The Reunion and Koh Tao

Our final stop!

We arrived in Bangkok just before midnight after a nice flight from Hong Kong.

By the time we got to NapPark, the hostel we were staying at, it was 1 am, so we collapsed in a heap in our beds in the 24 bed dorm, that allowed you to put blinds down so it felt more private.

We woke the next day and lazed in bed until midday! Catching up on the last 25 days of intense travelling, and looking forward to our relaxing final few.

Once we got up, we spent the afternoon putting washing on, and we also booked our travel down to Koh Tao.

After we went to one of our favourite places it seems in Bangkok, MBK. “Mall Bangkok” was a huge 8 floor mall, with food outlets, shops, cinema and bowling to name a few.

Here we went to watch the new avengers film, with 2 huge drinks and Caramel popcorn, all for a tenner! The film was okay but we were bemused by the national anthem we had to stand up for before the film started!

We then got a Tuktuk back to the hostel, and just as we got to our room, somebody walked past that cast a familiar shadow, best man and friend, Dan!

It was perfect timing as we both arrived at the same time and we were also staying in beds opposite each other!

After a brief chat in the hostel, we went out along the strip near us and went for food and to catch up.

It was nice having Thai food again oddly!

We then went back to the hostel to change out of humidity stricken clothes and went out for the night to exchange stories of where we had all been and what he had seen. We played pool (and all got beaten by a Thai women called Anna) and ended up staying out until 5am somehow.

We got up at 10am the next day, which wasn’t bad given how late we got in.

That day we would be travelling down on a night bus to the ferry terminal and then a ferry across to Koh Tao.

This of course, wasn’t until the evening, so once we checked out and stored our bags, we spent the day at MBK again, buying clothes and bits for our weeks holiday!

Then, once it got to the evening it was time to go to check in at the travel agents and we were walked to where we had to check in with the bus company, and then finally Sat on a big roundabout, waiting for the bus to turn up.

We were probably Sat on the roundabout for about close to an hour! But, eventually we got our bus and headed south, attempting to get as much sleep on the  coach as possible.

We arrived at the port for the ferry with around an hour to kill, where we relaxed, got a drink and watched the sunrise.

Then, after about an hour on the ferry, we arrived at 9am at last, in Koh Tao.

Once a taxi took us to our hotel (we decided we’d be a bit fancier this week and got a 3 bed apartment) we checked in but played pool and had breakfast whilst we waited for our room to be ready:

Once it hit around 11, we went to our room at last.  It was fantastic, we were happy!

We had front balcony with a table and chairs, and a small balcony a the back with this view:

Once we explored our room and dropped our stuff and settled a bit we headed into the main area of where we were, along the main beach, Sairee Beach, to see what was about and to get lunch.

The rest of the week followed a simple pattern. We brought a frisbee to play on the beach, and snorkelled at different points on the beautiful coral right on the edge of the beaches!

We ate lots of food (a place called Bang burger was our favourite, we went twice!) and enjoyed our time relaxing in the room, watching films, playing cards and sunbathing, and playing more pool.

Half way through the week we moved to a different resort, as we were so used to moving to different places, and wanted one with a pool!

It was called Seashell resort, and was similar to DD hut, but a bit more spacious and inland and had a pool and jacuzzi. 

We were further along Sairee Beach now, more in the centre of the main stretch. 

One day we spent snorkelling right at the end of the beach and the fires if the whole stretch were superb:

We spend one evening at an Aussie sports bar and watched Steven Gerrards last Anfield game together. That was a really good moment.

We spent most of the rest of our times flitting between lying in the sun and playing in the pool- and keeping well hydrated.

Our last night on the island came around so fast!! We spent the night going to one of the smarter restaurants, called Barracuda I think, the food was amazing, expensive for Thailand, but probably normal for home:

We all enjoyed cleared our plates and the expense was worth it!

It was then to sleep for our last night spent here.

In the morning we packed our things and checked out, and said goodbye to the island- in a “taxi”, Sat in the trunk off a pick up truck!

After a long journey by boat and coach to Bangkok we were shattered. That evening wasn’t very productive, we ate at the same place we started and slept at the same place we left, NapPark.

This was it. When we woke it was our final day travelling.

The end of 5 amazing months that flew by!

We went back to BMK, did some last minute souvenir shopping and went to watch Mad Max at the crazy Thai cinema.

The day flew by and after eating at BMK we had our last ride on Thai taxis before picking up our bags and hanging around the hostel until our airport pick up.

We said our goodbyes to Dan, they were quite rushed and given I don’t know the next time I’ll see him, a lot more understated than maybe they should have been. He’s now off to Australia and us, the airport home.

The journey to the airport was squashed to say the least! Bags and people all crammed into a mini bus made for an unpleasant trip to the airport and we were relived to get off, sort our luggage out ready for the plane, and check in.

A couple of hours in departures, a Skype call to our parents and one last Facebook status and that was it.

We were boarding our plane home. Not somewhere new, or somewhere different, home.

It was funny to say, funny to think. We had the best time, we were excited to come home, but sad to be leaving.

