Phuket - Patong Beach

We checked out of our accommodation in the morning and were picked up by a minibus to take us to Phuket. When the bus arrived it was already really full with people and everyone's bags.  We were told to just climb over the back seats, squishing a poor guy in the process, and the driver rammed our bags in around us.  Thankfully this was just the bus to the bus station where we would catch another minibus to Phuket. Although I did quite enjoy my wee cocoon on the first bus I think it would have been a bit uncomfortable for 4 hours.  After a wee wait at the bus station we were shown to the minibus that would be taking us the rest of the way.  The driver asked myself and Kay to sit in the front two seats as we are small and wouldn't take up much room.  The journey wasn't great as we after both convinced the driver was on drugs.  He wouldn't stop touching his face the whole 4hours and was driving very erratically! We arrived in Phuket unscathed around 5pm.  We had booked the capsule hotel which is right on the main drinking street at Patong beach. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe but even though I collect the glasses we decided they were just too expensive to justify, they were roughly the same price that you would pay at home.  We went for some dinner at a nice Thai place and while we were there the heavens opened and so we ended up staying for dessert too.  On the way back to our accommodation we picked up a small bottle of Sang Som which is very drinkable Thai rum so that we could have a few drinks before we headed out. 

While we were getting ready we met a lovely Australian girl called Liz who was also travelling with her equally lovely sister, Anne.  The four of us ended up going out along with an American guy called chase that they'd met earlier that day.  Our night consisted of cocktails, dancing, drinking games, more drinking and lots more dancing. Phuket is a great night out but i think it would be the end of you and your liver if you stayed too long!

The next morning we spent a little time on the beach and went in search of the post office but never actually found it.  We had both decided that although we had a lot of fun, we didn't really much like Phuket. It was really loud, brash and very very westernised. There were Starbucks and KFCs on every corner.  We decided to book a bus back up to Bangkok for the next day and from there we were going to sort visas and head to Myanmar (Burma)  for a wee visit since we were starting to get a bit sick of the crowds in Thailand and wanted to get back into backpacker mode.

The next day we met Anne and Liz for some lunch, they had checked out of our accommodation the previous day as it was just too loud for them.  We were all headed to Bangkok that day, myself and Kay by bus and Anne and Liz were flying and then catching another flight to Vietnam for the last leg of their trip. We were picked up at 4pm and taken to the bus station where we got on a coach for our first overnight trip since arriving in Thailand.  The buses here are amazing, we were given water, a snack (a whole packet of biscuits each) and a blanket. Although the buses are a million time more comfortable that the citylink ones at home, we still didn't manage to get a very good night sleep.  The seats did recline but it was still difficult to get into a comfortable position to sleep. They also pulled over at a service station around midnight so we could have dinner.  Myself and Kay opted to just stay on the bus and try to get some sleep.  Back to my beloved beloved Bangkok. 

Krabi - Ao Nang

After arriving in chompton at 5am we were taken in a taxi to where we were getting mini bus to Krabi.  We ended up in 3 different taxis and 2 minibuses but we eventually arrived at Ao Nang area of Krabi. We hadn't managed to book anywhere before hand as the Internet on Koh Tao is terrible so I sat with the bags in the sweltering heat while Kay and Andy went in search of accommodation. They managed to find us a nice wee bungalow about 10-15minute walk from the beach. After showering we headed for the beach to sit and watch the sun set. It was one of the prettiest sun sets I've seen since leaving Scotland. It was just so pretty and no picture will ever do it justice.

We went for dinner and then to book some trips as Andy only had a few days left with us.  We decided on a day of kayaking followed by an elephant trek and a day of snorkelling around Hong Island. 

The next morning we awoke early as we were being picked up for our snorkelling trip at 8.15am. We shouldn't have bothered getting up so early though as our pickup didn't arrive until 9.30am!  We were taken to a beach nearby and then onto a longboat. We stopped at Red Island first to do some snorkelling. The fish here were amazing, so unfazed by the fact that there were people in the water around them. You could get really close and they wouldn't swim away. Got some really cool photos here of us all surrounded by fish.  Then we went to emerald lagoon, this was really beautiful. We weren't allowed to swim here but we stayed for a while so we could get some nice photos. We went to Paradise beach for some lunch.  We did a wee bit of snorkelling here too but there wasnt much to see.  Finally, it was off to Hong Island which again was just beautiful. I did some sunbathing here while Kay and Andy went for a wee walk around the island. This island had been affected by the tsunami in 2004 and they had just left the washed up boats in the jungle.  After we got back to Ao Nang we showered and went for some dinner.  I caught up with a few people over FaceTime and then we had a early night in preparation for our trip the next day. 

