The Rest of Day 28 - Morning of 29th

The rest of Day 28 - camera and full moon party! :

ok so remember how i got saltwater and/or sand in our camera and then i got it fixed really cheaply and it worked again?

then remember how we got to ko pha ngan and immediately dropped the dang thing on the tile floor cracking it open a bit?

and remember how i said we'd need to be really careful with it after that?

well let me tell you a story:

so yesterday after i got off the internet in the early afternoon jens and i had lunch- pad thai and flat noodles, it was good.

hung out in hammocks, read, showered, etc.

then i came back to the internet to add pictures to facebook off of the photo cd i had made of the pics we took the first part of the trip. i added them and the power went out so i had to restart the computer. then i captioned about NINETY of them and the power went out again! i had to restart this computer again but 2-3 other computers kept working after the power went out so i figured i'd better change computers, which i did. i didn't start captioning pics again cuz i didn't feel like it. i just went through and rotated all the pictures that needed it and THEN the power went out AGAIN! the computer stayed on but the power didn't come back on so the lady said i needed to get off the computer. so! so much for captioning those photos yesterday.

the sun had gone down at that point so it was really dark. jens was at the bungalow so i decided to meet him out there. he actually met me on the pathway there because the power had gone out and he was wondering about me. so we went back to the bungalow and just hung out on the porch waiting for the power to come back. he said the sunset that evening had been really beautiful so he had taken some pictures for me (which was sweet :o).

side note: i brought a flashlight for this kind of thing (power going out) and it was working previously but all of the sudden it didn't work anymore when we needed it! lol

so we're hanging out and some people start setting off fireworks on the beach just a few meters away from us. the first one went off great and it was so loud it scared me and made me scream lol well the 2nd one they set off didn't fly up! it just exploded on the ground which made both me and jens scream lol thank goodness no one was hurt. so the guy goes further down the beach to get away from the group of people he was with and sets off another one like right in front of our bungalow! i braced myself thinking- who knows if that one will work but jens stood right up at the edge of the porch thinking- well i want to be able to see it when it flies up and explodes lol well that one went off on the ground too! again- thankfully no one was hurt. it started to rain and i was fed up with the firework nonsense at that point so i went inside lol jens followed me and we just hung out in the dark in our bungalow wondering how the full-moon party would be if it was pouring down rain!

we were scheduled to take a truck taxi to the party at 8:30pm so at about 8:25pm we started to gather our things to go to the cafe and catch the taxi. jens was in the bathroom and i was looking for the camera. i couldn't find it so i yelled to jens- where's the camera? he didn't answer (even though i knew he could hear me), which gave me a sinking feeling. i asked- you didn't leave it on the porch after taking sunset pictures did you??? again no answer which REALLY made me panic. i went to the back porch and found exactly what i thought i would find- the digital, non-waterproof camera with it's big crack in the top of it sitting on the balcony railing...in the POURING down rain!!!!!!!!!

i took it inside and even though it was off the screen was backlit (you know like when you leave your computer on but it goes into power save or sleep mode and the screen is black but there's still light coming from it?) i turned it off and on and it didn't change and the zoom lense didn't come out like it normally does.

i wanted to cry but i was so incredibly baffled i couldn't lol i just kind of laughed and yelled and cursed a lot.

we had to leave like RIGHT THEN so i had no time to really process what happened. i just took the battery and memory card out and laid it all out to dry on the counter. i wasn't optimistic.

we ran and caught the truck taxi with 5 other people from our bungalows - 2 australian girls and 3 norweigan guys.

*before i go into the full moon party i'll go ahead and tell you that this morning the camera STILL didn't work so we have to buy a new one while we're in bangkok. i'm more baffled than pissed. it's like the universe was out to get my camera lol first the saltwater, then the drop and then the RAIN! i mean good grief! every time i've said- man i really wish my camera was waterproof, jens has said well it looks like it is to a certain extent! i mean we've gotten water on it a few times and it's never ruined it! well i'm just glad it was jens who left it out in the rain and not me because it might have looked like i was saying- SEE! it's not really waterproof! lol

but you better believe i'm getting a waterproof one this time! shatterproof too if they have it! i need some kind of industrial bullet-proof camera lol it just sucks i have to get one in asia and not the states because most of the time, even if the camera is MADE in the asian country in which you are buying it it's more expensive than buying that same camera in the states. i have no idea why.

another sucky thing is i will have no digital camera until we get to bangkok. that means 3-4 more days on koh pha ngan with no digital camera (and last night it meant no digital camera at the full moon party so sorry guys! there won't be pics up of that for a looong time! i bought a dinky disposable one and i dunno how the pics will come out but if they're any good i'll scan them in in the states (in like 5-6 months lol).

ANYWAY!

full moon party:
the taxi ride was HORRENDOUS! first off all, for some reason, we decided not to eat dinner at the bungalow. i think it was because we thought there'd be better food at the party. but for me that mean eating lunch at 1pm, yogurt at like 4pm and then nothing til we got to the party at 10pm, which if you know me is WAY too long for me to wait to eat! granted we were leaving at 8:30pm and i didn't think it'd take long to get there so i wasn't worried at first. but we got in the truck and waited like 30 mins. for the norwegian guys to show up!

i already thought these guys were big jerks because twice i'd seen them go by our bungalow out to the beach and yell "where are the f***ing females?!!" and once one of them argued with his mom in front of our bungalow for like 10 mins. straight lol

so when they hopped in the truck with drinks already in hand i was not thrilled lol turns out they're alright though. i assume they're younger than us since they're here with their parents and they act like high schoolers. they were very pumped for the party and were yelling out of the truck to everyone we passed- "WOOO PARTY! CHEERS! HOW YA DOIN'?" lol it was pretty funny. they made a ton of american culture references and it was really interesting to realize how little i knew about norway and how much MORE they knew about my country. you would have thought they were american if not for their accent lol they also did an impersonation of steve erwin for the ozzy girls lol

anyway as i said the taxi ride was horrendous - i was STARVING, i started feeling depressed about the camera and it was the bumpiest automobile ride i had ever been on! it was almost as bad as that boat ride we took to koh pha ngan! so i was feeling pretty sick soon into the journey. we went up hills so steep i thought we might all fly out the back of the truck bed and the guy went entirely too fast! he drove like it was a matter of life and death that we get there ASAP! thankfully we made it ok.

we all went our separate ways when we got there and jens and i headed straight for some food. we went to a bar owned by a german/thai couple and got german sausage, fried potatoes, a baked potato and salad. it was really good! we had to sit at the bar because all the other tables were full- including a table of insanely loud ozzies drinking something even the bartender thought was gross lol it looked like swamp water :oP sitting at the bar gave us a front row view of what it's like to work there though. the thai wife of the german guy seemed pretty annoyed at the loud people and the german guy kept speaking german exactly the way i always imagine germans speaking german- yelling things like AUFENBLATSENKRANSESHTOLENBLARF!!! lol it was great.

then we went down the PAAARTAAAAY! it was HUGE! the beach, haad rin, is HUGE! maybe a kilometer long and really wide. the tide was way out so the beach was about 30 meters wide. they had stalls set up all along the beach selling "buckets". a bucket comes filled with 200ml of hard alcohol (like rum, vodka, etc.), a can of soft drink, juice or tea, and a little bottle of red bull. jens immediately wanted one but i was worried lol jens has a pretty low tolerance and i wasn't sure if he could drink an entire bucket without puking. even if he could i was worried he'd want a 2nd one! lol we walked down some more and we saw a stand selling magner's cider! which i love so i got some and a little while later i gave in and let jens get a bucket because that's pretty much all there was. he got rum, coke, red bull and lime. they put it in a little plastic bucket like kids play with on the beach and gave him like 5 straws. he said it tasted like pure sugar.

we walked around and here's what we saw: huge elephant "lanterns", lots of stations where you could get something painted on you in florescent paint which would glow under the blacklights, fire dancers, tall tables and bleachers with people dancing on them, tons of bucket stalls, lots of glowing things for sale (we bought flashing devils horns for the both of us lol), a huge slide that didn't go all the way to the ground- you slide down and then fly off onto some cusions lol (jens did it and said it was fun- it looked like everyone was hurting themselves though- one guy flew off into the crowd! lol), a huge fire jump rope they were letting drunk tourists jump in which i thought was pretty stupid (jens wanted to do it but i wouldn't let him- sorry! i don't need a burned husband for the rest of vacation!), a huge scaffolding with letters spelling out "the original full moon party, paradise bungalows, 2010" which were set on fire (this party started to make me think of burning man), lots of painted people with crazy get-ups on dancing, running, screaming, yelling, drinking, jumping, etc.

the not so glamourous side: people peeing in the ocean (including a group of girls who all decided to pee in one big group where everyone could see them???), a guy puking a waterfall of vomit into the ocean, lots of plastic bottles and straws being swept out to sea (which pissed me off the most!!!!), people generally being really stupid!

