Good bye to the beach

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Hello all. My trip is almost over. I leave for home tonight. After spending a few days in the town of Krabi recovering from my food poisoning in an air-conditioned hotel with television I moved on to Ko Pha-Ngan to meet up with my new friend Charlotte, one of the British group I have been tagging along with the last few weeks. The journey to Ko Pha-Ngan was rediculously stressful. I was so sure of myself in catching the right bus and thought I knew all there was to know about being taken at the bus stations, but somehow I still got scammed and ended up on a crappy bus which took me on a tour of the countryside picking up passengers in every little town at every bus stop. A two hour journey took me 4 hours. Then, once I arrived in Surat Thani, which is where I was meeting Charlotte to meet up to take the boat to Ko Pha-Ngan together, they dropped me off at a travel agency rather than at the bus station. When I asked them where the bus station was, they told me the town did not have a bus station and that I needed to come with them to their travel agency. When I refused and told them I really needed to be at the bus station, where they said they would drop me off, they just walked off and left me on the side of a busy road with no idea where I was. But, I did have a map, and I thought I knew where I was. Apparently I did not. There were two bus stations in town. I managed to make my way to one of them with my mapping genius after about a half hour of walking in the hot sun with my pack. Unfortunately, this was not the station Charlotte was at. But, suprisingly, or not suprisingly, my bus I had just disembarked was there. At that point I started to ask around as to where the other bus terminal might be. The standard answer was, "there is no bus termnial in Surat Thani" or " this was the only bus termnial in Surat Thani". Either answer a complete lie being that, first of all, I was standing at a bus station asking, and secondly, I had the other bus station listed on my map as only 2 blocks away, so they had to know there was one around the corner, they just really did not want me to leave this bus terminal. The standard reply was also followed up with "where are you trying to go?", "need a place to stay?". It was really difficult to convey that I was not interested in buying anything, but rather that I really needed to find my friend who was at the other terminal. She was having similar problems at her bus station. We luckily had phones and were talking this entire time. Very frustrating to know we were only a few blocks apart, but could not figure out which way to go, and the bus terminals were so hectic and situated back in these alleys that it was hard to find a way out.

Eventually, after an hour of wrong directions, stumped locals, and saying no to every person who tried to talk to me, I eventually found Charlotte. Hurray! But, that wasn't the end. Next, we needed to find our way to the ferry termnial and to the island of Ko Pha-Ngan. After a few shady tour companies, and a little more stress we found someone we thought looked promising, honest, and reliable who promised to get us to the island by 6:30. We boarded a mini-bus at 3 which was supposed to get us to a 4 o'clock ferry. Unfortunately, our driver took his sweet time in getting us to the ferry, dropped off every passenger in town, then dropped off and picked up some packages, before eventually getting us to the ferry terminal at 4:05 as we watched our ferry departing. It was great. Luckily, Charlotte had some whiskey, and there were people selling sodas. So, we waited on the ferry pier for 2 hours for the next ferry and got a little drunk in the process. We made it fun. The ferry ride was enjoyed in a similar fashion and we finally made it to the island at 8:30 PM. We were rewarded when we got to the island by a beautiful place to stay called the Sea Breeze Resort, that I actually found in my lonely planet guide, suprising, which was also really cheap. We shared a room and each paid about 7 dollars a night and had a bungalow perched on a hillside surrounded by a beautiful hotel with a fantastic pool. And so begins Charlotte and I's next 3 days of hanging out at the pool.

