Left this so long that im sure i´ll forget loads, also lost my camera so got no photos to remind me. have borrowed a friends from the group but its quite patchy. will do my best.
Day 5 - Arequipa
We arrived early in the morning after taking the night bus. It wasn´t too bad, reclining seats instead of beds but it had wifi! During the day we had free time so me, Rob, sam and matt wandered around the town and looked at catherdrals and a huge nunery. We spent the afternoon just relaxing in a park with two others from the group (danielle and mandy) who we bumped into in the nunery.
Tired from the night bus the night before we all went to bed pretty early after a team dinner.
Day 6 - Colca Canyon
Things are really patchy and will have to try to update this again when i´ve got a camera with more photos on it.
We got up at 6 and got a bus to the colca Canyon. The views on the journey were absolutely amazing, some of the best i´ve ever seen and we stopped regularly to take photos. We stopped at about lunch to walk around the canyon and see a local community We then got back on the bus and contiued travelling until we got to our hotel for the night. It was incredible. A really cute, picturesc cottage type affair in a tiny little village. There was no electricity or internet and it was freezing cold but awesome. After we had dropped our bags we went for a walk in the local mountains before heading to the hot springs at night. It was fantastic, it was a series of huge outdoor pools which were really warm and the night sky was completely clear so the views of the stars were amazing, i even spotted the southern cross!
Day 7 - colca canyon
We got up at 4am in order to get the bus to the canyon. After a really nice buffet breakfast we got on the bus and went to the canyon. The reason for getting up early was to see all the condors in the morning. They sleep at the bottom of the canyon but use the warm, currents in the morning to rise up and fly out of the canyon. It was incredible, condors are huge (3m wingspan) and there were 7 or 8 flying around and they often soared over us and came withing 5m or so which is really quite scarry. We then did another walk arround the canyon before heading back to Arequipa on the bus stopping occasionally for photos. In the evening we had a huge bbq at our hotel and we all sat on the roof, it was delicous. Afterwards the sub 25´s minus rob (who had been taken ill with a horrific tummy bug) (me, matt, sam, tom, katie, mandy and dannielle) went out to the local bars for a couple of quiet drinks...
Day 8 - cusco
We had to get up at 6:30 for our flight to cusco which was fine as no one had been out late the night before and wéren´t hungover. The flight was pretty uneventful apart from a certain member of our group "getting plane sick" and throwing up during the flight. Unfortuantely between getting off the plane and luggage claim i lost or had pick pocketted my camera. I was devastated as it had all the photos from the trip on it and i had some great ones. When we arrived in cusco we went to the black market which is a huge market (surprisingly enough) full of rip off goods etc. I bought a new camera here as i knew i needed one for the inca trail. In the evening we headed into the town where the locals were having some sort of party in the main square with everyone in traditional dress and dancing. It was pretty cool but knowing we had to be up early again the next day we went to bed quite early.
Day 9 - Ollantaytambo
We got up early and got the bus to ollantaytambo. On the way we visited a local community that gap was helping and saw how the dyed wool and made clothes. We saw how they lived and even got a tour of their alpaca farm. Next we visited the pisac ruins which were old Inca ruins in the mountains. It was amazing how they built the city so high up. On the way to the next set of ruins our tour leader neil gave us a suprise that wasn´t in the tour. We visited an animal rescue centre that saved animals from the black market etc and nursed them back to health. It was amazing, there were parrots, lamas, turtles, birds, some weird mini bears and panthers. At the end of the visit we were allowed to go into the condor cage and they flew all around us, it was awesome. After that fantastic surprise we headed to ollantaytambo and saw the ruins there. Huge terraces built into the mountains and temples etc. it was incredible. We then visited the local market in order to get a few last minute things such as hats and gloves for the inca trail!!!
