koh phangan, Carol & Rich, clinic fire

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since arriving back 'home'!!! have settled back into the island life. such a hard life eh.

well, first got here and christel took me round on her bike, we sorted out a house in rubber tree gardens and a bike from 'Adam Big Bike'! nice little 125 which gets me up the hills nicely. and its a pretty blue colour with a white basket which is much more important.

so - the new clinic is amazing, really huge! its sprung up in 3 months - cant believe how fast they are building it. there is a dog exercise area, lots of kennels, a big cattery and a separate kitchen so now we can eat without entrails, vomit, severed limbs and maggoty wounds up the other end of the room. bonus. the main clinic is still being built but the office and a temporary clinic is up and running and very professional. All that is needed now is volunteers and a vet volunteer! there is nobody right now, so its all a bit hard work for sheena and carly who are there long term, and Por is having to do everything, with only a vet nurse to help rather than a vet. por is vet nurse too, so there are no neuterings happening which is a worry. surgery is not possible at the mo which is a real bollock in the ointment.

anyway, ive been working there a few days to help out, but now Richard and Carol are here and i want to spend some time with them so im not going in this week.

so apart from that, ive had an all nighter at coco, shortly after arriving, which was fun, back at the coco beach bar with aidy and ash, and the guests at the resort of that week, we drank lots, did some shots and ended up next door around 5am at their pool party, watched the most beautiful sunrise over the beach with irish man. very very nice - red moon on right side, yellow sun colours rising on left at the same time, breathtaking! you sometimes forget the beauty of the place and to look around you.

we also had another full moon party, my 9th i believe. Christel and i got ready together at her place, had a couple of vodkas, got a taxi into haad rin, had dinner at joy bar, met up with ceis, a dutch guy that i met in KL oasis guest house in sheesha bar, met up with sheen and shevaun, aidy and ash, danced on the beach, the usual usual. probably left the earliest i have left a full moon party, around 6am, it rained a lot and that put a bit of a dampener on it (what a pun).

what else, well - had some nights up jumunjy as usual, beer, pool and chats. at the weekend, on por and sheena's day off, we rode up to chaloklum and had free cocktails at sail rock divers place. they have 3 young rotties and bring them to the clinic, they invited us up on our day off for free cocktails and to use their pool, so we went! lovely pool, and they gave us 3 free cocktails each! i had pina coladas, yum yum. its 2 english couples who run and own it so we are gonna go there again cus they are really friendly and nice to have a drink with. dogs are cute too!

me and christel have also been climbing koa rah at least once a week for fitness. i have to boast that im pretty quick now and can do it in an hour easily without too much effort. i went up last week with Gicki, the guy from the internet place i use, and he struggled big time so i was really pleased, i must be fit if i can outrun a young lad up a big hill! nice one for the crinklies.

anyway - i am absolutely made up now i have carol and rich here, and they moved in today into rubber tree gardens, their house is nearly opposite my house. we are planning some nice dinners and dvd nights and drinks on the balcony to save some money til kit gets here on 12 august, then we're staying at coco gardens which will be fabaroony. ive never actually been a bona fide guest! just crashed there lots, drank and ate there lots! it will be weird to be there in a legal manner!

we have a jumunjy party tonight, there are a couple of dj's playing and it should be quite busy, there is the black moon party tomorrow night so i think people are arriving for that as its getting busier on the island now. we ate at the night market last night which was delicious. amazing food there! then off to jumunjy, aidy from coco was there too - bought me a drink bless im.


ok, so the jumunjy party was great, we were the last there, haha, Graham Gold chatted to me for ages and bought me wine, me and carol danced and generally had a jolly good night.

have also had a great night out at the Jam, the night after Black Moon Party, its a place where the musicians that live on the island, and passing through, get together and play music - it was brilliant, really good guys,great music and singing and lots of great people there. Went up with ash, met christel, billy, aidy came later on, lots of familiar island people faces and even T, Bim, Drew & g/f came (jumunjy), oh and Panda too. it was Bernie's last night, a south african guy who spent most of the night haranguing me and being a complete pain in the arse, then that turned out to be his pulling technique. well, it was a bit odd, i didnt really understand what was going on (durr) but anyway, the last ones standing - me christel billy bernie, panda and peter, went to a girly bar in thong sala around 3 i think, i left the bar around 4am after having a laugh with a lady boy who tried to sell me everything you can think of, including himself. anyway, it was a brilliant night, and not bad considering it was the night after black moon party.

