Transit

After a day of recovery on Ko Phangan - which consisted of laughing at the spray-painted dogs having the time of their lives, watching the afterparty still going at 2pm, doing a few food-runs and getting soaked in the new year rain – we kissed good bye to our two new friends and left the party island on the 2nd of January. Initially, we had a reservation for a boat-bus combo ride, that was supposed to take us all the way to Phuket, but because of some mess with the tickets, we also had to have a 3 hour stopover at the Surat Thani bus station, 10km from the city, no ATM or cash left in our pockets for a proper meal…. After the whole day of travel we finally got to the Gypsy Room around midnight– where the ladies apologized and put us back to the dorm; they messed up our reservation again. I was furious….

On the first Monday of the new year, no longer over-impressed with the Gypsy Room ladies – what concerns me anyway.., we took all our stuff and headed down to Chalong – the part of the island where Dave found a muay thai camp he was planning to train at for the month of January and accommodation at a close-by guesthouse. It was a good half an hour drive through places I have not seen before and the anxiety of the unknown was only growing with every minute.
We (Dave) checked into the Tiger camp, and once done with the admin stuff, Mama came to pick us up and take us to the Forest Bungalows, where we would be staying for the month.

The deal was great: 300 EUR for the two of us for the month, including breakfast; wifi in the room, the place is 10 min walk from Tiger, about 20 mins on a scooter from the closest (nice) beach, 10 mins from a huge shoppingmall; it has a nice swimmingpool, an attached restaurant that clearly serves the best thai food either of us have tasted with variety that keeps you happy for a week without wanting to go anywhere else, and when you do go elsewhere you just swear you wouldn’t make the mistake again…… And the staff…… apart from Mama there is Oil, smiling at the reception, Choo serving food, Maui, nr. 1 candidate for everyone’s babysitter / housekeeper, Man the 16 year old kid from Burma who prepares the shakes and other yummy drinks for everyone, and Pong, this angel who is my moms age, doesn’t speak much English, but apart from serving food does thai massage…….. Thai massage to die for, for 4,5 EUR an hour…. Unbelievable!

So, we settled down, ready to start new adventures – though at that point, I clearly had no idea on what I was going to be doing for the whole month..