I'm back with part two of my travel diary from my amazing holiday in Thailand - two posts in the space of a week - who am I?! If you haven't seen the first post yet (tut, tut!), you can access it here. Anyway, let's get back to it, even if it's gonna give me severe holiday blues!
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| Embracing the freckle monster look as the holiday progressed... |
I left you with the fresh pancake maker just off of Bangla Walking Street after a fairly eye opening night out in Patong but now it's on to calmer things...sort of!
Day 9 - Thursday 19th April 2015
On Thursday morning I decided to sweat off the excesses of the previous night and so I headed down to the lake for a run before settling down by the pool for the morning.
Later that day it was time for Mum and I to head to our Thai cooking course - I was so excited to finally learn how to cook some of the food that I love so much! We opted for the Thursday afternoon/evening course at Kata Thai Cooking as it also included a trip to a local fresh market and some of our favourite dishes were on the menu!
The teacher, Kelly, picked us up from the villa and took us directly to Kata, the place where the classes take place. Once the rest of the people taking the class had arrived, we all headed to the fresh market to see where some of the ingredients we cooked with came from. We even got to suppress our appetites by trying some of the fresh food on offer.
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| Alllllll the mangos |
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| Yellow Watermelon?! (FYI, it doesn't taste any different to regular watermelon) |
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| A selection of the fruits we tried: Mangosteen, Rambutan, Baby Pineapple, Jack Fruit, Papaya and Guava |
You'll be pleased to hear that we didn't just sample the fresh fruit! We also tried some amazing Thai crêpes (I was adventurous and had one filled with custard made using Pandan leaves whilst Mum opted for one filled with coconut cream), some chicken spring rolls, some thai fried chicken (watch out KFC!)and the water of a barbequed coconut - delicious!
Kelly told us that contrary to popular belief, quite a lot of Thai people don't actually know how to cook...or if they do they don't bother! This is because it actually works out more expensive for them to cook in the home than it does for them to head to a market or a restaurant where they have loads of different meals pre-prepared and ready to be bagged up and taken home (see bottom left picture above) - simple eh?
After our trip to the market we were ready to start cooking, headscarves on! We started by preparing the vegetable filling for the glass noodle spring rolls. Later we wrapped them in fresh rice paper before deep frying them in palm oil. The finished product tasted great and we even managed to save some to take back to the villa for Damon to sample - he approved!
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| Mum working away rolling up her spring rolls! |
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| The finished product - served with sweet chilli dipping sauce! |
Next up was the Thai green curry with chicken - no cheating here, we even made the paste from scratch (thank goodness - it meant I could make mine a little milder to suit my wimpy taste buds)!
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| Ingredients for our green curry paste |
I'm not usually too much of a fan of green curries because they often taste very strongly of lemongrass, but this was amazing (if I do say so myself!).
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| Cooking up a storm! |
Then we cracked on with the final dish, pad thai with prawns - my favourite thai food! I'm so happy that I know how to make this dish now and can't wait to reproduce it at home!
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| Ingredients ready to go! |
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| Ta-dah!!! |
Day 10 - Friday 10th April 2015
When Friday came round it was time for another trip! This time it was in the form of an Amazing Bike Tour (check them out here) around Koh Yao Noi (little long island), an island located in Phang Nga Bay, just an hour's boat ride away from Phuket.
We were picked up bright and early in order to get to the harbour that the long-tail boat carrying all of our bikes for the day was leaving from. Before we knew it we were on Koh Yao Noi, a quiet sleepy island that would be the setting for our 30km bike ride!
We started by cycling through some rubber tree plantations and then cycled to the headland where I captured the above two pictures. It was all very idyllic until a thorn punctured my tyre - it would have to happen to me wouldn't it?! It was okay though, James (the guy running the tour) fixed up the bike in no time and we were on our way.
It was an incredibly hot 34 degrees that day - not ideal cycling weather, but the winds from the sea kept us cool enough and the views made it all worth while!
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| James, Damon and I |
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| http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Cashew_apples.jpg |
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| Wan with the aforementioned cashew apple! |
Around 21km into our cycle route around the island we stopped for an amazing lunch at a cute little restaurant by the sea. We had seafood tom yum soup, massaman curry with chicken, chicken sauteed with cashew nuts, vegetables in oyster sauce and plenty of steamed rice! It was great food and fuelled the remaining 9km of the bike ride nicely.
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| Not a bad spot for lunch eh? |
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| We made it! |
I think that the glass my Piña Colada was served in when I arrived gives a good idea of the flavour of our evening spent in a bar where most of the waiters are karaoke loving Lady Boys and there are copious amounts of fancy dress items to play with...
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| We were loving the head gear! |
One of the waiters, Minnie, was fab and took pictures with us in between doing her (scarily convincing) Beyoncé moves on the dance floor!
Damon, Matt and David also decided they were gonna try to climb the pole in the middle of the dance floor in exchange for a free shot...I'm pleased to say they didn't embarrass us and they both made it to the top! Good job guys!
I personally didn't feel that a free shot was worth the public humiliation that would undoubtedly follow if I attempted to hoist myself up a pole! Instead I tried on all of the different hats and wigs in the fancy dress box and settled on a pink wig combined with an extravagant feather/gemstone headpiece... fabulous don't you think?
