A few random photos...

I wasn't able to get these photos in earlier, so I thought I'd post them here. They include the puppies and kitties for sale at the Weekend Market, a police officer on a Segway at the Weekend Market, and some very weird snacks at the 7-11 (Did you know 7-11 is everywhere in Thailand?)...

Koh Phangan - the Party Island

After finishing the Advanced Course, I needed a change of islands. So I said goodbye to Jo, who was only 6 months into a 3 year around the world trip. This is us saying goodbye at the Koh Tao pier:

With the winds still raging the sea into huge waves, I boarded a boat for Koh Phangan, home of the world famous Full Moon parties...all night music raves on the beach that attract thousands of tourists. Not really my kind of scene, but my plan was to go to the party town of Haad Rin and then take a small boat to the isolated beaches of either Haad Thian or Haad Yuan where some friends had found a few nice isolated bungalows.

The one hour boat ride was basically a Vomit Comet. The boat was rocked by 10-12 foot waves, and staffers were walking around with sickness bags. I didn't look carefully to see who if anyone used them.

I made it to Koh Phangan, got a taxi to Haad Rin, and then things got ugly. The taxi dropped me off at the pier in Haad Rin, but it turned out the high waves had canced that boat to the little beaches. I had to walk across Haad Rin to the other beach, and wait for the small 10 foot boat to come back and take me.

As I waited, it began to get dark, the wind picked up, and things looked ominous indeed. After a few minutes waiting for a boat that never appeared, and watching the waves crash violently into shore, I opted to stay in Haad Rin. A solo traveling German pointed me toward the south end of the beach, where there were some more isolated resorts. The first one I called, Hua Laem, turned out to be a godsend. Its a little spot run by a Norwegian named Tom, who moved here and married a Thai woman, and bought the place.

He came and picked me up and took me. It turned out to be exactly what I wanted. A solo cabin, nice and simple, with a hammock and a view. Near enough Haad Rin to get food, internet, and whatever, but an easy walk away...more or less cut off from the noise. Here's the view from the cabin:

I fell asleep to the sound of winds howling. A very pleasant sound, all in all.

Today, I slept in and then have spent most of the day wandering around Haad Rin. This is a serious party town. Its wall to wall Internet shops, travel shops, tshirts and sandals, restaurants showing movies and serving beer... You can get Falafel as easily as you can get Pad Thai (lots of Israelis here). The place is a mess of blond haired bikini wearing women, shirtless Brits riding mopeds, reggae blasting from every bar.

The unfortunate thing about the islands is that they've been so exploited and developed and Westernized, that all the aspects that are/were uniquely Thai, have been largely bled out of the place. Thais have a reputation for friendliness, but the locals in the islands are just jaded. They've seen so many drunk asshole Westerners come through and treat them like shit, that they don't really have much to give anymore. They often seem like they're just going through the motions.Not everyone, but that's the overall vibe here in Haad Rin. Its too bad.

I didn't expect to spend 2 days here, but its fine really. When I used to travel alot, I learned that you have to accept that plans almost never turn out the way you expect. The best thing to do is adapt and find a way to enjoy yourself. So I am. Reading, taking long lunches, wandering about. Here's the beach in Haad Rin:

And here's the rinky dink little boat that I was going to take over the huge waves to Haad Thian, til I thought better of it:

I got another Thai massage today at this swanky spa - one of the nicest buildings I've been in in Thailand. The masseuse wasn't nearly as good as the Hammer. They also gave me an "herbal steam sauna", which consisted of sticking me in a little round room with a cloth drape over the top that was festooned with mold. Under the wooden bench, two rice cookers boiled water with some aromatic oil in it. That was the herbal steam. Nice. Here's the spa and the moldy cloth drape in the sauna (photo is kinda dark):

Diving part 2 - Advanced Course on Nang Yuan

After I recovered from the sandbar debacle, I started my Advanced Diving Course with Jo. Our instructor turned out to be a Hungarian guy named Attila. No joke. Here's Attila the Hun(garian diving instructor):

