Living in a dream (Part 2)

Eden

The Black moon party (run by the Thai Mafia) was taking place beside us, and the 5000 people that were expected, hadn't arrived by the witching hour. It was $20 to get in and the music, was pretty shit. We were sitting on the beach watching the dried palm leaves and dead branches turn into roaring orange flames, with the distant lightening storm over Koh Samui adding the odd flash. I'd been given a tip to head to Eden by a fellow traveller who'd escaped the full moon party in search of something a little different, so we spent that $20 on transport to and from the party, which involved a tuk tuk to the other beach and a 10 minute boat ride. Our tuk-tuk was full of drunk Poles that were leaving the Black Moon party in search of something cheaper, and after a slurred, excited conversation, J and I hopped on a boat in the dark of the night, to find solace. The boat pushed out into the blackness, and just for our amusement, the engine decided not to work. So we waited as the boatman lunged his anchor millimetres away from our heads, trying to hold on to some form of positivity as I let my head fall backwards and take in the glorious expanse of stars above us. 'If you see a shooting star tonight, everything's going to look up' is what I kept saying to myself. 5 minutes later, the engine was working (due to the help of his fellow boatmen) and not 1 but 3 shooting stars orbited through the night sky, I smiled to myself as the sound of the engine roared above all thoughts, tonight was going to be amazing. The boat arrived in a secret cove, and we started walking along the sand towards the giant rocks, the rickety bridge, jazzy-house-techno beats (played by the incredible resident DJ's), costumes, water, gum, magic balls and trippers. Police were banned from the beach so 'anything was possible' with a bit of moolah and a good attitude, the party went on till 12pm the following day, and everyone was still dancing like no one cared at 11am - with a quick break to watch the sunrise together. J and I lay on shark-rock looking at the clouds blow across the sky as it changed colour from black to yellowy blue. We spotted animals and objects in the clouds and another thought came to me. When I was younger I used to believe each animal you spotted was from the spirit of the animal that had died. So to my excited inner-child, I've now learnt how that can be explained, scientifically (because that's what gets credit now, right). When an animal dies it's recycled back into the earth as it's body deteriorates and it becomes part of the soil again, which in turn feeds the growth of new seeds, that turns into various plants; their moisture evaporates and rises, due to cohesion these evaporated particles all condense as they get denser with atmospheric pressure and they form clouds (excited squeel) which turns into rain, that waters the plants, that animals drink and the cycle continues.. As the temperature rose that morning and the energy wore off, we left our new French friends, with the gift of a pheasant feather in my hair, a drunk Aussie falling off the side of the boat and a grimy couple with their eyes rolling, still causing glares on the dance floor. That day was named zombie-day as it always is, we showed our faces spontaneously to buy food at the local market, spotting the other zombies from the night before and crashing out as soon as sunset wiped the light away. 

The morning after our all-nighter

We spent the next day exploring the island. The sea at night was deceiving,  as by day it was barely visible and took a good few hundred metres to reach (over the coral reef), so we went in search of a more accessible sea and hopefully an idyllic guest house to accompany it. Riding up and down the hilly terrain, looking at guest houses, checking out bars and dive shops, swimming in the ocean and seeing familiar faces, we returned that evening to Sea Love bungalows. The room slowly began to spin uncontrollably, with my eyes open and shut, until something (dinner) gave way, all over the plants next to our balcony :s. 

Hat Yai, just before we realized what time it was..

