More random travelling pics

5-10: Did the hospital thing again today. I was feeling better so I had hopes my blood count would be up, but it wasn't, which means another day here unfortunately. Watched the last english movie in the city: Passengers. Had dinner at an indian place across from an american expat who used to live in the philippines but now here in penang. He's a financial writer and was full of bad doom and gloom news about the US economy and other things related to the US. Though he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He showed me his articles where several years ago he had predicted the collapse of lehman brothers and citi group. He told me when I get back home I should put all my savings into gold. He said by 2010 the us economy will be completely crashed and inflation will be huge and I'll probably be living in Asia if I'm smart. He asked me which world stock market had the biggest positive increase in the last 5 years. I didn't know. He said Zimbabwe. Increased 1000%, but inflation rose 100,000%.

5-11: Another long day at the hospital. Blood levels even lower today. Finally found a hospital that has the rabies vaccine, but they won't give it to me while my platelets are low. Moved into a nicer hotel that doesn't reek like smoke and doesn't have a bathroom that is 200 feet down the hall (one of the affects of this disease appears to be terrible bladder). Very, very, very, very, very tired of doing this hospital thing. SO much waiting in this cramped hospital. It can be kind of freaky too b/c you see some of the strangest peoples and diseases you can think of and of course there is the paranoia of swine flu. The hospital is an interesting place, half of it is open air and it's right next to a huge prison and prisoners are often seen being drug through it for their hospital visits are whatever. THe hospital, like the city is very multi cultural full of Indian, Malay, and Chinese doctors, nurses, and patients. I saw a current map up of swine flu. The US had more than half of the cases of swine flu and mexico had about 1/3, but of the 58 deaths reported, the US had only 3. Statistically that's astonishing. We can have over 1/2 the cases but 5% of the deaths. Makes you really appreciate our hospitals. Obviously our nutrition and lifestyle has a lot to do with the amount of deaths, but I was also thinking that if I was really sick with the flu and had to go through the rigamaroll they have here, I would probably get sick too with how tiring it is (I did have the added issue of trying find another hospital for rabies). THe hospitals I've been to in the US, which are few (Estes Park, Longmont, Sun Valley, and Vail) have all been so quick and smooth that you're on your way back to bed to recover in no time. But not here. I leave my guesthouse at 8am and don't get back til at least 3pm, not really eating the whole time and only drinking water. Moved itno a nicer hotel from my nasty, dumpy guesthouse that stinks of smoke, has no sheets (usually not a problem in the tropics, but when you have a fever)

5-12: FInally showed improvements in my WBC and platelet counts. Celebrated with an overdose of ice cream. Took the ferry to butterworth again to buy my bus ticket. Went to an interesting chinese food night market where there are food stalls surrounding a stage and dance floor. Some of the chinese couples on the stage could really move to ballroom swing.

5-13: Getting my rabies shot and then going to Pulau Perhentian (perhentian islands; pulau=island) on an overnight bus. I think I've had more needles in me here in asia than I've had all my time back home. Hopefully from here on out I can stay away from biting creatures

Jungle Fever

May 7 I explored georgetown on pulau penang Walked to the sea front, checked out the old british colonial area and their forts. Checked out little india and chinatown and of course the food there. Went to the baba nonya area for dinner and just had a good time eating lots of cheap food. I love Indian food so I ate quite a bit of that and they also have lots of lassis and cow's milk tea and warm cows milk, which I of course was a big fan of. Everyone here as been really nice, which has be great for sure. As a muslim country it's quite conservative and some of the signs you see are quite interesting. Like one at a massage place that said any muslim men receiving massages from a female will receive at least five years of jail. Possessing drugs here carries the death penalty. A few days ago an Australian on one of the islands was caught with some marijuana and he was sentenced to death. The australians are all up in arms that there government won't step in, but it is clearly outlined in the visa and entry papers and all guidebooks mention it. Because muslims don't drink, beer is quite expensive here. The same can of chang that costs 50 cents in thailand, costs 3 dollars here

I was still feeling a bit under the weather and feverish and to make sure I didn't have malaria I went to the government hospital to get tested, which involves taking some blood samples and looking for the parasite. I came out negative, which was good, but I had quite low WBC and platelet counts, so they said I had dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever b/c of how bad the aches and pains are. The doctor was quite surprised I was able to make the border trip from thailand to penang with the fever and with no pain killers (with my bags at the bottom of the bus), and then of course touring around the day before. Then she really felt sorry for me when I pulled out my rabies vaccine card and said I needed a shot for that as I'm onto my last of the series for my rabies vaccines.

Today I went back to the hospital to get my blood tested again. My platelet count had fallen even further so they said I shouldn't leave (I had a bus ticket purchased for tonights overnight bus) and need to come back tomorrow, b/c if my count drops below 100x10^3 (it's now at 112, down from 135 yesterday), they'll have to admit me to the hospital and give me a transfusion. It also meant I couldn't get my last rabies vaccine b/c of the danger of bleeding too much with the shot. So not exactly having much fun now b/c I don't feel the best, and going to the hospital is a full day ordeal b/c of all the lines, the transport getting there, and the waiting for the tests and I would rather be spending my time in the islands where I had wanted to be 2 days ago. Did go and see the new x-men movie yesterday, but that's about the only fun thing I've done the last few days

Across the border to Malaysia...but where!? (and some travel observations)

With the weather worsening and the southwest monsoons moving in (may is supposedly the start), I figured it was time to move to Malaysia. So yesterday I took a van to get to Malaysia. The ticket I booked was to go to Alor Setar (pronounced allostar) and then east to Kuala Besut. There are 4 entries into malaysia from thailand. One by boat to langkawi island, and expensive resort island I didn't want to go to, one on the east coast which although it is not far from where I wanted to go in malaysia is considered extremely dangerous b/c of extremist muslim thais fighting and bombing buddhist thais for independance. So that left the 2 borders on the west and then I would just have to travel a ways east to get to where I'm going. You first go to hat yai thailand, which has been the sight of previous unrest and although the books say is not overly dangerous, that you should keep an eye out in the news for current events. It appeared safe so I headed there, b/c the other option is to go back to bangkok, fly to kuala lumpur and then go back north.
The day started out poorly b/c I was quite sick. Had a very high fever, chills, and muscle cramps, which although painful, maybe worse was hoping it was just a common flu and not yellow fever, malaria, dengue fever, SARS, bird flu, japanese encephalitis or whatever b/c in s. thailand the mosquitos no matter what you do are unavoidable (you can't put repllant on your bum as you use the squat toilets!). I met a nice teacher on the bus that helped me get to the right place in had yai. The bus restops were quite amusing b/c they had areas for buddhists and areas for muslims and muslim food and buddhist food. At hat yai I booked a van to alor setar and then on to khota bahru which is close to kuala besut. Well, after crossing the border (thankfully they didn't quarentine me as an north american for swine flu as they did to people who had been in thailand for less time than me) and several hours later and at 10pm, we arrived at Georgetown on penang island on the west coast...the complete opposite of where I wanted to be!!! I pleaded my case to the thai driver, but in typical thai fashion he just drove off. So there I was lost, not really knowing where I was (until I asked someone), feeling quite sick, in a completely new and foreign country and all by myself. In the end it didn't turn out too bad other than I lost a fair amount of money in bus tickets b/c georgetown is quite nice with a heavy trading influence if chinese, malay, british, indian, sri lankan, and baba nonya so the food is great and cheap and the town has a bit of charm to it. So I decided to stay a day here and gorge on good food (after taking lots of tylenol to feel better) after the fast in s. thailand and check out little india, chinatown, and the different malay areas and colonial areas. I also needed to do a few shopping things: toothpaste (yes its halal!), a new watch (I've tried filipino, thai, lets see how long malay lasts), and hit the internet big time. But the food is great here!! I LOVE indian food and lassis, and chai tea, and they have steamed cow's milk, and tasty mango lassis which are much better than the fruit shake which is just fruit and ice. And this guy makes a huge burger for 50 cents with a fried egg wrapped around it! Yum. I really like it here. It's of course mainly muslim here, and for some reason I've always like muslim cities (don't tell my father). Zanzibar and Marrakech are two of my favorite. They have a different smell and feel. Although this place doesn't have the narrow winding alleys of zanzibar and marrakech it still has a cool feeling. The run down place I'm staying with is right above a bakery so good smells come out of that, which I smelled early this morning as I couldn't sleep really with my fever.

