I can't believe how lucky I am!!

Since I arrived to London everyone is talking about the floods in Thailand!! It was raining like crazy all the days I was there, but I never realized the situation was so bad! It looks like I left just on time as I flight off on the 30th monday and these News are from that day! Mental note: I am never saying again that I'm not lucky! It looks like Krabi, the place I had my plane from was completely flooded and the airport closed so I was so lucky to not find a ferry to Krabi and instead arrive to Phuket airport were I had the flight to Bangkok just in time!!

24 hours

8.00am - 24hrs before flying from Bangkok to London (via Delhi) I woke up and packed the suitcase, I will check if my boat excursion goes today as yesterday was cancelled but for the rain outside I would say no already.
9.00am - 23hrs to my flight. After breakfast I went to ask if the excursion to monkey island and Maya bay were still on; they weren't so I also asked about my ferry to Krabi. They ensure me the ferry it goes at 2pm.

11am -21hrs before flying. I asked to almost everyone if they are sure the ferry to Krabi will navigate as the weather is awful. They still tell me it will but they don't sound that convinced now. I've done the check out and left my suitcase at reception.
12pm - 20hrs to go... Still by the reception reading a book with a cat on my lap.
1pm - 19hrs to go... Where is my suitcase? There is no receptionists and any suitcase left. A man that works at the cafe says they took it to the pier so I'm on my way under the rain to first find my suitcase, secondly don't drown with this diluvial flow and thirdly taking the ferry to Krabi.

2pm - 18hrs to go... I found my suitcase and the guy told me the ferry to Krabi will leave at 2pm. I'm completely soaked an cold. At o'clock they sent the passengers out from the ferry saying that for today there won't be ferries going to Krabi because of the weather. Under the rain I'm going with the suitcase like a headless chicken asking people the way to go to Krabi (I need to go there to take a plain to go to Bangkok) they answer is: there is no way to go to Krabi!!!

I try not to panic and goto the ferry to Phuket to ask if I can use the ticket that I already bought for Krabi (I also have the mini van paid) they answer yes and most other people follow the same steps.

3pm - 17hrs to go... I'm in the lower level of the ferry goin to Phuket... I ask if I can take a mini van to go from Phuket to Krabi to take my flight. They answer me I can but as my flight is at 7pm and we arrive to Phuket harbor at 4.30pm I would never make it on time as it takes around 4hrs that driving journey.

4pm - 16hrs to go... I have already come to terms that I will loose my flight from Krabi to Bangkok and I have decided the best thing to do now is to go to Phuket airport and try to find a flight to Bangkok. I'm seating with a couple from Bilbao and they are pretty nice; he gave me a dizziness pill to cope with the unreliable waves that are splashing on our boat and is making us go from side to side. I fall sleep as I'm feeling drowsy (but at least I don't puke...)

5pm - 15hrs to go... We arrived to Phuket Harbor and we are so many people that is madness. Still is raining and we are completely wet so we are shaking and the air conditioned from the boat hasn't help to keep us worm in this wetness. I have the ticket to go to Krabi airport and I trade it for a ticket to go to Phuket airport; they asked me for more money an right now I would give a kidney to get out of here but they don't know and accept to take me to Phuket airport with the ticket for Krabi airport.

6pm - 14hrs to go... This journey with the mini van is taking ages as we are going from one side o Phuket to the other. I wan to get asap to the airport as I need to know if I can catch a flight for today.

7pm - 13hrs to go... We arrived at the airport and after crossing the security point I went straight to Air Asia counter to see if I could get a ticket for tonight as otherwise I won't be on time in Bangkok to board on my journey back to England. Under any circumstances I want to miss that flight as I don't wanna get stacked in Thailand, if necessary I will rent a car and drive off (mental note: remember to take a GPS if that is the case)
There is a long queue and we all want flights to Bamgkok tonight. They are complaining that is very expensive as there are few seats left! Right now I would give all my cards to the lady to get a flight. If I can get into one I would need to tell Ari about me arriving later than 9pm as she is supposed to be at the airport to give me my little suitcase back. Fingers crossed!!

8pm - 12hrs to go... I did get a seat on the 9pm flight!!! Thanks to a mistake when I bought the ticket: I purchased the insurance even though I already have insurance for traveling around the world yearly; thanks to that "mistake" the airline had to change my seat on the flight that I want and also seating in the second row which is a reserved area without having to sold any part of my body!!! Yeah!!! I'm so happy that I don't even feel cold or wet anymore but it will be a good idea to go to the toilets and take off those wet clothes that have been sticked to my body for the past 8 hours and that with the air cond I am already sneezing like crazy. 
9pm - 11hrs to go... Very happy to be on the plane to Bangkok, it looks like finally I won't need to get stacked in Thailand!
11pm - 9hrs to go... Ari is waiting for me by the arrivals, she is got my small suitcase!! The day started pretty bad but things are rolling like stones. One at a time though!

