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Hello!
We've had our week on Koh Samet Island!
We met up with the other people who had been teaching while we were on the trekking week and caught up with everyone feeling like we slotted right back into our group, our bus took us to the port and we had to literally throw our rucksacks onto a little fishing boat and then jump on afterwards, it genuinely felt weird seeing white people again as for the last 3 weeks we haven't really been in any touristy areas so it was very strange, we felt like tourists again!
The boat took us over to the island and we got off onto a busy town with backpackers absolutely everywhere we looked, we managed to find a taxi and were taken to our hotel having to walk a little bit along the beach to get to it though. For some reason, I think it was because we didn't get the hotel we were planning on getting on the trekking week, we had been upgraded to a better one- air conditioning and nicer rooms so we settled in nicely! The hotel was above a bar right on the beach, we couldn't have had a nicer spot.
We went for a wander in the afternoon along the beach and took in the scenery, it reminded me quite a bit of Turkey for some reason, just a similar layout of the bars on the beaches I think, Abby unfortunately slipped on some rocks and banged her head, so we walked back after that, I'm a little bit worried about her but going to keep an eye on her.
In the evening we all had dinner together sat on little tables and cushions right on the beach watching the sea and the sunset, it was beautiful, we couldn't have asked for it to be nicer. We have theee strangest waiter as well, he is Thai but has obviously learnt English from a Londoner as he has the weirdest Thai/Cockney accent, it is so strange, he says things like alright treacle and love you long time! Very bizarre but a lovely guy! We had optimum seats for the fire show which was on every night, it was amazing, there were about 8 guys - youngest 12 and oldest in his late twenties doing all sorts of tricks with fire batons and balls, they stood on each other's shoulders and made formations to the music, it was absolutely amazing, looked very effective in the darkness and a few girls had their eye on some of them! Was a really good way to start the week, it was a brilliant show. We had a few drinks that night, I managed to spend very little as I won a cocktail at a bar that does the coin toss deal so freebie for me, good old tails!
I managed to develop a cold the next day which shouldn't be allowed in 35 degree heat but never mind, I'm keeping going, we had a lovely breakfast of really fresh pineapple, watermelon and banana and toast, it was such a nice change compared to the stodgy rice we'd had for the last week. We just went and explored the town today- had a look in some of the shops and some of the girls treated themselves to dresses- it's quite a bit more expensive than Bangkok and Singburi though so I won't be treating myself. We spent the afternoon on the beach on a huge rented inflatable that fitted 4 or 5 of us on which was very relaxing, there's lots of little tiny jellyfish in the water that you can't really see though so you do get the odd sting in the sea which I'm not too keen on, the inflatable was a good move. Tonight we went for a walk up the bars in the beach but ended up stopping at one which had tables on the rocks on the sea, the barmen were up for serving us all cocktails and jugs but we decided we were a bit sleepy after our big night last night! So it was half past 10 and we had some hot chocolates and banana milkshakes to send us to sleep, we got laughed at a lot- not the typical big group of teenagers you see on the island at that time! But we really enjoyed ourselves so that was good :o)
Me and Abby treated ourselves to pedicures on Tuesday, so we have beautiful nails, we thought we deserved a treat after all that trekking ;o) and then we spent the usual afternoon on the beach again. Every night we saw the fire show and it was just as good as usual- although one of the nights one of the guy's fireball things flew off its handle and into the audience next to a child! So we're quite nervous from now on (everyone was fine though!).
On Wednesday we went on a boat trip which was a nice change from the beach, we went around the island, had one stop where you could get off and snorkel...which was quickly ended for me when I got stung on the bum by a jellyfish, there weren't too many fish there anyway though. We had lunch on the boat which was kebabs and sweet and sour. Our next stop was a fishing stop, people were hanging outside the boat using wire wrapped around plastic bottles- people weren't having much luck apart from the people who owned the boat so they cooked them all up and shared them around for the meatie eaters. We then had another snorkelling stop and this one was amazing the sea was filled with tropical fish underneath us; we jumped in probably squashing a few on the way! And then swam with them, they were bright blue and yellow and there was so many of them, it got me really excited for Fiji. Our last stop was at a fish farm in the middle of the ocean; we warily got off the boat onto very rickety wobbly planks of wood, and walked along the squares which were filled with all sorts of different weird and wonderful fish! There were huge turtles, brightly coloured big fish, little shark like fish looking very aggressive- I felt very vulnerable on my little plank of wood next to them in the middle of the ocean! We were trying to plan which way would be the best way to fall if we felt ourselves going :-P we all survived though and got back on the boat back to the island, was a really good day and got some good pictures to go up.
We spent the rest of the week relaxing on the beach and going out in the evenings, a really nice way to end our 4 weeks with everyone. On Saturday we all went back to Bangkok, and the Muay Thai Boxer Programme people we knew from our ecohouse met us there as well so we had a last night together in our group in Bangkok on Koa San Road again, it was so nice to be together but quite scary that the next day we'd all be going our separate ways!
We had Sunday morning together doing some last minute shopping in the markets and quick packing on my part- didn't quite get the time management quite right for the airport, and then had to say our goodbyes, a few of the girls were going back to the ecohouse to do an orphanage programme, me Abby and Dave were off to Australia and everyone else was travelling around Thailand/Laos area, it was really sad to leave everyone, we were so lucky to have such a good group and I've had suchan amazing time here, can't believe how much we've fitted in and most of it the things a normal backpacker wouldn't have had the chance to do, it was so good, but Australia here I come! x x x
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