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Bangkok, Thailand
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Khao Sok, Thailand
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Ao Nang, Thailand
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Phi Phi Islands, Thailand
After spending 3 nights on Koh Phi Phi, we can definitely say we will never
return here... nor did we enjoy it that much either. We were super excited to
arrive as it was our first ever Thai island but it wasn't until we visited
others that we realised we didn't enjoy it there. Phi Phi is a very small, very
crazy, party island. There are no cars on the island and only the odd motorbike
for locals - there is no need to hire bikes here, everything is walkable. There
are two sides to the island, one which is more resort/family and one which is
more party. The party side plays super loud music and has fireshows into the
early ours (which could be heard from our guesthouse). Whilst on Phi Phi we
visited the viewpoint for sunset (40bht per person entry). Great view of the
island but not great for sunset as it dips behind the mountains.
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Ko Lanta District, Thailand
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Koh Samui, Thailand
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Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand
Koh Phangan has to be one of our FAVOURITE islands in the South of Thailand. We
paid 250bht per person for a ferry from Koh Samui > Koh Phangan... possibly the
worst boat trip I have ever experienced. The roughest sea and a boat full of
backpackers who have stumbled back from the Full Moon Party - people being sick
left right and centre. We stayed with Nop @ Phangan Villa Beach Bungalows
(1,000bht per night for a private beach hut with bathroom) and he was an
incredible host. Phangan is a very similar vibe to Pai which we loved. There's
lots of vegan/veggie cafes, hippie clothing/jewellery/crystals, refill shops,
sunset spots ect. We loved Zen beach (our first experience of a nudist beach)
both for sunbathing in the day and also for sunset. We watched the best sunset
we have ever seen there and it was followed by a beautiful musical jam and
boogie on the beach. 'Ocean Vibes' beach bar was also another gorgeous (and
quiet) place to watch sunset. Places to eat: - Jaffa ££ - Phantip Market (Som
Salad Bowls) £ - Phangan Food Court £ - Channa Masala £££ *We also went to the
NYE party on Koh Phangan @ Haad Rin beach. It was INSANE and was a glimpse of
what the Full Moon Party would be like (something we now don't want to/feel the
need to do). Entry to the event was 200bht per person but we managed to avoid
paying by sneaking in. As you can imagine there were approx 25,000 tourists,
stalls selling buckets everywhere, fire shows, UV body painting ect.
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Ko Tao, Thailand
Whilst in Koh Tao we decided to complete our Open Water Diving PADI
qualification @ 11,000bht per person. We completed this over 4 days and it
included theory, pool training, a final exam, 4 sea dives (2 @ 12 metres + 2 @
18 metres) and our certification. Places to eat: - Vegetabowls ££ - Factory Cafe
££
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Khao Lak, Thailand
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Phuket, Thailand
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Trang, Thailand
Trang was used as a stop-over during our journey from Phuket (Thailand) to
Langkawi (Malaysia). It cost us 280bht per person to travel down by bus and took
around 5 hours. When we arrived, we were able to take a Grab to our hotel for
around 40bht. We were hoping to visit the cinema in Trang just to pass the time
during our one nights stay however shortly after arriving, we realised this
wasn't going to be possible. Trang doesn't offer much for tourists and the hotel
we booked to stay at was far from the town - meaning it would be super hard to
get to and from the cinema. We also really struggled to find anything to eat so
had to have packet noodles and snacks from 7/11. We spent our only evening
planning our journey down to Satun so we could cross the sea border over to
Langkawi but it was a lot more difficult than we expecte. In hindsight we should
have travelled from Phuket to Krabi, spent the night and then booked
all-inclusive transport all the way to Langkawi for the following day. The staff
at our hotel didn't speak much English so we headed, cheekily, to a hostel 1km
away and asked them for some help. The lady at the hostel was SUPER helpful but
unfortunately after lots of asking around our only option was to spend 3,900bht
for both of us to take a private taxi to Satun and then arrange our boat to
Langkawi when we arrived. It was a lot of money and we weren't willing to spend
that. After a bit of stress working out bus times and finding a tuk tuck driver
willing to pick us up at 5:20am the next morning, we managed to get from Trang
to Langkawi for 1,540bht for the two of us. Trang > Langkawi 300bht for 5am tuk
tuck to Trang Bus Station 130bht per person for a mini bus from Trang to Saturn
40bht per person for taxi to Satun Pier 450bht per person for ferry from Satun
to Langkawi
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Langkawi, Malaysia
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George Town, Malaysia
Our journey from Langkawi to Penang started very early in the morning and took
most of the day. We decided to do it all by ourselves rather than book it
through an agent to save ourselves money, and we did! Erika picked us up at
6:30am and drove us across the island to the ferry port for 45MYR. We booked our
tickets online and paid 35MYR each to take the 1.5 hour ferry from Langkawi to
Kuala Kedah. Whilst getting off of the ferry we actually met the mayor of
Langkawi who stopped and asked where we were from. When we got off the ferry, we
took a taxi for 20MYR to Alor Setar train station. Here we purchased train
tickets to Butterworth for 7MYR and it took around 1.5hours to reach
Butterworth. When we arrived, we left the train station and walked to th
Butterworth ferry terminal (it is connected to the train station) and paid
1.20MYR each to take the 10 minute ferry from Butterworth to Georgetown, Penang.
