Jess is in Koh Samui

On saturday the girls and I spent the day at the beach, that is after it stopped raining! Was great to chill out under the big umbrella, although because of the rain the water wasn't clear at all and there was lots of seaweed around. That night we had dinner at Pineapple Phuket with almost the whole crew from our dorm, we were a bit worried that it was a bit much for Nut, the cook! But all worked out, cant beat the 50 baht beer!! After that, went to this random little bar thats just a few stools outside at a bar. Had to stay there for a while cos it started thundering down with rain! Made a break for it, and went down to the Coconut bar at the corner of our 'street' and started playing Connect 4, i won twice! Someone at the bar rung a bell which meant free beer for everyone, so i happily downed a Singha that i didnt pay for :) Didnt have a very late night as was a bit tired.

On sunday i missioned up to the Phuket airport, which took about 2 hours. Got to the counter to check in, and found that because the credit card i have isnt the one that i bought my tickets with (i got it renewed before i left), i had to go up to Bangkok Airways office and they refunded the ticket price to my old credit card and then had to pay for a new fare. I will probably have to do the same when i fly to Bangkok on saturday, i really hope that works out...dont want to have to pay for those flights again! :S

The flight over to Koh Samui was pretty cool as the weather was really good and could see all the little islands below. Koh Samui airport is the CUTEST airport ever, its so tiny....and has the nicest bathrooms, i mention that because the airport bathrooms in thailand are not nice...actually neither are the ones in NZ!!

Got a little minibus to my guesthouse (http://www.akwaguesthouse.com/) which is a cute little place but right at the other end of the beach! Its quite nice to have my own after being in a dorm for a week, with a huge king sized bed, AIRCON, tv and someone cleans your room everyday! In the arvo i met up with my Irish friend Ryan and we got a beer at the Irish pub on the main street, and a cheapish meal at this hostel...then thought it would be cheaper getting a beer at the 7-Eleven so we did that and had a few on the balcony! Yesterday (monday) i got up a bit late, had breakfast downstairs, potted around and went for a big walk down Chaweng Rd which took forever as i was looking at all the stalls. I bought some fake Havaianas (which i think i got ripped off) and this wraparound skirt from this lady who handmakes them...she was SO gorgeous. If you ever go to Koh Samui go to the plaza thats just across from Pizza Hut, go right to the very end stall on the right and there she is. Her fabric is really beautiful and so cheap compared to what you can get back home. After that i went on a walk down the beach and back to my hostel to recover from the heat! Walked back down to Ryans end of the beach (took nearly half an hour!) and we had dinner on the beach, there were a whole lot of tables there, plus these 'floor tables' i guess you could call them where you sit cross legged and you have these cushions you can lie on. We had two jugs of Chang between us and watched the crazy lightning that was going on around the bay, the lightning spikes werent going down into the sea/land but were going across the sky so creating heaps of crazy patterns, and also lighting up the whole place for a second or two. There was lightning in front and behind us, so it was pretty cool! What wasnt cool was heaps of Thai's coming up to us with all kinds of animals (snakes, monkeys iguanas, eagles) wanting us to get photos with them (HELL NO), little 5 year old girls wanting us to buy necklaces off them, people with glow-in-the-dark balls, bracelets..you name it! But anyway, you kinda get used to it.

So today is Tuesday and im sitting in my room with aircon (love it), was just preparing to go to the beach when it started to rain, and pretty hard! So now im thinking about what to do, as there isnt much to do when it rains here im thinking and i dont want to be in here all day!

Anyway, will post some photos on here when i find my camera!

Ciao for now :)

Jess is in Phuket

hey guys

So went to Wat Pho on sunday which was cool, did a big walk out there in the wonderfully muggy weather...got harrassed by lots of tuk-tukking people and went along my merry way just ignoring them all :D
Wat Pho is pretty amazing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho)...a huge Gold reclining buddha! There were a few temple things around that, so had a look at those for a while, then decided to leave...i was a bit 'Wat' - ed out. As i was leaving this thai guy asked me where i was from etc etc (which is their hook to lure you in to get one of their mates to take you around the city in the tuks) and i said thanks but no thanks...ended up doing this massive walk around the city, but there wasnt actually anything to see, just alot of grey buildings...but interesting all the same and good to be in a part of the city that wasnt so crowded. Can't actually remember what else i did that day...even tho it was only 4 days ago! Feels like forever.

