Ko Samui

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After recovering from the full moon party we headed back to Ko Samui. As there is an airport there it meant that we could avoid a long bus journey to our next destination Malaysia. This also meant lots of tourists, holiday makers and high prices. On the way over to the island we still hadnt decided which part to stay on but ended up going to Chaweng which is one of the livelist places on the island.

Although quite expensive we found somewhere nice to stay (well it appeared that way initially, more will be revealed!). We had a few good days of sun which we spent on the beach and there were lots of shops, restaurants and bars to keep us entertained. One popular thing that they sold on the beach were fireworks to anyone walking past, and especially to people sitting down eating and drinking. As the nites went on, people drinking brought these and lit them infront of the bars which were full of people. These were not little fireworks they were huge (anyone from Shrewsbury think on the scale of the Shrewsbury flower show!) Not a good combination fireworks and drunk people! They were also selling lucky balloons (plastic bags which you lit underneath and then floated up like a hotair balloons) and then eventually landed and littered the beach.

Ironically although Thailand has very strong penalties for drug possesion, although if you are ill in Thailand then you can buy most things over the counter without a prescription. Mark was not feeling very well and so we went into a chemist to get something for his sore throat, the first thing they offered him were some antibiotics. After declining we came away with some throat tablets and decided to rent a dvd player from our guesthouse and have an early night. Unfortunately our neighbour through the adjoining door was into bringing Thai prostitutes back to his room and we were both woken up early that morning by his activities. It was not a pleasant experience and were very glad when he checked out the next morning.

On the Sunday we went out for a few drinks (which turned into a few more!) We were both in a bar chatting away when one of the bar girls approached us with her game of connect four (a very popular game here if you had not already guessed!) The first thing she told me was that she didn't want the guys behind us to pay for her drink, I thought this was a little strange at first and wondered why she was telling me this. She also told me that her family was very poor and that she had to send money home to them (we decided against pointing out that maybe she shouldnt be in a bar getting p'eed up!). The girl then became quite persistant that we should play connect four for drinks and if she won then we would pay for her drink. After refusing and saying we would play for fun she ended up winning and then insisted that we paying for her drink. I must note this was not a cheap drink and nearlly cost as much as the drinks we were drinking. Obviously she had expensive tastes and it quickly became clear that she didn't want the people behind us to buy her drink because she wanted us to! The girl kept saying you pay for my drink, which must have created quite a stir as another bar girl came over. Mark pointed out cleverly to the 1st girl that gambling was actually illegal in Thailand and we quickly payed our bill and left rather quickly. We didn't visit that bar again.

Our short trip to Ko Samui airport cost us more than three times the amount that it cost us to travel for an hour half way across Bangkok. One good thing to compensate is that in Thailand airports they have free snacks and drinks at the airport so we made up for some lost money! The closest we will be geting to travelling 1st class!

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