On the run

Hello All!

    Last i posted was from Songkran in Samui, which is the Thai new year and a huge water fight throughout the city. Following the festivities our resort's bar was having a beach party so we just did that all night and was a lot of fun.

    The following day we tried to get to the immigration office to extend our visa an extra 7 days for 1900 baht but didn't realize it was closed and ended up spending 750 baht on taxi fares for nothing. That put us, Brett and Brendan, in a bind as our visa was set to expire the following week, mine on the 18th and the other two on the 19th and we were set to leave to a smaller island, Koh Phangan, on the 15th and the island didn't have an immigration office. So it only really left me, the other two decided to join, with one option, a visa run!

    On the 15th we make the move to Koh Phangan ahead of the full moon party that is set to happen on the 18th the day my visa runs out, hence hurrying to get it taken care of before then so i don't miss the party. We got into the island and quickly found our resort that we're staying at, which happens to be way cool, and drop our bags off then went off to the information center to look into the visa run, there are a couple of different places you can go to and all are about the same price which is 2000 baht and it gives you an additional 15 days on your visa, if you enter Thailand by air you get 30 days and by land 15 days. We decided to do the run to Myanmar (Burma) as it was the fastest at a cool 24 hours :-( I wanted to do it right away so i opted to do it that same night we got to Koh Phangan and the other two decided to join me as well. So after getting all payed up we had enough time to get back to our hotel and shower upend grab some dinner, i charged up my ipod for the long trip. We set off at about 20:50 to the pier to catch the night ferry, which ended up being pretty nice actually. The ferry set off at 22:00 to Surat Thani where we arrived at 5am and had to wait till the taxi arrived around 6 to take us to the border town of Ranong in Thailand. The taxi finally showed up and we set off to Ranong which took us about 3hrs to get to. Once we got there we went to the immigration office and got our Thailand exit stamp, then were told to follow this little kid on to a boat, which looked way shady, and hopped on and across we went into Burma, we had to cross a fairly large bay and the little boat took about 30 minutes or so to get us to the Burma side, when we got off we were surrounded by about 5 or 6 kids and were asking us where we were from and if we wanted to go shopping, we told them no but they still followed us anyways. We made it to the Burma immigration office and handed over our passport, but there was a catch, they wanted $10 US dollars as the processing fee, so we said whatever and just wanted to get out of there so we pull out a couple of 20's and handed them over, they were quickly returned to us as they were not perfect, I then take out my stash of 20's i had and each and everyone got declined as well. They had to be in perfect condition and crisp or they wouldn't take them lol, i had about 3 that were crisp and neatly folded in half but due to a VERY minor ink spot on the top of the bill were declined as well. between all of us we had about $300 US dollars and all we needed to pay was $10 dollars for each passport but were unable to, so Brendan was taken to the supermarket where they exchange baht for Crips new US dollars and of course being a tourist trap we got a shitty exchange rate and ended up paying almost twice the fee of what $10 would have got you in baht. After Brendan returned with 6 crisp $5 dollar bills he we handed them over with the passports and finally got the stamp, basically to prove we had left Thailand so we could get an entry stamp and a new 15 days in the country. We made it back to the boat but all the kids that followed us around would not let us back on without giving them a tip so we grabbed a couple of 20's and gave it to them, in baht not dollars of course, and then they finally let us back on the boat. Once back on the boat we made the journey back to Thailand and were finally able to get a new 15 day visa. Once we got all of that taken care of the taxi was waiting for us and back to Surat Thani we went to catch a ferry back to Koh Phangan. I set the timer on my ipod as soon as they picked us up and stopped it as we were dropped off at our hotel, total was 22h08m40s from start to finish, which i only managed to sleep about 4 of those hours, the smart thing to do would have been to shower up and get some rest, but i'm not the smartest guy out there so of course got showered up and headed to the beach party and partied all night! Next up will be about the full moon party. So until next time, enjoy!

the night boat to mainland Thailand

boat ride to Burma

the little kid running the show

not supposed to take pics, sneaked this one

coming to Burma

headed back to Thailand ready for the new visa

Thailand countryside, pretty much all of Thailand looks like this

caught the sunset on the ferry back to Koh Phangan

Songkran!

Hello All!

