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Published: January 12th 2015
This, without doubt, will be the last blog written from South East Asia. (Well my last one anyway. I'm sure someone, somewhere will write another!) Tomorrow we head off on our next chapter and fly to Melbourne, Australia for another exciting new country, setting and surroundings. Without trying to sound repetitive, yet again the last ten days have been packed with the good, the bad and at times very ugly! We're back in Bangkok right now for our fourth and final time and board the nine or so hour flight tomorrow evening and thus, say goodbye to Thailand and Asia.
Heading back to very early January and on the night of the third we went out to a 'Jungle Experience Party'. We'd heard only amazing things from friends who had been previously but overall we both felt like we were expecting more from the night. The setting in the jungle was impressive and we had fun but we had had such high expectations, that it failed to live up to them. So, the next day, again I routinely went to the hospital for the nurses to clean my wound and re-bandage it, we chilled out at the hostel as we were going to attend the Full Moon Party that night. We met an Irish guy and girl from London and had some drinks with them. However, before we went out, the Irish guy, Darragh, decided (maybe the alcohol decided more than he did) he wanted to shave off all his hair and have it in a mohican style. Cue, barber Yoni to the rescue! With his electric shaver, Yoni did an impressive job giving Darragh a huge mohawk. It was a laugh and just finished in time before we headed out. By the time we arrived, it was midnight which meant it was my birthday. A custom of the party is for people to be face painted, so again thanks to YC's artistic skills, I walked around the whole night with a big 23 on my face. The night was a huge success and we had a really enjoyable night partying on the beach until the early hours with tens of thousand of other people.
When we awoke the next day, I somehow, very hungover, rode myself to the hospital as my birthday was to celebrated with me finally having the stitches out in my foot. Surprisingly, this didn't hurt as much as I thought it would which was a relief. When I got back it was 3pm and Yoni was still asleep but he had to get up as we had a ferry taking us to another nearby Island, Ko Samui at 4.30pm. One final word on the hostel we left. We've met a lot of 'lost' people while we've been away, (people who seem to have been taken over by the idea of travelling and have rejected the conventional way of life!) but a girl we met at this hostel called Lucky (I'm sure too that's not her real name), was probably the most lost person we have met so far. Using deodorant, shaving her armpits and washing her hair are way too prevalent for her and she gave us some valuable entertainment with her views and stories on life. Anyway though, we made the boat in time and arrived on the new Island starving and extremely tired. I have to admit, it really didn't feel like my birthday with the sun blazing on us and it being such a low-key day. We took a shared taxi to our hostel and met a lovely Danish family who were very interested in us and enjoyed a chat. The young teenager boy even took a picture of Yoni and I like we were famous when we went our separate ways.
The first night in Ko Samui was spent both falling asleep before 10pm so nothing much to write about that. The day after we enjoyed some good solid sunshine and headed to the beach to relax for the day. A really good routine that the hostel had was that at 8pm, the whole hostel meets in the common room and goes out for dinner and drinks together, We joined in the fun and again had a good night out. When we finally got up in the morning though, the skies were cloudy and there was the constant threat of rain in the air. We ventured out for a late breakfast and as soon as we sat down to eat, the rain picked up and went crazy. As we decided there was nothing to our fancy on the menu and the rain had stalled, we decided to move further up the road thinking there would be another cafe not too far away. Wow, how wrong we were! This was where things started to turn into a slight nightmare. After walking just two minutes, the rain back came but this time to stay. It was a constant heavy downfall and still no food stop in sight. We walked and walked and still it rained and still no restaurant. After finally laughing about the situation and accepting it, my flip flop decided to break. Perfect timing. So, with my bandage on my foot getting drenched, both of us tired and hungry having walked aimlessly for ages and my flip flop now ruined, the day was not going well! Eventually we gave up looking for hot food and both got a sandwich. It definitely was not worth the thirty plus minute walk. Not surprisingly, we got a taxi back rather than face the rain again.
As the weather was so terrible, the hostel ordered in a take away that night but I could tell I was starting to get ill. By the time the food had arrived, I had been sick numerous times and just wanted to get in to bed. That night was a terrible one for me personally, as I 100% had food poisoning again. The whole night I was throwing up and even when there was nothing left inside me, my body was still trying to be sick making me awful. Luckily, Yoni did a really good job helping me through it and stayed up with me through the night reassuring me I wasn't dying when I honestly felt like I was!
