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Published: November 30th -0001
Well, I haven't written for a longtime. So I hope you are all sitting comfortably as this is going to be a long one.
First a few random statistics.
Time on the road - Nearly 4 months
Countries visited so far - 7
Rough distance travelled - 16000 miles
TV series watched - Prison season 1 and 2, 24 season 6, Sopranos season 1,2,3,4,5.
Words in this blog 7337
Characters in this blog - 26617 - not including spaces
I don't know why I haven't updated this for so long, especially after such a good start. I did go through a stage of not really enjoying the trip for a while. I think I was a bit bored, maybe a bit lonely ahhhhh its sad I know. Some of you might think that its all good fun. But sometimes you can really start to doubt that you are doing is actually what you want to be doing. That said, I am firmly back in the saddle and looking forward to bumming around Australia for a few months. It was also partly due to the fact that this site went down and I almost lost all of
the blogs I had written. Including this one which was fully written up. Luckily Lee managed to fix it for me.
I left you all last in Ho Chi Minh City formerly Saigon. The name was changed in 1975 after the fall of the south of Vietnam. Anyway the place is absolute mayhem and with 7 million residents or so, there are around 3 million mopeds of all description. They think nothing of getting the whole family on the bike and record I saw was 6 people complete with new born baby. Very dangerous to say the least. I eventually worked out a way to cross the road without being killed as traffic lights are virtually non existent and the zebra crossings are just marks on the road and don't seem to mean anything. The secret is just to walk out and never hesitate as the moped riders just ride round you timing it with precision. Obviously there are mistakes but I am glad to say I wasn't one of them. I bumped into good old Dave and Janet from up north again. I have seen these people a few times now and they good funso we enjoyed a
rather bizzare meal in a place that insisted on massages for all and cheering everytime we paid our share of the bill.
Saigon itself is a pretty average city really. Very touristy and lots of backpackers everywhere. Nightlife is pretty good ad there are lots of bars to choose from. The trouble is lots of them seem okay when you go in there early on, then they turn into some kind of unofficial brothel with these dirty birds everywhere harassing you. It was ok, because I was with a couple of seasoned older Aussie guys and they told them all where to go.
So what did I get up to in Saigon. Well, the first day I did my usual look around the place to get my bearings and was still getting hassled bythose flaming cyclo drivers who want to take you places. I eventually agreed and was taken on the slowest journey of my life. Now I know I am carrying a few more pounds than most but this guywas cycling so slowing. I am not sure if it was the fact that he had one leg or not, but I hurried him up none the less.
I decided a trip to the zoo was in order as I couldn't really be bothered any more that day, especially after Cambodia. I have to say itwas the most depressing zoo I have ever been. The Chimpazee enlosure had one chimp who was just sitting there rocking backwards and forwards. The Lion and Tiger enclosures were not much better and these huge beasts were just wandering up and down completely oblivious to everything, even their meat which looked vile. The Hippos were trapped in a tiny pool filled with their own faeces and all kinds of other nasties and they absolutely stunk. The best thing in there was probably the elephants. They had a fairly large enclosure and seemed to be alot happier as there were about 5 of them in their so I guess they had a bit of social contact at least. Although they were doing this weird sort of dance thing with their heads for ages and I couldn't work out if it was the madness setting in or if they were enjoying the awful panpipe covers that were being blasted from all the speakers around the zoo, including itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot
bikini and bizarrely the theme from the A-Team. So I left there and then asked the guy to pedal me home asap.
That night I headed out for some well earned beers and went to a bar called the guns and roses bar. My friend, well, he is a colleague at best, suggested I go there and I have to say Michael I wasn't impressed. But spent the evening in there driking Saigon beer and shooting pool with a few randoms I met in there.
The next day I was up bright and early and headed out on a tour to a Cowdai temple and to the Cu Chi tunnels. Our tour guide was named Hai, but he asked to call him fatman Hai as this iswhat his boss calls him. I shortened it to Fatman and he didnt seem to mind.
First stop was the Coadai temple which ws in the middle of a huge town place where the Coadai people lived. They had their schools and hospitals etc and seemed to keep themselves to themselves. The religion didn't even exist until about 1920, but has around 8 million followers worldwide, although only about 700 000
of them are outside of Vietnam. The religion is said to have combined elements of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Taoism. But at the heart of the religion is the duty of individual followers to their family and society -- a very Confucian theme. The concept of Karma and a detachment from the material world are both borrowed from Buddhism. Elements of Vietnam's prehistoric religions are also absorbed into Cao Dai beliefs.
