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Published: March 11th 2009
Jian: We have taken the last couple of days quite easy as a) aaron is recuperating from minor ear is-sues and b) jian is feeling rather lazy. We spent most of Tuesday looking for an ear doctor in Nathon, the 'commercial' district of Koh Samui - when travelling it's easy to forget how easy you have it back home when you have a health problem - you just go to a medical centre and get it bulk billed on your medicare. In Thailand, most GPs aren't open on the weekends and if you don't want to pay exorbient 'farang' fees you need to find the right doctor, and once that's done do all your paperwork for insurance claims.
Aaron: We did eventually find a ear, nose and throat doctor. A lovely lady who spoke perfect English, which helped greatly. She proceeded to suck wax out of my ears with a metal probiscus (for lack of a better word- Richard help me out here!!!)- which was easily one of the most uncomfortable situations of my life. The infection present in my left ear was making this quite the painful experience- as the wall of my ear was swollen (hence my deafness
for the past few days). I am now on a lovely cocktail of medication, to reduce the swelling, rid me of the related nose running and endless coughing. It's weird... You work and work and work, often without getting sick. You get caught in the adrenalin that is your day to day life and then the moment that you are relaxing, your body remembers to check its annual sick days- and dumps a phlegm-y, wax ridden deposit on your arse. Pretty, I know. I'm hoping to get better as quickly as I can. Obviously.
Jian: Food is a lot cheaper here (and yes Amy, we will be posting photo's of delicious food, we just keep forgetting to!!) in Koh Samui - averaging about 35-50 Baht for a meal which is about $1.60-$2.30 for a meal. Thai people also tend to eat 4 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper) but they are much lighter meals than what we're accustomed to. So we've been having a lot of noodle soups, pad thai, kao pad (fried rice) and banana pancakes.
Aaron: mmm... banana pancakes. So we rounded up last night with another trip into Chaweng. We had a potent
cocktail at a swanky bar, then trundled the back alleys looking for anything exciting to do- as the place was fairly empty because everyone had gone to Kho Pha Gnan for the full moon party. We had flirted with the idea of going, just because the timing was simply perfect, but on our hellish boat, bus and land trip to get to Koh Samui, we saw some of the people who were going- and decided ... you know what? we really don't want to hang and get drunk with these kind of people. Yeah, I'm sure it would have been fun, but I can only handle rave music for short periods of time- on top of knowing that 90% of the crowd would have been high off their faces.
Therefore, we followed the sound of trashy 80's ballads to the end of a street (after being haggled without mercy by an Italian shop owner who really wanted us to buy his products- he literally followed us down the road)- and found Starz Caberet. Well Caberet is such a flexible term- blatant drag show is probably more appropriate. But man- was it a good one and unlike any I have
seen before. It was family-orientated and involved a great deal of audience participation. The acts ranged from amazing (a woman half dressed as a man singing a duet with herself) , to the downright flamboyant (The Celine Dion/Mariah Carey recitals were particularily hilarious- we totally thought of you Matt and Mat!!! But I have to say, watching an Asian man, dressed as Mariah Carey singing "Without You" was one of the highlights of my life (post Ken Lee!)).
We have now moved into our second hostel here on Mae Nam, Koh Samui. This is a much better enviornment than our last one (with the world's most uncomfortable bed- did I mention that it was like trying to sleep on twelve shaved and bound alpaccas, which stood in the middle of the world's most B.O ridden room- which on top of everything had no clean sheets and was crawling with ants). We are currently staying at The Tropical Garden Lounge in a Thai Bungalow. The walls are made of interlaced bamboo which grow to insane temperatures under the harsh sun. But there is an air conditioning unit, which soothes the skin when you stand within a one foot radius of
the machine.
Now, I am putting something down in writing, so it's totally official. Once it is official neither Jian or I can back out of it (although I am more the instigator of this- Jian is understandably reluctant)- but tomorrow night we are going to be (assuming they are still there) eating deep-fried insects. I'll ensure that the camera is properly charged and that I ensure to bring a chaser of some immaculately cleansing sort. Wish us luck.
... UPDATE!!!!!!
Oh my god- maybe we won't be eating insects after all. Okay- now I wan't this to be official!!! (all ants, wasps and spiders take note😊 we won't eat your kind. I promise. Now what could have possibly brought on such a change in atitude in me so quickly (FY1: "Wish us luck was written at 11:24 pm and I am writing this now at 11:33pm)- I will let Jian explain...
Jian: I heard a bloodcurdling scream coming from the bathroom, thinking Aaron had falling over and broken his hipbone I rushed in to find him cowering behind the shower curtain, pointing at a crumpled towel on the floor. He had girlishly smacked a
wasp with it and I had to step in and finish it off with my trusty thong. Oh I am such a man!
P.S. thanks to everyone leaving comments/sending us messages - keep them coming they are very much appreciated as we know people are actually reading this - pass the weblink to anyone who would be interested in reading 😊
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Emma
non-member comment
bahahahaha that was a great read! "(The Celine Dion/Mariah Carey recitals were particularily hilarious- we totally thought of you Matt and Mat!!! But I have to say, watching an Asian man, dressed as Mariah Carey singing "Without You" was one of the highlights of my life (post Ken Lee!))." bahahahahahaha to libu dibu dout chuuuuuuuuuu. I was thinking EWWWWWWWW about eating bugs. And then the next bit, i pissed myself laughing. hahaha I so would have done exactly what aaron did! Glad to hear you've gotten something to help your ear problem aaron. And i totally agree with u about the minute u stop and relax your body realises it and wham you're sick. Happens to me all the time!! The photo's are great. LOL @ burger king after drinking. You trashbags haven't changed a bit :p Sorry to hear about the bad hostels too...dunno how you do it really.