Crappy sleep. No fan, no wind coming in through the window, the mosquitos were relentless, even though I had a mosquito net up. Woke about 2:00am, itching all over. Climbed completely into my silk sleeping sheet and tried that. It kept mosquitos off, but the stifling heat inside the sheet with no air movement meant I sweated and sweated. After a while, moved out to my hammock on the verandah and covered myself with my sarong. Better, and there's a bit of a breeze being outside, but sleeping in a hammock is not comfortable. AFter a bit and a sore back, moved back inside and left my door wide open, pulled the sleeping sheet up to my waist and used the sarong to cover the upper part of my body. I found a bit of peace, as there was a very slight breeze coming through the door periodically, and the sarong is not as hot as the sleeping sheet.
Woke up around 7:30, packed, checked out and took my bag to the travel agent, then rented a motorbike.
Zipped out to the west end of the island, Tanote Bay and Au Lek. Beach at Tanote Bay sucked, Au Leuk is a private beach, but walked in anyway, and it appeared to suck too. Went to Sairee and walked around and had lunch.
But some funny t-shirts. I was going to buy more t-shirts back in Bangkok, but they have tons more here that I never saw in Bangkok.
Later in the day, went to another beach at Shark Bay. Along the road, I saw dozens and dozens of motorcycles parked all over. Curious, I checked it out and found out where all the tourists go....very nice beach.
I took the bike back at 6:30, and buddy that ran the motorbike place had gone home for the day, buddy #2, who sells the gasoline, told me. I told him I need to return the bike, and get my passport, as I have a boat to catch at 11:00. So he told me to come back in 30 minutes. Always trustful of the locals that they'll do the right thing and everything will work out, I took his word. I left the bike there, but kept the key, and headed off to use the internet and came back at 7:00. All the bikes were now behind the rain shield, and buddy #2, gasoline buddy, wasn't around either. A guy across the street, at the mini-mart told me to wait a few minutes, so I sat down. Sure enough, buddy #2, gasoline buddy, came along a few minutes later with my passport, and I paid for the bike. It's amazing how the locals always make things work out.
Walked back to the travel agent and got the 7:30 transfer to the pier and dropped my bag on the boat. The boat doesn't leave until 11:00. The boat is a dive, definately not designed for passengers, but they have a large area where they have built bunk beds out of wood. Along the floor of both sides, and on the upper bunk, are dirty, thin matresses with pillows and blankets. A few Thai people are already staking claims to matresses, but most of them are still available. I headed to a restaurant for pizza. Mai Haad, the town where the pier is, is pretty dark because there's still no power on the island. Some of the restaurants have generators. Back to the boat at 9:00, and three Canadian girls had taken up residence on the upper bunk, where the windows are and the ceiling fans are most effective. I took a spot beside the girls. We talked a bit (where are you from, etc.), then the girls moved their big backpacks up onto the bunk, building a wall between themselves and me. One of the girls remarked that they weren't actually building a wall between them and me, even if it looked like that! As the evening wore on, more and more people came in looking for bunks. The three girls with their backpacks were taking up well over half of the whole top bunk for themselves, leaving everyone else to squish together. Finally, they were told to get their backpacks down, and the girls closest to me asked me to move next to her, because she knew me better than anyone else. Haha. I moved over towards her and more people took up the space I just vacated.
In the middle of the night, I woke up and another local, was trying to squeeze in on the other side of me, as there was a bit of space between me and another guy. He reeked terribly, so I turned around and snuggled up to the Canadian girl to avoid the stench, which worked. And she didn't seem to mind.
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