The Last Hurrah

So we spent the last few days of our Thailand adventure in Bangkok... the big, polluted, congested capital of Thailand. It was quite a change from all the beautiful beaches and warm waters of the islands we were hopping from. We checked into a shady hosel with creepy bugs on the mattress. These bugs remained motionless when you tried to touch them to wag them off, but then moved around when you weren't looking. So gross. They were inside my pillow case and by then I demanded to change rooms. The next day I woke up with this nasty rash on the back of my calves. It looked like I was breaking out in hives. I wondered if those creepy bugs were the culprits, but the pharmacist said that it could be the result of eggs, seafood, or pollution... and I was exposed to all of the above. After a day of trying to battle the rash with Benadryl, I went back to the pharmacist who gave me 10USD worth of hydrocortisone creams, antibiotics, and antihistamines. I took them blindly, trustting her word for it, even without the consultation of the doctor. But was sleepless for a week, felt woozy and tingly all over, and lightheaded if I got up too fast. The antihisamine had 60 mg of pseudoephedrine in it and I had to take 8 of these pills a day. No wonder I had heart palpitations and felt high. But everything seemed to do the trick and the rash went away. Thank God.

We went to watch a Muay Thai boxing match. We got ringside seats and were right in front to see the sweat and the punches. I was so into it, I yelled and cringed at the each landed punch. It was so intense. One guy even got knocked out that a stretcher came in to pull him out of the ring. That looked staged a bit and I was skeptical in the beginning. But after a few matches, it got more intense and you could see the bruises and cuts forming after all the jabs and kicks to the ribs... it was awesome.

We also saw some sights around the city. Of the 4 days we spent there... we just took a morning to see the sights. The rest of the time, we were hanging out on Khaosan road wih all the other backpackers... But we saw the Reclining Buddha and The Grand Palace. The palace was covered in jewels and gold. It was beautiful. It was the palace that inspired the movie, "The King and I."

Check out the craziness on Khaosan Road

This is a picture of the Monument of Democracy. It stood right in the middle of this intersection and is pretty impressive at night.

What a crazy adventure. We've been in Thailand for almost 2 weeks now and we can't get enough of the sun and beaches. We took a day trip to Koh Samui to lay on the beach. But we had been on such amazing beaches with pure, white sand and clear, calm water, Koh Samui came up sub-par. The sand wasn't so soft, almost rocky and the water cooler and less clear. The drop off into the water took me alittle by surprise and before you knewit, you were being carried away deeper and deeper by the strong currents. I was content with laying out all day to darken the already darkened skin. Hmmm... what's darker than black? Then we went to the south of Lamai Beach to look at the "largest genetalia shaped rock in all of Asia" as my guide book reads. It's called the grandmother and grandfather rocks, a couple of perverse looking structures that I dare not post on this blog.

See Ellen and I near the grandmother structure.

We went to Koh Phangan's Haad Rin Beach for the Full Moon Party on Nov 24th. The night before, however, we decided to pre party and get a taste of what the actual party would be like. Ellen, Christy, and I decided to buy a bucket of Bacardi, pineapple juice and Sprite. We shared it, but since I was holding the bucket, I practically chugged it in 4.3 seconds. That's why I never buy cocktails at home. Who wants to be the prissy girl holding the martini glass not dancing? So in order to free my hands and dance like a monkey, I chugged this bucket, and the next, and the next. Ooops. Cuz by the end of the night, of the pre-party, I barely remembered walking home. But it was fun. The next morning was hell on earth, but at least I learned how to gauge my alcohol intake before the night of the actual party. What happened to my tolerance? The 10 shots of Patron without being fazed? Gone, I guess.

It was Christy's birthday and to celebrate we laid out all day by the beautiful pool at Coco Hut.

Then to treat ourselves afer a long hung over day of doing absolutely nothing, we got an hour long massage during sunset, poolside, with aromatherapy oils. So nice. Then we had dinner, celebrated Chrsty's bday with a celebratory pancake then headed off to the Full Moon Party. It was absolutely insane. I didn't bring my camera for fear of losing it. Imagine THOUSANDS of people in bikinis, shorts, skimpy dresses, covered in glow in the dark paint, holding buckets of the alcohol of your choice, dancing like monkeys to music that ranged from trance to rock and roll to reggae. The South China Sea became a toilet. Others chose to make out with strangers in it. But overall, the site was amazing. I had never seen or experienced anything like it.

Ellen and I before the party... still sober. Everybody loved the hat, by the way. Especially the English... who said I looked lke Sherlock Holmes. It became my trademark and everyone that we had met previously, in China, Vietnam, and Cambodia recognized me because of the hat.. so it became my signature look. Haha.