1am - 7hrs to go... Ari is staying the night with me the airport; very sweet of her although I would have preferred to be with her during the trip not at the end. We've eaten something in a Japanese place and gone thousand times to the toilet.

6am - 2hrs to go... The check in opened and now I'm more relaxed about the fact that I'm coming back to Europe. I was about to say that "I'm not a celebrity but get me out of here!" I say goodbye to Ari, she must be exhausted (I am at least!!) she gave me a book to read on the plane, I bought some others, we've drunk coffee to keep us awake and we've been 2thousand times more to the toilet; after the check in she is going back home with the tube.
8am - the H hour!!! We are boarding the plane to Delhi!! (from there I'll have to check in again and then back to London in 12hrs!)

Animal day

Today I ate a fly that was in my coffee (a bit crunchy by the way...), I kicked a frog while walking under the rain and I feed a cat that was climbing on my leg while having dinner at a restaurant.
If Budah was right and the reincarnation exists I really hope feeding the cat makes up for the two previous animal incidents.

I was supposed to go this morning in an excursion on a boat to monkey beach and Maya bay but we have something like a tornado and thunderstorm outside and it is impossible to navigate; there is no one on the beach nor the swimming pool and I'm having an indoors day. I've been to the gym, watched tv and read a book. It seems I have one bad day for each good one. Today I will just take it as it comes and relax, tomorrow should be the good one and hopefully we could make the excursion and after that leave to Krabi to get on a plane.

I think efectius is very bored of not doing anything with this weather as specially the guys have their hormones upside-down. To my way to the reception I have to pass by a bungalow in which 3 American guys are in and every time one of them comes outside to get my attention and chat a bit to invite me for a drink. Last time I went by I heard how one said to the others, next time I if she is not coming for a drink I will carry her inside. I was so bored that I was about to say yes but my better judgement told me it wasn't a good idea to get into a bungalow with 3 chunky Americans so I changed my way and make a round loop to get to the reception and get away from their view.
After that the two waiters at the restaurant asked me for my boyfriend and I wasn't really thinking when I told them I didn't have one as the youngest took courage and while I was readying a book by the lobby asked me to wait for him at the end of his shift in 20min (I left just in time wondering if the monsoon had something to do with those guys...)
Today has been a boring day with this awful weather that is ruining everyone's holidays, nothing else to report.

Marihuana?!?!?

Yesterday I didn't finish writing the blog after I arrived to Phi phi and that is for two main reasons:
The first is that I didn't have time or willing for writing.
The second is that yesterday's entry in the blog was negative and I thought that after getting to the island I would have feel much better and positive so I could write something good and nice... I was wrong...

As we approached the island there were waterfalls from the sky, it wasn't rain, it was something I have never seen before! As soon as we stepped on the pier we were asked for money just to get into the island; they so call it "money to keep Phi phi clean" coming from people that has the worst pollution I have ever seen and from the uncountless motorboats by the shore that was a bit to ironic. Leaving that on a side, at the pier the guy from the "sandview resort" from where I booked and paid two days of bungalow wasn't there to help me out with the suitcase as guys from other hotels were. I kept walking under the incredible rain reading post to see if the name of my resort was written there but nothing and I didn't know where to find it. I asked a couple of guys but they were just interested in renting me a room not in giving me directions. One just pointed the path that I had to follow and told me: 10 minuts!
I saw myself carrying my suitcase under the rain stepping on wet beach sand... Luckily for me a guy from another hotel saw the miserable situation I was in and took my suitcase, gave me his umbrella and told me he would help me until his hotel (he after helped me till my resort and for that I was so thankful that I gave him quite a lot of money, at least for him. When We arrived to my so called "resort" I only had one thing in mind: get out of here!
The reception to call that under a name... Was a 3 wall hut on the sand, no one was there... After a few minutes a girl appeared giving me a key and a guy smoking a cigarette took my suitcase to the "bungalow". To get there you had to go through other bungalows and through piles of rubbish laying on the floor. When we arrived someone was inside, smoking a cigarette while lying on bed and watching tv... We went in and the two guys said something to each other and didn't leave but stayed there watching me (I didn't want to say anything not to make them angry whatsoever.  When they left I checked the room... Called bungalow... I did not only feel unsecured but it was also dirty and wet sheets, the bed was a built in bed, made with cement. The walls were dirty and I dear to check the toilet... That hadn't been cleaned for years!! I had to leave but where??!?!?

