Malaysia

When you enter Thailand by air you are given a 30 day tourist visa for free. I had just run out of my 30 days and needed to get out of the country, and because we were so far South Dalin and I decided to hit Malaysia for a bit then head back into Thailand later.

I spent a week and a half in Malaysia, and honestly I found the place very agreeable. The people were nice, the cities clean and nobody hassled you to buy anything or take a taxi... ever. Another interesting thing about Malaysia is that Malaysians are actually a minority. The country is full of Chinese and Indians, and religions were much more diverse. In addition to Buddhism there were many Muslims, a fair amount of Hindus, and Chinese ancestor worships was alos fairly prelevent. This created a fun side effect, which is that there was all sorts of variety in the food as well! We started by hitting Panang, a city just South of the border that is on a island super close to the mainland (there is bridge heading out to it). The city was clean and pleasant, and we met a quite a few nice people.

The most noteworthy people we met was native Malaysian named Durai that just started talking to us off the street and was very interested in becoming our friend. Usually when someone acts this interested you tend to think that they are going to want something in the end. But Durai was just a nice local, and no more. We chatted, he wanted to get his picture taken with me, then with Dalin, then with Dalin and me at the same time. He got on his scooter at one point and came back 15 minutes later with some Indian chai tea and some coffee to share with us. We also ran into an interesting British chick named Willow (actually, that was a nickname that she just went by, her real name was something very plain and forgettable) while we were hanging out with Durai. Willow had been traveling all about Southeast Asia, as well as New Zealand and Australia for about 2 1/2 years mostly busking with her guitar to make money. She was heading back to England in just a few days and hung out with Dalin and I for a bit, and even played her guitar and sung for us in our room. In some ways Willow was pretty cool, with as many places she'd been she had loads of experience and stories, and she was also a very talented musician. But then at times she would go on about the healing properties of crystals because of their unique vibrations caused by their molecular structure in unison with the your body and the earth... yeah... *sigh*.

The only other real exciting thing was a really cool shrine built by the Khoo Kongsi clan from China. This was a welcome break from all of the Buddhist temples in Thailand, because even as impressive as a gigantic gold statue of Buddha is, after seeing dozens, and having a temple on nearly every street corner, they get pretty tedious and repetitive. The Chinese shrine (the full name is "Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi") was spectacular and had intricate craftsmanship that covered the floors, walls, ceilings, doors, furniture, etc. Also there were plaques everywhere that explained the symbolism of the murals and statues. It was built to honor the ancestors of this clan, and there was little tidbits of meaning hidden away everywhere, and a lady who worked there knew English very well showed us many and explained all kinds of really interesting symbolism and history.

We then went from Penang to the Cameron Highlands, which are up in the mountains with breathtaking views the whole way up. There was often mist moving through the rainforests and clouds colliding with the mountains blocking your view entirely of anything below you, giving you a feeling that you were in Jurassic Park or something. The Cameron Highlands are mainly used to grow tea, as well as grow strawberries. Myself, I was more interested in the tea, because even though Thailand is in Asia, they don't really do tea, and what little tea they have is mixed with much sugar and milk, so I was dying for a real cup of tea that didn't come from a bag.

Dalin and I decided to go on a guided tour to see the area, and because there were some people we had met there that were going and invited us to join them. So off we went, got in to a 4X4 and went roaring up the mountain and into the rainforest on a muddy and very rutted road. The journey itself was one of the best parts of the day. The 4X4 was pushed to its limits and you realized just what off-road ment. Often you be bounced off your seat and would hit your head on the ceiling, at other times you would be leaning so far to one side you would worry about rolling. But regardless it was a blast and we made it alright. We went trekking through the jungle for a bit and came to an area that has the Reflasia flowers. Which are the biggest flower in the world (actually, the type we saw was the 2nd largest, the largest was the same exact thing of another type and was slightly larger). This flower is a parasite and a bud will grow for 9-10 months on a root or trunk of a tree until it got to be the size of a football. It would then bloom for about 6 days and then die. While it is open the flower smells of shit and rotting meat, this is to attract flies that aid in pollination. Really though, you had to stick your face in the thing to smell it. We were incredibly lucky because we saw one of these flowers on the first day that it had been open (our guide goes up every day, so he would know), and apparently that is the best day to see one.

