Saturday, 2nd June. Succumbed to sleep until about 11:30. Dressed and went to see if Dafir was about. Left a message at his hotel, although I didn't know at this time that he'd already checked out. On my way for brekkie, well wahey! and who'd a thunk it? I bumped into Akos, my Hungarian friend from Taipei. He joined me for breakfast but had already eaten, himself. I'd known that Akos was coming to Thailand but I'd thought that he'd already headed out of here. I walked down K.S.Rd. one more time to check if Dafir was about, but he wasn't, so off we set in search of a tuk-tuk that'd take us to see some sights. It was Akos' last day here in Thailand so he wanted to see the standing Buddha and the Royal Palace.

The tuk-tuk drivers weren't too willing to do a two stop itinerary unless we spent time at a tourist shop, where the drivers earn petrol tokens for taking tourists. As I had to be back in K.S.Rd. for 6 and Akos also had a lot to do we declined their kind offer. Off we set by foot, for the Royal Palace. I'd seen it before when I was on holiday with Kyung Hee, but it was good that I saw it again as the first time I'd seen it was as a relative newcomer to Asia and at that time I failed to appreciate the intricate beauty of the temples and palaces, seeing it only as 'overgarnished'. We spent a couple of hours in the Palace and Akos finished his last six shots.

As I entered with my worldly possessions laden on my back, Dafir was already waiting at the Pawana Travel Agency, where we were to wait for the bus. We only had to wait about ten minutes before we were ushered onto a mini bus which took us elsewhere in BKK to wait for the coach which was to take us to the ferry from Surathani. On this mini bus were Gil and Meital from Israel, travelling down to Samui as well. We all waited for the second bus outside a petrol station, drinking beer, watching the other mini buses ferry more people to this stop. Eventually the bus came and off we went, some for Samui, some for PhaNgan, but the majority destined for the legendary full moon party in Koh Pha Ngan.

After our trip down to Surathani and the crossing over to Samui we took a free taxi (okay, back of a pick-up) to the Maenam Beach Resort at Maenam and it cost us B100 each for one twin room and one double - But for whatever reason so far the hotel staff have been asking if we want a double, "No, we just good friend!" is our usual reply. I should elaborate on the accommodation that it's a two room (bedroom, bathroom) bungalow. Cool, and more than enough for our purposes.

After spending a fair while at the beach we headed for one of the beachside restaurants and had dinner. What we noticed was that this beach seemed very quiet. Even when the restaurant owner started to light a beach fire there was very little reaction from the other customers. Way too introverted.

One of the younger barmen tried to get the fire going with paper which was proving pretty unsuccessful. Dafi and I went to help out and fanned the totem-like fire with menus. No reaction from the other punters.

Surprisingly, there was a small cheer from the Germans on the next table when the owner poured petrol over it and the flames shot up skyward.

We moved on to another bar and player pool with Dan and Steve from the UK, and chatted with Inmar, Steve's girlfriend from Bilbao, Spain. Dan seemed very interested in my experiences teaching English in Asia, mainly as he'd completed a TESOL within the last year or so. Inmar lives in London and works for a computer programming company. We think Dan was a little unhappy as dafir and I were joking about while Dafi should've been concentrating on the game. He mentioned this, that the pace was too slow, so Dafi knuckled down and whipped his... er, won the game. Funnily enough, Dan still wasn't too pleased. Can't please some people, eh?