Thailand - The perfect finale to a perfect trip!

Wow, only one country left before we get home!!!

We flew out of Cairo for Bangkok via Dubai (for 3 hours). We arrived a little sleepy as we'd stayed up all night watching movies on the plane. The instant I arrived in Thailand I knew I was going to love it! All of a sudden we were in a familiar world again! When people smiled at you it didn't mean they wanted money. The streets were clean, traffic was predictable, and everything was done in an efficient and orderly manner. Women were everywhere, wearing whatever the hell they wanted! Ahh normality... plus the weather was beautiful to boot!

We had decided to spend the majority of our time in Thailand relaxing on the island of Koh Chang, which meant we had very little time to see Bangkok. The main things we wanted to see on this particular trip were all the main temples along the river; Wat Pho, Wat Arun and Wat Phra Kaew, as well as some of the palace buildings too. All of them are beautifully decorated and extremely detailed, and were such a refreshing change after Europe and the Middle East, all of Thailand was to be honest. We visited the famous Khao San Road where I bought plenty of cheap T-shirts and Jo bought plenty of T-shirts too as well as plenty of everything else :P Everything is just so cheap! Haggling however doesn't work as well in Thailand as it does in Egypt. Everything in Egypt is marked up by about 1000% but in Thailand the asking price is only a little higher than the selling price. When you haggle for a T-shirt you'll probably only get about one dollar off. But that's still one dollar! One of the coolest things about Thailand though is all the crazy little street vendors who sell everything from home made curry paste and toasted nuts to fried squid and grass hoppers!

Wat Arun

Wat Arun

Wat Arun

The reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.

Wat Phra Kaew

On the day we arrived in Thailand everyone was wearing these yellow T-shirts and we couldn't really work out why? We didn't really know anybody to ask either so we just thought it was some weird national uniform worn by people who work in service (as everyone who had helped us with bus tickets, information, accommodation and restaurants was wearing them). Then on the second day everyone was wearing pink T-Shirts! What the hell is going on?!?!? Later we found out that the yellow coloured shirts are to show support for the King, as it was his 80th Birthday at the end of the week. However the pink shirts were to make the Queen or a particular woman in the royal family feel better as she had recently fallen ill... Amazing!

Everyone out in yellow to show support for the King.

Our 6 days on Koh Chang were perfect and very relaxing, though we were a little busier at the beginning of the week than the end. We attended a Thai cooking school and learnt how to make all this awesome stuff with ingredients that I'm probably going to have to drive all over Sydney to find... Galangal? No one is going to know what that is!!! (FYI - its a less spicy member of the ginger family). Though I am definitely looking forward to making Pad Thai again. It was really tasty!! It is the definition of fast food however, not because it's fast to make but because you have to make it fast!! When a tiny little Thai woman keeps telling you to add the next lot of ingredients every 7 seconds you just do as you're told! NO QUESTIONS!

Cooking course on Koh Chang

Our other main adventurous activity was an hour or so of elephant trekking... very cool! Just wandering through the jungle rocking back and forth, it was a really good day. You also get to climb out of the seat and ride on top of the elephants head. I think my knees were digging in behind her ears a little so she decided to use her ears to crush my leg. I had no idea they were so strong! When the trek is over you get to feed the elephants bananas which gets a little dangerous with half a dozen enormous and dexterous trunks fighting bananas out of your fingers! Then afterwards you can also go for a swim with the elephants. The elephants are taught to look all cool and relaxed and lure you onto their backs and just when you are getting comfortable and enjoying yourself they spray water all over you from their trunks! Gee, didn't see that one coming!

Elephant trekking

Feeding the elephants.

Swimming with the elephants.

The place where we stayed was totally gorgeous, and only a little expensive. We'd decided to stick to our tight-arse European budgets when picking accommodation in Thailand which meant we could stay in the most luxurious of bungalows! It had a double bed, a cupboard, a chair and desk and full sized bathroom out the back. It also came with its own form of insect control, in the form of 4-5 geckos that lived up around the light bulb! A bungalow fit for a king! Maybe not the King of Thailand though as he's pretty old and there were a lot of stairs :P

Our bunglaow

Our bunglaow

Chillin' at the bungalow

After that we just spent time relaxing on the beach, walking into town, eating Thai food, buying ice creams, getting massages and playing with this baby monkey that belonged to one of the restaurants in town! Her name was 'Funky'! Really cute and destructively playful!

Funky the monkey!

Strolling the gorgeous (SAND!!) beaches.

Sunset on Koh Chang

Well after the super relaxing week and the relative completion of my tan, it was time to head back to Bangkok for some last minute shopping and the final plane that would take us home to Australia!