After the flower we went trekking back to the 4X4 and had a repeat of the crazy drive. We shot a traditional blowgun with some "aboriginal" people, which pretty much means people that still live in the forest and off the land, however that was about it, they weren't wearing any traditional grass skirts or headdresses. In fact, I saw drawn onto one of their walls a bunch of pictures of Spiderman, apparently they weren't quite as isolated as the tour guides would like us to believe. We then went to a tea plantation and saw how the tea was picked and processed (the heathens would use pesticide and pick using machines), as well as walk around among the tea fields. Then it was off to the butterfly farm, and as it turned out the butterflies were the least interesting thing there. They had a small bug and insect zoo and one of the workers would take the bugs out one at a time, tell us a bit about each one, then quite often let you hold them. There was the gigantic 3 horned beetle, some weevils that felt velvety to the touch, a praying mantis that looked just like a lotus flower, another praying mantis that looked like a dead leaf. One of my personal favorites was a bug that looked just like a leaf, it had veins, it even felt just like a leaf, until you turned it over and saw that it had a face and legs. However the worker that was showing us the bugs brought us to... the scorpions! These scorpions were live, poisonous, big, black, and unstingerfied, we were told they were Malaysian Black Scorpions, the worker then opened up the cage and just started to pull them out my their tails and laying them all over his body, then he asked if anyone would want to hold one. I figured that this guy knew what he was doing and they seemed pretty docile to me so I said sure and held out my hand. The guy then set one on my hand, then my forearm, then another, then my other arm, then my head until I had five of these bastards on me, Dalin just squealed this entire time and was bouncing around from an severe assault of the willies. After a few other people tried holding them the worker explained that they couldn't get their tails low enough to sting what they were standing on, they could just grab and sting what they are holding, so as long as you held onto their stinger, then kept them on a flat surface you were fine. He then set one down on the the ground and showed us that if you poked its back it would strike, he just was fast enough that the scorpion couldn't react quickly enough to get him.

The next day was to be some exploring and trekking on our own, but Malaysia's monsoon season had just started and it was just pissing rain the entire day (in fact the only real dry day we saw in that country was the day before when we did the tour, so we lucked out). So I just hung out on one of the hostel couches talking with other travelers for about 9-10 hours, which while not terribly adventuresome, it was quite nice.

The next day Dalin and I hit a bus bound for Kuala Lumpor. Which was a fairly nice clean city with nothing to do but shop... seriously. We were here for 2 full days and other then seeing the famous as well as briefly tallest skyscrapers in the world Patronus Towers (as featured in that not-so-great movie "Entrapment"), we just wondered in air conditioned malls that were mostly full of crazy expensive shit like Prada, D & G, Armani, etc. There is a area of the city that was about 2 miles squared that had 12, five story super malls. If you're not up for expensive malls you can go shop at the huge street markets in Chinatown, which just had fakes of everything at the malls, except for a real Prada handbag that cost $2400, you could get a fake one for $8. However, if you just don't want a Prada bag (like me), fake or otherwise, then you should just get the hell out of Kuala Lumpor. So we did.

Koh Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi is a small island just South of the mainland and just East of Phuket. Most of it's international fame is due to the gigantic tsunami that swept through and devastated the whole island in December 2004. However, today you can barely see any evidence of this horrible incident, except that many of the shops and restaurants had pictures up of their buildings mostly underwater, or a sign thanking those who funded their rebuilding. In fact, many people I talked to that lived there before the tsunami hit said the island has been greatly improved after the rebuilding effort.

Anyway, enough history. Dalin and I left Phuket on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 and headed to Koh Phi Phi. We straightaway met two very cool people that became friends that we hung out with while we were there. First there was Aya, a great girl from Israel traveling solo and full of stories as she had just come to Thailand from China. Next there was Mikey, a guy from Denmark that was really polite and just plain pleasant. When we landed we immediately struck out in search for Mosquito Dive Shop because there was a guy I had contacted through Couchsurfing named Daniel. He gave us a map of the island and showed us the best places to stay, eat, hangout, etc. All of his advice ended up being spot on, and apart from that he was the really cheerful relaxed sort.

Dalin, Aya, Mikey and I found a place to stay and then headed off to explore the island. Most of the island is limestone cliffs jutting straight up out of the ocean and covered in jungle. It's incredibly breathtaking and beautiful to see from the ocean, but it did make most of the island's inhabitable area clustered in between two long beaches on opposite sides of the island, about 5 minutes walk from one another. One of the nicest things about everything being so small and crowded is that there were no motorized vehicles on the entire island. There was not a single scooter, taxi, truck or anything else. Everyone either rode bikes or walked and all the big things were moved around the island in big wheelbarrow type carts. This did give everything a fairly crowded feel, but never too bad or unbearable.

