Time to Party

I would be lying if I said the eleven hours went quickly because they did not.I put it down to my lack of ability of falling asleep anywhere except a bed (now, however I can virtually sleep anywhere).

It was a bareable ride and I did manage to get a good few hours sleep, even if it was disjointed. We arrived in Surat Thani in the morning and got on a fairly large ferry over to Ko samui. We headed straight for the open air section of the ferry on the top and enjoyed the wind refreshing us after such a long coach ride.

The journey lasted around 2 hours and when we arrived we jumped in a taxi and headed towards our hotel. Only problem was, it was a new hotel and nobody knew where it was!

We went in circles in the general area for a while until the taxi driver gave up and dropped us off. I luckily stepped into an estate agent, a young lady was sat by herself and she spoke english so I asked if she could help direct us. She was so friendly and helpful, she took the info we had and rang the hotel. Ten minutes later a thai man from the hotel picked us up. It was hidden away from main roads and around a ten minute drive from where we were so we were thankful for the thai lady's help.

As we went to check-in at the hotel we were informed that we had booked a king double for the three of us. Well, this was down to the tourist information we explained. They did try to charge us for an extra bed but we agreed to share the bed and not pay, luckily the staff understood that we hadn't booked it. As we stepped up we saw it was a huge bed easily big enough for three of us...
We went up had a good few hours rest and then began to get ready for the full moon Party.

Around seven we got a speedboat to the island of Ko Phagnan, the location of the full moon party on Haad rin beach. On the speedboat we met four outgoing aussies; Jess, Angela, Aaron and Ben. They told us what they had been doing and have offered us some company when we get to Sydney.

The full moon Party was beyond expection, huge speakers and lights on the beautiful beach. I forgot I was even on a beach. Was a bad case of drinking too many vodka and red bull buckets with Viking and we ended up out of it for a good few hours. Great night just didn't like the queueing to get back to Ko Samui ...or yet another taxi driver failing to find our hotel for a good hour!

If we ever get there...

Ready to see what Thailand had to offer and try and organise our way to the full moon party, we checked out and headed to the Tourist Information. As we approached, it appeared to be shut. A small Thai man greeted us outside and we explained we were trying to get to the Full moon Party. He smiled and called over a tuk-tuk, being a local he got us a 20 baht (40p) fare for a fairly reasonable distance.

We arrived outside the Tourist Information, went in and booked a ticket for an overnight coach to the port, ferry from the port and back again. As Ko Phagnan was the location of the full moon party and it was in two days we realised we would not be able to get accomodation there, so we also booked three nights accomodation on nearby island- Ko Samui. Having done this, we had four hours to freely roam around Bangkok.

We left our big bags at the tourist Information and headed out.

Goatee suggested we head to Lumphini Park', so we did and found a small park area of bangkok that was quiet and hassle-free. We took a relaxed stroll around the park and sat by the pond. When looking into the pond we noticed a large Komodo dragon type thing poke its head above water and swim past, that helped the realisation of actually being in Thailand! The afternoon was soon gone and before we knew it we were boarding the coach to Surat Thani (The port). It was pure luck that we got the comfy and more spacious seats downstairs. Thankfully it was air conditioned and the seats reclined to a laid back position. The coach journey lasted around eleven hours!

Your arrivinnngg...n...n...nn....now.

I remember waking up at 9 o'clock and I was buzzing, finally it was here, the day of the big trip. I had spent the entire morning packing and re-packing, I definitely didn't want to forget anything! 4.30pm came around quickly and it was then time to leave for the airport. After re-packing my bag so many times I could almost name its entire contents, I was certain that I was ready. They say time flies when your having fun, and although we were only checking-in and doing all the airport formalities it soon went and we were sat on the plane on our way. Finally all my hard work was paying off and I was about to embark on the holiday of a lifetime.

