Railay - 5th November

Meeting up with our competitors was the next big thing, yes our Bed Jumping competitors. We have engaged (well actually Nat was the one to start this one off!) into a bed jumping competition with Jade and Mary who are also travelling along the same kind of route as us. We only met Mary once and do not yet know Jade but have a common friend back in London! Bed Jumping has an online competition happening, it consists in taking a picture of the best bed jump (website). 2 pictures have already been submitted by each team and sorry to say, be WE are “-2” down! But hopes up there are several rounds to go!  Should you wish to back us up and send in “Bed Jump” pictures to support us, please post these on our facebook wall. 

We met up with Jade and Mary on Railay Beach, little paradise beach according to Lonely Planet! Did the backpacker thing of minimising costs and hence crammed into a room, 4 of us! We were then made our way to the beach, (West Railay Beach as East Beach is crap), performed a Baywatch spoof for Jade and Mary who had requested this from us to add to their Video…and enjoyed a great evening at the Last Bar which offered cheap cocktails (Sophie’s Pina Colada seemed like pure alcohol!), cheap food and good entertainment, including one American girl who had decided to drink literally buckets of alcohol, strip down to be undies and dance around the boxing ring. 

We ended up drinking horrible shooters as a punishment of having lost a pool game!

Railay - 5 Novembre

Rencontre avec nos adversaires de saut de lit ! Nous avons commencé une competition avec Jade et Mary (Nat en a été l'initiatrice...) Jade et Mary font également un tour du monde et sont en ce moment en Asie. Nous avons une amie en commun a Londres qui nous a mis en contact. La competition de saut de lit consiste a envoyer une photo par semaine via Facebook a notre juge Louise. 2 photos ont deja été soumises et malheureusement, nous avons perdu es deux premieres manches...
Nous avons encore de l'espoir! Vous etes tous les bienvenus si vous souhaitez participer ! Nous attondons vos photos sur Facebook.
Nous avons enfin rencontré Jade et Mary a Railay, petite plage récluse avec quelques hotels de luxe du coté ouest et des hébergements beaucoup plus basiques a l'est. Nous avons fini les 4 dans la meme chambre ce qui nous a permis d'économiser un max! 

Jade et Mary nous on demandé de cloturer leur film par une séquence d'alerte a Malibu, Nathalie dans le role de Pamela Anderson et Sophie dans le role de la noyee... Nous avons ensuite passe la soiree au last bar ou nos cocktails semblaient etre de l'alcool pur... En plus de ces cocktails, notre défaite lamentable au billard nous a obliger a poir un shot de whisky thailandais... A ne pas recommander !!!

1st round - Bed Jumping

 2nd round - Bed Jumping

    

 

Koh Lanta – 1st to 4th November

Next island we decided to discover was Koh Lanta! After 2 minibuses and 2 car ferries, we finally got to our resort. Our driver had decided to earn a little extra pocket money by picking up and delivering about 5 different parcels along the way, so our trip seemed to be “extended”.

Our time in Koh Lanta was spent chilling at the pristine white sand beaches, riding a scooter (for the first time ever!), spending sunset at the Rocky bar, sipping Singha beer or enjoying one cocktail! (only). The splendour about the resort’s beach is that it was a “moving” beach… you know how usually you pick up shells on the beach, say “whoooo how nice is that one”, feel pride and pop it in your pocket, take it back home and finally throw it out when you find yourself next clearing out your belongings! Well you would not have done this with these shell as the animals were all still in the shell! I, (Nat), would typically pick one up, tease it for it to pop it’s head out and then shout and panic and throw it back on the floor as soon as it would! Haha!... ’She ain’t selling sea shells sh*****g on the sea shore… she’s not even picking em up!’

We also met a canadian/thai couple (Ople & Patrick), ended up dining together and tasting an array of traditional dishes! Loved it!.

Our sleep that night was somewhat disrupted by a little unknown guest who had decided to enjoy the sugar on the biscuit wrapper that Soph had thrown in the bin, but hence revealing himself when the “moving plastic bag” sound alerted me and I straight away moved the bin outside the bungalow! All in all Koh Lanta is a quiet island but lovely to chillax!

