Advertisement
Published: February 13th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Joni and the Twins
These were two of the New Zealanders. They might be two of the most beautiful women in the world! Venturing away from Mathew takes a little getting used to. Suddenly, being on my own, the onus was on me to make all the decisions. I decided to venture into Koh Phangnang, and on my van ride there, I met a gang of good folks. Three New Zealand girls (two were twins), one English bloke, one Swedish fellow and one Aussie. Well, all they were missing was an American!
Here in Koh Phangang (pronounced 'koh-pen-yang') is where all the full moon parties are, and well, New Years was going to be fun - for those who drink and do drugs... but for me who doesn't drink at all, and I don't tend to favor the crazy drugs; I figured at best I would need a valium to calm my nerves from the loud music, and at worst I would pop both my eardrums, get run over by a few alcoholics or people on mighty acid trips. So, I decided to stay at Hat Yuen where my new mates and I were staying.
We searched for two hours to find a suitable place to stay, and we found it. The only catch was that it was still being built, so
koh phangnang
Check out this beach!! we had to sit at a local bar for the next 8 hours and eat, drink and be merry.
I went to find a place called, "The Sanctuary" where I heard they do Yoga. At dinner time I felt a bulge in my pocket, and voila! I found the card where I had written down, "Koh Phangnang," "Hat yuen" and "the Sanctuary" I had completely forgotten about the advice, and yet still was divinely led to the right place! How awesome is that?
The group of six entrusted me with all their passports and money so that they could have fun on the main island. I did think, "damn, I can't believe everyone's trusting me with their most precious belongings," But hey, such is life when you are traveling. You meet people, you either trust them or you don't, and then you go with your instinct.
After a few days of paradise, I headed off to Koh Phi Phi. Now, really, there aint a heck of a lot to do there, and I wasn't sure why I came. I could see the terrible damage of the Tsunami, even though it happened quite a few years ago. There
The Sanctuary
World famous Yoga... Step right up, come on in, ignore the Spiders, we'll cover them in chocolate and eat them later. was still a lot of construction, and you could see places that had been hit that haven't yet been fixed. I met two very nice South Africans, one of which - Andrew - works in London. These guys would serve as my protectors and travel buddies for the rest of my trip. During the day, we did our separate thing, and in the afternoons and evenings we would hang out. One evening I saw a teenager drink out of a juice box and finishing it off, he threw it into the ocean.
I got mad and saw red. "If I had half a mind, I would go and get that out," Well, apparently I did have at least half a mind that night, and rolled up my pants, went into our beautiful ocean and walked out with the juice box and in a rage yelled at him and threw it clean onto his chest, the water hitting his face. As you can imagine, I probably looked like a female version of Ricky Ricardo when he is mad. (the teenager didn't speak any English.) I later asked Andrew if it had embarrased him, and he said, "Nope, I'm used to
it. My ex-wife is an environmentalist."
Fact: Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton (and terrestrial plants) are responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth's atmosphere.
Meaning, the ocean provides more oxygen that we breathe than do trees. So wouldn't it make sense that we take care of the ocean???
Jonothan, Andrew and I went back to Tonsai to rock climb for my last two days in Thailand.
When I went back, I went first to see my friend Daniel. "I knew you'd be back," he said with a grin.
Of course! Andrew is an avid climber, traveling weekends in England to climb outdoors and at least twice a week back in a London rock gym. So one would think that he would know better than to let me belay a man almost twice as heavy as me - Jonothan.
(to belay a person means that you are on the ground keeping the climber safe and secure)
I belayed Andrew leading the climb, and belayed Jonothan as Andrew trekked off for a few minutes to go swimming. As Jonothan let go of the top of the mountain, I let out a big, "Wheeeeeeeeeee!" as my feet left
Sleeper boat
All three Kiwis the ground. Poor Jonothan had no idea what was going on, except that he had some newfound rope burn.
Luckily, Andrew did think to attach a safety rope to me and the wall, so I didn't go too far. Andrew came back from the water to see that I was laughing so hard that I was crying. I lowered myself down to the ground with the Gri-Gri and told Jonothan that he was safe to let go of the mountain and come down now. Well, I lied. This time when he let go of the mountain, I lifted up about a meter off the ground, and was still laughing so hard, and poor Jonothan was just stuck! I thought I was on a ride at Disney World.
Unfortunately, Jonothan wouldn't let me belay him again, even though I begged him to, since it was just so much fun!
I had a ten hour layover in Korea before my flight back to Los Angeles. I took a bus into the city, but everything was closed since it was Monday. Everything was cold, too and covered in Snow and ice. This wasn't cool for someone who had acclimated to the heat
New Year's Hangovers
Here is Alex and Luke on New Year's morning. Here's a secret: they are in for a killer hangover. and had only a skimpy pink sweater and made-for-summer pants on. I hailed a cab to take me back to the airport and the driver who spoke a little English understood me to have no hotel, no boyfriend and wanting food. I told him I was from Iceland. He turned the meter off and proceded to tour me around Seoul, taking me to a local diner and a mall. Three and a half hours later, after asking him numerous times when he was supposed to get back to work, we parted ways. I checked my email a few days later and he wanted to see me again, and offered to pay for me to come back! He couldn't have been looking for a green card, since I told him I was from Iceland! He was cute for an older guy...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.177s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 17; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0724s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mat Zalk
Matgellan
Joni, I didn't even know this blog was here. I better get myself subscribed so I don't miss any more of your adventures. Love ya. M