South Thailand

---

When god was doing his creation thing, shrimp were probably made on a friday afternoon, just a bunch of spare parts thrown together. goby fish are similiar, the most pathetic of the fishes, small in size and not a lot going for them. but together they survive and firmly hold on to their place in the food chain. these guys partner off you see and live together, the shrimp burrow whilst the goby does the housework and other stuff. how does this work? do shrimp and gobys speak the same language? are they pre programmed to do this? who knows. it is just another one of natures amazing stories. in a world plagued with greed and destruction seeing these two basic lifeforms happily working together despite all their differences, i realised there is hope for this world yet.

That episode was witnessed whilst diving from ko tao, pretty amazing stuff. From there i hopped across to ko phagan, i spent my time between party beach haad rin and the quiet and secluded haad yao, it was a great mix and i felt quite settled there with my bungalow on the beach. at some point, roughly about the time that saturn was moving into alignment with jupiter and the cosmological forces of the universe were reaping havoc on my chakras i decided to partake in some tantra yoga (and my friend was doing it and the first session was free). it was pretty heavy going stuff but the cosmic energies felt a lot like pins and needles and being a virgo i need diversity so i sacked it after one day. ko phagnan was not all play tho, no sirree, there was work to be done. i spent much of my time conducting extensive research into the perfect hanging points for a hammock, results of which will be published at a later date. i expect you think i am incredibly noble and selfless to sacrifice my time to such a cause but hey, anything in the name of science!

my time on ko phagnan culminated in what is perhaps the most important event of the lunar calendar - the full moon party. thousands spilled onto the island to dance the night away, it was crazy stuff, the memories of which were left on the beach somewhere. two days later and fully recovered i made my way across to the west coast of thailand and the andaman sea. i stayed on ton sai beach and fell in love with the place. it is surrounded by limestone cliffs and is rated as one of the worlds best sports climbing spots so most of the time here was spent climbing. i was also able to visit ko phi phi and surroundonig islands and do some more diving. ton sai is one of the few places on the west coast that remains pretty raw and backpacker friendly. but not for much longer. a big part of the beach has been bought out for a development and the bamboo bars and bungalows are being taken down. soon the scurge that i call the 'chav'eller will arrive and it will be a sad day for ton sai.

in thailand everyone loves the king and i dont mean elvis. one swiss man was recently imprisoned in the bangkok hilton for 10 years for defacing a portrait of the king. but get this the king started a scheme to create rain, using chemicals they create clouds and bring the thai people the rain necessary to grow crops and fill resevoirs. no wonder everyone loves the king, he creates weather. we are lucky if we get a scheme to teach down and outs how to cook, here the king says let there be rain and there is rain. so i am not sure if it was the king but on the day of my departure as the thais were celebrating the water festival as if planned the heavens opened and the first april rains came.

---

Comments

[Alf]

Best blog entry ever!
Hey T (dot), sounds like your onward journey was fantastic. After reading your blog, it sounds like I need to visit Ton Sai again. I am glad you survived the climbing exploits and the water fight. I guess it is onwards and upwards for you. Where are you going to be next? Life on Koh Pangan is winding to a close for me and I am off to the kok on Thursday for some shopping and movies! Joy joy! This place is over-run with those little bastard flys and while I am typing or reading, the little buggers gang up and make a run at my nostrils trying to make it to the reactor much like the rebels attacking the death star. I intend to win this one my friend so do not worry... and NO, they are not the reason I am leaving KP. Will update you when I hit Bali and let you know if it is worth the journey. Cheers dude. Alf

[Ness]

Hey, more pictures of you please! ;-) Miss u. Ness

[Matt (lil bro)]

Poi
I've been doing fire poi for a few months now - only hit myself once... How are you?

[Jayne Sheeran]

Wow !
Hi Tom Blown away by your photos and words . Can't wait for next instalment ! Take care :-)) Love Jayne Mike Jack and Harry xxxx