Adventurous Women Thailand Trip

DAY 9 - 24/06/09

It was only a 30 minute ferry ride across to Koh Samui and then a truck ride to our accommodation to Lipa Lovely Resort, which was indeed lovely. Located on the quiter side of the island overlooking the beach....just gorgeous and only 4k from the shopping district of Nathon. So the afternoon was spent shopping, dinner in town overlooking the beach watching the sunset. The next day was going to be the adventurous one!

DAY 10 - 25/06/09

OMG - what can one say - A couple of the girls decided to take in more relaxation and shopping, while four of us took off for the Jungle Canopy Adventure, which was FANTASTIC...what a rush. Although a couple of us were feeling very nervous about this experience we still went ahead with it and were certainly rewarded - I do believe the platforms we were standing on were more scary than flying through the air on the cable over the jungle canopy!!!! The fun didn't stop there for a couple of our adventurers...Danae & Deirdre decided to kick on to the golf course where they had a Zorb experience (Rolling down a ramp and around the grounds in a huge enclosed ball with water). Tracey and I had a BALL just watching them - it was so funny - Danae's hair got stuck to the velcro and lucky Deirdre wore a T Shirt, cause her bathers would have ended up coming off I rekon...I took video footage of it which I will post later.

DAY 11 - 26/06/09

Homeward bound - some very happy ladies who have thoroughly enjoyed their experience!!

Thailand Adventurous Women Trip

DAY 4 - 19/6/09

We awoke to mist settling on the mountains and the quiet of the river, just gorgeous! After breakfast was done, we watching the elephants being bathed in the river before two of the girls set off for an Elephant ride, some of us visited the nearby Mon Village and went onto the Buddah Cave which was very interesting and one of the girls decided another massage was in order.




On checking out of the Jungle Rafts, we longtailed it back to the Pier and then mini bus onto the Tiger Temple which was to be another highlight of the trip. Rules have changed a little since I had been there last as far as clothing, but we were prepared as we were traveling with our suitcases. Our Tiger experience started with sitting with some of the tigers, before being able to walk down to the Canyon with them, along with a volunteer carer and one of the monks. We then were able to go into the Canyon and have photos taken with them - that is a good experience, but the best was yet to come. Once we had finished at the Canyon we walked back to some of the open area where the monks, a couple of volunteers and some cub tigers were playing. They encouraged us to all come and sit with them, pat them and even kiss them on the nose - OMG that would have to be the highlight for many of our girls...they thought it was out of this world and so did I!! How lucky were we to have had this experience and I do believe it was purely by chance, as our timing for walking back before the crowd had given us this opportunity. Apart from tigers, there were plenty of buffalo, cows, deer, goats, boars and other wildlife just wandering around.

After the Tigers it was onto the Railway Station in Bangkok to catch our overnight train to Chumpon. Again - another great experience. We were all pretty exhausted from our big day and looked forward to being rocked to sleep by the train......eeek except when they braked suddenly (A LOT), it sounded like they were hitting cows!!!!

DAY 5 - 20/6/09

Early Morning - half asleep we arrived into Chumpon Railway Station at 5.00am after an early morning wake up call of 3.30am, so all feeling a little sleepy as we arrived into Chumpon at a guest house where we were able to have breakfast and freshen up before our 1.5 hour ferry ride across to Koh Tao which departed at 7.00am.

We arrived in Koh Tao at 9.00am after a pretty good ferry ride (few girls popped the old sea sick tabs for good measure). Koh Tao is a sleepy little island, with a beautiful tropical feel and the sand is almost as good as home!! From the Pier, it was a short truck ride to our hotel - Koh Tao Resort, which was just beautiful - all of us were totally wrapped. After settling in, it was off to explore the main town, back for a massage and swim and then a wonderful beach side dinner.

DAY 6 - 21/6/09

This morning the tide was really low as we waded out to the longboat for our snorkeling trip around the island. We went to four bays which were all AMAZING. I would have to say that it was on a par with our snorkeling experience in the Red Sea. We saw so much marine life and the visibility was awesome. We came across heaps of different fish, big and small, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, bright purple clams, all types of different coral and more! The colors were so vivid. On our return we didn't so much cause we were all really tired and pretty scorched - eeew.


DAY 7 - 22/6/09

Koh Phanang - Cookies Salad Resort.

We arrived in Koh Phanang (home of the full moon party), and it seems extremely quite. Took a truck to the Cookies Salad Resort where we are staying, then freshened up before heading back into town for a little lunch and shopping. After that it was back out to the resort for a swim and a bit of relaxation time.

