Polly's Running Away Blog

Ok I know its been a LONG time since Iv actually been organised enough to write a blog but Im starting it up again now & will try to catch up as soon as I can! I left off just before the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan in February, so I'll go from there.
The FULL MOON PARTY!! Wow it was awesome: so so so many people that you could hardly move, despite the beach being huge! Crazy music, whiskey buckets, dancing, yelling and rain dominated the night, as did UV paint! Everyone went a bit mental with it and slathered on all the colours so it looked really cool, but was even better after it started raining and all the colours ran together, making everyone look like a mass of pulsing tye-dye! It was a great party and the next day the island was uncharacteristically quiet The day after the recovery Tom, Jane & I left the island and said goodbye to Alex, Mike, Chris & Stuart (friends of Tom's from home) - here will say thanks to those guys for making the time there brilliant!
So we were off to Koh Tao, an island just north of Koh Phangan. Originally the idea was to stay there for just 4 days, do our introductory diving courses and then leave - that didnt quite happen! Well actually it did, but we stayed for 2 weeks more after that! It was an amazing island and none of us could quite bear to tear ourselves away (especially not Tom, who ended up spending nearly 2 entire months there!).
Right, diving. I really did love it and everything, but I cant say I took to it as naturally as most of the others! Jane and I enrolled on an Open Water Divers Training Course with Phoenix Divers, and we really couldnt have picked a better place! The instructors were legends, great fun and about as laid back as its possible to be. We started with all the typical lesson type things and spent a few hours being told all the different ways it is possible to die underwater (haha comforting!) & then it was into the sea! Now I will admit that I was a total wuss and a bit of a dumbass, the one thing they tell you to NEVER do is shoot to the surface if you're more than a couple of metres down (theres are apparently multitudes of terrible things that can happen!), so what did I do? Of course I freaked out and shot straight up waay too many times! To be honest Im amazed I passed, considering this and the fact that I couldnt name a single piece of the equipment. Despite the immense fear I was trying to overcome I actually did love it when I was properly under the water and could see all the life down there - so many different types of fishes in all the colours and all the sizes! Its such a weird feeling being under the sea like that - its kind of like what I think it would be like to be on the moon - you're almost weightless and you're enveloped in this totally alien world that normally you could never survive in. Very cool
Koh Tao is another place where, if you're not an early-rising diver, you live for the night! The best place to be was Lotus Bar, an awesome place on the beach where everybody congregates for cocktails and rubbish music until about 2am - when every night the DJ plays 'Miss American Pie', tells the party he 'loves us long time(!)' and calls out to us to go to the after-party down the road. Actually everything was down the road - the best bit of the island was Sairee Beach and if you went there, no matter how long you were on the island, you'd never bother to venture anywhere else! The after parties were always right outside our place in one or other of the bars, and were always pretty great; after these most people would disperse around the island, either to bed, the 7/11 shop, or the beach to heckle the divers as they left for the boats!
We made some fantastic friends on this island and without them the place just wouldnt have been the same! Firstly Keith & Ed, who I met on maybe the second day & spent almost the whole of the rest of the time there with! Then there were the instructors and divers from Phoenix, the brilliant staff at AC who were some of the friendliest people ever (especially Chat & Om :D), many many people whose names Ive forgotten (really should have written this blog earlier!) and of course the Koh Tao Cowboys! These were Tom and a bunch of English and Canadian guys with a penchant for straw hats, chicken schnitzels and getting naked in bars
Basically Koh Tao was BRILLIANT - I cant describe how fun the time there was (sorry thats rubbish for you if youve bothered to read this!), as it was just so random!
OOH nearly forgot . . . the cooking course! 3 of us went & learnt how to cook Paenang Curry, Pad Thai, Green Curry and real Spring Rolls from one of the local women at her house - she was absolutely lovely & it was really fun & not nearly as complicated as you'd expect! If any of you are lucky I'll cook you a Thai feast when I get home

Since I last wrote one of these I have discovered a new and wonderful thing: island life. So far we have been to two very very different islands, and I have realised that your lifestyle totally changes when you live on a beach!

