Author: kevin

Def.def,def,def,def,def,def,def.
Wave-a-licious definition, make those farangs vomit……

So a few days late to post, but kev and I are on the trusty Songserm ferry from Ko Tao, to Chumpon! From there we’ll hop a train to Prachaup Khiri Khan, a small fishing village known for drying squid and cheap seafood (which is naturally why we’re going:)).

Our time on Ko Tao (Little Turtle) has been great. We had a couple of amazing, once-in-a-lifetime dives, where we saw the most beautiful coral, anemones (I’m going to have to spell check that word, there’s no way that’s right!) and of course marine life ever….but the anemones were for sure my favorite. The entire time I kept thinking about my dad, and how much he would have loved it. The weather hasn’t been great–but still a welcomed change from the seemingly constant heat.

That being said, I just have to tell you about the Ferry Boat Ride From Hell we took getting to Ko Tao. Around 11am, our taxi took us to the loading dock where about 200 college aged farangs, still hungover from the Half Moon Party, were all huddled under this holey, makeshift tarp about 30 feet long waiting for the boat. While walking over, I felt a couple raindrops, but by the time we made it to the tarp it started to DOWNPOUR. Remember when I said “when it rains, it pours?” well, this was no exception. Out of nowhere rain comes hailing down and everyone is trying that much harder to secure a dry spot under the tarp for themselves and their packs. No one succeeded. While we’re all standing there, huddling in the arm pits of strangers, the ridiculous wind whips a giant part of the gutter on this tarp around, and turns the spout directly on our heads. We are, SOPPING wet. There is 0 chance one single thing I have with me is even remotely dry. At this point, our ferry has made it to the dock, but the waves are so enormous, they cant tie the boat off to let the passengers coming from Surat Thani off. So we wait…and wait….and wait, for another hour until the boat crew has muscled their way into tying off the boat. Thrilled that our 2+ hour wait for the ferry is finally over, everyone is wet, but smiling and ready to board. The cheering and excitement stops, however, when we see the passengers get off the boat: white- faced, sickly people wearily lugging their packs, and, carrying multiple bags of their vomit. I tried to conceal my laughter, and sort of rolled my eyes at kev, who also found the scene to be somewhat humorous. We were just so wet, and so tired of carrying our now extra- heavy packs that we were ready to get on that boat no matter what. Well, let me just say, karma came to bite me in the ass for laughing at my fellow farang’s misfortune. We sat down at our seats, and a crewman came around to give us each clear plastic bags, “just in case.” ha. While I thankfully did not puke, I was holding on for dear life as our tiny boat was ENGULFED in the giant waves, and rocking us around like a pinball. The waves had earned a “highscore” after that ride, to say the least! All around EVERYONE (I seriously bet more than 1/2 the boat) was puking into their CLEAR PLASTIC bags, which after looking at (which you couldn’t avoid) would be enough to make anyone sick. It was unreal. Between the disgusting noises, smells, tears and rocking, it was, without question the longest 1.5 hours of my life.

Things I’ve learned:
1) Don’t laugh at other’s misfortune. We are in the land if Buddha, and that guy knows how to instill some serious karma on the deserving.
2) Always keep raincoat and waterproofed bags close by during the rainy season.
3) Stay away from Sangsum rum buckets before ferry rides… Especially if the weather is less than ideal.
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Also: I had my first 1 hour long Thai Massage. Best $4 I’ve ever spent. Also, also: I just found out my family (Sean) bought 3 pigs which are now residing in our back yard. If you see my parents, be sure to call them “Maw” and “Paw” for me.
Also, also, also: Kevin got really drunk last night after drinking less than a full 40oz Chang beer. Apparently those Chinese know how to make a strong beer!
Also, also, also, also: I had French Fries with mayo last night, and they were a delicious reminder of home. ’tis all.

Keep the ketchup off your shirts, Lgt

For the dive logs,

Japanses gardens, green rock -dive 2
15 meters of vis

Chumpun pinnacle -dive 1
20-25 meters vis-very good, perhaps next best next to Cozumel
Jellyfish on long swim, Lindsay almost ran into them. Dive was great,
some great beautiful anenamies (sp?) and coral, large schools of
smaller fish. Also saw a decent sized black tipped reef shark.

Lindsay was a pro diver, perfect decents, etc. Plus perfect safety
stops. A real pro.

Hopefully my battery doesnt die before I finish this.

As I type this the tide is high, I'm sitting on a sodden step that
faces the ocean, which is maybe 10 feet in front of me. Behind me is
the main office of the Big Blue dive operation that Lindsay and I dove
with. It's 7:30 pm here and dark already. In front but to the left a
bit is a Thai cooking fresh fish and other seafood to order, his BBQ
"grill" has two legs in the water. It is a very nice atmosphere, to
the right if me and again only a few feet away is a palm tree with
lanterns hanging from it and surrounding it is a bunch of tables and
mats where people sit on the ground eating their freshly cooked
seafood. There seems to be a lot of large prawns, red snapper, and
baracuda. It's a very "tropical island" atmosphere. Lindsay is running
on the beach, which is lit up all along the coast with similar
establishments. Music of course is playing.

This will be night three on Koh Tao, and there us much to share. A
terrible boat ride here, very good diving, and a so so experience with
the "resort" we're staying at. I don't think I'll have time to post
about all of this right now, so the details will have to wait until
later. I just wanted to give a ganeral update on our progress and plans.

Tomorrow we are taking a four hour boat ride to chumpan (spelling?)
which is north of Surat thani which is where we first departed from.
Then we take a 4 hour train to a small fishing village along the coast
to the north, where we plan to stay for 1 or 2 nights, before we head
back to bangkok to regroup before Chiang Mai, in the very north.

Hope all is well for everybody, good luck Andrew!!!
-kev

Today is (I’m not sure the day of the week actually), the 17th of July. Lindsay may very well already be typing a similar post as I type this (she’s across the room) but I wanted to post anyway, just in case.

Today we are catching a bus at 7 PM which will take us down to southern thailand, in particular (i forget the name of the town, Samui I believe) where we’ll catch a ferry to bring us to Kho Phangan, which is a smallish Island best known for the “full moon party”, which happens to be taking place the evening of the 19th. Lindsay really wanted to go to this “full moon party” and I’m sure it will be a good/fun experience, so here we go! (fake edit: here is a link to one of many tourist centered webpages about the full moon party. frankly I’m not a huge drinker/partier these days (some would claim I never was) so we’ll see what the full moon party is actually like – I’m just hoping to find a beach with some water. I can’t wait to go swimming in the ocean.

The bus ride is 11 hours, but I believe it’s air conditioned so it shouldn’t be too bad. Well, in theory it shouldn’t be too bad, but it’s a night bus and frankly I’m not great at sleeping in anything but a hard flat surface. I’m not picky, I can sleep on the hard ground with rocks sticking into my back without too much problem, but sleeping while sitting I’m not great at. I am looking forward to the trip on a whole though, being able to see more of Thailand than just the limited view of the city. It’s our first real mini-adventure of many.

miss you all,
kev

I have yet to find a SINGLE open wifi network that actually works. If
this message is ever posted to the blog it will basically be a miracle.

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asia.shoelessone.com
(from iPod Touch)