About 430am on the 11th both Troy and I were awakened by yelling right outside our hotel room. I was quite annoyed as we hadn't fallen asleep until 2am ( watching "butt-fudge mountain" with Heath and Jake; ahem Brokeback Mountain), and we had our bus to the port in the morning. Even with my ear plugs firmly stuffed into my ears, the yelling back and forth was impossible to sleep through.

When I realized the futility of closing my eyes, I looked to Troy who was already sitting up and peering outside the curtains to the reception desk area. He said he had been trying to figure out what was going on, as this was happening for 10-15 minutes so far. What we saw was 3 western looking persons, two twenty something girls, and one twenty-something guy, shouting back and forth with a skinny Thai woman on the entryway to the bungalows. There were a few other Thais watching nervously looking as if they had just woken up and were trying to figure out the situation as well.

The one Thai woman continued to scream and yell in Thai, and then the police arrived on their motorbikes, sans sirens or flashing. After a few seconds, they approached her, handcuffed her and took her away; by the way, I think Thailand is one of the few places in the world where police take you "downtown" on the back of their moped. I haven't seen a Ko Samui ambulance yet, but I'm praying its not a guy on a motorbike with a siren/light combo strapped to his head...But at this point, nothing will surprise me!

After the cop and woman were gone, we were exhausted and glad to be able to fall back to sleep. The next morning while waiting for our bus to the port, I asked one of the Thais in the lobby if anything strange happened last night. He nodded, quite amused.

"lady-boy robber" he said breaking into a grin.

I shrugged, obviously not familiar with this pedestrian occurance and he launched into the events of the previous night.

Apparently the 3 westerners ( a boyfriend and girlfriend, and the girl's sister) returned to their room about 330am after watching one of the soccer games on satellite tv. The sisters were not tired, and they decided to buy two beers at the convenience store at the corner. They returned with their beer and went to sit on the beach. Fifteen minutes later, they walked back up to their room to go to sleep when they noticed the door to their bungalow was cracked. Thinking the boyfriend had left it ajar for them, they went in the room. To their horror a woman was ripping through their bags and had out their camera, passports, credit cards and envelope full of money. On closer inspection, the girls and guy saw this was a lady-boy. The guy acted fast throwing the lady-boy into a headlock, while the girls went to find the manager/owner of the hotel. Luckily, the cooks were up at that time, and called the owner, who then called the police.

The kicker: the lady boy told police that he had gone home with the guy the previous night, had sex with him several times, and just come out of the shower when the girls walked in the room!!! Not a plausible excuse for being caught stealing, but very entertaining nontheless.... Luckily, this guy got all his money and stuff back, problem free. The manager insisted that he go to the station to press charges against this guy, because if he didn't the lady-boy would surely return to do it again.

The owner said that criminals check to see if every door in the hotel is open, and if they are caught while someone wakes up, they simply apologize saying they were looking for their friend, and it is the wrong room. Thank goodness Troy and I are vigilant about locking our doors, and hiding our things, but it was good to be reminded to be aware!

We arrived into Patong Beach, Phuket late last night after being funneled into a "sister" travel company of the tour we used to go to Phuket.Great business practice for the local Thais ; chuckle, chuckle....Basically, they bring you to a small, out of the way apartment ( not some central point of your destination), which doubles as a travel agency. After you have traveled for some hours ( probably upwards of 10; like us) in a small, packed vehicle, you're tired, and not in the mood for an expensive taxi. Unfortunately, if you take this tour company, and do not buy a hotel package from them, you're basically stranded there. You are forced to call a taxi ( in Thailand they charge you for the time to pick up as well as your actual journey) which could be upwards of 500 baht!! They also are known to tell people their hotel is "closed" and take them to another hotel, for which they get kick-backs. We, luckily, did not have a reservation in stone anywhere, and could agree on the lovely Le Tong Beach Resort for about 15 bucks a night. There was an older American expat, who was an editor of a magazine based in Phuket, who was not as lucky. She ended up paying more for the taxi ride from that agency than the entire 10 hour journey from Ko Samui!!

It was a 2.5 hour ferry ride to Surat Thani, and then another 4.5 hour drive southwest to the large island of Phuket.

When getting into the port of Surat Thani, as the only ones going to Phuket, we got momentarily excited that we'd be alone in the 12 seat minivan for the entire journey. Mistake! We went to 3 other tour agencies who had sweaty backpackers, just like us, lined up out front waiting for the next bus. We were lucky to be the first ones in, and our bags had the luxury of being inside the vehicle. I noticed the 60 something Thai man flinging the newcomers bags haphazardly onto the roof, wondering how in the heck they stay there for a long, high speed drive. The irish fellow behind me wondered the same thing, and apprehensively approached the driver. After irish-guy insisted in an entertaining demonstration ( the driver didn't speak English), the driver tied down the backpacks with a bit of rope.

We were on our way, at capacity, in the '84 Hyundai Toaster, waiting in vain for the exhausted fan to morph into an effective cooling device when we saw the storm clouds. These clouds didn't bother me so much as the Irish guy whose bags were on the roof. Rope is good for securing the bags but doesn't do much in the way of water-proofing them....In addition to his baggage situation, this guy was also sitting in the rear row of seats...well "row" is a bit of an over-statement here. The seat in front of him ( which Troy and I were lucky enough to avoid as we came first) had no lock on its recline lever, so it just sort of swayed. With someone sitting in it, their weight basically reclined the seat into the lap of the person behind them. Irish guy is about Troy's height with about 50 more pounds, so you can imagine his excitement for the road-trip ahead with a small chinese man fully reclined onto his thighs.

We arrived problem-free to our luxurious oceanview room took hot showers ( wow, its been more than 3 weeks since my last hot one) and fell into our big bed.

Today we were total slugs, not even leaving the hotel until 4pm to scout out the pick-up point for our visa run tomorrow. Thankfully its fully air-con, with a DVD player onboard so we won't be too bored.

We will be back from Ranong tomorrow evening, and I am sure we will have some more entertainment for you all :-)

Happy Father's day!!! Especially to Don, Wayne and Poppa
We love you all!

PS the pic is Patong Beach just after sunset...

xoxoxoxox