Pinkies Up, Digestives In

Sun 31 Jul 2016

One of the best things about staying at Echo Beach is that the staff are travelers, just like us. Most of them were passing through Koh Phangan at one point in time, were amazed by it, and decided to head back. In exchange for meals and accomodation, the staff work the bar, the front desk and the tours. They've basically made a temporary home for themselves in one of the best places on earth, which is why, today, Jack, Tom and I took their recommendations and headed to explore Bottle Beach.

On the way, we decided to stop at a viewpoint (who doesn't love a good viewpoint?!) Although the area was under construction, (they were trying to construct a type of pop up tiki bar??) we were able to access a large slab of concrete that overlooked the island and the beach. The views were absolutely breathtaking (minus the concrete of course).

Oh Yeah. I almost forgot. One more thing.

I got to drive the motorbike!
(ok, not really, but the pose is pretty convincing, right?!)

After being laughed at by the locals for staging a photoshoot at their construction site, we took off for Bottle Beach.
The route included quite a bit of off roading, mostly through gravel and mud. If you've ever ridden a motorbike, you know that trying to brake while on gravel is a complete lost cause, so Tom's philosophy was to gas it the entire way. Needless to say, I was white knuckling the back of that bike like there was no tomorrow.

We ended up on a mud path that was really slick, as well as super uneven and incredibly rocky. We came to a hill that sloped straight down and then curved sharply to the left. I wasn't able to see the bottom and was anxious that if we got our bikes down, we may not be able to get them back up again.

After my wails for Tom to stop the bike became too much for him to bear, he begrudgingly put on the brakes. I hopped off and told him I was going to head down the hill on foot to see what was around the curve and if taking our bikes was even a feasible option.

No sooner had I hopped off the bike than I heard tire squeals and "sionara, sister" behind me. Tom had taken off down the hill.

Before I knew it he was out of sight. All of a sudden, I heard a loud crash. My heart started pounding. I yelled, "Tom, Tom" but I got no response. With my helmet still on, I took off sliding down the hill. I fell in the mud not once, but twice, completely covering myself, all the while yelling up the hill to Jack, who had stopped his bike behind us. "Jack, Jack, I heard a crash and I can't hear Tom. Get down here now!!"

I came around the curve to find Tom standing, completely fine, next to the bike.
He took one look at me and my shambled self and said, "you woulda been better off on the bike".

Tom explained that he headed down the hill but when he got about halfway he realized he wasn't going to make it, so he hopped off the bike and tried to turn it around. The hill was slick though, so he slipped and let go of the bike and it went sliding down the hill. Now, here the three of us are with a bike that's missing a sideview mirror and some paint, a bruised ego and a long, long way back up this hill.

Getting the bike back up was an absolute bitch. The number of times "I told you so" tried to creep out of my mouth as I was melting from the hot sun, sliding in the mud and simultaneously trying to lift this damn bike were numerous. I settled for an eyebrow raise and uncontrollable laughter at the ridiculousness of our predicament.

After getting the bike back onto driveable turf, we took off toward a different beach. Thankfully, this route didn't include any offroading. The beers that followed went down smooth and were exactly what we needed.After a short swim, a nap and some sunbathing, we decided to head back to Echo to rehash the day's events to Manu, our German confidant.

The staff overheard us telling our grave tale to Manu and could barely keep straight faces. "Well of course you didn't make it to Bottle Beach", they laughed, "Bottle Beach is completely inaccessible by motos."
WOMP. WOMP. WOMP.
Thailand, one. Three amigos, nada.

