ko phangan

I got a boat from ko samui to ko phangan for the full moon party which is happening on the beach tomorrow night. I arrived yesterday and went looking around on a motorbike which, considering my streak of bad luck recently wasn't such a good idea. A thai guy collided with our bike and completely mangled the bikes so that they were stuck together, but luckily noone was hurt. I was on the back of the bike and got flung up in the air and landed flat on my back on the road so went and had a massage for my back and neck today and its already feeling much better. This photo is me in the hammock of my bungalow, right on the beach.

waiting for the bus to ko samui

After a hassle-free border crossing back into Thailand from Malaysia, I had 4 hours to wait before getting on my bus and ended up going to a random street party around the corner which was some kind of party for buddha as far as I could tell. I got given a necklace and made to dance with the crazy drunk ladies and even some synchronised dancing with a guy who later did pole dancing. Somehow we all managed to communicate with eachother through crazed screams of "sanook!" (which translates roughly to super-happy-happy-fun) and other random thai words I knew and random english words that they knew. There were constant gifts of beer and food and as we left, branches of rambutan (a fruit similar to a lychee). It seemed like a fitting return to Thailand. Stocked up on beer we got on the bus where we sat for about 14hours drinking which, by the time we arrived in Ko Samui this morning, I realise wasn't such a good idea. I felt like I was going to die so instead of taxiing to big buddah beach went across the road to the nearest hotel where I slept all day and wondered if that crazy party actually happened.
Turns out it wasn't just a hangover but some kind of bug I must've picked up in Malaysia because I ended up spending most of my time in Ko Samui feeling like I was dying and to top it off a bee stung me on my back. I stayed at Big Buddah beach (named because of the big (12m I think) buddah statue by one of the temples) which I reakon is the nicest beach on the island. I hired a motorbike to explore the island and found hell on earth at Chaweng beach, a spot just for westerners with starbucks, strip bars, fancy resorts, and fat old white men with no shirts on. Photos are of the party and crazy statues near the temple on Ko Samui.

perhentian islands, malaysia

I've just got back from the beautiful perhentian islands where inevitably I got bitten by a monkey. For all their cute fluffyness, they have really sharp teeth. Its times like these you wish you'd gotten those rabies shots...
The first night I stayed on Perhentian Kecil (small island) on Long Beach in the only place that wasnt' completely booked up and it was a total rats nest. After a really long night of centipede bites, big creatures running around the room, a bathroom so gross I couldnt bring myself to shower there, and a really expensive rate, I walked through the jungle to Coral Beach on the other side of the island. It was much nicer there - less crowded, cheaper food and rooms, but not as good swimming because of all the coral.
The other day I did a day-long snorkel trip around 5 or so different spots on both islands and I got to swim with giant turtles, a black tip shark, millions of crazy coloured fish and coral that made me feel like I was on some other planet. The water is amazingly clear so its no wonder its one of the top dive spots in the world.
After talking to people that've been travelling Malaysia, Ive come to realise there's not alot else to see here so am heading back to Thailand tomorrow to do some island-hopping before the full moon party.
The first photo is of coral beach and the last two are long beach. The chairs on coral beach are where I got to sit to eat dinner every night which was so nice. There's no way these photos could every do justice to how beautiful it is here.

ko lanta & crossing the border

The days become all merged together and places all confused, so I'll try to remember what happened and where...
I spent about 3 nights in khlong khong in ko lanta, an island just off Thailand and stayed in this cool bungalow on the beach. We rented a motorbike and beach-hopped our way around the whole island and there was no one else around anywhere (except for afew wild monkeys running across the road). Half of the road was just dirt and rocks and some of it was still in the process of being built but I'm pleased to say we only had one near-crash!
After leaving there we set off on a mission to Malaysia which unfortunately meant we had to stop off in Trang and Hat Yai - two towns full of rats and filth and people staring. Trang was gross but Hat Yai was a whole new level of gross - upon arrival a homeless guy with no teeth and only one eye decided to befriend us and show us to a guesthouse (which luckily was the one we were looking for) but then he wouldnt leave and after hiding from him for a while we decided it was best to just run down the stairs. He ran after us until we hid in a toy shop to escape. After all that running it was time for dinner so we went to find this vegetarian place I'd heard about. But it was closed down so we went to the night markets instead which was pretty disappointing food-wise. Sean ate a deep-fried bat and then the crazy homeless guy found us again so we took off for the guesthouse, and along the way I accidentaly kicked a frog.
The next morning we couldnt wait to get out of there and got on a 4hour train ride to the border. We had to pass through afew towns along the way where alot of bombing and arson attacks had been happening the past few days (guess it pays to read a newspaper before going into these towns) and there were alot of men with machine guns on the train. It was quite possibly the most terrifying 4 hours of my life - wondering how I'd die first: being blown up by bombs or getting shot on the train.
Finally we got to the border and had a nice chat with an immigration officer who gave us water and fruit and then YAY we were in Malaysia! Malaysia is much friendlier and cleaner and nicer than Thailand and there's the best vegan restaurant here with a buffet for just over $1 nzdlrs for the best food Ive ever had. Getting up early to catch a bus to some islands tomorrow and then its off to the jungle.

