To go from Thailand to Australia would be as easy as one simple flight if we were already in Bangkok, the problem is our journey started off in Koh Lanta, an island off the west coast of South Thailand.
Our journey started on a bus ferry, this meant that we got on a bus and the bus travelled across a car ferry for about two hours before we arrived at the mainland, Krabi.

Then after arriving at Krabi we had to change bus and travel across Thailand to the east coast, to Surat Thani. This took another two hours.

Then at Surat Thani we had an hour wait in a tiny Thai restaurant and travel agency before getting on a big bus with large reclining seats that would be our beds for the next ten hours on our trip from Surat Thani to Bangkok. Juliet and I were sneaky in that she ran on the bus and got us the best seats with loads of leg room, while I loaded the bags into the boot – I’m so glad we did this as some people had to sit next to randomers and not their friends as people had chosen to have a double seat to themselves only realising eventually that there was not enough space on the bus to have two seats to yourself!

After a severe lack of sleep on the sleeper bus, even though the seats we’re nice, they weren’t as big as they originally seemed and I just couldn’t seem to get comfy, we arrived in Bangkok. It was 5.45am and so we headed to Koh San Road to maybe find a restaurant or something to sit in. On arrival we remembered that we had paid for two nights in the Sawasdee inn from our first stay in Bangkok but had only ended up staying one night. We headed to the hostel and they had a room for us so we collapsed on the bed and slept for another two hours – such luxury! Our room also includes breakfast which obviously we won’t be using tomorrow as our flight is tonight but they allowed us to enjoy the big buffet today instead. So after expecting to be sitting in a smelly bar on Koh San Road full of drunkards from the night before who hadn’t yet gone to bed, we had a relaxing sleep in aircon, a big breakfast already paid for (by ourselves admittedly) with wifi, and a room to store our bags while we set out to explore Bangkok for a second time, hopefully it’ll be better than before!

Bangkok visit number 2 was a lot better than the first time we went, with Koh San road back to life full of happy market sellers and bundles of people. We immediately found the shorts that we had been looking for, the sunglasses on our shopping list and some more baggy trousers for Julie – a good start. This time we even ventured out of Koh San Road, heading to the main square to see the local’s market, selling food, clothes and even wedding dresses. There were people bulk buying food from small vendors and piling their tuck tucks high with produce, either to sell on themselves or to take as a supply for restaurants and street food makers. We booked a 150baht transfer to the airport (very different to the 500baht taxi fee we were made to pay on the way here) and then went and had our last massages in Thailand, something which has become a regular occurrence for us. Juliet finally had a Thai massage strong enough that it actually clicked her back (atlast!) and I had the best oil massage I’ve had all month. The lady used cocoa smelling oil (so obviously I was impressed by the chocolate scent wafting around) and even made me do some of the Thai massage stretches at the end! (She gave up shortly after realising how inflexible I am) So everything is going well, we’ve had a lovely day in Bangkok, made even better by the fact we have a room, meaning we didn’t have to lug our giant bags around and also we have a place to shower and freshen up before the flight!
We’ve just got our last bit of street food (spring rolls for me) and are happily playing cards waiting for our transfer.

We are both very excited to get on the plane (more because of the films than anything) and cannot wait to start our next adventure in Australia!
A great end to a fab month in Thailand.