Weird Chinese tourists and jellyfish stings
Trip Start
Jul 29, 2003
1
29
31
Trip End
Dec 01, 2003
Ko Samet,
Thailand
Wednesday, November 5, 2003
I left Bangkok for the island of Ko Samet on Sunday afternoon which is only about 3 hours away so I figured I'd be there before it got dark. However I was forgetting I was on Thai time so it took a little longer and we almost missed the ferry. I think the bus driver realised as he started speeding towards the end!
I met up with a group of Canadians on the bus who invited me to stay with them as I was by myself, so I am. (Jodie, Sue, Ryan and sisters Angela and Megan). There was also a Japanese guy, Kinji, by himself so he stayed with us too although was only here for 2 days so has left now.
Angela has been here before so we headed for her recommendation, Ao Phai, a slightly less touristy area. The place she usually stayed was booked up so we checked into a place called Sea Breeze which seemed ok, until we went to use the water the next morning and there was none! And when it did appear it was a nasty shade of brown...
Needless to say we checked out of there and me and Jodie moved to a place called Little Tok's Hut further down the coast while the others went to Angela's usual place - Silver Sand.
Me and Jodie found a nice quiet place to sunbathe on the main beach - Diamond beach - so we went the yesterday morning. Just as we were about to sit down though a couple approached us with a camera. We assumed they wanted us to take their photo. Nope. What they wanted was for us to pose with the girl while the guy took the photo. We thought it was a bit weird but said ok. Then another guy ran up to pose for a photo with us. We gave each other a look and let them take the picture but still thought it was a bit odd.
Then as we were having a nice relaxing day, a bus load of Chinese tourists turned up. It was ok at first until we noticed some of the men had gotten totally naked and were jumping off the rocks! Luckily they were far enough away that we didn't have to see. Later on I noticed a guy stood quite close to us having his photo taken and I wasn't too keen on being in the background but thought maybe he hadn't done that on purpose. Then he came over to us and blantantly took our photo! We were so shocked we didn't know what to do so we just sat there wondering if everyone had gone mad.
Then a load of others rushed over and crouched by us to get their picture taken and I also noticed a couple of guys hiding behind sunloungers with telephoto lenses taking our photo!
We decided to use the univsersal get lost sign and stuck our finger up at them but this didn't seem to make any difference so we packed up and left.
We arrived at the beach this morning to find it deserted. But not for long. They turned up again but this time without cameras. I secretly hoped they would get stung by jellyfish, which is what has just happened to me. I don't recommend it.
I was lying on the fine white sand, but it was too hot after a while so I decided to cool off in the turquoise water (anyone jealous?) and felt something spongey against my leg then noticed a roundish white thing in the water. I knew what it was but it got me before I could scape! Its not as painful as I thought it would be, but the commonly suggested painkiller of peeing on it doesn't help! I just hope it isn't poisonous. If you don't hear from me in a few days then you'll know...
xxx
