South East Asia on a Shoe String

And so it comes to end..our tour of South East Asia on a definite Shoe String. Three months of travelling around Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and oops..Thailand again has finally finished and we are now ready for a new adventure and culture shock..India.

We have just spent 10 days on the islands of Koh Tarutao national park..Thailand's gem islands. They took our breathe away with their dramatic scenery and gorgeous waters..turquoise and clear for metres out to sea and no tourists around, just us, our tent and the beach.

We went with our new Canadian friends that we met in Vang Vieng in Laos, they came and met us on Koh Jum first 10 days previous to our tarutao island hopping. Koh Jum is an island next to Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi..it is a small island (easy to walk around in an hour) and is practically deserted in the north. We jumped on the boat with no accommodation booked and managed to secure accommodation for 5 pounds a night beach front bungalow on the boat!

As the boat was too big to dock on Koh Jum we had to jump into Long tails to take us to the beach. It was beautiful on this beach, the waters weren't so turquoise and the beach had a lot of dead coral, however the island was silent and peaceful and just the look of our bungalow and balcony with hammock put a smile on our faces. This island was seriously affected from the Tsunami. Nobody died on this island but over on Koh Phi Phi (in sight of Koh Jum) 2000 people unfortunately died. There is still a lot of debris all over the island, fallen trees, tiles, even the bathroom steps of the bungalow before ours where still there, just like an haunting memory. We never really imagined feeling a little strange on the islands of Thailand, at night especially the sound of the ocean and the wind mixed together made sleeping difficult. It was so sad to hear the stories of so many people who actually saw the Tsunami and ran from it. One lady said she saw it coming, ran and then before the second wave hit tried to rescue some of her belongings...she actually went back to the ocean to grab some things..how crazy is that. We waited on the beach for a few days until our friends Janie and Jim pulled up on a long tail to meet us..it was so nice to see them again. We went on a day trip to 5 different islands, we went on a long tail boat through choppy waters which made me sick (as usual, please remind me never to do boat trips again...more sickness on them coming up) and saw the most beautiful beaches..Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Leh (the one from the movie), Bamboo island and Mosquito island. On Mosquito island, i was quietly sat on the beach eating my green curry and rice and watching terry snorkeling away in the most beautiful ocean we had both ever seen and a freak wave come over and soaked me and our very expensive camera!! We spent all day yesterday trying to get it fixed, its turning on now which is a start i just pray it carries on working, at least for a little while longer!

Koh Jum as described by diary entry 10th Feb 2008

There aren’t many words in the English dictionary that would describe this state of relaxation. This island is paradise in a sense it only can describe to you. The trees are a hive of music, the sea a constant glisten with the rays of the sun and yet there is silence. No tourists, no lights, no electricity and no noise. Just myself, terry, a treehouse and the island breeze. Nothing to do except eat Thai cuisine, bathe in the sun and swim in the sea. In the evenings you can lie back on the hammock and listen to the opera of insects and the natural environment. Paradise..Aggh…


We finally left Koh Jum after 10 days of relaxing, playing cards, watching the sun set from our hammocks and basically chilling so much walking to the restaurant next door was a chore. We headed for the mainland Krabi, we actually took the cheap boat home and ended up in some random town where nobody at all spoke English so was a little nightmare trying to navigate to Krabi..when we arrived we ate street food for cheap and found ourselves 1 pound a night accommodation, shared bathrooms but was decent enough. We did another boat trip from here to supposedly 5 islands, however we only actually went to 4 (which we managed to complain about and get some money back). On one of the islands a french guy trod on a sea urchin and got all these black spikes in his foot, it looked so painful! These islands were beautiful as well and Koh Hong, the biggest of the day, was so clear you could see the fish swimming around you when you were in waist deep. I attempted to snorkel but as soon as water got into my mouth, i panicked a little, the deep water really scares me now after the accident. Terry snorkeled all the way around the front of the island..he loved it.