    Last i posted i had made it to Koh Samui safely and was going to meet up with my two other friends (one went home early due to a bike wreck.) My first night in Koh Samui i spent on my own as i made it before the others, i didn't do much that night as i had a long travel day before, i managed to find some bungalows on the water for 300 baht and they were surprisingly really nice for the price. I just hung out on the beach till the sun went down, then grabbed some dinner and finished off the night hearing the waves come crashing in, not a bad night!

My seat on the Ferry to the island

Arriving to Koh Samui

    The next day i woke up early and walked about 30-40 min in 100 degree weather with a 30lb backpack on, not fun at all! I finally made it to our hotel that we had booked for the following 5 days 4 nights, due to the floods reception told me that about 70% of the people who had booked cancelled and it allowed me to check in 4hrs before check in time :-) I lounged around until Brett and Brendan finally showed up. We went out so i could get some flip flops and then grabbed some dinner then started throwing some Chang down. We got drunk then made it over to the next beach town called Chaweng and walked around and after awhile we came back to where we were staying at and finished drinking at the bar of our hotel.

The view from my bungalow

My bungalow

    The next day was the day before Songkran, which is Thai new year, we got up and went out for lunch not knowing what was about to happen. About halfway through our street i saw some kids standing there with water guns, i knew that it was a huge watertight but what i didn't know is that it was started a day before the actual new year. We got hit with water right from the get go so we went into a Club 7 and got a plastic bag to put our phones and wallets in to prepare for what was to come. After getting some food we got some water guns so we could partake in the festivities and what a great holiday/festival! All it is is a huge watertight throughout the city and everyone gets involved, kids, moms, dads, grandparents they're all out on the street throwing water on each other. We finished the day all soaking wet and managed to get other people soaking wet as well. This was just the beginning of the festival. The next day (13th of April) was the actual Thai new year, so we knew that all it was going to be was a water fight, we got ready for the day leaving the phones behind and only carrying our wallets in a plastic baggie, i braved it and decided to take my camera along as well and man was i glad i did. We got out to the main road and it was madness, and next to Oktoberbest in Munich i don't think i've had this much fun while traveling! Everyone was out and there were drums of water on every corner and what people did was put bricks of ice in the water making it that much more fun, so what we would do is walk up and down the street and whenever someone threw ice cold water on us we would stay there and return the favor and throw ice water on everyone else. This went on all day and by the evening things had calmed down, the bar at our hotel had a big party that night so that's where we ended our night. We are in Koh Samui for a couple more nights then off to Koh Phangan for the full moon party, so until next time. Enjoy!

getting ready for Songkran

this is Songkran

people getting wet everywhere!

Water Fight!!!!!

The Dirty South!!!

Hello All!

    Well last i posted i was still in Koh Chang, but i've since made the move to the south of Thailand where it was hit hard with rain about a week and a half ago. The travel lady lied to me and said there would be no access to Surat Thani, the city where it's easiest to get to the islands, but i decided to take off anyways and it worked out great!

    My last day in Koh Chang was a little different from the other days, I woke up to the sound of rain and sure enough, when i got out it had been raining for a couple of hours. Got up and made it to the Sunflower restaurant, where they show a movie every night. Due to the rain it was packed and they pretty much played movies all day, it was kind of nice as the rain didn't let you do otherwise. That night was the beach party, different place for the party overnight which is cool. My intentions were to have a Chang or two then head home to pack my bags as had booked my ticket back to Bangkok and it departed early the next morning, but we all know how my plans usually go, out the window. With the usual gang, Christian, Heta, Dennis and Isabel still around we managed to meet some more people who oddly enough turned out to be way cool. As stated my plan went out the window and i ended up having 3 Big Changs, 3 shots of tequila and a small Leo at the beach party, the good thing is i was smart enough to set the alarm while still sober for 7am the next day because i ended up going home at 3 in the morning :-( which did not make for a good morning/long travel day at all as i should have learned from my experience leaving Pai.

