Moving Day
ANZAC Day
Happy Easter
Happy Easter everyone, although it's more or less over but still. We did what we've done more or less every day since we got here... tried to find somewhere to live. I think we've had a look at 2-4 places per day, that's a lot of places and you think we would have found somewhere by now and guess what.......we have!!
Chang Cliff Resort
Then we stayed at Chang Cliff Resort
This place was in White Sand Beach so better location than Ramayana if you want more action. It's closer to bars, restaurants, shops and so on. It's more of a budget place but the rooms were very nice and as usual you got 2 bottles of water free each day.
The breakfast was a disappointment. We weren't expecting a giant buffet but we were expecting more than we got. You could make toast, have some cereal, there was juice, water, tea and coffee to drink. What disappointed me was the fruit. There was only watermelon! At every other hotel we've stayed you get pineapple, papaya, bananas, dragon fruit, other melon etc. Here is was only watermelon. The cooked part wasn't so good either, hardly anything to choose from and she wasn't very clever, the girl who did the eggs. She fried some eggs and put them on a plate, we have no idea how long they had been there, same with the omelettes, but Andrew just asked her to make a fresh one so it was still ok.
The place doesn't have a pool which is a shame, but we knew that so it was ok for us. Thhe view is stunning, if you have a room with sea view. If you don't (we didn't) they you could just walk 10 steps and you'll get to enjoy it :)
Ramayana Resort & Spa
Ok just a little review of the places we stayed at in Koh Chang:
First we stayed at Ramayana Resort & Spa
This place was situated near Klong Prao Beach, but it was a bit ”tricky” to actually get to the b ach. We did walk to the beach a couple of times, it didn't take long but as I said it was a bit tricky. You had to cross a little river. You could walk across if you wanted to, or you could take a little boat and we just paid them like 20 Bath, which is nothing really.
Otherwise you could go to The Dewa which is the sister hotel of Ramayana. Its situated right on the beach and there was a shuttle ”bus” every hour from our hotel. We got free sun chairs on the beach and towels and we even got a free drink every day by the beach and sometimes we even got a free fruit platter!
Ramayana had a quite large pool, a little kids pool and, believe it or not, a jacuzzi pool, which was really hot! We didn't use that one.
It had a spa and a gym. We used the gym a couple of times, but not the spa. You could also get massages by the pool and I did that a couple of times :)
They have activities every week, like napkin folding, squid hunting, Thai cooking and so on, some of the activities cost money and some are free.
There is a pool bar and another restaurant. Food is really nice.
The rooms are really nice. We actually got upgraded to a honeymoon room which was very nice :) but even if we hadn't the rooms are still really nice and as usual you get 2 bottles of free water per day.
We had a DVD player in the room plus 3 DVDs and there are more DVDs you can borrow.
There is also a shuttle ”bus” to White Sand Beach, which is where most of the action is.
The best thing about Ramayana is the staff, they are so incredible nice and helpful! As you know we lost our bags on our way to Bangkok but they helped us get them back and yeah they are just so nice, helpful and just happy! We really liked this place!
Accommodation - how hard can it be?
We have been here for a few days now and all we've really done is to try and find somewhere to live. It turned out to be a bit harder than we thought. Well I guess we're just quite picky. We've seen a couple of nice places and some really horrible ones. It's amazing, I mean you speak to them and they tell you how nice this place is where they are staying and you go and have a look and think ”what is wrong with you if you think this is really nice, did you grow up in a dump site?”.
You should have seen this place yesterday! The place itself could have been nice but there was something seriously wrong with this guy who lived there. First when you get in you are hit by the smell of insence (rokelser). In the ”living room” there was a massage table (no TV) and I had a look at the books on the shelf and they had titles like: ”The art of seduction”, ”how to love a nice guy”, ”Mars & Venus in the bedroom”, ”the myth of monagomy” and some books of female sexuality. Hmm that was a big NO.
But as I said, we've also found some nice ones. We're gonna have a look at 2-3 today but we have 2 already which we really liked. So fingers crossed we'll get something nice with normal house mates.
G'day Melbourne
It's approx 20 degrees which is nice but the leaves are turning orange and falling to the ground so yeah it's autumn.
The trip here went ok, although the night before we were leaving Andrew got ill, threw up all night, all morning and more or less all day. Poos him. We took a bus to Trat airport (incl the ferry), plane to Bangkok airport and then we found a pharmacy so Andrew could get some pills and stuff. Then we had a 6 hour wait. Andrew started to feel better and we found a relaxing area so he could get some sleep and he also had 2 cups of tea and as you know tea cures everything ;)
The flight to Sydney went well, we were in seats of 4 and luckily the 2 next to me didn't show up so we had all 4 seats to ourselves (so we didn't have to sit too close to each other ;) ). We watched some movies, had some food (unfortunately they ran out of beef and we had to eat Thai fish, we are getting sick of Thai food). We also managed to sleep a bit.
Unfortunately the flight was 30 min late and going through customs in Sydney took forever and due to some stupid Australian rule, even though we were getting on another flight we still had to go and pick up our bags and check them in again!! So we missed our flight to Melbourne. We weren't the only ones and luckily they were very nice about it and just booked us onto the next flight which was an hour later so we got here eventually.
Today we have opened bank accounts, I've had an interview and I've applied for another job and found 2 more which I'm gonna go and see later.
Now we're gonna go and find somewhere to live!
Hope you are all well and enjoying spring!
คุณขอบคุณ (thank you) Thailand
We've had a great time here, had a lot of sun, sea, massages, drinks, a bit of shopping and more.
