The Islands of Thailand

Yes, I made a specific post focusing exclusively on the islands in the south of Thailand - The Gulf side and the Andaman Sea side.  This place was special to me and will probably win the award of ‘favourite country in the world’.  It’s just that good people; if you haven’t been you need to move it up on your bucket list asap.  However it comes with a warning, if you DO NOT like any of the following then the Thai Islands are simply not for you.

• Amazing foods including beach side seafood barbecues
• Some of the friendliest people on the planet
• World class diving and snorkelling
• The inability to spend more than $8 on anything
• Beaches, beaches, beaches beaches, beacjdsfl;kasdf;s
• Muay Thai Kickboxing (watching or participating!)
• Night time Fire shows
• Some of the best partying anywhere
• Laughing, smiling, high-fiving

If you shook your head at any of the points above and said to yourself “Shawn that sounds terrible” then cross Thailand off your list....otherwise enjoy the rest of the post J

I had the pleasure of being on these islands for a little over a month, I stayed on 4 in total with day trips to another 2.  Most days were spent on the beach, in the water or in a hammock.  The majority of the month the only things I wore was board shorts and a smile.  So here we go, first stop Koh Phangan:

We arrived there on the 23^rd in hopes to secure a 9 day accommodation through new years as we’ve heard after Christmas it’s tough to find a cheap place.  We took our time and found a great place on west Had Rin beach called Friendly Resort.  It had cheap bungalows, a pool, great food and was far enough away from the centre of town that you could escape the crazy if you wanted to.

Our 800 baht per night bungalow ($13 per night each)

The pool...and the Gulf of Thailand

The other side of Had Rin is where the main beach is and the world famous full moon beach parties.  This beach was where we spent most of our time...go figure.  There was a big party set to go on Christmas day on this beach....but the weather had other ideas and decided to swallow up the beach whole.

Merry Christmas!  But uhhh, dude where’s my beach?

Ya apparently there was a huge storm that was just passing so the first few days were a bit damp.  But that soon cleared up and we commenced having an awesome time.

One of the days we headed up north to a beach which has a small island that you can walk out to in low tide.  Snorkelling was supposed to be great so we checked it out.

The snorkelling turned out to be a bust as the visibility was junk but the views were still worth the tuk-tuk drive.

Now there are some world famous festivals that I’ve already attended during my trip which include Oktoberfest and La Tomantina.  Going to a full moon beach party in Koh Phangan is another.  On December 31st 30,000 people descended upon Had Rin beach and rang in the New Year.  Buckets upon buckets were consumed, bars and table tops were danced on, people jumped through fire (some successful), ridiculous outfits were worn and music of all varieties pumped until the sun came up.  Although the 31st wasn’t officially a full moon, all other aspects that make a full moon party amazing were prevalent.  I saw the sun set on the west beach, and the sun rise on the east some hours later.  There was a group of about 10 of us all staying at Friendly Resort who partied together that night and we all had the time of our lives.

Just to show you we are normal people

But then it can change so quickly...

Some people couldn't take the crazy....

But we partied through the night!

After a rowdy 10 days of awesomeness we decided to head to the neighbouring island of Kao Tao for a change of pace and also for some world class diving.  I absolutely loved Kao Tao.  It somehow managed to blend a chilled out party atmosphere with a quiet, small town feel.  The food and accommodation was cheaper than Koh Phangan as well which was icing on the cake.  We stayed at a beach side bungalow resort which had its’ own bakery and nightly beach front barbeques serving up the freshest and tastiest seafood I’ve ever had. 

The dining room...

Are you seeing the size of those prawns?  For under $10 you had the culinary pleasure of consuming everything on that plate.  I’ll give you a minute to wipe the drool off your keyboard...

A day trip to neighbouring Koh Nangyuan turned out to be incredible. 

The Thai longtail boat....a staple in water transit

Do I spot a lookout point up there?

Make your own postcards....

The diving was incredible and the cheapest in Thailand.  For two dives, lunch and equipment rental it was a measly 1600 baht ($48)!

I could’ve easily spent more time on beautiful Koh Tao, but it was off to the west coast of Thailand and the islands of the Andaman Sea!  En route to our first destination, the famous Koh Phi Phi we stopped off at Krabi town for a day.  Krabi is famous for its’ karst mountains which provide world class rock climbing.

Take away food straight from a long-tail boat....yep!

Accommodation on Krabi was scarce and pricey, so we decided to move on to the much hyped Koh Phi Phi.

