Day 141/2 - Umm, Samui again, and a bad drinking decision.

Getting the tickets for the train has proved to be a bit awkward - I have to leave at 12 tomorrow, get a ferry and a taxi and arrive at Suratthani Station around 6, then wait around until 2 am for my train to Sungai Kolok, cross the border about noon, and make my own way to the Perhentian Islands- should be fine. Yesterday I minced around on the internet waiting for my (very late) ferry to Samui. I met some English guys on the boat, and after I had found somewhere to stay - this involved walking around in the almost monsoon rain for 20 minutes being turned down because everywhere was full or 50 quid a night. I found a place at Lucky Mother Bungalows, where the lady quoted me 1200 Baht for their only available room, then, upon seeing my crestfallen and sodden face, bargained herself down to 800 without me having to say a word!

I met up with said English guys at Ark Bar for a drink, which turned into a couple of buckets. I thought I was fine, but as I don't remember walking home, I assume this is not the case. Lucky Mother should really be called the Flightpath Hotel, as it seemed like the planes were flying through my room this morning - and there was one at least every 20 minutes, I reckon - which didn't help my pounding head - Sangsom buckets are to be avoided from now on, shouldn't be difficult in Muslim Malaysia. Today I treated myself to a Burger King breakfast, which I swore oly to do when very hungover. I also did the cheesy souvenir shopping I wanted - I am now in possession of a big red Thailand towel, a red Singha vest (as Rob said, if you're going to get these things you might as well be as bogan as possible - yes, Aussies really do say bogan, not just the Timmins family), and a yellow King shirt. Awesome. I'm off to await the first stage of my 28 hour journey, and find some water too. Blargh, feel awful.

Day 139-40 - Koh Tao, and finally making plans...

Day 139 (Sunday 2nd) - Sharks and Ladyboys

We convened at the dive shop right on time, and headed out to Chumpon Pinnacle for our first dive. We went down to 30m, and I must say this dive shop is really unprofessional - our instructor, Gannon, asked if we had read the book and done the knowledge reviews, to which we replied no, as we don't even have the advanced manual. This appeared to be fine, he asked us what we remembered from the manual - again, nothing, as we haven't got one - and this also appeared to be fine. He told us what to do, said we'd be doing a couple of minor skills on the bottom, testing our mental agility etc, to see if we were narked at all by the depth. We jumped in, swam down, did the tests and then staarted the dive - within about 10 minutes we saw a shark - a Grey reef Shark to be precise, about 2, long, swimming about 10 m away from us. This was really cool, as we had been told we might see some, but thought they only said that to persuade us to dive. A little while later we saw another one, about the same size, but missed the school of Barracuda that were also nearby, apparently. Due to our increased air consumption at depth, this dive was over in about 35 minutes.

Our second dive was the navigation dive - again, our lack of preparation didn't seem to be a problem. Also, as there were some girls there who had been fundiving with them for a while who were leaving the next day, a lot of the instructors/divemasters were in fancy dress - Gannon had a mexican-ish scarf and hat, as well as a pistol and sunglasses, all of which he wore throughout our entire dive. We had to measure distances in fin kicks, swim in a square using our compasses, and then came the real test - Gannon took us out on a random course, ditched us, and we had to find our way back. We were fairly confident initially, pretty sure where we were going, until I noticed we were 6m deeper than we should have been, and there were unfamiliar rock formations all around. We tried to correct our course, swam around completely lost for a bit, and then found the mooring line and Gannon completely by chance, coming from the exact opposite direction to where we should have been. Gannon seemed fine with this, so we carried on and finished the dive. Druce went on to do another dive in the afternoon, meaning he has now completed his advanced course, whereas I still have two more dives to go. Exhausted after the dive, I napped in the afternoon and then met up with Lisa and Nina, who I had met on Koh Phangan. We decided to go to the Queen's Cabaret Ladyboy show, which started at 11 - I tried to get Druce and Will to come too, but they were both exhausted (Druce did do 4 dives today, I suppose). It was a wierd show, mainly consisting of glitzily dressed ladyboys miming to Shakira/Dolly Parton/Various over the top songs, with the occasional grotesque 'comedy' interlude, generally involving a fake penis somewhere, and in one case squirting breasts. Nothing graphic, more carry-on style than anything else. There was a family just next to us who had brought their kids, who I am sure will be far more well-rounded thanks to the experience.

Day 140 (Monday 3rd) - Freedom and Farewell

In the morning we rented some motorbikes - really just scooters with scrambler tires - and headed to freedom beach for a last bit of island sunshine before the guys returned to Bangkok. It was bakingly hot, which I attribute to my playing every song I have with sunshine in the title before we headed out. We had a drink in Freedom Bar, walked round the headland to Chaloklum Bay (I think), and rode back slowly to town, where the guys caught their ferry to Chumpon. I'm pretty sure I'll be heading to Tresco before the summer's out, it sounds.looks awesome, and it's been really cool hanging out with Druce again. I spent the afternoon figuring out what I'm doing next - this involves me going to Suratthani (5th) via Samui (4th) (I want to do some last minute cheesy souvenir shopping before leaving Thailand, this seems like the best place), getting a night train to Sungai Kolok on the border, then crossing over into Malaysia, getting a train to Kota Bharu and then a boat to Pulau Perhentian (the Perhentian Islands) for a couple of days (6th), maybe diving again, then down to the Tamin Negara rainforest (10th), Kuala Lumpur (12th) and on to Singapore (15th), before my flight out to Bali on the, umm, well it's either the 18th or 22nd, I forget. These are all very rough dates, but at least I know I can make it in time. I'm pretty sure it's the 18th, I'll have to find a JAL office somewhere and check.

In the evening I met Lisa and we went bowling, played pool and Minigolf, all at the Koh Tao Bowling complex. It was pretty rustic, they had 4 wooden lanes with a bloke at the end sticking up the pins, who had a charming habit of, if you had got 9 down, moving the last pin into the path of the ball - even if it was in the gutter. I attribute my 120 in the first game to this, I think. we both sucked at Minigolf, although it was a pretty spectacular course, involving a 2 storey yellow castle, among other impressive holes. Also, I drove us both to and from the Minigolf, without so much as a hint of a crash or a wobble, my first time with a passenger!

Day 136-8 - Back To Phangan, and on to Tao

Day 136 (Thursday 28th) - Back To Koh Phangan

We returned our bikes and got a Taxi to the wrong pier, despite my (I thought) clear instructions ("Mai Catamaran, mai Lomprayah") then we were taken to the right one, just in time to catch the slightly crappy boat to Koh Phangan. On arrival we headed straight to Leela beach and got a triple room right on the beach, after which we hung out and went to have dinner in town, then waited around for hours for anything to happen (this place doesn't get busy until 11ish - we went for dinner at 7. Whoops). We went for a massage, during which Will was repeatedly called sexy by my masseuse, and they all stopped mid way to read my tattoo. I was toe-groped (is that is possible) by mine - she was pushing against my thigh with her foot while pulling on my leg, and intentionally put her foot a bit higher than is strictly appropriate, while giggling and apologising insincerely. After Ivan and Sandy's experience (the massage girls were chatting in Thai about various things, including the status of Ivan and Sandy's relationship, whether they were sleeping together etc., and how well-endowed Ivan might be, complete with hand gestures, not realising that Sandy spoke Thai and understood every word) I can only imagine what they were discussing. The giggling did make the massage more fun though, I think.

Later on we watched various fire-shows and games on the beach, the prize for the winning of which was generally a bucket, until 2ish when we went back to our bungalow, promising that we'd have a full and productive day tomorrow.

Day 137 (Friday 29th) - Not so busy

So that plan failed. I dozed in the hammock while the others went and got Jetskis again - this time, due to the glassily smooth sea, they got them up to 80 km/h, meaning they could have almost got to Samui and back in their allotted half hour. We really did nothing today, just appreciated Leela beach for what it is - we lay in the foot-deep, crystal clear warm water and chatted, watched sunset from our balcony, ate in the restaurant of Coco-Hut, the fancy resort on the beach, while watching some films - namely the end of Stormbreaker, Jersey Girl and the beginning of Stealth, none of which I would recommend in the slightest. We went over to Haad Rin for 11ish, and watched firehoop jumping and fireskipping (only one person screwed it up, getting taken out by the flaming rope, but she seemed fine afterwards)

Day 138 (Saturday 1st) - Back to Tao

Most of today was taken up with travelling - we left Leela at 11 and arrived at on Koh Tao around half three, signed up for two more adventure dives tomorrow and found an OK place to stay - after four nights in a triple room, we have now gone the opposite way and have a bungalow each, for some reason. I showed the chaps the wonders of Tao - this involved walking up and down Sairee beach, then settling into some beanbags and watching paper lanterns being sent up into the sky. Tomorrow we have a preposterously early start, as our boat leaves at 7:20 for our deep and navigation dives.

Day 135 - Motorbikes and Jetskis!

We have moved rooms now, to a triple, for which I am only paying 500 baht - these chaps are far too generous. I went out and hired a motorbike, after a little test run to see how I felt on one, as I hadn't driven one since my Koh Chang crash. We headed out for an awesome lunch (I had Mango and sticky rice for the first time - delicious) then drive up to the north of CHaweng beach, aiming to find some Paragliding/Jetski action. It was really windy on the beach, so it didn't look like either were an option, so we stopped off at Ark Bar for a drink and a couple of games of cards in the sun. Somehow it was already 5 o'clock when we saw that the Jetskis were in fact running, so we rushed over and each got 20 minutes on one of the smaller ones, for about £13 each. This turned out to be the best 800 baht I've spent since arriving in Thialand, the Jetskis were amazingly easy to drive, really responsive, and so much fun as you drove them into the waves, and dropped over the other side - literally dropped for a few feet through the air before slamming into the surf. We were riding in along the top of the waves, carving through gaps in between, and racing back towards shore - my top speed was 34 mph, Drucey's was 35. This incredible speed was somewhat terrifying on water, especially as the spray splashed into your face, blinding you for a few seconds each time. I took my underwater camera out with us, so hopefully I'll have some good pictures.