The place that was the most fun to hang out was by far The Reggae Bar. The only reason this place was any fun was because there was a full sized, raised boxing ring right in the middle. To make it better, you could volunteer to fight your friend, and then you both got a free bucket! Now I loved sparring back in my martial arts class, and was stoked at the possibility of being able to do it here. Honestly, the bucket was just an added perk. So after a few drinks I convinced Dalin to get up there and fight me. Well, actually I'd heard about this place long before we ever got on the island and so we'd decided a while ago that we would fight if we got there. We were quickly fitted up with some super-stylin' shorts, I was in the blue corner with the blue gear, then got in the ring where we had shin pads, and very padded gloves and a helmet... but no cup. I was a bit worried about this, because I know that no friend would kick another friend in the crotch, but even during a friendly fight when people get hit in the head a few times and then get frustrated, accidents can happen. Now because Dalin had never been in even a mock fight before, other then playing Capoiera, I asked how hard we were going to hit, and he said very little. So, at the beginning of the fight I was trying to stick with mild but firm contact, but halfway through the first round I caught a pretty powerful hook to the head that made me stumble, and I remember thinking "Oh! Its on now!" I then notched up the speed and took the power to more like 2/3 full. Dalin later told me that survival instincts were kicking in and he was just trying to hit me as much as possible as hard as he could. Three full exhausting rounds later we were done. I ended up being the winner, and if I'm going to be honest (but hopefully not sound cocky) I was definitely in control and getting many more hits in. However, I also got nailed many times as well. Dalin and I were still friends and neither of us were hurt worse then a slight black eye that Dalin received.

Aya also showed some interest in fighting, and we just happened to meet some more Couchsurfers that were there at the bar with Daniel, so after chatting for a bit, Aya decided that she and a Colombian girl that was one of the Couchsurfers would fight. Aya got pretty worked over by the Colombian girl (I've forgotten her name, but "The Colombian" sounds much more menacing anyway), but in the end it was a great friendly fight, Many others in the bar got up to fight, and occasionally some local trained Muay Thai fighters would get up and have a match. These fights were actually staged, and were full of flashy flying knees, amazing take downs, and dramatic comebacks. One guy even got "knocked" through the ropes, out of the ring, and onto a table full of startled tourists. Even though they were staged, these fights were funner then hell to watch and I always enjoyed them.

There is one more story of that first night that needs to be told, and that is the story of Hannah, a crazy bitch we ran into. After drinking the "fruits" of our labor, we all scurried off and danced on one of the beaches to loud techno music for a while, Dalin went off to bed and Aya, Mikey and I wandered down the beach in search of... well, nothing in particular really, but we were going to find it anyway. We saw a few fire-dancers performing on the beach at a chill bar, so we went to watch them. Enter Hannah. This chick was creepy skinny, covered in tattoos and some odd choices for piercings. She told us right off that her boyfriend was one of the local guys dancing with fire and told us she felt kinda guilty because he was only 19 (even though we all said he looked 14) and she was 22. Then she told us this again and again and again for about the next 20 minutes as we tried to have conversation between ourselves as well as her. Eventually she started trying to pressure us into getting some shots that none of us wanted, and started going on and on about how her uncle owned the bar and he'd be mad at her if we didn't get anything. Eventually, trying to nicely get rid of her I said something along the lines that we might get some in a bit, and before we knew it she had a bunch of shots brought over to us. We tried to explain that we didn't want them so after the bar guy took them back Hannah started to freak out, mostly at Mikey. She said that her uncle was going to hit her and that she was going to call her Thai friends and they were going kick Mikey's ass and throw him off the island. I was trying to calm this bitch down and defuse the situation when she started to attack (as in full on punching) Mikey. Mikey tried as well to calm her down by apologizing and trying to deflect her flailing arms. Not that I'm trying to sound bad ass or anything, but its a good thing she didn't go after me, because if a girl is going to attack me and fight me like man I would've hit her like a man to get her to stop, or at the very least shove her down hard enough that she'd stop, especially after how annoying and rude she'd been. Anyway, after she finally stopped, she went into crying mode and started apologizing for hitting him, Mikey got everyone an unwanted shot and then, since the mood had been killed, shot, burned, then shot again just to make sure it was dead, Aya and I headed back to the hostel and Mikey stuck around with Crazy Bitch because she wasn't quite done crying and carrying on.

