We had kept in touch with the occasional email while we have both been away, with a lose agreement to try and meet each other in Penang in February. Gav and I had recently decided that we would not be going to Sumatra so another trip to Penang was not on the cards (especially after the exhaustion of the last visa run). So we extended an invitation for Rach to visit with us here in Hua Hin.

Rach arrived on the 11th of Feb and stayed until today. We had an amazing visit with her and we are all really glad that she made the trip North through Thailand to visit with us. The week was spent with a few visits to local swimming pools, a visit to Wat Khao Takiab and shopping, the rest of the time was spent relaxing at the house and doing an awful lot of talking. Rach is one of the only people I know that can equal me in the chat stakes……

Tehya has such a wonderful time that she ended taking a few days off school so that she did not miss out on any fun – they painted together, played with play dough and dolly’s solidly for the whole week. Rach is officially Tehya’s new best friend and after the week we spent together she is also officially aa even dearer friend of mine and Gavin’s as well.

For the first time since we saw our sisters we felt able to go out and have some time on our own and leave Tehya. We also got a few morning lay in’s – and I can’t honestly remember the last time we got one of those.

We said our goodbyes at the railway station – while Rach set off on a mammoth two day journey south to Singapore to get her flight to Africa. We parted with sincere promises to keep in touch and to see each other on our return.

I can’t wait……….!!!!

Dear Rachel, thank you for coming to stay with us. We loved your visit – it was a pleasure to spend so much time with you, we look forward to cups of tea on all of our return!!!

Comments

• March 26, 2009, Jackie Chia writes: Great site! I love it~ Jackie Chia

6 Fall Birch Road, Lostock. Bolton. Lancashire – 2004

Julia Higginson’s Funeral is being held at St Mary’s Church, Horwich at 12 noon on Wednesday the 4th of March.

Dearest AJ

Our thoughts and love are with Aunty Julia today. We have written about the things we loved best and will remember the most about Aunty Julia. Affectionately we always refer to her as AJ.

The love and passion she held for Uncle Bernard and the wonderful stories she often told us all of their life together.

AJ’s love for us – which she was never afraid of showing.

Her kindness and thoughtfulness.

Our Sunday evening phone calls.

Her joy and appreciation at receiving our flowers.

The beautiful cards and heartfelt messages she always sent to us. She never forgot a single occasion.

The love AJ had for her garden: the pleasure she got from watching it change with the seasons and her gratefulness of Bernard’s consideration when he chose it for her. She adored her spring garden in particular and the birds that visited it. Her garden will blossom soon in her memory.

Her love of all animals. She called them her ‘special friends’.

The wonderful stories of her younger years and the funny and often cheeky stories she told about working at The Swan and The Pack Horse Hotels.

The pleasure she took in hearing stories about and receiving photos of all of us and more recently her great great niece Tehya of whom she was so proud.

Her delight in the decisions we made about our lives which she always supported even when it meant we travelled far away from her – which we know made her feel sad.

Her glamour. AJ radiated glamour. She was always the height of fashion throughout her life. Her dark hair and stunning beauty.

AJ made the most delicious trifle in the North of England.

Finally over the last three years of her life – AJ’s beautiful Blue Eyes that always spoke of love even when she could not.

AJ has always been a wonderful Aunty and an exceptional lady – she meant a great deal to every one of us. We all miss her greatly for many different reasons – all of them special.

We know that AJ’s greatest wish was to be reunited with the love of her life. Her beloved husband Bernard. Now she will get her greatest wish. And we today share her happiness.

Aunty Julia and Uncle Bernard share peace and happiness together now.

with love now and forever xxxxxxxxx

Wednesday 04-03-2009

Pictures of Me, Hanna and Tehya saying our farewells on the beach in Thailand.

The rest of the family also showed their respects in Cornwall and Australia. We all managed to say our goodbyes in our own  personal and respectful ways the least a loved one deserves.

AJ Our Remembrance Day - For Her Funeral



AJ's memorial with the golden Buddha in the back ground Hua Hin Beach Thailand.




Dearest Aunty Julia. We lit candles and in scents sticks in Julia's memory.




Candles in scents sticks and flowers -  our small tribute to celebrate the life and passing of Julia.






Hanna and Tehya (Julia's great great niece). Tehya sang songs and we spoke of our fondest memories.

We are not the kind of couple who put a lot of effort into these kind of anniversary dates!! We don’t celebrate valentines day and our original anniversary – our first date we celebrate on the 1st April (conveniently April fools day – which is something that makes us smile) usually gets celebrated with a kiss and a beer!!!

It was also a Wednesday and with no child care and a school day the next day – we kept it simple. We went to the gym in the morning, went for lunch at a sandwich shop with Tehya and in the evening we went out for a meal at an India restaurant. Which turned out to be pretty terrible – why we thought Indian would be a good idea in Hua Hin who knows (although India in Penang Malaysia is amazing)!!! But the restaurant staff were pushy and rude and the food at best was average.

We had a beer :@> a kiss and a smile and made our way home with Tehya.

Maybe next year we will have child care and can go out and get drunk!!!! (hahaha)

Comments

• January 31, 2010, Charlie Street writes: Congratulations on the anniversary last year. Not long now till the second! Congrats on the blog.

We all lay in bed chatting and relaxing – then Gavin and Tehya went off to put the kettle on and watch TV leaving me in bed to drink my coffee, relax and read the girlie magazines they had bought for me.

After a breakfast of boiled eggs and lots more relaxing – we all jumped on the bike and headed off into Hua Hin to get some lunch and then on to the Palm Hills golf and country club where we spent the afternoon reading more magazines, swimming, playing, sunbathing and of course – more relaxing.

That evening Gavin got the BBQ fired up and Tehya and I made the veggie/chicken kebabs together, we had fish and prawns – with corn on the cob and garlic bread while Gavin had beef burgers and ostrich steaks. We sat and ate until we were bursting at the seams – drinking the lovely red wine that big Nana and big Granddad had very kindly bought for me. We danced and took very silly photos – and Gav and Teh sang me happy birthday with sparling candles.

The rest of the evening was taken up with drinking lots of red wine!! phone calls, reading text messages and emails from friends and family. So thanks for all those very lovely birthday messages and calls I really appreciated them all.
Big love to everyone x x x x x x

PS Becca – I did have a hangover but I wasn’t sick!!!! Yipee!!!!

Lots and lots of love

Gavin and Tehya xxxxxxx

Comments

• January 31, 2009, bec writes: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOO YOOOOUUU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR HANNA! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! Wish you the best on your birthday, hope all your wishes come true. Lots and lots of Love your other sister xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was so great to get back to our little house in Royal Home Village. We had one full day to de stress, relax and recover from the journey back from Malaysia then Tehya started school on the 23rd December. They celebrate Christmas in Hua Hin but not in the same way we do in the UK and the school was due to be open on the 25th December. We had decided to let Tehya go to school for two mornings on the 23rd and 24th as that would give Gav and I time to do the Christmas food/drink shopping and finishing the last bit of present shopping too.

It was wonderful – Tehya loved school immediately and we had time after school each day to let her decorate the tree and the house. On Christmas eve we surprised her with tiny miniature tree for her bedroom and over all the excitement in the house was much the same as it would have been if we were in England.

We were invited out on Christmas eve by a friend of Jon’s – he was having a Swedish Christmas meal at a restaurant in town. So Tehya and I joined in and ate some tasty Salmon and potatoes – while Jon and Gavin got to dine on meat balls and salted fish…….yummy!! We sat in the restaurant garden and drank wine relaxing in the warm Thai evening……we certainly would not have been doing that in Cornwall.

We got home at about 10.00pm to deposit an exhausted and very over excited Tehya into bed (after leaving carrots and sausage rolls out for Father Christmas and Rudolf). We sat up late into the night with Jon – drinking Port and beer and generally getting pretty drunk……..

