Friday, November 25, 2011

Ko Pangan

November 9th, 2011.

The last day of our vacay, we take a short ferry over to Ko Pangan to attend the infamous full moon party that night.

Just landed

Sugar on a dock

View from our bungalow!

Our bungalow was RAD.

View from the hotel restaurant
We relaxed during the day, but later that afternoon I realized that my stomach was a little iffy and I overall didn't feel too well.  This picture of me kind of sums up my physical state at the time.


But there was no way I was going to miss out.  So I suck it up and we head out to Had Rin (the southern tip of the island) for the party.  It's an area chock-a-block with drunken degenerates in day glow shirts and paint, wall to wall backpackers and bars, and buckets as far as the eye can see.
























We met up with our two fellow English teachers (Andy and Kathleen) and friends they had made at their hostel.

Sugar and Andy
Naomi had to drink the "king's bucket"
Kathleen looking fierce as usual :D
Juan loved the modern art addition I made on his arm
Tribal Sugar!
Yes, I wrote my full name on myself.

After some farting around at this bar, we head out to the beach where the actual party was.

Charlie, Me, Dave.
Juan and I spoke in Spanish to each other the whole night!
A view of the crowd
Bad ass bartender and his buckets.  Shugs and I mainly stuck to beer.
Charlie
I think it goes without saying that Kathleen's camera was not functioning by sunrise.















Who wants to be a daring contestant...

To jump the rope of FLAMES?

Sugar got a few jumps in, but I didn't manage to get a picture.


Slide of fire

Charlie looking rad.
So around 4 am the ibuprofen I had taken earlier that evening wore off and I realized that I was, indeed, sick.  I had pretty intense fever chills, and a crampy stomach.  We left for home and woke up late the next day.

This is at the restaurant of our hotel.  This chick vomited off the balcony and the hotel staff didn't bat an eye.
I however, felt awful for a completely different reason.  We went into town and quickly saw a pharmacist before getting on the ferry back to Surat Thani.  He surmised that I had a bacterial stomach infection which explained the fever and cramping.  We bough some paracetamol to take care of the fever.

My awesome new hat I got next to the pharmacy

On the ferry: Sugar being cute and trying to make me feel better! <3




 After an overnight train ride from Surat Thani to Nakhon Pathom, we were relieved to be back home.  I was still not feeling better at this point, and we were to start teaching in 3 days time so I reluctantly took an antibiotic for traveler's diarrhea.  I felt worlds better just later that day!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Ko Samui: Part 2

Day 2 of Ko Samui starts with us renting a scooter from our hotel for the day.  No more haggling with songtels!






We then head to a trail that leads to a waterfall. 




Unbeknownst to us, the head of the trail is a "Safari Park" - a tourist attraction that had elephant rides and also tigers and a jaguar chained down for people to take pictures with.  It was incredibly sad.  The jaguar tried to pace back and forth on the platform he was on, but hardly had enough length of chain to stand up.  We noticed that their teeth were filed down, and we assumed that they were also de-clawed.  I could hardly walk past this exhibit; I felt ill.





We suck it up and move on to the trail.











Trekking to the top.  Sugar dramatized the need for the rope.

Found a rope-swing!


Made it to the top!









I ate a few members of his family.

Sugar the conqueror!


<3
Time to swim!  This time we go to Lamai beach, a little south of the Chaweng that we had gone to the day prior.  It was picture perfect!



Clear as crystal











I love my Doraemon sandals!
To finish off a pretty awesome day, we head for a cold beer at the...