From the massage course and its rural surroundings James took me back to civilisation at a roaring speed - he had hired a Kawasaki Ninja and took me for a spin up to Doi Suthep - the mountain overlooking Chiang Mai, where I enjoyed a Spy (Thailand's answer to bottled wine/pop)! The first alcohol I'd had for a long while and it went straight to my head :) This theme continued when the group met up for food and live Thai reggae, dancing/swaying the night away, a great end to an awesome 2 weeks.
We headed back down to ol' Bangkok to meet my parents, where we greeted them at the airport with a full Thai greeting - orchid necklaces and decorated signs with their names to wave at arrivals. Their first rush of Thai culture came on the 15-minute walk to our guesthouse through the tropical heat of a bustling Bangkok neighbourhood, followed up the next day with Asia's largest market - the weekend market at Chatuchak.
Even though it was our 2nd visit to the Grand Palace it was good to find we were still in awe of the beautiful paintings and bling of it all. Also lovely to watch them be wowed by things we now find commonplace, like banana trees and giant golden temples.
 |
| Livin' it up in the Moon bar |
 |
| Entertainment, transport and bed for the night! |
Liz and Jacques adjusted to the timezone and oppressive heat very quickly, with the aid of the swimming pool and AC. Next stop we took the night train down to Chumphon, arriving at 5am to be herded straight onto a bus then a catamaran for 3 hours... This threw their "adjustments" out the window after a sleepness night and a long turbulent ferry crossing, sending poor Mom into various states of exhaustion and seasickness... needless to say, she slept for England the rest of that day and night!
 |
| The smile was soon fade... |
This took us onto stage 2 of our plan, onto the diving island of Ko Tao. Driven to a secluded beach we found our wooden huts perched up on the hill overlooking the Gulf of Thailand - giving them their first taster of Thai island paradise :) Snorkelling is a popular activity here as the east coast is lined with coral, and the bay we were on was known for its black-tip reef sharks. Unfortunately we chose a difficult spot to get in, making it particularly tricky for Mom as the waves tended to throw you against razor sharp cockles... The next day we were lucky enough to come face-to-face with a 1m-long reef shark just off the beach, who seemed not the least bit scared of us, just inquisitive.
 |
| What a glorious view to wake up to |
Choosing a larger, more stable ferry and dosing Mom up with seasickness pills, we headed over to Ko Pha-Ngan, down the coast and across the bay on a long-tail boat to arrive at the tropical paradise of Hat Yuan, which had been recommended by a friend we met in India who's now living there teaching yoga.
 |
| Tucking in to a tasty Pad Thai |
The bay is very close to perfect - still essentially un-reachable by road (you need a huge 4x4) it retains a secluded feel but can still supply you with luxuries like great cocktails and superb food, live music and some big parties, along with the natural calm turqouise sea, sunny sandy beaches, beautiful isolated bays to explore and snakes on your front porch ;)
 |
| Hard at work in the office |
 |
| 5am wake-up, waiting for the boat |
Stage 4 in our cunning itinerary was back to the mainland and deep into the Thai jungle - back into Khao Sok national park. We found an impressive treehouse for the folks complete with hot water and a flushing toilet (to their delight), built around the trunks of 3 large trees, 2 coming straight up through the bathroom.
This was our base for expeditions into the park - we took a full-day tour across Cheow-Lan lake with magical scenery, some time to play with kayaks...
 |
| Kayak tow-surfing |
 |
| One very content frenchman! |
...and concluding with a great walk through the jungle with a local guide who, as soon as he saw Jacques taking an interest in beetles, started pointing out all the weird and wonderful animals like leaf insects, trapdoor spiders, eagles, monkeys, iguanas, birds, bats, tortoises and giant bronze snails.
 |
| And they say otters are shy... |
 |
| Not stick-insect - leaf-insect! |
We finished the day floating on a bamboo raft across to a cave with stunning coral formations.
The following day we chose to go unguided through the Park, trying to catch a glimpse of all the weird and wonderful animals on our own. After less than half and hour of wandering past towering bamboo spears we happened across a family of monkeys who seemed all too happy to pose for our camera.
The final stage took us properly back to civilisation, into Phuket (staying in the old town as most of the beach resorts are far too chavvy and touristy). Finally, to my dad's glee (and my mum's horror), we rented mopeds - the only decent way of getting around the island. First up was a particularly steep road up to a lookout and nice restaurant - this was unbeknowst to Mom in preparation for the ridiculously steep road up to the Big Buddha the next day :)
As it was the weekend we nipped across to the weekend market, Pi getting more and more used to the moped and the Thai road rules ("live and let live" in his words). Beth's badgering eventually paid off here and with Pi we tried a handful of fried grasshoppers - actually pretty good if you can ignore what they look like!
 |
| Ewww! |
For their last night in Thailand we planned a meal out at our favourite restaurant serving enormous Phuket crab curry and huge shrimps in tamarind sauce.... SO good! Washed down with a nice white wine, followed by several bottles of Sangsom at various bars as we tried to convince them that with a day of flying the next day "the later you stay up the better"! This eventually culminated in waving them off in a taxi at 4am, everyone still drunk! Am not sure how their hangover turned out but I did hear some reports of screaming children on the 11-hour flight back...
 |
| Enjoying an aperitif with Paul |
It was an absolute pleasure to have them visit us and for us to be able to show them around some of our favourite places in Thailand.
Our next stop is into Malaysia to visit the Perhentian Islands before we head on down into Indonesia to find some waves, as it's been far too long.
Signing out with this beauty of a toilet sign for you!
