Ok, I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy when I opened my dorm door to find the world spitting down at me. Yes, rain, rain, rain. Might as well be in England…Would I be doing the same set as yesterday? I hoped not after a good night last night at the fishbowl bar.

I morosely walked down to the dive shop to see if the snorkelling trip would go ahead today. Turns out it wouldn’t be, thanks to a tropical storm from China. That means, rain stops play.

 

But there wasn’t much I could do as the rain literally stopped everything so to brighten myself up, while Matt was in bed, I went to get some brekkie of fruits, ham and cheese toasties. It did cheer me up slightly but at least I had a good view of the beach while I read my SE Asia guide.

 

By midday, Matt joined me from his bed, and discussed plans for the next week. The original plan has already changed as we were meant to be in Phuket so our rough plan was out of sorts. We agreed that we wanted to get moving after chilling out on the islands and so we go to Phuket? We looked up at the weather and checked online. It seemed it would be rain, rain, rain for the next week down the south of thailand.

I offered the option of going to Chiang Mai to get away from the rainy weather rather than Phuket and we would come to Phuket and Ko Phi Phi after our tour of SE Asia. This seemed agreeable to us both but therein lies the question…what about the full moon party? As we hadn’t had accommodation booked for that and that I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a huge rave all night on Ko Pha Ngan as we would have to stay up til early morning to grab the ferry to ko Samui, where we are headed next, and then travel to either Phuket (8 hour journey by bus) or Chiang Mai (at least 24 hours) knackered and hungover.

Dilemma indeed.

I do believe that the full moon party needs to be experienced but maybe not this month. Too little time, too much to do and we wanted to get over to Laos pretty much soon. We decided to make the ultimate decision when we get to Ko Samui. If it wasn’t for the weather, I think we could have stayed on in the area and gone to Phuket and Ko Phi Phi.

 

Taking our mind off travel plans, we went for a wander down Sairee Beach as the weather had brightened up.

If the snorkelling wouldn’t come to Ed then Ed would come to snorkelling! I rented a mask and a breather to explore the cove while Matt read a book on the beach so he could look after my bag. Managed to find some coral outcroppings and found lots of fish etc. I freaked out when I saw a bubble come from a hole and as I peered closer, a sea cucumber rushed out!

Also, I must have been have been disturbing some nests as I had plenty of fish trying to charge at me to go away. I got the message and slowly swam away. I was in the water for a good couple of hours and coming out we returned to the resort.

Meeting up with Nicola and Noi, we also met up with her diving buddy Tom from France. We headed over to the Lotus Beach Bar, another chilled out beach bar with a live acoustic set and just nattered and getting to know each other. The 5 of us went out to a local Thai restaurant and this time I had sticky rice with grilled duck. Thai food never fails to amaze me. It was like a party in my mouth. It was slightly spicy but I loved it.

Finally, as we had such a good time last night, we brought Matt and Tom to the Fishbowl Bar and there was the same acoustic set with the same fire show. But we watched it again. Ring of Fire came on again! Also, I was intrigued for their bucket drinks so I went for sangsom (thai rum) bucket with red bull and sprite. It was very strong but I kept sipping it throughout the rest of the night.

After talking, the fire rope jump came on again, this time I was determined to master it and thus I did. Matt managed to do a recording. Again, I stress, do NOT try this at home. It’s dangerous. I was doing so well until someone tripped and stopped the rope and I felt the rope land on my leg. Luckily, I jumped out of the way and I only had a few singed leg hairs. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uvPCRhgHFI&w=640&h=385][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPcdDO4qeY&w=640&h=385]

 

Have you been snorkelling on Ko Tao?