We arrived at the temple which was 60 miles northwest of Saigon. We arrived into what seemed like some kind of gated community. In the middle was this huge Cathdral, which if your interested is about 460 feet long by about 130 feet wide. We removed our shoes and were led up to the viewing platform above the main floor of the catherdral so we could watch the chanting ceremony which takes place 4 times a day. So we stood around for a bit then the band tuned up and it began. All the women entered from one side and the men from another. The normal followers were dressed in white and all the important people were dressed in either yellow, red or blue. I can't
rememberwhy this was. It was a pretty amazing building but the show didn't really do it for me and I figured the time could have been better spent eating or something. Anyway it was good to see.
After that it was on to the Cu Chi tunnels. This is one of the most succesful army placements during the Vietnam war. The Vietcong used them to hide from bombing raids and enemy attacks and also they used them as kitchens and places to sleep. Sometimes spending up to 4 days down there. Fatman took us round and explained all the bits to us. He showed us the traps that the Vietcong used to maim and fatally wound the Americans. My favourite being the souvenier. As you can see by the picture this was a pretty nasty one and it was called the souveneir becuase you had to take it away with you as its impossible to get off once you have the nail through your foot. We then got to go down into the tunnels, which had been widened for fat westerners like me. I got down there and instantly felt reall claustraphobic and was on the verge of a
panic attack I think. Luckily there was an emergency exit for people like me and I got out of there as soon as I could. After that it was back to Saigon and I was thoroughly exhausted so had an early night. The next day I didn't really get up to much at all.
The next day I visited the war remnants museum. This place was a pretty depressing place as well. With lots of horrific images of people that had been badly injured by agent orange, a chemical that was used by the Americans during the Vietnam war. It really was quite sad, but I was glad to get out of there in the end.
The day after that I booked myself on to a tour of the Mekong Delta. Out of everything I have done so far this was probably the worst tour of them all. We were shipped around all day. Firstly to a coconut candy factory, where we had the chance to buy some after. Then to a bee farm, where we had the chance to buy some honey after. Then to a tropical fruit farm, where we got to taste some bananas. Good
job really as I explained to the tour guide that we couldn't get those back home. Oh, and they also had some Drago fruit. he also pointed out a dragon fruit tree. On closer inspection, it turned out that the dragon fruit was nailed to the tree. An absolute joke. I was booked on the 2 day tour, but I quickly jumped back on the bus that was going back to Saigon, I couldn't cope with another day of that.
A couple more days were spent in Saigon as I wasn't feeling great at all. Then I booked the bus to Nah Trang on the coast. It was a easy journey really. On arrival in Nah Trang I checked into a hotel then set of in search for a moped to hire. Unlike Saigon, the roads were relative safe and I found myself a bike for $5 a day it was a beautiful day so I set off along the coast road for a few miles. I stopped to take in the view and get some pictures. On the beach I spotted a group of Vietnamese men sitting around drinking beer and eating. One of the called me over
and asked me to join them. These guys were so funny. They all worked in a factory and for reason or another there was no power so they all got the day off paid. I met them at about 4pm so they were pretty hammered by this time. They had a fire ggoing and every now and then one of them would wander into the sea and come back with a couple of live crabs and get them on the bonfire. So the beer was flowing and everytime one of them poured me a drink they wanted me to down the whole glass in a race with them. So I obliged. After about 11 jugs of San Miguel I was feeling a bit wobbly to say the least and jumped back on my trusty bike and wobbled all the way back to my hotel with a belly full of fresh crab. A nice welcome to Nah Trang but sadly not the shape of things to come.
On the second day I met a guy who later turned out to be the second to the cheif of police in Nah Trang. This guy was so funny. Anyway he bought me
some drinks then asked if I wanted to go for a meal. Suspecting some kind of homosexual undertones I declined but agreed to meet him for beer the next day. The next day arrived and we met in the same spot and he arrived with his sister. Because he wasn't on his own, I decided it was safe to accept his offer of lunch. All 3 of us got on a moped and he drove into the backstreets of Nah Trang. We ended up at this little restaurant and as we walked in they all bowed to this guy and rushed over to shake his hand. We were then guided to 'his table' and we sat down. The beers started flowing and he ordered huge portions of every type of seafood you could imagine. I was in heaven and was tucking in like it was my last meal. The food kept arriving faster than we could eat it. Huge prawns, sea stars, and lots of different fish were just some of the different foods on offer. I was so stuffed and full of beer by the time the bill came. Expecting to have to pay half the bill, I started
getting my money out. The bloke was actually offended that I thought I had to pay. So there is such a thing as a free lunch.
After the meal he asked if I would like to see the best beach in Vietnam. I agreed and asked how we would get there. He told me not to worry and got on the phone. Within about 5mins there a man in a taxi arrived and handed my man the keys. This bloke was quite drunk and I was terrified at the prospect of dieing in a ditch lost in Vietnam. Anyway we got in the car and he turned out to be a quite a good drunk driver. About half way to the beach he decided he needed to go to the toilet so he pulls up on this main road gets out and relieves himself. When he came back he announced he was too tired to drive anymore and asked me to drive. I explained I don't even have a licence. He said it didn't matter as he was high up in the police and it wouldn't be a problem. I then tried to use the fact that I was
quite drunk as a defence. He told me so was he. So I took the keys and got in the car. Started her up and off we went. I was going along fine until we hit a junction. When I tried to pull away, I couldn't make the damn thing move. So I gave up and insisted he drive the rest of the way. We finally arrived at the beach and I went off to take some pictures. When I got back he was sat at a table with more beer and he had ordered some fresh lobster and some more prawns. I was still stuffed from lunch but I had to oblige as I love the stuff. He paid again, even though I tried to offer him some money. The journey back was a quiet affair and I fell asleep.
The next day I decided it was time to go out and do some diving as it had been a while. I dived with a company called Rainbow divers. I met the divemasters at 7am and we headed out to the boat. I have to say the diving in Nah Trang was a bit disapointing. Not much sea
life and the reef was massively damaged. I had decided to do a my divemasters course in Nah Trang though as the shop seemed like a good on and it was fairly cheap to do.
Anyway, one night I had decided to stay in for the evening and chill out with some TV. I remembered I had to get the money out to pay for the course. I headed out to the ATM and withdrew $1400 to make sure I could cover it all. On the way back I bumped into some Australians that I had met previously and they suggested we go for a few beers. I was bit hesistant because of an early start for diving in the morning, but agreed to go for a couple. We went to a place called the sailing club. I had been told to be careful about this place as there are professional pickpockets or thieving whores as they were really called who steal stuff from drunk tourists when they come out. The locals called them taxi girls, I am guessing because you pay your money get your ride and leave.
I figured as there were 3 of us and
it wasnt going to be a late one we would be ok. We went in and bought a few beers and sat down. Within about half an hour we joined by a couple of vietnamese guys and we started chatting. Having enjoyed a few good times with the locals I was happy for them to sit with us and they even bought us a few drinks. Within about half an hour, the 2 aussie guys started acting very strangely indeed and I thought they had taken something as they seemed to be getting really out of it after a couple of beers. They decided to leave and off they went. I stayed for one more drink. After about 10mins I started feeling really strange and drowsy. I decided to finish the beer and call it a night. As I got up to leave I was very unsteady and stumbled out of the place. Got outside got on my moped and off I went, gradually feeling worse and worse. It got to the point where I couldn't see properly so slowed down and just wanted to get back to my hotel. I began to notice that I was tailed by 2
vietnamese guys for a while. The 2 guys that had been in the bar with me. As I getting more and more unsteady on the bike I stopped for a second to try and get myself together. The 2 guys stopped and I asked them what the hell they wanted. They said they wanted to make sure I was ok. Very strange indeed. It now occurred to me what had happened and I told them to f*** off and sped off feeling by now like I was going to pass out. It was like something out of a James Bond movie. They were pursuing me for about an hour as I eventually got lost and was speeding around these streets that all looked the same in the dark.
