South Thailand Beaches & Islands Dec 2011 & Jan 2012

Here we are back in Thailand after crossing from Cambodia.  Wow what a difference coming from the poverty of Cambodia into the developed and affluent country of Thailand...... After nearly getting ripped off twice at the border we finally made it to our 1st Island of Koh Chang where we arrived late and struggled to find somewhere to sleep as it was the weekend of the King's Birthday.  We managed to find somewhere and stayed for 5 nights.  While here we did some sea kayaking, hired a moped for the day to explore the Island and had some beach time yeah.....

Koh Chang

 

Relaxing after sea kayaking

After Koh Chang we cheated a little and got a flight from Bangkok to Krabi on the Southern Andaman Coast.  1 hour scary plane ride in a storm, very bumping like something out of a scary movie, Steve screamed out at one point when the plane dropped a little, what a wuss!!!  Stayed a couple of nights here day tripping to Ao Nang beach before heading off to the beaches of Railay to soak up some backpacker culture...Railay is part of the mainland but is like an Island as you can only get here by long trail boat, and there are no roads you have to walk everywhere.  This place was really cool, we ended up staying in a tree top bamboo bungalow with the birds and the monkeys and Steve ha ha!!!  Oh yes we did some more sea kayaking around the small Islands off shore, really starting to like this activity he he!!!

Oarsome!!!

Let go of the rope Steve.....

Bamboo Bungalow in the trees

Ton Sai Beach, Railay

Now we are heading for the Island of  Koh Phi Phi.  This Island is best known for it's great beaches and and lively party scene.  One side of the Island is quiet with resorts and nice beaches, the other side is geared up for partying until the early hours which we managed a couple of nights partying on the beach yeah hey!!!  We also did some snorkeling off Long Beach around shark point, but we did not see Jaws thank god.  Weather was hit and miss so on a bad day we decided to walk up to the View Point and feed some monkeys, was tough going getting up there but the views were worth it....

Enjoying our bucket

Party Time !!

 

Raving mad....

After a little partying on Koh Phi Phi we headed to the island of Koh Lanta where we will spend Christmas & New Year. Hired a moped and went round the island exploring, although you could not get all round the island we had to come back on ourselves. The south of the island has beautiful beaches and a national park, north of the island is the town of Saladan and mangroves.. we spent Christmas at the Sincere Guest House which was great, they cooked a lovely Xmas eve meal of Trout, squid and prawns, yum yum!! Had a few beers and wine and yes of course got a little drunk, it is Xmas after all...

Merry Xmas Everyone x x x

What a party!!!

What a surprise ended up spending most of Xmas day in bed he he!!! Boxing day was our Xmas day, we went Kayaking on the mangroves, relaxing on beaches and then finished the day with some good seafood. Better day...

Our Xmas Day.....

Moved further down the south of the island for New Year staying in a bungalow on the beach, yeah!! There is an animal welfare centre here where you can go and visit and walk dogs, all free of charge. We took dog tag and mamma for a walk, which was great fun.....

Dogtag

Mamma

New Years Eve party on the beach..What a night, started on the balcony with our own bottle of vodka then moved to the beach with fire shows, fire works, and fire lanterns all along the beach, fantastic!!! We met a Norwegian couple who led us astray partying till 4am at the monkey bar..Oh no another hangover tomorrow, day in bed....

Happy New Year!!!

I love to dance!!!!

Moves like Jagger!!!! Not.

Time to leave Koh Lanta and head to Koh Mook, a smaller island.. Wow, What beautiful beaches definitely the best beach we have seen so far, picture postcard perfect!
Found a cheap room, shed with a bed again, and our own frog who kept coming in our room..The food in the restaurant was fab.  We had lots of fun kayaking and snorkeling here. We kayaked to the Emerald Caves and through them in darkness to reveal a hidden lagoon...

Emerald Cave Lagoon

Koh Mook Beach WOW!

Now heading to an even smaller island of Koh Sukorn, hardly any tourist here, not much to do other than cycling, kayaking again and yes of course relaxing...The island is manly Muslim and definitely not geared for tourists, which in a way was nice for a bit to get away from it all..

Arghhhhhhhhhhh

Extreme biking!!!

