Ying n Yang

I've heard many times that the best way to appreciate happiness, is by having experienced sadness; recognising day means having lived night. Opposites co-exist. No, don't worry, I'm not going to get all pensive on you. But I really believe this is true...some call it Ying n Yang...whatever it is called, I experienced it last night. I was putting myself to the test by experiencing the opposite of my upcoming luxury on the Queen Scuba.

There were three of us and we had to find a room for one night in this packed out hell hole. A small digression: Don't ever bother coming to Phuket. You may as well go to the tackiest Costa del Sol location, with the relevant tacky, cheap, low quality tourism, mimimarkets, pubs and cheap european food restaurants. Anyway, back to my story....I was quite disgusted to find myself in these surroundings. Really, I am travelling and not everything can be rosy, but I do have standards. The beach is beautiful, I must admit, but what surprises me is how packed out these places always are. Anyway, after 3 unsuccessful tries, we landed 3 spare rooms, on the lowest quality scale possible (yet for twice the normal price). As I walked into my room and shut the door, I found a massive (and dead) cockroach, the size of my thumb, on the floor. UUUUURRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH. The room was on the ground floor, with a door to some back alley with noise from ventilators and who knows what kind of insect fauna. The light was dingy, the sheets looked grey, the floor had dust/hair balls.....I was getting the creeps...but WHAT could I do? There was only this available and for one night. I got a book, scraped the roach outside, opened the window and decided I'd be "sleeping" (if I got any) on my sleeping bag tonight.

I took a quick shower (the door was falling apart), got dressed and met the others for dinner. All was well until I returned to the room at 11PM and found another, much smaller roach in the bathroom and a worm crawling into the room underneath the "garden" door. How do I describe my disgust? I have slept in bamboo huts out in the wild jungle, but urban delights like these just doen't cut it for me. I went to complain to the front desk (I had already enquired earlier, albeit without success, about availability on an upper floor). They gave me a bottle of insect repellent! I went back, sprayed frantically and as I moved the bed over, realised there were two gecko's at the base of the peeling aglomerate wood headboard. I actually like Gecko's...but I just felt disgusted to the point I seriously considered sleeping out on a deck chair by the pool. I returned to reception (now nearly midnight), and calmly explained my predicament. I would not sleep a wink that night and refused to pay for that room in that state. I would rather go find 5 star accommodation at 100$! Thankfully, the owner took pity on me and gave me a key to a room in the "Mansions"....on the other end of the pool and altogether something else. I walked in and instantly new my lucky stars were taking care of me. So yes...ying and yang.....I'm gonna LOVE the Queen Scuba! Speak to you in a few days!