I woke up at 6 am this morning, I just lay there in bed for a while looking out toward the sea, the sky was grey, the world didn’t seem as peaceful as had it had done over the past few days… After a while I got out of bed, doing my best not to wake Jo and grabbed my phone to look through Twitter in the dim light of the bedroom… All very quiet… All very relaxing.
I think I was maybe making the most of this relaxing time, after all, we would be going to the airport later, and with going to the airport comes the stress of Jo and her fear of flying… She had done really well when we few to Phuket this time, but as I looked out at the grey sky I knew this flight wasn’t going to be (pardon the mixed metaphor) Plane sailing.
Jo woke up and we went to the restaurant for breakfast… It’s so strange sitting in such a large dining area with only us and one other person being served in it… I found myself looking out at the grey sky again… I’m ready to move on to our next destination, but I’m not looking forward to the flight.
Our car arrived to take us to the airport, the drive seemed to take an absolute age, by the time we pulled up at the terminal I was already feeling a little travel sick, we walked into the terminal and went through the first of Phuket airports security checkpoints… I don’t know why Phuket airport makes you put your bags through security twice… All I know is that that little plastic “security” sticker they stick to my suitcase will be a bugger to get off once I’m home.
Security checkpoint sorted and horrible “security” sticker attached to my case, we headed over to the check-in desk… There was a couple there before us, trying to sort something out to do with their flight, the man behind the desk motioned us to step forward and hand over our passports… We placed our cases on the conveyor belt beside him and he printed off the luggage labels… However, unlike other airport workers, he didn’t immediately attach the label to the handle of our bags… Instead, he simply placed it on top, he assured us all was fine and motioned for us to continue off on our journey… I waited to watch him, eventually, he took the label from my case and began to attach it properly, but just as he did so, the man who was at the counter before us began to ask him questions… So he placed the label back on top of the case… I had visions of our cases being sent on the conveyor belt without labels attached… My stress levels were indeed rising… After being interrupted by the confused man a further two times, the airport bloke eventually attached our labels and sent our cases toward the plane.
A short while later I was sitting in the airport lounge counting people who either weren’t wearing a facemask or were wearing a facemask incorrectly… I counted 10, just from the position I was sitting.
Before long it was time to board our plane… I knew Jo had booked us on a propellor plane, I’d only ever flown on jets before so I knew it would be a different experience… I didn’t expect the plane to be so small tho… It was tiny!
Jo was already stressed as we sat in our seats, she explained to the stewardess that she doesn’t like flying… The stewardess explained that there would be some turbulence due to the storm that was heading in (oh yeah, there’s a storm coming too). Take off was fine, Jo did really well… She didn’t do too well when our tiny plane was being buffered around the sky by turbulence tho.
In fairness, it WAS scary… It’s something I would rather not experience again… The flight crew were really good with Jo, they came to chat to her and even got the captain to announce how long we would be in the turbulence for… After a short flight, we landed on the island of Koh Samui to continue on our adventure.
We arrived at our hotel “Peace Resort Koh Samui” the drive from the airport to the resort had thankfully been a short one and I was happy to see more bars, shops and restaurants seemed to be open… Or at least, they were open as we drove past.
This is the most expensive place we have booked on this trip, when we were shown around the property we were not disappointed… We have a beautiful little villa with its own private pool… It’s perfect… Or it would be if it wasn’t for the weather which has taken a turn for the worst.
We walked to the onsite restaurant for some lunch, the rain was easing and we chatted as we ate… I found myself looking out again at the grey skies and know I’m missing Bangkok, I’m enjoying my holiday but honestly, I’m ready to go home… I know that Jo wants to move on from here and go to another island, but as I look at the sea, and see how rough it’s looking, I find myself dreading the boat trip that I know we need to get us to the other island…
Later on we were sitting in our villa, the rain was again falling outside… We heard the sound of something landing on the roof, at first I thought a coconut had fallen off one of the many trees that surround the property…. Then we heard a very loud “MEOW”… Then again… “MEEEEOOOOOW!”… I was worried, the sound seemed to be coming from inside the roof… Jo went outside to look for the cat but to on avail… “MEEEEOOOOOOOOOW!” we could still hear it cry… I went into the bathroom to see if I could work out where it was… Jo went back outside… Suddenly “Oh hello!” she called… “MEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOW!” cried out the beautiful little black cat as he wandered up to her.
Jo carries pet treats in her bag… She’s done this ever since we got barked at by a vile dog in Hua Hin… She carries dog treats to distract dogs and cat treats because… Well… Cats deserve a treat.
“Grab the cat treats!” she shouted… As I stepped outside holding the cat treats, Jo and the little black cat were getting to know each other… Jo would speak… The cat would meow… A lot! My cat back in England is vocal… This little fellow was on a whole different level… We spent quite a while outside in the rain feeding and petting him… I named him “Lolly” due to the fact that when he was eating his treat he made a weird “lolololololol” sound… After a while, we had to leave him outside so we could get ready to go out and eat.
We found that our onsite restaurant stops serving food at 9 pm… So we had to wander into town to find food, luckily there were a few places open so we had a nice dinner and chatted, after dinner we headed back to the hotel, Jo didn’t want to walk along the beach in the dark so we headed home via the main road… A walk I did NOT enjoy.