We were picked up the next morning and taken to another part of Krabi to do our half day kayaking.  The three of us had to go in one kayak which was a bit rubbish as it meant the person in the middle couldn't do any paddling. Myself and Kay decided we would take turns. This meant having to swap over in the middle of the lake! It must have been quite a sight, me crawling through Kay's legs while we tried to keep the kayak stable.  We spent a few hours kayaking around an island, there were points when we needed to lean back to get under the branches of some mangroves.   We visited some small caves too and saw some big lizards in the water. The guide kept telling people they were baby crocodiles to try and scare them. The guide was the usual chilled out Thai type, he didn't seem even remotely fazed that we lost half of our group while going around....I hope they're ok!

After our kayaking we were off to do an elephant trek.  We got to do an hour long trek which included some splashing around in the river with them.  Although we really enjoyed our time with the elephants I wasn't too sure how well they were being looked after.  The elephants that we had spent time with in India weren't tied up at all while we were with them and were really good natured things. The ones in Thailand, by comparison, were tied up and put in a barbed wire fence when they weren't being ridden. They also used seats on the backs of the elephants which is supposed to be less comfortable for them whereas the ones in India were ridden bare back. We've been told that there are some great places up in Chaing mai for elephants so we might go again when we are there.  

Once back at our accommodation I sat and tried to whittle my belongings down to a manageable amount.  Andy had very kindly offered to swap bags with me and take mine home with him. My bag was a 120l monstrosity on wheels. It hadn't coped very well with the terrain in India and by then had a small hole in the bottom as it had stopped wheeling due to the bottom collapsing!  My bag weighted about 30kg so I needed to get it down to at least 20kg so that I could carry the stuff on my back. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  There was so much clothes that I brought that I hadn't worn in the almost two months I'd been away, so that all got chucked. I'd also taken quite a few pairs of trousers for India as you really need to cover up there but the countries we are going to from now on aren't so bad. I only really need a couple of pairs for when we are visiting temples. I also ditched about 6 bikinis because who needs 10 bikinis! There were a few other bits and bobs that I managed to get rid of and somehow got my bag down to 17kg (before insulin which is about 4-5kg). We then went for dinner at a wee place across the road which did lovely Thai food and while there we noticed that they did rooms for 500 baht, ours was 1200! We went to have a look at them and they were really nice, more like a wee flat with a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom - they even had a fridge! It's a shame we didn't see this earlier as it would have been ideal for the 3 of us. Myself and Kay booked in for the following night as we were yet to make any plans for onward travel. It was Andy's last night with us in Thailand so I decided to give them some space and stayed in sorting my belongs and ensuring they would all fit into Andy's 70l bag while they went out for a few drinks. 

The next morning we checked out of our hut and checked into our wee 'flat' across the road. We went for a walk to find a market that we'd seen on the way to one of our trips but, either it was further away that we thought or we went in the wrong direction. Either way, we didn't manage to find it.  We had some nice smoothies on the way back and then walked along the beach for a while. We headed back up to our accommodation as it was getting near the time that Andy would be leaving for the airport. It was sad to see Andy go, it was really nice having him around for a couple of weeks.

After dinner myself and Kay had decided that we would go to Phuket since it was close by and we'd heard a lot about it. We locked our room and the front door of the flat and went off to book a bus.  After coming back from booking the bus we couldn't get into our room.  Turns out the two keys we had were both for the front door and not one for the bedroom door like we thought.  We went to find the lady who ran the place to tell her our problem and she sent her Swiss boyfriend back with us to sort it out.  They didn't have a spare key for this lock and so the Swiss guy, who was quite tall I may add, had to get some ladders and break into our room using the wee windows at the top which were thankfully only covered with mosquito nets. Me and Kay were trying so hard not to laugh out loud when he went head first through the hole and crashed down on the other side! Kay ended up having to go outside as she couldn't hold it in any longer! Luckily for us though he did manage to get us back into our room.

Koh Phangan and Koh Tao

We had a lazy morning as we knew we wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. We decided to keep our accommodation on Koh Tao and just get the first ferry back from Koh Phangan which would leave at 8.30am.  We put our faces on (not Andy obviously) and went down to Lotus Hotel at 2pm to catch our taxi to the pier.  The boat was full of people all heading over for the full moon party, some of them already half cut I think. Once on Koh Phangan we took a truck taxi to the beach and the driver was driving so erratically I think he'd been on the sauce too.   Up and down steep hills at crazy speeds and at one point slammed his brakes on so hard that we, about 16 of us, went from filling the whole back of the truck to being rammed into about half of it! Good fun though and we arrived safe and sound at our destination. We went for a wee walk along the streets just up from the beach as we didn't want to start drinking too early. I'm sure our friends will struggle to believe this but myself and Kay were planning to be semi-sensible as we didn't want to lose each other in the 30,000 large crowd.  We had some pizza for dinner, lining the stomach, and headed off to buy ourselves some buckets. The drinks were ridiculously cheap here. Only B200 (£4) for a bucket which had 200mls of whichever spirit you liked along with whichever mixer. So, the equivalent of around six 35ml drinks at home for £4. Happy days. We bought some UV paints and sat for a wee while painting pictures on each other and drinking our buckets. We walked along the beach in search of the best music and saw some amazing fire throwers. Some of the boys looked to be only about 7 or 8 at a push but they were just fantastic. Much better than the older guy. Just shows how fearless you are at that age. We saw a big skipping rope which was on fire too.  There were loads of drunk people getting hit in the face while trying to enter, some did manage it though.  We met some nice Americans and spent the bells with them but unfortunately not long after that I got separated from Kay and Andy in the crowd, despite being pretty sober.  We had made plans to meet at the bar where we had dinner if we got separated but it transpired that although I headed there with the Americans and waited for about an hour, it had taken Kay and Andy over an hour to get from where they were to the bar and so we missed each other.  Later that night Kay and Andy lost each other too in the crowd. We all somehow managed to make it back to the pier in the morning to catch the ferry back to Koh Tao and even though we all lost each other we all had a brilliant new years. 