i'd say that if you go, don't bother walking along the water or looking towards the water- you just don't wanna know what's out there lol

all along the beach they have different djs playing at different restaurant/bungalows. there must have been at least 5 different ones. they were just far enough away from each other that you couldn't hear one over the other. they mainly played dance/house/trance music (i think- i don't really know the difference between all those) and honestly the music was pretty boring. i don't like listening to one beat over and over with no words in the song :o/ eeeeeevery once in a while they'd play a song with words or some of a song with words mixed into the dance beat and i liked that more. there were tons of people dancing at each "dj station" and i saw a lot of really bad dancers lol it was fun to just sit and watch people make complete fools of themselves dancing lol we danced at a few places but more ironically than seriously lol

jens finished his bucket and said he didn't feel tipsy at all! he said he wanted another one but i was like no way! he had told me earlier he'd only get one and NOT to let him get another one no matter what! so i didn't. he said he never did feel very drunk though and i wonder if the red bull counteracted the effects of the rum that much or if the guy didn't actually put that entire bottle of rum in the drink...we didn't actually see him make it so who knows.

i got another cider and we walked to the other end of the beach where they were setting up another huge scaffolding with a "fire sign". immediately after they were done all these crazy people climbed up to the top of it and were dancing around! it was about 25 ft. high! of course jens wanted to climb up too and at that point i had had to talk him out of the fire jump rope like 3 times so i was like ok whatever- go climp up onto a big fire ladder with 20 drunk people jiggling it all around lol he did it, climbed to the top, i took a picture and he came down unscathed. thank goodness!

at that point we had pretty much seen all there was to see. we danced some more, took a picture of some girls who found a big wheelbarrow and were pushing people around in it and then we left!

it was only about 1am but honestly- the only thing for us to do for the rest of the night would have been to get really drunk and do something stupid or get robbed, ya know? lol so we decided it was ok to leave. we had drank, we had bought glowy things, we had danced, jens had done the slide and climbed the fire ladder, we had seen people doing crazy things, etc. the only things we didn't do were get painted and do the fire jump rope. i'd say it was a pretty good night! :o)

we got in a truck taxi with 4 ozzy girls (2 of them bartenders) and made the long journey home. it didn't seem as bad this time- probably because i wasn't starving to death lol

we got home and went to sleep and slept well! the end!

Morning of 29th

we got up around 9:30am, hung out at the bungalow a bit, saw some ducks randomly on the beach eating things out of the waves as they washed up lol

went to breakfast and ran into those norwegian guys. we asked them how the rest of their night was and one guy said- well it was going good until i was beat down and robbed!!! we were like what??? omg! he said yeah i was just walking along and this guy came up, beat me and stole my wallet! we felt so bad for him! :o(

that kind of thing happens at the full moon parties all the time though which is a good reason not to bring your whole wallet and to stay with your people the whole time AND not to get so drunk that you're not paying attention. jens and i just brought enough cash for the night in our pockets and pretty much nothing else except tissues and bug repellent. digital cameras are probably another thing people like to steal but we just had that disposable one so that wasn't a problem either. we didn't even wear our wedding rings to s.e. asia at all - partly so as not to lose them and partly so we're not showing off any kind of wealth. so take that advice if you ever come here or to any full moon parties!

so there ya go! we survived our first (and probably last) full moon party!

jens said even though he barely got tipsy last night he still had a bit of a hangover this morning lol so weird!

now we're just internetting, jens is captioning our photos i added yesterday and i dunno what we're gonna do for the rest of the day. we'll see!

until next time!

Day 27 and 28

Day 27

so we just relaxed a lot yesterday. we had breakfast and then went swimming for a little while. i laid out first. i'm determined to get a tan. i've pretty much never had a full-body tan in my entire life. i don't think it's better to be pale or to be tan. i think people should like the color they are whatever it may be. i just wanna try out a tan for once in my life ya know? it's hard though because my skin is so white that it pretty much just reflects the sun and won't absorb it lol i have to get burned before i'll tan. i've got various shades of skin all over my body at the moment. i've burned my back twice but not on purpose. this may be more work than it's worth :oP i probably won't ever TRY to get tan again after this trip. i just wanna try once :o)

so the beach is pretty skinny during the day but the tide goes WAY out when the moon comes out. it's really crazy how much the moon affects the tides. it's something i never really thought about since i never lived on the beach but i've been on the beach so much this trip that i've really started to think about that. it's really weird that the moon's gravity can pull the waters of the ocean toward it so much so that the tide goes out several meters each evening. pretty wild.

the water here is really clear but the bottom of the ocean is kinda rocky and weedy. you have to find sandy parts to stand in. but it's fine. the water was really calm though- almost like a swimming pool so you could just float around without any waves disturbing you. jens snorkeled a bit and just saw a few fish. there might be better snorkeling at these rocks that are a bit further out.

while we were swimming we saw this really dumb guy go out and get a black spikey sea urchin out of the water with a hook! you're not supposed to take any marine life out of the waters when snorkeling. i mean just think if everyone did that! there'd be nothing left! but this idiot gets this sea urchin and he keeps dropping it under the water and then he PICKS IT UP! with this fingers! like he just grabs one of the spikes! these things sting really really bad so we were waiting for him to start screaming! we just stood there baffled thinking he must know what he's doing. i mean most people look up some info before they go snorkeling or before they start grabbing things out of the water lol but then these two people on the beach stood up and yelled at him- BE CARFEUL! THOSE THINGS ARE POISON! lol so then he just turned around and took it back in the water. i was worried he was just gonna drop it right there near the beach and we were gonna have to worry about swimming around it, etc. but thankfully he took it way out...probably near where he found it. dunno if he got stung or not...

after that we showered and had lunch at our bungalow. just thai jungle curry. good but spicy!

then we just hung out in our hammocks on the porch and read and listened to the waves. it was SO NICE! makes me always want hammocks on a porch for the rest of my life lol

later we walked to the mini mart, got a few things and walked down the road a bit. there are barely any businesses at all on this strip. we got really hungry at that point so we went to the reggae bar on the beach for dinner but it was really uncomfortable so we left. it was too dark, had uncomfortable, dirty cushions on the floor and there were a bunch of people smoking :oP

so we went back down to la dolce vita again and we'll probably end up eating there every night we're here lol it's got the nicest atmostphere and the food is good. we got wine, bruschetta, spinach and ricotta ravioli al pomodoro, salad, more bruschetta lol and then tiramisu and espresso! it was all good :o)

Day 28

just relaxing again. had breakfast and came in here. might swim later or just hang out. tonight is the big full moon party on haad rin (rin beach...a ways away from here). we'll have to get a taxi to get there. i wish we could take a scooter but the roads here aren't great and they say it's pretty dangerous to try to drive here at night esp. after a full moon party. apparently 8,000-30,000 people show up to this party each month. pretty insane! i'm a bit apprehensive to go but we're gonna be careful and smart about it. we're only gonna take some cash and the camera and stay together the ENTIRE time. we won't let each other out of our sight, won't take any random food or drink from strangers, etc. we'll probably just eat dinner, walk around, check things out, have a couple drinks and come home. we don't wanna stay too late when everybody starts getting too drunk and too crazy. i think we'll experience enough of it in 4-5 hours lol may sound lame but i just don't feel like getting kidnapped or injured or have things stolen from me lol we'll go but we'll just be smart about it.

then we'll have 3 more full days here. we may rent a scooter one day during the daylight and go see other beaches and waterfalls or something. the main priority is just to relax though. it's kind of the mid-way point in our trip. we have a lot of moving around after we leave here. a couple days in bangkok, 3-4 days in ayuthaya, a few days in vientiane, laos, a few in luang prabang and then about 4 days to see angkor wat in cambodia. it's gonna be go go go.

i've loved having this 2 month vacation away from korea but i gotta tell ya it's a bit tiring after a while. all the packing and unpacking. all the eating out. only having one person to talk to the whole time lol we've talked to some other travelers but it's always hard to start the convo. you don't know if they'll be receptive. and then you just talk about the same things with everyone- where are you from, what do you do, why are you here, how long are you here, what do you think of it, etc. lol

i certainly don't regret this trip! it's been AWESOME! we've seen so many amazing things and had great experiences! we've always wanted to go to these countries and now we are! it's really happening! :) it's always nice when you want to do something and you work toward it for a long time and then it actually happens. i love that!

all that being said though i don't think i need to take a 2 month vacation across 5 countries again lol i think one month in 2-3 countries is enough. or even just 2-3 weeks in one country. that right there would be enough "getting away" for me. i'm happy to have discovered that though! because that's what most americans get in a year - 2 to 3 weeks. i'm happy to know that that actually is enough.

we were talking about europe last night though. i've always wanted to go back to france and i've always wanted to see more of europe! i just wonder when it's going to happen. after we move back to the states there's no telling when we'll have the money and the time to travel abroad again. and what with oil running out and the prices rising it makes it even harder. we almost thought- maybe we should do europe instead of our american road trip in may/june! but that'd definitely be more expensive and we're really looking forward to seeing more of america and and to see b.c. canada and all of our family and friends along the way. we're hoping that'll it'll be possible for us to visit just one or two european countries once a year during our 2-3 week vacations we'll have if jens is a firefighter.

flying is by no means eco-friendly but i LOVE traveling. that's my weakness! lol i figure if i'm "good for the environment" in a bunch of other ways then maybe it's not so bad if i fly ;o) i plan to recycle and compost and grow my own herbs and some vegetables and try to walk and ride my bike as many places as possible and buy local and organic. most people don't do those things AND they fly so i think i'd be doing pretty good lol

which brings me to my wedding planner aspirations. i've been thinking about it more and i'm just not sure wedding planning would be that fulfilling. i love planning events, i love some weddings. but the weddings i love the most are the really simple, innovative, diy ones. the ones that don't cost that much money and therefore probably did not involve a wedding planner lol if i were to do it i'd have to find clients who didn't have a lot of money but had enough and weren't that creative and therefore needed me to help them. i dunno how many of those there are.