Koh Lanta - 1er au 4 Novembre

A la découverte de Koh Lanta ! Apres 2 minibus, 2 ferry nous sommes arrivées à notre hôtel. Notre chauffeur semblait avoir une nouvelle vocation.. Postier ! Colis récuperés sur la route puis déposés un peu plus loin, il a dû s’arrêter 10 fois en tout, ce qui a considérablement allongé le temps de notre trajet !!

On a passé notre temps à Koh Lanta sur les plages de sable blanc,  parcourir l'ile en scooter (Youhou 1ere fois !), se détendre au Rocky Bar au bord de l'eau à notre hôtel pour profiter des couchés de soleil.
Nathalie n'étant pas de la mer fut émerveillée et terrifiée par les coquillages qui avaient encore des habitants et parcouraient le long des plages. Nous avons rencontré un couple de Canadien qui nous ont gentiment invoté à diner et nous ont fait déecouvrir plein de nouveaux plats thailandais. Notre nuit a été un peu écourtée par un intrus qui avait décidé de finir les miettes de gateaux dans la poubelle. Alertée par le bruit du plastique, Nat s'est empressée de sortir la poubelle hors du bungalow. Mieux vaut ne pas savoir quel insecte se régalait...
Koh Lanta est une ile tres calme et encore peu développée, parfait pour quelques jours de détente...

Koh Phi Phi to Ao-Nang

From Koh Phi Phi to...

Ao Nang which is an area within the Krabi Povince. We arrived there and checked into a Best Western (luxury hotel for us) to make the most of the 4 days left of ‘Low season’ and hence low cost accommodation before the 1^st of Novembre prices kicked in! Happy to have our pad for four days, we made of this little Beach town, our own… sending our laundry in to be washed/dried and amazingly folded or rolled.. check out our pants!, for only £2. We walked through the streets, packed with fluorescent ‘I love Krabi T Shirts’, ‘cheap cheap, good price’ snorkelling masks which we managed to negotiate well to then find out the mask was indeed soo cheap it was letting all the water in!! 

De Koh Phi Phi à ...

Ao Nang ville balnéaire de la Province de Krabi. Nous sommes arrivées à notre hôtel Best Western (grand luxe pour nous) afin de profiter des 4 derniers jours de basse saison avant que les prix ne soient doublés dès le 1er novembre.

Nous avons fait de cette petite ville notre maison pour quelques jours, on a donné tous nos vêtements à laver et on les a récupéré repassés, et parfaitement pliés le tout pour £2. Un peu de shopping, débardeurs aux couleurs fluo 'I love Krabi', pas cher pas cher, même les masques de plongée étaient donnés mais on a vite compris pourquoi.... le masque était permeable !

Koh Phi Phi island

After 2 days of Patong beach (more than enough) we took a ferry boat from Phuket town towards Koh Phi Phi island. A 2 hours journey which we spent chatting with french Canadian couple whilst the rest of the boat looked like human wreck soaking up the sun on the deck, sobering up from the night before. 

***

Apres 2 jours à la plage de Patong (plus qu’assez) nous avons pris un ferry en direction de l’ile de Koh Phi Phi. 2 heures de transfert que nous avons passé à discuter avec un couple de québécois pendant que le reste du bateau faisait bronzette sur le pont tentant de décuver de la nuit dernière.

Claude and her husband Clement live in Singapore and were in vacations for 2 weeks, they had not yet book any accommodation for the night so we invited them to come to our hotel. When the ferry arrived at the pier, we realised that nothing could be done without a boat.... No streets, only jungle and beaches. Here we are on a long tail boat towards the hotel, 20 min ride and we discovered the place where we were going to spend the next few days. Got out of the boat on the beach, were given the keys of our bungalow and here we are, climbing stairs for 10 min to reach the highest 'sea view' bungalow set in the midst of the jungle! 

***

Claude et son mari Clément sont en vacances pour 2 semaines et vivent à Singapore. Comme ils n’avaient pas encore réservé d’hôtel, on leur a proposé de venir au notre. Quand le ferry est arrivé à quai, nous avons vite compris que tout devait se faire par bateau sur l’ile. Pas de rues, juste la jungle et les plages. Nous voilà sur une chaloupe en direction de l’hôtel. 20 minutes plus tard nous arrivons à l’hôtel, récupérons les clés de notre bungalow et nous commençons a grimper les escaliers pentus au milieu de la jungle afin d’atteindre le bungalow le plus haut avec une vue imprenable sur la mer.