When we left Vientiane we travelled southwards for a couple of days to Si Phan Don, also known as the 4000 Islands. These are on the Mekong river in the south of Laos, so the water is fresh & clean & perfect to swim in; it was here that I found out that I'm not actually scared of water if its warm, though the thought of snakes did creep in to my mind occasionally! For the first couple of days we stayed on the biggest island which was Don Khong; on our first afternoon there Jane and I were adopted by two local girls (who introduced themselves to us by grabbing my arm to compare it to theirs, then laughing hysterically at my 'english rose' complexion!) and were taken to the riverside for a swim. I love how people out here will do that - everyone is just happy to talk to you and keen to show you around their home - they want you to know how great everything is & show it off! The next day was Jane's 19th birthday! We woke her up with beer (it set the tone for the 'beer day' that followed) & the best present anyone could ever get; a pointy hat made of banana leaves! She actually loved it and wore it aaall day That morning we moved on to a different island called Don Det, its smaller but busier with alot more things to see & thus more people around. It was a total coincidence and really awesome that that night we bumped into 3 people we had met from the last few places we had been, and so had a pretty good party for Jane

The rest of the time on Don Det was mainly spent in the water - we went tubing there for a day & got totally lost! At first we were laughing about how slow the current was and how we'd never get away from the pier, but all of a sudden some hidden current got moving and we spent the next hour dodging rocks and mini islands as we span over the rapids! We did eventually get to some real land, and trudged home with the tubes over our shoulders, it was such a good day!! Other than that we sat on the beach alot, or sat in hammocks . . . basically we were fantastically lazy apart from on one day when I really and truly did get on a bike and rode all the way across the island to see the waterfalls. Im not going to say it was totally worth it as Im not known for my cycling skills, but I made it &, of course, it was really very beautiful there.

One thing that is very noticeable about Don Det is the amount of animals around! Everywhere we've been there have been alot of 'things' around (including chickens in the bank!), but here there were SO many: we lived next door to some very large ginger pigs, there were water buffalo all over the show (notably Napolean the beach bum buffalo who didnt move the whole time we were there), as usual there were dogs and chickens blocking the streets, a monkey living in the local reggae bar, and most worryingly we had miscellaneous things in our bedroom ceiling that we simply called 'the creatures of the night'.

Grudgingly we left Si Phan Don after a week, and caught the 'VIP bus' to Bangkok where we spent 2 days and a lot of money. We of course got caught up in the Khao San Road markets and have bought more things than we honestly want, but then thats the way with Bangkok! I also had the most fantastic massage with these heated herbal cloth things; I swear I've never been so relaxed in my whole life. On our second day we went to see the Grand Palace which was pretty awesome, alot of red gold and green (just like the Boy George song!). Ahh I nearly forgot to say about Jane's funky dreadlocks! She got them while we were in Bangkok and for the next two days just stared in the mirror

Now this is the bit that will make everyone jealous, as it was at this point that we got to Koh Phangan You know when you look at travel magazines and see the photographs of the tropical beaches; the white sand, the turquoise sea, the palm trees . . . and never quite believe they can really be that good? Well I can say now that they really are THAT great! For 4 days we stayed in the north of the island on a beach called Thong Nai Pan Noi and it was the best place we have stayed yet in the whole 7 weeks Our bungalow was a perfect little sandy shed on legs, and was literally right on the beach - in the mornings I could step out on to our rickety wooden balcony and watch the waves and think WOW! For the whole time we were there Jane & I just lay about on the beach and swam in the sea, whilst drinking multi-coloured cocktails! We are aiming to have had one of each colour of the rainbow by the time we leave here Amazingly we made it out as far as the next beach along one time and went to a yoga class; as it turns out palm trees look even better when you can stand on your head and look at them! We were introduced to this class by a lovely Thai woman called Gan who owned one of the local bars - she was so chatty and we learnt alot about the monks and temple life from her, as she had lived and worked in a monastery with the nuns for four months so as to cleanse her soul.

I will mention a bit about the food here, as I've eaten some fantastic stuff recently! There are a lot of seafood barbeques on the beaches here, and one night I ate shark! It was so delicious, like a mixture between chicken and fish, which sounds weird but is so good All the food here is great, the padthai, prawns, red snapper, chillies, noodles noodles & noodles, then more noodles . . . then rice rice rice and noodles . . . I thought Id get bored as the food can be 'quite' similar, but its so good you cant get bored of it! The other day though I got a bit cocky, thinking that as I'd had 6 weeks of eating spicy food I would be able to cope with the infamous local 'jungle curry'. I started eating it and was like 'Oh wow this is delicious, and I can totally deal with the heat as well, Im such a wordly traveller type' . . . and then the heat hit! It was really quite embarassing; my eyes were watering, I couldnt stop sniffing and I drank 3 bottles of beer in record time but still couldnt get rid of the burning! After about 20 minutes it calmed down, and all I said for the rest of the evening was 'never again'!

