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Published: October 5th 2006
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I flew from Chiang Mai to the Island of Ko Samui, and then took a boat the same day to Ko Pha Ngan. I think I left Chiang Mai at around ten and was on Ko Pha Ngan by two in the afternoon...a bit more expensive but far more efficient than the trip would have been on bus/train/overnight ferry rides.
The beaches on the islands there are completely amazing. Originally I was going to bypass Haad Rin and stay on one of the more quiet beaches because of its reputation for being a huge raver scene. But I met some nice friends on the boat ride to Ko Pha Ngan who had been to the island several times before and they convinced me it wasn't so bad, and that the other beaches were kind of boring for someone alone and my age. And it wasn't the full moon when I was there so it wasn't like there were thousands and thousands showing up for the party. So I ended up staying for a week, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Basically everyone on the beach was a twenty something, and at the time I was there it was like little Tel Aviv
because of it being a break from school in Israel. I think there were more Israelis than Thai people...Hebrew and schnitzel 24/7. But despite all the Israelis being irritated that there were so many Israelis, it had a nice community feel to the place. I decided that I preferred to stay on the island instead of returning a few days early to Bangkok, and since I had planned on having some clothes tailored, I went ahead and had it done on the island. They did a really nice job, though it did impede me from visiting some of the other beaches on the island because I had lot of appointments with tailor for fittings. They didn't take long, but I had to be there, sometimes twice in a day, so it would have been difficult to go to get to one of the other beaches and back in time.
I shared a beautiful hotel room on the beach with a nice girl I met named Shelly. We got into a pretty nice island life routine...getting up somewhere before noon for breakfast, laying on the beach most of the day reading and drinking fresh fruit shakes, swimming in the
perfect temperature water, going for a massage in the afternoon, doing a little shopping, and then taking an evening nap before getting up for the dinner and the nightly beach party at midnight. The party was fun, though I could see it getting a bit repetitive if I had been there for too long. The bars on the beach played different music, so there was a little variety as far as music goes. The dancing was probably the best at the Cactus. I'm not much of a bucket drinker, but that was the main form of alcohol...these smallish plastic buckets with hard liquor, a mixer and some Sprite or Coke and then about five straws. Suprisingly there wasn't much beligerance going on. The fire shows that were earlier in the night were fun to watch...spinning fire sticks and fire eaters. Later in the evening came fire limbo and drunk people jumping through a hoop of fire...this one probably wasn't their brightest idea, but I only saw one guy actually get a little burned.
I couldn't believe how quickly the time went on the islands...another one of those places where you completely lose touch with time. I took the boat
back to Samui on Monday and then flew up to Bangkok into the new airport. It took about four hours from the time I got off the flight at 4:30 in the afternoon to get to Sukhumvit to the hostel on Soi 25. The bus was just sitting in traffic, so eventually I got off and took a motorcycle taxi the rest of the way. I went shopping at the night bazaar and got back to the hotel around midnight, packed until 1 only to get up at four AM for my trip back to the airport. It has been a jet lagged, sleep deprived two days, but I have made it safely back to the Seattle. This will be my final blog entry until next time...it's been an awesome trip, a little crazy at times, but probably one of my better life decisions. See you back for Venezuela and Brazil 2007...
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Katrina
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Ahoy!
Welcome home. You are still making me jealous! I wish I were in Washington! :) I took a bit of a road trip upstate to run a marathon this weekend and took along one of my girlfriends from high school who lives here now... she's in an accelerated nursing program up in Manhattan. The trip and our conversations and the way we bonded made me long for contact with more Pacific Northwesterners. Man, we're awesome. :) Miss you, Katrina