Koh Samui

Today, after quite a long trip down from Bangkok, we arrived in Koh Samui. I only got a couple of pictures on my phone a while after the sun had gone down (above x 2). I guess this island has a reputation as a pretty touristy place, but where we're staying, of course it is a tourist area, it's other western people, but it's not too crowded where we are staying at all. We are staying at the Southern end of Lamai beach. This isn't the main tourist hub, but you know, it's probably 50 metres from our room to the beach, and that's quite alright by me.

If the weather stays good tomorrow, I can strongly see us staying on another couple of nights. What an intriguing experience the old night bus was. Some things you read (eg Lonely Planet) are very much against taking these buses and suggest going to the government run buses, however I read they were more expensive and less comfortable.

The main thing for me was that they offered a hostel pickup. Of course I was surprised (though I should not have been) when a tuk tuk came to take us to the next stop. I had originally guessed that some kind of van would get us and take us to the bus station. Even though I went against the advice of the Lonely Planet, which TBQH hasn't provided a whole lot of helpful advice for us in the first place, I though that old mate in the hostel was too nice to sell us a dud deal. He seemed to want the best for everybody, and I didn't think he would be associated with any kind of scams and rackets, but I wasn't so sure once the tuk tuk dropped us just around the corner from Kao Sahn Road.

So we stayed there for a while and we didn't really know what was happening. I started talking to a couple of other people standing around, but they had this "too good for you" attitude so that conversation didn't get too far. After some time, it was quite a long time, maybe 45 minutes we were herded along to somewhere a little way up the road. A new bloke came and got all the receipts back off everyone. Of course every receipt would get a return visit with payment of their commission. We were waiting in this holding area for some more time, I got talking to a couple of blokes who lived in England. Most of the people we met in the course of the trip were English come to think of it.

Anyhow, one of these first guys was heading down to NZ for the World Cup (Rugby) after his travels in Thailand. I got talking to him about Union even though I don't really know very much, but I steered the conversation into the Manly/Melbourne fighting match, what a classic that was.

Another classic in their encounters was that 40-0 Grand Final scoreline. The Raiders won the under 20s that day, what promise that showed.....most of that side are in the firsts lineup now and have brought them precariously close to the wooden spoon. Results from tonight mean they will narrowly avoid that unwanted piece of kitchenware no matter what. That has nothing to do with our trip though, back on with the show.

We're talking to the blokes and a guy tells us the bus will be hear in five more minutes. Sure. Sure enough, five more minutes we're crossing over the road to get to the bus. One of these Rugby blokes had gone to the toilet so he had to make a mad dash to even get on the bus. On the bus we saw a couple of movies. First up was The Lincoln Lawyer which was ok, particularly for a movie shown on the bus, but then the next one Stuck, this was up there with the absolute worst movies I have ever seen. Even the fact that the main girl (Mena Savari??) bopped some other girl, who was at the time naked, with a frying pan, could not save this movie. I am currently looking on IMDB for a verdict of just how bad this movie is according to others, but the bus seemed to give it an all round score of about 1/10.

After the movies it seemed it was time for lights out. We weren't too tired yet and we had a game of chess on the mini chess set I have been carrying around, which hadn't been brought out yet. We had played some of the other games inside, particularly snakes and ladders, but no chess. Anyhow, it seemed we were the only people with our above light on, but all of a sudden all the lights came on, it was time to stop.

As per any long distance bus trip, we stopped in some crappy little down, it was no difference to stopping at the service station outside of Holbrook or outside of Bowen on the Greyhound in Australia. I hadn't eaten any dinner so I gladly gobbled down some veg noodles, mainly as something to go with my concoction of medicines. I think there are still quite a few days to go until the 10 days of taking all these medicines concludes, but I'll say now that the old overnight bus wasn't the best for the ankle. All seems ok now, but not just my ankle,but my right leg was quite swollen from the ride last night.

Anyhow, we got some eats, then game back to our match of chess when suddenly it was lights out. Just like in the movies in jail, the time comes for lights out, but no warning. I guess that meant time for sleep. I really barely slept at all. Some posts ago I talked about some albums of the past, and instead of sleeping I was thinking of an album to represent each year. Seeing as some of these were a long time ago, I'm not sure if the years are accurate, but I had something for each year...

1994- Midnight Oil- Blue Sky Mining

1995- Oasis- What's The Story Morning Glory

1996- Silverchair- Freak Show

1997- The Living End- The Living End

1998- Frenzal Rhomb- Meet The Family (including Mongrel live album)

1999- Slipknot- Slipknot

2000- 28 Days- Upstyle Down

2001- Superheist- The Prize Recruit

2002- Soilwork- Natural Born Chaos

2003- The Butterfly Effect- Begins Here

2004- Machine Head- Through The Ashes of Empires

2005- Parkway Drive- Killing With A Smile

2006- 4 Dead- Blood and Piss

2007- Daysend- The Warning

2008- Samsara- The Emptiness

2009- A Secret Death- A Secret Death

2010- Break Even- The Bright Side

2011- Miles Away- Endless Roads

That was the list that I came up with of the top of my head, or something along those lines. Funnily enough it's the more recent years where I'm listening to albums a year or two out of date. Of course anybody could do this exercise one day and then come up with a completely different answer a few days later, and maybe I will experiment with that in some days.

Maybe after I'm done resting at the beach.....

So back on the bus, we're sleeping. Well I barely slept at all, but we have to be trying to sleep because you can't even turn on your light. I listened to some music for a while, and I was kind of hoping to drop off doing that, but no such luck. In the whole journey I don't think I would have slept much more than an hour.

