3 Bloody Stitches

I started my diving course while i've been here. All seemed to be going well. I went snorkling a few days before to get over my fear of fish and it seemed to work. The diving instuctor thought it best if i have a little refresher to make sure i still knew what to do and so they could check for themselves that i could do it i suppose!! It was all going really well i did everything i was supposed to do and i did it right too. I got to almost the end of the skills and BAMM!! I knelt on a massive shard of glass. It went straight through my knee and blood poured out. My first thought was "oh shit, SHARKS!!" The dive master that was with us had to tow me to the boat but she took too long so i ended up doing it myself. I'm not quite sure how astute sharks are to the smell of blood but i didn't want to test it. The poor woman who owned the boat had my blood all over the floor. Luckily where we were diving was only about 30 meters from the hospital but i still practically got carried. The most painful part was having the cut numbed, i thought i was gonna pass out!! The nurse kept jabbing me with a huge needle. Although i am glad they numb it before they do the stitches, i'm not sure i could have coped with that kind of pain. Anyway, the stitches are still fine i have them out in a few days and i finish my diving course tomorrow. Soon i will be a certified open water diver, COOL!!!

Journey to Phuket

Last night we stayed on a night train to Surat Thani to get a bus to Phuket from there. The train was ok, we had sort of bunk beds that they made up for us when it was time to go to bed. George didn't sleep well but i did, mine was quite comfortable (besides all the insects, I was bitten 3 times). The bus was a bit of a nightmare though. It was a pretty small bus and we were the last to get on so we had to stand in the isle but it's a 4 hour journey!! I spent about 2 1/2 hours either stood up or sat on my back-pack in the isle. It was packed full of bodies and roasting. They stopped the bus at a little hut-type shop at the side of the road and when we got back on, it turned out they has air conditioning and had just decided not to turn it on, bastards!! It wasn't too dis-heartening though, all part of the experince i suppose.

Mr Sunney

We had a run in with a hotel taxi driver. In Bangkok the hotel we stayed in had a limousine service (which is just a taxi) that we thought was free cos the first few times we used them they didn't ask for any money. It turns out you do have to pay them. We started to use a driver called Mr Sunney and cos he hadn't charged us for the first day George (being a soft touch) agreed that we would pay him 1000 baht per day. We assumed that meant only if we used him on that day but it turns out he meant everyday if we did or not. George paid him 2000 baht for the second and third day, we only used him once on the third day (we got caught in that flood and couldn't get to the meeting point). On the morning of the forth day (our last day) he asked us for a payment for that day a few hours before we wanted him to take us to the train station but i said not until we got there (being the tough one!!). We decided that since we had only used him once on the previous day it seemed a bit expensive to pay him another 1000 baht to take us about 2 miles for another days payment. So we made a run for it!! We got a street taxi with a meter instead and it cost us 61 baht. When we were at the train station he had come looking for us to get the money for the forth day when we hadn't used him. We had to hide behind pillars in the station so he couldn't find us, it was quite exciting. I think Mr Sunney knew i was the tough one so when he asked for his money yesterday morning he took George aside, away from me to ask him. Which i thought was a bit of an under-handed scheme!! As far as i'm aware we got away with it.

A Flood in Bangkok

I was in a flood!!!

I had a horrible experience!! I don't know if you heard but there were floods in Bangkok and i was in it. The rain started where i was at about 4ish and it p**sed it down. We had to go down the street to meet our taxi driver at 5. We got about half way to where we were supposed to meet him and the water got too deep. It was about half way up my shin and i was drenched. We stopped in a phone booth cos they're raised but there were lots of cockroaches and rats in it so we moved. But as the water got higher the cockroaches and rats were climbing up our legs to get out of the water so i had to sit on the edge of an ATM machine so they couldn't get to me.
Then we managed to get a shop to let us in. We were lucky that we had just been shopping and had a change of clothes. We had to stay in the shop for about 2 hours with no electricity. After that we thought f*ck it were gonna get drenched again anyway and we had to wade upto our knees to a bus that the shop staff had told us went passed our hotel. It's a shame i didn't have my camera.