iain goes bananas

greetz from koh samui!

please bear with me. i'm struggling to upload the pictures, but wanted to bring everyone up to speed on the latest events, so please check back in a day or so. until then this blog entry is for the hard-core readers: no pictures, just words ;-)

last friday, i cunningly planned and set in motion the workings of a daring escape that would free me from koh phangan. that is, i hopped on a ferry to koh samui.

bidding a fond farewell to little israel, i fixed my sights on the big sister of the three sister islands and did not look back. well, okay, i looked back once for your collective benefit.

what struck me first upon making landfall on koh samui was the noise level. i mean, this place is noisy! there's the airport, of course, with a never-ending procession if bangkok air jets landing and taking off. there's the traffic, the sheer number of people, and the sound systems. i felt like i had walked into a city by mistake.

the lonely planet has likened koh samui to beautiful lady wearing too much make-up. the island is very pretty, but everything man made is just a little over the top. or a lot over the top. chaweng beach is very pretty, which is par for the course in southern thailand, i'm realising now. but behind the beach with its row of beach bars varying from ultra trendy to faux rasta and eco-friendly, the raw machinery of koh samui does the dirty work: indian taylor touts and taxi drivers compete madly for attention with the island's brigade of ladyboys in front of the 7-11, macdonalds, and starbucks.

the tourist melange consists of travellers and holiday makers in equal measures, topped with a rather sad bunch of mustacchioed middle aged men whose soul mission to be here is easily guessed, and becomes embarrassingly obvious as soon as the sun sets over chaweng and the pros start grinding it out.

the ark bar, where i'm staying, seems to attract a lot of people travelling alone, so i'm glad to say i'm not exactly isolated here. you can't really help but party all night, and although i naturally resisted with every fibre of my being, i have seen quite a few sunrises here ;-)

however, that has not deterred me from my main reason for being here (apart from the airport): the koh angthong national marine park.

yesterday morning at 7AM i was picked up outside the ark bar and whisked off to a powerboat that took me, along with 7 other adventurers, to the very boundaries of sensory overload: snorkelling and kayaking around the 42 islands of koh angthong national marine park. it is the setting and probably the inspiration for alex garland's book 'the beach', and i know now exactly what he means.

granted, i had not slept the night before and was fighting a kingsized hangover, but i am not ashamed to say that i wept. tears gushing down my face as the astonishing, literally breathtaking beauty of the islands unfolded. my pictures, once i upload them, do not do it justice. not even close. it is perfect in every way. azure waters, limestone islands surrounded by coral reefs, secluded beaches and even a hidden lagoon.

i lie. it is perfect in every way but one. and this is probably the main reason for my embarrassingly girlie sobfest: the big, chunky charlie (to quote daffy duck in garland's book). it is beautiful and perfect, and we will destroy it. we are raping it with our speedboats and kayaks and our viewpoints and souvenir shops. it is forbidden pleasure, and should be closed off immediately. of course, that is about as likely to happen as outlawing ladyboys on the island. so i cried for paradise lost.

of course, upon returning to the ark bar, i washed down an alka selzer or two with gin and tonic and was fine again ;-)

my visa runs out tomorrow, so i'm heading to penang, an island on the west coast of peninsular malaysia. got myself a secondhand lonely planet for malaysia today, so will investigate what to do when i get there. suggestions are welcome of course!

well, thanks for tuning in again, and please remember to come back in a day or so to check out the photos.

oh, and the tattoo was henna, of course. disappointed / relieved / couldn't really care less? i'd be interested to know, so drop me a note with your views on this matter? - your input is greatly appreciated by the management of this blog, i.e. me.

let's start with the obligatory beach shot, shall we? ;-)

hat rin - sunrise beach

the weather has been flip-flopping for days now on koh phangan. one moment you're on the beach getting nice and crispy in the brutal sun, the next you're running for cover as all of a sudden you find yourself pelted by raindrops the size of marbles. it does have its upsides though, as this particular thunderstorm, brewing on the horizon...

...gave me this rather nice shot, and then caused a power blackout on the island, which meant i enjoyed a candlelight dinner! okay, it was vegetable pad thai, again, and i was dining alone, but i had a candle on my table, so it counts.

went diving again yesterday. we took a boat out to sail rock, a limestone pinnacle rising out of the gulf halfway between koh tao and koh phangan. the visibility wasn't great, but we did get to do a lovely swimthrough - swimming into a tunnel at around 20m depth, and then up through a chimney, emerging at around 9m. smashing stuff.

later on, the swedish couple i'd been diving with joined me for a few drinks on the beach, and we decided to take the plunge: the half moon party! twice a month, a few thousand people make their way into the jungle for a psychedelic rave. many actually say it is better than the full moon party. as i've only been to the half moon party, i'm not really qualified to judge, but i will say that it was a whole lot of fun.

basically it was a clearing in the jungle with a massive sound system, some pretty good deejays and lots of blacklight.

of course we weren't prepared for the blacklight, so were not wearing white. so unprofessional of us. but thankfully the party organisation catered for people in exactly this predicament: neon bodypaint!

superman vs the dragon master

anyway, ended up hanging off the back of a pickup truck full of partygoers in various states of enlightenment at 6am, bouncing back through the jungle at full tilt, heading for the safety of my cabin on rin beach.

oh, and i finally got one:

How shall i describe Koh Phangan. Well, let me be absolutely honest and say that at this point, all i can describe with any accuracy would be the quaint little village of Hat Rin - home to the legendary Full Moon parties. And the not quite so legendary Shiva Moon parties, Half Moon parties, and Black Moon parties. As long as there's a moon, there's a party!

Not that I've been participating much. From the moment I arrived here I've been feeling a little under the weather. Slight touch of the 'flu, i'm afraid, so your faithful reporter has preciously little to report this time. Spent a lot of time in my hammock looking at this:

therapy...

