Triphopopotamus

So my avid readers (what? there might be a few!). Fear not, I haven't dropped off the face of the the Earth. I have in fact dropped right into Middle-Earth or "New Zealand" as it's known amongst non-Hobbit folk.

Saying farwell to the land of smiles was like that moment when you have to say goodbye to new friends you've shared an experience with , you've had a great time, you hope you'll see them again, but then you can't really make promises...but at least you'll always have the memories! So with glum faces we board our plane in balmy Bangkok. Alien garments like long sleeved tops, trousers and socks are at the ready in our hand luggage to brave the climate that awaits us. After a brief stopover in a cold and rainy Sydney we arrive into a similarly cold and rainy Christchurch, New Zealand, but even with our "warm" clothes on we weren’t quite prepared for the drop from 40 degrees to 8 degrees. Brrr!

Ellie's brother Cathal and his friend Paul met us at the airport so fortunately we didn’t have to stand around in the cold figuring out where to go next! They asked us did we want to Queenstown- and mentioned “by the way it’s a 6-7 hour drive”! Great, that’s just what you want after 17 hours of flying! Really we didn’t mind too much though, as long as we could attempt to catch some zzz’s in the back of the car. It’s pretty cloudy and rainy for most of the car trip down, a far cry from our lovely Thai sunshine, and yet there is something homely about the rolling green hills (and obviously the lashing rain). About half way to Queenstown it gets dark so we can't really appreciate the surroundings although we can tell by the towering jagged silhouettes that we are passing by some pretty spectacular scenery. We arrive in Queenstown and not really being too sure what to expect, we are suprised to find a bitesize little lakeside town that is the self professed adrenalin sports capital of the world. (Clearly they've never been on a Thai minibus)

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Town founder and his lovely wife:

From Queenstown- the first encounter

After checking into the hostel we head out and see what Queenstown has to offer in the way of nightlife. After drinking some shots from a teapot in World bar and doing some people watching of folk on the "Big night out" organised pub crawl and I start to hope that we are not too old for Queenstown! Cathal doesn't have this issue as his date of birth seems to change quite miraculously!

We spend 2 more nights in Queenstown exploring the pretty little streets,wearing every item of clothing in our possession and trying to adjust to the temperature. We invest in some wooly hats and gloves to help us along.

A trip up the gondola to the Skyline complex on Bob's peak gives us an incredible view over Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the imaginatively named “Remarkables” mountain range. We muse over the pioneers naming process :
"Wow look at those mountains-remarkable- what should we call them?!"

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Despite it being a miserable day we still enjoy the views. We pop inside the visitor center to the bar and order some Irish coffees to warm up…Oh dear- it seems they needed us more in Queenstown than they know. They are pretty terrible. We potter around the giftshop and Ellie buys some giant fleecy socks which will also double up as her gloves for the day!! And we emerge from the giftshop to find the 2 boys squeezed into the seats of a car-racing arcade game, as some children look on- probably waiting for their turn. Later we make our back down the mountain and go to the- again imaginatively named- Irish bar Pog Mahones for some real irish coffees though we decide to skip the coffee part and just have a couple of hot ports and whiskeys!

From Queenstown- the first encounter

The next day we consider going on a wine tasting tour but a little deterred by the cold weather we instead find a wine shop that does tastings without even having to leave the town. Excellent. We each get a little card and will be charged at the end for the wines we drink. There are different sections for different wines and you just put your card in choose a wine and it comes out into your glass, similar to a soft drink machine.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Then you do your best attempt at looking fancy. Ellie teaches me all the important parts smell it, swirl it around, smell it again, say something terribly witty to the old chaps, take a swig, let some air into your mouth, try and taste the flavours, say “ooh fruity little number” and talk about the investment opportunities in the middle east as you puff on your cigar. Well... she told me to do some of those things, the rest I took for granted!

We taste some delicious wines, and the lads buy a cheese board to share. At least I hope they bought it to share because we all tuck in regardless. It looks delicious 4 different cheeses, crackers, chutney, little pieces of ciabatta bread, an oil dip and herbs. Mmm delicious! Paul has never eaten cheese with wine before and whether he is in taste heaven or is just a little tipsy from all the wine is unclear but he is on a journey of self discovery through the medium of cheese and can’t stop telling us all how amazing this is! Cathal buys a pot of jam/chutney that came with the cheese and later locks it in the safe for fear we wake up to find a guilty looking Paul with jam all over his face!!

