Southern Thailand

So, I'll make this as quick and detailed as possible.

We left Hua Hin to do a border run to Burma, which was really cool. We took a little longtail boat across a big river, stopping at little Immigration Island Checkpoints. It was beautiful and being out on the water was really fun. By far, it was the best border run Ive done to date. We then hitched a bus to Surat Thani to catch a night ferry to the island of Koh Pha-ngan, where the legendary Full Moon Party is held. The boat was unbelievably fun, it's like a floating camp. The top floor is all mats where you all cram in and sleep. Everyone gets drinks so you just chat and hang out and have fun. Then I met some Malaysians and we decided to go sit on the front of the boat, which was loaded with produce. So we climbed over grapes, lettuce, oranges all sorts of stuff and sat at the front of the boat on produce. It was really fun, dangerous, but really fun. We got to the island at 6 a.m. and walked all the way down to our little beachside bungalo. It was a shack, but right on this whitesand beach with mangrooves and it was gorgeous...

The full moon party was unbelievable. thousands and thousands of people dancing the night away out on this huge beach. sometimes there can be as many as 25000-30000 people there. it was really really cool. we danced and partied till about 530 am, then i had to retire for the night. It is a really fun island, and I even got to meet up with a friend from home, which was really fun.

We then took the boat back and went to a place called Khao Sok National Forest. This was what you consider a Jungle to be. Huge trees, vines hanging everywhere, lush green vegetation. it was realy really fun. we did two different hikes. the first one was about 7 K round trip to a waterfall called "sip ed chan" which means 11 layers. It was cool, but we got leaches on our feet and then I was attacked by a swarm of bees who liked the way i smelt (like a dirty sweaty mess) The hike was really fun though. My feet got torn up by my keens, and the leaches, so the next day was tough

The following day we did what I like to call the Death Hike. It was about 16-18 K roundtrip, took us about 7 hours roundtrip. It was fun at first, really easy, then it turned to straight vertical climbs, where you needed to hold onto vines ad tree roots to pull yourself up and climb down. the killer was the heat and humidity. you sit there and sweat and sweat and sweat. we both took 2 liters of water and they were gone half way. the shirt i was wearing would probably have been drying if i jumped in a pool. imaging doing a hike, a hard rigerous hike, in a sauna. then imagine you do it with clothes that just came from the hot dryer. That's about half of what it felt like. hoooooooot. but after it was fun to look back. the waterfall was really cool, with a nice pool to swim in to cool off. sadly i was once again attacked by bees and had a "unstable" moment of flailing my arms about.

After the national forest we went to Phuket, to spend the evening before going to Koh Phi Phi. We found the most delicious store in the world Banana Variety. Imagine...

We then took a boat out to Koh Phi Phi, a stunning island in the South of Thailand. It was really cool and we spent one whole day kayaking around the bay. it was exhuasting but we got to see some really amazing parts of the island, limestone cliffs jetting straight up out of the ocean, then i tipped the kayak, then we went to monkey beach and around to a little cove that was stunning.

Jo's birthday was the 29th, so that involved a lot of buckets of liquor and a bar that lets drunk friends fight in the ring for buckets. we went straight upstars to the dancing portion and watched some liquid enduced entertainment and dances and had a really good time. it was fun.

the next day was a recovery day, then an all you can eat buffet, which made us all sick. so we evacuated the island and went to phuket for a night in patong, a lively night area and then took a 12 hour bus ride back to Hua Hin to relax and rest up before starting a 4 weeks SE asia whirlwind expedition...


hope that was a decent update!