Craigs’ big trip

(9th September)

Damn body clock, as well as having a restless painful sleep, I was awake at 6am and couldnt get back to sleep.

I got up and went for a walk around with my camera and took a few snaps and sussed out the place, this will be our paradise home for the next few days.  I like it, I like it a lot!.

Today is a little vercast and windy, which is a shame, but I’m sure it will get better.

On the way back to the room, I met Mike, Sam and Chris, three english guys who had just arrived and are also gonig to the FMP (full moon party).  We had a bit of a chat, then got back to my room to write dwon what I had been doing this morning.

(9th September)

My moutgh feels like it has a drill in it.  It was killing me on the boat trip over but thankfully a couple of nurofen helped out for a couple of hours.

I was awoken by the pain at midnight and could not get back to sleep.

I’m a little concerned at how much this is hurting, I usually have quite a high pain threshhold.  I called the travel insurance place, the $5.50  minute seamed insignificant to this stage.

They were very helpful, but because it has to do with a filling in a tooth that is weaker than the rest, I may noy be covered.

I will have to go and see a dentist tomorrow and get it looked at.  8 more days of this would drive me insane!

I guess on the posotive side, its confronting one of my worst fears, being in a foreign country with an illness.

So tomorrow, Craigiees big adventure to the dentist…

(8th September)

The flight to Kph Samui is about an hr.  We landed at a very beautiful looking airport with pristine gardens and buildings with hatched roofs, it was pretty cool.

We organised a shuttle into town and the boat trip to the island where we would be staying, all up it cost us 300TB ($15 NZD) for both.

We arrived at the dock about 4:30pm and the ferry wasnt leaving till 6:30…so we did what we had been doing most of the trip so far.  We sat, we chatted and we drunk more beer.

Finally the ferry turns up to pick us up and everyone boards.  There was a pretty dark looking cloud on the horizon that seamed to get bigger and bigger, looks like rain.

We head off and we are all sitting on the top deck, which is partially covered, we are all sitting with our luggage.

All of a sudden. the rain hids hard and fast and we all get drenched while the boat starts rocking from side to side.  We all grab our suitcases and manage to get them downstairs with out too much drama.

in the meantime, my tooth is killing me, it hurt like a ….[please insert word(s) here]. 

So we finally arrived at the island about about an hours of being rocked and soaked.  We are picked up by the resport shuttle and taken to our slice of paradise.  We all take a chance and freshen up before meeting for more drinks and dinner.

I got to meet some more of the extended family, Jeremy and Nicky, Ruth and Grant (who we had breifly caught up with in Bangkok).  After a nice dinner and some cocktails, I called it a nigth at 10:30pm (3:00am NZ) fighting to keep my eyes open.

I add this last entry before I hop into bed.

 CraigieeA signing off nanoo…nanoo

(8th September) 

God damn, its 6am and I cant sleep anymore, even after a late night.  I have a dull ache in my mouth which I find is due to a chipped tooth and exposed nerves…Not a good start to the next leg of our adventure.

So today, we all head to Koh Samui via plane then catch a ferry to the island we are staying on and meet up with the next group of people we will be partying with…another 9 people.

This will ROCK!!!

A few of us met for breakfast and planned our activities before we get picked up at 12pm.

Kate, Matt, Dave and I caught a taxi to the Imperial Palace and had a good look around with the aid of a guide who also wanted to extort us, but we got her down to 500TB for the group.

The tour lasted about an hour and I took lots of pics.  It is certainly an amazing place  and the detail and intricacy of the work is astonishing.
All templed out, we returned and did our own thing for a bit, so I was on a mission to find an internet cafe so I could start publishing more stories.

We were all picked up at 12 and taken to the airport, where we checked in and I got to meet another new member of the team ‘Steve’ who had just flown in from NZ a couple of hrs before.

We all hopped on to a very colorful prop plane and headed to Koph Samui…I slept.

The n ext leg of our journey begins..

7th September

So, we are on our longboat for a 1 1/2 hr cruising of the canals, I’m sure its just like venice, but different.  There is a very stark contrast between rich and poor along the banks of the dirty river.  The trip was very cool and we saw some sort of water lizard and lots of huge fish, which I dont think I would really want to eat considering where they are comming from.

After the boat trip we caught a taxi to MBK which is a HUGE mall for some shopping!!!!

The afternoon was a bit of a blur, actually so is the evening and early hours of the following morning, we did so much.

We all came back and had some time to ourselves for a couple of hours.  Some slept, some shopped, I shopped.

I banged in to Sema again, I’m not sure if she was happy to see me again because she was being friendly, or just being friendly because she saw it as another to hussle some TB (Thai Bhat) from me.  I think it may of been both.

After some more shopping, we all went to dinner at a nice place of Koh San Rd (the road we are staying on), which I cant fir the life of me remember the name, it was something like sum yun gai, or maybe it wasn’t.

Dinner was great, I had duck with orange sauce and a few beers and a few Kamakazie drinks, which is a very cool blue cocktail served by the jug, which is a bout $12 NZD.  It is fair to say that we drunk a few of these.

So after dinner, Matt and Kate went their own way as it was their 1 year anniversary (HAPPY ANIVERSARY) which was very cool.  They went back to their room, not sure why!!

Angela and Matt also went their own way, which left the 3 single (Dave, Bevan and I) to find something to do..

We went to Patpong Road (which is another famous area in Bangkok) for some more shopping and a show, which was expensively interesting to say the least!.

We got back to the base camp about 11pm (4aM nz) and had another look around, as the markets close at midnight.

Dave left for bed first, and Bevan not long after.  I was still wide awake, so kept walking and stopped and had a beer in one of the bars down the road which was open 24 hours.  I met some very cool people and finally headed to bed about 3am (8am NZ).  I think I may be a little sleep tomorrow.

We are off to the island tomorrow….YAY!!!!!