Singapore

Day 117 - Friday, May 18

As I mentioned in the last blog, I had booked a daytime train from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore for Friday. It was scheduled to leave at 9:00 am, and I was supposed to be there at 8:30 to check in. I think you all know how I feel about the iPad not having an alarm and the effectiveness of the available alarm-clock apps. So, since getting my iPhone fixed, I've been using it whenever I need an alarm. Needing to be at the train station by 8:30, I set the alarm for 7, leaving plenty of time to shower, pack up a few remaining things, eat some breakfast and head over to the LRT (light rail / metro) station nearby for the short 5 minute ride to KL Sentral. When the alarm went off, I got up, took a leisurely shower, headed downstairs for breakfast, got some food, and sat down to eat. After a few minutes at the table I opened up my iPad to check emails, etc., and was doing so for a little while before I realized that the clock on the iPad said it was 8:43. What? That can't be right! It should only be 7:43. And then it dawned on me that I had never changed the time zone on the iPhone to Malaysia time, so when my alarm went off at 7, it was actually 8. Sh*t! At that point, I knew there was almost no way I could make it to the train station, KL Sentral, by 9, but every train I had ridden before (and after) had been a little late, so I thought I might still have a chance. 

So once again I was in panic mode as I raced up the stairs, threw the rest of my stuff in my bag and hauled ass out of the hostel. I debated getting a cab, but the LRT station was only 3 or 4 minutes from the hostel and depending on how long I had to wait for it to arrive, I should be at KL Sentral 5-10 minutes after that. With a taxi, I figured morning traffic could be a lot slower than the 10-15 minutes it would take opting for the LRT. So I ran to the LRT station with all my stuff, sweating profusely, bought my ticket, ran up to the platform and was lucky to find the train just pulling in with the clock on the platform reading 8:55. Sweet, I might just make it. I jumped on, and had a few seconds to catch my breath before I realized that the LRT train I was on was on a different line than the one I needed, and, although it was heading in the right general direction, instead of heading south and slightly east to KL Sentral, it was heading south and slightly west to God knows where. Awesome. 

So at the first stop, I got off, grabbed the first taxi and asked him to take me to KL Sentral. Turns out there was quite a bit of morning traffic, and, even though I could see KL Sentral when I got in the cab, there was no easy way to get there. It took almost 15 minutes to get there, arriving at 9:12, and then I sprinted down to the platform for the Singapore train only to find that it left a few minutes prior. The one time I'm running a little late, all of sudden a train decides to leave on time - figures. The next train wasn't leaving until mid-afternoon, wouldn't get to Singapore until about 9pm, and I would have to buy another ticket. I really didn't feel like waiting around, and really didn't want to get in that late. So after debating for a bit, I decided to just book a flight on Air Asia that left at 1 and got to Singapore about 2:30. The stupid time change has now cost me a free breakfast (in Penang) and a $60 flight, and the lack of a standard alarm on the iPad has screwed me over more times than I care to remember. I guess it could be worse - I could have gotten rabies.

My flight to Singapore went smoothly, and after a few different hostel booking websites scared me by indicating there wasn't any hostels with availability all weekend, I considered myself fortunate when the first hostel I stopped by (G4 Station) had a bed available. Unfortunately it was the top bunk in a room of stand-alone bunks of the sort I've ranted about, except these were worse because they had a footboard, headboard and rails along the side to keep people from falling out. I didn't fit normally and couldn't hang my legs off the side comfortably because of the rails. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until after I had paid for 3 nights, and I didn't want to ask for my money back and risk not finding anywhere else. So I made do.

From Singapore

My old roommate from California, Adrienne, whom I had met in Bangkok for Songkran, lives in Singapore. She already had a pretty full social schedule for the weekend, but allowed me to tag along. So I met up with her and Adam and Matt (who were also in Bangkok for Songkran) at the rooftop bar Loof for some cocktails Friday night. A view of the city from Loof:

From Singapore

After that we headed to the bustling nightlife area of Clarke Quay, where one of Adrienne's coworkers was celebrating a birthday. And once inside the bar of choice, I got to experience a staple of Singapore nightlife - a shitty cover band. I honestly thought it was karaoke when they first started playing, not seeing where the music was coming from. Nonetheless, lots of fun was had, but the highlight of the evening was after we left the bar and headed to Spize, a Singapore institution especially popular as a late-night post-bar stop, where the 4 of us ate enough to feed a small Asian town:

From Singapore

Day 118 - Saturday, May 19

I slept in pretty late after Friday night's festivities and then spent a little time that afternoon exploring Little India, where my hostel was located. That night, Adrienne and Adam were kind enough to let me tag along to a cocktail party that a few of their friends were hosting at their lovely apartment. The spread:

From Singapore

They also had quite a nice view of the city from their balcony:

From Singapore

I met a lot of really nice and outgoing folks at the party, and the hosts were amazingly friendly and welcoming and seemed intent on getting me (and everyone else) drunk, which is no small feat in Singapore, where alcohol is more expensive than caviar. After the sophisticated cocktail party got derailed by a little flip-cup, we headed out and kept the party going. The whole night was a lot of fun!

Day 119 - Sunday, May 20

One of the many friendly people I was fortunate enough to meet at the party on Saturday was Cynthia, a native Californian, and neighbor of Adrienne in Singapore. Cynthia was kind enough to let me tag along with her to the Tanjong Beach Club on Sunday, which is on Sentosa, an island just off the the southern tip of Singapore, and home to many tourist attractions, as well as a few beaches. The Beach Club was a posh establishment on one such beach, with a pool, volleyball courts, etc. The scene when we got there on Sunday afternoon reminded me lot of a Las Vegas pool party:

From Singapore

After the TBC, I joined Cynthia and a few of her friends for dinner near Chinatown. A picture of Chinatown as I made my way to dinner:

From Singapore

And after dinner, Cynthia and I got a drink at a nice rooftop bar nearby. I do love a good rooftop bar.

From Singapore

Much thanks to Cynthia for entertaining me for the day!

Day 120 - Monday, May 21

Having slept in the previous two mornings after rather late nights my first two nights, I finally managed to get out of bed at a reasonable hour and explore some more of the city. You may have noticed the giant boat amid the skyline in the picture from Loof above. The boat is located at Marina Bay Sands, a giant complex that's home to a casino, resort, and shopping mall and located on the edge of Marina Bay, opposite the primary business district. I made my way over there and took some photos of the boat and other buildings that make up the skyline:

From Singapore

From Singapore

From Singapore

Also while I was exploring I came across this all-too-familiar establishment.

From Singapore

I think it had been about 10 months since I last saw the LJS logo, and it still made me cringe a little bit. -- For those that are like, "wtf?" - in my 4 years practicing law, I spent the majority of my time working on this one case where our client was Long John Silver's, and sadly LJS was basically my life for long stretches of time. -- With a late-morning flight the next day, I tried to catch up a little on the blog and called it an early night. 

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

Day 113 - Monday, May 14

I had an early afternoon flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL), which meant I could sleep in and take my time packing up, etc. So Monday was mostly a travel day. I got to the KL airport around 4 and got on the bus to the city center, which dropped me off at the KL Sentral station (train station, light rail station, etc.) I went upstairs to buy a ticket on the MRT (light rail) and realized I didn't have my bag. Oops. So for about the 3rd or 4th time on this trip, I broke out into a full on sprint while people stared at me, trying to get back to the bus before it left with my bag to go back to the airport. When I got down to where it had dropped me off, the bus was gone and my bag wasn't on the curb. Ugh. I toldd a police/security officer what happened and luckily they had seen the unclaimed bag and put it to the side, figuring I would come back for it eventually. So, crisis averted, but I was pretty scared there for a little bit.

I got checked into Reggae Mansion hostel close to Chinatown and then went and checked out the city a bit. It was fairly late by the time I went out so a lot of retail outlets and restaurants were closing, and I headed back home after getting some food and wandering around a bit. It was clear from just a little exploring that KL likes its shopping malls, which I figured was a good thing as I was now in desperate need of a pair of jeans and a working camera. A picture of one of the big malls in Bukit Bintang, the main shopping / nightlife area, from my wandering around:

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

Day 114 - Tuesday, May 15

My mission for the day was to find a pair of jeans and buy a new camera, and I figured it might just take me the whole day to make it through the giant shopping malls that are so prevalent in KL. I probably got to the first of the 6 or 7 malls I browsed a little before noon, and as of about 7:00 pm: I had probably walked 10 miles; I hadn't seen very many cameras and the ones I had seen were twice US street/amazon prices; and I had discovered that a country full of short Asians is most certainly not the best place for a tall American to be shopping for jeans, and as with cameras, I found that in all the name brand stores, the prices for jeans in KL were significantly higher than in the US. What happened to shopping being cheap in Asia? Oh sure, you can buy a pair of cheap sunglasses for $1 or 5 t-shirts for $7. I could even have bought a pair of hideous jeans that were way too short for less than $10, but that's not really what I was looking for.

