Well im still jetlagged and up at 6am so thought I'd write a few words. Got back on tuesday and been doing nightshifts from wednesday so body clock is wrecked!
Flight with Jet Airways to Mumbai was one of the best ive ever had , plane wasnt full so we had 3 seats each and could lie down plus the amount of legroom on those planes is ample in any case. International transfers at Mumbai is an absolute joke! The army guys with guns and the border people all shouting at each other and everyone. basically they dont have anough room for the volume of people but they also have to be extra cautious after the attack couple years ago. This results in a very stressfull , over complicated system which is the last thing you want after a 10hr flight. Second leg to Bangkok was much smaller plane.
After a rest we had a walk around Bangkok. We were staying off the Sukhumvit road and little did we know on one of the seedier streets. All the bars were full of middle aged men hanging out with thai girls. Took us a while to cotton on to what was happening but basically they are pseudo brothels where you have to pay the bar a fee to take the girl away but once you have she is like a rent - a - girlfriend for whatever time period you have agreed. As we found out later some people will go with someone for a couple weeks and go visit the islands etc.
We met our friend who lives there for dinner at Long Table restaurant which is up a skyscraper in Asok. Lovely views of the city but not a cheap dinner by any means , very nice and def recomended. We had to take a walk down Soi Cowboy which is essentially the red light street of Bangkok , wow what an eye opener! Total mayhem on the street. Some absolutely stunning girls and some very dodgy looking ladyboys but it was all so weird. Our friend explained to us that it wasnt so frowned upon seeing as most of the girls come from the surrounding countryside and are the main bread winners for families who might earn $50 a month or less from farming so they send a daughter to the city and can earn 10 times that.
We got a mini bus from Victory Monument to the port where you get the boat to Koh Samet.Cheaper than anything organised by a hotel plus our first experience of going on the sky train (which is awesome , air conditioned and very fairly priced). After 3 hours of some of the scariest driving ive ever seen we arrived in Rayong and then a little fishing town to get the boat. Boat left an hour late as people kept turning up to load on supplies for their restaurants etc. Took about an hour to get there.
We'd arranged a room and they owner had come to meet us which was really nice. Laid back english guy who'd been there for 20 years. Koh Samet really is lovely , it has the right balance between perfect beaches , cafes + restaurants and abit of nightlife. Theres basically 3 places to go at night and if you walk a few minutes either way its very quiet so you can do as much or as little as you like. Restaurants were the cheapest of all the islands and some of the best too. Spent nearly a week there , met lots of really nice people.
next we went to Krabbi (where you get boats to koh lanta and koh phi phi from) where we had to stop for one night and meet our friend who was coming from Indonesia. we styed at the Pak Up hostel which I would recommend , they are really helpful and can organise most things for you. As a place do not stay in Krabbi more than a day / night there really is nothing there from what we saw its basically a springboard to the islands. The hostel bar was the busiest place in town put it that way although the Night Market was cool and some very tasty cheap food on offer.
Koh Lanta is pretty big and the roads are well maintained and wide so def worth hiring a scooter if not almost essential. Id never ridden one before but glad i ook the plunge , apart from nearly killing myself once was fine. Unfortunately we ended up staying in kinda the wrong place. All the accomodation is along the west coast and we were right in the middle of this. The best place to stay is further north towards the pier on Long Beach. Or in one of the resorts down south where there are some lovely beaches. Also worth mentioning the weather is alot different to koh samet in that it rained every day for about an hour or 2 around 5pm. Some pretty impressive lightning storms too. My mate was abit pissed off about the weather having come from a totally dry week and then him and my other mate got sick , real sick. Classic thai tummy i'll spare you the details but they coudnt leave the room for a day or 2. Koh Lanta is like Koh Samet but maybe with even less to do at night. def more of a beach and dinner sort of place. Again if we'd been staying elsewhere I reckon there would have been a few little bars open etc but not much else , which to be honest i was fine with , i didnt want to go all the way to thailand just to get wrecked.
We found the best beach of the whole holiday totally by accident. Was driving south along the road and our mate noticed a couple of thatched covers which must have been on a beach so we had a look. Parked by sie of the road and walked through a jungle path which brought you out Robinson Crusoe style on to a classic paradise beach that only had about 10 other people on , truly stunning. Luckily there was a shade cover free otherwise I think i would have died from the sun.Theres a restaurant high above the beach you have to virtually climb to but the views are amazing. I dont know the name of the beach or of it had one as there was nothing there essentially.
From Koh Lanta we got a boat a couple hours to ko phi phi. phi phi is made up of 2 islands , 1 of which is inhabited and has all the accomodation etc the other being a large vertical rock formation with some bays inside which is where they filmed 'The Beach'. What struck me straight away is how touristy this place was. Everything was up a gear from the other places we'd been. Everything is concentrated in the thin bit of land in the middle. on the south you have the port and on the north you have 1 giant bay which initially is stunning but the tide goes out so far and leaves stagnant water which after a few hours has a slight aroma to it. This bay is where the beach clubs etc are. We hired kayaks (def recomended) and went round left to Monkey beach. Stunning beach with great snorkelling and kayaking along the rocky cave like coast. The monkeys are vicious things and will go for you. scenes of fully grown men running into the sea from a monkey all of 1.5feet tall. Very interesting to watch tho the really do seem like little kids. We also got boats round to Long Beach a few times which was great views and a couple cafes / bungalows too.
Nightlife was pretty mental in a touristy way. In thailand there seems to only be about 10 tracks. on a night out you will hear Black Eyed Peas , Avicci , Guetta and the Swedes probably 10 times each at least probably more. all good fun tho , plenty of uv body paint going around and of course the thai buckets of cocktails. Managed to lose everything out my pockets at the full moon party somehow , was pretty trashed so have no idea what happened but i got back to the room after everyone else saying my stuff had gone then woke up the next morning with no recollection of it at all. Got all the cards / phone sorted the main thing is that i dont have any photos from the trip at all which im gutted about but such is life.
We went back to bangkok for 2 nights and stayed on the khao san road which is the main backpacker district. This probably had the most full on nightlife I'd seen in thailand and could be bit overwhelming at times. Good for a laugh but wouldnt be my first choice again.
All in all a great trip. Thailand is a lovely place and we barely scratched the surface. I have a feeling i may return , possibly solo tho as its the sort of place you meet people all the time. Also moneywise the most expensive thing is the flight there. once you are there you can live very cheaply if you want. dinner can cost you 2pounds or a fiver if you want a feast. rooms can be from about 8-10pounds a night. My point is that it can work out similar to a holiday in europe if you do it right you just need a little more time.
In conclusion id say koh samet was our favourite place , seemed to have the balance right all round. for partying koh phi phi is great and beautiful too. Lanta is the place to go with a partner and do nothing , or do some exploring on a scooter.
but you have to atleast experience it. You might even be able to get a boat over from koh samet to koh samui. 
Backyard is where it is at though for the Full Moon Party aftershow in an absolute stunning outdoor setting and all the beer-ed up lairy Aussies have long since gone to bed 
