Swapping 1 island for 2
Travel Location: Asia,Thailand,South-West-Thailand,Ko-Chang
Long time no blog!
Well Thailand was mega and most enjoyable, cheap and totally unscarey.
We stayed on Koh Chang (Elephant Island) for nearly 2 weeks, got our lovely little seaview hut in Bang Bao which was an old fishing village at the bottom tip of the island, the pier was flanked either side with fishermans huts on stilts it was quite amazing, most are now shops or restaurants but nowt flashy all quite rusticy (see pics), it was ultra chilled out – we hired a scooter for a few days and had some trips up the west coast of the island amazing costal views and mountains covered in rainforest.
We stayed there for a week and then moved up coast to Kai Bae got a lovely little apartment near a strip of shops/bars and restaurants which was a little livlier than Bang Bao but still totally chilled, only a short walking distance to some gorgeous beaches so our last few days in Thailand were beach and readingtastic!
We had a final night in Bangkok on Monday and we enjoyed being back mooching round – knowing our way a little better and so well trained in bartering technique!
Flew to New Zealand on Tuesday – didn’t actually get here until Wednesday teatime – it was a hell of a trip probably combined with the 12 hours from Koh Chang to Bangkok it definitely made us tired bunnies!
We stayed in a little cabin on a holiday park – it took a couple of days to recover and sort our bags and do some laundry then we hit Auckland a couple of times, the nicest was on Saturday when we took a ferry to a place called Devonport and walked to the top of a volcanoe for some great views.
Weather has been a bit of rain – temps in the 20′s but after Thailand it feels colder to us so the jeans and hiking boots have come out the bottom of the rucksacks.
We hired a car today to make our way down to the south island, we stopped off in Cambridge! which was a nice little town (& it had charity shops woo hoo!) then to Rotorua to call in on Lucy – a friend from Liverpool – this is a thermal region and there is a strong whiff of sulphur in the air and steam rising from various areas! lots of lakes and forests and volcanoes to discover – but we will be back here for Xmas so we can do more exploring then.
It is so weird that Xmas is being advertised and it is sunny – it just doesn’t fit – it’s like some strange parallel universe!
Ciao for now