on monday i got a bus to the airport nice and early, and hung around there for a bit for my flight to Phuket. The airport is so hardout!! Just ridiculously huge. Got on an old school plane via Air Asia, and only took about an hour to get there, waited at the airport for a while for our mini van to drop us off as they wanted a full van so after half an hour we finally left, there were some nice aussies and canadians on the van so that was cool, had a bit of a chat with them about what they were doing etc. Took forever to get to my hostel as i was the last to get dropped off and on the way to Patong/Karon we had to all get out to go into this travel shop to apparently tell these thai girls where we were staying so they could write the directions in Thai, but its actually a ploy to get you to buy some tours with them...they do it to everyone! But they didnt try it on with me so thats all good. After i got settled into my dorm i went for a walk to get some dinner-for-one. Went to this outdoor restaurant which seemed cool and they were playing Bob Marley...had a nice dinner then they cut off Bob and this Thai lady came on to sing, and she had a really bad voice...as she was singing she tried to sound american and it didnt come off very well...i left soon after. Walked further up Beach Rd and ended up in Kata, where they have this cool restaurant that looks like its straight out of The Flintstones!! Its called Dino Burger and the staff have Fred Flintstone costumes!! They had this little elephant outside though, and its put me off the place as the elephant was just on for show and its eyes looked really sad :(

On Tuesday i went for a bit of a wander around, and went down to the beach to take some photos...sat down under a tree for about an hour, didnt intend on staying for that long (as i was going to go back to get my togs) but it was just so relaxing and chilled and it was all so pretty to look at i couldn't tear myself away! Went back to the beach in the arvo which was better anyway as it was less crowded. Stayed there for a while till it got dark, chilled with my book Shantaram and my ipod. The Thai guy that owns all the sun loungers came over to me and had a big chat with me, and asked where i was from...he was very sweet. Back at the hostel i got talking to two english girls Lisa and Claire and went out for dinner with them that night and a few drinks, and randomly one of them knows Sarah who i went to uni with! So thats all very funny, such a small world.

The next day i went on a day trip to Ko Phi Phi and the surrounding islands via speedboat which was absolutely amazing!!! I would love to go back and stay there one day, or one of the islands around there. Went to Maya Bay where The Beach was partially filmed, snorkelling, went to a Viking Cave and to the Monkey Cave to see some monkeys and in the process invading their territory which i wasnt that happy about, glad i had my rabies shot. After that went to this resort to have a buffet lunch and met two really nice english people who were on my boat. Went to this teeny little island about the size of the Basin Reserve (just the playing field) and had a swim there, was lovely as there were heaps of little fish in the water and the water was so clear!! Then headed back after that, was a really nice day. You really wouldn't know that there had been a tsunami there, they have done such a good job of rebuilding.

Later that night went out for dinner and drinks with Claire and Lisa, went up to the other side of Karon for a walk and had a drink at this hardout ladybar, so funny seeing the old guys with the thai girls...how blatant they are! We were mocking them, and this Canadian guy who was actually prob in his 30s felt a bit stink and started talking to us. Walked around some night markets after that and took a back road which took forever to get back!

Yesterday we went out to Phuket town via a bus, with the sole aim of shopping shopping shopping!! The shopping wasnt as good as it is in Khaosan Road but we all managed to get at least one thing, i got some Thai fisherman shorts for cheap, so nice for the weather here. Might buy some more when i get back to Bangkok. It was so incredibly hot so we splashed out for a Tuk Tuk and got driven around everywhere. Was good to have another day out. Last night we went out with a new guy in our hostel, Ryan from Ireland and went to a restaurant up in Kata that had a special promotion on beer...3 Changs for 90 baht! This is a real bargain as thats about 3 beers for $4.50! After that went to a bar with a pool table that was free in the girly area and had a few drinks there...i didn't do too badly seeing as i hadnt played pool for ages. After that we got some beer from 7-Eleven as it was much cheaper, and found a random table with chairs by our hostel. Some random Thai guys came over and joined us with their beers and we tried to have a conversation with us, we got so far as talking about football and what teams we like and they kept saying 'lailo' or something to us, but we had no idea what that meant and maybe we dont really want to know? Such a random night, but very fun. We are all feeling a bit worse for wear today tho thats for sure!! Its been so great having Claire and Lisa to hang out with here, they are such great fun and best of all i can see them when i get to the UK!

Was going to have a beach day today, but its overcast so i think we will just hang out at the hostel...plus its just started raining! Which is kinda nice, hopefully cool things down a bit. Seriosuly its just so incredibly hot, its normally between 30-35 degrees all the time and because its so humid, it feels way hotter than that. In our dorm we just have a few fans around, i have one that fans in my direction but its on the opposite wall so dont get it hardout, but there is a revolving one that revolves around the person next to my bed (im on the top bunk) and i get a bit of that so thats pretty good. Very much looking forward to AC in Koh Samui next week!!

