Cambodia!

Here I am in Cambodia, Siem Reap to be exact. Spent a whole day galavanting around Ankor Wat, the huge, famous, Wonder of the World temple complex with an Austrian couple I met on the bus. The temples are amazing, and there's so many of them! Even after a whole day we still need to do another one tomorrow to see the rest of them. Our tuk tuk driver, Ang, is great, and at $40 for two days of him chauffering us around the temples, a person can't go wrong.



Cambodia is great so far, and cheap too! I'm paying $7 a night for a really nice room, when we were told by the touts we would pay around $25. Food is great, you can get a dish of fried noodles and chicken for $1. It's really weird with the currency, US dollars are used a lot, but if you buy something you could get change in Cambodian Riel. So far it seems to have worked out though. Siem Reap seems like a pretty cool place, the night life here is great and the alcohol is cheap, which could be a problem for me. Now that I say that, it was a problem last night. On the two minute walk from the bar to my guest house I was swarmed by five Cambodian hookers who felt me up and pick pocketed me in the process. Luckily they only got 500 Baht and a $20. Bitches.

Southern Thailand Wrap-up

Well since I'm heading to Cambodia tomorrow I figure I might as well do a wrap-up on Southern Thailand.

I had a great time here, it really turned into a vacation after some hard traveling in India. It seemed to me like traveling through this part of the country isn't really traveling at all, it's vacationing. I didn't really see a lot of culture at all. I mean the people here are amazing, and it was cool to see the laid back island life, but as far as sightseeing it's really all beaches, snorkling, scuba diving and bars. Not that I'm complaining, I had a great time doing all of those things. It's easy to understand why everyone retires out here, life is great in Thailand.

The highlights of this leg are not few and far between. Ton Sai, I love you. That little laid back rock climbing community was the coolest place and had the best atmosphere out of anywhere I went in Thailand. The rock climbing course I took there showed me that I'm beating my fear of heights. Partying in Koh Phi Phi. I met and partied with a ton of really great people on that little island, and that Christmas Eve will go down in the books as the drunkest one yet and probably ever. The New Years Eve Party on Koh Phangan has to be mentioned, it was and probably always will be the craziest party I've ever been to. Scuba Diving was excellent, I'm incredibly glad I'm certified in what will be a new hobby for me.

There's not a lot to mention as far as the bad goes. The bus/boat package system can be a little disorganized at times, but it was leaps and bounds better than it was in India. Koh Samui sucked, I would never recommend that island to anyone, it was the most unsocial place I went to in Thailand. Taking the boat from Koh Samui for the New Years Eve Party was also horrible (see the 'New Years Eve Mayhem' post). The Hell Day I had on the way to Koh Phi Phi was just that, hell (see the 'Hell Day' post).

All in all, I love this country, and will be back for sure in the future. I partied hard, I don't think my blood alcohol level has ever been consistently so high. I can't wait to see what's in store for me when I come back to do the north in a week or so. Needless to say, I'm excited about it.

Money Spent:
Roughly $1500 on daily expenses (food, lodging, transport, misc stuff like internet)
My Open Water Diver course was $317, and I did a $40 tour of the south islands. I could have done this country quite a bit cheaper, I did A LOT of drinking, and that is a major budget killer. Also the wasted expenses on the Hell Day from missing my boat/having to return to Ton Sai hurt my budget a little.



I'll also mention my last couple days before departing. Bangkok was MUCH better this time around, as it's now high season. It's great what a little more Farang (tourists) and a little less heat will do for this city. I hit up Wat Pho today to see the Reclining Buddha, which was awesome. It was funny to see the same touts trying to scam me, and my Veteran Traveler responses to them. I even recognized one of them from when I was here four months ago. Tonight I'm going to try and catch some more live music, which the area around Khao San Road is full of.

Bye Bye Beach

Yesterday was my last day with the beach, we decided it was best to part ways for a while. This guy needs a change of scenery, so now it's the big city for a bit and then to the wild wilds of Cambodia, where I'll spend a week or so visiting the Khmer Temples of Angkor Wat, chill out in Phnom Pehn and fire some machine guns at the notorious shooting range there.

Hua Hin was a definite Farang-ville. It's very obvious with the amount of old guys with young, Thai girlfriends, the sheer amount of real estate agencies and the staggering amount of seniors on the beach (when I'm trying to find a girl to talk to) that this place is a retirement hotspot of Thailand. Unfortunately I was unable to meet up with the guy I used to work with, but I filled my day with a couple first experiences in Thailand. The first one was a Thai massage, which I mistakenly thought would be very relaxing. The first part is, until she sat me upright and drilled her knees and elbows into my shoulder girdle. I'm still a little sore from it today, but oddly enough my muscles feel good.

The second first was a Muay Thai fight. Good fun had by all. Out of five fights two of them were kids around thirteen years old. It was pretty funny watching that knowing that in Canada it would totally be against the law. The atmosphere there is great though, older Thais (probably trainers and family) crowd the base of the ring, shouting and hollering the whole time, and letting out ecstatic cheers every time a good kick lands home. I was really stoked to see the world's greatest Muay Thai matches at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, but unfortunately I leave the day of the match so it will have to wait until I get back from Cambodia.