Tonight I have plans to check out the little india bazaar as well as the baba nonya area.

So just a few random thoughts and not very detailed or anything on thailand, the philippines, burma, and malaysia.
The burmese were the nicest (though most shy) so far, but in my 2 days here, the malay people are a close second. The Malaysian people are so friendly and they don't do the touting and such that they do everywhere in thailand and some areas in the philippines. I loved the filipinos too. They were very nice as well, extremely outgoing and always up for fun. They also know english so well that they're easy to talk to and you're never lonely by yourself there. It has been quite refreshing to come to malaysia from thailand as the malays have been extremely nice (and example would be walking 5 minutes around the city by a security guard to show me what I was looking for as opposed to giving an annoyed look like the thais). It's almost japanesque in their friendliness and helpfulness. The people selling stuff on the streets don't yell at you to buy stuff, but instead strike up a normal conversation. Some taxi drivers (in thailand when you walk by them..."hey, you! you! where you go! and they follow you") I walked by politely asked if I needed a ride and then helped me figure out how to get to a place by bus for cheaper. Then one guy peered into my eyes and put his hand on my forehead and asked if I was sick. I was taken by surprise as I am actually sick, but when he started laughing, I realized it was a swine flu joke after telling him I was from america. So yes quite refreshing to be here.
I don't know if I was in thailand too long, or it truly is the people, but I had become increasingly annoyed by the thais. The truth is most of the thais are really nice. Like the teacher on the bus, or the girls on vacation I had some beers with, or the majority of the people I met in the north, or all the thais visiting the national park. The thais who I don't particularly care for are the ones that work directly with the tourists. Now that could very well be a reflection of the tourists themselves (and in my opinion the "springbreak" feel the europeans often bring to the beaches all full of boozing and sex isn't the best thing), but I have worked in tourism for a long time and I am still very friendly and although I may make jokes at home, I do genuinely like most tourists I meet (unless of course they are nebraskans). I found travelling in the north much better of thailand and I think that has a lot to do with it's more real thais up there. On these little islands, the only thais that really live there are related directly to tourism. Of course you do meet some nice guesthouse people and others, but overall you get an impression of being bothered, cheated, etc from them. The problem is the south is so gorgeous compared to the north, but the north is much more cultural and friendly. In the end in souther thailand i think I grew quite weary b/c I'd go see the sites, which were stunning, but then be frustrated by the rest.
In my opinion, tourism has ruined thailand, especially southern thailand. Because I think it's made the people there less friendly and only working for the baht, its caused heaps of trash everywhere, complete destruction of beach front areas where bungalows are overcrowded over everything. The economy relies completely on tourism, which takes a huge hit when say the airport is closed, there are riots in bangkok, the prime minister has an assassination attempt, or the world economy drops. They've also become too upclass, so instead of the more chill backpacker crowd, you're getting the crazy inebriated, do what I want party crowd. But...with that said, it is completely gorgeous, even when a thousand bodies lie on the sand (lots of the european women being topless which is in a highly muslim and conservative south is quite rude to the locals in my opinion, considering they usually wear full cover but are required to cover the knees and elbows, even when swimming), or hundreds of boats sit in the bays. The philippines is gorgeous, but not near so as thailand (el nido comes close), but in the philippines it is much easier to find beaches to yourself, or beaches with rainforest coming right up to the beach instead of bungalows, there's not techno blasting all night long. Things are much more pristine there. I can only imagine what thailand must have looked like a ways back when it was pristine b/c it is still quite incredible. Whey people haven't discovered the PI yet, I don't know. Maybe b/c you have to fly there from the mainland, or it's too american for the euros or whatever. Would I visit thailand again? Yes, b/c it is so gorgeous, but I think I would want to go with friends and partake in the parties a little more. I was there on a scenic journey, but I think half the fun of thailand is the wildness that has become of it. So yes, I did really enjoy thailand (and it's so long ago it's not much in my memory, but the north was very nice, friendly, and not so touristy, it's just that the south is fresh in my mind), and it's scenery, and most of its people, but it is good to move on now I think, I am ready, and I hope the malaysians are all like they are in georgetown penang.
Just a funny note I was thinking of about the filipinos. There hello is a nod up of the heads and raising of the eyebrows, not a wave. I figure this is because there hands are too occupied: either texting, driving a motorcycle, holding a baby, a stroking their rooster (I could have used their word, but at the risk of too much of a sexual iunendo), or a combination of it.

hanging on in Krabi

5-2: Took a boat from Phi Phi to Krabi town then a bus to ao nong, then a longtail to Rai Leh, which is actually a peninsula with 4 beaches (rai leh west, rai leh east, phrangna, and tonsai) but feels like an island b/c it's completely cut off from the mainland and only accessible by boat. This place would end up being the most expensive place I visited in all of thailand, but one of the more gorgeous. Rai Leh west was quite stunning with it's blond beach and huge karst cliffs on either side. I had paid a little extra that day to take a less direct route to get to rai leh which left at 9am rather than the direct one which left at 4pm. I am very glad I did this b/c it allowed me to explore the area on the only true clear day while I was there, and clear days make a world of difference when it comes to white sand and emerald water. That day I climbed up to a rather stunning viewpoint overlooking rai leh west and tonsai. The huge cliffs are everywhere here and they are riddled with caves. I explored a few of them, but I wished my brother had been there so we could have done so more serious spelunking and rapelling into some of the bigger ones. Coming down from the viewpoint I was just following the cliffs and not the trail so I stumbled across a tennis court. Scaled the fence and found myself inside a crazy fancy resort. It was so huge that it took me a while to get through it, but as far as I could tell I could have had the run of the place at the time. As I got near the exit, a security guide grabbed me and escorted me out. All along the 3 beaches it encompasses they have security guards to make sure beachgoers don't go into the resort, so they were miffed at how I got in. I later found out lots of celebrities stay here and that the highest price room is 3,500 USD per night and the lowest room is 1000USD per night. I ran into two americans randomly, cousins travelling together, and we explored one of the documented caves...by candlelight. Typically the cave is lit by lights inside, but there were none. I'll have to say a little candle does little to help you see inside a cave. Watched the sunset from rai leh west and then went out for a beer with willy and shelly (from tennessee) at this place that had a surprisingly could acoustic guitar player and they ordered us some marijuana spiked hookah.

5-3: Explored all around the peninsual today. It never rained, but it was kind of overcast and windy the whole day from the sw monsoon winds. Hiked to Tonsai beach, which I absolutely loved. If I hadn't been all settled in at rai leh and it wasn't a half hour hike over a small pass, I would have moved there. It was kind of like the thailand I had hoped to find. No one was tanning on the beach...the few people sitting on the beach were doing yoga or medidating and all along the cliffs on the beach people were climbing or bouldering. Everyone was either hippy or definitely outdoorsy, and it wasn't that fancy, european, tanning, boozing crazyness of the other beaches where lots of people pretended to be backpackers b/c they carried backpacks, but they had make-up, several nice shirts, cologne, etc all with them. This was like the true backpacking crowd. I just really liked the vibe. I'd love to come here again sometime with a buddy and hangout and climb and kayak around. After that I hiked to phrangna beach (had monkeys playing around the cave and beach there!) and explored the caves there on either side of the beach and then hiked up a very, very steep trail to another cool viewpoint and then down and even steeper trail where you needed to use ropes to keep from falling to make it down to a really cool hidden lagoon. On the way down with the cliffs and ravines and vegetation it felt like something from the jurassic area (or at least as portrayed by artists in my text books).