i just don't wanna work with rich spoiled brats who are like OMG MOM i can't believe you're not going to pay for me to ride in on a camel! or someone who wants icelandic peonies flown in for her bouquet.

also- i think i'm not just interested in weddings. i'd be happy to plan showers or birthdays or whatever. i just like planning parties in general.

at the same time i'm really getting into the eco-friendly/local/organic movement. i'd love to plan parties that serve only local organic food and use dinnerware and old linens from antique stores and thrift shops and had handmade decorations, etc. is there a niche big enough for that that i could actually money at it?

one thing i pictured doing was organizing some kind of local food festival at the local farmer's market or something.

i read barbara kingsolver's "animal, vegetable, miracle" and i just finished a book called "do good lives have to cost the earth?", which is a compilation of essays by various british authors, and they both inspired me a lot. in the latter book they talk all about how we can lead good lives without over-consuming and using up all the world's resources. research has shown that wealth only makes people happier up to a certain point, and that when you get to that point more money (or material goods) won't make you any happier. that's what's wrong with americans. that's why we've got a good percentage of wealthy people who are really depressed and feel they have no meaning in their lives. they've focused too much on working, earning money and then spending that money on material goods thinking that the more they have the happier they'll be. that's not how it works. if you take a really poor person who lives in a shelter or on the streets and you give them enough money for a decent apt., decent clothes and decent 3 meals a day they'll be MUCH happier than they were before. but if you take a rich person who has a big house, tons of clothes and gourmet food for 3 meals a day and you give him or her an even bigger house, more designer clothes and even more expensive food- they won't actually be much happier than they were before. get it?

they also talk about how we need more celebration in our lives. back in the day, even though people were poor, they'd have lots of feast days and celebrations in the community. it was about getting together, everyone bringing something and just having a good time together. it was about community and the simple joys in life.

so my point is i don't want to overwork just to get more and more money so i can buy more and more things. i want to work enough to meet my needs and have some small pleasures in life and spend the rest of the time ENJOYING life! i also want to work a job that helps other people do that. i.e. the kind of event planning i was talking about earlier. or i'd at least like to have a job that's good for the environment and good for people.

i just really don't know what exactly i'll end up doing! so many possibilities! i guess i'll just have to see where life takes me! lol

i also want to say that no one is perfect and just because i've said what i've said it doesn't mean i'm never going to eat food that's not local or i'm never going to drive a car, etc. it's up to all of us to do a lot of little things that help the world and help our population. so praise the things that people do! don't focus all your attention on the things they don't do :o)

and i urge all of you to start doing little things here and there that will help the planet. start out small and add things over time. start recycling everything that you can. don't just throw out that old cell phone. take it to a shop where they can re-use it or its parts. start buying some vegetables at the local farmer's market (i bet they'll taste a lot better than those pink tomatoes from chili or wherever lol), ride your bike to the store to get milk, buy a few quality durable pieces of clothing instead of a bunch of cheapies that'll fall apart in a year and have to be thrown out. there are so many things the average person can do to help!

go forth and save the world! lol

Day 26 - Koh Pha Ngan

first of all- my camera was fixed! somehow the guy cleaned the saltwater out of it and it was fine. only cost me $6! can you believe it? it would have cost me like $100 or more to have a "professional" look at it. geez.

anyway- we got up this morning and got breakfast at that bar we ate at before...never did figure out the name...lol we watched bbc news while we ate and heard some of president obama's speech.

we got muesli with yogurt and fruit and i'm really getting tired of eating out! you just never know what you're going to get unless you go to the same exact place and order the same exact thing more than once. we think some of the fruit in the muesli was a bit rotten :oP i love being on vacation and i love eating good food from restaurants but eating out in general gets a bit tiresome. i'd like to cook my own food but we haven't a had a kitchen at any of the places we've stayed. i'm hoping i can deal with another month of eating at out lol

after breakfast we went back to the bungalow and waited for the taxi to come. the truck taxi was so packed with people and stuff that we had to sit in the backseat of the cab which they normally never let you do.

he took us "near" the ferry terminal lol we had to walk quite a ways to get where we needed to be and then it was complete chaos. we waited around a while to get on the boat and then when it was time to get on we had formed two different lines and were merging to go onto the bridge to the boat but then this woman was like- no you have to go all the way around to the end of that other line and go down the bridge one by one! lol how ridiculous is that? well we didn't do it. we went to the side of the other line and just merged with it and got on fairly quickly. the bridge and platform were pretty scary though. just a bunch of random wooden planks nailed together haphazardly.

so we got on the boat and some men just piled everyone's bags into this huge mound on the deck. then jens and i went down some stairs and found two seats inside. it was a fairly small boat and the seats were small and hard. we were in a row of three and a big guy sat next to us. there ended up not being enough room for people up on deck or in the seats and some people had to sit on the floor inside.

the boat got going and it was fine for about 10 mins. but then it started rearing up and hitting the waves really hard! that's when the nausea started...it was horrible. after about 10 mins. my entire body felt nauseated! my ears were hot and my fingertips were tingling and i felt like i was dying! i know that sounds like an exaggeration but that's how i felt. now i had bought some motion sickness patches in korea before we left and i used one once on a long bus ride but none of the boat rides had been bad at all so i had no idea that i would need one on this trip! well of all the times not to wear one! my god! i couldn't even put one on if i wanted to because they were all the way out on deck in my bag probably under a hundred other bags! so i was screwed. i curled up in a ball, clutching jens and moaning for an hour and a half lol moaning actually seemed to help. the last 15 mins. or so the nausea finally subsided. i think the seas were calmer then.

during at least half the trip if not all of it (i'm not sure because i was in a nausea coma for the most part) this scottish girl was sitting on the floor at the front talking ENTIRELY too loudly. she was like 8 rows ahead of me and i could hear every word over the crashing of the boat on the waves, the motor and other people chatting lol she was SO LOUD! i couldn't believe it! well we weren't the only ones who thought she was too loud because these two dutch women in front of us kept trying to hint to her that she was being too loud. at one point one girl sang that song- " shut up just shut up shut up!" lol and later she started mocking the girl by repeating what she was saying lol well the girl never got the hint apparently.

when we docked she stood up and was talking to her other scottish male friends and they ALL started being really loud and that's when i saw they were all drinking beer at 11am (the boat took off at 10am or so). well we finally started lining up in the aisle and one of the guys starts yelling back to the girl- well you're sleeping with 4 guys! you slut! and she's like omg take that back! i have my own bed! and they start all joking about that, etc. and then one dutch girl starts talking to the other dutch girl about them in dutch but obviously gesturing to those scots and the scottish guy notices and he's like oh i'm sorry if i'm being too loud! i'm probably one of the biggest assholes you'll meet and the dutch woman goes- no i think she is! (gesturing to the scottish girl- who is still oblivious lol) and the dutch woman asks the scottish guy- where are you from? (he tells her) and she asks- do they all talk this way over there? (meaning really loudly)...dunno what he said. then she gestures to the beer and asks- is this your coffee in the morning? lol anyway over all he was apologetic and she said well - think about it next time. (meaning don't be so loud next time). it was pretty awkward lol

so i ended up standing up right in front of the scottish girl unfortunately and then she dropped her beer and it splashed all over my feet and legs and she was like ooooh noooo that's half a beer!!!! (not even saying sorry) and i said- i think you've had enough! but she still didn't hear. and the dutch woman looks right at her says- that's a sign! that's a sign! you've had enough! lol dunno what she did. she probably still didn't get it.

so we get out on deck and that's when i realize just how drunk the girl was. she sees this guy with really nice snorkling (or diving) fins and they have a slit down the middle of them (probably to go faster) and she's like HEY FLIPPERS! (the guy looks at her) WHERE ARE YOU FROM? (i guess he tells her) YOUR FLIPPERS- WHY'S IT GOT A LINE DOWN THE MIDDLE LIKE THAT? (he says- better) and then she says to her scottish friend who's standing right next to her and the guy and already heard the entire conversation- HEY BETTER! lol omg....i couldn't wait to get away from them...

i zoomed off the boat and jens grabbed our bags and met me on land. we both had to walk down this gauntlet of touts though! there were like 30 people with signs saying taxi lol it was insane! i can't believe they let the people up there when we're all just trying to get our bags and get off the boat! they're like HELLO HELLO TAXI! and i'm like MY NAME ISN'T TAXI!

so we got outta that mess, found a guy and asked him how much. it was a decent price so we said yes. we got to the truck and it had a roof over the bed which was nice and we got in. there was a girl from canada and a girl from quebec already in there. they had met on another island and decided to travel together a bit. they were nice. there was also a little tiny thai girl in there who was probably about 4 years old. she was so adorable! she came right up to all of us and took our stickers off our shirts that we had to wear for the boat. then she stuck them all on our arm hair and pulled them off lol then she separated all the stickers and gave us each one only to come back later and take them all off again. i guess she doesn't have much to do lol we waited a long time and finally the guy came back with two other people to ride with us and we thought it was time to go but no! he went off again to find more people. then it started pouring down rain and jens had to get out and get onto the roof of the truck to put the rain covers on our bags that were up there lol we thought the guy had given up on getting more people at that point but no he crammed two more people in and we finally left while it was pouring down rain and our backs were getting soaked.

