Xela Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 To say i'm massively jealous would be an understatement! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 30, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 30, 2014 This week is going to drag as a result! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 How long are you going for again Stevo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 1, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 1, 2014 Just the two weeks. It's a holiday as opposed to "travelling". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 I'm currently travelling with my mate that lives there He reckons this last coup was the best thing to ever happen there .. of course he is English rather than Thai , so the Thai population may have a different view apparently the first act of the General in charge was to give everyone free access to the World Cup .. before that you had to purchase some form of TV box to watch the games yeah hardly makes him the Dalai Lama but it's a good start 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 21, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 21, 2014 I'm back. Had an awesome time, will post some extensive thoughts that nobody will read at some point in the next couple of days 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Couple of photos of Thailand in rogues gallery would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Stevo985 Posted July 22, 2014 Author VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted July 22, 2014 (edited) You just want to see me on the beach don't you Voiny? Right, well I'm back at work so what better to do with my first morning back than waste time writing about my holiday on VT?! Flight - Flight was awesome to be honest. As someone who is scared of flying, the thought of 13 hours in the air (consisting of 2 flights) was horrible. But being on one of them Airbus thingamajigs makes you kind of forget you're on a plane, what with it's size and the 3 course meals and snacks you get fed constantly on Emirates, so that was nice. Bangkok - I'm glad I experienced Bangkok, I had a great time there, but to be honest I'd be in no hurry to go back. It's busy, it stinks, it's hot and sweaty, and seemingly everybody there dedicates their life to scamming tourists. Grand Palace was lovely, although having to cover it up makes it a very sweaty experience indeed. Khao San road is very lively although we didn't spend much time there. For my gf's birthday I took her to the Shangri La hotel for dinner then we had cocktails at the Sky Bar (on top of a 64 storey building) which was a great night, although very expensive by Thailand standards. Tuk Tuks are crazy and we didn't realise how much we were getting ripped off until we started using taxis and realised how much cheaper they were! And like I said, by the end of our 3 days in Bangkok we were reluctant to engage anybody in conversation as everybody seemed to be a scam artist of some description. Special mention for the tuk tuk driver who tried to charge us 600 baht to take us to the wrong place. Kanchanaburi - one of the days we were in Bangkok we did an "elephant tour day" which involved being driven out to Kanchanburi. This was one of the highlights of the trip. I must say I wasn't really looking forward to it that much but it was awesome. Got picked up early at the hotel and driven to some floating markets about an hour outside of Bangkok. We got a 45 minute tour of those enabling us to buy some much needed tat and garbage for next to nothing. Then we got driven another couple of hours to the bridge over the river Kwai and had a guided tour of that. Pretty interesting, but it's just a bridge really so once you've seen it there's not a lot else to do. Then we got driven to a restaurant for a free lunch (all this driving was in an air conditioned 4x4 with reclining leather seats and free water and snacks, so it was very relaxed travel). And when I say "we", I don't mean we were chucked into a large tour group. It was just me and my gf with out own private tour guide and driver for the whole day. After that it was on to the elephants. I wasn't sure what to expect as I was kind of wary about how they'd be treated, but I gotta say it was awesome. A quick half an hour trot through the forest was followed by half an hour of "swimming" with the elephants. This involved water fights, a glorified game of bucking bronco as you try to stay on the Elephant and then the Elephant throwing you around for a bit. I was doing front flips off elephants into the river, only for them to pick me up with their trunk and throw me over their shoulder. Great fun. In terms of how they were treated, I'm still not sure how well it is. When we got there there it looked great. Some elephants were roaming free in the fields, the ones we rode and played with looked healthy. They didn't have scars, they looked well fed and genuinely seemed happy when they were chucking us around the river. But once we were finished we had a quick peek around the place and found a few of the males chained to pillars and they were displaying those typical features of animals in captivity, pacing back and forth and swaying. So that made it a bit sad for me personally. I can't deny that I enjoyed the whole thing though. Then a 3 hour drive to bangkok which we spent most of asleep in our "taxi". Koh Samui - After a few days in Bangkok we got a flight and a bus and a ferry and a taxi to our new home on Koh Samui, a resort in the hills a short walk from Chaweng Beach. Koh Samui was a very different experience from Bangkok. Chaweng is hugely commercialised, and to be honest it felt like it was only a short way behind Magaluf given it's strip of bars, clubs, restaurants and shops. But the beach was beautiful, and after Bangkok, having all the restaurants and bars in one place and easy to find was a good thing in our book and we enjoyed it immensely. After a few days it did begin to grate on us. The beach was a 20 minute walk from the resort, so to do that in the morning in 35 degree heat and then get pestered every 10 seconds on the beach by people trying to sell you shite got a bit old. Resort was great though, and having spoken to a few people who were staying on the strip, they all said they were jealous of us staying a bit further out of town as sleep was impossible in the hustle and bustle of the main street. By this point we hadn't had a single day of rain, which was pretty good going seeing as it was supposedly the start of the rainy season. Koh Phangan - a note at this point on the ferries. They're a nightmare. Unorganised, always late, overcrowded, hot and generally fairly scary. I was sick of them by the end of the holiday. Our one to Koh Phangan was the worst with our first period of heavy rain setting in during the journey and making it a very rough and scary crossing, with half the passengers ending up vomiting. It was only a half an hour journey but it was a LONG 30 minutes. Anyway, we got to Koh Phangan eventually, wet and tired, with luckily a hotel transfer waiting for us. Resort was the