6AM is far too early to be getting up on holiday. Nonetheless, we wearily shoved our clothes into our rucksacks that seem unfathomably to be getting heavier with each stop we make, before getting into the van for flight of the gibbon.
We arrived at about 8, and our early bird group was comprised of 3 americans, four israelis (who we had thought were french...) and us. Again, the americans were from florida and california, thus far, no other states have been represented in thailand. Anyway, we met our guides - Cash and Bird - who were hilarious. They had absolutely no problem in pushing us off platforms 45 feet in the air and then rocking the wire back and forth so we swung dangerously (or so it seemed). It was such an excellent adventure, they loved torturing kemi because she wouldn't stop laughing (only tempered by screams of terror as Cash would push her off or drop her really fast down an abseiling section without warning) so perhaps she bore the brunt of their hilarious sadism.
When we were finished, we went to a waterfall where I decided to have a nap while kemi clambered and scrambled to the top with everyone else... after that we had a lemongrass juice which was lovely, and then a veritable feast for lunch. At about 1 we returned to our accommodation - only we had no room and nothing to do. We decided to have another go at finding Love at First Bite, only this time we took a tuktuk - who got as lost as we did! He thought we wanted th. chang mai soi 1, but such a place didn't exist, we actually wanted th. chang mai lamphun soi 1... I know! What a mistake to make!.....
We finally got there and it was beautiful, calming, green... the selection of cakes was fantastic too! Kemi opted for a hot chocolate, while i had iced chocolate and we both picked the brownie sundae. We had decided to spend the whole afternoon there, eating cakes in a decadent fashion. However, shortly after kemi finished her brownie sundae, and i had ordered a mango cheesecake, she began feeling quite ill. We decided to return to the hotel, where i despaired because my feet had swollen to the size of small children. While I tried every means possible to shrink my feet, kemi sat quietly by the pool, looking really really pale. Then she ran to the toilet and was horribly sick. She kept being sick at regular intervals until we were picked up. When we got to the airport - early, we set up camp near our check in desk, and a safe distance from the bathroom. A lovely man and his son inquired after kemi's health and offered her some medicine (we read the label, and it was a new packet, definitely fine) which she promptly threw up. After we checked in - and were hit in the face by a horrible luggage charge from AirAsia, we tried to find first aid, but gave up and kem just curled up on the floor and tried to sleep. At this point, i really wanted to take her to hospital, but instead I found first aid myself, and walked kemi there. The nurse- who had been happily watching thai soaps and eating dinner until then - was an angel. Kem sat down on the bed, and had her blood pressure taken, as well as being given anti cramping pills, anti vomit pills and a host of other things meant to make her better... if only she could keep it down.
Our seats were upgraded so kem was near the toilet, but it didn't make the flight any better. Poor kemi slept and threw up in turn, and it was horrible to see, but she refused to go to the hospital when we got to Phuket. We were exhausted, and when we got to the hotel in Phuket we didn't even care that there were cockroaches in the bathroom, and just passed out in a nicely airconditioned room.
The next day, we trudged through the mire that is Phuket to get to the beach and lay there all day. Stupidly, I fell asleep. I woke up a brilliant shade of lobster, which means that now, i'm not a cool tanned backpacker type, i am a sunburnt tourist. The distinction is v. important in how the thais treat you, so v. v. annoyed about that. Kem was still queasy, but managed to order a pizza at the harley davidson restaurant (we had given up on thai food, the idea of greasy noodles or fried vegetables made us both want to be even iller..) even if she only ate half of it. We then went home and watched about 6 hours of Universal.. which is essentially a crime channel, so we watched Criminal Minds, Psyche, Life and about a gazillion other things. Fox News is the only english speaking news channel out here, so we're choosing to be ignorant of the goings on the world, especially after we accidentally caught the o'reilley factor and bill o'reilley spouting off about obama's misinterpretation of collective salvation... such. rubbish. We had an early night after that - had to be up horribly early again the next day for our transfer to Ko Phi Phi.
