And we’re really looking forward to getting on with it again, we fly to Cape Town tomorrow to explore the southern reaches of Africa. We are both very excited indeed and it’s thanks to a couple of weeks chilling with Rightee that the travel magic’s back!
Under our collective, Mary style, name of VAJ (Viv, Andy and John of course!) we don’t half know how to chill out. Jody(same style) really know how to bloody drink too, they slip into a nocturnal existence as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I try but I’ve clearly not had as much practice as these two.
That makes us sound really wild and crazy doesn’t it? Maybe if you discovered the amount of time we spent playing dominos and backgammon you might change your mind.
The island of Koh Tao is a great holiday spot with miles of beaches and it’s lively without being too busy. We found the dogs really interesting. They all have their own personalities of course but they were not like the pet dogs you’d get in Britain as the island has a collective dog community which doesn’t seem to feature people all that much. My favourite was only one that liked to play and enjoyed trying to catch handfuls of sand when you were in the sea. She wasn’t much interested in anything else you threw but if it was sand she was there. I liked the way she wagged her tail when looking at the fish, pretty cute. ‘Jon’ the dog from next door is an abnormally short legged and not particularly pleasant dog (John was mortified when he discovered the similarity in name). He (Jon not John)picked a fight with the old dog at the bakery every afternoon. If this didn’t happen you’d wonder if something was wrong, the poor old dog was absolutely paranoid. As I said after the last post the Myna birds are ace too, we could even recognise individuals. There was one that always sang really nicely to us and was followed around by his scraggy girlfriend, another had a bent beak.
We did do some useful things, like trying to sort out the fundraising but I’ve also been applying for University in 2007. Back to student hood for me and a working life dedicated to conservation (hopefully).
I’m not going to do a round up of Thailand as we’ve not really ventured off the beaten track and have been holidaying rather than travelling which, believe me, are very different. Holidaying is more like relaxation and travelling, for us, is about broadening our understanding of the world.
Here’s a few comments about Thailand though.
It’s true, there are ladyboys around
Thai people are pleasant, straight forward and well organised.
I love Chaing Mai
Thailand is a good place to go on holiday – Hooray for that.
Oh and just one more minor detail. South America is off and we’re coming home for Christmas. Hooray for that too!
Comments
7 responses to “Chilling complete, back to the travelling”
It really was great having a bit of time out from moving around the place all the time, so nice just to chill in one place with little agenda from day to day. It was really great having Rightee around as well. We had some quality nights out and a lorra lorra laffs to boot!
If anything it made me miss home even more. For those who don’t yet know we have decided to drop South America from the itinery and will now be coming home right after our voluntary work and just in time for Christmas! (I have just noticed that Viv has already mentioned this in the post, sure you won’t mind me telling you again!)
While in Koh Tao I learnt to dive and by the end of our time there I gained my advanced open water qualification which means I can now dive pretty much anywhere in the world! If you’re thinking of learning to dive Koh Tao is a great place to do it as it’s pretty cheap and there are lots of great dive sites around. I can strongly recommend Big Blue Diving who I learnt with – a great bunch of people and very professional. Anyway diving is ace, I absolutely love it! So great just floating around suspended in water taking in the spectacular underwater world – at times you don’t know where to look as there’s so much to see with all the coral and rock formations, fish, sting rays, moray eels….. go diving – it’s amazing!!!
As Viv has already said we’re off to Cape Town tomorrow, really looking forward to Africa, a continent that I have never been to before and heard so much about. We’ve had a great time in Asia (and managed to travel all the way through it without getting on a plane!) but are defintely ready for somewhere very new and a bit of the ol’ culture shock again.
Pip pip!
Heya, Glad you’ve both had a nice relaxing break.
How come you’ve decided to skip South America? Just a lack of time or not as keen on it as you once were? Still, I suppose it’s not that difficult to head out again once you’ve settled back in the daily grind. How are you gonna cope with the ol’ 9-5 again? Not that you’ll have to if Viv is returning to studenthood and JG is gonna be freelance photographer person!
Look forward to Vijo blog from Africa.
I suspect your failure to enter South America is because I’ve just arrived in Central America. I’d hate to be in the same hemisphere as you.
Ez JIV. Have now arrived back in the UK and missing you two already! I think we rocked out Koh Tao proper. Having had about 2 hours sleep in 2 days and thinking about the prospect of work in less than 12 hours I wish I was still there… 🙁 Still 17 days in the same place isn’t bad going and I felt like we were minor celebrities when we finally left!
We were all most definitely a bad influence on each other as 1 more beer was never just one more beer and neither was 1 more samsong bucket one more samsong bucket.
Mr J. hasn’t been mentioned on this blog but I think he defies any human logic so we’d best just leave his wisdom for another day.
Thanks all for your comments.
Yes I didn’t go into Mr J, a wildly eccentric local who thought that David Beckham was going to have to live 20,000 seal life times as he’d been bad. Apparently golfers turn into giraffes too. It’s difficult to know where to start with such a character. Also he said that if you are too romantic in the bedroom you will give birth to a ladyboy. Well, maybe.
We had a great time no doubt and it’s feels a bit weird now without you rightee. Ah well, good luck with going to work, don’t envy you!
Higton – Yeah that’s exactly what we thought. Nah, can’t go there incase we bumped into that smelly Higton. 😉 Nah well, actually the volunteer work finishes just before Christmas and we thing it might be quite tough actually and that we’d like to go home for Christmas rather than find ourselves plonked in a new continent and missing home. Congrats on your lucky escape from UFO and hope you’re having a good time already.
Rach, thanks for that. We’re actually very excited about coming home and just doing ordinary things, like reading the Sundays in bed. I doubt we’ll be off again straight after though as we’ve got a lot to do, especially for our new careers. It is still a place we’d really like to visit eventually but for the moment we’ve got more than enough out of our travels so far. Can’t wait to explore Africa and do a bit of good in Madagascar.
Hi you two
We will miss you loads this weekend. It’s just not going to be the same without you.
Lovely to hear you are heading home for Christmas. Are you planning on coming back to settle in Sheffield?
Will put my head together with Rightee about fundraising ideas now he’s back.
love
Mary
I have a message from your Gran as she is visiting for a while. Your ma & pa brought her up. We went to Druridge Bay and your dad went swimming, while everyone else went for a paddle. Your pictures are beautiful and I’m looking foreward to seeing you at christmas.
Look after one another, lots of love Gran T. x x x x x x x