Happy New Year and Happy Easter and Violence in Bangkok

After getting all my series of shots in bangkok around 10pm, I took a taxi back to the khao son road area. On the way to get there you drive by the democracy monument. Around this area there were huge protests by the red-shirts (unlike the huskers who go by blackshirts, these guys are actually appropriately named b/c of their red shirts) going on. Taxi drivers in bangkok are terrible with finding places and the only way this guy knew how to get to khao san was through the democracy monument promenade. It was barricaded off due to the protests, but the taxi driver exchanged some words with the policemen there, one of which was farang (thai for white tourist), so I assume he was saying he was carrying a tourist and needed to go through. Regardless, they opened up the barricade and let us through. Knowing how protests often turn out in countries, you can be certain I ducked and crouched on the floor of the taxi. The next day, as the protests were near the tourist ghettos, you could see the redshirts running around, especially from my favorite internet place. It all seemed very peaceful. But when I was in ko tao I saw on the tv that it turned quite violent with burning busses, police shooting, and petrol bombs. So it wasn't so overcautious of me ducking in the taxi in the end.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/13/thailand.protests/index.html

pictures:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7996312.stm

Finally made it down to ko tao after the whole rat bite experience. Took the overnight bus then ferry to get there. Found a nice bungalow to stay high up on the hill overlooking the ocean. It was a steep and 25 minute walk from the main town and beach, but it was quiet up there and had nice views. All along the walk there were mango trees of some mini variety of mangos where you could just pick or take from the ground as many as you liked. I ate so many mangos while in ko tao! I'd just sit on the deck of my bungalow, watch the sunset and feast on mangos. The first day in ko tao and checked out the two towns and the two main beaches and played some ball with a few thais (extremely unusual to have basketball and not soccer). Ko Tao is very beautiful b/c it has all these huge granite rocks everywhere up on the mountains and down by the shore. Something I haven't seen here before as it's usually karst and limestone.

The next day, Easter (not a Christian church to be had on the island), I did two dives. Saw some nice stuff: huge schools of fish, some of the biggest I'd seen, several stingrays, lots of barracudas, a sea snake, and some species of butterfly and angel fish I'd never seen before. The first dive site was really cool, chumphon pinnacle, as it was a huge rock just sticking up in the middle of nowhere. After the dives in the morning I walked the beach and did a couple of snorkels as well. The water here is so warm. The warmest ocean water I have ever felt. It literally feels like a bath or a hotsprings. In the shallows it's much too warm for me to swim in. People spend the whole day just sitting in the shallows reading, it's literally that warm. You would never get cold. Spent the evening in a hammock on the beach reading and watching the sunset. Ko Tao and all the islands over here are huge party places, but I didn't party on ko tao at all b/c it's pretty expensive here and everyone seems to be here with groups of friends, so it's kind of hard to meet people. That's ok though b/c I enjoyed just feeling the breeze and eating mangos up on my deck.
The next day was Songkran, the thai new year. In bangkok and other areas like chaing mai they have a huge waterfight for a whole week. On this island they only allow it for 1 day b/c of water shortages. But it's crazy. Everyone lines the street and throw buckets of water or use hoses or super soakers. They also throw flour and other white coconut paste stuff. I didn't really join in on the waterfight b/c most of the tourists rented a motorbike and 1 person drove and the others threw the water and by myself it would be a bit hard. But I definitely got plenty soaked from the water fight from other people. I rented a mountain bike that day, which was very hard to find b/c it appears all the euros here are very lazy and just rent scooter and motorbikes. I bike up over and across the middle of the island to a nice beach on the other side. I did some snorkelling there which was great. The whole coast on this side, minus a few tiny beaches are just these huge granite rocks. Basically like an ocean lined lumpy ridge (or for you idahoans maybe like the city of rocks, though I've never been there). It's quite beautiful and fun to climb and scramble around in. Bro, we would have really loved it back in the day as it has limitless fort possibilities and caves. The snorkelling was awesome too b/c it was like lumpy ridge underwater. Lots of nice cave and tunnel swimthroughs. There was also some great (and scary high) cliff jumping to do there, which was a lot of fun, especially with the nice bath water. After hanging out there for a while I made the brutally hot, steep, and sweath bike ride back to the otherside where the partiers had finally woken up and the waterfight was in full force. Of course I got drenched as I biked through the two towns on my way to the southern part of the island (thank goodness I had my pack rain cover with me!) Checked out a few more beautiful beaches on the southern part of the island and took a hike, scramble, and climb to a big rock on the coast that looks like a buddha and also climbed to a nice viewpoint of the bays and beaches of the southern portion of the island. Saw several giant moniter lizards along the way. After doing that, I biked back through the water fight and then to the otherside of the island via a more southerly road and then biked up and up and up to a very low reservoir and eventually to the top of the island to a viewpoint called two-view b/c you could see both sides of the island. I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the top as it was getting late, I was pretty dehydrated and dang, the roads here are just so steep and my bike didn't shift, didn't brale, and was obviously too small. There was a huge rock up here on the top and I just kind of camped up there and waited for the sunset. It was a beautiful sunset up there and very peaceful with the nice breeze and the faint noise of the partyies starting down at the town. The ride down was intense b/c I took a part singletrack/part washed out road, but all extremely steep back to town on my nearly brakeless bike.
The next day I did a snorkel boat tour that went to about 5 snorkel spots around the island while circumnavigating it, so you get a nice view of the whole island. The first snorkel place was pretty sweet b/c blacktip reef sharks come into the shallows to swim around and oxygenate there blood before going deep to hunt. The guide showed us (about 200-300m away), where they would be. It was one of those times it really pays off to be a good swimmer. We were the first boat there but eventually lots and lots of snorkel boats came in. I was able to swim pretty fast and get there much before everyone else, so I could just float there quietly and watch the sharks (some were quite big) swim in the shallows and come pretty close to me. Eventually the big splashing, noisy group of people got there and then the shark sitings became much more rare. Some of the other snorkel sites were pretty cool to with the huge granite boulders and all the swim throughs. The last place we visited was nang yuan island. Gorgeous! It is actually 3 islands connected by blinding white sandbars with turquoise water all around. I hiked up to a viewpoint that was quite spectacular before swimming and snorkelling in the bays formed by the sandbar. Again, the water here would be almost considered hot, not warm. That night I watched the sunset from my balcony and wrote some letters. And my light attracted all sorts of large bugs which attracted these two huge geckos, so I had some fun watching them hunt and attack the huge bugs.

