Getting to Khao Sok!

Wednesday night was a bit more successfull. I walked back into my room after updating my blog to find someone...my new room mate as turns out... rucksak! Shes lovely, called Tanya and is from Germany. Shes a film set/prop designer and is actually 30 but to look at her you'd never believe it she looks 24 if that! Anyway i finally gotto meet Tanya at about 5ish and we went out for a gorgeous meal together and she showed me the main tourist street of Bangkok...really busy!

Thursday we met the rest of the team at 9am. Theres 14 of us and our guide Sam (hes got a Thai name but he told use there was no point trying to teach it to use and everyone calls him Sam anyway), 10 of them did the North trip though so knew each other all really well. Theres people from all over, Tanya (obviously shes german), Brit (shes from Norway), Andy and Sarah (Birmingham),Nici (Nottingham), James, Reuben (hes from Bryon Bay, how cool is that!) and 4 ozzie girls...and an irish couple dave and savi (well thats what we all call her shes got a really irish name). So it was great meeting the team and finally meeting someone who speaks english!!! WE had yet more problems with STA and the company doing the tour, interprid i think theyre call... rubbish who ever they are. Got into another fight with them about money. We have to pay a local cost but the costs all went up in novemeber and some of us werent told that we were expected to pay 8500 bats at the start of the trip,our info says 4250. Anyway there was a huge fight with us,interprid and the people we all individual booked with. Some didnt have to pay the extra i did and am having to claim it back later... wasnt a great start! Then i was told that coz i booked late... which is a joke coz i didnt it was a problem their end and they cancelled me...i didnt have a train ticket to wherever it was i got the train...so i was booked on 1st class on the train leaving an hour later. Fantastic... not exactly! 1st class over here isnt that exciting, apprently still better than what the others had but thats not saying a great deal. We had a 12 hr overnight train trip and in my room(yes i had my own room) i had an lovely but totally insane Irish women and her 3 year old son lucas! The pair of them total hippies down to being veggies and their herbal medicine. Lovely people though and they live in Hebden Bridge! So you can imagine how excited i was that Lucas had a yorkshire accent! (Not totally sure why i miss it, you guys drove me insane in Peru!) Anyway it was a good trip, i got sung to when it was bed time and had a lovely bed time story, never thought bob the builder would send me to sleep at 9pm!

Yesterday, Friday we arrived at the train station and i meet the team. After they had breakfast (i had breakfast in bed on the train, awesome!) we caught the 2hr bus to Khao Sok. Going though the mountains im told is truely beautiful, i was sleeping and missed everything, but no real suprise to anyone there! We staying at the Art Riverview lodge which is right on the river and reminds me some much ofour lodge in the Amazon. Truely gorgeous and ive never enjoyed a cold shower as much as i did yesterday. We grabbed some lunch and got back onto the van and they took us tubing down the river. So much fun, hard work at times as the river was really still in places but such a laugh. We almost had a storm too, it all clouded over and the guided told us it was going to rain and be really stormy...it started spitting and then stopped,clearly never been walking in the lakes for 4 days with gale force winds! When we got back to the lodge all the monkeys had come down to the riverside and we were feeding them bannana,well most people were but they looks like they were going to be like them kangaroos so i just threw mind in a totally girlie way! It was so amazing to see, they were jumping out of trees, diving into the water, swimming, fighting the works, it was awesome! Going to go back to the lodge for 4 again today and get them on film!

This morning,was another fantastic experince. Me, Tanya and Reuben got up really early to go Elephant trekking...fantastic! Really really weird but truely fantastic... they are gorgeous animals and have spotty ears! Nothing like i imagined they were, never been that close to an Eleplant before. Great morning... then this afternoon i treated myself to a thai massage. Oh my god! It cost me 300 bats for a back and shoulder, and a facial massage... which was basically all the back of my body and well my face. 300 bats is about 4 pounds! Amazing... never felt so relaxed and refreshed... and they can move your body in directions you never believed possible! Amazing!

Anyway best be heading off...were having a big BBQ at some bar tonight that Sams arranged for us then we have a really early start tomorrow to catch the bus to kao samui...i think its called...to you and me it means to the beach! Beautiful white sandy beaches with clear blue sea! Cant wait!!!!

Love you xxx

Stressed!

What a morning! Today i was meant to start my tour... well i still am! Got up nice and early and was all checked out by 8am and was sat waiting in reception. You can safely say im not a big fan of STA Travel at the moment thats for sure. I was getting abit worried about when i was getting picked up so i spoke to the travel people at the hotel and had the weirdest phone call with someone..god knows who, someone from STA in Thailand i think it must have been. Anyway he told me that i had been cancelled off the tour on the 22nd December...to say i wasnt happy was an understatement! Anyway i decided being my normal self wasnt going to get me anywhere and neither was crying or calling home at 2am! So i spoke to the girls on this desk and they gave me an address for the tour guides. They were very helpful and really lovely. So i went to this first hotel... and the guide told me i needed to go to another hotel when the office is. So i got into another taxi who left me on this main road and nearlly stole my bag... its funny now... at i found some nice police offices who gave me a ride on his motorbike... picture this me on the back of this motorbike with my duffle bag which is sooooooooo heavy and my ladybug bag, quite a sight! Anyway i found this hotel and im meeting everyone at 6pm and it all kicks off tomorrow. So any eventful morning and its only 11.30! I told Gaz last night i had a bad feeling about this tour and i was clearly right to.. its all sorted now. I dont know what Tallis did to me but shes carmed me down over the past few years and Vicki's clearly had a positive influence on how i handle challenging situations when you dont speak the language!

Lucy good luck to you with STA... they're a lot fun! Im sure you'll be fine... i handled it without crying!

Anyway still having a great time and cant wait for my next challenge and meeting everyone tonight and i finally get to chat to someone english again!

Love you xxx

Bangkok

Hey
Day one and all that...Im so knackered after yesterday and ive never been so bored of sleeping! Should have picked up some sleeping trips off Steve before i left! Flight get were alright. Was sat next to an old couple on my Manchester flight who were 75 and celebrating their 50th wedding, a really lovely couple. I of course was sporting my Peru hoodie and dog tags (a safety thing... it was like Mark and Vicki were still in charge of me and anything which could go wrong) and this couple were heading to Peru. It was quite nice actually knowing something about somewhere. And then on my flight to Bangkok i was sat with a young couple from Manly who had been travelling round Europe and were doing Thailand on the way home! Anyway i made it here and only got checked at Manchester...wasnt happy! Dont think the guy realised how much id got in my hand lugage and how much of a skill it was to fit everything in!

Its really hot and sticky here and im not totally sure what to do with myself today. Ive got to find out what time im getting picked up in the morning for my tour which might be quite a challenging experience! and really should go find some food and get some money, im more interested in the sun and the pool outside though!

Anyway speak to you all soon and thanks for all my comments.

Love you xxx