Once back on Koh Tao we decided to take a traditional 1st of january swim in the sea - not that I've ever done this in Scotland. We all climbed on top of a big (fake) turtle and had some random take our picture on the beach. We met a couple from Liverpool in the taxi back to Sairee beach who were a little worse for wear. She was furious with him, the conversation went a little something like this:

Him - "I don't know why you are so mad, I got you home safe and sound didn't I?"

Her - "the FACT that I am home has NOTHING to do with you! I found you asleep on the ferry!" (throwing her cigarette packet at him!) 

They had lost each other too and she was vowing never to go back to "bloody Koh Phangan".   We headed to brothers after showering for a big breakfast.  Kay and Andy both had a full fry up and I had French toast AND porridge.  We decided it was a day for lazing on the beach but it was so roasting that after a while I decided to go back to brothers, have a cold beer, and use their wifi. We had dinner that night at the restaurant attached to our accommodation which was a lovely wee place right on the beach front. 

The next day we decided to try and head to Krabi for a few days before Andy had to fly back to the UK.  We went across the road from our accommodation to a travel agent but as we were trying to book for the same day we ended up having to get an over night ferry which would mean going back up to Chumphon rather than down Surat Thani which is the closer port to Krabi.  Kay and Andy decided to get some Thai massages done, I opted to go have one (or two) last cold beers at brothers.   Thai massage does not appeal to me, I don't think being pulled in every which way would be relaxing in the least.  We had to leave for the pier at 8pm as even though our ferry wasn't until 11pm we were told that "sometimes ferry leave early, ten, ten thirty maybe".  We were still going to be mega early even if it left at 10 and so we decided to have dinner down at the pier. The ferry was more like a cargo ferry and our "room" was like somewhere the crew should have been sleeping.  It was very hot and very noisy so I think we were above the boiler room.  We all somehow managed to get some sleep before arriving in Chumphon at 5am.  Koh Tao was definitely our favourite place in Thailand and we were all a bit sad to be leaving the beautiful island. 

One for the diabetics

I originally set up this blog so that I could give advice to any diabetics thinking about going travelling. When doing my own research online I found there was a real lack of information out there. I now know why.  Certainly for me, there have been no real issues surrounding my diabetes in the 8 weeks I have been away and the 3 countries I have visited so far.  There are a few things to note though.

Before leaving: 

The NHS are stingy *beeeps and will only give you a prescription for 3 months worth of your supplies. My original thoughts had been tho take about two years worth for the year that I was planning to be away, and to split them between my own rucksack, my day bag and also put some in my sisters bag. This way if any bags got lost or stolen I would still have a supply.  With the NHS only offering 3 months, and not even my specialist being able to help with this, this was obviously not going to be an option. I had read somewhere that you would have more difficulty finding tampons in Asia than you would getting insulin but without knowing the cost or realistically how easy this would be I still wanted to bring as much with me as possible. I know this is a bit unethical but what I did was stock pile over the year or more before I left. I just handed in my repeat prescription more often that I normally would and managed to save up about 8 months worth. My repeat is for at least a 2 month supply and because my GP is lazy he just gave me two copies rather than make out a new one for 3 months worth. So I managed to get myself 12 months worth of insulin for my trip. 

I didn't manage to stock pile quite so many needles, I took about 6months supply with me and I'll need to just use the needles twice. I know that isn't ideal but personally I think that's easier than trying to find needles in Asia and south America.  

Obviously, make sure your blood testing machine has plenty battery. Maybe get a new one to have as a spare.  This is what I did. 

Make sure your GP or specialist gives you a letter which says that you need to carry your insulin with you on the flight (insulin can't be stored underneath) and that you need to carry carbohydrates with you also. They should give you a few copies of this. I haven't been asked in my life to produce this letter but it's safer to have it than not I think.  

While away:

Keeping your insulin cold can be done by using Frio (or similar) bags. These just need to be ran under cold water every two days to reactivate the gel. Note that 12 months supply of Lanus and Novorapid along with 4 large frio bags weighs about 5kg or more. So take this into account when packing your bag.  Also, everything takes up a lot of room so you might not be able to take as much clothes with you as you'd like :( or you could take a stupidly big bag like me and then realise its completely impractical 7 weeks in, throw out half your clothes and get a ruck sack. 