it was a bit of a ride (maybe 10 mins.) but thank goodness our bungalow happened to come first! it had stopped raining at that point which was also nice :o) we checked in and walked to our bungalow and boy was that a sight for sore eyes! SO NICE! not like ultimate luxury but it's the nicest place we've stayed in so far (and probably the nicest we WILL stay in!)

it's a beachfront bungalow with two porches, one of which faces the beach directly and the one with the front door is perpendicular to the beach but the short end of it faces the beach too. the front door porch already has a hammock on it so we hung up our hammock too and now we can both lie in hammocks at the same time! :o) inside is really big! we have two full-size beds, shelves, aircon, a fan and a fridge! the bathroom is HUGE! way more space than we could ever need in a bathroom lol

(side note: you cannot flush toilet paper in thailand whatsoever! like it won't even go down the toilet and even if it does apparently it will clog the pipes really easily. you have to throw tp in the trashcan which is really hard for me to remember lol thai people just use a hose with a spray nozzle to clean themselves off but i still don't know how that works. do they just go around with wet nether regions afterward? lol)

anyway the bungalow kicks ass! i love it! we're staying 6 days and i'm hoping that's long enough :o) we could extend...we have a few days of the trip that are free. we'll see.

we just unpacked a little and then went to lunch at the bungalow cafe because we were starving!!! jens got veggie fried rice and i got veggie fried noodles. it was really good!

we went back to the bungalow, took some pictures and then dropped the freaking camera on the freaking tile floor and dang near cracked it wide open!!!! i was so mad! we JUST got it cleaned and it was working great and then THAT happened! amazingly enough it's still working fine. the two halves of it are just a little further apart than before and we'll have to be even more careful about getting water or sand in it which is really hard when you're staying on a beach! i wish i had known i would need a waterproof, shatterproof camera lol

after that incident we both laid in our hammocks, read and feel asleep. so nice!!!! when we got up the sun was low in the sky and it created a beautiful scene over the ocean so i took some pics and we walked down the beach a bit.

i was hungry again so we got a mango shake and spring rolls and ate them on our porch. that's when the mosquitoes came out with a vengeance! i have always been lucky in that mozzies never want to bite me! all this time they've been leaving me alone but for some reason the mozzies on koh pha ngan LOVE me! i was getting eaten alive! i put on two different insect repellents AND burned a repellent coil lol that seemed to work.

we hung out on the porch a bit and then decided to go to dinner. we went to la dolce vita down the beach. it is the only non-thai restaurant on the beach (and there are only like 4-5 restaurants on this beach in total lol) they serve italian AND thai food. we weren't super hungry so we just got one iced tea with lemon and gnocchi in pesto sauce. well the guy acted weird when i ordered the iced tea but i didn't think much of it. he repeated iced tea with lemon to me so i figured he understood me....until he brought me my drink, i took a swig and it was iced COFFEE with lemon! GROSS! lol i told him i ordered iced tea and he was like no you said iced coffee and i was like no i said iced tea! lol i dunno why he thought i said coffee...

so then this other guy brings me a drink, i take a sip and it's LONG ISLAND ICED TEA! lol i gave up at that point and resigned myself to drinking a drink a didn't want but then another guy brought me the regular iced tea i originally ordered! so he took the long island and realized it belonged to the guy behind us and he was gonna give it straight to him but i said - oh i already tried it! so he was like ok and took it back to the kitchen but he came right back with it really quickly so i think he just changed the straw lol but whatever...

the food was pretty good. while we ate we got to see a fireworks show put on by some random people that bought a bunch of fireworks at the local minimart. i love how fireworks are legal for anyone to buy and set off anywhere they want here! it's awesome!

after dinner we decided to come here and do some interneting. i think we'll get dessert now and go to bed!

it was a pretty crazy day but overall good :o)

Day 23-25 -snorkeling, chilling

Day 23 - snorkeling

so we did end up going to jansom bay but it took us forever lol we decided to walk and there were lots of cute shops and stuff along the way and we got hungry for lunch before we got there so we had nachos at el gringos lol

we got to jansom bay at about 3:30pm or so. we had to walk through these really fancy shmancy bungalows to get there. it was $15 per person just to use their pool :oP

anyway the beach at the bay was pretty tiny and there were huge granite bolders everywhere but it was clean thank goodness! we put on our gear and went right in- forgetting the disposable waterproof camera i bought just for snorkeling because we were so excited to finally snorkel lol but i used it for another snorkeling trip we took so it's all good.

snorkeling at jansom bay was great because our snorkels worked! lol lots of different colorful fish and TONS of coral. the most coral i had ever seen! we swam a bit out of the bay and around some rocks towards this other little bay where there was supposed to be a shipwreck. well we ended up having to go over this enormous "field" of coral and it felt like it was really close to us because the water magnifies things so we felt like we were gonna hit it with our fins and that we couldn't ever go up for air and tread water lol it was awesome though! (and we weren't actually close enough to hit it accidentally).

we found the shipwreck and it was REALLY creepy! just like out of a horror movie where they slowly film some dark and scary shipwreck and then a giant octopus comes flying out lol but thank goodness, nothing flew out of this one but little fish :o) jens was regretting that we didn't bring that camera. we didn't wanna go back for it because we didn't wanna swim over that coral field again lol

we also saw some GIANT dome-like coral (i don't know the names of all the coral) but they were bigger than me! it was really amazing! we were probably in the water an hour or so but we were exhausted from all the swimming around so we swam up to the closest beach and walked back to the beach where our stuff was. it was a great little snorkeling trip!

dinner- papa's tapas - another AMAZING meal! we got 5 different vegetarian tapas and one shrimp that included: gazpacho soup with little croutons, fennel and citrus salad with vinaigrette, tomato and parmasean salad, baby potatoes baked with pearl onions, rosemary and garlic, shrimp cooked in garlic oil with aioli and bread and cauliflower risotto with truffle oil! OMG! it was awesome! lol

for dessert we got the cinnamon chocolate fudge cake with orange rind shavings and freshly whipped cream and a french press of coffee- again: OMG!

to top it all of we wanted to try port so we got the ruby port and it was really good! it's just a sweet wine.

we were stuffed after that meal and all we could do was go to bed lol

Day 24 - chilling

we were pretty tired from snorkeling the previous day, plus we've been traveling so much we needed a day of doing nothing so we basically just ate, hung out, took a nap, interneted and read.

breakfast: new heaven cafe. turkish breakfast, waffle and fruit, mango lassi, coffee. the staff there is really incompetent but the food is good so we keep going back lol

late lunch: onions rings, thai spicy crystal noodle salad with veggies, apple pie.

dinner: portobello again. wine, vegetarian antipasto board which included fresh mozzerella cheese, various pickles veg., olives, grilled veg., etc. and a pizza with coppa ham, asparagus and artichokes. all wonderful!

on the way home we happened by papa's tapas and they had live music so we went in, plopped down in a giant bean bag, ordered wine and port and listened to a guy play flamenco and french jazz on the guitar. he was really good!

Day 25 - more snorkeling!

breakfast at new heaven again - muesli with yogurt and fruit, turkish breakfast, tea, and i ordered a mango lassi but i think they gave me a tropical shake...you kinda take what you can get at this place lol but it's always delicious.

got a longtail boat over to these 3 islands off the coast of koh tao. all three are connected by one beach. met a guy from vermont/new york who is living with his wife in nepal while she teaches english and he does photography.

got to the island and had to walk on "the bridge of my worst nightmare" for like 30 mins. before reaching the beach lol i survived.

there was a huge tour group of koreans wearing life jackets in 2 foot water and screaming a lot lol oh koreans...

we went down to the opposite end of the beach and got into the water on the left side of the beach (there was water on either side). it was awesome! jens zoomed off as usual. he likes to swim a lot and just glance at things but i like to sit and watch one fish or a group of fish for a long time. it was lucky that i did that though because after a little while this HUGE group of 3-4 kinds of fish just started swimming all around me! like ALL around me, REALLY close! it was sooo coooool! i had the camera this time so i got pics :o) i swam all around and saw tons of fish and coral.

i can't find a good "types of coral" website but here's what i did find:
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112361/coral/coral.htm

i saw all those kind of coral except the fan coral i saw was brown not red.

and i also can't find a good site for thailand's saltwater fish but i know i saw parrot fish: http://blog.nesthostelsvalencia.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/parrot-fish.jpg

and sea anenomes similar to this: http://www.berlinmethod.com/images/photos/anenome.jpg

and longfin fish like these: http://www.3reef.com/forums/attachments/tropical-fish/22673d1261526681-moorish-idol-blue-dotted-sting-ray-long-fin-20bannerfish.jpg

and lots of sea slugs! http://blog.cryos.net/uploads/SeaSlug.jpg

we also saw some tiny electric blue fish, white translucent fish, yellow fish, yellow and white fish, fish that stick their heads in the sand to find food, a GIANT fish i don't know the name of, little purple fish, needlenose fish that swim just under the surface of the water, etc.

so pretty cool huh??? it was great!

we swam around the whole area of water that was blocked off by a rope and we were truly exhausted by the end of it because we didn't have fins. they wouldn't let us bring them onto the island because they can disturb sediments which are some sea creatures homes or something. i did see a lot of little sand mounds with holes in the tops...

