I’ve left Koh Phangan and am on the move looking for a new place to chill.

First stop: Koh Tao. Home needs to have more animal babes lounging about their 7-Elevens. Koh Tao is a really cool place, it’s small and fun. The one thing I didn’t like, Koh Tao is world renown for diving and it was fucking lousy. Cheap but lousy. Someone said the dive sites have 3,000+ divers every day. All the wildlife has been scared away.

Moving on, hopped over to the other coast. I thought it would be cool to checkout out one of the smaller, less populated islands. I went to Small Ko Chang. This turned out to be a bad idea. I was expecting to find a few bungalows and restaurants but everything was closed for the slow season, basically deserted. Without food or camping gear I was more/less fucked. Luckily a local noticed I was stranded and invited me to stay with him. His name was Oh (not sure how to spell “Oh”). Very very sweet man, I was incredibly grateful. During slow season, he basically has the entire island to himself. He built his own house. If I had known, I would have packed some food and stayed a lot longer, I could tell Oh wanted some company. I just couldn’t sustain on rice and fish

Back to the mainland. I stopped at Koh Lak, again deserted.

Onto Patong Beach on Phuket Island. Lonely Planet says this is a place of “gluttonous hedonism”. So true. I think it would be fun with a big group of people. The hostel was really cool and I was able to see Avengers in theater. I saw a Thai Boxing match. It started off with kids, then women, then men.

Chalong Puket, also deserted. I had the entire dorm to myself, including the livingroom. I took the opportunity to rewatch season one of Game of Thrones

Past few weeks have been pretty slow, nothing too exciting.

I’ve finally found the next good spot: Koh Phi-Phi. Look forward to my next post, I promise it will be filled with stuff of dreams.

Approaching my last days on Koh Phangan, I decided to rent a dirt bike and do some serious exploring. It’s been 10 years since I’ve ridden a real motorcycle so I rented a small 125cc dirt bike. I took it up and down dirt roads, remembering shifting & the feel of the clutch, practicing going up steep inclines (head above the handle bars), going down hills (ass behind the seat), practicing U-turns and figure-eights. A ton of fun.

After a couple hours of practicing skills, exhausted, I head home. On the way the bike starts losing power, it eventually comes to a complete stop. Confused, I call the shop and the owner comes out with his truck. He asks me with a side-ways glance “is there gas?” He started the bike, acknowledged there was something wrong, we heave it into the truck bed, and head back to the shop.

Back in the shop he tells me there are no more 125cc bikes, all he has left are the big-o 250cc bikes. Well fuck, I just learned how to ride a dirt bike and I’m supposed to step up to a large bike? My toes barely touch the ground! Eventually my brain said “Fuck it, in Thailand one must grow up fast” and I rented the bike.

Fucking thing rocks.

The island is a prefect place for a dirt bike

If Thai people ever complain about the quality of their roads, their gripe would be legitimate

I saw a few cool things along the way, check out the wild hog

I stopped for a drink at a place that had a zip line

And this little guy ran out into the road when I drove past, I had to pull over and say “hi”

This picture is for D-Rock, who always seems to take pictures of people’s feet

After a few hours of searching, I finally found the perfect place to each my lunch. Anybody care to join me?

The ramen noodle packages are better than back home. There’s your your standard sodium burst along with a packet of spicy chili powder and a pouch of oily flavoring And this sucks, no new pictures for awhile.

It’s been a while. I have a feeling this post is going to be long.

The original plan was to go up the coast of Vietnam, come down Laos, through Cambodia, and save Thailand for last. While in Mui Ne, people coming down from North Vietnam told me that it was cold up there. Not a fan of the cold, I flipped the scrip’. I headed back to Ho Chi Minh, took a flight to Bangkok, one more to Ko Samui, then a short boat trip to Koh Phangan.

First viewing of the island and the dock on Ko Samui that took me to Koh Phangan

Once I got to the island, it was already night. One of the passengers, a huge hippy, suggested staying where she lives (talked about this in the last post). I stayed for two days, the “dorm” style beds were nothing more than a mattress and a mosquito net All in all, it really wasn’t too bad and was super cheap. On the south-side of the island I saw a few cool things:

I finally got to use my scuba mask! I’ve been carrying the stupid thing wherever I go, most the time time it’s useless dead weight but I’m so glad I brought it and the beach is less “sand” but more tiny pieces of rock and coral

While exploring the surrounding area of the hotel, I discovered where they dump all the garbage and burn it. What made it interesting was the giant reptile digging through the garbage It was a good reminder that I’m living in the jungle.

One of the nearby hotels/bungalows had a boxing ring! Totally forgot that Thailand has a huge boxing culture Imagine training on a mountain side, in the jungle, overlooking the ocean

The bungalows and beach is only accessible by water taxi. I love this picture, his facial expression reminds me of JoeJoe

I made my way to the north-side of the island and this is where I’ve spent most of my time. Lots of snorkeling, diving, and Game of Thrones

All of my dives have been at a Sail Rock. Leaving the mainland:
Sail Rock

Every time you dive with a shop, you go with a dive master. I’ve been diving exclusively with two really awesome DM’s, Stefan and Zoé

Not nearly as good as the diving boards (I miss diving boards so much!) but still fun

I’ve gotten the itch to do some hiking through the jungle. I have a map and started noting nearby hikes. I started small with a 20min journey

Next I climbed over the pass from my location, Chaaloklum, to Bottle Beach. The trek was about 45min to the top It was really cool because I saw monkeys! I’ve never seen monkeys outside of a zoo. Someone please do me a favor and identify the species. And I sat for a long time watching the monkeys

Saw some other cool little critters His wing was broken

The jungle provides great shade

By far the best shoes I’ve ever owned, especially for trekking

I always make sure to pack some food

Today I decided to really challenge myself, I climbed the tallest point of Koh Phangan: Kao Ra The climb is about two hours up and some parts are quite steep and a bit technical Trekking through the jungle was awesome

And at the top

I think tomorrow I’ll rest.

I am now in Thailand, writing from the beaches of Ko Pha-Ngan. This place barely has electricity, everything is powered by generator. To use the internet, I had to trek to a neighboring bungalow where they charge $10/hour for a slow connection.

This place is amazing, a jungle island surrounded by deep clear blue water. The stuff of dreams.

It’s only been a day and I’m not really digging the social scene. The people are strange. There are a lot of young hippies that constantly babble spiritual nonsense. There’s an older generation doing mostly yoga retreats, some have been out here for years. Last night I sat at a table full of ladies, most in their late 30′s (or older) bitching about how difficult the day was because they’re too old or too fat to do the poses. They made me laugh a lot but not quite the type of folk I’m looking to travel with.

I am looking forward to the diving and snorkeling, tomorrow I travel to the north-most point of the island to find a scuba trip. Maybe people will be different on the other side of the island.

All in all, not dead but it may be a long while before I post again. Next time I have real internet I’ll upload some pictures and give a decent post.

Despite knowing full well how terribly dangerous this is, I couldn’t pass up something so ridiculous and they’re fast!

Also saw a lot of cows and chickens that day

Update:
a dude in the dorm just emailed me some pics, thought they were cool: