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Published: March 27th 2010
Firstly, sorry it's been so long. I'm writing this from Japan where, despite being at the technological forefront of the world, the internet is sorely missing. I'll go into that and hopefully some more intersting stuff soon, but this entry is about our last days in Thailand. Like the rest of our time in Thailand, it was awesome, bathed in glorious sunshine. As I sit here in the Japanese mountain town of Takayama, where it's so cold that typing is a challenge, it seems like a lifetime ago.
In fact it was just over a week or two ago, after we said a sad farewell to Martin and Ginette. Em and I stayed on Koh Samui, enjoying the beach for another couple of days. Then we took a ferry to the small island above, called Koh Tao, as we were hoping to learn to dive. A combination of a lack of time and needing to buy a doctor's note to say that Em's asthma was not prohibitve meant that we didn't bother. It's still on our wishlist but instead we got our fish fix with a day's snorkelling. In my experience snorkelling involves blindly swimming about in cloudy water off
The beach, Koh Tao
There are quite a few beaches to explore if you get a scooter, but we stayed near the main stretch. Check the wonkey tree, along which they've put barbed wire to stop any monkey businessthe Essex coast, paddling between the odd jonny or can of premium lager. Never did I see any fish.
Well this was different. Koh Tao is known as one of the world's preimer diving spots and even just snorkelling you get to see loads of stunning fish. I'm not too hot on zoology, but whatever they were called they were amazing. I wish I could show you, but sadly our camera's not waterproof. We did a day's snorkelling, which was perfect. You get shipped around on the big boat all day, circling the island. First stop was Shark Island, which fortunately is a total misnomer. The array of fish among the rocks and coral is incredible, and even the lunch on board was pretty good.
Koh Tao itself is a bit over-developed and touristy. That's a shame as the beaches are gorgeous, with water visbility down to something stupid like 30m. It also meant we could indulge in a few home comforts, as the place is set up for tourists. We had curry two nights on the trot, and watched a movie in a bar right on the beach, kicking the sand as we kicked ourselves for thinking
The driver
This lad accompanied us on the speed boat to the big main boat that took us snorkelling. He was having loads of fun at the wheel. Best not mention the hair-cut Guy Ritchie could do a good job of Sherlock Holmes.
After a few days of sun and sand we hopped on another ferry, then a 6-hour bus to Bangkok to see Paul, Jaa and Sally. P&J were in town as Jaa needed to sort a visa for England, and they kindly put us up once again, this time in the family home in a Bangkok suburb. It was awesome to see them and we spent our time eating, sight-seeing and bowling, which Em won a bit too easily for my liking. (Wish we'd seen more of you Sal, your boss is a right mean mofo.) The bowling was in a neon, Tron-esque setting. The only thing weirder than that was the monkey in the lane next to us. Yep, a monkey. Some woman was rolling on her own, with her pet monkey along for kicks. He had a matching red tracksuit on, and was drinking something out of a baby's bottle. Unbelievable.
That's all for Thailand I‘m afraid. Out of everywhere we've been in Asia, we think it was our favourite place. It's got it all: perfect weather, great food, fascinating cities, paradies beaches in the south and
jungle and elephants in the north. Shit, it's even got bowling monkeys.
Japan next!
Love you, bye!
xx
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Bowling Monkey
A bowling monkey? In a tracksuit? Yes!...Yes...YEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!