We had originally planned on getting to Phuket on the 14th of November. Oonagh’s flight to Bangkok was on the 16th and Becca’s was on the 18th. That would have given us two nights to sample Patongs notorious night life before the girls started to make their departures from Thailand to Australia.

As it was we got to Patong on the 12th of November and settled ourselves down for a few days of cheerful beer drinking and celebrating Becca’s 25th birthday, a week early (as she would be in Australia on her actual B’day).

The next few days were spent quietly, everyone felt down about the impending prospect of saying goodbye – as none of us knows when we will see each other again. It could very well be a long time time in the future.

We split up for a day and went off with our respective siblings to try and spend some quality time together – Gavin and Becca went off to shop at the markets and drink beer and Oonagh, Tehya and I spent some time at the beach playing sand castles.

We could have gone on several nights out – to see loads of girlie bars and we all wanted to check out a lady boy cabaret show but we decided to hold ourselves back until Becca’s birthday celebration. Oonagh was still  not a 100%, poor Tehya seemed to have an on going fever, a terrible cough, runny nose and really bad nightmares!! Gavin was snotty too and had been feeling off colour since Phi Phi (in fact he had not been 100% since Jon’s house and Bangkok).

BECCA’S 25TH BIRTHDAY……..

The day started well – Gavin and I (with Tehya) snuck off in the morning and bought fresh coffees and breakfast style bagels from a deli round the corner. We got back to the guesthouse and Becca was already awake, so we woke up Oonagh – we went in and gave Becca her the birthday brekkie (we all ate) while she opened her birthday gifts and we sang happy birthday. The rest of the day was spent together relaxing, walking along the beach and having a nice lunch. Becca was starting to feel even more poorly, so while she chilled in her room we went to Carrefour to buy birthday cake, doughnuts and beer for the evening. Then later we all got dressed up and went out for Pizza at a local restaurant – when we had finished Gavin and Becca went halves each on ten bullets at The Shooting Cafe in the new shopping mall at Carrefour, they got a 9 mm gun and shot 5 bullets each. They loved the experience – it made Beccas birthday and they did not stop laughing and talking about it all evening. After they had finished we went off to Bangla Rd with the intention of carrying on the evening in style with loads of beer and buckets…… accept when we got there – Bangla Rd was in darkness and all the bars were closed. Some restaurants were open and you could buy beer with your meal. After asking around we found out that, unfortunately all the bars had been closed down for three nights, due to the death of the kings sister. She had died several months earlier and was to be cremated during a huge ceremony taking place over the next three days. She was we read later a true gift to the Thai people and did much charity work, so the whole country was deep in morning. We felt gutted at the prospect of a failed 25th birthday celebration. We found a mini market that would sell beer and spirits and we sat at the side of the road drinking and watching the lady boys and working ladies sell their wares!!!! It was quite something to see and we had a good few hours of free amusement and people watching. Becca got more and more poorly and in the end (very early in the evening) we all went home to bed.

The next day was spent getting Oonagh’s taxi sorted for the following morning – helping her pack and saying goodbye!! The two of us went shopping, had lunch and chilled out together – I had bought Oonagh a beautiful bracelet to take to Oz, so I gave it to her, along with a small gift to save until Christmas.

Becca was really ill and spent most of the day in bed with hot sweats, shivers and a high temperature (Gavin also had the same symptoms by then too). Tehya was also very ill and her cough had gotten really bad – so we stopped at the chemist and purchased some medicine for them all.

Oonagh left early the next morning by mini bus service to the airport and got her mid-day flight to Bangkok and her flight onto Australia to continue her adventures. We texted regularly during the next 24 hours and I felt so excited and nervous for her all at the same time.

Later after Oonagh had gone we left Tehya with Becca for a few hours, she had had a really bad night of horrific coughing fits and bad dreams and was exhausted. Poor Becca, her cold had also worsened and she had developed a really bad stomach and was having to go to the loo every 30 mins. We needed to go to the bus station in Phuket town and get our bus tickets north to Ranong for our visa run. We got the tickets for 510 Baht – £10 for two bus tickets (Tehya travelled for free).

We had decided not to use our air tickets to Bangkok as it was just to stressful for me to cope with the flights – we had done some research into possible visa run routes and decided we would go to Ranong and do a Burma run – the plan was then to try and visit the island of Koh Phayam on the west coast of Thailand.

The next 24 hours in Phuket were quiet and sad – one sister had gone and the other was about to go….. there were many tears as we said goodbye!!!