Eventually I found my way outside of the giant fancy malls and into Sungei Wang Plaza - which had small little stalls instead of giant stores and was not nearly as nice inside (but still was 6 floors and a giant mall). I got price quotes from a couple of camera stores which seemed more reasonable, but still a bit higher than US retail prices. I also found a pair of jeans that weren't the best fit and I never would've bought in US, but were the best I'd found after 8 hours of shopping, and I was sick of looking. I then headed over to Low Yat Plaza which is an entire 6-floor mall with nothing but electronics, and I got some more camera price quotes. I decided not to buy a camera at that point because I didn't have enough cash (most charged extra if paying by credit card) and I wanted to do some more research before deciding on one and then go back and try to haggle the price down. I also wanted to see if it might be cheaper to wait and buy in Singapore - my next destination. (Turns out, Singapore is even more expensive).

Day 115 - Wednesday, May 16

After spending my first couple of days in the Golden Triangle area of KL a bit north of the city center, I wanted to check out some other parts of the city on Tuesday, and I wanted to go to KL Sentral to see about train tickets to Singapore. So I walked through Chinatown, and by a cool looking train station,

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

and a cool looking museum,

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

and then to KL Sentral, where after less than awesome experience on the overnight train, I opted for a day-time train to Singapore on Friday. Then on to Little India (which I would have pictures of, but turns out my memory card was full and I had no idea, so I just kept on taking pictures that never got saved to anything).

That night I checked out the rooftop bar on the top of the hostel, which was quite nice, with a nice view of the skyline, though not a great angle from which to view the famous Petronas Towers. Again, I tried to take pictures, but I was still unaware that my attempts at pictures were a complete waste of time.

Day 117 - Thursday, May 18

Finally got a new camera today! I opted for the Panasonic Lumix DSC-TS20 (FT20 outside the US), which is a waterproof camera.

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

I've been keeping a running list of things I would do differently if I was to do this trip again / advice I'd give to others making a similar trip, and I plan to do a few posts along those lines at the end of the year when I'm back in the US. At the top of the list to this point has definitely been that I would've brought a waterproof camera, (or if not a waterproof camera, then a nicer point-and-shoot camera with better zoom capabilities and that would take pictures nice enough that I could print out and frame a few of my favorites). There have been countless opportunities where a waterproof camera would've been so nice to have (though I don't think SCUBA diving is one of them, as you really need a specialized case for going that deep). But I could've gotten some great pics/video snorkeling in Fiji, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Thai islands; pictures at various places when it was raining; pictures and video swimming with dolphins; caving in New Zealand; and all sorts of other places that a normal camera just can't go. In terms of specs, this camera is quite similar to the old one, but will allow me to take HD video and the whole waterproof thing.

That evening I went and checked out some more of the city I hadn't seen and got a close up view of the Petronas Towers, which are quite impressive.

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

Not a bad picture for a waterproof camera right? Just kidding. I stole that one from google. I was jogging at the time, so I left the camera at the hostel. Here's another of the towers.

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

I checked out the rooftop bar again that evening, and having finally realized that the majority of pictures of KL that I had taken with the old camera were never recorded because the card was full, snapped a few pics with the new camera:

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

Malaysia - Penang

Day 110 - Friday, May 11

As I mentioned in my last post, I had booked a sleeper train from Chumphon, Thailand to Penang, Malaysia that was scheduled to leave Chumphon at about 1030pm (the train didn't show up until 11- shocking right?) and was scheduled to arrive in Penang around noon. When I got on the train, all the other beds in my car were full from people who had gotten on further north (mostly Bangkok). I was in an upper berth (i.e. top bunk) because even though I booked 6 days ahead, that was all that was left. Most people were already asleep, meaning I had to try to get settled while being very quiet, and the guy across the aisle from me appeared to be the only one on the train snoring, and it was loud. Awesome.  

