After 26 hours solid travelling I’ve made it to Chiang Mai!

3 hours boat
6 hours bus
11 hours bus.

Very little sleep but be happy to be here!
Tiny toilet

After a couple of nights in a very nice & well set up beach hut, we decided to move to a quieter part of the Island and a place that had a nice secluded beach. We were sold more on the location than the actual accommodation.

The hut itself only had walls half way up to the roof and huge gaps in the floorboards. The bed had what would best be described as a useless mosquito net.

We had a great night in the bar – between us there was a Russian, two Germans, a Canadian, a Fin, a Brazilian & me. Very relaxed and a lot of fun.

The morning was a bit of a different story. I lifted up the toilet seat to find a gecko hiding in the bowl. After that ran off I spotted a lizard about 12 – 15in in the shower! I generally don’t mind lizards, but the size of this one was a bit of a shock at 8am. I’d also been bitten to hell by something, with at least 20 new bite marks everywhere.

After that I decided to move on, so after breakfast and a 30 minute trek along the worlds maddest path I have a room with real walls. It’s very clean & probably the nicest room I’ve stayed in so far.

This is the amazing island of Ko Tao.

Here is a view from my chair…

3rd class Thai train to tropical paradise. Beach hut is 300 baht per night (£6). Crazy day of contrasts and 13 hours travelling with very little sleep

Here is a map of the route from Hua Hin to Chumphon.

A few pics of the destination too.

Currently sat on the train from Bangkok to Hua Hin (it doesn’t have wifi, I’m writing offline to kill some time), stopping there for one night to break up the 9hr journey south.

The information about the train timetable online was wildly wrong, so we waited from 10.30am – 1pm for the train.

Only 3rd class tickets available which means no aircon. The heat is bearable though and the chair comfortable, with at least 4x the leg room of a British one. The 4hr journey is an astounding 150BHT (£1.50)

Here is a map of the journey!

So far the known variables of my trip are:

• Flights booked (29th Oct – 27th Dec) Manchester – Bangkok
• First 2 days accommodation booked in Bangkok
• Travel Guide
• Insurance
• Backpack with my possessions

Err well that’s pretty much it so far…