We headed back, enjoying the drive, then went out to the Thai boxing stadium - on the way there I had a McDonalds for the first time in two months, and I must say it didn't entirely agree with me - all this Thai food has altered my digestive system somewhat, I think. Anyway, the boxing was wierd, but cool. There were 6 fights in all, along with a tightrope walking kid and a bloke calling himself Rambo, who did various rope tricks as well. The fights were impressive, getting better as the night went on and the fighters got better. Afterwards the chaps headed home, and I went out to Ark Bar for a drink or two (I got a lift from Druce, no drink driving here) and then bumped into Jill again on my way home. We were on Soi Green Mango, and I was looking around at the ridiculous sights to be seen, when I spied a load of Ladyboys dancing together. Jill and her friend saw this, screamed "You like looking Ladyboy!" at me, and fell about in hysterics. Somewhat confused and humiliated, I headed off home. Tomorrow we're off back to Phangan, which'll be a hell of a change of pace from this place, and a welcome one too, although I have had a pretty fun time here.

Day 134 - Umm, to Koh Samui...

I got bored of feeling lonely, so I texted Druce to see if he and Will were on Koh Samui yet. The answer was yes, they had arrived at 6 this morning on the night boat from Surat Thani, they were staying at the First House Resort on Chaweng Beach, and I was more than welcome to join them. Having spent 438 Baht doing my last update (this is about £7, a lot to spend in an Internet Cafe), and watching Run, Fatboy, Run in an English cafe, I went and caught the last boat to Samui, and ended up surprising Druce and Will by creeping up on them as they parked their bikes in the hotel. This place is really swish, the rooms are 2500 a night, but they let me sleep on their floor for free, which is cool. Well, not really, it was incredibly uncomfortable, but better than nothing. After a relaxing hot bath (the first opportunity I've had to have one since arriving in Thailand) we headed out into town to see what was going on - the first place we stopped was for dinner, where we had an enormous mixed BBQ which we entirely failed to finish - it had beef and pork steak, chicken thighs, mixed kebabs, spare ribs, sweetcorn and a baked potato each, we made a valiant effort considering we weren't even that hungry, but we ultimately failed. Next we headed to Tropical Murphy's Irish Pub, which had live music enticing us in. There was a girl singing loads of decent songs, mainly of the No Doubtish persuasion, with a little 4 Non-Blondes thrown in, who was later replaced by a dude singing some rock requests. Halfway through his set, he announced that he had a special guest on drums - this was a wizened little Italian guy who looked like Iggy Pop's dad, who proceeded to bash out an incredible version of Smoke On The Water, including a 10 minute drum solo in the middle. The guy was going mental throughout, pulling the most awesome faces, and quite possibly enjoying it more than I have ever enjoyed anything in my life.
After this ridiculous spectacle we ran the gauntlet of Hostess/GoGo bars, with the screams of "Massaaaaaaaage?" and "Handsome maaaaaaan", ending up at Soi Green Mango, which is apparently the centre of the nightlife scene. It was rammed full of a mix of tourists (including three of the oddest looking men we have ever seen, lurking by the bar and eyeing up the...), prostitutes and ladyboys. There were also a few young Thais in there too, some of whom we talked to. One girl, Jill (more of her later) came up to Will and started chatting, had to go away for some reason and said "Ok, I come back and speak with you" to which Will replied, outraged, "NO! I don't want to sleep with you!" Luckily she didn't take offence, and returned with a bucket which she offered to us to share. There were some of the most incredibly good-looking girls I have ever seen in there, along with some of the most heavily made-up and scantily clad as well. We just hung out and chatted with Jill and her friend. On one occasion, when Will brought a girl he had been talking to over, Jill exclaimed "tell your friend not to bring any more prostitutes over here!" She clearly has a more trained eye than Will, who was left somewhat flabbergasted by this. Anyway, we remained in the club and thereabouts until the early hours of wednesday, taking in the sleazy spectacle that is Soi Green Mango, before getting motorbike taxis, lifts, and walking back to our hotel, in various states of disarray.

Day 133/4 - Umm, What Now?

I just got the bill for the Softbank phone rental, from Japan, and it was billed to my account as "SOFUTOBANKURENTARU", or Softbank Rental said in a comically strong Japanese accent. Awesome.

So, I spent Monday moping around and sleeping, as the music didn't allow me to do much of that on Sunday night. The same happened last night as well, so I have moved out of Paradise Bungalows, and I'm not too sure where I'm going next. Druce and Will are coming over here from Samui on Thursday, so I can either hang out here until then, or go to Samui and see what all the (both positive and negative) fuss is about for two nights, then come back here or go diving on Tao, which I think Druce is keen for. This morning the whole Island had a power cut, and my phone, iPod and camera all ran out of battery at the same time, so I went for a wander to the other side of Haad Rin to check it out - it's nothing special. Now I just await a reply from Druce, and either wait here or go to Samui. I think I'd prefer to stay here, go back to Two Rock bungalows where I stayed 5 years ago, but I am feeling pretty lonely, so maybe familiar company would be good...

One advantage of being on my own is that I am finally able to upload some of the pictures from the last month or so, although that's a pretty crappy silver lining.

Day 132 - Full Moon

Somewhat unfortunately, the weather has turned to shit. It's been drizzling all day, giving the island a grey and oppressive air. We spent the day wandering about, not really achieving anything, watching preparations for tonight (We also watched the Family Guy Star Wars movie, which was awesome). Our one mission for the day was to buy glow paint, which we found on the first street we came to, so our purpose for the day was immediately removed. In the evening we went over to Leela, armed with our paint and brushes, and once we had found the others the painting began in earnest. For some reason it was decided that I was good at it, and I did Marie's feet, Mine & Christine's arms, and Ivan's back. I myself had very fetching stars all over my chest, some kind of monstery skull on my feet and a sunset on my back, as well as a pirate flag on my headband. It felt slightly odd walking through the restaurant shirtless and covered in paint, but I'm sure we weren't the first.

Once back on the main beach we armed ourselves with buckets and walked the length of the beach to Mellow Mountain Bar, under Pasi's direction, where we danced and marvelled at the glow paint under the UV light. We left there and attempted to walk back along the beach, but something had disagreed with Marie and I, and basically we both threw up within twenty minutes of each other, and had to sit down (we found a bar playing only Bob Dylan and Bob Marley for this) as we were both feeling wierd - "wasted, but not in a good way" was Marie's fairly accurate summary. We decided the best thing was to take it easy for a bit, so we wandered the beach, watching all the bonkers stuff that was going on. By this point we had lost everyone else, with little or no hope of finding them (Pasi's reply to a text concerning his whereabouts was "We Finns are in the toilet", which is obviously no help), so we slowly made our way down the beach to ours, arriving about half two. We went back to our Bungalow to try and feel better, as there was no chance of sleeping - we are only about 60 metres from one of the biggest sound systems on the beach. We kind of drifted in and out of sleep, getting the occasional text asking where we were - the last one was from Ivan around 5, by which point I think we had decided not to go out again. The music didn't stop until about 9 (actually as I write this it's 3pm and I can still hear bass from somewhere not too far away), by which time it was nearly time for Marie to pack up and leave.

This was the worst bit of the whole Full Moon experience - after a few confused phone calls, a van turned up outside our place to take Marie over the hill to wait with the others. We had a hurried goodbye, and I stood for a while at the spot where we parted, not really knowing what to do with myself. I got a message saying Marie still had my scarf, should she run back, so I walked over the hill to them and we had a much better goodbye. Then the truck caught me up on the road, passed me and stopped, meaning I had to say an awkward hello and farewell again. I was only just about holding it together by this point, and saying another goodbye didn't really help. I'm feeling a bit lost right now, I don't have my next destination sorted, I don't want to stay here as I'll just think about Marie, I don't know anyone on this island yet, and it's all a bit rubbish. It's been a really great month-and-a-bit, this whole thing with Marie has been brilliant and completely unexpected - I honestly have no idea when or indeed if I'll ever see her again, and that's bringing tears to my eyes at this very moment. I have said I'd love to go to Canada, but I don't know if I can or will, or if it would be a good idea, as it would just be for a short while and then we'd have to say goodbye again, and... well, I don't know. She only left three hours ago, so hopefully this'll get easier over the next few days or whatever. Anyway, the point is, she's wonderful, and I miss her. My sister warned me about this situation, with the words "don't get your heart broken, you big soft bear". Well, that's not exactly what's happened, but it feels like something similar.

Day 131 - Try Again

We had to move out of our lovely bungalow this morning, having been awoken by scratching chickens and a woman relentlessly performing topiary outside form about half seven in the morning. We were, I'll admit, still a little drunk when all this occurred, making it all that little bit harder. We headed out and located the others, all except Arkansas Sara, who met a French gentleman last night and didn't return to her bungalow by checkout time... The other girls had to pack up all her stuff for her, and we were all pretty worried when she hadn't turned up by 1, but then she turned up on the back of David (the frenchman)'s bike, all smiles. I believe there was a telling off, but it was kept until the ferry.