We decided the best way to nurse our bruised egos was to spend the night at the hostel hanging together. Grace (one of the workers at the hostel who we'd become pretty good friends with) and Tom, really, really wanted me to try digestives-- apparently they are a british staple. Maybe I forgot to mention this but the brits outnumbered me IMMENSELY at this hostel and they took every opportunity they could to remind me of it. They could not believe some of the things Americans did, or didn't do, like eat digestives, so tonight, they took it upon themselves to teach me one of their many british ways. Apparently, the right way to drink a cup of tea (or four cups of tea, a day, minimum), is to have a digestive BISCUIT (not cookie, do not call these things cookies because they are definitely NOT cookies. seriously though, they look like cookies) and to dip it in said cup of tea. Because this is necessary life knowledge that I did not yet possess at the ripe old age of 26, Grace and Tom splurged on a box of imported digestives for the evening. The lead up to my first taste was highly anticipated by multiple hostel guests and staff members, and I did not disappoint.

After they were satisfied that they had converted yet another yank to the good ole' ways of the british, they passed around the digestives for all to enjoy. What a fun way to spend my last night at Echo Beach. Cheers Mate. Pinkies Up. Digestives In.

Capturing the Beauty of the Koh

Sat 30 Jul 2016

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.

Probing Pretty Phangan

Fri 29 Jul 2016

The half moon party took quite a bit out of us, so relaxing for a day was a necessity. We were back at it again though, just one day later. Today's excursion consisted of renting motorbikes (not one for me of course) and driving through the mountains. We had made a few friends since arriving at Echo, so our fabulous threesome had turned into a fearsome fivesome. Today Jack and Julia were accompanying us. Julia was German and Jack was british so it worked out quite well for all involved. I had gotten used to not meeting many americans while traveling because we don't subscribe to the idea of a gap year (we're totally missing out!!)
After looking at the map, we decided that we definitely wanted to hit up the chocolate house. Tom and I were super stoked! We hadn't had anything good and sweet since being on the islands. Upon arrival however, we noticed that not only was the chocolate house not open, but that it was also not really a thing. It was literally a black house nestled in the mountains... #fail.

We continued to ride around for a bit and then stopped at a beautiful beach. Swimming in the water in front of our hostel wasn't really a thing, and after visiting this beach I could totally see why. The stretch of beach today was absolutely gorgeous- it wasn't rocky or polluted and there was tons of room. The boys opted for beers in the shade while I sunned myself and enjoyed a good book. After posting at the beach for as long as they could handle (did I mention my male companions are a bit squirrely?) We hopped back on the bikes to explore famed viewpoints around the island. The viewpoints are absolutely breathtaking and for the most part fun to get to. Tom continued to give me a hard time about having it so easy-- all I had to do was hop on the back of his bike. Little did he know I was gripping the bike with all of my strength and exhaling a thank god everytime we were safely parked. I'd say it's a lot harder letting someone else be in control, but what do I know? :)

On our way home we couldn't help passing by Cats in Space, the hostel that Tom was obsessed with staying at prior to getting to the island. He hopped off the bike and we took an honorary guest photo of him out front of his "favorite" hostel.

That evening we stayed in and hung out with the friends we'd made at our hostel. There was always a good crowd in the lobby for happy hour so we posted up and chilled. Being able to walk a few feet from my barstool and have my toes in the sand and the ocean breeze blowing my hair was the perfect way to end a fun day!

Can I Get a Hell Yeah for the Half Moon

Wed 27 Jul 2016
The plan was to spend two nights on Koh Samui.
Check. Check.
After that I was thoroughly Koh Samui-ed out, so heading to Koh Phangan for the half moon party was the perfect next step. The boys decided to come along with me.
We took a songthaew to the pier and then boarded a boat to Koh Phangan.

After a long, heated discussion in our bunks the night before, we decided to stay at echo beach hostel. I had read rave reviews and had heard from almost all of the backpackers in our current hostel that Echo Beach was the BEST place on the island. Tom wanted to stay at a hostel called Cats in Space (I think just for the sake of the name) and Manuel insisted upon staying at a hostel with computer access and a camera cable so he could upload his photos.

