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Published: October 17th 2011
Well its been a few days since the first blog and its been an action packed week. This is my first chance to sit down and get something down... and sadly, I am sitting in a hotel room alone, as Benny left to go home tonight... The tears have stopped and I am looking towards Cambodia and the next part of my adventure with optimism!
Benny and I had an amazing week and did sooo much that it will probably take me more than one blog to get through it all... so lets go back to where I left things...
ATV in the MUD
Blessed with a gorgeous sunny day on our first day, we were dismayed to wake up to dark grey skies on the Tuesday morning. This was not the tropical paradise we had in mind. Fortunately for us, we had booked to go on the Phuket ATV Tour in Phang Nga Province... a couple of hours drive away from Phuket Island on the mainland. This tour runs rain, hail or shine and can be just as fun in the wet weather due to lots of mud!
We were up early and had
breakfast... I stuck to the yoghurt, fruit and croissants this morning and Ben tucked into everything he could lay his eyes on (including the thai curries sitting in a bain marie.... yes you know where that will lead!) ... Our minibus arrived at 7.30am and we were first on the bus... The next 90-120 minutes were spend driving up the coastline picking up people as we went. It was almost 9.30 by the time we started heading for the mainland and by the time we were at Phang Nga and being briefed it was almost 11am! A long morning of driving for 3 hours on the ATV's.
We started by riding the ATV's around the paddock to get used to them. Ben is a farm boy so he was a pro before even getting on one. I was pretty nervous and had made Ben take me out to the farm a few weeks ago and teach me how to ride them.. I helped him round in the cows for milking one afternoon.. tame stuff but at least it gave me a feel for the ATV. At the end of 'practice' the instructors told me I had to go right
at the front as I was slow and 'not so good' so I could set the pace... My pride was hurt (even though I knew I sucked) and I spat it... LOL... I refused to go up the front and had a tear or two... Gee's I'm a sensitive twat sometimes! I told them NO I would either go passenger on Ben's ATV or go at the back! They eventually let me ride at the back! The last thing I wanted was to be at the front if I fell off!
Underway we spent the next 3 hours on/off tracks, in and out of mud and along the way, enjoying the scenery. It was a pretty tame tour (thankfully for me) and we were unable to cross the river and do the normal route as the river was too deep due to the recent rain/flooding. We stopped at a waterfall, which you can normally swim at, but due to the wet weather (and a raging waterfall) this didn't happen.
Right near the end, we had to go down a very windy downhill road... We were sitting on the brakes the whole way... As I was going along, I
could smell the brakes on my ATV getting hot and then near the bottom of the hill when I went to accelerate my ATV started making a god awful noise... I looked at one of the instructors with a look of horror thinking my brakes were probably about to pack it in and thankfully I caught his eye and we pulled over. ATV fixed we headed off and by the time we made it back to camp, the rest of the group were there (incl Benny) and had just pulled in. A small lunch was provided before setting off. It was a long long trip on the way home, having to drop EVERYONE else off before us, and heavy rain the whole way!
Uh-Oh.... Poo-ket Lives Up To Its Reputation
**Weak stomach may want to skip to the next chapter!**
20 minute from our resort, Benny started looking a little 'distressed' .. I am not sure how long he had been in that state but this is at the stage I noticed something may not be right... I asked him if he was okay and he said that he wasn't sure, that he felt a
little funny! Oh no......
By the time we got back to the resort, he was running for the toilet and as you may guess, the diarrhea had started! After the first toilet visit (yes there were more) he lay down and said he really wasnt feeling well... A 2nd toilet visit and he calmly told me he was officially 'poo-ing through the eye of a needle' .. by this stage I was feeling bad... I was like "what do you want honey, a doctor, me to visit the pharmacy, me to leave you alone?!?!" .. I dont think he cared by this stage...
Not long after the second visit, he was off again... From where I was sitting in the bedroom, all I could hear was one VERY sick person vomiting and 'other stuff' .... I was starting to really worry, as in all my trips and sickness (mine and travel partners), I have never heard/seen someone quite so bad. By this stage, I was feeling guilty that I had bought him to Thailand, I was scared that he was TOO sick and yes, I admit, there was a small part of me that saw the humorous side!
The next morning!
A little green around the gills!I decided to go in and check on him.. When I walked into the toilet, there was poor Benny, naked on the toilet, holding the 'toilet paper bin' up.. which now, not only had all my dirty toilet paper, but it was almost half full (yes seriously) of a very brown, very sick looking liquid.. and I won't even talk about the smell.... Teehee.
What made me laugh (and yes I did laugh out loud as I wiped Benny's sweaty forehead), was that there was a piece of banana floating in the vomit that was at least 6 inches long... WTF.... As worried as I was about him, I couldnt help but laugh out loud at the sight... I mean.. seriously... HOW THE HELL did he swallow that whole in the first place?! Or did it knit itself back together in his tummy?! He still can't give me an answer! LMAO
Now I know there will be people out there saying "I can't believe you were laughing" .. let me just say in my defence that: A) if it were me, Benny would have done the same thing... and probably taken photographic evidence (right Benny?!) and B)
the laughter in hindsight, was probably more of a nervous thing! I do tend to laugh when I am nervous/in a stressful situation (yes completely inappropriate in my line of occupation I know!)
Feeling medicine was in order, I left Benny to soak in his misery and off I ran (yes I actually ran the first bit!)... First stop was ordering some pasta for dinner (A girl had to sustain energy in case she is in for a long night of hair holding/sweat wiping), 2nd stop was the 7/11 for alcohol (what else was I going to do for the next 12 hours while he slept/vomited/pooed?) and 3rd stop the pharmacy for the wonderful potions of a Thai Chemist!
