Koh Tao > Bangkok > Sydney

Hey guys!

Hope you are all well...
Just a quick update on the 2nd chapter of our journey.

Last time we left the blog as we were heading to Koh Tao. We spent about 3 nights on this beautiful island. It is notorious for being the chillout spot where people recover from the full moon party, and it did not disappoint. We spent most of our time on Sai Ree beach - a picturesque sandy stretch with warm, crystal clear water.

The weather was very hot every day, and we spent most of our time just relaxing on the beach. Along the shore there are a number of very relaxed restaurants where you can eat lying down on mats facing out to the sea which we found suited our lifestyle perfectly.

However, once the sun went down, the beach turns into another party, and what was supposed to be our relaxing days off turned out to be time spent recovering from the night before - but what better place to be doing it?

We spent one of the days away from Sai Ree and went to a nearby bay. It was great to see more of the island and the new location was good for snorkelling so we rented some gear and spent the day checking out some of the sea life that Thailand has to offer.

Having made the most of our 8 days of summer holiday this year, we jumped on a boat to a place called Chumporn, from where we took an 8 hour overnight bus to Bangkok. This was suprisingly comfortable and easy - we slept most of the way so the time flew by. The bus arrived slightly earlier than expected so we arrived in Bangkok at about 4am. We were unsure whether to power through the night but decided to get some accomodation in the end. For 350 baht (7 pounds) we stayed the night in a hostel room with one double bed. The three of us crashed the night here in what was possibly our most uncomfortable night so far but yet another interesting night in thailand. the blow was somewhat softened by the knowledge that we would be spending the next night in the hilton (thanks again to the Reas).

The next day we took a cultural dive into the history of Thailand, which basically comprised of being sped around on a tuk tuk looking at three Thai palaces. The most impressive were the grand palace and the 'Big Buddha' which unsuprisingly is a massive gold buddha statue. Unfortunately we couldnt get in anywhere because we were dressed inappropriately but we managed to get some nice photos from the outside.

After this we ventured into a different part of thai culture and went to a shopping centre called MBK, the hub of Bucci, Sparmani, Oakey and other such 'genuine imitation' brands. Being the astute business minds that we are, we left empty handed but had a good time looking around. It was then back to the hilton for a shower and then out on the town for our last night in bangkok. We capped off thailand in style and the next day jumped on a plane to Sydney...

We arrived in Sydney a little tired from the flight but spent our first day looking at the city from the deck of a ferry. It is a beautiful place and we have all agreed that it could be an awesome placement location for next year. The next day we woke up a little sore from the night before but in an effort to salvage the day we took a ferry to Manly beach. It is a very cool beach - very wet and cold that day but it inspired us to try surfing. The next day we got up early and took a bus to the famous Bondi beach, rented some surf gear and as lessons were outside of our budget, proceeded to learn by doing. While there were a few hard slams early on as we found our sea legs, by the end of the day we were all catching waves, standing up, surfing into shore and using words like 'gnarly,' 'far out,' and 'radical' - surfer boys to the core.

We then spent our last night in Sydney at a rugby league match. It was held at the ANZ staduim where all the Olympic events took place The olympic park is pretty impressive and although the 80,000 strong stadium wasnt full the atmosphere was still exciting as the local Bulldogs beat the Penrith Panthers. Great way to cap off our time in Sydney.

Now it is on to New Zealand and the core of our holiday. We arrived this morning, have checked into a nice hostel. After a sleep to recover from the flight we found a bar to watch NZ play France at rugby and later we will hopefully watch the Lions beat South Africa (apologies to the Thomas family) before calling it a night.

Tomorrow at 10am we head to Wanaka and the start of the ski season, where priority number 1 is to get a job - we will let you know how it goes!

Hope you are all well,

Lots of love,

Jub, Mark and Si.