anyway we were tired and i had major dry mouth from breathing through my mouth for like 2 hours lol it's a very strange sensation to be emersed in water and have dry mouth lol but i'm still amazed at the ability to breath with your face in the water due to the use of a snorkel - it's really cool! lol

we had lunch in the cafe- shrimp and pineapple fried rice, fruit plate and pancake.

then we swam in the water to the right of the beach. the water was much clearer there- at least in the first 25 feet for so and tons of parrot fish and these white/lightblue/light yellow fish were swimming in a huge school and stopping to eat off the coral. the weirdest thing was- you could hear them eating! munchmunchmunchmunch lol it was so funny.

we had to go pretty far out on this side to see coral but we saw some HUGE stuff! big mounds of it that were bigger than our bungalow! and we saw some black spikey sea urhcins that really freak me out! they look like this: http://www.scuba-equipment-usa.com/marine/NOV04/images/Centrostephanus_rodgersii.jpg

scary!

we swam and looked and swam and looked and then we went up on the beach and layed down til it was time to go.

took the longtail boat back, showered and went to a place to have my camera looked at. the guys thinks i got water or sand in it (which is what was the problem the last time i had to get it fixed! :oP) i blame the elephant that sprayed water on us right when i was gonna take a picture in singapore! dangit! i hope he can fix it. if not we may try in bangkok. i'm just worried it'll go kaput right in the middle of photographing the amazing temples of ayutthaya or ankor wat :o/

then we went to dinner at...dunno the name. jens got lasagna and i got the burger. it was pretty good. we listened to a couple swedish guys sing/play american covers. they were good! had great english!

now i'm here updating. we go to koh pha ngan tomorrow! we'll be there 6 days and i think we're just gonna chill the whole time. 2 months is a looong time to be on vacation lol i need a vacation from vacation! i at least need to store up energy for all the walking we're gonna do in bangkok and ayutthaya, laos and then angkor wat in cambodia. i think laos will be pretty low key though. everyone calls it "sleepy". we shall see.

anyway- we're happy we finally got some awesome snorkeling in! can't wait to see the pics from the disposable!

have a great day/night! whichever it may be :o)

Day 19-23

gonna try to make this quick!

Evening of the 19th

FINALLY found a hammock to buy! only $6! green mesh, comfortable. love it! we have it hanging on our porch in ko tao now. gonna try to hang it on our porch in texas too!

mojitos at yellow bar.

saw the climax band at shamrock- they were pretty good. guitarist was boring but the bassist and female singer were great lol

Day 20 - ko tao

breakfast and lunch at beer's house - yogurt, muesli, fruit and fried rice.

van to ferry

waited more (island time you know).

ferry- fairly comfortable.

off ferry- immediately bombarded with taxi touts. got a pick-up to hat sairee (beach where we wanted to stay). pick up truck taxi just had benches along the long sides of the bed, no railing!

went to sairee cottages first and they were fully booked! so i hung out in the restaurant with our stuff while jens hauled it up the beach checking at every place for an hour. he finally found a reasonably priced bungalow at wind beach resort (still in hat sairee so that's good). while i waited i had a really yummy mango shake and banana pancake!

jens came back and took me and our stuff to the bungalow. it's pretty nice! medium sized porch, large room, queen size bed, fan, shelf, bathroom with plastic skylight, toilet flushes well!, good shower head and hot water :o) what more can you ask for? we hung up the hammock, tried it out and then explored sairee "village".

LOTS of great looking restaurants- every kind of food you could want! lots of shops, internet places and diving schools. most people come here to scuba dive. it's like $500 a person though so we're gonna pass this time and just snorkel.

walked along beach a bit- kinda narrow, water is shallow WAY out into the ocean but it's kinda nice. the water is really calm with several long boats floating in it. the sand on the beach is a bit grainy but the sand under the water is really soft! there are palm trees, beach front restaurants and bungalows all along the beach. and LOTS of dogs! this is not only paradise but a dog-lovers paradise! there are lovely, friendly dogs of all shapes and sizes everywhere you go here :o) we love it!

hung out in the hammock til dinner.

dinner at hippo- we had bruschetta, ribs, mashed potatoes and salad! so good! there dog followed us down the street a bit after lol

bungalow- bed.

Day 21

the new heaven cafe for breakfast- apple black currant smoothie, turkish breakfast of toast, fried potatoes, fried egg, onions, feta cheese and olives! yum!

hung out, read, wrote, etc.

got my photos put on dvds. my camera is acting up and i'm really worried :o( the functions of the buttons keep switching and many times you have to push a button like 10 times before it'll work! i use rechargeable batteries but maybe it needs a new one...no idea where to get one :o( prob not on this island...dunno what to do...

interneted

lunch- thai massaman curry (yellow with veggies), rice, tea. watched bbc news on their tv.

back to room- napped.

got up- swam some. nice, clear water!

showered and went to dinner at our bungalow. got cushions and a table right on the beach. had their bbq chicken and veg. kebab and it was GREAT! came with grilled corn, baked potato and salad :o) looked up at the moon and stars after we ate.

then we went to the reggae bar just down the dirt path from our bungalow. it's basically a roof over wooden bar and benches with all kinds of random decor everywhere lol the guys who work there are really layed back. it's small bar so it almost seems obligatory to strike up a conversation with the person next to you. over the course of the night we talked to a french woman named tan (gypsy name) who lives in china and mixes traditional chinese music with electronic music to make it more accessible to the younger generation, hannah the english woman who used to work at a wine packaging factory but quit when they moved the factory and has been traveling around s.e. asia for several months, learning to dive, an australian girl named carla who used to work at a wellness center but is going to go back to school for youth work (helping troubled teens, etc.)- she dives, her friend malin from sweden who has lived in australia long enough to have a solid ozzy accent- she lives in sweden now but wants to move back to oz and work at the swedish stationary store where she worked before, boaz the atheist israeli who has an american mother and an american accent but lives in tel aviv and thinks there will never be peace in the middle east, and the funny swedish couple leo and katarina who had us cracking up over nothing lol he works in construction, she's had odd jobs including working a "franking machine"(whatever that is) and they both think we're the cleverest americans they've met since we know the capitals of many scandinavian countries :o)

it was a great night but jens drank too much so the next morning we had to take it easy lol

Day 22

up late, breakfast at this bar i dunno the name of. we got two huge plates: english breakfast and steak and eggs breakfast to fill us up so we could go snorkeling! (the steak was just a small hamburger patty lol

we interneted and then got a truck taxi to hin wong bay.

man was THAT a treacherous ride! i was holding on for dear life! it seemed we were driving up and down at 90 degree angles at points! lol all on rutted and rocky dirt roads! at one point we were going down such a steep hill that i just sat in the bed and let the cab keep me from falling to my death lol it was INSANE!

but we made it to the bay alive. we told the guy to pick us up in 5 ours but we soon regretted that statement lol the "bay" was a super rocky coast with fairly strong waves and lots of trash. there was a restaurant of sorts but that's it.

we had seen a sign for view rock resort on our way over there and our friend jen has stayed there a couple years before and loved it. so we decided to hike over there, snorkel and come back for the taxi. it was quite a hike, esp. in the heat but it was kinda fun. we saw a big lizard and coconuts sprouting new coconut trees!

we finally made it to view rock resort but then we had to take like 100 stairs down to where the porch was lol they really make you work hard to get to this place! we made it down and there was the sweetest friendliest dog on the island to greet us so that made it all worth it. that and the GORGEOUS view! the place seemed deserted; there was only one guest sleeping on a lounge chair on the porch and 3 staff members. so we basically had the place to ourselves! we got fruit and hung out on the lounge chairs and just enjoyed the view for a while.

later we went down some stairs to the water but again- it was too rocky and wavey. jens got in but i was too chicken. he didn't snorkel long though because he said the waves kept pushing him into rocks and there was some trash he kept thinking were jelly fish and it freaked him out lol plus his snorkel kept filling with water for some reason (it was cheap) so he got out and we decided to ask the staff to call us a different taxi and we'd just go back and tell the other taxi guy nevermind.

overall it was nice to see that resort and bay. it was really beautiful but such a shame to see the trash in the water and on the rocks :o( i dunno if it's the locals or the tourist who are throwing their trash on the ground and in the water or both but it's uncalled for. i wish they could get a cleanup crew and more signs and trash cans around to encourage people not to litter. one obstacle is that whatever can't be burned has to be taken off the island for processing or land filling. so that's a lot of plastic, glass, metal, etc. that has to be taken away.

anyway- i'm making this too long! gotta go soon!

we dangerously taxied back to our beach and tried snorkeling there but then MY snorkel kept filling with water and both my feet cramped up from using the fins so snorkeling that day was kind of a bust. we saw a wonderful sunset though! absolutely gorgeous!

we showered and then went to dinner at portobello- a mediterranean/italian restaurant and it was to die for!!!! SO GOOD! we got bread with various dips: olive tapenade, aioli and veggie dip; tagliatelle with blue cheese sauce and italian ham, tagliatelle with mediterranean vegetables and basil pesto, salad, red wine, espresso and a delicious creme brulee. OOO LA LA! amazing! lol

i know it's weird not to just eat thai food in thailand but we haven't had a lot of different foods since we've been living in korea so we wanna eat all kinds of food! Po:

i do think it's pretty crazy that you can get that quality of italian food on tiny ko tao and you can't even get decent cheese in korea! c'mon korea! get with it! lol i won't have to put up with it much longer though so whatever lol

after dinner we were so stuff and sleepy that we just went back to the bungalow lol

Day 23 - today!

breakfast at new heaven - apple black currant smoothie, coffee, apple coffee cake, breakfast burrito, surprisingly good salad, and fruit plate!

bought new snorkels.

now i'm interneting and later we'll snorkel at jansom bay. hope it's good!