After the tsunami devastated Phi Phi in 2005, the Thai government publically stated that they would rebuild Phi Phi’s tourist area properly concentrating on infrastructure (sewage, fresh water etc).  Before the tsunami the focus was on short term tourism dollars instead of a long term sustainable plan.  With the tsunami they were given a ‘fresh start’ to try and do it right this time.  Well after visiting the island nearly 7 years after the disaster I can honestly tell you that they have failed yet again.  They have once again focused on making money on tourism instead of building a viable infrastructure that can keep up with the demand.  Garbage often lines the streets and the stink of raw sewage can be smelled (and seen) way too often.  Dozens of long tail and speed boats cast shadows on beautiful, picturesque beaches which renders swimming almost impossible.  Even the world famous Maya Bay (where they shot The Beach) is barely visible behind the hundreds of boats that sit anchored in its’ bay.  Without proper governance and a LONG TERM plan this will only get worse.  I write this with an overlying feeling of irony as since I’m a tourist I feel that I am part of the problem.  However I still believe with proper regulations in place this island paradise could once again be just that.  If you do visit Phi Phi I strongly encourage you to get away from the main twin bay area and to one of the more remote beaches up the Eastern shore, as they are much less crowded.
Luckily this island is saved by the world class diving that surrounds it!  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of these amazing dives but I did manage to borrow some videos of a fellow diver.  The camera quality wasn’t the greatest, but never the less here is a small sample of what I saw

Another highlight of Phi Phi was a cruise of the two islands (Phi Phi Leh and Phi Phi Don) including Maya Bay.  We had a great bunch of people on board which made for an amazing time.

2 for 1 Bacardi Breezers?  Who could say no!

haha this took so many takes to get right

Underwater crane and plank?  The crank!

The party crew on Maya Beach!

Paradise....even with all the boats!

I did salvage some decent pictures of Phi Phi itself as well

This thing was not from this world....

Ph Phi Leh, home of The Beach

Another angle of Phi Phi Leh.....think you could swim across? :)

A panoramic shot of Phi Phi's twin bays...you can imagine now why it's such a popular tourist destination

The last island that we stayed on was magnificent Koh Lanta.  The biggest island by far, it still had that small island feel....very Koh Taoish.  There is a small canal separating Koh Lanta from the Thai mainland, so amenities are a plenty and prices are reasonable.  The awesomeness continued to flow....

The bungalow

The beachfront bar/restaurant/lounge

The beach...not a boat in sight!

The tan lines....maybe I should've opted for the speed-o?

The sunset...

The scuba diving was amazing as expected on neighbouring Koh Ha.  En route we saw this beast of a super yacht anchored just off-shore

It turns out that it’s owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, if you want to take a tour of what it looks like inside check it out!  The boat was simply called “A” ...maybe for Awesome?  Amazing?  Don’t hAte?  The dive boat had mixed reactions on its’ looks, personally I didn’t like the submarine look but I’m not a Russian billionaire! (not yet....).

The dive site

Blue skies and 20m of visibility make Shawn one happy diver

Back on land we decided to do a little island exploring in this sexual tyrannosaurus of a 4x4

To obtain your license to drive this thing, you had to shave with an axe, build a fire with your bare hands and tap out a shark....no problems

Off-roading is tough business so we stopped for a very manly fruit shake (the shakes were made of mangos, nails, saw-dust and a copy of Rambo...on VHS)

Staying on Koh Lanta for nearly 2 weeks was amazing as you really got to know the other long term backpackers and also the locals.  The Thai people are such warm, welcoming and hospitable people it was almost impossible to tear myself away from this place.  I also said goodbye to long term travel buddies “bullet-tooth” Tony and Adele “I’m from HK but I’m not Chinese”.  As I’ve said before, seeing amazing places in this world is one thing, but sharing those amazing places with amazing people is a whole new experience.

From Thailand I had a night stop over in Singapore and luckily had a friend that I had previously met in Ireland who let me crash at his place.  Singapore, like Hong Kong or Dubai is very ex-pat centric.  It’s an extremely clean and straight-laced city (you get a fine for chewing gum!).  I wish I had a few more days for this city, but unfortunately only managed to go out and explore its’ nightlife and thus didn’t manage to snap a single picture!

Australia is up next, I’ll be cruising down the east coast staying with friends who I’ve met all over the world and even a few from back home!

Cheers mate!

Cambodia

 Much like Vietnam, Cambodia has a war torn past that has shaped much of the country over the years.  Only a few decades ago, the country was ruled by Pol Pot and his horrific Khmer Rouge campaign which I will get into later.  I was eager to see this country, and was not disappointed from the moment I set foot on Cambodian soil.  Taking the night bus from Ho Chi Minh City wasn't too bad, although when buying the ticket we were informed that it was a 'sleeper bus' where the seats fold right down to a prone position, however this turned out to be false and we were stuck with a regular bus....pretty standard SE Asian mix-up...ah well

First stop, Phnom Penh.

As per the usual upon arrival, we stopped off an an ATM before checking into our hostel.  For reasons I still can't understand, Cambodia utilizes US currency for the most part, and instead of giving US change they give you Riel, their currency.  So there I am withdrawing my usual $100 at the ATM, only to receive a single crisp $100 US bill.  In most countries this isn't a problem, however in a country where the average resident makes $1 per day, this was a nightmare.  There was 4 of us traveling together at this point, so I broke the bill by paying for everybody's room!  We stayed at an amazing hostel right in the heart of the city, 11 Happy Hostel.  Why was it amazing?  The hostel's house rules of course....I will draw your attention to #4:

Any hostel that has a rule against bringing in prostitutes is classy in my books.  On a serious note this place had a phenomenal roof top restaurant/bar that was second to none.  Amazing food, music as well as a huge lounge area with a big screen TV and hundreds of movies to flip through equipped with bean bag chairs and loungers to chill out on...perfect.