We got the 3 o'clock Catamaran to Phangan, where they showed Underdog, a terrible movie which we couldn't escape for the entire journey. On arrival at Thongsala we haggled for ages to get a cheap taxi to Haad Rin - this happened last night as well, these guys really are keen on bargains, and persist well beyond where I would give up. The Finns and Marta left on the 9 am boat, and had got us all some rooms - room for 6 on Haad Rin, and room for the rest of us over on Leela Beach, in the very Bungalows that I saw and refused on Thursday. I realised this, and managed to get Marie and I a bungalow at Paradise bungalows just at the south end of Haad Rin, the main party beach. We headed over to Leela anyway, as I knew where it was and could show the others - it turned out that the room Marta had got us was 73, the very one I had turned down, so I'm glad we decided not to stay there.

After dinner, we all convened for drinks (I had a whole deep fried White Snapper with garlic and pepper, it was absolutely delicious), watched a fire show on the beach, and found ourselves party to a strange phenomenon - due to the elections again, none of the bars were allowed to have music; there were occasional 30 second bursts, then the police who were touring the beach would come along and stop it. Bucket sales were stopped too, apparently until noon tomorrow, although buckets could be found without too much trouble. Despite the lack of music, the beach was pretty full, and glow paint abounded as well - dragons, suns and flowers were painted on Sandy, Ivan and Marie respectively. Also, I learnt the meaning of a type of tattoo I see here a lot - Thai characters below sort of swirly spires, often on the back of the neck, or drawn on the roof of Taxis & buses. They vary enormously, but often are good luck, or a protective charm (for want of a better word) and are done by, or under the instruction of, a Buddhist Monk, and also come with sets of rules concerning what you are forbidden from doing if you want it to work, although ones without rules (like Sandy's) exist as well. They are an ancient Thai Warrior thing, apparently. Anyway, I reckon there were maybe 1000 people on the beach, even without any music, so I'm sure tomorrow will be massive.

Day 130 - Freedom!

We were booted out of our room this morning to make way for people who were actually diving at the resort, so we moved to Sairee cottage and got a bigger, better and cheaper bungalow. Today we went down to Freedom Beach, an awesome little bay in the south of the Island - it's tiny, maybe only 70 metres long, with the occasional mangrove and loads of coral about - about 10 metres out the floor turns from sand to coral, with loads of Sea Cucumbers (which are Echinoderms, I learnt today) and fish. I went snorkelling and saw loads of cool stuff, including a school of about 200 Parrot and other fish, including various bright yellow, purple and green ones who were perfectly happy to let me swim about above them, following them as they grazed on the coral. Back on the beach I saw a large naked Russian man having a swim, swiftly followed by a naked Argentinian doing a handstand in the water while his (non-nude) friends and their baby looked on, laughing. Freedom Beach indeed. We watched sunset from the originally named Freedom Bar on the rocks, and headed back - oh, the Cicadas/Crickets/whatever they were were incredibly loud - we couldn't hear each other talk at some points.

In the evening we all met up after dinner and played drinking games on the beach, including Circle Of Death, which was a tricky one - trying to explain a drinking game to such an international crowd was hard. It's a pretty good mix we have here - Taina, Mine, Tuomas and Pasi (Finnish), Myself (English), Marie (Canadian, speaks French and Czech), Nick, Charlie and Sara (American), Marta (Czech), Ivan (Serbian-American), Christine and Asia (French, from france and Guinea respectively). Monty (German), and Sandy (Taiwanese/Thai). The word games didn't go down too well.

We made an important decision last night as well - noone has gone to Koh Phangan (some were going to go and see what was going on anyway, although the party has been cancelled), instead we are all going tomorrow afternoon, apart from a few who are going at 9 am to try and get bungalows for us.

Day 129 - To Tao!

I dozed on the roof of the boat in the sun, which was exactly what I needed after my morning of searching. On arrival I headed to meet the others at the Coral Grand Resort. This is a fairly fancy place with some simple rooms out the back which are half price for dive students - the girls convinced the chap at reception to let us have them, on the pretence that we were going to dive.

After an afternoon of swimming about and lying on the beach, we haded into town to find the others for dinner, then we found a campfire on the beach and sat around chatting for a while. This was all lovely, until at about 11 Marie and I realised we had lost our room key again, which will cost us 500 baht, and reception had closed at 10. We ended up banging on the door of the staff quarters, and waking up a girl who very kindly (and sleepily) got us a spare key and let us in, making us feel very guilty indeed. We've lost a beach towel too, which is another 500 baht fine. Bugger.

*update* The next morning as we checked out, we found that someone had handed in our key, and they had forgotten about the towel. Awesome!

Day 128/9 - Happy Birthday Caitlin and Sian, & Phangan Nonsense

Day 128 (Wednesday 20th) - Debauchery...

I was awoken today by a vaguely familiar voice asking where her bra was - Jan's friend Julie hd walked ito my dorm room, and requested the whereabouts of someone whose name I didn't know, as she couldn't find her bra. This someone was the same one she had been dancing with last night, so I can only assume thngs went well for them. I also looked across the room to see a grinning long-haired Thai guy wrapped around a Swedish girl a few beds over - what a saucy dorm.

I packed and took my stuff off to the Dive shop, and just kind of hung around a bit, wandering the island until 1 when Druce and Will were finished with their confined water training. We went for a farewell beer, then I hopped on the Ferry to Krabi, to find myself sitting next to the same Julie. She had a DVD player, and we watched Good Luck Chuck - nonsense, but had lots of boobs and Jessica Alba in it - sadly not at the same time though.

The bus ride to Surat Thani was uneventful, just a bit cramped and hot - the "Air-Con" claim was spurious. I met some english guys on the bus to the pier, called Henry and Jamie, who are on a gap year having just finished their IB in Spain. Nice enough guys, we had a beer and discussed how horrible English people abroad can be - they live near Marbella, so they have planty of experience. There was a group of 9 or so english behind us who had been getting wasted since they got o the ferry, so they were a good 9 hours in by now. They were going to Koh Samui though, so we didn't have to share our cramped sleeping quarters with them. Said sleeping quarters were thin mattresses lined up against the wall of the boat, which had a ceiling 5 ft high. I say mattresses, it was really just one enormous mattress, with numbers on the wall every 2 or 3 ft showing which bit was was which. We had pillows though, which was better than I was expecting. The journey took 7 hours, durig which time we traded various stories (mostly about playing connect 4 with prostitutes - no innuendo there, just something we had all done) before getting a surpisingly good night's sleep.

Day 129 (Thursday 21st) - ... and Debacles

On arrival at 6:20 we headed straight down to Leela beach, after confirming what we already knew - that accomodation was pretty thin on the ground. We had to wait around for a while for reception to open, so we went around the corner to Lighthouse Bungalows (full) and watched the sun rise for a bit. On our return the guy said they had three bungalows available (just what I needed), but on closer inspection it turned out that one had a balcony you couldn't go onto, and one had a family of bate sliving inside, so I gave one of them to Jamie and Henry, who offered to keep the other one 'til I called them, which was very generous of them.

One thing we noticed at Coco Huts (full) was that there were posters about saying "FULL MOON PARTY POSTPONED UNTIL 24TH FEBRUARY" due to elections or something. This, obviously, is a problem, especially for those coming down for the weekend only. I tried to phone Marie and co. to tell them and see what we should do, but no answer. I walked over the hill to Haad Rin, asked at a few places (all full) and then got a Songthaew in the direction of Thongsala pier. After a bit of negotiation (the driver had a place on Hat Yao, which is sort of miles away, but I don't think he had room for 6) I persuaded him to stop and check availability at all the bungalows, with no success.

I did however see that Two Rocks, where I spent a couple of weeks five years ago, is still there and thriving, while still being little and cool with loads of hammocks. If I get the chance I will go back there. I made it to Thongsala pier 4 hours after leaving here before, and finally got a call from Marie - her phone doesn't work on Tao, so she only just got a chance to call me - I had been trying her for 90 minutes or so. I told them the situation and it was decided I should go to Tao, which I am doing in about an hour, on the speedboat. I just hope they have better luck than me at finding somewhere to stay...

Day 127 - What to do on the last day...

I awoke today all packed, and consequently able to move across to the dorm at The Rock, thereby saving myself 450 baht. I should have done this when I got here, damn my laziness. I went to the beach in front of Princess rsort, where there was some sort of birthday party going on by the pool, playing pretty good music, so it was a good place to lie around. I found Druce and Will after they'd finished their training, hung out with Jan a bit and didn't really achieve much. I did however have a good chance meeting - as I walked out of the Hostel I saw Brad and Joel (two of the Aussies from Laos) having dinner, so I went and sat on Joel's lap to surprise him, which it certainly did.

They agreed to come out for drinks later, which we had at Rolling Stoned bar - we went there to see the live band, but apparently the singer has a bad throat, so we played Jenga and Connect 4 with the waitress for a bit, before heading to Reggae Bar (against Jan's protestations) where we saw a staged Muay Thai fight, followed by three pretty gnarly ones - you get a free bucket if you fight your friend there, so we saw two female and one male fight. The guys were pretty lame, they had clearly prearranged no kicking or something, so it wasn't too exciting. The girls, on the other had, really went for it, smacking the crap out of each other. It was compelling, in a "this is really wrong and they only get a 2 quid bucket out of it but I can't look away" sort of way. We went up to the dancefloor above, although Druce and Will sensibly went home as they are diving tomorrow, in spite of the beckonings of Sana, a hot Swedish friend of Jan's. It was free bucket time upstairs, so inevitably carnage ensued. At a later poit I found myself in a chair on the beach being hailed by Jan and Sana - I have little recollection of how I got there, but I was completely sober the instant I began talking to them. Odd...

