PACE

Ko Phan Nang. What is it like you ask. ok..

The main (most busy) part of the island is called Had Rin. Sunrise/Sunset beaches are on Had Rin. The Full Moon party is on Had Rin. Its party central for the island.. I stayed 3/4 of the way from Had Rin to the next ‘town’ called Tong Sala. Its more chill anywhere out of Had Rin, but in Ban Thai beach, where I was, you get the chill, but within riding distance of Had Rin.

Where I stayed were beach bungalows (see below). About 30 meters from the ocean. There were typically about 8-10 people total on the beach during the day.

Really sweet sunsets, and with the tide you could walk out for hundreds of meters waist high or less. Met a group of kids who were travelling together from the UK and South Africa, they had some crazy experience getting their ass kicked by like 40 Thai guys. Even the girl got beat up. There were about 5 of them , each thinking ‘where the fuck are my friends’ getting the shit kicked out of them by like 5 Thai guys. Well, all of them had about 5 guys on them, so they were all fucked. #1 Rule in Thailand….dont fuck with the thai people. at all.

I dont know how they managed to get beat up, I never really had any problems, but of course I follow the rule.

Had Rin during the day is SICK. Huge international crowd, everyone out on sunset or sunrise beach, laying out in the sun or in the water. Aqua green water semicircular cove. Some girls go topless, but not the majority. Alot of the European guys wear speedos, which you get used to. Even some of the guys I see, I’m just thinking ‘Dont come to my country’. cause they would steal all the ladies.

not cause they are hot…

umm..

i feel weird.

hah joking. The people in general are just beautiful, its crazy.

Here is a picture of the place I stayed on Ban Thai beach, Ko Phan Nang Island..

Oh, sidenote on a ‘scarred for life’ incident I had…
Ok, In thailand, especially some areas, like Ko Samui, there is a huge population of men who dress up as women. And I shit you not, you CAN’T TELL. Ohh.. you think you know, but you have no idea.

Of couse, I assume I can tell, and some of them its is really obvious, but others.. oh.. oh.. scarred.

Here is what happened. I was hanging out with a guy from L.A. who I met on the planeride down. Now, what happens in the bars on Ko Samui, is that Thai women will just come up and talk to you. They will ask you to play pool or ask where you’re from or going to , or whatever, but bottom line, they approach you constantly.

SO, anyway, this chick comes up and starts talking to me, she really cute. So we’re talking for a while and my buddy comes up and is like “No worries, man, its totally cool. Its a woman 100%. Trust me I took a whole bunch of anatomy courses, you can tell by the hips.” And he proceeds to point out / grab her hips. So, I’m convinced. About 30 minutes into the converstion I get a feeling.. just a feeling. That something is not right with this situation. So I happen to glance down to the floor for some reason. and..

MAN FEET.

It was a freakin man.

A freakin man.

I stayed in for 3 nights.

I think I was talking about Ko Phan Nang. whatever.

The roads on Ko Phan Nang are crazy. Even the main road is a dangerous roller coaster ride. You constantly see people wrapped up in white cloth from bike accidents. I saw 3 in the 7 days I was there, plus the guy across the way from me had his nose, the side of his face, his arm, wrist, and leg all bandaged up from a fall the night before I left. People call it the ‘Ko Phan Nang Tattoo.’

Luckily, all I got was a small burn on my leg from my dirtbike’s exhaust pipe. I’ve rode scooters and all before, but not a real motorcycle/dirtbike, but I just got thrown into it. Its pretty easy once you catch on to it. We rode straight across the island, the inland roads being more like rock/gravel/mud hills, so you needed a decent dirtbike to get around. We passed plenty of people on the regular shitty little scooters stuck midway up/down a hill.