Christmas day dawned with clear blue skies and very warm…. Tehya woke at about 7.00am a very respectable time!! We arose with hangovers to start the day with egg and toast for breakfast and present opening. Tehya was delighted with all her gifts and to make the day extra special she received two small parcels from her two aunties in Australia Becca and Oonagh. The rest of the morning was spent riding up and down the street with Jon on the new bike her Big Nana and Big Grandad bought for her – it was definitely her favourite present…. it plays a tune and has a squeaky rabbit on the front to the dismay of all our neighbours!! The rest of the day was spent relaxing and drinking the odd glass of wine……. Jon popping in and out at various points of the day, preparing food for the evenings BBQ, playing with Tehya and her new toys, a cat nap or two and chatting with family and friends on the computer.

The evenings BBQ was a great success we had  huge fresh prawns, trout, sirloin stakes, home made garlic bread and crackers with blue cheeses and olives and salad. We drank red wine, beer and port with the cheese….. all in all it felt pretty traditional or at least as traditional as you can make it with no oven and a BBQ as your only way of cooking……. We fell into bed that evening exhausted and happy.

Comments

• February 14, 2009, John-Paul Eatock writes: Hi Hannah, Tehya and Gavin, I am J-P, Annette's partner. I happened to find your website cruising around about 8 months ago, and have saved it in my favourites because it makes me really jealous- and I like that feeling as it is for good reason. I think that what you guys are all doing is fantastic, and even though things dont run smoothly all of the time, you are having experiences that will be with you for the rest of your lives. Cornwall will always be here when you get back and doesn't change much :-) Keep on living the dream. J-P, Annette and Taran Reply (Hanna) Thanks for the message. Its nice to know that you have been reading our stories and enjoying them. We are back to Cornwall at the end of March for a week and then off to Spain for a little while. All the best to you, Annette and Taran.

Jon gave us a lift to the train station to catch the 18.24 south bound train – Bangkok to Butterworth. We all felt a little down as we had moved into our new house just four days before and Tehya was incredibly excited about her new bedroom, she had managed every night in her bed (without slipping into our bed for a cuddle until about 7.00am). It was perfect and in just four days we had all settled into a nice routine of lounging round the house and playing in the garden.

We got on the train with a takeaway from one of the local food stalls outside Hua Hin station, plenty of water/juice, fruit for breakfast and healthy snacks to last us until about midday when we expected to arrive at Butterworth station.

If life could be that simple….. man – we moan about transportation and the lack of sleep way to often!!! It has proven to be our down fall and the one part of travel in Asia that really bothers us in a negative way. The train was really old and rattled and banged its way through the night – we were stuck by the doors and had to listen to them hush open and then slam closed all night. We got little if any sleep all night and woke feeling grumpy and tired – things did not improve as the train ended up being delayed and we did not arrive at Butterworth until after 2.00pm. We headed off on the now familiar route over the the bridge and across the ferry – we arrived at Star Lodge to be greeted with the joyful smiles of the Chinese staff that work there. They managed to be even more helpful than ever and gave us the run down on the local visa service – which we decided to use.  If the forms were completed/handed in that night then we could have the completed passports back the next day.

We went up to Number 75 and handed over all our paper work and money – they insisted that we did not need a visa for Tehya and we reluctantly took back her paperwork. That night we talked about it at length and decided we would get Tehya a visa anyway as we did not want to take any risks. We spoke to one of the managers at the guest house and got him to call the boss runner for the visa service and the boss agreed we did indeed need a visa for Tehya. As we already had the completed forms it was an easy process – we just took everything up the road and dropped it off when we collected ours.

Gavin rushed off to the train station to book our return train tickets. We were feeling very excited as even with the delay of  Tehya’s passport we looked as thought we could finish the process a few days earlier and be home quicker. We had left Thailand on the 16th arriving on the 17th – we had not expected to start the visa application until the following day – this was bought forward by using the visa service. Unfortunately when Gavin got to the station there were no tickets available on any day before Sunday…. we had hoped to be home by Sunday morning but we were not going to be leaving Malaysia until Sunday afternoon!!! Gav bought the Sunday tickets and returned to tell us the news – we all sat feeling very glum at the prospect of more time away from our little house.

We decided that we would make the best of our time in Penang – we love the food and went to all of our favorite restaurants to eat amazing Indian food. We re visited Tehya’s favorite Bindi and Bangle shop and got her lots of little bits (including some stuff for her Christmas stocking). We found a cafe we have not eaten in before called The Rainforest Cafe and had fab fresh homemade bread and great sandwiches, beans on toast and cookies. It was a real treat to have such good homemade bread in a very friendly atmosphere.

We did some Christmas shopping for Tehya and had real giggles tricking her with funny stories about the contents of some of our bags – we also got two bottles of Port!! You can’t have cheese without port at Christmas!!

We also went to the Pulah Pinang Pesta which is a big fiesta that takes place every December – it was a fairground and we took Tehya along to it as a late night pre Christmas treat…. it was great fun!! We left the guest house at about 4.30pm, got the bus to the Pesta at about 4.45pm and arrived there at about 6.00pm. It was very exciting for Tehya – we could see the flashing lights, the Ferris wheel and hear the music from across the bus station. We stayed for about three hours and Tehya got to go on five rides and a bouncy castle (to those of you that know Tehya! bouncy castle = heaven). We got fizzy pop, candy floss, a princess balloon and left exhausted and cheerful ready to try and find a bus back to Georgetown.

Georgetown always has a seedier side and this time other than the usual old man homeless that you get used to seeing. This time there was also a very young women sleeping rough on Chulia Street -  she would wander around vacantly holding/sniffing a bag of glue!! She was obviously pregnant and it was disturbing and distressing to see. We had to get passed her on a few occasions and she would stare at Tehya as we walked by – trying to speak to her. It was uncomfortable and I kept her very close to my side………!!

On the Sunday morning we got up late (tricked Tehya by hanging towels at the window so she thought it was still night) it was a luxury to lay in and we made the most of it. Packing took no more than five minutes as we arrived with only a small blag bag with a few changes of clothes. We went for breakfast at a local cafe on Chulia Street and then got a cab to the ferry terminal – we got to Butterworth early and had lots of time to sit and wait. I shot off to the market food stalls by the bus terminal and bought various Indian snacks – we also had a bag full of nuts, fruit, fresh bread, buns and cookies to last us the journey!!

The trip back was less awful thank heavens – the train was delayed again by about three hours. It stayed in several train stations not moving anywhere and the lack of motion meant that we slept pretty well. We got up at sunrise expecting to be close to Hua Hin – we weren’t!! I had made friends with the very cheeky and effeminate train usher the night before and he bought us several cups of coffee, we left Tehya sleeping next to us and lay on the bunk – drinking our coffee and watching the sun come up over the Gulf of Thailand – the sea was flat calm and they sky had barely a cloud it was very beautiful.

We got off the train at Hua Hin station and arranged a taxi back to our house – it was a warm sunny morning and we all felt chilled out and relaxed even though we were tired. I walked to the local shop to get milk, bread and eggs – and then made us all boiled egg on toast with Lady Grey tea. We sat watching TV for a while – then the three of us piled into bed to sleep until well after midday. We got up feeling refreshed and ready to start getting excited about Christmas.

The Visa Run Options

We have looked at most of the options for visa runs (leaving the country you are staying in i.e Thailand and visiting another to renew your visa) from HuaHin and here are just a few of visa borders runs we considered :

1. Laos: Vientiane

You pay about 1500Baht each just to enter Laos so £90 for three + Thai visa fees and travel = us not going to Laos

2. Cambodia: Ban Laem

Not really an option as you have to travel to the capital, Phnom Penh if you want the 60 day +30 day extension visa.

3. Burma (Mynamar): Andaman Club or Kawthong (Victoria Point) (click for our visa bounce to kawthong)

Not an option as there are no Embassies or Consulates + you only get 15day extensions at the moment (15-12-08)

4. Malaysia: Penang, Kota Bharu

We considered Kota Bharu but having been there twice before (see here) and knowing its roughly monsoon season from October to March we decided to do the visa run to Penang.