Phnom Penh unfortunately is home to a few dark, but important cultural sites.  These are the killing fields and the S21 torture prison.  Both of these sites remember the horrible events that occurred during the Khmer Rouge campaign which lasted between 1975-1979 (only a few years after the US carpet bombed the crap out of them during the Vietnamese war).  You know I started to write about the details of the campaign and how terrible it was, but I decided to omit many of the facts....they're just too horrible to repeat to be honest.  If you want to read up on it, feel free to Google it.  In short the campaign aimed to create an entire self-sufficient country of non-educated farmers.  Similar to the holocaust, people of a certain 'type' were rounded up and killed.  Anybody with an education, who could speak more than one language or even someone with glasses were included.  Pol Pot (the leader of the campaign) also placed landmines surrounding the borders to force people to stay within the country.  Unfortunately those mines are still much active today and have resulted in a large amount of casualties (many of these children).  They even warn tourists not to step too far off the beaten track...scary stuff.

On the long bus ride into Cambodia I met a Brit, somewhere in his 40's who was completely against going to see these sites.  He said "why bother going, you know what's there and how terrible it is...why put yourself through that?".  My response was that although awful, we shouldn't turn a blind eye to these things that happen around the world.  I believe his attitude and general global nativity could possibly lead to further events such as this.  It's a massive chunk of history that we can learn from and we cannot simply ignore because it's hard to stomach.  Anyways, that's my thoughts...what do you guys think?  If you have an opinion leave a comment....

Right, so off we went to see the Killing Fields and S21 Torture Prison.  The sites are around an hour out of town, so the 4 of us hired a tuk-tuk for the day, for $15.  That's right, we had a personal driver for the entire day for less then $4 each!  Cambodians are very polite and modest people, as they don't have much.  When we decided to hire this certain driver for the day, he simply turned around with a huge smile on his face and said "thank you for giving me a job today".  His English was quite good, and we later learned quite a bit of history off this man as he took this job seriously....as he should because his father and family were directly affected by the Khmer Rouge.  But apparently he took his job only so serious as we ran out of gas 5 minutes into the ride! haha

They sell gas (petrol) out of 2L jugs at the side of the road throughout SE Asia

The Killing Fields are now set among a fruit orchard, so the property itself is very beautiful.  I only took a few pictures ...

The main memorial with viewing windows....

A closer look at what's inside....

After heavy rains small bones or scraps of clothing of the deceased sometimes rise up  from the ground

Mass burial graves....

I took a moment to capture some local women tending their rice patties just outside of the killing field grounds

I'll be honest for some reason this place really got to me, more than Auschwitz and the holocaust.  I'm not sure why but upon leaving I just felt grateful and lucky to be able to live free and to never have had to experience such tragedy.

Next it was on to the S21 torture camp (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum).  This place was a prison/torture facility used by the Khmer Rouge to force inmates to falsely name relatives and close friends as traitors so they could be brought in and do the same.  As many as 20,000 prisoners went through this place, many of them came from or went to the Killing Fields.

The unbelievable code of conduct that every prisoner was forced to abide by

Typical cell....the box in the corner was the toilet

Definitely one of the darker days of my trip, but the world is sometimes a dark place and I believe without seeing these types of things, you can't appreciate the brighter things in life as much.  The sweet isn't as sweet without the sour right?  right! :)

I wish I left myself more time in Cambodia, but it was important to get to Koh Phangan to get accommodation well before new years, so we only had a few days in Phnom Penh before heading up to our next stop, Siem Reap!  Most people go to Siem Reap to see the wonderful Angkor Wat and it's surrounding temples.  There isn't a lot of other things to do in the town to be honest...so we spent nearly 2 days exploring this place!

Starting with the main attraction....the grand daddy of all Angkor's, Angkor Wat!

Calling this place huge would be an understatement of it's size...

The classic Angkor Wat picture...too bad for the scaffolding! 

You knew this was coming...

Monking around......ooooh

Next up was Angkor Thom, famous for its' many faces...

And last but certainly not least, Angkor Ta Prohm which is famous for its' association with the Tomb Raider movie.  I think this was my favourite Angkor of them all....it was very unique and had beautiful strangler fig trees interwoven throughout!

Often the structural integrity of the ruins relies on these strangler figs to hold them up.  Although some say they have damaged the ruins severely over the years, I think they add character and beauty!

Enjoying my last evening in Cambodia with a cool, crisp, refreshing Angkor beer and a sunset!

Although I only spent a little more than a week in Cambodia, I truly loved this country.  I think I liked it the more than Laos and Vietnam.  Although the country has flown through some really dark clouds over the last few decades its' dusted itself off and is really becoming an amazing yet cheap place to visit.  I do wish I had more time to tour the country and head south to beautiful and exotic Sihanoukville, but alas Thailand was calling yet again...this time to the Gulf for some epic diving, amazing beaches and full moon parties!