My last week in Phuket!!
I said goodbye to Lukas on Saturday and it was a good three days spent with him.
On Sunday 16th February I found a Catholic Church and as they were having a service in English at 10.30am I thought I would stay for the service. It was packed out and this surprised me in a Buddhist country. The service was given by a Mexican priest and his accent was really strong so although it was in English it was very hard to understand! Also, quite different from the UK church service! Nice all the same though.
The next day I checked my bank account and noticed that an amount of 113 pounds had been taken out and used with an online company called Pixmania? I had never heard of them! I spent a couple of hours trying to contact my bank and eventually they cancelled my debit card and refunded the money back into my account as it was obvious fraud and someone had got hold of my details and used my account in the UK. This was handy as the bank knows I'm in Thailand and it couldn't have possibly been me! To be fair Lloyds were very good and the amount had been returned within 10 minutes. They said they could send out a new debit card within 3-5 days but only to my home address. Actually this worked out very well as Claire could bring it out with her the following Monday!!
I had only used my card at ATM's so maybe someone got my details from there. It was lucky only a small amount was taken and lucky it was only the once!
For the last few days in Phuket I went to the beaches every day as I knew that I wouldn't be going to be able to go again after leaving the South.
It was really nice to sit in the shaded trees and take a swim in the water which was very close to the temperature of bath water. So clear too!!
On my last night in Phuket (Saturday 22 February) I was taken out to dinner by the family that owned Ming Shou Guest house. We drove to a lovely restaurant where I was treated to a gastronomical delight of wonderful Thai food. There was four of us - Kwan, Bun and their mother. It was so thoughtful and nice of them to treat me to a lovely farewell dinner and I was really touched.
I was also given a parcel of gifts to take with me from Mr Nong and his family from i46 Cafe which was also really touching.
Sunday 23 Feb I caught a flight from Phuket to Bangkok ready to meet Claire and Archie the next day!!!