SE Asia Escapade: Another day in paradise

Like my last post, I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet, though I'm hardly ever successful at that. Sorry that my posts have become few and far between...the combination of being exhausted, being far from an internet cafe, and being on some of the most incredible islands in the world has taken some of the fun out of "blogging".

I left Koh Tao yesterday and arrived by ferry on Koh Phangan, the next island over. So far, it's just as amazing, though much bigger, more commercial, and more crowded. It seems that there is definitely more to do, but it's not as quaint or relaxing as Koh Tao. I'm staying at a place called Beck's resort in Ao Noi Wok--a small,secluded bay on the Southwest side of the island--with Aaron (guy from Cal Poly that I met in Chiang Mai and stayed with in Koh Tao) and Erica (girl from SF that Aaron was friends with and I met in Koh Tao). We have a few more friends that we hung out with in Koh Tao coming over today, so it looks like we'll have a good-size group for the full moon party(ies). The full moon party is essentially the reason I came to Koh Phangan. Every full moon, there is a giant party on Haadrin beach with between 10 and 30 thousand people in attendance--tourists and locals alike. Tonight we're going to go and pre-full moon party on Haadrin and scope the place out, and tomorrow is the big night. It should be an epic time and a great group. Google koh phangan, and full moon party koh phangan.

When we got here yesterday, we found a great restaurant, ate for 2 dollars, and then went back to the bay that we're staying in to go explore an island about a half mile across the bay. The water is shallow enough that you can literally walk all the way across this crystal clear bay to another island...though, we never made it due to the 50 million seashells on the ocean surface that made it feel like we were walking on razor blades. Instead, we went back to our hotel beach, and went on an adventure up the coastline. We didn't get too far because we were exhausted from our attempt at the island, but I plan to go explore the area as soon as I get back.

The last few days in Koh Tao were also awesome. Unfortunately, I didn't complete the PADI open water course. I rediscovered a phobia of mine that I didn't think would apply underwater--clastorphobia. It made for a pretty stressful and uncomfortable experience, and diving wasn't worth enough to me to be stressed out for the last days of my trip. I guess it's a pretty common thing to have happen (not wanting to dive due to clastorphobic type symptoms), and it's something that can be overcome pretty easily with time...but, I didn't have much time. So, maybe sometime down the road I'll finish the course. I was pretty bummed out about it/disappointed in myself for a day or so, but once I got over it, I really enjoyed Koh Tao even more than I think I would've had I been diving. Probably the coolest thing I did was go on a snorkeling trip all the way around the island. You may be thinking exactly what I usually think of snorkeling...dumb activity for tourists that can't figure out anything more interesting to do. Wrong. We boated around the entire island (which was awesome and gave a great perspective of the island) stopping at several different bays to snorkel for an hour or so (throughout the course of the day we did about 6 hours of snorkeling). Every bay was a fish bowl. I was literally surrounded by pools of all different kinds of colorful tropical fish the entire time...it was incredible, and interesting. I also did some free diving of my own, diving down 10-15 feet for 30-60 seconds to check out some of the cooler fish closer to the ground. At first, this almost killed me, as I came up light headed and gasping for breath each time (the English guy that I was trying this with kept getting bloody noses). But, after a while, I got the hang of it, and was able to dive down pretty easily..it was awesome, challenging, and fun. Anyways, it was a full day of snorkeling, hanging out with cool people on the boat, and exploring the sea surrounding the island. Great day.

The other few days consisted mainly of hanging out on the beach, kayaking, and making new friends. On one of the days, Aaron and i went to Yang Nuan, which is a smaller island right off the coast of Koh Tao...it had probably the coolest beach I've ever been to, with completely transparent bays on either side of the beach, which connected two small islands (picture below). We went out for dinner (and bars after) each night--which consisted of bbq skewers of fish, chicken, pineapple, onion, etc=delicious-- with big groups of people, and finally settled in with the same group we'll be with for Koh Phangan and the full moon party (myself and 2 other CA people, 3 Canadian girls, 2 English girls, and a couple from NY). Meeting new, interesting people continues to be my favorite part of the trip.

Today I plan to kayak out to the island that we failed to walk to yesterday, and just explore the coastline near where we're staying. I'm really excited for my two days and two awesome nights on this incredible island, though I'm also excited that this is one of my last stops (Bangkok next, for a day, then Singapore, then home on the 25th)--a win-win situation. Living out of a backpack and moving around every few days for 2 months has proven to be exhausting, and I look forward to sleeping in the same bed for more than 4 consecutive nights, seeing friends and family, working out, watching the NBA finals, not having to eat at a restaurant every meal, and many other things.

Here are a few pictures. I wish I could post more, by one of my memory cards got corrupted and I can't retrieve my files...I'll have to deal with that when I get home.