I left my suitcase there and I went to the nearest hotel that seemed nice to check for the cost of a room. Meanwhile I paid money to get access to Internet and check the website to see if there is something I could do, I found the number of hotels.com, I called from my English mobile and didn't work, I called from the Thai mobile and the same... There wasn't any other number in the whole website to call so I sent them an email to let them know the situation and cancel the payment that the same day was leaving my account. I asked the rates of the rooms and where astronomic in the hotel I checked so I asked to see the rooms first. When I was upstairs seeing the not very amazing for the price room the guy that worked for the hotel told me he could get me a room better for a cheaper price in another hotel but that was a secret so better not to say anything to the reception (obviously!!)
I talked to his friend over the phone and told me I would meet him outside as "it was a secret"; I checked my email to see if hotels.com had answered and they didn't so I tried my luck with this guy. He had a post in the main street and showed me photos of possible hotels in a folder. The price was better than the last one but still very expensive. At that point I was completely exhausted from everything, I was soaked by the rain, it was getting dark and I just wanted to sleep in a clean and safe place so I said yes, I paid a kidney in money and I told him I needed to go back to my bungalow to get my suitcase and give the keys to tell them I wasn't staying even though I had already paid.
I found an old man that did speak few English and told him I wasn't staying and the reason why. He kept repeating: "one night! One night!" while giving me the keys again. I tried to explain the situation again and his answer was shouting: "do u smoke marihuana?" what?!?!? I couldn't believe my ears! I said that I don't even smoke anymore cigarettes (and also it makes me vomit) but that wasn't the matter in any case! He went very ungry and throw a plastic chair back, moment that I left the keys on the table and walked away. I just wanted to give the keys back and give the reason about my leaving, nothing else as I had already pay for the two nights to hotels.com.

So... There u had me following under the end of the world rain a man with my suitcase in a carrier. The poor man that saw my face and what happened, wanted to give me his raincoat and later on his hat to cover me from the rain, which I really appreciated but I was so fed up and soaked that didn't bother me anymore walk under the thunderstorm uncovered and with water up to my knees.

After 20 min of walking and stopping to breath we arrived at the new hotel and after checking in I gave the man a deserved money for walking with me under the rain.

After this I had went straight to the swimming pool before it closed, had a shower and went to eat to the restaurant. From there I don't want anything to bother me anymore and I decided to have an amazing time. I will stay in this hotel 3 nights, which is the rest of the time I have left before going back. I went to sleep after watching the movie "the happiness trip" or something like that in which Will Smith is the main character.

Now.... Today!! I woke up still a bit unsettle for the incidents but decided to have a good time, also, today Ari is supposed to come... False! She sent me a text at 6am saying she is not coming because of a paper she has to sign on Monday. To be honest I expected that as before coming to Thailand she told me she would have all week off, when I had the ticket she gave me her work schedule in which she had to work but we could have managed and from that she has come up saying she has to work even on the weekend. To be honest if I knew that before I would have taken my time to come to Thailand and plan things better as I came now because she told me she'd be with me all the time.

Anyway, changing subject, as I was expecting already that from her I didn't let it bother me much and I took energy with the breakfast and lie down on the beach and the swimming pool all day, just what I needed!! I'm a bit tan now as I'm on 50spf protection but as usual there are some parts like the back where I cannot reach and I'm too shy to ask anyone and I'm like a pig (all read)
I am following the advise of my friends Meredith and Miriam and I book a ticket to monkey beach and Maya bay where the movie (not sure if "the beach" or "007") was filmed. I bought 50min of Internet to buy my plane ticket from Krabi to Bangkok and also sorted out the taxi boat to go to Krabi and the mini van is arranged to take me to the airport. I also had time to talk to Miriam on facebook and talking to her helps me a lot usually, but now even more! She is right, if I was not alone yesterday's situation and most of them would have been even funny, but being alone it makes you take bad things in a less manageable way; I expected to be with Ari and for what I explained before there was nothing I could do about not being alone.