Visa run to Penang

You can obviously take the plane, train or bus all have there advantages and disadvantages.

• Bus: (Slow) Cheap but slow and very painful with Tehya as she can’t get up and walk about.
• Plane: (Fast) Read the rest of the blog about Hanna and planes, also Tehya has to pay full price.
• Train: (Slow) Not so cheap either but you can sleep and you certainly get more leg room than on the buses and planes.

We have chosen the slow tedious train route that leaves Hua Hin on Tuesday the 16th December at 18:11 and arrives in Butterworth on Wednesday the 17th around 13:45 (18 hours). The problem with this option is that you have to submit your visa documents before 12:00 in the afternoon so we can’t submit our forms until Thursday the 18th. Then hopefully pick them up on Friday the 19th of December and return Sunday the 21st of December. We have to stay until Sunday as we need our 90 day visa to last until our return to the UK on the 20th March 2009.

Oh I wish we would have purchased a one year multiple entry visa for Thailand before we left the UK, this would have allowed us to get an automatic 90 day visa upon entering Thailand from any of the bordering countries.

At the time of writing the Thai government had recently changed the rules on the visa border bounce, i.e you only get a 15 day visa if you do a border bounce over land instead of the normal 30 days. Designed to get rid of the riff raff. It will be a big problem for many Farangs in Hua Hin as its a long way to bordering countries. Certainly wont do much for Thailands carbon footprint as most people will now fly into the country.

{w:650;w250} Thai consulate, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Penang, Malaysia

(map of Thai embassy/consulate Penang, Malaysia)

Thai Consulate Penang, Malaysia contact details:

You can print the Thai visa application form to save time click here for the pdf form

Documents that you need :

- Passport or travel document with validity not less than 6 months
- Visa application form completely filled out
- Two recent (4 x 6 cm) photograph of the applicant
- Air ticket or eTicket paid in full
- Financial means (20,000 Baht per person and 40,000 Baht per family)
- Consular officers reserve the rights to request additional documents as deemed necessary

You basically get a 60 day visa in Penang for 120RM (1200Baht or £22) and then pay an extra 1,900 Baht (per person) to extend for another 30 days, so this allows a total of 90 days in Thailand before requiring another visa.

(The Visa actually cost 110RM (1100Baht or £21))

The total cost for the visa run without hotels, food, taxis :

(1) Train to Penang (return) 2nd class sleeper (we only pay for x2 tickets as Tehya sleeps with Hanna) = 2,200Baht Oneway

(1a) x1 person return = 2,200Baht so Total train bothways x2 people = 4,400Baht

(2) 60 day visa from Penang consulate per person 1200Baht (120RM) = 3,600Baht

(3) 30 day visa extension 1900Baht per person = 5,700Baht (We will purchase this in Thailand a few days before our 60 day visa runs out)

Total price for Tourist Visa = 13,700Baht (£257 roughly)

(all of the above details may change at the drop of a hat, so please check with the Thai consulate or embassy)

Thai Visa Service – Penang

You can also easily get your visa done on the day of arrival, we checked at guest house NO75 (near star lodge) and the charge was 130RM. You can drop off your visa application in the afternoon and it is returned the same day around 5pm. So you only need to spend one day in Penang. You also don’t need to supply any other information to the consulate other than filling in the visa application and adding x2 photos. You can sit back and have a relaxing afternoon as somebody else deals with the visa application – Hassle free!!!!

Comments

• December 15, 2008, malaysian explorer writes: Good decision. Penang is a lovely place and has great food and good accomodation. Best of luck! The Malaysian Explorer
• December 15, 2008, onefix writes: Yes we agree Penang has some very good food, especially in the little Indian area. Yummy Tandori chicken, can't wait. Also we like to stay at Star Lodge as the owner and staff are very friendly. Best regards Gavin.
• December 18, 2008, bec writes: Hi Eveyone, Your photos are amazing again! Good stuff putting useful info on your blog for travellers. Makes such a difference when you can get accurate info from people who have actually done it themselves. I never want to go back to the UK, I have decided to become a beach bum. Manly is amazing, it's a little bit like Cornwall (I must say although I'm not into the UK, Cornwall is so beautiful and has some beaches which I think are hard to beat), but the weather is perfect here and everyone is just as chilled out as back home. I wish you could come for Crimbo! We could have steak, I think since I got here nearly 1 month ago I have eaten about 2 cows! Anyway I love you all soooooooo much and I will speak to you at Christmas. Love SIS X
• December 26, 2008, larochelle writes: Thank you I really appreciate you taking the time to put information up like this online during your holiday time. It has helped me. Good karma to you!! :)
• December 26, 2008, larochelle writes: PS though are you sure you can still purchase a 30 day visa extension in Thailand? I know this used to be the case but I was at the Thai immigration bureau in Bangkok the other day and they said that they will now only do 7 day extensions, and I have heard (second-hand) the same for Koh Samui airport's immigration desk. So maybe check that out... :) Have fun Reply: (onefix) You can still purchase a 30 day visa in Thailand but only if you have previously purchased the 60day visa as we did in Penang, Malaysia. Thanks
• January 9, 2009, Eddy writes: If we have ever received a 60 days tourist visa from the Thai Embassy in Malaysia and we'd like to renew it. Is it possible in renewing this visa type again at the same Thai Embassy? Thank you (Reply by Gavin) : I'd say you should be more qualified than me to comment about Thai visas (www.siamese-visa.com) As far as I know you just apply for another visa at any Thai embassy / consulate outside of Thailand. Also remember that you can extend the 60 day tourist visa by another 30 days in Thailand. Take a look at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs web site : http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2637.php

We got back to Hua Hin with a feeling of cheery familiarity – we were not able to go straight to Jon’s house as we had planned, he still had another guest staying. Jon came and picked us up from the bus station and took us to a local guest house, dropped us off to shower/clean up before he came back a little later to take us to a near by restaurant for an evening meal. Tehya was delighted to see him and a little disappointed that we had to stay somewhere else for a night – she was desperate to see her favourite dog ‘Lucky’ again.

The next day we went to Jon’s house and settled into life in Hua Hin. We spent several days relaxing with visits to a local hotel swimming pool, hanging out at the house, taking the dogs for walks (Tehya’s favourite pass time) and going to the park.

We got our first reminders that it is December and Christmas will be here soon. We had been to the Tesco Lotus store and seen shelves of toys, decorations, coloured lights, cards and pretty paper!! A child’s delight -  very quickly Tehya was letting us know what her desires were with regards to Christmas. We had arranged to return to Koh Phayam on the 10th Dec, the accommodation was booked and our original plans were to leave Hua Hin with everything we needed to set up home on the islands. A basic and budget celebration – without much in the way of elaborate decorations and small gifts (as we would have to carry everything with us).

After a week of seeing the build up to Dec the 25th it became increasingly difficult to imagine a Christmas with no traditional tree and little in the way of pretty decorations!! I am sure we would have managed to make a very pretty home and I am also sure that we would have had a very lovely time but after tilting on the edge of making a decision – we finally made up our minds…… !!! We would find somewhere to rent and stay in Hua Hin – it is very difficult not to buy into ‘Christmas Hype’ and the media pressure to spend money! So we chatted with Jon about the best ways to find accommodation and the search began.

