To begin my month's school holiday I spent a few days on Koh Tao, an island off the south east coast of Thailand. This is my second visit to this backpacker's utopia (I was on Koh Tao in November 2014: Spicy Family, Sunsets, Fire Shows, Fish Death Matches and Injuries...) and I just knew I was in for four days of unabridged mayhem and that's exactly what I got (plus a neck injury from laughing so much). One night a couple of people from my hostel fell into a large free-standing fan at a bar near the beach whilst dancing and broke it; the Thai owner became extremely aggressive and wouldn't let us leave until they'd paid an extortionate amount of money despite the fan being ancient. We tried to negotiate with him but he was becoming irate and threatened to call his friends which was worrying because Koh Tao, despite it feeling very safe, is infamous for being secretly run by callous Thai mafia - you may have seen happenings on the island in the media over the past few years - and so, eventually, one of the guys who fell into the fan went back to our hostel, Spicy Tao, to get some money and the situation was, thankfully, resolved. Naturally we thought that since we'd paid for the fan we may as well take some of it with us. This is where Rick The Stick was born! A simple fan leg became our new, metal friend - hey, do you want to meet my friend Rick?
Do I really need to put into words why I love this island so much?
After Koh Tao it was time for me to add to my list of visited countries during this trip by heading to Indonesia - country number eight. I embarked on my journey by clambering on to the back of a truck that took me to Koh Tao's ferry port so I could get an overnight bus to the mainland; this is where I briefly got talking to a poor guy who had smashed his leg up in a motorbike accident and was hobbling around on crutches that were too small for him whilst trying to carry his backpack. I felt really awful for the guy as it's hard enough to carry all your worldly possessions on your back without any injuries! When his crutches, that he had just paid 3000 Baht for (£60) only half an hour before, snapped the workers in the clinic angrily refused to give him a replacement; the Thais on this touristy island seem ruthless and greedy, not at all like most of the Thais I have encountered throughout the rest of the country, and I think it's a shame that holiday makers come to these parts of Thailand and get an unfair view of what Thai people are like. A truck, boat, eight-hour bus to Bangkok, taxi, international flight, local bus and finally a tiny tuk tuk made out of blue tin driven by an exceptionally polite Indonesian man took me from Koh Tao in the south of Thailand to a hostel in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, on the island of Java. I dumped my bags down and climbed up to the rooftop bar which is where I met up with my ultimate travel buddy, Victorine. Vic and I met on Koh Tao a year ago and travelled for a month through Laos together before she went back to Holland where she's from; we've stayed in touch all this time and she flew from Amsterdam to come and meet me so we could backpack around Indonesia together. When I started this trip in July 2014 I would meticulously research each place before I visited it but now I have a much more relaxed attitude and enjoy the thrill of arriving somewhere and not knowing a thing about it so when Vic and I met on that sweaty rooftop in Jakarta we didn't have a clue how we were going to utilize our three and a half weeks in the sprawling, volcano-studded archipelago of Indonesia and it felt great! That evening we made very loose plans to slowly head east across Java towards Bali, stopping wherever we felt like on the way to break up the overland journey. First stop: Pangandaran.
As soon as we arrived in Pangandaran we headed straight for a restaurant on the beach where we tried Gado Gado - a to-die-for Indonesian dish consisting of vegetables smothered in peanut sauce - and met a local man called Zee who offered to show us around. The following morning we got up early, met Zee and spent the day exploring the countryside on scooters; we visited a wooden-puppet maker and a turtle sanctuary, went cliff diving at a waterfall, rode a boat through a giant cave and, most memorably, stopped off in the clearing of a jungle where a family, who made brown sugar from coconut palm sap, showed us their very unusual pet...a giant bat! The tamed bat wasn't chained or caged and seemed to be very attached to its owners, probably because it was constantly being fed lumps of brown sugar, and it was also perfectly happy chilling in the midday sun despite it being a nocturnal animal. Have you ever wondered how bats have a wee whilst hanging upside down? No? Well I'll tell you anyway - they wee into their own mouths...! The following day we were determined to fit in a surfing session before we had to leave Pangandaran as the nearer we got to Bali the more expensive it would be; we ended up paying only 150,000 rupiah (about £7) each for a whole morning of one-on-one lessons from Zee and his friends.
