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I write this in possibly the most ear-shattering nosiest environment I have ever been in (outside a club you understand), we have somehow ended up in an internet cafe in the middle of Butterworth, Malaysia, surrounded by teenage Malay's (right description?) playing video games on the computers on the loudest volume setting ever...I'm not sure what sort of hearing capabilities we'll have after leaving here!
How have we found ourselves here?? Well, after we decided that the Laos idea was not really working out for us sun-bunnies we decided to head back down with the original plan to Malaysia but thought we would make a stop off at our favourite Thai island, Ko Tao. The journey back to Thailand was a nightmare! Our bus was overpacked (standard Laos), I was sandwiched in the front seat next to the driver and some Laos grandmother who kept nudging me further into the seat with her massive handbag (I know I'm one to talk about big handbags but still, I dont abuse people with them...most of the time). Just to further illustrate the laidback culture of Laos we arrived a petrol station to find the attendant asleep on his specially laid out mat, a beep or two finally woke him up (can you imagine that at the local Esso?!). We then headed off on our three hour journey from Vang Vieng to Vientienne to catch yet another bus to Bangkok. Now, I'm not sure if you actually have to have a driving licence in Laos to carry a bus load of people but I think the authorities should take our drivers swiftly off him. Like now. The man was so into his conversation with the grandmother he kept swerving all over the road, as said previously animals seem to just wander freely around and that also means into the roads. He narrowly missed a few cows and goats but unfortunately, particulary for my frontrow seat, a puppy was not so lucky. I was literally shell shocked. The man drove straight over the poor little puppy, then felt the need to reverse just to make sure so we all got an eyefull of the damage. It was not pretty. I wanted to be sick. After I then couldnt help myself but keep shouting at him to slow down and stop everytime I saw a cow on the road in the distance. Probably one of the most disturbing car rides of my 23 year old life. We finally arrived at Vietienne and got straight on the night bus to Bangkok and through the border again which was relatively painfree. As a stroke of luck after arriving in Bangkok at 5.30 a.m we managed to book a bus straight down south to Chumpon to get the boat to Ko Tao for 9 a.m. so avoiding yet another day in Bangkok and the temptation of shopping...
Chumpon was a different experience. We had about 7 hours to kill before we got our night boat over to Ko Tao so thought we would have a teeny look around the shops (what else is there to do?!). So far the places we've visited have been quite western or full of backpackers, however I dont think Chumpon was the same. We walked down the street and cars just slowed down so people could stare at us, men and women shouted at us on the street 'hey where you go' 'what your name' and generally just stared or pointed, making no secret of doing so. I've never felt like such an alien before (no sarcastic comments). Once we were in the shops the assistants were following us around, giggling to each other and watching what we picked up. At one point in a huge department store there were about 5 girls following us, giggling to each other and pointing, I felt like a mix between a shop lifter and a circus freak..hopefully I looked like neither! All in all it was a very strange experience but we managed to get quite a few bargains in the process!
An experience which was about to get slightly more strange. We arrived at the port to get the ferry over to the island. We booked on the night boat as it was the only one left by the time we got to the coast. It later transpired that the night boat consisted of a boat with mattresses on the floor in a line...and about 7 Thai men (who were also delivering produce to the island) and, it turned out, just us. Cue a bit of alarm. 8 hours on a boat on our own with lots of men who we dont know and cant communicate with. Hmmm....in the end we were so tired from the travelling, and shopping, that we just passed out and apparently slept right through a storm on the way over there.
Once back in Ko Tao (arriving at 5.30 in the morning, not ideal) we managed to get beach huts right in the hub of things in Sairee Beach and got our bikinis on and headed down to the beach for a catch up on the sun tanning we had missed in Laos. It was heaven but by 2pm turned out to be too hot even for us sun worshippers and we decided to slope around the shops, get some food and, make the vital mistake in our excitement of being back, of getting lots of alcohol in and starting to drink by 6pm. By the time our friends turned up at about 10 pm I'm sure you can guess what sort of state we were in....apparently I (note, really Anne-Marie) took me home about midnight...what a lightweight!
The whole week has gone by in a blur of drinking, sun-bathing, scooter riding (we hired a bike each - Danger Wheels returns!!) lots of giggles and meeting up with our friends we met last time, the crazy Irish man Erich and his gang. On the Wednesday it was the fortnightly Castle party (name describes venue - picture a 'My Little Pony' toy castle, pink and white, very camptastic) and we got Jade to come over from Ko Phangan for the event, this alreadys dictates its going to end in a hazy blur! We thought it might be a good idea to ride our scooters over to Erich's for pre-Castle party drinks, which was a good idea in theory, except I havent quite mastered the riding of a scooter on wet dirttrack and managed to somehow slide me and Jade off the scooter and run it into a wall (broken wingmirrors and a few scratches - that's what you get for giving someone with no driving experience some wheels) OOps!!! It was a brill night, I somehow managed to also break my shoes so just danced around barefoot so I probably looked like some little dwarf dancing around crazily...probably more so when I befriended a 6'6 black American bloke!!! All in all a very good night...although we suffered greatly for it the next day and spent most of it dying in our beach hut, emerging only for food and drink and then returning to the bed - weaklings!!!
After a week in Ko Tao we realised that we had only three weeks to see Malaysia and get ourselves to Singapore for our flight to Oz, something due to the rapidly decreasing bank balance, we couldnt put back anymore. If it wasnt for that I'm sure we would still be there, the island seems to suck you in. Team Leeds definitely heart Ko Tao! So that's were, after a 4 hour boat trip to the coast followed by 16 hours on a train we find ourselves waiting around in the loudest internet cafe EVER in Butterworth waiting for our 10 hour bus journey to the Perhentiain Islands. We have been promised detox, sunshine and paradise here and if it is not delivered after this mammoth journey (we are officially gross smelly travellers right now) you shall hear us screaming back home! Rain is NOT invited! Hopefully our next blog entry shall be all smug, sunshine and sunburn!
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