Oh, and check out the GAS STATION…

The road to Had Rin, where the legendary Full Moon Party takes place is a up and down roller coaster with huge hills. Fucking great to ride. But definitely not drunk. Bad idea. We saw some guy flying by us on our way to dinner at a cliffside restaurant. We were in the back of a pickup truck and this guy flys by . Everyone is like ‘holy shit, that guys nuts.’ Then about 2 minutes later I’m like ‘oh, there he is in the ditch.’ The guy lost it and as we stopped the truck to run back and see what happned, I was expecting some serious carnage. Blood and limbs , mabye tie off a turniquet or something. Luckily I had learned this things from the only book I brought on my trip, which is a survival manual written by some nutty ex military guy. So, anyway, I’m ready to salvage bodies, but they weren’t badly hurt. I was with Becky and her parents, so Becky and I help the guy get his bike out of the ditch (French guy..) and he just kinda laughs it off like a dick, when he just almost killed himself and his girlfriend (more importantly). Just then Mike, Becky’s dad, runs up. (Mike is the man and runs a search and rescue team of the coast of British Columbia where he co-ordinates search patterns in a 25 foot Zodiac with twin 200 Hp engines). So, Mike runs up, and he is PISSED. He calls the guy an asshole and tells him to slow down and that he almost killed his girlfriend. The guy just laughs, so Mike socks him in the face. Well, actually, first he asks him ‘do u want this in your face’? and then when the guy continues to laugh, Mike socks him and we all go back in the truck and drive off to dinner.

Anyway, then breakfast the next morning, we see 2 chicks collide bikes right in front of the coffee shop. The one chick is pretty small and gets fucked up, her head smacks the ground and she is bleeding profusely from the head. So, after she sits there for a minute, bleeding all over the street, they put her in a truck and take her off, but not before I run up to make sure I dont have to tie off any turniquets, per the survival handbook instructions. If u tie a turniquet, its a last chance move, and you could lose a limb. Unfortuantly I was of no assistance, since I completely forgot the chapter on Head Injuries. I do however think I could tie a half hitch, or a bowline knot, but we weren’t building rafts or securing anything together, just some petite European chick bleeding all over the tarmac, so I was pretty useless. Maybe next time.

Computer Charlie, the world is waiting just for you
but you stay where you are for fear and comfort

Ko Phan Nand is pretty incredible. Right now I’m on a secluded beach where there are about 9 people max on the beach at any one time. Last nite a met a 47 yr. old guy (Keye) & his wife who were from Denmark, he was in 2 bands back there and we ended up playing guitar till about 4 am. He rocked.

Rented some dirtbikes (125cc) and rode up through some crazy dirt/mud/rock roads through the center of the island and found some really cool beaches & coves in the middle of nowhere.

Tonite is the ‘Black Moon’ party on our beach. Thats all i have time for ,… off 2 eat.

On to Ko Phan Nang.

45 minute ferry ride from Ko Samui, Ko Phan Nang is ground zero for the famous Full Moon party. I went to the last one and it was pretty crazy even though it was cancelled because 2 people drown the day before. I forgot to write about the Full Moon party, but basically, Had Rin Beach on Ko Phan Nang is the place and it is just flooded with thousands of people 8-10 thousand is what I heard, and it is basically a huge rave on the beach. Since it was cancelled, the beach was closed but the town was still mobbed, so it was still a good time.

There is once bar/club called Ibiza something or other and I managed to stumble into there and catch some really sweet show that was going on. There was a beat boxer from England on stage, just him and a mic, kicking drum & bass beats. Everyone was getting into to dancing and what not, it was crazy. Then the guy is like ‘hey, we got an MC from England ‘ere, come on up man, if you’re still ‘ere”. So this MC guy gets up and just starts spitting some crazy shit overtop of the drum & bass beatbox. Ah, it was awsome. So, everyone’s getting into that and this guy comes up with a digeree-doo and starts on that. By the end of the night there were those 3 guys, plus a guy comes up with an acoustic guitar and somehow seamlessly slides into the mix. So, you have all those guys up there just going crazy and then some R&B guy comes up and starts singing overtop of it all. Crazy.

