January, Bob N Jane and stuff

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Break dancing thais

Dear Diary and various peepers

The main event to note is the happy occasion of catching up with my mates Bob and Jane (and Hilary and Q) on Kho Tao, the other island, - I floated over on the ferry on Sunday 6 Jan, and met them at Viewpoint after a short taxi ride, they were staying at Moondance and booked me a bungalow for 2 nights.

It was great to see Jane when I got there, really good to have a mate over after having been away for 3 months now. We walked over to Moondance which was the last of the resorts on that stretch of beach, very nice. The bungalows are built into the hill overlooking the beach and sea which means you have to trek up at least a thousand steps to reach your place, and when the sun goes down its pitch dark if there's no moon, so i borrowed a torch! Bob and Jane's was right at the top - thighs of steel after a week of that I reckon. There are lots of trees around the bungalows too so there were a lot of creepy crawlies and squirrels running around and terrorising you in the middle of the night, preventing a decent nights sleep but this isn't a problem, not having to get up for work and all. Gloat.

We loafed on the beach for the afternoon and ate at the restaurant there in the evening, it all closes quite early so very civilised! There was a hairy moment when a small scorpion crawled from under Q's leg and wandered across the floor! You walk around with bare feet and sit on the floor and dont think about the scorpions you might sit or step on! After that death defying experience, we went to bed at a decent hour and I spent the night jumping awake every few minutes at the killer squirrels lurking on my balcony waiting to get in and tear my limbs off. Luckily I outwitted them by closing the door and window so they could only glower at me and try to knaw their way in.

The next day, we indecently exposed ourselves on the beach, i had every intention of having a snorkel but didnt actually get round to it as was busy drinking shakes and baking myself and many attempts to read my book, each one ending in me falling asleep after reading the same paragraph repeatedly. Really hot. Later on we took a walk over to Viewpoint in the evening for dinner. It's got really good views of the bay and we ate overlooking it, very nice. We had a great meal - I had mashed potato and a fish steak, bloody lovely, and we drank a silly amount of wine! really great night.

When we got back, there was the climb up the steps of crazy heights and after this feat I found myself walking through a cobweb to get to my bungalow, which made me shriek. Then I went to open the door and a hu-uge lizard ran across the door under my hand, making me jump, this also made me shriek even louder, Bob and Jane shouted down in case i was being devoured by squirrels or a crazed axe murderer, but i managed to scare the giant lizard off with my scream. I got in and went to the loo but there was the biggest brown spider waiting for me in there, about the size of the palm of my (large) hand - so i shrieked again, this made the spider run off and Bob and Jane shout to see if was ok again. My nerves were tattered and I had a sore throat. I teetered over the loo waiting for Shelob to make another appearance and cover me in spider web and start eating me but luckily i had deafened it and it must have been confused and lurking on my roof. I had no idea these bunglalows were so full of danger. I had various scary dreams of creatures getting me and the squirrels taunted me from the balcony again all night.

I actually managed a 10 minute snorkel in the morning, we had another beach session, so very relaxing, before i taxi'd off at 2pm to get my ferry at 3. It was about an hour and a half on the ferry back to Kho Phangan, really great to come "home" - it does feel like home after being here so long and is nice to come back to a familiar place. Was very sad waving goodbye to me mates but I will see em again in Blighty and we can have a pretend re-creation of Kho Tao with lots of plastic creatures dotted around for a reality experience.

So that night, (Tuesday 8th) was Belinda's last night here on Phangan, sadly. We ate at Coco Gardens with John, Ashy, Belinda and Grace (Ashy's friend out for a visit). We had a good evening and bade Belinda farewell, we will miss her loads, she is a very cool gal and great company. It's nice to have someone to mooch around with on our lazy days and crazy nights here. She kindly left us some clothes and bits and pieces to remember her by.

Weds 9th

Oh no, another goodbye, tonight was John's last night - he will meet up with Belinda in Bangkok before they get their flights, he booked a posh 5 star hotel so he can pretend he's a rock star for a night ha ha. Anyhoo - we went to a restaurant called Peppercorn with us, Ashy, Adie, Sambo, Grace and John. Was a very funny evening and we had a slap up meal. They served special whip-ped cream on their puddings, dont ask. It's all in the pronunciation of a german accent which caused us some amusement.

So we had another farewell and said goodbye to John, boo hoo, i hate it when people leave. Belinda and John were here a couple of months so you get used to them being around, sigh.

Thurs 10th

Worked and then went to a restaurant called Phangan homemade ice cream with Phong and Rachel and Sheena. Rachel is our new vet nurse volunteer from Australia. She is lovely and staying at Chokana down the road. I ate a massive bowl of 3 servings of ice cream after our meal and made a complete pig of myself.