    The next day i manage to wake up still hurting from the night before and hurried to pack my bags, which were a mess as i had not changed locations the week before. Once i Packed i went to the spot where i was to meet Thomas and Sophie (german) as well as their friends to head off to Bangkok and ultimately the south.  We all made it on the same taxi and headed for the pier, once on mainland Thailand the bus was waiting for us headed towards Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok not knowing if we could take the bus or train so with 5 minutes to spare, arrived at 17:55 and bus leaves at 18:00, we had one of Thomas' friends run to the travel agency and was able to book our tickets which didn't really matter as there was a 4 hour delay w/ the bus trying to fix the AC supposedly, so instead of leaving at 18:00 we didn't leave until 22:00. We made it to Surat Thani at 7am the next day and surprisingly i managed to sleep pretty well on the bus, which out of the previous two night buses i had done i managed very little sleep. I'm now on Koh Samui and will post again once i get some pics and the aftermath from Songkran, the Thai new year. Until next time, Enjoy!

On the move

Hello All!

    Last post i had made i left off in Pai where i was trying to reach the South of Thailand, specifically Koh Phangan so i could finally get out of the city life and start enjoying the beach bum lifestyle. The day we returned the scooters we figured we could book our ticket and leave that same day, but the leg from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was fully booked, so we had to stay one last night in Pai, which was ok with me. So later that night we went to Yellow Sun as usual and got our Sangsom set's (bottle of rum, bucket of ice, two cokes) then after Yellow Sun closed we made it over to Bamboo Bar for the rest of the night, overall Christian and I went through 3 Sangsom set's and a couple of large Chang's. The next day i barely made check out and when i got up everything was still spinning. I finished packing my bags and dropped it off at reception then went out for some breakfast with Christian, we then ran into Tal who was with James and Linda (irish.)  I was still feeling it from the night before, so i figured if i got something greasy it would make it all go away, so i ordered a burger with bacon, cheese and a fried egg on it and it was actually pretty good, but it wouldn't be there for long! After getting breakfast we made our way to the travel agency where we booked our tickets and they told us they had to give us a refund as the south had been hit with heavy rain and part of the road was out and the bus couldn't make it. I was ready to make a move and so was Christian so we booked to Pattaya instead, Tal decided to stay an extra couple of days.

    So we finally got the minibus to Chiang Mai where we would get a much larger bus and take it overnight to Bangkok. The road from Pai to Chiang Mai consists of about 771 curves up and downhill, so it was very windy and the driver was driving waaaay to fast, on top of that i was still very hungover and had some food in my stomach, no bueno! about halfway to the halfway point i started to feel like crap, the contents in my stomach were all over the place, i tried to fall asleep but was unable to, i came very close to telling the driver to pull over so i could puke my guts out, but thankfully we made it to the halfway point, so there i was able to puke my guts out. After that the ride was much better all the way to Chiang Mai, where we caught the night bus to Bangkok.

    The next morning we arrived to Bangkok and had to wait around for 4 hours for the minibus to Pattaya to show up, when that finally came we hopped on and off to Pattaya we went. When we got to Pattaya it seemed nice, but as soon as we hopped out of the minibus it was quite different. In bangkok the Thai guys would come up to you and bug you about a taxi, which is not the case in Pattaya. Every time we'd walk somewhere for sure you were going to get at least 20 guys asking if you wanted boom boom, marijuana, coke, suits and so on. One of the reasons i didn't like Bangkok was because of them coming up and asking if i wanted a taxi or a suit, but being in Pattaya made me want to be back in Bangkok. I absolutely hated Pattaya as it's not my scene at all, it's all touristy and has no backpacker feel at all, also it's very expensive. So Christian and I stayed for one night then booked it to Koh Chang, which is Thailand's second biggest island.

    The following day we made the move to Koh Chang, which consisted of a minibus to the Pier in Trat, then a ferry that took us to the island. Once on the island there was a grip of taxis waiting to take you wherever you wanted. The island consists of about 4 or 5 beaches and the center of the island is pretty much a jungle. It is a national park so in order to enter you'd have to pay a 200 baht fee. The first night we stayed in Bang Bao which is at the southern part of the island and is more of a laid back w/ nothing to do type feel to it, this is where you go to catch a ferry to one of the other Islands that make up  the Koh Chang Archipelago. The following day we made a move to Lonely beach, which is the next beach over from Bang Bao (north.) This is the place to be for the backpackers, it's cheap, has a good beach and is filled with bars haha. I've pretty much been here for a week and have done nothing..it's been great! That's one of the main reasons why i haven't updated the blog because I haven't really done anything interesting but i did rent a scooter for a day and tried to scoot all around the island but was only able to make it 3/4's of the way as both days i got rained on. This is my schedule the week that i've been here, wake up anywhere from 11-2, go out grab some breakfast then head to the beach, maybe take a nap, go to dinner and a movie as there is a restaurant who plays a movie every night then go out and drink for the rest of the night. Rinse and repeat! I am trying to finally meet up with the other 3 friends that I came here with but the weather is not allowing me to do so as the floods destroyed a couple of kilometers of road and the bus can't make it to the town where the ferry leaves from, i'm going to try my luck with the train. Until next time, enjoy!!