Once I got my bearings and got up into the bed, I quickly noticed that the length from wall to wall (i.e. headboard to footboard) was about 6'2" or 6'3". In any case, I definitely didn't fit by at least a few inches, even without a pillow, and the bed wasn't wide enough to simply turn at a slight angle. I'm also not a fetal position / side sleeper, and I pretty much always sleep on my stomach with at least one leg stretched all the way out. So I had to hang about 1/3 of both my legs off the corner of the bed, through the curtain and out into the aisle. I'm guessing it was a humorous/odd sight for others as they walked by. That, combined with Sir Snores-a-lot, and constant stops and jolts throughout night, didn't make for a very good night's sleep. I was also hoping (though not expecting) that I might be able to shower - but no showers to be found. And finally I was hoping for some hot water to make some instant noodles with, but none of that either. So it was not an ideal situation, but it still beats the heck out of 15 hours on a bus. 

Penang is an island off the western coast of Malaysia. So the train stops in Butterworth on the mainland and then there's a ferry that heads over to George Town, the main city on Penang. It's not exactly a picturesque skyline, but here's picture of George Town from the ferry:

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

After having my own private room in guesthouses/hotels ever since arriving in Thailand because accommodation was so cheap, I had switched to a hostel for the last couple of nights in Ko Tao and realized that I missed the social atmosphere in a hostel and how easy it is to meet people. I had also heard good things about the Reggae hostels in Malaysia, so I opted for the Reggae Penang Hostel. Which, like my hostel in Ko Tao and Bali, had little cubbies built into the walls for the beds, which is so much better than the stand-alone framed beds throughout NZ and Oz. And in the Reggae hostels (I also stayed in one in Kuala Lumpur) the beds go into the wall long ways, kind of like drawers at a morgue, which was actually quite nice.

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

My plan was to only spend 2 nights in Penang, just enough time to see it and move on, but when I looked at trains to Kuala Lumpur (KL), they were all booked for a quite a few days. So then I looked at flights and found a cheap flight to KL on Monday, meaning an extra night in Penang.

Day 111 - Saturday, May 12

The hostel provided free breakfast from 730 to 1030. And since I had an extra day to check out the city, I didn't see any need to get up early. So I slept in until about 930, then got up showered and headed downstairs around 10. When there was no breakfast to be found, I politely inquired and was referred to the clock on the wall that said 11:05. Son of a...! It appears Malaysia is an hour ahead of Thailand and no one bothered to tell me (okay, I can't seriously blame this on anyone but myself, but still, the stupid time change cost me a free breakfast).  

Penang, more than anything, is probably known for it's food. The primary influences on Malay cuisine seem to be Thai, Indian, Chinese and Indonesian. Having spent a month eating almost exclusively Thai food, I decided to steer clear of classic Thai dishes and sample some of the other fare, all of which was quite good, including some of the best Indian food I've had. And like everywhere in SE Asia, it was quite cheap.

While food tops the list of attractions, and George Town is among the oldest cities in Malaysia with considerable historical significance, there's not a whole lot to see in Penang. Among the few attractions is Penang Hill, the highest point on the island with great views. I had read that you can climb it, which seemed like a good way to get some exercise and work off some of the delicious food I had been stuffing my face with. A girl staying in my room mentioned that you can take the 204 bus from George Town to get to the bottom of the hill. I also read on Wikitravel that you can take the 204 bus. But when I talked to the old man at receptionhen I asked the old man at reception, he said take the 10 bus. Hmmm...I think you're confused old man. So after double checking wikitravel and gathering up some laundry to leave at the front desk, when I was headed out the door, I asked the girl who had replaced the old man and she said the 204 bus. It seems we have a consensus.

I walked to the bus station and got the 204 bus and rode to the bottom of the hill, and then tried to find the trail to walk to the top. But, the only thing I saw was the train/tram that carries people to the top. After looking around for a bit, I asked someone, and they said that you couldn't walk from there and that, to climb the hill, you have to start from the other side of the hill at the botanical gardens, which you can get to by..[wait for it]....bus #10. Sorry for doubting you old man. When I asked what the easiest way was to get to the other side of the hill, the bus driver told me that it was to ride all the way back to the bus station in George Town and then get the 10 bus from there. Ugh.

I glanced at my map and decided that I could just walk/jog from where I was to the botanical gardens or at least to somewhere on the bus 10 route rather than go all the way back. So I walked and I jogged and I walked some more, and sometimes I walked into a dead end and turned around. And then eventually, after a combination of walking and jogging for a couple of hours, I came across a sign for the botanical gardens, and then after about another 30 minutes I saw the 10 bus, but at that point, it was already like 330, so I figured by the time another bus came by and I got to the hill, I probably wouldn't have enough daylight to climb the hill, so I just kept walking all the way back to the hostel in George Town and figured I'd just try again with the hill the next day.

