Day 33-40 Ko Pha Ngan to Bangkok to Ayuthaya to Laos!

wooo! long time no write! we were really busy in bangkok and ayuthaya and then the internet in laos has been reeeeallly slow so i haven't had a chance to update until now. since i have so many things to write about i'm not going to be very detailed. sorry :o/ when i finally upload all our pictures hopefully they'll fill in the blanks :o)

Day 33 - journey to bangkok

we took a taxi to the boat, a boat to the mainland, a taxi to the train station. then we hung out and ate dinner at a little thai place.

then we took the night train aaallll the way up to bangkok. we left at like 9 or 10 pm. arrived at 8 or 9 am. we didn't sleep very well because it was a fan only car. should have gotten an a.c. one.

bangkok was pretty crazy! LOTS of traffic! HOT! noisy, tons of people, shops, food, lots of weird smells, etc., etc. we stayed at rambutri villa and it was probably the most conventional, nice clean hotel we've stayed in. they had a pool!

we stayed near the famous khao sahn road that's touristy and filled with food carts, shopping stalls, some restaurants and bars....and lots of people! the most interesting thing we saw there was insects for sale for the purpose of eating! they had scorpions, giant roaches, grubs, etc. no we didn't eat any but i got a picture of them! ;o)

first order of business was to get me a new camera! we went to this huge electronics market called pantip plaza and went straight to a camera store and bought my canon powershot d10! i love it! it's waterproof up to 33 feet, shatterproof up to 4 feet and freeze proof down to 14 degrees. also it takes great pictures!

next we played around in this mall in the arcade, used a massage chair, did karaoke, got coffee and then we went to this international world music and bbq festival for dinner which was AWESOME! we saw a cuban band, a zydeco band from lousiana/texas (jens talked to the singer and told him we were from texas too!) and a japanese band. they had ALL kinds of food and bbq for sale but we settled on lousiana bbq baby back ribs, cole slaw and potatoes au gratin! yeah we were in thailand and could have gotten satay or something but we just couldn't resist that homestyle taste! Po: at least we can blame the fact that we haven't lived in texas for over a year so we craved a taste of home ;o) we ate, we danced, we drank cheap beer and then we went to the movies. we saw avatar and it was AMAZING!!! the things they can do with cgi these days blows my mind. i loved the forest!

Day 34 - seeing sites in bangkok!

we took a river taxi to see the grand palace which was incredible! i had never seen a palace so ornate! it was covered in gold and mirrors and all things that shine and sparkle! amazing! then we saw wat pho (temple) and the temple of the emerald buddha. they were also awesome!

after site seeing in the heat all day we went back to the hotel and swam in the rooftop pool. more topless french women were to be seen- i swear they take their tops off every chance they get lol and we tried out the camera in the pool- it worked great! it was a little difficult to take underwater pics when we didn't have goggles but we still got a few good ones. can't wait to try it with goggles on though (we shipped ours to the states because we won't be doing any more snorkeling this trip).

Day 35 - took train to Ayuthaya

the train to ayuthaya was preeeetty crappy but at least it didn't take long. maybe 1.5 hours. we liked ayuthaya because it was much quieter and less touristy than bangkok. that being said you only need about two days there at the most. it was probably the hottest place we've been to so far. it's so hot you don't really feel like doing much during the day but there's not much to do at night at all. because it's not touristy there aren't many restaurants or bars. in fact i don't think i saw any bars lol i think most people just take a day trip to ayuthaya from bangkok so there's not much need for a nightlife there.

we stayed two nights and 3 days in this AWESOME old teak house. i think it's my favorite place we've stayed so far. i loved our bungalow right on the beach on ko pha ngan but this teak house in ayuthaya had so much character i think it wins out. it was made entirely of teak wood that had been smoothed down over years and years of use. i think jens said it was at least 100 years old. our room was small but really cute. we had an iron bed with white mosquito netting all around, antique night stand and dressing table and a lamp. there were some old sepia photographs on the walls of thai people and some pith helmets hanging on one wall. it felt like it took me back to another time.

downstairs was the front desk and restaurants, lots of tables and chairs and a big porch facing the river with more tables and chairs. the guest rooms are upstairs all around a central "lobby". there was just a bench and an old iron and board in the lobby and a big expanse of that smooth teak wood. i loved walking on it! there was also a really nice balcony upstairs overlooking the river where you could sit and read and contemplate. across the river from us was a gorgeous temple.