The post script on this adventure is after talking to Hannah for another hour or so, Mikey said she had confessed to being dumped by her boyfriend that day, and this other guy that she was saying was her boyfriend wasn't even 19 (well duh, we knew that). The next day Mikey ran into her outside of where she worked (she didn't even work at the place we met her), and she didn't even remember him, and seemed very unconcerned that she'd punched him in the face just the night before. Apparently Crazy Hanna is a bit of a legend. A week later in Malaysia I met a girl from Canada who knew Hanna because they had met at the full moon party and then again on Koh Phi Phi. She had a similar opinion of her.

The next day was a lazy beach day, and I met a really fun local guy named Johnny (I think), who was just goofy and fun to hang out with. He taught me some Poi (the fire dancing thing with balls of fire on chains), and I taught him what I knew with Dalin's devil sticks. We also just chatted for a while, he showed me some of his kung fu, I showed him some of my Shaolin martial arts. Eventually he told me to come watch him at that night's fire show and if I came just before the show I could dance with him using Poi. That night we did return and he made good on his promise, and again I didn't set myself on fire, so it was another mild success. Later that night the group of us returned to The Reggae Bar so I could make good on my promise and fight Mikey. I'll admit to being pretty nervous about fighting him as I always do when I spar someone I've never seen fight, just because I how no clue how they fight and how good they are. Also Mikey is more built then I am (which isn't saying too much to be honest). We had a great, fairly even and lively fight but in the end I prevailed yet again (I was in the blue gear again).

On a different island, very near Koh Phi Phi is Maya Beach, which is the beach that was used in "The Beach". This island was part of a national marine park which meant camping was allowed, so Dalin and I thought that is would be fun. There was a tour that would take you out there to camp but was also a crazy expensive price, so we instead decided to take a half day boat tour that ended at Maya Beach for 1/3 the price, then just get left there. That meant we meaning we could go to Monkey beach and see "wild" monkeys that were so tame that they would jump up on you and seemed to enjoy chasing the nervous screaming girls. However these things could be mean if you push them. One guy jumped off the boat and started to tease and roughhouse with one and another quickly jumped on this guys back and bit his ear. Maybe the monkey was just jealous because he wasn't getting any attention. Either that or the tourist was messing with the monkey's woman. We also did two snorkeling stops which proved to be amazing. I saw more variety snorkeling here then I did scuba diving on Koh Tao. The highlights were loads of puffer fish, a black and white banded sea snake, a moray eel on the hunt eating clams and small fish. There were also huge, meter long yellow fish with super long noses, but I've forgotten what they are called. We also boated through an absolutely stunning canyon that had sheer, jungle covered cliffs towering over you on both sides that rose straight out of the gorgeous turquoise ocean.

When we finally got to Maya beach we spoke with a park ranger who told us we couldn't camp there unless we were part of the tour and tried to get us to pay them the crazy price of the tour. Dalin found a few more park rangers and after talking to them for a bit he got a very iffy OK (they couldn't speak English all that well), so we figured we'd go for it, and we'd just have to be sneaky about it. We hung around until it began to get a little dark, then went inside of a little cave like area and set up the tent. This worked super well until the tide came in. We figured the tide would get that high, but it took it hours to do so and by that time we had complete cover of darkness to move our tent behind some shacks and trees. All went well, we were able to sleep with just the noise of the beach in the background, and in the morning there were only a few other people there with the official camping tour. The bad part is that the park rangers recognized us in the morning and again tried to get us to pay the crazy tour price, but because we weren't going to (we didn't even have that much on us), we finally settled on the park entry fee for both days. We then had the beach to ourselves except for a few other "tour" campers and the pesky park rangers. It stayed that way for hours, but eventually... just like in "The Field of Dreams", people did come. From there is was just a matter of finding a long tail boat guy that was on his way back to the main island.

We ended up leaving the island the next day because we'd run out of our 30 days on our Visa and needed to leave Thailand, so we decided to head South to Malaysia.

