Hello there readers,

We have made it to Krabi!

I can’t believe i’m admitting this but we’re really happy to be somewhere else then Koh Tao. 🙈 Even though it is my favourite island, I became too much of a beach bum for my liking.

Need to be more active and so Kimbo and I decided to do rockclimbing. I had wanted to do it for ages and we found this place that lets you climb the cliffs at Railay Beach.

When booking it we just read the intro and were sold. We were basically sold by only the title: Rockclimbing Krabi, so there we go. Research apparently isn’t always my thing haha.

So we prepared well for clothing etc but didn’t exactly look at the photo’s of where we would be climbing.

Turns out, we were climbing a cliff but no manmade grabby things to hang on to.

Ooh no, it was all nature so it was flippin’ hard. Having to find little cracks and crannies in the stone is way more difficult than it sounds. My muscle ache afterwards was the proof of that ha!

We did three climbs to which the last one my legs were unfortunately too short to reach a certain point and to be completely honest with you, my legs and arms were jelly by this point too… so a little over halfway I looked the view and was like uhu. This is cool. Lemme down now. 🙈

You should’ve seen me with the abseiling, see climbing I love. Could have been the new spiderman and just climb climb climb. But as soon as he says, okay let your hands go, lean back and basically let yourself fall/walk backwards… errrr yeah… didn’t go as smoothly, well at least it took me a little while before i dared let go haha.

It was an epic experience and secretely loving the muscle ache. Proper workout sorted. 👌

Afterwards I had a nap which was well needed as I hadn’t slept properly two days prior. Actually funny story this (well I find so and I have no shame anymore so i’m gonna let you in on it)

Our last night in Koh Tao, we had some food which tasted great but around 01:00 am, my stomach decided that it didn’t like it so much.

Now we had our alarms set for 05:00 as we were heading to Krabi and in addition to this, we had no more loo roll… so I was like ulgh nah i’ll just wait til morning.

My stomach and butt did not agree with this decision and so I had to go. Like HAD to haha.

And so I put on shorts, my hair was like a birdsnest and left it like that, put my trainers on and walked to the bar and asked if reception was still open. It was not.. bollocks.

So I asked if they had looroll. They did not.

And so I had to go to 7-11 (mini mart thing thats open 24/7) that was further up the boulevard.

Seeing as my butt was not taking no for answer; I took off, strutting in my sneakers and shorts and most gorgeous Minnie Mouse pyjama shirt. Still had pillow marks in my cheek, most probably a little dripple down my mouth and strutted along the boulevard.

People partying just stared at me like I was some sort of alien but my butt didn’t let that get to me. I was on a mission.

I bought my bogroll and strutted asif I was Beyonce again along the bars and clubs and luckily made it to the loo in time only to find afterwards, we had a few tissues in the room…. bloody typical I tell ya.. 🙄😂

After this adventure I was wide awake until four am so knackerrooney that I was, I needed that nap after climbing haha.

Anyways, back to Krabi. We went to Ao Nang beach for dinner and drinks and boy did Ao Nang deliver.

We ended up in a mexican restaurant where they had a live act.

He wasn’t the best singer but boy did he give a perfomance. Whilst eating a tortilla he rapped enimem after our request and we joined in.

It was the weirdest thing I have experienced in a restaurant, people were proper dancing asif it were a club, whilst others were eating their burrito’s, the singer was delivering an awesome show and we had a really, and I mean really, good night.

We went to a club afterwards and danced until early morning before hitting the sack.

Up early again the next morning as we are heading to a few hot springs and then up a mountain again to climb 1260 steps to the big buddha sitting on top.

The first spring we went into was 40 degrees, it was loooovely. Didn’t stay too long as we were off again to another pool called the emerald pool which was nice and cold. Kinda wished we had this after the mountain climbing but they we go.

We had lunch in the most hectic and chaotic but still organized place ever. Had a lovely curry (what else?).

After lunch we headed off to Tiger Temple and the mountain.

