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Published: October 21st 2007
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Big old journey down to here - we had our 2 hour bus to Bangkok (full of soldiers) where we arrived in rush hour and after being sat in traffic for ages, the driver asked if we wanted to just get out there in the middle of half a dozen lanes - which we did - then fell straight into a tuk tuk - it was hilarious as we were packed up to the rafters with all our packs and then us on the bottom. The fumes were bloody awful as you get it all in your face on the tuk tuks but eventually we got to Hua Lomphong station where we had just over 2 hours wait for the train. I sat with the packs while Sheena went off for some grub, then I noticed everyone stood up very solemnly and the national anthem started playing out of the blue! i stood up so that i didn't get shot or anything for not showing respect to the king! it was very amusing, everyone was so serious!
we got on the train at 7.30 pm and decided this time to order some large beers - you get a train
waiter and loads of sellers on the train. Our waiter was a he/she and was brilliant, we had a good laugh and chat with him/her! we ended up having 4 large beers and sharing them with Meen (waiter) and his mate from carriage 16 who was even camper and did us a pole dance up my ladder to my bunk! then another waiter came along and said "party?" as we had the ipod speakers on too and he had some beer and it was party on the train! i also passed out a cup of beer to a young hobo alcy bloke on the train tracks - he had his mattress by the side of the tracks and was obviously pissed, the train stopped and he was shouting at people on the train, anyway, we felt sorry for him and i passed him a beer out the window, he blew me kisses and looked cheered up!
We were quite inebriated after our party and it was soooo hot so i decided to have a shower on the train. the shower was actually in the train toilet and just a shower hose/spray on the wall by the loo, which was
how many lanes?!
and that's just one side of the road. you wanna try crossing all the lanes when the tuk tuk does a u turn without looking - scary! a tad stinky. However - the alcohol seemed to render this irrelevant and i found it a luxurious and refreshing arrangement. its amazing how you get used to these things! it was water for gawds sake and i had a good soap up and washed my hair and then felt much better in the heat.
our train ran late, quel surprise, so was about 14 hours or so again, then we found ourselves a mini bus from Surrathani to the ferry port, there was 4 lads and some thais in it with us. The ferry was actually a large rusty tin can and was meant to take a couple of hours but took 3. We were just glad it remained on the surface of the water instead of underneath. we finally arrived at Kho Phangan and Subai met us and we had a 5 minute drive to our place. Subai got us checked in and gave us little booklets of info, she said she would leave us to settle in and meet us in the restaurant on monday (tomorrow now, tonight is sunday) and we will go and see the clinic.
our bungalows are pure decadence! huge, i
have a double bed and a single bed and a huge room, my own little bathroom and balcony, and its on the beach! sheena is in an identical one next door, we are about 100 yards from the sea! there are some palm trees and other bungalows and then the sea. its really really nice and pure luxury. i've unpacked and all settled in.
it has been raining and thundering!!! real monsoon weather and quite good actually ! its still really hot and its kind of different to have the heavy downpours and thunder storms! we will get to experience it all while we are here so i quite like that we get to experience the different tropical seasons. its fairly quiet on the tourist side of things as its low season, it will get really busy in December apparently.
we have a restaurant and beach bar in our little bungalow resort, its owned and run by 2 english blokes! one is ginger so im a bit wary - haven't spoke to him yet apart from hello! the other, adrian is nice - his girlfriend is irish and lives here too, we ate and then sat at the
bar which is right on the beach! a small one with music playing and really really chilled. we had a great evening, there was adrian and his g/f (forgot her name for the mo) then this guy called simon who lives here and comes here a lot. he has a 16 month old son who was with him. the mom is thai but is a druggie and has run off and abandoned them! the kid (robbie) is so cute, lovely happy baby and they stayed with us til 10pm then he had to go and put baby to bed as its just the 2 of them. then there are 2 irish couples, one on honeymoon, and one or two others here on hols, we all sat round just chatting at the bar, very relaxed. had tequila sunrise and beer, and sheena had 3 black russians, then she had some drinks, arf. this is gonna be great...........................
Sunday - sat around lazing all day, reading and talking to people in the restaurant again. tomorrow we have to meet Subai at 8.30am, shocker! i think we will get an induction to the clinic so really looking forward to that. we have
Hua Lampong
so looking forward to a beer on the train this cheeky dog on site who lives here, a pup really called Patch - he zips about nipping our ankles and playing, he is so cute, we've adopted him already. he ran off with someones front door mat earlier and killed it, then he ran in sheenas room and robbed a wet wipe, he's ace.
tonight we went out to a proper thai local place to eat, and i had a yellow curry. i forgot that the touristy restaurants make them a bit weaker for us tourists and i just had a massive spoonful and then nearly threw up my own gullet - god it was HOT!! like a bloody vindaloo - beer didnt cool it down much either!
we're gonna go back to "our" beach bar now and try not to drink too much as up early tomorrow. we have just been and bought a big bottle of tequila (for me) and vodka for sheena, and mixers for our bungalows! oh dear................................
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