We learnt that Koh Phangan has long been where the heart of the Thai King lies. A spiritual hub that's been partly taken over by the full mooners but still retains it's beauty. Haadrin beach, the host of the notorious FMParty, has a different vibe, and neon shirts that read 'drugs saved my life' and 'let's get f*cked' litter the shops along the sand. Horny dogs ran around humping whatever they could see, the difference between teenage boys and dogs suddenly seeming less vast..
That day was pure adrenaline, for the second time round. Breakfast, tickets to Koh Tao, room paid for, clothes packed, lunch, trek. It was only $7 to get to Eden by boat, but there was supposedly a path that lead through the jungle to the other side of the beach where Eden was located. We'd only heard one story so far about that trek, a guy had done it at the last moon party, and was found where he'd begun, having made no progress, covered in scratches and armed with one lighter. He'd sat on a giant rock all night, staying elevated from the floor that crawled with snakes and insects before he managed to find his way back in the morning when daylight came. The story didn't put us off trying, and in an effort to prove everyone wrong, we set off, with 1 hour of daylight left, a head torch, clothes for that night and a strong sense of willpower. The first few locals we asked for directions all laughed 'it's hard man, it's really hard' was the general response we got - but we set off anyway. The first 15 minutes were spent heading in the wrong direction, and when J asked a group of local lads for help, he ran back shouting 'he's got a knife' - deja vu?

Koh Phangan

So we scrambled back down the hills we'd just walked up, and began again, 45 minutes till darkness fell. The path was tough, but manageable, we followed the water pipes knowing that if someone had built these, they had to lead to a way out. We ended up at a small, concrete bridge that lead nowhere. Via trial and error we tested every possible path, and with the light fading and our water volume decreasing, panic began to rise. We decided, that no matter what, we had to keep moving, the millions of mosquitoes could no longer get to us, because of the dense jungle that left them with no room to fly. The water pipes were gone, the floor was crawling with tropical tings, we had no clue what direction the sea was and the only visible sign was a patch of sky, to tell us what time it was. J kept his cool and put on the head torch, my breath started quickening as I asked our surroundings for help and looked at the giant rocks in front of us. My plan would've been to somehow climb up a rock (with huge drops on either side of it if you fell), and scream for help, or jump into the water and swim to land, wherever that was. J was contemplating spending the night in the Jungle, and working out how much water we had left, so my plan went out the window. I felt a drip of water, and before we knew it, the rain began to POUR. Hanging onto branches, like Tarzan and Jane we swung, slid and ran through that jungle, in whatever clear space we could find, following the dim light from the headtorch. At last, after 3 hours, we spotted a plastic bottle, a sign of civilization! We followed the bottle and slid down the face of the mountain, landing on a dirt road - whaaaaat.

Crazy roti man

Nearby was a wooden house, we knocked on the door, drenched in rain, trying to keep anything in the bag that was'breakable' dry, by wrapping it in my half drenched sarong. A group of men came out, a look of sympathy evident on their sun kissed faces. We asked where we were, 'Haadrin' they replied. That definitely wasn't possible, we hadn't just walked in a loop - that was where we'd started. We soon realized we'd been asking for directions to the wrong beach, the entire time. 'Eden?' J. asked with arched eyebrows as we held on to the tiniest bit of hope, 'oh just over there!' they pointed to the other side of the beach. We were amazed and still shaking from our 3.5 hour adrenaline rush, we walked into the nearest restaurant that was screening the movie 'couples retreat' on a projector. We jumped into the sea, shivering from the cold but washing all the grime, insect bites, scratches and jungle off of us. We sat down with wide eyes, still in disbelief at being in a completely civilized setting where everyone was calmly eating their dinner. As we sat down, the scene that played in front of us made our mouths hang and our eyes bulge even more. The couples in the movie were on a holiday together and had all just gotten lost in the jungle, only to stumble across an amazing party where everyone was reunited, but get this, the party, was called 'Eden' - talk about synchronicity. We raved our well-deserved night away and I happened to bump into a mate from my yoga retreat who lived around the corner, and a very old friend who I hadn't seen in 6 years since high school in Sri Lanka - strange coincidences made that night incredible, and our story was appreciated by all who knew the land. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlNzGC49-jg  was the song that came on at 7am as everyone's dirty side emerged. The energy began to lapse so we made our way over to bamboo hut for a morning ice coffee, coconuts and tea with my old friend from high school. I looked out over the rocks with the naturally carved faces all over it, feeling a tinge of deja-vu, I'd been in that exact spot about 6 years ago with my family, how times had changed.