I Heart Scuba Diving

You are reading the blog of a man that is now certified as an Open Water Diver. My scuba diving course was awesome to say the least, I can't wait to go diving again. Over four days we learned the basic theory behind pressure effects and diving skills, and the second day was spent in the pool going over basic skills like removing and replacing your mask underwater, then clearing the water from it, doing buddy breather, stuff like that. The second and third days were the fun stuff, actually going out to dive sites to do some open water dives. The first one was shit for me, I had major problems trying to equalize my left ear so I didn't really get to enjoy it. The other three were great though, my ears finally started to equalize properly and I could actually spend some time looking around at the multitude of fish around us, including Sting Rays, Angelfish, Moray Eels, and Clownfish.

I wish I would have had more time to spend on Koh Tao, especially to carry on and do my Advanced Open Water course, but unfortunately my visa stamp is about to run out in four days so I have to get my butt out of Thailand. I'll have to do my Advanced course in Indonesia, since there's really nowhere else on my future list that's any good for diving. It's looking like Cambodia will be the best bet for my next destination, I'll go spend a week roaming around there before heading back to Thailand for two weeks in the north. I'm in Hua Hin right now, where I'll meet up with a guy I used to work with back in my Revelstoke days. It's more laid back here, which is good for me, I could really use a break from all the clubs. I've never been a big club person myself, I've always liked a more laid back atmosphere, and after a month of them, I'm done for a little while.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I call bullcrap on the weather I've had in Thailand so far! Bullcrap! It was rainy and cloudy my whole time in Ton Sai, it rained on my speedboat tour to the southern islands, it was shitty almost every day on Koh Samui, it was rainy yesterday, and today the biggest thunderstorm I've seen in a long time rolled through here at 7:30am, and it's still cloudy. Bullcrap! It had better clear up soon or I'm going to start dumping Freon and DDT's liberally.

The good news is I started my PADI diving course today, only a half easy day watching boring videos and going through small quizzes. Tomorrow morning we do our intro confined water dives in the swimming pool and then some more classroom stuff in the afternoon. Luckily for me diving goes on no matter what the weather looks like, which is good considering by the end of the course I'll only have five days to do get off the island and do a visa run to Cambodia so I can get another fifteen day stamp for cruising around the north of Thailand.

Koh Phangan. Without the Mayhem.

I can't believe I stayed so long in Koh Samui when paradise was a thirty minute boat ride away. I caught a ride on a ferry back to Koh Phangan, this time to stay. My original plan was to head to Bottle Beach in the north, but I took the cheaper route and went to Laem Son Beach with a Dutch girl I met on the boat. Great decision it was, the place I'm staying has the nicest beach I've been on so far. I'm planning on taking a sunset photo this evening so I'll be sure to post it up. I'm really glad I'm off of Koh Samui, it was the least social place I've been in Thailand, and the most commercialized. I'm planning on taking a ferry to Koh Tao in a couple days to sign up for my Open Water certification course for scuba diving, my intro to the sport.



I'm going to go nurse my hangover now...

New Years Mayhem

Well I survived it. The Full Moon party was pure insanity. And another SNAFU day getting there too. I booked a return speedboat ticket that included a pickup from my hotel. One that didn't show up for two hours. When I finally got to the pier, there was a ton of people there waiting for various speedboat companies to take them to Koh Phangan. Then it developed from SNAFU to FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition). It started pouring rain, while backing a huge speedboat into the water with a tiny jeep the jeep became horribly stuck, then the other jeep trying to pull it out rolled down the hill, nearly into a crowd of people. E-brakes are important!

I was starving at this point and went up to get some food while I waited. This Thai dude told me I could have a whole fish for one hundred Baht, a very good deal. Then he throws a ten pound fish on my plate, not skinned or anything. I laughed while I ate that damn fish, it was actually pretty good. When the boats finally showed up, it literally turned into anarchy, like something out of the end of the world. People would flood towards the boats, pushing and shoving like it was the boat to their salvation. I ended up being the second last guy to get on one of the speedboats, and the boat staff were nearly getting in fights with asshole tourists desperate to get a bucket.

When I finally got to Koh Phangan I paid my one hundred Baht entrance fee, quickly downed some cheap Pad Thai, picked up a bucket and headed for one of the paint booths. Everyone at the full moon party gets covered up in neon paint, straight up voodoo. I had the guy paint a big neon gecko on the side of my neck going up around my jaw, and traced the bones of my hand and fingers in neon paint. I ended up hanging around with three English guys that were getting painted as well. The beach is insane, it's elbow to elbow people for a kilometer, trance and house music pumping, people skipping a rope that's on fire, and black lights. The countdown was the epic, as well as the fireworks show that went on for it. I ended up partying until about 5:30 am, walking up and down the beach and dancing my ass off in the various bars.

The speedboat situation going back was about the same as coming to the island; anarchy. It's incredibly unorganized, it's literally every man for himself, and that's exactly how I played it this time, butting in front of everyone to get the attention of the boat staff to look at my ticket. It worked. He waved me over, and I had to monkey my way around the crowd on edge of the pier, holding onto the edge of the roof of the pier so I wouldn't fall into the water. I finally got back to Koh Samui at 6am and crashed hard in my bed. Thankfully Mr. Night Light had his light off...