Anyway, there is a 1/2 moon party tomorow night on the beach right out where I’m staying, so we’ll see how that is. Im out of Had Rin, between Had Rin and Thong Sala, real quiet beach and a nice room about 50 meters from the ocean.

Met back up with Becky, the Canadian girl I travelled with, her family is here and they took me out for dinner last night , which was really nice. I had a seafood grill with mussels, fish, crab, shrimp, squid..all sorts of things.

But back to the Full Moon party, I ended up hanging out most of the night in this place called the Reggae House. They had a Thai band doing covers all night long and they were really good. They were rocking out & got into some Motorhead and Metallica, and onto some Guns N Roses , which was great to see a Thai band play. November Rain…classic.

So Ko Phan Nang is alot more chilled out than Ko Samui, especially if you get off Had Rin. I’ll be here till after New Years, then onto Cambodia! Mabye I will see some friends there??

liefs / pace

Wagwon? Respeckt. Booyakasha.

The past number of nights (not quite sure how many) have been spent at Lucky Mother Bungalows. Luckily I stumbled upon the place and met some really cool people. All from other countries. 2 Welchman, who of course loved John Charles, the famous Welch soccer player from the 50’s. The English preferred Puscas (Hungary) from that era, though. So soccer education has been part of the stay since all Europeans so far have near encyclopedic skills as far as soccer is concerned.

I mean, how could you possibly forget the 58 Wolrd Cup though? Pele, 17 years old, toes the ball into the corner goal? Priceless.

And Maradonna? “The Hand of God”. 1986 World Cup in Mexico against England, he goes up for a header and just punches the ball in, but the refs don’t see. One of the most amazing goals ever. And, of course later in the same game he dribbles around 6 English players and the goalkeeper scoring an amazing goal.

The Italians (Lorenzo and Gariella) loved Maradona. Actually pretty much everybody loves Maradona.

Its halarious, its just like home though during football season. Just imagine a conversation about the best Football teams/players, but you have no clue about any of the teams or any players people are talking, but they are SO damn excited. Its great. Just losing it over Maradona, then someone will chime in with ‘what about Ronaldinho?!’, then its a collective ‘OHHHHHH!!!’ and the conversation takes another turn.

The roster of the crew was such:

Nick and Chris – Welch
Casey – American
Lorenze & Gabriella – Italian
Geom – French
Myra & Marjos – Dutch
Ross – English
Melanie – American ( lived in Bangkok)

Everyone knows DJs. Drum & Bass, Jungle, maybe some house. People seemed to know DJs in and out. Apparently Prodigy is fucking huge and just blew the fucking doors off the scene when they came out with Prodigy – Experience. I had to draw on some oldschool cd knowledge and pull out some lines from the 1 Prodigy album I do have – Fat of the Land.

of course , everyone knows – Breath for pressure, come play my game I’ll test ya, psycho somatic addict inasne, COOOOMMME PLAAAAY MYYYYYY GAAAAAME. Oldschool. (Smack my Bitch UP, Breathe, Firestarter). So we worked some ‘history of the club scene in britain’ education in there.

Special thanks to Ross for the Double Back Flip / Double Back Roll. Respect.

The weather has been a bit shitty, but its still the beach. Fucking Right.

Been working on my accents a bit, almost got the Cockey English. Liverpool is a bit to advanced for me at this point. (Sounds a bit like Brad Pitt in Snatch) A few more days with Ross and I’ll be fooling people in the Pub though.

“He’s thrown a kettle over a pub, what have you done?” – Gareth.

