Travel Competitions

Here's a slightly different (but still very much travel-related) topic for this week: travel competitions!

This is an interesting topic in my opinion, because who doesn't want to go on holiday completely for free? From 2 week trips to far-flung destinations to overnight stays in the UK, there are various prizes on offer, giving people the chance of enjoying a dream holiday without opening their wallet - a particularly attractive prospect in our current cost of living crisis.

Travel competitions are something I started to get into around 5 years ago. Prior to that, I'd entered the occasional competition I'd seen on TV or in magazines, but it wasn't something I'd ever spent much time on. But at some point around late 2019 or early 2020, I found out about the Travelscoop weekly travel competitions newsletter and signed up straight away. Since then, every Sunday, I've received a list of competitions and have always set a little bit of time aside to enter all the ones that interest me.

Obviously, during the pandemic, there was a period where there weren't so many travel competitions around, and even when travel restrictions started easing again, I couldn't enter many, because I knew I'd be moving to Chile as soon as possible but didn't know when exactly, so couldn't enter the ones offering short UK and European trips. And when I was actually living in Chile, I was in a similar situation of not having many relevant competitions to enter.

But since settling back in the UK in August 2023, I've been entering nearly all the competitions coming into my inbox each week, and have won a grand total of...nothing!

Well, to be fair, that's technically not true. In fact, I have won the following:

- A voucher for a free Coke Zero at the Hungry Horse (probably expired by now!)

- A downloadable PDF of a Swiss recipe

- Various promo codes (only one of which I've ever used)

Pretty exciting, right?!

To be honest, although I know that thousands of people enter these competitions each week, I would have thought that after over 5 years of entering, including 2 years of entering nearly all the available competitions, I would have got something? Something like one night away in the UK, or even a voucher for a decent discount on a holiday package?

Adding to this the fact that the Travelscoop newsletter often publishes the winners' names, and I see the same people coming up time and time again, it leads me to believe that some are not taking these competitions in the spirit they are intended. As I have a full-time job and hobbies, I do not have the time or inclination to spend hours entering each competition multiple times with different email addresses, but clearly, others do. I get why someone might enter multiple times if the prize is an amazing bucket list trip, but if you've already won a night in London once, surely you wouldn't bother putting so much effort into winning a similar prize a second time? In some cases, it seems like some people just want the thrill of winning rather than the prize itself. (For this reason, brands running competitions definitely need to restrict entries to one per household when possible.)

I guess part of the reason I'm writing this is in the hope that it will serve as a kind of counter jinx and I'll actually win something soon! (Of course, I'll update on here if that does happen!)

Let me know if you're reading this and you've ever won a travel competition - what prize did you win? Was it a lucky draw or did you have to do something more creative in order to enter? Did you just enter once or did you try to play the system? I would love to know!

Image by Kindel Media from pexels.com

Snorkelling in the Surin Islands

We got back from our honeymoon in Thailand over two months ago, and I've now arrived at my last post of 9 about our time there. It's amazing how much I've had to write about it all, but we saw and did so much during those two weeks!

The third and final day trip we took was a guided tour to the Surin Islands on the penultimate day of our holiday. These islands to the west of the country are well-known for being one of the world's best snorkelling spots, which is what motivated us to travel there. We snorkelled in Arraial do Cabo back in 2022 and absolutely loved the experience, so were really excited to try it in a different part of the world.

Again, we booked a guided tour with GetYourGuide, and were picked up along with a couple of others in the early hours of the morning in a minibus. To be honest, we thought that this was going to be the group that we would be with for the whole tour, but when we arrived at the pier, we were dropped off at this big area with tonnes of people. We were given a blue wristband and were told to wait until they called our group. It was a bit chaotic, but at least there was WiFi, toilets and showers, and even a breakfast spread laid out. We'd already eaten breakfast at our hotel in Khao Lak (I got into the routine of having a breakfast of steamed rice, eggs, tomatoes and chili sauce every morning, which I miss a little bit now!) but we definitely weren't going to say no to chocolate brownies and iced coffee!

We were there for around an hour before we were given an introductory talk about the day's itinerary and what to do while snorkelling (the guide doing the talk actually told us that clown fish sting like jellyfish, which I later found out is not true!). Then it was time to take a travel sickness pill (which were given out for free) and get on the speedboat.

The Surin Islands are actually pretty far from the Thai mainland, so it took about 80-90 minutes to get there, even travelling as fast as we were.

At last, we arrived, and immediately jumped into the sea for our first snorkelling session.

Claudio had brought his waterproof phone case, so he could take some photos and videos underwater. He found it quite difficult to get good footage, as the fish move around so fast, but it's fair to say that the underwater world of these islands was absolutely incredible - there were fishes of all colours and some amazing corals. We didn't get to see a "Nemo fish" (clown fish), but we were lucky enough to see a couple of "Dory fish" (blue tang)!

For the next part of the tour, we got off the speedboat and into a long-tail boat to visit the Moken village on the south island. This is a community of people from an ethnic minority group who live in huts on the beach and sell items such as jewellery to make money.

The sight of the village as you approach it in the boat is really beautiful.

After about an hour at the Moken village, which we mostly spent relaxing on the beach, we went over to the north island for lunch. This was definitely the least enjoyable lunch from the three tours we did - the only veggie option was a very bland, watery stir fry, and the buffet table was a bit of a rugby scrum because there were several other tour groups there at the same time. That said, I can't really complain, as the breakfast at the pier had been really good. Plus, while eating at an outside picnic table, we had a view of a monkey playing in a tree!