After not even 5 minutes at Echo the boys were singing my praises for choosing it.
For starters, the lobby of Echo is ON THE SAND. It walks right out onto the beach and into the ocean. In the lobby (aka on the beach) there's a bar, couches, hammocks, pool tables and a restaurant. There's a swanky loft with totally rad staff. Did I mention there's free breakfast and happy hour beer specials? To top it off, you get all of this for the amazingly low price of 3 US dollars/night. #ThailandILoveYou #PinchMeI'mDreaming

We were in dorm rooms with communal bunks that opened into communal bathrooms with cold water showers-- the rationale- thailand's hot as hell and cold showers are super eco-friendly. I loved this place even more.

The three of us headed out to do some exploring and found a local pop up for lunch. We dined in the sunshine while a little thai boy did his english lessons next to us. It was perfect. On our way back to the hostel we happened upon a coconut collection site. We weren't sure who ran it, why it was there, or what they used the coconuts for, all we knew was that there were hundreds and hundreds of coconuts.

The moon parties are renowned all over Thailand. If you go to the islands, then there's no question that you're going to a moon party. In preparation for our big night, we took afternoon naps so that we were rested and ready for our famed right of passage.

The bar at our hostel had drink specials and had organized songthaews to take us to the jungle for the party. We made a lot of friends pre-partying who we then boarded the songthaews with at midnight. We made it to the jungle by 12:15-12:30. It was decked out with multiple stages, trippy light displays, and tons of different bars. The specialty was definitely buckets, but you could get beers if you really wanted to. We spent the entire night dancing, going from one stage to to the next. Tom and I took a motorbike home in the early morning hours, just in time to pass out before the sun came up. Partying at the half moon was definitely a great time :)

i'm a motherfuckin trexpert

Tues 26 Jul 2016

Today was my first full day on Koh Samui. I decided to spend it exploring with Tom, a british friend I'd made, and Manuel, a German friend I'd met. We had breakfast at 9 and then the boys rented two motorbikes for our excursion-- I would not rent my own motorbike, so I made Manuel promise to drive really, really safely with me on the back of his bike.

We rode to the base of our trekking spot, which was out of the town and up into the hills. We got pretty turned around because if you've seen one twisty, turny dirt road, you've seen them all, especially when there aren't street signs designating this curve from that one.

The sun was beating down and it was H-O-T, HOT. We were also walking straight up (it sure felt like it anyway). The climb was hard because the dirt road was uneven and rocky so it was really easy to loose your footing and start to slide. I started to panic a bit-- I was trekking with two guys that I didn't really know-- how good of shape were they in? did they do this all the time? what if I couldn't keep up? So, to curb my panic, I started asking my questions aloud, which in hindsight maybe wasn't such a good idea. Turns out, Manuel is an AVID hiker who loves trekking alone for DAYS at a time. How did I not see that one coming? And wait, it gets better. Not only does he hike alone, but when he encounters stray dogs on his hikes, he invites them to trek along too. Thank God I hadn't met Manuel in Cambodia or we'd have had an army of stray dogs trekking with us. I wonder if he knows how laden that country is with wild animals. Anyway, he continued to tell us about his adventures in the mountains of Germany, on one of which he encountered a stray dog who stayed by his side and eventually ended up saving his life. CRAP. So now he's relying on stray animals to save him from dangers out in the wilderness? So much for curbing my panic by asking questions. I decided I didn't want to hear anymore from Manuel and moved on to questioning the british pretty boy walking beside me. Luckily for me, Tom's mouth was just as agape as mine while Manuel was talking, so I figured maybe I had a chance with him. Turns out, Tom doesn't do the whole lost in the wilderness, hiking alone for days thing either. Cha-ching.

One of the positives here was that Tom and I were able to convince Manuel relatively easily that we needed to stop fairly often to "enjoy" our hike (because we were novice hikers and didn't get to experience things like this every day) while we climbed. This led to gorgeous views of the island beneath us, multiple failed attempts at knocking coconuts out of the treetops and a shady photo shoot on a fallen tree trunk.

