3 July Koh Samui week 1

Go straight to hospital. Do not pass GO.  Within an hour of anchoring in Bo Phut bay we'd hired a motorbike and I was in the capable hands of the Emergency unit at the international hospital.  My eyes were so sore but at last I could start receiving treatment.  The doctor suggested staying overnight so they could administer intravenous antibiotics as well as hourly eye drops of more antibiotics and anti inflammatory eye drops.  It all worked because and I was discharged next morning with a bag full of more antibiotics and more eye drops.

Back on the road once more on the motorbike it was too late in the day to go into the main town and complete arrival formalities, but not too late for a quick trip to Tesco on the way back to the boat to buy a new SIM card for the phone.
With the phone now working we called the Harbour master in Na Thon to make an appointment to see him. He's busy and spends a lot of his time on other islands or checking in cargo boats.  Na Thon is on the western, windy side of the island, not a comfortable spot to anchor,  but an easy 25 minutes by motorbike. First stop was immigration to request a 30 day visa. No problem. Welcome to Thailand.  Then Customs who we surmise don't have many visits from yachts; they had to clear lunch from a table for us to complete the forms, but the ladies did offer us tastes of their fruit while we were waiting.  Now across the road to the Harbout Master office to find he wasn't there and they had no electricity.  A quick phone call and HM arrived to advise he couldn't do clearance because there was no power to run the computer.  We'd have to come back tomorrow, Friday. On Friday HM had power but was out of the office until late, but we could email copies of our paperwork to begin the process and collect our papers on Monday which we did.  If we'd been relying on taxis to run us backwards and forwards it would have been a costly exercise. However, hiring a motorbike was quick, cheap and we used the extra time for island exploration.

Maenam beach

Buddha presides

We explored the food stuff in the cash and carry emporium and Tesco's, visited a vet clinic and bought a rabies injection for Polly and checked out the Big Buddha.  Samui caters to the tastes of foreigners and thus a good place to find the Western produce we don't find so readily in Malaysia such as a brand of pickle called Branston, plus wonderful fruit and vegetables.  Polly visited the vet in Terengganu for her annual inoculations last month but they didn't have stock of the rabies vaccine which is required for her international travels.  Then we were able to take her in her travel box in a car.  This time she'd be travelling ashore by dinghy and then onwards on the bike which would be distressing.  We asked the vet and she agreed to give us the vaccine and needles to do it ourselves.  All we needed was a way to transport the vaccine refrigerated.  A small thermos flask filled with ice chips fulfilled this requirement and having watched a YouTube video on how to inject a cat David and I became vet for  an afternoon.
On our island tour we visited the big Buddha which presides over the next bay and then on around the headlands to C(h)aweng beach, reputed to be the best beach on the island except you can't see it for the mass development of hotels between it and the road.
Bo Phut beach is also much developed, but it's smaller and seems to have a greater diversity from the smart hotels, through bijoux hotels to the budget end of the scale enabling us to pick and choose as it suits our mood.  An English run bar called the Gecko and Frog has big screen sports and our timing coincided with the Austrian Grand Prix (David hasn't seen a live GP for a long time) and Wimbledon tennis.