Friends, Songkran and the Island Life

After much anticipation, Bol and Em finally arrived in Bangkok!! They copped a massive taxi bill from the airport to Tavee guest house, but apart from that, they arrived happy and safe. We showed them around Bangkok for their first day taking almost every form of transport possible on the way into Khao San and into the city: river taxi, sky train, tuk tuk, metro and taxi... all we needed to complete the set was one of the public buses!
That night we went to see Bol's cousin Chris and his lovely wife Moo Dang who were exceedingly generous to us all. Moo Dang cooked the BEST red duck curry EVER and Chris pulled out all the stops with some delicious red wine from SA. He had a surprise up his sleeve as well: one ice cold bottle of Coopers Pale Ale. Oh my god... you should have seen our reactions, well, specifically Tim and I. We literally fell backwards in total shock. Bol very kindly let us have it as he realised that we were starved of the best beer in the world for the past five and a half months. We were all well and truly spoilt.

Bangkok is a great place, but we were all looking forward to a bit of R & R on the islands (hey, traveling is tough!), so after booking two rooms at Harmony on Koh Pha Nhang and organising our bus/catamaran tickets we were off!
Harmony Beach Club is another place where we feel at home, and we quickly got back into our usual routine of trying to drink the guest house dry. The first night we were there, Harmony had put together a massive bbq with all sorts of delights for 300 baht per head. Of particular note was their calamari rings... mmm so tender.

Songkran is the Thai New Year and is traditionally celebrated by trickling water over loved ones shoulders and head to bring them good luck, and by putting a bit of talcum powder on their cheeks to show respect for the dead. Of course, with time, this has turned into an all out water fight which, in some areas of Thailand, lasts for days. We decided to head into the main town of Hadd Rin to experience the festival, but we ended up hiding in bars to avoid getting soaked by dirty water. My particular favourite is the super soaker charged water stream in the eyes.

In total, we spent just over a week on Koh Pha Nhang, and a couple of days on Koh Tao. We spent some of those days hiring motor bikes and going to different beaches around the island of Pha Nhang. It was Em's first time on the back of a bike, and she loved it... until we hired a trail bike that is. On Koh Tao, we snorkeled with sharks in Shark Bay (funny that) and Tim and I went on a couple of scuba dives, both were excellent fun.

Em, Bol and I stuffing around on a beach in Koh Pha Nhang.

A beautiful rocky cove in Koh Pha Nhang.

Em and I went mental over the cutest dog ever... it's a pom and pekenese mix called Bim bim. It was difficult to be around it, it was that cute. I don't know how the owners got along with their day... see for yourself.

Me and Bim-bim... he's so god-damned cute it hurts.

Unfortunately, we had to high tail it back to Bangkok so Tim and I could apply for our Indian visas... I would have loved to spend more time on Koh Tao!! Believe it or not, "thank you, come again" is a phrase we've heard a lot over the past week, as we have had to go into the embassy about 4 times.

At least we'll get to go to Kanchanaburi...