Then the enevitable happened. I must have passed out and fell off the bike, amazingly no injuries other than a few grazes on my knee.The next thing I remember is waking up in my hotel room, minus my wallet with my money in it and my mobile phone. So I had been drugged and robbed and helped back to the hotel? It seemed unlikely. Anyway I called my policeman friend and
he arrived on a big harley davidson in about 10mins. I explained what had happened and he said that there was a gang of people operating in this way at this place and he had heard many different stories of it. He told me not to worry and that he would try and help me get my money and phone back. The thing that I couldn't work out was how the hell I got back to my hotel. That was until I bumped into a guy from NZ the next night. I was having dinner and feeling very sorry myself. He came up to me and asked if I was ok now. He knew my name and everything. Apparently he had seen me laying in the road and woke me up and managed to get the name of the hotel out of me and took me on the back of the moped to the hotel and got the staff to help me up to bed. I am forever thankful to this guy and bought him beers all night long. Without him I don't know what couldv'e happened and I dread to think. Still I am alive and not hurt and
money is money.
After that I decided to get out of Nah Trang and caught the night bus the next day to Hoi An. It was a typical night bus and I hated every minute of it. On arrival at Hoi An I checked into the hotel and set about finding the dive to begin my training. I hired a little moped and found the dive shop and booked some diving for the next day. It was after returning back to the hotel that my next nightmare started to unfold. Vietnam was really not working out for me.
The hotel had noticed that my visa had expired 3 days previously. This was strange as I had asked for a 1 month visa which is apprently the standard anyway. It wouldn't normally be a problem as you can extend the visas for a small fee. But for reason I had been given a catergory D visa which cannot under any circumstances be extended. I know this was my fault and I should have checked the visa thoroughly but I thought it was a standard 1 month. Now, not having an up to date visa in Vietnam is punishable by
a fine and possible jail, the second being less likely. SoI got in touch with the British Embassy who were very very helpful and she told me to try to get out of Vietnam as soon as possible and if I had any problems then I should call her on her mobile. I promptly headed to the Vietnam airlines office and tried to book a flight ticket to anywhere the following day. But because the cosest airport was Danang there were only 2 choices. I could fly to Bangkok tomorow or fly to Ho Chi Minh and on to Bangkok tonight. I thought the second option would be a bad idea because of my expired visa which was by now 5 days out of date. So I asked her to book me a seat for the following morning direct to bangkok. She said she couldn't do that now as the office was now closed(yeah thanks for telling me) and I would have to come back at 8am in the morning to see if there was a seat for me. So that night I went out with some people from my hotel to a pool party. it was a good night
and at about 6am I decided I should get out of the pool and get back to my hotel so I could pack and check out in time to try and get a flight. I was a little worse for wear as you can imagine.
8am the nextmorning I arrived and she said there was a seat and I had to get to the airport as soon as possible so I could pay for the flight and get the hell out of this country that had become nothing but problems for me. So I jumped in a cab and got him to drive as fast as possible to the airport in Danang, Went into the office to book the ticket and she checked my visa. She said she would have to call immigration and let them know. She spoke to the cheif who said that I couldn't fly today and would have to go to Hanoi and speak to the immigration officials there. By this time I was getting really anxious and upset and all I wanted to do was get out of the place. I called my friend Nga at the British Embassy and she spoke to the
woman at the desk. Then she called the cheif of immigration at the airport. He eventually agreed to let me leave if a diplomatic fax was sent to them at the airport. I then had to go for a meeting with this guy and he gave me a bit of a bollocking and I just smiled said sorry and that it would never happen again. He said he was supposed to fine me but on this occasion and because of the lady at the embassy hewould let it slide. He said I could go back to VIetnam if I obtained the correct visa. I said he probably wouldnt be seeing me again.
So I boarded the 11.10am flight just in time and was so glad to see the back of Vietnam it was untrue. I never thought I would be so happy to arrive in Bangkok for the third time but I was ecstatic. I met an irish guy on the flight who was having to cut his holiday short because his best friend had thrown his girlfriend off of a balcony during a drinking session. He had 8 hours to spare and asked if I would show him
around Bangkok a bit. So we went out and had a few drinks and passed his time. After he left I went home to bed and was so thankful to be in one piece and not in some jail in vietnam with Gary Glitter as a cell mate.
So all in all Vietnam wasn't really for me.