Photo of one of the beaches on Ko Lanta.

krabi

After sitting on a bus for 14 hours I arrived in Krabi Province, in Southern Thailand then took a longtail boat to Railay Beach. It was a pretty nice beach, real small with a short walk between the east and west coast of the beach. Everything was expensive there so had to stay in a fancy place with a pool and aircon and fluffy towels. poor me. We went on this walk up into the jungle to investigate a restaurant and ended up getting pretty lost trying to come back through the jungle in the dark but found out that theres another beach on the other side of the mountain so set off the next day to Tonsai Beach. The walk through the jungle was pretty tough with a pack on, trying to scramble up the mountain but it was so worth it. Tonsai is the kind of place I could accidentaly end up staying at for years. It was really small and alot of the resorts were still destroyed from the tsunami and just heaps of rasta shacks right on the sand that sell vegan ''peace cake'' were left. Hopefully I'll get to go back there to live for years and years in my own shack. We stayed in these rad bungalows up in the jungle and afew seconds walk to the sand. The jungle is amazing: lost of bats and lizzards and beautiful insect sounds. Unfortunately lots of mosquitos too so I've started taking my maleria tablets because theres a pretty good chance I've caught maleria and if I havent then I'm bound to soon.
Today I waited around for a big storm to clear so I could get on a boat and head to a beach near on the way to Ko Lanta but somehow ended up at a different beach and in a tourist centre with some guy trying to rip me off so have decided to spend the night in Krabi town which has been nice, just exploring the markets (and a vegan stall full of fried tofu and other yum stuff) and sussing out a bus to get to Ko Lanta in the morning.

The photos are of: peace cake at the rasta shack, Tonsai beach with the tide out, and a view of Railay Beach from the start of the jungle.

engrish

I've finally gotten around to uploading afew photos and have put some on my first post but for some reason keep getting electric shocks when I plug things in...
Here's a photo of a rad book I got to use as a travel diary when my lovely one from Louise gets all full. It was in a shop that was packed full of millions of crazy books like this.

food and bathrooms

Instead of writing about how Ive just spent the last 5 or so days lying on the beach getting burned like a lobster I've decided to write about food and bathrooms instead because I havent' gotten around to doing that yet...
The food here is amazing, even though I can't eat alot of what they sell on the street it's still rad looking at it all. The stereotypical backpacker food here is pad thai which I'm kinda embarrassed to say has become my favourite. It costs 60-80 cents for a big plate of noodles with cabbage and bean shoots, ginger, garlic, lime juice, chilli, and peanuts. Apart from all the yummy fruits (mango, watermelon, pineapple, dragonfruit, lychees, custard apples) there's a tonne of deepfried snacks: everything from beetles to these amazing balls of rice flour deepfried with a peanut inside. The best dessert I've found so far is grilled bannanas that have been flattened and then drizzled in a sweet sticky sauce made from coconut milk and sugar.
Everyone always asks me if its difficult being vegan in thailand. Not at all. There's alot of buddhist-run restaurants which have fakemeat and specifically say whats vegan and whats vegetarian, and anyone anywhere will whip up a dish of noodles or rice with veges if you ask them to. Eating from the street stalls is also pretty easy because you can see exactly what they're making your food with so I can point and say no to things. I've managed to learn quite afew thai phrases relating to food aswell which of course makes things easier too because I constantly have to ask for 'mai sai num plah' (no fish sauce) because thai people love to drown everything in fish sauce, even fruit.
On the other end of the spectrum is the bathrooms that I've been meaning to talk about. I was told that Thailand doesnt have many squat toilets, but they're everywhere - even in KFC in Bangkok. They consist of a hole in the ground, footholes if you're in a flash one, a bucket/tub of slimy water with a dish floating in it, and a hose. In houses and some public restrooms there is also a 'shower'. The shower is not so much a shower as it is a larger bit of floorspace so you can fill the bucket and then scoop water out of it with the dish and throw it over yourself and all over the floor. The shower is quite tricky and takes a long time to try and wash soap or shampoo off and I have my doubts as to whether I'm any cleaner at the end of it all. Bathroom floors are always ankle-deep in what I like to pretend is just water.