From Queenstown- the first encounter

After 3 fun, relaxing days in Queenstown we head back to Christchurch to see a little of the city we landed in. Although at this point we have already decided that we will try our best to get work and stay in Queenstown,I make a mental list from bungy to snowboarding of all the adrenalin inducing activities I want to try when we get back.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

The drive back is in daylight this time and we see some stunning scenery. This is such a beautiful country. Its a bit like someone has taken Ireland and put it under a magnifying glass so everything is much bigger and then sprinkled a little icing sugar on top of the hills for presentation! Even though we are still missing the Asian heat, we're excited about the adventures that await us in our new home.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Ubud is a beautiful town about 2 hours north of Kuta and the perfect escape from the latter. Art galleries, art museums, pottery shops, cafes, temples and guesthouses take the place of neon signs, Pizza huts and Ripcurl shops. Where Kuta had an overwhelming busyness and was packed to the rafters with Australian holiday makers, Ubud is bustling with a mixture of locals, ex-pats and tourists from all over the world. Rice terraces cascade down to the edges of the town where almost every building has been made in a traditional Balinese style. The stone arches, wooden doors and statues at the entrances to these buildings are so perfectly carved and decorated it is actually difficult to tell the difference between the entrance to a guesthouse and the entrance to a temple.
Our brilliant guesthouse- Nuriani

From Ubud, Bali

Art Gallery

From Ubud, Bali

Ubud is a popular settling place for westerners who fancy themselves as artists or go to "find themselves". In fact I believe there is a Julia Roberts movie about Bali with that very theme, that is currently working it's way towards your local cinema! The ex-pat/hippyish influence is also noticeable in the town and there are nice do-gooder features such as doggie hospitals, recycling centres, ecological programs as well as more art galleries and museums than you could shake a stick at and that’s before you even count the fully homegrown attractions.

One such attraction is the famous Balinese Kaceck dance. Ellie and I attend a performance of this in one of the local courtyards. It’s a story told through song and dance. A choir of men sits around and chant the kaceck song (sounds like checkidy checkidy check!) while actors act and dance out a story by fire light. I can't honestly say we followed the story completely but there were some good guys, a princess, a big fat baddy, an evil monkey and possibly a good monkey. From what I could make out the guy got the girl and the baddies got their comeuppance. After marveling at how petite and graceful the female dancers were we gasp as after the next part of the show two miniscule girls come out to start dancing. We think ‘wow I thought the last girls were petite but these ones are seriously tiny’! So...we didn't realise at first because of the heavy makeup, but in fact the reason they are so small is because they are about 12. We breathe a sigh of relief and feel a little less like giants.
Dancer

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Kaceck singers

From Ubud, Bali

Tiny dancers

From Ubud, Bali

This dance is followed by a fire- trance dancer. And no that's not someone called Anto who got too close to a bonfire at a rave, but rather a man who's been put in a trance meaning he can dance on burning coconut embers...and kick them a bit too close for us for our comfort. By the end of it I wonder how effective his trance was because he’s sitting on the ground with his feet looking destroyed and he himself looking pretty unhappy!

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

I notice that people in Ubud have clearly been educated on what their selling point is and almost every Balinese person we meet is overly eager to point out that "this is the real Bali". However if I lived a short drive from Kuta I'd be defensive too. It’s a bit like telling people you’re not from Dublin all the time I suppose!!

We are in Ubud during a 10 day festival of the dead that comes around twice a year. Children parade the streets playing gamelan gongs and bells in perfect clanging harmonies and wearing traditional dress, 2 or 3 kids operate a lion costume swaying from side to side while a few others don scary masks. They go into courtyards of restaurants in a bid to make a few bob, and the masked ones try to scare younger kids- all the while warding off evil spirits of course!
Girl praying

From Ubud, Bali

Procession of kids

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Simply walking around the town of Ubud is a feast for the senses in itself but one day we go a little outside the town and take a walk on a trail that goes through the rice terraces where people are out harvesting the rice. Along the path are mini art shops, stalls selling organic food and a sweet smell of vanilla pods and cinnamon drying in the sun. We also come across a huge black and yellow spider on our walk! Now, Irish people who run out of the bathroom screaming because they've seen a "massive" spider need to see this guy. Leg span included it was about the size of my hand and its body about the size of the spoony part of a teaspoon! So after trying to aggravate it for a while and poking it with our fingers we decide it is either lazy or doesn't like want to eat people so we leave it alone and wander onward down the path.

