Merry Christmas from Thailand!

My journey to Ko Samui was reasonably uneventful. One thing I've been discovering is the Language-Game. Thailand is the first country I've visited which hasn't had English as an official language. Everywhere else I've been has had all its signs in English and lessons are taught in English, so the level of English has been consistently very high. However, the level of English in Thailand seems to be a bit more patchy. My surprise is that the standard of English changes more with whether you have something they want (e.g. money to spend) rather than any obvious geographical aspects. For example, I tried to get a taxi to Seatrans Ferry Station in Surat Thani as the first stage in my journey to Ko Samui. However the door man didn't want to do this (he gets nothing from it), but he was very keen to sell me a ticket to Ko Samui to earn his kickback. His English improved noticeably when we were talking about the through ticket, even though it was also with the services of the Seatrans Ferry company. Another example is when asking for support getting from my current hotel to the next hotel. Asking the current hotel folks gets smiles, but little useful information. Yes, I could get a taxi to Don Sak (for about 1,200 Baht) and yes I could catch a ferry there. The trick I've been learning is to talk to the place I am going to who are much keener to help me arrive - and in this case got me here for 900 Baht for the whole journey.

The situation is made more complicated by the scams you read about in Thailand. Essentially these boil down to being approached by someone offering you help with something, and end with you loosing money in various ways (e.g. knock-off goods, lost credit cards, etc.). Reading these has tended to make me cautious of anybody who approaches me with offers of help. This is probably desperately unfair and most of the Thai folk I have approached directly have all been very helpful.

Anyhow, I am now installed in the Varinda Gardens Resort on Lamai Beach. Mind you, I haven't yet got to the beach. It turns out that Samui's weather patterns are a little different to the rest of Thailand, whose wet season is … you guessed it … November to January. Yesterday was a wash out (quite spectacular, but something to watch from undercover), and the forecast for today is not much better. And I'd been so looking forwards to writing something about spending Christmas on the beach. Oh well, it lease the temperature is a very pleasant 25°C.

Last night (Christmas Eve), the hotel put on a buffet and a bit of a show. It was well attended and decidedly amateurish but good fun, involving traditional regional dancing and a few lipsync singing acts. The highlight was when the hotel's Labrador decided to join in the dancing.

So Christmas looks like it will be food, TV, reading and messing with my computer. Pretty much the same as normal then.

Wishing anyone who reads this a Very Merry Christmas,

Steve