A short distance from the picnic area, there's an absolutely beautiful beach, where we swam during our free time after lunch. This beach is the very definition of a secluded, tropical paradise, and actually reminded me a bit of the clips I'd seen of The Beach. However, unlike the real beach from the movie, you're allowed to swim here and it's not packed full of tourists!

We had two more snorkelling stops in the afternoon, seeing some more wonderful marine life. Each stop was around 45 minutes, and it was actually kind of tiring by the third stop. Overall, it was over two hours of snorkelling, which is a long time to wear an uncomfortable mask with your teeth clamped around the mouthpiece! By the end, I was taking a lot of breaks to just float in the water and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

We were welcomed back at the pier later with even more snacks, including coconut ice cream, which was especially appreciated! As with the James Bond tour, it was a super long and full day, but a really great way to see Thailand's underwater wildlife. Though overall, our trip to Ayutthaya was my clear favourite out of the tours we took, this excursion definitely added something special to our honeymoon.

And so, with that, my posts about Thailand have come to end! It was an absolutely unbelievable couple of weeks and gave us so many memories we'll treasure forever. One thing I really loved, and which kind of surprised me, was just how different all the places we visited were; from the vibrant metropolis of Bangkok, to the ancient temples of Ayutthaya, the lush rainforests of Khao Sok National Park, and the paradise beaches of Khao Lak and the Surin Islands. Strangely, although our trip went fast, in a way, we also felt like we spent a lot of time there and really experienced a good amount of the country. Obviously, we would have loved to stay longer, but we also felt very satisfied with how we'd spent the trip, as we'd done everything we wanted and more. All in all, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect honeymoon!

Of course, coming back to the "real world" has been a contrast to say the least. For various reasons, we've had our fair share of stress over the last couple of months, but we've also gone through a very happy change in our life. Last month, we moved out of my parent's house in the Wiltshire countryside and moved into our own little flat in Reading! I've also swapped working in Bristol for working in London, which has long been a dream of mine.

Moving home also means there are plenty of new travel adventures to be had, and we've already got started on that! Stay tuned, because I'll be posting plenty about London and beyond over the coming weeks.

See you back here soon!

James Bond Island, Floating Village, Monkey Temple and More

During our week in Khao Lak, Claudio and I decided to break up our time relaxing at the beach with a day trip to one of the iconic touristy places in Thailand. Of course, there are two such places in this part of the country: James Bond Island in Phang Nga Bay and Maya Bay in the Phi Phi Islands. Both are famous for being in movies - James Bond Island (actually called Ko Ta Pu) was in The Man with the Golden Gun and Maya Bay was in The Beach.

We chose to go to James Bond Island, as it is much nearer to Khao Lak and because the image of it is such a famous representation of the country.

And so we booked a tour from GetYourGuide and were picked up from our resort in the early hours of the morning the next day.

After about an hour in the minibus, we got on a long-tail boat and sailed through Phang Nga Bay towards the island. With its huge tower karst, it was quite similar to Cheow Lan Lake, which we'd visited four days earlier. To be honest, the scenery of the lake was probably a bit more impressive (and a lot less crowded), but I think if we'd never been to the lake, we would have been really amazed by the bay!

We arrived at the island, and I realised that we were in the spot that has been used in many promotional images for travel companies!

Crossing over to the other side of the island where we left the boat (Khao Phing Kan), we could see Ko Ta Pu!

To be honest, it was smaller than we thought it would be and the area was extremely touristy. But it was still a cool experience to see this iconic landmark of Thailand!

Though the tour we took was called a "James Bond Island tour", there were actually a whole lot of activities still to enjoy after visiting the island.

The first of those activities was going to a floating pier in the long-tail boat and from there, getting on a kayak for a tour of the nearby caves and mangroves. This was a fun way to see the natural beauty of the area and we got some cool pictures in the process!

Our next stop was the floating village of Ko Panyi. This is quite a fascinating place to visit, and very different from other places in Thailand, as it's actually a Muslim village. People from Indonesia settled there in the late 18th century and have built up the floating village, which includes an elaborate mosque and a football field, since then.

The view of the village, with a stunning mountain behind it, is really spectacular to see as you arrive.

Around the other side of the island are lots of buffet-style restaurants, and we stopped at one of them for our lunch, which was included in the tour. Out of the three tours we did during our time in Thailand, I'd say this one definitely had the best food. There were lots of options we could help ourselves to - I had dal with rice, sweet and sour vegetables with noodles and some veggie Pad Thai.

Afterwards, we had some free time to go off and explore the island. Claudio and I had actually seen the floating football field in a travel programme on Chilean TV a couple of years earlier, so it was exciting to step onto it ourselves!

After an hour of free time, we needed to make our way back to the restaurant to meet up with the rest of the group. But there were several nearly identical restaurants on the island, and unfortunately, we weren't able to find the correct one. We spent a long time going through the labyrinth-like streets of the village trying to locate it, but eventually we ended up standing on the pier of the island, waving our arms about until our guide came and found us in the end!

Once we were back in the long-tail boat at last, we took a different route back to the pier, going past a prehistoric rock drawing and some more mangrove forests.

We got back onto dry land, but that wasn't the end of the tour yet. We still had one more place yet to visit on our way back to Khao Lak - the Monkey Temple! It's actually called Wat Suwan Khuha, and was a really interesting place to visit. The temple itself is inside a magnificent cave, and yes, there are a lot of monkeys there!

Overall, it was a long and very full day, but a lot of fun. Being completely honest, I don't think we'd go back to these places if we returned to Thailand in the future, but it was a good experience to visit them.

On another note, I know this post is coming quite late after the previous one, but there's a good reason for that! We've been very busy with something recently, and I'll be writing more about it very soon...

But first, I'll be posting about our trip to the Surin Islands, which was another day full of exciting experiences!