In the morning, I felt a whole lot better, but not well enough to join Yoni and a couple other guys from the hostel to go to the beach. Instead I stayed in bed all day reading and was kept company by another sick guy from Estonia. I didn't know his name but christened him Magnus as he looked so Scandinavian. Yoni happily agreed he did so that's what he was referred to for the next few days. (We finally found out on the last night his name was actually Ronald). Anyway, Magnus was my fellow ill mate for the day and due to his not so great English, our conversations were very limited with a lot of fake nodding and laughing. Yoni went out that night and by his account it was good fun but I still wasn't 100% so got an early night. Eventually, the next morning I was feeling back to normal, but again the weather was awful so there was not too much to do apart from relax. We went out that night with the hostel but it was an average at best night so came home relatively early.
Our final full day and night spent on Ko Samui was without doubt the best. Yoni and I went to the beach in the day and both bought ourselves a new pair of flip-flops. In the evening, we headed out to eat at 8pm with the hostel and ate some really good chicken while drinking cocktails. Added in with the live music, the setting was really cool. During dinner, someone in the group suggested as there was eight of us and all being boys, we should do a pool tournament, each chip in 100Baht (2 pounds) and the winner gets the money to go towards a very exciting and very wanted prize which can't be repeated on here! So we headed for a bar with free pool tables and the live draw with names out a hat took place. The competition was a straight knock-out and I was placed in the opposite side of the draw to Yoni meaning we could only meet in the final. Naturally and obviously, we both won our two games meaning we faced each other in the final. Naturally and obviously again, the game went down the black. Both of us admitted afterwards we weren't even thinking of the prize, just about beating each other! Not so naturally or obviously, Yoni potted the black first and hence won the tournament. Fairplay, it was a good laugh and everyone had fun. After Yoni was rewarded his 'prize', most of us headed out and ended up having without doubt one of the most crazy nights we've had in Asia. Very good end to Ko Samui!
A very late bedtime and a lunchtime wake up for the Bangkok journey made us feel like death the next day. Things weren't made easier that we knew the journey was to take eighteen hours. We took a minivan, a coach, a ferry, another coach and finally a taxi to get here. The journey on the coach was throughout the night and however tired we were, the coach was so uncomfortable that we hardly slept. It was anything but enjoyable but it was our final long journey in Asia so may as well go out with a bang and have a disaster! We arrived in Bangkok at 5am and thank god we were able to check in straight away and get to bed. We had a solid seven hours sleep and after waking up spent the day restocking up on toiletries and other needed supplies which will be far cheaper here than in Australia.
So tonight is our last night in Asia! Very surreal, exciting and sad all at the same time. We are going to have one last crazy night and hope it will be just as fun as so many other great nights out we've had since we've been away. Our flight tomorrow is at 9pm our time and we arrive in Melbourne at 10,30am Australian time. It has seriously been an amazing, hugely successful and most importantly enjoyable ten weeks in Asia and we've had such a blast. We know Melbourne is going to be another animal altogether and that we need jobs ASAP to afford it but we are confident we will find and confident we will have just as good a time. As we will be more settled and back in a Western country, I am not sure how much blogging there will be but I will try my best to continue.
I hope everyone has enjoyed reading the blogs from out here and you've been able to feel like you've experience our journey with us! We've had the time of our lives.
Next time from Australia!
Sam and Yoni
P.S. just a few buzz words (good and bad, but mainly good!) that only Yoni and I will fully understand but I want to put them on here so when we look back we'll remember them. Apologies if you don't get them!
Nadear, Hug, Camera Man, Tank, Lalo, LJ shower, Toasties, Conrad, Bokeo, Jack Russell's, Big Ginge, Mushrooms, Davide, Lukas, Downtown Hanoi scam, Richard, Mini Rig, Sangsom, Sleeper Buses, Shlomo, Key incident, Hat-trick, Toilet Saigon, Sven, Sherminator, Marco, Siamese dogs, Bracelet incident, Food poisoning, Pool/Darts, Mini bananas, 'Bacteria infection', Jomtien, Snatch, Motorbike crash, Sandee and Om, White Bob Marley's, Lucky, Red pad-Thai, Hillbilly, Magnus, YOU WANT SOME!
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Tony
non-member comment
Amazing
It's been great reading about all your Asian adventures Sam and Yoni. Sam your writing has real humour and interest! Love father x