Night of the 18th - Day 19 Ko Samui

Night of the 18th

after interneting we went to find a couple bars and restaurants i had looked up online that were supposed to be in the hat lemai area. we ended up finding a few streets packed with all sorts of shops, bars and restaurants.

jens wanted to walk out to the beach there and find that "freak party on earth" lol (yes it was actually "freak", not "freakest"). it was basically a fairly large field with beer tents around the perimeter and a some people milling about and drinking. they were playing techno music really loud but no one was dancing. the only interesting part was the fire dancers. we watched them for a while and then went to a beach bar. i'm sure the party picked up more later in the night but they weren't playing music we liked and the drinks were actually more expensive than other places so we never went back.

the beach bar we went to was called "the beach bar" lol they had lounge chairs and tables on the beach and drinks and sheesha for sale so we go some of both, hung out, chatted and looked up at the stars. after a while we realized there were bats flying overhead! pretty cool!

after that we went back to the road, walked down the street and came across shamrock bar where the amazing ovada show band was performing! they were truly, truly amazing! they're from the philippines and there's two women and 3 guys in it. the older woman plays the electric guitar like i have never seen in person in my entire life. she made me enjoy songs i had never ever been able to enjoy before lol examples: freebird and some song by rage against the machine. she totally blew our minds with her amazing skills lol the other part i liked about the band was the two woman would do these sincronized dance moves while they sang and played their instruments. it was awesome! i got lots of pics and video :o)

i googled them later and they have their own website. apparently they're family and they've been performing together all over asia for 22 years! they have 800 cover songs in their repertoir and mainly play at touristy places where people want to hear songs they know. they take requests. i think it's only $500 to book them! wish we could get them to perform at one of our parties in the states! lol we'd probably have to pay their airfare and that'd be way too much :oP

anyway before we left i wanted to get some more pictures closer up. i was trying to be discrete but then this german dude (who owned the bar??) came up and wanted me to go up on stage while they were performing to get a pic! i was like no way! he kept pushing me and saying it's fine, no problem! and i was like noooo lol finally the male bassist came over to the edge and let me take a pic with him while he played and then i went in front of the stage and got pics of the ladies lol

it was a great night! most definitely my favorite thing that we've experiences on ko samui!

Day 19 - very laid back

we just ate and tried to go snorkeling.

we drove down to the end of our beach to a rocky area where someone had said there was good snorkeling but we only saw like two brown fish lol got some good pictures of the rocks, ocean and two different beaches though :o)

we went swimming right outside our bungalow and the water was nice. very calm, clear, luke warm. this german woman went topless the whole time she was on the beach with her husband and son and quite a few people were around. didn't phase her at all. it's amazing the difference between the european and american mentality about nudity! i wish america was more like europe in that respect. i wish people wouldn't freak out so much about nudity like they did with janet jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" - as if seeing a nipple slip is gonna scar someone for life lol

anyway after swimming i got a foot massage and pedicure right on the beach in this little pagoda type thing. it was great.

then jens and i took a walk on the beach, showered and went to dinner. we had indian and it was wonderful!

now we're interneting and we're gonna go back to shamrock tonight and see a different band. unfortunately ovada is performing on another part of the island tonight :o/ but maybe the band they have tonight will be really good too! plus they have cider on tap!

tomorrow we go to ko tao!

goodnight!

Day 17 and 18 Ko Samui

Day 17

"breakfast appetizer" - espresso and fruit on our bungalow porch (we ordered at the main restaurant area and took it to our porch). then we hung out at a table in the restaurant overlooking the beach and each had yogurt with muesli and fruit Po: yum!

the beach looked beautiful in the daylight! it's really long with clear blue waters and white sand!

back to the bungalow porch for reading, then i took a nap.

walked down the beach to find a place for lunch. there are surprisingly few bungalows and restaurants on our beach (hat lemai). so we went to the road and searched some more but there still weren't very many!

we came across a huge, fancy, western-style shopping center with a coffee shop, restaurants and shops but those places were too expensive for us. we did go into the western grocery store though! omg all my "expat" friends in korea would have thought they had died and gone to heaven! lol it's amazing all the western foods they had on this little island and you can't even get a plain old block of cheddar cheese in mokpo, south korea lol we drooled around the store some and went looking for an afforable place to eat lol

we came across a really barebones place and got pad thai and a beer. it was good!

we walked down the road some and found a little place called siam art bar. it's really tiny and they have big colorful painting of buddha heads and dragon faces all over...i guess they're for sale, i didn't ask. we noticed the place because it had a sandwich board outside advertising mojitos! that's like our favorite drink so we had to try them. while we were waiting for them a german expat said that place was famous for the mojitos and i can see why. they were great! we hung out on a cushion on the porch and drank them while watching the traffic go by. after a while a dog mosied up and laid down with his head on jens's shoes lol there's lots of fairly large dogs here and they all just lounge about and let you pet them :o) it's great!

after a while we decided to go back to the beach and swim. the water was a bit cold (the sun was going down at this point) but it was really clear! one thing i really like about hat lemai is there aren't many people there. i think we were 2 of 3 people in that water that afternoon lol there were more suntanning on the beach but not too many.

after a shower we walked down the beach to eat at a beachfront restaurant we had seen earlier in the day. they had really colorful, comfortable lounge chairs and long tables between them right on the beach so we grabbed one of those and ordered red snapper with garlic peppercorn sauce. it came with a potato and a trip to the salad bar. it was a pretty simple salad bar but good nonetheless. the fish was great and afterwards we got drinks and just hung out under the stars :o)

Day 18 - explored the island

we got up late and drove a rented scooter to coffee world (which is in that huge western style shopping center) for breakfast. we got a ham and cheese panini and a strawberry belgian waffle with coffee. we ate it all out on the porch in a comfy couch. it was all pretty good. the panini was better than the waffle though. they had free internet there so i checked email and posted the previous entry on this journal you see here.

then we drove to hat chaweng which is the more "happenin'" place to be but we didn't like it that much. it's basically a small city complete with regular businesses like paint stores, furniture stores, a huge tesco grocery store (like walmart), tons of people and tons of scooters and cars. it was a bit hectic. we looked in a bunch of shops for a hammock cuz we wanna get one to take back home but never could find one. i was starving by that point so we stopped at the first place we saw for lunch- it was a falafel stand which we figured out was in the jewish quarter...yes ko samui, thailand has a jewish quarter lol the menu was all in hebrew and they played songs about elohim but the falafel was good! :o)

after that we went to the actual beach. it was pretty crowded. not too bad but definitely more people than at hat lemai. we slathered on sunblock and went in the water. there were some pretty big waves! jens was hesitant to go to this beach because he thought - why not just go to hat lemai since there's less people? but hat lemai has no waves to speak of and chaweng does- so that was a good reason to swim there. we had a ton of fun riding all the waves and were pretty exhausted by the end of it.

on our way back we wanted to search a little more for a hammock and ended up on some bumpy dirt back roads lol saw a water buffalo, some fields and 3 girls crammed on a scooter. then we came across a reggae bar that looked awesome! it was another one of those completely haphazerdly created "buildings" lol completely open to the elements, diff. tables and chairs all over, different levels, a tattoo "knook", columns somehow made of used beer cans and spirit bottles. it was awesome and we wanted to stay for a drink but we couldn't find the owner lol we looked all over and there was nary a soul in sight! so we left. may go back some other time, later in the day lol

we drove back to our place after that, took a shower and had dinner at our bungalow. we got noddles fried with chicken, veggies and basil chili sauce and some spring rolls and it was all pretty good.

now here we are in the internet cafe. it's a really nice one! nicest one i've seen in s.e. asia! lol i don't think it even has a name though...

after this we may go to this party we heard about earlier in the day. several trucks went by blasting music and an announcement for the "freakest party on earth!" lol "we love ko samui!" very weird but we may check it out...it's on our beach!

we just have one more full day here and i think we're cool with that. it's a little too busy for us right now. we're gonna head to ko tao day after tomorrow. it's supposed to be more laid back and have great snorkeling! by the way we bought our own snorkeling gear for pretty cheap so now we can snorkel wherever whenever we want!

after ko tao it's ko pha ngan where we have a beach front bungalow booked. we'll probably just chill and snorkel til it's time to go to bangkok!

goodnight!

Day 14 - 16 malaysia to thailand

alright- time to pick up where i left off! hopefully i can get you all updated to today's date.