Eden

We had skipped on accommodation that night in favour of dancing, but the lovely manager gave us back our room for a shower and a chill-out, before out boat to Koh Tao left at 12pm. Being our usual selves, we were the last ones on the boat, with -1 minute to spare - running along the deck, with our backpacks on, trying to stop our eyes from closing and craving a glass of water, as the boat driver screamed that they were leaving, we somehow made it. I closed my eyes for a second and we were in Koh Tao, with tuk tuk drivers all screaming down our necks 'TAXI! TUK TUK! WHERE YOU GO!? I TAKE YOU!' Oh godd. 

Right after our last dive!

We walked through the crowds and sat down to eat our first meal, at about 3pm. Our free pick-up arrived on time and we were whisked off to our sterile room in the middle of a little village, close to DJL diving centre, where I spent the next 3 days getting qualified to dive. Koh Tao is the cheapest place in the world for diving, hence why a million dive shops litter the area, but once you're away and in that underwater world, listening to the rhythm of your breath, watching the bubbles from other people's regulators below you race up to the surface, turning into silver plates with the water pressure. It's like you're on the moon with no gravity, floating up, down, hovering above the surface to watch the symbiosis between a crab and it's guard-fish, the beautiful coral gardens, the odd sting ray and shooing away the annoying blue fish that nibble at any cuts or dead skin. The weather was a means to an end, we were caught up in a week-long storm, but as a first diving experience, it didn't really matter as the excitement trumped all other emotion (after the cringey 80's diving video had passed through our system). It did make J's life slightly harder, staying entertained on land. But when I finished my days work, we'd drive up to 'high bar' that looked out over the island and the sea, or play backgammon at a sweet local cafe, or light candles and read in the room. We walked through stumbling, drunk teens with red eyes, to get to the roti stall where a mad-man flipped around his rotis. He moved with precision, flare and a touch of violence, causing everyone within a 2m radius to take a step back. That's one of the things I can appreciate most about SEAsia, it may not be the most developed region in the world but the little things are done to perfection and with such admirable skill.


Suddenly, like a slap in the face, the last day had arrived. We somehow had to cram in 3 dives, as the previous day, my diving buddy's hungover dad had passed out overboard, meaning a crew of about 50 divers had to leave the site early. So we soaked up every minute that we had, exploring all the cracks and crevices of Mango Bay, Koh Tao for hours. I watched a parrot fish rip apart a sea urchin, hearing the crunch of it's spikes as the fish ruthlessly ate away - it was no different to watching a dog rip apart a piece of meat.. fascinating. We arrived back, paid for our room,, collected our passports, inhaled our last delicious Thai meal and jumped on our sleeper boat for our 35+ hour journey home. All the beds were lined up next to each other, and just as my eyes began to droop, a shriek from a French woman nearby made us all jump. A dead gecko had fallen onto her shoulder, leaving a nice yellow smear on her T.Shirt and stinking out our area until the sea breeze blew it away. A live alarm clock bellowed 'everyone get off! We're here!' 6 hours later, so we wiped the sleepy dust from our eyes, and headed to the bus station to wait for our bus to Hat Yai. Into a mini van we squeezed, picking up various people that had all been on our sleeper boat (and scammed into being driven to the 'correct bus station' when we hadn't paid a thing). With not enough sleep, J and I rowed over my bladder control as tears were shed and hair was ripped out.. in the least violent way possible, so we kissed and made up and arrive in Hat Yai. 

Sleeper boat

Hat Yai is a maze, a gridded city where I'm sure everything was designed to look the same. We were given one hour, so we headed off to wander the town, making sure we had a landmark to return to (the 7-11 on the corner..) An hour later, we're running around like headless chickens, asking everyone 'Is there more than one 7-11??' and getting a laugh in response, followed by a little nod of the head 'yes, only one'. So we circled this one 7-11, sure that it wasn't the right one but going by the word of the locals. 30 minutes later, we'd jumped into a tuk-tuk and instructed him to drive us around to every 7-11 he knew, turning each corner to see a new one, much to our frustration. Soon enough we spotted the right one and ran into the travel agent with a look of total hopelessness, preparing to argue our case. Much to our surprise, we got the immediate response of 'You got lost? Don't worry we've booked you another bus for 3.30' phew, I guess we weren't the only ones who'd done it... 