He's the main instructor there, recruited by his Hungarian buddy Denes (pronounced 'Danish'), who runs the place. Here's Danish, Attila, and Jo:

Jo and I spent 2 days diving with Attila. True to his historical namesake, he turned out to be a rather somber fellow, without much of a sense of humor. We did some underwater photography, but I won't subject you to the rather grim results here. I think 1-2 photos actually show a fish or two. We also did a deep dive down to 27 meters, about 90 feet. And we did a night dive, which was very cool. Using flashlights, we dove to about 20 meters. Saw 4 small squids.

Instead of swimming back to the boat, we swam to shore. When we emerged from the water at the darkened beach wearing our scuba gear, I felt like James Bond.

We also did underwater photography. Here's some photos...

and more here.

and videos...

(the whistling horn sound is the sound of Jo's f***-ed up regulator...it drove her crazy, but it did work.)



So now I'm Advanced Certified. Here I am celebrating. Jo took the picture and I look rather drunk, but I'm not...just tired:

Jo looks very dashing here...

The other funny thing about this island is that I developed a stalker. There were a whole bunch of younger women staffing the front desk. One of them, Nok, took a liking to me. She said to me one morning, "Mr. Dan, you handsome man." I kind of shrugged that off and just talked to her a little. Turns out she is separated from her husband and has a 13 year old daughter. She also found out it was my birthday on Saturday.

That night, about 10:30 PM, I'm laying in bed trying to sleep in the heat and on the rather hard bed. There's a knock at the door. Turns out there's another Nok at the door. She'd come to give me a birthday present of some incense, and then said, "Now you kiss my cheek". I managed to send her away and go to sleep.

Then when Jo arrived for the diving course, she crashed in my cabin for the one night. Nok and one other of the women thought she was my girlfriend (I didn't bother to correct them.) They started saying things like "You break my heart!" They were all very sad when I left.

The island also held one young staffer named Pen. She gave me two Thai massages and wow, they were the best massages of my life - and not because of any happy endings. I nicknamed her the Hammer (not to her face) because she was tiny but incredibly strong. I've had a couple massages since then but no one comes close to little Pen, the Hammer.

Island islands and more islands

Okay, so by this time the course is done. I've finished my Open Water certification and am certified to dive anywhere. But I had been thinking about doing the Advanced Course, which includes a night and deep dive (to 30 meters, nearly 100 feet). But I needed a change.

So the next day, I grabbed a boat to Koh Nangyuan, a slightly more upmarket resort sitauted on this beautiful three part island (i didn't take the photo):



The three islands are all connected by gorgeous sandbars that come out of the water when the tide falls every day. The small middle island has the reception, the dive shop, the restaurant, etc. The northern island has cabins strewn about the hillside via a series of complicated walkways. To get there, you walk across the sandbar. From early morning to about 5/6 PM, the sandbar is underwater...ranging from about knee deep to ankle deep. The southern island has the same situation, but the sandbar emerges from the water much earlier, like about 12 or 1 PM.

No problem. I head over from Koh Tao with Jo, the only member of the group who seemed interested in doing the Advanced Course as well. I check into the resort and get a sweet deal of my own isolated cabin for 400 baht ($11-12). They take me over in a little boat past the underwater sandbar. Its a stormy day, so they don't want me to get my luggage wet.

Here's my cute little cabin up in the hills:


And the view from the cabin (and through my feet):

Meanwhile, the storm that blew in a couple of days earlier is still raging. November is supposed to be the monsoon month, but this year they had great weather. December is supposed to be the high season, nice weather...but you should have seen this storm. Monsoon rains. 40-50 mph winds...

