Thailand - The Islands

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Hey everyone!

Hmmm, where to start for the last 2 weeks!!

We arrived in Koh Phangan after a dodgy nights sleep on the night bus and 3 1/2 hours on the boat from Chumpron. We found somewhere to stay quite quick and then headed for Haad Rin beach - we probably picked the worst day of the month to head there - the morning after the full moon party!!! There was crap all over the beach - rubbish, empty bottles, discarded clothes etc! Gross. Didn't do much for the rest of that day as we were so knackered so we had a late afternoon nap(!), overslept and woke up to darkness as there'd been a powercut - not a great start!!

The next day we headed back to the beach and were amazed at the difference, it had all been cleared up and was beautiful and the sea was very calm and so warm. We met up with Marc (Cutler) and his friend Tony in the afternoon who were there on holiday and had dinner with them that night and then sat on the beach drinking buckets and were even treated to a live sex show right next to us on the beach by two very drunken filthbags who clearly had no shame. Deaks gave them a round of applause at the end as she was so disgusted and wanted them to know that everyone was watching them!!

The next day we planned to get a boat to Koh Samui with the boys but they were both ill and decided to stay in bed another day and join us the following day so Deaks and I set off and headed straight for
Central Chaweng in Samui which was apparently where all the action was (loving the Loney Planet books!!). We found a place to stay and got a discount as we were planning on staying 5 nights. Our room was like a shed but thankfully we had air-conditioning (or so we thought!). Suz rejoined us that afternoon so we settled back into a threesome and set off exploring so we could get a feel for the place.

The next day we headed to the beach where we all got burnt in about 10 minutes - the sun was so strong. You get hassled every 10 seconds on this beach by people trying to sell you things - not very relaxing! The boys rejoined us later that afternoon and somehow managed to get a much better room in the same place as us for the same money - not impressed!!! The sea was quite wavey on this island but still looked very inviting so the three of us headed in (obviously after Deaks had inspected for fish!) and ended up almost drowning - the waves were a lot more fierce than they looked. It was not a pretty picture, I had one hand holding onto my bikini bottoms that were being dragged off, one hand trying to keep hold of my bikini top that was also being ripped off and I needed 3 more hands to keep hold of my sunglasses, rescue my headband that had been washed off and to wave for help!! Eventually Suz and I resurfaced from the waves and got back to shore but Deaks was not so lucky and had to be rescued by Marc (who we then nicknamed The Hoff - which he was very pleased about!).

The 5 of us went out for dinner that evening and found a good bar and danced to cheesy music all night whilst drinking more buckets. Our air-conditioning had decided to break down that day so we couldn't face a night sweating in our shed so we all piled back into Marc & Tony's luxury room and took over their beds (I'm sure there were no complaints!!).

The next day we headed to the beach again where my bartering skills were put to good use and I managed to get a very good deal for something Marc wanted to buy. I will miss bartering when I leave. I get so cheeky the Thai people start giggling and then stroking my leg throughout the transaction! During one of my many lies about it being my birthday and they should give me a good deal I learnt how to sing happy birthday to myself in Thai - always a good skill to have!! We all went out again that evening for the boys' last night and headed to play some crazy golf (which I lost at!) and then headed to Butterfly Bar which was owned by someone Tony knows from home and had loads of cheap drinks in there. We gatecrashed the boys' room again that night - our air-con had now decided to either not work at all or get so cold it was like a freezer! Don't know how I didn't get ill!

We bid farewell to Marc and Tony the next morning which was quite sad as we had such a laugh but we got over it by heading back to the beach - it's a hard life!! I had my first taste of lobster that evening which was traumatic but it was ok. We went on a bar crawl afterwards and I held a gorgeous little monkey called Lisa - she loved me and fell asleep in my arms! Very cute. Later that evening we managed to get involved in a dance off with some random boys in one of the bars and Suzanne, deciding she couldn't be outdone, pulled out the caterpillar move in the middle of the dancefloor which earned her a marriage proposal from a very keen admirer!! Clearly that is a quality men want in a wife!

The next day we had to get up early for a trip. We went on a boat to Anthong National Park where Suz and I did some snorkelling (obviously Deaks wouldn't get in the sea!) and then we went kayaking which turned out to be eventful! The 3 of us started out in one together and couldn't manage to steer the bloody thing and kept going around in circles much to everyone's amusement (there was definitely something wrong with it - nothing to do with women drivers or anything!) so Suz and I got moved onto the German tour guide's kayak (who looked very much like a smaller version of Daniel Craig) and he put his Thai trainee in with Deaks and we all set off again (or so we thought!!). After a little while, we turned around to find that Deaks and her Thai boy were nowhere to be seen and had actually got stuck behind a big rock going round in circles which led to Deaks getting VERY redheaded about the whole thing! After 10 minutes, still not knowing where they were, a Thai Hoff came to the rescue in a speedboat and rescued Deaks (leaving the Thai trainee alone in his kayak!) and all of a sudden they came speeding around the big rock and everyone cracked up and we almost capsized we were laughing so much. She looked very pleased with herself and glad to be away from the trainee!

