I spent my last few days at the orphanage playing with the kids. It was quite nice to go back after my week at the Community Project and there was a national holiday in Thailand on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week so the children didn't have any lessons and were free to play games and do colouring in!
Due to the national holiday all the volunteers had Tuesday off which we spent at the pool after having a party on Monday night.
Emily, a girl that I had volunteered with at the orphanage, came back to Twin House on Sunday and, thankfully was put in my room so I was alone no more! We got on really well and she made my last few days in Sing Buri a lot better.
She had come back to Twin House from the Hilltribe project because she had realised that immigration hadn't seen her 90 day visa when she arrived in Thailand and only given her the standard 30 days. She had been in the country for 2 and a half months by this time. When she told me what had happened, i checked my passport and realised that the same thing had happened to me and I technically had to leave the country on Friday. We were told that we were going to have to go to the embassy in Bangkok, but because of the National Holiday we would have to wait until Thursday before we could get it sorted. We spent the rest of the week telling ourselves that it would all be fine, fine fine fine.....but the not knowing was killing us.
So we had our last day at the orphanage on wednesday and left for Bangkok on Thursday morning. Once at the bus staion in Bangkok we got a tuk tuk straight to the embassy (well kind of...the Tuk Tuk driver got lost and the traffic was horrendous, so it took longer than planned to get there). The British Embassy turned out to be extremely unhelpful. The lady there told us that the rules had changed and now, even if you get a visa before coming to Thailand, you still only get 30days and have to go to the immigration office every 30days to get another stamp. So she sent to very worried girls off in search of the immigration office. Poor Emily was sitting in the taxi thinking that she was going to have to pay 500baht for everyday that she was over her visa, which would have worked out at about 500pounds.
We finally arrived at the immigration office to be told "no worry, only mistake". We were so relieved that it was as simple as walking into the immigration Office and getting our Visas re-stamped, we both nearly burst into tears.
I was so pleased that Emily was with me, it would have been a horrible thing to do on your own, especially being told by the crazy lady in the Embassy that the rules had changed. She obviously didn't know what she was talking about.
Feeling completely drained we got a taxi to Koh San Road and booked into a hotel.
Emily had booked to go to Koh Samet (a small island off the coast about 3hours from Bangkok) with some of the other volunteers for the week, but wasn't due to get there until sunday. We decided that instead of going back to Sing Buri for a couple of days, we would stay the night in Bangkok and then head down to the island on Friday morning, where we would meet up with the other group on Sunday.
So that's what we did. Booked a bus and a boat down to Koh Samet and booked into the cheapest hostel we could find - Naga Bungalows, 300baht per room, per night. 3pounds each for a wooden hut, with shared toilets and cold showers (which were just little cubicles outside). Extremly basic, but something i'm sure i'll get used to on my budget!
We spent our first couple of days just relaxing on the beach. There was a strip of restaurants and bars along the beachfront, where we ate lunch and dinner. It was really nice to relax and be free to do what we wanted. We met a few others who were staying in our hostel, who we spent a bit of time with.
The rest of the group arrived on Sunday afternoon to not very nice weather, which continued through monday too. The sea was really rough on monday and I attempted to swim but it was too difficult and my bikini fell down (not a treat), so i gave up.
I travelled back to Bangkok on Tuesday morning in the pouring rain. The only taxi's on Koh Samet were open top trucks, so I ended up with see through trousers and looking completely drowned by the time I got to the pier to catch my boat. Luckily I was travelling back with an Australian guy who I had met at my hostel, so he carried my bag for me the whole time....bonuses of being a girl I guess!
I booked into a hotel and just had a wander down Koh San Road and some lunch before meeting Lauren. We arranged to meet at the end of Koh san Road and she arrived at 9:00pm. I was so pleased to see a familiar face and it is so nice to have someone to constantly talk to! She was shattered after her long flight, so we just had some dinner and went to bed.
We had booked a flight from Bangkok to Chang Mai for today at 11:50, which we got with no dramas. We also pre-booked (so organised!) into a hostel called Spicy Thai Backpackers, which is where we are now. The Hostel is really nice and Lauren and I have got the best room in the place! We're planning on going to the nightmarket tonight and then we're going on our two day trek tomorrow. WE're both really excited...elephant ride, trekking through the hills, bamboo rafting and staying somewhere.....we don't know where buti'm sure it'll be fine! We're back at spicy Thai on Friday night and then it's back to the airport to fly down south to Phuket to begin our tour of the islands. Busy busy busy......
