Random Thoughts of the Day:

I don't think I would ever ride an elephant. It's just too sad. Even the places you see that look like a nice small family run business, and the elephants are just hanging out together and seem to be fine, you drive by that same place in the evening, the poor guys are on ten feet ropes. I guess I could see if I was traveling into the jungle somewhere that was only accessible by elephant, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I'm sure it's an interesting experience, and they are so cute. Today we stopped by a place and there was an older one and a baby that couldn't be used for riding, so we fed them bananas. But if there weren't a bunch of tourists wanting to ride them, maybe they wouldn't have to live such a sad existence.

There are also tons of monkeys here that spend most of their time on super short leashes, just staring at nothing. They are used to get coconuts, one day there were six of them at work in the field next to us. Each one was on a long rope held by a guy who told them which tree to climb up. They pull off the ones they can then throw them down. When one tree is done, the guy tells the monkey which tree is next, and they leap through the air. It was a pretty crazy site. One guy saw that we were watching and told his monkey to jump to a tree that seemed way too far, and the monkey took almost five minutes trying to figure out how to do it. I imagine that the monkey has a pretty idea if he can make it or not, so I don't know why the guy was so insistent, yelling at the monkey to do it. When he finally did, he jumped and had to grab onto a leaf, with about a foot to spare after he slid down. The owner looked at us as if to say, 'Good show eh?'. I wish I could have told him that we were thoroughly entertained already, and there was no need to scare the crap out of the poor monkey.

Anyway, that was my animal rights talk. There is a monkey that lives on our property here, and every time we drive by and he is sitting there staring at the ground it breaks my heart. I wish I could give him a puzzle or a toy or something. I'm sure monkeys can do puzzles can't they?

Other than the sad state of some of the animals here, I don't have anything really negative to say about our time here. The people seem very friendly, everyone gives you a huge smile when you smile at them. The guys aren't rude, they don't yell or catcall like I experienced in Fiji.

The people here seem to be either fairly poor or fairly well off, there isn't much of a middle class. I don't think I've seen a single beater car here, if you can afford a car it's a pretty nice one. The houses on this island are basically varying degrees of shacks, with woven bamboo or thin ply wood walls, and tin for a roof or else pretty big nice looking places. Although even the tiniest shack seems to always have a tv, and often a satellite dish.

A lot of people run a small business, usually a food stand, motorcycle rental, internet, travel agent or a combination. I often wonder how these tiny stores or restaurants make money; I think it must just cover the cost of rent and their own food. The people seem to work hard, but slower. When I see a building under construction (always women are working right along side the men) I wonder how anything gets built since it seems like such a relaxed pace, but I guess it is just a different way of living.

Well that's my musings for the day, Hitoshi is getting shrimp ready and I'm going to go help.

Oh, and on one more completely random thought: I think that this is the longest I have ever gone not eating beef since I still didn't have my baby teeth and I snatched a steak off my mom's plate and gummed it for half an hour. I didn't think it was possible for me to go so long without it, it's an interesting change. I can't complain when there is such an abundance of fresh seafood.

To Ko Phangan

New pics @ http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89231&l=b63ec&id=509955156

After learning that two friends, Jill and Kix, that I met at Burning Man in 2006, were staying on Ko Phangan, we decided to head there next. The island is in the Gulf of Thailand, and just north of the larger, more developed Ko Samui. The island is famous for their Full Moon Parties, held once a month all year round and anywhere from 3,000 to 30,000 people in peak season show up for it. Personally, it's not my cup of tea (my impression is too many drunk 20 year old partying to bad house music, but I could be wrong) so we planned to wait until after it was over to head to the island.

On January 26th, we woke up in the morning to take a bus to the main port and then take a ferry. The 'air con bus' that we were supposed to take for about three hours turned into three mini vans, two buses and ten hours just to get to the ferry. All day we were shuffled from bus station (I use that term loosely) to bus station, and then left waiting anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours. We realized that in trying to fill the bus as much as possible, they would make everyone wait around as long as it took to gather more people, even if 20 people were left waiting for hours for 2 to show up.

After a bumpy ferry ride, and twelve and a half less than awesome hours after we left Khao Lak, we arrived at the pier in Ko Phangan. We were so glad to see Jill and Kix waiting to pick us up! They doubled us on their scooters to the house they had rented, and were generous to offer us space in their pad. Once we got here though we found out that the place next to theirs was open, and having a bed won out over the floor.

After staying two nights, we realized that this island had everything we wanted (beach, jungle, calm ocean, great weather), and so we rented the house. There are four houses here, which have one large room for a bed room, a bathroom, a kitchen and a large front porch. Our kitchen has a fridge, a sink and two burners that run on propane. We rented the house for a month for 7000 bhat, which is about $225 for a month. Our neighbours are Jill and Kix next to us, an Austrailian named Manuel who is here training in Thai boxing next to them, and across from us a man in his 50s who apparently comes here every year for a few months.

The island is quite small, we can drive down one side in about 20 minutes. It is very lush and not too developed, with almost 70% of the island protected. We are staying on the west side of the island, only a five minute walk from the beach. Our beach however is a sort of mini pier for all the long tail boats, so instead of walking there we usually ride the scooter somewhere. We haven't explored too much, although we have found the best snorkeling spot, on a beach up the west side called Ao Mae Haad. There is good coral and tons of fish, and we've been back there a few times. Hitoshi loves it and brings his snorkeling mask everywhere.

Less than ten minutes from us on scooter is a market and a bunch of shops. If we get up early enough we go to the market to buy fresh seafood for dinner. If we don't make it to the fresh food market, there are grocery stores or another market that has about twenty stalls selling anything from curry to fried chicken.

We did make it to a half moon party, which was in the jungle and very organized, since they do throw it twice a month all year. There was a 300 bhat ($10) cover, and one big stage. There were lots of black light decorations, and three bars. The music was mostly progressive house and I'd say there were at least 400 people there. It was ok, probably would have been funner if I was drinking more. Jill, Kix and I did split a bucket, which is a mickey of whiskey (or gin or vodkha), a can of pop and a red bull. I was warned about them before I left, and a not so fond memory of a bucket party a Crystal's does come to mind, so I hadn't had one yet. It was good though, and I do see buckets in my future, but that night I wasn't really in party mode. We hung out for a few hours, Hitoshi spun fire and then came home.

Other than that we have been lazing around, relaxing in our hammock, playing with our staffs, enjoying the weather which is perfect and swimming in the ocean. It is great to have a house, and be able to buy fresh, cheap groceries. We plan on staying here until we return to Bangkok for some shopping a few days before we fly home. I know exactly how lucky I am, and I am grateful everyday to be with the man I love, surrounded by so much beauty and great friends.