The hunt for accommodation began tentatively around the 3rd or 4th of Dec and seriously by the 6th or 7th – as we had finally decided we would not be going south by then!! We went and saw a couple of one bedroom flats in a condominium block recommended by a friend of Jon’s, we kept an open mind and did not write them off immediately but they seemed poor quality and highly priced. The search became increasingly frustrating and upsetting – I spent a week terrified that we had made a bad choice and worrying we should have kept to our original plans. The whole experience became incredibly stressful as we went to visit property after property, either be told ridiculous rental prices as soon as the owner realised we were ‘Ferang’ tourists or suddenly the house was not for rent for some obscure reason. We kept being told that we would not be able to rent at a good price as it was Christmas and prices go up in December – ‘what even for locals’? I kept asking. We want to rent a normal everyday house not a holiday flat or holiday house. We finally met a few local people who gave us advice that made some sense – we kept looking, driving around writing down the telephone numbers on signs/adverts at the side of the road. We also got Nok (Jon’s girlfriend) to call the owners for us as she could get all the information and a rental price in Thai – then we would turn up with her to help us negotiate. It worked well a few times and we got offered one really lovely house – they dropped the price by a huge amount (twice) to try and rent to us. It was over the budget we had set so we hung back for 48 hours and just as we had almost crumbled – taken it anyway!! I called a number I had seen on a gate on the road adjacent to Jon’s. The women who answered was called Rudee – she was straight down the line and told us a sensible rental price. The rent was less than our budget. The house had everything we wanted and more!! Two big bedrooms, fully furnished with nice furniture, clean, well looked after and well maintained and a lovely landlady. What more could we ask for…….. Rudee asked if we could wait two days before we moved in as she needed to get her cleaners in to spring clean the house and tidy the garden – she also needed to get Tehya a bed. For the next two days we sat at Jon’s house (over the wall) listening to the tantalizing sounds of cleaning, scrubbing and fixing! On the afternoon of the 13th we were able to take our bags and belongings round the corner and settle in to what we hoped was to be a very happy home for the next few months. We had three nights to relax and settle before we had to set off for the visa run to Malaysia.

I love you and miss you, lots and lots of love Tehya.

The two nights at the Green Hotel were pleasant enough, the hotel rooms were very basic (a little prison cell like) but clean – the restaurant downstairs did pretty good food (mix of Thai, Israeli and western). They made a fantastic tomato soup which Tehya ate once a day if she could. One of Tehya’s favourite snacks at home always used to be tomato soup – it can be hard to find really tasty tomato soup in Asia. We left only because the rooms at Villa Cha Cha are just a little more expensive but are 100% newer and much more comfortable with cable TV.

We did not do very much in Bangkok this trip – on our first day we collected the Laptop. It was so good to see it again after what felt like forever. You don’t realise just how much you come to rely on a piece of machinery. It has become a vital part of our travel kit – for communication and keeping the blog up to date. It was all shiny and new – the hard-drive, disk-drive and all the other issues/problems we had with it had been replaced or fixed. So the catch up began in earnest……..

We spent a few afternoons out and about and Gavin went off one day and walked to all the main tourists spots along the river. We took it easy though as there were real problems with the government, the main Bangkok airport had been closed and was held hostage as a form of political protest. There was a lot of unrest at other points around the city and it was looking increasingly likely that there would be a coup. We had seen various streets blocked off with barricades and lots of police everywhere. The final straw was seeing the ‘reds’ taking to the streets to protest….. we came across a huge party of them the day before we decided to leave.

In the end things were beginning to sound too risky so we packed Tehya and our stuff and caught the Monorail to Victory Monument and found an air-con mini bus to Hua Hin. Jon had been in touch and had agreed that we should call passed his house and stay for a few a week on our way south.

The boat off the island is a flat rate of 150 Baht per person and you buy the ticket from the pier on the day you wish to leave. There is a fast boat for 350 Baht – if you are in a hurry! The bus from Ranong to ChumPorn was 290 Baht per person, including a taxi pick up at the pier to the bus. We later found out you can get a local taxi for 20 Baht and the bus to ChumPorn is 120 Baht – so we did pay well over the odds going through an agent. The train tickets from ChumPorn to Bangkok were 800 Baht and if we had bought them direct from the station they would have been about 500 Baht – so again we paid well over the odds.

We bought the tickets from the agent with the idea that it would make life more simple and straight forward. The agent had reasurred us of all the connections – as of course they are the experts. We got the afternoon boat at 2.30pm and arrived promptly in Ranong at 4.15pm, where we were picked up by Pon – who was waiting on the quay and delivered us to the bus station at 4.30pm. Our bus was due to leave at 5.00 for the one hour 45 minute journey – which should have meant that we arrived in ChumPorn at 6.45pm in plenty of time for our 7.30pm train. The reality was the bus left at 5.00pm and it was a two and a half hour journey – we still had to collect our train tickets from an associated travel agent. The bus stopped briefly for me to jump out and get the tickets, thankfully we had met some other travellers on the bus who were really friendly and as we pulled up to the station they ran in to hold up the train so we could get Tehya and our luggage onto the platform. It was a total nightmare of stress – I was so angry! If we missed the train we would have lost out on over priced train tickets and had to buy more – as it is the only night train we would have had to pay for a hotel too. The bus driver could not have driven the journey between Ranong and ChumPorn any faster with out killing us all – so to say it is a 1 hour 45 minute journey is a joke. The guards held up the train and were not very happy about it – we said a rushed thanks to the travellers and train guards and got on at the very end of the train. We had to walk the length of the train which was 9 carriages before we reached the place where we would be sleeping for the night.

We spent the evening in the restaurant carriage eating train food, drinking beer and learning some Thai from the waiters (buying them beer). It was a pretty funny evening……. there were quite a lot of train police on board as well as there are often reports of troubles in the south. They were all very busy drinking a large bottle of whiskey or two.

The train got into Bangkok at 4.30am 1 1/2 hours early. We found a taxi and made our way to the Khao San rd area and booked into a hotel. The Villa Cha Cha was booked up so we went across the road to the Green Hotel and collapsed into bed and slept until well after mid day.

We left Ranong on the slow boat, it was 150 Baht a ticket for Gavin and I and free for Tehya – it took just under two hours to get there. It was a really pleasant journey. The boat was old and definitely not comfortable with hard wooden seats – Tehya did her usual trick and fell asleep within about 10 minutes. She was laid out across my body – from my chest to just passed my knees so I made a kind of human mattress….. it was not very comfortable but nice at the same time.

Show on map

The scenery was dramatic – the coast of mainland Thailand was like a huge green mountain range of lushness….. reaching up into grey misty/rainy skies. Along the coast were many small islands and further out to sea there were larger ones. It is impossible to tell which are Thai and which are Burmese. We passed the island which holds the Andaman Club and you could see the golf course… eventually passing Koh Chang and then reaching Koh Phayam. After Tehya woke up I sat up on the side of the boat to watch the ocean slide by and I saw hundreds and hundreds of huge jelly fish – they were bigger than dustbins with massive bulging tentacle bulbs floating under them. I had images of us all getting stung in Malaysia and sat hoping we were not about to experience the same (we didn’t).

When we got to the island we were dropped off at the only pier….. we walked along it and straight into a very small village, a huddle of little shops selling odds and ends – cafe’s and a few small bars. There were several motor bike taxi’s but we had no idea where we wanted to stay. We got approached by a young boy who told us he worked for Vijit Bungalow and said he could get us a free ride there. We took him up on his offer…….. we wove along a very narrow road that was well concreted and then onto a smaller road that was definitely not well concreted – we carried our bags between us, Gavin had the large one, I had a small one and Tehya – a tourist staying at Vijit helped out with the third bag.

Vijit has a really beautiful spot on Buffalo bay beach – he is in the centre of the beach and the bungalows are surrounded by trees. When you look out to sea you can appreciate the shape of the bay – to the left the mangroves and to the right the bay sweeps around to rocky beaches and forested hills. The set up is very attractive – the bungalows look pretty and the restaurant is right on the beach. We got offered a room for 400 Baht – it was more than we really wanted to pay but decided it would do until we could orientate ourselves with the island. The room we rented was just back from the beach but still had nice views and a big balcony which Tehya was pleased about. That night we decided it was not so great – the bed was the most uncomfortable thing I have ever slept on and the room was really smelly with the windows closed. The room was so dark during the day – they only provided electricity at night and with no windows in the bathroom, it was pitch black – it made going to the toilet a bit of a nightmare with Tehya. You had to just sit in total darkness to shower or go to the bathroom. The next day we got up and ate – I wondered around the place checking out other rooms. Lots were empty and had not been used for quite some time. Then the people in the room next door checked out. Their room was a little bigger – lighter and had a slightly more hospitable bed!!