DAY 8 - 23/6/09

This morning after breakfast a couple of the girls took off for a walk, whilst the rest of us went down to the beach cabana for some body treatments....aaah heaven! I had the works, massage, foot scrub, pedi and mani - so good and so cheap. Then the rain set in for the first time on our trip, so it's back to the open air bar/restaurant at the resort for a bit of blogging time. Tomorrow we set off for Koh Samui which is our last leg.

Thailand - Adventurous Women Trip

DAY 1 - 16/6/09

We are all very excited as we meet at Perth International Airport, some of us for the first time, so introductions take place and then it's off to check in! All goes relatively smoothly except Thai Airways religiously runs late (ahhh but not TOO late, so can't really complain). Very smooth flight into Bangkok which was great as there were a couple of girls amongst the group who were not good flyers - they coped well.

DAY 2 - 17/6/09

First day in Bangkok and as we left our hotel heading for the Grand Palace we observed a young thai lady squatting bare bottomed in the park just outside the palace - not a care in the world it would seem - we were the only ones who were surprised - she certainly wasn't!! We proceeded to the Grand Palace first which was fantastic and then onto Wat Pho where we had a traditional Thai Massage (brutal....but at the same time invigorating). After that we took a long tail on the river and through the back canals of Bangkok which was really interesting and next it was Tuk Tuk ride back to the hotel (which some of the girls had never experienced before, so it was a REAL TREAT!!!), then into MBK to get the shopping fix out of the way! We split up after that and everyone went their own way as we had a pretty huge day and were feeling tuckered out. Danae and I decided that we needed to go down Koh San Road and check that out - so glad we did, cause we found a great little restaurant down one of the alley's where we had our dinner "Hippee Bar De bar", I had a yellow curry which was just awesome.

DAY 3 - 18/6/09

What a fantastic day - we started out adventure at 7.00am where we were picked up by our mini bus and headed out to a pier where we jumped on board a longtail boat and headed for the floating market. That was an awesome sight where the locals sell produce on longtails in the canals...the girls loved it. From there we traveled on mini bus for two hours to catch the train to Nam Tok. En route to the station we needed refreshments and a toilet stop - haha - its was there we encountered our first squat toilets (a first for some of our crew). Once at the train station we saw the Bridge over River Kwai from our carriage and then onto Hellfire Pass which we also witnessed from the train....Cliffs on one side and river on the other...what an amazing site. Once in at Nam Tok we headed for Hell Fire Pass and the museum, which was to be a very emotional and moving experience for us. To see how the Prisoners of War were treated and the conditions they worked under was really disturbing. We trekked through areas where they were building the railway and saw bits and pieces of railway and memorials of those lives lost. Whilst the scenery was so beautiful, the whole experience was quite haunting. From Nam Tok we drove to another Pier, where we boarded another Longtail, this time bound for Jungle Rafts Resort (which is a floating hotel out in the jungle....magnificent - words cannot describe!!) We saw water buffalo bathing in the river and basking in the sun and heaps of wildlife including kingfisher birds, lizards AND HEAPS OF DOGS... As we arrived at Jungle Rafts Resort we were ushered to our bungalow style rooms, each with balcony, hammock and mosquito nets - every one loved it! This place is really quite amazing as it has no electricity, so food is brought down from the Mon village, showers are cold and refreshing and the only form of light is kerosene lanterns - certainly had an ambiance about it.

A Little Jog in The Wilderness - by Nicki Rehn

I was the only witness to my unforgettable experience, my thoughts and pain and joy the only companions for days on end; and silence, my closest friend. So, it is hard to convey a real and true picture of my journey. It took me 20 days to run 963 km from Perth to Albany along the Bibbulmun Track. I was able to do it alone and unsupported by carrying a 30lb pack, sending food drops ahead, sleeping in the track shelters, and doing without luxuries such as clean clothes, real food and a hair brush. And as it turns out, complete exhaustion is a sufficient substitute for a pillow and mattress. I ran (which was more like an ultra-marathon shuffle) between 50 and 60 km each day, moving slowly with the heavy pack, across the difficult terrain and in unseasonal scorching heat. It would take every morsel of daylight to complete my distance, as well as the first hour by headlamp. I actually wasn’t chasing a speed record, but was hoping to find space … not just wide open physical space that characterizes the Australia outdoors, but the mental and emotional space that comes from lengthy solitude, continuous days of motion, and time defined only by the sun rising and setting. (more…)