Nasi Kandar in Penang :)

We wandered around talking and playing backgammon to kill time, before being put on a bus loaded with a family from Indonesia who were all wearing matching T.Shirts and excited to share their stories and hear ours. We made it through immigration, had a little snooze, played a bit of wordmole and arrived in Georgetown, Penang for dinner. Nasi Kandar! Roti Cannai! mmm, it was good to be back, and the hospitality was more than we'd experienced in a while. We filled our tummys and wondered back to the bus, half an hour early. We weren't going to take our chances. We hopped on the freezing cold sleeper bus, and passed out until arrival in Kuala Lumpur. J told the taxi driver his address and we rode along familiar roads, passing the twin towers, the billboards and the Nasi Kandars. Hopping over the fence wasn't an option this time as J's new dog righteously barked at the strangers with backpacks until his parents came to the door. We shared a few stories and laughs and crashed out in a luxurious bed, with hot water in the shower and clean sheets. Wow. We're back, and I can't help feeling that the last 6 months was all a dream..

(A little verse of summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkDDRdKaN8o)

Living in a dream (Part 1)

In our flower garden :)

We've touched down and adjusted surprisingly fast to KL life all over again, it's like we never left - how fucking fast does time pass? It was only yesterday that dad was sending me off in a taxi, with my huge backpack that I could barely carry. My heart was racing as I saw Jack sitting there, tired as anything at 6am just before we caught out flight to Saigon, Vietnam. I've learnt some of the biggest lessons of my life is the hardest ways, had the lowest lows, without which the highest highs would not be possible, found the love of my life, seen the most incredible sights, met the weirdest, coolest, funniest people (many of whom I'll definitely see in the future), been to the craziest raves and the most beautiful beaches; Experienced the worst tummy bugs, colds and flu's, taken everything you need to take on a year off and somehow (much to our parents surprise) returned in one piece. At the end of reading all my posts, you should know 'what they don't tell you before you go travelling', not the fine and dandy advice of 'go and find yourself in a bed of roses' because it's a lot rougher than a few flowers, though the fumes do help ;)

Bamboo tea

So since my last post, we had a slice of Pai, an accidental tour around the North of Thailand to do our visa run to Burma, back to Pai and then all the way down south to the opposite end of the country for a bit of raving in Koh Phangan, ending my travels far deeper than I thought I'd ever be, down at 20m below surface level in Mango Bay, Koh Tao, with my open water diving PADI! And then somehow, after a 34 hour journey, we took a long sleeper bus to Surrathani, on to Hat Yai (where we missed our bus) a stop off in George Town/ Penang and then at 4am.finally.we arrived. Surrounded by high rises and spaghetti-motorways, we're home again, but are we really?

Chillin in a giant telephone box..

We inhaled our breakfast before our early morning bus to Pai, thankfully not eating too much in anticipation of the incredibly windy roads that lasted for 3 hours (when your driver's hitting the accelerator like he's on speed). Up, up, up into the old town that was discovered accidentally by a group of hippies, and now inhabits the most eclectic mix of ethnicities and tribes in all of Thailand. After surviving the 6 hours of windy roads from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng (Laos) this was a breeze, and getting to our destination was worth every bend. We sat down with our new mate from Chang Mai 'D', at a lovely rustic cafe called 'L'Artiste'. The first thing you notice is that unlike many other places we'd been, here people cared about their guest houses, cafes and restaurants. You could see down to the smallest detail that it had all been thought out, strategically painted, placed and primed to look beautiful and fit into the gorgeous surrounding mountains. We all rented bikes and headed off to a few waterfalls to get in as much of Pai as possible given that there were so many things to see and do. The first waterfall we went to was alright.. if sliding down huge slippery rocks into shallow water is your thing.. the boys all managed it seamlessly, while I attempted the baby slide at the top, crashing and burning in front of a live audience of English Lads (always the best) as I went too slowly, flipped onto my front and narrowly avoided banging my face on the side of a rock... so after my elegant performance, I decided the bigger slide just wasn't for me. The next waterfall we checked out was hidden in a huge cave, stepping stones lead through the murky water to get to the final 'fall'. We climbed up above the water, to a far more appealing site, until we stood still, looking down below at the lush green bamboo and listening to the rushing water.
We headed back, along the amazing windy roads, perfect for nimble motorbikes, and stopped off at a viewpoint for sunset. The only frustrating thing about driving is that when you want to look up and just take in the curly clouds and colourful houses dotted all over the mountain side, you just can't do it for long enough, in fear of forgetting about the whole 'driving' part..