Day 126 - Trekking and Night Diving

Druce and Will are signed up for the Open Water course, I went in to book a deep adventure dive, and ended up being signed up for a night dive tonight! Will, Druce and I went up to the top Viewpoint today, stupidly going around 1 0'clock, meaning we were drenched in sweat by the time we reached the top. We saw signs down to Runtee bay, and figuring we'd come this far, and hoping there would be a taxi boat on the other side, we headed down. It was a much longer walk, through almost Jungle, than we had been informed, but it was worth it - the first sign we sawe said "Mask + Fins, Taxi Boat, Thai Food", all of which we were in dire need of. The others went snorkelling while I did my theory for the night dive - boring but necessary. We got the last Taxi boat back at %:30, meaning that I was a little late back, and a little drunk after one beer due to all the sweating I did.

The night dive was incredible, if a little unnerving - we had a Czech instructor called Emilieauneaaa... or something like that, and the sea was incredibly rough on the way out - 2-3m swells, apparently. When we were sheltered in the bay off Phi Phi Lei it was ok though. We only went down to about 15m, and we saw *gets out logbook* a 2ft blue Spiny Lobster scaling the coral wall, a Spider Crab covered in anemones and coral who was almost invisible and only moved when wafted at, another Crown Of Thorns Starfish (more spectacular as we saw its real colours in our torchlight), various Puffer Fish, including an enormous Giant Puffer, nearly a metre long, a load of Durban Dancing and Banded Cleaner Shrimp, and a Sponge Crab, which was really bizarre. It had a sponge coral growing on its back in a perfect rectangle, and looked like a rock until light was shone on it, and it started scuttling away. Also we stopped on the bottom and turned our lights off, and waved our arms about, to see the Bioluminescence. It was really cool, but nowhere near as good as back on Koh Chang, probably because it's nearly a full moon, and there was a fair amount of light underwater. Upon our return about 10 o'clock, I went home to change and ended up collapsing in my bed and sleeping until 9 this morning. Fail.

Day 124-5 - Beach Days, and Drucey!

Day 124 (Saturday 16th) - Beached

I got up late today, by which I mean about 9 - it's impossible to sleep longer here, as there ios always nonsense going on outside. I headed down to the beach around 11 and remained there until sunset, reading. As the sun went behind the hills Andrew, Wade and a few other locals came out and played Volleyball (very seriously I might add) until dark, which was entertaining to watch. I went for an all you can eat Japanese/Thai/BBQ by the beach, and in the evening Jan and I met up with his friend who's leaving soon, before heading to Tiger Bar with his friend Rich and 8 of his mates, all of whom were drinking buckets (they had a 5l one when we met them) amd were consequently completely screwed, far more than Jan or I could keep up with. Oh, my face has gone a wierd shade of purple due to my time in the sun, which looks a bit odd...

Day 125 (Sunday 17th) - Druce!

Today I went down to the beach again, and read and slept all day. In the evening I checked my emails to discover that James Druce, as in Drucey from school who I haven't seen in 7 years, is on the island. I immediately rushed to find him, and we had an awesome time trying to catch up on 7 years of life - although that was probably rather dull for his mate Will. We went for 100 baht steak burgers and then headed to sunflower, where we met JP and Jan. The strangest thing happened while we were there; Will walked off, supposedly to the toilet, and soon after JP said "hey Matt -your boy's gone down". We looked around and saw Will had collapsed through the drumkit, and was lying, arms by his sides, completely unconcious on top of the Mic stand. We went over to pick him up, while on of the Thai staff told Will that he could sing if he wanted, he only had to ask. We carried him across to a sun lounger, and he passed out again on the way. 10 minutes later he was fine, which made it all very odd, Apparently it's only happened once before, also in Thailand in Kanchanaburi. While sitting on the loungers we had a long talk with JP about everything, which caused Druce to be incredibly interested and effusive on every subject. 2 o'clock rolled around, and we headed to Funky's where there was allegedly music 'til 5, to find that the music had been shut off, and the place was just full of wasted folk who had heard the same rumour, so we called it a night.

Day 124 - Misunderstandings and Snuss

I completely forgot, after leaving Tiger I headed to Carlitos where I saw some american guys who volunteer in Thailand and are on holiday here, who I met on Friday night, just before the JP incident. One of them thought I was a dick, and when I asked her friend why, he referred me to a conversation we'd had - I bumped into her in the street, she said "What is it that brings us together again?" or something to that effect, to which I replied "Misfortune." She thought I meant it ws unfortunate to see her again, I meant that I was there as we had to leave Sunflower after JP was possibly racially abused, which is clearly unfortunate. She subsequently thought me less of a dick, I'm glad we got that cleared up.

As we walked home we stopped for a sandwhich, and met some really odd Swedish guys, whose English was so perfect they had started their own slang, called Swenglish, which mainly involved using incorrect conjugations, much to their delight. They had some Snuss (sic?), which I had not had since being on German Exchange in '98 (the kids we were staying with all used it, so we bought some home and used it now and again, mainly when trying to look cool and impressive - nothing imprsss more than a big gob of tobacco on your gums and teeth. We were idiots) or thereabouts, so the guy took some out (a Rookie Portion, apparently), and I popped it under my lip. About 10 minutes later I suddenly felt absolutely blasted, even though I had been fine before, and so I quickened my pace ahead of the Americans so I could get home fast. I was not fast enough, as I had to find a spot on the beach where I could lie down in the shadow of a Longtail Boat, and have a good old sweat. For maybe 20 minutes I was lyng there breathing as deeply as I could and soaked in sweat, when all of a sudden the feeling passed as rapidly as it had come on. I suppose it was just a really intense Nicotine buzz, or whatever it is that Snuss does to you. Either way, I won't be trying that again any time soon.

Day 123 - I am now a PADI Open Water Diver!

Today was another early start, had to be at the shop for 9:00 for our final day of training. We went out to Bida Nok and did some skills, specifically a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent and some buoyancy control, mask clearing and so on. We then went for an explore and saw some cool stuff, more about that later. Lunch was again delicious, Massaman curry and morning glory this time. In the afternoon we dived at Maya Corner on Phi Phi Lei, practicing navigation and mask loss , and swam to the pinnacles - these are small underwater limestone towers that are covered in coral, and sometimes form tunnels to swim through, full of schools of fish. This we did, it was really incredible being in the midst of the schools, they pretty much ignored us and just kept swimming by. I can't remember what we saw on which dive, but in total we saw Large Trevally, Oriental Sweetlips, various Scorpionfish, a Cube Boxfish (a little yellow cube that bobbed along in a ridiculous manner), Banded Boxer Shrimp, Moray Eels (including a giant white one which Wade had never seen before), Lionfish, Crown Of Thorns Starfish, and another Hawksbill Turtle - I took my camera on the second dive, so I should hopefully have some pictures of some of these. We went back and sat the final exam in the shop, I think we all got 45+/50 and passed, so we are now all PADI Certified Open Water Divers, capable of diving anywhere in the world down to 18m! Awesome, I have achieved my main objective of coming to Thailand. I went for a wander when we got back, and achieved another goal - I managed to change my flight (finally) from Singapore to Denpasar from the 19th of February to the 18th of March, meaning I now have enough time to go to the full moon, the Perhentian Islands, see a bit of Malaysia and Singapore before jetting off to Bali/Lombok/the Gili Islands.

We assembled at half seven to watch the video from today - Andrew was on the boat and diving with us with a camera, the video looked awesome and was really cool, although it's 1800 baht/nearly ฃ25 to buy it on DVD, which is a shame, but I'll probably end up buying it anyway. I went for dinner and was sitting on my own when a guy came and asked if he could join me, he was from San Francisco and called Matthew, and we shared a Papaya Salad and Tom Kah Goong (Shrimp curry soup thing), as we both wanted both. he seemed like a pretty cool chap, he bought a tent in Phuket and is camping on the beach here for free - a smart move on this extortionate island. back at the shop it was Hannah and Ruth's last night (they have been here for 6 months, doing dissertations/working in bars/mincing around) before returning to England, so we had some farewell drinks and a reasonably raucous time. jan and I headed down to Sunflower bar afterwards for a quiet drink or two, and met some of his mates, including a guy from the US called JP. I went to get drinks, and on my return jan came out and told me we were going, now. I had no idea why and followed, then I saw JP and one of the guys from the tattoo shop having a row - well, the tattoo guy was shouting about how he wanted JP out, he didn't have any problem with the rest of us, just JP. JP replied with "I have nothing but love for you - I open up my heart and give you all of Buddha's love" which threw the guy off a bit, long enough for us to make a hasty exit. Apparently the guy had never spoken to JP before, was high on Yabba or something and took exception to JP for one of two reasons - because he's black, or because he probably got with a girl that the guy wanted. This left JP understandably rather shaken, so we went and chatted on the beach a while, along with Dave, the most Californian man I have ever seen, think a San Diegan Anthony Keidis with blonde hair and you've pretty much got him. We discussed various matters, including Philip Morris Tobacco being founded by the KKK, Coke backing the Nazis, the Charisma of Bill Clinton, Martin Sheen and Fidel Castro, the American political system (again, this seems to be coming up a lot recently) and the (non)existence of Heaven, God, etc. It was good, he's a really easy guy to chat to and get along with, and has a lot of interesting tales to tell - he brought Yoga and Capoeira to the school he works at in Downtown LA, and did mention the phrase "Heart Chakra" at one point, but other than that all was well.

