Final say on Thailand..

Overall Thailand, is pleasant enough, friendly people, but there is always a motive.
We loved our time in along the south coast they have beautiful crystal clear waters & breath taking scenery - Overall Thailand is home of knock-off's and the theory seems to follow a suit almost everywhere you go in the country.
Not the best of places for food if you’re a diabetic though... They put sugar in everything and if its not deep fried, its not on the menu.
Thai food is done at its best at Thai Restaurants out of Thailand we found.

Four Pointers for you to master so you will love Thailand, just like we did.

• When a retailer claims to selling you something genuine.. ITS NOT!
• Never pay the asking price - half the asking price, then half that figure again.
• Don’t travel in the Tuk Tuk's unless you have time to kill..
• Don’t believe anything anyone tells you.. Especially directions.
• And no, that's still not really her last price!
  
  Well guys that's a wrap for Thailand. Happy Blogging.
  Bring it on China!!!
  

Ao Nang Buri Resort, Krabi

Nice place to stay if your visiting Krabi, this is the coast view from your hotel, the resort is situated just across the road from the beach.

We spent a lot of time chilling out in the pool there. Most pleasant!

Rogue Tour Person

We went to a local tours agent to book a bunch of tours. Checking out the price, as usual we did our bartering to knock of about 30%. Sadly weather wasn't too good and we had to go back and get a refund for one of the days. As we went back to the office the original lady we'd dealt with was not there. We made some calls and ended up going to the main office where they tried to short change us on our refund. Sure enough as we checked receipts there was 100 baht short.

We kicked off big style and they called the original agent to get some answers. The agent told them she was on her way and would clean up the misunderstanding. Time passed and still no agent to be seen. We had a major go at them and eventually got our money back and left.

As we passed in the car our original tour agent was sitting on her scooter further up the road. She appeared to be waiting for us. We kept on driving, not sure if she had seen us. Sure enough as we looked in the rear mirror she had seen us and turned to give chase. Just to be sure, Bobbi slammed down on the accelerator to see if she was really up for a Starsky and Hutch car chase moment. The tour guide kept on chasing, trying to catch up. This was fun!

We let her follow for a while and then she eventually caught up at the traffic lights. As she asked us to wind the window down we acted all weird like we didn't know who she was. "Oooooh you're the tour agent!" we said. Anyways we pulled up and she was all like "Oh yes there must have been some misunderstanding, blah blah".

We left it at that until we got back to our hotel and received a phone call from the company, asking if we had met the tour guide on the street and gave her the additional money back. It seems that she had pocketed the additionl money and was trying to lie to her boss and say that we had misunderstood. We set them right and funnily enough didn't see the rogue tour guide at her stall for the next couple of days. Liar tour lady!

Phi Phi Island tour.

We jumped onto a speed boat along with far to many people for the boat. We were all squeezing onto seats or anything else we could find. Head off to our first destination Bamboo Island which was a fab looking glorious beach. It was here we had our first go at snorkelling in the shallow waters they so clear that you could see fish swimming right past you. We spotted swordfish's and loads of big speckley looking things.

Viking Caves we stopped for a bit of a photie shoot.

Next stop Pileh Bay which was really salty water, but had an awesome lagoon. We jumped in for a snorkel and bread was thrown in to attract the fish. There were heaps of various colourful fishes swimming up to eat the bread out of your hands.

Next stop was the open waters (like the film!!!) of Losamah Bay and a few of the others got out to snorkel. We decided to be a little more cautious on this one as we saw loooads of jellyfish's floating around. People were swimming right past them! There was a little boy who was in the water with his dad, and it was lucky we could spot the jellyfish from the speedboat so we shouted out to move his son away from it, in the process he almost got stung himself.

After that the weather turned nasty. We were at the front uncovered part of the speedboat and got rained on pretty badly. We decided to squeeze into the inside area of the boat along with the others. The boat was really crashing down pretty hard on the water. We were huddled in so badly that we couldn't see anything. We later found out that on our travels back we passed one of the tour spots Maya Bay (where the film The Beach was shot). This was one of the main reasons we came on this particular tour and we had missed it. Damn weather!

Anyways, we got to Phi Phi Island where we had some local Thai food which was pretty tasty. We also stopped for a spot of bargaining with the locals for some more sun glasses & to dry off from the storm.

We then hit the water again in the boat, weather a little better now. We stopped open water again for a snorkel around with the fishies. This time there were loads of fish and the coral reef underneath us was beautiful. We had a really great time swimming around and getting close to nature.

