The 'music' was there again in full effect the next night. At around 2.30am we decided to go down to check that it was our resort making the noise in readiness of our 'toy throwing' session at reception the next day. The sight that greeted us was not only bad music but of Phil Stephens doing his patented dance. Whilst hammered. Hilarious. It is a kind of throwback to the early 90s rave (little fish big fish cardboard box) and is his speciality - I remember it well from the Page days. It was incredibly reassuring to see all the Divemasters and Instructors we were trusting with our wellbeing absolutely slaughtered just 5 hours before they were due on the first boat of the day.

We complained the next day and got a reduced room rate, an apology, and cheaper fun dives - all without me getting stroppy (honestly I didn't even raise my voice!). We also explained we would be writing to PADI about a number of safety issues on the boat. At this point it was very funny to see Phil skulk out of the adjoining internet cafe without being noticed. I have never known him so quiet - who says there's no poetic justice in this world...We spent the rest of the day debating what to do and when to get to Samui/Singapore etc...

Pat then threw a bit of a curveball when he announced he wanted to stay a couple of days to complete his advanced course. We had already decided we wanted away from Ban's and onto Singapore (and Aus) so we decided to leave him there a couple of days and hook up with him on the 15th in order to fly to Singapore. He seemed happy with this as it enabled him to do the course with an instructor he trusted and a group he liked. Fair dos. So here we sit in Ko Samui - staying at the same place we did back in February - creatures of habit us.

It has been a pretty entertaining day all in all. On the ferry we overheard some Thai guy telling someone about some friends of his who flew (last week) from Singapore to Sydney and were quarantined just because they left the airport area in Singapore. Alarm bells started ringing. He also said he'd read it in the Bangkok Post. Now as the literacy rate in Thailand is very low and this bloke only spoke broken English (the Post is written in English not Thai) we found this a little unlikely but decided it may be an idea to check if there was any credence to his story. Deciding to kill two birds with one stone I called BA. If you remember we've been having problems on and off for 2 months and they haven't replied to any of our 4 emails in the last 6 weeks. Eventually we got through to Customer Relations and more specifically a woman named Allison. She recapped our problems, read all the emails (which they had got, just not replied to) and, firstly, apologised profusely and unreservedly. She explained that the emails were being taken so seriously they had been referred up (yay!) and that it finally hit the Duty Manager's desk on the 12th (yesterday). She seemed genuinely aggrieved on our behalf and said she would take personal control of the matter and sort it our for us 'within a couple of hours'. And she did.

Following us faxing over the receipts from China and explaining the Singapore scenario she said if we needed to re-route (via Bangkok) she'd waive the fee. She also refunded the China ticket re-issuing fee (see 1st April) immediately. Well within the 2 hours she called back and explained that 'Thai ferry bloke' was wrong and we'd only be quarantined if we showed symptoms of SARS, and this would apply from wherever we arrived from. We would, however, have to go through some sort of medical screening. As long as they don't check my liver I should be OK then...She also said she would be refunding all the re-route charges we had paid and she then went even further, as a gesture of goodwill (I remember this phrase from by Sainsbury days when giving out gift vouchers when meat had gone off), by giving us a further 50 quid or so towards our phone calls. UNBELIEVABLE!! So a cheque from BA is on it's way as we speak. Hoorah! Amazing that one person can do that in 2 hours really isn't it, I guess it's like everything some people are good at their jobs and others...She also said she would ring Qantas to try to get us upgraded on Saturday. That would top off probably the most fantastic piece of customer service ever...here's hoping. If we can get upgraded we are then going to have to get down on bended knee and plead for another two upgrade places as Helen and Rich have changed their plans and are now booked on the same flight as us on Saturday. They're currently in Malaysia and we all should be meeting up for a Singapore Sling in Raffles (how cheesy??) on the 16th.

We've booked a day's diving for tomorrow at Sail Rock which is kind of between here and Koh Tao. It is probably the last of the really famous sites in Thailand and should kind of complete the Thai diving experience for us. It has a vertical 'chimney' where you can enter at 19 metres and then reach the sea again at about 5 metres - should be great fun. We have also booked our flights to Singapore - on a propeller plane (arghhhh!!!!!!!) on the evening of the 15th. When we arrive at Singapore we have this to look forward to - free of charge. They basically messed up 18 months ago and owed us a favour and to cut a long(ish) story short they've offered us a short stay for nothing...! So, one day diving, a day travelling, a day in Singapore, and then Aus... we can't wait!!