Island Hopping

Yo, ho, ho...Kho Lanta..we have left Phuket after nearly killing ourselves with no sleep! Had a very cool encounter with some Aussies our second last night there. Met some folks in a coffee bar who are refitting their boat in Thailand and they invited us aboard for cocktails so we set out to their marina in the afternoon with huge clouds looming above us and nearly made it but for all hell breaking loose just as we hit the marina village. The skies opened up and we saw the villagers making like gangbusters for cover and sure enough, it was a monsoon rain. Oh well. Eventually we did make it aboard and had a great visit and dinner with them. Lovely boat, 25 metre power boat that they bought in Hong Kong and are styling up with mahogany and leather etc. It will be a dream boat when they are done and have invited us back whenever we are around. Life is good.

Took the ferry over to this island where we are now, very small and quiet and very cheap to stay, approximately $7.50 a night for a bungalow on the beach. We've been zipping about on scooters again ( they are so handy and fun) and tomorrow we go for Thai cooking classes - yummy. When we get home we'll whip up a batch of curry and spicy soup for y'all. Friday we are going diving and snorkelling to one of the gzillion sites around the islands and then we will head for Bangkok for a few days, then to Chang Mai up north country and on to Laos where we think we'll be for Christmas. The high season is supposedly kicking in here but it's really very quiet compared to years past. The tsunami has really put the kibosh on things here for the local businesses and with all reports to the contrary, (read propaganda) it does not appear that there will be a rush for December and January as is the norm.

It's really easy to see how people come to Thailand and get lost. We've seen and met some folks who are into the scene pretty deeply and along with that comes a loosening of morals along with a disillusionment of the paradise life. There are a lot of lost souls haunting the go-go bars and backstreet taverns and it's not unusual to see farangs (us white folks) dead piss drunk at 10 or 11 in the morning anywhere. As well, the cheap and easy love here pulls at a lot of the men but what they don't realize initially is the quandry they put themselves into until it's too late. When you get involved with a Thai girl, you had better make sure that your bank account is topped off and be prepared to feed and house and clothe the extended family, ma, pa, sister, brother, cousin, cousin of cousin etc. There is no free lunch. Speaking of lunch, today Ivan ordered a bowl of soup called JUNGLE CURRY with special Thai ingredients, the main component being hot pepper. I don't often get to see Ivan cry as he's pretty happy go lucky, but today while eating the soup, you would have thought his dog died! Runny nose, weepy eyes and fire engine red face but, damn it was good, or so he says. My eyebrows were singed across the table. I had a cheeseburger.