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Storm Approaching
Check out the front on that thing, it looks really angry! Hey all!
So we just arrived in Ko Phangan and just settled in to our new guest house here. It's a different island to be sure - you definitely need taxis to get around and there's just a lot more stuff going on here. There's actually traffic here! The whole past week in Ko Tao spoiled us so much we actually might have believed that time actually stopped for a week, but Ko Phangan is definitely giving us a little bit of a jolt back to reality. Fortunately though we found a nice and sort of secluded guest house resort up north, far away from Had Rin, the center of the full moon party on the 9th, which almost matches Ko Tao in terms of relaxation. This place completely works on the honor system - there's no official check in so I don't think they even know our names, you bill everything to the room here, and even billing for the internet is done based on your own estimation of time spent on the computer. We met Luke, whose family owns this place, and he explained to us that his Godfather is actually the chief of police in this province,
Storm Hitting
Things were flying everywhere... look how dark it got! so there you go, I think we know now why this place is like this!
Our last few days in Ko Tao were spent basically just soaking up the sun on the beach, eating and grabbing drinks in Sairee, and just plain old kicking back and relaxing. We already miss sitting in the beanbag seats in the Crystal bar, watching volleyball matches and chatting with people coming in and out from dives and other random activities through the day. A couple nights ago we experienced our first huge storm in Ko Tao - a huge angry cloud came in and wreaked havoc with heavy winds and blankets of rain - but even that didn't spoil our experience! In fact it was really neat watching that thing come in. Walks to Sairee were slightly difficult as usual, I'm continuing to slip on the gravel on the slopes and I'm began remembering to bring a flashlight on our evening walks for those stretches of road they decide not to switch the burnt out lightbulbs in the street lights. I did discover the island's police station, a simple little building with a few mopeds out front, possibly just to create the illusion
Last Dive in Ko Tao
Tan's getting there... there might actually be someone in there! We also discovered Mr. J's shop that sells Mr. J's home made condoms, and it's classic sign outside saying "Buy 10... Get 1... Free?". Do they doubt their own promotion?? We didn't get it, so asked a guy who appeared to be Mr. J and he just kept repeating the same answer "Yes, yes! They home made!" so we gave up shorty after.
So what else was there... I ended up signing up for one more fun dive yesterday because all the people coming in and out made me miss it too much! It was a normal dive, no more whale sharks unfortunately, though I was hoping that with my kind of luck recently that we'd see a turtle, but that also didn't happen... bah! I did get to pop my head into a few caves though, saw some neat corals and even more anemone fish, yellowtail barracudas, and more of the usual. I skipped the second dive of the afternoon and just chilled on the deck of the boat with Leila and Johnny from Denmark, playing backgammon and soaking up even more sun. I think I'm finally getting a little bit
of a tint in my skin above my forearms and below my neck, so I'm no longer fearing the farmer's tan anymore! Later that night we actually had a proper night out in Sairee for once, Leila, Johnny Sean and I all met up with the Crystal divers in Vibe, a sort of pre-Lotus type bar, I finally ate red curry (I've been wimping out because it's always so hot here!) which was fantastic, drank rum coke and red bull out of buckets (I might have not explained this yet - for extra efficiency here in Thailand you can get your mixed drinks in buckets with 5 or 6 straws sticking out for everyone to share... what a country!) then went on to Lotus which was filled to the brim with people in flip flops and shorts singing along to cheesy songs the whole night through. The night ended with everyone locking arms and singing along to American Pie, which apparently is a huge favorite for many Europeans I noticed. Johnny from Denmark was on cloud nine, repeatedly saying this was his favorite song ever and knew all the words to it! I couldn't help but crack up at the
Road to Sairee
One of the hills I had more trouble with... I guess I could have taken the stairs! whole scene!
So that was last night, and today we hopped on the ferry to Ko Phangan, which was also filled to the brim with backpackers rushing over to get rooms in time for the full moon party. We didn't expect so many people to be heading over, but we got lucky and ran into one of the Crystal staff on the boat who hooked us up with this guest house. Great to have these kinds of connections! Tonight Leila, Johnny, Henrik and I went into town to watch some Muay Thai, or Thai Boxing, the national sport here. It's like regular boxing except you only score points by making clean kicking contact with the other boxer's torso. You can also knock another guy out with punches, if you want, but it's not as much something you can count on. Gambling is illegal here in Thailand and we've been hearing how the police are especially tough on this island, so we just made verbal bets with each other on each match. We got ringside table seats for 700 baht ($20!) and drank out of buckets and had a blast cheering for our guys in a stadium that would easily
be mistaken for an illegal underground operation anywhere in the States!! The Thais were especially funny - some flooded all the way to the ring screaming at the boxers and cheering whenever their guy won! Henrik and I ended up losing 300 baht to Leila and Johnny sadly - three of our own guys got knocked out - but it was a fun experience in the end altogether. There was even a Swedish boxer who absolutely dominated the other guy at one point, it wasn't even fair!
Tomorrow and the day after we have no real plans but to just relax by the pool here and gather some more sun. Two of the Crystal staff, Steen and Andre, might be coming to join us before the party in a few days, which should be cool. We think they're actually in love with each other, you never see them apart and they crack jokes nonstop at each other all day and all night. Definitely amusing! Will probably update again the day after the full moon party. We haven't seen Had Rin yet, but apparently it's party central with neon lights and techno music everywhere. I don't even know if I
Wanted sign
I think this is the former prime minister in exile... he's supported by the red shirt party here should be wearing flip flops there tonight after what I've been hearing will be going down! We hear that glow paint is very popular there, so we should probably expect a lot of that sprayed around! So anyway, until the 10th, sawatdee khrab!
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