Ko Pha Ngan (pronounce Ko Pinyan kind of)

---

Getting on the night boat was a breeze, except that I was only wearing one contact and so had no depth perception and the stairs to the boat were a good four feet below the actual pier, but I made it onto the boat eventually and staked out a pallet on the floor. The boat is essentially one big giant room with the floor covered in these narrow little pallets and you do your best to make yourself comfortable for the duration of the trip. Which takes seven hours. This is remarkable only because its about 70km and if you can get a speedboat in the daytime the trip is only an hour and a half. I'm still not clear what exactly about the trip manages to take up seven hours of time, but I can assure you that we did not pull into the pier at Ko Samui until 6am the next morning. I was meeting a friend at Hat Lamai, and I found a sangthaew (truck tuk tuk thing) that would take me down to that end of the island for a 100B with a bunch of other people heading that way. About 15 minutes into the trip we stop at a dark and lonely crossroads and the driver points at the sign for the Lipa Resort, and a couple that had gotten out of the truck was like, umm no no the "Little Pearl" resort, the driver just nods, points at the exact same place down the road and is like "yeaaaa the Little Pearl, that's it right there" and we drive off. No one in the truck had much confidence that that couple ended up at the right place.

I met my friend that morning and we decided to rent a motorcycle, (200cc honda cruiser type thing) and I named her Laura. But don't get too mad mom! Before we got on I gave quite the speech entitled "If I die, my parents will find and desecrate your dead body!" followed with a postscript of "And if you feel the need to sacrifice yourself to save my life, please do so". We spent the day driving around the entire island, stopping inland to pet some horses (!), going to the shooting range and firing a .22 rifle and a .22 semi automatic handgun, visiting this "robot art gallery" - which is EXACTLY what it sounds like, only much much cooler, hiking the Had Lin waterfall and visiting the beach, eating the best soup for lunch that I have ever ever had, indulging my urge to shop to the point where I can no longer fit anything else into my suitcase, stopping by a night market and generally having a really fun time. That night we just spent grabbing dinner at Ninja Crepes, updating everyone on the Internet and then taking a cruise on the bike down to Chaweng beach for a while.

yesterday morning packed up all of my stuff (which took hours) and we returned the bike and caught the ferry to Ko Pha Ngan and are staying at a really nice resort with Hot water, A/C, a nice view, a pool, a pool party, and a staff of Thais that speak very good english in an extremely strong British accent. There may also be more Israelis on this island than there are in many small villages (kfarim if you will) in Israel, and practically every sign you see, menu, or handout that someone gives you has at least one sign in Hebrew.

---

Comments

[Traci Haback]

Robot Art Gallery?!
That sounds pretty cool- those Asians sure know how to embrace the future. I'm glad you didn't die on the motorcycle. Who's Laura and how did you guys meet? Anyways, have fun this last week of your trip! We longingly await your return...

[Shoshanaz]

Laura is the motorcycle, we met her on the road in Ko Samui (Hat Lamai) and rented her for the day, she was a cheap little bitch :)