Day 92: Phuket

We began the day by helping Robbie pack and getting everything in order before he moved to his training camp. After returning Robbie's moped, Boyd and I waved Robbie goodbye as he set off on his next endeavor.

Boyd and I headed off to the bus station on the other side of the island. I wanted to check the schedule and prices for a bus ticket to Don Sak and then a ferry to Ko Pha-ngan, an island off the east coast of Thailand. After the long moped trip there, I discovered that I will have to arrive tomorrow morning at 8am to purchase my ticket for a 6 hour bus ride at 9am. We then headed off to explore some of the island before dinner.

Boyd's father, Boyd, and I had dinner at a great restaurant not far from our villa. We sat down for dinner right after the sun was set and had a private beach to enhance the view during our meal. Boyd an I walked around a bit and explored the beach. When we returned to the table we were sweating like crazy. Since the dinner was in an open aired restaurant, we had the staff constantly bringing us cold wet hand towels to keep us cool.

After finishing our amazing meal, Boyd and I stayed up for a while, finishing off our last night together right.

Day 91: Phuket

Today, all I did was relax. Boyd went and got a massage and haircut while Robbie went and checked out a Muay Thai training camp, Tiger. After last night's fight, he has been contemplating staying here and training for the remaining time he has abroad instead of traveling. I chose to stay at home and relax with the pool and a beer by my side.

That night, we had a chef come and prepare us am amazing dinner. Right before we started to eat, Robbie finally showed up, excited to tell us that he would be staying here to train in mixed martial arts for the next month. I am excited for him and can't wait to watch his fights YouTube.

Robbie, Boyd, and I stayed up for our last night together and watched The Beach. The movie is a good tale of a backpacker, who starts off in Bangkok, Thailand, and his desire to do something different from every other backpacker. We figured it best described what we all have in mind.

Day 90: Phuket

Can't believe its been only 90 days, it feels like a lifetime; and to think, I'm not even halfway done!

We started off the day by heading to Kamala beach. With the sun out and us closer to the equater, the days are getting even hotter! We took some time to walk the beach and swim in the Andaman Sea. We spoke with one of the locals at a surf shop and tried to see if the waves would be better in the afternoon to surf; he said it depends, it tends to be more miss than hit on this part of the island.

With a goal set of an afternoon surf, we all rented mopeds and set off to see Pa Tong Beach, a much more touristy area. Once we got there, we found out that today is the last day Biker Week in Phuket, glad we got our mopeds! We parked and walked the long beach. The beach was slammed with tourists, mainly Europeans and Russians. After walking the beach, we headed into town to see what the area had to offer. Personally, I was disgusted with thee town, got to see 4 McDonald's in a 6 block radius; the area is extremely gaudy. Couldn't take more than 10 steps without seeing a massage parlor. Women and ladyboys lined the streets with menus trying to get us to come in. It got to be really annoying; one group even blockaded the road and wouldn't let us pass until we looked at the menu. it was pretty amusing to see all the men wallking in and out of the places; happy endings are expected with each massage. Where there isn't a massage parlor you would find bars, tailors, exotic clubs, and shopping; not what an adventurous backpacker like myself is looking for. This area even has a Hard Rock Cafe...

After we finished up seeing Pa Tong, Robbie and Boyd headed back to Kamala beach to try and get an afternoon surf in. I was not as optimistic as they were and headed further south to explore the island. Each beach town were smaller versions of Pa Tong; however, the further south I got the racier it got. Eventually the bars would just have signs with a picture of partially naked girl and it became normal to see a westerner with an obvious hooker, possibly even a ladyboy: short skirt, high heels, and heavy makeup. I was constantly shaking my head and laughing.

While the towns were kinda disgusting, the roads in between were beutiful. Tropical forests filled with, you guessed it, palm trees. Got to see some elephants in the woods. I dont think they were all wild because close by were the elephant camps were tourists get to see an elephant show similar to that of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus back home. This island caters to every tourist's needs.

With my gas guage broken, I began to run out of gas as I ascended a mountain hill. When I got to the top, my moed cut off. As I costed down the next hill, a gas station was waiting for me around the bend; lifesaver. After an afternoon of crusing, I only made it to the southern most beach; I really thought that I was at the western side of the island. I made my way back home, up the coast, with a beutiful sunset following me the whole way home.

That night we all had homemade pizza for dinner. It sounds weird, but I have not had a pizza in months and have been craving it ever since I left home. Afterwards, Robbie, Boyd, and I headed to the Bangal Thai Boxing Stadium for a real Muay Thai fighting event. For those of you who don't know, Muay Thai is the Thai form of martial arts that incorporates elbows and knees. Arriving a little late, we got there just in time to see the girls fight, a slow introduction to put us in the fighting mood. Afterwards, a Canadian and Astrailian guy fought, another rather slow fight, but it was good to see some westerners in there. Afterwards, we got to see really good fights, and we all began to bet amongst ourselves on who would win the fight. A couple rounds of beer and fighting got us really involved in each fight with us, at times, getting out of our seats to root for our fighter. Once the final fight was over, two small 9 year olds got in the rink and fought. I was suprised to see such young kids fighting, but hey, we are in Thailand. Once all the fights were over, we walked out of the stadium and into the next bar while we waited on out cab home; a night out in this nasty touristy area did not interest any of us. At the bar they had this massive hunk of wood with tons of nails hammered into it. They have this hammer without a flat surface to hammer with; one end was a horizontal corner and the other was a vertical corner. The lady behind the bar introduced us to a new drinking game. Each one of us had our own nail and we got one attempt to hit the nail; if you missed you took a swig of your drink. Needless to say, we finished our beers pretty fast. One of the more challenging things have done in my life, but a very fun game that had each of us rooting for one another to at least hit the nail.