We are now in the south of the island staying in a place called Ban Kai, everything is great apart from the room, which has turned in to a bit of a source of comedy . . . firstly our 'landlord' doesnt like us as we dont speak Thai & pay him too late, we have had a dead gecko lying on the floor for 4 days now as neither of us can bear to touch it, and we have possibly the worst neighbours! They are two crazy Swedish guys, & we first became aware of their presence when we heard blood curdling screams coming from their side of the paper thin walls! I was absolutely terrified and convinced they were being murdered and that we were next in line, when I heard them burst out laughing. This continued for a while until I put on my 'cross school teacher' voice and told them to jolly well be quiet! As it turns out they thought it was too quiet in the room, so they'd fill the void with screams. Hmmmm. Other than that though we couldnt possibly be having a better time! We have met up with Tom again and are staying near to him and a group of his friends which is really fun - its good to be part of a bigger group for a while Days here are spent either asleep or slouched in a restaurant, waiting for the night to come! It is totally crazy here at night - the beaches are packed with thousands of people dancing to techno music, drinking as many whiskey buckets as the touts can press on them! Last night we stayed on the beach to watch the sunrise, and even by 7am there were still people all over the beach, surrounded by empty bottles and buckets! The nightlife is just too good already, so I cant wait for the Full Moon Party :D Its been postponed by 2 days due to the elections so its tomorrow night, I'll update on that next time!

As a p.s., a pick-up with a loudspeaker attached to the roof just drove by, advertising Muay Thai Boxing tickets for tonight - the catch line was 'Come along - it's Fighting For All The Family'!!!

Its been so long since I wrote that first blog I cant believe it - its now been nearly a month that we've been away, which feels a bit crazy! I think I've become a genuine traveller by now - I have patterened trousers and toe rings and ankle bracelets and everything!

Well when I last updated this we were in Chiang Mai, but we left for Chiang Rai the next day. There's not much to say about that place apart from we HATED it! It was quiet & dull with nothing to see or do, & there were lots of shifty looking tuk-tuk drivers hanging about. The main reason I hated it though was because I was chased home by dogs one night! I laugh about it now but I was so terrified - I've never run so fast in my life as when I looked behind and saw 4 mangy little things, barking their rabid heads off & heading straight for me! But don't worry I survived

Next we moved on to Chiang Khong which is on the border of Thailand and Laos; it was a really sweet little town with a very chilled atmosphere and more beautiful temples, however we were just passing through here as we went almost straight away to catch the slow-boat into Laos. That trip was SO amazing, the scenery was fantastic & it felt like we were in a chapter from Heart of Darkness. We also met some truly great people on this trip, that we've been bumping into almost every night since then! (It's weird how that happens out here, when you say goodbye to someone you can guarantee it wont be for long!) The boat trip was a two day one and we stayed overnight in the Laos town of Pakbeng, in a guest house owned by the most mental guy: Marco Polo. He was a legend! Never stopped laughing and dared everyone to eat these chillies that were so hot they were almost flaming, which caused a couple of the guys there to come very close to tears! It was a bit of a mental night and set the tone for our time in Laos so far

The boat dropped us off at Luang Prabang, a really lovely town with so much to see. We spent a whole day at the Kouang Si Waterfalls - they were one of the most beautiful things that we've seen so far as the water was a really stunning shade of turquoise, and the plants all around were kind of jungle-ish. The others though were much braver than I was about swimming! It took some impatient stranger physically pushing me to make me get in! Was totally worth it though, I felt like a mermaid! Another great thing in Luang Prabang was Phou Si: the Sacred Hill. This was a shrine in the centre of town placed on a hill (suprisingly enough!) & although it was a mission to get up there the views of the sun setting over the mountains were just awesome.