Day 10 - start of the inca trail
We had yet another early start (i don´t think gap adventures understands the student life style) in order to travel to the start of the inca trail. We had to pack all our clothes we would need into a small duffle bag not weighing more than 6kg including roll matt and sleeping bag (aout 3kg) which ment that you couldn´t take all that much. When we arrived at the start we handed our duffle bags over to our porters and were amazed. Not only did they have to do the trek, they had to do it carrying huge packs weighing 20kg, containing all the camping equipment and tents etc., they had to get there quicker than us. The trek must be easy then!
We got going and it turns out the trek isn´t as easy as first thought. We were at roughly 2600m and the alltitude makes you out of breath really quickly. Luckily the first day was only about 8km and was pretty much flat. We walked as a group so we were pretty slow and it was gorgeous sun shine with phenominal views, one of the best days of my life.
We stopped for lunch around 1 and found a couple of huge tents already set up. The porters had raced ahead of us and set up a tempory camp and clapped us in as we arrived (which was ridiculous seeing as they had done it in half the time carrying 20kg packs) and gave us all orange juice. We sat out in the sun for a while waiting for lunch to be ready and could smell something amazing so we were getting pretty hungary. We then went into the tent and sat down to be told that we were extra lucky as we had the Gap´s head chef for the Inca trail with us, he´d won the award 2 years in a row. We all thought that that is something they tell all the groups and even if it wasn´t how good could a meal really be when cooked on a camping stove.
We were blown away, it was an incredible 5 course lunch with soup, garlic bread, some fish, some chicken and cake for desert. It was the bets meal we had had in Peru so far and it was all cooked in a tent!
As soon as we had finished the porters started packing up and headed off down the trail in order to set up camp. We continued on for 45 mins before we reached camp to find everything set up for us, all the tents and even our roll mats and sleeping bags laid out in our tents for us!
We spent the rest of the day playing cards and talking before being greeted with afternoon tea and snacks at 4pm followed my another amazing 4 course dinner in the evening. I´m going to have to stop describing the meals but every single meal we had was fabulous and consisted of multiple courses. After dinner we played cards for a little longer and then went to bed. This was the start of the "sons of anarchy"(a TV show) phase. Me and rob started watching an episode on the galaxy tab just before going to bed in our tent. Dave overhead it and asked if he could come watch it too. Katie then walked past and saw us all snuggled up watching it and came and watched it as well. We were all cramped together in a two man tent watching a tv show on a tiny screen but it was really fun.
day 11 - Inca trail
We were woken up at 5:30 in order to get a good start on the trail as today was the hardest day. We slept at around 2700m but then highest point today was at 4500m! We were told we could go at our own pace today as this section seperated the men for the boys! We started off around 7 and it was freezing cold so i was wearing pretty much all my clothes. Despite starting out with the best intentions of sticking together the trail soon became really hard and so most of the group slowed down. The most manly, fittest and good looking of the group (me, sam, matt, mike and tom) raced on and powered up the steep slope. It was hard work and despite it being -3 we were down to t-shirt and shorts. We continued to the half way point of the climb where Tom decided to wait for katie. After a breif pause for a couple of snacks we continued. We got to the highest point (dead womans pass) in about 3 hours, the guide said it would take 6 so we were pretty proud of our achievement. We spent the next 3 hours relaxing o the top of this muntain in the sun with the most amazing views i have ever seen. Words can´t descirbe how amazing it was. Ater about 30mins we saw the porters all rush past but we wtill pretty pleased we had beaten them up. After 3 hours the rest of the group made it and we had a lot of group hugs and photos.
I´m now being kicked out of the internet cafe for being on too long so will have to continue on the my ipod or tomorrow.
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Monday, 20 June 2011
South america! - Lima, pisco and cusco
One feels the blog is not going to be updated as frequently or written as well on this trip but i´ll try anyway.
Travelling
Would love to lift the paragraph i used in an email to my parents to describe the journey but it wil probablly take me 20 mins to get my email open so i´ll have to write it again.