We partied until about 630AM. The sun was up, you got a clear view of all the partiers. People were still dancing full force. But we were tired, as we had to catch a boat off the island to head to Koh Tao. We got 3 hours of sleep, said good bye to the beautiful Coco Hut and were off. That hour long boat ride was the longest and most miserable of my life. Being hung over and sea sick at the same time.... no fun. I thought I had Delhi Belly and was in the bathroom letting out my breakfast (and then my dinner from the night before) the whole time. Ellen totally took take of me while I was in there. (Thanks dude). But every 3rd person was sick and barf bags and vertigo-relieving inhalers were being passed around everywhere. I spend the night and the next day eating saltines, drinking Sprite, and watching movies at Ban's Diving Resort in Koh Tao.

Koh Tao is known to have some of the best diving in the world. So Christy and Ellen wanted to check it out... perfect timing, so I could recuperate from the vertigo. At this point, however, I suspected some food poisoning from some shady looking chicken in the pad thai I had. Cuz it's been about 4 days later and I'm still a little queasy. Koh Tao was beautiful. The visibility in the water was pretty poor so their diving trip didn't turn out that great. But the resort we stayed at was again another beautiful bungalow perched on a cliff, overlooking the water in the distance. We're spoiling ourselves with these nice hotels... cuz soon enough, we'll be in Nepal and India, roughing it again in the backpacker circuit.

See the view of the hammock and palms in the glow of the setting sun at Sairee Beach...

We had our last dinner in Koh tao with Christy, our fellow American traveller... at Choppers.

Bye Siem Reap. See Angkor Wat change colors during sunset...

I've been waiting to lie on a beach since I was up in the cold mountains of Wudang Shan, China about a montha and a half ago and now I'm here. We took a taxi, yes a taxi, from Siem Reap to Bangkok. There are only dirst roads from Sien Reap, Cambodia to the Thai border. Supposedly, Thai Airways pays the Cambodian government not to fix their roads so that more people will fly their airlines to get to Thailand. What a scam! So we opted for a taxi that took about 4 hours to get to Bangkok, rather than the 14 hours on a stinky, sweaty, bus on bumpy roads. The taxi driver on the Cambodian side called them "dancing roads." cuz you dance as he veers left and right disging pot holes. But Ellen and I nearly got whiplash, and at times, our bodies jumped so high from the seats that I feared bumping my head on the roof of the car. The Thai side, however, was beautiful paved and we got some rest after "dancing" for 2+ hours. We then took a flight to Phuket, where we stayed overnight in a dorm. The next afternoon, after running some errands in town (buying a beach towel) we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi, where they filmed The Beach. It was beautiful. The water was so blue and so clear. The sand was so soft and white. It was paradise. It took a little trekking through sand and jungle with out heavy bags that couldn't be rolled in the sand until we found a place to stay. It was dark and dingy and smelled. When it rained, water seeped through the floors and brought in huge centipedes and beetles. Pretty gross. But luckily the pristine warm waters and the beach chairs were worth it. You would look down the dark halls of our hostel to find the doorway that led right onto the beach and all you could see was sunny skies and blue waters and that cleared away all the worries about where we were sleeping. Cuz by day, the beach was our home. Of all the places on Koh Phi Phi to stay, we chose Long Beach. We later found out that this was rated one of the top 10 beaches in the world. How wonderful!!!

That 1st day, after waking up, we put on our bikinis and went straight to the beach and camped out under the sun for 8 hours, only leaving to eat lunch and have a shake. We swam out into the water a little bit and it was SO warm, it was like a refreshing salty bath. The colorful tropical fish swam right up to shore and cuz the water was so clear, you could see them swimming next to you. It was absolute heaven and all I can do is sigh at the thought of such paradise. At night, we got a candlelight massage, would watch fire twirlers, drink beer, listen to the waves crash against the shore, eat a curry dinner, and just relax.

Can you imaging feeling the sea breeze while you got a candlelight massage here?

The fire twirlers:

Your worries here change.... screw the daily worries about school and work. Here, it's, "should I get the mango or coconut shake?" or "I think I'll tan on the other side now."

We stayed a couple of days on Koh Phi Phi before heading to Koh Phangan on the east coast. It took us a whole day to get here, but as I'm sitting here in my bungalow typing away on our in-room computer, while Ellen's drinking a beer on our patio overlooking the ocean, and the sun is setting, it's worth it. We got here last night and had high hopes to sleep in better accommodations. But slept in bungalows that were pretty similar to our last accommodations but with straw walls so thin you could hear the people in the other room snoring, and with more visitors in the room... a family of ants that crawled in a line up the walls next to our beds. So now we're at Cocohut...complete luxury. We've broken the backpacker budget, but I think it's well deserved after all the dives we've slept in for the last couple of months.

Accommodation #1... Nasty, huh?At P.P Long Beach Divers

Cocohut's Paradise at our beach side bungalow... which would you rather stay at?

Koh Phangan's highlight is the FULL MOON PARTY... Nov 24. So excited. Stay tuned for pictures from that crazy party, that is, if I don't lose my camera.