The Sights of Northern Thailand - Ko Samet to Bangkok

Happy Birthday Josh! We chose to leave the madness of India to head to a quaint little island called Koh Samet, just East of Bangkok, and it was certainly beautiful! Staying in a Thai cottage in the jungle, just one minute away from the beach was exactly what we needed as well as being an amazing birthday present. The next present arrived when we made friends with the adorable beach dogs who would play, have cuddles and occasionally steal our shoes; it was heaven! We literally can't go anywhere without falling in love with an animal. 

Rule number one of Thailand, do not underestimate the power of the sun! We both managed to get severely sunburnt on the FIRST day after only sitting on the beach for a couple of hours. Yes we had suncream on (factor 30 actually) and we also made sure to flip ourselves so we were well done on both sides. We're still paying the price for that now with our tender, peeling skin but at least we learnt our lesson. This place was all about relaxing, drinking and taking in the beautiful surroundings so spending five nights here was the perfect amount of time.

Bangkok was our next destination and after a calming week in paradise it was interesting to be in this loud and proud city. We stayed in a little guesthouse at the bottom of Khaosan Road, next door to a place that did gorgeous vegan pancakes! This area is like a party, backpacker paradise and although not really our scene, we had a fun spontaneous night out on our first evening which gave us a banging headache for our first morning. It is rainy season which means that every night at 2am there is one hell of a thunder storm with lightening that fills the entire sky; think of it as the equivalent as the bell ringing for last orders in the pub, except it's funnier to watch everyone sprint home in the downpour.

We wanted to see everything Bangkok had to offer so we visited the modern area by riding the sky train which had every shopping mall you could wish for and giant statues of cute animals. It was fancy and fun, you can even pop along to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre for free to see some amazing but a little bizarre art pieces. We also saw some of the historical parts of the city including the frighteningly busy Grand Royal Palace, the informative house of Jim Thompson and the beautiful temple Wat Pho with the 40m long reclining Buddha. We explored this part of the city using the longboats which run like buses along the river but be warned, you have to time your jump onto the floating platform to perfection as they wait for no one. From the boat we also had the chance to see the local wildlife including some giant fish, birds and a two metre long monitor lizard basking on the river bank.

Thailand is as lovely as everyone said it would be, we have seen so much wildlife and we're incredibly excited to explore the various landscapes it has to offer from the sandy islands, to the northern mountains. We are heading to the chilled out city of Chiang Mai next, which is nestled in the hills of the North, and we're keen to see if it lives up to its mystical reputation.