As we head out in the boat again the weather turned really nasty and the driver of the boat was driving like a maniac. The boat was hammering on the water like we were hitting rocks. We had to hold on for dear life so that we weren't chucked out of the boat. Each time the boat came down to hit the water it crashed us down with it. It really did hurt each time sending shocks right through our spine and giving us both a real headache. We couldn't wait for the journey to be over. Anyways we survived and even despite the bad boat journeys we enjoyed the day snorkelling. And might I add we didn't puke on the journey unlike this little Italian boy who could puke for his country.

Traditional Thai Massage

At the end of the tour we got dropped off at our hotel, had a chance to get showered & dried off properly, I had a couple of hours sleep while Paul watched Harry Potter & the prisoner of Azkhaban - when I woke up to hook up for a meal that evening with a couple we met on the Tour, all of my limbs felt sooo stiff from being thrown around on the speedboat. I felt pretty terrible and if we hadn't arranged to meet them I probably would have done a Bobbi and slept on. However we hooked up with them and enjoyed a meal together, and to end the evening we had a full bodied Thai Massage.. It was fabulous. And a perfect way to end any day!

Rock Climbing

We went climbing some beautiful rocks in Railay Bay, and it was totally rocking!
Heading out, climbed onto rickety long boat with motor at the back. Half full of water. We arrived at the Bay on a long tail boat which when pulled up at the bay we were asked to take off our shoes and walk to shore.
Bobbi took one look at the stinky looking water below and flatly refused. On comes the two legged pony for a husband. She climbed over the side of the boat and onto my back. I carried her piggy back over sharp pebbles and stones, through dirty sand and dirty water. She was eventually placed down on the nice dry shore and we were ready to start.

(Thank you my hunny - & he was greatly rewarded for his efforts, I'll have you all know)

We both started our first climb thinking, bah that's just the little climb, we want to climb the larger one. Five minutes in we were both thinking, 'Hell my hands are sweating, my legs are shaking and this is really high!' We also had to get used to trusting that the other person was responsible for us, whether we fall or not. After a while we both got used to being high up and struggling from rock to rock.

Our final rock was real tough climb and the sun just made it a more tiring & hot, my palms began to sweat, my feet were both on the same rock hoping I could feel for just one more hole with my hands to pull me up, I think I stood for too long, and I felt hands began to slip.. It was too late to reach for the chalk.. And I had to drop back and ask Paul to release me back down.

Most certainly not as easy as we have made it look with our fantastic poses.

Emerald Garden Resort

We were walking through our resort in Krabi at night and I almost stepped on what I thought was a tacky garden ornament of a rabbit.
After closer inspection the little rabbit was indeed chewing on a leaf and as alive as anything. The little bunny wasn't scared in the slightest that we were there. We managed to put the camera close enough to take a photie and probably blind him with the flash. We continued our walk further down. On our return the bunny was a little further up, chewing on more of the resorts flowers and leaves. Cheeky little thing.

Fossil Shell Beach

Apparently 1 of 3 in the world.

Access was quite restricted so we climbed down the cliffside using the rope that’s been provided. The beach appeared to have huge slabs just laid beside the coast - these were the fossilised freshwater shells which were laid down 40 million years ago.
The beach wasn’t the cleanest, but the water was so warm & there were huge crabs scurrying around.

Ao Nang, Krabi

We hired a car at the airport (don’t do this as you can rent them for half the price local to where ever your staying), so we could do some exploring further a field.
We went to a Natural Spring, and decided to walk a little further into the National Park as the spring was located at the entrance of the forest. On our little walk we spotted a huge pipe which was pumping water from the sea into the this so call Natural Spring, It even had some nice little fishies in there . That’s Thailand for you.. its an art - they fake everything!

Reclining Buddha

Ok so we said the Big Buddha was large but this is nothing compared to this baby! The Reclining Buddha was higher only it was lying down. You can't imagine how long this thing was (photos just don't do this justice). It was really breath taking. This is right up there as far as great sights are concerned.(so far!)

Grand Palace... eventually

It's the 5th attempt to see the Grand Palace and we wonder what will come next. We're at the gate and walking... And hey we're in! At last we are inside. As we walk around the grounds are nice enough. They were very decorative, full of sculptures and other d้cor. We decide to take a look at the main temple where the Emerald Buddha was kept. We were expecting a huge Buddha, after all it is the much talked about Grand Palace. But no, the Emerald Buddha was quite small itself. It was decorated well as are most temples in Thailand but we weren't so impressed given the build up to arriving.
The photies above you can see are of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the one below is of the Royal Palace.

