After a 13 hour solid sleep, we woke feeling pretty refreshed,
We started the morning, with a swim in the hotel pool and then headed to Zest for breakfast. 2 Cappuchino coffees and some scrambled eggs on toast and we were off to the dive school. We grabbed our kit bags and got ready to jump straight back on the Eco wagon.
Nathan, and a few of his students, were heading out on Crystal 1 (the smallest of the fleet, beside the longtail) to Hin Fai (Bio-Rock) to mark some 1 metre square quadrants and some settlement plates for a study a university on the mainland has created.
Being back in the water was bliss, and no equalising issues… which is great news.
Two dives later and we were back at shore…. a quick change of clothes and straight to dinner. Jenny had a Thai Jungle Curry, a spicy soup kinda thing, I had Pad Thai Tofu.
After munching through a tasty dinner, we headed over to Nathans house to catch up on the dance moves for the Underwater festival in a couple of weeks. We ended up just gassing and drinking Green Tea… but rehearsals are tomorrow, so Jen and I need to keep up as we have missed out on 3 sessions!
Before bed, we nipped to Crystal for a quick drink and to meet up with people we hadn’t caught up with… another early night! Nice!
So folks… Now I am awake finally… I can update the post.!
At Bangkok airport, we went to bed, and both were awake at 1:30am… Jen stayed awake watching naff movies until 4am, and I stayed up messing with the internet, seeing if I could get BBC iplayer to work outside of the UK.. I did, so Jen will be happy to keep up with all the Eastenders stuff.
At 7am I woke Jen with a cuppa, and we had breakfast before shooting back to the airport for our domestic flight to Surat Thani (southern province).
On the short flight to Surat, we were served with sandwiches.. mine were veggie of course, and a very strange mixture of cream, green beans, and carrots… needless to say, I left it.
Landing at Surat Thani, we were going to get the bus to the town centre, but it was pretty full, and we were not travelling light, so got a cab.
20 mins later and we were at the ferry. We bought at tickets, and starting thinking what to do for 12 hours, before the boat left.
Surat Thani is a town that supplies the islands with various food, building materials, bikes etc. So shopping here was not very fun… we stopped after an hour as there was nothing to see. I then had my hair shaved at a barbers and we returned to the boat, to watch the loading of cargo on the boat.. its amazing how much they fit on.
The waiting around was tedious, Jen bought some fruit from a market stall, I bought a couple of beers, we watched Monday’s episode of Eastenders.. snoozed… that was it.
Eventually, 11pm had arrived, and the boat started off. Most people went to sleep. I watched a couple of films, snoozed a little, and watched the sunrise from the back of the boat. The journey got quite choppy for a couple of hours, but thankfully, no one was sick.
So, we arrived on Koh Tao!! YAY! 3 days of travel and we were shattered… and still wearing the same clothes (Yuck!)..
We caught a taxi to the Koh Tao Regal hotel (sounds better than it is) and got showered and changed. Then hit the pool for some exercise. Then off to Zest for breakfast, and meet Nathan and family. Lots of chit chat later, Nathan gave me a lift to pick up my motorbike…
It would not start, and I pushed the bike to the nearest mechanic… knackering!. The mechanic checked and noticed there was no fuel !!! It must have either leaked, or evaporated… who knows… anyway… a little while later, and my bike is running.
Returning to Jen, we had a couple of hours snooze and head out to dinner.. just a quick Thai bite.. which was delicious.. Jen had Pork and Ginger.. I had Tofu Red Curry.. both meals were very good.
Off to the Crystal bar, for a quick hello… and we retired for a 13 hour kip…. I need it.
So, slighty over 3 months after arriving back in the UK, we left the farm on the sunniest day since we had returned… was the bad weather following us or something??!
We were dropped at Heathrow by Charles and Rosie (thanks guys!) and after a slightly tearful farewell by the two sisters, we checked in.
14 hours later, we arrived at Bangkok airport, and after a bit of wandering around, we found the shuttle bus to the hotel.
After check in, we went to our room, and I immediately got on the internet to sort some work stuff out, while Jen went to the gym (good girl!). We both met at the pool bar, before going back to our room, showering, and sitting in our dressing gowns.
Jenny wrote an email to her sis, and then we hit the hay ready for another flight in the morning.
