Beach Clean-Up

So now, here I am, on my final day with everyone before I move over to Koh Samui; it is such a strange feeling to think that once again all the people I have met are not going to be with me and quite potentially, will never see again. That is the hard thing about travelling, meeting all these incredible people to just then watch them walk away and return to their life. It is an odd feeling and hard to come to terms with, especially when you spend so much time with them and rely on them whilst you are away.

It is Jack’s birthday today so I met with him to go for a birthday breakfast; I had also bought him a little scuba diver keyring and postcard which most people had signed as I know it can be difficult having a birthday away from people that you actually know, so I just hoped it would make it a little special for him. He seemed to really appreciate it and, as he read the postcard, he had a big smile on his face so that made me happy to know I had made a difference to his day. Today’s activities were a beach clean-up on Sairee beach; only 6 out of the 19 in the group turned up for this which was

disappointing, but the ones that did turn up, made the most of it with playing music and being rewarded with an iced coffee. The main cause of rubbish was cigarette butts and bottles; all this rubbish could so easily be prevented if people just took a bit more care. I was only able to do it for an hour as I then had to go back and try to pack so that I could still join everyone to go down to Freedom Beach to relax till I had to leave for my ferry. I packed with not even a minute to spare, it was the quickest I had ever moved as when I got back to the room, I did not feel too good, so I had a quick lie down before I started to pack which left me with all of 10 minutes to run around. It turned out just to be the 6 of us that went to the beach; at this beach, they have a turtle conservation programme where they collect the eggs, hatch them and keep them until they have grown to 25cm before then being released to give them the best possible chance of survival as even though Koh Tao means turtle island, the number of turtles on the island has dramatically decreased in recent years. In the tanks, I would guess they must have had around 20, if not more, turtles. After, everyone else grabbed some food whilst I just got a smoothie as I was not hungry, before we headed down to the beach. When diving, Jack had burst an ear drum so he stayed behind on the beach with our stuff whilst the rest of us went snorkeling in the sea. The sea here was very shallow and so there wasn’t much room to swim, so it was a case of doggy paddling to try and minimise our

disturbance. The fish that I saw were tiny but there seemed to be quite a few dipping in and out of the reef. Before long I noticed it was time to begin swimming back to the shore so that I at least had a chance to dry off before Jai came to pick me up. No sooner had I got out, I received a text to say that Jai was here. I walked out onto the road to meet her and she was there to meet me but not with a car like I had thought, but her motorbike. I found it strange how in Bangkok our tour guides had said to us do not get on a motorbike, and here, our tour guide was giving me a lift on her motorbike; not sure if this is maybe because the island isn’t very busy that it was different here. I got on and sat right up behind her as she drove quite slowly (which I was pleased about) to the pier for me to get the ferry and once again move on.

I arrived at the pier with 40 minutes to spare so sat there enjoying the remaining bit of the Koh Tao sun. I decided that I would sit in the inside cabin today and try to get a bit of sleep on the hour and forty-minute ferry ride except this didn’t particularly go to plan. The sea was quite choppy and thankfully, Georgia had given me some travel sickness tablets, so I didn’t feel too bad although not well enough to sleep either but the person next to me was not okay despite taking travel tablets, so I ended up having to go stand outside for a bit for some fresh air as sitting next to her was not helping me feel any better. That journey could not have gone quick

enough in my opinion.

I finally arrived on Koh Samui and found my shuttle to the hotel and was excited to be able to get an early night today and, hopefully, the best night's sleep in a while. There was an unbelievable amount of traffic on the island and because of this, I arrived at my hotel after check-in had closed but thankfully, as I had emailed them saying I was stuck in traffic, the reception remained open for me for when I got there. I walked into my room and it was stunning; there was a hob, kettle, microwave, king-sized bed and just looked so clean. I did not unpack anything or even sit down as I knew I would not be getting back up again so straight away I text Lucy - who came to Koh Samui yesterday - to meet up for some dinner. We found an odd restaurant that was brightly decorated and had lots of colourful cartoon statues in its vicinity. The area where we are staying is not very touristy, so we did not have much in the choice of restaurants with menus that we could understand, so this one was the best we could find. I did enjoy the food though which was a green curry with rice although Lucy said her dinner tasted a bit funny, so she did not eat much of it. We must have returned to our hotels around 9pm which meant it was the best time of the day as I could shower, get in my pyjamas, and lay in an incredibly soft bed with the air con to keep me cool. I don’t even have the energy to read some of my book before I sleep, although even though I am so happy with the room and bed, I am missing my Georgia and our nights of the laughter at the fire show.