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Night boat
In the bowels of the ship, next to the engine, 7 of us tried to sleep in the equivalent space of 3 twin beds. I don't even know where to start with this blog because my memories of the last several weeks, and even the last month and a half are shrouded in a Chang induced mist. Really, it feels like just yesterday that I arrived in Bangkok's international airport and was waiting for Jas to arrive from India. One thing is certain B$G Thailand was the stuff that legends are made of, and while we sorely missed a few of our members it was an overwhelming success. Since I wrote last we've been to Patong beach on the island of Phuket (pronounced pooket), Phuket town, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and finally Ao Nang which is just outside of Krabi. Thanks to air conditioned rooms, hot showers and constant movies on the television, we spent far too much of that time in Patong.
Patong beach is a small strip of beach located on the western side of phuket island. Aside from Copacabana beach and perhaps Ipanema, it is the most crowded strip of sand that I've been to filled mostly with middle aged European sex tourists wearing far too little. The beach caters to this market by renting out jet skis, chairs, umbrellas
Chang o'clock
With an air conditioned room and fridge there was little need to actually leave the meat locker all for ridiculous prices, while in the actual town there is an overwhelming number of 7/11s and other chains from the western world such as subway and McDonalds. Aside from sleeping in to ridiculous hours, going on Chang runs and watching men who have no other choice pick up what they believe to be women (or maybe not), the only other events of significance would be the eating contest between Adrian and James and our trip to Myanmar to renew our 30 day visas for Thailand.
With about a week of build up to the event we were fortunate to stumble upon an all you can eat buffet for the contest which pitted speed (Adrian) against endurance (James). We arrived just as the gates were opening and proceeded to gorge ourselves on the various thai and western dishes provided. Fueled by their competition even us mere mortals were able to put away plate after plate of food and draw disgusted and surprised looks from the staff. I couldn't help but think about how many people will never have the opportunity to have such a feast even though I myself probably didn't need it. Unfortunately, or fortunately with all the
A dance anyone?
I don't really know why this room was so big or why we did not put all 7 of us in it. drinking and eating surrounding the last month Fryan is making a triumphant return to the travel scene.
After finally mustering up the strength to leave Patong we took a 30 minute tuk-tuk ride to Phuket where James quickly purchased tickets for our trip to Phi Phi and Koh Lanta. It was nice to hang out in Phuket for a day as the tourist scene was almost non-existent and prices were a lot more reasonable. After spending so much time in Patong I had almost forgotten that there are actually businesses in Thailand that aren't restaurants, bars or internet cafes.
Koh Phi Phi is actually a series of islands including an island where a James Bond movie and the movie the beach were shot (not entirely sure cause I wasn't that interested). While we only managed to visit the biggest of the islands where all the hotels are, I must say that this is easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. With turquoise water, white sand and huge granite walls shooting out of the water it was easy to fall in love with the place and I was a little disappointed that we did not stay
Koh Phi Phi
Never seen a sky quite like it. longer even though I know I will be going back.
Our first day there saw the undefeated Canadian volleyball team suffer many loses at the hands of the local lady boys. Unfortunately not used to a regulation size court, net, and with only four players out at a time we were only able to muster one win against the local teams that come out daily to beat unsuspecting tourists. Tired from that, but with only a limited amount of time we decided that our first night would be the night that we had our much talked about bouts in the Muy Thai ring. It was back in Koh Phang Ngan that we first heard of the ring and the free buckets that the fighters receive after the match. With free buckets in the sentence it was almost inevitable that Jas would be fighting James and myself fighting Trevor.
Trevor and I fought second with me mostly resorting to my rugby tackling abilities (there are points for take downs in Muy Thai) and Trevor clearly emerging the victor. While 3 two minute rounds doesn't sound like much, especially considering boxers fight 12 five minute rounds, it was all I
Koh Phi Phi
Abes and Trevor go up to block. The lady boy on the sideline was able to throw Trevor off his game. could do to stand in the ring for the last round of fighting. The night quickly turned into a messy affair with two of our fighters having to leave to get x-rays the following day. It doesn't look like there will be any permanent damage though and all in all we emerged unscathed after providing great entertainment to our fellow backpacking tourists. The next couple of days were divided into watching DVDs in our air conditioned room and doing some amazing snorkeling at a couple reefs off the island.
After a full day on the western shores of Koh Lanta which beaches stretch for kilometers we arrived in Ao Nang where we celebrated Jord's coming of age and drowned our sorrows over the departure of Abes and Randy. With them gone the remaining travelers have decided to retire chang o'clock for at least a couple weeks while Jordan kills his parasite and we try and heal our livers and pocket books.
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