Heathrow was on super high alert for some reason and security was a nightmare. I went through the scanner and it beeped as i was still holding my passport in my hand. i went back through, put it on a tray to go through the scanner and walked back through, it didn´t beep. Despite seeing all this they insisted on giving me a frisking and then the once over with the wand, fair enough. they then proceeded to give me a bag search and send all my items through individually. Not content with this they then made me go through the new body scanners that pretty much x-ray you. I wasnt the only one they did this to so i actually had to queue to have my bag searched and be scanned. All in all it took me atleast an hour to get through to security. Despite arriving 3 hours early the security meant by the time i was through my plane was boarding so i rushed to get on. The flight was fine and landed in sao paulo at 6 local time. I knew i had to get a connecting flight to lima at 8.30 so scanned the boards for my flight. The only flight going to lima listed on the baord was at 6.15. I thought it wasnt mine but there was no other flights to lima so i assumed it had to be mine. i rushed to the gate but it had already left by the time i got there. Panicing a little as i had to be in lima that day for the start of my tour i walked around trying to find an information desk. After a while i got on a bus to a different part of the airport and eventually found a board that had my flight on it. I was supposed to arrive in terminal 1 and fly from terminal 1 but we landed in terminal 2 and no one told me. Flight found all was well and off i went to lima.
Lima - day 1
I arrived at the hotel at around 2 and the meeting was at 7 so i wandered around for a couple of hours and got something to eat. i was pretty knacked so went back for a nap around 5. I had a whole really nice hotel room to myself as the guy i was supposed to be sharing with was meeting a friend so wasn´t there. At 7 we had a quick briefing on what was happening on the trip and introduced ourselves to everyone and met our guide for the trip neil. The people are all pretty nice and theres quite a few young people so im pretty happy (2 18yr boys, 2 18yr girls, a couple of 22, my room mate 24 and we´re getting another couple of 18yr girls in 4 days. Othere than that theres a couple on their honeymoon 27, an 30 american, 35 belgian, 28 uk)
We then went for a get to know you meal which was nice and went to bed at 11. I had a horrible night sleep constantly waking up worried that my alarm wouldnt go off in the morning and id hold everyone up.
Day 2
We had to catch a bus at 11 so i got up at 9 got ready and bought some snacks for the journey. We took a public bus to Pisco (6 hours) but it wasnt too bad. there were a couple of english films played and we chatted but basically it took up most of the day. When we arrived we got settled and then went out for a meal and had the local delicacy, fish cooked in lime (as in raw fish chemically cooked by the acidity of lime). It was a bit like sour sushi but was quite nice none the less. After dinner we all went out to the local bar and had a couple of drinks. As it gets dark so early about 6 (pitch black) we were all tricked into thinking it was really late so most people went home about 8-9, the young guys stayed out later and tried to go to a club but it was completely dead so we went home at about 11 but it was quite a good bonding experience.
day 3- pisco
We had the option to get up early and take a boat to the loacal nature island with penguins etc. but aparently the sea was far to choppy (i didnt see a single wave). Instead we waited aorund until 9.30 to get our tour for the day. It was a private minibus just for our group and we all chatted etc on our way to the local winery. The winery was pretty fun and they showed us all how they stomped the grapes etc and how they made the "wine". I used the air quotes as although it was all made from grapes the majority of it was spirits ranging from 20% all the way up to 55%. Afterwards we had a tasting sension of all the different spirits which was pretty fun. We then had lunch at the winery and i opted for the local dish called tacu tacu which was goat meat and a sort of pea and rice blend which tasted like homous. For trying the local dish the owner gave me a couple of extra shots of the 55% stuff and then nicknamed me tacu tacu which now sort of means "crazy one".