5-4: I hiked back to the 2nd viewpoint in the morning b/c it was a bit of a clearer day that day compared to the more dreary weather the day before. Then that afternoon I did a deep water solo climbing program. It's where you climb islands solo (no ropes or harnesses) and if you fall the only thing that stops you is the water. This makes the climbing quite intense b/c if you're 30 or 40 feet up and you fall trying to make a move and land on your back, it's not going to be pleasant. I mean just letting go in a controlled fall from 40 feet is scary enough. We had a late lunch on a cool little beach in the area in the rain and did some bouldering there under the protection of a cave while the two thai captains and leaders got really stoned (and climbed). I met a really nice american couple from phoenix on the trip and unfortnately they were leaving the next day or they would have taken me climbing. Being by myself meant I had to hire a guide to belay me instead of just renting the equipment and going with a partner.

5-5: Cinco de Mayo and swine flu, I suppose. So like I mentioned, I hired a guide and we went off for a day of climbing. We went to three walls (the last two being my favorite) and did 10 climbs, one that was incredibly long and high. The views from the top were always spectacular looking down at the beaches and water from way way up. One cool part was we went climbed up into a cave from phrangna beach walked to the otherside and then rapelled down the other side towards rai leh west to climb the thaiwand wall.

Move over Leo and first kiss and I love poland

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but the internet was much much too expensive in the South Islands.

4-28: Took the ferry to Phi Phi Don island and on the way we cruised by Phi Phi Leh island, the island made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio and the beach. Just from the brief look aboard the ferry I could tell it was spectacular with its emerald and turquoise water, shimmering beach and towering limestone cliffs. I checked into a bungalow near the beach at a fairly reasonable price. Good thing it was the low season as it was(100B) 9 dollars a night, but they say in the high season the same one would be (800B) 24 bucks. Luckily for me I got pretty spectacular weather while I was there, so the low season didn't affect me. I hiked up a steep trail to an amazing viewpoint overlooking the cliff filled island with the sand bar connecting two islands with white beaches on either side and gorgeous turqoise water in the bays. One of the more breathtaking sites I have ever seen. Then I met up with a brit and a chilean and we hiked down to a remote beach on the other side with a very fancy resort on it and really only accessible by boat. We swam in the gorgeous water there for a bit and then I poached the resorts nice freshwater pool to get the salt off me before the hike back and to take advantage of the water slide and massage rocks. It was easy to poach...just act like you know what you're doing, confidence as lucas would say. Explored the island after that. Phi Phi Don Island is quite cool. All the structures are pretty much on this little sand bar. There are no cars and no dogs (which was a nice break). Instead cats rule the island and I preferred them much better as they don't chase you, bark at you, or try and bite you, but instead rub up against your legs and ask for a chin scratch. Phi Phi was one of the islands most destroyed by the tsunami as it all just sits on a little sand bar. So now they have warning sirens everywhere and evacuation plans and pavement everywhere. That night I checked out some fire shows on the beach, watched some muy thai fighting and then friend on friend fighting at this bar

4-29 Took a boat tour of Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh where we visited several beaches along phi phi don, did some snorkeling and visited maya bay and beah on phi phi leh (where they filmed the beach; now I've seen khao san road, the waterfall they filmed, the on on guesthouse where they filmed, and this now). The scenery was stupendous! The water so brilliant green, turquoise, and emerald, and the white beach tucked up into the cliffs. Kayaked from the boat to the beach and then walked to the other side where you can go through a small hole at low tide (or climb a ladder) to get to a bay on the other side. After that we also went for a swim at bamboo island. I was glad that I got to see maya bay and go around the two islands, but the tour was quite poor. Too short (only 1 hour to kayak to and explore the famous beach), and just not very good guides, and there were a million people and speed boats parked along the entire length of the beach so it was a bit disappointing. That night I walked up to the viewpoint to read and watch the sunset, and then some vacationing thais at my guesthouse invited me to share some beers with them on their deck.
4-30 I explored the island some more and hiked to long beach. I signed up for an overnight camping tour to stay at maya beach. So at 4 we left for that. First we got to kayak all by ourselves in gorgeous pi leh bay with its aquamarine waters and then do some snorkeling there. Then as a monsoon wind was blowing in (but no rain thankfully) we couldn't enter through maya bay so we docked at the next bay and walked through the hole to get to the otherside of the island and maya beach. It was jaw dropping when we got to the beach! Not a sole there. Just us. Empty sand and empty bay. We swam around and tossed the frisbee and bit and then watched the sunset. We then had some thai food and they gave us all free buckets and free shots of samsung and we played some drinking games, which led us to buying another round of buckets. It was a lot of fun as the group was very cool. Several brits, some canadians who had been in india for a while, and a couple from poland. It was more of my type of people and not the sunworshippers doing the speed boat trips. Eventually the drinking games led to kings cup, and I pulled a make a rule card and my rule was that everyone had to yell I love poland before taking a drink which turned out to be a riot as the polish people just loved it. One of the british gals pulled a dare card and they dared her to kiss for 5 seconds someone in the group. As I was the only single male in the crowd, it ended up being me. First kiss in thailand...yosh would be oh so disappointed, but hey at least I didn't pay for it like half the creeps there. After a while we moved to the water for some swimming which was awesome b/c there was tons of bioluminescence from the plankton there so that it really lit up the water and seeme rather psychadellic when mixed with the alcohol and a little bit of weed that was passed around. Eventually around 4am we crashed on the beach and then woke up for sunrise.

5-1: Everyone else was going to go sleep on the beach and nurse hangovers this day, but of course not me. I rented a kayak and and paddled to monkey beach (but unfortunately no monkeys) and then along the towering cliffs of phi phi don having fun going through lots of caves and arches. Found a cool little bay hidden away that I paddled to. At the end was a tiny white beach and one ancient thai guy and another younger thai guy just sitting there and smoking. I assume they do that everyday. Everynow and then they'd get up to peer at the sky or grab another cigarette, but that was it. They made me some tea and I sat with them for a while. Based on pointing and previous knowledge I deduced that they harvested swallow nests from the cave nearby for the chinese bird nest soup. I continued along phi phi don until I got to the end of it and there was a long strait between me and phi phi leh. Partly b/c it wasn't late in the day and I had nothing else to do, partly b/c I'm always up for an adventure, and partly b/c all the locals (and obviously the lazy tourists) said it couldn't be done b/c it was too far, I set out for Phi Phi Leh and maya bay. It was quite amusing to see the looks that the thais on their speed boats and long tails gave me as they zoomed by me. 4 hours after starting out I arrived at the bay, which was must less crowded today. Coming back it only took 3 hours b/c I went in a straighter line and did less exploring, but I was definitely feeling it in my arms when I pulled up to the beach. The food on phi phi had been quite expensive as even the local stands were double what they normally were, so I hadn't eaten as much as normal and I was starving after missing lunch and the long paddle. There was a texas bbq place I had seen earlier that had a burger challenge that if you could finish an 800 g (1.75lbs) patty, bun, toppings, bacon, cheese, a salad, coleslaw, and what seemed like 2 pounds of steaming hot frech fries in 30 minutes it was yours free, otherwise you had to pay 500B which is quite expensive. I had confidence I could do it after Caleb and I dominated the burger challenge at Elliot's in caldwell. But this was a whole new ballgame. Much bigger burger, and just so many fries. I was done with the burger, salda, and slaw by 8 minutes, but the fries were tough. So hot and dry, and so many. I was beginning to think I wouldn't make it. Time wasn't the issue, it was just fitting everything in my stomach. But alas, at 22 minutes and some seconds I slammed my fist down as done. The australian manager was impressed and said I could really eat. I was so full I just had to walk around for a while after that to digest a bit, but I have to say the burger was quite tasty and a nice treat from the rice and curry.