the bathrooms were shared and they were down a few stairs in another building adjacent to the main building. i usually don't like shared bathrooms but i didn't mind these at all because they were basically 4 private bathrooms. each one had a toilet, shower and sink so that was nice. no hot water but like i said the town was so unbearably hot we welcomed a cold shower at the end of the day.

anyway! moving on! lol i'm getting so wrapped up in the details i'm not going to have time to finish this post lol

in ayuthaya the main attractions are the ruins of the ancient capital city of thailand. they have tons of ruins all over the city similar to angkor wat (but not as extensive). the first ones we saw were pretty impressive. i took TONS of pictures and we stayed quite a long time. it was really peaceful because there are lots of grassy fields and trees all around and not many people so you feel like you're all alone walking in a nice park with these awesome ruins all around.

that night we wanted to eat in the night market but we found out that because it was sunday not many of the stalls were open. so we spend quite a while walking through this spooky seemingly abandoned night market lol we came across a butcher chopping up a pig and jens wanted his picture with him. so i took it and then right after this other butcher came barreling through with a cart-load of dead pig parts and hit jens in the leg! lol he got pig blood all over his pants but hey it makes a great story :o)

we finally found a little place to eat and got pad thai- it was good and only about 75cents!!!

Day 36 - more ruins in ayuthaya

we got up, had breakfast and went out to see more ruins. by the way we rented bikes to get around the city. it was pretty stressful trying to ride bikes on the roads with all these buses, cars and scooters going every which-way, especially in the round-a-bouts! ugh those were scary! i only had one minor accident though and it was really stupid, i was trying to ride the bike between these two concrete curbs and i hit the side of it which made me ram my arm into the handle bar and stub another toe! i still have the bruise on my arm on day 40 lol

anyway we saw more ruins but the heat was so dang strong! we saw about two sites and decided to go back to the hotel, take a cold shower and chill out the rest of the day lol

that night we ate at a restaurant that floats on the river and it was really cool!

Day 37 - last day in ayuthaya

we weren't too keen on seeing more ruins by bike so we just took a tuk-tuk straight to this site over the river on the mainland (the main part of ayuthaya is actually on an island that lies where 3 rivers converge). these ruins weren't quite as ruined as the ones we had seen previously and there were tons of buddha statues everywhere. next we went to the japanese settlement hoping they'd have a restaurant with ramen but it turned out to be a teeny tiny museum with no food. so we ate on a road side place and then went on to see the largest sitting buddha in all of thailand and some recently discovered solid gold buddhas, as well as a chinese temple that was really colorful and ornate.

then we headed back to the hotel to shower, hang out, eat dinner and catch a tuk-tuk to the train station where we hopped on yet another night train (the 4th of the trip) to go up to laos. we got an a.c. car this time and it was a bit nicer. we slept well!

Day 38 - laos

we arrived at the border to laos, went through immigration and the guy said- OVERSTAY!!! we were like what? he said you overstayed your visa! it ended feb. 1 and today is feb. 9! we were like what??? we thought they were 30 days! this visa is only for two weeks! he said you overstayed you have to go to this other office to pay the fine.

so we did and it was $270!!!!! $15 for each day overstayed for each of us! needless to say we were baffled and pissed. no one could tell us why we had a 2 week visa and not a 30 day visa. we looked in the lonely planet later and it distinctly said thailand gives 30 day visas! i have a feeling thailand just does that to screw people over and get money out of them. so there's a lesson for us- always double check the length of our visas! laos's is 3 months!

so we got to our hotel in vientiane and unpacked. we're staying at the riverside hotel- conventional with a soft bed, a tv (with cnn, bbc, french tv5, and an australian channel! pretty awesome! lol), a fridge, a.c., hot water, the works! no pool though.

we walked around the town a bit and it's really nice and quiet. lots of cute little restaurants, cafes and coffee shops and LOTS of french food which we're loving :o) you know, laos used to be a french colony so their influence is still seen today. we had dinner at la terrace and it was wonderful! we got a big salad with bacon, veggies, and apples, tender duck with an apple sauce, potatoes au gratin, wine, espresso and creme brulee! heaven!