After Krabi we travelled down to Lang'hu on local bus..everyone in Krabi was charging too much and told us a minibus was the only way to reach our destination..but being qualified explorers now we knew we could get it cheaper the local way. It was definitely an experience, the drivers are surely insane and the people on the bus don’t understand space..lol. We spent a night in Pakbera, Lang'hu and then travelled over to the beginning of our island hopping adventure in the southern most point of thailand. These islands were in Malaysia until 1932 and are now national park islands of thailand so they are stopping any building work from ruining them like Koh Phi Phi which is totally destroyed by hotels now. We began with Koh Tarutao island, when we pulled up we were all so excited as the waters were beautiful and the beach seriously white. We headed to Maloe beach which the thai guy described as paradise, with our tents, pineapples, noodle packets and Philippino rum in tow. We set up camp on the end of the beach with seriously no one around and went swimming for the afternoon. In the evening we set up a fire and ate pineapple and rice for dinner. We drunk our rum and ended up dancing on the beach and swimming in the dark by moonlight. It was definitely a night to remember. The next day we trekked through the jungle to visit the islands 'waterfall'. We trekked for 2 hours, spotting monkeys and huge lizards until we finally reached a small waterfall, we decided to have a swim and start trekking back as the route was all jungle with no roads and only small arrows now and again to guide us! It got dark on the way home and all we could hear were the sounds of nature...a little spooky if you ask me! When we arrived back there were 10 huge cheeky monkeys around our tents and they stole our well deserved dinner of pineapples and coconuts..terry went hunting for them afterwards but no luck, they were gone!

After 2 days we decided to hop to the next island Koh Lipeh. This island is stunning but has just been let go of national park status and people are now allowed to build on it so it was a little more build up and their were maybe 20 more people on the beach. We set up tents and camped for 100 baht a night (a little pricey 1.50 a night). We sat down for dinner and a game of cards and had a little discrepancy with the owner of the restaurant. We didn’t pay for a rice she said we had when we actually didn’t have it and she went crazy, told us to leave the resort and turned all the lights off on us in the restaurant, she wouldn’t talk about it just left and shooed us away. We moved campsites this night as we wanted to go to the other side of the island as it was full moon party night and we didn’t want her to steal anything from our flimsy tents. Full moon party was very different from Koh Phangan, it was so relaxing..beds on the beach, candles everywhere and the occasional firework..was so nice to relax a little more hehe.

After 2 days of chilling on the beach and eating lots we headed over by long tail to Koh Adang.a national park island. We camped here for free which was great and just relaxed to the sound of the trees and the ocean. We didnt sleep much the first night though as there was a storm and it rained and the trees were so loud in the wind...seriously scary..even terry was scared lol. In the night we heard a siren and even though it was only a truck reversing at 3am (random) me and tel both sprung up and open the zip of our tent quickly. The tsunami was always on our minds. The next day the weather was cloudy but was really nice to have for a while as the heat can get too much.. (sorry everyone at home...hehe) we just played cards all day..The Adang tournament..i won hehe..terry lost so he had to buy me a drink..funny our money is together but hey!

When we thought the islands couldn't get any better we arrived on Koh Bulone, another national park island, deserted all apart from a 'Koh Bulone squatter' who had set up a hammock and a man made tent on the beach..think he was a french guy who couldn't leave..we could totally understand why. This island was free again and although the weather wasn't perfect, it was silent all the time with no one around and just us to soak up the clean fresh air and in the evenings the stars in the sky (we all saw a shooting star at the same time, we all randomly look up and there it was..freaking coincidence). It was so wonderful to lie on the beach under the stars. We tried to eat for cheap and we treated ourselves to a green curry on the last night, we asked for vegetable however they brought us chicken and then when we said it was wrong they took it back and just took the chicken out..lol..we had to argue with them for a while in order not to pay as they said it was our fault for not eating chicken..many people over here just dont understand that vegetarians do not eat chicken.

Koh Bulone by diary entry 27th February 2008

I’ve just woken up to the sound of the ocean, the waves are gently and rhythmically touching the sand and its so peaceful. The birds are gently and considerately chirping and there is a beachfront/forest silence that you could never ever take for granted...

After our awesome time on the beaches we travelled to intense and crazy Bangkok again..forth time here the lady in our hostel recognized us! We spent all day yesterday looking for camera repair shops and today we went to Chatuchak market, the biggest market in South East Asia, it was real fun and cheap, we brought some nice bits to send home. Tomorrow we start our new adventure and we cannot wait!! Bring on India....

(pictures are taking along time to upload..i tried my hardest..ill try again next time we get on the internet!!)