Phuket

Phuket (pronounced poo-ket, not... whatever you were thinking) is known as Thailand's tourist god. It's full of huge gorgeous beaches, malls and markets where you can shop for hours, restaurants from around the world. Of course this translates into huge resorts, non-stop heckling from locals, old rich white people stretching their way-too-close-to-naked bodies everywhere. In other words, not everything was good.
To be fair the beaches were nice. The sand was very fine, the water remarkably clear, and the weather was superb. However, it was the most crowded beach I've ever personally been to. (The busiest time is mid-December to mid-January)The other downside was with all the tourists there, the markets were just full of tacky souvenir shops and people yelling at you from all directions to come over to their shop.
Despite all of this Dalin and I still managed to find some adventures to be had. The day we arrived we discovered it was Halloween. (One of the most wonderful things about traveling is never being sure what day it is) We decided to go out and celebrate. Dalin found out what part of the island was the gay area, and off we went to the Paradise Complex near Patong beach. I was feeling a bit silly, and just happened to wearing my sarong around my waist like a skirt, so I decided that I'd act flaming gay for the rest of the night. It started without the help of alcohol, but after a margarita and then a drink of the worst beer I've ever tasted I was truly on fire. The beer was called Siam Sat if I remember right. I saw the price of 25 Baht (about 80 cents) for a large bottle, as well as a content of 9% and figured I couldn't go wrong. Well the stuff tasted exactly (exactly) like if you threw up apple juice. Of course I drank it, I mean... I'd paid for it, and I'd be damned if this bottle got the better of me. Anyway, after I was sufficiently giggly (I never even got tipsy), I wondered about flirting with skinny little Thai boys in a falsetto, and according to Dalin I, got a few of them to really like me. One in particular wouldn't believe that I was the straight one and Dalin was gay. We also had a performer from one of the drag shows who was taking pictures of me like mad and she taught us the Thai word for penis, Koi. (I'll never be able to look at those Japanese fish the same again). After several lively drag shoes, I wound up trying high heels for the first time which just about got me killed. (Hats off to you women) To be fair I'd had a few drinks and they were not just any high heels, but platform high heels. Eventually Dalin and I headed back to our hostel, which, it is probably worth mentioning, was the very hostel that the first bit of The Beach was filmed in!
The next day we checked out the world famous Patong beach, which like I said before, was pretty, except for the resorts built right up to the sand and the saggy old ladies, and fat old European men in Speedos, often holding hands with cute young Thai girls. Dalin and I played a bit in the ocean, then built a sand shark that would've been more impressive, except we were racing the tide. We also wondered about Patong town during the evening, and saw the tacky nightlife that was offered there. The worst was a band of Thais that were playing American rock songs, except for the singer really couldn't speak English terribly well, so he pretty much sung by making the sounds of the words, instead of actually saying words. As you can imagine this didn't work too well. My favorite songs were "Play That Funky Music White Boy" just because of pure irony, and the last song, which was Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of".
We also walked up and down the red light district, which was crazy to say the least. We never really stopped walking, but we both had our asses as well as others parts grabbed many many times by women telling us to "Come inside, many pretty girls!" Thankfully I knew to not have my wallet in my back pocket, because apparently these ass pinches are often joined with pick pocketing. Also, I had my sarong wrapped around my shorts anyway. The best was a sign that read "Suzy Wong's Ass Smaking Fun. Many Sexy Ladies, One Fat Mam.", with another sign that said "Original... Ass Smacking Fun Bar, Others Are Just Copies", so of course I had to get a picture of it. Outside of this classy joint was a bunch of girls armed with foam clubs, and they would go around smacking asses, just like the sign says.
The next day (Monday, November 2nd, 2009) was the Loi Krathong festival, which for reasons that I don't know, people make little boats out of banana leaves, light incense and candles in them, and send them afloat on rivers and lakes. They also light paper lanterns up and send them off into the night like hot air balloons. Some of these boats were incredibly elaborate and beautiful, these pictured here of the dragon and the phoenix took three days each to make. I myself didn't send off a boat. The hot air balloons seemed like more fun and were also cheaper. I got one, and with the help of an old man with a Fu-Man-Chu we set it off into the night I was told later by a local that the old man was probably trying to get the good luck from as many lanterns as possible. I'll admit that I felt kinda guilty as I watched my hot air balloon float off into the night, because I knew that eventually the fire would go out, and the entire thing would just fall into the ocean... probably choking a sea turtle. So even if this thing brings me luck, I'm not so sure it'll be good.