We had done exactly what we were told by this sign when we first left the UK, all that time ago, that’s for sure:

Now we were flying on two planes back to the same spot.

To end our extraordinary journey.

“To see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to, to draw closer, to see and be amazed” 

Townsville and Magnetic Island

We got to Townsville early about 6 am, after 17 hours on a coach!

The journey wasn’t as bad as the length of it, We slept a bit, and kept ourselves entertained pretty well.

We had to walk about a mile to our hostel with our heavy bags and this was certainly made harder with the lack of sleep.

The reception at the hostel wasn’t open till 8am, so we had about an hour to kill which we did by falling asleep on the sofas in the reception area.

Once it had opened, we checked in and luckily our rooms were ready for us to go into straight away, falling back asleep until midday!

When we woke, we changed and headed towards the “Rock Pool”. It was around 2 miles away, we had to walk all the way along the beach front, called “The Strand”.

Along the way there were many signs warning about Marine Stingers in the Water and potentially on the beaches, and gave advice on what to do if you are stung. Each beach section had vinegar too in case!

Then we eventually got to the Rock Pool. It was a salt water swimming pool, fed directly from the sea but with some state of the art flirtation system that removed any bad stuff (mostly marine stingers). The pool was huge! It varies in depths from 0.5-2.0m and was surrounded by grassy verges to sunbathe on, as well as the sea behind:

We stayed here for a good few hours! Relaxing and swimming in the safe and salty water. The water was really warm as well, so not as refreshing as you would think!

Whilst we were led down in the sun, there seemed to be approved commotion from behind us where there was a small children’s park. All the kids were pointing at something but we didn’t know what, until it began to move and we saw it was a massive monitor lizard! It stayed for a while stopping people in their tracks, before it ran into bushes along the beach.

We then walked back along the beach again with some Gelato, and made our way back to the hostel, via Woolworths to do a food shop.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet, but Woolworths is one of Australia’s main food shops!

In the evening we made ourselves a vegetable Thai green curry and then  went to the reception are to use the Wi-Fi to book hostels in Cairns, and our flight down to Melbourne which put a massive hole in our pockets!

The next day, was an eagerly anticipated one. We would be going over to Magnetic Island!

The island was a short 20 minute ferry hop across, which took us past the largest Australian Navy Ship that was docked in the harbour for the weekend we were there:

When we arrived on Magnetic Island, we bought a hop on hop off island bus pass and made our way to our first walk- The Forts Walk.

This walk was known on the island as a brilliant spot to see wild Koalas! They had a few hundred here and this walk was the best place to get to see them:

We didn’t.

Not a single one! The walk was about 4km to the WWII forts and back, where we hurt our necks and eyes staring at the gum trees looking, but didn’t see a single one! Not even a drop bear!

This was also while having to worry about the warning sign for Death Adders, one of the most venomous snakes in Australia, were also present in the area. Luckily, we didn’t see these either. Although, we did have a scare when something ran past our feet whilst we were looking at the trees but we think this was just a lizard.

The walk was hot, but the view from the end at the top of the War lookout tower was impressive:

We go a complete 360 degree view of all of the island from up here and could see Townsville and Australia as well!

We then made our journey back to the bus, still looking for koalas but they were nowhere to be seen. Very disappointing.

We got the bus a further 3km down to the north of the island and it’s biggest bay, Horseshoe Bay.

We had lunch on the picnic area by the beach and then went for a dip in the sea, within the Stinger Net area (you can see that in the pictures above, the white floating lines mark it out).  We then led and dried off in the shade of a Palm tree:

On the beach, after overhearing some other foreigners, was a dead shark, so we went down to investigate:

He wasn’t very big, must have died at Sea and been washed up perhaps.

All around us in the trees here were red tailed Black Cockatoos, louder and a lot bigger than their more famous white relatives:

We then went to head to our second walk, which was going to bed to the Horseshoe lagoon, which was meant to have a lot of different birds.

As we were wearing Flip flops, or “Thongs” if you’re Australian, we opted or against it. The path wasn’t as clear as the other and anything could have been underneath the leaves we would he walking on, so we gave it a miss.

We had a long wait to the bus back up to where we wanted to go next, so we decided to walk it ourselves as it wasn’t really that far, but it was hot.

On the way back along the road, we saw Wallabies in someone’s field but they were too far away for a photo, then at last, Liz got to see her koala…

The sign brought us hope that we may spot one on our walk back, but we didnt. 

We decided to walk part of the Forts Walk again when we got there, as still had time to wait for the bus, so we walked slowly through it to the Water stop and back.

Still. No. Wild. Koala.

Who knows where they were, but they definitely weren’t here! Probably gone for a swim.

This didn’t give us much hope for our next stop which was a 2 minute bus ride away, Geoffrey Bay.

Here there were supposed to be wild Rock Wallabies that you could feed with food from the island post office that was located there, but the post office was shut!

We walked along the bay over rocks trying to spot the little creatures, but we again had no luck:

We kept along the rocks until they met a road which we walked down to some bigger rocks, and our luck finally turned!