With excitement, we stepped in and analysed the place, being wowed by every bit apart from the 1cm black plopps we could find scattered around, the fact that the bathroom had an entire strip that meant that Anything from the jungle could come into our bungalow/ bed at anytime! 

Our first visitor was a Geko (salamandre), about 15 cm long which we named Polux as we de figured out he would be our third resident during our stay here! Our second visitor was perched on our balcony ceiling! A 'shitty' bat! Litteraly! This little fella was poopping all it can on our outside matteresses! Apparently as soon as they eat, it comes out the otherway and this one was fond of mangoes! Lol.

***

Nous entrons dans le bungalow fait uniquement en bambou et commençons à scruter tous les recoins de la chambre. Quelques petites crottes de salamandres mais rien de très effrayant. La salle de bain quant à elle n’était pas complètement hermétique et avait tout un bandeau du plafond ouvert donnant directement sur la jungle. Autant dire que tout et n’importe quoi pouvait entrer dans notre maison d’un soir à leur guise.

Notre premier visiteur, une grande salamandre, 15 cm de long que nous avons appelé Polux. Notre deuxième visiteur était perche sous le toit de notre balcon… Une chauve-souris qui avait des problèmes gastriques. Apparemment, la digestion des chauve-souris est immédiate… dommage pour nos jolis matelas sur le balcon recouverts de déjections…

We put on our head lights in order to climb down to the main area and spent a great evening at the resort beach bar and restaurant chatting to the other guests! All French it seems! 

***

Parées de nos lampes de tète afin de descendre dans le resort, nous avons passé une bonne soirée au restaurant et au bar avec les autres vacanciers… Beaucoup de français en raison des vacances de la Toussaint.

Heading back up to the room, Polux was on the ceiling! I guess the only good thing is that they eat mosquitoes! So he became our friend! Our only reassurance which was going to allow our brain to order our bodies to combat the idea that anything/ anyone could come in during the night was that we had a huge mosquito net.. So we were safe! Well sort of! 

The next day, we trekked to Tonsai Village on the other side of the island together with Claude and clement! It was an exciting little trek, stopped at a great viewpoint and ended up in this backpacker type as many bars/clubs/ restaurant crammed in he smallest area! 

We headed out for an afternoon of snorkelling which was amazing! 

***

De retour dans notre bungalow, Polux notre nouvel ami était au plafond, et se chargeait de nous débarrasser des moustiques. Pétrifiées par tous les bruits environnants de la jungle, nous étions quelque peu plus rassurées cachées dans notre lit derrière notre moustiquaire géante.

Le jour suivant, nous avons marche au milieu de la jungle afin de rejoindre le seul et unique village de l’ile “Tonsai” avec Claude et Clément. Nous nous sommes arrêtés à un magnifique point de vue dominant toute l’ile. Le village de Tonsai rassemble bar, clubs et restaurants destines au jeunes voyageur qui souhaitent faire la fête.

De notre cote nous avons décidé de faire une excursion palme et tuba pour découvrir de magnifiques fonds marins

Phuket - Lead there by curiosity

Leaving Chiang Mai, we decided to fly south of Thailand to try and find some sun. Here we are in Phuket. We did know that some parts of the island were a little bit dodgy but we decided to see for ourselves... Landing in Phuket, shared a taxi* with 2 other frenchies we met in the plane and here we are in Patong Beach. How could we describe this place... Magalouf style main road, Tacky, full of tatooed covered overweight people mainly eastern European, sugar daddies with young thai girls or ladyboys, bars with neon lights everywhere even in the taxis ! Got proposed 100 times to go and watch a Ping Pong show, will avoid to explain you what it is... but definitely not for us ! In this town, tuk tuk are like "pimp my ride" minivans boosting out music as they take you to Bangla road. See for yourself : 

Top rated activity on Tripadvisor and the lonely planet was Simon Cabaret so we decided to go. An aray of different colours and costumes amazed the crowd. Still now at this point of time hard to believe that all those women on stage were actually lady boys !

*By saying "we shared a taxi" Sophie actually means she was very subtile in ensuring we would be sharing the same taxi! saying to the guys oh, well you've got someone picking you up and you are only 2? we can come with you then!... lol..

Chiang Mai - LIVE !!!!