Our last island in South Thailand is Koh Lipe, this is a small island again only with more tourists... a smaller version of Koh Phi Phi..No cars on the island only bicycles and local mopeds,  you can walk round the island easily, only takes an hour....

Just another day in paradise..

Cambodia Nov 2011

Well we finally made it to Cambodia after a two day trip along the Mekong Delta from Vietnam.  Saw floating markets and villages, rice toffee caramel and popcorn factory, and minority village where they were slaughtering a cow for a wedding, YUK!!!  Stayed overnight at the boarder, Chau Doc in a floating hotel and made our way the next day via fast boat and slow boat to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Slow Boat to Cambodia

While staying in Phnom Penh we went to visit the Killing Fields which was very very sad, you try to make sense of it all but is very hard to take in...After this we visited the S21 Prison which was formally a school where the prisoners were held before being transported to the Killing Fields. 

During the first few days of our stay in Phnom Penh there was a huge water festival taking place for locals to celebrate the end of the rainy season...It was really colourful and very busy walking around the streets at night..  Steve also saw the King and he waved at him, and he waved back ha ha!!!

Big Wheel, Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh Palace

After Phnom Penh we headed up north to Kratie staying off at Kompong Cham for 2 nights.  While there we hired push bikes out and cycled some of the Mekong discovery trail on an Island in the middle of the Mekong.  Great to see no vehicles there, and only locals  no tourists apart from us riding our bikes!!! What a difference we really enjoyed it...

Steve showing off again to the locals!!

I'm lost!!

In Kratie we took a "Tuk Tuk" to see the Fresh Water Irrawaddy Dolphins and a great Sunset, the best sunset yet....

Ahh look at him...

Who's there??

Beautiful..

Now it's time to go and see some Temples heading to Siem Reap and Ankor Wat.  Ankor Wat is the heart and soul of Cambodia.  The largest religious structure in the world, it is the Khmer's national symbol, the epicentre of their civilisation and a source of fierce national pride.   Siem Reap nice place to visit, very touristy, think approximately over 2million tourist visit per year, WOW!!!  Many temples to be seen so we booked a 3 day ticket to get round as many as we could fit in without getting too templed out...

Day 1, we hired a Tuk Tuk to go to the furthest away temples starting with the beautiful Pre Rup Temple then moving on to Banteay Srei Temple, after this we made our way to the River of a Thousand Lingas at Kbal Spean which involved a 2km hike up a steep hill.

Pre Rup Temple

 Day 2 we hired push bikes and set off from our hotel at 4.30am to get to Ankor Wat Temple for Sunrise, which was great but could of been better if it had not been a cloudy morning.  Explored the mighty temple while it was still quiet and saw a famous American Basket Ball player but not sure who it was he was having photos taken with people he he!!  Moved on to the walled city of Ankor Thom within which was the fantastic Bayon Temple with many faces.

Ankor Wat

Bayon

Day 3, we again hired a tuk tuk and headed out to the monuments of Roluos which are among the earliest large, permanent temples built by the Khmers.   We only had half a day as we were templed out so ended this with temple kiss x

Bit of Elephant loving

Loving the moves Andrea

End of Temples kiss x x

After all those lovely temples we headed on down to Battambang to have a ride on the Bamboo Train (norry) which is a light bamboo frame powered by a 6HP gasoline engine and runs along warped french era single track line.  When two trains meet the less loaded one is quickly disassembled to let the other one pass while the passengers stand on the side waiting to get back on...

How cool is this!!

Putting the train back together..

Finally we are heading to a beach, Cambodia's premier seaside resort Sihanoukville.  How different this place is to the rest of Cambodia, busy, full of westerners on holidays, travelling and working here.  With Seven beaches to choose from.

Go on give us a smile!

Great sunst with a beer!!

While here it would be rude not to stay on one of the many tropical islands that dot the waters of Sihanoukville.  Some have gorgeous, empty beaches and bungalows to stay in overnight.  We stayed on Koh Rong Island, for 2 nights in Paradise bungalows.  Not quite 5* paradise but they were good value bamboo bungalows, our first taste of living in a bamboo shed with a bed and a 12" Gecko as a room pet...He he!!!!

Paradise Bungalows

Koh Rong Beach