Travelogue Five: What to do Next?
June 7thth, 2003
Hi everyone!
It's been a while, we've been up to a bunch, then up to a bunch of nothing again. You may remember that when we last left our errant beach bums they were expecting several friends to show up. Of course one friend had been working on SE Lazy-ya time and was a month late but who can complain when it means that she can surprise not two but four with her company.
It came of no surprise to find that Jason and Kelly were delayed in Bangkok due to a missing bag. If you don't know Jason then one would assume, oh the airline lost it. If you know Jason and more importantly Victor, and you add in jetlag, a night of clubbing, then you can understand how Victor managed to help J & K carry one bag to the train station and carry back to his house as well as they shuttled off at breakneck speed on the once an hour train to the airport
With some luck and the use of instant messenger between here and Bangkok, text to phone messanging to Tokyo, it was decided that Susan would become the lucky sherpa for yet another bag on her way South from Cambodia. With that settled, Jason and Kelly threw themselves at the mercy of trains, ferries and automobiles, just days off the plane in order to head to Koh Phan Gan to meet us. After several days it became difficult to pry them from their poolside chairs, or maybe it was just the cocktails weighing them down? At any rate we decided to see if we could learn to float and headed off on the 'express' ferry to Koh Tao.
I suppose it can never be repeated enough, but outside N. America 'express' means unbelievably slow. It's amazing how easy it is to fall for the same trick friends warn you about, but I suppose that it was express compared to the rate that we could've swum at, but perhaps we could've given them a run for their money swimming without backpacks. I also suppose that if we had left before the booze shipment came in for the full moon party that the hour and a half on the dock could've been avoided. It's amazing how many coolers and beers you can fit onto a pick up truck that most definitely will travel on the bumpiest hilliest road you can imagine, but we saw 4 trucks loaded. Shaken not stirred seems to be the goal here.
Koh Tao was fantastic. Let me rephrase that underwater Koh Tao was fantastic since we spent most of our 5 days out on the water or with our noses buried in our diving manuals or watching PADI dive videos. Did you know that divers do it deeper? it was hours of punningly horrible attempts to make safety fun. But we did learn and diving was incredible. Our Thai instructor 'V' exudes a persona as if he swallowed Bob Marley. After conversations abound on defining the difference between "chill" and "laidback" that we declared 'V' one of the few people of the world who possess both. Plus a great sense of humour. Andrew says that we knew we could like him when he told us we could pee in our wetsuits (hey don't knock it! it does make you warmer, but everyone knows you've done it if you jump back in the water after taking off you tanks before unzipping your suit!)
Andrew and I had to leave Koh Tao after the course to head to Koh Samui to renew our visas. Apparently Andrew's feet were so relaxed that they forgot his shoes- Susan to the rescue again! About Samui, let's just say we'd rather not go back. We thought it was busy on Koh Phan Gan, but there it's insanity! It's like a derelict Hawaii, complete with a Tesco supermarket, KFC in the same lot and a group of 50 Thais doing line-dancing aerobics in the parking lot! It really seemed odd to find McDs, BK, Starbucks and an Adidis shop blended in with cheap market stalls that sell knock off everything from Gucci to Rolex.
But now we're back on KPG, Susan has joined us. There are plans to attend a party in Haad Rin being hosted by a San Fran dance collective. We've purchased some amazing black light backdrops that we'll sell on ebay-amazing batik some of the best I've *ever* seen! (I'll let y'all know when they're up). We plan to head to Koh Tao for a week by Tuesday or Wednesday then we must hit the border by the 21st. So plans are in the works for the central and South Sumatra (don't worry no where near Banda Aech), then maybe Bali? Not sure what to do next or how long. But we'll be back on KPG soon enough and for sure in Thailand, especially since I was just made the Thailand Burning Man rep (you can now also email me at thailand(at)burningman(dot)com. Look for plans for a Coconut Man decompression this December.
Hope all of you are well. We think of you often! Why not come visit?
smooches and sunshine,
*steph*
