HORRAY! DESERTED BEACHES

Yesterday I got the local bus (it is a great system you just flag a bus down say where you want to go, barter the price then hop on with the locals, who are paying far less, but I felt like I got a good deal)to the next big stretch of beach along called Lamai beach. A friend of mine has been to a spa there and says it is beautiful. I was heartened when I saw signs on the beach asking people not to buy from beach vendours, so that deters them from coming along to harrass everyone.
And there were hardly any people on the beach. The places to stay were mostly nice little bungalows. I walked along and found Spa Samui. It was fully booked over Christmas. Amazingly I bumped into Tilly who used to work on Inside out in Tunbridge Wells, before she move to Inside Out in London, she has just arrived. She is staying nearby but having treatments at the spa. I managed to find a lovely bungalow next door for over Christmas at just 600 baht a night ,that is about nine pounds! And it is so quiet I cannot wait. I get the local bus from here in Chaweng tomorrow. And I am going to do one of the fasting treatments which should be an experience.

Today I decided to be more pro active and I hired a motorbike and set off very early in search of places where the tourists do not venture. Again I saw Tilly, she was just cycling along from her accommodation about fifteen minutes along the road from where I am staying. I pulled up alongside her on my motorbike and had a chat. But then ventured off in search off my solitude. And after six hours on the bike I found so many secluded places that I plan to come back to.

I also ventured into the hills, just taking the little tracks as I saw them, getting into the villages. And I came across lots of oxen tethered up in the fields next to their shacks.(i know someone is going to tell me its not an ox!!! but it looks like one to me)



I was fancinated to see the bannanas growing ( sorry do not know how to turn the photographs round..Sammie if you can work it out your end feel free to do it!! love you!!)


and there are coconut trees everywhere the villagers were collecting them and cutting them open.

Then I went to see the big Buddha..

Big Buddha is the one at the back!!! I had to make sure I had my shoulders covered witha sarong to show respect. It is the most amazing object. You had to climb up lots of steps to get to it and there were worshippers ringing bells in a circuit at the top. It was very moving, but I am not sure why. Buddhism is something I really want to explore more during my trip. There had been a rainstorm early in the day and I nearly came a cropper on the steps back down again, It really made me scared , so I decended like an old lady for the rest of the way down. I thought I do not care what I look like ,as long as I get down this thing in one piece!
I had lunch at the BBC




No not that one, The Big Buddha Cafe, but they play on the initials being BBC and have a naff studio in the corner.But the food was good. I had curried crab. And to my surprise ( I know, I just expected the crab meat to be on the plate for me) It was in its shell, I have never tackled a crab before. I tried to recall the cookery programmes I have seen, telling you what to do, but that was no good. Eventually I had to summon the waiter and he gave me a few tips. It was such a performance getting to the meat in the shell, but well worth it!

KO SAMUI

After my disasterous day on Patong beach I decided to hire a motorbike taxi to explore the island. It was great fun. He took me to a beach about forty minutes from Patong and the guidebook said that it was really cut off from things and quieter.It looked very promising when I got off the bike and he pointed to a dirt track for me to follow. It was very steep so I was optimistic about what I would find at the bottom because I though not that many people would want to tackle this track.
How wrong I was!!




I was confronted by row upon row of sun loungers and umberellas and i had to stay until the afternoon because the bike was picking me up at four. Every thirty seconds someone came past trying to sell sarongs, jewellery,silk bedspreads(i have to say there were very nice, but no room in the rucksack for them!!)and ice lollies etc.I just got my book out and lounged in the sun and swam in the sea sulking for a day. thinking how I just cannot wait to get off the island.
Everywhere around me on the trip back there were large concrete hotels and apartments springing up. All the character of the place was lost in commercialism.
Once again I retreated to my massage...And i love them!!!!! i have finally decided.


The lady who does them works so hard.They work seven days a week from ten in the morning until midnight and they still keep smiling. Most come from the north of thailand and leave their children and families so they can work here in the busy season.
The final day on Phuket I explored on foot and decided to be more positive about the island, but the more I saw the more I could not wait to get off the island. I overhead a German couple getting a taxi saying they were going to a quiet away from it all beach so I asked if I could share their taxi and cost.But then discovered they were going to the same place I had fallen for the previous day. And I declined to go and told them they would hate it. I then walkd as far to the end of the beach as i could and chilled out for the day watching the world go by. A couple sat near me on their sun loungers and the woman from Liverpool struck up a conversation. She extolled the virtues of the place and said that she had been eleven times and there was no better place on earth! It was this package holiday mentality that spoilt it for me and confirmed to me that I would not be returning.
on Sunday I got the plane to Ko Smaui
Now those of you who know me well know that I have a tendancy to call out things like "I dont want to die" when there is a little bit of turbulence on a large plane. Well the one that brought me here was a twin engined propeller plane that seats 70.And it had to be the cloudyiest day I have ever seen. you could not get more turbulence!! I was almost swallowing my tongue trying not to call out. The woman next to me was like an ice maiden she never even looked in my direction as I let out little yelps.



They paint the planes all nice colours, but I can tell you that does not make them any the less scary!

But the good news is the beaches are fantastic here with massive waves.



I am staying in a little beach bungalow and stones throw from the beach. There are still a lot of tourists but there is a nice mixture. There is enough room for me to find my space on the beach and reflect on life.



There are women who are all wrapped up in lots of clothes to protect them from the sun, who set up food stalls on the beach and sell things like corn on the cob and fresh fruit. It takes me hours to tackle a mango , and watching them peel and prepare them to eat is a show in itself. And then they sell them for about fifty pence!