In the afternoon, I head back to the middle island over the sandbar to hang out with Jo and 2 friends who are hanging on the beach. The water is ankle deep but the waves are rolling in fast...so its not an easy crossing:

The beach is nice, and the whole place has a tropical island feel straight out of the TV show, "Lost":

In any case, its all quite nice and quiet and isolated and pretty, just what I needed after Buddha View's crowds and party scene. When I walked back to my cabin that night, the sandbar was completely dry. Nice:

The next morning, I started my Advanced Course with Jo at 7:45 AM. But the nice little sandbar I strolled across the night before had now turned into a raging whitewater current, with huge waves rolling across. I walked to the pier on my island and looked across to the main island where the dive course was. How was I to get over there?

Well, not being particularly daunted by most situations, I hoisted my small backpack over my head and started my walk across. It quickly became clear that I was literally in over my head. The water was up to my waist and very rough, washing nearly all the way over me. But I didn't think there was any other way over.

About 20 struggling steps into the walk, I see a frenetic activity on the main island. They're all waving at me, and pointing at the little boat heading over to my island. Of course. Makes perfect sense that you don't walk across every time. Would have been nice if someone had told me.

I walked back out of the water and dripping wet over to the little pier, where I rode the small boat over to the main island. after that, every staff member had a smirking grin when they talked to me. That's the funny thing about the Thais...most of them smile and laugh easily, and sometimes laugh at you rather easily. I guess I deserved that one.

Diving...Open Water Course in Koh Tao

Its Tuesday the 19th, and I'm in Koh Phangan, an island just south of Koh Tao. Its been a week since I posted. So I'll try to summarize what's happened in the interim.

First of all, all my scuba diving class photos are here.

I started my first scuba diving course - Open Water Diver - last Tuesday at Buddha View Dive Center on Koh Tao:

I had a huge class of about 14 so they split us into groups of 7. My group was Vicki and Danny (Brits from Manchester):

Magda (Polish woman living in London), Jo (Brit from Birmingham):

Peter (American from Chicago):

and Aisling (pronounced "Ashling", Irish woman from Tipperary):

All turned out to be great folks, and we really bonded.

Here's a couple videos:

1. Aisling on the dive boat:


2. Magda asks Peter why he shaves his legs:


3. Sai Ree beach at night:

For the first two days, I also hung out with Swani and Ingo, two friends from Stuttgart, Germany. They left on Wednesday after doing a couple dives. Here they are in an open air truck taxi on the island, trying to not fall off the truck:

The dive instructors at Buddha View are very funny folk - a couple could be stand-up comedians. We had classroom reviews of diving principles and safety, then they took us 'diving' in the swimming pool at about 3-6 feet. Not hard at all.

Then on the 2nd day, more classroom review, and in the afternoon, our first dive in a gorgeous spot called Mango Bay. The dive spot was great, and we just practiced our classroom learnings.

Then on the 3rd day, we had our "final exam" in the morning. Answer sharing was alllowed. Needless to say, we all passed. That afternoon, we hit the water for our first dive with our dive instructor, Camilo - from Chile:

Camilo's a good teacher, but compared to all the hilarious other instructors, he was a stick in the mud. Magda called him an asshole. But I have to say, he knows his stuff. We saw some amazing fish underwater...like angelfish, batfish, moorish idols, groupers...

There's really nothing like the feeling of floating underwater. It's like flying. Descending is quite fun - like a slow jump out of an airplane. I had a great time swimming around down to 18 meters (60 feet). We went on two more dives on Friday morning, which were captured by videotape - I have a DVD, parts of which I'll try to put up later. Then that afternoon, we had a celebration. Plenty of beer, needless to say. Here's the group celebrating our triumphant last dive:

Buddha View was great, but by Friday, I'd been there 5 days and was ready for a change. I didn't love the bungalow options. They were either 400 baht (about $11.00) for a 'modern, but ugly room, or 250 baht (about $4.00) for a wood and thatch bungalow off in the hinterlands with a hammock. I chose the wood and thatch, which gave me the hammock and isolation I needed, but as noted earlier, it put me closer to the nonstop sound of roosters...and the beats of the bars playing music all night, floating out over the water.

Here's me in my hammock:

I don't look happy there, but really...I am.

