Well I have now arrived safely in Koh Tao in Thailand and have spent the last few days working at the vet clinic here. The journey over here was pretty long and tiring - having already travelled for a day from Lahad Datu to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo, I then flew from KK to Kuala Lumpur for a quick transfer to Bangkok. The flights themselves were turbulent but pretty uneventful - tho just as the first plane started to taxi, as I was making myself comfortable, I heard - through my Harry Potter audiobook (!) my name. At least I thought I did, so I paused Harry Potter, and heard my name again - followed by a message in Malaysian ( does Beverley Panto sound like a name of someone who speaks Malay?!). The plane stopped taxiing and I heard the message again calling me to 'make myself known to the cabin crew'. I did so, and was discretely told that this plane was not in fact destined for Kuala Lumpur, but for Miri - I was on the wrong plane! Whoops! I'm sure you couldn't even do that if you tried in England - and I'd had my ticket checked at least 3 times, but still - with the messages all in Malay and no signs anywhere - it's an easy mistake to make! I, rather sheepishly got off the plane, and found the right one, which was only just boarding. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. I landed in Bangkok at midday, and then had to find my way to the bus station to get a bus down to Koh Tao. In contrast to (most of) Malaysia, no one spoke any English at all, and trying to buy a bus ticket even proved to be difficult. I spent the rest of the day in the Bus station until 10pm when my bus departed for Chumporn. It was a VIP bus, and very nice, complete with air hostess style service - we were given blankets and pillows and a number of different drinks and snacks throughout the journey which got a little irritating when I was trying to sleep! I managed to sleep most of the way, and at 4am we arrived at Chumporn, where I was dropped off in a deserted car park, and picked up by a guy on a motorbike who took my backpack, and instructed me to get on behind him! Still half asleep, and a little nervous never having been on a motorbike before, we drove through the deserted streets, to the ferry office. Here, I had to wait for 2 hours for the transfer to the ferry, and I slept in a large room full of mats with sleeping backpackers scattered around. We were woken up at 6, to be taken to the ferry by a small truck, with benches in the back and a roof of sorts which all our luggage went on. There was probably room for about 20 people in the back, but nevertheless about 50 of us were bustled in. We were all sat on top of each other and hanging out of windows, listening to the creaks of the roof struggling with 50 people's luggage! Was quite an experience as the driver didn't seem to notice how precariously we were all balanced, and sped down dirt roads to the ferry! We left at sunrise which was amazing as we left the mainland behind. It took about 3 hours to get to Koh Tao and I got a taxi (another truck, this time with a park bench in the back for me to sit on!) in the scorching heat to the clinic. There I met Jae the vet, Kit the assistant and Cybelle an Australian girl who's just started a 6 month stint volunteering at the clinic. Everyone's very friendly, and after I got settled in to the volunteer house ( a room with a mattress on a stage, in a house up a rather large hill, with no roads running to it, - very comfy tho!)and met the 11 noisy puppies who were to be my room mates for the next week, I got straight to work! I went with Jae on the back of her motorbike (am gonna have to get used to this motorbike lark - it seems to be the only feasible mode of transport here!) up the mountain to chop off a dog's scabby ears. It was full on surgery on some poor guy's balcony! Was eye opening stuff! I went out for dinner with Cybelle, and then, shattered after my 3 days travelling, had an early night.

The next day I was thrown straight into surgery, castrating 3 cats, 2 dogs, and later one dog on a balcony ( again up the mountain) on my own, under the watchful eyes of some travellers who had never seen anything so interesting - talk about pressure! Was fun tho! Also learnt to ride the bike myself, very slowly - I couldn't even balance it at first - I was quite a sight tootling up and down the road in front of the clinic trying to steady myself with my feet - I felt like a kid learning to ride a bike again! Eventually tho I got the hang of it and was sent off to see animals around the island to give various injections, check wounds and sedate animals to bring back for surgery. I met one guy at a dive resort who asked where I was from. I told him Nottingham, and said 'I've got family in Nottingham…well…Ravenshead actually!' How funny's that?! Small world!

I spent the next day doing much the same, visits including a monkey with a wound from a dog bite . I have tomorrow off, so am going to get a quad - much more stable than a bike, and explore the island a bit. May even treat myself to a thai massage. Am loving it here anyway - the weather's perfect, the beaches are stunning, the gheckos are a foot long and actually say 'Ghec - ko' (they live in my room alongside the puppies!) the food is great and the people are lovely. I can see how people get stuck on this island for years! Tim comes out in 5 days, so am looking forward to seeing him, and showing him the sights of Koh Tao!