Our last few weeks in Thailand

  Koh Tao, Surat Thani, Thailand Sunday, June 28, 2015

Most days now follow the same pattern. Bryan gets up and is off diving by 8:00am. Jody gets up, has a swim and either goes for a walk or reads until its either time for her to go to work or until Bryan comes home. But lately the island has been so quiet, that Sunday is the only day Steve needs any extra help at the Hacienda at the moment so Jody has a bit of extra leisure time these days. During these last few weeks, Bryan has also been busy making preparations to swim around the island too. As he has enrolled for the M.I.M.S. (Manhattan Island Marathon Swim) in July, he felt he needed some practice swims before hand and it would be good to try and raise a bit of money for charity here at the same time. So he decide he would swim around Koh Tao! Why not? It's only 21km around!One night when we were heading back from Sai Den where Bryan had practiced a night swim, we encountered some of the island wild life. Luckily the bike wasn't going very fast as stretched right out across the road was a massive snake. We just managed to stop in time to save driving over it's middle. We don't know what it was but probably some type of Python. It's great to see them though and it reminds us of the jungle that still covers much of the island. We have been here a while now and our 60 day visas we had got in Penang, Malaysia were due to expire shortly. This requires that we get an extension in order to stay longer. We can do this on Koh Samui which is just a hop on a ferry and much easier than the trip to Penang. Can you believe it was 2 months ago we went there??? Now we had been told it was an extremely arduous task to do this - not difficult just longwinded and time consuming. The queues we were told were horrendous, it's poorly organised and there are lots of stages and form filling to get your visa - so GET THERE EARLY!!!Hence we were on the Lomprayah ferry steaming towards Samui at stupid o'clock, well 6am actually. The ferry arrived at Samui at 8am on the dot, we jumped in a taxi and were at the Immigration office by 8:15, our forms were filled in by 8:25, the office opened at 8:30 and we had our passports and visas back by 8:40am. Job done...! Now what was difficult about that? We didn't even have to go inside. So with a whole day to kill on Samui and as the day had not heated up yet, we decided to walk the 1 mile back into town. We figured we would call in on an old friend and arriving at about 9am would be perfect. Who was our old friend? Why Samui Steve of course in the Lucky Cafe. He had been so helpful to us when we were in Samui last year and besides; we fancied a full English breakfast! We walked around the corner and up the steps and spied Steve. He saw us too and gave a great big grin and said "oh my it's Bryan & Jody" we were very impressed he remembered our names. And our timing couldn't have been better either; he has been closed for a month and only just opened that day! It was good to catch up and after a bit of a natter, a bit of shopping and a short walk to the jetty, we were back on the ferry at 11:15 and back on Koh Tao by 3pm. That was a nice little day trip for us and we can now legally stay in Thailand until 6th July - if we want to of course. Whilst we have been travelling, Jody has suffered with her back relatively little but one Sunday in particular it was pretty bad and she feared she was going to seize up at work. Whilst doing some stretching exercises behind the bar, one of the customers noticed and suggested she call Lynne - a Scottish sports physio who lives on the island. Jody rang her and was lucky enough to get an appointment for the following day. She went to bed that night packed in ice as Lynne suggested too. Not easy we can tell you!The next day she turned up for her appointment and to say the next 2 hours for Jody were agonising is a bit of an understatement. She was surprised the people up in Sairee could not hear her screaming out in pain. It was the hardest physio session she has ever had and you could tell from Bryan's face he just thought she was being a bit over dramatic. But then over the next few days, despite packing herself out in ice, the bruises began to appear over her back and thighs. At that point Bryan realised how gruelling it had been and began to sympathise a bit more. Took you long enough Bryan!!! Lynne had given Jody some exercises to do and to be fair the back pain did subside. More like it took 2nd place to the bruises - you know what it's like when someone stamps on your foot to take your mind off the bump on your head! She has been OK ever since though so that's all that matters really. However she had been hoping to have a few trapeze lessons whilst she was here but that's all out the window now - probably not a good idea. The day of Bryan's swim drew closer. and many people on the island were rallaying to support him. Steve at Hacienda had kindly allowed use to use the kitchen there to make 4 ltrs of custard (essential marathon swim food