Disembarking from any sort of transport, in today’s case, by ferry, is an invitation to be assaulted with advertising. Mostly vocal, sometimes with pamphlets. Getting off the ferry at KPN annoyed me so much I marched straight through all the touts, so determined to ignore them that I soon got to the end of the road and had no where to go……

Noticed somene else wandering around as aimlessly as me and soon Jodie and I were looking for accommodation together. Hooray! I had a proper conversation with someone other than myself! Eventually settled on a place, and decided to take a yoga class (??) after wandering around for a bit. Met up with an Irish couple who I later found out had been talking to ants earlier in the day (mushroom shake). Watched a few rubbish films and the went down to the beach where we stayed till about 4am, when the rain started again and the music cut out. Completely soaked getting home, but slept like a log…

Good practice for 7th June!

Me, Kerry-Anne, Jodie

Ok, so after yesterday’s disaster day, today could only have been better. I bought a ticket to get off KS and onto Ko Pha-Ngan tomorrow and immediately felt much more relaxed. Had a little wander around Bo Phut (the romantic getaway) and learnt about the difference between hi-speed and normal speed internet cafes: one puts you in a bad mood and the other doesn’t.

Spent the rest of the day lounging around, reading, trying to get to grips with a hammock, and getting burnt (when did my skin turn English? Its forgotten its South African!)

In the late afternoon I went down into the main town, Chaweng, just to check out what I was missing. 3 MacDonalds, 2 Starbucks, 3 Boots and a Burger King. A wierd sort of tropical version of an english high street…

Stubbornly refusing the inflated taxi prices back to the hotel I walked to the outskirts of the town and had the most delicious dinner on the side of the road. As soon as I paid it started to pour with rain and when it turned into a proper tropical thunder storm, the owner/cook, Lek, gave me a tablecloth to put around my shoulders and invited me to sit with her and her family to wait it out.

Over an HOUR later (our conversation was limited to “hello” and items on the menu), the rain eased to a drizzle and I swam down the road to find a cheap taxi. …which I understand is non-existent when its night and wet. Eventually by the time the row of street lights had ended I thought it best to admit defeat and stopped the first taxi moped that came along. He had no idea where my hotel was and neither did I, so he left me on the side of the road in the general area. Hmmm. It was all starting to become a bit unfun by this stage and the lovely lady who ran the bike repair shop must have seen the first stages of panic on my face, because she offered to take me to my hotel for nothing (an enormous act of kindness in such a touristy place as Ko Samui). A lovely end to the day!

Beach! Finally!

Waiting for the rain to end

(Must find out how old you have to be to be a taxi driver here – I’m sure the person who took me to the airort was 8 or maybe 10 at a push.) Amazingly got to the airport in one piece in a very fast pink taxi – Ko Samui-bound! Woo-hoo! I hear the beach calling!

Hmmm, Ko Samui was not quite as I had imagined: in my old age (which has to go out of the window, since everyone tells me I look 24), I had pre-booked a nice, quiet place “away from the hub-bub of the main strip”. Away from the hub-bub perhaps, but into “romantic get-away” / “looking for love with a thai lady” land. Felt all rather down about my tropical island paradise (The nail in the coffin came when I overheard a rather small round english man, covered in tattoos about his mother and anchors, trying to explain to his thai girlfriend that he had to go back to england to give evience in court). Decided to cheer myself up with a cocktail and watch the sun go down… no cheering occured, just morbidity (is that a word?) and the feeling I was more Shirley Valentine than Bridget Jones (especially when I fell over on the beach in front of a german couple who just looked at me in pity)

All in all the 24th May was pants and doesn’t deserve a picture.

