Friday, January 09, 2004
Well, once again it's been awhile since I posted an entry. Since my last entry I have traveled to the northern capital of Chiang Mai, but until now I have done quite a bit. I spent Christmas on Ko Pha Ngan with the Canadian couple I met up from Nepal. It was the most un-Christmas I ever had. Thai's don't celebrate Christmas at all, except for foreigners. Nevertheless we made out own Christmas dinner with the guest house's kitchen. We had a deliciously stuffed chicken, homemade garlic mashed potatoes, carrots, and more, and all primarily prepared by the Canadian master chef. Two days later I wished farewell to the couple who was traveling south towards Malaysia, and chilled out waiting for new year's to come, for my friend Kristin and other friends were coming to the island to celebrate. Meeting up with them on New Year's Eve in Hat Rin, the party location, I ran into a girl I met in Nepal sun bathing on the beach. I wasn't even surprised to see her because those sort of things happen when you travel. People inevitably end up in the same places, and it's just a matter of time before you run into somebody you know. The New Year's party that night was amazing. It was on the beach, and there were tons of people, and so many different venues to party in. It was a fun night hanging out, but the next day was going to be treacherous. That morning I got only 1 hour of sleep before heading to the pier to take the ferry back to the mainland. It was one of those car ferry's that drove really slow, but I really didn't care since I was in dire need of sleep and crashed on the seats inside with my luggage. To sum up the day, it was more or less a rat race to get to the border and cross into Burma to get a new visa, then head up to Bangkok to meet Jay and Dustin the next day. Not really sure where I was going exactly, I was shuttled between various groups of people, which I had to trust to get me to where I needed to go. Once getting to Ranong where the jump was made to Burma across the strait I was pretty much screwed since I had virtually no choice but to pay outrageous amounts of baht to take a taxi bike and boat because I was the only person trying to get my visa on new year's day. The boat ride to Burma was about 40 minutes on the leaking long tail boat which didn't go very fast at all. But I made it there and back in once piece, and didn't take any time to actually go into Burma and explore because I had to get back to Thailand before immigration closed. With that complete I got my bus ticket to Bangkok and walked around for two hours before the 10 hour long night bus left. Ranong was a strangely quiet city at the time, but seemed to have the capacity to serve many more tourists. Catching the bus minutes before it left, I was then off to Bangkok to rendevous with Jay and Dustin. Arriving at 5am in the morning I retreated to the familiar guest house named the Shanti Lodge, a friendly and atmospheric location. Following a few hours of fighting off the early morning mosquitos I made my way to the airport, and ended up splitting a cab with this guy who was on his way south to where I had just come from, Ko Pha Ngan. He was a muscian who offered his services for free or discounted lodging at the many bungalows and resorts. Once at the airport I awaited Philippines flight 730 to land and for Jay and Dustin to pass through immigration before starting another adventure in Thailand...