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

whats that Im pointing at?

From Ubud, Bali

GIANT SPIDER!!

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Our guesthouse owner had told us it was impossible to stray from the trail, but this just sounded like a challenge to me, and sure enough we manage to get a lost! After a bit of hemming and hawing and some pleas for help from the locals we figure the way back to town. Ellie heads on home and I decide to check out the art museum and monkey forest. The art museum was full of local art- a lot of it based on traditional stories which are written out beside the painting or sculpture. Museum pieces with tags /explanations made a welcome difference from similar things in Thailand! Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside the museum buildings, it didn’t stop a few cheeky tourists. I however, was in a rule abiding mood that day. (Ellie must be rubbing off on me!).
Museum

From Ubud, Bali

My excursion to the museum means that I arrived at monkey forest too late and the gates are closed. Damn cultural trip, I wanted to see some monkeys!

All too soon our Ubud experience must come to an end and we catch a bus back to Kuta- a little more ready for the madness. Whereas Kuta definitely doesn’t make my list of places to see again, Ubud and the rest of “the real” Bali are definitely on my re-visit list- maybe next time I'll even get to see some monkeys!
Daily offerings are placed along the pavements

From Ubud, Bali

Little girl from our guesthouse

From Ubud, Bali

(ka)Check out the rest of Ubud pics in Picasa!

Ubud, Bali

When we told people we were going to Thailand, seasoned travellers all warned us to beware of the culture shock when we arrived in Bangkok. Perhaps because we were so excited to be there or perhaps because we were prepared for it, we didn't really experience anything more than a little static electricity.

Arriving in Bali was quite a different experience. After our taxi from the airport dropped us off in Kuta we just stare, marvelling and as if someone had jammed our fingers into a socket a bone shaking culture shock took hold of our bodies. A faux-western beach resort spread out before us. Our eyes are bombarded- by neon lights and signs; Billabong, Ripcurl, D&G, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Hard Rock Cafe. Our ears are assaulted by the constant beeping of taxis competing for business, music blaring from bars, and the loud and brash tones of a thousand Aussies.

Kuta is Courtown to Australia's Dublin, Benidorm to Australia's middle England, the equivalent of Bondi beach to the Sydney bound culchie with county jersey and straw hat in hand. I think you get the point! We arrive on a Monday, and will be meeting 3 other Irish girls here but not until Thursday. So feeling like rabbits at a rave concert, and not overly impressed with the standard of cheap accommodation on offer in Kuta, we spend one night in a very basic room near Poppies2 lane and the next morning we head for the sanctuary of Ubud. Ubud was recommended to us by countless people and it was indeed amazing, so amazing in fact that it deserves it's own separate blog post. So for now I will just say we needed that little break to compose ourselves before we could return and adjust our eyes to the bright lights of Kuta.
Beach before the crowds arrive

From Kuta, Bali

After our 3 days of bliss in the Ubud we head back to Kuta and with depleted sources of mobile technology available to us organising to meet up the other Irish girls proves to be more complicated than masterminding a plan to break into the Pentagon. We have to try and remember what people did before we all had mobiles!


We meet them eventually and head out to Skybar, just one of the many nightclubs on offer. It's a stark reminder of the nightclub bombings that took place here in 2002 when they check our bags on the way into the club- not for a cheeky naggin of vodka as you might expect but for bombs! We have a good night, its nice to see the Aoife, Claire and Hazel catch up with them, have a drink and a boogie and admire/laugh at the dancers performing choreographed routines in colourful outfits on stage. Hookers come into the night club touting for business from drunk tourists (which they get) and while the Irish girls are tut tutting they get given out to by an Aussie guy, who asks them did they also assume his Balinese girlfriend was a hooker. They have to explain at length that no they don't think all Balinese women are hookers but that when a girl walks in in perspex heels with thigh high stockings and a man hands her money from his wallet, she kind of loses the benefit of the doubt!
Hazel and Aoife

