Island life is the life for me!

quick note: I have received several worried emails from friends and family about the situation in Thailand, and just wanted to reassure you all that I'm totally safe. The protesting is localized to a very specific area in Bangkok, and most of Bangkok is totally safe (including the place where I stayed when I flew in). As you'll soon read below, I'm 500m south of Bangkok now, and there is absolutely no political tension here. Thanks for your concern, though!


As you may have deduced from the title of this post, I am no longer in Bangkok (seeing as it's not an island, it would be a misleading post if I was still there). Last Wednesday I said goodbye to Bangkok and its political tension, and took a night bus / ferry to Ko Tao, an island about 500 km south of Bangkok. Quick rant: while I greatly appreciate air conditioning, why do the buses always have to set it on "arctic ice storm"? Even with a fleece on over my shorts/tshirt I was so cold that I couldn't sleep until I got to my backpack under the bus during a rest stop and changed into jeans too. Ok, rant over.

So yeah, back to Ko Tao: it's pretty well known as a scuba diving mecca - seems that that's where everyone goes to do scuba training. I went for a couple dives, and while I was a bit spoiled by my dive trip in the Great barrier Reef, I still really enjoyed it - they've got tons of anemones (and their accompanying anemone fish), and I also saw a gigantic school of barracuda, which was really cool. At one point the school had us completely surrounded, which was so neat to see (these barracuda weren't very big - only a foot long or so, which is why I'm saying it was cool, rather than terrifying).

When not diving, I spent my time hanging out with friends I met on the ferry over: we'd explore new food places, watch the sunset on the beach, and all that good stuff.

Then, on Sunday I switched islands to Koh Panang. I'm staying at a large guesthouse which has its own restaurant and swimming pool, and it's right on the beach! Pretty awesome. Oh, and I'm paying 300 Baht / night which is about $10. Excellent deal. Yesterday I rented a moped and (carefully) zipped around the island, checking out the other beaches etc.

Tomorrow I'll head back to Ko Tao, where I'll be meeting up with my old college roommate Dan, and we'll travel together for a week and a half scuba diving Ko Tao, chilling on Koh Panang, and then heading up to Chiang Mai for some trekking, which should be a great time.

Alright, it's picture time - enjoy!

the Koh Tao beachscape right across from our guesthouse

me on our kayak trip to a nearby island for some snorkeling

more Christmas Tree worms! These guys are so cool. Unfortunately, you won't see too many more pictures like this from me 'cause my camera started acting funky after I took it snorkeling (even though I went no deeper than 5 feet, and it's good to 10), so I think its days in he water are numbered

our adopted cat "Sox" outside our bungalow. Well, to be accurate I guess I should say that Sox adopted us - she just showed up at the bungalow one day and made herself comfortable. She even managed to guilt-trip me into buying her some mackerel (she's so skinny)!

a pancake street vendor/artiste hard at work on his craft

enjoying the pancakes from the aforementioned (aforepictured?) pancake vendor

the bars in Koh Tao have cushions set up so you can sit right on the beach, drink a beer and watch the sunset. Awesome

they've got some interesting potato chip flavors in Thailand. Anyone care for soft shell crab pringle? Or maybe blueberry/hazelnut?

Leonardo DiCaprio, star of the movie The Beach about, you guessed it, a beach (in Thailand), was kind enough to leave me a note letting me know where the real beach was! Unfortunately I think he was a little confused - I followed the sign and there was no beach, just rocks going into the water. . .

the seashore on Haat Rin beach, in Koh Panang

the view from my bungalow's restaurant. Life is good