Had a rather shortlived attempt at quad biking that afternoon. There were only 2 bikes working which didn't fill me with a lot of confidence. The 2 girls went on first and went round very slowly and then another 2 girls went on and managed to break down and abandoned their attempt and then a Japanese girl went on and fell off and grazed her arm. By my turn I was feeling a bit uneasy so I headed off. The track was full of holes and I got stuck in one of them and had to wait to be rescued and then I had to swap bikes because there was something wrong with one of the tyres and this bike kept cutting out every time I slowed down. I decided it was too early on in the trip to risk my life and go at full speed so I abandoned it too as I had visions of me going flying over the top and killing myself!!

We left Koh Samui the next day and jumped on a boat to Koh Tao. We were harrassed the whole journey there with offers for scuba diving courses etc as that is what the island is popular for. We decided to go for one that was recommended by the Loney Planet - Ban's Diving Resort. I had only intended to do a couple of fun dives or something but ended up signing up for the PADI 4 day Open Water course which gives you a licence to dive all over the world. The package comes with 4 nights free accommodation. Obviously this didn't work well with my need to barter so I managed to secure us a 5th night free too - woo hoo!! The place was lovely and had 2 swimming pools - a real treat for us! We met Ant (our dive instructor who happened to be the head diving instructor at Ban's which was lucky) who informed us that we would be starting that afternoon so no time for relaxing! We met up at 4pm (there were 10 in our group) and proceeded to find out exatly what we had signed up for! At this point, I had to control the urge to throw a tantrum at the fact that we weren't allowed to go out for the next 3 nights, strictly no drinking and we had to do reading and homework each night and a final exam at the end - WHAT!!!!!! After I had come to terms with the fact that I was back at school we had to watch over 2 hours of videos which I struggled to stay awake for!

The next day we started practising in the swimming pool. I've dived before but it was years ago and didn't involve learning all the skills in depth so I felt like a beginner again. We spent a total of over 2 hours under water in the pool - I looked like a prune by the time we got out! That afternoon involved more boring theory in the classroom (yawn).

On day 3 we were going to head out to sea for dives 1 and 2. Deaks, who had signed up in the hope of curing her fear of fish, got herself into a bit of state and decided she couldn't go through with it which was a shame and 2 others in our group also pulled out from fear too so Suz and I, the other 5 in our group and Ant, Malaika (trainee Dive Instructor) and Danny (trainee Dive Master) headed off. I was so excited and it was brilliant. I was buddied with Suz and we had to practise emergency ascents and sharing oxygen under the water etc amongst over stuff and then we went exploring. We were under the water for 45 mintues at a time. I saw big purple stingrays, Suz got very excited at seeing nemos and we saw a big turtle. It was great. We did our exam that afternoon which thankfully I passed - no more homework - yay!!

On the last day we had dives 3 and 4. We were filmed underwater this time which was quite cool. I saw a big trigger fish and after moving forward to get a closer look, was pulled back by Ant as apparently they are very unpredictable! We went down to 18 metres which was quite cool. We found out when we got back on the boat that there was a 10 metre whale shark 100 metres away from us. Would have been great to see but I would have shit myself!!! We got certified later that afternoon. I was sad that the diving was over and was soooo tempted to do the advanced course that involved deeper dives and night dives but it would have been really expensive to do both so thought I'd leave it for another time.

Finally, we got to have a night out once the course had finished and headed off in search of nightlife! We ended up at a ladyboy cabaret show which was really funny. I decided to get involved and was dragged backstage and dressed up by loads of ladyboys and then had to go back onstage and dance with them all - so random! We then went to Lotus Bar which was recommended to us which seemed to be where everyone on the island was and danced on the beach for hours and then headed back to Ban's and watched flame throwers on the beach. Deaks and I called it a night at 3.30am but Suz wanted to stay out which turned out to be a bad decision. She got enticed away from her bag by a Thai guy while his friend stole her purse, camera and phone. Gutting.

The next day Suz headed for the police station only to walk in on a prostitute performing a sexual act on the policeman who was wearing nothing but a sarong. They both giggled and he asked Suz to come back in 4, 5 or 6 minutes - clearly he needed more time!!! You couldn't make this stuff up!

We spent the next few days relaxing on the beach or by the pool and spent the evenings searching for decent bars. This island is by far the most beautiful of the 3 but the lack of nightlife lets it down. It is so chilled out and people don't want to seem to go out and either just sit on the beach on bean bags or don't go out at all which is a shame. Perfect island for couples though.

It was now time to leave the islands and head back to Bangkok for a day before getting our flight to Hong Kong. Last long nightbus for a while thankfully although I don't actually mind them anymore. I was beginning to worry that I had developed narcolepsy due to my newfound ability to fall asleep anywhere and in any position within about 5 seconds!!

Will report on what I'm sure will be an eventful journey back into Bangkok the next time I update!

Sorry for the LONG update - feel free to read in small doses!!

Bye for now

xxx

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