I must have got to sleep in the morning because suddenly there was a commotion, it seemed it was time to get off the bus and change to our transfer to the ferry. Of course that was not just waiting where we arrived, we had to wait some more time for that, then sit on the bus to the ferry.

Even though it's just 10pm, I'm feeling pretty tired. I may continue this one tomorrow. We met some really nice people here at the place we're staying, can fill more about that tomorrow. I think the first thing to do tomorrow will be to walk the length of the beach which is just a stone throw away. Of course I would love to do a run, but that's not really on the cards.

Cairns Central

Driving into Cairns once we got down the dreaded mountain, I came to the realisation it was a fair size city. Big wide roads, and even a Sizzler which we unfortunately didn't dine at over the course of our stay.

We checked into the Cairns Central YHA, which was completely different to what I expected. I was expecting some sort of towering building, something like a smaller version of Sydney Central, but it's more like an island resort, which has the pool in the centre.

We had ourselves a family room with our own bathroom. Unfortunately however, there was a big bunch of blokes having themselves a wild time, directly outside our room. One of them had made the purchase of a didgeridoo, which I'm sure he will regret once he leaves Cairns, and various people were having turns, making a similar sound to a foghorn.

We went to find something for dinner. The reception advised that the Green Ant made delicious meals, unfortunately for us however, it was closed for the Christmas period. We headed down towards the water and ended up at a Vietnamese restaraunt, Bobby's. The food here was pretty awesome, and the prices were quite reasonable, which is not customary anywhere in the north of Queensland.

We walked down by the lagoon, another artifical lagoon just like in Airlie Beach. It is not quite as deep as Airlie, I think it might take up more space, but the one in Airlie seems bigger. We timed it quite well as there was a game of canoe polo taking place. This was a surprising omission from the book I bought the next day "World's Weirdest Sports". Basically it's similar to water polo, but you paddle around in a small canoe, and shoot at a goal which is suspended above the water.

Unfortunately for these guys, there was nothing behind the goal, so every missed shot meant someone having to run after the ball. On the way home we actually got incredibly lost. I had smartly left the map we were given inside the room, where it was definitely going to come in handy.

At some stage we just caught the end of the sports news, which was incredibly Canberra-centric for somewhere that's, well, not Canberra. These were the three articles that came up: "Patrick Mills (from Canberra) makes his NBA debut", "Canberra Vikings extend their lead in the George Bass surfboat marathon" and "former Raider Todd Carney in trouble again". The footage that accompanied that story was of him walking past the statue of Laurie Daley at Bruce Stadium dejectedly after being thrown out of the Raiders.

I hadn't really been paying attention at the time, but the story turned out to be that whilst celebrating New Year's Eve, in, of all places...Airlie Beach, one of his "mates" ended up with burns on his buttocks, scrotum and thigh as a result of a "prank gone wrong". I wonder if he was associated with the two blokes who ran in for a dip sans clothes in water that is infested with box jellyfish.

We took a swim in the pool. The Cairns hostel has an excellent sized pool. The one in Airlie is pretty small, if there's anyone else in there, it gets a bit overcrowded for my likings. This pool is a great size, and has two spas adjoining as well.

I had to sort out some work things on the internet, and once I came back, who should I see but our old friend the schoolteacher. I restrained myself from saying "what happened to the third night on Magnetic Island" but tried to make my way off as quickly as possible, as I really didn't want anything more to do with him. Not far away from him was old mate with the 99 year old father, busily planning further adventures. Before he could catch sight of me I made it into the safety of the room.

We didn't really have a plan for the next day. We were hoping to make some sort of trip but our financial resources were dwindling quickly and I had to be back at work the next day and there was a long bus trip in between.

Francisca told me if she was inspired by the city she would stick around a few more days. We took a bit of a wander and then a bit of a drive, decided against going on any tours, and booked tickets on the next bus.

There was a shopping centre across the road across the road and I had some JB vouchers I needed to spend so I got myself Propaghandi- Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes, Miles Away- Rewind Repeat, Rise Against- Siren Songs of the Counter Culture, Converge- Jane Doe and Parkway Drive- "The DVD".

We got some kebabs before boarding the bus, however I don't think we were mentally prepared for the journey. 11 hours...There are a lot longer trips available, especially on the Greyhound network (for example I booked a guy today to leave Airlie Beach at 2.15am before arriving in Alice Spring at 9.30am the next day with changes in Townsville, Mt Isa and Tennant Creek).

However, this was a long trip in itself. The first section didn't go so bad, it was light, I had a couple of books to read- the aforementioned "Worlds Weirdest Sports" as well as Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest". I also had an ipod with full battery (thanks fantastic car) and it was light so we could look out the window.

We stopped in Cardwell, just as we had on the way up, however we weren't ready for dinner at this stage, so Annie and her kitchen didn't have a second chance to give me a heart attack. Cardwell is just across the water from Hinchinbrook Island (picture at the top of this post) and has some impressive views. It was dark on our previous visit, so it was great to see the town in the light.

In Townsville we had to change buses. At this point it felt like we were nearly there...just five more hours! The worst part though, was the "dinner break" which Greyhound always schedule at inconvenient hours in inconvenient places. The dinner break on this trip was in Bowen, less than an hour from our stop. So we had to stand around a horrible, horrible service station for an hour. I ate a chiko roll, which was probably the worst thing I've ever eaten in my life and later a packet of corn chips, which cost me exactly one arm and one leg.

The feeling of relief upon arriving at the Airlie Beach bus terminal was simply unfathomable. The fact it was just a short walk and we were home made things even better. On arrival we simply crashed in the bed. I was certainly glad we took this option rather than going overnight to arrive just a few minutes before beginning work.