Visa excitement

Just HAD to write and tell you about getting my new Thailand visa....WHAT a typical Absterstyle day.
As you will already know if you are one of my possee on facebook, I have been a little worried in the last couple of days because my Thai visa has been rapidly running out, and I wasnt sure how to get a new one when I was somewhere on a beach in the middle of nowhere.
Therefore, in a moment of organised clarity yesterday, I checked the internet and found out that I could get an extra week or so if I visited the lovely (not) isle of Samui and went to see the nice immigration men there. All I had to do was get the ferry over and go to the office bearing tons of money and a passport picture of myself. Simple you might think....
WELL, in true Abster style, I got up at dawn with everything prepared, jumped onto a taxi to the town where the ferries depart from, only to find that the right ferry (the one which is going to near the place I need to be) is not departing at 9am, but at 12.30. SO, I head back to the hostel, loose a couple of hours and then head out again. No worries thinks I, only a minor setback.
Next, I hop onto the back of the taxi truck with a good hour to spare before the boat departs - only to wait there on the back of the unmoving taxi until 15 minutes before the due departure. The taxi finally hurtles at high speed to the port (15 minutes at least around hairpin bends on the side of a cliff) and draws up to the pontoon in a cloud of smoke, just as the boat is departing....I squeal like a girl, trot down the pier and amazingly, they stop, put the boat in reverse and pick me up!
An uneventful ferry ride later, and I arrive in Samui, only to find that the customs office is NOT at the end of the pier (as I was told) but 2 km away....which turnes out to be a 350bhart ride in a cab. bloody hell!!! THEN when I arrive at the customs office, another girl is also arriving in a cart marked with the ferry name...for which she paid only 50 bhart. BIG BLOODY HELLLLL
Miff over, I proceed into the office, and, surprisingly, everything goes very well - I get my form and fill it in, and indeed, only need a passport photo and loads of money.
Then.....disaster strikes....JUST as Im passed onto the very stern looking customs man, who is meant to ask me lots of important questions, intimidate me generally, and then stamp my passport, I get an unmistakeable rumble in the jungle....yep....I have the Sh*ts again......
Arrrrrrrgh. In a hurried sweaty "take pity on me" way, I grovel to the man and ask for a toilet....amazingly he doesnt turn a hair (I think I looked rough...) and sent me "backstage" to the toilet. The customs toilet was like entering the twilight zone in reverse. The customs office was all flaking plaster and beige walls with ricketty plastic seats...the toilet however was like a 5 star resort - pebbles on the floor, clean white fittings and a water feature (can you believe it!!) and best of all - a TOILET ROLL!!!
Anyway, I wasnt in any state to hesitate.
I did what nature intended, and hurried to get back to the desk. BUT, you can imagine my horror to find that I had COMPLETELY and FINALLY blocked the toilet. When I tried to flush it, it made a spectacular gurgling and looked really like it was going to overflow. OH MY GOD! can this day get ANY WORSE!!!????
I managed to rush out of the toilet without anyone seeing me or the mess I made, and then return, trying to get myself together, to the desk. Amazingly (again) the guy just smiled benignly and gave me my fully completed passport back. Whew!
You would have thought it was all over.....
On retreating away from the desk, apologising profusely, and thanking the man, I managed to put my bag on the water cooler. No problem you would think....NOT ABSTER....
The upturned water bottle, fell out of the socket, and rickocced across the office, semi flooding the whole office, and scattering a tray and about 1000 paper cups into the mess. Now MORTIFIED I grabbed for the water bottle and managed to right it, before scampering out of the office in a wave of hysterical boisterous apologies and matey laughter, into a waiting taxi......All I could hear behind me is several scary Thai officials trying to hurredly pick up and sort out the devistation I left behind.
OH MY GOD!!!!! Its SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO C*ap being me sometimes!!! heheheheeee

Now Im waiting for the ferry back.........

Full moon, Half moon...

For a few days, Nele had not been feeling her top form, feeling feverish and out of sorts. We all thought it was just a passing thing, and thought nothing of it, but on the day of the Full Moon party, her fever seemed to get really bad and she retired to bed. We were all upset that she couldnt face the party - as the general feeling of excitement was building all over the island - hundreds of people arriving and posters and flyers everywhere. By chance we had met with one of Laura's friends, who had turned up at our hostel-on-the-beach with a group of her friends, so now we were a ready made raving team!

Nele reassured us that there was nothing to be done, and that she just wanted to go to bed and stay there for a day or two....

In true Abster style, I had come prepared for the party - false eyelashes, UV garments, fairy wings and hair bobbles! wicked! Laura had also bought wings, and a spair set was given to one of the others (this was Neles wings - poor thing!) so we looked like we were about to flyyyyyyyy!!! After a few drinks at our hostel (looking out at the clear shining sea floodlit by the moon) we were flying......15 of us in the back of a truck down the to the party zone - a beach called Hat Rin. You could hear the bass pumping from about 3 miles down the road - bring on the parrrrrrtttyyyyyyyyyy!

