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Since leaving Phi Phi, we travelled to another island in Thailand, being Ko PhaNgan (know of the infamous full moon parties that are held there). We missed the Full Moon Party as it was on while we were in Phi Phi. However, it worked out well as anyone who has been to PahNgan will know that every night is a big party night if you want it to be, and accommodation was plentiful and cheap as well since all the party-goers had moved on. The four days we had there were spent lazing around, not doing much at all. We justified it by telling ourselves this would actually be our last beach stop for a while and we were heading for Cambodia and Vietnam, which we knew weren't going to be relaxing days.
Days on the island were spent playing in the sun (we're both not too great at sunbathing- we get bored or too hot easily), learnt lots more poi moves, wandering around the jewellery shops, or just sitting in bars watching films that were put on for us. In the evenings, we bought a few bottles of this Spy drinks, basically a mix between white wine spritzer and lambrusco, and found ourselves not being able to handle the little alcohol that was in them, which proved cheap for us and we were able to entertain ourselves quite happily!
After PhaNgan, we headed back up to Bangkok on the night bus. We arrived back in Khao San Road at 5am absolutely shattered. So, of course the first thing we did was to get a beer in the Central Bar and laugh at all the staggering drunks falling over each other as they attempted to work out where they were staying. I also bumped into a girl from my old school, which was odd. Interesting...
We found accommodation, slept until about 1pm and then proceeded to have an incredibly odd day! We started off doing various bits of shopping; bahtering for the old Thai trousers as we had been so used to living in beach gear, we hadn't got any trousers or shorts! We booked our ticket to Cambodia with the girl we had also sorted our Vietnam visas with. She was kerazy! We spent ages chatting to her and she insisted to giving us all the gossip on lady boys in north thailand and in south thailand. The thing was, she spoke so quietly (just in case a lady-boy was lurking) and her accent was slightly off at times and Hols and I ususally ended up nodding and laughing hysterically when she did. Great fun! I then decided it would be a fantastic idea to get dreadlocks. Not my whole head, though, just four. The lady said I would be able to comb them out, though, so it's all good! We then bumped in to Tamir, a guy we met in PP from Israel, who watched and laughed at me getting my dreads, and then came with us to eat ice-cream. Midst of the conversation, Tamir looks up and says, 'Right, I have to go. I am meeting someone!' And off he toddles, without so much of a 'goodbye', never to be seen again! He was an odd one in PP as well when we hung out with him!
Late afternoonish, we were sitting using the internet, then once finished, stayed in the same cafe for dinner. We had a pretty in-depth conversation around the subject of 'what is so wrong with with travelling for a life-time?!!' and when we got up to leave, my purse had vanished. Panicked, we asked the bar man, who joyfully told us that he had seen two Japanese people pick it up and run out with it about 20 mins ago! He also told us, through his smiles, that one was wearing a blue t-shirt! Hols and I scoured Khao San's bars and road sides, asking every guy we saw in a blue t-shirt if he had nciked my purse! It was ridiculous as it's pretty hard to tell a Thai from a Japanese, and also, who in their right mind would turn around and answer, 'why yes, actually, I did nick your purse! Thanks for that!' It was a bummer, because I had just been to the bank, had around 200 quid in it, as well as my debit card and a few presents stashed away! We attacked two tourist police who smiled sympathetically and told us to go to the Police Station. So off we trundled and were greeted with 'Aaah, that's a shame. Nowt we can do, though!' The police guy started filling out a form and told us to come back in half an hour. So we ran off to quickly transfer money online before my Dad shut my bank down. As we were walking/running, a Spanish dude stopped us mid-track and said, 'Are you the girl who lost her purse? They found it in the bar!' So after thanking him profoundly, we ran back to the bar, trying not to get up our hopes as it could well not have been mine, and what do you know, the bar had it! They didn't explain to us how it got back; maybe the Japanese guy felt a surge of guilt when he opened it up to a smiling picture of my mum, or maybe saw the number of out of date student cards lining the sides, and brought it back! Who knows, but everything was all there completely untouched! Very odd!
To celebrate, I got another dread lock (oooh, 5! Pushing the boat out there!), and Hols got two braids! We went in to a jewellery store to get some bracelets, and we saw a dog lying on the floor with a nappy tied around her. I went to pat her and then owner warned me to be careful as she may bite. PMT or something- the dogs wear nappies when they get their periods! So hilarious! I also stubbed my toe on a plank of wood and it bled like I have never seen before! Who knew that my little toe contained so much blood! I bled all over my flip-flops and on the floor until the shop owner put a stop to it by wrapping a plaster round it!
We thought we should probably get a drink to reflect on the eventful day and while walking along with linked arms, some Thai guy with perfect English but a terrible stutter (probably due to his nerves having assumed he had witnessed his first lesbian couple), started to follow us, asking if he could join us that night. Laughing, we told him we were just friends and had boyfriends etc. I took it a step further and said, 'We're married!' At which point, he started grinning uncontrollably, practically salivating on to the floor and I realised my Freudian slip! 'No, no, not us...I mean, we're not married, I mean...' And of course, it was lost on him and he followed us all the way to the bar! Bless him!
While sitting in the bar having a nice drink, laughing at the day's antics, a flash started going off in our direction. A guy with a giant camera was sitting snapping away at us. I got a bit angry and demanded why the hell he was taking pictures of us! I soon settled when he told us he was a photographer from Sweden or somewhere and showed us his pictures, which were quite good, except for a few of me scowling directly in to the lense. He was a bit weird, though, so we didn't stay in his company for long, retiring to our beds early for our 7am bus to Cambodia the next morning!
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