I headed back to the room, dosed my baby up on 3 different types of meds and tickled his back, nursing him back to health. The following morning we woke, Benny somewhat a little gingerly, and me hoping he was on the mend. He was a little under the weather, but I believe it was more ego/pride than anything in my opinion! (He'll kill me for saying that :-p) I persuaded him to go to breakfast and see how
it went... He ate a couple of pieces of toast with butter and that was it! I was proud still the same..
When we got back to the room, he lay back down but I know Benny, and I was of the opinion that he was sulking more than actually being 'sick', so I did what he would have done to me in the same situation.
I said "hey princess suck it up and lets go ride the motorbike"
He said "I'm not sure I can"
I said "Yes you can, I promise we can ride from toilet to toilet and if you want to come home we can"
And with that, he got up out of that bed and dragged his sorry (smelly) ass in the shower! I was SUPER proud of him in that moment! Half an hour later we were out the door! What a trooper... it was at that moment I knew I had found my soulmate travel partner! :-)
Exploring the Island
In all my time visiting Phuket, I have never actually done the Island Tour, hired a motorbike or visited major attractions like Wat Chalong or the
Big Buddha... so that was our plan today. Ride, destination unknown and see what we found. We headed off up to Kata Viewpoint to begin with, stopping at Kata Small ViewPoint Restaurant for a drink and the view. I ordered a Pina Colada and much to my surprise Benny ordered a Chang! Trooper or what?!
When our drinks came out I was given a plain coconut juice (similar I guess.. well similar in that they are both served in a coconut) and so after drinking a little just to be polite, I ordered the Pina Colada. Quite nice, but not as great as what everyone has told me... From there, we headed to the Kok Chang Elephant Safari just down the road.
I didn't want to ride an ellie here, as if you have followed my blogs you know my stance on riding in baskets on elephants, so we just made a small donation and fed one of the elephants some bananas.
Next stop was Karon Viewpoint for a quick photo, before heading north to see what we could stumble across. We stopped for a quick iced coffee on the side of the road (Ben's first Thai
Iced Coffee) and then before we knew it we were cruising along the esplanade at Rawai Beach. We stopped for a quick dip and photo opportunity before eventually finding our way to Wat Chalong. This place is gorgeous. We made merit and took a million photos before leaving with the Big Buddha our next destination.
We could see it in the distance sitting atop the hill, and after asking a local for directions, we headed off into the sunset (well not really, off into a storm more like it). The sky was starting to get a little dark but we decided to hold off putting on our attractive rain coats for a bit... Halfway down the road though, the rain came out of nowhere, and it was quite comical, both of us on the side of the road furiously trying to get our raincoats over our wet skin (yes the raincoats stick to wet skin). I could just imagine the locals as they drove by... "Dumb Farangs". By the time we got them on and got another 2 minutes down the road, it stopped! LOL Typical!
The road to the Big Buddha was 'interesting' on a motorbike and
I was glad that Benny was driving... I felt safe for most of it! LOL... At the temple we bought a piece of marble that will eventually be part of the construction, made a wish on it and signed it.. Hopefully it brings us both good luck (and me a long time with you know who!)
With the weather still looking miserable we headed back to Rawai Beach to eat at a popular restaurant Nikita's. It was right on the beach and we ate with our feet in the sand. When our drinks came out, Ben went to have a drink of his scotch/coke (yes doing very well after being sick the night before) and couldn't work out why he couldn't suck up through the straw... He then realised he was sucking on a swizzle stick... What was even funnier though was the fact that the waitress was just standing there in front of him watching. When he realised, he was mortified and she just about fell over laughing! I think its the first time I've seen Benny embarrassed but it didn't take him long to recover and start making fun of himself! Every time the waitress came back
past us she would start giggling again! LOL
After lunch (by this time it was well after 4pm) we stopped in at the Sunshine Bar for a quick drink and while there, the skies opened.. GREAT timing for us! Once the rain stopped we headed off, stumbling across Promthep Cape. This is a popular destination for Thai's (and some tourists) to go and watch the sunset... We sat there for awhile but got bored (with the okay sunset and the crowds) and then decided we would head back to Kata... Not far from Promthep Cape, we stumbled across a tiny deserted beach (well deserted almost) and so decided to watch the sunset from there... I think it was Nai Thon Beach but I am not real sure... Once the sun was set, we headed back to the hotel.
Exhausted we had another early night, knowing we had an early start the next day for Captain Mark's Tour of Phang Nga Bay! One of the funniest things that happened while riding the bike over the few days we had it was, there were alot of steep hills that we had to go up... We would be going up the
hill and when the bike was almost going backwards, Ben would lean forward which seemed to speed the bike up.. It worked everytime.. The whole time I was like "Wow that really works Benny" and the sight of him leaning forward truly reminded me of Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber.. It was hilarious and most of the time we were going uphill, Benny was leaning forward looking all dumb and dumber and I was just bent over laughing to the point of almost wetting myself...
What's even funnier though was Benny's confession after we took the bike back and got to Bangkok... Apparently him sitting forward like a dork was NOT making the bike go faster, but he was playing a trick on me and accelerating at the same time.. Here I was thinking he had accelerated all he could and that leaning forward was actually working! Yes yes, I know, I am so blonde sometimes.. and clearly gullible! LOL
And on that note, its time to finish up and get cracking.. I have a banana pancake calling my name downstairs and a new blog to start thinking about before I forget everything!
Love to you
all, Reet and Benny
PS Love you Benny and missing you already xxx
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Chelle
non-member comment
Lovin it...
Hey hun.. the pics of the deserted beach.. that is Ya Nui!! you found it.. lol... Looks like you guys are having a ball... cant wait for the next installment :)