After the winery we went to visit the sand dunes which were incredible. The city itself was in the middle of the desert so just 5 mins away were some awesome sand dunes. We had an optional activity so dune buggying and sand boarding for $20 for 2 hours which most of us did as our guide said it was one of the highlights of the trip. It was one of the bets things i´ve ever done. We raced around in the buggys for an hour in some amazing scenery, jumping of dunes and powering down really steep slopes. We then got driven to the top of a really high dune and got to sand board down. The whole experience was incredible and i got some amazing photos. The only downside is that my camera got sand in it from all the dunes and now doesn´t work :(. I´m gonna leave it a couple of days and keep trying it but it apears its got sand stuck inbetween the telescopic bit of the lens so it wont come out properly so the camera wont work.
We then got the bus onto the next location (Nasca) and got to know each other some more and had some bus kareoke. Although now it seems we´ve definately split into two groups, the under 25´s and the over 25´s which is a bit sad this early but probably for the best.
When we arrived at around 9 most people went straight to bed but some of us decided to stay up and try and recreate some of the drinks we´d had at lunch. We had gone to a supermarket on the way home and picked up some stuff but trying to make pisco sours with 3kg of limes, some pisco spirit and a bag of sugar just wasnt happening and they tasted pretty disgusting but we had loads of fun.
Day 4 - Nasca
We got up early and travelled to an acient grave site and learned about how the Nasca people buried their dead and the mumification process which was pretty interesting. The often buried important people with many others (salves etc) although just the skulls. We turned this into a stupid game of guess how many heads are going to be in the next grave which although a little morally ambiguous was really fun.
Next we went to a pottery workshop and learned how the Nasca´s used to make their pottery which was basically just an elongated sales pitch.
Next we went to the airport to do our flights over the nasca lines. Due to one operator being closed there were far less flights than usual and so some people wuldnt be able to go. As it was quite a lot ($100) and i wasnt that bothered i stepped down along with a couple of others and went back to the hotel. We sat by the pool and sun bathed and relaxed which was pretty good. When the others returned it turned out only 4 had been able to fly out of our group of 14 which was pretty bad. It wasn´t our tours fault as it was an optional extra but it was pretty much the whole point of coming to Nasca and a major thing to see in peru so some people were a little annoyed. Tonight we´re getting a night bus to the next location which will be great...
The blog turned out longer than expected. i just thought it would be a quick note to let you know im alive. Will try and get pictures up soon so you can see the group.
Travelling
Would love to lift the paragraph i used in an email to my parents to describe the journey but it wil probablly take me 20 mins to get my email open so i´ll have to write it again.
Heathrow was on super high alert for some reason and security was a nightmare. I went through the scanner and it beeped as i was still holding my passport in my hand. i went back through, put it on a tray to go through the scanner and walked back through, it didn´t beep. Despite seeing all this they insisted on giving me a frisking and then the once over with the wand, fair enough. they then proceeded to give me a bag search and send all my items through individually. Not content with this they then made me go through the new body scanners that pretty much x-ray you. I wasnt the only one they did this to so i actually had to queue to have my bag searched and be scanned. All in all it took me atleast an hour to get through to security. Despite arriving 3 hours early the security meant by the time i was through my plane was boarding so i rushed to get on. The flight was fine and landed in sao paulo at 6 local time. I knew i had to get a connecting flight to lima at 8.30 so scanned the boards for my flight. The only flight going to lima listed on the baord was at 6.15. I thought it wasnt mine but there was no other flights to lima so i assumed it had to be mine. i rushed to the gate but it had already left by the time i got there. Panicing a little as i had to be in lima that day for the start of my tour i walked around trying to find an information desk. After a while i got on a bus to a different part of the airport and eventually found a board that had my flight on it. I was supposed to arrive in terminal 1 and fly from terminal 1 but we landed in terminal 2 and no one told me. Flight found all was well and off i went to lima.