From Kuta, Bali

Monument to people killed in 2002 bombings

From Kuta, Bali

We spend the next few days soaking up our last bit of the Asian sun on Kuta beach whilst being pestered to buy sarongs,straw mats, ice creams, surf lessons. One of the more hillarious methods of getting your attention is for moped taxi drivers or hawkers to say "hey darling, remember me?". The first time it happens I have to ask Eleanor is there anything she wants to tell me!! On the beach an Indonesian guy in bright board shorts and neon sunglasses offers surf lessons (and possibly more!) and asks how long I have been in Bali, when I tell him 5 days he asks why I am so white. I decline to tell him that I have actually been out in the Asian sun for 6 weeks!

I decide to take surf lessons but rather than going with the cool dudes on the beach I opt for Odyssey surf school. I have a 2 hour group surf lesson, during the first hour I mostly drink the polluted sea water and fall down a lot. The second hour is much more successful for me and after i catch 3 or 4 baby waves, I am already picturing crowds cheering my name as I win competitions and kids buying surfboards with my name on them. I am snapped back to reality as my board is heading straight for a swimmers head, with my steering not really up to scratch just yet I tumble back into the sea for another drink. Surfing was definitely one of my few highlights of Kuta, but unfortunately I don't have any pics of me falling over for people to laugh at!
Odysseys

From Kuta, Bali

From Kuta, Bali

Eventually the constant bleatings of the hawkers and shopkeepers get our attention so we pick up some knock off DVDs and browse the stalls for more things to weigh our backpacks down. By the end of our time in Kuta we've learned to appreciate it a little bit more.Even though its not a place I'd go back to, its hard to look out across the sandy beach at surfers catching waves and kids playing on the shoreline, as the sun starts to set and not have a hint of that happy holiday feeling.

Windswept

From Kuta, Bali

From Kuta, Bali

We leave Koh Phangang with heavy hearts because its been really lovely to have a gang of people to hang out with, and the atmosphere was so chilled it seems a shame to break it and return to more ferry-train-bus hopping. With only Bali left on our Asian itinerary, it also feels like we are coming to the end of our travels- when realistically it is just the beginning and we should be a little more excited about the prospect of arriving in New Zealand!

We also leave Koh Phangang as fugitives, with our visas expired for several days now. We could have gone to an embassy to get them renewed- but we didn't and seeing as we are leaving for Bali in just a few days we decide to take the risk of just waiting and paying the fine at the airport. This is apparently no problem, as long as you voluntarily let the immigration control know your visa is up. However if you are in Thailand on an expired visa and you get in trouble with the police for any reason e.g. crashing a moped(!) or they ask you to produce your visa, they are obliged to put you in a detention cell, which Amnesty International have described as "cruel and degrading".Gulp!

We are both a little nervous about our new role as lawbreakers. We are picturing the impending bright lights being shone in our face in a dark questioning room, while people shout at us in Thai and then manhandle us into a dingy, rat filled cell that smells like a porta-loo. As for playing it cool I don't think Ellie will be getting recruited by any Mafia bosses anytime soon! She is guiltier looking than a puppy that's just weed on the new carpet! We wait for our train from Chumporn to Bangkok and she practically breaks into a sweat every time a police-man or pretty much anyone in official looking attire walks down the platform. Amazingly we manage to make it to Bangkok by night train without being arrested by the police, train-porters, milk men or anyone else with a uniform!

The political situation in Bangkok has worsened since we left for the islands and there are whispered rumours of a civil war. We get to our hotel at about 7am and go to bed for a couple of hours, I have a broken sleep that is punctuated by the rumbling sounds of what I'm sure are bombs and Molotov cocktails, but when I eventually wake to go outside it transpires that thunder are lightening were the sounds that I had heard! OK so maybe I have an overactive imagination but a few streets away it's a harsh reality .