As mentioned in my previous blog, you need a certificate to say that you are safe to dive, if you want to dive that is.  The place I did it with said I could have taken one from home. Your GP or specialist should be able to supply this. But if not, I was able to get one very quickly in Thailand on the day I did the dive and it only cost about £4.

We have been drinking mostly water while away but any time I've been out for drinks, Diet mixers have cost more.  It's the same in shops in India and Thailand. Diet drinks are marginally more expensive. I haven't seen any diet drinks on offer in Myanmar but I'm sure you can get them in the larger cities if need be.

I am thinking about going to pharmacies in different countries just to see how easy it would be to buy insulin and needles and the costs etc. so, I will update with that as and when. 

Chumphon and Koh Tao

The morning we left Hua Hin our plan had been to check out and then take our bags into Hua Hin town, spend the day there and get a late train down to Chumphon.  When we arrived at the train station in the morning we were advised that the train we wanted was full and that we would need to get the next one which was leaving in about an hour. The train was extremely busy with Thais and other travellers heading south to the islands. It was so busy that we ended up not sitting together, in fact, Andy was about 5 carriages down.  We had booked a dorm room in Chumphon before we left and so when we arrived myself and Kay stayed with the bags and Andy went off in search of the hostel which wasn't meant to be far from the train station. The hostel was lovely and clean and we were told during check in that breakfast would be served from 5am which was ideal for us as we were being picked up 5.30am for our ferry to Koh Tao. We went out for dinner once we had dumped our bags in the room. We stumbled across a wee Thai place, one of the many in Thailand that we've seen since, that has no name. Plenty of locals eating inside and lovely food being cooked on the street side.  The menu was only available in Thai, but have no fear, we were asked to go to where the food was being prepared and just point at what we wanted.  We all asked for noodles and vegetables as we were still getting accustomed to Thai food and weren't sure what would be good. When our food arrived though I was sure we'd been given someone else's as there were noodles, vegetables and an abundance of sea food on our plates.  We realised that our request had been lost in translation but what we got instead was very tasty and extremely cheap. I think our dishes only cost around £1.20 each and had crab, prawns and squid in it. You'd pay a small fortune at home for a dish like that. An early night for us since we needed to be up at 4.30am. 

The breakfast put on for us was wonderful. Cereal, toast, fruit, fresh coffee and even brownies! We were collected at 5.30am and dropped off at the train station, which realistically we could have just walked to. From there we were given a sticker indicating which island we were going to and put on a coach to the pier.  After queuing for some time and having to pay extra as the weight limit for luggage was 20kg (ours weighed 30kg!), we were on the ferry and on our way to Koh Tao.  The journey across only takes 1hr 15 but I think we all slept for most of it.  When we arrived in Koh Tao we collected our bags and tried to make our way up the pier as quickly as possible because we hadn't booked any accommodation (everywhere online said it was full). We wanted to give ourselves the best possible change of finding somewhere decent.  When we disembarked the pontoon we were greeted by many taxi drivers trying to compete for our business.  We got ourselves in a taxi, which are just pickups that you sit in the back of, paid too much for it, and made our way to Sairee Beach area which is generally where everyone stays in when on Koh Tao. When we arrived it was Andy's turn to stay with the bags while Kay and I went in search of accommodation. The first place we tried, Lotus, could offer us a bungalow for B1200 which is about £24 a night and similar to what we've been paying elsewhere in Thailand. We checked out the bungalow but even though we were told it hadn't been cleaned yet it still seemed a bit grim so we headed off to see if there was anything better on offer. We checked a few other places but they were either full, couldn't accommodate 3 people or were out of our price range. We decided to book into the Lotus bungalow for just one night and see how it was and look for alternative accommodation that day while out and about. It wasn't all bad though, they did have two pools which we could have use off while staying there. Our room wasn't quite ready for us to move into and so we just dumped our bags at reception and went to one of the pools to have a swim and do some sun bathing. Our room seemed to take forever to get ready and so while we were waiting we went for lunch and had a walk around Sairee. Sairee in a tiny little place and you can walk from one end to the other in about 20minutes or so. While we were out we enquired about rooms in a couple of places but were told to come back in the morning to see if there was availability. We also saw many many places offering scuba diving which is something we all wanted to do. We'd been told that Koh Tao was the best place to do it in Thailand.  We finally managed to check in to our bungalow, which thankfully was a different one to the one we had been shown previously, it was clean and bright, and we were all more than happy to stay there for the duration of our time in Koh Tao. We had showers and then headed out to book some trips to do while there.  We decided to go with a snorkelling trip around the island for the next day and a discover scuba diving trip for the following day. With no real wifi to speak of at our accommodation we ate at the first place we saw offering wifi, a place called brothers which we ended up in quite a few times over our stay in Koh Tao. 