Our first night there we wandered down to the beach which was lined by bars and booths selling you buckets of alcohol. Charlotte got a bucket, I got a cocktail. There was music playing at several of the bars, and at first we attempted to sit on the beach at a bar with fire spinner and really loud obnoxious music. We couldn't take too much of that sober, so we walked down the beach to a quieter bar with calmer music and less people. Yes, we are that old. But, once we got sufficiently drunk enough, we felt it was time to move back on down to the party full of ripe and young early 20-somethings. The fire spinners were amazing though and it was a great show. There was also a fire jump rope that really drunk young men were jumping through and getting burned. It was pretty entertaining. The music though, way too loud, and also in competition with the place next door as to who could outblast eachother. Which was quite annoying because you ended up with a mix of hip-hop and top forty crap with a mix of trance and what I can only refer to as speed techno. It was maddening and we finally could not take any more of it and headed back down to our nice mellow bar down the way. We finally went home though at around 2 am.

The next morning we woke up and headed down to the pool. Thinking that we would only be there for a bit and then head down to the beach, like any reasonable person on beach vacation would do. But, no, we stayed there all day, and every day until we left the island. The pool was perched on a cliff looking over the beaches down below, so we could at least see the beach. And we had very comfortable loungers, and poolside drinks, as well as a very nice pool. It was pathetic, I know, but we really thought we had spent enough time at the beach anyway, so why not enjoy a pool for a few days. See the pictures and you will understand. Also of note, the hotel was surrounded by some wierd statues and fountains and also a temple, which only added to the place's ambience.

The next few days and the next few nights were more of the same, days at the pool, nights at the beach. And, we also got addicted to eating falafel while we were there. We had that every day, and we loved every second of it. We also met some pretty nice people while we were there. I also fell a few times while we were there. I have ended up with some pretty nice scrapes. I fell twice, once while I was drunk and had lost Charlotte on the beach and after being harrassed by some Israli men and had just had enough for one night. I was just trying to go home and to sleep, and fell off a step right outide my bungalow. I srapped up my knee pretty bad and went to bed crying and bleeding. When I woke up in the morning without Charlotte and a pretty nasty knee, I just went back on down to the pool, not really wanting to go exploring on my own that day. Charlotte didn't turn up until about 3 that day down at the pool. We then went on a walk down the cliffside on a crazy rickety stairway which lead us down to the beach for sunset. It was scary and fun and nice to finally leave the nest. After that, we went on down to eat falafel again, and then continued onto the beach for another long night of drinking. That night we met some really nice German guys and got home at about 4 am. The next day, Friday, pool again, a little wandering around the town at the end of the day, finally checked out a beach, and then went back to our hotel rooftop for sunset. That night, more drinking, it was our last night together, and we did well. I got little to no sleep that night, Charlotte left in the morning, and I intended to leave as well but decided I was just too tired to attempt travel. So, I stayed one more day. I left the hotel that day and rented scooters with an Australian guy I met the night before. We went up the coast a little bit on some pretty sketchy roads. I am happy to be alive. That night I decided to book a plane ticket to Bangkok for the next day. I decided I did not really feel like bothering with the train anymore and wanted to take the easy way out. I went out that night as well and stayed out until about 3, got about 2 hours of sleep and headed off on my journey bangkok at 6 am. This time the bus got me to the ferry on time and also had no struggle making it to the airport. It was just too easy.

I wasn't really sad to leave the southern beaches and islands, I was ready. And I am ready to come home. I spent yesterday in Bangkok at a friends house, buying pirated software and getting lost in Bangkok with my friend Doug who is also one of the brits I was traveling with the weeks before. He left today, and I am going to go tour Bangkok for a few hours on my own today and check out the sights once I finish with this damn blog. So, enjoy the pictures and you may get one more blog of Bangkok pictures if I find cheap internet at the airport tonight. See you all soon!

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Photos

Bucket Stands
The booths lining the beach selling buckets of alcohol at night.

Scary statue
One of the many scary statues surrounding our hotel

Sunset
Our hotel is up on the cliff.

Shadows
Charlotte and I at the beach

Charlotte
I left her alone about 10 minutes and came back to her like this, with her new best friend.

Comments

[lone marauder]

you drunk
What happened to the "I'm not even going to drink on this trip" comment you made before leaving?