Hello All, been a couple of days without internet so havn't had a chance to update. So far my time in Thailand has been complete madness (in a good way). We arrived in Korran late on the 11th and got settled in our room. Me and some of the lads decided to go check out the beach and departed for what we thought would be a short trip. All the travel shows I've watched on Thailand were correct about the nightlife. We seemed to get harrassed by prostitutes at every store front, at some points the words "I love you long time" could be heard from multiple directions. We finally made it to the beach which was beautiful stayed for a bit and then tried to find a shortcut back to the hotel which avoided the brothels. This was a poor decision because 10km later, cutting through the Hilton and getting chased down by a pack of wild dogs the longer route decidedly looked like a wiser decision. The hotel would have been on a 4.5 star rating in Canada, yet it only cost us 11 dollars a night.
The city was a much nicer place during the day we found, the water was bathtub warm with huge waves which we spent hours body surfing ine found a restaurant that served almost every dish imaginable but since we were in Thailand I decided to have pad thai, at ever meal! The day ended as per usual, with bungee jumping. We found a New Zealand run bungee jump that was super safe I'm sure. 160 feet and I'm happy to say I did it. The next day consisted of us finding somewhere that played the hockey game. After watching the Canucks get destroyed we went for a elephant ride. Me and Brad rode a 17 year old elephant thru the jungle. At times it seemed we were going a 100 degree incline but the elephant was able to keep its cool and get us back safely. Pictures will be supplied on my return! That afternoon we left for Koh Phi Phi, and Island just of the coast where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Found a nice hotel to stay in and decided to take in the towns night life. Lets just say I had my full moon party of the trip and am quite fine with just relaxing for the next 5 weeks haha. It was a beach side bar that had fire dancers and glowing skip rope challenges. Was an enjoyable evening had by all.
Today we wanted to go see Monkey Island and some of the other beaches found on the local island. We were told that it was too wavey to take a long tail to these beaches and that we should pay the extra to have power boat. But we would have none of that! We are backpackers dammit and we will always find the cheapest deal. After our little wooden boat came over the second 10 foot swell I again regretted our decision. So with Kara succumbing to sea sickness and the rest of us uneasily laughing at our predicement we finally landed at our first snorkeling destination. It was a cove with 100 foot high cliffs rising straight from the water all around us. Pretty incredible landscape that my engineering brain has difficulty putting into words. On the return voyage both Kara and Brad again gave into seasickness and we were all happy to reach shore where the locals who had been telling us it was a death trip were there to greet us with pointing and laughter at our terrified faces. All in all Thailand has so far been one hell of a time, and we are looking forward to leaving to the scuba school on the eastern side of Thailand tomorrow.
Next update I will be a certified scuba diver!
Graeme
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