Back in Thailland I decided to head down to ko Tao to begin my divemaster course. I stayed in Bangkok for 2 days and then caught the nightbus to Ko Tao. Another horrible nightbus journey which passed fairly quickly thanks to Valium purchased over the counter like a packet of paracetmol. I eventually arrived in Ko Tao and set about finding a decent diveshop to firstly do my rescue diver course, first aid course and eventually my divemaster course. I settled on a company called Easydivers and they had somewhere for me to stay. I settled into my beach hut and went out to get myself a motorbike and see a bit of the island. i had met a german chap on the boat on the way there and I bumped into him. We got some bikes and headed out for
the day. My bike was a complete pile of rubbish so I took it back and got a better one. Anyway for the next few days I tore around Ko Tao like a madman checking the place out. Its quite a nice island a bit to backpackerish if you ask me. I signed up for the first aid course and rescue diver course.
The first aid course was pretty standard and involved watching some dvds, praticing a few scenarios and doing cpr on an adult dummy. It killed a day and prepared me for the rescue scenarios which would take place during the rescue course. The rescue diver course was probably the best one I had done so far. The 3 guys who were doing the course with made it a bit more fun as well. It was me an Israli and 2 irish lads. They were completely bnokers. Yes I did just say bonkers. Anyway, the course involved us having to learn how to rescue divers in toruble the name kind of gives it away I guess. So after watching all of the dvds we were prepared and ready for any eventuality. The first day was pretty easy
going. Only having to do a couple of dives and the search and rescue of a pretend lost diver using a compass which was in fact a weight belt on the bottom of the sea. It was good fun and we were ready for the next day which was apprently going to be more intense and would include the dive from hell.
Day 2 arrived and we set off early on the boat. We were told to expect anything to happen and halfway there it did. Our instructor actually fell off the boat without any of his equipment. We then had to organise between the four of us what role we would play in the rescue. I opted just to dive in with my fins and smask and go and help him. It was weird because during watching the videos I didn't think I would know what to do. Turns out I can store information. So in I went and swam to him as fast as I could. THe israli was close behind and the two irish boys were sorting out life floats and preparing emergency oxygen and equipment on board. The rescue went without a hitch and we
had passed the first test.
The boat had now anchored at the dive site and no sooner had we dried off and got ourselves a coffee we could hear the words 'pizza pizza' (we had to use that word because if people were shouting help help all the livesavers would be in the water) One of them was about 100m from the boat the other was about 150m from the boat. Spliting into our 2 teams we each picked a drowning person to save. The same operation followed and we successfully stoped them from drowning. Check us out! The final 2 parts of the course involved the dreaded dive from hell which actually turned out to be really funny. We set off with the dive instructor and basically he was doing the stupidist things that he has seen happen when taking a group diving. Taking his fins off, removing his mask, taking off his breathing equipment, fighting with other divers(in this case the 2 divemasters who were assisting with our course). All we had to do was solve his problem whilst we were 20m under water. Then I came across a third person who we didn't even know was
down there. He was laying face down on the sand not moving or anything. I swam over tapped him, no response, waved my hands under mask and he looked at me seemed angry and then tried to explain to me he was just looking at something. The bugger had me convinced he was drowning.
Finally we got back to the boat all of us having past the tests, then someone comes running over and says they have lost a diver and the last time they saw him 'he was over there somewhere'. So we all got suited up again and got our breathing gear on, checked we had compasses and set off to find him. There was an added incentive as the losing team had to buy the other team, divemasters and instructor a beer. So we set off in our expanding squares pattern. Finally the irish lads found him and then it was time for all of us to assist in getting him back to the boat, perfomring cpr and administering oxygen to him. It was pretty gross because when I started to perform pretend CPR on him he spat out all this chewed up biscuit and tealeaves
he had prepared earlier to make the rescue seem more real. Nasty.
So now I am a qualified rescue diver although term, super safety diveman sits better with me.
After about 10 days of diving and generally being a travelling bum. I had had enough of Ko Tao so I decided it was time to move on and think about doing the divemaster course somewhere else. Also my mother dearest was due in Bangkok in a few days time so I headed back North to get myself back in time to meet her.
