Phew...Its Hot

Wow, its been awhile since I have done one of these...I think it has something to do with being in paradise beaches and the internet costing more than food at said paradises..

Since you last read about me I was in my last weekend in Taiwan (seems like ages ago) and was en route to Thailand...

I met up with a group of Guelph's finest in Koh Pahnang for buckets of fun (not to mention Swedes and Body Paint galore!!)...that was a fairly exhausting two day trek to get there involving various boats, planes, shady 'taxis' and one extremely comfortable (but long) train ride. After sleeping on the floor of an airport (not recommended) and sleeping on short bed on a sleeper train (fairly recommended) I was happy to get a real bed on a sunny beach.

There were 6 of us, and we actually managed to stick together for the most part (remember the safe word!! chicken sandwich right?) during what happens to be one of the most famous parties in the world and turned out to be OK...not great, but definately not boring).

After that we went to paradise...errr...Bottle Beach, on the same island as that aforementioned party, albeit worlds away. Without getting into too much detail (you need to go there on your own, or wait for my pictures), white sand, crystal blue water, and delicious food were the name of the game here. Not too mention great (GREAT) people, pretty good beds, and some very strange locals all made for a great couple of days. I tell ya, time flies when your going swimming, playing volleyball and sun tanning all day.

Three of us seperated and went to Koh Lanta, on the other side of Thailand...meaning a stop over on the main land. This turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip so far (the stopover, I mean). It happened to be Songkram in Thailand this past week, which is the Thai New Year. Thais celebrate by driving around town and spraying water on everyone and everything (not too mention painting and high fiving etc). They were especially happy to have foreigners join in the fun and Andy, Dan, and I were more than happy to oblige. We waited outside our busstop with buckets of water and splashed everyone that came by...we got soaked, but were smiling as wide as a young kid on Christmas morning who just opened the present he had been dreaming of (well, I don't really know what that feeling is but you get the idea). We were then escorted to our REAL bus stop (this part we didn't understand) through the city on the back of an open air taxi, extremely prone to the water fights that were going on around us...we tried to cover our bags up but they got pretty soaked (luckily our cameras were OK). We were driving around for maybe an hour (soaked..) due to traffic and then finally we turn onto a street that was relatively quiet....only to discover us driving right by where we had previously been! They took us in a circle basically to get us wet and to enjoy Songkram...no complaints here!

A few days into Lanta, we read about the crazyness that was going on Bangkok. My original plan was to head back up there and take a train into Laos, but there was no way I was going near that city...Andy and I flew into KL from the airport nearby and now I am on day 2 in Malaysia. I stayed one night in KL and flew into Kuching on the Borneo side of the country....not entirely sure what my plan is but I think I will be here for a couple days, possibly go check out Brunei (that would be a cool stamp on my passport) and then head to Cambodia and Laos to finish off my trip.

The funny thing for me is, with only 3 free pages left in my passport, and with both Laos and Cambodia having full page visas, I have to plan very carefully which page I open my passport up to when I go to customs nowadays...

Ummm...I think that is it. Thanks for reading!

Ari

PS - Big thanks to Josh and Jason for letting me stay at their place in Tainan, Taiwan for a few days (read 10 haha). You were great hosts and I really appreciate being shown around a little bit, especially considering I was too much of a wuss to rent my own scooter...Thanks again!

PPS - Big shoutout to Team Guelph (Becky, Andy, Quyen, Dan, Thean) for letting me rain on their backpacking parade for a week or so in Thailand. I have learned that I much prefer to travel with people and there are few better people to travel with than those five! I wish you safe journeys into Vietnam (good luck with those visas) and I look forward to jamming with you in Canada when I am back!