Easy Life, Easy Stay

Soooo, it has been a while since we were dropped out of the sky into Bangkok. We have mainly been hopping from island to island in Southern Thailand enjoying the sun when we can and dodging the rain when necessary. We started out with a train trip down the coast through the towns of Petchaburi, where we saw our first monkeys and Amanda made faces with one, and Hua Hin, where we had our first taste of the beach at the King's favorite resort town. From there we attempted a stay in the Khao Sok national park, which ended with a samlaw driver yelling and driving away and us on the side of the road hitchhiking back into town. Not discouraged in any way, well at least only slightly, we decided to shoot straight down to Chumpon for a night ferry to the islands.

Our first stop was Ko Tao, which means Turtle Island in Thai and is supposed to look like a turtle perched on top of a huge bed of coral. We moved from bay to bay there, staying in different bungalows on the beach, snorkeling, kayaking, and driving a motor bike around the deeply rutted dirt roads of the island. At some points Amanda had to get off of the bike and walk when the going got a little too rough or the hill too steep for two people on our little bike. In the end we coughed up 1,000 baht for a small scratch, Thai people know their hustle.

Next we zipped over to Ko Phangan to the SE and a much larger island. We chose to forgo the SW coast where the majority of young backpackery types go, drawn by the Full Moon parties that occur once monthly (they are so popular that now they also have Black Moon parties and Half Moon parties, pretty much any phase gets some sort of celebration). We went the the NW coast which is a lot less developed and spent our days climbing from one bay to the next, snorkeling, and lazing about on the beach. One day we decided to hike overland to Bottle Beach, which ended up being a grueling push over one of the higher peaks on the island in the heat of the day. We made it across for beautiful views and a longtail boat ride back to our bungalow.

After spending 6 days in Ko Phangan we finally said goodbye and took a night ferry to the mainland. Nicely tanned, we continued on to Phuket on a bus to reach Phuket town on the west coast of the peninsula. Fuzzy sweaters in full effect we finally rested our heads at On On Hotel, the Bangkok flophouse where they filmed part of "The Beach." The rooms looked earily the same, and we spent our night passing joints back and forth with our neighbors (kidding). We spent two days in Phuket Town which had interesting Sino-Portugese architechture and a killer night market. We found Chang beer for 40 baht, cheaper than conveniece stores! We continued to spend one night in Patong, where we found 4,000 American Navy sailors in port. We hadn't run into more than two Americans up to this point, and then bam! all over the place. It was rainy, but the vendors were out in full force.

On to Phang Na, a small town between Phuket and Krabi we stopped for one night and did a boat trip in the Andaman sea to see Mangroves, caves and famous James Bond Island. We took a longtail boat that lost it's propeler mid-trip, but were rescued and ferried into a Muslim fishing village. The village was incredible, a whole town clinging to one cliff on stilts sticking straight out of the sea. It was beautiful. The day we arrived we were told of the Heaven and Hell cave which we went to check out. It was weird, there were crazy statues all over the place of torture and monsters and you entered the cave through a dragon bridge (inside the mouth, out the butt). We can't describe the creepiness, you'll just have to see the photos.

Arriving in Krabi we spent one night in Krabi Town and ate some delicious fried mussels. Yum! Street food is really where it's at, restaurants don't stand a chance to tittilate your taste buds. On to Ao Nang, a beach in Krabi we found a great room where we have spent the last 5 nights. The owner was a hustler, she gave us the hard sell on the room, but warmed up to us by the time we left. She even gave us a bag of cocunut cream peanuts for bus snacks. Anyway, it was our first hot shower since Bangkok. Colin went climbing in Railay Beach, I watched and hid from the rain. Afterwards we tramped around Hat Ton Sai, a smaller beach with less development and a stunning view. The whole area is made up of karst cliffs reaching up into the sky, it is so beautiful. Yesterday we took a speed boat trip to the Phi Phi islands. It was a little frightening sitting in the front of the boat bobbing up and down on the open sea waves, but we made it. We did a lot of snorkeling and saw some beautiful sights. Our tour guide, like many women here, was a man, of course.

And that bring us to little Trang, Thailand. Our last stop before we cross into Malaysia. That's it for now kiddies. We will try to blog more, and of course add some photos.