Khao Sok National Park

(Amy) Following the madness of Haad Rin, we were ready for a few alcohol free days in the national park. On arriving, our initial impression of the jungle hut accommodation was good, and we went to explore the village. As it's low season, it turned out that even the minimart was closed. However we booked a tour with a nice guy in the village who gave us a better deal than the hostel. Turns out that the hostel weren't too pleased so told us that we couldn't stay there when we got back from the jungle and couldn't book a bus with them either. So rude but it's their loss- watch out tripadvisor! 

Anyway we set off for our tour and met up with our guide, and our group of 8 spent the next hour or so in the long tail boat to the floating raft house accommodation. The lake in the park is so huge, it's a bit of a shock to jump in and find it's not the salty sea! The scenery was stunning and reminded us a bit of Halong Bay. 

We arrived at our floating raft house in time for a swim before lunch....

After lunch we went on a jungle trek to Nam Ta Loo Cave, which involved crossing a fair few rivers and our guide checking our legs now and again for leeches... Luckily none were found! As it is rainy season in Thailand the cave is officially closed, but all the guides were taking their groups in a short way anyway. Stripped down to nothing more than a bikini and head torch we waded through the cave, most of the way the water way knee height, with a few bits where you were up to your chest. Pretty cool! Then we walked back to camp for a bit more swimming.

So much bamboo! Our guide made us a few bamboo flutes too. 

After dinner we headed out in the boat again for night safari. If you're lucky you can see elephants, monkeys and various other things, sadly we did not! However we did see a family of giant hornbills, an owl, loads of fireflies and a shooting star. It was also cool to hear all the jungle sounds at night. 

Heading back to the rafthouse during the 4 hours of electricity...

Few games of cards and it was time for bed, trying not to think too much about all the jungle sounds!

The next day started with an early morning safari as the sun came up. The highlights were a giant eagle, hearing the calls of gibbons from deep in the jungle and seeing a huge family of long tailed macaques. 

After breakfast we left the rafthouse and headed to another huge huge cave, full of stalactites, stalagmites, bats and shit loads of huge spiders! At one point we all turned our lights off and learnt the meaning of total darkness. 

Eventually, with a few more beautiful swimming stops, we headed back to the pier, and managed to find a bus to Krabi. 

Koh Tao - Koh Pha Ngan

(Amy) 

So we've not updated the blog for a while as we've mainly been diving, chilling on beaches and partying! By the time we arrived in Koh Tao we were all pretty shattered. We took a sleeper bus from Sapa to Hanoi which arrived at 5am, so we snuck back into our previous hostel and attempted to sleep on the floor for a few more hours, unfortunately it was about 200 degrees in there so we didn't get much rest! Then we booked a few flights and spent the morning wandering the sweltering streets of Hanoi. Later on we caught our flight from Hanoi back to Bangkok. We arrived in the middle of a monsoon, got through immigration quite swiftly but then had to wait over an hour for our bags. Apparently they can't take bags off the plane when it's raining. We rushed out the airport and jumped in a taxi with an hour until our bus was supposed to leave. The traffic was horrendous and our taxi driver just kept doing this maniac laugh when we were asking if we were likely to make it. We arrived at the bus station with 5 minutes until it left- it was very very close! So after another overnight bus we arrived at Chumphon pier at 5am, and sat there until the catamaran left at 7. 

On arrival in Koh Tao we spent a couple of hours trying to suss out the best price for me to do my PADI open water course, lizzie to do some fun dives and somewhere haz could do other stuff. We eventually settled on a dorm in one of the diving resorts, and spent the afternoon chilling round the pool while Lizzie did her refresher dive course. Then I started my course that evening with a very boring video. We had dinner and spent the evening watching the fire shows at Lotus bar. 