80 degree hot springs

The viewpoint was scattered with rocks that had all been painted different colours, and we swung around in the big hanging metal chairs that were painted to match, chatting until it was time to go home.

If anyone's looking for a gorgeously cheap place to stay in Pai? Go across the rickety bamboo bridge, passed the first 2 guest houses and you arrive at 'Phu View guesthouse', $7 a night for a huge bungalow on stilts in a beautiful flower garden, with it's own bathroom, TV and huge double bed -- we'd found our niche. At night the marketeers appeared with their crystals, art pieces, hippie clothing, delicious food of all types, jewellery made from old stone/wood and so much more. You know how sometimes you wish that everything you wanted could just be in one shop or on one little street. Well Pai made my wish come true, the fact that money had to be involved to actually obtain anything material, kept us slightly apart, but at least browsing doesn't cost (much to J's frustration as he hurried me past every evening).

The face in the flowers

Running into 'I' in Pai :)

That night the sniffles came on, I'd caught J's cold just as he'd gotten over it, damn. Luckily I was in the perfect place for it, ailments of all sorts could be found. The funny man that always wore the gorilla hat was round the corner from us, selling his delicious 'ginger and honey tea' in tubes of bamboo, and 'hot n healthy noodle soups' for under $1 next door. When you're sick and you actually listen to what your body wants, and do as you're told, it really makes a difference. So within 2 days I was up and at it. The next morning, just as I was turning the key in my bike, I turn around to see 'I', a from my yoga retreat in Cambodia, we squealed with excitement and planned a day out -- waterfalls and hot springs it was. The weather was not calling for hot springs, but they were there to see so we thought we may as well see em. After a long and beautiful drive (and getting lost one or two times) we managed to soak ourselves in the 40 degree river - reading about all the health benefits it was giving us. We slowly lost all sensation in our bodies and when the heat got too much we got out, feeling light headed for minutes afterwards. The only cool water source around were the sprinklers for the grass, so we stood under them, appreciating the cool trickles of water down our hot bodies. Up at the top of the hot springs were the big daddies, 80 degree water that had steam rising out of it and eggs thrown around the sides that lay boiled beyond belief. After a chill and a chat, we made our way back to the bikes, hopping over the millions of red ants that lay in our path, and as we rode down the hill, the little old village ladies popped out from their houses making a 'smoking' sign and holding out bags of flowers - we laughed, of course it was the ones you'd least expect.

Tachileik in Burma

I found a lovely 'whole-foods'ish' place to eat for breakfast and as we sat down with our coffee's we ran into the Dutch girls we knew from Chang Mai; more familiar faces - one of the best parts about travelling. The day was glorious, it went up and down in waves as we skipped around our flower garden, drew with our new crayons and painted with our new paints, watched the snowflakes on the walls and pacman on the ceiling, thought crazy thoughts, saw faces in the flowers and laughed our heads off. I had a thought that day about the importance of sexual energy in relation to our universe, bear with me..