Back in Bangkok I decided I should have stayed by the sea. It was like my millionth time here on this one trip and I hated it more than I thought I could. Still my birthday was the next day so I decided to go on a shopping trip and was determined to have a good night out. My birthday arrived and it was strange to be on my own with no one to give me presents and being so far from home. Still the sun shining, I had money in pocket and off I went. Needless to say I got on the beers
pretty early and sat in a baron the Khoa San Road deciding where to go for the night. On the table next to me was a huge group of Thai's who invited me to sit with them for a few hours and drink whiskey. After I told them it was my birthday they insisted on buying the whiskey. I didn't complain and I spent the next few enjoyable hours sat with them playing various drinking games. It was looking like my plan to go clubbing was becoming a hazy memory. After they left I treated myself to a genuine thai massage(no hookers involved) and then went home to rest up for a while and get changed. I just fell asleep and woke up the next day my birthday over and my wallet not as empty as it would have been if I went out clubbing!!! Nice.
Eventually the day arrived that the old girl was going to turn up. I booked us into a nice 5 star hotel in the centre of Bangkok and went over to check in. This place was lovely and I knew the old girl used to her many holidays of luxury wouldn't be disapointed.
I settled down and waited to go and collect her from the airport. Finally she arrived having been delayed somewhere in Dubai. It was really nice to see her and made me feel like a little boy who had been lost for so long ahhhhh. Anyway that soon wore off and she was harping on about something or other. Actually no she wasn't that was a joke. We got on the famously the whole time.
So the first stop was the hotel so mother could freshen up. We then set out to the nightmarket at Patpong, which if you have been to Thailand or read any of my previous blogs, you will know is famous for the ping pong shows. I didn't take her along to any of them, but we had a fair few drinks. One place particualrly stands out is the Thigh bar(my mothers idea to go in) It was a pretty standard Thai go go bar with women who were dancing in the middle of the bar looking thoroughly bored and occasionaly staring at you in the hope of getting some (extra business). Anyway my mother thought the whole thing was hilarious. A few more drinks
were had and then it was time to finish the shopping and head back to the hotel for bed.
The next morning we woke up and set off to catch our flight down to Krabi. We caught our Air Asia flight which was very cheap. Although actually saying that, over the last four months I think I have flown with Air Asia about 5 times and because their baggage allowance only allows 15kg you have to pay or extra baggage allowance. Now after setting off with 18kg of baggage somehow my backpack weighs 23kg and because I have bought some diving equipment I have an extra bag that weighs 11kg. Didn't think that one through.
We arrived in Krabi pretty late in the day and we set off to the hotel we had booked. The taxi driver didn't have a clue where it was and initially took us to the place. After much shouting and speaking to taxi controllers on the phone we eventually found our hotel. It was a nice little place right on the seafront and I could only imagine how bad it must have been when the toon army struck. We had some food and
settled in to watch hostel. Which was an OK movie. enough said.
The next morning we caught a boat to Raylee Beach I think thats how its spelt anyway. This place was lovely and very relaxed. It was funny getting off the boat though as my mum had a huge suitcase. She wasn't really prepared for the island hopping life in that respect. Lukily we promptly found a Thai man to carry the case ashore. Who then, whilst my mother was checking into a nice little bungalow the same man was offering me weed and ladies, this is going to be an interesting few days I thought!!
We had a lovely little bungalow and for the next few days didn't really do too much except sit around, eat and drink. Although one night there particularly springs to mind. We went out for dinner then headed out to bar for the evening. A few drinks were had and I then decided we should get.............Actually I can't really write anymore as I promised my mum. I am sure some of you will hear about anyway. Anyway my mum was cracking up all night afterwards and I had to take her
home. There, thats a bit of a clue for those in the know!!!!!
The day after that we decided to head over to Phi Phi for the remainder of the weeks holiday for my mum. We caught the earlt ferry over to the islands and it was a very pleasant journey. We found a suitable bungalow and headed out to explore this new beautiful place. We quickly discovered the place was crawling with tourists of all nationality. I couldn't believe how busy the place was and it wasn't even peak season. That night we went out but were both pretty knackered so we settled in to watch Oceans 13 which was a pirate copy but with the worlds wosrt subtitles. They didn't even make any sense let alone follow what the people were saying.
