Departures and Arrivals

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Before I start catching you up on some of the events since my last blog, I have to apologise profusely for the delay in getting to this next one.

After my week in Bangkok I caught a bus down to Surat Thani and a boat from there across to Koh Samui. I was expecting the bus to be much the same as those I had been on to and from Chiang Mai. I was greatly disappointed, however, by how much lower the standard of this bus was. The seats were much smaller and more cramped, they didn’t supply any water or snacks and the bus was very creaky, resulting in very little sleep for me. And to make things worse, I found out in the morning while waiting for the boat that someone had definitely been through my bag while we were on the bus. Thankfully I had everything of any worth with me at my seat so nothing was taken. But I would definitely recommend not travelling with Song Serm if there is any way to avoid doing so.
In Koh Samui I was to stay with my second couch surfing host, Wasu (aka Tum). He turned up on a scooter to get me. Having to put my 20kg bag on my back to be able to ride the scooter, I was very wobbly getting on and nearly fell over getting off. I’m sure I would have looked quite funny. It was great to be able to stay with him, though, as he was a very nice and helpful young man.
That afternoon when Tum headed off to work I went walking along Maenam Beach for an hour and a half, by the end of which my feet felt raw, due to the very coarse sand. When Tum finished work he took me to the Bophut Fisherman Village on the way to meeting his friends for dinner and a movie.
The dinner was an interesting experience. Apart from the meal itself being very unusual to me, Tum’s friends didn’t speak any English, so even though I could tell they were talking about me they couldn’t actually speak to me, and Tum was only occasionally translating.
Over the next two days, while Tum was at work, I took myself to the Big Buddha statue and temple and to Chaweng Beach. Chaweng is the most popular beach in Koh Samui and is always full of tourists. This is understandable with its long stretch of very fine sand, but as a result the shoreline was packed with resort after resort after resort. It was quite impressive to see, though, how it transformed at night into a long strip of bars on the sand.
The next day I headed off from Tum’s to catch a boat, bus and another boat, from the east to the west, finally arriving at Koh Phi Phi. The hostel I ended up booking there, The White 2 Guesthouse, though a little more expensive, was very nice and I even decided to stay a second night. I spent most of the first night and following morning wandering around the main town. I really liked the feeling of the place.
On the second afternoon I went for a boat cruise around a nearby island. The cruise consisted of a stop at Monkey Beach, to feed the wild monkeys, a view of Viking Cave, a visit to Maya Bay, where the movie The Beach was filmed, kayaking and snorkelling in a lagoon and, last but certainly not least, we were able to watch the sun setting over the water in amazing colours. There weren’t many people on the cruise, just two couples, two Irish girls and me. I was a bit worried at first that I would spend the whole cruise with no one to talk to, but I did get chatting to the Irish girls and they even invited me to join them for dinner and drinks a bit later.
While we were out that night we also picked up another tag-along, Jono, a wine maker of Asian descent from New Zealand. It turned out to be a very fun night, including too much alcohol and neon body paint. Before the night progressed too far though, the girls, Cat and Cara, invited me to go with them across to Railay beach the next day.
So the following afternoon we arrived at our destination, Railay, at low tide where we had to wade through knee-high water, over a slippery path, carrying our bags for about 200m. We did, however, all make it to shore without injury, where we proceeded to find a hotel for the night. After settling in there we headed out to dinner on the other side of the isthmus, only to discover on our way back that the tide was back in and there were no paths, so we once again had our feet in the water.
The next day we decided to walk around to a bay that we had heard was really nice and to stop at a lagoon along the way. It turned out, though, that to get to the lagoon required quite a climb. Cara was afraid of heights and cat wasn’t so keen on the physical exercise, but I really wanted to see the lagoon, so I began climbing while the girls continued on to the beach.
The climb up to the top and to the lookout point, from where you can see the Railay beaches, wasn’t too hard, but when I was a way down towards the lagoon I was warned by a couple coming up that there were three very big drops before reaching the lagoon. Not much further on I came to the first drop. They had not been exaggerating. I tried a couple of ways, but only wearing thongs, I couldn’t get down. It was so disappointing that I had to give up when I had only just glimpsed the water, but I admitted defeat and made my way back down to join the girls on the beach.
The bay was indeed beautiful. We swam a little there, and while the girls were sunbaking I was trying to stay in the moving and diminishing shade. Eventually, once the girls had had enough sun, we headed to Railay Beach West to watch the sunset, followed by dinner at a very fancy looking restaurant that we had spotted the previous night.
The following day I caught a longtail boat into Krabi, from where I had a flight down to Kuala Lumpur (KL). Unfortunately when I arrived in KL I realised that I had forgotten to book a hostel for the night. So knowing I needed to be back at the airport in the morning I really wanted to find something close, but there was absolutely nothing available. I had to go all the way into the city.
The next morning I was on the monorail, train and bus back to the airport for which I thought I had allowed enough time. The previous night, including getting lost, had taken just over 1½hrs to get to the hostel, but that day it took about 2½hrs to get back. I very nearly missed my flight, but thankfully the crew let me through and I was personally escorted all the way to the gate.
It was a long flight, but I was sitting next to a nice older couple and had a media player to keep me entertained most of the way. And as soon as I got through customs and immigration I was greeted by my aunty Jean who was ready and waiting to take me back to her unit, where I also met her husband, Nigel.
Jean and I were both surprised to hear that Nigel had taken the next day off work to spend it with us. This was great as I had heard Nigel was an excellent tour guide, and I wasn’t disappointed. He took us through the Barbican, to the monument of where the Great Fire started and into St. Paul’s Cathedral, where he treated us to a wonderful lunch at the restaurant in the crypt, which I would highly recommend.
We wandered out, all with full bellies, and made our way to the London Eye, stopping briefly along the way for me to get a photo of a Mepham on Mepham Street. The view from the London Eye was fantastic, as expected, even though half of the windows were blurred from condensation.
I took the opportunity to do some shopping for winter clothes the following morning while Jean and Nigel were at work. I got one pair of pants and put three items on hold before heading back to the unit to meet up with Jean. From there we decided to head into Oxford St for a look around. I found a very nice coat there, but consequently ran out of time to pick up the items I had on hold back in Wood Green and I wouldn’t have time to go back in the morning before my flight. So that night Nigel took me out on his motorbike so that I could at least get a couple of long-sleeved tops so that I had enough to get me through my first few days in Italy.
So the next morning I headed back to the airport for my flight to Rome.

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Comments

[Dad]

Great blog
Great to see you back in pictures and adventures. well done honey. Love Dad