When we arrived, we flowed with the crowd beachwards - where there were many bars and soundstages all set up on the sand. The central part of the party was absolutely crammed with people like a gig, and they only thinned out towards either end of the two mile long beach. There were tents and sound stages dotted along the whole beach, which was being lit not only be moonlight, but also lasers, fire and flashing strobes! WOW! It was a ravers heaven. People were dancing on chairs, on the sand, in the sea, on boats and all over the place! Within about 30 seconds of being there, I lost everyone (I think the music tooooook me baby!) and also lost my shoes, my disposable camera, my spare glasses, my nose stud and I managed to rip my top almost completely off. I had the remaining rags stuffed into the top of my bra, just covering the essentials (mind you, a lot of people had a lot less on than that!! just body paint in some cases!!) Each stage had different music, but it was mostly Trance and Techno - my favourites. Also, there was a drum and bass stage as well as some excruciating and inexplicable cheese (like Grease megamix and Saturday night fever)

I flew about for an hour or so before I came across the others again. We danced and danced for hours, ending up in an amazing UV covered pagoda type tent, which was playing it hard! LOVELY! Laura fell asleep on the sand, and I raved until the sun was well up in the sky. It was really beautiful to see the sunrise over such a party - all pink and orange - just like a perfect dream.

Got back to the hostel about 9am and went in immediately to see Nele. She wasnt any better, and I started to worry about her symptoms - which were suspiciously like Malaria......

After an hour or so's sleep, I was up again shifting Nele - I wanted to get her to a hospital. We all went to the main town, and (amazingly for a Sunday) managed to find a clinic which had a nice doctor on duty. He agreed that she looked suspicious, and that he should do a blood test for Malaria and Dengue fever. The test came back clear (phew) although it proved that she had less than 47% of her normal water in the blood - meaning SEVERE dehydration - caused by flu apparently. She had been suffering for a while he said, and now the dehydration was really dangerous. She was given a drip and was made to stay in the hospital while she got better. It was amazing once the drips had finished - she was like a new person.

After that little scare, we decided to go to the North of the island and have a bit of recovery time - we went to a lovely beach called Had Yao, and checked into a new resort which was doing special offers (as its so new) - we got a room for 600 Baht (about 10 gbp) for the three of us- which was amazing as the resort was really posh and had a lush swimming pool overlooking the sea. Brill!

Not much happened in Had Yao as we were there to veg for a day or two. One night we went to a Rasta Bar and saw an amazing live show of bongos and digeridoo playing, thats about it really.

After Had Yao, we decided to have a look at the neighbouring island of Koh Samui. When we were queing for the ferry, we came across two of Nele and I's friends from India - what a coincidence! Lovely to see them too. We were now a band of 5.

We didnt know what to expect of Samui, but we were hoping for some deserted beaches and some time in peace in the sun...we couldnt have been more wrong!!! Samui turned out to be highly overdeveloped and the pits really. We ended up in the main tourist town, that reminded me a lot of San Antonio in Ibiza- streets awash with chavs, British bars and old people with gold chains on. Lovely...NOT. We managed one night before heading back to Pangyan...our haven of palm trees and stunning beaches.

Unfortunately, the day we returned to Pangyan, was also the day I had to say goodbye to Nele -it was time for her to return to India, and she was going back to Bangkok with our other two friends. It was very wierd to say a final goodbye to my closest travel friend ever. Im certainly going to miss her! I think a few visits to Belgium and Barcelona will soon be on order though! Here's to YOU Nele my LL! x x x x x

So, now we were back to just two - Laura and Me. After a heinous journey back to Pangyan - the ferry was so bumpy we both got sick - we retreated back to our lovely hut on the beach on Leam Son, where we still are now...planning the next move.

In the time we have been back on Pangyan, we have explored this island in full - by hiring a jeep for the day and going overland all around the island. We found some absolutely fabulous hideaway beaches on the East coast - which we both agreed were amazing, but a little out of the way when we didnt really have transport. We also walked to the islands major wild attractions, where were several lovely waterfalls. In one day we fully explored the place and still liked best the place we came to first! nice.

The other excitement of the past few days has been the "Half Moon" party, which is a proper party in the jungle in the middle of the island. We thought it would be rained out, as a massive tropical storm hit on the morning of the party, but in true party island stayle, everything went ahead anyway! Laura and I went clubbing in Hat Rin for a couple of hours and then, with our new adopted party possee, we went to the party in the jungle. Laura didnt come in, as it was strictly hard house and techno, and so, not really her bag. Me and the rest of the crew continued to party hard in the beautiful jungle clearing - all decked out with UV art and sculptures. As luck would have it, I had my UV body paints with me ( of course!) and proceeded to get to know a lot of people by painting them! what fun!! Once again I managed to stay up till well after dawn and then ambled home, just in time to have breakfast and lie on the beach in the sun for a day..... wicked.

Since the party, we have done absolutely nothing but sit in the sun! very nice too.... Now we are trying to decide on the next move! Wait till the next party (in three days) or move to another paradise island....its a tough choice....