When 2 beings come together and merge in such a way to raise their energy to the point of creating a life, it's literally the source of all energy/ life; That meiosis, that merging of 2 objects to create another form of energy, is just a minuscule example of the creation of our world (the big bang) and planets, the sun, the milky-way, the universe, the multi-verse, it's infinite yet it starts as something that you can experience and understand at such a basic level.. just a thought.
That night we wandered around Pai with our jaw clenched, feeling slightly weird as we ate at our local cheap plastic chair place that had whatever dish you wanted, as J sat across from me with his notorious rainbow headband, talking casually to the dog beside him.

The dreaded canyons

The next morning after a strange sleep was a fresh start, yoga in the garden, breakfast at the amazing cafe 'boomelicious': Hash browns with poached eggs, bacon and salad with tomato jam (droooool). We wanted to do something active before sitting docile on a bus for the rest of the day, so we checked out the canyon TOTALLY underestimating what was to come. We began our little stroll along the path that soon disappeared and we found ourselves at the bottom of the crumbly brown canyon. We looked up in dismay, we couldn't go back where we'd come from as it was too steep and there was nothing to hold on to. We somehow managed to lift ourselves up, free-climbing with a backpack, on fragile-crumbling brown dust that fell away in our hands. There was a point at which J managed to slip down a pencil thin piece of canyon and I sat there, watching the fast-approaching storm and knowing we had to get back before our bus arrived - below me on either side was a steep drop and ahead was a thin path that had to be landed on perfectly, or else we'd fall to our deaths or break a lotta bones. With a lot of focus and sweat, I landed on the path in front of J and we walked on, the adrenaline pumping as we neared the end. On our final hurdle, my legs trembled as my body felt itself falling and my hands gripped onto dust, J. pushed me up and I scrambled to the surface with shaking legs, pulling him up behind me in return. We looked back at what we'd just managed to climb up and out of, and just gaped in disbelief. We ran back to our bikes as it began to pour, I wore the water-proof poncho to cover the backpack and Jack shivered as we zoomed along slippery roads to make it back in time for the bus, heading off to to Burma on our 9 hour bus ride. Luckily I shot-gunned the front seat, so with my legs stretched out in a pair of hippie pants, I settled in and managed to finish a whole book, 'Brain Rules' by John Medina (highly recommended if you're into psychology).
Our bus ride was supposed to be a quick visa run but turned into a full-day of picking up people in Chiang Mai and other areas of Northern Thailand, who were on the same mission. Kicking up a fuss worked in our favour and we blagged ourselves 2 free tickets back to Chang Mai for when we returned. 'Tachileik' in Burma is the inauthentic border town that's used for Visa runs, and the Burmese are prepared for everyone that walks across that border. We walked through the little market, swarmed by people selling cigarettes, perfumes, clothes, soaps and antiques. A familiar noise stood out amongst the sellers and I looked over my shoulder to see a plastic Psy singing 'Gangnam Style' - god it's everywhere. When we were rinsed of all our money we went back through to Thailand with my sandalwood soap and fake Kath Kidston bag, and made our way back to Pai for a chilled out sesh on the balcony, followed by 5 rounds of pudding, while sipping slowly through our bamboo tubes of tea.

My long lost sister...

Our last day in Pai was rained out, so we played a round of pool, munched down Pad-Thai and hopped on a bus to Chiang Mai where I found my long-lost sister ;)
The hardest thing in SEAsia is trying to figure out what 'a good deal' is when everyone's supposedly selling it. We finally figured out the trick of bus tickets - buy them from the station, and at the last possible minute . 10 minutes before our bus drove off we heard shrieks and screams, turning the corner we watched the ticket ladies going mental, waving their arms around to sell their last tickets - a scary site I can tell you. We were so happy to finally be able to choose our seats so we got the ones at the very front, next to the huge TV. We played backgammon on the floor until the bus started moving and the movie began! We were delighted when we realized the movie was in Thai, with Thai subtitles that the conductor was reluctant to change. We were handed pink strawberry buns and vegetable juice as a complementary snack (hm..) so sleep seemed the best option. We were pleasantly awakened at 2am by fluorescent lights and blaring music, as we stopped for a midnight snack. 30 minutes later, we took off again, only to be pleasantly awakened for the second time at 5am, an hour before we arrived - the purpose of this, we never found out, but the music soon stopped when a grumpy passenger broke the speaker.. So I lay out a blanket and started doing yoga, the bumps proving quite a problem and the confused looks from the passengers making me giggle, but it filled the time.