I was woken in the morning by Kay and Andy saying in unison "we're leaving!". Apparently there had been a lot of noise during the night from the pool bar next to our bungalow. I'm a very deep sleeper and so I hadn't heard a thing but it had kept both Kay and Andy up all night. This meant we had a big rush in the morning.  We needed to find alternate accommodation before being picked up for our snorkelling trip at 9am. Andy showered quickly and then went in search of somewhere for us to stay that night while myself and Kay showered, packed and got some food for our breakfast.   Andy managed to find us another bungalow which was further away from the bar areas and was actually cheaper and nicer than the one we were in.  With no time to lug our belongings up to the new place, Blue Wind, we left our things at the Lotus reception and off we went on our snorkelling trip. The trip was amazing, I'm not a very confident swimmer but they gave me a life jacket. I had bought a waterproof camera for taking away and we managed to get quite a few cool shots of all the fish.  We stopped at three different places to do some snorkelling and then had some lunch. We were then taken to Koh Nang Yuan which is three beautiful islands joined together by a sand walkway. We walked to the top of one of the islands to get a view of them all. It was a lot of very steep steps to the top and then once there you needed to climb up some rocks to get the best view. We did some more snorkelling from the beach there and then it was time to head back to Koh Tao.  We went to a lovely Thai place for dinner and also went to the supermarket to buy more mosquito spray and tiger balm for our bites. We were all shattered after our day and so we had an early-ish night in preparation for our scuba diving in the morning. 

We woke early and went for a hearty breakfast as we would be out scuba diving all day. After arriving at the dive centre (Sairee Cottage - highly recommended) we were greeted by our trainer, André, who sat us down to fill in a short medical questionaire.  As I have type one diabetes I needed to go to the health centre to get them to do a medical and sign off that I was ok to dive. This was a bit annoying as all they did was take my blood pressure and ask if my control was ok and then rubber stamped my form and I was good to go. I was advised at the dive centre that in future I could either do this in advance so as not to waste time on the day or that I could possibly take a note from my GP at home to say I was fit and healthy to dive. André ran through all the safety information with me after I got back and then we were ready to get into our gear and do some training in the pool. Both Kay and Andy had been diving previously and so they were a dab hand. Me, on the other hand, not so good. We had to do 4 manoeuvres under the water. The first two were to remove the mouth piece and place it back in our mouths and then remove any water that was inside your mouth using two different methods.  First by blowing really hard and then secondly by using the air button on the front of the mouth piece.  This I managed ok. Then we had to remove the mouth piece, pretend like we had lost it, find it, place it back in our mouths and remove any water by either of the above two methods. Again, this was ok.  Finally we had to demonstrate that we could fill our masks with water and then remove that water. This is done by blowing out hard through your nose while lifting the mask, which forces the water out. This one I struggled with big time as every time I tried to blow out through my nose my mouth was filling with water. I was then inhaling water which made me panic and head to the surface. André was brilliant though and took the time to make sure I had mastered it. He eventually decided that my mouth piece was too big and said he would get me a smaller one for the actual dive. We then were allowed a little time to eat a light lunch before we collected our gear and headed for the long boat which would take us to the big boat which was moored out in the bay. Once at our dive location we all jumped in the water, deflated our BCDs and made our way below. For an intro dive you can go as far down as 12 meters. We all held onto a rope and one by one gradually went further and further down. You need to equalise your ears every meter or so otherwise your ears get very sore, like when you're on a plane. My ears were ok, Andy's hurt a lot and Kay's nose was bleeding as she has troubles with her sinuses. Once down we were able to swim about and see all the fish and other sea life. My mask filled up with water while we were down but using the smaller mouth piece I was able to successfully remove all the water. I really enjoyed the experience but it's a very unusual thing to breathe through your mouth and never your nose.  Poor André had to more or less hold my hand the whole time and make sure I was breathing slowing and not panicking. Luckily we had two others with us who were doing their dive masters and so they could go with the others so I wasn't holding anyone up.  We were down for about 30 minutes which just flew in and only felt like 5 or 10. Once we surfaced we got out of our gear and had some tea and fruit while the boat made its way to the second location for another dive.  The second dive was at an additional cost and on the way I decided that, although I really enjoyed the first dive, it was enough stress for one day and so decided to sit that one out. Kay and Andy were going down so this meant that I could take some photos of them in their gear and also jumping into the water.  We all really enjoyed our day scuba diving, so much so that Kay and Andy have vowed to go back next year and do their Padi course. We went to a nice Thai restaurant for dinner and then decided to go see a ladyboy cabaret show in the evening.  I ended up feeling a bit unwell though, maybe swallowing too much pool water, and so ended up staying at home and doing some reading and blog writing instead. Kay and Andy had a brilliant time though, Andy was dragged on stage and given a lap dance! Not an experience I think he wants to ever repeat.  

Hogmanay tomorrow.  Off to party island, Koh Phangan to celebrate New Years with 30,000 others on a beach. 