River Cruise to Ayutthaya

Bang Pa-In - Summer Palace was worth the visit, we hired a golf buggy to be able to view all the sights within the Palace grounds in the limited time we had there. Such beautiful garden settings. We started out looking at the various sculptures and structures surrounded in beautiful bridges. We arrived at an extremely ornate palace called Phra Thinang Aisawan Thiphta Art, which was situated in the middle of a lake. You could see the palace from many angles as you traveled around the park area.
As we traveled further on we seen loads of animal shaped hedges, bridges and water fountains. There was a huge tower called Ho Withun Thasana, that you could see from pretty much anywhere in the park. We reached a large chinese style building that had loads of wood calving and other Chinese décor. It was a bit of a shame that photographs weren't allowed though.We arrived at a palace called Phra Thinang Warophat Phiman (bit of a mouthful). We were allowed to go in and see exactly how these people lived. All of the furniture was still there, complete with books on the shelves and all sorts. It was like Royality TV.

Ancient City of Ayutthaya

Wat Phra Sri San Phet is the kind of thing I think of when Thailand springs to mind. I don't know if this is because of travel programs or due to cheesy martial arts movies. Anyways they always seemed very temple like to me. When we arrived the tour guide told us that these large spire like structures, called 'stupas' hold the cremated remains of royalty. The three main stupas are for the kings and the others for their queens etc. These are also the foundations that Bangkok's Grand Palace is based on. Well worth a visit, it looked really fantasy like I thought.
Inside one of the buildings there was another huge Buddha. It was quite amazing in it's own right but we have kinda seen a lot of Buddha's now….NEXT!

Wat Chai Wattanaram
As we stepped into the grounds, the structure of the Wat loomed up around us, it was so huge. We were told we could climb up stairs and go inside. As we climbed up the stairs it became apparent how steep it was. We reached the top where there was a small temple inside. We filmed from the top and had a great view. But then came our journey back down. We was as pathetic as everyone else on the way down, grabbing the sides, that were barely there and lowering ourselves down one step at a time. I had to do this twice as Bobbi wanted more photies of me standing up there! There was also another section with a large Buddha, always nice to see. They also had a whole bunch of headless Buddha in the main grounds. Apparently in a war the heads were removed as they were made of solid gold. At the end of the day we got onto a cruise liner where we were to have a nice meal and drift down the river for a few hours. It was a pleasant experience and gave us opportunity to see a few more riverside sights and buildings. After eating we went upstairs in the cruise liner for a little sun and a lie down. Pretty relaxing really.

Prantip Plaza in Bangkok

Great place for your IT bargains, pirate software & movies. You can have some great fun bargaining if your shopping for something specific, we were shopping around for a 1gb SD card so as you do, we began asking prices the starting price was ฃ22, we found each place we stopped for a price the cost kept dropping lower and lower.. We kinda got hooked on the price drop thing we had going here. Eventually we paid ฃ13 for it. What a bargain!!
Don’t always get carried away with the low prices your paying, not all the products are genuine.. We found fake Canon Ixus' being sold, the retailer claims the product to be genuine. Products are coming boxed with Canon logos slapped all over it, with CD & even a counterfeit serial number the only giveaways are:
The font & length of the serial number.
No Canon tag attached to the camera.
No original Manual - the manual is photocopied.
No warranty doc either.
So you really need to watch out!!

Grand Palace… Again

This is our 4th attempt to see Grand Palace now and we are feeling pretty confident this time. What could possibly go wrong! We reach the pier for the public river boat and there waiting for us was a sign. It read 'Grand Palace closed today and tomorrow due to Monks Ploughing holiday'. For Gods sake! A holiday for ploughing! Great, roll on attempt number five.

Phrom Phong

We were checking out the Phrom Phong area for shopping purposes (more bargaining). We reached the main entrance which they seemed to use as a show/ exhibition area. At the time they were holding some kind of kids pop idol show called 'be number one'. A whole bunch of little hopefuls, aiming to be the next Gareth Gates (dead on a rubbish pile for all we know). Poor little buggers, how their little hearts will be broken.
Outside of this centre there was a park area called Benjasiri Park. It had this large pond full of turtles. We looked over and seen this man holding some food in the water. A huge bunch of turtles all peeped out of the water at the food. One then got the courage to go closer and started to feed from his hand. The guy then pulls this huge turtle out of water and plonks it on the grass. He left it there for a bit then it ran faster than we thought possible for a turtle, diving back into the water.

The Fook Hin - Bangkok

Not much needs to be said - This is comedy at it's Greatest!

Big Buddha

...And I mean big!
This was to be the second attempt to see Grand Palace so far. We were told that it was open until 6pm (lies). We arrived at 3.35 to find that it closed at 3.30, Aaaaargh! As we were out that far we decided to see Big Buddha. It had small and quiet grounds with this huge standing Buddha statue at the back. It was so huuuuuge.