We moved rooms and settled in ready to make the most of the island! Sadly…… that night we did not get to go to sleep before the fighting started. There was an English couple that have been staying at Vijit for a long time (in the room next to ours) they started screaming and shouting at each other. We could hear them spitting, pushing and screaming horrific language then it escalated to smashing furniture, smacking and punching each other. It was obvious that they were drunk – It got so bad that I was feeling quiet upset – there was no way either of us were going to intervene and risk injury to ourselves so we had to just lie there for hours listening to it.

The next day the man was sitting with his friends as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I went to speak to him about the previous evenings entertainment in front of the owner (who was also sitting with him). I explained (very politely) that I am not paying to stay somewhere, where my daughter (who is only four) has to be a witness to such terrible language and domestic violence. The man involved made a weak effort at an apology and the owner did not even raise an eyebrow at my comments or obvious distress and unhappiness.

Unsure what to do next – we stayed for another night and took the opportunity to go out on a bike to check out the rest of the island, to see what it had to offer. The island is amazing – it is so beautiful, a treasure trove of nature. The locals make their money from harvesting cashew nuts, rubber from trees, fishing and a little tourism. The island is up to now -  under developed, there are various places to stay around the island they range from the budget traveller up to around 1000 Baht a night.

I was told about a Thai women who had a house for rent, Gavin spoke to the owner of Vijit about it and he agreed it was a good place for a family and told us the ladies name – we introduced ourselves and spent a day negotiating a price and what we would need in the house. Then suddenly it was not going to be ready on time (she was leaving that day to go back to England)! I had already packed our stuff and was ready to move in. I was so upset I broke down and cried. I had not realised until the opportunity was offered – how tired I was feeling, how much I would appreciate not moving constantly and just being in one spot. I had promised Tehya we would do some cooking together – so she was gutted too!! On the positive side the women (landlady) felt so bad because of my tears she introduced us to the owner of Phayam Cabana the place we ended up staying at for our remaining days on the island. She also told me that part of the problem with renting me the house was the owner of Vijit – who she said got funny about us moving across. I don’t know if that was true or if she was trying to find a way to dig herself out of an uncomfortable hole. All the same I appreciated her introduction because Phayam Cabana is lovely – it lacks some of the obvious prettiness of Vijit in its layout. If you scratch the surface at Vijit there was not much below it…..the staff were not very friendly and the owner did not seem to care to much! Phayam Cabana was so friendly you felt there was little they would not do to make your visit great. The rooms were up on stilts, they were large, bright, airy, clean and very very comfortable and cheaper!!! The room at Phayam Cabana was only 300 Baht!!! We stayed for another four nights – it was a good visit all in all. We met two really friendly families one from Germany Lars, Judith, Finn and little Aneka – and the Estonian’s Ivo, Liis, Karl and Mai. We shared beach time, kid time and travel stories – it was really good to meet other people travelling with small children and Finn was a huge hit with Tehya, they took to each other instantly – another great example of friendships built with no (little) shared language.

I loved the island – it was so rural. It would have been possible to spend weeks of adventuring and walking and enjoyed the friendly local charm. We went to a summer fare that was really good fun with amazing food stalls (we tried loads of different local foods), canoe racing, a Thai version of the slippery pole and the bizarrest evenings entertainment we have ever seen – kids dancing to very cheesy dance music with plastic bags on their heads, with crazy faces on them!!

The problem for us was the rain…. it rained all day everyday (accept for one afternoon). By the end of the week we were so wet, with not one piece of clothing that was clean or dry and because of the rain no way to dry anything. Tehya’s cough was not getting better and we felt sure the damp was not helping things – then she started to get really bad pains in her ear. Enough was enough……if we wanted that much rain we would have stayed at home in Cornwall for the summer. We woke up early on our sixth morning and went to check weather reports on the net – it predicted rain for another week at least. Gavin managed to get in touch with the Mac service centre in Bangkok who said the laptop was ready for collection – so with the call of our computer ringing in our ears we bought tickets off the island for the next day.

We said our goodbyes to the new friends we had made and went on our way…….. with plans to return in ten days! If the sun came out………………!

Comments

• December 15, 2008, Koh Phayam - Ranong Thailand - no internet or computer : The Adventures of The Cornish Travellers writes: [...] in communication by the 16th December maybe earlier as the weather here is rain, rain, rain. Please click here see our blog about Koh Phayam as we now have our laptop back from repair and have managed to add [...]
• July 5, 2009, maksidah writes: ...the house was the owner of Vijit – who she said got funny about us moving across the reason you did not get the house was the owner of vijit. he is pure mafia.

Comments

• November 25, 2008, eva lee-smith writes: hi tehya…im soooooo sorrrrry its been so long but my very busy parents have finally gotten round to sorting out that company called BT who give very rubbish internet services (ooh the names my dad called them, but not sure if they even understood as many seemed to be in a call centre in delhi!) I asked my dad about you today and here we are, (my mum does not understand computers, shes rubbish!) any way , i have had a look at some of your photographs and i cannot believe how much you have grown up. You look very happy and big! I really miss you but hope that you are having the best adventure ever!Your beaches there look so much hotter than the ones here, so instead i go to the park when ever i can and ride my pink bike, im getting very fast but not as fast as Grace who can ride hers without stabilisers. She is speedy gonzale! I cant believe you are now 4 years old thats big girl time isnt it. I will also be 4 soon and i cant wait as we are going to a play centre to run riot with children from kea. do you remember grace, tenaya, ella and cora they will be there with lots of other children. I will send you some photographs when i get my parents to stop working and give me some quality time. I hope you have made lots of new friends and that you enjoy being with your parents who i hope are well. Its now bed time and i have to go but when we get time again we hope to come back into this site. lots of love to you all. love eva xxxx
• November 26, 2008, Cath and steve writes: Hey guys Hope you are well and nowehere near the airport in Bangkok at the moment - heard about riots on the news and thought of you... Let us know how you all are! Cathxxx

We had arranged with Becca’s taxi driver that he would come back for us the next morning – he turned up 15 minutes early for Becca so we figured he seemed pretty reliable, that’s something you don’t see often in taxi drivers here!!

The taxi man arrived early for us too, we had arranged a 9.00am pick up as it is a 45 minute journey and our bus was due to leave at 10.30am. He arrived at 8.50am, we were already down stairs waiting for him so it was not an issue. We had made a decision to get the 10.30 bus so that we did not have to rush in the morning – we are not a family that function well to early!! He was a great driver – he took his time in the traffic and got us there stress free just before 10.00am giving us time to locate the bus, load our luggage and find juice and coffee.

The bus journey was to put it mildly a pain in the butt and pretty awful – it was air-con but I would not call it first class, unlike many of the buses we have used before  – which have been incredibly comfortable. The seats were hard and the backs only came to Gavin’s shoulders so he had no way of resting his head for five hours. The other awful thing about the journey was the music – the driver played the same Thai music video over and over again at full volume…..by the time we got to Ranong I was about ready to strangle the driver and commit murder and kill the CD player. Tehya was wonderful and slept for about three hours curled up on Gavin’s lap. I felt really envious as it is usually me she sleeps on and there is nothing more lovely on a long journey than cuddling her for hours and having the time to savour the closeness and study her face without interruption.

