One month into our South East Asia adventures

Arriving in Thailand - first two weeks in Ao Nam Mao

The hut we lived in for the first two weeks

The long-tail boats we used as transport between our village and Railey beach

After spending two months back at home in the UK, we have finally made it to Thailand! All the excitement and anticipation have finally given way to the discovery and exploration of a new country.

We arrived on the 14th December, and stayed in this quiet peaceful village until Christmas time. Our accommodation for the first couple of weeks is a beach hut resort located near Ao Nam Mao village in the Krabi province. The little huts are right on the beach, and at night time you can hear the waves lightly splashing while falling asleep. For 520 Thai Baht (£13) per night, you get a two-person bungalow with a private bathroom, A/C, a fan, clean towels and a free breakfast every morning. The facilities are basic, but you get all you need. There are plenty of chill-out spaces - a hammock, wooden platforms with cushions, a swing, and some chairs with bamboo tables, all overlooking the sea. In the mornings, when the tide is in, the water is clear and nice. In the afternoons, when the tide goes out, the sea is shallow and murky. So I figured that the best time for a dip in the sea is after breakfast. The only downside of this place is that it's about a 10-15 min walk to the nearest restaurant, which in the day time is not an issue, however at night when it's pitch black, and as two females, it can be quite scary, especially when there are groups of men on scooters hooting and shouting at you. We sometimes get food cooked here, but it's a bit more expensive than in the village and not always available. We have discovered the local songtaew buses, which will take you to the nearby towns for around 40-100 THB (£1-3). They are open walled buses with two parallel benches facing each other. They are easy to use, but you need to know their approximate route to be able to flag one down. There are also small long-tail boats, which are another mode of transport. They cost about 100 THB (£2.50) one-way, and can get you to most nearby coastal towns within 15-20 mins. To get to Railey beach for some rock climbing we have to take one of these long-tail boats. Unfortunately the last one goes back at around 6-6:30pm, so we can't really stay late there. You can hire one to take you back, but it costs about 800 THB (£20), so you need to have a few people wanting to go back at the same time in order to make it more affordable. We have been climbing a few times on Railey beach, been to Krabi Town a couple of times, where we went to the cinema for the new Star Wars movie, and had dinner at the night market. We also did a day boat tour: Seven Island Sunset Tour, with a BBQ on the beach, snorkeling and a fire show. Unfortunately Nadia got sea-sick towards the end of it, and has been unwell all night. The food has been great so far - we've been eating mostly Thai food (as it's so yummy and cheap), and we're not tired of it yet! Although if you have a craving for other cuisines, you can pretty much find anything here. Initially we were finding a lack of fresh vegetables in our diets, as we were too nervous eating fresh salads, which could have been washed in non-drinking water, and have been trying to find more dishes with at least cooked vegetables. However, soon we transitioned to Papaya and Mango salads (marinated in lime juice, fish sauce, garlic and chillies). We are also eating lots of fresh fruit salads for breakfast, desparate to fit in our 5-a-day fruit & veg intake. So far it's been a positive experience, and we can't wait to see other parts of the country.

Exploring the islands of South Thailand

New Year's Eve in Patong beach, Phuket

At 'The Beach' on the boat tour

Snorkeling around Phi Phi

After our two weeks at the beach bungalows of Dawn of Happiness, in a secluded quiet village of Ao Nam Mao, we met our friend Blerina who came to visit from London for a couple of weeks. She was staying on Railey, where we ended up going for a night on Christmas Day and then three more nights before going to Phuket.

Railey was more lively than Ao Nam Mao, but also more expensive and touristy. After being quite isolated for two weeks, we were happy to be somewhere with more atmosphere, music, bars and restaurants. The place we stayed was also a little bungalow park called Rapala Rockwood Resort. It was more expensive than our previous place, so we opted for a fan room with shared bathroom, which worked out at 600 THB (£15) per night. Railey is more famous as a destination, especially among climbers, so we expected to pay more. On Railey we spent our days rock climbing, going to the beach and relaxing... And one of my best highlights of Thailand so far has been our last day climbing on Phra Nang beach. As we'd gone up my last climb of the day, we were rewarded with the most beautiful sunset over the sea. The view was breathtaking. As I came down, we literally took our sweaty climbing clothes off and ran into the sea to catch the last of the sunset. This is how I pictured our climbing in Thailand to be!

This was the sunset we were rewarded with on our last day of climbing in Railey

Soon our time in the climbers paradise was coming to an end, as we moved on to the next destination - Patong Beach in Phuket. This was our New Year's celebration treat, where we booked to stay in a 4-star hotel. If we were going to be somewhere like Phuket, we needed a luxury hotel to have as a respite from the craziness. Phuket has a bad reputation of drunken tourists, trashy youngsters constantly drunk, international overpriced food, noise and music everywhere, and lots and lots of hotels, bars and restaurants. Why did we choose Phuket? - we knew we were going to be in small isolated places due to our rock climbing, so we wanted something different, and we wanted a party for NYE. And a party we got!

