On Wednesday morning I got up to have my last breakfast at my hotel on Ko Phangan before checking out. As usual the food was good, the service was incredibly friendly - and everyone else in the restaurant could talk about little else other than getting smashed, riding motorbikes and getting tattoos done.
In a way my experience here has shattered some of the illusions I have held about Thailand. A part of me has always thought that I might like to live in a country like this, to wake up every morning in paradise without a care in the world. Then I listened to some of the English people at this hotel, some of whom probably first came here in 2001 and have never left, boasting about drinking magic mushroom milkshakes and having drunk so much the night before their eyes were in pain, and I had considerable doubts about whether this was really what I wanted out of life. That's the philosophical outlook - at the time I just wanted to douse them all in kerosene and light a match.
I think part of me was vaguely jealous at the bashfulness of people boasting about their drinking capacity. Whilst I've always suffered from hangovers, on this holiday they have proved so bad the day following a bit of a session has been a total disaster. Normally I can rehabilitate myself with a few pints of orange squash, a couple of nurofen, a good meal and a hair of the dog. It might take a while, but I can always get back to something resembling good health. On this holiday the hangovers have been all-day sicknesses, which makes me wonder if I have picked up some kind of bug that I haven't been able to shake off. Either way, wolfing down a full English, cups of sugary tea and getting 'back on it' hasn't been an option for me.
My boat left Ko Phangan at the sociable time of 1pm, and it took a little over an hour to get to the nearby island of Ko Tao. The weather was perfect as we made our way across the crystal clear waters of the Gulf of Thailand. On the top of the boat were groups of travellers from across the globe - all glugging back cans of cold beer, basking in the beautiful surroundings and all probably thinking this is why I came to Thailand. It was an atmosphere and a feeling I wished you could bottle and open up on Monday mornings in February.
Ko Tao is a small island that has grown in popularity over recent years. Its larger neighbours, Samui and Phangan, have long been established tourist destinations, but now Tao is becoming increasingly popular. One of its main attractions is diving, but the scenery is so amazing you could come here and do nothing and yet feel perfectly contented.
I caught a tuk tuk to my hotel in the main resort of Sairee beach. Upon arrival it turned out they had no record of my reservation, as never comes as much of a surprise in this part of the world. I hadn't paid any money - it had been arranged by e-mail, but I had not printed out a record of my exchange with them. Anyway, this ended up working in my favour as they quoted me a price of 1500 bhat (30 quid) a night when I had originally agreed to pay 2500. I quickly swapped my expression of bemused indignance to a warm smile, dumped my bags and headed for the beach.
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