Koh samui - a birthday treat for Luke :)

Our time in Phuket was coming to an end we were a little sad but couldn't wait to get to our villa in koh samui with our own hot tub :) we arrived at the airport and were called for boarding......we walked towards this tiny plane with propellers not big wings with engines......propellers ! To say Luke wasn't impressed was an understatement ! He didn't particularly like flying at the best of times! It was so small the plane there was around 45 people on it and just two rows of two seats with a tiny isle ! It was the smallest plane I had ever been on! But the flight was ok thank god!

We arrived at this tiny airport in koh samui found our transfer and got on our way, it was a lovely drive lots of lovely scenary. We arrived at the villas at around 2.45 we thought the room would be ready as check in is at 1pm but unfortunately we didn't get to our room until 4pm :( slightly annoying but anyway.....I also noticed that we had been overcharged for our transfer which I confronted the staff about and they tried to give he an excuse but in no way did it make sense! So it got refunded, we were given a wifi code for our room for free as I had join us to the centara club. We arrived to the room.....first impressions it was lovely.....

......we had this gorgeous bath tub with lovely shower over it, we were pleased :) but unfortunately we had many many problems when we arrived to many to name but in the end we had to get the manager we were so unhappy about it, we had payed a lot of money to stay here for a special occasion, and were just unhappy, the manager heave us free dinner and a massage each, but it wasn't about the free stuff it was about getting it right in the first place! Anyway it didn't spoil our holiday but it just wasn't what we expected from a 4 star hotel, one night we had no hot water at all, none in the hot tub or anything, 11 o'clock at night later they said it was a big job and did we want to change rooms! That late at night I didn't think so they had already offered us another room the first day and it was terrible! Anyway after a while we felt we just couldn't complain anymore so we just enjoyed our time there.

The first couple of days we rented another bike....

 

....,,we rode around the whole island In about 2.5 hours it was really fun, we stopped for lunch at a lovely part of the island called fishermens village and had the nicest tuna baguette :) we then continued to the rest of the island stopping to take pics, it wasn't like Phuket where there were lovely beaches everywhere there weren't many beaches that weren't privately owned By hotels but we knew we had a lovely beach waiting for us at our hotel so we weren't bothered!

Our hotel gad dome lovely sea views and it was so peaceful we had a fab time there (except when the good old Asian rain storms randomly came over in about 2 seconds with no warning! )....

 

 

We saw a couple of the sights on the bike.... The mummified monk.....

 

....which was a little weird!

The rude rocks of koh samui.....I can't actually remember what they are called!....

 

We met lots of lovely dogs, very placid and down to earth especially the hotel dog! ...

 She was super cute. And is actually sitting next to me as I write this :) she loved all the guests and used to follow everyone at night that took a stroll on the beach :)

Our hot tub in our villa (after the hot water was sorted out ) was lovely and we spent a few evenings in there with so e drinks just enjoying doing nothing.....

 

 

.....even in the rain!

We spent Luke's birthday here and we had a lovely day I arranged a romantic breakfast on our terrace and a morning full of spa treatments :) then we spent the afternoon by the pool drinking cocktails, followed by an evening meal at The hotel :) it was a lovely day like enjoyed himself.......

 

......we also had lots of laughs with the underwater camera in the pool......

 

 

 It was such fun :)))

All in all we enjoyed our stay in koh samui :) this is just a snippet of our time here, we really enjoyed settling in one place fora. While instead of moving around all the time, the food was great, the scenary was amazing and we enjoyed spending time together in a relaxed environment. We enjoyed many many cocktails :) and of cors the weather :)) I will leave you with some pics of the beauty that is koh samui :) .......

 

 

 

 

Phuket - a little piece of paradise :)

We flew down to phuket from bangkok with air asia which I wasn't expecting to be great as it was a budget airline, like super budget but it was actually very good, people had wrote bad reviews about it but if it gets you from a to b safely what is there to complain about?....