Andrew's off now to book a taxi for us to take us to Trat airport tomorrow morning. Then I think we'll go and have our last banana pancake, go back to the hotel have a couple of drinks and then get packing.
I thought I'd put some more pics on here of Thailand.
The beach terrace at The Dewa
Klong Prao beach at sunset
Sunset at Klong Prao beach
White Sand Beach
White Sand Beach
Paradise!
Happy Songkran!!
Happy Songkran or Thai New Year! It started on Monday and I htink it finishes on Sunday.
Yesterday it was a massive water fight and everyone was involved, and I mean everyone! People were standing along the roads armed with buckets, bowls, water pistol and anything else they could use to throw water on you. People were also on trucks driving around throwing water on you. Needless to say within 3 min in the taxi (which is an open truck taxi) we were drenched, completely!
We moved to another place today, Chang Cliff Resort on White Sand Beach. Luckily we were prepared for this (a bit) and our bags were protected.
We walked through "town" and got even more drenched although you can't get more drenched than we were.
Some were nice and just poured a bit of water on your arm and wished you happy new year, others weren't as nice and just poured or threw a bucket over you! It's all in good fun though. It's to wash away all the bad and old and represents a new beginning.
It was so much fun!! The music was on, people were dancing, singing and throwing water at each other, they were old, young and even very young. You could see moms on mopeds with a child on the back armed with a water gun :) Amazing!
Today we thought it was over and went to the beach. On the way home however, we realised that the fight was on again and today they had ice cubes in their buckets!! We took a taxi from one side of the beach to the other were we live and it was a good move, we only got a bit wet :)
Me, absolutely soaked
Happy Songkran!
Triple D
This is for Rubina, Anne and the rest of my colleagues at Towers Watson.
Triple D: Dolly, Dumle & Drink :)
Pics Thailand
Klong Prao Beach on a sunny day
Klong Prao Beach on a rainy day
I prefer my snakes like this
Poor monkey baby
Me on a swing
Fire show on the beach
They have weird Pringle flavours here
Moped, sea, sun, rain and snakes
Yesterday we rented a moped, it cost next to nothing. Andrew drove, of course, and we are still alive and no injuries :) We went up the hill and had a look at the view from the view point, it was nice, but then I found a baby monkey and he had no legs!!! Poor monkey!
Andrew wouldn't let me keep him so we continued on to Lonely beach, it was very nice and peaceful, we played a bit of frisbee, had a swim and just had a nice time. Then we went to Bang Bao, walked out on the pier, which is huge and full of market stalls and hostels and smelly seafood restaurants. Did a bit of shopping and then had something to eat, which didn't smell bad.
Then off to Kai Bae and Bailan Bay, for a little more shopping and just having a look around.
Today we walked to the beach. It was very cloudy which was nice, it was also a bit breezy (=very nice). Then it started raining, like really heavy monsoon kind of rain. So we took cover under a little shelter, where they probably used to do thai massages. So we sat there, watching the rain, then we saw something above us, we looked up and guess what it was............a bloody snake!! I hate snakes more than anything!
It started moving, I thought it was gonna make a jump for me, honestly I could see it in its eyes it wanted to kill me. So we left, quickly, and ran to the next shelter, where there were people. We think it was a Pit Viper Apparently they can't kill you but they can seriously hurt you and it almost scared the life out of me!
Gonna sort out some pics for you now
Thailand
We are now in Koh Chang. The trip here didn't go as smoothly as we would have wished but we made it, and 3 days later so did our bags!
The flight from Stockholm to London was 30 min late but it was ok I mean we had 2 hours transfer time in London. Then we got on the plane and they told us that we might actually be another 45 min late! What the hell! We spoke to the BA staff on the flight and explained that we had another flight to catch in London and that we had to get from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3. They assured us that it was plenty of time and just to ease our minds they would do everything they could to make sure we made our flight. Hmm yeah right. We were approaching London and the steward told us "you better make sure you get off the plane quickly if you're gonna make it". Eh thanks!
Of course we were at the back of the plane and the knobs who weren't in a hurry just stood up and faffed about with their bags for ever! We tried to say that we had another flight to catch but they didn't care.
We got off the flight and started running. We got on the bus to Terminal 3, got off and ran again. It's a lot harder than you think with 10 kg on your back. Luckily Andrew ran faster than me, after a couple of minutes he was gone. I was almost dying! But luckily Andrew held up the gates people and we made the flight and luckily we were now gonna fly with Qantas who are amazing. We love Qantas, they are so nice and helpful and funny.
The flight was fine, food was nice and we had plenty of movies to watch.
Got off in Bangkok and noticed that our bags had not been on the plane. Great!
We filled out the forms and went to the hotel. Had some dinner and drinks, then off to bed it had been a long day!
The morning after we got up at 6.30 to go back to the airport and take the flight to Trat. It was a very small propeller plane! But it only took 45 min and we even got breakfast! Trat airport is the cutest airport I've ever seen! Tiny and so cute.
From there we took a taxi, which took us on the ferry to Koh Chang and drove us all the way to the hotel Ramayana Resort and Spa. The resort even has a gym and we have actually been there and trained!
Other than that we just go to the beach (Klong Prao), have had some massage, drinks (happy hour from 16.00), good (spicy) food and today we had a so called "skin cut foot". It's as unpleasant as it sounds but I think my feet are now a size smaller :)
Weather is great, we've had a couple of thunder storms in the evenings which is great, it makes it a little bit cooler, so temperature drops to about 32 degrees ;)
Sorry but there will be no pictures at the moment, but maybe later, I'll try and sort it I promise :)
