Sleaze Central

We left Ko Phangan on 8th Jan and caught a boat to the neighbouring island of Ko Samui. My leg was still heavily bandaged up, but the doctors assured me that the hospitals on Ko Samui would be perfectly equipped to deal with it, so we headed off there!
We stayed in Chaweng beach which is the main party place on Samui. We hadn't really planned on going out because of my leg but we wanted to at least be in an area where there was a bit more going on. The weather was still rubbish, every day was overcast or raining. I spent most of my time trying to upload all of our new photos onto the website -which incidentally wont let me as it says I've used up all of my storage space, so we'll have to show you them all once we get home!

We met up again with the friends we'd been with on Ko Phangan, and had a few boring days of mooching around during the day (no sun) and having a few drinks at night.

Chaweng is like your typical Brit holiday resort. It has a Macdonald's, Pizza Hut etc. Lots of bars with lots of young people getting drunk and dancing stupidly! (not me though). It was also the first time we saw the sleazy aspect of Thailand. We'd been on Ko Phangan which is beautiful and almost untouched by the tourist industry. Chaweng has a strip of girly bars, in which young Thai girls dance almost naked out the front to try and entice tourists in to spend their money.
I also noticed for the first time the amount of Western guys (normally old and crusty) which young Thai girls. I'd heard it goes on but honestly 99% of the older Western men over there have a little Thai girl hanging on their arm. I didn't see anything dodgy as in underage girls, but there was a huge age gap with some of them. For example, a girl of my age, normally slim and pretty, would be with an old fogey of about 65 with grey hair and a pot belly. It doesn't take much to realise that these girls are after money money money! I guess if they are poor and the future looks bleak for them, to pull a rich Western guy is a way out of a future struggling to get by.
At first I was disgusted by this... but then I came around to thinking, it might make both parties happy. The guys obviously cant meet anyone back home, the girls just want to escape poverty, I guess it works for both of them. I just can't help but dislike the whole seediness about it all. The girls prance around in next to nothing just hoping to secure a Western man for the night, with the hope that he'll make her his wife. It's not nice to see these girls demean themselves so much.

We left Chaweng on 12th Jan and moved further down the coast to Lamai. We couldn't do much activity wise because of my leg, but we still wanted to make the most of our time on Samui and see as much of the island as possible. Lamai was a really nice resort, you still had bars and a Macdonalds, but everything was on a much smaller scale than Chaweng. Plus the sun came out for us so we spent a couple of days on the beach and ate in some nice restaurants.

I was still going to the hospital to get my leg cleaned every day so we couldn't leave Samui until the doctor said it was ok to. I can't express how annoying it was to be on such a beautiful island, with all these great boat trips, watersports, beautiful beaches etc... and we couldn't do any of it! I can't get my leg wet so any risk to that has to be avoided.

Anyway, we left Lamai after three days there and went to Nathon, which is the main port town of Samui. We really enjoyed it here. The place has a little market with fresh fruit stalls, and lots of Thai food being cooked out front. We bought a few items of clothing and found a great little restaurant where we watched the sunset.

Finally on 15th Jan the doctor said we could leave. I still have to have my leg cleaned every other day, but he said we could go in any hospital and have that done. Whooppeee! We made arrangements to catch the ferry and bus over to Phuket in the morning. THEN.... just our luck... we caught a motorbike taxi back from the hospital, as I got off, my right leg (my good leg) touched against the exhaust and I got a burn about as big as a tennis ball. The exhausts are boiling hot and it really hurt. I got some water and ran it over it, then I put some ice on it (which I now know was the wrong thing to do). I left it out in the open to let the sir get to it and didn't think anymore of it.

We left Samui on the 16th and caught the ferry over to the mainland. We then jumped on a bus and it took us about 6 hours to get to Phuket. After an absolute nightmare trying to find a cheap room, we finally gave up and checked into a 1300BHT a night one (double our budget but with aircon which was needed!!).
By this time the burn on my leg had started to hurt quite badly and some of the skin was peeling off - not good. We had to go to the hospital anyway to get my other leg cleaned so whilst we were there we asked them to take a look at the burn. "Oooohhhh very bad, could get infected" was the response. So they put another bandage on my right leg over the burn, and also change the bandage on my left leg!!!! I can't believe my luck... now I have both legs bandaged up and look like a right cripple!!! The doctor also put me on yet another course of antibiotics (my third course in two weeks).
I honestly felt like crying and Jon had a face like thunder. It seems like nothing will go our way at the moment. We left the hospital feeling very depressed and angry.

We stayed in Patong for two nights. If I thought Samui was sleazy, then this is double sleazy!!! It's a massive holiday resort, with tons of bars and seedy joints. Ive seen my first ladyboys and a few trannies too. It's not really our kind of place to be honest (surprisingly!) but we found a wicked Irish pub the other night with a brilliant live band and we just stayed in there all night and got drunk (I know I'm not supposed to on antibiotics but I just needed a good drink for once!).

We left Patong on the 18th. As we left our hotel, we realised with horror we didn't have my bank card. We honestly couldn't remember how we could have lost it. We got money out earlier on in the day, but we normally always just put the card back in Jon's wallet. We couldn't think of any time when it could have been stolen off us, the only feasible solution we can think of is the ATM never gave it back. We ran to the bank and asked there but they have this stupid rule where they cant give you back your card (even if you have a passport as ID!) they will only post lost cards back to your bank in England!!! What a nightmare... why do things keep going wrong for us!
We ran to an internet cafe and checked my bank balance. Luckily nothing has come out of it so we can only assume the card was taken by the ATM and wasn't stolen. I rang my bank and stopped the card but they can't send me a new one to Thailand, they can only send it to my home address.... arrrghhh! Luckily Jon has his bank card so we can still transfer the money into his account and take it out.

So now we are in Phuket Town, which is a great little authentic Thai area. We found a brilliant backpacker's hostel which is nice and clean, has free internet and you get free tea and toast in the morning too so we are really living it up lol.
I went to the hospital again today and the doctor says my abscess wound is healing well, and my burn looks "normal" so fingers crossed they will both continue to heal ok. I'm going back in two days so lets hope there's no more setbacks.

Since we arrived in Thailand we've had nothing but bad luck. What with my stupid leg injury's, we haven't been able to do half the things we wanted to do. We've been here almost a month now and I've had to go to the hospital every day or at least every other day. It's been such a nightmare!! It will probably cost us a few hundred quid too once it's all done and dusted. I am praying the insurance company will let us claim it all back - it would really affect our budget if we couldn't.
If all goes to plan I should be ok in about another week. I hope everyone has their fingers crossed for me!!! Once I am back to full fitness we are checking straight into a spa resort and having my belated birthday celebrations lol!! (a month late!).