Living it up at the hotel cali..err phuket

So I used my best western points from travelling with work to put me up for a few nights in a
best western here on Phuket. Phuket is thailand's major travel
destination, especially for short vacations and package tourists.
Everything can be booked and done from here, though at a price. It's
probably one of the more expensive places in thailand. They have all
the tours to like the famous james bond island, or the island where
the beach was filmed, or khao sok where I just was, etc, etc. It's
good for the people on short holidays, but for me as a budget
traveller, it's by far cheaper to go visit these places on my own
rather than book the trips here. I'm here mainly to pick up a
package, see a few of the site on phuket island, and mostly some R&R,
which is unique for me. Phuket is also famous for its Patong beach
which is a huge beautiful strip of white sand and also has a lot of go
go bars and prostitution on its nearby streets. It reminds me a bit
of a hawaii or a cancun, or what I imagine the caribbean to be like.
Lots of fancy places and then tourists traps like monkey shows, tiger
shows, fancy thai dancing, atv-ing, zip lining, diving, waterskiing,
sailing, you name it. Anything you want to do here, you can.

I'll probably make my way to see the infamous patong beach at some
point, but I don't think I'll do a whole lot else (maybe splurge on
one of the thai shows which do look quite cool in that elaborate las
vegas way, and I find the thai history and culture of old quite
intriguing and fascinating...possibly due to my enjoyment of the king
and I). Kind of just take in the luxury. I'm at a best western a bit
out of town in the northeastern part of the island. It's incredibly
fancy!! Free drink and fresh fruit on arrival. Two swimming pools
overlooking gorgeous phang nga bay, pool swim up bar, free pool and
ping pong (if only bro were here for our island ping pong matches with
pulled up shorts british style!), staff at your service at a snap of
the fingers, free internet (which has allowed me to catch up on all my
emails, credit card payments, blogging, trip planning), a monstrous
buffet breakfast with thai food, sausage, eggs, made to order omelets,
bacon, wheat bread, croissants, cereal, chicken, fresh fruit, fresh
fruitjuice, MILK, everything. You don't know how good that breakfast
is to someone who has been eating asian food for basically every meal.
My room is awesome too. Aircon (which is a blessing to keep the
humidity down after everything from the rainforest is drenched...even
stuff that never got rained on is mil-dewey and damp just b/c of the
humidity), a huge bed with a REAL mattress and pillows, a large flat
screen tv, a hot shower, and also a separate bath. lights that
actually light up the room, lots of space to throw my junk everywhere
to dry out and reorganize. Lots of fancy soaps and toiletries that I
will be sure to take with me for later use. The manager here, Yusif,
is incredibly nice. As it's the down season here (cloudy, though not
really rainy), I was the only one here the first night, so I have it
all to myself, though now that it's the weekend a bunch of thais from
bangkok have come in. The hotel is up on a cliff with a great view,
and it's a quick walk (or free shuttle) down to a little beach.
Everymorning, they also will take you for free on a boat through the
bay to a cool little island with a beach. It was deserted the first
day that I went, so I had the island all to myself. They also let you
take out nice kayaks for free, which is quite the bonus. It's like
one of those fancy resorts you think of when you think of Hawaii
(think Forgetting Sara Marshall movie resort). The manager said they
are 4 stars, but trying to become 5 stars. The main problem is their
location is a bit far from the happening part of phuket. He was
laughing how I was staying at basically zero star (shared bathroom
outhouse style, no shower just using buckets from the water that is
also used to flush the toilet, lights that don't work, bungalows that
are falling down complete with mosquitos, spiders, a semi sorta
mattress, poop usually on the mattress and sheets (if they give you
any), most likely from geckos, or at least I hope not mice, hot and
stale and humid, not secure, etc (but hey that's part of the adventure
right)) places and much admired me for that. The amazing thing is
this fancy place most likely costs less than the best western in
caldwell (overlooking farm city), and I know that it's half as
expensive as the best westerns i stayed in boston, san diego,
indianapolis, and seattle for my job. So that in itself is quite
amazing. It's way over my budget for here, but for what people would
consider as expensive back home, it is not at all. But regardless, it
is so nice to have a little comfort, cuddle up in the soft pillows to
watch some tv after hot shower (the bathtub is used for my laundry),
swim in a clean pool, and feel a bit like a thai king of old. There's
nothing wrong with indulging in a little luxury every now and then!

The first day at the hotel I did the island tour like I said and then
just enjoyed the two huge and beautiful pools, read a bit, used the
internet for a while and watched the movie jumper on tv. Nice and
relaxing day. The cool manager, who really likes me I think b/c I'm
not like the typical tourist here but am usually more travelling and
living like the locals, wanted to see my pictures, so we went through
some of my pictures from burma and the philippines. He then took me
to a wedding reception for a muslim woman that got married who works
for the hotel. So we got to eat some good thai food. He told me his
sister is engaged to a new zealand guy (he showed me the picture and
he's a chunky balled white guy that looks an awful lot like a sturgis
harley rider while his sister is a cute, young, thin thai), but he's
happy for it. In both thai tradition (as well as muslim I learned at
the reception), the man has to ask the woman's parents for permission.
After they say yes, the families agree on how much money the man's
family will give to the woman's family. Even after the wedding, the
woman's family blocks the man from getting to the woman in her bedroom
until he gives them money and more money before reaching the door. So
Yusif is quite excited b/c in this marriage he is going to get quite a
bit of money, a house, and a car!
The next day I took the breakfast buffet to town and then hung out by
the beach reading and then took the kayak out to explore around the
coast a bit and the mangrove forests in the area. The afternoon I did
a little repairing of some things I needed to with my backpacking kit
in the comfort of the ac room (they let me check out at 5) and then
just hung out reading at the pool, though mostly swimming b/c it was
too hot

That evening I met Yusif in town at the market as we both needed new watches and he treated me to dinner. Then we went out to have some beers with a friend who was the spa manager at one of the nicest resorts on the island and also a lady boy. It never ceases to amaze me how no one even thinks twice about lady boys. It seems to me like back home a 5 star resort wouldn't hire a lady boy, I mean vail resorts even made lucas shave his beard. But here they work everywhere and are just part of the society. Buffet sign in phuket: 200B man, 150B lady boy 100b woman, 70B child. Yusif was very generous and realizing I was on a budget let me crash at his apartment for two nights while I waited to pick up my poste restante package on monday. The next day I picked up my package and then explored a few nice beaches (laem sing, surin, kalaw, then got what I thought was a really cheap beer at the 7-11 to drink on Patong beach. It was called Siam, but it tastes like a mixture of beer, flat champagne and cider. But that's ok b/c it was only 75 cents for a liter. That night yusif treated me again to some thai food and cooked up some omelets and rice at his apartment. The next morning I caught a very to Ko Phi Phi (ko pee pee).