But never fear - I have consulted a clinic and am currently sufficiently (and legally) chemically fortified to start my exploration of life on Koh Phangan properly.

Hat Rin is probably best experienced if you are 22 and Israeli, which is what most people seem to be around here. The locals have learned to deal with their particular style of communication (I'm grossly generalising here of course, as I've actually met some really nice Israelis) by taking there money very quickly and efficiently and packing them off on trips taking them anywhere but Hat Rin.

Life happens on the beach here. Sunrise beach, that is. Truth be told, it is actually a gorgeous beach, and relatively unspoiled despite the monthly onslaught of ten thousand ravers at the Full Moon parties. There is a big red neon sign at the south end of the beach, reminding you that you are on Koh Phangan. Overstating the obvious? Maybe, but considering the enlightened state of mind that most partygoers are in, at night, on the beach, it is probably not a bad idea ;-)

I'm diving on Sail Rock tomorrow morning, and will be going to the half moon party tomorrow night. This party is actually supposed to be better than the full moon parties, as it is set deep in the jungle with a fairly fierce dj line-up.
I'll also rent a quad (one of those 4 wheel bike/tractor jobbies) and head up to the waterfalls before I leave.

And naturally, I will be submitting a report in full of my discoveries and appraisals of these wonders of nature.

That's it for now, i'm afraid. Thanks for tuning in again!
cheers,
i

what shall i say about koh tao. smashing little island, completely dominated by the diving community. you are not for scuba? you are not up to much then.

in the two days that i was there, the weather pretty much looked like this:

and when i say rain, i mean rain

the sultry, musty smell of tropical rain mixes nicely with the atmosphere actually. it's all about the water. the beach is gorgeous, and must be amazing when the sun's out.

sai ri beach

did two dives on the first day, with ban divers, one of the worlds largest scuba operations. the massive dive boat took us to chumphon first, a deep reef that is the scene of most whaleshark sightings. saw lots of sharks, but unfortunately the whaleshark remains a particularly elusive character.

black tip reef shark (at 30m depth); silver batfish

and as usual the damn paparazzi showed up...

no pictures please; nathalie in a private zen moment

on the second day, the diving was slightly more eccentric. our guide was of the braindead variety, and failed to find the reef! we spent 15 minutes swimming at 15m depth, in the deep blue sea, and never saw a thing. in the end, we decided to surface. miles from the boat, and going the wrong way altogether. i suppose that's what they call an open water safari...

in the meantime, the full moon party was raging on koh phagnan. didn't go to the party, but got to see the full moon!

<<wolves howl, an owl hoots in the distance>>

today, after a close encounter with some parrots, i said goodbye to nathalie and donned my travelling boots and struck out for koh phangan.

yes, those are my feet, and yes, those are teva's i'm wearing. sue me.

i've just arrived at hat rin beach. party location extraordinaire. of course this is the quiet week after the full moon party, so the atmosphere is nice and chilled.

checked into a fan bungalow slash milldewed, mosquito infested prison cell. very cheap, of course. might have to find something slightly more comfortable tomorrow. don't want to take the traveller thing too far, of course.

looking forward to finishing reading my book and trekking up to the waterfalls inland. oh, okay, twist my arm, and maybe a few singha beers to wash it all down with ;-)

thanks for tuning in again! remember to check out my photo gallery for more pics (just click on the 'author' button. i think that should work)

cheers,
i

It's been a while since I've jotted down my adventures, so we have some catching up to do ;-)

So, the last time I updated my blog I was in an internet cafe on sleepy Koh Lanta, bragging about my easy rider lifestyle. Let me show you the beast that I zoomed around Lanta on!

the beast

Scooted around the island for the day, finishing up at sunset - and with both the bike and myself in one piece - back on long beach.

Koh Lanta sunset

Ended up spending the evening on the beach with some dutchies and an aussie girl called Rebecca. We got extremely lucky as there was phosphorescence in the water. Night swimming, trailing clouds of blue-white sparks is something I now highly recommend.

The next day I hopped on the boat back to Koh Phi Phi, for some more diving. Got the afternoon ferry, and got wet. Very wet. Like monsoon wet. Utterly soaked. (get the picture?)

So anyway, I squelch my way to the guesthouse, ignoring the "mista mista, cheap room for you!" and the "g'day mate, wanna come diving tomorrow?", being thoroughly immersed in my own soggy state.
Drop the backpack, change into something semi-dry and go in search of a hot cup of coffee to put me back on track. Immediately, I ran into Dennis, who I'd met on Phi Phi previously, and Rebecca, who I'd met on Lanta the previous night. What are the odds!

Chilled out for a sunset dinner at Carpe Diem beach bar.

carpe diem fairy lights; rebecca

And then got cultural with Thai boxing at the Reggae bar!

free bucket of joy for anyone who gets in the ring

Spent a few very enjoyable and relaxed days on Phi Phi, blowing bubbles and hanging out with the coolest Aussie girl I've met so far. But of course I had to kick the habit, and finally leave Phi Phi to its own devices. So off on the great adventure: boat to Krabi, bus to Surat Thani and nightboat to Koh Tao.

The nightboat from Surat Thani was my first real traveller experience: 8 hours on an old slow-boat with dorm mattresses covered in fleas and god knows what else, spooning with complete strangers in the dark on heavy sees. So much fun should be illegal!

night boat to Koh Tao

Arrived this morning on Koh Tao. In the rain. Itchy, smelly and grumpy, but so glad for this experience ;-)

Met up with Nathalie, who is a veteran of 9 days on the island. We'll do a few dives together before we both move on to the beckoning shores of other islands.

Tune in next time for more amazing tales!
cheers,
i