Return to Koh Chang - The Island Tour

Try to refrain yourselves and not make any comment regarding the colour of Suzanne's "hat" - remember the aunties.
After island hopping for ten days we came back to Koh Chang and got a bike. We then went touring the island staying here and there whenever the fancy took us.



You get to see some of the 'wilder' unvisited parts of the island when you have your own wheels.







Look at the sheer expertise of that rider, whoever it is, taking those hills and corners in his stride whilst keeping a respectful eye out for fellow road users.





Some of the smaller islands can be reached by kayak, so we did a bit of that too. We also kayaked to a pair of islands that are joined by a bridge. It was one of the daftest things we've ever done. It looked only a short distance away but it took two hours. When we got back and told the bungalow owner where we had been he was amazed, his words 'you haz bin vhere? (He's German) - but zis I cannot be believing - non oft miner guests have ever don zis'. If he knew how to say it in English he probably would have followed that with - 'Are you around ze so called heffing bend or vot?' We were both 'cream crackered' by the time we got back and the blisters had formed and burst on the way - ouch!!

More rummaging amongst the mangroves - I'm fascinated with these plants, you can see how they transform sea into land.

Elvis carefully navigating our way back to the sea through a mangrove forest.

This is a place called Zion on Long beach. For a mere 500 baht (10 pound) you get a cabin on the beach, a bit of private sand and your own dog - that's what the dog thought anyway. After we didn't feed him for an hour he got bored and went off with his mates. The conversation would have gone like this - "Alright Rex, did you get owt?" Rex:"Yes, Australian couple give me a few crisps and some chicken bones, what about you Shep?" Shep:"Naar - I've sat outside cabin 5 for an hour - tight English sods never even give me a cup of tea. I tell you it's getting rough man - rough, rough rough."

This is Salakphet and a major fishing village, we stayed a night and went to the fish restaurant on the night - beeeeyoutiful. Rusty, nee cod and all fish with heads on and bones in - I can almost see you retching!

Another sunset to keep you on your toes.

This is town on stilts, Bang Bao - we stayed here for a night in a homestay (a room in someones house) and on the night we had the biggest prawns I have ever clapped eyes on. Mini 'lomsters' to my untrained eye. Shifted the bloody lot - shells included.

Another beautiful bay around the West coast. Before any of you ask, my 'hat' is 'orange'!!

For another COT voucher (and of course a bonus one if you get it right) can anyone explain what is happening in these two pictures? Anyone who knows Elvis will know she has a strange affliction to "Things stuck on things" so quite how she ended up in this predicament is any ones guess.

Speaking of COT vouchers, we loved the guesses to the song in my mind for the guy with the European hair mountain on the heed!! Ginny, I better give you a voucher for creativeness with 'Tie a mingin door mat round yer auld cauld heed' - very good. Jenster.com not bad and Rusty, nice work changing the lyrics - but alas, you were all wrong. The song in my head (which I still can't stop singing) is a few years old and uses a sample of music from the Jacksons song "Can you feel it". The line of the song is "What are you gonna look like with a chimney on yer head". I was also thinking of another song - 'Lifting'.
So no vouchers and with time running out it looks like I won't be troubling the tea pot too much this year. By the way Jenster, I did recognise your correct answer for the rubber tree, but I'm deducting a voucher for sheer cheek.

More Islands

Another island - this time Koh Kood, the fourth biggest island in the entire universe, no not really, only Thailand. Koh Chang is the second biggest by the way, but size isn't everything. This island is much bigger than Koh Mak so we required the services of a motorized scooter! If you examine my toes in the picture you'll see I have red toe nails. This is red road dust and not because I'm competing with the ladyboys.




You know the score by know - abandoned bays of white sands and clear warm sea water.











More of the same. There should be some pictures of us kayaking through the sea, but in the words of an old Smiths song.... 'stop me if you've heard this one before..'. Whilst kayaking along the coast I got hit by a big wave and it rolled me. Normally that would be ok but, I had the camera around my neck and it got hit by the kayak and ended up with me in the sea. By the time I got it out it was soaked in sea water and not showing any sings of life. But this has happened before, in America a guy offered to take our picture and dropped the camera into the river (via a rock) and after a day it came back to life. Well after two days of drying and heat treatment nothing, then on the third day it decided it had rested enough and was back into life. If Captain Scarlet (of the indestructible type) had a camera it would be the Panasonic Lumix. By the way the watch got soaked as well and it stopped for three days too, before making a full recovery.


For your COT voucher, can anyone read my mind and think of the song that came into my head when I saw this man and all that hair.










What do you mean the sunglasses don't fit?
I'm a bit concerned about the size of me boiler though.












