South Thailand Complete (Part Two)

After a couple days of diving my ears were taking a beating. I realized that I had to swallow instead of blow to properly equalize. I was doing more harm than good by using my nose.

That night I had a crazy massage. I asked for a very hard traditional massage, and boy did I ever get one. After the massage I went and had a nice dinner.

Long story short I got 3 things:
1. A bruised eardrum
2. Food poisoning
3. Massive cramps from the massage

I needed a solid 2 days of rest. I booked a sweet hotel on the west side of Ko Tao. That is where I met Mark.

Mark has been travelling for a couple years. He spent 1 year in Japan teaching engrish. We hit it off instantly and will probably will be long time friends.

We decided to travel together for a couple weeks. Leaving the east coast just as the rainy season started. We headed over to the west into Railay.

Railay is probably the highlight of my trip so far. This small island offers the best rock climbing in the world. Combine that with relaxed beachfront bars and resorts. I think I lost about 5 pounds of fat in the 3 day period. We both worked are bodies pretty hard. We went on a 1 hour death hike through the jungle with out 50 kilo packs on.

After Railay we headed down to Ko Phi Phi.

Ko Phi Phi is basically the hot spot for young people looking for it all. Its scattered with bars, cafes, beaches, scuba shops, and more. Each night the same disc is played in the bars. The main area Mark and I partied in is called Apache Bar. Aparche Bar is a 4 level gong show. Just imagine 50% swedish hotties 25% lady-boys, 25% single males......yeah....crazy.

Mark and I met pretty two swedish girls in Railay the first night. We met up with them and partied the first couple night together in Phi Phi. I played no drinker most nights, the other 2 nights.....not so much.

After Phi Phi insanity Mark and I headed into Phuket. Phuket is a province in south Thailand but when someone tells you about Phuket they are usually refering to the coast-line beaches of Patong and Karon. Patong is a world famous spot for prostitution. Imagine Palm Springs with great shopping, nice big beaches, aggresive Thai merchants, scattered with extensive girl 'shopping' at night.

The last night Mark and I travelled together we went to a Caberet called Simon Caberet. This show is pretty top notch. Good music, amazing costumes, fun dancing, and the secret is that they were all born men. All the beautiful women were actually post of transvestites. Yup....

Mark and I were very curious about the famous strip. We walked around and didnt see anything at all. Mark had to head down to Malaysia to do a visa run, so our partnership ended there.

I booked more solid scuba certification time to spend the next 2 days.

At night I was walking around looking for Stephen Kings newest in paperback. Guess where the bookstore was located? Yup, the main prostitution strip. Insane, absolutely insane. You can literally smile at any girl and take her home for pennies. Infact they are sometime free. They are so sick of going home with old fat sex tourists they are drawn to younger men. The line, "I dont pay for sex" was utter by myself and Mark dozens of times. Often you would here, " For free" back. I didnt btw, if your wondering.

After completing my next level of scuba training I got on a bus and headed for Ko Lanta for some Elephant treking and caving.

The second day there I booked a 5 hour trip. It was really quite something. The trek itself wasnt the highlight really, it was the intimate playtime after. Again these animal are incredible. For those who know me know im a little obssesive about pets and animals. I love them to death. Huging and playing with the huge elephants are so amazing. They look at you with such interest and curiousity. I played soccer with one and simple talked to another for about 1 hour. I didnt want to leave. The taxi driver kept trying to get me to get going. I fed her about 40 bananas. She wouldnt even chew them. Just grab one and toss it in her mouth. The best thing was feeding her my pretzels. I would show her what I had and she would turn her truck upside down. This giant pink nostral was sniffing and waiting for me to drop it in. HA! So fun!

The next morning I am off to Palua Langkawi. Im actually there now, typing this. Im going to spend the next two weeks exploring Malaysia's west coast. From here I head down to Georgetown then into Cameron Highlands. After a 4 day trek Im going into Kuala Lumpor, Melakam and finally Singapore. From Singapore its either Indonesia/Bali or the Philipines. No idea yet.

I still have a ton of pictures to post. I have yet to find a descent internet cafe that can handle the bandwidth required. Ill try later. Ive also got some amazing movies I want to post. I just dont have the time to embed them from youtube. We shall see.

Thanks to everyone who said, Happy Birthday, it means alot.

Talk to you all soon!

D.