Fri 11th

Worked and then we ate at night market and i had red ant massaman curry. Yet again, i had ants in my dinner so no more night market for us, its just put me off big time, last time was cockroach and ants and thats twice too many times for me. gross burger. After that, we drove up to meet Avril and Por and Av's parents at a thai and farang wedding at a beach resort, Great Phangan resort. There was food and drink there and we had a few sangsoms! Av was already hideously drunk when we arrived, which was very funny. There was a lady boy show and some dodgy 80s throwback break dancing by the local thai boys with their back to front caps and big trainers and socks - one up one down. Very cool. hmm.

Was very entertaining tho, see video.

Sheena and Por took Av's parents back on their bikes and then came back. There was a bit of a scuffle with the tattoo club and a farang, but that seemed to blow over and the tattoo club people left. When Sheena and Por got back, we went to Holiday Beach and had a couple of sang soms with Golf and his friends, they had been at the wedding and did some break dancing! nice lads, just along the beach from Coco. Eventually Por went home and Sheena took Av back on her bike. By now she was absolutely slaughtered and all over the place. We carried her, one under each armpit to the bike and had a fit of hysterical laughter on the way as Av was so funny. It then took at least 20 minutes to get her on the back of Sheenas bike and she was hanging all over the place, i was seriously worried that she would fall off, but sheena managed to get her home in one piece and re-joined us at the beach bar, a couple of the thais were playing guitar and having a bit of a sing, we stayed til 4am and then toddled off on our bikes home.

Sat 12

Sheena did PAC shifts today. I went for breakfast at Nira's bakery, lovely view over the harbour, great place to eat. We went to Ash and Adies for an hour in the afternoon with some of their mates, Sheena had puppy out for the day with her from PAC rather than leave it at the clinic all day.

We went to Green Planet restaurant in the evening, the owner, Joel has a website and has put a link on there to my blog - see www.phangan-guide.com . He recognised us from our photos. We were using the internet, trying to decide where to go next!

Then, went for a drink at Jumungy after - it's a really cool bar in Thong Sala. It's made entirely from things washed up on the beach and natural materials and the owners built it all by hand and designed it themselves - its the most fascinating bar I've ever seen and really creative! every time we go we notice new things that we didnt see before! it has split levels, cushions to sit on, pool table, food and great friendly staff. It's definately the best bar in Thong Sala and the music is really groovy too. We love it there, and are the proud owners of Jumungy t shirts after staying for too many drinks of wine, tequila slammers and Long Island ice teas, and a 3am evening finish on Sunday with Rachel the new vet nurse and her friend James. We even made use of the bong ! It's very original and unusual, anyone visiting Thong Sala has to have a drink there! There's a pic on here but it really doesnt do it any justice and there is much more to it than the one pic.

Monday 14th Jan

Went to Amsterdam bar with Ash, Grace, and Sheena and Emma joined us after work. Very tired from yesterdays late night at Jumungy's and so after sunset and dinner I went home and crashed out by 8.30am! woke up around half nine and had a very nice tinker about with painting toenails, having cups of tea and reading til sheena came home and we had a bit of a gab deciding what to do after leaving here. We only have 2 weeks left at the clinic and we are both feeling really weird about it. We love it there and dont want to leave as you can imagine, we are very attached to the dogs there and its gonna be a nightmare leaving. There are 2 volunteers to replace us, one is already here and the other one will be arriving shortly. How very dare they!? We also have another new vet nurse volunteer, Emma, from Essex. She is living in at the clinic and is really lovely. It's a pity we only have a couple more weeks as Rachel and Emma are great and we would have liked to spend more time with them. Soon after leaving the clinic, we will leave the house we are renting and go up north to stay in another part of Kho Phangan, then maybe to the east of the island for a few days, then maybe leave to visit other islands, before going up to Laos and Cambodia. It will be a huge wrench to leave Phangan, the clinic and Coco. Shite. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm now starving hungry and off to get some grub before lazing on the beach. I intend to enjoy every minute left on the island!

Take care my lovelies - til next we meet

p.s. by the way, forgot to mention, after our visa run to Malaysia, we heard that the next day a bomb went off injuring 27 people at the border there, glad we didnt go a day later! scary huh.

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Photos

Scorpion
crawled out from Q's leg (or was it his pants??)

Naughty girls
took their bottoms off in the sea!

Boogley
Boog's hip has popped out of his socket again, i'm really worried about him, not sure what will happen

Some gore thrown in for good measure
wounds on a cat that have gone manky

Us at the thai wedding
Av in the middle, a bit worse for wear!

Jumungy bar
Its only one shot of part of the bar, but doesnt do it any justice. There is so much more there to look at!

Sitting at Nira's bakery having breakfast
overlooking Baan Tai harbour