I then took a boat to ko phangan where I am now. I'm staying in some nice beachside bungalows pretty far from the main town, so it's nice and quiet. Wasn't much to do the day I got there, so I just read in a swing by the beach and swam a bit. Then I took a bicycle to the main town of haad rin, which was a quite tiring ride b/c the road doesn't follow the coast but goes up and down and up and down. Haad rin is the site of the famous full moon parties. Unfortunately I'm not here for one. But the parties are apparently epic. I had told my mom that like 5000 people party on the beach, but I read in the guidebook today that during the low season there are 8000 people and in the high season about 30,000 people on this beach, just crazy drunk, on magic mushrooms, acid, you name it. They had to establish a phychiatric hospital here b/c apparently some of the drugs people take here can make people go off the wall and be crazy for 3 or 4 days after the party. The party starts at dark and apparently doesn't end until 11am the next morning with most people passed out on the beach (you can imagine drownings are not uncommon), having sex, vomitting, you name it.

Yesterday I took a boat tour to angthong marine national park. It's this group of 42 karst islands rising out of the sea in jagged fashion. Incredibly beautiful. The cliffs and jungle and nice water and just unusual shapes of the islands. The tour was very nice. Did some snorkelling in one spot, hiked up to a viewpoint and then down to a hidden saltwater, emerald lagoon in the middle of one of the islands. Got dropped off at a stunning beach and kayaked around to some other islands. Unfortunately my kayak partner was a chunky brit who no only caused the kayak to flip at one point, but wasn't much for exploring. Wished my brother had been my partner! But he grew weary soon enough so I got to go and check out some other islands by myself. Finished the day off at another nice beach and a hike up to a cool cave where we saw some monkeys on the way back. Last night I bought one of the infamous bucket drinks here (sand pales they fill with a huge thing of hard alcohol (i go for the cheap thai whiskey, which is kind of like rum too), a can of coke, and a thing of redbull to walk around the beach. Found out about a pool party and headed there where I met two americans, one , the girl, who went to colorado state and the other played linebacker at iowa. He remembers playing CU back in CU's hayday with Korkell, Rashan Salaam, and Dion Figures. They played at CU and he remembered the coach's halftime talk about how can these guys be beating you, they don't even care about football in this state, look the stadium is small and it's still not filled b/c everyone was out climbing and biking (one of those warm fall days in boulder for a game the crowd thinks will be an easy victory. One more bucket later and we were in the pool dancing away. I think we stayed out quite late, but I have no idea as my replacement, cheap asian watch, broke the other day. But it was a good time for sure.

Today I rented a motorbike and toured the island. Went across the island and looped back along the coast, and then came to check out the haad rin beach before going up into the jungle area on a more difficult road. Saw lots of nice beaches today. Some really gorgeous places to stay way off in the boonies if you were just looking to do nothing but swim, read in a hammock and relax. But I wanted to be a bit closer to the main action for booking tours, sampling some nightlife, and eating away from the resort restaurant, and I like to be more active than that. Lots of waterfalls here. Saw 7 today, though most were just trickles as it's the dry season, which I'm ok with b/c I'd rather have nice beautiful days than rushing falls. Also did a nice nature walk in the national park following a trickling stream in the jungle and some stream walking to get to a few of the falls. Met two british girls today at a free bbq (if you bought a beer for a buck fifty) and they happen to be staying at my moonflower bungalow, so we're going to head out to the halfmoon party tonight that is in the jungle. Apparently goes till 5 or 6 in the morning, but we'll see. I have a ferry booked tomorrow at 9am to go to ko samui.