Ko Phang Nga

Ko Phang Nga is home to the full moon party which has expanded to also include the half moon party and the Sheva moon party.  Basically there is 4-5 large parties each month.  Full moon is on the beach, the other two are in the mountains.  While there we caught a half moon party which starts at 11pm and goes until the sun rises.  The best way to describe it is a rave with lots of drinking and tecno music blasting.  

The beach in which the full moon party is held is always a night spot.  The top of the beach is lined with small make shift bars selling "buckets" of whiskey, vodka etc and there are more traditional bars as far as the eye can see as well.  Some of the more prominent places have fire shows, drinking games and other activities going all night long.  Its funny how much people will drink and then play with fire.... LITERALLY!  (see pics below).  Dont worry mom, I neither drank any buckets nor did I jump through any fire.  I wanted to, but I figured with the way my hospital run has been going the bandage on my foot would be up in flames in no time.  We did see some people get really hurt doing these things.  One guy jumped face first into the hoop and not through it, got a nice burn across his eye.  Another genius got his leg caught in the jump rope.

Well that brings this Thailand experience to a close.  With the two weeks in the hospital it certainly didnt last long but nothing beats the craziness and the beauty.

Took a van back down to Malaysia (KL) to catch my flight to Hong Kong.  My camera battery was dead so I dont have pics for this next little segment.  So when they sell me the ticket they tell me I am going to be on a actual bus.  WRONG, they put me in a damn van with no shocks and a driver that really didnt have a clue how to drive.  He must have been the last resort because the travel agency sent me all over the place to find a seat even though I booked the ticket several days in advance.  Left Ko Phang Nga at 7am and didnt reach Penang Malaysia until about midnight.    You read that right, I booked a ticket to KL (the capital) and they put me on a van to Penang.  Ok ok, thats sort of on the way but when I get to Penang the guy there tells me there are no seats left on the bus (which I repeat, I already payed for) and if i wanted to continue that night me and my new aussie friend would need to sit on the floor the rest of the way (4hr drive).  So we decided to just crash in Penang for the night and take his offer of an actual seat tomorrow.  He takes us to a "guest house" so we can get some sleep without offering to compensate us any and on top of that the place he takes us to I wouldnt let my pet snake stay in for the night.  I am not a picky person when it comes to a place to sleep, I am used to traveling but this place was awful.  I wish my camera had batteries because words cannot describe how much of a shit hole this was.  I didnt want to step foot in the bath room let alone hunker down in there, and there were roaches EVERYWHERE!  Now realize that I had no sleep the night before and had been on a bus for the last 17hrs and really had no options at this point.  The next day we get a decent bus but the usual 4 hour journey takes more than 6 because our bus driver "speedy" didnt know how to drive a bus either.  This puts me in KL around 6pm having not slept for about 60hrs and a flight leaving the next day at 7am.  At this point there is no use getting a hotel or hostel as I need to be on my way to the airport by 4am and by the time i shower and eat I will never wake up on time.  so I throw down my 5th and 6th redbull and tough it out.  By the time I get to HK I am soo tired that I cant sleep, so here I am sitting in my "private" hostel room typing this blog.  At least its clean and I have a shower but this place makes a room in Manhattan look like a ranch in Texas.  Sorry if that was a bit of a rant, but its been an interesting couple of days and that damn redbull refuses to wear off.

Stay tuned for the Hong Kong experience....