My Sparkly, Twinkly Adventures....

Had such a fantastic Day! Got up bright and early, enjoyed a lovely breakfast then set off to Sumkuvit to collect my tickets from Singapore Airlines!Bit of a trek but great opportunity to see a bit more of Bangkok before i set off back to England. When I got there realised I was right by Lumphini Park which was great as It had been one of the places I had wanted to visit on my first stay in Bangkok and as I hadnt planned on ending up back in the Capital this was an added bonus to get to see it!!!Following this I decided to take a stroll around the Sumkivit area to see what else was on offer!!!I had really wanted to visit Patpong Market but me and Daniel never got the chance so imagine my delight when I accidentaly stumbled upon it!

Soooooooo glad I didnt miss out on Patpong,it was the best shopping experience of my whole arounf the world trip!!!!The bargains to be had, simply amazing!!!Bought the cutest little green, beaded top, some Buddha statues, few t-shirts then, some pretty little fans for presents, and then the fins of all finds......a little stall selling all this pretty Hello Kitty, Miffy blah blah blah stuff!what a selection, couldnt believe my eyes, I was almost hysterical!the guy even had to give me a little basket as I grabbed more and more handfuls of delights!!!!Those ever cute little chrams for phones and bags that I have become so fond of since visiting Japan were only 40baht each so I got loads!Beautiful hello Kitty watches, pencil cases......it was fabulous!The market was huge, I could have spent hours and hours there and thousands of Baht!Headed back to Khao San as Nicola was due to be arriving and Ive missed her since we have spent 24 hours a day with eachother the past few weeks!Decided to be adventurous and attempt the boats again, this time I was on my own with armfulls of shopping bags so it was all the more daunting!It was great to see the views of Bangkok before I leave this amazing country!

Arrived back in Khao San to be reunited with my little travel chum Nicola!Went out for a couple of pineapple shakes and some food!Enjoyed my final night in Thailand enjoying the street cocktails of Bangkok as we pulled up our little plastic stools....my whole Thailand experience ended the same as it had begun!!!Ive had the most incredible time, words can not explain how amazing this trip has been, This is the most unforgetable life experience and I will remember it forever.....

Oh My god.....set off from Koh Pha Ngan first in a van, then on a bus, then on a boat and finally on the "VIP" bus!!!!The journey which should have take 14 hours ended up taking 24....The first event, I left Nicola in Hat Rin as she is going to travel tomorrow instead, I had a fainting incident of the super cramped boat which I believe was the effects of sitting in the 90 degree sun on the top deck of the boat...no one helped me at all apart from a lovely Australian guy who bought me some warm, orange flavoured milk as there was no water on board!!!!All was well, met a really nice Malaysian girl who helped me through the crowds with my backpack and told me stories of her passion for whitewater rafting!!!Got stuck at Surrathani for about 2 hours before being told the buses were all full so I got taken to another random place followed with another 2 hour long wait!!!Eventually got on the bus where I bagged a double seat to myself and settles down to watch some badly dubbed Kung-Fu movie!!!We made a brief stop off at a service station before hopping back on board....was nice and cosy when this very tall German guy came and took the seat next to me!!!I mean come on, where had he been sitting the previous 5 hours?!?!There was no need, he was proper sprawled out and I found myself squashed like a sardine in the corner...the final straw came when her caressed my knee and drooled on my shoulder so had to lay down the law...the rest of the journey was spent with him purposely hogging the space out of spite!!!!In the middle of some really baron road in the pitch dark the bus made a really lous, scary bang and tilted to one side with gave us all a fright, I thought a bomb had gone off. Turns out the wheel had come off the bus!!!we spent several hours in a garage before getting back on the road!!!Finally arrived in Bangkok after a massive 24 hour long journey! Tired and famished I went to seek solice in the good old Siam Oriental Inn...grabbed one of the special breakfasts which I had missed then caught up on a few hours sleep before going for a look around the Banglamphu street stalls and a couple of temples!!!!

Well last night we finally experienced the musch anticipated Full Moon Party!!!Had a really good time, apprarently there was 12,000 people there!!!It was all hectic and busy, some great music, fabulous fire shows, and of course the Sangsom was flowing!!!!

