The last blog left us in Bangkok where we’d booked a night bus to take us to the islands to start some beach time and our journey south towards Malaysia. Our bus was actually quite comfy and I got a bit of sleep for a change, but the trouble with Thai night buses is that they often stop around midnight for a meal which is included in your ticket price! I’m not sure why they think it’s a good idea to eat a meal at midnight but we joined in anyway! We arrived at the ferry port at just before 6am and our ferry wasn’t until 8.30am, so we had a few hours to kill. At least the toilets were clean and I felt comfortable cleaning my teeth in them, there were even free showers if you felt inclined. Our destination was Koh Phangan, famous for its full moon party, but this time we were heading to the north of the island to Bottle Beach. Joey had holidayed here a few years before he met me and he has always said he wanted to take me there so I was excited to go there. The ferry took 2.5 hours and then we had to take a taxi to another pier before finally taking a long tail boat to the beach. When you get a long tail boat you have to wade in the water to get into so I took my sandals off before getting in and they didn’t go back on until we left three days later! Bottle beach is very secluded with the main way of getting there being long tail boat, you can also get a very bumpy 4 wheel drive taxi there, or you can trek for a hard couple of kilometres through the jungle. Arriving by long tail boat was definitely the best way, Bottle Beach was beautiful, just what you imagine when you think of a Thai island, beautiful white sands and palm trees. There’s nothing there other than a few beach bungalows and their associated restaurants. It was a beautiful place to spend a few days relaxing. There were some fire shows in evening to amuse us.

We then caught the ferry to Koh Samui, which was very different, it was very busy and touristy with constant cries of ‘Hello! Massage?’ It felt that every time we walked down the street we were running the gauntlet of restaurant owners trying to lure us in. We hired a scooter one day and drove around the island visiting various beaches and seeing some temples. There are an interesting set of rocks called Grandfather and grandmother rocks, you can guess which one is grandfather rock! We managed to catch up with Giles, an old friend of Joey’s who now lives on the island and who we had spent a couple of weeks with on our first travels 9 years ago.

From Koh Samui we headed back to the mainland and down to Khanom. It seemed that the only way to get there from the ferry terminal was to get a very expensive taxi so we decided to walk to the main road and see if we could flag a bus down. We didn’t make it to the main road though as a very kind couple stopped and gave us a lift. We tried to give them some money but they were really reluctant to take it but eventually we left some in the car for them which we felt was fair as they went right out of their way to drop us at our guesthouse.

We were in Khanom for the sole reason of trying to see some pink dolphins which can be found in this area, but unfortunately the weather was not on our side and we didn’t even make it out on a trip! We’re seeing this as a sign that we need to go back. Nonetheless the guesthouse had a private beach and beautiful clear calm water.

We then headed to the west side of the country where it was rainy season, some days during rainy season are pretty dry and sunny, some days are wet all day and unfortunately we had hit a rainy patch. Upon arrival in Krabi it was pouring it down and there were no signs of it stopping so we decided to abandon our plans to head to the islands on that side and head to Malaysia. We decided to make the best of it though and go for a walk on the beach even though it was pouring down.

We had one more day in Krabi first though and there was a small break in the weather so I suggested that we head to Railey beach, famous for its limestone karsts. You can only get there by longtail boat, Joey commented that the sea looked a bit rough but I didn’t think anything of it. Within about three seconds of getting on the boat I was regretting my decision. The sea felt very choppy, rough and a little unsafe. I was ok though until a boy of about 6 or 7 started screaming and crying as he was so scared. I think we all felt like that and to be honest, if he hadn’t been crying I think I would have been the one screaming and crying! Instead I decided I had to step up and be really brave as me screaming and crying wasn’t going to help the situation so I tried my best to reassure him. I was very glad when we reached the beach!

Railey was ok but I don’t know if it was because it was rainy season but it felt a little grotty and run down. There were some nice beaches but they were very crowded – and this was a rainy day in low season! I’d hate to go in peak season.

We headed back to Krabi and I wasn’t looking forward to the journey back, I made sure I shoved a life jacket on this time and just prayed it would be over quickly! To be fair the journey back wasn’t as bad as the way there. We are looking forward to heading back to this area later in the year to explore more islands, but these three weeks felt like a holiday rather than travels and that was the recharge that we needed after some hard weeks in the Stans.