Koh Samui

We booked ourselves on a fishing and snorkeling tour and after waiting an hour to be picked up our lift finally arrived. We got a tuk tuk with 2 other couples and thought it would be a good day with a small group and when we arrived at the beach and the boats, we were given our own guide and our own boat! Was a great surprise. So we headed out on a long boat and dropped our lines in. We were fishing “thai style” which meant we were using hand reels. In the first 5 minutes our guide had caught 2 small fish and Rudi and I were getting nibbled but that’s about all! About an hour or so in and asking Pop to help me catch a fish, I got a huge bite and actually thought I was snagged. I pulled it in and to everyone’s surprise I had a small ( but very very big, humungous and ferocious) shark! We asked the guide to throw it back and I don’t think he really wanted to but after showing it off to the other nearby boat and a brag photo for me, he threw it back! Rudi had a big bite too, that nearly pulled him and the reel into the water but it got away so I think he was just faking it! Hehe! Anyway our guide caught another fish and after a couple of hours we headed to a nearby island for a bit of a swim and some lunch. The guide cooked the fish he had caught for us, was pretty yummy and we had lots of other food aswell at our own private picnic on the beach! Oh and for the first time in Koh Samui the sun is shining today! After lunch we were supposed to go snorkeling but the sea was quite rough and cloudy so he said it wasn’t very good for snorkeling so we spent another half an hour fishing for Rudi to redeem himself and catch something! No luck…more nibbles but no bites! We headed back to shore which was a very rough boat ride. The waves were big, we got soaked and I’m surprised the boat stayed upright! Anyway we had an ice-cream and a beer then headed back to the hotel. After a quick power nap Rudi got me up and we headed to the beach as we hadn’t had a swim in the beach near the hotel and since the sun was out today and it was our last day we thought we better. We walked down and it was quite busy. We went to go in and as we got near the water the waves looked quite scary. They were crashing right on the shore and it was almost impossible to even get past them to calmer water. Rudi eventually succeeded only to be picked up and dumped face first into the sand! The funniest thing I have seen in ages after I knew he was conscious and ok! I didn’t make it past knee level! We had a sleep on the beach for an hour or so then headed back to the hotel for a swim in the pool! More drinks in the pool and our last swim in Koh Samui. We packed all our bags ready to go for the morning then headed into town to our fav restaurant where we shared a beautiful BBQ Red Snapper. Delicious! We walked back along the beach sad to say goodbye and now we are exhausted and looking forward to a good sleep.