It's a Leechiful Life

The first afternoon in Khao Sok I just walked around a bit. I really liked the place. A few bungalows and restaurants, but all very quiet. A river running nearby my bungalow and a gorgeous view of some forest covered karst mountains just rising straight up. I ran into an american who I had been on the tour to anthong marine park with and she told me she thought there would be a band at this one restaurant, so I said I'd see her there. Later that night I stopped by, but it was a private company party for some thais from phuket who were celebrating the end of the high season. It must be how ragged I look or something, but I often tend to get invited into things by thais, and this was no different. It was quite the fun party. Lots of dancing to thai music and american hip hop (which I prefer to that eurobeat garbage). They fed me lots and lots of food and made me several cocktails. The party went on and on into the night b/c no one wanted to leave until the rain stopped.The next day I had booked a two day tour to cheow lake in Khao Sok NP. The lake is a huge lake, with thousands of islands and small channels because it was dammed in 1982, something I'm not all too pleased about as it destroyed thousands of acres of thailands oldest, largest, and most diverse rainforest (if anyone wants to know about my passion against building major dams like this just ask anyone from Dr. Varanka Martin's chemistry class where I had to write reports and argue my case against the 3 gorges dam in china as their alternative energy source). The lake also gave poachers easy access to the remaining forest that had been inpossible to get to b/c of the dense rainforest and cliffy topography. The dam also wiped out 49 species of river fish that could not possibly survive in the deep water low oxygen enrivonment of a huge lake. The government cited two reasons for building the dam, hydro power and flooding out studen communists who took refuge in the caves in the area. In the end, it was these hiding communists that we have to thank that the rainforest is intact b/c they successfully kept out all logging operations before the area became a park.Regardless, the area is incredibly gorgeous. In my group were there swiss students and two british backpackers. The hour journey on the lake to our floating hut camp was breathtaking. 1000foot tall limestone karst cliffs rising straight out of the water with jungle clinging where it can. The islands and mountains on the shore forming incredible shapes. So jagged and unbelievably steep. When you see a disney movie with mountains, this is one of the places, they must have gotten the idea from. Seriously stunning. We arrived at the floatingjungle lake camp and had a bit over an hour before lunch. There was a group of 13 dutch there already, and they told me it was about 45 minutes to kayak around the nearby island. Perfect I though, and set out to do it. I overestimated how fast they could go around the island and when I came to the first small inlet 1o minutes into the paddle that looked like a dead end, I figured no way could this be the way around the island, so I kept going. It turned out being the one, but I ended up paddling an hour more searching for the way around the island. Problem was, there were so many islands it was immposible to tell where one started and ended. I came to a huge bay and figured this must be it, so I paddled a couple of km's into it before realizing it was a dead end. At this point I figured I would get lost if I didn't turn around, so even though I figured at the time that the finish must be right around the corner, i turned around. Good thing I did, b/c that first small passageway was the one. B/c of this I missed lunch and the trip with my group to hike up the mountain to the view point, one of the highlights of the trip. I was bummed by this (especially since it was a beautiful sunny day) and had to settle with going with the older dutch crowd to tour a floating fishing village and swim into a cave that started in the lake. We got back to camp well before my group, so I spent the time swinging from this incredibly long and tall rope swing the locals had built from a big canopy tree. At the apex of the swing when you let go, you were at least 30-40 feet above the water. I also enjoyed just swimming and floating in the lake. The lake was so pleasant and warm. The dutch crowd, who was an older crowd spent most of their time just floating in innertubes or swimming in the lake. It was really just that warm. And the floating camp was so cool. These little huts just floating in the water, surrounded by the huge karst mountains and jungle everywhere. Very cool! There were some dead trees still standing from the flooding and I swam out to them and had fun climbing them b/c the consequence of falling from these tall trees was only flopping into the water. From that point on the dutch liked to call me tarzan from my escapades in the kayak, on the rope swing, and climbing the trees. When my group finally got back, Poo, our guide, said he thought I was in shape enough to jog up the mountain to the viewpoint so we could do it at 5am the next morning. This lifted my spirits quite a bit and made the delicious meal taste even better. Did a night safari where we didn't see much but a few tarantulas, some scorpions, and pit viper. We spent the rest of the night swimming around, and then floating and singing in the lake at Poo played the guitar from the deck area of the floating huts. Two steps from the door of each hut was the lake, so several times during the night to cool off (obviously no fan out there), I'd just lose the underwear and go skinny dipping in the moonlight. From splashes heard throughout the night, i could tell others did it as well. And the cool thing was it was quicker to get to meals from my cabin by swimming than by walking.The next day, I got up early and poo and I hustled up the mountain to the viewpoint. It was quite spectacular looking at the limestone cliff mountains and the lake below. We did it so fast that we still had to wait for breakfast when we got back. The day's adventure was to walk up through this cave. I've been through quite a lot of caves in my life, and i'd have to say this ranks pretty high up there. Not as good as carlsbad or the adventure of the caves in eagle or glenwood, but probably close behind. The cave was really long. It took a couple of hours to walk through it. The whole time we were walking up a creek, sometimes having to swim or wade, othertimes having to climb small waterfalls. The cool thing was that it was a cave where you didn't have to retrace your steps. We started where the river came out of the cave and ended where the river entered the cave. The water was freezing compared to the lake, though really not that cold. The cave had some narrow passages and then some huge rooms with nice cave formations. We saw lots and lots of bats and even a black cave toad. We had lunch at a different floating camp and then had time to canoe around again before the still spectacular boat ride back to the pier through the karst mountains. That night I just chilled at my bungalow in a hammock reading, listening to the rain pour down and watching all the frogs and toads hopping about.The next day I wanted to hike to two big waterfalls in the park. It was pouring in the morning, so I got a late start and didn't get hiking until around noon. This meant that I was only able to make it to one of the big falls. I was tempted to go for the other, but I feared darkness and even though I had my flashlight, the trail wasn't the best and rain was looming. Along the way, I saw 4 or 5 other "waterfalls." The thais religiously flock to waterfalls just like they do temples, so places will call anything waterfalls just to get thai tourism. In reality, these falls were just small little rapids. The way that thais classify waterfalls, the big thompon below lake estes and throughout the park would be one huge waterfall! They say you should take a guide on these hikes so you don't get lost and to see wildlife. Well, guides are quite expensive, especially for a single person, but I didn't get lost, and actually did quite well on the wildlife watching. Saw several species of lizards, a turtle sunning on a rock, and two species of monkeys (a black and a white one). And of course the leeches. I was up to about 63 leaches on my feet before I stopped counting and caring. They don't really hurt and it slows you down a lot to keep stopping to check for them, so I'd hike for a long time before removing my keanes to check for them. At one check, I had 14, big fat, blood drunk leeches on my feet. Quite gross. And when you pull them off, you bleed like crazy b/c they, unlike mosquitos which do the opposite, put an anticoagulant in your blood. So my feed had runny blood everywhere and were covered in leeches. Quite the site. The last few kilometers I walked in the rain before finally reaching my bungalow.This morning I talked with a british couple at breakfast who do lots and lots of travelling. They work for some insurance firm and have it worked out where they work hard for a year to a year and a half and then they get 6 months to a year off to travel. Anyways, they have been to lots of rainforest areas, but none in the wet season, so they just couldn't take all the leeches and decided to forego anymore hikes and just enjoy the area around the small town. There were just so many leeches!Today I made it to Phuket Island, thailands most popular tourist destination especially for package tourists.