The next morning I went out diving, my mum was goiing to come on the boat but she couldn't because she had the shits!! hehe. So she stayed at home in bed. I booked to do 2 dives and they were both great. The first dive so us swimming with a leopard shark and lots of beautiful reef fish. Also we saw lots of
huge Titan Triggerfish which are vicious little buggers but I didn't get attacked. We also saw a huge seasnake which I hadn't seen before. I am not a huge fan of snakes, in fact I have somewhat of a phobia of them. They are so nice to look at though and move through the water exactly the same way they move on the ground (I am not sure why I thought it would be different). The second dive saw more of the same, except we had lots of nice swim throughs and we saw a huge leopard shark just snoozing on the bottom of the sea. One thing that annoyed me massively though was the italian woman in my dive group. She was swimming behind me and kept swimming so close to me she kept hitting my fins. Then on the surface she had the cheek to tell me that I should be more careful as I kept hitting her in the face. I couldn't believe it, so I threw her off the moving boat. Except that didnt happen, I politely mentioned to her that I couldn't help it if she was swimming so close to me and I was
busy looking forwards instead of behind me all the time. She didn't get it so I threw her off the moving boat. Ok, that also didn't happen, I just left it. But really some people. Back on shore I met the old lady for a drink then headed back to the hotel for a well earned snooze. These early mornings really arent me anymore.
That night we went to a sports bar for some drinks after dinner. Incidently for those who care our meals generally consisted of fresh seafood from the bbq or oven baked fresh fish including swrodfish and the like. So at the sports bar, we had a few jars and watched the Arsenal game. Afterwards the 26 year old owner of the bar, came over and invited us to a game of killer pool. We started chattiing to him and I am sure he was flirting with mother. In the end he decided the flirting wasn't workign and started plying with tequila shots. He included me in the shots though so I let it slide. We didn't stay out too long that night.
The last day arrived and I would soon be saying goodbye to
Ma. We had booked ourselves onto a boat cruise around the islands. This boat trip included the famous phi phi ley, which was home to Maya beach(from the movie). The boat wasn't too packed which was nice. The weather was absolutely perfect, actually were lucky with the weather whole time. Seeing as though it was actually monsoon season in the southwest of Thailand. We stopped at lots of nice little spots where I was able to jump off the boat and snorkel. We stopped at Maya beach and it looked just like the film. Aside from the 1000 tourists on the beach, the rubbish floating around and 20 or so boats mored in the lagoon. Anyway I got on a kayak and rowed ashore to check it out anyway. It really was nice and if I had had it to myself would have been a perfect spot. The rest of theday we sailed around the whole island and by about 3pm we were bored. So we got the beers in and I was trying to hide from the sun that had already burnt me. On the way back to the harbour we spotted a huge pod of dolphins swimming alongside
the boat. It was a great sight that wasn't ruined by the israli man kissing at them like they were cats.
Back on shore we headed back to the room. I covered myself in aftersun as I am pretty sure the heatstroke was setting in. I started to complain about it, but then gave up when my mum started saying she had told me so and had no sympathy whatsoever. Why are they always right?
As it was the last night we went out for some drinks. We found a place that had some kind of 'caberet show' on. I could only dread to think what kind of caberet show we would be treated to in Thailand. Eventually the show started and it was exactly what we thought, the old classic ladyboy caberet I would never have guessed. It was exactly as it sounds pretty awful. Men is dresses who actually look like ladies miming to cheesy songs such as I will survive, you get the picture. By this time the drinks had been flowing and the ladyboys had finished their show. They then treated us to a audience walk around where my mum insisted on some photos.
The cheeky mare then asked for a few hundred bhat for the priviledge!! No chance. After they had finished my mum was flirting with all the Thai guys hehe and then proceeded to strut her stuff on the dancefloor, complete with a pole dance finale. Magic.
The last day we were basically travelling the whole day. Taking boats, taxis (where my mum was meaowing at workman doing repairs for a company called cat telecom forgetting we were in a van full of strangers) and planes all the way back to Bangkok. We threw aside the odea of a last minute shopping trip in Bangkok and decided to check into the Novotel at Bangkok airport. this place was truly a magnificent hotel and I was looking forward to when she left so I could into the double king size bed and catch up on some sleep. Actually I was sad to see her leave as we had had such a laugh! I took her to the airport and saw her off. Then it was just me and that huge bed!!!!
I am going to leave it ther as this is probably the longest piece of writing I have ever
written. i have added quite a few pics on this, unforunately no pics of Ko Tao a) beacause there wasnt much to photograph and b) mycamera wiped the few that I did take.
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lee
non-member comment
about time glad you are having fun again