Lima - day 1
I arrived at the hotel at around 2 and the meeting was at 7 so i wandered around for a couple of hours and got something to eat. i was pretty knacked so went back for a nap around 5. I had a whole really nice hotel room to myself as the guy i was supposed to be sharing with was meeting a friend so wasn´t there. At 7 we had a quick briefing on what was happening on the trip and introduced ourselves to everyone and met our guide for the trip neil. The people are all pretty nice and theres quite a few young people so im pretty happy (2 18yr boys, 2 18yr girls, a couple of 22, my room mate 24 and we´re getting another couple of 18yr girls in 4 days. Othere than that theres a couple on their honeymoon 27, an 30 american, 35 belgian, 28 uk)
We then went for a get to know you meal which was nice and went to bed at 11. I had a horrible night sleep constantly waking up worried that my alarm wouldnt go off in the morning and id hold everyone up.
Day 2
We had to catch a bus at 11 so i got up at 9 got ready and bought some snacks for the journey. We took a public bus to Pisco (6 hours) but it wasnt too bad. there were a couple of english films played and we chatted but basically it took up most of the day. When we arrived we got settled and then went out for a meal and had the local delicacy, fish cooked in lime (as in raw fish chemically cooked by the acidity of lime). It was a bit like sour sushi but was quite nice none the less. After dinner we all went out to the local bar and had a couple of drinks. As it gets dark so early about 6 (pitch black) we were all tricked into thinking it was really late so most people went home about 8-9, the young guys stayed out later and tried to go to a club but it was completely dead so we went home at about 11 but it was quite a good bonding experience.
day 3- pisco
We had the option to get up early and take a boat to the loacal nature island with penguins etc. but aparently the sea was far to choppy (i didnt see a single wave). Instead we waited aorund until 9.30 to get our tour for the day. It was a private minibus just for our group and we all chatted etc on our way to the local winery. The winery was pretty fun and they showed us all how they stomped the grapes etc and how they made the "wine". I used the air quotes as although it was all made from grapes the majority of it was spirits ranging from 20% all the way up to 55%. Afterwards we had a tasting sension of all the different spirits which was pretty fun. We then had lunch at the winery and i opted for the local dish called tacu tacu which was goat meat and a sort of pea and rice blend which tasted like homous. For trying the local dish the owner gave me a couple of extra shots of the 55% stuff and then nicknamed me tacu tacu which now sort of means "crazy one".
After the winery we went to visit the sand dunes which were incredible. The city itself was in the middle of the desert so just 5 mins away were some awesome sand dunes. We had an optional activity so dune buggying and sand boarding for $20 for 2 hours which most of us did as our guide said it was one of the highlights of the trip. It was one of the bets things i´ve ever done. We raced around in the buggys for an hour in some amazing scenery, jumping of dunes and powering down really steep slopes. We then got driven to the top of a really high dune and got to sand board down. The whole experience was incredible and i got some amazing photos. The only downside is that my camera got sand in it from all the dunes and now doesn´t work :(. I´m gonna leave it a couple of days and keep trying it but it apears its got sand stuck inbetween the telescopic bit of the lens so it wont come out properly so the camera wont work.
We then got the bus onto the next location (Nasca) and got to know each other some more and had some bus kareoke. Although now it seems we´ve definately split into two groups, the under 25´s and the over 25´s which is a bit sad this early but probably for the best.
When we arrived at around 9 most people went straight to bed but some of us decided to stay up and try and recreate some of the drinks we´d had at lunch. We had gone to a supermarket on the way home and picked up some stuff but trying to make pisco sours with 3kg of limes, some pisco spirit and a bag of sugar just wasnt happening and they tasted pretty disgusting but we had loads of fun.
Day 4 - Nasca
We got up early and travelled to an acient grave site and learned about how the Nasca people buried their dead and the mumification process which was pretty interesting. The often buried important people with many others (salves etc) although just the skulls. We turned this into a stupid game of guess how many heads are going to be in the next grave which although a little morally ambiguous was really fun.
Next we went to a pottery workshop and learned how the Nasca´s used to make their pottery which was basically just an elongated sales pitch.