The jet-lag kicked in this morning at about 3am. I couldn’t actually tell exactly what time it was because although my new fancy-pants Rolex’s numeral whatsits glow in the dark, the hands don’t, so all I can tell is where my watch is, not the time…

Hooray! Booked flight to and accommodation on Ko Samui and Ko Pha-Ngan. Yes, I know some of you will say that I’m over-organising, but the Full Moon Party is on the 7th,and I’m not quite ready to sleep on the beach just quite yet…

After that little victory of the day I went to the Chatuchak Market on a bus that helpfully doubled as stunt practise for anyone trying to get off. The market was a bit pants really – not sure why anyone would want to buy 20kgs of paper flowers – but the bonus came as I was leaving and passed a guy getting his ear pierced on the pavement on the side of the road with what looked like a hammer and nail. Cool…

Back in the hood I had a couple of beers and did some brilliant drawings. The beer must be pretty strong out here because I’ve just had a another look at them and they’re pretty awful. However it did keep me going long enough to catch the boat down to Chinatown (more stinky fish and paper flowers) for a quick bite to eat for dinner. It all looked a bit overwhelming to me, so chicken that I am, I found a lovely “restaurant” nearby, IN a road that did the most amazingly flavoured Tom Yum soup, and earned the name Sou-Efrika Alli from Hoy, the owner.

Ok, done. Beach tomorrow!

Paper Flowers @ Chatuchak MarketPlastic Fruit @ Chatuchak MarketPlaying in Mae Nam Chao PhrayaDinner in Soi Samsen 2

Spoke to a lovely Indian woman at Barclays today – I finally have money! With gold lining my pockets, I taxied over to the Christian Adventist Hospital for a Hep B booster. Those Adventists are much nicer than the NHSists in the UK. (How the treatment would have differed if I had ticked the “agnostic” box on the registration form? I thought it best to tick “devout christian”. You never know…)  So. All jabbed-up and ready to explore. Bring on the buddhas! 1st on the list: Wat Pho. Well that’s what I thought, when in fact it took me a confused hour to realise that the taxi driver had dropped me off at the wrong Wat. What? Ok, 1st on the list: the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew.

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Roof tiles: Wat Phra Kaew

Next: Where’s Wat Pho? Who knows? But I did find a fish market…

Grand Palace

Mmmm... fishy

Found Wat I was looking for. Don’t know how the sneaky buddha hid from me, being ”the largest reclining buddha” (I’m not sure if that’s “… in the world” / “… in Bangkok” / “… on this side of the river”). By this stage, the heavens had truly opened and the elusive Wat Pho was losing its charm.

Chillin' at Wat Pho

Also chillin' at Wat Pho

Deciding to cheer myself up I went down to the river to catch a boat home. I felt rather impressed with myself after buying the ticket (3 Baht: 6p!), and confidently boarded the boat to go to… the other side of the river. Not the plan: I wanted to go 6 stops down-stream. No wonder it was so cheap. 2 more totally wrong boat journeys and 7 litres of water in my shoes later I got back to the hotel. Still feeling upbeat, I took myself back to Khao San Road to book the journey to Ko Samui tomorrow. To cut a long and wet story short, there are no trains left till 25th apparently, so I will hang around here till then. Oh well, that’s the whole point of having no plan! I did buy a pair of stripy trousers which I’m wearing now and may make an appearance soon. Very pajama-like.

Ok, so its not quite as frightening as I thought it would be (oh, apart from not being able to withdraw money from any ATM in the airport. NOT a promising start). However it seems Thais are susceptible to hair-twirling and tearful eyes. (I shall have to keep an onion with me at all times in case of future emergencies)

Khao San Road

Anyhow, after a lovely horizontal, 10-hour sleep on the plane, I checked into the Banana Room at the hotel and trundled down to Khao San Road to find a watch. Bargain: A gorgeous Rolex for nothing… and it’s still working!

Stopped off for a foot/shoulder & back massage and a couple of cocktails… on a Shell garage station forecourt (I still haven’t figured out if it actually is operational during the day)

Finally fell into the hotel at about 12:30am to be greated by a toothy man gleefully offering some weird sort of fruit.

Very-odd-but-quite-fun 1st day in Bangers!

Hooray! Finally off!

I hope I haven’t forgotten anything important… like Hep B vaccinations.

… oops.