Bangkok, bad weather, changed plans and a hunt for sunshine!

So we had half term recently, and a few girls and I decided to go to Bangkok for 3 nights and some islands near Phuket for 3 nights. We booked it (80 quid for all flights!!) all then checked the weather reports and discovered it was still monsoon season in the Andaman Coast, which is where Kho Phi Phi, our ideal destination, is. Eek! We thought we’d go for it anyway.

Bangkok apparently is like Marmite – you either love it or you hate it. I loved it! Luckily we went with someone who used to live there so she was able to show us the best places to stay, eat, go out etc and we ended up in a really cute guesthouse in a cool area known as Sukhumvit. We basically ate lots of good food, had thai massages, looked at amazing temples and shopped (or attempted to shop in my case). The Grand Palace is out of this world…seriously one of the most amazing places I’ve visited – we spent 4 hours (in the flipping hot sun) just wandering around it and saying “Amazing…” a lot. The shopping…well there’s this huge weekend market with over 6000 stalls. Perfect for shopaholics! I lasted about 10 minutes then found a café to sit down in for 45 minutes.

So after our lush 4 days we boarded a plane to Phuket with the intention of getting a ferry to Kho Phi Phi asap so as not to spend long in Phuket. I’d heard it was pretty hideous and can confirm that it is a complete dive. It’s like the Benidorm of SE Asia! I don’t think I’ll be going back any time soon! We ended up having to spend a night there as missed all ferries. However as it turned out we arrived in the middle of a very bad storm! Further investigation revealed that the whole of Southern Thailand was enjoying this lovely storm; we weighed up the pro’s and con’s of spending 3 days on a tropical island in the pouring rain and gale force winds and promptly changed our flights back home.

And so found ourselves back in KL searching the internet for rain-free beaches within easy reach. It seemed that every good beach/dive site was covered in thick, black cloud! But within 6 hours we were on a night bus headed for Mersing on East coast of Malaysia, where we then took a ferry to Tioman Island. And guess what?? Sunshine! Hurrah! The next 3 days consisted of sunbathing, eating, snorkeling, diving and card games. Happy days! Tioman isn’t quite as beautiful as Perhentian, but it’s much cheaper and the diving was slightly better. I did a brilliant dive around all these boulders and there was one bit where we swam into a cave bit at the bottom then swam to the top of it to get out…it was JUST like Ariel’s trinkets cave in The Little Mermaid! I had a singsong to myself.

Have a look at the photos on Flickr (link above).

In other news…my class are finally beginning to ‘get’ me and are talking a lot more, which I’m thrilled about! They’re really cute and I’m enjoying the class a lot more now! We’re trying to get Wake and Shake going in school and I’ve found myself leading whole school dancing 3 times a week (inspired by you Miss Dixon!)! We’ve got a Deepavali (Hindu Festival of Lights) celebration day coming up and the staff (well, the cool members of staff) are learning a Bangra dance for the celebration assembly – it’s SOOOO cool! We’re also getting our own Punjabi costumes made for us and we’re going to get some of the parents to henna our hands – SO excited!!

Outside of school everything also good…lots of attempting to keep fit. I’ve joined a gym and have even been to it a few times (they phone you if you haven’t been for a while!). We’ve found some cool dance classes to go to. Eating out a lot as I’m lazy and I don’t have lovely housemates to cook for me, but I tell myself it’s ok as eating out is very cheap, and food from the supermarket isn’t! Getting bitten a lot by mosquitoes no matter how much repellant I use! Flat is finally tidied and sorted ready for visitors so get out here! Going shopping today to ‘Megamall’ – think Cribbs x 10. Wish me luck!

Coming up…a trip to Sumatra to go on a jungle trek and up a volcano or something – I don’t think I’ve read the itinerary properly but sure it will be fun (sweaty, but fun!).

Take care y’all!

Jen