In true Koh Tao style the sky was ablaze with a multicoloured sunset as we arrived on the island.
I went to Koh Tao with Kiren and we met up with Ash who is living a couple of islands away on Koh Samui.
Rick The Stick. Yes, it's real.
A random plug socket on a ceiling with no apparent use - anyone for high tea?
I trekked and climbed up to a view point on the highest part of the island.
After Koh Tao it was time for me to add to my list of visited countries during this trip by heading to Indonesia - country number eight. I embarked on my journey by clambering on to the back of a truck that took me to Koh Tao's ferry port so I could get an overnight bus to the mainland; this is where I briefly got talking to a poor guy who had smashed his leg up in a motorbike accident and was hobbling around on crutches that were too small for him whilst trying to carry his backpack. I felt really awful for the guy as it's hard enough to carry all your worldly possessions on your back without any injuries! When his crutches, that he had just paid 3000 Baht for (£60) only half an hour before, snapped the workers in the clinic angrily refused to give him a replacement; the Thais on this touristy island seem ruthless and greedy, not at all like most of the Thais I have encountered throughout the rest of the country, and I think it's a shame that holiday makers come to these parts of Thailand and get an unfair view of what Thai people are like. A truck, boat, eight-hour bus to Bangkok, taxi, international flight, local bus and finally a tiny tuk tuk made out of blue tin driven by an exceptionally polite Indonesian man took me from Koh Tao in the south of Thailand to a hostel in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, on the island of Java. I dumped my bags down and climbed up to the rooftop bar which is where I met up with my ultimate travel buddy, Victorine. Vic and I met on Koh Tao a year ago and travelled for a month through Laos together before she went back to Holland where she's from; we've stayed in touch all this time and she flew from Amsterdam to come and meet me so we could backpack around Indonesia together. When I started this trip in July 2014 I would meticulously research each place before I visited it but now I have a much more relaxed attitude and enjoy the thrill of arriving somewhere and not knowing a thing about it so when Vic and I met on that sweaty rooftop in Jakarta we didn't have a clue how we were going to utilize our three and a half weeks in the sprawling, volcano-studded archipelago of Indonesia and it felt great! That evening we made very loose plans to slowly head east across Java towards Bali, stopping wherever we felt like on the way to break up the overland journey. First stop: Pangandaran.
Nap time.
Yellow watermelon!
Vic in front of the flea market.
A local woman helped us order food when the bus stopped at a roadside shack for lunch - this was beef meatballs with noodles and we were instructed to douse it in glutinous, sweet soy sauce - delicious!
A ten hour bus took us to the small coastal town of Panganderan where we got a lift to a home-stay on these rickshaws that looked like wheelchairs.
Pangandaran beach.
As soon as we arrived in Pangandaran we headed straight for a restaurant on the beach where we tried Gado Gado - a to-die-for Indonesian dish consisting of vegetables smothered in peanut sauce - and met a local man called Zee who offered to show us around. The following morning we got up early, met Zee and spent the day exploring the countryside on scooters; we visited a wooden-puppet maker and a turtle sanctuary, went cliff diving at a waterfall, rode a boat through a giant cave and, most memorably, stopped off in the clearing of a jungle where a family, who made brown sugar from coconut palm sap, showed us their very unusual pet...a giant bat! The tamed bat wasn't chained or caged and seemed to be very attached to its owners, probably because it was constantly being fed lumps of brown sugar, and it was also perfectly happy chilling in the midday sun despite it being a nocturnal animal. Have you ever wondered how bats have a wee whilst hanging upside down? No? Well I'll tell you anyway - they wee into their own mouths...! The following day we were determined to fit in a surfing session before we had to leave Pangandaran as the nearer we got to Bali the more expensive it would be; we ended up paying only 150,000 rupiah (about £7) each for a whole morning of one-on-one lessons from Zee and his friends.
Holding this giant animal and seeing its veined, translucent wings shrivel when touched was one of the most bizarre experiences I've had on this trip.
We were allowed to feed it, hold it and it even 'cleaned' my hair!
We met a Dutch girl called Sietske who travelled with us for a week.
Our scooter ride took us through tiny villages surrounded by palm tree jungle.
The turtles at the conservation centre.
*Trying* to surf the Indonesian waves!
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