Next we went to the airport to do our flights over the nasca lines. Due to one operator being closed there were far less flights than usual and so some people wuldnt be able to go. As it was quite a lot ($100) and i wasnt that bothered i stepped down along with a couple of others and went back to the hotel. We sat by the pool and sun bathed and relaxed which was pretty good. When the others returned it turned out only 4 had been able to fly out of our group of 14 which was pretty bad. It wasn´t our tours fault as it was an optional extra but it was pretty much the whole point of coming to Nasca and a major thing to see in peru so some people were a little annoyed. Tonight we´re getting a night bus to the next location which will be great...
The blog turned out longer than expected. i just thought it would be a quick note to let you know im alive. Will try and get pictures up soon so you can see the group.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Last days of phuket
Again writing this on my iPod so there will be countless mistakes and it will be short.
Can't remember how many days ago the last post was written I think only 2.
The last couple of days have been pretty much the same, get up go to the beach, read or surf until it starts pouring with rain around 2. Try to ignore it but eventually give up and go back. Read book or chill until rain stops for a while, go for a wander, rain starts again come back. Not been able to work on my tan at all but its been relaxed.
I finally cracked and moved to a hostel near the party area which I wouldn't know anything about as I go to bed early every night.
Currently deciding whether to try and have 1 final night out before I have to go to the airport tomorrow at 8 or be sensible. Current thinking suggests that I have plenty of time to be sensible when I'm back in England...
Can't remember how many days ago the last post was written I think only 2.
The last couple of days have been pretty much the same, get up go to the beach, read or surf until it starts pouring with rain around 2. Try to ignore it but eventually give up and go back. Read book or chill until rain stops for a while, go for a wander, rain starts again come back. Not been able to work on my tan at all but its been relaxed.
I finally cracked and moved to a hostel near the party area which I wouldn't know anything about as I go to bed early every night.
Currently deciding whether to try and have 1 final night out before I have to go to the airport tomorrow at 8 or be sensible. Current thinking suggests that I have plenty of time to be sensible when I'm back in England...
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Day 24
Got up early and went to "watch" people train mma as my mother had forbade me from doing it myself. It was so hot and it looked as if all the guys who were training were knacked. I then went back to the beach for a while and chilled out. I then went back to "watch" the afternoon session. It was still really hot and must have been really tiring for this who did the morning session as well. I then went to get some BBQ with some of the guys who had trained. It was really delicious chicken breast and burgers. I then headed back to watch the evening class which was really informative and different. For some reason all that watching had madee really tired so I headed back and took a quick nap. I was rudely awoken by the two Canadian girls from the night before who were going to look for a club in the city. Not wanting to let them down and the promise of meeting up with some philipino girls eventually gt me out of bed and we went out. The main club scene was the other end of the island buy we found a pretty good one near us. Luckily for the grandparents that are reading this no alcohol was consumed and I was in bed by 11.
Day 23
I have a feeling that all future blog posts will be quite boring and follow a similar pattern.
Got up relatively early and headed for the beach. Spent all day sun bathing, surfing and reading. It so relaxing but I have a feeling that I've got burned. In the evening I met up with some Canadian veils and went out for a couple of beers. During the evening I found out that one of them hadn't watched the shawshank redemption so with little else going on we headed back and watched it back at the hostel.
Got up relatively early and headed for the beach. Spent all day sun bathing, surfing and reading. It so relaxing but I have a feeling that I've got burned. In the evening I met up with some Canadian veils and went out for a couple of beers. During the evening I found out that one of them hadn't watched the shawshank redemption so with little else going on we headed back and watched it back at the hostel.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Day 22
Drifting in and out of sleep we arrived in Phuket around 8:30. I ignored all the tuk-tuk drivers and headed straight for an internet cafe in order to check the address of the hostel i wanted to stay in. It said it was only a 5 minute walk from the bus station so i decided to walk it. Turns out it was more like 15 which in the heat and with a backpack meant i arrive absolutely dripping with sweat. I booked in and immediately went for a shower and a quick nap.