Day 39 - laid back roaming around vientiane

breakfast at scandinavian bakery, roamed around, found a market selling all kind of things: roots, bark, etc. for tonics, loads of fabric for traditional dress, laos t-shirts, and bottles of scorpion snake wine! we bought a few souvenirs and had lunch and a laotian restaurant housed in a huge old colonial building. we felt under-dressed but no one gave us any looks lol we got a laotian set meal and it was huge! most likely meant for 4 people but we didn't know that when we ordered lol it was a good way to sample a lot of different laotian foods all at once though!

we had purple sticky rice, lemongrass fish and veg. soup, smokey eggplant and veg. stew, spicy eggplant veg. mix of some sort, chicken pieces cooked in banana leaves, salty pork, a fish cake, ground pork cooked in fish sauce and herbs, spring rolls, steamed veggies, and fruit. the ruit plate included a fruit we couldn't identify but it tasted really good so we asked what it was. the guy didn't know the name in english so he brought us a whole fruit. it was the size and shape of a kiwi but not hairy and more of a grey color. the fruit inside is a dull peach and it's really sweet. it almost taste like rum. the guy said it's called laomoot in laotian.

after lunch we were stuffed so we just did some internet and went back to the hotel to relax, watch tv, read and nap.

we got up around 5pm and had a big beer lao by the river and watched the sun set.

then we had dinner at la terrace again because it was so good but this time we got pizza. it was delicious! after dinner we watched a funny french movie in our room and then went and saw a band play at a nearby bar. they were pretty good but not very energetic.

Day 40 - TODAY!

we had breakfast at a french place that had wonderful pastries and the best honey i have ever put in my mouth. i asked a guy where they got their honey and i have no idea what he said so i'll have to search it out myself lol we saw some honey for sale at this little market yesterday so we may try there. we wanna get some and send it back to texas. i swear it was the most nuanced honey i've ever had! they harvest it in laos and i'm sure it's most likely organic and comes from bees that pollinate gorgeous tropical flowers or something lol. hope we can find some!

today we're going to rent a scooter and see some sites!

whew! there you have it - a whirlwind week of traveling in s.e. asia! are you tired yet? lol

Will update soon

hey just wanted to let my readers know i will try to update about bangkok and ayuthaya soon. i just haven't had time yet! we've been goinggoinggoing non-stop.

tomorrow is our last day in ayuthaya. we'll probably look at some more ruins of ancient temples and then we're taking a night train aaaallll the way up to vientiane, laos. we'll be there 5 days so i may get to update in detail then.

The Rest of Day 29-32

the rest of day 29:

not much!

went to dinner next door and watched sherlock holmes which they were showing on their old, discolored big-screen tv lol jens was super skeptical but said the movie was better than he thought it would be. i thought it was pretty good too, but not great.

had drinks at heaven (outdoor bar) and my mint julip was more like lime juice with some mint in it lol waaaay too sour to drink! but they played nice music and we saw the best fire dancer that we had ever seen before. he was amazing! it just blows my mind when i see people performing for free and they have all this talent and most people in the world will never know, ya know? i felt lucky to see it.

Day 30

didn't feel well in the morning but pushed through and scootered to koh ma with jens anyway. it's a little island off of ko pha ngan. we actually just scootered to the beach that's across from koh ma and there's a little sandbar you can walk along to get to koh ma. there were quite a few topless woman sunbathing there. it's always a shock when i first see someone doing that but then i get over it immediately when i think- oh yeah, boobs, i have those too, no big deal lol so i laid out while jens snorkeled some and i think i just need to give up on this whole tanning business. it takes forever and now i'm the color most americans would consider "the whitest they've ever been" lol plus it's really hard to tan evenly. my arms and upper back are darker than the rest of me for obvious reasons and i just don't feel like lying around in the sun for hours each day. so i give up. if i tan, i tan. if i don't, i don't. whatever. i don't care lol

moving on...i snorkeled with jens some but there wasn't much to see. the water wasn't that clear. it was really clear in the shallow areas but once it got deep it was really foggy. we saw some fish that we had already seen before but not many and barely any coral at all. it makes me really sad that the world's coral is dying so rapidly. we actually haven't seen any of that colorful coral you see in movies/tv/photographs because what makes coral colorful is the algae that grows on it. with global-warming the temperature of the oceans have risen and when coral gets hot it expels all the algae and slowly dies. so all we've seen is dying or dead coral :o( it really wakes you up to see something like that. i wish everyone could see so they'd take global-warming seriously!!!