Luckily there aren’t any real tigers anymore just fake ones.

We started the climb and soon realised we were in for a major workout… my legs trembled just by the look of them haha

They were steep and of course lil’ league George with her tiny legs… the steps came up to my knee’s 😂

Every two, three flights of stairs we had to stop because it was so difficult. Climbing wasn’t the tricky part, it was actually the heat. Felt like I was in a 90 degree hot sauna. No wind, not even a tiny breeze. I can honestly say I have not sweated that much like I did then.

My chest was even sweating, not even talking about boob sweat (sorry lads, us women have that problem. Very flattering I tell you) but my actual chest was sweating. Never had it before and hope to never have it again either haha.

Once we survived, HALLELUJAH PEOPLE, and made it to the top we had an awesome view, looking down on mostly fields and a few cliffs to then walking up a few more steps to the giant Buddha.

That to me personally was the best part, realising how men came up with this insanely cool & maybe slightly crazy idea of making concrete steps on the side of a mountain to not only build the concrete platform but to then also build a Buddha the size of a temple on top! They must have had great calves from walking those steps everyday. Slightly jealous 🤔

It was pretty impressive and may I say slightly wacko too?… 🙈

After that we made it back home to have a nice long and cold shower. After that well deserved shower we headed up to May & Mark to have a salad (apparently we were having a healthy day….), it was pretty damn good though.

Our healthy day came to an end and it was off to bed to watch some Netflix, my favourite company to have (no offence to my roomie Kimbo!)

The next day we chilled out in the morning and got the bus to Phuket.

Phuket is a busy town with lots to offer!

Our first night we had a little wander around the streets and night markets of the old town.

Our second day we went off to the Big Buddha, which again is a massive Buddha that sits on top of a mountain (we decided against climbing this one as it would take a couple of hours, legs wobbled just by the thought of doing it).

We took the taxi upwards and were instantly met with a marble tiled Buddha. The attention to detail was gorgeous and it sat gracefully watching over Phuket and the ocean. He did have a slightly smug smile on his face which was quite funny actually.. loved that detail even if it isn’t intentional: 😏

They are still constructing it so a few cranes here and there definitely made the photo’s more authentic haha.

After visiting Big Buddha I got blessed by a monk. It was short but what happened was me basically kneeling down to show my respect, he gave a pretty bracelet and then sprayed a load of Holy water, at least i’m hoping it’s that, over my head and face. Felt like I could do anything after his blessing.

Okay maybe not anything but feels pretty good to be able to say that i’ve been blessed bu a monk.

After our blessing we went down to Patong beach and walked down the famous Bangla Road. This road is kind of like the Khao San Road in Bangkok.

Translation: think big, crazy, loud and jampacked!

We were all thinking the same thing; thank Buddha we didn’t visit at night time. Would’ve been absolute madness!

Imagine being an electrician and something blows… how in lords name would you find the right cable to fix it? (Look left hand side in photo). Chaos. The Thai love a little chaos and danger haha.

After a long wander we then had a little lie on the beach before finding the bus back.

Now in Thailand, they say a bus will come at 18:00 pm, this does not mean it is true.. haha

So we waited for about an hour from 17:45 pm and still no bus so we decided to get a taxi and boy did we get one…

It was a party taxi. Now imagine a type of pickup truck but with speakers everywhere, music blaring and an ear-deafening bass, lights going off, mirrors with tiny spotlights in them to go with. It felt like we were part of a stag-do/hen-party yet there were no husbands or wives to be or strippers (thankfully) haha.

After the taxi we wandered around the night markets and got the best curry ever.

The restaurant sat outside a market where they showed off cars with massive speakers.

There was one car which had trophies all over it and blaring music. It was so loud that all the old radio’s and clocks that decorated the walls of the restaurant were shaking. It’s a miracle that the windows didn’t break.

I’m coming to realise that Thailand is the land of the loud 🤫😅

Once my ears were in safe distance from all the fanatics I went back to bed as the following day we visited an elephant sanctuary. Eeeek! My absolute favourite animals. I’m as happy as a 5 year old at Christmas!

