Chiang mai to ko Samui

So the last few days in chiange mai we spent at the zoo! which was huge, and we spent ages wandering around, and almost got lost in the aviary! the last day we we up this mountain to a Temple, which had amazing views of the city, we just sat ther for a few hours reading our books which was nice. we the had our last meal at our favourite street side 'restaurant' and i had some very nice pad thai.

we were in 1st class for the night train to bangkok, we ad to compartment which could be joined with a door, it was quite comfy but i found it very hard to sleep with all the noise etc. we arrived in bangkok at about 7am, and went to a park that we hadn't been to yet, it was nice, but it was very stuffy compared to up north. so we went to the nice air conditioned shopping mall and cinema, and watched two films in a row!! Madagascar 2 and yes man. but we were tired so it was good to not do much.

we then said good bye to bangkok, which was nice, and got another night train, this time in 2nd class down to surat thani. I slept better, probabkly cos i was sooo tired. we arrived at6.30ish this morning, had a bus journey, a long ferry ride and we arrived in ko samui!!

its boiling here, we have two nice little bungalow beach shack things right by the beach. the sea is very warm, it didn't take us long to get in!

we are here for a few days, the maybe off to one of the smaller islands, ko pang ngan. we have no other plans as yet, but we will probably head off west soon, maybe to phucket and phi phi.

hope you are all well!

Elephant Riding and more!!

the last two days have been amazing! we woke early yesterday morning, and got a van into the jungle! we stopped for lunch in a little village, and then headed deep into the jungle. we had a little walk and swam under a waterfall we then carried on walking to this tribe village, which wasnt that remote as they had motorbikes nd solar panels. but it was very kl.

also on our trek wer a canadian couple (clare and dave) who wer really cool, and two french ladies and a lady from an island in the carribean which we had never heard of!

we had some nice tea, and played some cards with our new friends. we then sat round the camp fire and played the yukalayley (sp), bongo drum, and sang some funny songs from differnent countries (frer er jacker) haha.

we slept in this wooden hut under mosquito net and we must have got a few hours sleep, the frogs wer very load and our team leader (singa) showed us a very big spider!

in the morning we had some very different scrambled egg and toast for brekie. we then walked a bit more into the jungle, and then drove to the elephant camp! this was amazing, we fed them, bannanas and then went on the ride down the side of the river and back, and then on a raftdown the river. this was really fun! on the way back to our guest house we stopped off at a tribe with some crazy tribe lady, she was a batty. will tried to buy her, but she didnt want to leave. haha

we then got back to the guest house, and are now in an american restruant and i had a nice burger after a lot of thai food. and ther is free internet here!

so ... a few days rest now and also 2moro we are going to hold a baby tiger!

Bangkok to chang mei!

So we are now in chang mei staying in a very nice guesthouse. We arrived at 6.30 am after a 8 hour coach journey from bangkok which was not so fun.

Yesterday morning we went to the train station with all out bags in taxi, to try and sort out trains to chang mei. but due to chinese new year all the trains wer full unless we all wanted to be separated. So this man took us upstairs to this travel agent woman, which seemed fairly genuine, but u can never be sure! anyway, she boooked us on a coach to chang mei, got some accomodation sorted, a trek, a night train back to bangkok, and a train, bus and boat to ko samiu! so hopefully that all woks out ok, as that is us sorted tiil th 29th.

This evening we are going to see some traditional thai booxing which should be interesting, and 2moro is the trek, starting at 9.30am. we go on an elephant ride, have a night in the jungle and bambooo rafting and more. So that will be amazing.

In the next few days we may also go zorbing, and to a tiger zoo wer u can hold baby tigers!

got to go, running out of time.

Josh

Bangkok!

We are here! The flight was ok, and went quite quick. we watched a film and some tv, and the food was ok!. we arrived at our hotel near kohsan rd on sunday afternoon. we wandered round the shops for a bit getting stopped every few mins by a crazy thai person trying to sell us something or give us a lift somewhere in a tuk tuk! we then had a nice dinner in the hotel.

me and tom woke up this mornin at 3.30 cos of the jet lag or summit like that, so we watched discovery channel for a bit, and have been very tired all day, but we have fitted a lot in.

first we went off to the grand palace which was cool, and then the reclining buddah which was huge. then we got a boat down the river to the sky line station. and got the train up to the brand new shopping mall,where we bought some tasty thai lunch. then we walked along to this park wer i had a sleep and we went on these pedal boats and saw a huge dragon swimming in the water and lying on the bank. everyone was scared except me! haha but we got some gd pics.

we then headed off to this night market wer we got some bargains, will bartered very well to get some cheap deals. i got a man u shirt with no nike tick as all the thai people kept pointing out and laughing, but it was well cheap. we then got a taxi bac to the hotel and got some more din dins.

so yer having a gd time, we are off to the old captial ayutha, or summit like that, 2moro and then the night train up to chang mei wer we are going to ride and elephant! so should be fun. hope everything is gd with you.

Josh

All Packed

So we are finally leaving! We have spent so long (over a year) planning for today and now it is here. The last week I have spent going out for meals, meeting up with people, and saying lots of goodbyes. We fly at 9.45pm so think of us then!

Now what to do with my last hour in bristol?

Hopefully these posts will get a bit more interesting in the next few days!!

Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshallen/

There will be photos here

Train plans for Asia

We fly into Bangkok, then we will either fly or train it to chiang mei, hang around there for a bit. Then train it back, then we get the train to Surat Thani, and get the bus and ferry to Ko Samui island and then the bus back to Phuket. We then get the train all the way down to Kuala Lumpa and Singapore!

Saying Good bye

Its been really weird saying good bye to people, before we even go. Extended family, friends and brothers going back to uni, fellow gap yearers going off on their trips (Kenya, India and other round the world trips). Some i won't see for 7 or 8 months! which is a long time when you have been seeing people at least every week for the last few years!

I now have finished working at Horfield, which is nice although i did get pushed in on my last shift! And I finish pre-school on Wednesday, so its will be quite a busy week as well as meeting up with various people to say goodbye!

We leave a week today, so I hope my parents bring back my rucksack from Leicester!