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In chronological order:

Bangkok 1  -  Pictures of Bangkok   

Ko Samui  -  Pictures of Ko Samui

Ang Thong Marine Park  -  Pictures of Ang Thong                 

Ko Taen 1  -  Pictures of Ko Taen   

Ko Taen 2                                   

Chiang Mai  -  Pictures of Chiang Mai

Loy Krathong  -  Pictures of Loy Krathong

Bangkok 2                                   

Tuesday 30th October 2001

Robs -

Me, Pablo and Cobbs are waiting in the bar overlooking the choppy straits between Ko Taen and Ko Samui, when a heavily-laden long-tail boat heaves around the headland, tossing around in today's stormier waters. It's John and the rest come to find us in our tropical paradise. Matty tells me the first thing he sees is ME running barefoot along the sand waving my arms over my head - how ROMANTIC...... :) By the time they arrive they are SOAKED from the crossing but excited. 

That evening me and Pablo went on a little expedition to the mangrove swamp on the other side of the island. On the way, we pass first a mother water buffalo, deep dark grey sitting in a muddy brown pool, next to her new-born calf which is a clean pale pink - TOTALLY different in colour, a real contrast between Mum and baby. As we pass she majestically rises out of the pool, protecting her calf, water pouring off her flanks and dripping from her belly hairs back into the pool. Head back, staring impassively until we pass on. Water buffalo have distinctive horns, about the same size as a large pair of bull's horns but they are "flat to the head", they don't point outwards. 

Only the path, a 3 inch SCORPION! Fortunately it's dead and being systematically munched to nothing by large red ants. The air is totally still and quiet except for the noise of a very light breeze in the reeds. Plus sharp cracking sounds and random bimbling noises as myself and Pablo creep along with the stealth of jungle cats *cough*. 

We pass a lotus pond, still and quiet, with lotuses carpetting it from side to side. There's a splash and a ruddy kingfisher (that's it's name, not Swearing) flies from a tree and splashes into the pool amongst the lotuses. Silence again. 

The actual mangrove swamps are tidal saltwater marshes covered in mangrove trees about 3 metres high, with roots about 1 metre deep into the swamp. There is an unfenced boardwalk constructed which stretches far far out into the gloom of the swamp. We creep into the darkness of the trees, dappled light playing on the black water. From every direction we continually hear thousands of tiny splashes and can't work out what it is, but eventually we begin to get glimpses of little fiddler crabs a few inches long which live on the mangroves, and are actually leaping off the trees as we approach and swimming away. 

When we come out the mangrove swamp the path leads to an isolated bay with the mangroves running right down to a stony shore, other islands out in the sea looking like grey whale backs in the setting sun. A tiny community of one extended family lives here on the edge of the swamp, eking out a living from fishing in the bay. The youngest boy is fixing a fishing net or something and chats to me in basic English, which I think is amazing considering how very isolated he is (there is no school on Ko Taen). 

Farther on we come to the BAT CAVE. Not the huge gothic beasts we have seen over our bungalows, but believe it or not these are LESSER VAMPIRE BATS. They eat insects so I don't know how they qualify as vampires. They are small, and continually fluttering around the cave to keep cool - funny creatures, hanging there looking up at you like little mice. You know when there's bats around - the cave STANK to high heaven. 

Back at the bungalow, we celebrated our reunion with a huge binge with our hosts, the Swiss couple Marcel and Jean. After a slow start they introduced us to Swiss schnapps and things got very confusing... at some point Matty and Dean played a cassette of a More Specials gig on the little stereo, and Jean immediately produced a set of tall bongos from somewhere in their tiny hut, demanding that Matty played them. Well Matty can get a rhythm out of anything. He started playing a wicked Stone Roses type of dancy beat on the drums, and we starting adding tribal type noises and yells and it sounded FANTASTIC. Marcel and Jean were jigging away listening to it, it was such a laugh. We all felt quite hyper afterwards, such a cool night. 

I'll send this off now then continue with a jungle trek story... 

Tuesday 30th October 2001

Robs -

With almighty hangovers we did our first jungle trek. 

We had our usual 8am breakfast on the verandah, and watched a storm out across the sea. A strange tit-like shape formed from the base of the cloud, and got pointier.... weird. Suddenly it reached down, connected with the sea and became a skinny dark tube with a bright white line at it's centre - a TORNADO had developed in front of our eyes about 5 miles away, over the sea! The white line must happen because it is whirling around so fast that the cloud in the tube gets thrown outwards. The tornado twisted and turned as it drifted roughly in our direction *gulp*, and you could see the spray from the sea at the base of the tube. Yet all this time it was sunny and clear overhead. 

We watched this in amazement - I don't know ANYONE who has seen a tornado for real. It lasted about 3 minutes and then just as quickly the tube broke down, the funnel became a tit again and disappeared. The cloud moved over us, we saw rain on the sea approaching and there was a brief torrential downpour. Incredible. What if it had happened over us??? 

The purpose of our jungle trek was to find the daytime roosts of the fruit bats. Everyone except Jim came along - he had a head cold for the first few days of the holiday and felt a bit grim, so he chilled by the sea. We walked up into the jungle and it was so hot that I was sweating sweating sweating every minute. My specs continually steamed up. Every movement was such an effort, producing even more sweat, that I couldn't even be bothered to move around to take photos (doubles please Pablo) or tell the others when I saw a large lime green spider run up a tree. As we crept up the mountain we left the path and pushed through the trees towards the bats and we could hear cute chattering overhead. We stopped and waited... 

From the humid darkness beneath the trees we could see the bats wheeling overhead, translucent wings against a blinding white-hot sky, wingspan about a metre. We thought that WE must have disturbed them, but the guide said not - they had probably been disturbed by a snake and once one starts screeching and flapping they all start until they're all flying around in a big chattering panic. We caught sight of a couple hanging in the trees, and they move around the branches exactly like little monkeys, arm over arm using their wingtip claws. This is the secret, remote roost of the fruit bats. 

I felt quite faint at the top, my heart was pounding, I was puffing like a steam train and getting spin outs which I found unnerving. Obviously I thought I had cancer of the jungle and I was about to die, but it was probably just a hangover and insufficient water. It DID make me a bit nervous to do a full-on trek, but that isn't going to happen now anyway - more later. The islands are in the middle of the monsoon period and at their worst humidity, so I think this 3 hour trek up a mountain in THAT climate was actually quite tough. It felt great to get back down and jump straight into the sea, sweaty clothes and all. 

OK I'll post this one now and jump on to Chiang Mai.