Lunar Eclipse...and rabies strikes again

So Nicola and Ella and I as well as two germans from our same bungalow caught a saeungtheuw that night to head up to the half moon party. Unlike the fullmoon party which is on the beach and attracts up to 30,000 people, this one is in the jungle and gets only 5-10,000 people. We arrived in the jungle around 10:30pm. When we got to the entrance, there was a large sign that said due to the current political problems and state of emergency declared in thailand, the party would no longer go until 6am, but only until 2am, but they would be charging 300baht instead of 400. We paid to get in, bought some overly expensive beers and a bucket to share between ella, nicola and I and got ready to dance. The setting was amazing. In the middle of this jungle, with all sorts of cool lights and decorations up; multilevels of dance floors, several bars, etc. The music played was all kind of the same eurobeat stuff. I've never been to a rave, but I guess the same as what they play there. Pretty easy to dance to, you just do whatever you like. Some people running around with glowsticks or naked or whatever. Most people fairly drunk or on drugs. But at about midnight the music stopped, and it was announced the party was over due to the state of emergency thing. Pretty unbelievable if you ask me. Here we are on this tiny island way south of bangkok. 70% of the people on the island are tourists, and the thais here only care about tourism, not what's going on in bangkok. To me it is much more dangerous to shut down a crowd of 10,000 drunk and drugged ravers than to let a party in the middle of the jungle in a small island in the middle of the ocean go on. Luckily for the like 10 policemen on the island, the huge crowd only booed, griped, and searched for a refund (the ticket sellers were long gone). The large party mainly moved back to Haad Rin, the main beach, but as we were quite far from there and the taxis can get away with exhorbitant fares, we just headed in our small group to the 7-11 nearby to stock up on much cheaper beer and head for the beach. Ella, Nicola and I ran into another brit, a crazy israeli just prancing around in his briefs, and two swedish girls tripping on mushrooms. We all headed to the israelis bungalow on the beach. He had a nice outside set up so that we cold all sit there as he was living in this bungalow for 8 months...just partying everynight and painting or sleeping all day. We didn't do much, just chilled and talked and laughed at the swedish girls. Around 5:30am with the sun starting to rise, nicola and I decided it was time to go back to our bungalow, the moonflower. Ella had passed out in the hammock and she told us to leave her, so we set off for the fairly long walk back to the moonflower. At one point a dog came charging after us (the dogs on this island seemed to be particularly nasty) but I pushed nicola into the ocean and jumped in after her and the dog left us alone. We finally arrived at our bungalows. Nicola gave me a goodnight kiss on the cheek (I don't really think that is british tradition, but I was too drunk to think about it at that point, so I just returned it and went off to bed).I woke up around 7:30 (no alarm, just my internal clock as my watch is broken) as I had a fairy to catch that morning. As I was brushing my teeth out by the beach, Ella came running up with tears running down her face. She had been attacked and bitten by one of the dogs along the beach. The bites weren't so bad, but she was more upset about the thought of rabies and thai hospitals...something I could completely relate to and understand. Luckily, she had had the pre-rabies vaccine, unlike myself, so she didn't need to go to bangkok, but could just go to the clinics there.Took the ferry that morning to Ko Samui from Ko phangan. Found a nice bungalow close to a long gorgeous stretch of beach. I rented a motorbike and started exploring the island. Visited a couple temple complexes with huge buddhas overlooking the water. Then I drove to Haad Chaweng, the famous beach there. It's 6km long, and I walked the whole thing that afternoon and then waded out to a nearby island to watch the sunset. The water here is a beautiful light blue and the sand a bleached white. Unlike my bungalow's beach, which was empty, this beach was crowded with euros tanning, eating at seaside restaurants, and getting massages. Samui is quite upscale, modern, and very touristic. Asside from the spicy smell of curry, a few temples, and cars on the left side fo the road, you wouldn't know you weren't in maui or the like. I checked out a couple of the fancy resorts (a habit I must have picked up from my parents), and they were incredibly nice, but really not that expensive compared to what I'm sure Hawaii or the caribbean or even mexico is like. And the streets are lined with tourist vendors of all kinds. On the beach where people are tanning (or more usually burning) thais completely covered in clothes and sarong sell curios, food, beers, massages, and anything you can think of to the unmoving tourists. Ko tao was a dive mecca with the average age of people around 25-30. Phangan was party central with the average age of people 20-25, and here at samui it is luxury and hedonism with the average age of people approaching 40-50 (and mostly overweight). It seems to be not so much a place for travellers, but for package tourists and people on shorter holidays. I walked back along the beach that night, but the combination of rain and getting annoyed by so many people trying to sell me cocaine and weed that I went back to the main street of shopping areas to walk back to my motorcycle.The next day, I made it to church, my first successful attempt at church in Thailand and then went out to complete my circuit of the island. Saw the famous grandfather and grandmother rocks: two rocks next to each other that the ocean has carved to look like the male and femal reproductive organs. Checked out some nice beaches and ate mangos and went for swims at them. Checked out a muslim fishing village and a mummified monk who apparently predicted his death. Then took a hike up to some large falls. After getting back to my motorbike it started to downpour, so I had to wait that out. But it made the next waterfall I went to quite spectacular as it was flooding brown water everywhere. Saw a couple of smaller falls that were also flooding and then took a steep road up to near the top of the island to a sweet viewpoint. I thought I could get back to my side of the island by going cross island. I was on a crazy 4wd road for a long time and then it started to get dark. I wasn't sure if the road would ever go down, I feared getting lost in the dark, and I worried about running out of petrol, so I turned around. But it was a fun adventure nonetheless, and the fireflies up there were amazing for sure.On 4/20, a crazy day I'm sure in phangan, and the 10th anniversary of Columbine, I took a ferry and then bus to get to Khao Sok NP. I was greeted warmly by the rainforest with an incredible downpour...what more could you ask for.

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.

rabid in thailand and first serious thoughts of coming home

Arrived in Bangkok on tuesday night and located my favorite guesthouse on the soi rambuttri area. The next day I had a few things to do in bangkok. Pick up some packages sent by my mom to the hualomphong area. Thanks mom!! You're the best. And then visit the cebu pacific office way off into sukhummvit to try and get my refund for a cancelled flight. I started early so that I could just walk there and avoid the taxis, but on the way back took the water taxi on the smelly side canals (which is much faster than cars as there is no traffic) and the subway.

Took an "overnight" bus from khao san that night to get to chumphon. Problem was it wasn't quite overnight. It left at 6pm and the bus dropped me off at 3am at soe bus stop in God knows where near chumphon. It dropped 4 other people off as well who were continuing on to ko tao. The bus driver in what little english he knew said there would be a bus coming by to pick us up. Around 4am a minivan stopped by and picked up the other 4: they had onward tickets to ko tao, but I couldn't get on that van. One of the guys looked at me sincerely and said "good luck" as he got on the van, little did I know I would need it. So at this point is was 4 and not too far from sunrise and when the public transportation starts (5:30), so I decided not to pay the motorcycle driver who was there and offering to take me the 8km to the town center for almost 1/2 the price it cost to go the 500km from bangkok...just the principle of the thing, plus if I just waited til 5 or so I wouldn't have to pay for a room for that night either. There was a little eatery with tables out there so I was just going to wait another hour or so until the public transport started. I got my book out to read and remember noticing a couple rats digging through the trash about 15m away, but didn't think much of it. I quickly got too tired to read and just laid my head on the table to sleep. I was awoken at some point by a sharp pain in my right little toe. I swatted down in my drowsiness pissed that I had been bit by another bee (would be 3rd on the trip), but as I woke up I quickly came to my senses and realized that bees weren't out at this time of night and mosquitos are not near that painful. I looked down at my toe and it was bleeding quite badly. I immediately figured I was bit by something bigger, perhaps a rat. I began to panic a bit. I showed it to the lady in the store. She didn't speak any english, but pointed to the sewer/ditch area where there was a rat, and I knew she figured it was a rat. Of course she had me wash the wound in some most likely not so clean water from some spicket behind the building. I was quite scared as I feared rabies. I paid the motorcyclist to take me into town. I woke up a woman at a guesthouse my book said knew english. She directed me to where a 7-11 was so that I could make an international call. I didn't really know what to do and I wanted to call my mom b/c I was very sketched to go to a rural thai hospital and get a shot (shared needle?) considering the hospital experience we had with lucas. On the way, I walked by the ferry office and they were open and had internet which would be loads cheaper and easier than an international call from a payphone. So I signed in, Sherman, (mr L3) was online so I got him to call my mom and tell her to go online. We decided it was best to go to the hospital there and try and trust them (rabies shots need to be administered rather quickly). The hospital seemed ok and rather clean and sterile, though they didn't speak a lick of english and they were obviously most concerned with the fact that my pulse was 40 (i did find that a tad unusual considering I was quite scared so I should have had an elevated hr and i'm not exactly in great cardio shape right now...I think i've read Lance Armstrongs resting hr is 37). But they did give me a shot and a little pamphlet (in thai) that showed I needed 5 more. I went back to the iternet place and my mom had conferred with my father and my uncle, a vet. And they believed I needed another shot with the human immunoglobins. So it was off to bangkok (in a rush) for me again in hopes of getting to an english speaking hospital. Left at 10:30am for bangkok, got in around 7:30 and after a nerve wracking 1 hour long taxi ride I made it to an american run hospital a bit after 9. The clinic was closed so I had to go to the ER. They seemed much more professional and at least the doctor and the orderlies spoke english. They said I need 11cc's of the vaccination fluid. They wanted to put 2mL in my little toe, 4 in each butt cheek and 1ml in the other arm that didn't have the shot. Well, I don't know if you've ever tried to put 2 mL's of fluid into your tiny little toe, but after about 10 minutes (probably shorter, but it seemed much longer), the doctor gave up on trying to squeeze any more liquid in there, so I just got 1mL in there. The shots in the butt and arm didn't really hurt at all luckily.
Perhaps the funniest thing was the tact (maybe not quite the right word, but it'll work) they used for having you pay the bill. The cashier guy walked up while I was lying on my stomach with my drawers down and a needle in my butt. He didn't have the best english but he put a piece of paper under my nose that showed the bill. Far from cheap. I cringed and the nurse giving the shot asked if it hurt...i shook my head, no the shot didn't hurt...but something else did.
I think the people there got a slight kick out of me. It was a very, very fancy hospital. From the outside it looked more like a ritz carlton or something. Most likely used mainly by rich business travelers or rich westerners living abroad. I hadn't changed my outfit I was wearing since, well before lucas left, so at least a month. Of course everynow and then I washed it in the shower or jumped in the river and I am often wearing a swimsuit. When you're with other backpackers or with everyday filipinos you don't notice a smell, but once in the sterile hospital I could tell I smelled quite badly. (my clothes are currently being washed in bangkok as we speak). And my feet are pretty badly cut up, scarred, etc b/c that's what you get when you are wearing sandals non-stop in areas far from grassy fields or nice sidewalks. Plus the humid weather and saltwater doesn't exactly help healing. The doctor looked at me when he first met me, "which one is the rat bite" I also felt sorry for the nurse cleaning my feet. I hadn't been able to shower in a couple days and if you walk for a whole day in bangkok like I had done the day before in sandals with very sweaty feet and all the pollution and dirt everywhere, your feet just don't look the same as when you wear sandals on the aci campus on their clean grass and swept sidewalks!