best one we stayed in. Not the luxury of the room we had in Samui and not the views we got in Koh Tao, but the facilities at the resort were great, it was right on the beach, and the staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. Of all the resorts I stayed at that would be the one I'd go back to in a heartbeat. Koh Phangan was a much less tainted by tourism, or at least the area we stayed in was (Ban Tai Beach), than Koh Samui. Whilst this was great in that it meant it felt a bit more authentic, it did also mean there was a little less to do in the area we were staying. But we managed to find a trek to a waterfall nearby and also a Chinese temple that was really interesting and got adopted by a dutch family who were lovely. Then came... ...The Full Moon Party - it was even bigger and more mental than I'd imagined. I couldn't believe how busy the beach was when I got there and the scene resembled a techno remix of D Day as boats arrived throughout the night right onto the beach and people poured out and started partying. Had a brilliant time but unfortunately ended up getting completely hammered, meaning I can't remember a second of the world cup final (which was shown on the beach) and also meant the next day was spent sleeping and vomiting as the worst hangover of my life set in. Koh Tao - our final destination of Koh Tao was the highlight for both of us. We didn't "do" much on the island to be honest, but it's absolutely beautiful and the least "tainted" of the three islands we visited from tourism. Our resort was down in the south right up in the hills on the very edge of the island. It required a 4x4 to get there as the roads resembled an off road test track (no joke) and really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Our room was basic, but the resort was pretty luxurious and our balcony opened up to a sea view and was really spectacular. The beach here was amazing so we spent most of our days chilling out there and wandering around the little village in search of meals and sights. The creatures in the resort were a point of note. Huge crabs, tarantulas and monster lizards were the highlights. And by lizard, I don't mean those little gecko things that eat mosquitos> Those were everywhere but we didn't mind them. On our last night we got back to our room, flicked on the balcony light (with the door still closed) and set eyes on a huge lizard. Don't know what it was but it was, no exaggeration, about the size of an iguana. Much hilarity ensued as I tried, but failed, to hunt it and get a picture. So unfortunately I have no proof, but it was a monster. After that it was 2 days of travelling ,first back to Koh Samui for an overnight stay, and then back to Bangkok before our flight back to London. Incredible time had by both of us. Some experience. Not quite the backpacking adventure most travellers go to Thailand for but not far short. "Glampacking" I believe is the term. Loved it Edited July 22, 2014 by Stevo985 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Yeah I would love to see you going into the sea on an elephant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 22, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 22, 2014 Done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdabush Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Glad you enjoyed it and the best news is there's loads of amazing places that you didn't go to so there's a perfect excuse to go back. As for the lizard sounds like the one we had in Phi Phi living in our roof. Its was a giant gecko and seen if you have one living with you they regard you as lucky as they eat pests such as rodents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 (edited) I would love to go Thailand but I have a list of places particularly in the Americas which are higher up my priority list. Are the women all that? Edited July 22, 2014 by Voinjama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 22, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 22, 2014 (edited) The women in Thailand? Nope, not for me. Not attracted to Thai women in the slightest to be honest. Not to say I don't find any of them attractive, some of them were nice, the Nok Air cabin crew especially. But generally they're not my type. The tourists, particularly those on Koh Tao, were much more my type. But I don't go on holiday to see women. If I did I'd go back to Barcelona for every holiday. Edited July 22, 2014 by Stevo985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 22, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 22, 2014 Glad you enjoyed it and the best news is there's loads of amazing places that you didn't go to so there's a perfect excuse to go back. As for the lizard sounds like the one we had in Phi Phi living in our roof. Its was a giant gecko and seen if you have one living with you they regard you as lucky as they eat pests such as rodents.I honestly don't think it was a giant gecko. Its head didn't look like a gecko at all and neither did its legs. It didn't have those sucker type feet that geckos have. I've done some googling and the only other lizard I can see that could live in Koh Tao that it could have been is a "water monitor". If so it just have been a young one as it was probably a foot long, maybe slightly more. I'm really curious to find out what it was now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 22, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 22, 2014 Scrap that, it was climbing the walls and stuff and they don't do that. I still don't think it was a gecko though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 But I don't go on holiday to see women. If I did I'd go back to Barcelona for every holiday. Do you have a fetish for ugly women then ? Yeah yeah I know it's all subjective .., I agree with you about the Thai girls though I don't think they are all that .. But if i was a single man visiting Thailand I'm sure I'd be swayed by their "charms" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 23, 2014 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 23, 2014 I'd take beautiful Spanish women over women who, on the most part, are built like 13 year old boys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morley_crosses_to_Withe Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 I'd take beautiful Spanish women over women who, on the most part, are built like 13 year old boys. I think I read that the average dress size over there is equivalent to a UK size 4. That's about a Kylie/Eva Longoria/Megan Fox build. Or a 6 year old boy. Depends how you want to perceive it I guess. What I do know is I prefer that to a UK average of size 16. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 Planning a trip to Thailand in the easter holidays next year. Two weeks isn't enough but I'm pretty excited anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 (edited) I'v heard Cambodia is nice. A bit like Thailand but unspoilt by the tourism. Edited July 24, 2014 by Voinjama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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