Oh, when I got home there were a big group of Canadons in the street next door, who were shouting "Canada!" at every passer-by, and got into a singing match with some Aussies and English guys, which went on for far too long. I could only find one earplug as well, which didn't help matters at all. Also I seem to have lost my debit card, I remember taking it out of my wallet for some reason and putting it somewhere else, wuite possibly just in my pocket, but I have just sorted through all my possessions (which needed doing anyway), moved the bed, checked every pocket/pouch/bag that I have, and there's no sign of it. I'm going to check at the Dive shop, then I suppose I will have to report it lost and get a new one sent to Australia or Singapore, depending how long it'll take. This is all a bit annoying...

Day 122 - Happy Valentine's Day!

An early and somewhat heavy-headed start to today, I had to be up at 8 to get to the shop by 9. We headed straight out, and I was sick within about half an hour of starting our journey, partly due to last night/seasickness/the green tea latte I foolishly had for breakfast. We dived at Bida Nok, practiced some skills and saw Trumpet & Cornet fish, giant Moray Eels, Marbled Groupers, Moorish Idols, Clark's Anemonefish and Clownfish, among thousands of others - at some point the water around us was so full of sish you could barely see 3m. We had to do a swimtest before lunch, just twice around the boat and then tread water for 10 minutes, but I found this exhausting and nearly collapsed when we got out. I am rubbish. In the afternoon we did more skills then dived at Malong, and saw aload more cool stuff, including Clown Angler/Frogfish, Lionfish (which were awesome), various Puffers and Porcupinefish, and two hawkbill turtles, which were about three feet long and eating bubble coral on the bottom - they seemed entirely unconcerned by our presence, and just swam slowly by.

We were all done by 3, so I went and read some more and dozed on the beach, before returning to the shop to pick up Jan and head out. We went to a few places, most notably Tiger bar which had, allegedly, Ibiza DJs on. It was ok, I kept getting flirty glances and smiles and occasionally danced with a girl who may or may not have been with her boyfriend - there was a guy lurking about who she obviously knew, but who was half glaring at me to warn me off and half ignoring me, which I found very confusing. I left Jan there about 2am, to avoid feeling as bad as I did this morning.

Day 121 - In the water!

Today we started the dive training - after another ridiculous video and a test or two (I got 29/30, go me!) we got fitted up for all our gear and went for our first confined water dive on the beach. Even though it was on the pier side of the island, not too deep, we still saw various Wrasses, Parrot Fish, Clown Fish, Siam Tiger Fish and a load of other cool stuff. We did OK, Wade (the instructor) seems pretty pleased with our progress, it was all manageable (except for taking your mask on and off underwater, my nose went wierd and I didn't like that bit much) and tomorrow we're off on the boat at 9 for our first proper dive! Awesome.

We were all done by 2 o'clock so I went and read on the beach, and met up with Jan later to go to a few bars, and as we walked around town getting a beer in each I realised that I probably shouldn't be doing this the day before my first dive. We saw a cool fire show at Hippies Bar, before I decided it was time to take myself home for a rest.

Day 119/120 - All's quiet on the beach

Yesterday Jan and I went to Sunflower Bar for a drink, and watched some girls walking in across the sand - they were topless, and one was a little shyer than the others and was covering herself up. They were miles away, so we were talking about them, and they all happened to look round just as I pointed at them and said loudly "do you mean that one or that one?" They all saw us looking and pointing at them - they all became rather shy after that.

We went to Ciao Bella for pizza (mine had anchovies and gorgonzola, it was wonderful and massive), and after Jan finished his second shift at the shop we went back to Sunflower with Rory, a scottish guy Jan wworks with who left today, and a few more of his workmates. There was a wicvked live band on, and a girl doing amazing things with a hula hoop - apparently she performs on the beach with a flaming one, or something like that. We met some pretty cool people, and Rory fell opver a lot, before wandering home, stealing my new flip flops, and leaving his sandals (they're rather nice BIrkenstock rip-offs, I'm going to take care of them until he returns).

So today I was awoken at 8 by maniacal hammering, and I was still a bit drunk and therefore unable to find my earplugs/get up/do anything about it. Having suffered through this I went for breakfast and lay on the beach, and read the entirety of Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. I came by the dive shop later just in time to start watching the videos for the course, so that got a couple of hours out of the way. Afterwards Jan, his friend Rich and I went for a wander around the Island, dropping in on various places and checking them out, Tiger Bar was packed, and I got a bit drunker than I meant to and had to take myself home.

Day 115-119 - Koh Chang to Koh Phi Phi

Day 115 (Thursday 7th) - The Field Trip Begins

The passenger boat arrived at 9 this morning, laden with students. The lecturer, Wayne, greeted the owner of our bungalows like an old friend, and immediately opened a Beer Chang, which pretty much set the scene for the rest of the trip. We spent the day swimming, drinking and sunbathing - we saw some jumping fish and Hornbills flying overhead, and the mosquitoes are eating my legs, so that's at least some wildlife spotted.

The evening was really cool - someone suggested we go snorkelling at night, to see the Bioluminescent Algae, which is without doubt the coolest thing I have ever seen. Your hands leave trails as you move them, clapping or clicking your fingers produces clouds of green light, swimming in circles produces doughnuts of green stars, all in all it's like "you're conducting the universe" (thanks Ivan). The Myanmar Rum went down a storm, and Kayley got stung on the hand by a Scorpion! She yelped and ran off swearing, and then came back after a few minutes and explained, saying "so that was definitely a fucking Scorpion!" before going off to seek treatment. I no longer feel I can complain about the mosquitoes or Jellyfish larvae that keep stinging me.

Day 116 (Friday 8th) - False Starts and Early Finishes

Today had a disappointing start. We embarked on a hot and sweaty trek across the Island to the mangrove forests, only to find that the tide was in and so it was too deep to wade through. Oops. I also got a spider bit on my leg that swelled up quite a bit, which wasn't much fun. We walked back and spent the afternoon on the beach, playing a bit of Volleyball with people from the other bungalows until sunset, and played Finnish drinking games for a while. Marie and I went for a quick powernap after this which ended up being an 8 hour nap, meaning we awoke at 5:41, having missed all the night's fun. Although if we slept for that long I'm sure we needed/deserved it.

Day 117 (Saturday 9th) - Snorkelling

Todays trip was to the national park to go snorkelling and looking at corals. We headed out along a ridiculously treacherous path, which resulted in one guy cutting his leg, one his foot, and another throwing up, all within 15 minutes. We stopped at one small bay while these guys were taken care of, but there wasn't much to see. The journey to the park probably took about an hour/hour and a half, and at the end we saw some

corals, in various growth stages (Laminar, Tabulate, Submassive and Digitate I think) and also some cuttlefish, which were weird, and sea urchins, tiger fish, and loads of cool little green ones too. The journey back, in splintered groups with me at the helm, took a little over half an hour, and was possibly the sweatiest half hour of my life. We rushed into the sea as soon as possible, before cracking open the Myanmar Gin (which mixes perfectly with Schweppes' Manao Soda) and Pasi's Lao Kao (which mixes with nothing, and is vile). We had a good night of chatting and laughing at the exploits of Pasi, and Wayne told me that he (by which I mean the Mahidol University International College Tropical Ecology Department) would pay for our bungalow for the entire time we were there - I didn't even have to pay half! What a decent fellow.

We went for another nighttime snorkel, and the Algae was at least as spectacular as the other night - Brendan, Marie and I had glow wars underwater, shooting jets of algae at one another. Truly awesome fun, I can't emphasise that enough.

Day 118 (Sunday 10th) - On The Road

We got up at 7, as instructed, to make the 8 o'clock boat. Due to various bits of disorganisation we ended up getting it at 9:30 (much to the chagrin of some people - cheer up Capriya (sic?), you're in Paradise!), meaning I missed the bus to Krabi. I said goodbye to all the Mahidol guys (Wayne had very sweetly tried to reshuffle all the seats on their minibus so that Marie and I could sit together - would have been great if I had been going back to Bangkok) and so I had to get one to Kok Kloy (I watched Pirates Of The Caribbean 3, which passed the time pretty well) then another to Krabi, which was full of Thais instead of westerners, which was cool, then I got a Songthaew to Krabi town, where I am now typing this in the relative luxury of the Vieng Thong Hotel, watching Rio Carnival coverage on Fashion TV. It's only half nine but I'm knackered and haven't eaten all day, so I may have to go and forage for noodles, then collapse until the first boat out to Phi Phi tomorrow.

Day 119 (Monday 11th) - Phi Phi, Finally!

As it turned out, I ended up watching a Thai action movie, shot on Phi Phi, at the noodle stand, and didn't get to sleep until half one or so. I was up at half 7, got a motorbike taxi to the Pier (where I was informed that the boat left at 10, not 9 as I had been told), got the boat and sat on the deck in the sun reading - I have now finished On The Road, it was awesome and left me somewhat dumbstruck at the end. On arrival in Phi Phi I walked around for ages trying to find somewhere reasonably priced that wasn't full, failed, and ended up in a bamboo walled fan room with shared bathroom for 700 Baht a night, the most I have ever paid for a room in Thailand. Still, I can always get up tomorrow morning and go looking for another one - I am right opposite The Rock Backpackers, which claims to have the cheapest rooms on the Island. Jan is somewhere here as well, probably teaching right now, but I'LL TRACK HIM DOWN LATER (those were accidental capitals, but I'm going to leave it as it makes this entry look ominous). I have put everything I own in the laundry apart from boardies and a hoodie, so I can cover it all in a new layer of salt and sand over the next few days. I smell pasta, so I'm going to go on a food mission - due to time/tiredness constraints, I have only eaten a bowl of noodles and half a pineapple since saturday night, which simply won't do.