During the afternoon it started raining like crazy and after taking some silly pics in the room I went to "carpe Diem" (never better said in this moment). It is a beach bar and there I had a drink and talked to some American girls I met by the swimming pool earlier. There were also some american guys around but as usual behabing bad so I tried to stay away. Some Thai guys came to talk to me and I told them I have a boyfriend so they can stop trying anything. However, one of them that actually does a fire show on the beach told me: "where is boyfriend now? Spain, no? This is Thailand and u forget boyfriend! He no here... Here is me..." hahaha! He is actually funny and he asked me not to walk alone, to walk with him. He only left me to go to do the fire show, moment in which some other guys from the show came to talk to me and I left before the show finished so I could go to my room without no one by my side.

Me no like it

I'm starting to get tired of Thailand... This is for some reason due to the always changing of location and I will sort that out today as I'm on the ferry to Phi phi island and I'm thinking in staying there for at least a couple o days. The other things that put me off here is the smell, dirt of the streets and the luck of politeness of the people. If I learnt something is that they won't steal your possessions but they will try to trick u till the end. I'm getting really tired o having to deal with tricks, like asking the receptionist to the hotel for a taxi to get to the ferry and she asked 900B straight away: she said: "taxi and ticket together! Ok! Ok! Good price!" and then she drop it to 800B seeing my face of incredulity. She left it to 100B just for the taxi when I try to explain her I knew all together was around 400B. The same happens when you ask for the "meter" in a taxi, they suddenly don't understand you and start driving, but when they heard: "if you want me to pay you I need to see the meter..." as magi they suddenly understand what you are saying. Still, I've got to a point where I just don't argue anymore and I pay them whatever they want as I need to arrive to the places. I thought Spain has a low level of English, but compared with Thailand at least in the touristic areas Spaniards can understand you. Here I spent most of the times speaking the sign language to receptionists.

As for what I'm writing you can imagine today is not one of the greatest days, I woke up and packed once again the suitcase. I've been walking around Phuket town and there is nothing to do there besides visiting some shopping centers. I bought myself a helmet (thinking about buying a scooter after the other day reunion with my motorbike soul)
I also found something that looked like a temple, a Chinese one, and I got in to find some strange people, a big man topless that looked like the "manager" of the place and a woman without legs in a wheelchair where the ones pointed out among the few people there. I took a couple of pictures and I wasn't quick enough getting out of there as the woman on the wheelchair came to me and touch my arm a couple of times saying something... I hope she was blessing me or saying something about my tomato look skin, in any case.... I wanted to chop my arm off after that...
After that I found a mosque and it looked like they didn't want to let me in if I wasn't going to pray so when they asked me if I were Muslim I said yes (I hope I won't burn in hell for that... And have a Muslim curst on me...)
After I had the brilliant idea of asking a man for directions, and he took the map I was holding, just to leave it for a few seconds as to scratch his foot with some finger amputations and inflammations that I didn't see before or I would have never approached... After the explanations on the directions that I did not listen as I was too busy on my mind trying to remember the bit of paper untouched, I left the place holding the map with to fingers and dropping it in the first bin. As it is also raining, I went back to the hotel and sat in the reception uploading pictures on facebook and scratching mosquito bites till the taxi came and drop me where the ferry is, that is where I am now, waiting for it to start the engine and arrive to Phi Phi island where I hope to have the expected holidays I dreamed of. I will write later on once I've arrived to the island.

Motorbike fly

Yesterday night, after writing the blog I went out to visit Patong; it was full of people, really lively. I walked through the dark streets only illuminated by the neon lights and with the sound of the music. A bit too much for a girl that is traveling alone... I had dinner in something that seemed like a restaurant outside and cleaner than the others. For some reason I had a police officer looking at me the whole time I was there, I didn't know if to feel scared of safe.... After dinner I wanted to have a drink in one of those bars, specially at "the beach bar" but it put me off the quantity of men and on the other side the women being there... 
Well, I decided that Patong wasn't for me, specially the hotel I was staying in as there were 2 old drunken men by my door room trying to get next door. As soon as I got reception I booked an hotel in Phuket town to get away from there but....

Today I regret it because I had an amazing time!!! I woken up very early, packed my suitcase and went to walk around and to swim to the beach. With the daylight everything looked better! It was cloudy and it drop rain from time to time but it was nice, I had a nap on the beach sand and after taking a shower back at the hotel I left the suitcase in reception and went to rent a motorbike. They rent it by days, but as I was supposed to leave during the afternoon and I was going to use it only for a few hours the guy made me a discount 200B instead of 300B.
That was the best thing I did!! Leaving on a side that I swallowed more pollution and dust that in all my life, I had an amazing time!! I still am a motorbike fly!! I thought that with all these years without riding it I would be hopeless, like when I first used it: 15 years old and I couldn't release the gas so I almost clash with a parked car. That was not the situation: I did drive up and down the island, squeezing between cars and even on the main road speeding side by side with lorries. I stopped and went walking to visit some stalls and ended up having a Thai massage! I didn't know it was the full body, but I was about to say no when she asked me to undress completely (I looked at the door to see if I could run...) she saw my face and said: ok, you can leave your bikini on! She also gave me some sort of trousers but then she insisted I had to take off my top of my bikini as she couldn't work properly. It was fine, she closed some curtains and for an hour I had the Thai massage for an hour (a bit too hard for me... It was even painful and some times I just wanted her to stop it but it was a good experience)