A little slice of paradise

I'm sitting in a nifty little wood and thatch restaurant perched out over the water of a small bay on the island of Koh Tao. The sun is softly setting into the ocean. (hissssssss.....) Some very groovy music is playing. I've got a cold, sweaty beer. About 10 western tourists are spread about at various tables chatting. And they have 3 computers here and i'm doing a blog. It's pretty weird. The world has become a bit odd with this internet thing. The Thai woman sitting next to me, who lives and works here in this remote, thatched roof outpost, is instant messenging with a friend.

Hmm.

So I arrived here on the island yesterday morning after a 6 AM flight from Bangkok. Got to the dive shop. Dropped my bags off. Got a short dive orientation, met 2 nice Germans from Stuttgart (Swani and Ingo) and 2 nice Brits from Manchester (Vicki and Danny). We had dinner together, the five of us. Our common tongue of course was English. But the accents were so different we all had a tough time understanding each other. I don't know why this is, but whenever tourists meet, there's always this kind of conversation:

"Whenever I meet Americans, they never know what kind of food we have in England." And so on...

It's a funny thing that seems to happen no matter where I travel when I meet other tourists. I think we're all just searching for something we can talk about, and the one thing we all agree on is how different we all are. And the discussion itself is sort of a coming together - how we learn to talk to each other. Of course, we also talk about the amazing diving, where we're staying, what we each do in our country. I've met so many amazing people so far. Traveling by oneself is easier than I thought...

I stayed in a crap "modern" concrete bungalow last night. Too centrally located, so very noisy. And not comfortable. I was kinda pissed about not being able to find a good cabin - I know on these vacations I can't fully relax until I find just the right cabin with just the right vibe. And I've learned that a hammock is key for me to relax. Its like I need that soft hangout spot to let stress go.

So today, after the morning dive lesson (which took place in a classroom), I went and found another spot. Cheaper. More rustic. But with a hammock. And I think that's what I needed. Now if only the nearby rooster would shut up. (God has granted roosters with the most awful sound that comes out of their mouths. And they make it nonstop. Why God...why?)

The restaurant I'm in right now really completes the vibe. I'm finally starting to relax. We did some test diving in a swimming pool today. Tomorrow, I actually get into the water for the first dive. I'm very excited. Everyone's talking about these whale sharks they've been spotting. Evidently, they're very rare to see round here. But they've been hanging around this underwater granite 'pinnacle'.

Okay for now. Tomorrow, I put photos up.

Sawadee = Sweaty

In Thai, "Hello" is "Sawadee". Every time I say it, I think Sweaty. Which is how I feel. Its darn hot here in Bangkok.

Bangkok is one crazy city. Reminds me of other third world major cities I've been to, like Quito and La Paz in many ways - the rudimentary but functional concrete building construction...the proliferation of street vendors with mystery meat grilling on their grills...the chaotic traffic. Still, Bangkok is decidedly unique. A few observations:

-Photos of the King are everywhere. He looks like a librarian, or an accountant, in most photos.
-Everyone is super nice. But I have had a couple Thai guys collar me and draw on my map trying to tell me where to go. I have a natural aversion to being collared by random people when I'm traveling, because I usually think they're trying to sell me something. I don't know if these guys were or not. They just wouldn't let me go...it was like being forced to say hi to the same person for 5 minutes straight. I kept trying to leave but they wouldn't let me.
-This is tourist season. They're everywhere.
-The creepiest is seeing a lot of older white guys. I don't know if they're here for what I think they're here for. But I imagine they probably are. And it creeps me out. Often, they'll have a young Asian girl on their arm - wife, girlfriend, I don't know. Its a common site.

The flight from the US is grueling. 1 hour flight to LA. 11 hours to Tokyo. 6 hours to Bangkok, arriving at 11:30 in the evening. Grabbed a taxi, 45 minutes into Bangkok and made it to my hotel. The stiffest bed I've ever felt in my life.