Ok, I had a wander, had some fried rice on the beach, admired the scenery, and while wandering back I came upon Jan's dive school, so I'm going to meet him when he finishes in about 10 minutes. Awesome

Day 112-114 - Bangkok to Koh Chang, Ranong

Day 112 (Monday 4th) - Nothing Much

Met Sally for a drink in the evening, I'm pretty sure that's literally all that happened today. Rainy Bangkok is rubbish.

Day 113 (Tuesday 5th) - Rainy Bangkok

Marie had to go off and get her passport from the embassy, and due to the nightmare that is Thai Immigration it was decided she should come with me down to Ranong, where we could hop over the border to Myanmar/Burma (it seems like people just pick one and run with it, Burmese people included). It pissed down all day, meaning Bangkok was even steamier than usual, so all I managed to achieve was posting a load of stuff I don't need (6kg in all, my bag feels light as a feather) to Australia. I met Marie at the Southern bus terminal, which is confusingly located in NE Bangkok, where we embarked upon an 8 hour bus journey to Ranong. This journey was involuntarily accompanied by a feature length Thai Soap Opera on the TV, which we just about managed to block out with a combination of an earplug in one ear and Ricky Gervais in the other.

Day 114 (Wednesday 6th) - Kung Hei Fat Choi to you all!

After a few failed attempts at sleep on the bus, we were dozing when we arrived in Ranong, meaning that we failed to get off at the bus station - we were sitting at the front and consequently failed to notice everyone getting off. This meant we found ourselves haggling with motorbike taxi drivers at 6 in the morning, to take us back to the bus station. Once there, we grabbed a room for 3 hours sleep, which was occasionally disrupted by firecrackers going off outside, to celebrate Chinese New Year. This was more than a little unwelcome at dawn.

The guesthouse we were in organises Visa runs to Burma, which made things much more convenient for our exhausted selves - the service included a car to the immigration office where we were stamped out of Thailand, then we got a car back through town to the pier despite being officially over the border already, where we hopped into a boat driven by a couple of 12-14 year-old kids. These kids almost immediately started offering us cheap Burmese goods, such as Rum, Gin, fags and Viagra. Due to a misunderstanding on quantities, we ended up with a bottle of Myanmar Rum and Myanmar Gin (both manufactured by the Myanmar Peace Group, apparently) for about ฃ2.50 each, which is pretty good. The kids let me drive the boat for a bit too; it was a longtail boat, and I must admit it was pretty difficult - the engine was really heavy, and near impossible to swing around enough to steer, these kids must be so strong. On arrival in Burma, having passed various immigration points which were just shacks on stilts in the river, we were hustled along the road to a shop where I bought a Myanmar Beer, which I had been advised to try - it was by far the best beer I have tasted so far, even beating Beer Lao.

On our return to the boat we were joined by a Burmese kid called Ali, who went a bit quiet when we asked why he was heading to Thailand, and he kind of hid as we passed the immigration points. He was smoking and had Tattoos, yet when I offered him some beer he claimed he was "too young", and told us he was 12, which was a bit of a surprise. We got back to town just in time for the boat to Koh Chang, everyone in town seems to know about our trip, I guess 17 Farang all at once is quite a lot for the island to handle. The journey was uneventful, but our arrival was awesome. Everything has to be shipped in here, there is no electricity apart from the generators, and huge blocks of ice are needed to keep the drinks and food cold, all brought in on the passenger boats. Also, the beach here is half white sand, half black, and is covered in bubble crabs!

Day 109-111- Still in Bangkok

Day 109 (Friday 1st) -What to do?

Today was a peskily indecisive sort of a day - we went and hung out by the pool and had lunch, whilst trying to decide what to do with ourselves - neither of us were too bothered about where we went or what we did, so I decided it was best if we just went into town and stayed at Asha, as it would be marginally cheaper than staying at Marie's, and it's closer to everything. On our eventual arrival at Asha, we bumped into Ville and Cecilia, the Finnish couple I met here before, which was awesome. We headed into town to meet some of Marie's friends at a bar called Saxophone, which had an awesome live band playing blues and funk. They had an incredible cocktail menu, so we stayed for a while, and while being frugal and nipping out to 7-11 for a cheap beer, Ville and I encountered two cool things - firstly there were about 8 matching white Mercedes with sequential numberplates outside. When we asked a nearby policeman whose they were, he answered "Queen", which we took to mean that the Queen was somewhere in the vicinity. The second cool thing was that some sort of biker gang seemed to be in the bar, as there were 6 or so amazing custom bikes outside, covered in skulls and chains and with the fattest tires and lowest seats I've ever seen. We left the place about 1, and headed home via a noodle stand, although Ville and poor sober Cecilia ended up going to a Karaoke bar on the way home - we left them to it.

Day 110 (Saturday 2nd) - A Slow Start...

I think we're the worst Bangkok tourists ever. We overslept and consequently missed Ville and Cecilia, and then spent ages trying to figure out what to do today. We attempted to go to the Snake Farm (the one run by the Red Cross, not the dodgy one that we nearly went to on our river tour a month or so ago), but found that the 'milking' times were different on weekends so we had missed it. We headed to Central Pier and got the Express Boat just to see the river, then jumped off at Banglamphu as we had decided to go to the Golden Mount, a big temple on an artificial hill which supposedly gives awesome views of the city. After a sweaty climb we reached the top, to find this is indeed true - you can see for miles, all over this wierd unplanned mish-mash of a place. There are slums next to palaces, huge malls crushed together next to areas of wasteland, and various other confusing contradictions. I got some good pictures of pictures of The King as well - he seems to have been the main topic of conversation for some reason.

We headed to the Cinema at Siam Paragon as it was on our way home, on the offchance of catching something decent - this turned out to be Sweeney Todd, which was awesome. We were in an enormous cinema which can't have been more than 10% full, and we sat through loads of trailers before the main event - the national anthem, accompanied by various tableaux of Thai life and how it is improved in many ways by the existence of The King - musicians playing in front of a picture of him playing his trumpet, soldiers patrolling with a picture of him in full Naval uniform, monks meditating with the picture of him meditating as a monk, complete with awesome aviators - my second favourite, after the one of him with Elvis - before ending with the messages "We Love The King, Long Live The King, His Majesty Bhumipol Adulyadej, The Heart And Inspiration Of All Thais". Stirring Stuff. The film was an unexpected musical, with plenty of gore and ridiculous ideas, and well worth a watch.

We came home and watched another film, Baraka, which was absolutely awesome. I'm not too sure of the details of when it was made, or by whom, but it is a wordless documentary about, well, the whole world, featuring some of the coolest footage I have ever seen, of animals, people, landscapes, plants, stars, everything. Really beautiful.

Day 111 (Sunday 3rd) - Giant Squid and Massive Prawns

I seem to be falling ill - when I awoke today I was feeling totally drained and exhausted, barely able to keep my eyes open over breakfast. My knee's changed appearance as well - most of the dead skin covering the scratches came off in the shower this morning, leaving it shiny and sort of weird looking. As a result I went for a nap after breakfast, and woke up feeling a bit better, and so we went to look for the fresh fruit and food market that's supposedly nearby, at the southern tip of Chatuchak Park. We took what I thought was a shortcut, and ended up wandering along the banks of the filthiest river I have ever seen, where we were quite possibly the first Farang to pass by. Eventually we made it to Chatuchak, past all the stalls outside the market proper which sell (at least) secondhand bits and bobs, many of which seem to have just been taken from bins. We went through the market to the park, picking up a few things on the way - Chatuchak is dangerous, it would be so easy to pick up truckloads of cool stuff to send back home, in fact I may do this in a few years when/if I have a place of my own to furnish. We found the food bit, and had some really good Phad Thai and Ramen, before hopping on the Skytrain to Siam, for two reasons - I wanted to pick up a present for someone, and Marie suggested we go to the Aquarium - this was an incredible idea, the Aquarium (allegedly the largest in southeast Asia) has a glass-bottomed boat you can ride around the shark tank, loads of cool fish (obviously), a Giant Squid (albeit frozen in a giant block of ice) and a 4D X-Venture Cinema, which is basically a 3D cinema with moving chairs, jets of air and water vapour, and little bits of plastic which swish against your legs when fish swim from behind you. All very cool indeed.

We met up with Marie's friends Andrea and Sudan Sarah on Sukhumvit Soi 3/1, also known as Little Arabia. Sarah, who used to live in the UAE, ordered various things for us, including Hummus & Samosas (familiar, yet delicious), arabic fish curry (really awesome, totally new flavours), barbecued prawns (must have been 5 inches long by 1" thick, really good), chicken kebabs and Tabuleh (both really delicate and delicious) and a few other things besides. It was really cool to have Arabic food, as it was so different to the predominantly Thai food I have been eating for the last month or so.

I enquired at reception about going to Koh Chang (Ranong), as this is the destination of Marie's field trip this week, it looks beautiful, and is also really close to the Myanmar border so I can get a new Visa, allowing me to stay until the full moon party on the 22nd - apparently it's a 13 hour bus ride from here, and I'd better book soon as it's nearly Chinese New Year, and travel will be difficult. Also Marie called to tell me that her lecturer says it's fine for me to come along/meet them there, the trip will be mostly snorkelling and I'm more than welcome to join them. Awesome.

Day 108 - Planning and Chilling

So we went to the pool today, although I couldn't swim due to my knee, and discussed what to do - due to the state of my leg I don't think we'll be trekking in the national park with Marie's friends, instead we might go back to Asha, where I was staying before, as the guards at Marie's tried to charge me 500 Baht for staying last night, and did so to another girl as well - apparently this has never been an issue before, so they must be having a crackdown of sorts. Also, Asha is a better place from which to explore bits of Bangkok we haven't seen, as I'm not sure if Salaya is even in Bangkok.

We ended up paying the 500 Baht, as it was easier than arguing, and was only 19 Baht more than going and getting an aircon room at Asha. In the evening we went to a place called Rob's Bar, run by a guy who is a student at the Uni, and also went to King's Bruton, and knows my mate Rob Child! Wierd. They had an open mic night on which mainly consisted of a chap called John from Derby singing various songs by the Beatles, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon and a few others. I enjoyed it a lot, the international students seem like a cool bunch.

Day 106/7 - Back to Bangkok, again

Tuesday was a rather unremarkable day, overcast and grey, so all we did was sit, read, and eat. In the evening it was rather odd, we couldn't find anyone around - there were a few people in the bars, but nowhere near as many as there had been in Sunset. We met some friendly Dutch people and chatted with them for a while, but I decided to have an early night as I had to be up at 8 to go and get the Songthaew/Ferry/Bus back to Bangkok. This was fairly uneventful, I made all the connections without any problem, talked to a cool guy from Bristol called Bill at the bus station. The VIP bus was reasonably comfy and cheap, although I ended up sitting next to an old monk for the journey, and this meant I was constantly aware of where my feet were pointing, which sucks as I am a little taller than the seats allow, meaning that the most comfortable position for me is with my feet up on the seat...

My knee isn't as bad as I feared, although due to the placement of the missing skin (all the way round my kneecap) it won't quite heal, or at least it does if I stay still for a few hours, then cracks the second I walk. I was hoping it might have healed a bit more by the time I write this, but it is still a bit of a problem. I arrived back in Khao San, picked up my stuff and headed off to the public bus stop, to head up to Salaya - this was an hour long journey, mostly made standing, carrying both my bags, which must now weigh upwards of 30 kg combined. After 40 minutes or so I managed to get a seat on top of the engine, which was extremely hot, and resulted in me burning myself a couple of times, although quite minorly. On arrival at Marie's, we had to sneak our stuff in over the hedge to avoid detection, although I still had to be signed in. The life of an international exchange student in Thailand is pretty much the same as that of a student at home - everyone was sitting about watching pirated american TV shows, which we joined in, before going for dinner at the poolside restaurant. I currently have no plans for this weekend, although I'm sure some will crystallise pretty soon.

Day 105/6 - Addendum

So last night I met Sally and a couple of other people (a dude she worked with in Vancouver called Dave, and the sister of a friend of Marie, from Sydney) and we had a few relaxing drinks at Treehouse, before going to the place next door which was BANANAS. There was drum 'n' bass and it was packed full of people dancing out on a deck over the sea, which bounced a good inch or so with every beat. At about 4 this morning Sally suggested we go for a swim, so we did, but I think it may have all been an elaborate ruse for Sally and Dave to get together, although I have yet to confirm this - if this is not true I apologise for any sleight on her character, however she only got in at noon, and is now passed out in the bungalow in the still-damp clothes from last night. Golly there were a lot of contradictions in that sentence.

edit: Turns out that was a sleight on Sally's character, and nothing happened. Sorry x

It was pissing down for a few hours (apparently) last night, and as a result the island seems deserted today, and covered in puddles - I plan to read my book and lie in a hammock, convalescing. Also, I thought my flight from Singapore was on the 31st, i.e. Thursday, however I have just learnt that it is in fact on the 19th, i.e. far enough away that I needn't worry about it. Phew.

Day 105 - Motorbike Mayhem

Today I woke up feeling great after the best night's sleep I've had in weeks, had an awesome breakfast and rented a motorbike, aiming to head over to Long beach on the other side of the island. As we got to the northern tip, going round a particularly sharp bend, I lost control of my bike, wobbled a bit and fell, sliding along the ground on my knee and elbow with the bike on top of me. Arse. I could see Sally behind me looking shocked, so I gave her a thumbs up as I slid by. The wing mirror snapped off, and I ended up with the bike wedged under the railing, and noone stopped - about 20 cars and bikes drove by, seeing me on the floor, before one guy shouted and asked if I was OK. We headed back into town to find the clinic, but by the time we got there I found out that it wasn't as bad as I thought, so I went to the Pharmacy where the guy told me I had now got a "Koh Chang Kiss", and recommended I go to the garage down the road to fix the wing mirror, as it would be cheaper. He was right, and while we were there the owner's pet monkey took quite a shine to my friends Sally and Lauren, jumping on their heads an picking stuff out of their hair.

Back at the bungalows, having sent the girls off to Bang Bao, I realised Sally had the key to our room, so I had to get back on the bike (which I really wasn't up for) and head down to the stilt village to try and find them - I succeeded, and w ended up having a delicious, if somewhat messy, meal of fried fish, crab and prawns, before riding back and cleaning up my various cuts and bruises - I have an entirely mummified toe, huge plasters on my knee, and a bandaged wrist where I bent it backwards - in case anyone hadn't noticed from the last few weeks, I seem rather accident prone. When we returned the bikes, I thought I was going to get away with it, but the dude checked the bike and ended up charging me 4,500 Baht for the damage - that's 58 quid I wasn't ready to spend.

I'm going to go back to Treehouse and try and get a hammock, using my wounds as a bargaining tool if necessary. Tomorrow I'm doing nothing strenuous or dangerous, just reading my book on the beach and saving money.

Day 103/4 - Days & nights on the Beach

Day 103 (Saturday 26th) - Happy Australia Day!

Well, what happened today... after a leisurely breakfast, Marie and I spent the day on the beach, during which we got sunburnt (but only a little bit), swam in the awesome warm water, and generally chilled out. Other than that, today was pretty empty, but wonderful. We went to Treehouse bar for sunset and dinner, then watched the fire show at Nature bar, until it poured down with rain and everyone ran for cover, except Marie and I who remained out in the warm rain. We sat in hammocks, drank buckets and chatted for a while before returning home - yesterday there was talk of motorbike hire, boat trips and the like, but none of this ever came to fruition.

Day 104 (Sunday 27th) - See you in Bangkok...

Last night when we got back to the room there was a 2 inch cockroach sitting on our mosquito net, which I had to chase out of the door with a plastic bag. Just thought I'd mention it. Today we did much the same as yesterday, having an awesome breakfast at our place before making the 10 metre journey to the beach, where we met Sally - now that Marie has to go back to Uni Sally has kindly offered me her room to share until Wednesday, when I'll go back to Bangkok. Marie and her friends left at 3 this afternoon, to start the 8 hour journey back, at the end of which there is an assignment to be done which is due in tomorrow morning. Rubbish. I spent the rest of the day on the beach with Sally, and finally finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, after weeks of very enjoyable reading - I recommend it to anyone, and now have to find someone to take it off my hands. On our way to Treehouse, we found a fresh looking coconut and spent ages getting into it, using rocks, knives and our bare hands, culminating in us slurping milk out of our hands and gnawing on the flesh. It is a lot harder than it looks to get into a fresh coconut. After sunset at Treehouse, I moved my stuff up to Sally's, which is really fancy, especially compared to our bamboo hut, even if it is a little bit away from the beach. Now we're off for dinner and an adventure, maybe ending up at Lemon bar, where it is Male night, whatever that may mean.

Day 102 - to Koh Chang!

So, as (sort of) planned, Marie and I set off at half 6 this morning on our way to Koh Chang. This involved a ridiculously long, slow and expensive cab ride, followed by a 4 hour bus ride, an hour on a ferry, some time in the back of a Songthaew and a while wandering around looking for a room. We eventually found one for 700 baht a night (which is extortionate, by the way), and were in the sea by about half three, and we stayed in until sunset - it's perfect, so warm and clear, the beach is fine if a little crowded, and all's well - when I was here 5 years ago there was only one place to stay on this whole beach, now the whole thing is lined with resorts, bars and bungalows. It seems like a completely different island. We went to Ting Tong bar last night for a few drinks with Marie's friends (ohm I bumped into Sally on the beach today as well, which was cool) who sang a few songs as it was open Mic night. There was also a Thai guy playing called Ricky who was truly awesome, really nice to listen to. It was Marie's friend Michelle's birthday too, which resulted in various drunken dramas, all centred around Michelle, but as an outsider they were just sort of absurd and amusing to watch the various Americans getting all upset about nonsense. Also I went and chose a hammock as a present for her, which seemed to chill her out for a bit. We ended the night lying on the sand watching the stars and listening to old reggae, which was a pretty awesome end to a pretty awesome day. The only worry is how long will we be able to stay here, and is Marie going to skip Uni on Monday...

Day 100/101 - Woohoo!