Khao Sok National Park

Khao Sok is a National Park in the middle of the Southern peninsula. Apparently the rain forest here still stands undisturbed because a while ago some "communist renegades" hid out in some caves and killed everyone that tried to come into the forest, including loggers. Now it remains a fairly unspoiled rain forest, and is also the home of the world's biggest flower. If you haven't heard of it, it is the huge one that blooms to be a meter across, and smells of rotting meat to attract pollinating insects. Unfortunately we were about a month too early to witness the blooming of this flower, we still saw plenty though. While the the park itself was really quite big, there wasn't much when it came to developed trails and places to go see. There were really only two trails to hike, and half of that was closed because of the possibilities of flash floods.
The first day we were there we went on a small loop hike through the forest and saw... green. I'm sure it's because I grew up in the desert, but it never ceased to amaze me how everything... everything was either alive or had something living on it (quite often both). The built in stairs were covered in moss, the handrails had lichen and insects clinging to it. You couldn't ever actually see dirt because there was so many tiny plants just covering the ground. As far as animals we mostly saw insects and other creepy crawlies. There were colorful butterflies and moths that were always flitting around. You had to constantly check your legs for leeches. I also saw an incredibly kick ass spider that looked like a Cat Face Spider, except it had gigantic spines on it's abdomen. We also had to cross a very "Indiana Jones" type bridge over a river at one point which was immensely entertaining.
The most interesting thing we saw was a huge army of very big ants on the war path. They were marching along a railing and were killing all of another, even bigger type of ant that they came across. They were big enough that we could hear the cracking as they bit through exo-skeletons and pulled off limbs. We must have watched them for an hour. They would have one ant grab the bigger one by the mandibles and hold it down while a few others grabbed legs and spread it out, then they would pull the ant apart (see the video of all the excitement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxHthErQ-wg). The next thing to come would be the workers a few minutes later to take all these parts, I'm guessing, back to their nest.
The biggest thing we saw was a snake that was lying in the middle of the path, it was about 1.5 - 2 meters in length and black with a little brown and yellow on it. Because we didn't know what kind this was, we kept our distance and watched it as it hung out and moved around a bit. After about 10 minutes it left the path which made it so that we could proceed. The next day we met a guy named Pong who had brought a Western Australian couple to the park on a tour and showed him pictures of the snake. He said it was a Cobra, however later that night we met another guy (Adam) who was a local and had been exploring the jungle for 10 years or more. We showed him the pictures and he said it was actually a Rat Snake, but they look quite a bit like a Cobra. The second guy was much more knowledgeable and had been in the area for much longer, so even though it would sound cooler to say we ran into a Cobra, I think it was just a Rat Snake after all.
The next day we went on another hike and got as far as a very nice waterfall (where we met Pong) which also allowed for some nice wading (which was the closest thing to a shower that I'd had it a few days). When it came to wildlife, we didn't really see too much different then what we saw the day before. We did see a bunch of trees moving because of monkeys in the distance, and would occasionally catch a slight glimpse of a monkey flying from tree to tree, but nothing spectacular. However, later that night we went to a restaurant that was right on the bank of one of the rivers. This area is also a popular swimming hole for monkeys, when they chose to come that is, and come they did!
That evening was one of the most pleasant that I've had so far on this trip. Dalin and I sat and ate our delicious curry while watching the lazy river move at the base of the sheer cliffs of limestone. You could only actually see parts of the stone because the jungle would still grow up these vertical cliffs. After a bit, monkeys began to show up, jumping from the trees into the water, and swimming about. Dalin and I rushed about and took photos until the light went. A few monkeys even came within a meter of us. We then sat down and just watched them for the next while. After it got dark Dalin and I talked for an hour or two with one of the workers at the restaurant, the Adam guy that told us our Cobra wasn't a Cobra. He answered questions about Buddism, Thai culture, the Thai language, etc. We also talked with him about the English language and America. He was one of those guys that gave Thailand the nickname of The Land of Smiles. He was happy to have a job that paid him in a day what most of us bitch about getting in an hour. He was happy that it was the slow season because he could talk to people like us which was nice and let him practice his English. He was happy when it was the busy season because it kept him busy. He would work about 14 hour days during the high season and he had fun showing people the jungle that he loved. He was happy where he lived because he was always learning about the jungle's plants and animals. He was just... happy, and for those that know me, it's pretty impressive for me to be impressed by that.
We decided to head to the park's lake the next morning, but first we went to go see the temple and the included big Buddahs. Now I know what you're thinking "why would there be a Buddist temple complete with Buddah statues in the middle of a jungle where there were people killing everyone who came near?" That would be a stupid question, because Thailand has this rule that if you aren't within spitting distance of a huge Buddah, then you need to stop what you're doing right then and build one. Apparently this temple started as just a cave that the monks would live in and had a few Buddahs inside, but one day they left the cave and built a temple right outside the mouth. Dalin and I started to explore the cave for a bit and all we found was that it was flooded after just 60 or 70 meters back. We also found the scariest and mangiest dog in the world that was hiding in the dark gnawing at fleas.
We also found some very dangerous looking stairs that led to some more stairs that went practically straight up the cliff right next to the Buddah cave. Further investigation found another cave filled with bats instead of Buddahs and scary dogs. However, the trip up to this one was loads of adventurous fun.
Much of Khao Sok Park is a huge lake that was created by a dam (much of this park was just jungle a while ago *sigh*) Everyone said it was beautiful and that you should go to either camp or stay on a floating bungalow. We headed there and got to the pier, but due to high water we couldn't get to any campgrounds. At the pier there was only one company that was doing the floating bungalows. It was decently expensive. An hour long tail boat ride out to the bungalows cost over $100 round trip! That wouldn't be too bad if you maxed out a boat with 10 people, but even then it wasn't cheap. Add to that the fairly expensive stay and food and we just decided that it would be too expensive. However, that did put us in the position that we had no clue where we were going to sleep. We walked for a bit and found a park on top of a hill right by the dam. We wandered about for a bit on the first cut lawn I've seen in this country, and couldn't find any sort of accommodation and no one knew anywhere to stay. So, as the sun began to set we figured that if we hid out on the far side of the golf course where there where no lights, and we stayed behind a hill, we could set up our tent all sneaky style, then be up and out before anyone noticed.
The plan seemed doable, until an hour after dark some guy came out and just stopped next to us. We tried to talk to him for a bit and maybe explain the situation, but he didn't speak any English beyond "Hello" so eventually he left again. We sat around for a bit, considered hiding, but knew they would eventually start really searching if they didn't see us, so we just figured we'd head out. On the way out there was a cop car driving about the parking lot. The cop stopped and talked to us for a bit. I asked innocently when the park closed, and found that it wasn't for another hour, so I'm still not sure why everyone was so keen on finding out why we were there. Anyway, I was up for just walking out of there and if needs be sleeping in the bushes, I figured that since we weren't in the park after closing there was no harm no foul. Dalin however started asking where we could stay and if the cop knew a place where we could set up a tent. I was not keen on going anywhere with a cop (who are notoriously corrupt) and was trying to subliminally tell Dalin to stop, but in the end we got in his car, he drove us 5 minutes away until we ended up at a little lawn where someone was charging a dollar a person to set a tent up for a night, so good call on Dalin's part.
The next morning we decided to head to Phuket, a huge island right off the coast on the South and the tourist king of Thailand. We hopped on a bus toward Phuket and toward more adventures!

