After fleeing Vietnam we had a few nights in Bangkok before heading south to celebrate Charlotte's birthday on the beach. Spending a night with a bunch of Mancunian drug smugglers and human traffickers wasn't part of this plan, but you never know what Bangkok has in store and we made it through the evening without taking anyone up on their kind offers of work or accepting any "gifts" to pass on to their friends when we got back to the UK !
The next day we jumped on the bus for Koh Lanta and started our 16 hour journey hoping to be on the beach by lunch time the next day and sipping cocktails to celebrate Charlotte' 33rd birthday !
Turns out that the "bus" was actually 3 different buses and after an exhausting night of switching bags from coach to coach we finally reached Krabi - mere miles from our final destination. As we boarded the last bus Charlotte looked down for her back pack. Apparently at the previous changeover Matt, in his lack of sleep / valium induced delirium had thoughtfully picked up someone else's backpack leaving Charlotte's a mere 2 hours drive away ! Charlotte thought she was pretty understanding about spending the next 5 hours of her birthday sitting by the side of the road and patiently waiting for her boyfriend's mistake to be rectified. She hopes that at some point in the future her boyfriend will remember this incident and be more tolerant should (heaven forbid) she forget, drop, lose, ruin or break something......something else that is.
Matt's mistake was soon forgotten when we arrived in Koh Lanta and he revealed that as a surprise for Charlotte's birthday he had booked us into a luxury villa for the night....
Thanks also go out to Charlotte's Mum for turning it into two nights and to Charlotte's Dad for the birthday meal...
But all good things must come to an end and after this brief taste of luxury we were back to normal life - eating chicken Tom Yum and staying in $8 a night huts!
Complete with our usual standard of facilities
Admmitedly not quite as classy but the sunsets on the beach every night more than made up for it (and you know how we love a good sunset !)
After a week of chilling on Kho Lanta we heard a rumor that the Mighty Finn / Horn Dog / Jukkis would soon be on an island called Kho Lipe - a 3 hour boat ride south and in the direction we needed to go so we went to find him.....and we were so pleased we did!
Koh Lipe turned out to be an island which was difficult to leave, especially when Jukkis introduced us to Rich and Sam, two Brixton boys, Juha, Tina, Jo, and Nathan. Our time there was one of favorite in Asia and we laughed so much Charlotte cried regularly. It is best summed up by the following...
The only slight downer was the HUGE barge loaded with rubbish that was parked up on the beach for the first few days....but even this couldn't deter Jukkis & Charlotte who swam out to take a look at it...
During our time together we learned several things about each other namely that Sam & Nathan smoke even more than Matt (amazing but true), Rich - despite his best efforts - isn't going to make the 2012 UK Mens Volleyball team and Jukkis believes that every time a man and a woman are in a room together "they must be making sex !". After a week of banter and drinking we were a tight group but we felt something was missing....so we adopted a dog (Kelly, aged 6 years 11 months and 3 days) and our family was complete
When we finally had to split the group up we were gutted but all good things have to come to an end so after one last night of drinks and laughs we said goodbye to our new friends safe in the knowledge that we would at least see Rich & Sam again when we get back to London
From Koh Lipe we headed south to Kula Lumpur in Malyasia where we met up with Jukkis (again) who was this time accompanied by Finland's number 1 radio DJ for the last 6 years running (not that hard when there's only 16 people in your country and most of them are fishermen). Charlotte was quite ill with fevers and shivering by this stage and although not fully convinced by Matt's diagnosis of a 24 hours bug she didn't want to be accused of being a drama queen so stayed in her bed quietly. As Charlotte didn't leave the hostel we can only rely on Matt for information of what Kulua Lumpur is like. Apparently it's "alright"
Two days later (with Charlotte still not better) we got the train to Singapore. It was here that Charlotte's inner drama queen eventually won through so sadly the only thing which we can tell you about Chinese New Year in Singapore is that the A&E department of the hospital was very quiet !
We were assured that Charlotte would be better soon and there would be no problem with her flying to Australia the next day. So with our fears for Charlottes health allayed we packed our stuff and prepared to say goodbye to Asia and started to look forward to our whirlwind 2 week stay in Australia.