Koh Samui

Well I woke up feeling a bit better after a day of rest and we headed out on the bikes about 9:30am and headed north towards Chaweng. I was doing a lot better on the bike than the other day and felt a lot safer now we had helmets! We stopped on the way when we found another shooting range and Rudi shot a .44 magnum. It was very loud and he loved it! He even got a bulls eye! We then continued on in search of Football Golf. We had seen a pamphlet and after asking a few times for directions and driving a bloody long way we found it. It was heaps of fun kicking a soccer ball into a large hole just like a pitch and put course! I was winning by 2 shots after the first 9 and the final score was a draw! Oh and I fluked a hole in one! Was really good fun! The weather was quite overcast but still very warm! We then headed down the road and we had a round of mini golf. Just as we paid our money it bucketed down so we sat and chilled for awhile glad that we weren’t on our bikes and waited about half an hour for the rain to clear. Rudi won by 2 shots! Next stop we went in search of Big Buddha, we stopped at a temple that had a Big Buddha and thought we found it but later saw a sign for big Buddha so we realized we saw a fraud! At the fake Big Buddha were the cutest puppies. As soon as we stopped our bikes they ran up to us and just wanted cuddles, we wished we could bring one home! Anyway so then we went to the real Big Buddha which was down a very muddy dirt track with hundreds of potholes, was an interesting drive! Big Buddha was a large gold statue at the top of a big flight of stairs that looked out over the beautiful mountains and beach. After that we were both hungry so we jumped back on the bikes and found a nice English Pub in a small town along the beach. We both ordered a roast beef and it was amazing! First lot of food I have really enjoyed in a very long time! After enjoying a very yummy lunch in a beautiful setting right on the beach we continued on our journey. We stopped at Chaweng to see what it was like but was just lots of shops so we kept going and stopped at a look out point and walked down to the rocks on the water. We sat there for awhile and enjoyed what we could of the very dark and overcast view! From there it was speed demon all the way home! No falls or near misses today although apparently I scared Rudi when I went flying into a big puddle which had a big pothole in it you couldn’t see and nearly went flying off my bike, I had it under control though! As soon as we got home we went for a swim and a drink in the pool and it was quite chilly tonight. Bit of a cold breeze so not as nice as the last couple of nights! Rudi is addicted to the bike so he has headed into town to buy some more drinks and we are going to chill here and play some snooker then head back to the restaurant on the beach we were at the other night and enjoy some more shisha and some yummy dinner. Only one day left in Koh Samui…very sad! Ok well I wasn’t going to write anymore but just got back from dinner and Rudi said I had to make an addition to the blog! So there were no accidents on the bikes today but you cant take me anymore. We are sitting at a beautiful restaurant with table and chairs on the sand, candles, waves crashing and out comes my beautiful sirloin steak. One bite delicious…second go I flipped the whole plate off the table and into the sand, knocked the candle and shisha off and our drinks! It was a clean sweep and very embarrassing. Rudi and the staff thought it was hilarious while I just wanted to run and hide! The lovely staff made me another one but I felt terrible and was such a waste of beautiful food. We asked if they could put the steak I dropped in a bag and we took it and left it for a stray dog! Not completely wasted!

Koh Samui

Well today was recovery day for me and boredom day for Rudi! I hadn’t been feeling great still so opted for a day at the hotel. As we went to breakfast it was pouring rain! Was a horrible morning so a good day to spend in bed. When it cleared Rudi jumped on the bike and went to town to get some DVDs to watch, Was nice just doing nothing for a day. We watched Dinner for Schmucks…was a funny movie but the DVD quality wasn’t good…that made me laugh more especially the subtitles! I was so lazy we didn’t even go out for dinner we opted for room service and had dinner on our balcony and played a few games of cards before going back to bed to watch another DVD, Fighter which was a little better quality!