We got a tuk tuk down into Ranong town centre and started to look for accommodation. The driver took us to a guest house that he knew and even though they were blatantly empty (very few tourists stay over in Ranong even at the height of the tourist season) they only had the most expensive room available!! We left and made our way back to the main road and stopped at an ice cream parlour where we got coffees, juice and ice cream for Tehya. I left to investigate a small Chinese guest house opposite that looked pretty uncared for. Surprisingly in comparison to down stairs the rooms were newly refurbished, freshly painted, clean new bathrooms, clean and comfortable beds and only 300 Baht. We booked in and went off to investigate the town which is a strange but incredibly friendly place.

Ranong is a dour town that looks old and unkempt. The sky when we were there was permanently grey – we had read that because of the mountains, forest and its proximity to the ocean – Ranong is the wettest province in Thailand. It certainly rained and drizzled the whole time we were there (both visits). The people that live in Ranong though have a very bright and friendly manor – maybe this is to combat the grey sky. If it was Cornwall I would have expected everyone to be frowning and complaining about the weather. We had to buy provisions for our trip to the islands on our list were rain coats, hooks, string, torch, batteries and a new life jacket for Tehya. Every shop we went into we were met by bright smiles, warmth, interest and friendliness and instead of being ripped off as we had experienced so many times recently – we were given fruit and Tehya was given colouring pens and a book, we were given money off our purchases and free batteries when we bought our torch. It was so surreal – the only time this did not happen was at the 7/11 where I got over charged!!!

We found a small restaurant come travel agent called Pons Place – where we were able to buy our tickets for the following days visa run. He charged Gavin and I, 850 Baht each – 500 for the 10 Dollar US bill (uncreased bank note) we needed and 350 for our return boat journey – Tehya was 600, 500 for her 10 Dollar US bill and 100 for her return boat ride. This also included a free transfer to the ferry port the following morning. Pon was great, very friendly, helpful and you really felt you were paying a fare price for the service you were getting.

THE VISA RUN………

That night we slept pretty well and got up early for our 8.45 pick up, Pon arrived promptly and proceeded to collect several other tourists who were also planning on doing the Burma visa run. We got to the pier and presented our passports to the Thai authorities so we could leave Thailand. An associate of Pon’s gave us an envelope containing four 10 US dollar bills, three for us and one for the Dutch guy also doing the run with us. We walked down a bridge on to a floating wooded pontoon where we were presented with our long tail boat. In the van on the way to the pier we had joked about having a roof as it was raining hard. Pon had reassured us that our boat did in fact have a roof. When we saw the boat – roof was probably a trades description issue!! The boat looked as though it was going to find floating a struggle and the roof was a ripped tarp, spread across a few rotten pieces of wood. I was seriously glad we had bought Tehya a new life jacket the afternoon before. The boat contained three boat men (boys) Gavin, Tehya, me, the Dutch guy, another British couple and an Israeli couple

We set off at about 9.15 and headed out towards a small island (on which stood a large golden depiction of Buddha) in the middle of the river mouth, passing a wooden Thai immigration office on stilts halfway out to sea – where our boat men stopped and handed over several 10 Baht coins. We continued on our way passed the island pausing to say a few prayers and allowing more immigration police to peer into the boat and check we were not carrying anything we should not.

We then proceeded on our way to Burma stopping again just before we got to Kaw Thong (Victoria Point) to pay the Burmese immigration the same 10 Baht per person. Finally landing in Burma and handing over our passports to be hurried through the process – giving the Burmese officials our highly prized mint 10 dollar bills – we were photographed and our passports given back!! Finished – now just the journey back…… !!

We spent about 25 minutes on Burmese soil! So we can say our feet touched but our souls definitely did not have the time to connect. In 25 minutes we were processed, asked by three separate monks to hand over some cash and sold some amazingly delicious curried pastries (which we ate gladly – not having time for breakfast) of which Tehya ate most, she loved them – other than being told by the Israeli girl that I should not allow Tehya to eat anything as it might be contaminated (she did not look like she ate much of anything!!) that part of the trip was uneventful, if a little bizarre.

The journey back was heart gripping because the guys in control of the boat had no concept of danger – jumping up and down the outside of the boat making it list dangerously. Hanging off the sides – hitting the piers of the island and floating immigration offices. Allowing us to be jostled by other boats to the point that one of them ended up having a large piece of wood ripped off the side. Instead of slowing down and untangling they speeded up heading in opposite directions and just pulled until it gave completely. I am greyer than when I left Cornwall – I am also greyer now than when I left Burma!!! Thankfully we made it back to Ranong in one piece and we were the first to check back through immigration Thai side. It was very funny – there were a lot of people queued behind us and they were getting increasingly grumpy at having to wait, as we are a family of three -  we took three times as long to be processed and photographed. Someone tried to push in front of me after Tehya had been done and the immigration officer inside the window reached through and grabbed my arm to pull me back and then shouted at them all to step back. No one did so an officer came out and started to shout at everybody. The tourists got even more moody and started to answer back. It was pretty crazy -  as we were leaving the pier the queue to check out of Thailand’s immigration to get the boats to Burma was huge – there must have been 200 + people waiting. I am so glad we got up early – the total trip was just under two hours!!

Pon was there to collect us and take us on to the next pier as part of his service. So we headed off to get the slow boat to Koh Phayam.

[w:650;h:250] Kawthaung, Myanmar (Burma) Visa Run

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• December 15, 2008, Visa run From HuaHin Thailand To Penang, Malaysia : The Adventures of The Cornish Travellers writes: [...] 3. (Mynamar) Burma:  Andaman Club or Kawthong (Victoria Point) (click here for our previous visa bounce to kawthong) [...]

As it was we got to Patong on the 12th of November and settled ourselves down for a few days of cheerful beer drinking and celebrating Becca’s 25th birthday, a week early (as she would be in Australia on her actual B’day).

The next few days were spent quietly, everyone felt down about the impending prospect of saying goodbye – as none of us knows when we will see each other again. It could very well be a long time time in the future.

We split up for a day and went off with our respective siblings to try and spend some quality time together – Gavin and Becca went off to shop at the markets and drink beer and Oonagh, Tehya and I spent some time at the beach playing sand castles.

We could have gone on several nights out – to see loads of girlie bars and we all wanted to check out a lady boy cabaret show but we decided to hold ourselves back until Becca’s birthday celebration. Oonagh was still  not a 100%, poor Tehya seemed to have an on going fever, a terrible cough, runny nose and really bad nightmares!! Gavin was snotty too and had been feeling off colour since Phi Phi (in fact he had not been 100% since Jon’s house and Bangkok).

BECCA’S 25TH BIRTHDAY……..

The day started well – Gavin and I (with Tehya) snuck off in the morning and bought fresh coffees and breakfast style bagels from a deli round the corner. We got back to the guesthouse and Becca was already awake, so we woke up Oonagh – we went in and gave Becca her the birthday brekkie (we all ate) while she opened her birthday gifts and we sang happy birthday. The rest of the day was spent together relaxing, walking along the beach and having a nice lunch. Becca was starting to feel even more poorly, so while she chilled in her room we went to Carrefour to buy birthday cake, doughnuts and beer for the evening. Then later we all got dressed up and went out for Pizza at a local restaurant – when we had finished Gavin and Becca went halves each on ten bullets at The Shooting Cafe in the new shopping mall at Carrefour, they got a 9 mm gun and shot 5 bullets each. They loved the experience – it made Beccas birthday and they did not stop laughing and talking about it all evening. After they had finished we went off to Bangla Rd with the intention of carrying on the evening in style with loads of beer and buckets…… accept when we got there – Bangla Rd was in darkness and all the bars were closed. Some restaurants were open and you could buy beer with your meal. After asking around we found out that, unfortunately all the bars had been closed down for three nights, due to the death of the kings sister. She had died several months earlier and was to be cremated during a huge ceremony taking place over the next three days. She was we read later a true gift to the Thai people and did much charity work, so the whole country was deep in morning. We felt gutted at the prospect of a failed 25th birthday celebration. We found a mini market that would sell beer and spirits and we sat at the side of the road drinking and watching the lady boys and working ladies sell their wares!!!! It was quite something to see and we had a good few hours of free amusement and people watching. Becca got more and more poorly and in the end (very early in the evening) we all went home to bed.

