Rock the boat, rock the boat baby!

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Top of the morning to ya! (Good old Terry Wogan)

So it's been an interesting couple of days, probably not for people reading but definitely for me. I left you on Koh Phangan where I was about to embark upon the ordeal known as the half moon party.

The day was mainly filled with me reading a little bit of Bill Bryson and drinking fruit shakes while making friends with quite a large amount of stray dogs (but incredibly friendly stray dogs. And by the way is was not because I like having my crotch sniffed thank you very much, you know who you are!). So about 9pm we wanted to get charged up so we started drinking some vodka and red bull buckets. A word of warning about red bull in this country, some particular brands are actually manufactured with amphetamines(speed) icluded in them. For those of you who don't know what these feel like, I'll just say I was up until about 1pm the nexy day, sleep=impossible.

So after the medley of drinks we had put inside ourselves we started the fluorescent paint job. I opted for a Jackson Pollock like body paint, involving an old tooth brush and some vigorous throwing of paint. I looked like someone had sneezed after visiting Chernobyl. We all hopped into a pick up truck and proceeded to get absolutely pissed on by a small monsoon, although unbelievably the paint stayed intact and we found our way to the half moon. This place was unbelievable, the people inside there more so. Some guys had eyes the size of saucers and one guy loked as if he was staring into the future. There was some definite narcotics knocking around in that place. The music was some weird psychadelic tribal trance with some fire dancers and whacked out people raving big style. I stayed there until about 10am and the party was still going strong.

The next day was a major recuperation day. I just hung around at the accomodation and played poker with some of the thai boys. By the way if you go to Paradise bungalows on Koh Phangan the fella who always wears the Chang vest is a shark and you should steer clear of confrontation because he will rinse you(relax mum I lost the equivalent of about 2 quid over about 2 hours).

So the next day we all said goodbye to each other and I went with two of the boys to the pier as they were going to Koh Tao and I was heading a little further north to Chumphon on the main land. We were due to board a Lomprayah high speed catamaran, only taking about 1 and a half hours to Koh Tao and a similar time to Chumphon. The sea had other ideas.

This was possibly the most fun I have ever had on a mode of transport. We sat downstairs first of all and it felt like a ride at Alton Towers or something, up, down, left, right, whack as we lifted off from a 10 foot wave. It was great fun, but not for the majority of the 100 people who were being violently seasick after about half an hour of this. I have a pretty strong stomach and I just read my book and laughed as these two poor guys had to run up and down the aisles handing out sick bags and collecting these almost full ones, didn't envy them at all.
We finally got to Koh Tao and a new bunch of vomiting people were due to arrive, I had enough of the smell of puke so I headed up top and had more of a laugh up there than down below. I sat on a solid metal bench and watched as loads of people came up top and sat on little plastic chairs on the slippery floor, you can guess what happens next. Within 10 minutes I was watching a human game of pinball with people on these chairs sliding around and smashing into each other. Should defo be an Olympic event.

So I arrived at Chumphon face sore from laughing so much and hopped on a coach to Bangkok. Nothing to mention of note, apart from watching some film called paycheck that acted as a sedative and I slept most of the way to Bangkok. I headed to The Khao San Road, main Backpacker haven for cheap digs and cheap food. I'm staying in some place called the 'Sawasdee' hotel, nice bar and restaurant. Jumped at the chance for a room for 180 baht (approx 3 quid a night).From now on the room will not be known as a room but as its new title 'sweat box'. The 'sweat box' consisted of a bed and a fan, barely long enough to contain my body, but you get what you pay for.

Tomorrow I'm going to walk some of the major cultural parts of Bangkok, I'll grab a river ferry from close to where Iam now. Then it'll be about a 3 hour walk around the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Keaw, Silkaporn university etc. By the way I have bought a disposable camera and will be putting up the pics when I get back. I'l prob post one more time before I have to come home, boo hoo!

Enjoy the rain suckers, its sweltering here.

Joe xxx

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