Our week in Thailand - hot or what!

We flew to Bangkok and then rushed and nearly missed our connecting flight to Phuket despite it being the same seats on the same plane – but we had to clear customs, recheck in and run 2km back to our seat – why we had to do all this to get back in the same seat we are not sure??

We were taken straight to the boat and met the owner Sean, captain Jod and Tom, who had helped arrange the boat charter. We agreed the route around the Gulf of Thailand and the islands off Phuket for the week we had, and where to moor each night etc…. We had booked a Catamaran called Escape Artist, which was around 55ft, had 4 small cabins and had lots of deck space. We met Bi, the boatman/mechanic and Toon, the cook, and off we went. We were sailing around the huge limestone mountains (created through plates forcing the limestone from the bottom of the sea into these amazing shapes) that rise out of the water near Phuket Island and 50km around. There are literally hundreds of islands and very like Halong bay, which we had visited in Vietnam. The difference is that some of these islands are a little bigger and seem to have been more weathered and eroded into a whole range of different shapes.

And they include some famous islands where movies have been made. James Bond island with its huge slab of rock leaning against another mountain and its unique V-shaped island jutting out of the bay – all as per “the man with the Golden gun”. We also visited Phi-Phi islands. Phi Phi Don had been badly hit by the tsunami 6 years ago and had now been completely rebuilt – and overbuilt and now it is completely ruined, very touristy and busy. Ian had visited 20 years ago and stayed in one of a few huts on the beach with a few stalls – this quaintness had all gone – it was vey soul destroying that us humans now really do get everywhere – and in huge numbers!! We had the weirdest experience of our trip to date when we had "doctor fish" eat our feet of dead skin - the tickliest experience and very wierd - but they certainly did a good job for us all!

We then visited Phi Phi Le – where we saw a place on the rocks where they collect spit from the birds and their nests – for birds nest soup! We visited on the tender an amazing huge lagoon with vertical mountains on each side and only waist deep most of the time. And finally we moored up near Maya Bay which had an amazing beach – and this was where the movie “The Beach” was shot. We landed on all the islands with the tender boat and swam from the shore and wandered the islands where we could. Each night we moored at a different bay or island, swam and snorkeled from the boat. The boys learnt to fish with lines and catch a few fish. We saw turtles and razor fish, poisonous to touch. We wakeboarded with Sean, the owner of the boat, the night before we left and both the boys did well and avoided the Jellyfish. And on the last night saw the truly incredible sunset off the south side of Phuket island whilst having a glass or two!

The crew were really good as a team. The captain Jod was very friendly, ran the boat calmly and was co-operative on the options. Bi was so helpful on getting us to shore and helping with the kayak and fishing etc…. And Toon, the lady cook, served us excellent food – always Thai with a little western food for the kids. The crew really made the trip relaxing and enjoyable. The boat was perfect for the job. As it was hot we had plenty of deck space to sleep at night – as the cabins were not sleepable in due to the heat and were relatively cramped!! There was shade on top for sitting on during the heat of the day. And luckily, plenty of places to dive and jump off into the warm water.

So we really did live outside on the boat during the day, in the water every half an hour to cool off and slept outside on the netting or deck areas between the 2 hulls. No mosquitoes – lovely. We visited the beaches and islands that we were moored near. Most if not all were very busy during the day. We went to visit them before or after the visitors were there and tried to steer clear of the crowds, which we mostly succeeded in. We were glad we were not on land as it seemed incredibly busy whenever we landed on an island – thousands of people everywhere.  The islands and the beaches were very beautiful and with the lovely warm weather and the outdoor life we all had a great time. Sheena was the only one who wanted to leave the boat early to get away from the heat but otherwise it was a really good and enjoyable break for us all – a break from the weeks of travelling around that we had all done and from the next stage of the travelling around in Japan and China.

We were sad to leave the boat – the crew had made our stay great and the thought of hitting the cold weather soon was worrying all of us after nearly 7 months in the sun or at least relatively warm weather!

We flew off to Bangkok early in the morning and arrived at the fabulous Four Seasons Hotel where my great friends David and Nuala had been married 20 years ago. A great hotel for anyone staying in Bangkok. We had a guide – Dang – for the day and travelled by train/boat/Tuctuc around Bangkok to see the Grand palace and main temples nearby. Despite having seen many, many temples these were quite interesting mainly because they were Buddhist and had much decoration in the form of Gold and jewels. Travelling around Bangkok versus Sheena and Ians trips 20 years ago, showed that Thailand had really developed and was a much more modern and clean city than we remembered. Because we had our guide we were able to see the old Bangkok as well and see the exciting parts, which are how we remember Bangkok.

Thailand is clearly a leading country of the southern Asia area. More developed than the rest and having never been taken over and controlled by anyone else – it feels assured of its position and the people are friendly and helpful – and we again felt very safe. With 66m people – 10m of which are in Bangkok - there are lots of Thais we did not meet and areas such as Chiang Mai and Koh Samui that we would like to do again one day. But Bangkok was a nice stopover and we flew on to Tokyo Japan after a long weekend to find out how northern Asia compared to the South – sending all our summer clothes and goods home to the UK and getting prepared for some colder weather – 5-10 degrees C versus 35-40 C that we have had in Thailand………..