Koh Samui

Well for the first time in a long time we were both awake before the alarm and headed to the resort restaurant for breakfast which put on an amazing buffet. I’m still not back to my healthy self so cornflakes and toast for me but Rudi enjoyed some eggs and sausages. We then came back and packed a bag for the day and headed off on our scooters we hired from the resort. We both got off to a wobbly start and Rudi nearly scared another scooter off the road with his attempt at crossing the road! Quite funny! We had some trouble starting the bikes too, Rudi’s didn’t like him sitting on it and mine liked to be on a down hill…the truth we were just idiots and didn’t know how to start them! We went north for a bit but didn’t see any touristy signs so we turned around, I stacked turning around, very funny apparently for some, and headed back south and followed the signs to a waterfall. It rained for a fair way of the journey and some of the roads were quite flooded. We turned off the main road to check out an aquarium and tiger zoo but when we got there it looked pretty lame and was quite expensive so we jumped back on the bikes and kept going. We eventually made it to the waterfall, Namuang Waterfall 2, and I was quite relieved to have made it in one piece! We walked about 30 minutes to the waterfall and it was quite amazing. The waterfall is 80m high and really stunning. There were quite a few tourists when we arrived but they disappeared pretty quick. We were standing watching on the side for awhile and a local guide came over to us and told us not to stand there because we were standing right under a massive coconut tree with heaps of coconuts just waiting to drop on our heads. Apparently more people die from coconuts falling on their heads than lightning strikes or something stupid like that! We climbed across some rocks to the other side of the waterfall and sat and ate our lunch and took some photos. Was beautiful and very peaceful. We headed back down and at the bottom was a Safari Park, which had an elephant show, monkey show and crocodile show about to start so we paid the expensive entry fee, bought some bananas to feed the animals and headed in. it was really quite horrible. The animals were kept in small bare enclosures some even chained inside the enclosures. We fed a couple of the monkeys and then wandered around. When we were sitting waiting for the elephant show Rudi spotted a tiger and we went to check it out. It was the most beautiful tiger in the tiniest of cages with absolutely nothing and it was pacing around in circles. Was really sad, there excuse was that it is temporary and they are building nice big natural enclosures but there was no work being done anywhere in the park. We sat for the elephant show now not really wanting to be there and it was an eye opener. When the young elephant came running in he charged a family past us coz he could see bananas then when they screamed and ran away it came for me and I rescued one bunch of bananas but he stole the whole other bunch we had! Cheeky devil! We took some photos and fed the elephants some more then the show began! They had elephants standing on two legs bum up and head up, playing hula hoops, tug of war against the crowd, soccer and then Rudi volunteered to go up. They laid him down on his back and then the elephant came over and they said he was getting a massage. The elephant starting feeling around with his trunk and they were making jokes…”that’s not a banana…so in other words the elephant attempted a happy ending! Anyway then it gently stomped, (not so gently Rudi said) to massage him, no kids for us anymore! We then went to the monkey show where they were dressed up and some had makeup on…was very over the top and not very nice. They had the monkeys jumping through hoops, fire twirling, playing basketball, singing etc. The kids loved it but was all a bit cruel for the poor animals. Last was the Croc show and the croc trainers were psycho. The crocs did seem rather doped out but the trainers were sticking there heads in there jaws and getting money out from not just in its jaws but down its throat (they opened the flap at the back of its mouth to put the money in and out) Pretty insane but the croc didn’t move once while they did it! Anyway we fed the rest of the bananas to the caged monkeys on our way out and were glad to get out of there. We then headed about a km down the road to check out the shooting range and Rudi shot a 9mm Special Handgun. It wasn’t cheap but Rudi hadn’t shot one before and wanted to give it a go! After he finished we had a drink and a game of table tennis…which I won! Hehe! Back on the bike and we were home on no time…I was setting the pace all day because I was scared so all morning I think I averaged about 25km/h with a one off max speed of about 40km/h. On the way home average speed about 35km/h with maz speed of 50km/h! What a speed demon! Once back at the resort we dumped our bags and then headed to the pool with a drink in hand! The pool was coolish but nice once in and we chilled in the pool admiring the beautiful view of the cliffs and the beach. After an hour or so we headed back into town on foot and had a lovely dinner on the beach! We shared a very good Shisha , a couple more drinks and great food in a beautiful setting! We headed back home about 8:30 and we were exhausted…such old folks! Off to bed for a good nites sleep and another day of adventures tomorrow!

Siem Reap - Koh Samui

So with good intentions of taking some nice photos today I got up at 5.15 and got a Tuk Tuk back past the already busy Angkor Wat straight to Bayon temple (one with the big faces) I got there at about 6 and it was still pitch black, headed straight into the temple and set up my tripod to take a photo of the moonlit ruins, go to turn the camera on and guess what! I bloody forgot to bring my battery! So after about 10 minutes of cursing and considering going back home to get it (would have taken too long) I decided to stay and just enjoy it, watching the sunrise with bats screeching and going to sleep, birds screeching and waking up, giant 1000 year old faces looking down on me and only about 4 other people there whom 90% of the time I couldn’t see! It was simply amazing, it felt as if I was the first person to be here in hundreds of years - then and there I decided I was coming back here next chance I get. I left Bayon at about 7.15, the sun had come up but it was fairly cloudy so no beautiful morning sunlight (I would have been cursing even more about not being able to take photos if there was) I headed back to the hotel and Bec was awake but still in bed. We had breakfast and then I had a quick sleep and then off to catch our flights to Bangkok, then after a brief visa scare in Bangkok we continued on to Koh Samui in another little propeller plane, an hour and a half later we arrived in Koh Samui where it was a nice hot 31 degrees, we were picked up by our hotel and driven to pretty much the other side of the island which took about 45 min. After checking in we headed out to check out whats near us, found the beach and a nice little pizza place on the sand so we had some pizza and beer on the sand watching the waves roll in, it was really beautiful.

