Tales of Southern Thailand...

It has been 4 and abit weeks since we arrived in Satun (A province located in the far, far south of Thailand) by ferry from Langkawi!

Our 1st Songthaew (thai for two rows) taxi of Thailand!

We was then supposed to be transferred onto a V.I.P, air conditioned bus, which would take us straight to our first Thai destination of, Krabi! But instead we was told we had to wait a further 2 hours for a different bus... which was an old, rickety, uncomfortable and extremely sweaty karaoke bus which took twice the amount of time to reach Krabi as we had hoped. -we got there in the end! 5 hours late...

The Karaoke bus which replaced our V.I.P bus...

Welcome to Krabi...

We stayed in Krabi a total of 3 days... It was a nice city by the sea, surrounded by lots of islands (A total of 154 Islands in the Krabi province!) such as Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta Islands. 
Krabi also had lots of local food markets, selling all sorts of local cuisine from the popular and tourist friendly Pad Thai, to fried bugs, pig innards, sausages made from unknown meats and spicy curries! Aswell as the neverending choices of stalls to eat at there was the beautiful Central temple of Krabi, Wat Sai Thai, which also doubles up as the tsunami safety zone aswell as a local gathering point for buddhist events and weddings!

Krabi city river

Super spicy special breakfast in Krabi!

Wat Sai Thai Temple and the storm clouds behind...

Taking shelter at the temple whilst it rained for a good hour!

The weather was a little miserable during our time in Krabi and we wanted to visit another island! Due to us being in Thailand during the low season (May to september/october), pretty much everything is half price! As there is not as many tourists as usual, we chose to visit Koh lanta Island (compared to phi phi where it is busy year round more or less...perhaps due to that old leo dicap’ film called the beach?)

The Swedish loving Island of Koh Lanta!

We arrived in ko lanta to some lovely weather :-) but, unfortunately, it didn’t last long! Actually, it lasted nearly 2 and a half hours! 4 days of rain and powercuts were to follow!! but this didn’t stop us from exploring... we managed to see the old town, took some of LAW's (Lanta animal welfare) rescued street doggys for a wet and windy stroll on the beach, explored the country by scooter, visited some more beaches...which would be lovely if the sky wasn’t grey and the waves about 4ft high!

Dog walkies on the beach, Koh Lanta

The Lanta Animal Welfare dogs taking Max for a walk :)

A glorious day at the beach, Koh Lanta!

After 4 days in ko lanta we headed North-east (Via Bangkok) to Buriram province, where we would start our final HelpXing volunteering of our travels! After a 15 hour train ride, and then a 6 hour bus ride we arrived in the town of prakhonchai (In Buriram province), got caught in a terrential rain shower and took shelter in a machanics garage! The owner of the garage didn't speak any english, but through our limited knowledge of thai and google translate we managed to get a free lift to a nearby guesthouse :-)

About to board the 15 hour train from Trang (3 hours east of Koh Lanta) to Bangkok!

Trang to BKK, then onward to Prakhonchai!

During our HelpX stay we lived with a Canadian guy and his thai wife and daughter on a kind of eco friendly, organic, rice paddy farm in a small village called, Ban sai. Here we slept on the floor in a shed, ate lots of their homegrown rice, planted trees, fruit and veg, discovered the tasty jackfruit and also spent a few days teaching English in one of the top schools in Thailand! It was a nice, professional school and the classes which we assisted with were children mainly from age 7 to 11! It was really fun and a totally different experience to the voluntary work we have done so far! -the children would call us Miss Abi (Mhiz Ah-beee) and Mr Max (Mhist-are Mhaaks)!

Max, and the other volunteer, Jetty, taking a rest from the sweaty work in the fields!

The HelpX host's swimming pool that didn't contain any chemicals, just lot's of algae!

One of the pups at the farm :-)

Whilst living in the little village of Ban sai, we also joined in with a festival, celebrating one of the local men in the village becoming a monk! It was a big celebration, that went on for 3 days solid! On the last day we happened to be going into the village for a much needed drink of ice tea and got roped into dancing around the village with the locals, followed by a lorry with a band on it and lots of old men offering out whisky and throwing iced water- random but fun experience, and I was given an original farmers hat made from bamboo!

Volunteers day visit to Prasat Hin Khao Phanom Rung temple in Prakhonchai

The Bansai village's local buddhist temple

After finishing our weeks HelpX volunteering with the family/ school in Prakhonchai we made our way to northern thailand... first stop, Lampang- the only town in Thailand where horse drawn carriages are used as public transport!