VIDEO OF OUR ADVENTURES LIVE IN CHIANG MAI

Chiang Mai - Elephants - Trekking - Rafting - Ziplining

After 1 hour of travelling together with the onions, tomatoes and pineapple at the back of the van, we headed out of Chiang Mai and deeper into the Jungle to experience our weekend of Elephant caring and activities. Nat was feeling a little sensitive as she had befriended the toilet seat the night before (not a happy bunny!).

 

We met our Guide, Puza and jumped back in the back of the van to head to our drop off point for the start of our trek. We were with 2 German girls who worked for Trivago. Very friendly and a good laugh! Slopes, hills, rivers, slippery rocks, balancing planks of wood/ bamboo as a bridge and near collapsing terrain, you name it, our trek had it all, but the key thing was being confident in the Guide!

 

And he was good. Puza showed us all of the jungles secrets! Whilst Sophie was afraid of slipping and falling the 3 metre drop, Nat was huffing and puffing as she didn't have much energy (but she gaged an empty stomach was best!). We got to the waterfall, our aim, but given we are in Monsoon season, the amount of water gushing down was too intense for us to jump in! 

On our descent we then joined another group and headed for rafting.. 

 

 

At the end of the day, we returned to camp, were shown to our cabin and spent overnight there. A great opportunity to speak with the whiskey inebriated thai guides and exchange communicative glances and gestures with the Mahout, who are the people who take care of the elephants. One Mahout per elephant. 

7.30 am next morning I (Nat) got up and experienced my first 'tete a tete' with a cockroach! The little fella was on it s back, legs in the air, so I thought... obvious, .... he's dead! Well! Never assume! me being nosy, I just touched him with my flip flop, well the ninja performed a amazing self flip on his legs whilst releasing some kind of white defensive slime, or he maybe he just sneezed at he same time.. I'm not sure! But to my surprise he let out the same kind of 'hiss' as a cat does when it's annoyed! No need to say, I swiftly moved on :).

 

We had breakfast, changed into our Uniform and set off with 10kgs of mini bananas in our basket to distribute to and fed the elephants, which are vegetarian animals! Puza had explained that elephants are somehow like humans, in the way that some are chilled, some are funny and others cheeky! And somehow NOT like humans as an mother caries her baby in her womb for 22 months, an elephant drinks 80 litres a day and pees 40 litres a day! 

 

Next session, learning to mount an elephant on their bare back. Nat couldn't wait and was the first to volunteer...sounds like a deja vu with an ostrich no??... Soph still had a glance of fear in her eyes for a few seconds, but once she got the elephant to kneel, instructing him "nowloon, nowloon", got on top, she was loving it :). She was instructing him to 'Pail' (advance), 'kwe' (turn) and 'how'(stop)!

Lunch break was rice, chicken vegetables and of course pineapple! Of course pineapple! 

 

The afternoon session consisted of a trip with the elephants and the Mahout of course. I can still, now hear in my head 'Pail, Pail, Pail', the instruction that the Californian, 70 yrs old version of Ms Doubtfire, 'Terry' was repeating to her baby elephant for him to advance! She had chosen a little one, even though the Mahout had warned her that he was more fidgety and cheeky, but she was just stubborn and stayed with her choice! Well I said it defo was a good one as it provided us with a great deal of free entertainment! The elephant was eating all he could find on its way, slipping up and down muddy slopes, picking up food with his trunk and drinking from ditches and you would occasionally hear her tone of voice with 'Pail or Kwe' shoot up as a big hint to say to the Mahout 'Hey mate look at what's happening here! Do something!' Unlucky for her he seemed to be the most chilled Mahout in the world! When Sophie jumped off the elephant, she felt for a moment like she was a cowgirl as her inner thighs were aching so much! I must admit my legs were wrapped round the elephant s neck as I was the driver...sophie's legs were wrapped around the elephant's body as she was my passenger!

 

We then moved on to bathing our companions. Sum that up by walking in murky, muddy water full of elephant poo, pee and scrubbing the elephant. Guess what! I was happy like a pig in mud but it was not long before Soph realised the situation in which she was and quickly retreated to the ground, away from poo and pee! 

 

 

 

All in all, it was an amazing weekend spent in the jungle with the elephants. We returned to our 'Green Tulip' hostel in Chiang Mai and went to the Sunday Market, the longest market We had both ever been to! 

 

Last day in Chiang Mai we decided to go for some more adrenaline ! Ziplining over the rice terraces and across the jungle !! Great fun :-)