Finally, when we docked at Georgetown we walked out to the main road and took a
grab for 8MYR to our hostel 'Rope Walk Guesthouse'. We paid 160MYR all in from
door to door whereas we would have paid around 120MYR each only from Langkawi to
Penang, not including taxi transfers. We really enjoyed Penang and wish we could
have stayed longer to explore more of the island. It felt as though Penang was a
stop where we completed lots of admin tasks that needed to be done and therefore
didn't have loads of time to do much else. We had to complete our health
assesment for our WHV which cost us 303MYR each (£56) for a consultation, urine
test and chest x-ray and thankfully the results came back super quickly and our
visas were granted within 24 hours. This had been causing a lot of stress during
our trip so it felt so good to get it completed. We also booked our return
flights to Borneo for a week from KL, found somewhere for Harry to get his rolls
of film developed (16MYR per roll) and also used our time there to post a parcel
full of our clothes home. It cost around £50 for a 3.5kg parcel to be shipped
via surface mail. Whilst we were in Georgetown, we visited Hin Bus Depot which
is an abandoned bus depot which has been converted into a community and event
space. We were lucky to have arrived in Georgetown and visited Hin Bus on a
Sunday as they have a makers market and livce music there every Sunday. They had
food stalls, lots of coffee, stalls selling handmade things, vintage cameras and
clothing and live music. It was so nice to spend the afternoon there and be
amongst so many local people and their friends/families enjoying their Sunday.
We also visited a small local music store called 'Raus' which sold CD's, vinyls,
coffee, band merch (similar to Rough Trade in Bristol). This is where we found
the CD for 'SCKPNG' and got to see Harry's photo on the front of their album. It
was such a lush feeling seeing his work on an album cover just sitting on the
shelves of a music store half way across the world. Georgetown is such a cool
city and although it was SUPER hot compared to where we had just come from in
Langkawi, it is a so nice to just wander the streets and see the culture and
street art. It was super oriental and really reminded me of some of the places
we had visited in Vietnam. Place to eat:
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Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
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Sepilok, Malaysia
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Kinabatangan, Malaysia
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Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
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Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Bangkok, Thailand
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Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia
After a nightmare 48 hours, we finally made it Siem Reap. We managed to book a
bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap on 12GOAsia and paid around £36 each for the 9
hour journey. We decided to get the earliest bus possible at 7:45am which meant
we arrived in Siem Reap at around 4pm. The border crossing was super easy and
although we ended up paying $40 for the Cambodian visa instead of $30, we didn't
mind as everything was done for us and all we had to do was walk across the
border with our passport. We were staying in Bokre Angkor Hostel and had a
double private room with ensuite bathroom and a TV (including someone else's
Netflix lol). The hostel was lovely and had a restaurant, pool and free water
refills! It wasn't in a central location in Siem Reap and took around 15 minutes
to walk to Pub Street - the heart of Siem Reap.
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Krong Battambang, Cambodia
We arrived in Battambang after paying $12 each to get there from Siem Reap (we
booked this through our hostel). We were picked up in a tuk-tuk and taken to the
tour office, as we have done many times before, and waited there for the mini
bus to collect us. After around 20 minutes it was clear that we were the only
ones waiting and before we knew it, our transport had arrived. A beaten up 7
seater saloon with no seatbelts and a super cracked windscreen. We thought this
was taking us to a bus station but it turned out that this was going to be our
transport to Battambang for the next 5 hours.
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Koh Rong Sanloem, Cambodia
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Koh Rong, Cambodia
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Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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Manila, Philippines
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Cebu City, Philippines
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Moalboal, Philippines
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Siquijor, Philippines
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Bohol, Philippines
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Siargao Island, Philippines