A few more sunset shots to drool over.








































COT skulduggery. Who is impersonating the 'Outsourcer' with those outlandish factual answers? Schmenny, I guess from you posting it must have been Andy?
Our Poll - where have you been lass, you could have had enough vouchers for a ... single cup of tea, I dinnar lad. Ginny, if you don't start answering seriously we will deduct vouchers.
So the birds were of course the Kingfisher and the Sea Eagle. I'm not sure if any one won a voucher though!! I can't check all those that Schmenny/Andy sent. I'll let you all have a voucher for trying - how's that for generosity? Obviously Schmenster.com gets the voucher for correctly spotting the lines of rubber trees.

The next blog may be coming soon, or it may have to wait until I get back to England. At the moment we're in Bangkok and only have a day left!!

Island Hopping

A spot of 'island hopping' is in order one thinks!! This is Koh Mak (Koh Makems while we were there!!) A simple life is the order of the day. The island is only small (about 16 square kilom's) so you can walk and cycle most places. The hammock however is only 1 metre from the front door and look who's 'baggsyed' it! The rickety old chair for me then.


This is me attempting to play frisbee with the owner Pom (I couldn't get the song diddly-om-pom-om-pom here comes....out of my head). He was a master and would throw the frisbee off in a odd direction and shout 'don moov don moov don moov' and surely enough the frisbee would float around and practically land on your head. Then I would throw it and he would end up running all over the beach after it - no probs, he needed the exercise.

All my life at home all I ever wanted was a car blanket but that step mother of mine wouldn't get me one. But look - at last, a dream fulfilled.

More testing of the local hammocks. This one was particularly good and induced 'z's' in a matter of minutes.

Out and around on the bikes. beautiful scenery and although we kept getting lost, it doesn't really matter on a small island.

Elvis swinging - then a swim. If any of you have swam in the North Sea and remember that feeling as you run down the gorgeous sand on an English summer day looking at the nice blue sea, you think, I'm going in that sea for a nice swim and a cool off, and then your toe touches the water, develops frost bite in half a second, turns black and breaks off. Imagine what it is like for me then to put your foot in the Gulf of Thailand sea and it is actually warmer than your body. I have never in my time experienced anything like it. The water is so shallow in the bays of the island that it actually gets very warm from the sun. For sheer novelty factor it is something to experience.

Just as I thought we were riding through a forest I noticed how 'un-random' the trees seemed to be, in fact they're all in lines. I wonder if a voucher could persuade you to tell us what kind of trees are these?

On our way to getting lost!

After this ride my toenails turned red and have remained that way. Just in case any of you think I've 'turned' when you see my 'painted nails'.

Big tides here mean big piers!

A classical 'tropical island' picture - well done Elvis (if we're to believe Rusty)

Fishing boats heading off to work.

Sunset outside of our little beach hut.

Our beach hut - it's very uncomplicated. There's a bedroom with an en suite and that's that!

The Elvis eating chocolate cake picture - what took so long you're wondering.

Pom and I after a frisbee game. You can't tell from this picture but Pom has a canny old kite on him.

Yes -you're right, here comes the COT question! It's a nice little picture quiz. Take a look at these two master anglers. One is as big as a house and the other could fit in your pocket. We have been lucky to be able to just sit and watch them in action. The big one plucked a fish right out the sea about 30 metres from our kayak - a wonderful sight. So, for your voucher tell me their names please.
COT mutiny - I don't like this talk of abandoning the COT, my manager has told me that because of the revolt we can offer double vouchers for the remaining COT questions!

Rusty was right with the Glalangal ginger root, but if you think you're getting any Thai food off us after that cheek, think again bonny lad. Milly, I have counted those tea bags, watch it madam!! Ginny, I've told you about begging for vouchers before, is undignified behaviour. Jenny, never mind raiding the wine cellar, haven't you got some training to do?

Back to School - Thai Cooking

Elvis in a kitchen - is this some kind of trick photography you ask? No, it's real, this year Elvis has really gone for Thai food BIG style. Lots of things that were off the menu in 2007 are firm favourites - so we both went back to school to see what it's all about! Of course I've been before and could really have stepped in and took the class - but nobody likes a big head now do they!




This is me showing the 'instructor' how to make coconut cream. Well - not really, the instructor, Yaa, had a canny little sense of humour so we ended up having a bit fun with each other. She then started to pick on me and gave me all the hard jobs, like scraping coconut out of the shell to make the cream.














Always taste your food! Top tip from Yaa. In this picture you can see Yaa, she's saying to Elvis 'I said taste it not eat the whole bloody lot'. Thai food has to balance three things:- Salt, Spice and Sourness. Salt, mainly from fish sauce or/and soy sauce, spice from yer chillies and sourness from lime juice and tamarind. See we're experts already. We're hoping to recreate some of these dishes when we get home, something tells me though it won't quite taste the same!!




This is the famous noodle dish in Thailand called Pad Thai - we've ate this so many times we will look like noodles !













What's impressive with Thai cooking is the amount of fresh ingredients. Most of the vegetables are just variations of ones we are familiar with at home, but they do have some we don't get - like Thai egg plants which are about the size of a golf ball.