The next morning I had more dive theory then we had our first session in the pool, practising various skills. The next morning we had more theory and were given our 'exam' to take away with us, before we finally got to go out on the boats for our first bit of proper diving. We spent quite a lot of time in the first 2 dives practising skills, like taking your mask off and putting it back on again, losing and replacing your regulator and breathing off your buddy's alternate reg in case you run out of air. Haz and Lizzie went out that night, but as I was diving early the next morning I decided it wasn't the best idea and spent the evening with some people from our dorm/ my dive group who were also diving the next day. (Harriet) the night out was hilarious, starting off again at lotus bar where we got involved in the fire limbo- don't panic no one got burnt!! And afterwards dancing away with people from the hostel. When we returned we found one of our rather anebriated dorm mates feeding a cat tuna which he'd bought from 7/11 for "97 baht!" What was even funnier was the cat didn't touch the stuff. 

(Amy) The dives the next morning were really good, we saw loads and the whole group was relaxing a bit more by now, so we got to do more actual diving. Saw loads of cool fish including puffer fish and nemos, as well as a saltwater eel. Liz was lucky enough to see a turtle on one of her fun dives! After the dives that morning we are officially qualified to dive to 18m anywhere in better world. That evening I had dinner with my dive group and we watched the video that the underwater camera person had made. We bought it between the group do hopefully the girl that's got it is going to rip it and send copies to all of us. After that I met up with the girls and we went to the ladyboy caberet, which was absolutely hilarious and actually quite good! 

(Harriet) Being the non-diver of the group I was a little apprehensive as to what koh Tao would have to offer me. As it turned out, quite a bit! One day I went snorkelling with some other girls from our hostel which was really fun, we saw so many fish, including a leopard print one! and sea cucumbers. They also took us to nuangan island which is just off koh Tao and quite possibly one of the most perfect beaches ever. I never wanted to leave! I also went sailing on a Hobicat as I had spotted a man on the beach rigging a laser and thought it was worth a shot. The conversation went like this: "hi, is this your boat?" 

"Yeah" 

"Can we go sailing?" 

"Ok what time?" 

It was such a nice afternoon as the wind got up quite a bit so we were able to get some serious runs in. I also had a great time just lazing on the beach after a night when the others had to be up at 7 (hehe) and had one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had- and believe me I've had a lot! 

Our time in koh phangnan blended into one. The daily routine went something like this: get up about 11, crawl somewhere for breakfast, beach, back to the hostel for showers, dinner, night out. 

(Amy) We also found a new favourite restaurant called my friends.... They do a great pad Thai wrapped in omelette! We saw also saw the nottingham high school massive from the year below us- the group has grown since we last bumped into the 4 girls in Vang Vieng in Laos!  

The jungle party was the night before full moon and we Tuk-tucked it there. When we arrived it was already heaving and we bumped into so many people we've met along the way which was amazing considering how many people there were. We were transfixed by the Muai-Thai boxing matches which were taking place, firstly because it was actual Thai boxers and they were pretty good, and then because they let tourists have a go and it all got a bit heated. The contestants did not understand the 'no kicking' rule. I found it quite funny but also a bit embarrassing as most of the lads seemed to be English.. We left after dav appeared with blood all over her foot. After an initial panic we cleaned it and realised that it was just a cut. Now we have all walked into concrete and injured ourselves! 

On sunday Haad Rin was prepping for full moon...

Full moon was also a night to remember as we donned our neon face paint, I ended up painting half the people in the  hostel! 

We then headed to the beach where we danced and chatted all night. Many buckets later, it went so quickly and before we knew it we were all sat on the beach watching the sun come up amongst the many who had just not made it and passed out around us. It was a great moment.

 After breakfast at mamma schnitzel (the best schnitzel place in (town) we headed to bed, and did not surface again for a long time. However, we were up in time for sunset! Which was absolutely stunning and we had fun taking classic gap-yah sunset selfies and writing our names in the sand. It was a completely opposite night to full moon, and it was great. 

Today we said goodbye to lizzie at 6am (painful) which was so sad but we are so grateful for the time we were able to have with her! We the got the boat and bus to khoa sok national park and have booked a 2 day tour starting in the morning. Better get some rest! ...