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| Actually quite tempted to change my hairstyle...but I'm probably too much of a wuss to do this for real! |
The class was so much fun but actually really difficult - I felt like I'd had a good workout by the end of the one hour class and the stretching definitely did me good! I'm definitely going to try to do another class like it in the UK over the summer!
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| Attractive... |
We all really enjoyed it and had fun trying out what we'd learned on the yoga slings once the rest of the class had departed!
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| That's more like it! |
When I got back to the villa, I joined Mum and Damon for an afternoon by the pool before heading to Tracey's in the evening for a pool party and BBQ to celebrate Amy and Matt's engagement (they got engaged at the beginning of the holiday - so sweet)!
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| Pool party ready! |
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| Cute little decorations for the party! |
We had a lovely evening celebrating the happy couple before heading back to the villa to get some much needed sleep!
Day 12 - Sunday 12th April 2015
Sunday morning was spent soaking up some rays before getting a speed boat over to Coral Island for the afternoon and enjoying some beach time!
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| Cute little seashell chain attached to the branches! |
I actually got some uni reading done (shock horror!) before we repositioned our deck chairs so we could dip our feet in the sea whilst enjoying some sun-downers!
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| Kindle in hand - top student ;) |
Waiting for the sun to set became some sort of photo shoot opportunity - such tourists!! It was good fun though!
We definitely took the photo taking to the extreme...but I love the results!
We had to get the speedboat back before the sun went down so we had a lovely sunset view as we headed back to the mainland for dinner at Banana Corner in Nai Harn (yet another great thai meal to add to the list!).
Day 13 - Monday 13th April 2015
The 13th April marks the start of Songkran - Thai New Year! You can read more about the traditions associated it with it here, but I'm just gonna give you my version of events!
It is celebrated as a water festival. Thai people pour water over each other in a kind of island-wide water fight that traditionally (for Buddhish Thai people) symbolises the washing away of sins and bad luck ahead of the new year.
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In Nai Harn and Rawai, this translates to you getting water, talcum powder and flour chucked over you as you walk or drive down the street! Locals stand outside their houses, shops and restaurants with huge buckets of water and hoses, ready to attack any passers by! Music is blaring from every doorway and its just like a massive party - amazing!
So what did we do to take part (I hear you ask eagerly!)? Well, we jumped in the back of a truck with two bins full of water, water pistols and buckets and joined in with the water fight - what else?! It was so much fun...I kinda felt like I was at some sort of crazy American college party...
We did a couple of circuits of the area and we had to re-fuel our water supply a few times to make sure we weren't sitting ducks! People threw water at us when we drove past too - you're not only a victim when on foot...and some of that water was REALLY cold!
When we got back from the water fight, we chilled by the pool for the rest of the day and enjoyed some fresh Thai fried chicken with sticky rice and cuddles with Tracey's dogs!
A fab day had by all - the concept of a water fight has taken on an entirely new meaning in my mind now!!
Day 14 - Tuesday 14th April 2015
After the madness of Songkran celebrations the day before, some relaxation was needed and that was definitely what we got! We were lucky enough to go on a relaxation cruise (run by La Moet Phuket - check them out here) along the Phuket coastline on MV Phuket Champagne - a beautiful wooden boat!
We left from Chalong Pier at lunch time and then literally just cruised around all afternoon, stopping off for swimming stops in the ocean when we fancied and enjoying the sunshine on the top deck - it was a wonderful day!
We had a lovely view of the sunset from the boat before enjoying a fantastic dinner on the ship - massaman curry and fresh fish - yum!
Some of us may or may not have had a starlit nap under the fairy lights on the top deck as we sailed back to Chalong, bliss!
Day 15 - Wednesday 15th April 2015
Our last full day in Thailand - so sad! Mum and I started our morning off the right way and headed to one of the local massage parlours! I opted for a relaxing oil massage this time, scarred by my first and only experience of a traditional Thai massage the previous week! It was wonderful and relaxed me ahead of a very stressful day of sunbathing by the pool when we got back to the villa...not!
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| Outside Rungaroon massage parlour! |
Once I'd caught the last few rays of the holiday, I packed up my suitcase and got ready for our final evening! I'm really gonna miss Sunstone Villa.
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| Ready for the evening - cheers for the freckles Thailand! |
I saved the appointment for the final day of the holiday so I didn't have to worry about it getting damaged by me being in the sun/sea/pool. I went to a local place recommended to me called Inkjection and was very pleased with the result.
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| God only knows why I'm smiling?! |
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| Freshly tattooed! |
The food was great and we really enjoyed our evening.
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We were up bright and early on Thursday morning ready to be taken to the airport to start the long journey home. I actually quite enjoyed the flights back - they went quite quickly as I blogged, did some reading and watched "Night at the Museum 3" and "The Imitation Game" (both fab by the way!). Before we we knew it we were back in the UK and it surprisingly wasn't that cold - thumbs up to that!!
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| Deliberately wearing white on my return to the UK so I look brown... |
~ The End ~
Now I'm off to hide under a pile of books whilst I get my end of year university assessments done, but I'll hopefully be back with some fun stuff for The Danii Diaries in a few weeks!
As ever, thanks for reading! xoxo
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