Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
10th May 2010
Another 3 weeks gone and I barely notice the time flying by. I left you last time in my little house on the beach in Koh Pha Ngan. Katy and I bought a DVD player for £12 and have been watching lots of £1 dvd’s from the local shop. Sherlock Holmes with English subtitles (we couldn’t turn them off) written by a Thai who couldn’t speak English was a scream. We haven’t laughed so much in ages. Katy completed her silver jewellery course which included cutting the stone, cutting and rolling the silver and then setting the stones, it was amazing despite the fact she broke every saw in the shop. I think the owner was proud of her work and glad to see her go! I completed my PADI training and spent some time diving off the coral reef on Koh Pha Ngan and also at Koh Tao one of the most beautiful spots in Thailand. However the most fun was had when i took Katy back there for us to snorkel and she was “attacked” by a shoal of zebra fish. You’d think we were in the water with Jaws when they were just being friendly. I discovered afterwards that she had actually been nipped but by a cleaner fish – I think zebra fish will be in her nightmares for a while though.
We were very laid back and life went very quickly on the island, so much so that we missed the second full moon party because we were too tired to get out of the hammock and go We did decide to walk through the jungle one day to reach a deserted beach called Bottle Beach. Apparently this is a beautiful half moon beach with white sand and pure green water that only the long termers on the island go to as there are no roads to it. We followed an easy trail (marked by empty water bottles) round the island bluff and across the headland only to find it getting harder and harder. The walk was marked as 2 hours maximum but after 4 hours of hard jungle climbing (2 of which were without water) we realised we could still be doing this in the dark and with no hope of getting back to our bike anytime soon. We were physically and mentally exhausted and both felt close to death (well, needing a cold beer and a good massage anyway). After another 30 minutes, just after 5pm we arrived on the beach and found there was a water taxi picking up 2 other people. It was just leaving so we gratefully grabbed a lift to get back before nightfall which meant we walked for nearly 5 hours and spent a total of 2 minutes looking at the bay (it wasn’t as nice as the write up said).
After this near death jungle experience we decided to stick to the local beach and before we knew it time was up and we were heading back into Bangkok. This was a little nerve wracking as the Red Shirts were still demonstrating and we had over stayed our visas and didn’t know what would happen. Being good people we went to the airport 5 days before leaving and spoke to the information desk. They said we had two choices. We could go to immigration, admit we had overstayed our visa and pay a fine. We would not go to jail for breaking the law but we would be deported immediately. Alternatively we could just walk out, enjoy the next 5 days and then come back to the airport when we were ready to fly. We thought long and hard and decided to come back later
This gave us 5 days of fun in Bangkok including a walk through the Red Shirt demonstrations and time to get some tailor made suits and shirts. I made a poor choice of clothing when i went to the demo though as the red shirts had a big banner up saying ‘we are not terrorists’ and i walked through the middle of the rally with my Mr Men t-shirt on which is a picture of a Mr Man with a bomb strapped to his back and the words ‘Mr Jihad’ on the front. I am surprised that i didn’t get on telly.
We went the airport 5 days later and got pulled to one side by immigration. We had to pay a 16000 baht fine and sign a piece of paper saying we had broken the law. However, they let us out the country and we can go back again. There was a funny moment when we had finished paying our fine and signed the document admitting we were criminals when Katy asked the policeman a question. He turned back to us and said ‘why you still here, you pay fine, you go now’. Its nice to know money still makes some parts of the world go round.
Next stop Australia and the dentist to fix my tooth. Love to all x x
- comments