The military presence on thee streets is more evident than the last time we were here, and the red-shirts have now barricaded themselves into their camps. I didn't think I'd ever have to say this but luckily for us we aren't staying in a 5 star hotel, and are nowhere near the central business district, so again we don't actually see any violence and the only way we are affected is that there is slightly less hustle and bustle around Bangkok because tourists have been warned off coming here. It's a bit of an over-cautious approach as the majority of the city is fine and we feel quite safe despite the fact that every time we come to Bangkok one or both of us is absent mindedly wearing a red t-shirt or top! We are also hoping that the ongoing situation means the police will be far too concerned with looters and arsonists etc to worry about little ol' visa-dodgers like myself and Ellie!

Due to the trouble we again stay in the same 3/4 street zone around Koh Sahn road that (even with my appalling sense of direction) I now know like the back of my hand. I spend the afternoon skyping my parents and trying my best to show them that I really do have a tan, but they just laugh and my sallow mother tries to make up for being greedy with her genes by telling me I have a lovely delicate complexion! What a consolation!

In the evening we go for cocktails and befriend a very drunk Bostonian who's bloodline is more Irish than mine. Perhaps that's also because his blood alcohol levels are a lot more Irish than mine. We play pool,sip at our delicious mojitos and mostly laugh at him because he is very drunk.We have this exchange with The Bostonian at least 6 or 7 times :
"hey, are you girls drinking mimosas?"
"Mojitos"
"ohhh mo- heeee -tows" "right right"
5 mins later....
"Hey is that a mimosa?"

Then he starts speaking American, talking about "throwing game" and telling us 'his girl' is probably going to "beat his ass". In between his drunken memory lapses and Americanisms we have a good chat and he recommends some places to go in Bali. We say goodnight and leave him to go home and "get his ass beat" by his girlfriend when she find out he was out talking to 2 Irish girls all night.

We get to the airport at 5 am and proceed to immigration to potentially get our asses beat. It all goes quite smoothly, we pay a fine for our overstay and everything is hunky-dory. We never get to find out if The Bostonian got off quite as lightly when he stumbled back to his hotel room at 5 or 6am.

Men in Brown

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

After the disaster of Phuket, the loveliness of Phi Phi and our underwater adventures in Koh Tao we are finally finished our courses of anti-biotics and are ready to embrace a bit of the backpacker party lifestyle. So where better to go than a place famous for it's parties, the island of many spelling variations Koh Pha ngang/ Koh Phangan...or Koh Flanagan as my Dad called it when looking for me on a map.

Having realised while in Laos that there was no way we would make it to Koh Phangang in time for one of the famous Full Moon parties - we decided that we will try and make it there for one of the other lunar related shindigs. So we arrive on the island just ahead of the Black Moon party.

Not for the first time our 'free pick up' from the ferry port doesn't materialise and we have to pay for a taxi to our resort. We are staying in a bungalow at the Weeanthang resort; a pretty collection of bungalows and buildings surrounding a swimming pool (with bar!) that overlooks the beach. If you stand at the right angle in the restaurant it looks like the pool overflows into the sea. Pretty as the resort is in general, our room is quite basic and we have to share with some other tenants. Ants. Millions of them, and they obviously weren't too happy about having to share their space with us because they attacked us night after night, and like bad college room-mates they ate our food, used our toothbrush and our towels and tried to crawl into bed with us in the middle of the night. However in the end they must have got to like us because they even snuck into our backpacks to try and come with us when we were leaving.

The resort is a lovely place, there are cushions and low tables and day beds to lounge on just dotted all over the place. It kind of facilitates our laziness so we don't see a whole lot of Koh Phangang away from our immediate environment. On our second day we are still on our ' I love scuba' buzz so we decide to do our first dive as proper qualified divers that afternoon.

We do two dives that day, the first one is a bit of a disaster. The visibility is crap and we can't really see anything, had it not been for our instructor Karl's luminous yellow flippers I definitely would have gotten lost. Later in the dive the strap snaps off my mask so I have to go to the surface to fix it, meanwhile Karl has broken the inflator on his BC which means he has to paddle really hard to stay afloat and Ellie's flippers didn't want her to feel left out of the "problematic equipment club" so despite being a perfect fit at the beginning of the dive they proceed to try and strangle her feet.
We head back to the boat for a break- and to let the nitrogen bubbles escape from our bodies(very important- or else you get nitrogen narcosis or "narked" as the cool scuba crew call it and feel spaced out or can't stop laughing- it sounded like great fun, but apparently is a bit dangerous if your 18m under water).
Our second dive is much more successful we stay in shallower water and the visibility has improved a lot. We're back in our under water playground with pretty corals, different schools of fish, anemones that cower away from the current made by our flippers,anemone fish ,and fronds of algae that move as if they were squid. But still none of the big players like sharks or turtles we've been searching for- and still no Nemo. A few days later we hear from our Koh Tao friends Michael and Allie that while snorkeling in Koh Phi Phi they saw giant sea turtles. Very. Very.Jealous!