It was fun!!!Had a great time here on Koh Pha Ngan, its been a a good laugh, and those pancakes with mars bars in are divine!!!!

Tomorrow I have to make the dreaded trip all the way north to Bangkok which Im looking forward to as I loved Bangkok the first time round and theres still a lot more I want to see there!Not as excited about the bus journey but hey, its all part and parcel and I suppose those random stop offs at strange Thai service stations are interesting!!!!

Well the past couple of days have been fun!In preparation for the full moon party its been getting busier and busier....front our hillside bungalow we can see the boats coming in everyday full of people! We escaped the delights on Ban Tai after several arguments claiming we owed money for the hospital trip which we had already paid for, bust up over a few of Nicola's CDs which they tried to say belonged to them!We hopped in a tuk tuk and found ourselves smack bang in the middle of Chicken Corner...in the run up to the FMP, its super crazy!!!!Hauled our backpacks up about a zillion hills trying to find somewhere decent to stay for the next week! It was a nightmare, everywhere was fully booked, the prices had been totally hiked up and some of the places we saw were cockroach infested cesspits not even suitbable for animals to stay in!Everntually we found the Seabreeze Bunglalows and its really nice!Bit of a hike up a hill but really quiet and peaceful, amazing views of the ocean and Koh Samui island in the distance, surrounded by jungle, really nice! We have a little yellow Hammock on the balcony perfect for a nice relaxing read with a spectacular backdrop!We soon learnt it wasnt called Seabreeze for nothing....in the evenings it gets so unbeleivebly windy we thought the roof was going to come off but its nice because the heat is just so intense! Found a cool little place to eat, its typically english food, jacket potatoes, yummy sandwichs, beans on toast but after the weeks of eating Asian food its refreshing to go back to basics!!!For me Koh Pha Ngan is the opportunity to chill out a bit and just relax as this travelling has left me totally exhausted so its nice to know that the last leg of my trip is to be spent on a pretty Thai Island basking in the sun!!!!Our evenings have been mainly spent exploring the bars and restaurants and getting in on the warm up parties on the beach!Already its gettin pretty crazy: Buckets of Sangsom, snake charmers and fire shows on the beach...what is with those people carrying the owls around?!?!who wants to pay 10 Baht to have their picture taken with a scabby old bird?!?!

We spent a day in Thong Sala in search of of a pair of shoes for Nic so she doesnt have to mince around in the glass on the beach at the FMP!I loved Thong Sala, there was a great food market, live eels, huge fish, exotic fruits....Good opportunity to indulge in a bit of shopping...bought the most exquisite piece of South East Asian batik which will be fantastic for an upcoming project! Got a really cute pink t-shirt for 60 Baht also!

As we said farewell to Railay and enjoyed an amazing trip by longtail of the Andaman coast on our way back to the Krabi mainland we started the long trek back to the East Coast. We ended up in the dreaded Koh Samui for one more night which gave us an opportunity to get some well craved beans on toast before making the journey across to Koh Pha Ngan for the much anticipated Full Moon Party! Arrived on our sardine packed boat at Thongsala where we encountered the first ridiculous event.....after a debate over taxis Nicola was attacked by a hairbrush as a fat old woman hurled it 20 feet away at her head!We laughed and made our way to a remote area called Ban Tai....this place was seriously shady....dodgy guy running the bungalows...it was called Paradise Fields...it certainly wasnt a paradise!Couple of our later in our wierd multi coloured bungalow and Nicola felt ill...it was hospital time!!!Several bribes and baht later the guy agreed to take us to the only hospital on the island!!!What a joke...bloodstained beds,smeared walls, and a hefty medical bill and police interrogation later we ended up back at the bungalows to be faced with a powercut!!!Luckily we still had the Ton Sai torch and found our way to a candlelit hut which served amazing thai food!!!!The night was rounded off by being chased by 2 wild, rabid dogs, not great for 2 chicks both with dog phobias!!!!We were glad to find our beds and even more glad that we could escape to Leela Beach the next morning!!!!