which brings me to black moon party, i went with carol and her 2 mates who were here for a couple of days, we had a brill night. black moon is the one on the beach in baan tai. it was their first buckets, and so the inevitable happened. carol was first to vom (altho it wasnt actually her first one), then i think the girls did at later stages. i am an experienced bucketer and now know how to pace myself and so avoided the vomit monster. after the girls peaked too soon (ha ha) and left at some stage in the morning, i stayed on and spent the rest of the night with daniel from lyons, and spoke french all night. good practice, but i dont know how i managed to speak french after buckets and chang! watched the sun come up over the sea, very lovely. think i came home around 8 or 9am, daniel drove me cus i had a flat tyre and he was much more sober than i.

anyway, slept til 4pm, then woke to a load of text messages and missed calls, the clinic had been torched during the night! some arsehole had thrown a rock through the window and then set fire to the place. the builders still working and living on site heard the noise and came and tried to put out the fire, but we dont have much water as at that point as we didnt have running water at the clinic. anyway, its a good job they raised the alarm or the office and kitchen would probably have gone too. as it is all the equipment is wrecked, and medicines. there were 2 cats recovering in cages in there, and Torn, the site manager went in through the window and got them out, one died and one survived. such a nice man risking his life for 2 cats!

anyway, it was a bit of a shock, so i went to the clinic to see what the damage was, it was pretty bad. shevaun has had to close the clinic for now, and will only be able to let por and carly do home visits and go around the island treating strays. altho our medicines were burned so i guess we have to get some supplies from somewhere. most of our stuff is donated from other vets.

so - we had to wait a few days for the police to come from surrathani, when they arrived to view the crime scene (which had been rained on as the roof was burned!) they stepped over the rock and kicked stuff about but didnt actually spot it! inspector clueso eat your heart out. anyway, it was pointed out to them but i doubt very much if they will solve anything. its a small island and i hope that eventually we'll find out who did this.

after the police arrived, sheena arranged for the next day for us to start cleaning up. This was yesterday (6th august). I arrived at 9.30am to feed and clean the kittens we have, and mutley the pup, then after that was done, helped sheena, por and carly to clean out the burnt stuff and see what could be salvaged (very little). Later on, Georgie arrived to help, then her boyfriend arrived later too, and the guys from Jumunjy came to help, T, Bim, Drew and his girlfriend, then Carol and Rich came too. Between us all, it was cleaned up by the afternoon, we all got a tad soaked as it rained too!

left por, sheena and carly to carry on going through things and organising stuff to see what they can salvage and how to go on.

went home and showered, then ate at home and popped across to carol and ricardito's (haha) - me and carol popped to coco gardens and borrowed some dvd's from Aidy. then we went back and reclined in the house and watched both Kill Bills, then The Break Up, went to bed around half one.

I have also not yet mentioned my new tattoo - i havent kept my diary so im recollecting stuff and it may be a bit out of sync! (bit like me).

On Monday, (4th aug), i caved in and had another tattoo courtesy of Den. carol and i had both been throwing around ideas as both wanted a new tat, and we had visited the tattoo club a few times, mark - the artist - drew us some pics of what we had spoken about and we eventually created a buddha design between the 3 of us!

had it done on monday, took nearly 4 hours! i really love it, altho its a huge one, but hey - i love it. its not like i have to live with it for the next 40 years cus i'll be dead by then. i hope someone skins me and turns me into an attractive lamp shade, i do so hate waste.

tonight is a party at Dirty Angel girly bar in thong sala, i do love this island!!!!

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Photos

Carol, Rich and Sheen
looking like devils on carol and ricardito's balcony in our jungle abodes

jumunjy team arrive to help
T, Bim, Drew and his g/f who's name i forget

Bim at the sink
the girls washing the surgical instruments

Comments

[Estelle]

Thanks Elaine, its a real arse yeah, thanks for caring, i know you've donated to the clinic and its so frustrating when you are trying to do something good and some dick comes along and craps all over it. I'm really hoping the clinic can bounce back but its not looking great. Fingers crossed eh. Take care, hope you're well - and looking forward to seeing your sis. Sheen is a bloody star and worked so hard at that place. I miss her loads already. x