Koh Pha-Ngan and the Half Moon Party

Ko Pha-Ngan, home of the infamous Full moon Party. I wasn't there for it unfortunately, I was thinking about sticking around but by the time I got through the Half moon Party I was ready to be sober again. I say this because there is very little to do on the South end of Ko Pha-Ngan (Hat Rin) except lay on the beach and party. Sounds nice, and it was, but it defiantly takes a toll on you. The first night I was there I was remained sober, I wrote and posted my last blog and turned in early to recover from a full day of traveling (it so odd that traveling, even if it is just sitting in boats and buses, takes so much out of you). The next day it all started.
I went out the next day, did some laying about in the sun and reading, then Dalin and I went over to The Treehouse Bar for a BBQ. The Treehouse Bar is a really small and chill bar literally built around a giant tree right on the West beach of Hat Rin, it was also just 20 meters up the beach from the bungalow Dalin and I were staying. Now Dalin had met a bunch of guys the night before and went over there, apparently they were having so much fun and buying so many drinks the owner (a really great local named Moo) invited everyone over for a BBQ the next night. I ended up over there for it and met a great group of people. The guy that had brought everyone together through sheer charisma was a great and fun guy named Rohan from New Zealand. There was also Alicia, Tim, Mickey,Ashleigh, Lucy, and others, most were British, a few from Australia. We had a great BBQ with chicken, whole fish, and the biggest prawns I've ever seen, cooked whole, then shelled yourself. We had some drinks, I even tried pot for the first time from some joints provided by Moo, but the quality was so low (probably 90% was tobacco) that nothing happened to me. That night I went to the East beach for the nightly beach party that is always going on. Every night there was a party at two separate bars on the beach, and you could go, hear the same techno remix CD, dance in the same foam, play the same beach games, watch the same fire dancers, every singe night if you wanted to.
In fact that was what I did for the next three nights as well. I'd wake up in the early afternoon, recover for a bit, then go hang out, about 9:00 you'd start to drink with whoever you were with, then you'd end up at that same damn party that you were at the night before, dancing to the same music. On the 3rd night, on my way back to the bungalow, I had some massively tattooed local Thai guy try to pick a fight with me or something. I'm not to sure what was going on, but here is basically what happened (I'm sorry for the language, but this is what he said):

