"Gonna take a lot to drag me awaaaay from youuuuu..."

We got out of Bangkok. We made it to the islands. We listen to "Africa" by Toto a lot.

We took an overnight bus from Bangkok to Chumpon a jumping off point for the Southern islands off the east coast of Thailand. We got off the bus around 4am after a 9 hour ride, waited for about 2 hours in the lobby of a hostel for the ferry company to open at 6am, then took an almost three hour boat ride to the island Ko Tao. The ferry ride was miserable, we were hungover, hungry, and freezing. It rained the entire ride and we couldn't go inside the cabin because the AC was on full blast. We were trying to pysche ourselves up for the beach but it was difficult in the rainy cold. However this did make an oppurtunity for back packer bonding and story swapping. We learned that the island we were heading too was the scuba diving mecca, no one could understand why we were going there if we weren't diving and the weather was so bad. We weren't too sure ourselves.

us = Awesome!

BUT... We must have some good travel karma because as we approached Ko Tao the clouds seemed to magically part over the island and the sun began to shine. Glorious sight, only trumped by the sight of the feast we had after we ran off ferry into the closest restaurant. After traveling for 12 plus hours with nothing in our stomaches but beer and Thai whiskey to help us sleep, we were starving. So we ate... a lot.

Good segway into: things I have eaten in Thailand

night 1: crickets from the street vendor in Khoa Saan road. Lets just say there were no leftovers to take photos of
In general the street food in Bangkok all smelled like this fish oil that I really didn't like for some reason so street food eating was minimal.
Things I have likes; wonton soup, coconut soup (I ate this straight for three days in Ko Tao) MANGOES, scary cupcakes, pad thai which Leah added so much chile that it made me cry
Random good non-thai food: awesome indian food in Haad Rin and the best chicken sandwich I've ever had

The travel karma continued from the moment we stepped off the ferry. Sunshine, bellies full of coconut soup, we teamed up with a german guy named Felix and found some bungalows on the beach for 100b each. Ko Tao was so beautiful I actually cried the first morning when I woke up. The beauty was fantasical... it was ike being on another planet. There was pleanty to do in Ko Tao besides dive as well. For example looking at the weird stuff that washed up on the beach every morning.

Things in the water in Ko Tao:slugs that poop out sand in strange formations, thousands of fish eggs that looked like jelly fish (luckily this cleared after the first day or so), 6 inch long black sea worms as thick as my arm, coral

Life in Ko Tao was simple: we were never out of the water for longer than 4 hours stretches, we sat in the sun, ate coconut soup, played with a puppy that belonged to some people who worked with the guest houses, rode scooters, and went to raging beach parties at night. We formed a little group with some other back packers led by an irish man who thought he might die from partying too much before he finsihed his travels. After three lovely nights in Ko Tao we decided to check out another island: Ko Pha Ngan.

Ko Phangan is known for being the home of the monthly Full Moon Party. It is bigger and full of Israelis and back packers in general. Our first few nights we stayed with the group in a quieter cove in the north of the island and then Leah and I headed to Haad Rin for the black moon party (like full moon but smaller).

The guest house we stayed in was the best part of Haad Rin. It was run by this woman named Poo with whom we became friends and the "real boss" according to Poo was her there year older daughter Panda. It was nice to get to spend time with a Thai family. Poo was always eager to teach us things in Thai and Panda took the place in our hearts of the puppy from Ko Tao.

The islands have been great. Sunshine, beach, motocycles, interesting travelers, but we are almost ready for a new experience. They are a money trap because everythign is more expensive and it is hard to get a feel for Thai culture that doesn't relate to tourism. Tanned faced and empty wallet we are now getting ready to head to Ko Phi Phi which is actually off the western coast and from there we will most likely head north thriough Bangkok to Chang Mai.

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