Day 14

breakfast at hostel - eggs, toast and a mango we got at a fruit stand.

post office- shipped some gifts and books we had finished home. don't wanna carry them all over the peninsula! lol

arab district (or rather the muslim district)- really cute and quaint! 2 of the streets were pedestrian only and had colonial style shops and restaurants all up and down. there's a huge mosque near the center that was really pretty but we didn't go in (i don't know if we could have actually...it's a working temple and we heard the call to prayer while we were there.)

lunch- mutton kebab, fries, prata, veg. curry. overall pretty good but not great. it was interesting because we went there expecting to see mostly arab people, food, etc. but it's actually a big mix of peoples, foods, etc. from countries who have a large muslim population- middle east, indonesia, malaysia, etc. it was cool to see the cultures mixing.

after lunch jens hung out at lovely little coffee shop while i shopped around. they had lots of cute things but i settles on two pretty throw pillow cases and a table cloth.

next we went to the botanic gardens which were wonderful! they didn't have as many flowers as i expected (but we didn't go through the entire huge park so i'm not sure) but it was really, really green! there were all kinds of huge trees, two ponds, swans, a rainforest section and a huge green field for picnics. we just roamed around and took pictures. there was a wedding going on so we saw the bride and groom getting pics. and lots of people had their dogs there so we loved on as many as we could! we miss our puppies! the things i liked about this park the most were it's free, it's beautiful and all kinds of people go there to hang out and enjoy nature. it's so diverse!

we got a snack of samosas and ice cream and hung out on the green watching people. then we headed to chinatown! it was HUGE! lots of people and shops and cafes and colors and mayhem! they had big decorations up over the roads, including tons of fake cherry trees! lol i assume that was all for the upcoming chinese new year.

we got a boba milk tea and just let the crowd take us around. there was a hindu temple i wanted to see in that area but when we got to it it was all covered for renovation! that's the 2nd hindu temple that i tried to see and it was covered! i'm thinking it must be something they do at the beginning of each year...

we knew there was another hindu temple in little indian so we rushed back over there to try and see it before it was dark. well the sun just went down before we got there but i think i still got some good pics. it was lit here and there. i felt a little awkward taking pics though because it's a working temple and many people were coming in and out to pray. i think they're used to tourists though because they didn't seemed phased by me at all. i tried to be discreet. anyway, hindu temples are amazing! so colorful and SO many figures carved into the roof and walls. i think i like them the most out of any other religion's temples.

for dinner we decided to go to the same food court stall we went to for lunch on the first day because it was so good! we got chicken biriyani and a big tiger beer. so yummy!

then it was time to go back and get a good night's rest for our harrowing 48 hours or so of travel to thailand lol on the way we stopped by a place and got some chai to take back and drink while we read in our room. they put it in bags with a little handle and a straw! lol it was so funny but practical. only thing is you can't ever sit the thing down lol

Day 15 - singapore to kuala lumpur, malaysia

got up, packed and left the hostel. we were planning on eating a quick breakfast there but the smells of indian food were so wonderful we decided we had to eat it one more time! lol we ran over to the only restaurant open and got a cheese prata (indian cheese), a murtabak (kind of like an indian breakfast burrito) and chai. so yummy!

after that we took a small van to the big double-decker luxury bus we'd be taking to KL. it was pretty nice! we sat on the second level and they had nice roomy seats that reclined and a tv screen in the back of every headrest. i watched a movie called "the perfect getaway" - a thriller with a twist! it was pretty crazy! lol

when we got to the singapore/malay border we had to get off the bus, get our bags and go through immigration and customs. it was weird. i had never done an overland border crossing. they're MUCH less strict than airport security!

the bus took like 5 hours or something. i can't remember. then we had an afternoon/evening in kl.

we had subway for lunch- underwhelming as usual. i was just in the mood for something familiar and somewhat healthy though.

hung out at gloria jean's outdoor coffee shop for a few hours reading.

i have to say that s.e. asia has totally blown the "loud, obnoxious american traveler" out of the water! we've only met like 2 americans on this trip (one of which has been living in paris for 30 years so he doesn't really count lol) and i tell you what- i've encountered SO MANY loud, obnoxious travelers from other countries that i have no idea how america got such a bad rap lol when we were hanging out at that coffee shop this middle-eastern looking guy was YELLING his entire conversation at his friend who was 2 feet away lol he didn't seem angry he was just incredibly loud! i had ear plugs in AND i was sitting like 40 feet away and he was still to loud! i kept looking over there like what the heck man? i didn't seem to get the picture. THEN this guy sitting right behind jens kept singing to his girlfriend off and on the whole time we were sitting there lol i dunno where he was from but he wasn't american. and i can't tell you all the times we've been somewhere and some non-english speaking people were talking entirely too loud! lol so that stereotype about americans actually applies to people from all countries. every country has loud, obnoxious people lol

anyway! later we went to an internet cafe and then dinner at a macrobiotic cafe. i had never been too one. the idea is to eat food as close to its original form as possible. i got brown rice with veggies, possibly dried tofu (?) and a really yummy peanut sauce. it was great! jens got udon noodles with veggies. i think we were both happy to eat something really healthy after eating out so much. when you go on vacation you tend to want to have big fancy rich meals at every meal simply because they're available. but when you go on vacation for 2 whole months you have to watch it and try to eat plenty of fruits, veggies and whole grains to stay healthy and not feel sick :oP

after dinner we went to the train station and the train was delayed. i think we got on it at about 10pm. it was the same as the last night train we took. we both had top bunks across from each other. we just settled in and read til we fell asleep. we both slept really well! i guess the train rocks you to sleep lol

Day 16 - malaysia to thailand

we got to sleep fairly late and then we stopped to go through immigration. we left our bags on the train because the last time we did an overland border crossing we made two stops- one for us to leave one country and another to enter the next country and have our bags checked. well at the malay thai border you do it all at once lol no one ever asked us about our bags though lol like i said they're much more lenient at the overland crossings. we had just finished going through immi and customs with we saw the train leaving!!! we were like whaaaaat? i ran up to a guy and asked and he said it'd be back in 20 mins. WHEW! lol i have no idea where it went or why but i did come back.

so we got back on the train and made our way to hat yai, thailand. before the train even stopped some touts were on it asking people if they needed transport. we fended them off and best we could until we ran into one guy outside the train station and he said there was a bus company across the street. we thought we'd at least check it out so we went over and they said they sold combination tickets for the bus and ferry to ko samui (the island we were going to). it was a good price so we took it.

we got a quick lunch at a local place- fried noodles- and then we hopped in the tiniest pick-up truck i've ever seen! lol we sat in seats that had been put in the truck bed and we had a little roof over us. it was really fun to ride that way and see all of the town as we passed by.

we made it to the bus station and the bus wasn't AS nice as the picture had been but still decent. it wasn't very full so jens and i split up and took two seats each to spread out (a lot of other people did that too). i read a little and then i laid down for a nap. i had just gotten comfortable when the "bus mistress" as i call her started yelling something out over and over. i had no idea what she was saying so i just tried to go to sleep. well she walked by and accidentally (i hope) knocked the armrest down on my head! i pushed it back up and was gonna try to go to sleep again when she motioned to me rather frankly to sit up! i thought she meant i couldn't lie down but a min. later everyone on the bus (except jens and i) stood up in the aisle and got off the bus! lol thankfully a nice man who was getting off said "bus change".

i thought good grief! good thing he said something! that bus mistress isn't very helpful! so we got off and i took the opportunity to get our reese's peanut butter cups out of our big bag (since that was the only snack we had and it was a long ride). well that made us get on the new bus last and we had to sit right in the line of the bathroom which stank to high heaven lol after we got going we noticed two seats at the very front were empty so we went up there and sat down. right as i got to the seat thought he bus lurched and i was almost through down the stairs at the front of the bus!!! lol (we were on the second level you see). it was kind of embarrassing but pretty funny so i just laughed it off. we could see bus mistress on the first level through this little window and i saw her motion to us a couple times. i think she was pissed that we moved. but we just thought- whatever lady! we're not smelling a toilet for the next 5 hours lol ...yes that's right- FIVE MORE HOURS to suryat thani to catch the ferry.

the bus ride was horrible. really long, uncomfortable and the crew kept stopping for gas and snacks for themselves and they played this loud thai movie the whole time (with no english subtitles). i think we got gas 4 times! we were an hour and a half late for the ferry so we had to take the next one.

they wouldn't let us get our bags off the bus at first and wouldn't tell us why. they tried to act like they didn't know english but i knew the bus mistress knew some at least. a couple different times she had deigned to speak a few words.

so we went to the ferry terminal coffee shop and then went back to get our bags. they still didn't wanna give them to us but jens insisted so they let him get them. we got on the ferry and we were discussing why we thought they were keeping our bags. some cars and trucks were driving onto the ferry and we thought- surely they're not going to put that double-decker bus on here just to carry our bags to the island??? are they??? wait they are!!! insane! they loaded like 2 or 3 double decker buses onto this ferry! no telling how much that slowed down our speed to the island!

i think the ferry ride was about an hour and a half. we got to the island at dark. but again- there was a tout on the ferry asking people if they wanted to take his van to the other side of the island to where we were all staying. it was a good price and several other people had signed up for it to so we bought tickets. when we got to the island we got off and thankfully found the guy who had sold us the van tickets lol also thankfully the van was really nice and air conditioned and it took us straight to our bungalows! :o) you have to take leaps of faith a lot in s.e. asia lol

we're staying at beer's house bungalows. it's owned buy a thai couple named ben and muk (muk's the guy) and they supposedly have two kids named beer and wine lol i haven't seen them but that's what it said in the lonely planet! they also have two cute little dogs. one looks like a cross between a chihuahua and a mouse deer lol acts about as skiddish as a mouse deer too. and they have a smaller dog that looks like a full bred chihuahu (which i'll call chichi for short) and he's not very nice. mousedeer was skiddish as first but once we pet him he didn't want us to stop lol chichi on the other hand snapped at jens when he tried to pet him the little turd lol there are a lot of sweet dogs on this island though and we love it! we're major dog people :o)

our bungalow is super cute! all wood and woven bamboo. there's a big porch on the front with a long bench, a chair, a table and a hammock! we love the hammock! we not in the first row of bungalows that face the beach but we're on the 2nd row and there's a path straight from our bungalow to the beach so we can still see the water and hear the waves from our porch. so nice! inside there's a full-size bed, table and shelf with an attached bathroom with hot water. love it!

