Indra Hotel Hat Yai

... or renting motorbikes, I saw a lot on the island. On the motorbike, I went to a waterfall, and "the" Big Buddha. It was indeed that; big. Renting a motorbike on these islands is the best way to see what you want to see on the cheap and it's also just a good time trying to avoid road obstacles and other drivers. That second day I spent all day on the motorbike just stopping at random viewpoints and cruising ...

... involved here??? A serious young Thai male reading an Arabic Koran a few seat ahead of me, skullcap in place, long pale pastel blue colored Djalleba covering his slender frame, long single black hairs prodruding from a thin chin betraying a serious effort of growing the necessary muslim beard in a race where bodily hair is sparse, his dark brown eyes looking up from his Holy Muslim book whenever the fancy strikes him, trying to lock them with mine...menacing...threatening....

... at dark spots in the distance. It usually only worked for a little while anyway, except for the time I actually hit one, and then I couldn't sleep worried that I'd taken out its eye or something. Which I hadn't, although maybe that would have done the trick - you know what they say: "It's all fun and games until the scabby black dog with the droopy testicles loses an eye." Even in daylight they were painful as at least three times a day the dog from next door would ...

... to Ko Lanta. That would normally be a good idea when it is high season but not really when it is low season. Indeed, every guest house is shut and there is basically no means of transportation to get there. Well that made the whole trip really interesting. It took us forever to get to ...not even the correct island. It was dark by the time the ferry landed so we started to walk with our backpacks, thinking we were on Ko Lanta Lai, but realised quite ...

... there. After which we walked and walked and walked and found another noodle store, settled down and ate. Seems like we eat alot, but I promise you this was after hours of walking our ass off, I swear. After dinner, we tried looking for the night market. Which to our disappointment only existed inside the city area. BUMMER! After walking for so long! But it was a great experience I mean, we saw so many things that just ...

... decided to take a clandestine, nocturnal shower in order to cool off but she was still cocooned in her sleeping bag, oblivious to the world. I thought I ought to check the shower and stepped out of the bed into 4 inches of water - surprise! I ( like the idiot i am) splashed throug the water to switch on the light ( in my defense, you would have done the same!) This woke a cursing Jo who wanted to know what the hell I was doing at 2am in the morning and if I had wanted to ...

... in a while - fresh salad buffet! How exciting! We bought Thai sim cards then faced the chore of finding a tuk tuk to take us to the local bus station. We couldn't get a sensible price and were about to give up when some locals turned up in need of a songthaw so the driver charged us a reduced fee and we shared the ride. To our annoyance he took us to the wrong place so then we were stuck not knowing where to go how far we were from the minivan station and not ...

... I'm Korean, which then leads to a question about my parents. I then have to explain how I am adopted, which just makes things even more confusing for them. If it comes up how I don't even speak Korean, they just give me a dumb look and ask "Why?" I've also learned that I look very Japanese. People will say "konichiwa" to me all the time. People also often think that I am only half Asian. This is all very interesting to me, because for ...

We had intended to stay the night in Hat Yai but it didn't look very appealling and Reto said it was full of rats and prostitutes (tempting or what!). So we decided to jump straight on a overnight bus to Phuket. We said our good byes to Livia and Retto and we were on our way again.

... at one item as a recommendation so I took it. What the hey, looks as good as any other. I figure that there will always be something in a dish I like to eat. In this case there was, but very little. It was a soup containing prawn and squid, overlaid with lemongrass, a strange pulpy substance with the consistency but not sweetness of unprocessed sugar cane, onions, and to top it all off, half a kilo of full and diced ...