07NOV08 - Koh Phangan, Thailand (Sea Breeze Resort)

The best story-teller I have ever known is my best friend and, basically, brother Dylan. It is not that his stories are remarkable but that he relays his life's experiences by one basic premis; it is to never ruin a good story with the truth... (and to tell it with such vigor and charisma that it HAS to be true!)

I try to implement this same strategy into all of my life accounts and especially into my travel tales because I believe it makes believing this version of reality more fun and likeable. But after two full weeks in Thailand, the things Heather and I have been subjected to cannont be altered by this persausion because they are, in themselves, nearly unbelievable and were, almost unbearable!

They include:

5 Hours on a bus that leaked water onto my sleeping head from the rain storm, and reeked of human waste
4 Hours waiting at a disserted boat launch for a ferry ride at 3:30 in the morning.
3 fungal infections in places not appropriate of mention
2 extremely lousy nights in room more suitable for torture than sleep
1 stolen debit card and primary source of financing


And we do all of this because we like it, we want to believe it's good for us and know that it makes for good stories!


We have traveled to another island in the Bay of Thailand called Koh Phangan. We originally had a reservation at a place on the northeastern part of the island, but could not find a taxi to take us there under our terms. Because this new island, which is relatively small and undeveloped, does not have very many taxi's and has even less drivers willing to except reasonable rates. They do not operate with a meter and feel they have the right to absolutely purge any western visitor of their money. AND because most foreigners here are from, what it seems, the countries of the EU, they can afford to pay prices easily within the cost of a cheap meal in their respective homelands. But seeing as how we came to this place specifically for the cheap travel, we could not justify spending the exuberant rates. Based on our research and talks with travel agents on Koh Samui, we were led to believe we could get anywhere on Koh Phangan for 100 Bhat per person (which equals about $3.16US). But when we got off the ferry in 95 degree heat with 110 percent humidity, carrying 70 lbs each, we absolutely could not find a taxi for less than 1,000 Bhat! We were told that drivers lease their taxis and not the ride...

Of course, this reasoning makes no sense to a person from a controlled and regulated country, but we get it. We come from a place where the empolyee opperating the register of the most patronized restaurant in the United States asks if "you want fries with that" makes more money in one single hour than the person of equal social rank in Thailand makes in an entire month. The fact of the matter is we are visitors to this place. We should really appreciate the relative power our money brings and respect this opportunity to enjoy a very beautiful and unexploited part of the world.




A TOTALY SAFE JUMP ROPE... right!?!?!




Sunrise Beach.

Question: Do you recognize this woman?

Answer: It's the woman of my dreams! (it's Mrs. Madden a.k.a. H-Bomb!)
Don't worry folks, karosene only leaves superficial burns!!!