After the massage.... motorbike again! And I found a shopping center!! I could eat properly!! Yeah! The parking was packed with motorbikes and I put an extra effort in remembering the location o mine. After eating in a proper restaurant I went back to the beach to give the motorbike back and to have a swim in the sea. It still was cloudy so this time I didn't bother with the sun screen.... MISTAKE! now I'm like a tomato and the aftersun won't help.. How is that even possible?!? Cloudy, just in the beach for less than  an hour and sunburnt... 

Well, after apparently sunburning without having a clue of it I took a bus that runs from Patong to Phuket packed with people!! It was just for 25B and I was lucky to take it on the first stop because after that you have to stand up as it runs full. Now I'm in Phuket town as after the bus left me in the center of the town a taxi took me to my hotel. funny enough now I regret to have left Patong because of the amazing time I had with the motorbike and now that I new the area I would have felt more comfortable with that drink and also I saw some snorkeling excursions and lots of activities to do; however, under any circumstance I would have stayed in the same hotel!

Phuket town is boring compared with the rest I have been to. The hotel is nice as I booked it yesterday online myself and it is exactly in the center. I've been around and there is not much, just shops and shopping centers, I'm gonna book the hotel for tomorrow's new destination: Koh phi phi island, hopefully in the morning I won't regret don't stay longer as I'm planning to wake up early to do some site-seeing.

Like match.com

Today I woke up early to pack my suitcase, on the meanwhile Ari is coming to my hotel to spend the morning with me and to give a mobile phone so I only need to buy a sim card at the airport later on. She is really sweet, she told me that if I lose it doesn't matter because it's old and from a friend and it is a fake iPhone. I fully got what she meant when at the airport I went to get the sim card in and the phone fell apart, the screen it comes off like a posit paper and I spent 30min trying to call her to give her my number (Mental note: in an emergency do not use that phone to try to call, specially if by emergency I don't have 30min to try to click numbers)

Anyway, we spent the morning packing and in the swimming pool till my taxi came (300B and a great clean car, that shows the rip off of 450B on the way to Bangkok)

Right now I'm at Phuket airport, I flies with Air Asia and it was a pleasant flight but I was worried as I did not have a clue of where I was going to sleep tonight. I keep reading the guide and trying to sort out in my mind where to go so I can start with the hotel bookings once we landed, but when that time came... There was too many signs, people shouting directions as to concentrate in anything so I sat down, relaxed and started calling the hotels I had in my guide- all fully booked already. After some minutes of panic wanting to be elsewhere I went to the information desk and they pointed out a reservations agent... Another ripped off situation but that was the most sensitive thing to do now: take any hotel that seems nice. I have taken one that is on the beach and although there is not breakfast included and the pictures are a bit tacky, I just want to be on the beach (even if it is cloudy...)
I paid 150B for a van drive and we are now on our way, after waiting to complete the 12 seats' van with more passengers. (I will write later on)

I'm already at the hotel... While we were waiting in the van at the airport a couple told me that getting the hotel at the airport was the worst thing to do because are expensive and the pictures they show u are not what they send u to... I regret to inform that this is completely true... It reminds me to match.com, the dating website that the picture you can see is completely different to the reality and some times you get to think they upload another persons' photos.

I decided to come to Patong and I'm in a disgusting hotel room being bitten by mosquitos (even with the strongest jungle formula repelent)
One thing is right, the hotel is by the beach but not exactly as we are in the main road in front of the beach, not the private property shown in the pictures. Also, there is a swimming pool yeah... Next door... In a different hotel and you have to walk on the street. The room looks more or less fine on the surface, the hotel itself doesn't seem nice even if u have your eyes close... My window has views to the downstairs kitchen pipes and I swear if I don't lose weight from this starvation I will never do then.

Now I'm off to wander around the street, hopefully I will be able to eat something and to see the night life in the streets (I news to keep in mind this is just for one night...)