"Hey you! Mother fucker! Yeah! You!"
"Hey, what's up?" At this point I just though he was trying to be cool, not aggressive, you know, just throw in profanity to be cool or whatever.
"Hey! (insert Thai for "fuck you")! That's how you say fuck you in Thai, you know how you say fuck you in Thai (insert Thai for "fuck you")! Yeah, (insert Thai for "fuck you")!"
"(insert Thai for "fuck you")?" Now I didn't really what to be around him, but I was in the middle of buying some food for the walk home, and was just trying to humor him.
"Fuck you! Where you from mother fucker?"
"America."
"Fuck you America!"
"Seriously man, whatever, I've got to go" I finally got my food and just wanted to get away from this guy.
"Hey! Mother fucker! Say thank you!
"I did."
"Say it again!"
"I already did."
"SAY IT AGAIN!"
Turning to the now fairly uncomfortable lady that I got my food from, "(insert Thai for "thank you")."
As I started to walk off Mr. Angry Pants started up his Kawasaki motorcycle and started to follow me, which put him out of the aggressive asshole category, and into the dangerous category, my hand immediately went to my knife in my pocket and I went into defensive fight mode, even though fighting a strange Thai guy is not what I wanted to do on this trip. "Hey! Mother fucker! You think you are tough because you are from America! Hey! America, fuck you! You fucking ass hole!" At this point he stopped along side me, I kept walking but still replied sternly and seriously.
"I'm an asshole? I'm not saying anything mean, you're the asshole."
"Hey! Fuck you you asshole! Hey!" I just kept walking and held my tongue, I'd said enough to show that I wasn't finding him amusing, I was tired of him, and that I wasn't going to put up with it anymore, I figured anything else would've been provoking. Eventually he drove past yelling out more of the same and I made it back home without anymore problems.

Now on the 4th night (Sunday, October 25th, 2009) I going to try to stay sober, but I started hanging out with our next door neighbors (Argentinian if I remember right) and of course started drinking, and ironically that night I got to the same party (again), played a few beach games (again), then suddenly woke up back in my bed. Now I think it was not quite 2 am when I still remembered what was going on, and Dalin didn't notice when I returned home, so I'm not sure how much later I partied, but I did have everything still, except for a couple hundred Baht, which meant I wasn't robbed, so I guess I bought a drink or something. Hopefully I had a blast.
Now for the grand fanale to this fairly embarrassing chapter of this trip (one that no doubt has disappointed some people, as well as made others proud). The Half moon Party! The party was the night of Monday the 26th, October 2009, and I began my night with another BBQ with the same group of people (only slightly bigger) as the first BBQ, and again it was at Moo's Treehouse Bar. After the good food and a few drinks we headed to our bungalow's restaurant (we were staying at The Coral Bungalows) and had more drinks and danced until the taxis started for the Half moon Party, which was about 20 kilometers away in the jungle. This part of the night will go down in history as Dalin's first time drinking. He had decided his first time drinking should be the Full moon Party, but because we didn't want to stay for another week he figured the Half moon was near as good. Of course he thought that all the drinks were nasty, but drank them anyway (welcome to the world of drinking). After midnight everyone taxied their way up to the party, where everyone had to pay 300 Baht to get in (about 9 US dollars), everyone except for me that is! Some guy pulled me out of the line and over to the gate, simply telling me that dreads got in for free, which I think is the first time my dreads have ever worked in my favor (except for making me a hell of allot sexier of course).
The party itself was in a huge cleared out area of the forest lined with bars and a huge stage on one side where there was the DJs, as well as some fire dancers. Most everyone was in a drugged up/drunken state (I just stuck with alcohol) and basically it was your basic rave. Everyone danced around, either by themselves or with others, I danced all over for hours, however never really met up with anyone that really held my attention, Dalin however did find himself a Bear. For those who are unaware, a Bear is a manly gay man, think lumberjack, and you've got a Bear, and that is Dalin's type of man. This particular Bear was from Germany and was very hot, however, since Dalin is a stud like that, he just danced with the guy and left him longing for more.
The next day we left Koh Pha-Ngan, I needed to be sober for a change, and that defiantly was not going to happen on this island, so as much fun as I had, it was good to get off, I took the night boat back to the mainland, and headed off to Kao Sok National park, where I could frolic about in the jungle for a change. You will hear about those adventures soon.