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Sitting on the dock of the bay
You must be crazy quitting such a good office job to go travelling... Alas the old blogs are beginning to run away from me. I'm in northern Vietnam at the moment (actually China since I wrote that bit), it's mid-June and the World Cup is on. So as you can imagine, I'm not really feeling the motivation to tell you about stuff I was doing 2 months ago. I could try to attribute the shameful laziness to some kinda bug that I've picked up while travelling but I don't think any of you would believe me. So I'll leave it to my travel-buddy, flatmate and all-round good guy Enda Stankard to take you through our trials and tribulations since we fled Bangkok after Songkran. Plagiarism was always something I did well. And he's got the knack, I'm sure you'll agree...
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To be honest we were glad to get out of Bangkok in one piece. You'll remember from my last entry that we were having a ball in the middle of Songkran pelting and being pelted by gallons and gallons of water. However it is a 4 day festival and after the first and second days we had had enough of running the gauntlet everytime we came out the door of the hostel.
It really was a writhing mass of wet bodies and revellers seemed to take great joy from soaking anyone looking dry ensuring you didn't stay that way for long!
On our final day we made an attempt to see some of Bangkok and remain dry so nursing the hangovers from hell rose from our beds at 8am and attempted to escape before the masses arose! We moved to a new hostel on a slightly less manic street than Koh San Road and left out stuff there to be collected by the bus to Kho Tao that evening....or so we thought!
A day wandering around this enormous city revealved everything from shanty towns to the sparkling shopping centre in the centre Siam that I doubt the vast majority of the 12m people here have never ever seen. A steaming flea-pit was one of the nicer descriptions I'd heard but to be honest I enjoyed the few days here as it is such a culture shock after leaving London. I mean where else could I have had a deep fried cockroach, beetle or grub, or how about the barrel of wriggling eels in another market....
Not wanting to blow
Travelling
A demonstration our own trumpets but we observed Good Friday perfectly by staying off the booze and not eating any meat. However maybe the Thai massages were not keeping in the spirit of penance for the day!
We got back to the hostel that night we got a dreaded call half an hour before our bus was due to pick us up...."Mistah, we cannot come to hostel, it is Songkran, you must come to us.." So a mad dash across town ensured in the back of the only available transport - a tuktuk! Anyone who has had the pleasure of this experience before will know that you have absolutely no protection from the elements or in our case from the hoses, water pistols, buckets, bottles, waterbombs and any other container you care to mention.....
In fairness he did a cracking of weaving in and out of traffic (at one stage tearing down the wrong side of a one way street) but by the time we got there we had wet arses and wet rucksacks ready for a 10 hour bus ride!!
The island of Koh Tao had been recommended by quite a few people as being the nicest of the
islands on the east of southern Thailand as it is less developed and tacky than some others and it was truly an inspired choice. After all the madness of what went before this was the best place to chill out and relax on the beach for a couple of days. Yes the beaches really have pure fine white sand, the water is warm and crystal clear and there even are palm trees and hammocks!!
If anyone visits Samui or Koh Tao in the near future make sure you keep an eye out for a band called "The Roaring Bhoys" a motley crew of irish and english lads who have been living here for 4 years and basically living the dream! They were the best band we have ever heard and was great to hear some Paddy Casey and The Frames.
I signed up to do the diving course on the second day. Koh Tao is the best place to dive in Thailand and you can get your Padi Open Water (..before you ask Casey this is not a diving qualification for the Irish!) cheaper than most other places. Now anyone who knows me knows I am not exactly
a water baby.. like most irish I know, I am to swimming what the 'Cheeky Girls' are to singing, so I was not exactly estatic at the thought of sitting on the sea bed 15 metres down coughing into a regulator after swallowing a mouthful of sea water! But it was time to conquer my demons.... at the end of the first day of classes and practicals(yes they even expected us to study - what was all that about) I was beginning to think this might not have been a great idea, after being just 2 metres down in the pool the day had not exactly been a success and tomorrow we were heading out into the open sea and sinking 3 times deeper!
Anyway to cut a long story short the 2 days that followed were the best so far, I loved it. The diving was great, and easier out in the sea, once I relaxed a bit and remembered not to open my mouth down there (doh!) it is one of the most amazing experiences you can do. Anyone who has done it will know ow ard it is to describe the souns, sights and colours you see down there. Everything looks and sounds so different and moves at a much slower pace, my only regret was that I had no underwater camera to catch the matra rays, trigger fish, puffers, urchins and other colourful fish I could not even atttempt to guess! I did buy the souvenir DVD at the end so I am sure I will bore the pants of most of you whenever I get back showing you that. The only slightly dodgy moment was when I daydreamed for a few seconds and starting floating up not seeing the hull of the boat above! However the instructor grabbed me by the fin before I banged my head, pulled me down sharply before dished out a scolding!
It was also the chance to meet some new people and the instructors at Ban's were great craic although they placed a strict no-booze embargo on us for the first two days - the combination of early starts and dehydration was not one that suited the diving experience apparently but I am sure those rules do not apply to the irish!
You would not believe the amount of Irish lads passing through this island who stay to become Dive Masters for 6 months to a year. I cannot understand it myself, I mean what is it about diving for a living, chatting up stunning blond tanned swedish girls and drinking Chang and Singha beer on the beach every night that appeals to them, some people are just plain weird!!
The days we spent on Koh Tao flew. I appreciate the advice, it is a great island and I would recommend the diving to anyone. I hope my photos do it justice.
Yesterday was spent travelling back to Bangkok and I write this in the middle of the muggiest and stickiest day so far. We met a lovely scottish-irish couple on that way back so the chat meant the jourey went much faster, he was OK for a Rangers fan!
Next stop is the island of Ko Samet on the est coast for one nighton our way to Sinhoukville on the south coast of Cambodia. Then we say goodbye to the beaches for a few months while we head off inland after that to meet Blath, Tomas and crew in Pnomh Penh for a week touring around..
Thanks for all the emails and tips...keep em coming
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