The Island Life

Well I just got into Krabi after about a 3km hike with all of my baggage from where the stupid tour bus dropped me off. I've actually been doing an awful lot of walking lately as I'm trying to save the moolah. Also why I am eating bread and peanut butter all day. My parents must be so happy reading this. So Koh Phangan really looks like the google images that come up. It takes a 3 hour bus ride and another 3 hours on a ferry to get there. Most people headed towards Haad Rin (the site of the full moon party, and the party spot on the island) but I headed the other way up to Bottle Beach - a secluded beach on the north side of the island, accessible only by a longtail boat or a very shaky motorbike ride. I have no idea how to drive a motorbike so I opted for the boat. It was secluded and gorgeous, and I was able to meet up with a couple I had met in Krabi. I spent several days here just lounging on the beach...and I will probably have skin cancer popping up from my ears to my toes as a result. My malaria medication has a pharmacist label on it saying to avoid excessive or prolonged sun exposure while using the medication. Well that's kind of difficult when you have gone to Thailand to lay on the beach for a week. I have never been so sunburnt in my life - sunscreen had no effect and I literally roasted. By the end I had to hide on my balcony until the sun went behind the clouds.

I was on Bottle Beach for Canada Day and there were no fireworks of course, lol, but there was another group of Canadians there. The resort staff gave us these huge white chinese lanterns to decorate and then we lit candles in them and sent them flying beside a fire on the beach. It was pretty cool and seem an appropriate way to celebrate.

Most people in Thailand are Buddhists and as a result pretty much every little business/house/restaurant has their own little shrine set up with rice and other offerings out. I don't know much at all about the religion (I've been a bad cultural tourist, not learning any Thai either), but the shrines are very ornate, usually gold and colorful with flowers decorating them.

After Bottle Beach I headed to Mae Haad, which is renowned for its scuba diving and snorkelling. I lacked the time and money to do a scuba course so opted to snorkel. The water wasn't perfectly clear, and I was just going off shore so it didn't look as colorful as National Geographic makes it out to be but it was still pretty cool. However, I kind of suck at it as the masks completely seal off your nose and I kind of got freaked out and felt like I was suffocating just breathing through the snorkel. Everything under water looked so much bigger and there were lots of differnet kinds of fish swimming through the coral. I also saw lots of sea cucumbers and a sea urchin, which sent me back to shore to put on my sandals. My last day I was in Thong Sala where I spent just a bit too much money on food and souvenirs so I am trying to last on about $5 for the next day and a half before I fly out, as the cheapest rooms were full at my guesthouse in Krabi. All in all, 4 novels, several peeling sunburns and many hours in a hammock later, I am ready to head out from Thailand and into Laos. Wish me luck!