Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Life in the islands

After one last rainy day of visiting some of the more famous temples and the Grand Palace in Bangkok I boarded an overnight bus and ferry to arrive in the diving paradise of Ko Tao. Here it is sunny all the time and there is a nice breeze next to the ocean. Ko Tao is probably the most popular place to get a diving certification due to low prices and so the tiny island is covered in dive schools. While I was there I got to go on a few dives, do some kayaking, climbed up to and amazing lookout on one of the small neighbouring islands and do some snorkeling. After a few days of relaxing island life I moved on to Ko Phangan the island of the legendary full moon parties. Other than spending time on one of the numerous beaches and swimming and snorkeling I think the most popular past-time is to party. Haad Rin has a huge beach party every night with lots of fire dancers, buckets, and music playing everywhere. This is all leading up to the full moon party tonight which promises to be even crazier than the past few nights have been. It is important to be well rested since the party goes on until sunrise. This island is much larger than Ko Tao and I have rented a scooter to share with my friend Ester while I'm here and learned how to drive on what are probably the hilliest roads around (20% grade). I think after this I can probably drive anywhere! Soon I will be leaving the crazy parties behind and crossing over to the west coast which is supposed to be even more beautiful than it is here.

1 comment: