Week 27, Koh Samed, Thailand

Dear Ethel, Family and Friends,

After 21 days in Bangkok I have now finally escaped and lounging on a beautiful beach on Koh Samed. Most importantly I have Louise back with me, she arrived on Tuesday night. 21 days apart dosen’t seem like a long time apart but it is, believe me. We had both made the decision that we would be moving on to India. So my last week in Bangkok was spent aimlessly wandering around the enormous shopping malls, you can literally walk for miles inside the aircon and not have to set foot outside unless you want to cross the skybridge(the walkway under the skytrain) that links one group of shopping malls to another.

In our enthusiasm in planning the next few legs of our journey to India we have got a bit carried away with ourselves. In one afternoon on the internet we had booked tickets all the way from Bangkok to Koh Pangan, Koh Sumi, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and then on to Bangalore India. Success, all done, until... we quickly checked the visa requirements for India. Yes Australians need a visa before arriving, as does everybody nowadays. Quick search for Indian Embassy, check, get train and taxi, ah, embassy has moved, ok new taxi, race around the corner quickly run up to foyer...So sorry sir embassy is closed (pronounced close ed) today. Nervous wait until Friday morning. Friday morning arrive on the dot at 8.30am join queue fill out all forms including 27b, attached photos (luckily got them yesterday), wait in queue, approach counter...much stamping shuffling of paper, ticking of boxes . Thankyou sir, $80 each pay over there, then come back here and pay $20 each processing fee. IT WILL TAKE 5 WORKING DAYS TO PROCESS YOUR VISA. AAAAAAAHHHH (thats me). There is the spanner that brings it all undone.

As a consequence we have travelled down to a small Island not far from Bangkok for 4 days to wait until or visas are ready. Its Sunday today and we had hoped to be on Koh Pangan enjoying the fantastic Sunday roast at the Reluctant Chef with John, Richard, Steve and the rest of the characters who live there. Unfortunately we have missed that and will also not get to see Koh Sumi, as we now pick up our passports in Bangkok and catch the overnight train then bus and ferry to Koh Sumi and fly out that afternoon to Penang. So it’s a busy life we lead.

However Koh Samet is a very laid back Island, small and quiet and no real hi rise style tourist accommodation here yet. We are staying at Horizons, ao Seangthien in the grass hut style bungalow with aircon. As we come from Coolum Beach, we never really go looking for a nice beach as ours is so hard to beat, but the beach here is great, nice white sand and clean. And they make good coffee.

We should be in Penang next week. All the best for now

Ric & Louise