HAPPY NEW YEARS

New Year's Day, sitting in my quiet, cold, non-beach apartment, eating rice snacks and tea instead of the fresh fruit shakes, margaritas and fresh Thai food I've grown accustomed to over the last 10 days...

won't get in to too many details about the trip, but here's the rundown of where I went and what I saw...

DAY 1...Flew into Bangkok after running into my Irish friends Pam and Deccy, as well as Kristin (a girl from college who is a JET up in Yamagata). Pam and Deccy and I banded together for our first night out in the city, hitting up a ladyboy restaurant full of luscious, cheap Thai food and drinks, and then did an Irish-style pub crawl to about 10 different bars (including one Irish one) and spent time being just generally astounded by the overwhelming atmosphere of the Patpong district (yes, it's a saucy, red light one). I stayed in Pam and Deccy's hotel in Patpong.

DAY 2...headed to Khao San road and the three of us met up with Kristin, who was hanging about Bangkok before she headed up north for a volunteer project. Did the Khao San road shopping experience, perusing every imaginable kind of clothing brand knock-off along with local Thai stuff. Went to the huge reclining buddha statue, and tried to get to the palace but it was closing. Saw Pam and Deccy off, and Kristin and I headed back to Patpong because our curiousity got the best of us. We took in a ladyboy cabaret drag show, had our first go-go bar experience, and stumbled upon a bar which was hosting various 'shows' that I can't really describe here, not just because they were obscene, but because they were simply indescribable.

DAY 3...parted with Kristin and I hung around Khao San road and the Royal Palace before catching my long, treacherous bus and ferry rides to the far south islands. It was an entire day wasted...yeah, it took 22 hours...to ride a bus, wait hours and hours for the next bus, wait 7 hours for a ferry, etc.
Finally made it to the beautiful, pristine, but Tsunami scarred island of Koh Phi Phi on Christmas Eve. Found Lopaka's room which we shared with his friend Brittney. Had an incredible but strange Thai Christmas dinner overlooking turqouise waters, palm trees and towering cliffs. Spent the rest of my Christmas Eve drinking cocktails from a bucket and watching Thai kickboxing.

DAY 4...Christmas Day, woke up to my makeshift christmas tree, distributed stockings to my roommates, and lazed about before going sea kayaking around one of the bays to a secluded beach (where my digital camera was destroyed by a wave while Brittney held it and posed for a picture, a bit of a Christmas disaster). Found Martin and Kat and the others for Christmas dinner at their hotel, had turkey and stuffing!

DAY 5...Tsunami anniversary, attended various memorial services, paid a local guy in a longtail boat to take us to Phi Phi Lay island (the one where The Beach was filmed). Swam and snorkeled in the most incredible natural surroundings imagineable. More food, massage and drink.

DAY 6...Beach, massage, food, drink. Parted with the others and headed solo for Koh Lanta island, a more mellow and laid back area than the crazed Phi Phi village. Found some VERY funky bungalows with secluded private beach and tiny bar and restaurant, cold showers with brown water, no flushing toilet, but it was absolute paradise. Befriended random travellers and backpackers.

DAY 7...Relaxed by the beach in the morning, and in the afternoon I rented the Bungalow's family's motorcycle and took it for a ride around the island. Had a near death experience that involved a high speed collision, bad front brakes, and a huge barrel of gasoline. More on that later.

DAY 8...Took the 4 Island tour of some small islands off the coast of Lanta, which involved swimming through caves to a quiet island oasis, kayaking, and the absolute best snorkelling I've had since I did marine biology studies on the Great Barrier Reef. Really good day.

DAY 9...morning beach time before I got a sketchy shuttle ride to the Krabi airport for a quick flight back to Bangkok, lots of time in the airport and one last Thai massage, and the sketchy flight back to Tokyo (has anyone flown Air India? My lord. Almost as scary as Aeroflot.)

In the course of hours, I went from a tropical life drinking a banana shake under a palm tree and watching waves lick the beach, to climbing through 7 feet of snow to get to my apartment in a blizzard and praying at a snowbound mountain temple for new years. That was the most extreme one day environment shift I've ever had in my life.


THAILAND HIGHLIGHTS

-My first night on Koh Lanta just as I arrived at the bungalows and sat down for a beer at the Ting Tong beach bar watching an incredible sunset and quiet lapping waves, a massive elephant being ridden by an old Thai man slowly strolled along the beach and right in front of me. Was the most Thai moment of the trip. Too bad my camera was full of sand and sea water, %#*!

-Crashing full speed and out of control into a barrel of gasoline at a gas station and getting tossed sideways off my motorcycle. I thought I hadn't done much damage to the bike, but the family ended up charging me a pretty penny for damages that the other people thought didn't exist, so they were probably scamming me for money...but it wasn't my place to argue about money and the fact the brakes didn't work so well...not my bike, not my island...and the adrenaline rush from having a high impact collision with a container of explosive liquid was much better than any fun you could have at Disneyland.

-Bangkok night life...like I said, I can't really describe it here, but in order to keep all the toothless 60-year-old go-go girls from getting too comfortable, Kristin and I ended up having to say that we were actually married and expecting. We will be naming our first daughter Nan, named after one of the bargirls.

-Small island trips...took loads of small adventurous trips to tiny islands, did hiking, caving, really good snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, eating, drinking, and I even got a bit of a tan out of it all.

-The food...We had a lot of discussions about Thai food vs. Japanese food, and Thai food usually won. Japanese food is very flavorful, but compared to Thai food, nothing is really as enjoyable, bountiful, or affordable. I am starving in Japan already.

Good, but short, trip. I'll be back there someday!