Or so we thought.......
The next day we jumped on the bus for Koh Lanta and started our 16 hour journey hoping to be on the beach by lunch time the next day and sipping cocktails to celebrate Charlotte' 33rd birthday !
Turns out that the "bus" was actually 3 different buses and after an exhausting night of switching bags from coach to coach we finally reached Krabi - mere miles from our final destination. As we boarded the last bus Charlotte looked down for her back pack. Apparently at the previous changeover Matt, in his lack of sleep / valium induced delirium had thoughtfully picked up someone else's backpack leaving Charlotte's a mere 2 hours drive away ! Charlotte thought she was pretty understanding about spending the next 5 hours of her birthday sitting by the side of the road and patiently waiting for her boyfriend's mistake to be rectified. She hopes that at some point in the future her boyfriend will remember this incident and be more tolerant should (heaven forbid) she forget, drop, lose, ruin or break something......something else that is.
Matt's mistake was soon forgotten when we arrived in Koh Lanta and he revealed that as a surprise for Charlotte's birthday he had booked us into a luxury villa for the night....
Thanks also go out to Charlotte's Mum for turning it into two nights and to Charlotte's Dad for the birthday meal...
But all good things must come to an end and after this brief taste of luxury we were back to normal life - eating chicken Tom Yum and staying in $8 a night huts!
Complete with our usual standard of facilities
Admmitedly not quite as classy but the sunsets on the beach every night more than made up for it (and you know how we love a good sunset !)
After a week of chilling on Kho Lanta we heard a rumor that the Mighty Finn / Horn Dog / Jukkis would soon be on an island called Kho Lipe - a 3 hour boat ride south and in the direction we needed to go so we went to find him.....and we were so pleased we did!
Koh Lipe turned out to be an island which was difficult to leave, especially when Jukkis introduced us to Rich and Sam, two Brixton boys, Juha, Tina, Jo, and Nathan. Our time there was one of favorite in Asia and we laughed so much Charlotte cried regularly. It is best summed up by the following...
The only slight downer was the HUGE barge loaded with rubbish that was parked up on the beach for the first few days....but even this couldn't deter Jukkis & Charlotte who swam out to take a look at it...
During our time together we learned several things about each other namely that Sam & Nathan smoke even more than Matt (amazing but true), Rich - despite his best efforts - isn't going to make the 2012 UK Mens Volleyball team and Jukkis believes that every time a man and a woman are in a room together "they must be making sex !". After a week of banter and drinking we were a tight group but we felt something was missing....so we adopted a dog (Kelly, aged 6 years 11 months and 3 days) and our family was complete
When we finally had to split the group up we were gutted but all good things have to come to an end so after one last night of drinks and laughs we said goodbye to our new friends safe in the knowledge that we would at least see Rich & Sam again when we get back to London
From Koh Lipe we headed south to Kula Lumpur in Malyasia where we met up with Jukkis (again) who was this time accompanied by Finland's number 1 radio DJ for the last 6 years running (not that hard when there's only 16 people in your country and most of them are fishermen). Charlotte was quite ill with fevers and shivering by this stage and although not fully convinced by Matt's diagnosis of a 24 hours bug she didn't want to be accused of being a drama queen so stayed in her bed quietly. As Charlotte didn't leave the hostel we can only rely on Matt for information of what Kulua Lumpur is like. Apparently it's "alright"
Two days later (with Charlotte still not better) we got the train to Singapore. It was here that Charlotte's inner drama queen eventually won through so sadly the only thing which we can tell you about Chinese New Year in Singapore is that the A&E department of the hospital was very quiet !
After 5 hours of saline solutions and waiting for blood tests the doctor assured Charlotte that she didn't have Dengue fever or Malaria (as she had feared) and instead diagnosed her with a chest infection. Matt's smug "told you so" didn't go unnoticed as Charlotte was wheeled out of the Fever Zone carrying enough drugs to set up a field hospital in Syria
We were assured that Charlotte would be better soon and there would be no problem with her flying to Australia the next day. So with our fears for Charlottes health allayed we packed our stuff and prepared to say goodbye to Asia and started to look forward to our whirlwind 2 week stay in Australia.
Or so we thought.......
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