Singapore - London: The Long Way Across

Well, after a 6 month sojourn on dry land, the Privateer is back on the cyber seas with stories of travel, food, boozy nights, sunny days, and general (mis)adventure. This part of the story begins with the leaving of Singapore. In a nutshell, our time in Singapore was simultaneously one of the most fun and frustrating times of our lives. It’s a relatively new country that like most infants is loud and petulant as it fumbles its way into the 21^st century on the journey from crawling to walking. What I will say though, is that the friendships we made this year will stay with us and still bring a smile to my face this day when I think about the good times I’ve had with my new Singaporean, Australian, French, Canadian, Swiss, South African, Caribbean, Kiwi and American friends.

The last week of Singapore bought with it precious little sleep and a dizzying amount of tasks to be completed before we set sail, so to speak. Therefore it was with 2 hours sleep that we finally arrived at Changi airport at 7am. With the back rows of the plane miraculously vacant we were able to lie down and catch one more hour of sleep before we awoke to the Captain announcing our decent into Phuket Thailand. I groggily sat up, buckled my seatbelt and was then shaken awake in the most beautiful way possible by the sight that greeted me out the window. Silver waters with islands strewn around like broken giant’s teeth, covered in centuries of jungle. The ostentatious crassness of Marina Bay Sands was suddenly a distant memory as mountains rose to meet us and tourist brochure words like “paradise” suddenly seemed meaningful.

The journey from Phuket to our little island was mostly smooth except for me leaving a backpack on the bus after it had departed but thankfully a very helpful cab driver chased the bus down for us and it was retrieved. Still fighting fatigue we lugged our packs onto a little bum boat and chugged over to the island of Koh Kho Khao. Felicity’s optimism at a 2km walk with 4x backpacks and 2 x already weary shoulders was thankfully reined in by a friendly restaurateur who loaded us into his tuk tuk and drove us to our resort in exchange for the promise of returning to his restaurant later on.

That night, the sunset that greeted us from the beach was a panorama of epic proportions. It was like one giant cyc with a thousand par cans lighting it, changing every minute or so “LX 301....Go!” The soft blue sky was strewn with the tails of fiery dragon breath while dark clouds gathered to the west like angry trolls mustering for the last battle to end all ages. This resort is the perfect combination of luxury and rustic. The food on the island is the best Thai I’ve ever eaten (well, you’d hope so, wouldn’t you?) and the locals are super friendly and laid back. If ever we needed an antidote to the city life of Singapore, this is it. We’ve taken in a festival by the pier, ridden around the island on scooters and played pool late into the night with friendly locals and their children.

The rest of trip through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia will be much more budget backpacker style but this little treat in Thailand is the perfect way to unwind after the 14 hour days of packing up the pride lands. And the best part is the angry versions of ourselves that almost got us arrested in Sinagpore have been gratefully left behind and we feel like our true selves once more.

Pics coming soon!