I will briefly here describe to you what bus travel entails in these parts, as our journey to Vang Vieng was the worst out of the 3 we have done so far! Basically the people at the station will sell tickets until there are no more people wanting them, which inevitably means there are about 40% more people than seats; the way round this is to shove little stools into the aisles for the later people to sit on. This would be fine apart from the fact that the buses are MENTAL! As everywhere is mountainous round here the overloaded buses drag themselves alarmingly slowly up the hills, them swing down them with much glee and no brakes, thus everyone is thrown violently from side to side ALL the time. As you can imagine this gets a little old after 6 hours. The latest one was the worst due to my old mate Snuggly Jim - he pressed his face further and further into my arm over the journey, which meant that I in turn crushed Jane in my attempts to get away & we ended up firstly quite cross & then in hysterics for a long time! Also, alarmingly, after dozing off for a bit I woke to see the Angel of Death staring me in the face (no I wasnt tripping by the way!), it was just the guy in fronts weird choice in clothing but it definately freaked me out!

Today we have just left Vang Vieng, my favourite place so far. It's a real backpacker sort of place with loads to do all the time & so many people around that there's never a second when you end up on your own! For the first two days we went tubing which is just the best fun EVER! You get given a big rubber tube and driven to the river & are then instructed to simply float away! The highlight of the trip is the bars as thats where all the music is played & where you end up having lethal Lao Lao cocktails and snake whiskey thrust upon you! In fact most of the time in Vang Vieng is spent in the bars just meeting everyone, there are some fantastic ones filled with hammocks where you can sit and watch the tubers float by on the river, but the best one was in town and called Sakura. Every night that we were there there was this legendary guy playing the guitar & a woman singing; they were called Fantuzzi & Shoshana B so you can imagine the hippie-ness of them! They played brilliant Reggae music for a couple of hours a night, and as the set went on people went more and more crazy! We really had THE best nights there :D

But after a week of Vang Vieng we thought we'd better move on before we end up working at the bars and trapped there forever! So we decidede to kayak down to Vientiane, the capitol, which is where we are now. It was a really good day actually, despite the torrential rain! I would like to state for the record that Jane & I were the only ones not to fall off when we went over the big rapids so are clearly highly skilled at this water business! We wont be here for long as we are moving on down to Cambodia within the next day or two - will update on that soon!

These past 10 days have been some of the craziest and probs some of the best I've had ever! We arrived in Bangkok on the morning of the 8th, it was such a shock to be there from Caterham! The first thing you notice is the heat, its really dry there and the air is made even hotter by the giant cloud of smog that hangs over the city. It's no wonder that its there either, as there are more cars in Bangkok than anywhere I've ever seen! In fact the roads are possibly the most mental thing about Bangkok, there seems to be no rules so everyone just drives at each other, and plays chicken with the thing coming the other way until one gives in and swerves away, narrowly escaping a petrol fueled death! It makes a trip to the local temple all the more exciting I will put up pictures of some of the temples as soon as I figure out how to, as they are truly beautiful - Thailand is about 80% Buddisht, and their temples are so elaborately decorated its unreal; everything seems to be made from gold, marble & bright blue glass which makes them look really vibrant & glowing. At one of the temples we went to a man there showed us how to pray and meditate using the incense - Iv never been religious in any way but there was definitely something very spiritual about the experience.

Bangkok, especially the 'touristic' area Khao San Road (where we stayed), comes alive at night! All down the roads there are these little street bars, which are basically trolleys full of coke, pineapple juice and most importantly Thai whiskey surrounded by plastic stools, which you get dragged on to by the barmaids (some of which are most certainly actual real live ladyboys!). There must be people on watch at each end of the road as the moment a police van comes anywhere near the bars are packed up in a second, and everyone stands around trying to look innocent whilst holding buckets (literally!) of cocktails!

Much as we loved Bangkok, we moved on after a few days to Chiang Mai, which is where we are now. This place is in the north of Thailand and is amongst the mountains, so is much quieter and more picturesque. We had the most amazing 3 days in the mountains, as we went trekking through them & got to stay with real hill tribes. On the first night out there all the school children came out and sang traditional Thai songs to us around the campfire, it sounds corny but it felt like one of those really special moments. We also got to go elephant riding! This was the best bit, obviously second only to lugging ourselves up gargantuan mountains in the sweltering heat! Jane and I were so lucky, as we were allowed to ride on the elephant itself rather than in the carriage - it was fantastic as you could feel all the muscles in its shoulders moving, and were constantly beaten round the legs by its flapping ears! Our elephant, Men-Noi, was the mother of a baby elephant (called Janey, much to Jane's delight!) that followed us around the whole time - so cute!

We will be moving on to Laos sometime over the next few days, travelling by river-boat which sounds awesome. I will write again when more exciting stuff has happened!