We set our alarms for 9am so that we would have time to change our money, go to Boots and have breakfast before going to Unseen Travel.

I headed to Boots and spent nearly 1000 baht (£20) - so much money. I got some Soltan Once suncream for the islands, you only need to apply it once every 6 hours and you can go in the sea for 40 minutes in that six hours. One thing I hate about the beach is having to constantly reapply suncream and the sand sticking to me, so I think my £12 suncream investment will be worth it. It is factor 40 which is higher than I usually wear, but our malaria tablets make us more sensitive to sunlight so a higher factor is probably better. I also got some new deodorant and mosquito repellent because I've already run out of them.

I then changed my dollars into baht,
I had about 2,300 baht of dollars so that was good. I got 2000 baht out last night but I spent nearly all of it on shopping and Boots so I was glad to get it back through my dollars!

We had some breakfast (cornflakes), and headed to Unseen Travel to book Rosie onto our trip. We were told to be there for noon but we got there just after 11am, however Natasha (our agent) wasn't there. I asked if one of the other free agents could just bring our booking up on the system and see if she could change it, but she said they don't have computers! A glance around the office confirmed this. It is hard to believe that a fairly popular travel agent in a capital city does not use computers!

A guy there half heartedly rummaged through some papers on Natasha's desk, and I spotted Victoria Taylor on one of the sheets - it was our booking! But apparently only Natasha could change it so we asked when she would be in. He said 'maybe midday, maybe she is stuck in traffic', so I assumed her shift started at midday. We called her though and she said she would be in at 3pm (it later transpired she had been ill and had recently been in hospital and had only come in to see us - her colleagues were either ignorant, lying, or just wanted to get us to leave).

We went to a nice backpacker restaurant/cafe for lunch - I had really tasty hummus with mushrooms and pitta - and used the internet for a bit, to kill time until 3pm. Vick and Vix left earlier to go to the post office and Rosie and I got a Tuk Tuk for 10 baht a bit later. It took us a while of asking taxis and Tuk Tuks to take us - they often refused. The Tuk Tuks would only take us if you are going to book travel, because they get commission. If that is the case they only charge you 5 or 10 baht (10 or 20p). If you just want to go there to talk about an existing booking or to get your bus, they either don't take you or charge you about 200 baht (£4) instead. I don't know if corrupt is the word, but it is definitely dodgy and frustrating. Luckily whilst we were arguing about the price I remembered that whilst I had already booked, Rosie
was planning to book and join us, so I told the Tuk Tuk driver this. He didn't believe me for a while but eventually agreed to take us for 10 baht.

At the travel agents, Rosie wanted to book to join us, and we wanted to change a few things. We needed to change the number of nights we are in each island, as well as cancel our train from Krabi because we have now booked a flight. We could only get a 50% refund of the train but I was quite pleased as I hadn't expected anything, so we got about £10 for that. We has originally booked up until the 26th, but the 24th - 26th were travel. Now we had cancelled the travel we only had accommodation booked up to the 24th, but because it is more short notice Natasha quoted us a ridiculous price
for the last two nights, so we have just decided to use our train refund to try and find accommodation on the day. Rosie booked to join us down to Koh Tao and stay with us there until we leave on the 20th, and she will be leaving then to head back to Bangkok to catch her flight. We had booked and paid for the cheapest type of accommodation, with a fan, but because there were no rooms left we have been put in an air con room in a hotel directly on the beach with breakfast included!

Our bus pick up wasn't until 5.30pm so we went for an iced coffee and then headed back to Unseen Travel to get in the minivan to the bus. It dropped us on a verge near Khao San road, and we ended up having to wait there for 2 hours until it arrived! I didn't mind too much because we had time to go and get a panini from the place we had lunch, and meant we wouldn't have to wait so long for the boat at the other end.

The bus eventually arrived, it was a pretty nice double decker with reclining seats. They put on Notting Hill which made my day! I watched the film and then slept on and off for the rest of the journey. The film Funny People was on but I have seen that before and it wasn't great so I preferred to sleep.

Before I knew it was 3.20am and they were ushering the people for Koh Tao
off of the bus. We had to get into a truck for the pier, but had to wait 20 minutes for a few more people, so
I thought I would go to the loo in the cafe type place where the driver was sitting. A lady pointed to where it was so I started to walk there, and then she decided five seconds later that it was going to cost me 5 baht. It gets to me that we are seen as money machines - they think we are rich here, but my budget is on a South East Asia scale, so it is all relative, so 5 baht may only be 10p at home, but here it is a bottle of water or a useful Tuk Tuk ride!
I will never agree, anywhere in the world, London Victoria station included, in paying to use the loo. Out of principal I just shook my head and didn't use it! We had a 20 minute ride in the truck to the pier, where we are
now. Unfortunately the toilet there was also 5 baht, but at least there was a sign and a collection box and not just a random lady hoping to pocket the money.

I opened my big backpack to get out my hairbrush, as the salt in the air coupled with a truck ride had resulted in a bird's nest effect, and I realised that my drawstring on my bag had been knotted where it wasn't knotted before. My toiletry bags had been rearranged (better than they were before to be honest), but nothing looked like it had been taken. I got the others to check their bags and Vix's zip had been broke n because she has a lock, and Rosie had had 9 (pirate) DVDs nicked along with $5 (Australian). It could have been much worse but it is still scary to know that our bags have been looked through. I am kind of glad I don't have a lock like Vix because locks could also have the effect of making it look like there are things worth nicking in your bag. We all only really had toiletries, gifts and clothes in them though, which would be frustrating but not as bad as losing cameras, money and passports.

We have to wait at the pier until 7am when our boat leaves, but it has just started raining the heaviest rain I have ever experienced I think! I've heard that there may be storms, so I hope that our sunbathing week isn't ruined!

I'll start tomorrow's update from the boat (if we ever get on it).

xxx

Ps. omg there was just a big
bang and all the electricity has just blown...