Siem Reap

We left the hotel at the painful time of 5.20 today and headed straight to Angkor Wat, it was pitch black when we got there and pretty hard to negotiate the steps and cobblestones on the way in but we made it with about 400 other people! It was busy with way too many tourists who got there at God knows what hour to be in the front row as it was already packed at about 5.45. So we watched the sunrise which was actually really beautiful as it hid the huge scaffolding standing right in front of the temple and afterwards headed to a beautiful little temple called Banteay Samre, it was great as there was no one there! So we walked around in peace taking photos, you could only walk around this temple as there was ropes up to stop tourists from entering but for 5 dollars you could bribe the guard to get inside and take photos of each other, we decided to give it a miss. Next we had a quick breakfast and then headed to Benteay Srey, East Mebon, Pre Rup and Benteay Kdei, all were fairly impressive some because of sheer size eg Pre Rup and others because of detailed carvings. During the drive I asked the guide some questions about Pol Pot’s reign and he told us a story about his father who killed a cow to feed his starving children, the Khmer Rouge found out and his father was ordered to go report to the town hall the following day for punishment, his father feared execution and told his family he might not return, 4 hours before he was to report to the town hall the Vietnamese army rolled through possibly saving his life, very lucky! Finally the last temple on our tour was Prasat Kravan which is one of the first temples built, I actually thought it was a newer one as it has been heavily restored and so in very good condition. We then headed back to our hotel for a well earned rest. After a couple of hours sleep we headed back into town, we checked out the market and had a look around, bought a few more souvenirs and then had some dinner and finally home again.

Siem Reap

Well we got up fairly early after a false start where we both ended up going back to bed to sleep for another 30 mins. After getting some take away breakfast from our hotel we were on our way to Angkor Wat, we arrived outside the moat which surrounds the complex and walked up a little way where we crossed over the moat on a huge bridge to the main gate, after the gate you can see the 5 spires of Angkor Wat which unfortunately for us were obstructed by some lovely scaffolding covered in green cloth! So we headed in and were amazed at how steep the stairs leading up to the top levels were (our guide told us this is so that when people entered the temple it was hard for them so they appreciated they were entering into a place for Gods) at the rear of the complex there are wooden steps built for tourists (after some tourist fell off the original steps and broke their leg) we climbed the steps which don’t really look that big but once your up the top it is a great view and looking down from the top of the steps is a little scary. We walked around the top which has a few rooms with statues of Vishnu and other Hindu Gods. After taking plenty of photos we made the steep descent and left Angkor Wat and headed for Angkor Thom which is a walled in city and contains Bayon Temple, Bayon is very different to Angkor Wat as it was built by a Buddhist king, it contains huge statues of the kings face which face in 4 directions, again a lot of restoration work going on ruined it a little but the huge faces are quite amazing, following Bayon we walked around Angkor Thom a little more seeing various other ruins. After some lunch we headed to Ta Prohm which is definitely our favorite! It is left a little more to nature and has huge trees growing amongst the ruins, with the trees roots seemingly both holding the stone slabs together and yet slowly over years pushing them apart, it was really beautiful with the only shame being heaps of tourists. After Ta Prohm we decided to head back to the hotel as it had been a long and very hot day and we were both exhausted. Once back home we quickly headed out to dinner making a stop off at the fish foot massage place we went to yesterday, we again tried the fish massage followed by a $2 neck/back/shoulder massage which went for 30 minutes! Then we had Cambodian BBQ, we cooked our own meat at our table and it was delicious! We had beef and snake!! The snake was fantastic - like a mix between chicken and fish. After dinner we headed back home as we have a very early start tomorrow to get out for sunrise at Angkor Wat.