The time has come! We have officially begun our Expedition to Thailand!
We all met at Gatwick airport with high hopes, lots of baggage and Dylan proudly displaying the socks he was wearing with his sandals (he was voted an ’absolute wrongun’ on our instagram stories folks, don’t worry! If you disagree or want to be included in future fun and games, follow our socials). However, our journey went down hill from there...
Navigating London - At the airport - Preparing for takeoff
As we were still stood in the check-in queue at Gatwick airport half an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave so everyone was a little anxious. The workers at the check-in desks were adamant that the flight had been delayed, as almost half the passengers were stood in the queue with us, but we had seen no evidence on the flight boards. The check-in computer system wasn’t working so each passport had to be entered manually, hence the delays.
After a few of our bags had to be put through the oversized baggage gate for being ‘unusual’, we hurried up to security. Apparently our flight was waiting for us but the automated security gates didn’t know that so we couldn’t get through. Each of our boarding passes were manually checked against a paper with the passenger list and our passports before we were allowed anywhere near security meaning we were sent through in drips and drabs. A few of us were searched and Jennifer was stopped as she was carrying a full bottle of water in her hand language (silly billy) but we were quickly on our way again, hurrying through the airport, past duty free and the pub, to get to our gate. The plane was boarding everyone as they came through so we walked straight down onto the flight, donned our masks and then waited about 2 hours while everyone else boarded and the plane was prepared.
Scoot airlines served us as well as they could. We each had a seat, those who preordered their meals received them, and there was a small variety of snacks for the rest of us. Although we wished for a pillow or a wee bit more leg room, we survived the 12/13 hours. Sleep came easily for some, with Kerensa achieving 8hrs, whole other members of the team really struggled, Maren sleeping for less than 2.
We landed at 4pm local time and after having our documents checked, collecting our luggage, hunting down the hotel taxi and dumping our bags, we were headed out on the town in search of food. The sun had set and it was pouring down with rain as we tried, and failed, to follow the directions given to us by the hotel receptionist. After walking down the main road, we eventually came across a sweet restaurant with lanterns hanging from the roof and a small lake behind it. We are well aware that our Thai language skills are not up to scruff but this restaurant proved it to us unapologetically.
With variations of fried rice, meat, green curry, stir fried vegetables, and soup, the team filled themselves nicely and we all agreed that we felt alive again; for many of us it had been 24 hours since we had eaten a full meal (snacks were comsumed - parents, keep your chill).
Bangkok - 7 hungry people - Food.
The next morning we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport to catch our Bangkok Airways flight to Koh Samui. All went smoothly, which was refreshing, and we even managed to grab some food in the airport before our flight. We flew over both Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngan before landing in Koh Samui and so caught some amazing arial views of where we will be working.
4 hours in Koh Samui
The team were taken aback by how beautiful Samui airport was so we made our way leisurely to pick up a taxi to take us to Lomprayah Samui from which we were catching the boat to Koh Pha Ngan. As everything went so smoothly on the flight, we arrived at the pier with 4 hours to enjoy the beach, catch up on work, contact our families (as it was midday for us and the morning for all you in the UK) and catch up on the blogs.
The boat flew over the water leaving Koh Samui, and the dark clouds that were darkening over it, in the distance. Koh Pha Ngan, ahead of us, was bathed in sunshine. After disembarking, we were hounded by taxi drivers who turned in disappointment when they realised there were 8 of us and wouldn’t fit in their cars. Eventually, we climbed into the backs of two open ended cars with our bags stuffed in around us and drove around Koh Pha Ngan for half an hour trying to find our villa. It took a while, and a few wrong turns, but we got here eventually and had a chance to get acquainted with the local area as we drove around.
With four bedrooms, two kitchens, a swimming pool, three bathrooms, two balconies, and a steep hill leading up to it, we are more than happy in our wee villa. The rain we had seen over Koh Samui eventually caught up with us, and while most of team were in the pool, the heavens opened. The rain was long and intense, arriving quickly and resulting in a steep drop in temperature so we curled up inside to unpack (and nap and shower). Once the rain had passed, we headed out for dinner.
Koh Pha Ngan has a solid tourist presence (more on Koh Pha Ngan coming in future blogs…) so finding a restaurant was relatively easy once we had headed in the right direction. We found ourselves in a small sushi restaurant headed up by a Thai man with shocking white hair and who armed himself with a guitar once he had made our food. William tried wasabi for the first time and we have captured the moment below for your amusement.
Our view - William meets wasabi - Walking home
We made our way home accompanied by a small troop of stray dogs and past a local fruit stall where we bought bananas, in two sizes, and mangoes. Currently, we are ending our day together, sat in the upstairs sitting room under the fan listening to music, planning our week, making shopping lists and listening to the lizards that have made the ceiling their home.
After almost three full days of travelling, we are all very excited to get a good nights sleep...But also to get out and start researching and exploring the island! Upcoming blogs are going to be packed to the brim with science, project details, team antics and so much more that cannot be predicted. If you want to receive an email every time we post a blog (hopefully a few days a week) send us a wee message at expeditionthailandgu@gmail.com with the subject ‘Mailing List’. You can add a message if you‘d like, but one isn’t necessary. Otherwise, you can still find blog announcements on our socials but we cannot promise how reliable these will be.
We will not email you about anything non-Thailand-Expedition related and once the final blog is posted, no one from the expedition will contact you again. (Although, if you have family/relatives/friends on the team I cannot promise that they will not contact you - in fact, I can almost garantee that they will contact you at some point but that will be of their own accord, I promise to have nothing to do with it!)
All the best from a sleepy but otherwise crazy excited Thailand Team
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