The previous night we met a wonderful young couple from Switzerland who decided they'd join us in our exploring. We decided to head to the beach on our motos. Tom and Manuel were fighting over who was going to have to take me on the back of their bike-- both of them claimed that the "extra weight" (thanks guys!) made the bike a bit trickier to drive. We settled on one of the boys taking me on the way there and one of the boys taking me on the way home. We also settled on me not eating for the next 3 days-- ha, just kidding!
We were a bit slow to start because the Swiss couple had to rent a motorbike and Jack wasn't overly confident riding one on his own-- the previous day he had hopped on the back of Manuel's. Tom was supposed to lead so that everyone could follow him but he had become a bit cocky and our ride turned into him speeding and me accosting him for going much too fast for the newbies. Needless to say, I was happy to hop on Manuel's bike for the ride home.
The first beach we went to was home to a gigantic island pig. It literally laid in the sun all day long waiting for tourists to take pictures with it. #hilarious
We stopped at a small restaurant on the beach for some lunch- I ordered one of my staple thai dishes but damn after two bites my mouth was on fire. Apparently "mai pet" didn't work with the southern locals.
After spending some time at the beach, we decided to bike around and explore a bit in the mountains.
We had five motorbikes in our group. The goal was for all of us to stay together. Along the route however, we had gotten split up. I encouraged the boys to stop along the guardrail at the top of the hill we were climbing and wait for Jack and Julia. We waited, and waited, and waited. They didn't come. I was so nervous. Had someone crashed? Had someone gotten hurt? I made the boys go back the route we came in an effort to find the missing part of our caravan. Sure enough, Julia and Jack were on the side of the road pointing to a street sign. "You guys missed the turn. We are supposed to go this way."
Relived that no one was hurt, we hopped back on our bikes and continued along on the correct path. Our plan was to make it to a national park to hike around for a bit. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the park post stated it would be closing in 30 minutes which wasn't enough time for us to start our journey. We instead used the facilities and played with a wild dog or two before heading home.
Everyone else was tired but Manuel really wanted to explore the local market at the end of the main drag. Knowing that we weren't going to be in the jungle, and that there was a set time for market close, I felt ok heading there with Manuel. As we wandered through, we found items to try. I ordered these crazy weird french fry spirals that were quite good but damn were there a lot of them. Manuel and I sat in the sand along the water to eat our strange fries and relax. While there, I noticed that my camera was doing crazy things to distort the light in my images. I became obsessed with taking photos to look at the light patterns. At one point I totally creeped out a guy across the way from me, because he thought I was taking pictures of him. Not really, just trying to take photos of the light around you. Ok, guess that does sound weird. But whatever, it's Thailand. Way stranger things have happened, I'm sure.
After creeping a bit too hard on another tourist, I felt it best for Manuel and I to leave the beach. When we got back to the hostel, our crew suggested heading to Amsterdam bar for dinner. Amsterdam bar is situated on top of the mountain (which means it's super hard to get to but also super worth it). We hired a songthaew to take us- he would only take us part of the way- and then we had to get out and climb the 150 narrow, windy, carved into the mountainside steps to get the rest of the way up. One of the plusses however- he stayed at the base of the mountain and waited so he could take us back to our hostel. What did he do while he waited you ask? He pulled a hammock out of the cab of his songthaew and hung it across the back of the truck bed. "Wake me when you get back" he said with a wink.
There were small wooden tables maybe a foot off the ground with cusions underneath for sitting or laying. We got a small table in the corner and all enjoyed the cool breeze and a few beers. Amsterdam bar is 420 friendly. If you want edibles, no problem. If you want smokeables, no problem. If you want netflix and chill, no problem. It was fun a way to spend the evening with friends.
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