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by sophie1
Hello,
It's been a busy week so to catch you up.... After spending last sunday trying to use up our 24hour internet card (and only managing bout 7hours between us) and lying by the pool for literally as long as possible we decided to take advantage one more time by using the pool showers etc before heading sadly to cheaper accomodation.
Since it was our last night as 4people, with lot and molly headed to vietnam at 6 the next morning and us to thailand at a nicer hour of 7 we went to 'Le Bistro de Paris' for dinner- not an experince to be repeated!!
it was mainly chosen for its easy location etc as me and libby still had to book bus tickets etc but still......the other 3 decided to brave it with the steak, i choose goats cheese salad which was edible unlike the meat that appeared before them!!
i'm holding out till australia before i tuck into steak! they did however have lovely freshly baked bread with oil..... We went back to our rooms to watch a film before bedtime- we decided to swap partners for the night as lib and mol seem to like to sleep in the million degree heat while i'd prefer air con anyday!
However as i have an extreme tiredness problem i had to chuck lot out to their room to watch tv at midnight!!
Monday morning brought an early start and an emotional goodbye! As we headed to the border with no inital plan as to if we were going to head straight for Bangkok or stay a night on the border....Our bus was more basic than usual but also a lot cheaper so we happily set out with the courtesy stops to restaurants nobody wants to eat in!
Crossing the cahotic but at least real( as opposed to laos) border was a sweaty and confusing experience but once safely back in thailand we decided just to jump on the next air con non stop bus to Bangkok as there didnt seem to be much appeal in staying there, luckily this also worked in our favour re:costs as the whole thing was cheaper than booking straight from Siem Reap to Bangkok!
We've also developed a competitive streak about seats on buses so now take turns in runnning on with handbags to grab seats or carrying BOTH bags to the luggage compartment- it's a must do or else u'll be sitting in a crazy place!
After an uneventful (thank god!) trip to Bangkok we went straight to the guesthouse we stayed in last time at dinner and headed to bed to rest for the next day of strenous activity.... Tuesday was crazy shopping day!!
After a quick change of rooms since the cheap ones don't come with plugs we headed out to scout of presents for others and also a lot for ourselves having decided once we leave south east asia its going to be too expensive and since we were already planning to send a box of stuff home.....We managed to buy an immense amount in particular i'm a sucker for dresses although sadly my attemt to get a bikini failed, the one item i might use here!! ]
As the day wore on our bargining improved and we must of marched the Khao san road a million times!!
We went back to evaluate our shopping before heading back for a last few pieces (this has cheered me up to no end love the retail therapy!) We went out to trail the sex show area as libby wanted a few trashy pics of bangkok's main attraction!
However we accidentally ended up inside and paying.......under the false illusion we could go in take one photo of these women in bikini's on a stage and then go out the next thing we no we are being offered a drink, i choose the soft drinks, and then being charged for a show we didnt even no was going on!! needless to say we stayed for 10mins, too scared to drink our drinks in case they'd been spiked and libby never got her photo as all the signs said NO PHOTO despite her trying as we ran out!
It was definatley an experience but cant say im jumping to do it again! Wednesday morning began with cramming our purchases into our boxes, all but one of my tops made the cut after much pushing and squeezing!
After breakfast we dragged them along to the post office to discover they weighed a whole 4kilos each!! Fingers crossed they dont get lost on the way home, it cost about 30pounds but thats priceless when it comes to carrying our rucksacks!!
We spent most of the day kind of waiting to leave as the options of stuff to do once you've been in bangkok for a total of 5/6 days (including last time) so we treated ourselves (again) at starbucks to scones and jam!!
Later when eating dinner early before catching the bus i suddenly saw people i recognised and to my shock and delight saw 3 people from school who i thought were in Oz walking around! We then headed to the bus which was our best ever yet and luckily i was tired enough to get a bit of sleep on the almost fully reclining seats!!
