Day 19 - Being Ripped Off

My taxi hadn't shown up 15 minutes after it was meant to and it turned out that Alberto had gotten my taxi when it came instead of his so it eventually came back to get me and drop him back off. In the mean time his actual taxi had been and gone so I'm not sure how he went about making his ferry.

Well all we did really for hours and hours was catch a few car ferries and drive for a good five hours so most of us in the minbus just slept. We eventually made it to Surat Thani where half of us having one sort of receipt were told to get out at an agency we'd stopped at. Well, there we got ripped off nicely as they went on to tell us that what we'd paid for we weren't going to arrive in Koh Phanang till midnight even though some of the others had been told we'd arrive about 6pm. They said all we could do was pay an extra 450 baht and get the "faster" ferry that left in "10 minutes". 20 minutes later the five of us decided we didn't really have a choice having not booked accommodation so paid the extra and were taken to a bus which drove for another hour before getting a ferry which took about two hours to get to the island. It really wasn't a fast boat so I'm unsure as to how one could have been any slower. Never mind though as things got better once I arrived as after walking the gauntlet through the accommodation touts I went straight to an Internet cafe and there was an email from Roger saying they were ate Charm Beach Resort not far from the pier.

In a taxi I hopped while wondering how I was going to find the boys in the resort as when you stay places here you very rarely give them a name or anything when you book a room. When I turned up though there were not only the three Irish lads but the kiwi gal Lisa and her English bloke Trevor from the trek too, all sitting at the resort restaurant having dinner. It was like seeing family I was that pleased to see them all again after my crappy day. While travelling along, familiar faces are a fantastic thing I can tell you.

After we'd all eaten we hit the booze and the three boys and myself decided Haad Rin would be a good plan. Jeepers, what a place! We started off on the buckets as soon as we arrived so we were on full form after not very long. Things were going swimmingly and were injury free even after all running through line of fire (it was actually piss easy) but that's where the injury free zone ended. At about 2pm I'd say it was, Niall was messing around and picked up Sean and dropped him on the ground. Well, the barman didn't realise they were friends and so sprung over the bar in Sean's defence and Thai kick boxed Niall right in the head and shoulder. I tried to calm things down to no avail so I stalked off in order to not witness any more of the fight.

Afterwards Niall just disappeared and we spent forever looking for him and calling his phone with no joy so we just decided to head home. I needed to go toilet first and upon entering the bathroom I discovered a Swedish guy whose whole face and head was covered in blood. He'd been smashed over the head with a bottle by a bunch of Thai guys. Nurse Tui helped clean him up before escorting him to the doctors with the Thai culprits chasing us with another bottle ready to hit him with. Thankfully his friends were able to hold back the Thai's long enough for us to get him inside the doctors where he discovered he needed to get stitches.

I left the guy to it and went in search of Niall, eventually meeting on the beach where we sat and watched the sun rise as I recounted the evenings events to a dazed Niall. We went and ate a meal at about 7:30am before heading home. Since I had the key with me we discovered upon arriving at the resort, Sean in the bungalow next doors rocking chair on their deck and Roger curled up down on the beach with a towel as a blanket. After some hysterical laughing at the boys choices of beds we finally all rolled into bed at about 9am. I think that's a record for me... I'm dread to think what Haad Rin will be like on the actual Full Moon party if it was like that just for the Warm Up.