Chan's trip since 1st July 2010

Ok, sorry for not posting earlier but internet access was somewhat slow off GPRS.

My flight from Melbourne to KL on 1 July 2010 was pretty uneventful. But it was late by about 30mins which ate into my 2 hour transfer time to my next flight from KL to Bangkok. Luckily that flight was delayed due to weather anyway so I had plenty of time. But LCCT, KL airport's budget terminal can be a bit of a nightmare for the uninitiated even for the veteran traveller. I'm happy to report that AirAsia's new seats are a big improvement over the previous version. More room and you can actually lean your seat back. Although they don't have power points for every seat anymore. Which for an IT guy is a bit of a pain. Luckily I have 5 mobile phone batteries and 2 seasons of Lost to keep me sain. The lay flat seats were actually lay flat. Close but not quite. I'm considering upgrading my seat just for the power point so I can watch movies on the flight from KL to London. I'll have to see how my finances are like.

My flight from KL to Bangkok as mentioned was late due to weather which was a blessing and a pain. It meant my Aunty and Uncle had to wait until about 11pm for me which obviously isn't good. And the approach to Bangkok airport was some what turbulent so much so that the flight host/hostess's had to drop to the floor and there were a few screems from the passengers. It was actually kinda fun. Oh and the lady sitting next to me had a bottle of water in her handbag which exploded due to the decreased pressure. This of course meant that there was water dripping down from teh overhead compartment. Fun and joys of traveling through south east Asia I suppose.

I spent 6 days with my Aunty Namtip, uncle Bong and cousin Tana. I have high hopes for Tana. His English is pretty much as good as a native speaker and he's a bright kid. My time with my family was quite busy. My grandfather was in hospital recovering from an operation so we spent a bit of time with him there. I also spent a bit of time wondering around central Bangkok window shopping and also checking out the damage caused by the recent riots. I'm glad to report that there isn't any more unrest and things are pretty much back to normal. Although there are some buildings that were burnt most places are up and running as per usual.

I attended a ceremony for my father on the 6th of July. It was a very quick one as my step mom and sisters had to go to work and school respectively.

I met up with Jocelin and Adrian on the 6th of July for our flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui. The flight was in a turbo prop plain which means the propellers were exposed. This is my first time in this kind of aircraft so it was a little exciting. It was a pretty small plane but it did the job.

We arrived in Koh Samui and were picked up by the resort transfer guy. We stayed in a resort called "The Kala". It was a pretty flash resort. I think I will be taking Anna back there at some stage. Although there were two things that weren't so good. First was the location being a few kilometres from the nearest eatery and there was no Wifi internet. But the views were to die for. Definately made the trip that much easier.

We expected good diving off Koh Saumi. But we found that although there were heaps of dive shops there wasn't actually any dive sites off Koh Samui. It appears people use it as a launching point to go to Koh Tao. We did how ever do one day of diving from Koh Samui on a site called Sail Rock. It was ok but the vis was poor by my standard. Joz and Adrian loved it though. We also spent half a day snorkelling off Lamai beach. I sustained a few cuts when I slipped off some rocks but nothing that a few days of healing won't mend.

So we've now arrived in Koh Tao. We took the Lomprayah Catamaran from Koh Samui to Koh Tao. It made two stops in between where some of the passengers got off. Apparently one of our bags which contained all of our snorkeling gear was mistakenly offloaded in one of these stops. So the lesson learnt was to keep an eye on your bags and make sure it's not offloaded. I was hoping the crew would know what they were doing... But this is South East Asia... We arrived in Koh Samui at 10am and they told us to come back at 3pm to collect the bag. Oh well. Lets hope it is in fact our bag... And it arrives.

We are currently staying in a place called "Simple Life Resort". So far it's been good. It looks clean and spacious.

More to follow....