The next day was spent getting Oonagh’s taxi sorted for the following morning – helping her pack and saying goodbye!! The two of us went shopping, had lunch and chilled out together – I had bought Oonagh a beautiful bracelet to take to Oz, so I gave it to her, along with a small gift to save until Christmas.

Becca was really ill and spent most of the day in bed with hot sweats, shivers and a high temperature (Gavin also had the same symptoms by then too). Tehya was also very ill and her cough had gotten really bad – so we stopped at the chemist and purchased some medicine for them all.

Oonagh left early the next morning by mini bus service to the airport and got her mid-day flight to Bangkok and her flight onto Australia to continue her adventures. We texted regularly during the next 24 hours and I felt so excited and nervous for her all at the same time.

Later after Oonagh had gone we left Tehya with Becca for a few hours, she had had a really bad night of horrific coughing fits and bad dreams and was exhausted. Poor Becca, her cold had also worsened and she had developed a really bad stomach and was having to go to the loo every 30 mins. We needed to go to the bus station in Phuket town and get our bus tickets north to Ranong for our visa run. We got the tickets for 510 Baht – £10 for two bus tickets (Tehya travelled for free).

We had decided not to use our air tickets to Bangkok as it was just to stressful for me to cope with the flights – we had done some research into possible visa run routes and decided we would go to Ranong and do a Burma run – the plan was then to try and visit the island of Koh Phayam on the west coast of Thailand.

The next 24 hours in Phuket were quiet and sad – one sister had gone and the other was about to go….. there were many tears as we said goodbye!!!

We should have just left the islands and gone somewhere else – accept that Oonagh and Becca both had flights booked and paid for from Phuket to Bangkok (to catch their respective flights on to Australia). So the only place left open to us was Phuket and none of us wanted to spend more than a few days there. Which we had already planned to do so the girls could get their separate flights (a few days apart). On top of that Oonaghs cough and cold had gotten considerably worse and Tehya had also started to get unwell and none of us relished the idea of travelling while they were poorly.

Gavin and Becca came back with news that they had booked us into two rooms. They were 1200 Baht each – right at the top of what we had decided we could pay. When we got there the rooms were clean, the beds were comfortable and the bathrooms were usable. The rooms were incredibly basic and in all of our opinions really not worth £24 a room. We ended up staying four nights as the girls got more poorly and Gavin then started to come down with a cold too.

The rooms turned out to be a nightmare – there was a building site behind our room and the building work started at 5.30am and did not finish until gone 10.00pm. Adding to the noise from the building work was the site wash facilities that were used from 5.00am until 11.00pm – so we would have to lye in bed listening to people talk and whistle, slap and wash their clothes, snot and wretch while they bathed and washed their teeth. The wash area was directly behind our room (tap was against our wall) – the rooms all had ventilation holes all round the top of the wall – just below the ceiling. So the sounds echoed around our room and they might as well have been using our bathroom, at least we could have closed the door – that would have made it quieter. When we first arrived it had not been possible to see where the building work started as it was obscured by another building – we did not know about the wash room until we heard it and the following morning I climbed round to see where it was!! We went to speak to reception about changing rooms – they blatantly said it was not possible. The hotel was fully booked – even though we could see rooms plainly vacant and they remained empty.

What do you do? We stayed until we could bare it no longer…… I felt so down about the situation. Becca and Oonagh had flown all the way to Thailand to see us. Up to this point it felt like the whole holiday and been a total nightmare of mistakes and bad choice’s. Oonagh did not leave her room for days because she felt so ill – we felt trapped and did not know what to do for the best.

We did have a few excursions out and about Gavin and Becca went up to the view point and took some really great photos of Phi Phi. The three of us (me Gav and Teh) walked up Water Hill and saw the two huge recently built reservoirs. We also came across the Tsunami evacuation centre and the village that has been built since the 2004 Tsunami. It was strange to see the village – it is currently mostly unlived in. Although we did see one family and evidence of one or two more. Row after row of flats on stilts – possibly as many as 25/30 flats on each row sit on the side of the hill. It is a ghost town of government regulation style housing – every house looks the same and they look like they would be uncomfortable to live in long term. Metal roofs with no insulation that we could see would make them unbearably hot. We carried on down the other side of the hill stopping at a small cafe/restaurant for local people that work close by. We ate really great veg fried rice and hot coffee prepared by a very friendly lady. Then we walked on down to the beach (Ao Lo Moo Dee) we could see from her cafe and enjoyed some time on the beach. On the way back up the hill, we met an English guy – we stopped and chatted with him – he also agreed that things had changed on Phi Phi that he was shocked and dismayed by the expense and poor quality of accommodation. We ended our walk by finishing off back on Long Beach and got a boat back to our hotel.

We did meet a few friendly and welcoming people on Phi Phi but they were few and far between – as a rule we felt like walking ATM’s to be used and abused. Many of the locals were unfriendly and ungracious. The accommodation is over priced and not maintained or cared for. The food at hotels/guest houses on the whole was ridiculously expensive and a really poor example of Thai food. We did find a few local style places to eat where it was cheaper and good – so we stuck with them!!

It is hard to say such negative comments about an island that was hit so hard by the Tsunami in 2004 – but I feel every comment made is justified. The over building of very poor quality accommodation is detrimental to both the environment and long term to the tourist industry. The islands sewage and waste facilities are not going to be able to cope with the increase in accommodation being built. Many parts of the town already stink of raw untreated human waste. The sea on the pier side of the island is contaminated by so many boats – including the long tail boats. The coral and sea life that we saw on Long Beach 8/9 years ago barely exists – we certainly saw no evidence of it. Once you head inland you start to see where the waste produced by too many tourists ends up, badly hidden!!! I was told that the governing province for Phi Phi is Krabi and that after the Tsunami they wanted to execute some control over the rebuild to protect and manage the impact on the environment and wildlife!!! That has not been done – and the whispers I heard were that the Phi Phi mafia style families have ensured that no officials will come to the islands to see it. As they are too afraid to step off the boats – consequently there has been no control or management!! Anyone who feels differently about the impact of tourism on the island must have walked around it with either their eyes closed or had drunk to much whiskey while they were there. Don’t get me wrong – the island has it’s beautiful parts!! It has been badly managed and no one seems to care about the increasing levels of damage being committed every day.

In the end we went to Phuket early, when we arrived we booked into a resort at Patong Beach that did an offer on two rooms – this way we guaranteed a reasonable room. Then after we had settled everyone in, Gavin and I went off for a few hours to search for cheaper accommodation. It was possible to find rooms for 300 – 500 Baht but as a rule they came into the bracket of definitely not with a child!!! Eventually we found a place on Soi San Sabai – just opposite the Bangla Rd, it is well known for more budget traveller accommodation. The rooms had comfortable beds and they were very clean – the staff friendly and kind. The only downside were that several ‘ladies’ worked from rooms on our floor – but hey in Patong what else can you expect!!!