apparently) and the blender to make Bryan's banana and Mango shakes. We turned up as arranged the afternoon before .... to a power cut! So, the shakes had to wait a bit but at least there was gas to make the custard! Later after it was all made we had to bus it all over to Coral Grand to stick in their fridge for the night and they were going to help get it all to the boat in the morning. We also had to meet with Frank at Koh Tao Sailing. Frank has a beautiful sailing ship he was going to sail alongside us which was brilliant news as essentially it would mean we had 2 support boats with us.The team at Coral Grand Divers pulled out all the stops for him and supported him fantastically on the day. You can read about his swim and all that went into it in a separate bog entry though. After his swim we celebrated evening at Shalimar Indian Restaurant here, with all the Coral Grand people and the boat crew. They are a good crowd and quite a mix of all nationalities from German, Swiss, South African, American, Canadian, Dutch Italian and Spanish. All like us, landed here on Koh Tao and never left. As most of us had been up since very very early that day, the celebration did not last long and we all plodded off to our beds quite early. As a treat for Bryan a few days after he had finished his swim, we decided to say goodbye to Viking House and spend 2 nights at the worlds number 1 rated small hotel (according to Trip Advisor reviewers anyway). The Place was voted No.1 In The World in 2015 in 4 different categories: Small Hotel, Luxury Hotel, Hotel for Service, Hotel for Romance. And it just so happens to be right here on Koh Tao - very convenient!It was wonderful there. We truly relaxed in our beautiful villa and had our own pool. It was very private with wonderful views out to sea. They had provided us with a small hamper of food and a bottle of Prosecco so our meal that night was sorted. Cooked in our own kitchen and served on our private balcony. The next day we ordered a massage on our balcony for the morning and in the evening we had a meal delivered from a local restaurant. The staff here had thought of everything and we had absolutely no reason to leave our villa what-so-ever the whole time we were there. Bliss! Inevitably we had to leave - it was way over our budget so staying was not an option and we moved to Nirvana Guesthouse at the top of the Up Road near the ferry jetty. There are two one way streets on Koh Tao - one goes up, one goes down! Everyone here knows where you mean if you say the Up road.And when we arrived we received an email from The Place. Fred was claiming squatters rights in our room there and had refused to leave. Apparently he had hidden from us when we were packing and the cleaners had found him hiding under the bedclothes. Well squatters rights are not recognised in Thailand and he was duly returned to us in our more humble lodgings. Nice try Fred! Bryan had also managed to eek out his Dive Master course until now too so he would continue to get free diving. Once he takes that last test he has to start paying again and we are on a budget...! And the last test he has to take? An 800m swim!! Ha ha ha! Just done 22kms and now he has to prove he can do 800m; thats funny! So now that was almost done, he enrolled on an underwater video course to fill up his time. Just think we had been planning to hop to the Maldives to fill out our time but this was a much more viable option - so he says! One of the things Jody had wanted to do when we came here was get involved in the Animal Clinic if she could. She had been put off by the attitude of the woman that helps there during the quiz night very early on when Hannah & Dave were here with us.  But seeing the posts on Facebook about needing Happy Walkers, she signed up to that and took Happy out a few times. They are not sure why she can't use her legs but unless people take her out, she is just stuck in the yard at the clinic. As part of Bryan's Videography course, he has to do a project on dry land and we thought this would be an ideal topic. Help raise awareness of Happy at the same time. This is the video he made Happy is a very special little dog as you can see and when she is walking along the roads she now has a set of wheels which you can in the photos. She doesn't need her wheels for the beach but dragging herself along the road leaves her grazed and raw so some of the funds raised at quiz nights, for sure has gone to help buy her wheels. She has only just got them and is still getting used to them so it helps when people take her out for short walks in them. When she isn't in the sea or in her wheels you can tell she really loves riding on the bike Such a small island has such a lot going on and on 18th & 19th June they have the annual Koh Tao Festival. Well as it is such a small island we didn't expect much really. We imagined a few food stalls and all the resorts and dive schools trying to flog things. But it was much much more than that. It was brilliant!It seems it has been running for 12 years and a