No shoes, no shirt, no problem

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After our misadventures on the hill of doom leading to Mango bay, which we wisely decided we were never going to make it to, we went back and picked up my bike and cruised up the main road of the island until we passed by a restaurant with a GIANT projector screen showing Muy Thai, of course by the time we turned around, parked and walked into the restaurant they were no longer showing Muy Thai, because as far as I can tell everywhere that I go in Thailand declares a moratorium on thai boxing until I leave the province. But it turned out that we had stopped at a place where you get your own grill and grill/water pot combo on the table and then you pick out the ingredients and grill all your own food. For less than FOUR dollars per person! It was delectable. Drove the bikes back to Hat Sai Ri and spent the next few hours drinking and listening to a really good Aussie singer/guitar player play ALL the fav pub songs like "Mr. Jones" "I'm yours" that killers song that goes "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier" and everyone sang along. After that when wandering through the alleys/streets we were drawn into a bar by "YMCA" and made it for the last part of a drag cabaret show and took pictures with the girls and tried on their wigs.

That night I get into my bed in my bungalow, and the lights are out etc and I hear something climbing the steps, and then walk across my porch and I'm starting to freak out when I realize that one of the neighborhood dogs has apparently adopted my front porch as his bed and is curled up outside on one of the chairs. Christa, no wonder you LOVED Thailand, there are soooo many precious dogs and cats here!

The next day required an early wake up for a snorkling trip. Originally it was supposed to be a long-tail boat which was cheaper but when the pick-up truck taxi (with two benches in the bed) showed up the guy said all he had was the big boat but we didn't have to pay the difference (sweet!). Picked out masks, fins, and snorkels and then headed off, first stop I think was Shark Point where you are basically swimming over the biggest coral graveyard I've ever seen and everything is covered in sand so it's all pretty uniformly the same coral so not exactly fantastic but we did eventually spot three black tipped reef sharks so it was worth it. We also stopped in Au Leuk and Mango Bays and these places the coral wasn't really alive or ANYTHING like it was in the Perhentians but the bays did have all of these giant tumbled boulders that the coral grew on and all the fish swam around so it was pretty cool to see a very different type of underwater environment from what I've seen before. The trip included fresh fruit and lunch so it was actually a pretty good deal money-wise and our boat happened to be about half an hour ahead of all the other boats that were doing the exact same snorkling trip around the island so the 20 of us managed to have each area to ourselves for a while each time which was really lucky. Also we accomplished this by almost ramming one of the other boats out of the water when we tried to leave Mango Bay. Last stop was NangYuan Island, a national park that is leased to a person who runs the diving resort on the island. It was extremely picturesque (kind of a mini-Phi Phi in that it is connected by a narrow sandbar) but the fact that it has live coral gardens means that the actual beach is hell to walk on. No need for a coral scrub on my feet after that experience! But I did really enjoy seeing the live coral and the water was very shallow so everything was extremely close up - including one area where you float about one foot over about 10 sea anemones at which point in my head I was like "oh my god, if I were to suddenly lose my ability to float right now I would be screwwwed", completely irrational, but also terrifying. I fled the area.

That island was the last stop and we headed back to the pier, after all that time in the sun I went and pampered myself by getting a body scrub and it was exactly what I needed, I'm going to be very sad when I get back to the US and am too poor to actually indulge in any of these things again. At this point my friend's bike earned the name "runaway" because he went for a ride and on one of the steep hills the brakes basically failed and came very close to just dragging him down the hill sideways. I was not involved but heard about it later. Walked along the beach and watched the sun set at a bar while drinking a strawberry daquiri, and then did the dinner on the beach thing, with once again, the MOST AMAZING FISH I'VE EVER EATEN! This time it was a whole red snapper with just fantastic amounts of flavor. Paired with cold white wine. O.M.G. Spent the night on the beach at a bar watching one of the best fire dancing shows I've ever seen with guys that would throw each other the flaming sticks etc and sit on each others shoulders and do tricks while hanging upside down - be sure to check out the photos once I finally post them. It was really cool. Finished the night with a giant oreo ice cream shake and then passed out.

Sorry this is a really long post but I'm gonna try to finish it allll up at once.

The next and LAST day in the islands, I woke up early and bought a fruit shake, tanned on the beach and watched two little kids, a boy and a girl, interact. Their parents were on either side of me, so the little girl would run over to where the little boy was playing in the sand and then stand there clutching her skirt while the boy ignored her and then run back to her parents, and then run back to the boy and sit next to him and play in the sand also and then run back to her parents. It was really sweet and cute. Then a man came along and I bought some fresh fruit from him (some thing else I'm going to miss when I go home! Noam, remember when we were in the Bahamas and all anyone wanted to offer us on the beach was either alcohol or drugs? Cause this is waaay better). Checked out of the bungalow and went for one last ride all the way up the main road to a bluff overlooking Ao Leuk bay, got breakfast and drove back to return the bikes. Went shopping again because I absolutely can't stop myself here and then spent the time waiting for the taxi catching up on the Internet.

Took the taxi to the pier in Mae Haad and got on the Lomprayah High-Speed catamaran which actually got us to Chumphorn ahead of schedule which is a miracle in Thailand and then got on a VIP bus (two levels, leather fully reclining chairs, a/c, bathroom, etc). We stopped once for dinner and got pretty spicy but good curry and rice and then I slept all the way to Bangkok which we didn't reach until 2am. But we were supposed to get in at 12am, which is when I got into Bangkok from the airport originally and had no problem finding a room. Instead now it was 2am and everything was full. I ended up getting the most expensive hotel room that I've had this entire trip - 750 Baht!! (but with hot water and A/C). And then not even using the damn thing except to drop my luggage and take a shower because I had slept so much on the bus that I wasn't tired. So I spent the next few hours watching Bangkok both go to sleep and wake up .

So far today I've gotten the tinsel put back in my hair and started my souvenir shopping spree. I'll let you all know how the day went either later tonight or when I get to Seoul tomorrow.

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Comments

[Christa]

can't wait to have you home!
Shosh, I'm so glad you kept a travel blog so we could all be so up-to-date on your holiday happenings. I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself (I mean how could you not ). I wish I could have slept on a beach with stray animals last night. Can't wait to see you this weekend! Have a safe trip home.

[Caroline]

que buenooo
i thoroughly enjoyed this post. snorkling in the islands of thailand sounds like the most amazing thing in the world, and seeing as the seafood in argentina is some of the worst i've ever had (sufficiently UN-fresh and well, let's just say, 'too fishy'-tasting) that meal of fresh red snapper and cold white wine sounds absolutely glorious. i feel your pain paying for the expensive hotel, but it sounds like you had no other option, and even though you didn't use it at least you got to see thailand go to sleep and wake up. and funny comment about the dog thing...when i was in cosquín this weekend, this dog literally followed us for about a mile, all the way from the river to my friend's house, and parked himself outside the door all day and was still there when we went to sleep that night. i think as americans we're sort of not used to the concept of "stray dogs", but here there are almost as many as there are homeless people. which is saying a lot. enjoy your last few days in SE asia!!!