Today I'm waiting for the night bus again that leaves at 6pm. This time though I'm going straight to ko tao insteading of stopping in chumphon. I had wanted to stop in chumphon b/c the lonely planet said it had very budget accomadation (it did) and had some nice beaches nearby with good windsurfing (one of my favorite water sports). But I have decided I guess I'm not meant to go there and now of course I'm a bit behind schedule with my visa (you're only given 30 days before you have to leave thailand or at least do a border run) and I know I can always go with my brother to bellingham and windsurf all I want when i'm home.

So I've found myself in a bit of a rut and quite a fair amount of bad luck I think, recently. The day before I said goodbye to lucas and sari my camera broke and then the next day I had to say goodbye to them which was really tough, b/c I love lucas and the three of us were very compatible travellers and had the best times together. But I got over that and had 3 great weeks after that, then somethings started happening again, nothing big, but they can add up. My nice trusty alarmful watch broke (you wouldn't believe how important a watch with a good alarm here is important...i bought a replacement, but it's not too loud and I've heard watches out here often don't last more than a month), I left my john grisham book I was in the middle of at an airport ticket booth (I found the same book in bangkok), my headphones broke (2nd pair that's broken on the trip), my sandals have worn through again (and it's so hard to find sandals my size and quality ones that I don't feel will ruin my joints), I was unsuccessful at obtaining my 40 dollar refund from cebu pacific that they owe me and wasted a lot of time doing it, the ferry to manila left everyday but the day I needed to go, so I had to waste a lot of money on an airplane, and some other small things. But the two biggest most upsetting things were my external hard drive I'm carrying seems to have failed, which of course has all my pictures from the trip so far (luckily I still have quite a lot of the pictures on my memory card, but not all, including all the ones I had taken with an underwater camera that I rented for a pretty penny on my liveaboard), and then b/c I altered my schedule a bit to go see lucas early in the philippines (I don't regret it at all!!!) I am behind my planned climate driven schedule and so I may be running into rain and storms, which is not what you want to do when travelling through southern thailand which apparently has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world...but white sands, turquoise lagoons, and the ocean never looks good in monsoon rains. But I can't really come back later b/c the dry season doesn't start again until november (as does cambodia, vietnam, laos) all of which I still want to visit. So I'm a bit frustrated with this. It has been raining hard here the last 3 days. Then came the rat. It has been a lot to deal with, and during this last week I haven't exactly been enjoying myself and it's been stressful, at times lonely, and scary. And of course I greatly miss my family, my friends, my roommates at the house of sin, and some other things back home. So all told I gave serious consideration to leaving and coming home. But I'm partially stubborn, determined, don't give up easily, and do have hope things will get better, so I'm still going on. If it's nasty rain in thailand I'll guess I'll forget about it and just head to malaysia. We'll see.
Can't wait to eat rats when I get to vietnam though for a little payback!

The blah (and argh) days of travel

Spent the saturday that I arrived in cebu walking around looking for a place to stay, then walking everywhere, enquiring everywhere into finding a ferry that left on sunday so I could get to manila to catch my plane that left on the 7th (ferries to manila from cebu take 24 hours). Know one really knew. Apparently though ferries went everyday, sometimes twice a day, except Sunday. There used to be another company than did sundays, but it had a boat sink in a typhoon so it was shut down. It was a frustrating day b/c I went from place to place, large mall to large mall looking for travel agents, etc that knew. Everyone in Malpascua had said there would be a ferry everyday to manila from cebu and I believed them b/c they're too huge cities and my lonely planet book said ferries were daily. They had also given me a paper that listed a ship leaving everyday, but it was only later that I realized the paper was dated october 2008! I had gotten a paper in malapascua that did list one ship leaving sunday at 5am but it said in parentheses cargos only. I figured that shouldn't be a problem and they'd let me on. They're always willing to take money. Plus I was excited for it b/c it's always kind of a romantical dream of mine to do that kind of travelling...stow away more or less on a cargo ship, jump on an empty box car and see where the train takes me, hop in the back of a semi truck.
So I left my overpriced hotel at 3:00 am after getting in after midnight to make sure I was there the typically required hour early. The security guard wouldn't let me through b/c he said there was no ship going that day. I tried to show him the paper, but he said there was no ship. I knew he didn't really know. Then a guy drove up in a nice suv. He knew good english, and turns out he's the grandson on the people that own that shipping line. He took me inside the shipping yard and I told him my dilemma about making it to manila on time and not wanting to pay for an airplane. He said he'd ask his boss (this I didn't understand unless he was asking his grandfather) and let me know. His boss came in at 8am and the ship actually left at 1pm, so I just slept on a tilted bench in the shipping yard to all the noise of the yard and swatting mosquitos. Well, his boss said no as it was against coast guard policy (like they would even check!). I thought about trying to bribe him as bribing (especially of police officers, gov't officials is commonplace as they say that officials in the philippines can be as crooked as their coastline), but decided against it as he was obviously well off and the 700 pesos that it typically cost wouldn't mean much to him. If it had been the captain or a crew member or something I would have tried b/c they would have just been able to happily pocket that, and also b/c he was such a nice guy I would just feel bad doing that. He ended up calling airlines for me and helping me book a flight though and then driving me to the SM mall where I could pay for the ticket (had to wait over 2 hours just to pay for the ticket.) I spent entirely too much times in the humungo malls of cebu as it seems like everything was there...airline tickets, ferry tickets, food, info, etc. The mall was quite crazy as they have the biggest malls in the philippines and filipinos really know how to do malls. I think they like to cool off there. As it was the week leading up to holy week, they had huge sales and the mall was absolutely packed.

As my watch had broke and my sandals had broke, I spent a fair amount of the afternoon walking along the vendors in downtown (nasty, crowded, dirty, and polluted...in my opinion the 2nd worst cityin the philippines...though the "uptown" and "newtown" areas are quite nice) looking for a watch and sandals (the mall is much too expensive) and also a shoe repairman for my keens which were also falling apart.