......anyway arrived in Phuket safely and met our hotel transfer service a lovely new air condition car :) the journey was suppose to be an hour but due to traffic it took nearly 2, but we couldn't really care less! Arrival at centara Karon resort was smooth we were given an arrival drink, filled in all the forms blah blah and were shown to our room......a lovely corner superior room with a lovely view, it had a huge bed, walk in wardrobe big bathroom with bath and shower it as like heaven to us as we had been slumming it for about 6 weeks! We settled in and decidedw e would go to the hotel restaurant for dinner as it was all you could eat freshly cooked burgers of all meats including vegetarian :) it was sooo tasty, and there were all the trimmings there aswell it was sooo yummy :) there was loads of sald I was in my element I had been craving a good salad for weeks I was missing my weekly visits to the harvester with my cousin Becky and her gorgeous son Sami for salad cart :) we stayed in the restaurant fora while Luke ordered all you could drink beer for around £3 bargain! And I found a cat and two kittens that in my head were starving! So I was getting chicken breast for them and feeding them! Love animals :) everything at this resort was charged to your room which was fine but we didn't know until we got there that on tip of the price of things you had to pay 10% service charge and 7% or more goverment tax! We were shocked we didn't realise this before We booked we thought it was a bit cheeky, the prices of food and drink were quite reasonable for a resort like this but then you have to add nearly 20% so it made it more expensive :( anyway it was a lovely resort so be just forgot about it and had a good time, as this was our treat before slumming it again in newzealand! The hotel had 3 pools one which was shut for renovation which Luke was a bit disspointed about but the other pools had swim up to bars which he loved and one had 2 small flutes which when a adult went down them you kinda just flew off the end of it was fun! We had some fun times in the pool here, we bought a ball played some games it was nice and relaxing :) just what we needed :)

We spent lots of lovely evenings in the small town that surrounded us, in happy hour drinking some cocktails together eating some good food having some laughs :) it was so nice to relax properly ! We ate one night in a lovely restaurant called two chefs it was so romantic, low lighting, candles and a live band singing 3 Asian girls and they were simply perfect it was lovely so lovely Infact that we went back the next day! There was so much choice for restaurants as there always is in touristy places like this that you just had to go with your instinct and pick one! 

We hired a moped here for a couple of days to go out and explore on our own, it was great fun with my gorgeous driver Luke! He takes good care of me on the bike we always seem to get the big engined bikes! We rode and rode sometimes just to see what we could see! Other times to actually go places......we rode up this seriously steep hill to the "big Buddha".......

...it was a big Buddha ! With a temple belie it where there were monks chanting and blessing people! It was good! And the views were amazing up there, on the way up there and on the way down! .....

After the big Buddha we drove around, and found the lovely little resort of kata, the next town along from us, we parked up and went for a dip in the sea! it was so warm, like a bath :) ......

......we stated here for around 2 hours, it was quite touristy here, you can't sea it in the picture but the beach was super busy and there was so many people selling stuff along the beach! We got back on the bike and just rode to see where we would end up! It was a nice coastal ride and we ended up along the coastline of our local beach - karen beach! It was a long long stretch of sandy beach not as busy as kata beach. We drove as far as we could along the beach front then sat and had a cold drink looking out at the view......

......we spent the next few days at the beach and by the pool chilling out, trying to get a tan but getting more burnt then anything else! Even though we were using factor 50! We had great fun on the beach the waves were really strong and quite high......

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....... Heaven!

 

We had such fun :) the water was lovely and clear and clean, we headed back to the pool mist afternoons as it was so hot! We were loving phuket :) 

 

We enjoyed the quality time we spent together here, and were sad to be leaving, but also excited to be going to explore another island, we were off to koh samui :) 

Bangkok - the end of our tour & the start of our own time :)

We had a flight from chang mai to bangkok which should have been a overnight train but due to floods and 18 trains derailing in one month the track was shut, we didn't mind flying was quicker and more comfortable :) we were flying with a airline called nok air. I had never heard of them Before I believe they were just another budget thai airline, wish I had known before we may have been able get our domestic flights even cheaper then we did, a tip for next time :) our flight was painted like a bird....

.......it looked pretty cool :) the flight was very bumpy especially on the way down it was like we were just nose diving down to the airport! We were not impressed it was horrible. However we landed safely and headed to our last hotel with the group.....

......when we arrived at the hotel we went to our room and it was awful :( it just absolutely stank and there was a cockroach running around :( I knew we were on a budget tour but this was not acceptable we went straight back down to reception and explained and they couldn't even seem to understand the word cockroach ! Anyway we eventually got moved to a much better room, thank god, but in actual fact we just wanted the tour to finish and to go on our own. We went out the hotel to look for the shop bangkok is not what we were expecting we were a little disspointed we weren't near anything and it just seemed like all the other Asian towns we went to. We were to meet the group for dinner later and go to kao San road, the backpacker district, we weren't overly excited but wanted to go to see what it was all about! The restaurant we ate at, (again the tour leaders choice) was just standard, the meals were tiny and pretty expensive, Luke ordered a Pasta and when it came out we thought they were joking he ate in with about 4 spoonfuls! Not what we was expecting, we finished the meal went for one drink with the group and then decided we would look. Around the market and go back to the hotel, we had just basically had enough of being in the group. The market stalls were like all the others we did manage to find me a new hand luggage bag, back at the hotel we packed and got ready for the next part of our tour independently.