If you havent seen the original version (British) of The Office, please watch it. Its Brilliant, really.

and if you have – Spaceman comes down to answer some things, the world gathers round from paupers to kings…

Avalon is always beside me
And I’m following it home
Where is my home
Orion glows
And his eyes open up
I once believed I would set you in line

If only I had the strength you’d be completely accepting something else

If you keep asking me I’ll melt away in the summer air
It won’t hurt half as much and I’ll beg for you please stop it now
If you keep asking me I’ll melt away in the summer air
It won’t hurt half as much and I’ll beg for you just tell me something

The fluid through the alpha waves and power cables everywhere
Exercising self-control
The child calls
And she lies open
I would believe if only I’d been thinking at all

If only I had the strength you’d be completely accepting something else

If you keep asking me I’ll melt away in the summer air
It won’t hurt half as much and I’ll beg for you please stop it now
If you keep asking me I’ll melt away in the summer air
It won’t hurt half as much and I’ll beg for you just tell me something

You swore
Out like might
You cried
So I’m engaged to smile

If you get up real early you can catch the monks making their rounds. They must start around 5:30 or 6 am. We caught them on their way back to the temple at around 7 am. The local people make food for them and then give it to the monks as they pass by. People are out on mats waiting for them, and when they see you come by you can buy something from them to give to the monks. I bought some kind of rice thing wrapped in leaves and gave it to a young monk.

Luang Prabang has some cool street & night markets and some good restuarants on the riverside. A meal was about $2 and a room was about $2 a nite also. The guesthouse we stayed in was mostly teakwood. Teakwood floors, desks, furniture.

After Luang Prabang was a harrowing ride through some huge ass mountain range. We’re in bus full of people careening around 270 degree turns with a sheer cliffside and of course no guardrails or anything. After I made my peace with the Lord and accepted my inevitable death, the ride was alot easier. The 400 foot drop-off remained scary however. At one point a guy in the front gets up and just starts handing out plastic bags. I’m thinking, ‘oh sweet, trash bags, good idea.’ Well, they were not trash bags. The next 30-40 minutes was a roller coaster ride through this mountain, the bags being puke bags. About 12 people started puking into the clear plastic bags, then heaving the bags out the windows. That was entertaining. Oh, and the best part was the near zero visibility due to the fog, or as our altitude would have it, the clouds.

We stopped for a piss/puke break and i see this guy coming on the bus with a sweet army green bag slung over his chest. Im thinking ‘sweet bag’. Then he climbs over the seat (there were huge rice bags in the isle) and i see something sticking out of his jacket. Oh.. That was a sweet -ammunition- bag. The thing poking out is a machine gun.

Apparently according to the guide book, we are on Rt. 13, which happens to get hit by armed bandits every so often. Great. So there are people who are revolutionaries or somehow involved in the Lao Revolution who are still up in the hills and shit. Ah, that is great. I guess the guy with the machine gun was our protection, but I wasnt sure, so I just tried to avoid him. Machine gun guy also helped change our tire when we got a flat.

The next stop was Vang Vieng, which was a really cool town. Its right on a river with mountians in the background. The Americans built an airstrip there back in the 70s and that is basically what the town is based on. Now there are a bunch of cool bars. At alot of them you sit on pillows around tables and drink beers while listening to some pretty cool music. They played nothign but Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, and some other crazy mixes that inevitably had Bob Marley in them but poeople singing blues or rapping. ( heard an awsome Marley/Lost Boys mix as well as Wylclef/Snoop/Marley).

Vang Vieng has some caving and some river tubing. I decidied just to chill out and drink a few beers by the riverside bungalows. At nite down by the riverside there were firepits, hammocks, riverside bars, etc. I bought a toy plastic axe and gave it to John (new zealand) for his b-day. He carried it around to the bars at nite.

ONTO VIENTIANE – THE CAPITAL OF LAOS!

Thats me in front of this bridge/memorial thing. After we bombed the living shit out of Laos, turning it into the most pock-marcked peice of land on the planet, we (the United States) gave Laos a bunch of cash for redevelopment. Apparently they just built this bridge thing.

Vientiane was ok. Too busy for me. Caught some Muay Thai at night, about 8 fights.

Right now I’m sitting in a bar in Bangkok on Khao San Rd. which is a huge backpacker hangout. I have a flight down to the islands down south tonite.

Time to move on to the ISLANDS. p-p-pace