty impressive, although a little bit flooded, but offered some amazing views of the cool surrounding landscape, the original draw to Vang Vieng. We headed back after another stop in the springs and got some lunch, another Pad Lao and a banana pancake!
The rest of the day was spent looking for an appropriate tubing vest for Sar to wear the next day whilst tubing. We were successful, and looking forward to the next day.



Tubing came around quickly and luckily it was amazing sunshine, a beautiful day AND Sar's eyes were looking better than the previous day. After grabbing a tuna baguette we headed down to the tubing station, got our tubes and were on the tuk-tuk to the drop-off point. Sar made some friends with 2 girls and their mum all safe in a life-jacket!! (just the place to take your mother!!) who were intrigued about the state of her eyes!
We decided to stop off at the first bar, with a slide and a good way to start it off!...sadly the girls and their mum didn't stop with us...
We had a beer, and a shot of lao lao before giving the slide a go and heading to the next bar. Floating down the river was pretty scary, the current was flowing wayyyyy fast! (Sar's comment: I like tubing but hate the actualy tubing part!!) we were pulled in by a bottle tied on the end of some rope and were at the 2nd bar. This bar we knew all too well, from our previous trip this was the first bar. After nailing another beer and a few more shots, I decided to climb a tree to the rope swing and let go at the highest point, landing on my testicles....OUCH! although I put on a brave face until I was sat next to Sar!...still it was worth it
On leaving that bar we bumped into a fellow Bollywood star, Jessy who was an extra with us....turns out he is now working in Vang Vieng for a bar...small world (he comes running after us, hey do I know you? nope sorry...oh wait a minute!, bollywood!...yeah you were the waiter guy!...ofcourse!)
We arrived at the next bar after floating about 5 yards to find out they were connected to the previous bar and we could have walked...ah well. This bar we decided to hit the Whiskey buckets and have another Lao Lao shot! good times. We got talking to 2 Australians, Bodee and Lauren. They were leaving Australia for 2 years to go and work in England, so we got talking about each others travels and decided to move on to the next bar.
Back in the tubes for a little bit longer and we stopped at a bar giving away free whiskey shots, free whiskey buckets, AND they had about 5 puppies which were the cutest dogs in the world! they all hid under the floorboards though but we managed to drag them out! Sar spent the rest of the time with the dogs and me and Bodee hit the free whiskey....The next bar we had a go at some mud volleyball but were seriously bad at it, I didn't get a touch so had a premature exit! Sar had met 3 girls who were also in love with the puppies and it turns out they were from Chester!!...so ofcourse they had lots to talk about!
The next bar had a massive slide which was AWESOME and then we hit the last bar....we stayed for about 5mins realising that we had about 10 mins to get back for 6, to get our deposit back!
By the time the girls were up and going, I had just got back with a full whiskey bucket. Deciding not to waste it I attempted to get on my tractor tubing and float down the river drinking it. The river went on for a bit longer than expected and Sar and the girls were out of sight. Struggling to get off my tube, swim with it and drink the bucket I lost my ray bans in the process....In saying that I arrived around 6.20pm and managed to still get my deposit back! YAY!

We arranged to meet the girls and the Australians for tea and then called it a night. A heavy day but a lot of fun!!
The next day we had a bus back to Vientiane where we stayed for a day and then caught the night bus to Bangkok where we would meet Rach and Mike!...
Laos was awesome! and we were eager to get to our beloved Thailand and Khao San Road!!!