Travel Diary: Siem Reap, 26 hours to Koh Tao and Koh Phangan

Sawatdee Ka! Okay, so in summary we have left Siem Reap after discovering the hotels 500 pet crocodiles, left Cambodia altogether, transversed into Thailand via a mammoth 26 hour journey, down and across to Koh Tao, and now we are in Koh Phangan, back to where our travels took us 2 years ago to the day! 24 November After a long day wondering around the temples yesterday we decided to have a chilled out one today. In the morning we went into town and took a walk around the Old Market. This is a truly local market where they sell lots of fruits, poultry (whole and feathered), meats, fish, clothing etc. you name it they sell it! After our walk around town we headed back to the hotel and decided to go to the 'Crocodile Farm'. We were told when we arrived that it was behind the hotel - it turns out it’s literally in the back garden! One of the hotel receptionists escorted us around to the back of the hotel and pointed for us to go up some steps and to the left. To our complete shock there were about 500 crocs right there with only some dodgy railing and crumbling concrete between us! Then the English speaking receptionist came out and told us about the crocs. The hotel actually owns the crocs to breed and sell; each egg goes for about $20 and they also put it on the hotel menu! The receptionist then led us to another pen where we walked across a narrow platform with no railings with crocs either side (what the hell were we thinking!). When we got to the other side of this he said ‘most people don’t walk along here’ and then it clicked what we had just done! Starting to feel a little unbalanced we headed back to safety! For our last night in Siem Reap we ate at what has become our local at the street stalls and had a little feast with our very own raculette. Tomorrow we are heading back to Thailand overland to Koh Tao, it’s going to be an epic journey - one we are not looking forward to. 25 November The extreme journey back to Thailand kicked off at 8am when a taxi driver picked us up to take us to the border for $20. The 2 and a half hour took 1 hour 50 with this crazy lunatic driver who spent most of his time on his phone trying to overtake with one hand!! When we got to the border there was no cue as we had gotten there so quickly. Without haste we got signed out of Cambodia and then pointed in the direction we had to walk to the border. A fifteen minute walk past multiple casinos took us to the Thai immigration border where there are no signs but luckily a local pointed us in the direction for foreigners. We swiftly passed through immigration and were in Thailand with no clue which direction to head as there are again no signs! We eventually found a tuk tuk who took us to the bus station for 80 baht. As we pulled up to the bus station the Bangkok bus was just about to depart. Some guys grabbed our bags and chucked them in the bus whilst we got our $204 each tickets. We then had to run across the road to catch up to the bus and get on. The journey took 3 and a half hours to Bangkok. Getting off the bus in Bangkok we were surrounded by taxi drivers trying to over charge us as always. We barged past them and found the metered taxis who took us to the train station for 100 baht plus 45baht for the toll (not sure whether we should have paid for this!). We headed over to book the train where, unfortunately, there were only top bunks in upper second class left!! I was really looking forward to sleeping on bottom bunk this time as I had to top on the way to Vientianne which was awful, but no such luck! We booked these tickets anyway and waited 4 hours at the train station, again!!  This station is becoming a second home. At 7.30pm we boarded the train. Our stop at Champhon was due to arrive at 3.47am but with no windows in our top bunks we were worried we would miss it so we woke up at 3.15 just in case! At 5am the train steward came along and finally told us we would stop soon. Not that we actually slept, the guy on the bottom bunk had the loudest snoring ever. 26 November We arrived at Chomphon at 5.30 am where Shaun had a quick tea before we got on the bus to the ferry port which took another hour. At 7am the awesome Lomprayah caterman set off for Koh Tao. The boat took 2 hours and played Nanny McPhee until we docked where we had to again barge past all the taxi drivers. We decided we could walk to Sairee beach in our zombied state. But after 26 hours of no sleep travelling this turned out to be a bad idea as the hills and heat lay before us!! We were picked up by a pick up taxi about 5 minutes down road where he took us to Sairee for 50baht each. Now was time for the dreaded task of finding accommodation!! After hours of wondering up and down the beach we couldn’t find anywhere cheap!! We eventually settled for the first one we had seen, Seashell Resort which cost 1100b for an air con room. The hotel is probably one of the best on the beach with a really nice pool and its own dive club and restaurant. Later in the evening we had some food at a beachside restaurant and watched the sun set. 27 November Today we decided to explore the Island and walked from Sairee beach to Mae Haad town via a shortcut and back and then lazed around the pool for the rest of the day. In the evening we went to the beach with our own beer and watched some fire spinning. 28 November I actually went for my first run of the trip this morning!!! It was sooooo hard, i’m so unfit already!! At lunch time we set out to find Chalock Bay which didn’t look too far away on the map. After an hour and a half walk in the blistering heat we finally found it!! As the tide was ‘up’ (although it hardly moves) we couldn’t get onto the beach. The town was pretty dead as well since it’s the half moon party in Koh Phangan tonight. Having been informed that there was good snorkelling to be had in the bay we set out off the pier. Unfortunately, the sand was all churned up and we couldn’t see a thing!! As we were pretty tired from all the running, walking and swimming we bailed out of a walk back and got an extortionately priced pick up taxi instead to Mae Haad. We decided to get our boat tickets for Koh Phangan from here as we assumed they would be cheaper from the pier than from a travel agent in Sairee. This was not the case, as soon as we had walked back and found a travel agent it was the same price including a pick up to the pier - gutted! In the evening we went down to the beach again and watched various fire spinners put on a show at one of the hotels. 29 November Our taxi (which we had to pay extra for) came to pick us up at 9.15 am after we were death stared out of our room to head to the pier to catch the slow boat the Koh Phangan. The 2 hour boat was rather choppy as the sea state was rough but this didn’t bother the skipper as he was flat out all the way - rather uncomfortable on fibre glass seats. We had decided beforehand to head to Ban Tai beach and managed to get some discount on a couple of hotels the taxi driver knew but as soon as we started heading down baron side roads we knew we didn’t want to be here out of the action. So the 150 baht taxi soon turned into 400 as we headed to Haad Rin. We opted for the first hotel he took us to, the Drop in Club, as I had a dodgy belly kicking in! Shaun headed out into the familiar streets and whilst having lunch he made friends with a rasta who, of course, works at the Reggae Bar! He told Shaun about some decent bungalows around the corner to check which he did. 30 November – 3 December On 30 November we checked into a really nice beachside bungalow on Haad Rin Nai (sunset) beach called Black and White Bungalows for 700b which Oman from Oman, the rasta, told Shaun about.  This is paradise! Aside from one day of sunshine on 1 December when we were able to sunbathe on our very own secluded beach outside our hut we haven’t really done a lot apart from watch films in the local bars due to rubbish weather! À la  perchoine Jo & Shaun x