Krabi- Koh Phi Phi - Sepilok, Borneo

We arrived in Krabi after a 5 hour journey, and managed to find a cheap room for £3 each... It was pretty hot in there though! Krabi was pretty dead so we grabbed some pad Thai at the night market and got an early night. Next morning we caught the ferry to Koh Phi Phi. There are no roads or transport on the island so we trekked through the little town with our bags to find somewhere to stay. Settled on a 4 bed dorm with air con and slightly skanky bathroom! Had lunch and spent the afternoon sunbathing... Although it was a little cloudy at times! Had another massage and a quiet night.

The next day we had booked to go snorkelling, but when we woke up it was raining... A lot! So we decided to go back to bed instead. When we resurfaced it was still raining so we decided to have a western food day to go with the western weather, and basically moved from cafe to cafe until it cleared up a bit. 

By the evening the sun was shining so we walked up to the viewpoint for sunset, which was beautiful. 

Then we had a phi phi night out, involving a few cocktail buckets, the jenga drinking game and a lot of fun! 

Next morning was better weather so we were off bright and early for the snorkelling trip. We went to so many stops, and the rest of thailand also appeared to be on snorkelling trips so all of them were pretty packed. We liked Maya Bay the best, which is the one from the beach film!

Cue cheesy gap yah photos

When we eventually returned many, many hours later, we went for an Indian with a big group from the hostel- costing a grand total of £33 for curry, rice, naan, drinks etc for 10 people. 

We left phi phi the next day on the afternoon ferry after another morning if torrential rain, and another massage. Back in Krabi we went back to the same place (and got discount... £2.75 each) then we went for a RUN!! First one the entire time we have been away!

Next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to go to the airport and fly to Kuala Lumpur. Then we hung around in a coffee shop in KL airport for 5 hours as they wanted to charge us £10 each to store our bags. When we went to check in for our connecting flight to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, they charged us for check in... Very annoying when we had been sat doing nothing for hours and could have done it online for free if they had only told us. Anyway we landed in KK on time, to the background music of Taylor swift again... Apparently this is the norm on AirAsia flights! Got to our hostel easily but the lady told us the wrong info on bus times about 35 times, so we just decided to wing it in the morning, and luckily got our 7am bus in good time from KK to Sepilok. 

Managed to find a nice jungle resort and made it to the orangutan sanctuary after the 6hr+ bus journey.  They are semi wild and free to roam the jungle as they please, many were rescued and hand reared so are used to people and make an appearance for fruit at feeding time. Literally amazing to be so close to them. We are jacking in vet school to work here and become orangutan specialists. 

After a quiet night in the jungle resort we were off to the Sun bear sanctuary the next morning. Again this was really cool, and the guides were full of information. One called Natalie has escaped a few days ago and been seen at a nearby resort which is funny and worrying at the same time! 

Had a quick swim in the resort pool...

Then this afternoon we went to the Proboscis monkey sanctuary- very odd but amazing creatures, who are semi wild like the orangutans. Only the adult males have the ridiculous noses, which apparently makes them all the more attractive to the ladies! 

And a few very tame little grey monkeys... 

Next we are doing a river safari for a few days, hoping to see some wild Pygmy elephants, but we'll see if we get lucky

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! ...