Outside out apartment in Ko Tao on New Years Day. I spent the whole day thinking I
was about to throw up, but never did. Considering we are 4 months in and this is the worst its been so far, I think I'm quite lucky.
I took this photo not realising it was actually Pete walking across the sand.
Sariee Beach Ko Tao.
This is the beach that belonged to the apartments where we were staying
And here are the fish you could see in the water before you put your mask on. One of them bit a scab on Tim's leg and made it bleed. Yeuch!
We hired a boat and went around the whole of Ko Tao stopping off to snorkel in all the bays. It was a fantastic day. Tim saw a turtle. I missed it because it was in Shark Bay and I just couldn't cope with the idea of going out of my way to meet a shark in my bikini, vegeratian or not.
Ko Tao - another lush sunset. I've seen so many on this trip, but I'm never going to get complacent about them.
Even Buddha gets old. Bangkok
Khao San Road
I'm going to miss Pete and Sal when they go
This is Mr Shaky Shaky Man. He lives just outside our hotel in Bangkok and gave us breakfast every morning. He serves fantastic smoothies with ice made from mineral water "because I love you guys" for 20 Baht.
I'm still having trouble getting used to these things. Tim just won't do cars anymore - even to the airport, which means backpacks on our knees all the way.
6th January 2005, Bangkok.
We are in a guest house just off the Khao San Rd. We moved from a hotel near Nana after Tim blocked the loo so badly we couldn't unblock it and dare not tell the owners in case they charged us. (There is a 1000 baht fine for putting loo roll down the toilet, when will he learn??).
We are running out of money fast and we have just been completely scanked on our India Visas. We paid way 800 Baht each for them. We found out they are doing them on the Khao San for 400. It isn't a lot of money, but we've got 4 months left and barely any money to live on. Its been hard because Pete and Sal were here on holiday so they were spending English pounds earned at home. I so wish we could keep up with them. I feel like we held them back from doing things at times, because we simply could not afford it. I'm realising we didn't plan the trip well at all when it comes to money. We just gathered as much as we possibly could and went for it. Anyone planning to do a trip - make sure you take into account alcohol - it costs a fortune when you want it - and trips - like hiking, snorkelling etc. There's no point coming to all these amazing places if you cannot afford to experience them properly and you WILL pay tourist prices for them unless you stay for an age and really get to know the locals. Unfortunately my desire to see as many places as possible on this trip means we can't really do that.
We left Ko Tao shortly after New Year. Its such a beautiful place. Really chilled and nicer than Ko Pha Ngan - the snorkelling is amazing. It feels like we've had a three week holiday away from travelling. The beaches are very resort like and what with having Dani, Zak, Pete and Sal around too. I remember when we first spoke about meeting up with people before we left England. Back then I was a bit against it because I didn't want to be reminded of the real world for the whole trip, but it hasn't been like that at all. I've really enjoyed seeing both Dan and Zak and Pete and Sally and I'm missing them all already. I just wish our bloody cash hadn't ran right the way down. We had a fantastic time in New Zealand and Oz, but I have to say Tim was right - it drained us out completely. I'm not quite sure what we are going to do. There is absolutely no way that I will even consider going back early.
Khao San is nowhere near as mad as I expected. It's certainly colourful and all the traders of fake everything are there, but it's actually quite chilled. I wish Dan and Zak would have met us here instead. I’m sure they would have liked it, despite Zak’s horror of other backpackers. I much prefer it to where we were on Sukhumvit - the only other tourists we saw there were overweight 50 + men who I could not help but sneer at. In our hotel there was a sign up saying that if guests did not ensure that their 'Thai lady friends' left ID at reception they would take no responsibility for theft from the rooms. If I have to be with thousands of other tourists, I’d much rather they were back packers than paedophiles and dirty old men. Zak – you’re wrong on this one.
Tim has been doing my head in quite a lot lately. We have been together a long time, but I am finding out many things about his personality on this trip that I am not liking one bit.
I knew he was bad with money, but I always thought it was because he didn't have much. I now realise that he is completely irresponsible with it. All he wants to do is buy stuff...mainly junk. And we are skint. I'm sure he thinks that I'll come up with a reserve of cash, but this time he is wrong. The emergency budget was spent a long time ago. The whole £5,000 has gone and I am left only with the travellers cheques I have left. Money is just disappearing like water.
He's also being really pushy about everything. Where we go, what we do and even where things are put. On Christmas Eve we had a massive row because he refused to let me put my comb on the dresser. The rooms we have barely have any furniture. There is never anywhere to put anything. The one time that we were given a room with a dresser and shelves, he insists on having a whole shelf for the walkman and speakers and nothing else. It's so ridiculously childish and unrealistic. On Christmas Eve I disliked him so much I was desperate to be at home as far away from him as possible.
I have also noticed that he can be really rude and condescending to people since we have been away. I don't think he realises how he talks down to people sometimes, but he has left me cringing with embarrassment on several occasions. On Boxing Day, the day of the biggest natural disaster the world has seen for a century, my Dad was desperately trying to call. It was a bad line and Tim was saying in that nasty Mr. Superior tone, ‘look you'll have to move your mouth away from the receiver or I won't be able to understand you.' Then he put the phone down. He knew full well it was a call from home. My Dad was so scared at hearing such a bad, crackled line with a voice he couldn’t understand that when the phone went dead he started to cry.
That day I not only disliked him, but utterly despised him. He tried to make out that he didn't know who it was. He would never have given up on the call so abruptly if he didn't know it was from my parents. He thinks they call too much. There’s just been a massive tsunami and 240,000 people are dead. We are in Thailand for fucks sake. Even our friends were calling never mind our parents. I think it’s because he’s secretly upset that his Dad didn’t bother to call. I think his contempt or jealousy or whatever the bloody hell it is will eventually mark the end of us. I can't believe he made my Dad cry.
I think both of us are a bit down at the moment. Not anything like being down at home – that’s impossible – we are just way too relaxed and happy to be out here. But it’s been a weird time. The tsunami was horrible, and now Pete and Sally have gone we are feeling a bit lonely stuck in Bangkok waiting for our Visas for Laos and India. It’s about 38 degrees here and polluted as hell. Sometimes the smell is so bad it makes me gag. We are fast running out of cash – so much so that I am starting to think that we might have to go home early. So we are just hanging in our hotel room, trying to save our cash for the rest of the trip rather than wasting it here.
There are so many people in the Koh San area with bandaged up legs, arms, bruised faces. All of them back packers. The lucky ones. At the top of Koh San Rd, just by the police station there is a huge barrier up with lists of names and photos of thousands of people that are missing. It’s horrible. It reminds me of Ground Zero. I know I should take a photo of it, but I can’t bring myself round to doing it. I think Pete might have taken one. I feel as if we should be doing something, but they don’t want any more people over there unless they have medical skills or are builders. We’ve heard so many stories. Apparently the Thais on the islands have been amazing. Treating the tourists still out there as if they were their own. Feeding them, housing them. I’d like to think the Brits would do the same. I’m not so sure though.
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