A Lesson in Loneliness

So there I was in Thailand, alone and slightly terrified. My preoccupation with the train journey turned out to be completely unfounded as the trains were about a hundred times better than in India and I actually got a decent night's sleep. It took just over 20 hours to get to Bangkok and I travelled by taxi, train, bus, ferry and giant tuktuk (which act kinda like buses here) before I finally reached by hostel. I was thoroughly disappointed with my hostel as I was expecting to share with another and was told that option was unavailable so instead I had a bungalow to myself. The hostel was also situated in the middle of nowhere without so much as a 7/11 for company. I immediately went up to the pool and attempted to chat to some Swedish girls that were sitting there, but they basically ran away from me :(. Feeling sorry for myself I sunbathed alone by the pool for the rest of the day before discovering an Australian guy, who was also travelling alone and thankfully he offered to show me the sights of Chaweng.

I quickly came to establish that Ko Samui was most definitely not the tranquil, peaceful place I had hoped for. The vast majority of people could fit into three categories: couples, older single western gentlemen (obviously accompanied by the obligatory young Thai girl) and 18 year old predominantly Australian boys, fresh out of school, causing havoc on scooters with no tops on. Joyous. After the Australian guy I made friends with left, only me, the unfriendly Swedish girls and a pair of hairy biker Germans remained at the hostel. To make matters worse the weather took a turn to the worse. I tried to remain positive and bide my time, but it was difficult when it rained, because there is literally nothing to do in Ko Samui if the weather is poor. Things came to a head on Sunday, when after 5 days of boredom I got up at 6.30am to go on a speed boat trip. My transfer didn't show up and the hostel had the cheek of charging me to call up the company for a 10 second phone call in which I established that the trip had been cancelled. Thoroughly pissed off I headed back to bed, only to be woken up by the cleaners half an hour later. After sulking for a few hours I realised misery really does love company and that I was on my own I had no choice but to buck up my ideas and stay positive. After contemplating lying in bed for the remainder of my stay, I forced myself to go into Chaweng and rebook myself on the trip for the next day. Needless to say I had a wicked day touring the beautiful islands of the Ang Thong Marine Park and although the snorkeling was disappointing, I had to be rescued by the guide (who had a laugh like Rafiki off of the Lion King) when kayaking and found the beautiful beaches to be covered in litter, I actually really enjoyed myself. There was an English woman on the trip also travelling alone and we enjoyed laughing at the two German guys who had come dressed for a boat trip in jeans, loafers and shirts and accompanied by their Thai lady friends who screamed every time water came into the boat! The ride back was thoroughly scary and Rafiki enjoyed telling me about all the times they had nearly not made it, whilst I feared for my life!

The following day every man and his dog seemed to arrive at the hostel and although the majority fitted into the afore-mentioned categories, I got chatting to two British girls and spent the day with them. I checked out of my hostel on Wednesday (23rd Dec) and came to my other one on the other big tourist beach of Ko Samui, Lamai. After being had over by a taxi who told me my hostel was extremely out of the way, I started to panic again, but I needn't have worried. Although the hostel was at the far end of the beach, it was only a 20 minute walk from the main town and at least it was on the beach and had guests! My room was really nice with air conditioning and the weather cheered up. The first evening there I went to a reggae bar with a kiwi couple that I randomly started talking too and my affection started to grow for Samui!

Merry Xmas everybody, love you all! xxxx