Today, I woke up and went straight to the famed Weekend Market. This place is serious chaos. Miles of connected passageways filled with Thais and tourists, hawking wares of every possible type. Shirts. Shoes. Bags. Glasses. Candles. Food. Knick knacks. Baskets. Lizards. Fish. Dogs....


Cats. Rabbits. Chipmunks. (CHIPMUNKS@!?) Back to the dogs again, they are very cute. Carvings. Lottery tickets. More shirts. Piles of garbage (not for sale). Just an incredible array of goods, and a rats maze of wandering around to see it. I wandered for about 4 hours, bought absolutely nothing except some excellent food - Pad Thai, wouldn't you know.

Then I switched hotels, and got a Thai massage. This is much like being a lump of dough in a baker's hand. The massage room looks pretty sketchy - much like you'd expect a hooker's room to look. But the masseuse was no hooker - she was a very serious, very good masseuse. I nicknamed her "Super Thumb". Between the thumbs pushing into my neck, and the acrobatic yoga moves she put me through, I couldn't tell if I was in more pain after the massage or before. It was invigorating, if nothing else. One hour for $8.50. Not bad.

I wanted to go to the temples (Wat Po and Wat Phra Keuw), but they closed at 3;30. So I got a haircut instead. My first foreign haircut.

Then back to my hotel for a shower. Now I'm out on Rambuttri Road, the quieter knockoff of Khoa San Road, which is backpacker central. I can't say I much like this neck of the woods - if you make eye contact with anyone, you'll get approached - for a massage, a haircut, a touristy knickknack, a tuk tuk ride, you name it.

On my way to Rambuttri, I witnessed a demonstration for democracy march by. Evidently, people are getting upset that the coup has not brought democracy back to the country very quickly. It was peaceful - just a march down a main road. It seems pretty chill here - no one seems to disturbed by the political situation.

Tomorrow, a 6 AM flight to Koh Samui, then a boat to Koh Tao. I'm ready for the beach.

When I figure out how, I'll post my photos.

Greetings from Tokyo

I just landed in the Tokyo airport after a 10 hour flight from LAX (which followed a very turbulent but short flight from Oakland).

I'm feeling kinda grimy and sweaty. I believe its near midnight in California, but here in rainy, gray Tokyo, its only 5 PM.

When we were landing, the clouds were so low, I didn't see any land until we emerged at about 500-600 feet above ground. I don't know what I was expecting, but after all the movies I've seen about Japan and Tokyo, I guess I was expecting some Blade Runner-like megalopolis, skinny skyscrapers stacked tightly together and blinking neon lights.

Turns out the area around the Tokyo airport looks more like rural Michigan. Woods. Highways. Just land. I guess we're nowhere near the Blade Runner stuff.

But I still had this tight feeling of nervous excitement when we were coming out of the clouds - and then it was like..."oh".

Still, I'm that much closer to Thailand and getting more excited by the minute.I read the Lonely Planet Thailand section about food and my mouth started watering. Curry, pad thai, pad see ew, pad kee mow! Can't wait! It all sounds amazing.

Next stop...Bangkok.

Off I go...!

....into the wild blue Thailand. Leaving December 8th, flying a ridonculous amount of time, with stopovers in LA, Tokyo, and finally landing in Bangkok on Saturday night, December 9th. I think a full day just vanishes somewheres in there. I'm staying at the Viengthai Hotel near the famous Khao San Road. Here's the bed I'll be sleeping in, I imagine:






The plan is to take in the weekend market sights on Sunday morning, get the classic Thai massage (no happy ending), and generally relax. Some sightseeing, too. Probably will go to some Thai temples. That day is up in the air. Then on Monday, its off to the islands for some sand, sun, scuba, hammocks, cabanas, beer, and whatever else appears.

I don't think I'll sleep much tonight, pre-flight. I'm a rocket man.

The first post

Heading off to Thailand on Friday, so I'm setting up a blog to post my notes from the road. Here's a photo of me from a party - with some face paint.