At around 11 i went down to the communal area where some people were discussing going to the beach. I asked if i could tag along and it turned out it was only one guy trying to convince the others to go so he was keen. We then were joined by a guy who was from spain (well an island of the coast of spain which is a separate state and hated being referred to as spanish) and a girl from manchester. By the time we all assembled we thought we'd catch the 12 o'clock bus. Then another girl wanted to come and she'd just be 5 mins. It was 40 mins without a word so we decided we should just go. The a couple of people wanted food so we went and got that eventually i think we caught the 1:30 bus and got to the beach around 2. He was pretty empty, boiling hot and had some crazy waves, awesome. There were tons of stalls offering surf board rental for 3pounds/hour and i was sorely tempted but the waves were huge and knowing i had no idea how to steer and not wanting to hit anybody i decided to leave it until tomorrow. Instead we met an aussie guy who taught us how to body surf, which is pretty much surfing but using your body as the board. It was pretty cool and helped you work out the timing and by the end we were managing huge surfs, almost as much as the surfers, just using our bodies.
We caught the bus back at around 5 which was the slowest thing i have ever seen, it averaged around 10km an hour as it was going really slowly past the beaches in order to try and pick others up, it was a nightmare and took us almost 1.5hours to get back.
We then all went out for a meal where the girl from manchester told us about a couch surfing party in Patong (the main party area in phuket) I had no idea what i was but it sound pretty cool so i said id go. After trying to find someone to take us there we haggled with a man who said he's take us there and then back at whatever time for 800baht. 16pounds between all of us. It doesn't sound like much but in Bangkok we were doing hour long taxi rides for about 2 pounds, this was only 10km away. It turned out they were all about the same price so we decided to discuss if it was worth it. Turns out a couch surfing party isn't as cool as it sounds. Couch surfing is where you sleep on someones couch when you need somewhere to stay in a new city or whatever. It had been organised through the couch surfing website to have a party on phuket but it sounded to me like it would just be a lot of weird people getting drunk together (anyone who rents their couch out to a stranger is either broke, a hippy or a rapist). We decided not to go and instead stay in and watch the champions league final instead. It was a good choice as a girl returned to the hsotel after having been to it and said it was just a quiet BBQ for an hour...
I tried staying up for the football (it started at 2 here) but got bored and went to get a good nights sleep so i could hit the MMA hard tomorrow morning.
At around 11 i went down to the communal area where some people were discussing going to the beach. I asked if i could tag along and it turned out it was only one guy trying to convince the others to go so he was keen. We then were joined by a guy who was from spain (well an island of the coast of spain which is a separate state and hated being referred to as spanish) and a girl from manchester. By the time we all assembled we thought we'd catch the 12 o'clock bus. Then another girl wanted to come and she'd just be 5 mins. It was 40 mins without a word so we decided we should just go. The a couple of people wanted food so we went and got that eventually i think we caught the 1:30 bus and got to the beach around 2. He was pretty empty, boiling hot and had some crazy waves, awesome. There were tons of stalls offering surf board rental for 3pounds/hour and i was sorely tempted but the waves were huge and knowing i had no idea how to steer and not wanting to hit anybody i decided to leave it until tomorrow. Instead we met an aussie guy who taught us how to body surf, which is pretty much surfing but using your body as the board. It was pretty cool and helped you work out the timing and by the end we were managing huge surfs, almost as much as the surfers, just using our bodies.
We caught the bus back at around 5 which was the slowest thing i have ever seen, it averaged around 10km an hour as it was going really slowly past the beaches in order to try and pick others up, it was a nightmare and took us almost 1.5hours to get back.