Following all the excitement, hustle and bustle of the airport, time soon seemed to slow down as we sat on the plane for ten hours. Those who know me won't be surprised to hear I worked my way through four whole films throughout the journey, and neglected sleep...the excitement kept me up. Happy and ready to get our bags we stepped off the plane with a smile on our faces...

Our smiles, however, were soon turned to yawns as waited over an hour to get through passport control. We all looked at each other with disbelief as we saw around five passport control desks with over one hundred people in each queue.

Over the time we waited we seemed to age, but eventually we collected our bags and before we knew it we were in the taxi looking down Si-lom Road for our Hostel. Things looked good, rows and rows of 5 Star hotels. We stopped and the taxi driver pointed, it turned out the other hotels were nothing to go by...

In front of us was a small white building no bigger than a standard town house. We entered and were shown up four flights of stairs and there was our room. On the way up we were privy to some building work and I particularly enjoyed the thrill of the stairs without a hand rail. My first hostel experince: the room was the size of the average english bathroom, 2 bunk beds, white walls and no windows. Prison came to mind... The shared shower and toilet wasn't to bad as they were being refurbished and we were the only ones using them. I would say the easyjet of hotels but a glorified cell seems more accurate.

That evening, despite being tired we ventured down Si-lom Road for some suitable munch. Five minutes down the road it came in the form of a well-presented thai restaraunt. More expensive than we might have wished but it certainly replaced the taste of flight food.

After browsing the menu, I decided on a thai green curry... not the best decision I have ever made. It was hot, very hot and taking the taste of flight food out of my mouth is perhaps an understatement but still a good move. We wondered past various strip clubs, bars and clubs, being offered ping pong shows near enough every minute.

We decided to save that for another time...

Delays, problems and new accomodation experiences aside, we were finally in Bangkok and therefore didn't mind that every move either me or Goatee made in the bunk bed woke each other up. It didn't matter because our adventure had just begun.

Whistle while you work

Up to the beginning of my big trip I was working every hour under the sun in order to raise enough cash for when I was away. I was lucky enough to be employed by Tesco and nothing quite beats working 12 hour days on checkouts. However it did kinda suit me, talking all day and by January every poor sod that went in there heard about my six month trip abroad, lucky them!

Quote from the diary...

It is now less than four weeks and excitement, as a feeling, just doesn't describe it. Already one night's sleep this week has gone to pot due to... well ... excitement?! It is now a mere 24 days until we fly, not that I'm counting! I did have the number of hours worked out but I won't bore you with how many it is.

The closer it got, the more times poor Viking had hear how many days or hours there were left to go and how excited I was. Unfortunately for him he worked merely yards away from me and could be bombarded by my child-on-christmas-morning levels of excitement on a daily basis...poor guy.

The First Trip

Originally I wanted to travel for 10 months with one of my childhood friends, Prison break. Our central destination was Australia and that was where we would stay longest. Our plan was to work as we went along, meaning we would not need to work for long beforehand.

Unfortunately, Prison Break broke his leg and was unable to work to get enough money for the flights.

My next thought was to go alone and do student tours or coach trips in order to meet other travellers. I soon realised, however, that I didn't have the amount of money I needed.

I had to re-think. But I still wanted to travel...

I was very chatty with a friend of a friend at work, Viking, and we started to get on really well. One day we were happily talking away when he mentioned travelling with the money he had saved from work. He was planning to go with another friend of mine from college, Goatee, so I enquired where they planned to go. Their plans were to go to more places than just Australia such as Thailand, Fiji and New Zealand. I was interested and asked if they would mind if I joined them.

It all began from there really.

Very soon after, we were sat in STA Travel enquiring about flights. We got an estimated cost of the following flightplan:

Thailand
Fiji
New Zealand
Australia
New York

Unfortunately, adding New York made our flights around £300 more expensive, so we scrapped it and focused on Thailand, New Zealand, Fiji and Australia.

I was actually beginning to make serious steps towards organising what was to be one of the most life changing experiences of my life.