Well, miraculously I passed
Can you believe I’ve been away 3 weeks already? I can’t at all. In fact, I only have 152 days left. But in a strange way, I feel quite used to it all now.
We’ve had a really lazy last couple of days on board - sunbathing at Ko Rang, we didn’t leave until 3pm on Sunday, then sailed down to Phuket Town Harbour where we moored overnight opposite an Oil tank farm. Not very picturesque, but good practice at dodging things and helming through shallow waters (which I do NOT like doing - I mean, when the depth gauge is flashing at 0.0 metres, you kind of expect to hear that grinding noise as you run aground. But we survived.
On Monday morning we had a sail up river which was interesting - we saw some massive tuna being offloaded from fishing boats - they looked like whales. I also provided a source of great excitement to a number of fishermen. As Mark said, they’ve been away at sea for a month: the sight of a farang (foreigner) in shorts is the height of excitement.
We then had a motor down to a bay near our start point where we anchored up for the night. Mark’s friend Gerry’s boat was moored up there too - a beautiful wooden (schooner? Sloop?) thing that he’s restoring called the Sapphire.
We went ashore for dinner, and met up with Mark’s girlfriend Dang. It was a real family-run restaurant set on the beach, where each main course was ฃ1 and each accompaniment was ฃ1. Seriously yummy too.
So I disembarked the Meniscus this morning, and have come to Phuket Town for the night. I had a very long list of things to do starting with DHLing a load of stuff home, which I’ve done at extraordinary expense.
I wanted to find the tourist office, as I’ve got quite a few things to find out, but I couldn’t find it, so I shall have to revert back to the good old internet to figure it all out. One of my issues is my visa - it looks like I may have to leave Thailand on the 24th December, so I may now be spending Christmas at Angkor Wat instead of on the beach. Hey ho - either way it’s going to be pretty special.
I’m staying in a hostel in Phuket - Jules very kindly booked it for me. Lots of other Backpackers here (which is unsurprising, as it’s called the Backpackers Hotel) so I might go and brave the lounge later and (shock, horror) see if I can get chatting to anyone.
Tomorrow I think I’m going to head on up the coast to Khao Lak or to the National park at Khao Sok. Jules arrives a week on Friday, so I’ve got about 9 days to explore both places which is just about right.
I’m not on wi-fi here, so haven’t been able to upload my photos yet, but they’re coming…….