Bangkok and Hua Hin

Myself and Kay arrived in Bangkok about 3pm and took a train into the city where we got a metered taxi to our accommodation. The accommodation is just wonderful, they have the place totally set up for backpackers. Clean, modern, laundry facilities, free breakfast, wifi and drinking water.  What more could you ask for.  Our accommodation is about a ten minute walk from the lively koh San road which is far enough away for it to be quiet but close enough if we want to go drinking. By the time we showered and got ourselves sorted it was time for dinner so we headed in the direction of Koh San road to see what there was on offer. We passed a place on the way which seemed to be busy with locals which is always a good sign so we decided just to eat there.  After being veggie in India for 5 weeks it was a bit of a shock for the menu to consist of mostly meat and fish.  After, we decided to take a walk down to koh San road to see what all the fuss is about. It's very lively and  full of bars offering 'buckets' so we made the decision then to treat ourselves to a night out the following night since we have been almost teetotal since leaving Scotland. We headed back to our accommodation as we were both tired from travelling and had a lot to accomplish in Bangkok in the two days we were there.

On our only full day in Bangkok we decided to do some sightseeing. We walked about 30 minutes from the accommodation to Wat Pho which was very impressive. It was a huge collection of temples and Buddhas but the show stopper was the 46 meter long, gold plated, reclining Buddha. It was so big that you couldn't get a picture of the whole thing. We walked back to our accommodation (getting a bit lost on the way) to enquire about getting the train to Hua Hin the following day.  We were told that it was cheaper to go to a travel agent and pay them a small commission to book our trains rather than paying for a taxi to the train station and back, so this is what we did.  Trains here are very cheap, it cost us around £2.50 for a three hour journey, including the commission.  After sorting our trains we got ready for our night out. A few cocktails and numerous buckets later we went to bed having survived our first night out in Thailand! 

As we were feeling a bit worse for wear we had a relaxing morning and afternoon just walking around the area and having some lunch and a few ice-creams. After trying for a long time, and getting quoted ridiculous prices, we eventually managed to get a tuk tuk to the train station where we would meet Andy (Kay's Boyfriend) and head to Hua Hin.  The train down was quite quiet and thankfully uneventful.  Myself and Kay had been to the 7-11 to buy some dinner for the train journey during the day.  We bought some sandwiches, ham and cheese, tuna, and some pulled pork ones.  The ham and cheese went down a treat, no one was brave enough to eat the warm tuna ones and the pulled pork had a minuscule bit of pulled pork in it and the rest was just bread and butter.  Well, they say you get what you pay for and I think in this case it's certainly true.  At around 30p each we couldn't really complain at the amount of filling. We arrived in Hua Hin almost on time and negotiated a tuk tuk to our accommodation. The bungalow we had booked for the three days in Hua Hin was lovely, 2 massive beds, a fridge and we would get breakfast in the morning on the table outside.  Happy faces all round.  

We woke up on Christmas day and exchanged gifts. When I say exchanged gifts, what I mean is, Andy gave us presents and Kay gave him some tat she'd bought in India.  After breakfast we walked the very short walk to the beach to spend our Christmas doing some sunbathing.  It was an unusual feeling being at the beach on Christmas day but it's definitely an experience I would repeat. We had a few cold beers, did some sunbathing, swimming and ate some lovely pancakes, this was our alternative Christmas.  We went into Hua Hin centre for a lovely dinner followed by one too many drinks. We all had a brilliant night out and met some lovely Aussies, a Manc running an Irish bar and a dog in a dress. 

Our last day in Hua Hin was uneventful, for me at least.  We went to the beach after breakfast but it was so hot, and I was so hungover that I had to make my way back to the bungalow for a lie down for the majority of the day.  We made plans to go to Koh Tao by train and ferry, had some dinner and had an early night.  Hangover aside, I very much enjoyed my Christmas in Hua Hin by the beach.  

Varanasi and Delhi

We left Khajuraho on an over night train and arrived in Varanasi about 3pm.  After getting a tuk tuk to our accommodation we showered and went in search of food for dinner.  Our accommodation was very close to Assi ghat so we decided to head in that direction first.  We found the ghat really quickly and so just went for a wee walk along some of the ghats before heading back as it was starting to get dark. We found a place for food near the main street at Assi ghat and when we were climbing the stairs to the roof top restaurant we both clocked how nice the rooms looked.  Our own accommodation was cheap and included breakfast but while we were getting ready after our showers we both noticed how hard the bed was so we agreed that after dinner we would enquire about the room prices just incase. We both ordered veggie burgers, which we've really enjoyed while in India, for a change from curry and chapatti, but when it arrived it didn't really look like a vegetable burger and upon eating it we both concluded that the burger was just potato.  It was still very tasty though.  When we left we asked about the rooms, to which they told us they were Rs900 a night.  This was almost twice what we were paying at our own place so decided to leave it but when we went to leave they said they would give us the room for Rs600 if we stayed for more than one night.  This was still a bit more than the place we were in and it didn't include breakfast so since we'd already paid for one night at the original place we decided to give that one a try and come back in the morning if the bed turned out to be too hard.

