Koh means island...

Viewpoint
Originally uploaded by Shaggy Z.

Yikes! Been quite some time since I've gotten around to updating this blog. I got back from Chiang Mai on Saturday the 15th. On Sunday at about 6:30, Colleen, Devon, Emily, and myself headed to Kao Sarn road where we bought tickets to go to Koh Tau. We took a double decker bus to Chumpon. The bus ride took probably about 8 hours. They showed Peter Pan which looked really lame so I didn't watch that. I snoozed on and off a bit. At 2 am it stopped for a half hour for supper etc. Met a teacher from London Ontario who teaches in Chonburi province. His name was Brad and he was travelling with his girlfriend Anne. We got to Chumpon at about 5 am and waited a couple hours for the ferry. The ferry left at around 7. The ferry was very comfortable and they showed Starsky and Hutch. We were on the ferry less then 2 hours. Some of the slower, cheaper ferries can take up to 6-8 hours! Koh Tau is a small island about 60 km from the mainland. Tau means turtle. We arrived there at about 9 and rented motorcyles and drove to the Blue Wind Bungalos. They were pretty basic. Pretty much a bed (no sheets of course) and a bathroom (no flushing toilet and cold water). I spent the afternoon by myself biking around the island. The main "road" is paved and the rest of the roads are gravel/sand and are often very steep. Some roads were so sandy and steep that on my way down I would have the brakes on and just sort of slide down, cause the wheels didn't have much traction. Going up a couple, I had to get off and push my bike up the sloop cause my wheels kept spinning. After supper (ate supper at a restaurant that showed The Italian Job) the 4 of us drove around in the dark which was pretty fun. We went up to the viewpoint and then to the end of the island where Devon and I climbed around on giant rocks. Tuesday morning we went to a travel agent (the 3 of them were getting tickets to go to Krabi). We ran into Brad and Anne there and decided to go sign up for a snorkelling tour of the island the next day. The four of us did some snorkeling on our own that afternoon. It was amazing at how many fish you see under the water! We met up with Brad and Anne for supper. After supper the 6 of us rode around awhile then came across a bowling alley. It had four lanes (shorter and skinnier then normal bowling lanes) and had people at the end that would set up the pins (I accidentally nailed one in the leg). We didn't really know how to keep score so we decided that strikes were worth two points and spares were worth one point. Strikes and spares ended up being quite difficult to get because the lanes were not very level and the balls were not very good. I ended up taking the game with four points, next highest score being two points. The next day we returned our motorcyles and went on the snorkelling tour (Emily stayed behind). The water was pretty rough that day, and we were in the boat for about a half hour before it finally took off. By that time I wasn't feeling so hot and soon lost my french toast breakfast over the side of the boat. The first stop we made to snorkel in was the same bay we had driven to the day before. I wasn't feeling so hot by the 2nd stop, and for the 3rd stop I swam over to a rocks to sit down on something that wasn't moving for awhile and was joined by Brad, Anne, Devon, and Colleen came too. After that we were taken to a tiny adjacent island called Koh Nangyuan which is actually 3
islands joined by strips of beach during low tide. We were there for a couple of hours, then it started to pour, so we took shelter in a restaurant. The gutters going started overflowing and water poured into the restaurant. We got back to Koh Tau around 5 or so and then I rerented a motorcyle and headed back to the bungalo. We met up with Brad and Anne again for supper. After supper Emily, Colleen, and Devon headed off for Krabi (they had an 8 hour ferry ride to get there) and I moved to a different restaurant with Brad and Anne to watch The Wedding Crashers (pretty stupid movie, not recommended). After that Brad and Anne headed back to there bungalo. The next day they were heading to Koh Phangan and after that planning to head to Koh Samui. I head seen a pamphlet advertising a sweet music and a DJ and a bar so I decided to go check that out (I'm big into techno and stuff), but walking in the waiter wanted to sell me marijuana so I decided it would be best to head back to my bungalo and read a bit. Before heading to bed I walked along the beach under a full moon...pretty sweet. The next morning I got up around 9:30, checked out, then headed to a café for breakfast and coffee. I stayed there and read till about 1:30, then returned my motorcycle and headed to the pier to catch the 2:30 ferry back to Chumpon. It ended up leaving around 3 (Starsky and Hutch again). Got back to Chumpon at about 5 and got on the bus at about 5:30. The bus wasn't quite as nice as the one we had taken up but the trip was still pretty nice. They showed Batman begins which I had seen before but nevertheless was still fun to watch. Bus stopped for supper at about 8 and I got back to Kao Sarn road at about 1:30 Thursday morning. Bummed around Friday-Sunday (found a sweet tank game game and played that with Craig for quite awhile). Sunday night I saw Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the were-Rabbit with Craig and Michelle. Monday morning left here at about 5:45 am with Craig and Michelle for Ko Samet (island southeast of Bangkok). Trip went very smoothly. Got to the eastern bus station at about 6:30 and got on the 6:30 bus for Ban Phe. There was only like half a dozen people on the bus so we all got our own seets. I had taken a couple of gravel as well as my pillow so I slept for pretty much the entire 3 hours. Got off the bus and the ferry was just about to leave so we got on that and headed for the island. The island is only a couple of kms from the mainland but the ride still took 45 mins. We were gonna check out Jep's bungalos which was about a half hour walk away. Ran into Carmen, Karen, and Melisa who had gone there the day before. It was a Thai holiday on Monday which meant the island was packed. They had trouble finding an available room and ended up sharing it with 9 strangers from various parts of the world. We ended up staying at a place called The seabreeze. Craig, Michelle and I stayed in a room and the girls in another. On Monday we hung out by the beach. During supper the restaurant played a movie (I can't remember which one, must have been good). At about 10 o'clock. A nearby bar had a DJ and were playing sweet music, then a guy came and started doing this fire baton thing. The two ends of the sticks were dipped in fuel and then he would swing it around really fast and it looked pretty cool. Then he did something similar with two sticks on the end of chains. Then there were these contraptions made of some sort of cloth or paper that was maybe 3 feet high and in the shape of a cylinder. At the base they light a flame, and then the things fills with hot air and takes off into the starry night sky. Hung out, listening to music with Craig till about 2:30 in the morning. Tuesday and Wednesday were similar with us hanging out by the beach. At about 5 on Wednesday (yesterday) we chartered a speedboat to take us back to Ban Phe (maybe 10 min boat ride). Took a pickup taxi to the bus station in Rayong. Got back home at about 10 or so. Played some tanks with Craig then headed to bed. This morning I headed to Snow White's (laundromat) with Craig at about 9:30 or so. We went out the back way to avoided being recruited to teach the last day of summer school (I'm not sure why they call it summer school, since its not summer, but they have "summer school" during the 3 weeks between semesters). Later I headed to Post Cafe for coffee and reading. In case your wondering what I'm always reading, I am reading Lord of Chaos, book 6 in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Headed back to my room and started tidying up. At about 5 headed back to Snow White's with Craig to pick my laundry. Just been bumming around this evening and decided it was time for me to update my blog and hopefully respond to a couple emails. I'm very bad with returning emails; I always put it off for later. So that's been the last couple of weeks. If you made it through all of this with falling asleep or quitting, congrats! You should leave an "I made it through this blog entry with falling asleep" comment so everyone knows about your sweet blog-reading skills. Girls only want guys with skills (sorry, but I had to throw in a Napolean Dynamite line)!