We arrived at the pier at 5am and had to wait till 7 to get the ferry which took everyone to one of the three island, the amount of people headed to the full moon party was unreal, like a real pilgrimage!
Despite a little bit of sleep i was pretty shattered throughout the ferry journey and happy to finally arrive at Ko Samui, which like most of the nicest island i fear, was quite expensive!
However in this case it was totally worth the money to be by the beach and secure and its stil only 8pounds....We then went out to grab lunch at this nice place where i finally had the tuna salad i've been waiting for with grilled tuna steak not out of the can!!
I've taken an amazing photo which i'll put up next time so you can experience my salad joy!! We spent most the day on the beach before i had to have an incredibly early (8:30) night in preparation for the full moon party on the next day (friday). Awoke excited at about the party but not too late as the heat just makes it unbearable to sleep past 9. We ate a large breakfast, already in preparation of lining our stomachs for the night ahead. The day passed on the beach where i finally managed to finish my book!
A quick burst on the internet and to seven eleven to buy 6litres of water each we started preparing for the full moon party. The night before while i'd been lying asleep libby had spoken to this girl called Kelly from Kent- classic- so she ended up tagging along with us to dinner and had booked herself on the same party boat as us etc.
We quickly hid our bags with passports, cameras, phones etc in as they were probably safer there than at the party itself and headed to the pier. We had to fight our way onto the first boat that appeared, me vigilantly counting how many people got on as i'd heard stories of these boats being so full they capsize and people die! Luckily we made it across and followed the literal millions of people to the beach, with the road their lined with neon paint and buckets after buckets of alcohol.
Sadly i'd been burnt badly by the strong sun so had a headache and sore legs so water was my main tipple although did indulge in a bucket, which is pretty much a medium size bottle of pure spirit with a mixer and redbull!
I choose Vodka, Libby choose the cheaper rum while Kelly also choose Vodka which was her biggest mistake as she proclaimed not to be a vodka drinker.......After a little drink we went to get some paint and decorate ourselves- photos will follow with the next blog entry!
Taking the bucket slow was a necessity but made dancing hard, everyone was really friendly and great chatting to people. We had a little break on the beach drinking water for my headache before kelly was sick......needless to say we werent impressed as we'd stayed clear of that second bucket when she hadnt as it was enough to make you tipsy!
We agreed to leave at 3ish so me and libby left her in a safe bar a little up from the street so we coulde enjoy another crazy sweaty dance which made me miss dancing but when we came back she was gone.......we looked but to no avail so started to head towards the pier to get a boat back which was cahos as everyone was doing the same and getting pretty nasty about it, im guessing those who had been waiting a while just wanted to go home.
there was then an offical shouting to get back and they then brought a man lyin on a stretcher unconcious with stab wounds to his leg, stomach and neck through, which was horrible and a stark sober reminder of how dangerous it can be which was a shame because until then i had felt safer than i'd thought.
This then prompted a fight as people were a bit disresectful about getting out the way and another man had had someone else die in his arms up the road so was understandable tense....we then managed to get home within 45mins which was brilliant but slightly disturbed at what we'd seen.....still the party itself was amazing, really enjoyed it and it's definatley a must do!!
saturday we didnt manage to sleep beyond 10 due to the heat so rested a bit then ate a breakfast which included some of the weirdest hash browns ever, unexplainable but more like hard noodles......Libby spent the day on the beach reading while i stayed in the hut/balcony with my sunburnt legs covered in a wet towel! Saturday has become our treat day, as its always an anniversary around leaving home so we treated ourselves to a brownie! I'm really enjoyingh being by the beach so we can eat fish etc although Libbys sticking to green curry.
We aimed for an earlyish night but ended up chatting for ages! Today we've been on the move again, minibus, coach, ferry, coach but finally arrived in Krabi where we just spending the night to break the journey, so tomorrow we're off to Koh Phi Phi to relax a bit more for about 5days then onwards to malaysia which conincides with engligh clocks changing to suddenly will be 9hours ahead!! Till next time.......