I woke up the next morning having dreamed that we had been sleeping on a bed which didn't have a mattress, just wood...that's how hard the bed was.  Kay had a terrible sleep too, she kept waking up in pain.  We decided to check out there and then and head over to the place we'd eaten at the night before. We were told at check in that they offered a complimentary guide who would show us around Varanasi and that they could arrange boat trips up the Ganges for us.  We said we would think about it and went to inspect our new room.  The bed wasn't very soft either but it was much better than the previous one, maybe hard beds are just the norm in Varanasi. While we were up in our room we checked the reviews on tripadvisor for the place we were in.  I was leaving one for the place before to warn people about the awful beds. We read a lot of people say that the complimentary guide was brilliant and very useful as the old part of Varanasi is a bit of a maze.  We decided we would go for some lunch and then take them up on their offer of the guided tour.  We had lunch at a place called open hands which was a NGO place who sold items made by women in need, be that women fleeing from violence or women with disabilities who couldn't work. We had banana and chocolate pancakes and Kay had chai and I had a huge cafetière of beautiful coffee.  I also bought an indian christmas tree decoration to add to my ever growing collection.  Ajay ( our guide) came to collect us from the cafe at 1pm and showed us around some temples and the university campus (which is huge).  We walked around all these places for about 4hrs so when he wanted to show us some place where Muslims lived and made silk we declined as we were getting tired and hungry. Ajay took us back to the accommodation but told us he would take us down to the ceremony at the main ghat if we wanted, this started at 6pm so we had a quick rest and then got an Indian helicopter (bicycle tuk tuk) down to the main ghat.  Ajay waited for us while we watched the ceremony which lasted 45minutes and involved 5 priests offering fire sacrifices to the gods. It was really good but the best view seemed to be from the boats which were sitting in front of the ghat so we made a mental note to come see it again from the water.  After, Ajay asked if we wanted to carry on further down the ghats and see the cremation ghat.  We said that we did because this is what Varanasi is famous for.  When we got down there Ajay handed us over to someone who worked at the cremation ghat.  He explained to us what was happening which was really interesting but then he guided us into the ghat so we could get a better look. Myself and Kay really didn't enjoy this bit for a couple of reasons, firstly it wasn't very pleasant being so close to burning dead bodies, especially when the guide continually pointed out skulls and feet hanging out the end.  We also felt that we were intruding on something that is sacred and  very difficult time for the families. I'm sure the last thing they need is to have tourists gawking at they're loved ones.  Our guide had been telling us while we were walking around that the wood used for burning the bodies was very expensive and that they needed a lot of it for each person and so the poor couldn't afford it. I thought, here we go, he will be wanting us to buy loads of wood because they think that because we're western that we have loads of money.  He did eventually ask how much we would like to buy and also said that it would be good karma for our parents (guilt trip). I handed over Rs 100, to which we was utterly appalled and asked us if that was all our parents good karma was worth to us.  I told him it was all we had on us (lies) but what I really wanted to say was, "I know this is a scam, and my parents would be mad that I gave you any money at all!". Ajay took us for some nice chai after, he knew all the best places in Varanasi for chai, and then we went back to the accommodation and completely changed our clothes as we we were both smelling like fire which was just reminding us of the sights we'd seen at the cremation ghat.  We decided to just eat at the same roof top restaurant we'd eaten at the night before (the one at our new accommodation) as it was really late by this point and we were both tired and hungry.  

The next day we decided to take a walk along all the ghats in Varanasi. We went as far as the main cremation ghat but we were both still a bit traumatised from the night before and so decided to stop there and head up into the old city. The place is a complete maze of narrow streets and very tall buildings and so we got lost pretty quickly.  Luckily for us the restaurants and guest houses usually have directions painted on the walls.  I clocked a sign for a place called Blue Lassie that I had read about in our guide book, it said that it was really tasty lassie in every flavour imaginable. We eventually found it by following the painted signs and it didn't disappoint. I had chocolate orange flavour which tasted like Terry's and Kay had apple and mango which was lovely too.  While we were sitting having our lassie we saw some dead people being carried by their family members down to the cremation ghat.  They are wrapped in dressings and decorated with flowers and other offerings so this wasn't an unpleasant sight to see, very interesting.  We left Blue Lassie and tried to navigate our way to the ghat on the other side of the cremation ghat so we could carry on with our walk. We got very disorientated and after a while we started seeing signs for the Blue Lassie again so we suspect we were just walking around in circles. We asked a local for directions and they kindly led us down to the ghat.  By the time we got there it was starting to get dark, and since the streets were difficult enough to find your way around in the light, we decided just to head up to the main road. Once up at the main road we decided to do a quick detour to the golden temple on our way back.  We hopped on a tuk tuk and went the short ride to the temple.  Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take and photos and because we aren't Hindus we weren't allowed in either. We could only stand at the entrance and peer in so it wasn't really worth the trip.  We were told that if we bought some flower offerings for Shiva we would be allowed in to the temple to give our offerings.  I didn't feel very comfortable doing that as the temple was strictly for Hindus and I didn't want to disrespect that.  We headed back along to Assi ghat for dinner after that. We weren't feeling too hungry either of us so we decided to order 4 things from the Snacks part of the menu to share. It ended up being one of the biggest meals we had in India! The portions were huge, 8 pieces of veg pakora, 2 broccoli paratha, 8 pieces of potato pakora and 4 things which I thought were going to be onion baji but were something completely different (very tasty all the same). We were totally stuffed but still managed to fit in some Indian sweets that we bought on the way home from dinner. 

