Sarah & Richard's Travels

After Phu Quoc we flew straight into Bangkok and then on to Ko Samui for a week in the sun with our Canadian friends who we met in China. Waiting in the airport lounge for our flight to Samui and we bumped into one of my old colleagues from Chancery Court who was on the same flight as us to Samui, the world really is a small place!

We caught the ferry over to Ko Phangnan first thing in the morning when we had our first introduction to many Thai 'lady boys' who checked us into the boat. We're surprised how many of them there are around we've seen them everywhere. Anyway once on Ko Phangnan about 20 mins from Samui we got in one of the pick up truck taxis which they have everywhere! They are like Utes with long bench seats in the back and some of them are partly enclosed (helpful when it rains as we found out later) and others are completely open. They're ok as long as it's not full and your not the last person before the tray opens and going up a really steep hill...

We stayed in a Bungalow on Had Yao for a week at Sandy Bay Bungalows (http://www.sandybaybungalows.com/gallery.htm) which was awesome. We had a great view of the ocean which we woke up to every morning and a hammock...the perfect place for an afternoon nap. Did I mention it's a hard life?

Pretty much the only decisions we made each day were whether we wanted lounge by the pool close to the bar or lounge on the beach under a coconut tree, then there was how far we should walk for lunch and whether to enjoy our sundowners at the end of the beach with the best view or from the comfort of our bar. Rich quickly found his favourite place - The Eagle Bar - just moments from our place and serving a great portion of his favourite Sweet and Sour. We almost didn't have to put an order in by the time we left as they knew exactly what he wanted to order!

We learnt from the guys at the Eagle Bar that all the sand from the beach washes out to sea between October and November meaning that about 2m in height is lost from the beach, it all starts washing back in time for New Years when they have a huge party on the beach and it stretches for miles. It would be interesting to see it when the sand is all back as we certainly witnessed the sand washing away in the week that we were there.


From Ko Phangan we caught the ferry another two hours away to Ko Tao which forms the three main islands in this area. It's a real dive spot and I think you really do have to be a diver to make the most of it (though there are still other things to do on the island). We stayed on the main beach Had Sairee again in a bungalow pretty near the beach which was cool. We met a Canadian guy (we seem to have met loads of Canadians on this trip) pretty quickly and ended up hanging out with him most of the time which was cool. The beach was definitely not as nice as Had Yao and when the tide was high there wasn't much beach at all, but there was a lot more activity with loads of young people around partying it up, including a guy in a Borat outfit! (Dare I mention he was a kiwi?!)

We hired a kayak one day and kayaked over to the island of Ko Ngan Yuan which you could see off the end of our beach. It wasn't very far out and took us only around an hour to make it over. It's actually almost two islands but has a gorgeous white sand beach joining the two together with beautiful turquoise water on either side. The next day we went ona snorkelling trip around the island and this was also one of our stops where we saw some cool little fishies darting around. We didn't find Nemo though...

After four nights in Ko Tao it was back on the ferry to Champon on the mainland and then a seven hour bus ride to Bangkok.