Looking forward to catching up with Anna Shanahan (from wellington) tonight for dinner as shes over here for her honeymoon. Have one more day here after that and leave on Sunday, not sure what else I'll do here but probably just take it easy.

Thats another big ol' post from me...probably should do them a bit more regularly to keep them smaller!!

anyway hope everyone is well :)

जेस is in Bangkok

kia ora

i am in bangkok! Arrived at 9pm-ish on thursday night. The flight over was 'ok' despite i didnt get the extra leg room that i asked for, got what everyone else had...dammit! Gonna try to get the exit aisle, they had a sweet deal. Saw a few movies, one was Rachels Getting Married which was a bit emo, and Twilight...i really dont get how everyones so into the Twilight vampire guy. Seriously, pale as anything and just has this weird look on his face. Probbaly the thing that won't give the flight a 10/10 is the Thai guy next to me, who insisted on hogging the armrest...even when i had it once he pushed my arm away, plus when he did have the armrest his arm kept touching me, so id move further away from him...making it incredibly obvious that i was uncomfortable...but he really couldn't have cared less :P So an interesting flight. The Bangkok airport is pretty choice tho, really futuristic.

Arrived at the Ibis Hotel over an hour later, didn't realise that taxis don't have seatbelts! So thats a bit fun. Got there ok and pretty much went straight to bed, felt pretty weird being in a new country...plus it must have been an extra hot day cos i was sweating up a storm after getting out of the airport & my glasses were fogging up! The next day got a taxi to my little hotel/guesthouse in Soi Rambuttri (a street away from Khaosan Road)...i thought the reception people told the taxi driver where to go, but he actually had no idea. So he asks me where it is, i gave him the address...he thinks i said Patong...which is the red light area!! So after an hour we get there, and im totally freaked out that hes going to leave me in this awful place...so he calls the Rambuttri Inn and they tell him where to go, and he laughs his freakin head off! Then it took another 30 mins to get there. So glad to leave that guys taxi, its incredibly hard conversing with someone who cant speak english and who is also rude.

Rambuttri Inn (http://www.khaosan-hotels.com/) is nice, its not amazing but its clean which is a bonus. I was such a dork when i went to have a shower this morning and thought the shower was broken...when i was just a silly white girl and didnt turn the knob properly. I went downstairs and told them it wasnt working and this old guy came up to have a look at it...shame!!

Was feeling a bit shitty about being here (along with being lonely & missing everyone back home -wish i had a friend with me here), with the noise, people constantly coming up to you to buy something and the dirtyness...but had a productive day today so feel better. Went off in search of a pier to get a boat down to the southern part of town, in order to get a train thing to these markets (met a Scottish guy yesterday who suggested it & said it only cost him 40 baht to get the boat)....this thai guy said it would cost 600 baht so with that i just left after failing to renegotiate! So just walked and walked and walked...and ended up at the Thailand museum, so that kept me busy for a good few hours, then walked a bit more and ended up at the Grand Palace which is pretty amazing! You have to be pretty covered up, so you had to borrow some of their clothes to wear around the palace...a sari thing and a big blouse, really really hot. So that was all worth the mission. Yesterday i had a wander and turned up by the river wher this lady was giving an outdoor aerobics lesson, it was really cool...if i had my sneakers i would have totally gotten into it!

Outside the palace there are heaps of people running after you to buy things, there was one little boy who was trying to sell thesepostcards,and just wouldnt leave me alone. I was being nice and i said no...ive already got some...no thankyou. He just wouldnt stop following me so i gently turned him around by his shoulders and he got the idea!! Walked past this big dirt field which i think used to be grass, was really weird...it was multifunctional...served as a home for some homeless, a hackysack thing tournamet, chess tournament, kiteflying, a place for people to pee in, sell food that looks like dogs legs & stuff that resembles little octopuses. Very amusing!! So many people sell food on the side of the streets, its crazy...and i cant even begin to guess what it is theyre trying to sell...most of it looks foul and it smells pretty gross!! But i guess someones eating it so it cant be that bad...im just sticking to food that doesnt make me gag :P

Tonight i had a nice cheap foot massage, bought a thai fishing skirt (same style as those fishing pants), got some yummy indian so im in a much better mood!

Off to Wat Pho tomorrow...should be interesting!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho...the reclining buddha!

peace, love and miss you all xx