Wow, that was a pretty awesome day. Dave went off to get his suit pretty early, and I read my book and dozed by the pool for a few hours. I texted the girl I met at Culture One (Marie) to tell her I was leaving Bangkok and it was a pity we didn't meet up again, she promptly replied and said she'd been trying to reach me yesterday, and did I fancy going out for a drink with her and some mates. When Dave eventually returned, we discussed this and after dinner and a fond farewell, (which included some really in depth discussion of past relationships, for some reason), I went off to RCA to meet Marie and co. On the way there I was chatting to the cabbie, and he asked if I wanted 'boom-boom' and proffered a variety of postcards of girls - I politely declined, and had a small nap instead. RCA is a mental street of bars, often with many sharing the same entrance before becoming a bewildering array of music and lights, including a live band in the toilet of Route 66. After chatting to Marie for a bout 5 minutes, I mentioned I might go to Phi Phi tomorrow, to which she replied "come to Koh Chang instead, we're going for the weekend!" After about 2 seconds of deliberation I accepted this offer, as it was my favourite place when I was here before. We had a really cool evening together, and I think I'll be meeting her after Uni today maybe, it's all an exciting mystery...

Day 99 - MORE shopping, and a tumultuous last night

I woke up having had almost no sleep, as I had been coughing all night for some reason. Having decided to take it easy, today was yet another day of shopping, although more for the others than for me. Rob and I went to MBK again and met Dave and Sally there, it was an uneventful trip apart from one rather awesome treat - Dave snuck off for a while, and came back with presents for Rob and I - badges reading "Sorry Girls" (see the Vang Vieng pictures for some sort of explanation) which we both are sporting proudly on our Japanese man bags. Yes, you read that right. We got a Tuk-tuk back to Khao San, and the driver got lost along the way, meaning that a tiresome journey became almost unbearable. I also received a present from Rob, which is a t-shirt which says "a city built on rick 'n' roll would be structurally unsound", which I saw the other day and had been searching for ever since. What awesome chaps, I haven't got them anything yet, I've decided to pick up something on my way to Melbourne/ Sydney.
After meeting the girls on the roof we went for a final dinner with Jane (the Thai girl Rob met at Spicy) at O! Hungry - Sally and Jane get on incredibly well, which is really awesome. We went to a bar called Gulliver's at the end of the road, where everyone except me got pretty wasted - due to my lack of sleep and some mild illness I was feeling pretty crap, and actually snuck off for a 20 minute nap at midnight, before doing the fastest ever sleep-dancefloor turnaround in history; under 5 minutes I believe. Rob and Hannah hooked up, meaning that occasionally it was two couples and then Sally and I, which can't have been much fun for her while I was in my exhausted state. Dave and Hannah disappeared for a while, as did Rob and Jane, leaving Sally and I up on the roof talking and trying not to speculate upon what was going on, but this was fine as afterwards we all sat in our room writing long lists of music/films/stuff that we should all get hold of before we see each other again, until Rob left at 5 this morning, leaving us with a whole 6 hours before we had to get up, check out and check me into my (depressingly) single room.

I'm close to feeling terribly sad about having to meet new people again, as it's a scary day or two when you're on your own. It's also sort of exhilarating in a way, and all will be well as long as I resist the temptation to do what I did last time I was lonely in Bangkok, and book flights home... I now have to book things (I think I'm going to Phi Phi tomorrow night to go diving), pack things (I seem to have acquired more t-shirts than I can remember buying) and post things to Australia (as I will have no need for jeans or jumpers for a while), all of which is terribly tiresome, especially since Emily has not yet replied to my request for her address. I could worry about all this, but instead I am going to go and sit in the sun, as I haven't really slept for a few nights, and am in need of some rest.

Day 97/8 - Shopping, Clubs and Garages

Day 97 (Sunday 20th) - Markets, Ping Pong and Spicy

After a slow start to the day, we met Jim, Sally and a girl called Hannah (who went to exeter, and knows John the Viking) at Chatuchak, where I bought an awesome cowboy shirt and a hammock, both red, and Rob bought another shedload of various goods. We went for an Indian to celebrate Jim's birthday, after which we failed to persuade the girls to go to Bed Supper Club, which I failed to go to when I was in Bangkok before. Instead, after some deliberation, it was decided we should go to Patpong and see a Ping-Pong show (the girls' idea, I might add). We fitted 6 people in a taxi again, which took us to a dodgy backstreet, so we made a sharp exit and headed to Patpong proper. We were taken to a club called, subtly, Super Pussy, which was horrendous, even by Patpong standards. We went to another slightly less nasty one, where we witnessed various ladies, all of whom were older than expected and looked incredibly bored doing various somewhat unspeakable acts - in summary, darts in the ceiling, eggs, bottles, flowers, ping pong balls, needles, and ropes.

We headed up the next street, apparently known as Ladyboy Street, where Sally's dad's bar is, then took a Tuk tuk to Spicy, one of a few after hours clubs in this city. The Tuk-tuk ride was the best I have ever had, and involved the guy pulling wheelies with Rob, Dave and I in the back (Jim and Hannah have photos, which will follow soon). Spicy was dead but filled up pretty soon, we had a pretty good time and met some cool people, especially Rob who met an incredibly gorgeous Thai girl called Jane. I was chatting to someone when I felt a rather invasive hand grabbing me. I turned round to see someone in a Red and White stripy dress who I had admired from across the club earlier, who had hold of me... and was clearly, if not now than at some point in her life, a man. I spluttered and ran, and when pressed on why I had been mildly ogling her earlier I may have uttered the immortal line "Well, she had pretty good boobs... for a dude". After all this nonsense, Dave and I caught a cab home via McDonalds, got in at 4 am, and haven't yet seen Rob...

Day 98 (Monday 21st) - Poolside chats and odd Bars

We didn't see Rob until 11, just after I got a call from Jane asking if he'd made it home safely. Today was spent by the pool, as we were all far too exhausted after yesterday's baking heat and shenanigans. Jane came over after work (she teaches acting), and Hannah's friend Thea has also arrived, so beers and chatting in the sun were the order of the day, until sunset (obviously, I suppose). We gave Jim his birthday present, which he seemed pretty happy about - it was a black and white print of monks at Angkhor Wat, with the robes in vibrant orange. We went for dinner at a noodle stall on Soi Rambutree, staffed by a crazy lady and her Mum, before going for buckets at The Station - this is a Shell garage by day, bar by night, complete with candles, and ashtrays (see the Culture One/Bangkok). The girls went for a massage and I met Sally later and went to try and find Rob and the others with little success, and ended up talking to her about various aspects of her life (including being in a fitness competition which involved close scrutiny of her body symmetry in the bikini round - she came second) up on the roof for hours - I think I know more about Sally than I do about myself now. Jim has departed back to England now, the first one to leave - Rob is off on Wednesday morning, the girls on Wednesday at some point, and Dave on Thursday morning. I'm going to be really sad to see them all leave, it's been really cool hanging out with these guys; having said that, I'm going to stay with Rob and Dave in Australia anyway, so it won't be too long. Now all I have to do is make some plans...

Day 94-96 - Back to Bangkok, and Hospitals

Day 94 (Thursday 17th) - To Bangkok!

We got up late and wandered Vientiane for a little while, although I mainly sat on the Internet as my foot was feeling pretty bad, I could hardly walk in fact. The Border crossing to Thailand was relatively uneventful, we played guess the ladyboy for a bit and I sat next to a french girl who cheerily told us she had acute food poisoning and was in real peril while on the bus. We caught the train from Nong Khai for the 12 hour Journey, and had a beer and played word games as I seem to have misplaced my playing cards. Rob and I watched Planet Earth on my laptop for a bit with the "Beer! Coffee!" seller, while Dave had a Velium (asked for Valium, was assured this was "same same but different" - seemed to work OK).

Day 95 (Friday 18th) - Shopping Trip

We arrived in Bangkok at 6:30 am, and promptly headed to Khao San Road to try and book into Rob's Hotel, then went for breakfast. It was still only 7:30, yet there were a load of English guys drinking beer and playing pool and generally being rowdy and letting the side down. After breakfast we went to the Adventist Mission Hospital to get Dave's stitches checked, and also my foot. Dr Elvie Villanueva proceeded to dig around in my foot with scissors and no anaesthetic, proclaim it to be rather inflamed, and sent me off for an injection which turned out to be a half hour drip of Rocephin! We eventually made it out of there and went to the MBK mall and Siam Paragon to get tickets for the Culture One Dance festival tomorrow night, and look around suits etc. for the guys. We spent ages in Hugo Boss, the place is amazing, it has a blokes' floor filled with gadgets, cars, suits etc. in which one could spend days. We came back in a Tuk-tuk, went for dinner and found Jim, played spot the sex tourist (1 pt for guy and a girl, 3 for guy-guy, 5 for guy-ladyboy), then went to the Cave bar, which has an indoor climbing wall and dancing girls in the smallest shorts we have ever seen, and The Club in which we met some girls from Staines and I felt ill, probably due to drinking on the antibiotics (although the nurse said it was fine).

Day 96 (Saturday 19th) - Culture One!

I went to the Doctors again, had another rough clean and Rocephin drip (this has cost me about £100 so far, I hope my insurance covers it). I went to Chatuchak market, failed to find the others, but bought some wicked t-shirts from the same store we saw at MBK. We met back at the hotel to get ready for the Festival, where Rob and Dave showed off some fine patchwork singlets, of which they happened to have a spare... The festival was AWESOME. We played the rejection game, and within 10 minutes Rob had a tiny Thai girl on his shoulders, allegedly called pussycat. We met loads of cool people, from all over the place, helped largely by the singlets. The Stanton warriors were good, David Morales was OK, if a little bizarre and weepy during his thank you speech at the end. I met the second girl from the rejection game again... there were problems at the end as we tried to find each other, then we met a load of teachers from the south and shared cabs back to Khao San, with 6 people in 1 cab, and went for the best Subway ever before heading home and laughing in bed at the awesomeness of the night.