It was palm sunday so everyone and their sister was walking around holding elaborately designed crosses made out of palms. The only highlight of my two wasted days in cebu city was going to palm sunday service at the Santo Nino Basilica. It was held outdoors in a huge plaza (think St. Peters Basilica in Rome, except not as big) with the bishop (I assume) in the front on a huge alter. There were several thousand people in attendance. A few chairs set up in the shade but mostly just people standing up in the hot sun, waving their palms. The best part was after the mass when the bishop took out the holy water to bless all the palm crosses. The people came running up, surrounding him, yelling, waving their crosses. It was quite the spectacle. But definitely cool to experience palm sunday in such a Catholic country. I hear holy week is something else there, but unfortunately I'm missing it. Flew that night from cebu and arrived into Manila around 10pm.
Didn't want to deal with the hassle of public transport (or even a cab) and finding a cheap hotel at that time of night and not wanting to spend money on accomadation at all considering the airplane ticket cost, so I just slept on a bench outside the airport. Unfortunately it's one of those airports (it was a side airport used by PAL only and not the big manila ninoy aquino intl airport) where you need to show a ticket to go inside and the baggage claim was not attached to the airport, so I didn't get to sleep on a bench in the airconditioning, but outside with all the smoking employees.
That morning I met up with Frank, a nice filipino guy from Batangas (who studies business masters in manila) I had met on the bus from manila to batangas earlier. We did a few errands in manila like picking up a book the stringbean had left for me and trying to mail a package (no such luck as it was a national holiday). We then took the bus for a couple hours up to Dau (near clark airforce base) where my plane would fly out of. Much cheaper to fly out of clark than manila. Clark was US AFB until 1991 when it was handed over to the philippines. We toured around a bit, and I actually kind of liked it. It was such a contrast to the insanely crowded and busy filipino cities, including Dau, I had just been in. You could tell it was designed by Americans: huge boulevards with large trees providing shade. Lots of open space around, grassy fields, a small football stadium, several parks, a golf course.
That night, my last night in the philipines, I had a very filipino night. Took a jeepneys to the big SM mall (not another mall) to eat the main meal, then had some nice fried 100% cholesterol food at some street stalls. Went to a videoke bar to sing my heart out, and of course ended my philippine karaoke career with an abba song. After that we went back to the mall to watch a flick: knowing with nicholas cage.
It was great having Frank along. Always nice to have company, especially someone that knows the area and he is a fun guy. Plus very, very generous. Treated me to several things and went out of his way to accompany me to clark where he used to work.

Flew out of clark today to bangkok. A funny little airport. Only 6 flights daily (to china, singapore, malaysia, hongkong, cebu, and bangkok and the rest used for the airforce. Took the bus into banglamphu, the budget area in bangkok and as soon as I got off the bus it starte to pour cats and dogs and lightning everywhere. Intense lightning...every second another flash, and for a while right over my head lasting for close to an hour. instantaneous flash and crack. I'd never been in a lightning storm in a city like that before and I didn't really know where to hide, I just hoped the lightning would strike one of the temples. I was just hiding under a little archway. It was probably one of the top 10 scariest lighting storms I've been in which says a lot considerings I've spent considerable time for my job and fun above tree-line in the rockies (where I've had the terrible privelage of smelling the ozone)...and played t-ball and peewees for greg farmer at the 1pm stanley field games. I'm very glad I know bangkok very well b/c the little arch I was in didn't shelter me much and I was getting soaked, and I didn't feel it was that safe, so I just grabbed my umbrella (ella, ella, ella, ella...that's for you lucas and that overplayed song in the philippines) and ran to where I knew there were guesthouses. The streets were flooded, so I took off my shoes and was running through shin deep water. Luckily the guesthouse I wanted and had stayed at before had rooms left.

I'm definitely going to miss the philippines, especially the ease of travel they provide. It was nice traveling in a place with the roman alphabet and a place where almost everyone knows english. Also, the filipinos as a whole are very happy, very nice, very friendly, and very helpful people. The thais in my opinion aren't near as friendly and try and scam you more, so you have to be on your toes more. But it was nice to have some spicy food for dinner tonight.

Have some stuff to do in bangkok tomorrow, but hopefully I can catch a night bus to the south tomorrow.

of thresher sharks and sea horses

Had two completely awesome days of diving on Malapascua island just north of cebu. Took the bus up there from cebu. When I got to the northernmost town of cebu, Maya, the banca drivers wanted to charge me 400p while the rest of the filipinos would pay just 50p. I said no way and decided to wait it out. Well as good luck has it, I saw three westerners and asked them how they were getting there. They were actually interns and volunteers with the thresher shark research and conservation project and the research boat was coming to pick them up, so after I asked the head researcher if it was ok, I got a free ride (and free beer) over to the island. Bret was a hilarious australian who did envrionmental consulting until he lost his job with the economic crisis and Jessie and Matt were aquatic biology students from CU-boulder working on their required thesis they have to write to graduate. Interestingly Jessie had grown up in bellingham and knew baker well but now lives in aloalua when not in school and knows the windlers.
The first morning I got up at 4:30 to start the dive at 5 to look for the thresher sharks, but the other divers showed up really late, so we didn't get out until 6:30 and didn't see any sharks. I had originally planned to just do 2 dives here as per my budget, but I really wanted to see the thresher sharks as they're highly endangered and this is really the only place you can have a chance of seeing them, and this french guy dennis that I met was just raving about how this was the best diving around and convinced me to do some more dives. The 2nd dive of the day was out to Lapus Lapus island. It was a sweet dive, saw a lot of cool things and difficult to find things including 3 frogfish (2 different species) and a pygmy seahorse.

After the second dive I did a circumnavigation of the island on foot. There were some nice beaches and at the far end, the village kids were more than happy to show me to the lighthouse and then to a pretty high cliff to jump off of.

That night I did the sunset and night dive as well. What an amazing dive! Saw so many unique and interesting critters. Lots of lionfish and stonefish and loads and loads of the infamous Mandarin fish (beautifully colored fish) and even got to see several of them mate, which is one of the more sought after thing in diving. The male, which is about twice as large, takes the female under his pectoral fin and then they swim out above the coral together arm in arm. It's quite cute really. Also saw a large seahorse which I really wanted to see. I think seahorses are great, but I've never seen them in the wild except for the 2 pygmy seahorses on this trip, but they're so small they're tough to get a good look at. And saw some other cool things like 4 cuttlefish, flounders, fast walking sea stars, anenome and coral shelled crabs.
The next morning we got up early again to look for the thresher sharks. This time I put down the ultimatum that if people weren't there by 5am, we were leaving them. This time we were the first boat there and got to see two thresher sharks up close getting cleaned and we got to observe for quite some time. The sharks are pretty sweet b/c they have huge eyes and this incredibly long arched tailfin.
I took the rest of the morning easy and just read in a hammock by the beach before my 2nd dive. For the 2nd dive we went out to Gato island where we got within feet of sleeping white tipped sharks, saw a very rare harlequin ghost pipefish, and to my great excitement saw 4 sea snakes! The dive area itself was pretty cool. Lots of caves, giant boulders, canyons, the steep wall of the island and some of the best soft coral diversity I have seen. The area reminded me of something from a Dr. Seuss book.

I really liked the island. Beautiful white sand beaches with nice blue water. Some cool local fishing villages to explore and now cars or tricycles on the island. The power was only on from 6pm to 11pm and it was the hottest nights of sleeping so far as my place didn't have a/c or even a fan. I met a cool guy named jamie who grew up in the philippines but now lives in the finger lake area of ny. He and two of his filipino friends bought me lunch one day and the next day treated me to a huge breakfast of sausage, eggs, fish, and rice. The last night I treated myself to an eat all you can place on the beach on the tourist side (I always ate in the local village before that) complete with fresh grilled barracuda for only 4 bucks.

Today I read a bit on the beach and then took the ferry back to Maya. A couple korean guys invited me to share a taxi back to cebu city, but I said I'd take the bus b/c it was too expensive. A few minutes later they came and got me and said they had hired the taxi and I should just come along for the free ride. They wouldn't let me pay for even a little bit.

back in cebu city was a frustrating experience b/c on malapascua everyone had said there were ferries from cebu to manila everyday (my lonely planet said this as well), but when I got here it appeared there were ferries everyday but sunday, which is the day I need to leave in order to get to manila in time to catch my flight back to bangkok. So I spent all day walking around and walking around some more to different travel agents and ferry companies to find something. Doesn't look promising, so I might have to bite the big bullet and book a flight to get to manila on time. There's a potential cargo only ship that leaves at 5am that I might be able to get on. That means I need to leave here at 4am at the latest to be to the pier, but my watch broke on malapascua so I have no alarm, so I will likely have to stay up all night b/c if I fall asleep there is no way I'll wake up in time. argghh