Not much of a day....

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Well, I must admit that today wasn't really much of a day. I got up at noon, and ate a wonderful breakfast of muesli, fresh fruit, and yogurt (trying to go healthy to make up for last night), accompanied by a tall iced coffee. During breakfast I talked to two Brits on a gap year who had come all the way from Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the full-moon party. 36 hours of traveling. Wow. It sounds like they were planning on doing a near-identical trip as me, but ended up spending 2 weeks in Phnom Penh. I think I spent 2 days... I asked them what the hell they did for that whole time, and it sounds like they hung out at their guesthouse, smoked a lot of weed, and drank a lot at night. I can't imagine spending 2 weeks anywhere, let alone Phnom Penh - there's really nothing there to see!!

After breakfast I had to decide how to spend my (half) day in Koh Pha Ngan. I could sit on the beach like everybody else...or sit on the beach like everybody else. I finished my book (The Omnivore's Dilemma, a solid book by the way), and couldn't think of anything worse than actually RELAXING. It's amazing how the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree - either as a result of nature or nurture, I travel just like mom (or dad when he vacations, which I guess in itself is an indication of his character): I can't sit down. I Phuket mom and I sunbathed for a half hour before we got really bored. Like I said: an ADD traveler. So, I decided to go for a 5 or 6 mile run along the beach to the tourist town of Hat Rin (where the party was last night). I decided to just carry my wallet, and opt for no shoes. This turned out to be a little painful, as a few of my toes had some brand new gashes in them from the glass last night, and the beaches I ran on consisted of sharp shells. It also turned out that there wasn't a long strip of sand leading to Hat Rin, as I had thought, but rather several beaches, with large sharp boulders in between. To top it off, shards of glass (more?) littered some stretches of beach, and the sand was wicked hot. Oh, and it was the hottest time of day, so within 15 minutes of running I became so dehydrated my head started pounding - so much for that hangover being gone! Despite all of this, it was a fun run. I got to check out all of the bungalows lining the beach, and saw locals searching for crabs during low tide. I even ran into a few dogs - one of which wanted to be pet, the other two chasing me down the beach, snapping at my ankles. I wasn't bitten, but I'm still happy I opted for that rabies shot!

After about an hour I arrived at Hat Rin West, and walked across the peninsula by road (more glass) over to Hat Rin West, where the town is. Phew! I made it, and still have all of my toes.

So, now that I'm here, what to do? I can sit on the beach, or...sit on the beach... I was hoping to find a kayak rental, but I didn't see one. Bummer. I grabbed a lunch of coconut soup with vegetables, found a book exchange and bought a new book (an 'adventure story' written in 1970 about Geronimo - very poorly written though). Armed with my new book, I walked over to the beach, ready to take a dip and then sunbathe while reading. I spent about three minutes in the water before storm clouds blocked the sun, and thunder scared everyone off of the beach. Shit. What's there to do in a beach town when it rains? Eat food. At least that's my answer. I ordered Chicken Panang - a wonderful light red curry, and read my book.

Once the storm stopped (well it actually never even started), so, once I finished my curry, I decided to check out the town a bit more. Lonely Planet compares Hat Rin to Patong in Phuket (I haven't described Patong, but it's this seedy beach town full of go-go bars and 50 year old fat men), but they are worlds different. Sure, there's a hopping bar scene at Hat Rin thanks to the full-moon party, but everybody is YOUNG, and although the town may have a bit of the seedy beach town feel, it's actually quite a nice town to walk around (as long as you keep your eyes open for broken glass when walking around in bare feet).

The tattoo parlors are possibly the most interesting enterprises in town, as they advertise not only regular tattoos, but 'bamboo tattoos'. I saw a lot of people getting bamboo tattoos today. It appears that a 'bamboo tattoo' is applied by dipping a sharpened piece of bamboo into black ink, and then tapping the point into flesh, thus creating a black dot underneath the skin. Looks painful.

I bought a pair of sandals as well, for $6. They are really quite nice, and say 'Diesel' on them, haha. I needed new sandals anyways - the old ones are pretty dead. They also had fake 'Diesel' jeans, but the lady wouldn't back down from 1300 Baht: $43. Wayyyy too expensive for fake jeans.

Time for dinner. I ate a meal of wide noodles with vegetables ($2), while reading my book. It's odd being alone and not having street food available. I was perfectly happy traveling alone through Laos, and I think that's because I never had to sit down and eat alone. I could always eat on the move. And I was ALWAYS on the move. Here, there isn't so much to do other than sit on the beach and swim. So, after dinner I set up a boat ride for tomorrow to Koh Tao. A new island to check out!

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