In the cracks and crevices between the large rocks, out popped a rock wallaby:

We then struck more luck, I had an another Apple (that’s right Mum, I had fruit!) In my bag, so we could attempt to interact with the wild Wallabies and feed them!

After being tentative at first about us, eventually we gained their trust and a couple started to eat out of our hands, bringing flashbacks of the Kangaroos and Lone Pine. Except these were in the wild!

Even the mum’s who had Joeys in their pouches (above) we’re trusting enough to take the Apple from us.

Eventually, more people came to feed them, and more Wallabies also started coming from down the rocks and onto the path.

One Man, who came every day to feed them with his grass and seeds, certainly gained the biggest crowd:

After watching them eat and hop around over the rocks, once again pinching ourselves, we left after a good hour spent with them.

This was to be the end of our time on Magnetic Island, after a long wait at the ferry terminal for a bus back to Townsville.

It was a hot, amazing day. The Rock Wallabies certainly saved the disappoint of not getting to see any Koalas.

Once we got back to the hostel, we made our tea, relaxed and packed up again ready for our 6 hour bus trip up to Cairns, our last journey on our East Coast trip,  the furthest north we will go… and home to the Great Barrier Reef.

Halong Bay

Our sleeper train was 14 hours long but didn’t feel that long. We stayed up till around 11 talking and playing Game of Life on an iPad. Liz won, I came 3rd!

It was the best sleeper we had been on so far, It felt like it anyway.

We then got on a coach to Halong Bay, it took around 3 hours and we arrived at 8 in the morning. We paid to get breakfast at the hotel to eat and kill some time, as check in wasn’t until 10 30.

After check in we showered and relaxed before meeting the tour at 12 to get a coach to the port where a Junk boat was to take us around the Mountains in the sea:

We ate on the boat as well… fine dining! Liz had the vegetarian option and I had fish, such as crab cakes in a crab shell, snapper fish, rice, noodles, shrimps (which I didn’t touch) and loads of other sides:

The views were spectacular, limestone rocks cascading out of the sea like icebergs:

We stopped so people could go kayaking through some of the caves in the rocks, we didn’t do this as it was pretty expensive for what it was, and money is getting tight for this part of our trip.

We then floated around some more and visited the caves within one of the limestone rocks:

We then went back to the port. The scenery was amazing, the mist around the mountains made it even more surreal and eery. 

That evening, we were so tired, we walked to get some snacks before heading back to the hotel to relax early, and both of us fell asleep by half 9!

Next stop, Hanoi. 

Sihanoukville

We left Phonm Penh around 8am to head to the beach town of Sihanoukville.

About an hour in we stopped at the military base so some people could have a go at shooting an Ak47 and a hand pistol. They were loud. It was expensive,  but even if it was cheap I doubt we would have done it anyway.

On our way, we had to pull over for a few minutes whilst the King of Cambodia was coming back through with a procession of about 20 Police Coaches:

Photo above was of him waving, the best I could get really!

On the journey, Bun was telling us about more about how things cost here compared to at home. To rent a house with 2beds and a private bathroom, $40 a month. Brand new Lexus 4×4 Cars around $20,000 and mopeds/bikes only $750. U.S. dollars this is.

We arrived at the hotel about 2pm, and changed and headed straight for the beach. We walked about 10 mins or so along it to get to a more secluded, less touristy location where we wouldn’t be disturbed by street sellers every 5 seconds:

We chilled out in the water and led in the sand. I even managed to get a quick workout out in in the forest, using the branches to do some sets of pull ups.

We headed back to the hotel whilst the sunset;

Then, we got a load of clothes to wash and took them across the street to get some washed for 3 hours time, some for tomorrow.

We ate on the beach for dinner , at a bbq restaurant. They had fireworks going off all along the beach whilst we sat in big wicker lounging chairs.

Today we are going to do an island tour. Its costing us $15 USD for breakfast, lunch, the boat around the 3 islands, time on the islands and snorkelling, equipment included, around them.

We set off on the boat about 9ish after Breakfast and headed past island 1 to the 2nd island, where we went snorkeling with loads of fish:

Afterward we headed to Ko Ta Kiev, the 3rd island.

Which was the closest thing to a paradise beach we have ever been to…White sand, See through water for ages, quiet, warm. Amazing!

We spent about 3 hours here, had a bbq lunch made for us as well. Their were a lot of wasps buzzing around us on the island, about twice the size of wasps you get at home.

There were also loads of fish swimming in the clear waters, none seemed fazed by us.

After lunch we led on the beach and in the sea some more before heading back over to island 1, for some more snorkelling.

There were less fish, but bigger fish and more coral on this island, and giant sea urchins! Luckily neither of us put our feet down, else we could have had a different afternoon altogether.

We got back to the hotel where we chilled and showered and aftersunned up before going put to get more water and snacks for our long coach journey tomorrow, and picking some more laundry up. Tiger balm here btw, which is around £6/7 at home, is £1.50. I’ll be stocking up on this before we come home!

In the eve we went for food, and then went straight home to the hotel, to pack again and prepare for tomorrow’s long journey to the Mekong delta, and the border crossing into Vietnam. Tomorrow we stay with a family in their house….