2-3-07

Sometimes it's so difficult to remember everything that has gone on since I last posted. Luckily I have photos to job my memory and my journal to help out.

After Ko Tao Marije and I caught the fast boat over to Ko Phangan, home of the full moon parties and really expensive song taew rides. Marije and I managed to find a great place called the Hansa Resort which was out of the way, close to a 7-11 and had a beautiful beach to lay on, although the water was filled with sharp rocks. Even my travel hardened feet got a few cuts on the bottom. We had the great idea to watch the sunset and drink some wine so we went to the 7-11 since it's the only place to buy Western food, and bought some crackers with cheese, chocolate, rambutans, and were looking for some wine but couldn't get any. So the wine plan was scrapped and we settled for some beer and for a sunset that was completely obscured by clouds, but it was still fun! I got to play with a short-legged dog on the beach and eat my fruit.

The next day we ventured to Haad Rin where the full-moon party takes place every month on a very small strip of beach. How they fit over 10,000 people there is a complete mystery to me. Haad Rin is SO touristy, white people everywhere and no decent restaurants. But we did stumble upon a bar that was showing South Park on DVD's so we stopped by for an episode since Marije had never seen one before. Then we wandered around for a bit and tried to get something to eat. We stopped in a (very touristy) restaurant and I decided to order something different, as I normally like to do. So I ordered a baked potato with fri because instead of posting signs toed eggplant (aubergine) thinking it would be some great baked potato dish. But it was just a dry, baked potato with a couple pieces of eggplant on top, exactly what I ordered. Sometimes I still violate my own rule or ordering non-Thai food in Thailand. I had to laugh at it however, of course the Western food isn't going to be as good in Thailand as the Thai food. We went to a "Jungle Experiance" party which was actually a km off the main road in what appeared to be the jungle. Of course we were the only people who actually walked to the party which was nice follow there were beer bottle lanterns on the side of the road to follow. The party was in a great location, with places to chill out, food and drink to buy and lots of psychadelic posters and glowing shrooms made of coconut shells. We danced a little bit but unfortunately the music was all trance and jungle and not that good either. But it was still fun walking back home at 2 am, dodging tuk tuks and song taews, knowing we had to wake up early to catch the boat.





A couple days ago we took the boat back over to Ko Samui. At the pier I found a cat and so I had to play with it, it reminded me of Joe's cat back in Vanuatu, Niko-san. I've been playing with just about every animal I find, monkeys included. The cats and dogs are so friendly over here for the most part. And they're always exciting when they get petted.




Anyway, after we landed on Ko Samui we went for a night at the Amazing Peace Resort that just opened back up the night before from months of remodeling. Marije said it was a 5 star hotel based on the bungalow sizes and the layout. We were both extremely impressed by the accomodations (cable TV, bathtub (!), mini bar, sweet bathroom) as well as by the pool, restaurant and the number of large white people wandering around in bathing suits. It reminded me that some people never go outside except for when they're on holiday, I think my retinas are permanently scarred from seeing some very large Germans. I still think that the number of stars for a hotel is contingent on the size of the tourists.

I also took Marije out for her birthday which really wasn't on that day but we needed an excuse to get dressed up. See how dressed up we are? I put some product in my hair and Marije wore some makeup. We went to a seafood place where I had shark steak and she had salmon steak. Since traveling my stomach has shrunk considerably, I felt like such a wuss when I stopped after eating half of my plate was gone and Marije asked "Are you full already?" It was because I didn't have anything to drink during dinner. If you don't know already, I can eat enormous amounts of food if I've been drinking, probably 3 times as much as I normally can. I turn into the cookie monster and everything I see turns into a cookie.

After our flight to Bangkok we cruised Kosan road for a little bit, it's Huge! So many lights at night, Burger King on one end and Starbucks at the other end. We ended up going to Starbucks because I was really craving decent coffee (there's not much here in Thailand that I've found). We ended up meeting up with Jacco, Marije's friend from Holland and going out for drinks and some street food. Apparently the police are strict on having licenses for street food and we found this out the hard way, as a pad thai vendor literally wheeled his stand into a small alley as we were trying to order from him. After dinner I took Marije to the airport which was difficult since we'ver been traveling for over 2 weeks now, seeing her go was so hard. But I'm going to visit her in Amsterdam when I go there so that makes it easier.

Today on Kosan I saw a guy completely passed out. Here he is, if you know him please shame him unmercifully.