We had a lazy day the next day, eating  food and writing post cards.  We did go in search of the post office in the afternoon only to be told that there were no stamps. The post office staffs lack of English and our non existent Hindi meant that "no stamps" was all the information we were getting. We went back to the accommodation to ask if we could buy stamps from anywhere other than the post office and they kindly sent one of the employees to show us where to get stamps.  Some miscommunication meant that he just took us back to the post office even though we tried to explain that we had already been and they didn't have any.  He did managed to translate for us though that there was a "shortage of stamps" at that time and if we wanted to get some we would need to travel 8km away. So, sorry to everyone who got an Indian postcard with a Thai stamp. That night we took a boat ride along the Ganges so that we could see the ceremony from the water. Our rower was the oldest man on the planet and couldn't row.  Could. Not. Row.  I was so tempted on several occasions to take the rows off him and do it myself. What should have been a 1hr boat ride, including some time at the ceremony turned out to be an almost 2 hour ride, with very little time at the ceremony and Kay trying to jump ship while he went to relieve himself. I did try to remind myself whilst I was starving, freezing and cursing him under my breath that he probably had arthritis he was so old and I shouldn't get so mad with someone just trying to earn a living. 

Our last day in Varanasi consisted of being dragged by Kay in and out of endless shops, taking your shoes on and off each time of course, looking for a new handbag. She was behaving a bit like goldilocks, too big, too small but thankfully she managed to find one that was juuussst right.  Our rickshaw ride to the train station (25km away) was one that I will never forget! We started off on normal roads but soon ended up on some dirt track.  I thought at one point we were going to topple over the road was so uneven. I wasn't put at ease by our driver when he said "very dangerous road" whilst chuckling away to himself. We then went over a bridge I'm sure was only meant for pedestrian use, it was wooden planks and not much else.  This was closely followed by a typical Indian dual carriage way where lorries just drive on any side of the road they like. Nerves shattered, we arrived safe and well at the train station about an hour before we were due to depart. We checked the board at the entrance to see which platform our train would leave from and noticed a 6 next to our train name. We thought to ourselves, surely that isn't how delayed it is, surely not.  Surely yes indeed it was.  Nightmare.  We made our way to the ladies only waiting room which, FYI, are never occupied by only ladies. But they are usually clean and quiet so an ideal spot to rest for 6 hours until our train showed up.  As the night went on our train got more and more delayed.  We eventually left at 9am the next day, over eleven hours later than expected.   We just slept and ate our way through the 23 hour journey (it lost another 9 on route) and arrived in Delhi almost a full day later than expected.

With less than 24hrs in Delhi we decided to shower and head straight out. We headed for connaught place which wasn't far from our accommodation. This is an area in Delhi where all the designer shops and boutiques are. This area is supposedly one of, if not the most expensive places to rent a retail unit in the world.  Kay was desperately making one last ditch attempt at finding a decent Christmas present for Andy from India. There is really nothing aimed at men for sale anywhere in india unless you want custom made shoes or a suit, but without Andy's measurements this was out of the question. We saw a million trinkets, beautiful carved boxes and jewellery galore that would have been lovely to take home as gifts (had we had any room in our bags) for the ladies but really nothing for men. Andy woke up on Christmas morning to a key ring, fridge magnet and a box of Indian sweets - what a lucky boy.  We met a really lovely Belgian couple while having some lunch. They were doing almost exactly the same trip as us but they started in south america and were on the last leg of their trip in India. They were appalled when we told then how much our bags weighed and she told us that hers was 15kg at its heaviest. She brought only 3 tops, 3 shorts, 3 trousers etc and her theory was you only needed 3 of anything.  Wear one, wash one, dry one.  The thought of having a light bag does appeal to me but so does having endless choice of clothing, i would get bored with just three outfits. 

Sad to be leaving but off to the airport for the next part of our adventure....Thailand.

Some of my favourite quotes regarding the Indians sheer lack of knowledge of Scotland's existence:

Indian: " where are you from?"

Me: " Scotland."

Indian:  "oh....near Poland?"

Me: " Erm...no? Next to England"

Indian: " ahhhh...ok. In the US?"

Indian: " where are you from?"

Me: " Scotland."

Indian:  "oh really? Because you have very British eyes"

Indian: " where are you from?"

Me: " Scotland"

Indian: " what part of Scotland do you come from? The English part?"

That last one made me chuckle, little did he know how right he was.  #Plockton