Above the waterfall

We planned to spend a day in Bangkok and skip on another night of accommodation as we slept on a bus to the islands in the South. Scrubbing up in the ever-clean burger king at 6am, we asked a local where to buy 'good and cheap coffee', he replied 'Starbucks is over there' - it got me thinking.. In the locals eyes, Westerners = Starbucks, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Whitening creams, shit. That's the image we've been given, and in response to that image, guess what chains and products are taking over Asia?
So we walked around, bought cheap coffee (that was better than any starbucks could be, and 1/10th of the price) and sorted out our bus ticket to Koh Phangan, with much difficulty. The only thing we wanted that afternoon was a swimming pool, so we wandered Bangkok, being turned away from all of them as we weren't 'guests'; but we still managed to sneak into a lovely infinity pool belonging to a hotel nearby, doing a couple lengths and hopping out sharpish as cortisol levels rose in response to the 'INTRUDERS WILL BE FINED' signs that littered the walls. What to do in the heat of the day in Bangkok, when you're templed out and don't want to shop or eat.. hm. We headed to the cinema to see the new hit 'Now You See Me' - Hollywood, you did well.
We leisurely made our way back to the Travel Agent, crashing out on each others shoulders as the bus shimmied its way through the long country down to Surrathani. 12 hours later, at 6am, we'd arrived. We struggled to keep our eyes open as we waited for instruction at the bus stop; A man proceeded to walk over to me with a brochure and after lots of talking and persuading, sold us 3 nights at a gorgeous bungalow in the North of Koh Phangan - we bargained him down, he spoke to the manager, we got our receipt and after an official stamp, the job was done, with 'free pick-up' included. We were driven for half an hour to the ferry, where we crashed out for another 1.5 hours and finally, we arrived in Koh Phangan. It was about 11am at this point, and we were ready for a shower and a deep breath of flowers. But then things started to deteriorate.

On top of the Chinese village in Pai

The free pick-up never came, so after talking to the manager on the phone, we caught a tuk-tuk over steep hills to get to the beautiful side of the island. We walked down a steep path, questioning whether this deal had happened, and saw the crystal blue waters ahead of us right next to the bungalow that was on the front of the brochure we'd seen - it did exist! We handed over our receipt to the manager and got a laugh in response.. 'Go to the police, this is fake'. What? I burst into tears, it was so unfair. After such a long journey, and so many mishaps and thievery over the last 6 months, we really didn't need more money slipping through our fingers. I cried and cried as the family that ran the guest house talked, their voices getting louder and louder until one of them lead us over to a table and sat us down to talk. Her crazy NA son was pointing to his necklace 'You know Buddha?! You're too young to know the game!! Everyone's lying to you! Everyone! Just get out of here! Go away! Get the fuck out of here!'. The family reacted passively in a typical Asian fashion, smiling away and avoiding all trouble as though no one was angry. We had no clue what he was talking about or what they were trying to say. Who was lying? And what game?? My tears gushed and my anger rose 'Karma?! Do you know what karma is?!?' J. stood in front of him as he moved towards me with his fists out. His mum told us we could stay but we weren't going to risk it, so tears still flowing, we hiked with our backpacks, up the steep hills that we'd just driven down, in the 12 O'Clock sun. We hadn't eaten since the previous day, so we stopped to eat, collect ourselves (and a few tissues), rented bikes and headed as far away as possible from the crazy man with the Buddha necklace. We stayed in a basic hut on Bantai beach called 'Sea Love bungalows' run by a cool eclectic gang of people, and that night, under the black moon, we found Eden.. (Read Part 2 for the rest!)

(A little verse of summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkDDRdKaN8o)

Recipe of the day: Lemon Meringue Pie
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/lemon_meringue_pie