we ran out and looked at the beach but couldn't tell much it being night. then we ate dinner at our bungalow's restaurant. i got yellow curry with shrimp and pineapple and jens got green curry with veggies. both came with rice and two drink jens got a beer and i got a $5 singapore sling to compare it to the $20 one i got in singapore lol i must say it was NOT as good. they put too much grenadine in it or something and it was WAY sour :oP the food was great though!

it was wonderful to finally be on the beach after our harrowling journey! we probably appreciated it much more having gone through all that we did lol vans, trains, buses, mini pickup truck taxi, ferry, touts, bad food, annoying people, etc. lol

alright i'd better go! time to explore this island! i'll update more later! :o)

Night 10 - Day 13 Malaysia to Singapore

Night 10 was great!

we decided to go to babylon for a sundowner and ended up seeing niamh (somehow pronounced neeve). she's the irish woman who works at zackry's guesthouse where we stayed on langkawi. when i met her the first day i knew i liked her but we never got to chat until our last night. but boy did we make up for it lol we talked to her for 4 hours on the beach...so long that we almost missed out on dinner lol most places stop serving at 10pm lol

i won't go into all the details here because i have a lot to update on but i'll give you the jist. she told us some really interesting stories about when she traveled around the world in her twenties (including 30 states in the u.s.!) and about how she came to live on langkawi. she said she was volunteering in vietnam with her brother-in-law 7 years ago, came to langkawi for a vacation afterwards, went back to ireland and turned right around and came back to langkawi because she loved it so much! lol she's been there ever since and is engaged to a malay man. they think they'll settle in ireland or spain.

anyway she was SUPER friendly and fun to talk to. i feel like i've known her my whole life now and i hope to see her again. who knows- maybe we'll visit her in ireland or spain or she might come to texas because her sister married a texan! :o)

after hanging out with her it was too late to go to the malay place we were gonna go to for dinner so we just went to the irish pub and had a cheeseburger and fish and chips lol

it was a great night and made me not wanna leave langkawi- i'll miss it!

Day 11 - flew to singapore

I LOVED SINGAPORE!!!! it was sooo nice! the weather was perfect (and barely changes year-round since it's so close to the equator), it's really diverse which makes things interesting, it's got great urban planning and it's SO CLEAN! people were even sweeping LEAVES off the sidewalk! in the rest of southeast asia you're lucky if they sweep anything...ever lol

we stayed in little india which was AWESOME! i've never been to india but i felt like it was like going there without the danger of getting sick lol it was great! we stayed at "the inncrowd". the main building is a hostel with a kitchen, lounge and internet area but our private room was in a different building down the street and around the corner. the room was nice enough. it had a bunk bed with a double on bottom and a twin on top, cute sheets, cute paint job on the walls, a lamp and a really nice tv that only plays dvds. there were shared bathrooms upstairs. the things i didn't like about this place were as follows: the guy who checked us in gave us no towels, no top sheet and didn't tell us the tv only worked with dvds (or even how to turn on the tv which we could't figure out). we had to ask about all of these things over the course of the 4 days. the worst thing was the top sheet because the room had aircon which was too cold to sleep with without a top sheet but there was no fan or window so we burned up if we didn't use the aircon. we assumed that they would have told us if top sheets were available so we didn't ask about them til the last day and they did in fact have them for free! lol i was so frustrated because we had 3 bad night's sleep because of that. the things i didn't like about the bathrooms were: they built the toilets so close to the stall door that you could fit your legs in between lol and they didn't tell us how to work the hot water so the first time we took a shower it was freezing! lol

other than all that though it was ok lol the bed was pretty comfy, everything was clean, we got free internet for 30 mins. per day, there was free breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, toast, tea and coffee and the place was very stylish. they also helped us with info about buses, etc. and they let you watch a selection of dvds for free. overall not horrible :o)

little india was really cool though as i said. there was a market along one street with fresh veggies, fruits, clothes, etc. for sale. people everywhere and WONDERFUL smells throughout- curry, incense, flowers, etc. it was really fun walking through there! there was a tamil festival going on during our entire stay called pongal. it's their harvest festival. they had concerts everynight, food specials at the restaurants and cows people could pray to and take pictures with. one day i got the pongal special set at one of the restaurants and it was really good! pongal is also a type of rice dish- it's like mashed rice with lentils and spices, sometimes milk. it's really good!

our first meal was in an outdoor food court type place which are all over singapore. it's just a bunch of food stalls all in a row which they call food hawkers. there was ALL kinds of food- indian, chinese, malay, korean, indonesian, etc. we got indian chicken biriyani with an iced milk tea. it was SO GOOD! we got a huge plate of rice with a piece of chicken and some curry, plus the drink for like $4 u.s. that's when singapore totally won me over! lol

after lunch we walked down orchard street which is like a huge rodeo drive with giant designer stores all up and down it- chanel, louis vuitton, gucci, etc. it was pretty crazy! there were also like 10 starbucks on this one street lol we stopped in singapore's biggest bookstore and spent a couple hours in there looking around. it was awesome to go in an english bookstore again! that's another thing- everyone speaks english in singapore really well...i don't know if it's their national language but it's at least the second language which made things really easy and relaxing. it took us a while to get used to it though lol we still spoke in "korea english" for a while lol

for dinner we went to a really nice food court on orchard road and got chinese that was pretty good- it didn't compare to that indian though! lol

after dinner we just hung out in an outdoor starbuck's and read til we got tired and went back to the hostel.

Day 12 - the zoo!

singapore has the most amazing zoo i have ever been too! it has open concept habitats for the animals so many of them are in completely open habitat where they could jump out at you but they don't. somehow they train them to stay in their habitats. the good thing about it is you can get really close to them and get great pics! they of course keep the really dangerous animals in the type of habitats we use in the states. for example the lions on in a big open, natural looking habitat high up but there's a big fence and ditch between you and them.

they had most of the usual animals you see but my favorite was the primates- especially the proboscis monkeys! i had never seen them before and the singapore zoo has the most of any zoo in the world. they're really funny looking because they have really big noses- some of them look almost human!

another cool part was the rainforest section where they had these pretty blue chicken-like birds that roamed around, flying foxes, mouse deer, lemurs, butterflies, etc. we got really close to most of these creatures because it was feeding time and the put the food out where you can see them eat. i was surprised how the animals weren't scared of us. in all other asian zoos i've been in the animals are terrified and down right aggressive towards people because the people they've had contact with have been aggressive toward them. it seems people who live in or go to singapore are a little more aware of how animals should be treated though.

this zoo also had the best zoo food i've ever eaten! we got an indian set meal with rice and curries and a papdam! delicious! they also had TWO ben and jerry's ice cream shops! we definitely got in on that! ;o)

after the zoo i got that pongal special for dinner and jens got a masala dosai which we didn't know would be so huge! lol it's like a giant crepe but thinner and crispier. it came with curried mashed potatoes inside. we were stuffed after that! we went to the prince of whales bar for happy hour and to see the live music but the guy didn't start playing til we were almost done with our drinks so we didn't listen long. but it was a good night!

Day 13 - walking everywhere!

breakfast- indian! the indian food was so good in singapore i wanted to eat it as much as possible! lol i got chapati with curry and jens got dosai with curry- yum!

then we walked to the famous raffles hotel! it's huge and white and in the colonial style of architecture. very big and beautiful. there are shops and restaurants all around. we peeked in at the long bar where they sell the famous sinagpore sling and vowed to get one later that night.

then we wanted to walk around the colonial district but we got lost in this HUGE "shopping city" called suntec. jens read it's bigger than little indian and arab town put together! i believe it! we liked to have never gotten out of there! singapore's consumer culture started to really get to us at that point lol

we finally found the colonial district and but it was lunch time and we wanted to get into the art museum during the free time (12-2p) so we had to hurry. we got pad thai in a food court and rushed over to the museum but the guy said they stopped having free admission during those hours this year lol but it was free from 6-9p so we decided to go back later.

we roamed around some more and found came across a firefighter museum- it was free so we looked around and took pics for our dads :o)

then we hung out at a coffee shop til it was time for free admission at the museum. the museum was really nice. it's built in the colonial style too. most of the exhibits were philippino modern art but i kinda wanted to see more art from the s.e. asian peninsula since that's where we're traveling. the art we saw was awesome though. i got some pics!

after that we went to the long bar and had the famous singapore sling for $28.50 singaporean dollars!!! that's about $20 u.s.! pretty insane but it's something you just gotta do! lol the bar was super nice and the drink was good...just not $20 good lol

we made up for it by having a cheap indian dinner at a food court- it was delicious again!

ah! i have to stop now! we gotta eat dinner in time to catch the night train to thailand! hopefully i can finish updating about singapore in the next couple days! bye!