We started our visit by watching the most heart-wrenching video about the elephants they had rescued. It was an information video in which it showed video’s of how the elephants were tortured for the logging industry and most disgustingly for the tourist industry. *

I’m thankful they had tissues because I was bawling, not a pretty sight. The guilt sat heavy on my stomach and my heart just broke for them. Luckily I wasn’t the only one crying.. we all looked a bit poopy afterwards 🙈

*I cannot express enough how wrong it is that people, still today, ride the elephants, forcing them to do tricks and work for us…

If any of you reading this are thinking about visiting elephants please, please, please only visit the sanctuary’s where the animals roam free, do not offer rides or hugs or bathing or anything but for you to admire them in their glory from a distance. See them wag their tails like dogs and smile because they are genuinely happy. Let them show you their true behaviour.

This does not only go for elephants but also tigers. They drug up the tigers so you can take photo’s with them.

This is just so wrong and hurtful nor will it ever be justified.

As much as I would like to go on… I think it would be smart – as I’m known for having a slight temper – to stop and continue to fun part of the story. 😳

So after the video we got to feed the elephants first. We weren’t allowed to touch them and had to stay at a distance but boy did these beauties love their food. They literally gobbled everything without properly chewing anything, at least thats what it looked like. They were a bit like my dog at home actually.. 🤔🙄😂

After feeding time we walked around the sanctuary and saw the elephants doing their own thing, which was mainly eating – think I found my new spirit animal ha – and taking photo’s again from a distance.

We learned each and every one’s story and saw how genuinely happy these magnificent beasts are in their new home.

We learned that the sanctuary visits logging companies or tourist companies that use elephants to check if any are injured or unwell or too old to be working. After that they try and talk to the company about buying them. The sanctuary focuses mainly on the female elephants as they are mostly made to work until they die and therefore have much higher risk of being mistreated, injured, sick or worse.

If a company wants to get rid of an elephant, they wont just give it up. Oh no. Of course they want to make a profit and therefore sell them for at least 1 million baht.

Don’t get me wrong, these magical wonders are worth way more than that in my opinion but it still shocks me that these companies only care about the profit, nothing else.

For example (spoiler: this is a sad story and I don’t wanna make anyone cry the way I did, so you can skip if you like..)

One of the elephants was working for years (10-20 yrs) in the logging industry until she broke her front and back leg. The logging company then sold her, broken legs and all, to a tourist company where she then still with no medical attention and broken bones had to then have 500 kilo on her back from the riding tourists from 8-10 hours a day for another 10-15 years…

She did not get fed enough and was out in the sun with no shade and for far too long.

The companies here don’t care but luckily the word is spreading and there are people who want to help and set up sanctuaries.

There are only 7750 elephants in Thailand of which 3750 are held captive….

So again, my final reminder, please never visit one of these places. Do your research first and only spend your money on the places that will actually care for the elephants. Thank you ❤️

After witnessing the most majestic creatures on earth and stuffing our faces with food at lunch, it was time to head back unfortunately…

We made it back to Phuket and of course I took a few naps during the afternoon (I know, I’m becoming old… I did say it was only downhill from the age of 25) to then have a few tasty beers at the Pint Factory.

We had some dinner at this fab little Indi place and then off to bed (can’t get enough of sleep, slight addiction coming on) before then having to say goodbye to our lovely Kimbo…

Yes in the morning waving her off I cried again because i’m a soppy cow 🤷‍♀️

My next trip is solo travelling again – ulgh nerves are kicking in – and I start with a day trip to Koh Phi Phi, then back to Khao Sok National Park (one day there just wasn’t enough) then Bangkok (unfortunately I had no other choice due to flights and tour dates) before heading to Kanchanaburi. After that I go back to Bangkok to meet with my friend from back home! Yaaaay! Bring on the Dutchie 😍

I shall write soon but for now lot’s of love,

G.