That evening I was planning to go check out the main nightlife area. So after I got back, I showered and went to get dressed. I had dropped off the vast majority of my clothes to get washed, but still had a pair of jeans to wear out. Or at least I thought I did. Turns out I had lost my only  pair of jeans - no idea where - last time I remember having them was Bali. So that meant my options to wear out were the sweaty shorts I had worn all day or pajama pants that were a bit short and looked a bit like capri pants. How do you lose a pair of jeans? I mean really.  

Day 112 - Sunday, May 13 - Mother's Day

Rather than messing with the bus again, I decided that I'd just rent a moped and drive myself to Penang Hill and then use the rest of the afternoon to check out some other parts of the island. 

So I got to the hill and headed up. It's a little over 5km to the top and a fairly steep climb, but the views from the top are worth it. 

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

On the way up, a monkey popped out of the woods and hung out with me for a bit, but when he realized I had no food for him, he headed back up a tree:

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

On the way down, I came across a big group of monkeys, just hanging out in the street:

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

I then headed over to the primary beach on the island, which seemed pretty mediocre after all the other beaches I've seen over the last 3 months.

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

And of course, Mother's Day wouldn't be complete without skyping with the parents, which given the 12-hour time difference ended up being just before bedtime. If anyone else is on skype (or any of the other myriad communication apps that use the internet) and you want to chat some time, just let me know - it's always good to hear familiar voices and see familiar faces.

Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon Party

My apologies for being slack and getting so far behind. I'll try to keep this more up to date, but no promises.

When I finally got to Ko Tao on Friday afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the water was much clearer there than it had been at Ko Samui. And I was also excited to hear that they were seeing whale sharks at a couple of the dive sites at least a few times a week. So I signed up to do some diving at 7am the next morning. I figured an early morning dive would work out well for staying up until sunrise at the Full Moon Party ("FMP"), because I'd be back from the dive at 11 or 12 and probably quite exhausted and could take like a 4-hour nap until I was picked up at 5pm for the ferry over to Ko Pha-Ngan, home of the FMP. I was also happy to see that unlike the dive industry in Phuket, Phi Phi and Khao Lak, there did not seem to be any sort of agreement between the dive shops on Ko Tao to fix prices, and as a result, the cost of diving was more reasonable - capitalism to the rescue.

Day 104 - Saturday, May 5 - Full Moon Party

I went diving with Phoenix Divers, home of the big pink boat (actually they have a few big pink boats).

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

We did 2 dives - the first was a site called Chumpon, which is probably the #1 site around Ko Tao and was where we were hoping to see a whale shark. No such luck, but the reef was really cool, lots of fish, visibility was quite good. Definitely a good fun dive, but hard not to be disappointed, when we had like a 50/50 chance of seeing a whale shark. The second dive site was called twins, named after the two twin peaks that make up the island of Nangyuan. A view of the twins from a bit of an angle:

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

As planned, I headed back to the room to take a nap, but found it hard to fall asleep, so the nap wasn't as successful as I had hoped. Normally, the last ferry from Ko Tao to Ko Pha-Ngan leaves in the early afternoon and the first one to come back the next day isn't until about midday, but they run a special FMP ferry that is scheduled to leave Ko Tao at 530pm, get to Ko Pha-Ngan at 7, and then return at 8am the next morning. So I opted for that. I got picked up at 5 and rode over to the ferry with some very friendly folks, who I ended up hanging out with for most of the night. Unfortunately, because of the wind and rough seas our boat was 2 hours late arriving, so we ended up just hanging out at the docks drinking beers for 2 hours while we waited:

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

When we finally got on the boat, the sea was really rough, which lead to a lot of intoxicated people falling over anytime they tried to stand up or walk around and others puking off the side. It was a bit of a spectacle. But eventually we made it. Like Samui, Ko Pha-Ngan is quite a large island. The beach that hosts the FMP is Haad Rin Beach, which is quite far from the pier (but minibus transfer to the party was included with the ferry ride). When we got there, we found that we were way too devoid of bright colors and that body paint was almost a must have. So we met some friendly folks on the street that were doing some painting and joined their painting party. The full crew from the painting party:

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

As far as drinks go, just about everyone drinks buckets of booze. Basically there are tables set up everywhere selling little plastic buckets with a bottle of liquor, a can of mixer and a small bottle of red bull and ice for like $6-10 depending on your liquor of choice. I made the mistake of drinking multiple buckets on the evening:

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

Once it was clear that I needed body paint, I wasn't really sure what to do with my shirt because I didn't bring any sort of bag; leaving it somewhere seemed like a bad idea; and I didn't want to relive the 80's by tying it around my waist, so I went with a bit of a pirate look and tied it around my head. The pirate look was significantly added to by the face paint provided by Kat (thanks Kat!) who was in high demand due to her artistic talent. Lacking any artistic talent, I didn't do much painting myself, but when Marc adamantly requested that I paint something on him, I opted for a good ol' orange tiger paw. Evidence of my pirate motif, my incredible painting skills and my inability to dance can be seen in the photos below (most of which are stolen from Emily Fletcher, a fellow American that I hung out with a good bit while on Ko Tao - Thanks for the photos Emily!).

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

I TRIED to take photos of my own, but as you'll recall the LCD screen on my camera doesn't work, so when I accidentally switched it to movie mode (after the painting session) without realizing it, instead of taking pictures, I ended up with about 20 3-second video clips, none of which are good. Here is an example:

Day 105 - Sunday, May 6

Eventually the sun came up:

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

And we hauled our exhausted selves back to the pier, where I slept on a bench while waiting on the ferry (fitting I guess seeing as how I am currently homeless - in a sense). Thankfully it was on time this time and the sea was quite calm for the ferry ride back.

It rained most of the afternoon, which was just fine by me, because I spent most of the day in bed, and a little rain is always a nice backdrop for an afternoon nap.

Day 106 - Monday, May 7

On Monday, the weather was nice, so I went down to Sairee beach (the West coast of Ko Tao, where my guest house was) and checked it out for a bit.

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

Then in the afternoon, I rented a moped (they didn't even offer me a helmet, which seems a little odd given my ticket on Ko Samui), and a few of my new friends rented an ATV and we set out to explore the island. We grabbed a beer at Chalok Baan Kao Bay

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

And then did a short hike up to the top of the hill that separates Chalok Bay from Shark Bay:

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

The ATV proved to be a bit of a death trap, so they returned it (and a yelling match ensued when no amount of refund was given - I was only a spectator) and I was left on my own to explore a bit more and checked a few other viewpoints on the northwest side of the island. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a sunset in Ko Tao that day or really any of the others (maybe because it's on the Eastern Coast of Thailand?).

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

Day 107 - Tuesday, May 8

After really enjoying the full day snorkel trip in Phi Phi supplemented by a cooler of beer, I decided I wanted to do a similar trip in Ko Tao. So I got on a different pink boat, with a cool bag full of ice cold Chang, and we made our way all the way around the Island, stopping in various bays to do some snorkeling. The snorkeling at some of the stops was great, and the shoreline along the way was pretty cool, with lots of rocks and cliffs and such.

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

The snorkel trip ended at Nangyuan island, which you may recall from above is the island made of two twin hills connected by a strip of beach. The view from the top of the south hill:

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

[I was hoping to stitch the two photos above together to create a panorama, but I have yet to find a decent ipad app that does photo stitching or a web-based tool. Anyone know of any?]

After the day on the boat, a group of us went out and got some drinks, checked out the beach bars, some fire shows, and once again a bucket of liquor got the best of me.

Day 108 - Wednesday May 9

Wednesday it felt even hotter than usual. I was a little sunburned after the day on the boat and a little hungover after the night out, so I did a whole lot of nothing.

Day 109 - Thursday, May 10

Thursday I left Ko Tao. I had to be out of the country by the 11th because I was only allowed to be in the country for 30 days without a visa. So I took the ferry across to the mainland in the early afternoon and waited around for a few hours for an overnight train to Malaysia. I outdid myself this time and ate 4 different main courses over the course of about 5 hours at this restaurant by the train station. The old lady that ran the place kept poking me in the belly and looking in my bag and asking me where all the food went. The train finally showed up at about 11pm, about 40 minutes late, but at this point, I'm pretty amazed when any transportation vessel shows up on time. As it was the last time I was going to be in Thailand for a while and I wasn't sure the situation in Malaysia, I went ahead and bought 4 loaves of Taro Bread and a chocolate-filled banana cake (they only had 1) at the nearby 7-11. A few photos of Ko Tao from the boat as we left:

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon

From Thailand - Ko Tao & Full Moon