We flagged a taxi down the next morning to take us to our next hotel "the rembrandt" we just couldn't wait for some luxury and luxury we got :) we arrived and the concierge desk took care of our luggage we sat and had a complimentary cup of tea while we waited for our room to be ready, it was a lovely hotel. We headed up to our room, we had a big room with a lovely big window and huge bathroom, we had some controls next to the bed controlling the air con, lights and whether we want our room made up or not to be disturbed! It was just what we needed :) we went for a night swim at the rooftop pool and looked at the views :) we were happy and relaxed.

Our time in bangkok basically consisted of shopping, eating and chilling out :) all the things we needed :) we had to find Luke a new bag so looked up online the best place "MBK" center, a huge shopping center with a mix of shops and market stalls....perfect :) we spent a lot of our time here as it was raining and there were thunder storms everyday, we ate a lot of pizza, shopped and went to the cinema! And spent quality time together :) we didn't really do any site seeing, mostly because it was raining heavily everyday, and the sky train did not go to the places we wanted to see so we would have literally got soaked, next time :) Luke found a bag and we haggled the price, it was perfect - backpack on wheels that opens like a suitcase :) he also found some cheap glasses as his broke but these weren't so good ! I got my nails redone. 

One evening we went to some Muay Thai boxing at the mbk center it was on for 2 hours and the rain actually held off for the whole time! It was a good event I enjoyed it and it was something Luke wanted to do so we had a good evening there. 

Overall our time in bangkok was good we enjoyed it, even with the crowds of people and traffic it was good. We would come back to bangkok defo for the shopping and for all the sight seeing we never got to do, it was so nice being able to plan our days the way we wanted, we enjoyed our group tour but by the time the end came we had had more then enough! Our next chapter was in Phuket and we couldn't wait to get there and relax on the beach something we were craving to do! 

Lady boys!

So being in asia we expected to see lady boys,but I don't think anything can prepare you when you actually see them. It was our last night In chang mai and we all met for dinner, our guide said he would be happy to take us to a free lady boy cabaret! We thought why not! You couldn't really come to thailand without seeing one!

After dinner we walked around the market area and I spotted so least boys for the show posing for pics!i thought yes! I need to get a pic with them, hey were only to happy to have a pic with me and after I put 100 baht note down one of their bras! It was quite an experience!......

......after my pic they were calling Luke over! He was mortified! And want edit I move on quickly! I thought it was hilarious. We went over to the show it was was already in full swing!we were greeted by a whole host of lady boys,it was amazing to see the efforts that had been made to help them look like woman,he show was good, funny and entertaining :) I enjoyed it, Luke was most uncomfortable,especially if they tried to talk to him! In the end he did have a laugh :) I was pleased that we saw the show what an experience!.....

The elephant sanctuary :)

So after much research we found an elephant sanctuary that wasn't cruel to the elephants, that didn't make them dance or put wooden benches on there backs for humans to rude them, didn't make them play games etc etc. it was in chang mai and we decided that was the place we would go, it was my dream since I was a little girl, elephants were my favourite animal :) and I was sooooo excited :) Luke also very much wanted to do it :) we booked for a whole day with the elephants and I just couldn't wait  to see them.

It was close to an hour journey to the sanctuary a lot of time for me to get excited :))) we arrived and immediately saw at least 20 elephants :) I just couldn't believe how clues we were to them! They did have one chain attached to one leg and we would later find out why that was.

We suited up appropriately to be with the elephants......

...and set off to feed them! We were given big baskets of sugar cane and bananas, of course they preferred the bananas ! They each had a keeper that was sitting with them, and we had to ask whether it was ok that we feed them or take a pic! I just couldn't believe we were that close to these huge mammals, it was a little intimidating! But I enjoyed it so much :) we went round to all the elephants we could and fed them even the babies :) 

 We did this fir quite some time then sat down to have a chat with our guide. He answered a lot of questions I gad going through my head, it's as if he knew what questions we would all ask! He gave us loads of info on these elephants....