New Year's Eve party & countdown on Patong Beach

NYE was as loud, busy and lively as we expected. Every bar was bustling, with drunk people spilling out. We chose somewhere half-decent the for dinner (a place called Cafe del Mar, which turned out to be a fake version). The restaurant was still nice and not too noisy. However all the food we ordered turned out to be extremely spicy and we all needed a moment to come back to our senses while our mouths were on fire! After dinner we wandered right into the centre of all happening, and stumbled upon this massive beach party with a DJ and big crowd. Lots of people were releasing lanterns into the sky - and even we braved one! (Thankfully with no accidents). After spending about an hour in the crowd, we walked back to our hotel, and as a final activity of the night, jumped into the hotel pool! (Even though oficially it was closed to public at that time of night). No one kicked us out, and instead switched the pool lights on for us. That was a funny way to end the night at around 3:30am.

In the hotel pool at around 2am on NYD

New Year's Day we mainly spent by the pool, achieving a 100 lengths each. I was happy to do something sporty on NYD. "Start as you mean to go on", and all... On the 2nd Jan it was time to move to our next destination - Phi Phi Don island!

Phi Phi - the lost paradise

As we got off the boat on Phi Phi Don, our expectations of a white sand paradise island were instantly crushed. The port was a busy hub of tourists trying to figure out the way to their booked accommodations, and locals hungry to sell you their hotel stays and services. It was a mad claustrophobic bustle, which we couldn't wait to get out of with our heavy backpacks. Thanks to my offline maps app maps.me, I was able to figure out the way quite effortlessly, and within 10 mins we were all checked in to our respective hotels. Blerina's hotel was only a couple of minutes walk from our little guest house, so we met up soon after checking in to go for lunch. We stayed a total of 5 nights on Phi Phi (Blerina stayed 3, as she had to fly back home).

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Phi Phi (not necessarily in that order) It's not so easy to put your finger on the good of Phi Phi, as the bad unfortunately is quite disappointing and jumps to the foreground of our memories. The once paradise island with its white silky sands lined with coconut palm trees, clear sea water, beautiful sunsets and some scattered beach huts, has been tragically devastated by the tsunami of 2004, and most of the island's infrastructure was destroyed. Since then, the island has been rebuilt, much for tourists, to the extent of being almost unrecognisable.

Boats lined up all along Phi Phi Don

This is what the main beach on Phi Phi looks like at night

Now it looks like a party island for 20-year olds, with stalls selling cocktail buckets for 200 THB (around £4.70), lining every passage leading to the beach. The beaches are bustling with noisy bars and bright neon lighting well into the night. With the clientele and reputation the island has gained, come the higher prices for food, accommodation and groceries. The only thing that's cheap on the island is the alcohol - great if you're a 20-something year-old come to the island to party. We were at least hoping to enjoy the white beaches, however every time we wanted to dip in the sea, the tide would be so far out, that you have to walk a great length to reach water, and even then it would be over rocks and coral. So actually in the time we stayed on Phi Phi, we didn't even swim in the sea. The only one time we did, was when we went on a snorkeling boat trip, which took us to Maya Bay (where The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed). Luckily for us, we found some good rock climbing up on the hill, with beautiful views over the island and the village below. We had two climbing days, where we met two friendly American/canadian couples, whom we spent a few evenings with. The rock climbing is not so well known on Phi Phi, as there are rumours that climbing was banned there. However, we happily discovered that it wasn't, and what's even better for us, the crag was uncrowded, easy to get to, had some good easy climbs within our grade, and had beautiful views on everything below. We found our little happy place up on the hill away from the crowds.

This is was the view from the top of the climbing area on Phi Phi

We both finished a climb at the same time so decided to take a top of the climb selfie

Although we really enjoyed the climbing and had a fun last night on the island, where I randomly volunteered to participate in a Muay Thai fight in return for a free bucket of cocktail (I didn't do it for the cocktail, but to entertain my friends and show off to my girlfriend), we will probably not be coming back to Phi Phi. Instead we continue looking for our perfect paradise.

It's funny to think of the irony of the film The Beach, where the idea of it was to get away from the touristy madness and find a secluded little secret island. And now thanks to that film, that beach became one of the main tourist attractions in South Thailand!

Koh Lanta - our last island

After Phi Phi we decided to spend our last week in South Thailand on a peaceful relaxing island Koh Lanta. Initially we hadn't even heard of it, until a few travellers we met along the way said they were going there. Suddenly we felt we were missing out, and decided to go to Koh Lanta too. On the island we stayed in two different places, both along the western coast, where you get to see the best sunsets! This island is best for a relaxing break, long walks, lazy days on the beach, delicious cheap home-made meals, friendly locals and cute cats (most look quite well fed and happy).

One of the happy cats in Koh Lanta being fed some fish

There were two places we originally wanted to visit to experience the island: the waterfall, which you get to by trekking through the jungle for 40 minutes, and the Old Town. However, we were a bit stuck without transport. We tried to brave renting a scooter, even though we've never ridden one before, but every person we met advised us against it, having witnessed some nasty accidents. We also tried renting some pedal bikes (most posters advertise rental of bicycles along with scooters), however after searching long and hard, no place had any. We could have gone with a tuk-tuk taxi, however they were quite expensive, so we just gave up. Instead we spent the week sunbathing on the beach and swimming in the sea, getting fit at the gym, swimming lengths in the pool and working out in our hotel room with a new Tabata routine we've created. I also did a yoga class on the beach, which was a very pleasant experience.