saw these little guys in the town next to mine

overlooking white sands beach, which is the largest town on the island

he's so little

white sands beach

got rained on during the ride so had to stop and kill time

picture of my whip

all these signs are along the road, i got to see a baby monkey by my bungalow

heading into lonely beach where i'm staying

look at this guy

i present to you the honda scooty

Pai Thai

Hello all!

    I've moved on to a new place since my last update in Chiang Mai, i'm now in Pai and getting ready to head south to go island hopping!!

    My last day/night in Chiang Mai was probably the most fun i had in Chiang Mai, even though i didn't do much at all during the day, i managed to find a used book store and found a book to read and just did that all day, and got frustrated with my Where's Waldo book that i gave up after the first page ha. When the night came we all went out for a walk and ended up at a park that was filled w/ locals. They were playing volleyball with their feet and others were playing this weird game, with the same ball, where you had to get it into a hoop that was about 25ft high and you had to use your feet or head, seeing some of the stuff these guys did was nuts! Specially when  they'd go to spike it in volleyball, the guys were doing these 360 degree back flips and were managing to spike the ball and still land on there feet, it was awesome and we just hung around and watched them play for about 45min. After that we went back a different way which ended up working out as we found a night market and a bunch of street food, which has been some of the best i've had in Thailand for the least amount of money ($0.75.) After dinner we went back to Julie's and met the rest of the crowd and then started to drink, after a couple of hours and just BS'n we finally managed to make the move to a raggae bar that played live music and preceded to get even more drunk. The next day we were on the move to Pai.

this little kid was running around hustling, he got me twice :-(

    After barely making check out, would have payed for another night if not, we got a mini bus to Pai which is a laid back hippy esque village close to the Myanmar border and about 3 hours from Chiang Mai. The ride up was good, the roads were very twisty through some very beautiful scenery. Once we got to Pai we walked around until finding some bungalows for 100 baht per night ($3.30.) It was nice having my own room and the bathroom facilities were ok as well. We dropped off our bags and headed into the small town, which we managed to cover most of it on that first walk around. There really isn't much to do in Pai other then just chill out and relax so that's exactly what i did. It would rain everyday in the evening like it were clockwork so we did most of the walking around during the day then would head back to the bungalow and chill out on the hammock and fall asleep to the sound of rain =) The first night out we made it to a nice little raggae bar that had a pool table so we lounged there with the intentions to make a move to a much larger bar but never really made it as we ordered 3 Samsong bottles (cheap Thai rum) and some coke and that's all she sang! The next day, Sunday, was a half moon party in the jungle so what Christian, Tal and I did was rent scooters for 24hrs and it ended up being a great move. It was more expensive to fill up the tank then it was for the scooter rental (110b for gas 100b for 24hrs.) We managed to check out some of the local attractions which consisted of a couple of waterfalls, a land crack, and the freedom bridge that the Japanese built back in WW2. On the way to the last waterfall Christian miscalculated his turn and accidentally ended up laying the scooter down and getting some minor scratches. After heading back and letting Christian calm down a bit we got ready to go out for the night. We started things at Yellow Sun, which is the raggae bar and after that closed at midnight we made our way up to the half moon party (jungle party) and that was intense. There was a free taxi out there and back but by the time we left around 4am the taxi was not running, so we had to walk back into town which took about 45 minutes. The next day was shitty because i was hung over on very little sleep and we had to check out at 11am. I woke up drunk still and had to check out as well as return the scooter. Although Pai is very cool and has a laid back feel to it it was time to move on. We had planned to leave that day but the buses were full so we decided to stay another night and booked the trip down to the south of Thailand the next day. Until next time. Enjoy!!

one of they many waterfalls around Pai

panoramic of the scenery outside of Pai