After a hard day cooking, there's nothing better than sitting over the river with the fruits of your labour! On the table are three curries (red, green and massaman), pad thai, chicken with cashew nuts, and a few side dishes - now how did we do it again!!!





For a whole COT voucher can you tell us what the special kind of ginger root that Thai's use a lot in their cooking, rumour has it you can also make a canny cup of tea with it, but being English we know that tea can only possibly be made using little paper bags that you buy in the thousands from git big supermarkets.

COT voucher stuff - Ginny was first on the blog and straight in with correct answer. She then spoilt herself by demanding vouchers for previous posts, but I've put her right on her ways!!
Come on Jenny, Andy, Rust and Shirley you need six vouchers at least. Milly you only need another five.

Jungle Trekking

Hello again. A massive thunder storm has decended upon us, so it's a good time to get some 'blogging' done!

Jungle trekking can be quite a sedate little activity - unless you go 'off road' as it were. Just have a butchers at what went on here!
This first picture is a nice little look out on the first stop of the trek, over looking over the bay. Everything is fine at this point!

In the instructions it said 'you will reach the top of a waterfall, follow the blue water pipes down the side to reach the bottom'. Never was there anything 'easier said than done'. We got to that well known 'stuff of nightmare' scenarios where we couldn't go down any further and couldn't get back up. I could see the headlines in the 'Echo' appearing in my head 'Silky lass and Pennywell nugget trapped arll neet on a Thai waterfall like'. The embarrassment! We decided eventually to slide down the blue water pipes 'Batman and Robin' style. We might of broke the water pipes feeding the village - but needs must!

See, all smiles now that we're at the bottom.







After the hike it was down the river in the kayak to visit the elephants at their watering hole. These are all female elephants - very placid creatures. We'll meet a male elephant later and that's a different kettle of fish! Think of the difference between a Cow and a Bull!



The elephant master chap on the neck gave the elephant a few taps and she filled her trunk with water and give us a reet old dowsing.






This is trek number two a couple of days later. Elvis' smile does well to cover the information given to us by a local right at the beginning of the trek. He said 'enjoy your trek but watch out, there's a male elephant somewhere on that trail and he's as mad as Jack McMad and he's bloody mad. If you see him avoid him at all costs! It kind of set a nice relaxed mood!

Here we are at a thick jungle point in the mountain with a nice cool river. Note Moses with the large stick ready to part the waves.






Get your heed in there for a nice cool off.










This is Elvis posing next to a big Pomello fruit farm.






At the end of trek two another waterfall - this one had some water falling too! We were both in for a swim and if you sit still the little fish chow the hard skin off your feet. It would have took them hours to get it all off our hooves though!










Someone posing under a waterfall - it's like one of those Timotei shampoo adverts, except the model in that one actually had hair.








When someone says, watch out for a wild bull elephant you kind of hope he's kidding. DEFINITELY NOT in this case. Towards the end of the trek the path came out of some trees and there standing in front of this was this monster - and he was not pleased! For a cup of tea voucher, can any one tell me what steps you take when confronted by a wild male elephant? The first thing I noticed was a funny smell of pap coming from my direction and then I noticed Elvis was off in the opposite direction. Fortunately we were warned so we back tracked and made a big circle around where he couldn't see us. But get this - four days later a German couple were walking and saw the same elephant - foolishly they approached him. The guy was savagely attacked and injured, the tusk went under his rib cage and out of his shoulder, the woman was only slightly injured. The English guy who owns the place we were staying said that they had to take the guy to Bangkok in a helicopter - somehow he survived.
After fleeing the 'bull' we met some females and we were able to feed them. The woman elephants are much more placid and nee tusks, a pity the human species isn't similar.





Only one cup of tea voucher in this weeks blog - I obviously overwhelmed you with questions in the last one. Rusty and Jenny have obviously given up, probably put off by the new voucher scheme. But credit where credit is due, Milly was first in with a correct answer (eventually!) I am I said by the Diamond is of course the song - but who was that following up with the precise lyrics verbatim. If I didn't know better I would suspect the return of the Outsourcer. And was that really the FIL (Father-in-law) posting a comment - getting a bit computer literate aren't we? Then another version of I am I said, I was just enjoying the lyrics then you lost steam!! But definitely worth a voucher for creativeness.
Here's some proper answers though: The boy isn't the last one in the tub on bath neet! He's looking for mussels and prawns in and under the piers of the fishermans houses built on stilts in the river. He wouldn't be able to get into the nooks and crannies with a normal boat.
And Ginny, you were right about the mangroves. A healthy mangrove 'selects' a leaf on each branch to dump the salt from the sea water. When the leaf eventually dies, it drops off into the river and another leaf begins to collect the salt. Bloody ingenious!
In the next blog there'll be all kinds of ingredients that come together to make a gorgeous dish - you'll see what I mean......