Sawat Dii (Hello in Thai),
We have found paradise. It's a little more expensive than we would like taking into consideration our year long trip, but it's paradise nonetheless. We met Fletch on the island of Phangan (pronounced pan-yong). We opted for a nicer place than we've come to expect as Fletch was coming off a week working in SE Asia and had a lot of expensive stuff with him. Our place, Coco Hut Village, was amazing. The beach was perfect, the bungalow was perfect, the bar next to the beach was perfect. It was a little surreal meeting Fletch there as we last saw him a month ago in freezing New York nursing a broken thumb he sustained from riding a mechanical bull at our going away party. With the thumb fully healed, we made the most of our three days together wading in the water with our drinks in hand. We met a great Swedish couple and spent a lot of time with them as well. We're not sure how happy Maria was after the second full day Karl spent hanging out with Pat and Fletch, but that's another story. Ko (island) Phangan is also home of the infamous Full Moon parties. We weren't there during a full moon so we can't say what that's like, but we've heard it's beyond nuts. Even though it wasn't peak party time, the beaches around Hat Rin (a 3 minute walk from our beach) still boast huge parties pretty much every night of the year. The best way to describe them would be a smaller but nicer Cancun. Bar after bar is set up on the beach facing the water, with their backs against the road. In front of them are different themed dance parties. In between these are huge circles watching different types of fire shows. One of the shows invovled dousing a huge rope in kerosene, lightig it on fire, and spinning it round and round like a giant jumprope. Some of the dumber drunks in the crowd then attempted to jump it. It ended badly more often than not. We wondered why so many people were bandaged up on the beach during the day, but we quickly found out why during our one visit to Hat Rin. The other highlights worth mentioning are this perfect restaurant perched up on some rocks literally on the water (10 mintue walk along the beach from our room) and the USD6 Thai massage Shauna wouldn't shut up about. Oh yeah, Pat also got the worst sun burn of his life on his back.
Fletch left us and we departed for the smaller, quainter Ko Tao 40 kilometers to the north. Again it was sraight paradise. So far our book Southeast Asia On A Budget has not let us down with guesthouse recommendations. Our place was on Freedom Beach, a perfect half moon beach with a perfect mix of sun and shade with fantastic snorkelling just off shore. Our bungalow overlooked it all. Besides having ideal beach days, we rented a scooter and scoped out the island. We found this great spot to cliff dive and spent an entire day in the crystal clear water like 10 year olds. We'll let the pictures do most of the talking. You'll see Pat with his shirt on in most as we're pretty sure his back would have caught fire if the sun hit it.
Sadly we left Ko Tao for the journey back north. We have stopped in Bangkok for a night before we take on northern Thailand. We were supposed to stay a few days to hang out with our friend Michelle from San Francisco. She is in Australia kind of bumming around and decided to book a flight to Bangkok since we were here. Unfortunately her passport expires in four months and a U.S. passport needs to have at least six months validity after your planned departure from Thailand. Oops. USD700 down the drain. We were sad since we haven't seen here since our early NYC days, but we'll make up for it when we hit San Fran this summer.
We should also mention Khao San Road. Before we went down to the islands (about 10 hours south), we spent our last full day in Bangkok cruising up and down the river before stopping off at this famous stretch of concrete. Khao San Road may be the Mecca of the backpacking world. It's a world away from the rest of Thaiand but it's a great people watching spot. We stopped at a sidewalk table for an hour just for the experience. It's basically a party 24/7, and we're sure one would see a lot of crazy things just taking in the scene for a day. Of course Shauna found a tank top and a dress she just had to have. However, it's all so dirt cheap that it doesn't really matter.
We're spending out last 8 days in Thailand in the north. We're mixing in some ancient ruins with relaxing in Thailand's "Second City" before trekking around the hill tribe region. We'll probably include all this in our next blog before we cross over into Laos around the 15th.
Much love,
S&P
We have found paradise. It's a little more expensive than we would like taking into consideration our year long trip, but it's paradise nonetheless. We met Fletch on the island of Phangan (pronounced pan-yong). We opted for a nicer place than we've come to expect as Fletch was coming off a week working in SE Asia and had a lot of expensive stuff with him. Our place, Coco Hut Village, was amazing. The beach was perfect, the bungalow was perfect, the bar next to the beach was perfect. It was a little surreal meeting Fletch there as we last saw him a month ago in freezing New York nursing a broken thumb he sustained from riding a mechanical bull at our going away party. With the thumb fully healed, we made the most of our three days together wading in the water with our drinks in hand. We met a great Swedish couple and spent a lot of time with them as well. We're not sure how happy Maria was after the second full day Karl spent hanging out with Pat and Fletch, but that's another story. Ko (island) Phangan is also home of the infamous Full Moon parties. We weren't there during a full moon so we can't say what that's like, but we've heard it's beyond nuts. Even though it wasn't peak party time, the beaches around Hat Rin (a 3 minute walk from our beach) still boast huge parties pretty much every night of the year. The best way to describe them would be a smaller but nicer Cancun. Bar after bar is set up on the beach facing the water, with their backs against the road. In front of them are different themed dance parties. In between these are huge circles watching different types of fire shows. One of the shows invovled dousing a huge rope in kerosene, lightig it on fire, and spinning it round and round like a giant jumprope. Some of the dumber drunks in the crowd then attempted to jump it. It ended badly more often than not. We wondered why so many people were bandaged up on the beach during the day, but we quickly found out why during our one visit to Hat Rin. The other highlights worth mentioning are this perfect restaurant perched up on some rocks literally on the water (10 mintue walk along the beach from our room) and the USD6 Thai massage Shauna wouldn't shut up about. Oh yeah, Pat also got the worst sun burn of his life on his back.
Fletch left us and we departed for the smaller, quainter Ko Tao 40 kilometers to the north. Again it was sraight paradise. So far our book Southeast Asia On A Budget has not let us down with guesthouse recommendations. Our place was on Freedom Beach, a perfect half moon beach with a perfect mix of sun and shade with fantastic snorkelling just off shore. Our bungalow overlooked it all. Besides having ideal beach days, we rented a scooter and scoped out the island. We found this great spot to cliff dive and spent an entire day in the crystal clear water like 10 year olds. We'll let the pictures do most of the talking. You'll see Pat with his shirt on in most as we're pretty sure his back would have caught fire if the sun hit it.
Sadly we left Ko Tao for the journey back north. We have stopped in Bangkok for a night before we take on northern Thailand. We were supposed to stay a few days to hang out with our friend Michelle from San Francisco. She is in Australia kind of bumming around and decided to book a flight to Bangkok since we were here. Unfortunately her passport expires in four months and a U.S. passport needs to have at least six months validity after your planned departure from Thailand. Oops. USD700 down the drain. We were sad since we haven't seen here since our early NYC days, but we'll make up for it when we hit San Fran this summer.
We should also mention Khao San Road. Before we went down to the islands (about 10 hours south), we spent our last full day in Bangkok cruising up and down the river before stopping off at this famous stretch of concrete. Khao San Road may be the Mecca of the backpacking world. It's a world away from the rest of Thaiand but it's a great people watching spot. We stopped at a sidewalk table for an hour just for the experience. It's basically a party 24/7, and we're sure one would see a lot of crazy things just taking in the scene for a day. Of course Shauna found a tank top and a dress she just had to have. However, it's all so dirt cheap that it doesn't really matter.
We're spending out last 8 days in Thailand in the north. We're mixing in some ancient ruins with relaxing in Thailand's "Second City" before trekking around the hill tribe region. We'll probably include all this in our next blog before we cross over into Laos around the 15th.
Much love,
S&P
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