At about 5.30pm on Wednesday, we packed up our beach things and took a slow stroll along the white sand towards our guesthouse. The sun was setting behind the coconut trees and the air was breezy and refreshing. Just up ahead, a dead body was being dragged out of the sea. Wasn’t expecting that were you! We wondered why there was a crowd assembled on the shore and I then saw a rescue team bringing in an occupied body bag which was slumped over a jet ski. Initial enquries suggested the man, known to be European, went out to an island or stretch of rocks about half a kilometre away and slit his own wrists. In England, and most other places I expect, you wouldn’t have got anywhere near it, but the Thai police were not at all bothered with the accumulating onlookers. In fact they just dumped the body bag on the beach for everyone to see. I’m suprised they didn’t prop him up and charge 50 Baht to have your photo taken. Chris was tempted to shout out ‘Bagsy his flip-flops!‘ but thought perhaps some people mightn’t get the joke.
Moving onto more palatable experiences, we met a couple of guys from Bristol and Nottingham, Luke and Pierre respectively, at our guesthouse. The latter, whose motto is don’t turn em down, turn em round, has been travelling for over a year and had some sound advice for me about Australia, and Luke has been doing the south-east Asia circuit for 3 months or so. We all went out on Tuesday and Wednesday night and got hammered in the bars of Chaweng.
The nightlife’s good but I have to say Ko Samui isn’t as nice as I thought it would be. The beach is strictly mediocre compared with other places I’ve been and with the amount of pastey tourists and jet-skis razzing around all the while you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d come on a package holiday to Greece. Don’t get me wrong, I’m having a great time, it’s just not quite as I’d expected. Getting here was a mission, we got a bus to Surat Thani at 10am which took nearly four hours, then waited for a ferry which took another hour and a half, then a minibus from the docks to our accommodation. Still, the entire journey cost a total of six pounds, to fly would have set you back nearer 40.
Our guesthouse is, what’s the word, basic. Basic but functional. Luke and Pierre told us on their first night they awoke at 4am with a woman in their room! Shw was trying to claim she was there because she thought it was her friend who was staying there. Riiight. That explains why you’re creeping around in the dark. Thankfully the security has now been beefed up (although the appointed security guard is no taller than me and looks a bit frail, I fear if anyone tries to do a runner with someone’s stuff he’d first have to find his walking stick.)
Everything’s still going really well, we’re heading to Ko Pha Ngan with Luke and Pierre (French dad) tomorrow morning where we’ll meet up with, astonishingly, yet another of the Brackley contingent, Dave.