We arrived at about 8, and our early bird group was comprised of 3 americans, four israelis (who we had thought were french...) and us. Again, the americans were from florida and california, thus far, no other states have been represented in thailand. Anyway, we met our guides - Cash and Bird - who were hilarious. They had absolutely no problem in pushing us off platforms 45 feet in the air and then rocking the wire back and forth so we swung dangerously (or so it seemed). It was such an excellent adventure, they loved torturing kemi because she wouldn't stop laughing (only tempered by screams of terror as Cash would push her off or drop her really fast down an abseiling section without warning) so perhaps she bore the brunt of their hilarious sadism.
When we were finished, we went to a waterfall where I decided to have a nap while kemi clambered and scrambled to the top with everyone else... after that we had a lemongrass juice which was lovely, and then a veritable feast for lunch. At about 1 we returned to our accommodation - only we had no room and nothing to do. We decided to have another go at finding Love at First Bite, only this time we took a tuktuk - who got as lost as we did! He thought we wanted th. chang mai soi 1, but such a place didn't exist, we actually wanted th. chang mai lamphun soi 1... I know! What a mistake to make!.....
We finally got there and it was beautiful, calming, green... the selection of cakes was fantastic too! Kemi opted for a hot chocolate, while i had iced chocolate and we both picked the brownie sundae. We had decided to spend the whole afternoon there, eating cakes in a decadent fashion. However, shortly after kemi finished her brownie sundae, and i had ordered a mango cheesecake, she began feeling quite ill. We decided to return to the hotel, where i despaired because my feet had swollen to the size of small children. While I tried every means possible to shrink my feet, kemi sat quietly by the pool, looking really really pale. Then she ran to the toilet and was horribly sick. She kept being sick at regular intervals until we were picked up. When we got to the airport - early, we set up camp near our check in desk, and a safe distance from the bathroom. A lovely man and his son inquired after kemi's health and offered her some medicine (we read the label, and it was a new packet, definitely fine) which she promptly threw up. After we checked in - and were hit in the face by a horrible luggage charge from AirAsia, we tried to find first aid, but gave up and kem just curled up on the floor and tried to sleep. At this point, i really wanted to take her to hospital, but instead I found first aid myself, and walked kemi there. The nurse- who had been happily watching thai soaps and eating dinner until then - was an angel. Kem sat down on the bed, and had her blood pressure taken, as well as being given anti cramping pills, anti vomit pills and a host of other things meant to make her better... if only she could keep it down.
Our seats were upgraded so kem was near the toilet, but it didn't make the flight any better. Poor kemi slept and threw up in turn, and it was horrible to see, but she refused to go to the hospital when we got to Phuket. We were exhausted, and when we got to the hotel in Phuket we didn't even care that there were cockroaches in the bathroom, and just passed out in a nicely airconditioned room.
The next day, we trudged through the mire that is Phuket to get to the beach and lay there all day. Stupidly, I fell asleep. I woke up a brilliant shade of lobster, which means that now, i'm not a cool tanned backpacker type, i am a sunburnt tourist. The distinction is v. important in how the thais treat you, so v. v. annoyed about that. Kem was still queasy, but managed to order a pizza at the harley davidson restaurant (we had given up on thai food, the idea of greasy noodles or fried vegetables made us both want to be even iller..) even if she only ate half of it. We then went home and watched about 6 hours of Universal.. which is essentially a crime channel, so we watched Criminal Minds, Psyche, Life and about a gazillion other things. Fox News is the only english speaking news channel out here, so we're choosing to be ignorant of the goings on the world, especially after we accidentally caught the o'reilley factor and bill o'reilley spouting off about obama's misinterpretation of collective salvation... such. rubbish. We had an early night after that - had to be up horribly early again the next day for our transfer to Ko Phi Phi.
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