January 2001 -2

Jan 11

Today we took a train to go to some shops. There were just a couple of malls but they were massive! Don't think I've seen anything like it. We walked around them for a long time. I got a few hair clips and a pair of silver earrings. And 3 music cassettes. I was pretty happy with them. Mum was content too. In the end dad got angry with me for refusing to try on a T-shirt and being too vocal about it on top. Well I did try it but refused to show it to them because it looked bad and what could I do! Dad was quite mad but seemed to calm down later.

There were many people on the streets begging. There were women with children and people with no limbs. It was so hard seeing them! Dad gave some money. I want to help too, to reduce the number of people like that. I feel very awkward passing them every time.

Jan 12

Today we got up and packed in the morning and left for the airport to fly to Phuket. The flight felt short. We were sat in the middle again but I moved to the seat second from the window, next to some businessman. And I'm glad that I did! I could see out well and there were indeed things to look at! When we went up to certain height, you could clearly see a gray line separating the town below from the sky. Dad had just told me today that Bangkok is the dirtiest city in the world! It really made sense now.

Later I watched beautiful clouds and everything seemed like a wonderland. You could see a lot of little islands and everyone tried to get a glimpse.

It took much longer to get to the hotel from the airport. It was cool and very green. As soon as we arrived, me and Pete went exploring. Straight away we saw a suspicious guy with a knife in his hand! I saw one like that on TV before. I saw him a few times later throughout the evening too. Every time he was staring directly at me, with a scary, slightly sneering look. I was very scared. But I somehow couldn't talk about it. Eventually mum and dad noticed him too and reported him somewhere. Mum and dad got acquainted with our neighbours and spent a long time chatting to them on the verandah. I was happy for them. I just walked around the property. It was late and I had nothing to do but didn't feel like sleeping yet.

Jan 15

We have been spending most of our time on the beach. I got tanned. The waves here aren't large and it is rather deep. I mainly entertained myself by diving and walking on my hands, sticking my legs out of the water. I also collected shells but there are not many of them here, unfortunately. Time has been passing fast. I saw something very surprising and strange here. A lot of women (including grandmas and young girls) walk around and swim wearing only their bottoms! It is so disgusting! Aren't they embarrassed? There are so many men around! And really. They don't even have a reason to do this.

Mum is lecturing me today, that I shouldn't wrinkle my forehead. "You have to look after yourself before it's too late. You have wrinkles at 13 already. What will happen to you later?" I get this too. Need to work on myself...

Jan 16

We were meant to be going to go to an island today but mum haven't been feeling well and we postponed it for tomorrow. Mum is saying that she hasn't been sleeping for the last few nights.

The most interesting thing for the day was that me and Pete finally got to ride an elephant. It's a pity that it was only for half an hour. It was very fun and I liked it.

Mum met a local doctor today. We went to see him with her. They spoke in English but then it turned out that he spoke a bit of Russian. His wife is Russian. I remember that she was 19, while the doctor was about 40 and had massive bust. Kind of self explanatory! Mum went to meet her later too and they had dinner together.

Jan 17

We went to the Raya island. We drove to the pier where little boats moor. By accident we ended up at the very front of the boat. That turned out to be amazing! We went very fast and the waves were big. That made us bounce a lot. Me and Pete were standing up but the shaking was so strong we kept almost falling over. That was fantastic! Such a pity I couldn't have taken a photo of myself! We got to the island in half an hour. At the island, we swam around. There were much fewer corals than in Australia. There were a lot of dead ones though. Crowds of pretty fish swimming. That was gorgeous. Unfortunately I didn't manage to pick any shells.