George’s Adventure

Wednesday 13th December 2006

Koh Tao is a beautiful island. We didnt explore very much of it but even the commercial parts are still fairly unspoilt and you can definitely relax here. We stayed on Sairee Beach. This is a lovely beach where you can sit in the evening having a drink and watch the sunset. Absolutely amazing to watch the sky turn all different shades of pinks. The only down side of the beach here is that mid morning the tide starts to come in and so you dont get much of a beach in which to sunbathe on. The local Thai occupents also havent really got on to the idea that they need to provide lots of sunbeds either so it is a case of trying to find a dry spot that is not so crowded you are actually lying on top of someone.

For us this wasnt so much of a big deal because we went diving. We did two dives around Koh Tao, one at Green Rock, where our dive master who took us out started getting attacked by triggerfish and he had a complete freak in the water. Quite funny now but he was really scared. He said that here is the only place that Triggerfish actually attack you. Funny really. We did see lots of other fish although i do need to work on my buoyancy. I basically couldnt keep down underwater on the second dive. Not great when you are trying to dive.

We left Koh Tao and are now back in Bangkok. Yesturday we went to Kanchanaburi. This is where we visited the Tiger Temple and The Bridge Over The River Kwae. Very interesting and a great day, although we did do a lot of travelling and on our own steam too. We caught a local bus to Kanchanaburi and then another to The Tiger Temple. The bus dropped us off outside so we began walking. Suddenly a mini bus turns into the road and stops and tells us to get in as it is too far to walk. We get a free lift to the temple. Pretty cool. It was a pretty long way. The temple is famous because the monks there look after all sorts of wild animals that visit the temple including tigers. You can go and stroke the tigers and have pictures with them. There are animals everywhere. Now, im not the greatest animal lover and mixing with big horses, cows, Asian bears, pigs, peacocks and chickens all in one go is a bit overwhelming. Different though.

We then left and began walking to the main road when a mini bus pulls up and says we shouldnt be walking, “two girls on our own its dangerous”. How it is dangerous outside a temple i have no idea but we got a lift to the bridge anyway which was pretty handy as the local buses come every half an hour to an hour. The driver was Thai and he was driving three guys from Singapore. One guy from Singapore said it was like “a chicken talking to a duck” when they communicate. So funny. We hopped out at the bridge, thanked them and walked accross the bridge that is still in operation. The bridge wasnt as big as i thought it would be but it is still impressive. The bridge was build when the Japanese occupied Thailand. They used POW to build it and many many died building it. The bridge still links Thailand with Burma today.

Tomorrow is my birthday!!! Yay!! I will be hitting a quarter of a century. I cant quite believe it myself. I am very excited.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that i have a monk pen pal! Very bizarre but when we were in Laos we got chatting to some monks and we exchanged emails and one of them is emailing me to practice his English – how cool is that??!!

Friday 8th December 2006

Oh how the island of Koh Pha-Ngan is absolutely crazy. There is something just not quite right about it. After Laos we flew back to Bangkok and spent the night there. From the airport we got in a metered taxi to the Ko San Road. This is now the third time we have gone a different route to the famous road. We had a few things to say to the taxi driver who was obviously after a cheeky baht or two more. As it was after midnight by the time we got in the cab, I had left my glasses on the plane and had to wait for the cleaners to find them and bring them back to me (when will i remember myself and my head?), we were not best pleased that it took him over an hour to reach our destination. “Not funny”, I told him. He laughed.

In the evening we got picked up by a guy who was over an hour late. We were beginning to get a bit aggitated by this point. We also thought we were getting a transfer and not a man who was walking us to a shop about 20 minutes walk down the road. When we have rucksacks the weight of ours it is no joke. Anyway, we were soon on the way to Chumporn ferry terminal on a 7 and a half double decker coach ride with so much air con i felt like a block of ice by the time we got to the ferry terminal. At 5 in the morning we reach Chumporn and eventually get on the ferry to take us to Koh Pha-Ngan. When we reach our destination we are greeted with the usual haggling for taxis and all sorts. A couple of people had told us that our guesthouse was only a few minutes up the road so we thought we would be clever and walk. Over an hour later, drenched in sweat and on the beach with no guesthouse in sight we rock up at a place that tells us our guesthouse is 9 doors down. Greeeeaaat!! Eventually we met a Thai girl who gave us a lift on her motorcycle to our guesthouse.

Our room was fairly small, cold water shower with two ants nests, about three lizards (i named the big one Lizzy), 2 moths and countless mosquitos that i tried to get rid of with my water bottle. There was no room to put any of our stuff and the lights at one point decided to do a disco on us, flicking on or off. That was, of course, when we had power. Apart from that, all was good. We spent some time on the beach by our guesthouse. It was a lovely beach, really long and sandy and the guesthouse had put up hammocks to just chill out on and watch the sun go down on. Paradise.

On our second night on the island we decided to check out Haad Rin, which is where the full moon party is held every month. We watched games being played on the beach like musical chairs and people trying to stamp balloons out and other funny things, whilst enjoying a ‘bucket’. This is alcohol mixed with a kind of red bull and other soft drink like Pepsi or Sprite. It was all going so well, we were having a great time. We danced for a while and then decided to go and sit on the beach. It is at this point that i must have had my bag stolen from me. It may have been cut but I am not sure. The main things in it were my camera and wallet. I am gutted about my camera. It gave me a pretty sobering affect as you can imagine but Janine was still on a 10 minute delay i think and I had to help her walk to a phone place where i could make an inernational call home. Whilst getting engaged tones, my parents are never on the phone after 9 at night??? What was going on??, Janine was throwing up on the pavement. I had to rush back and forth between the lady dialling my home number and Janine. In the end it all got a bit too much for me hearing the engaged tone every two seconds and i burst into tears. The woman just kept on re-dialling. Eventually I thought i would try a payphone myself so i went to find one. On the way a lovely girl gave me her calling card to use and i love her forever. On the second attempt i got through. I returned her card and got Janine and myself home in a taxi. When we got to our room i realised that we had no key. The key was in my bag so i went to reception but it was shut up. On the second attempt, after rapping on the door and noone answering, I had a look around the place and picked up a bunch of keys just lying on the reception table. I just picked a ramdon key and it unopened the door. Very safety conscious this place!!!!

The next day i had to go to the police station and phone various people. It is hopefully getting sorted now. Nightmare.

The next days were filled with rain. After such lovely sunny weather, the rain just suddenly came out of nowhere it was mad. It would downpour, like flash flooding weather, and then the electricity would cut out at about 6pm and it would stop raining and then the lights would come back on at about 9pm and then the rain would start again. On the day of the full moon party it rained all day and we were wondering if it would be a good idea to go. By the evening though it had cleared up and we went. I was paranoid about my bag all night but i still managed to have a good time. There were so many people on the beach. People with illuminous paint all over them, girls and boys, naked people, crazy people. They have a sleeping area at one end of the beach. We heard one story that some guys took some mushrooms and thought that they were seeing an elf so they locked it in their apartment’s bathroom. When they woke up the next boy they had a little Thai boy in there. The party was fun though and we danced all night and into the morning watching the sunrise and the sea come right up to the bars.

Today we took a ferry boat and went to Koh Tao. This is a much smaller island and used to be called ‘Turtle Island’ as they had lots of turtles here once. It is busy but not manic like Koh Pha-Ngan which i like. It is also good for diving here so we will hopefully do a dive tomorrow. I am glad to be off Koh Pha-Ngan. It has a bad affect.