This photie is only of the feet as the full shot, was a little dark - will post once edited with photoshop - meanwhile, imagine the rest of the body! ....oooohh its soo pretty!

Bangkok's - Chao Phraya River

We would often take the express river boat down the Chao Phraya River to access certain areas of Bangkok. It performed a similar service to the buses back home and worked out quite cheap. You would see all kinds of boats going down the river from public vessels, private hire long boats and ornate restaurant boats. If you were up really early (which we weren't) you could catch the morning floating market where people sell their fruit, vegetables, crafts etc, direct from the long tail boats.
This is a photie of the "Wat Arun" Temple of Dawn - taken from the Grand Pearl whilst cruising down the Chao Phraya River.

Reality Hotel TV

When we get to a hotel room, one of the first things we check are the TV channels (if we're knackered from too much holiday we may need a rest and a night in). As we flipped through the channels we noticed the reception channel. Then after that a channel showing the hallways. Then after a little TV tuning we picked up the lift channel which was our favorite. The lift had a mirrored interior so you could see people posing and doing their hair, unaware that people were watching. Soooo funny, man reality TV is great.

People dont forget to click on the external links.. - cheers!

Our Jungle Experience

The Elephant Safari - This has to be the best day of our trip so far..
(there seem to be many of those)
We were then taken out on an Elephant ride. They walked into and down the river, up through hills and back. There were some of the elephants who would suck in water and spray it at everyone. There was also this teeny cute elephant, struggling to keep up. Shame at one point the illusion was spoilt a little by our guides' mobile phone going off.
We kinda got the impression we were way out in the jungle, away from network coverage.

Bamboo Rafting

We took a seat on these little bamboo rafts and put on these old fashioned adventure hats to block the sun. As we floated down the river to what seemed like a remote location, we saw people floating in the water and waving at us. What's going on here we ask ourselves. Then we hear them shouting out, "coke, beer" and another "bags madam, good price". Even in the middle of a river you can't get rid of the damn market sellers. This one little girl made us feel quite guilty. She kept following our boat half way down the river saying "5 baht miss 5 baht, please miss 5 baht". She was selling these little weaved wrist bands for a measly price of 5 baht (around 8 pence in English money). We felt sorry for her and bought two. She was very happy and stopped following us…........for now!

Elephant Show

We arrived at the show and whilst waiting for it to start we were allowed to go and meet the animals and give them food. The elephants were so cute. They would reach out for the food and dance around to get your attention. One of the elephants was so clever that you could give it money and it would go to the stall where they sold bananas, buy them and then return to give you the change.

During the show they balanced on their front legs whilst walking along logs, they kicked footballs, shot basket balls at hoops and even painted pictures. It was such a great show.

The Ox and Cart Ride

Yeah right, this was a bit pants. The kind of ride your granny may enjoy. Was pretty boring, a couple of regular cows with a regular cart, taking us down a regular boring bumpy jungle road. Well at least it saved us walking to the next section of the tour I guess.

Long Neck Tribe

Visiting the long neck tirbe was an experience.. they believe the longer the neck the beautiful the woman. So they wear this brass rings around there necks to weigh down there shoulders and give the illusion of their necks appearing longer.
They wear them on their knees also.. they cannot run & have to walk slowly as its painful for them. This rings were pretty heavy.
Talk about no gain without pain..


Check out her ear lobes..

Chiang Dao Caves

We went to visit the Chiang Dao Caves. There were 2 routes we could take, one was a electric lit route, the other we had to hire a guide who would talk us through the caves with a lantern, we took the latter. This caves were huge & bat ridden. It took us easily half an hour to walk around. We had to crawl through some areas as the openings were so tight. If that lantern had gone out we would have been hard pushed to find our way out. There were loads of rock formations inside that were said to be certain animals. Sometimes we could see their point but other times there was just no way these rocks looked like anything other than rocks.
There were the usual statues inside that people would worship. Very decorative. At one point, a girl Nicky who was there with us, took a picture which had a weird spook image flying towards us. Quite odd when it happened the first time but when it appeared in no less than three photos it was pretty freaky.
We also were told later that on occasion they spot serpents in the caves. Luckily we didn't run into any. Would have been nice to have been told earlier though.
(I was told prior to entering.. as our guide sure didnt want to go through the lantern route-Bobbi)

Chiang Dao Caves: Can you see it?

This was supposed to be a dead elephant lying on its side..

Chiang Dao Caves: Can you see it?

Can't remember what this was supposed to be, but it looked more like some extra terrestrial cocoons waiting to be hatched.

Chiang Dao Caves: Can you see it?

This was supposed to be an Elephants Lung..

Chiang Dao Caves: Can you see it?

This looked like the set of Alien vs Predator to us.. god knows what the guide could see?