In thailand elephants are commonly used to make money in many different cruel ways, dancing, putting on shows, begging on the streets, used as tourist attractions and used in circuses. Often not being properly looked after :( these people at the sanctuary approach the owners and buy these elephants off them and bring them here to live a better life, sometimes they don't have to approach the owners the owners will approach them because they cannot care for the animal. A lot of baby elephants are bought there gave been seperately from there mothers :( it was quite sad hearing it all but I was head all the elephants were now having a better life :) he answered the question about the chains ..... In the wild elephants form heards together and they stay in these heards, unfortunately all of these elephants have been so cruely treated apt hey cannot form heards together, there is a very strong possibility they will fight, they also gave been mistreated by humans so understandably we cannot expect them to trust us :( this is why they need the chains mistily for there in protection, however the whole day we were there they inky gad the chains on in the morning when we were feeding them, the rest if the day, they went on walks had a bath, went under done shade to cool down, so I was pleased and satisfied they were being properly cared for, they eve had there own elephant hospital for any injured animals.

The next part of the day saw us learning how to ride the elephant naturally! No Woden benches as this is cruelty, it was terrifying I am not going to lie! You climbed on the elephant using there leg and there ears to pull you up and then it stands.......OMG It was very high up there,I couldn't seem to feel like I wasn't going to fall, I wasn't very comfortable at all and getting downs as even scarier!its like you had nothing to hold onto. Luke did it like a pro! He was quite confident doing it :) .......

 

 

 I quickly decided that when we were to go and ride them after lunch that I would be on the back and not on the neck! We were soon to break for lunch so just chatted some more with the guide, he went on to tell us that this sanctuary was not government funded as they did not support it ! I thought that was terrible, I was so pleased tho that were people here in thailand that decided to start this sanctuary with no support they get slot of supply's for the elephants through donations etc, it just be so hard for them continue with no funding, what an amazing job :) and people :) I was pleased to be hear and fir us to make our cintrubution to them :) what a worthy cause. Each elephant had a keeper and you could clearly see the close relationship they had, the elephants enjoyed there company and the keepers cared a lot for them. We had a lovely lunch and sat in a hammock fir a but and just watched the elephants go down for there baths and to call off! 

 After lunch it was time to meet the elephants we would depend the rest of the day with! We were assigned the largest one there "malaroo" or "malamoo!" We can't quiter remember her name but she as huge we thought the guide was joking when he said we would get her! She was lovely, and just so big  and tall! I got on her back first which I immediately felt safer on! And Luke climbed onthe neck, and then we were off........

......it just took your breath away being so close to this amazing creature and I still could not believe what we were doing  :) we went round the whole complex once (the elephants were in a complex as the goverment would not allow them to roam in the jungle :( ) it was pretty big tho, and half way round she got so hot that she sucked up a muddy puddle and sprayed both her sides with it getting us (mainly me) covered I mud! It was sooo funny.....

......We stopped for a rest and to let the elephants cool down and have a rest, although an amazing experience it was quite painful on the old legs! We went around again and then it was time to bath our elephant......

.......our elephant got Into the water, had a drink and cooled herself down, while we collected our bucket and brushes! I was super excited about this, she was so hot it was gunna be nice to cool her down and brush her, I climbed right In very excited not knowing there was quite a drop in the river! (Obviously to allow these huge creatures to properly have a bath!) and headed over to our girl :) she 

Was already laying down  and ready to be scrubbed ! I got stuck in, Luke took some pics, then he asked the keeper very kindly to take some of us :) and he took some lovely ones :) we enjoyed soo much bathing her and brushing her, she loved it and it allowed us to get so close to her and cuddle her :) I loved it, loved it loved it loved it :))))) I could definitely do this for a job :)))) 

 She sprays us with water :)

....what an amazing day and one I will never forget :) it really was a dream come true, we learnt so much about these gorgeous Asian elephants and there keepers, We are so happy that this place exists and that these few elephants were able to be saved and get the proper love they deserve, we did so much with them, we would of been happy to just feed and bath them but being able to ride them naturally was amazing if a little bit scary ! These animals are well looked after which you can see, they look happy and contented, it's a shame they will never be able to be released into the wild, but they have all been born Into captivity and do not posses the skills to survive In the wild, but being at this sanctuary is worlds better then the life they were previously living. 

I would recommend this place to anyone that wants to be close to elephants, this is not some tourist attraction, there are minimal people allowed to visit at once and the animals always come first. 

Dreams have come true today and I feel truely blessed :))) the best part of asia so far :)))