We have stayed in basic accommodation all over Asia this trip and eight years ago. I don’t mind basic but it needs to be clean and safe. It also needs to be priced accordingly and this wasn’t. The rooms were 500 Baht a night (£10) – they were small, dark, damp, mouldy – they had nothing but a bed and so little floor space there was no where to put your stuff (bags). The beds smelt bad and they were uncomfortable, the bathroom was actually quite clean and as it had slits in the walls this allowed some natural light in so you were able to actually see when you needed to use the loo. There was no electricity during the day – just from 6pm to 6am. By this time I was so disheartened by my Phi Phi experience, I did not have the energy or will power to go and look any further for an alternative – there was no ‘machine gun’ at the front desk – that was an improvement. So we checked in and went and got some horribly over priced beer from the shop next door and went to the beach to swim and will ourselves to stop whining and try and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

A short time later we went to the resorts restaurant and ordered food – we all love Pad Thai and have eaten good Thai noodles so many times. They were cold and congealed and when we tried to eat them they tasted of old stinking cooking oil. There have been times when I have held my breath and just not eaten the food or left a situation without complaining when I should have. In the past a few times things have gone a bit wrong when I have said I am not happy about a situation. On this occasion I just felt I’d had enough of having the P taken out of me. So I signalled the waitress and told her that the food was bad, it tasted terrible and that we could not eat it. She looked confused and asked to taste the noodles. Then two more staff came over and had a look – asked what the problem was. I explained ‘cold’ and ‘bad oil’ – they all went and spent several minutes conferring with several other staff and eventually came and took our food away. It was brought back in a slightly improved state, the oil they had used tasted fresh, the noodles were warm – but sadly they were still a bad example of what should have been delicious Thai food. We ate very little paid and left.

We did in fact end up looking for more accommodation that afternoon, we booked ourselves into a very over priced room (3000 Baht about £60) at the other end of the beach and went there the next day. We had to share a family room as that was all they had available – we split the cost which made it easier on the finances. We stayed at the accommodation for three nights. It was a relief – the room was clean and comfortable. We went out a few times and had a fun night over at the town getting drunk and watching the fire dancers at hippies bar.

The resort had promised us that two of their cheaper rooms would be available on the third day – the family room was nice but it was hard having five to a room with no privacy and Oonagh had started to develop a really bad cough and cold. On the third morning we went to the reception area to be told they did not have any of the cheaper rooms but that we could carry on in the huge expensive family room as long as we liked! We went back and packed our stuff and checked out and started the search again.

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{w:600;h:350} Map of Longbeach, Koh Phi Phi Don, Thailand

(Map of Longbeach, Koh PhiPhi,Thailand – a little cloudy)

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We got to the pier and settled Gavin and Tehya in a cafe for breakfast as they were both hungry and hot. Becca, Oonagh and I set off to look for accommodation and got weigh-laid by the tourist accommodation office right by the pier (our 1st mistake). Here we got chatting with one of the adviser’s (our 2nd mistake) who told us that there was no cheap accommodation on the island and that they had booked out all the cheaper rooms already (a lie) and that the only rooms left were at a certain guest house and we would have to book immediately (our 3rd mistake) or not get a room. They also told us that the price of 500 Baht a night was only available through them and not direct with the guest house – if we went through the guest house we would have to pay 800 Baht.

Our biggest mistake was allowing our good judgement to be rushed and clouded – book the room with out viewing it first!! Thankfully we were not stupid enough to book more than one night – we had the sense to remember we might not like what we see when we got there. Why book it in advance at all then I hear you cry!!

I can not remember the name of the guest house – although I wish I could as I would put it here. We left with a young man who came from the guest house to help us with our bags – we set off back through the town following signs for the Tsunami evacuation route. We walked for about twenty minutes and finally arrived at the very back of the town tucked under the mountain. The street was like a ghetto, the main path used by everyone as a highway – went right by the door to our room (within a foot) – which when we went inside stank of mould and mildew. The owner of the guest house sat relaxing at the front of the building polishing what looked like an automatic machine gun. We left our bags and walked back to the cafe we had left Gavin and Tehya in feeling depressed and stressed knowing that Gav would say we were total Wally’s. We decided to leave our bags at the accommodation temporarily while we looked for other accommodation.

I went and spoke to a different tourist guide to get some general information about what accommodation was on the island, things did not appear any more promising! There were very few places for 500 Baht (with the current exchange £10), when I went to see them I was mightily disheartened. As a rule the standard was terrible, on the same level as a squat. The doors had been smashed in and patched up with plywood, the metal balcony rusted and hanging dangerously from the wall – not somewhere suitable for a four year old child to stay. The walls of one room had blood stains all over them and the bed (left unmade) had horrific marks on the mattress. Oonagh and I left (with Tehya) feeling shocked that someone could possibly think it acceptable to show rooms in such a state.

We returned to Gav and Becca and told them what we had seen, they left to carry on the search – some time later Becca returned alone with no good news to say Gavin left on a boat to Long beach in a bid to try and solve our situation. He returned about an hour later to say he had found two bungalow’s for 500 Baht each – they were primitive and only had electricity from 6.00pm until 6.00am. On the upside they were close to the beach, the sea looked much more inviting. Cleaner than the two beaches that sit on either side of Phi Phi town. So we headed back to our rooms on the now named machine gun ally to let them know we would be leaving. We came to the unanimous decision that we would say they could keep our room payment in return for a hand with getting our bags to the pier!!!

{w:600;h:350} Ko Phi Phi Don, Thailand

(map of Phi Phi Islands, Thailand)

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We left on a long boat to Long Beach – and our next attempt at finding suitable reasonably priced rooms.

Our second night at the Villa Cha Cha involved a girls night out……. after a few hours of stressed out decision making and flight booking we thought we deserved a few beers – that turned into a few buckets and several hours of dancing at a strange ‘dance’ club on the Khoa San rd. We staggered home in hysterics and collapsed into our beds, exhausted and laughed out.

In total we spent four nights at the hotel and spent our days eating great/cheap Thai noodles, curry, rice and seafood from the street stalls – drinking lots of cold beer/Thai Whiskey and of course clothes shopping at the numerous market stalls on the Khao San rd.

We hung out at the hotel on our last afternoon in Bangkok and then headed for the airport on the four o’clock mini bus – it cost 150 Baht each (Tehya was free) – we got there in plenty of time to get our Air Asia flight. It was amazingly quick – taking off from Bangkok and landing in Phuket in 1 hour 15 minutes.

You might think that after flying so much this trip that my anxiety levels would be decreasing with each occasion but this is not the case – I was completely petrified and threw up half way through the flight because of the stress. My heart was racing as we took off and unfortunately things did not improve during the flight – I felt in blind panic for the whole time and at one point almost called out to get off the plane – Gavin told me afterwards that this would have been a problem and probably would have cost us a lot of money – so just as well I some how managed to keep that part of my body function under control. I cried a lot – there was little I could do about that!!!

We spent a night at a rather grubby hostel in Phuket town (500 Baht a room) but as we arrived late and were leaving for the ferry (1000 Baht a ticket – return with mini bus – Tehya was free) very early it seemed pointless to spend money on comfort. Gavin and the girls all slept relatively well but I was haunted for most of the night by strange dreams about flying with my family – I am sure you can hazard a guess at the type of content! No more to be said!!

We were picked up by our mini bus 15 mins early, this meant that I was still in the shower and Tehya was still asleep. We have become experts at letting her sleep as long as possible on early morning starts – we just pick her up and drop her into her clothes. I am blessed with a child who 99% of the time wakes with good humour, especially if we are travelling somewhere. She has an amazing knack of finding this part of travelling exceptionally interesting and exciting!!

We got to the ferry port and milled around with the 1000 or so other tourists waiting to board the many boats headed towards Phi Phi Don and the other islands. Gavin spirits instantly sank about 100 feet to the bottom of the ocean. We knew that the islands would be busy but we were dismayed to see just how many people had also planned to head the same way. The journey took a couple of hours and was calm and easy going. We stopped part way for the day cruisers to look at some of the views. Phi Phi Lay the smaller of the islands and the one that has the infamous ‘beach’ was on the list of sights. It was pretty shocking to see it when we arrived. The beach was definitely not the isolated beautiful island it was portrayed as in the movie of the same name. There was no sand to be seen in between the hundreds of bodies that covered the beach and the water was a mirror of bright rainbows from the petrol that has been spilt by the hundreds of boats roaring their way through the water – racing each other! Scantily clad 20 some-thing’s relaxing on their bows. I might sound idyllic to some but it was like a horror movie for Gavin and I.

We arrived at the dock side on Phi Phi Don and left Gavin and Tehya to eat some breakfast at a cafe while us girls headed up the mission for accommodation.