After a couple rounds of hammering nails into wood, we headed back to our villa for a couple more poolside night caps.

Day 89: Phuket

The day started off with us traveling to Phuket. A beautiful island off the southwestern coast of Thailand. Have you ever heard of the "James Bond Island?" The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed on one of the small surrounding islands of Phuket. The islands and bays put Ha Long Bay in Vietnam to shame; Phuket is absolutely beutiful.

We are staying off the southestern coast of the island, right by the Kamala Beach, a quiet, not so toursty, beach. We are staying in a fabulous villa on the mountain saide with an amazing view of the beach, couldn't ask for a better location. The villa that we are staying in is to die for. It reminds me of the fabulous glass houses that I have seen in magazines or on the internet. So, yea, this place is amazing. It was impossible to pull ourselves away from the house the first day. We all spent the afternoon in the infinite pool overlooking the beach. It would be easy to spend the next couple days here and never leave the house.

That night, we all went down to the main restaurant and enjoyed some great spicy Thai food, complemented by an amazing German wine. Afterwards, we spent the night hanging out by the pool in the most relaxing mood ever.

Day 88: Bangkok

Today we were set to do something touristy. We set off for a boat taxi up the river to the Grand Palace, which has been the house of the Kings of Siam since 1782. We climbed down in this tiny boat with a massive engine on it and roared up with river, each wake smacking against the bottom of the boat like the thing was going to collapse at any second.

The cone pointed tops of the palace looked like something out of Star Wars. At first, I thought the statues were Hindu; they were somewhat similar to the statues I had seen while in India and Nepal. We all agreed that the day couldn't have been any hotter, it was almost not enjoyable to be there because of the heat. We did everything we could to hide in the shade whenever we could and, eventually, decided to make our way back to the hotel. On our way out, Boyd, Robbie, and I got stopped by these, what looked like, Thai girls (could have been Chinese or Vietnamese, we were not sure) who wanted to take their picture with us. I got a couple single photos with them; Robbie is convinced that Asians are obsessed with me. I laugh it off and jokingly tell him it's the mustache... I'm not complaining.

Before we got to the boat taxi, we stopped off at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles museum by the Palace. After 1950, Thailand made it a law that all Thai people had to wear western clothing, abandoning their traditional garments. The museum talked about the later resurgence of the traditional-wear when the Queen toured the US and much of Europe to help show that Thailand is back, sporting her new traditional Thai garments a decade or so later, I can't remember exactly. No photography was allowed inside.

Interesting fact: did you know that in WW II, Thailand declared war on the US, siding with Japan to help gain back land it had lost to the French via Indochina. The ambassador to Thailand in Washington DC refused to deliver the declaration of war fearing the worst from the US, therefore, war was avoided. Shortly after, Japan had two nuclear bombs dropped on them. Wonder what would have happened had that ambassador delivered the declaration of war?

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool. Can't tell you how good it felt. That night, it was just Boyd, Boyd's father, Robbie, and I for dinner. A night for the guys. Good company, cigars, food, and wine was just what we needed for our last night in Bangkok.

Day 87: Bangkok

Today Boyd's parents are meeting us in Bangkok. We waved goodbye to our Khao San road and our dignity and set off for our new hostel right on the Chao Phraya River, a much needed change of scenery.

Boyd and I's family have been friends since before we were born. Seeing his parents and being in a hotel was seriously like a culture shock. It was weird. Aside from my short stent in the United Arab Emirates, I have not had to be presentable or normally polite since I left home almost four months ago. Boyd's parents just flew here from Germany, so I can only image they wanted some rest.

After getting settled in, we made our way across the river for dinner and a show. The hotel was putting on some type of Thai cultural show for dinner. Once we sat down, we were presented a... fork and knife. It was like the first time I had ever used chop sticks. The fork and knife were fumbling in my hands and I could barely eat my food. Aside from the United Arab Emirates, I have either used bread, my hands, or chop sticks to eat my meals. It was funny but weird using a fork and knife. We can all agree that the show was weird. I would have much preferred a quiet dinner so we could have all talked about our past experiences traveling than watching the stage.

After dinner, Boyd, Robbie and I enjoyed a cigar and a bottle of wine by the river. A nice change from scorpions and beer towers on Khao San road.

Day 86: Bangkok

I eventually met up with my Boyd and Robbie around lunch time. What a night. As we set set off to explore the area, Robbie had to go back and take a nap right as we had gotten to a temple. The night was too rough. Boyd and I did some afternoon "exploring," and eventually made our way to dinner. After a couple more rounds of drinks, we were done "seeing all that Bangkok had to offer."

By no means a short day, but, from what I can say, a short explanation once again.