Trains, Planes and Boats in the Rain

Ko Tao, Thailand

Good morning everyone, or I guess Good evening to y'all since your nine hours ahead (or more accurately 15 hours behind).
Well, its been an interesting couple of weeks so far. Daysha and I headed out on Halloween morning, on a 25 hour flight from Seattle to Bankok, via San Fransisco, and Seuol, Korea. All things considered, it wasn't to bad of a flight, not too many crying babies, or flight delays. Still we were two very tired travelers when we got in to the Bankok airport at around Midnight or so. We spent two days in Bankok, ricocheting around the city on tuk-tuks, taking in some of the sights. The Grand Palace, and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha among them. But the hustle and the bustle of the city didn't prove too satisfying, so we hopped on a train south to a beach town named Hua Hin. There we rested on the beach, and ate good seafood(you haven't lived until you've tried fresh fish-ska-bobs, or squid on a stick). Hua Hin, however is extremely touristy, and we soon tired of walking through town, pushing our way through merchants hawking wooden elephant statues and hand held hookas. Also most of the tourists who come here seem to be very stressed out, because there are two or three thai massage parlors on every block (the girls who run these places are really friendly though). So, after four or five days, we caught a bus running further along the south east coast to a town called Champwon. From there we were going to go back up about ten miles north to a secluded beach for a couple of days, but a couple that we met on the bus told us about a midnight boat out to the island of Ko Tao. Ko Tao was going to be our next stop anyway, and it was proving difficult to get to the beach where we wanted to go, so we decided go ahead and wait for the boat. We were very proud of ourselves for this decision, because we would save money on a hotel, as the boat ride was to be six hours long, so we would get there the next money. There was an express boat during the day that would only take two hours, but it was a little more expensive, and besides we were going to sleep on the boat anyway, right?

Well, it started off all right, when we boarded the boat, the downstairs was full, but the upstairs was almost empty. The floor was covered in mats, and we were protected from above by some tarps. So we set up our bags and layed back against them and got ready for a restful night, when a couple of english guys climbed up as well. Oh cool, I thought to myself we'll have someone to talk to if we get bored. But then a couple germans came up as well, then some aussies, then more germans, soon we were so packed together that we couldn't even stretch out our legs. Finally the boat started to move, and just as I closed my eyes to go to sleep, the heavens started to spit. I opened one eye, and thought hmmm good thing we have those tarps. Of course this was not the end, oh no. Ten minutes into the trip, it started downpouring. It was then that I realized that we didn't have a tarps, but a funnel for the water to drain on to me and my backpack. So to make a long story, uh... not quite as long, it was a wet, sleepless night on the boat. We finally rached Ko Tao at about six in the morning, just as it stopped raining, and found a beuatiful island, with amazing beaches, and cheap little bungalows. We like it so much that we're going to hang out at least a month. For a 150 bucks we got a nice little bungalow about 50 feet from the beach. So that about brings y'all up to date, I hope I haven't bored anybody, remember that you don't have to read these and if I get filtered into your junk mail, I won't be offended. Alrighty then, Peace, Pizza, and Peaches, moe