Won't Hesitate

For days,  I've been hearing covers.  Does Thailand have more expensive music licenses than the Western world?  Charlie Puth, Ed Sheeran, Adele - if it's popular,  they play a cover.  You can't go a day without hearing Ed Sheeran.
Fun fact: my new Thai phone knows when I write Ed that the next word should be Sheeran.

So I survived Full Moon Party.  My phone didn't. Alcohol,  rain,  sea water;  whatever it was a bag of rice could not salvage it.  So two days later on Koh Tao I bought the cheapest Thai phone and now I'm back in the game.

Koh Tao was a good mix of fun and chilled. My first night there I went drinking with a whole bunch of 19 year olds.  It's not easy to party like I used to. I'm still recovering.
I did my day diving course and can honestly say I don't want to do it again any time soon.  People told me doing a PADI would give me more time to adjust but everything hurt. The mask, the weights,  my chest from the oxygen.  Give me a glass bottomed boat anytime, I can see the fish from there.  And I got stung by an anenome.

I sailed back to Samui for one night and stayed at a lovely hostel. Then in the morning I caught my flight to Chiang Mai.  This country just gets hotter I swear.  Staying a bit out of the city but the hostel is great and they are super friendly.

In Koh Tao I was feeling a bit adrift.  But once I started booking things I felt more, well, tethered.  I've got Laos and Cambodia planned out, assuming I get in.  I've got 5 weeks to kill til Vietnam and 2 and a half months to exist without Whatsapp and PayPal and half a dozen other things that want my phone number to work.

Today, I treated myself (it is Sam's birthday after all) to a bungy jump.  The moment I saw there was one here I couldn't resist.  How could I?  I've sky dived and scuba dived and nothing beats diving off a ledge into oblivion.  It's cathartic, like horror movies: I do the action I am so desperate to do on my darkest days,  and it thrills me,  exhilarates me.  I was so excited before,  and sad when it was over.  The blood vessels above my eyes burst so I'm reminded of it when I look in the mirror.

And I finished the day at an outside restaurant listening to a Thai guy playing guitar and singing American tunes. His version of Knocking on heavens door waavery Axl Rose.  (Again,  my phone knew which Axl I was talking about)

I'm chilled out.  But I won't hesitate to plan and organise.  Hesitating about what I was going to so paralysed me.  Keep on swimming.

P. S he made me cry when he did The Calling's Wherever You Will Go.

P. P. S then he did Wonderwall and Don't look back in anger. Dude made my day.  I had my lighter out swaying.

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