Having befriended the endearingly camp, Lady gaga obsessed, bar man J.J ,who has also befriended everyone else staying at the resort we get chatting to a few people. Then along with JJ who's adopted the role of tour guide, our raggle taggle group of Irish, dutch, kiwi , Canadian and south African party goers do what party goers do best and go to Baan Tai beach where the Black Moon party is held.
Ellie and JJ

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

we contemplate alternative transport to the party

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

We pass by rows of every kind of fried Thai snack imaginable on the way in to the party. They are obviously well used to the rush of people for their 3am Kebabs. We then pass by several people with walls of neon pictures offering body painting and eventually make it to the beach. Trance music pumps from giant speakers and there are giant colourful neon decorations everywhere. We get stuck into our buckets of Sangsom whiskey and coke and m150 and get to know our neighbours from the resort.

To be honest it isn't quite as busy as I had imagined it would be, and apparently the rising price of the tickets (500BHT-about 12euro) has something to do with the dwindling attendances. However it's still a great night had by all; we get to know people,we drink delicious buckets, we sit on the beach and watch the fire dancers do some impressive moves, and I have to admit dance/trance music is even growing on me.

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

Ellie's great pic

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

Our resort is managed by an English guy who is married to a Thai girl and has two adorable little kids, they along with their little cousins run around the resort getting up to all sorts of mischief and we can't help but laugh at them. Its a real sign of how chilled out things are here as I watch a 5 yr old kid climb onto a glass table over a couch and onto a tree that overhangs a tiled floor, I can't help but cringe, whereas his dad just walks past and says "Alright son" as the child carries on dangling backwards over the tiles. The western world -and I- really need to relax.

The next evening we spend around a pool table with the others from the resort and we are invited to a party on the other side of the island by J.J .About half of the people decide to stay and play pool for the evening and the rest of us decide to accompany J.J on a little adventure. So JJ, Ellie, Dutch girl Lon and new arrivals Kelly,Ben and Patrick and myself all hop in a taxi which first brings us along the treacherous stretch of road that goes to Haad Rin. The hills are so steep and windy and the taxi really struggles up the hills and runs away down the other side.

We arrive in Haad Rin where the full moon parties are normally held and admittedly it's a bit of a hole full of ever present drunk tourists. On the flipside of that though, there is fun to be had and if you can't beat them you might as well join them. So we buy a few drinks from one of the many, many bars that line up along the beach and sit back and watch the fire dancers and fire related party games that ensue.

So we are all actually having a pretty good time on the beach, enjoying the antics and have all more or less presumed that this was the party JJ was bringing us to when all of a sudden he tells us it's time to go. So we hop in a taxi boat that takes us off to a super secret location! As we speed across the water, sea breeze in our hair and perfectly clear, star filled skies above us Ellie points out that it "beats a taxi to the club back home".
After we have pulled in at the little bay we make a trek by torch/phone light up a pathway through the trees that eventually comes to a clearing where we see lights, hear the throb of music and sounds of other revellers. Its a secret jungle party! Now for all we know everybody in the world knows about this place but to us it feels very exclusive and if just for one night I think we might officially be cool.

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

We spend the night boogieing away to dance music, lounging on cushions or playing on the giant swing. As we make our way back to Baan Tai later that night we all reflect on what a good time we had and we must be heavier with the weight of alcohol inside us because as the taxi struggles and chugs back up those hills to Baan Tai, the wheels spin round and there is a smell of burning rubber. JJ starts to sing '3 little birds' : "Don't worry, be happy" and we all join in despite not being able to remember much more than the chorus- but we laugh and we don't worry, because we are all happy.

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

Me sporting a tan (really), the other guy is just a show off!

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

Taxi home

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang

From Koh Tao and Koh Pha Ngang