Five hours later, we arrived at the beautiful waterfall we had been searching for. The water was cool and refreshing and we were the only people around. The tiers of the waterfall really were breathtaking and we spent a decent amount of time just revelling in the beauty of nature.

However, my revel was interrupted by yet another question. How were we going to get back? It had taken us the better part of a day to complete this trek; not only would it be getting dark soon, but we also hadn't had anything to eat. This was starting to seem like a situation that needed a stray dog and to me, that was not a good thing.
So what did I do? I started asking my questions aloud. You think I would've learned.
For Manuel, the answer was easy. We walk back.
Excuse me? We what?
Five more hours of walking. He couldn't be serious. I needed Tom on my side for this one.
I'm not one for dangerous situations, but desparate times call for desparate measures. I decided our best bet was to hitchhike down the mountain, so I stuck my thumb out and we did just that. Not literally (I think the thumb thing is an Americanized version of hitchhiking, but I did manage to flag down a pickup). This was going to be a breeze. I let Tom and Manuel know that I could speak thai so that I would take care of the communication with the guys in the truck. There was only one problem. They didn't understand me. Not at all. Not one word. I may as well have been speaking German. At least then Manuel and I could be on the same page. Why didn't they understand me? This was the first of many times I encountered this while traveling in the south. Later, I found out that different dialects of thai are spoken in different areas- most thais on the southern islands aren't educated with the same standard thai that is taught in Bangkok, nor are they used to hearing farang speak thai on a regular basis. Shit. Where was the stray dog when we needed it?

We managed to get pretty far along in the truck, but when it stopped we still had a mile to go before the next town. And once we got to the town, we were still going to have to find a way back to our bikes. Manuel suggested  we bypass the town altogether and instead cut a quarter of a mile through the jungle to get to our bikes on the other side. Well... he did have a mapsme app on his phone. And it was starting to get late. And the sun was starting to go down. And we were really hungry. So... Tom and I agreed.

Manuel pulled up the app on his phone and started leading us through the jungle. There was no path, so we were tackling tree limbs, branches, tall grasses and bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. To pass the time, Tom and I started singing. In unison. Any song we could think of. We did this for the better part of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears' careers, but we were still not to our bikes.

The questions in my head jumped out again.
"Manuel, where are we?"

He didn't know. His mapsme app wasn't working.

"So you're just leading us through the jungle, in the dark, with no food, no path and no sense of direction?"

Screw the dog. I was taking matters into my own hands.
"Manuel, you take us back the way we came right this very minute. We will walk a mile into town and then we will take a songthaew back to our bikes." Manuel didn't like this idea one bit, but he could tell I meant business so he conceded. A half hour later I was in a convenience store with a yogurt, power bar and juice box. Thank fucking god.

I flagged down a songthaew for us, bargained with the driver and paid the fee for the three of us. There was no way Manuel was getting out of this one. We had to make a few other stops before we started the climb into the rocky hills, but the higher we went the more reluctant the driver became. Finally, he stopped the songthaew and told us to get out. He would not be going any farther.

But... but.. you told us you'd take us to our bikes!

Too bad. The terrain was too rocky and he was not going to be able to get his songthaew up, much less back down the hillside. We would have to walk. By this time it was dark and we were exhausted.

While walking we encountered a tourist family in an SUV who clearly felt for us, so they opened up their back hitch and allowed us to hop in. The A/C was amazing. Our stench was disgusting.

The time was 8pm and we had finally reached our bikes.
We whizzed back to the hostel to drop the bikes off and walked straight to the night market-- I wouldn't even allow the boys to stop for showers beforehand-- because I was so hungry. We had thai streetfood for dinner and got fried ice cream for dessert.

                                                                        What. A. Day.

"We don't have to return the bikes until 10am tomorrow. Who's up for some early morning exploring?"

Was this guy serious?

Sorry Manuel, but tomorrow is the half moon party on Koh Phangan. I will be going and I am fairly confident I will not be doing any exploring on my way there :)