had lunch at the local restaurant and it took FOREVER! slowest service we've ever had. i completely finished my drink before the food arrived, ordered another drink when the food arrived and then finished my entire meal before the 2nd drink came lol

from there we went to see a waterfall. the main roads here are fine but all the side roads are just dirt and they've been rutted by rain water and have all kinds of random rocks and holes in them. it's crazy. we drove up one road to get to the waterfall and there was another road we needed to go down but i refused lol it was too dangerous. so we parked and walked the rest of the way. we got to the beginning of the waterfall area and saw some people coming down and asked them if there was much water and they said no and that it was really difficult to climb up. so we decided not to go. there was just a bit of water trickling down, nowhere to swim and i was starting to not feel well again. so we left.

went back to the bungalow, swam there, showered and went to dinner at dolce vita. i had major heartburn so i had to get all bland non-acidic foods. we got milk tea, steamed tilapia and a baked potato and it was all good but i still had really bad heartburn afterward. that's exactly what happened to me the last time we traveled for a month. it was last august when we went to japan for two weeks and then traveled all over korea with ben and vivienne for two weeks. the last couple days i had bad heartburn and couldn't get rid of it. it really sucked! what saved me was it was the end of our trip and we were going home. i researched home remedies and found out aloe juice helps. but there's no aloe juice here in thailand. so we went to a pharmacy and i got some conventional medicine. it was so disgusting! like drinking soupy toothpaste- UGH! :oP hope i don't have to take it again!

i think my body just gets really tired of eating out after a month. it's like ok that's enough! time to go home! lol thing is i have a month left of vacation! so i think i just have to lay off the fried foods which is hard in thailand when the main dishes they serve are fried spring rolls, fried rice, fried noodles, etc. i have to be careful about what i eat. hopefully i can make it another month without having too much if any heartburn!

Day 31

breakfast, hammock, read, slept, lunch (coconut milk and veg. soup) didn't feel great but didn't wanna lounge around all day so we went out.

we scootered to another waterfall hoping it would be better and it was somewhat. the waterfall was another trickle but there was a big pool of water at the bottom of this one that we could swim in :o) there was also a rope you could use to swing into the pool which was pretty fun! the most surprising thing was the little fish that come up and bite the deadskin off your feet! i knew about them because in korea they have places called "dr. fish" where they put a bunch of these fish in a tub and you stick your feet in for a fish "pedicure" lol i was never interested in that so i never went but i got a free session in this pool! only one fish came up to me right when i got in and it totally freaked me out because i wasn't watching. i just felt this fish bite me all of the sudden! lol now it doesn't actually feel like a bite. it kinda feels like a teeny tiny little suction for one second but it still freaks you out if you're not expecting it. later i stood there and watched (the water was really clear) until a fish came up. but he wasn't as interested this time. he bit my ankle a couple times and swam away lol it didn't scare me as much if i could see him though.

we swam a while, had lots of fun and then scootered down to an archery range where you can shoot arrows. i had never done it before and it's actually really difficult! lol you have to have really strong arms! i shot 10-12 arrows and hit the target about 3 times. i never hit the center of the target. all my arrows hit the outer edge of the target or the ground or the building behind the targets lol it was fun though and jens did much better than me.

next we drove around and happened upon a cute little cafe that sold coffee and baked goods. we got a coffee that was more like a medium sized espresso, a REALLY good croissant and a yummy raspberry cream tart. it was quite the treat after eating almost all our meals in one of 3 restaurants on our beach!

after that we went "home", showered, watched the sunset over the ocean which was gorgeous! and then we went to dinner next door so we could watch the movie, american gangster while we ate.

we got tea, burger and baked potato and the movie was really good! based on a true story involving the drug trade in the 60s/70s.

the end!

Day 32

breakfast of whole wheat bread we bought at that bakery yesterday, toasted with peanut butter - yum!

went into thongsala (bigger town on the island). we wanted to mail our snorkeling gear, books we've read, hammocks, etc. to the states so we wouldn't have to carry them all over for the next month when we don't need them. we wanted to do the 3 month surface mail because usually that's really cheap but the snorkeling gear alone was $30! we said nevermind, unpacked the gear and went back out to the scooter but then we realized we definitely didn't wanna carry snorkeling flippers all over the rest of thailand, laos, cambodia, malaysia and then back to korea only to be packed somewhere and THEN taken back to the states AND we didn't wanna ditch the stuff and buy more later because it'd probably be at least $40 to replace- so we decided it was worth it to spend the $30 to send the stuff home now. so we went back in and did so.

we decided against sending anything else until bangkok. it might be cheaper there.

we dropped off the 3 disposable cameras i had used to get the pics developed. 2 were waterproof and had snorkeling pics on them and the other was a reg. disposable camera with pics from the full moon party, etc. after our digital camera went kaput. they said we'd have to pick them up tomorrow but we're leaving tomorrow so after much negotiation they said they could be ready by 6pm.

so we went to lunch at ando loco- a tex mex place! awesome huh? it always amazes me the kinds of foods you can get all over the world (except korea lol). it was open air and we got a margarita (for jens), iced jasmine green tea with honey (for me- it was amazing!), nachos and two veggie tacos. it was all delicious but i felt sick immediately after! :o( thank goodness they had a hammock for me to lie down in. i felt better after about 30-45mins. it was really discouraging though. made me feel like i just couldn't eat anything without feeling sick now that we've been on vacation a month. i felt like that was my body's limit. after one month it says- nope! you need to go home and eat your own home-cooked food now. no more traveling! lol but i don't have much choice! plus i WANT to see laos and angkor wat! so i willed myself to feel better and then we went to the hammock store.

it was AWESOME! this guy sells handmade hammocks in two styles and two different kinds of thread. he has regular hammocks for lying down and sitting hammocks that make you sit up more. he has them in a superfine thread that's really soft and really comfy but it's also really expensive! a large hammock made of that thread was about $90! the cheaper thread is less expensive but still comfortable enough for us so we bought a sitting hammock in the cheaper thread. i love it and can't wait to use it but we're not gonna string it up here cuz it's our last day. we'll probably ship it home in bangkok because we don't know whether or not we'll be able to string it up anywhere else we're going and we wanna ship as much stuff home as possible before the 2nd half of our trip.

we realized that we then had a lying down hammock (which we bought on koh samui) and then this new sitting down hammock and that would really work for something we were planning on doing on our u.s. road trip- sleeping in our hammocks whenever possible. so we bought one more cheapy lying down hammock like the one we bought on koh samui at another store.

so we now have two really cheap but useful lying down hammocks and one really nice sitting down hammock :o)

after that we just roamed around town either driving or walking, going into shops and book stores, etc.

we tried to go pick up the pictures at 6pm but the lady said - tomorrow. and we were like what? we told you we need them tonight lol so she was like ok come back at 7pm.

so we decided to go have a pint at this english pub we had seen advertised all over the island- the masons arms. we found it and it was awesome! the building is really nice and looks super out of place on this island lol it's a proper english pub! white with dark brown wood, inside there are nice tables and booths with a big bar, pool table, fuse ball table, upstairs there are darts, pingpong and a nice balcony! we were amazed! we got a pint of cider and a pint of guinness and had a seat. we chatted a while and then played a game of pool. we were both horrible so we went upstairs and played darts and that was more fun :o) jens won and then we played pingpong and let's just say we failed miserably lol

around 7:15pm we went to pick up the pictures and they were finally done! but let me tell you- disposable camera pictures SUCK!!! big time! the color's all off, some are grainy and many are out of focus. on top of that only 15 out of 39 pictures from one of the cameras even showed up! the rest were solid black! i have no idea why but i was really disappointed. there were quite a few from the full moon party i remember taking that didn't show up at all :o( the pics from snorkeling were ok though. i mean even though my digicam was working at the time i still couldn't use it for snorkeling since it wasn't waterproof so whatever. they're better than nothing. i can't wait to get my new digital camera though!

while we were at the shop i stubbed my toe really bad and it still hurts hours later. i'm hoping i didn't fracture it or something! :o(

after getting the pictures, and stubbing my toe, we went back to the mason's arms for dinner because they had steak and ale pies (like pot pie). we got one and it was wonderful! it had this flaky pastry crust on top and it came with mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, peas, broccoli and cauliflowers. OMG! IT AS GREAT!!!! they also had this adorable dog there and kept looking at us with sad little eyes lol she wanted some steak and ale pie but the owner said she had eaten so we didn't give her any lol

after that we came back here.

tomorrow begins the long journey to BANGKOK! ahoy!

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)