Thai lady lets them use her land at the far end of Sairee (north of the island). Yes there were food stalls - of which we loved the twirly potatoes on skewers stall - and the doughnut stall best. But everything was well organised, well laid out and a really good atmosphere. The theme is Save Koh Tao and aims to raise awareness about over fishing, use of plastics and conservation of water and the environment. We both bought our Save Koh Tao tee shirts! The ladyboys from Queens (mentioned in earlier posts) were there all glammed up for the occasion too and had set up a ducking stool - you know the type where they sit on a seat over a barrel of water and you pay to chuck balls at a lever that when you hit it, drops them into the water. You have all have seen similar games in England we are sure but we guarantee you will not have seen anything quite like this. It was hilarious!They also had a large main stage which was quite unexpected. On the 2nd night Queens put on one of their cabaret shows there, they also had 10 old Thai ladies singing a song (we didn't hang around long for that) and the grand finale was a Thai band that were really good. We think they were the same band that played in Bro & Sis bar where we were for Songkran but we aren't completely sure. We grabbed a bucket of rum and coke and sat to watch for ages. Well as we know, all good things come to an end and eventually it was time for us to leave Koh Tao. Jody has spent almost 5 months on this island now and Bryan almost as long so it has really started to feel like home for us. Especially getting a job and working so closely with the community. We said our thank and goodbyes... to Steve at Hacienda, to Tony & Lynne at Viking House, to Mimi at Jom Thong, to all the Coral Grand team and everyone else we have become friends with. That night, Bryan wanted to have a send off from his friends at Coral Grand so he extended our motorbike hire and agreed to return the bike by 10am the following morning - our ferry leaves at 10:15. We started off in Farengo with about a dozen or so of the Coral Grand crowd and at 10pm most of us moved onto Sunset Bar on the beach. Bryan was on the rum buckets and was having a great time. Jody stayed sober as she was riding the motorbike home and it was Bryan's night afterall. Everything was great and then at 1:30am we started saying our goodbyes and made our way back to the motorbike. And Bryan had lost the key! Grrrr!!!!We walked back to the beach in the dark looking for the key on the ground as we went. Bryan saying "I'm sorry" the whole time. You know when someone is a bit tiddly and the other one isn't, it was quite funny really. We retraced our footsteps and mingled with the party again on the beach but at 2am we gave up and got a taxi back to Mae Haad leaving the motorbike where it was in Sairee. It was safe enough but we had left a 5,000 baht (£100) deposit for it at the bike shop and wouldn't get it back unless we returned the bike to them safely. Well it all got sorted out in the morning. Bryan went apologising some more and paid a1,000 baht (£20) fine for them to get another key cut and they got the bike back. Phew! We could do without that little drama on our last day here for sure. So then we went to Cafe Del Sol for our favourite breakfast on the island and one last cheerio to the staff there - especially Thanso who was just so sweet we had grown quite attached to him. We were off on the 10:15 ferry as planned and arrived in Bangkok exactly on time at 8:30pm. A long drive but it actually it felt good to be back in Bangkok amongst the hustle and bustle again. We managed to squeeze in a couple of things we had never done before as well which was good. Jim Thompson's house was really interesting as was his story. And we managed to get to the Chatuchak Weekend Market which was great for browsing and whiling away a few hours.Lastly, we paid a visit to two old friends here in Bangkok; Tim in the travel agency and Max the magician at Magic Restaurant on Ram Buttri road. Max even treated us to a magic trick. We were transfixed at he tore off a bit of a card Jody had selected from the deck. Then the torn off bit appeared in a tomato in the fridge. Wow! How did he do that?? A final cocktail at the Burger King Street Bar (it's not really called that but it's right outside Burger King) and we were done. Nothing left to do now except kill a bit of time before heading to the airport. We now have to return to England for a month but it does feel as if we will be leaving a little piece of ourselves behind. We have taken Thailand and Koh Tao into our hearts and who knows.... one day, we may be back but who will still be here that we will know? We wonder! :-)   [gallery columns="4" ids="7361,7362,7363,7364,7365,7366,7368,7369,7370,7371,7372,7373,7374,7375,7376,7377,7378,7379,7380,7381,7382,7383,7384,7385,7386,7389,7391,7393,7398,7405,7408,7410,7412,7415,7417,7420,7423,7425,7427,7431,7437,7441,7446,7449,7453,7456,7461,7463,7466,7468,7472,7475,7479,7484,7489,7496,7502,7504,7508,7510,7531,7533,7538"]