Hanoi - Halong Bay - Sapa

(Amy) 

Following the 16.5 hour night bus, we arrived in Hanoi and made it to the Hanoi Backpackers hostel. We made sure that we were booked onto the Castaways tour for the next day, had breakfast and then set off to explore hanoi. It is SO hot here! We visited the prison museum, then walked around the lake and to the market. The market was quite an experience, with all varieties of live and dead animals for sale...

We then braved some street food- I had some pork and noodle thing, lizzie had spring rolls and Emmy had banana and vegetable soup! It was actually pretty good! In the evening we attempted to find a restaurant we had been recommended... It was closed. So instead we had more street food, where me and Liz barbequed our own- we lived to tell the tale! 

The next morning it was an early start to go on the infamous Castaways tour of Halong Bay. We had heard this is the booze cruise of the bay, so we were pretty excited! 4 hours on a bus and we were put on a boat of 20 people, which was a very very nice boat, and we were suitable impressed. 

The food was pretty lush and we spent the afternoon kayaking round the bay, jumping off the boat and swimming. The views are just incredible and unfortunately the photos don't do it justice. 

We spent the first night on the boat, tied to another Castaways boat. We had the nicer boat, but they had the better sound system so we played drinking games and had a bit of a party on their boat. 

It was another 7am start (turns out the cabin has a doorbell, which they use to wake you up) and we had breakfast and started cruising again. We swapped boats a couple of times and arrived at midday on Castaway island. This is a tiny private island, just used by this company, so it feels pretty exclusive! 

The activities were awesome, you could go rock climbing (turns out Haz is quite the monkey pro), kayaking and tubing (big inflatable thing dragged behind a speed boat)- so much fun! Later on the party got going and we had a pretty good night. One of the definate highlights for me was swimming at midnight, where you can see the bioluminescent plankton. This is definately one of the coolests things I've seen, when you move in the water it's like you're glittering! However the rain set in for the night not long after this, and turns out the roof on our beach bungalow wasn't great, so haz had to spoon me in the bottom bunk as hers was wet! 

Next morning came far too quickly, and it was a long boat and bus journey back to Hanoi :( we had a couple of hours to kill before our sleeper train, so we had a really nice dinner- our final one with Emmy! We were all really sad to see her go- Emmy we miss you!! 

Our sleeper train to Sapa was pretty luxurious and we all slept really well, and arrived feeling well rested.  Sapa is definately one of the most beautiful places we've been, everywhere is so green! You're only about 1 hour from the Chinese border, so about as far north as you can go in Vietnam. We arrived a bit late to go trekking on the first day so we dumped our stuff and wandered round the town and then walked to one of the hill tribe villages called the CatCat village. 

Lovely pig BBQ...

Waterfall in the village 

 We also got a free herbal foot soak... 

We went for dinner, cocktails and a massage in the evening- so civilised! 

The next day we set off on our 2 day trek. We visited 3 villages, and stayed at a homestay in the Ta Van village. Couldn't really ask for more beautiful surroundings. 

There was just 4 of us staying in the homestay, so we played quite a lot of cards, looked at the stars and admired (or ran away from) the massive moths and light up bugs.

We set off after yummy pancakes for breakfast and today's trekking was a bit harder with a lot more hills. One thing that was pretty weird was that you have crowds of village women and children following the group for both days... They occasionally talk to you to try and flog you bags and bracelets but otherwise just follow in silence. 

At lunch me and lizzle swam in this beautiful waterfall (pictures on her camera) and then we all hiked to the top of this one after lunch... I wish the pictures could do it justice! The tiered rice paddies are so neat and so so green, it's just stunning. 

We had one final afternoon in Sapa and are now taking the sleeper bus to Hanoi, where we will catch a flight back to Bangkok... We are now 7 weeks into our travels, it has gone so quickly, and we are just last half way. 

Sorry for the very long blog! Next stop Thailand...