Ultimate Thailand Extension

28^th Jan – 1^st Feb 2016

Epic rain

The day after the Ultimate Tour officially ended we woke up to some horrendous rain. I would say biblical. Extremely heavy for a long time. We had a river running along in front of our rooms. I assume this is a fairly common occurrence as the dorm room doors have a little lip on them to stop the water coming in and nothing seemed to get flooded other than the road.

Mini flood

The Koh Tao Crew

Half of the Ultimate Thailand group left to go to Koh Samui but Daimi, Scott, Lee, Mirko, Jack and I stayed behind for another night in Koh Phangan. As Lee had gone to hospital the night before with an allergic reaction to some nuts, he wasn’t supposed to leave the island for 24 hours in case something happened. There was no hospital on Koh Tao. The rest of us decided to stay an extra night too so that we could wait for him and go to Koh Tao together. Hannah left for the Vietnam border to do a visa run and would meet us there.

Miserable day

So we had an unexpected extra day in Koh Phangan and there wasn’t much to do. The weather hadn’t improved that much from the morning. I went down to the beach but the tide was in and, with the wind pushing the water in too, there wasn’t any beach at all. Not that there was even any sun to enjoy. I ended up just lazing about the hostel.

Power cut

We met a few of Scott and Jacks friends who they had met in Vietnam, Beth and Brandon. They would also be coming to Koh Tao with us. We had dinner in the bar that night which was made slightly more interesting when the power went off for a little while.

Waiting for the ferry

The next morning the weather had cleared so we had a smooth crossing over to Koh Tao. We were a little lost at the pier without our tour guide to help us anymore. We weren’t convinced we were in the right place but all was well. We just had to wait.

You like ice cream?

Wait and eat ice cream. This lady wanted to be in a picture with Beth who was buying an ice cream from her.

Koh Tao

An hour later we were in Koh Tao which looked just as stunning as the tiny bit of Koh Phangan that I had seen. We were a little late but it was no big deal. We still had a few hours before the pub crawl we were planning to do started. Hannah used to work for them before she started doing Ultimate Thailand and had persuaded us to join one.

You call this a taxi?

We organised transport to our hostel which was basically a pick up truck with a couple of benches to sit on. This isn’t that unusual but there would normally be a big frame on the back too. Not just the seats.

Village streets

The beach

There was a bit of a mix up with our booking so I ended up in a more expensive dorm by myself for the first night. Once that was sorted I went for a little wander down to the beach. By the time we came back Hannah had arrived after doing her visa run and we went for an Indian. Eating as much as we did just before going on a pub crawl was a mistake. Especially as we arrived a little late.

Party time

I was still at the bar waiting for my free bucket when we were told we were moving on to the next bar. This meant I only had the 5 minute walk between bars to finish my bucket of extremely strong vodka and coke. It was hard to drink as I was so full but this was made even harder as every mouthful was like a shot, it was that strong.

Fireshow

Drinkies

We were at the second bar for much longer so I was able to drink a bit slower whilst watching the fire show. These guys were pretty good but I think they were better on Koh Phi Phi.

Ladyboy show

The pub crawl had sold out so there were 200 people to herd between bars. This number was a good amount when it came to the ladyboy show. I thought it would be good and a bit of a laugh but it was so much better than that. With everyone screaming at everything they did made for an incredible atmosphere and I’m not ashamed to admit I really enjoyed it. All of us did!

Live music going off

For some reason we went all the back to the first bar where we started and some live music had started. I’ve never seen it go off as much as it did for one guy and a guitar! He did a rap over the Game of Thrones theme tune which is possibly the best thing ever.

Party bar

Need a lighter?

We walked back down the beach to the last bar of the night which was absolutely rammed with people. It had been a good night but I had eaten too much at the start so I wasn’t getting drunk and it was hard to drink because I still felt so bloated. I watched a bit of the fire show and chatted to some people for a while before heading back to the hostel. It had still been a goof night.

Going for a walk

The next morning Lee, Daimi and I went for a walk along the path next to the beach. They wanted to buy things and I just wanted to have a look. There was some statue thing marked on a map but we couldn’t find it so we went back to meet the others before going to the beach.

Beach day

Having a swim

We spent a good few hours in and out the water all afternoon doing stupid stuff like stamping our feet on the sand in the sea to make big holes. Hannah noticed something funny while Scott was on Jacks shoulders wrestling with Brandon and Mirko. He kind of sticks his chest out like a chicken. Once she pointed it out we couldn’t stop laughing at it and before long Beth was in tears laughing so hard.

Interesting luggage handling

The next day was a long day of travelling. We said goodbye to Beth and Brandon and started our journey back to Bangkok. Taxi, boat then a bus. I watched in awe of them unloading the luggage from the boat at Krabi pier. It was a throw and catch technique that had me on edge when they picked my bag up. Its quite heavy and it would not have been happy if they had dropped it.

Take me back!

We arrived in Bangkok around midnight and my first immediate thought was ‘take me back to the beach’! I couldn’t even get off the bus because there was a man there saying “tuk tuk”, no get out of the dam way. I had enjoyed Bangkok the first time around but coming back made me hate it. All the irritations came flooding back to me and I just wanted to go back to the islands.

We checked into our hostel on the same street we were on before then went to the bar downstairs. It was nearly 2am so people were already heading home from the bars but they were still open. There was a bit of drama. We guessed that one Thai lady didn’t want to pay her bill as she was arguing with one of the waitresses. There was a waitress at our table taking a drink order but she got distracted by the arguement. Then, without warning, she grabbed a big empty bottle of Chang from our table and launched it at this woman! She missed. She started yelling at the woman and the woman yelled back. We grabbed all the bottles on the table just in case. We couldn’t believe what just happened!

The next day we mostly chilled around the hostel after a busy few days. I didn’t take any pictures of these few days for some reason. I guess its because it was just the same as before. This would be the last day of our splinter Ultimate Thailand group so we tried to make the most of it. We did the same thing we had done a fortnight before but there was a new group. We gatecrashed their party at the rooftop bar and became part of their group for the night.

It was quite funny to watch them all sit there nervously making small talk with each other. Its hard to think that our group only knew each other for such a short space of time but that first night apprehension seemed so long ago. I was almost jealous of this new group as they had all the fun to look forward to. But we had had our fun and made some great memories. We even managed to extend the fun for a few more days after the tour was done but now this really was the end.

Scott and Jack left halfway through the night to catch their flight. The rest of us parted ways the next morning. Lee and Mirko were going home, Daimi was heading for Chiang Mai and I was staying in Bangkok for a few more days. I still had a few things I wanted to do.