sun 1st may
Actually got to have a proper lie in this morning so me and Nat slept till about 1pm despite the fact I kept waking up thinking I was melting cos it was so hot! It was way too hot to sunbathe, and too shallow to swim so we laid on our lilos, aimlessly floating around in the sea, nice and relaxed. That is until these two annoying Thai kids came up to us and started spinning us round. It was funny at first but half and hour later it was getting kind of annoying and they wouldn't leave us alone. I managed to paddle my way over to the coral so I was floating above it and they couldn't get me cos it hurts too much to walk on it, and eventually they left Nat alone and I think they got the hint. I must learn the phrase "go away" in Thai for next time...
Our next task was to try and avoid them on the way back to the shore so we had to paddle a few metres down the coast so they didn't notice. We lay down on the beach to relax only to be bombarded by 4 puppies and 3 dogs who decided they wanted to roll around and fight right in the middle of our towel. Managed to get most of them to go away and then 4 came back - those which we had originally named Mummy, Daddy, Cheeky and Chewy (also affectionately known as Freakfoot cos he had these weird double claws sticking out of his back feet which no other puppy did). The two pups, Chewy and Cheeky who were about 2-3 months old with razor sharp puppy teeth decided Nat's lilo looked quite tasty and pounced on it and before I could rescue mine, it was also killed. So much for our relaxing time on our lilos then.
mon 2nd may
Took a trip to Ao Leuk bay over the other side of the island with Cornelia as Nat wasn't feeling great and wanted to relax before she started her Advanced diving the next day. Spent some time snorkeling and probably saw more fish than when I was diving, mainly cos I wasn't panicking about not being able to breathe! Badly burnt my feet as I forgot to put cream on them.
Didn't do a whole lot else except eat and drink which was starting to make it feel more like the holiday it was than being at school.
tues 3rd may
Got bitten to hell in the night despite having smothered myself in insect repellent. Had about 20 bites on each leg which later on in the day swelled up like golf balls, looking very attractive. Walked to Jansom bay with Cornelia, which was about 45 min walk which isn't pleasant in 40 degree heat! It was nice to get into a bay where you could swim, as where we were staying on Sairee beach was just too shallow. The guy at the bar said we should stay there but it looked a bit exclusive and we asked how much - it was B5700 (about £81) a night! We told him we were paying B200 (less than £3) a night and so there was no chance! Again too hot to sunbathe so swam over to these bamboo rafts a few metres off shore, but kept getting bitten by fish, which is actually quite painful, usually cos its so unexpected.
Went to find Nat and the other girls who'd been doing their advanced course with Matt, who were surrounded by a table full of beer bottles, and it turned into quite a heavy night, which was fine for me as I didn't have to get up early the next day. The others all really regretted it, especially Kate as she decided table dancing might be fun, until she fell off flat on her back and we tried to convince her no one noticed. Not very believable...
wed 4th may
Tried to get some more sun but got mobbed by puppies again, so I put them in the sea. Not in the deep part obviously, they weren't that annoying.
Nat and the others came back from their night dive about an hour later than planned, at 9pm, so we all arranged to meet back for dinner at 10pm cos Matt said he'd booked a table. He cleverly forgot though, that the kitchen closed at 10pm so we went over to another bar about 10 mins away to find that was also just closing. Everyone had really been looking forward to dinner but everywhere was shut, so we had to end up getting a few bags of crisps and some pancakes, which would've been fine if Matt hadn't eaten most of mine. Don't remember a whole lot of the rest of the night except it involved arm wrestling and me falling asleep in front of the football with my head in Nat's lap.
thurs 5th may
Neither of us really remembered getting home the previous night until Nat saw the bruise on her wrist and we remembered someone had knocked into her on a moped. Again spent the day not doing alot...trying to sunbathe, getting mobbed by puppies, and also by this half Thai, half American boy who wanted us to swim with him and didn't grasp the fact that the water was too shallow and when he jumped on my back it made it even harder to attempt to swim.
There was a fancy dress party on later that night, Superhero themed, and me and Nat weren't going to bother dressing up cos we didn't have anything, until we heard about this random shop which sold everything from sticky back plastic to old christmas decorations and everything in between. So we asked a taxi driver to take us there, but instead he just dropped us in the middle of town which turns out is not where the shop is. So after much walking around we eventually found it and it was full of people looking for random costumes. I swear everyone who worked in the shop thought we were all mad. I thought I'd found the best and simplest costume when I found a stack of pants which had super hero pictures printed on the back. The only flaw was that they were kids pants and didn't fit. So I managed to make do with an apron which I could use as a cape, some football socks which we decided to cut into armbands, and a silver "happy new year" headband which we were just going to cut the writing off. We didn't really have a name though, but then I had a stroke of genius. If you haven't seen Mystery Men then here's the deal. It's a film about a bunch of normal people who think they're super heroes and have really stupid name and powers - ie. the Shoveller (who hits people with a shovel), the Fury (who gets furious), the Bowler (who throws a bowling ball with her dead dad's skull in it)...you get the idea. Anyway I decided we could be Spatula Girl, until I saw the squeezy ketchup bottles. And so Sauce Girl was born.
It was getting pretty late so we hurried back to find a taxi, and found the slowest one in the world who drove at like 10mph and went the longest way possible!
Nat had decided she wanted to get her braids taken out which we didn't think would take too long so we went to the hairdressers and they said probably 2 hours. The party was starting in 1 hour so with 4 of us undoing the braids we managed to get it done in time.
Note to self: next time anyone suggests getting their hair braided say no!
The party was ok but not as fun as we'd thought it would be cos it was too crowded and hot and people were just shoving into each other everywhere. Also I trod on a lit cigarette with bare feet so I felt like I was melting even more. All in all not the best last night but at least I wasn't going to feel like crap on my journey back to Bangkok.
fri 6th may
Was really sad to leave and me and Nat got quite soppy and cried. Got the boat to Koh Tao and annoyingly they were playing a decent film - Last Samurai - but I didn't get to see the end! Had to wait for an hour in Chumpon for the bus, but had a laugh at these two Swedish girls who decided they could get an extra hours sun time in and laid out on the beach, whilst the Thai people laughed at them, and everyone else sat in the shade.
Got to watch Garfield the movie except I couldn't really hear it due to my partial deafness from diving and had no hope of reading the Thai subtitles. Then half of Oceans 12 until they turned it off. I hate not seeing the end of films!!!
Got back to Bangkok - smelly and dirty as usual (Bangkok that is, not me). Went to collect the bag I had left in storage with the things I'd bought before I went to Koh Tao, only to realise perhaps I had gone a bit overboard as the bag was a bit bigger than I had remembered. I just managed to squash everything into my backpack, with not even an inch to spare, and I did have to sit on it to get it to zip up. Also could barely carry it as it weighed almost half my own weight. It dawned on me that yet again maybe I had bought too much. Seems to be a regular occurrence.
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