We then all went out for a meal where the girl from manchester told us about a couch surfing party in Patong (the main party area in phuket) I had no idea what i was but it sound pretty cool so i said id go. After trying to find someone to take us there we haggled with a man who said he's take us there and then back at whatever time for 800baht. 16pounds between all of us. It doesn't sound like much but in Bangkok we were doing hour long taxi rides for about 2 pounds, this was only 10km away. It turned out they were all about the same price so we decided to discuss if it was worth it. Turns out a couch surfing party isn't as cool as it sounds. Couch surfing is where you sleep on someones couch when you need somewhere to stay in a new city or whatever. It had been organised through the couch surfing website to have a party on phuket but it sounded to me like it would just be a lot of weird people getting drunk together (anyone who rents their couch out to a stranger is either broke, a hippy or a rapist). We decided not to go and instead stay in and watch the champions league final instead. It was a good choice as a girl returned to the hsotel after having been to it and said it was just a quiet BBQ for an hour...
I tried staying up for the football (it started at 2 here) but got bored and went to get a good nights sleep so i could hit the MMA hard tomorrow morning.
Day 21
Another lesson in lazy travelling today. We got up pretty early but just faffed around doing not much for a while. Went out to the nearby parked and just sat and relaxed before getting breakfast or a melted cheese toasty (very thai). We faffed around some more before heading back to the hotel in order to check emails and get some more money. As soon as we got in the rainy season started again. It was absolutely pouring so we decided to stay in for a while. After it had been rainy constantly for about an hour we decided to just to go out in it. Hugh was leaving today and so we all decided we would as well. Tiggy and Susie were going to Chaing Mai, i was going down to Phuket and Hugh was going to London to work for a bit which was/is pretty cool. There were a few things we each needed to pick up/book so we all put swimming trunks and old t-shirts on headed out. It was nuts, we were soaked through in about a minute but it wasn't cold at all. Just like having a constant shower. Everyone looked at us like we were mad but we decided we'd made the right choice instead of trying to dart between shops or use an umbrella (which offered little protection in this rain). We went and did our last bit of shopping and booked our tickets and the headed back. After showering, packing up and checking out Hugh had to leave to catch his airport bus so we walked him down and had another emotional goodbye. At around 5 the girls had to catch their bus so i walked them down and said goodbye, i was starting to think everybody was trying to get away from me...
My bus was supposed to be at 5:30 but the man arrived at 6. He took me on a huge walk all around the area picking up different people from each hotel (the reason i'd booked with my own hotel was so i'd get picked up from it not to walk around picking everyone else up). At around 7 we all pilled in to a minibus which took us to the station. In broken english the driver explained that the bus would arrive around 7:30 and depart at 8. He told us to wait at platform 17 pointed us in the rough direction and left, great.
We waited at the platform until the bus finally arrived at 9:15 and left at 9. It had taken me 3.5 hours just to get on the bus...
I was the only westerner on the bus bar a really fat old guy who was sat next to a tiny, really pretty thai girl (A great reminder of the fact we were in bangkok). The bus was in fact pretty good, reclining chairs instead of beds but after watching most of Born on the 4th of July i crashed out and didn't wake up until 6 the next morning.
My bus was supposed to be at 5:30 but the man arrived at 6. He took me on a huge walk all around the area picking up different people from each hotel (the reason i'd booked with my own hotel was so i'd get picked up from it not to walk around picking everyone else up). At around 7 we all pilled in to a minibus which took us to the station. In broken english the driver explained that the bus would arrive around 7:30 and depart at 8. He told us to wait at platform 17 pointed us in the rough direction and left, great.
We waited at the platform until the bus finally arrived at 9:15 and left at 9. It had taken me 3.5 hours just to get on the bus...
I was the only westerner on the bus bar a really fat old guy who was sat next to a tiny, really pretty thai girl (A great reminder of the fact we were in bangkok). The bus was in fact pretty good, reclining chairs instead of beds but after watching most of Born on the 4th of July i crashed out and didn't wake up until 6 the next morning.
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