Since our incident with the barking dog in Hua Hin, I’ve found myself to be very nervous around soi dogs… I know 99% of them are fine and couldn’t give a shit if I’m walking close to them… But on Hua Hin, I managed to find that 1% dog who was an arse hole… And that dog has tarnished my view of dogs forevermore. We walked along the street and every time I became aware of dogs I got nervous… One dog barked and it sent me into a panic… I hate it… I hate how it makes me feel and I hate how it’s made me feel toward innocent animals…. Fuck you Hua Hin dog… Fuck you.
We arrived back at the hotel and settled down to sleep… Ready for our next day in Koh Samui.
At some point during the night, I was awakened by a thunderstorm…The rain was once again pouring down and bright flashes of lightning were illuminating our bedroom… I pulled the covers over my head and thankfully, slipped back into a deep sleep.
We awoke to find the weather had improved slightly, but it was still raining… We went to get breakfast and then headed out to a mall to sort out an issue with my phone, with my phone sorted we headed back to our villa, ready for a day of relaxing…
By the time we got back to our villa, the weather had improved even more, we sat outside, Jo was reading her book and I sat down with my laptop to do a little bit of writing.
I was just writing about the black cat that visited last night when who should appear? Yes… “Lolly” the little black cat… Or was it?
The cat appeared, he meowed loudly, he jumped up for some fuss… But something seemed off… I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something about him wasn’t quite right… Jo called him over to her and as he ran to her I noticed that unlike “Lolly” this cat didn’t have a wound on his back end (I may have forgotten to mention that lolly did indeed have a wound on his back end) “that’s not Lolly!” I said “He must have a twin!”.
Lollys twin was identical to “lolly” (except for the lack of wound) . He was as noisy as Lolly, he was as affectionate as Lolly… He spent a couple of hours with us, having fuss, laying beside us… When out of nowhere Lolly turned up… So we had two of them! I have to say I loved having the cats with us…. Jo went for a walk down to the beach, and the cats even followed her there… So cute.
Jo left some food for them and we came inside to get ready to go out… At this point a third identical cat appeared… Triple trouble!
We went back to town to get some dinner, we ended up in a steak restaurant, eating delicious (if not a little pricey) food and listening to blues music, after this we found ourselves in a bar, we were the only customers, sitting near to a window looking out over the sea…
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing at a glowing dome in the distance… It looked like the top of some palace… “It’s the moon” Jo replied… “No it’s not” I argued… As it turned out, it WAS the moon… In a matter of minutes it was in full view, bright in the night sky…. Absolutely stunning.
We enjoyed a few drinks while playing pool… Jo beat me two times out of three… We finished our drinks then got into a taxi for the short journey back to our villa.
When we got back to our villa we were greeted by two of the three cats… “Lolly” and “Blep” as we have named them… Jo wanted to walk down to the beach to look at the moon, I went to grab my camera and the cats took it upon themselves to escort Jo to the beach.
I took a few photographs (here’s to hoping they don’t come out too blurred) and then we headed back to our villa, we said goodnight to the cats and went to bed.
I awoke to find it was still dark outside, without my glasses (and with the darkness) I couldn’t make out the time by looking at my watch, I didn’t want to check the time on my phone because I didn’t want the light to wake Jo… Looking out of the glass doors I could see it wasn’t pitch black outside, the sun was close to rising so I knew it was morning… I knew I hadn’t woken up at 2 am or something stupid like that… I tried to get back to sleep but it just wasn’t happening…
Eventually, Jo woke up and I went outside to see what the weather was going to be like today, since we’ve gotten to Koh Samui the weather hasn’t been great, it’s a beautiful place to be, but the weather has not been playing ball at all.
I stepped outside, walked toward the pool and made my way to the edge of the property to see what state the beach was in… “Meow” I turned around and one of the black cats was walking along the fence “Hello mate” I said as he rushed up to me for some fuss, a quick check and I found it was “Blep”, I sat down near the pool and he jumped up on my lap, we sat there for a while, such a lovely way to start the day.
We spent pretty much all of the day by our pool, the weather hasn’t been the best today, we’ve had little rain showers and at times I’ve felt actually quite chilly… Jo lay on the sunbed, most of the time with one of the cats cuddled up with her… I sat close by reading a book… Or to be more precise… TRYING to read a book.
Let’s just say the book I was reading was not a good book… I’ll no doubt rant about it in another blog at some point.
Jo went for a massage and I spent some time laying on the bed watching TV. When Jo got back we headed into town to enjoy our last night out in Koh Samui before we leave for Koh Tao tomorrow.
The town was busier than previous nights, we went into a place called Coco Tams for dinner and some drinks, there was a fire show taking place on the beach which was being enjoyed by quite a decent sized crowd of people, all sitting on beanbags and drinking cocktails.
The fire show was entertaining and it was nice to see a little bit of “life”… The empty bars and restaurants do tend to drag me down after a while.
The fire show ended and me and Jo enjoyed our drinks while doing a little bit of people watching… It’s so nice to actually have people to watch!
After dinner we wandered into town, there was a small night market, we bought a few things and then made our way to the bar we went to last night to have a few more drinks before heading back to our villa.
I was a little bit drunk by the time we got back, we were greeted by the cats and we spent a little time petting them… I’m going to miss these two when we leave.
We gave the cats some food then headed back into our villa to get some sleep… I’m dreading tomorrow… We have a two-hour boat trip to Koh Tao… And I fucking hate boats.