Lamai Wanta Surat Thani

... uncomfortable night of tossing and turning in a fold-down "bed" on the train, I arrived in Bangkok's main train station at about 7 am on Sunday morning. After a fair amount of haggling, I managed to arrange a taxi ride across the city to the airport. I hung out there for several hours, and at about 1:00 in the afternoon, I bumped into--surprise, surprise--McNeill!<br><br>At that point, McNeill and I jumped ...

... We made it to Surat Thani just in time to catch the last ferry to Koh Samui, which is then another hour ferry ride away from our ultimate destination of Koh Pha Ngan. We made it to Koh Samui and got a hotel right by the pier so that we could catch the ferry the next morning. The ferry for Koh Pha Ngan left at 11am and so we finally reached the island around noon. All things considered if I had to do it over again I would have paid the extra money to get there in an hour.

... Hero (by Enrique)... "Let me be your hero baby...let me kiss away the pain, let me stand by you forever...", this song certainly reminds me of somebody again but I could not fight my own sleepiness. So I fell asleep so fast. I woke up with the heated body. The air condition in the bus went wrong and everybody was sweating terribly! It was 30 kilos to our destination so it did not matter than much. I felt like being in the ...

... ran off and the bus driver starts pulling out our luggage - 'hurry' he says 'ferry about to go' (WTF?? Why didn't you simply leave earlier? We've been ready for the last 3 hours!!). Meanwhile, we saying back to him 'give us bags and we'll go'. We got on OK, however, I'm not sure that all of our bus did... The ferry was hot outside, hot inside and the VIP room (50 Baht) didn't look like anything special so we stayed ...

... They were already docked and being stocked with freight so we just went ahead and purchased our tickets. As our rucksacks contained nothing but heavy loads of dirty laundry by this point, we went against the book's advice and left them on our bunks inside. "Our bunks" = sections 21 and 22 of one long, gigantic cushion stretched out across the side of the boat's upper deck. We wouldn't be sleeping on metal containers or sacks of vegetables as the book implied but ...

... see the weekend market Chatuchak , but not without a visit to the Gems and Jewellery store enroute which has one of the most beautiful and fascinating works of jewellery , gems and stones. One can actually see these being manufactured by the locals.The tuk tuk drivers in Bangkok insist on this addition to iternary as they earn a gasoline voucher. The Chatuchak market is a must visit with all kinds of shops selling every thing one can think of from assortment of ...

... for toilets etc. A jeep transfers us from the train station to the boat port and we are soon sat in the blue plastic recling seats of the (supposedly) airconditioned lounge on the ferry. The ferry trip takes a couple of hours and i manage to sleep through most of it despite the uncomfortable seats!

... of our night-time group walking meditations! After finishing retreat, spent one night at the adjoining monastery. Male dorm consists of a single room with wooden floor and grass mat to sleep on, and mosquito net. J gets trampled in the middle of the night by one of the male retreat-goers returning to monastery in wee hours after a presumed drinking binge! Female dorm a little more inspiring but run by very solemn Nun Nathinee. Overall monastery seemed a ...

... in India. My minibuses seem to contain some loud characters (see my Pai entry). This guy blabbed on and on about how America sucked- it should be called the JewNited States of America. He also proclaimed that the US was a kill or be killed country- claiming everyone had guns. I had to tell everyone that was false- leading him to challenge me to a debate about my favorite president, which I declined. We arrived in Penang at 9. I got a room, ate... slept.

... some incredibly relaxing traditions and eat plenty of seafood, among other beach snacks. I must say, it was a nice break from the city life and I pampered myself to the extreme, spending very little in the process. I actually think I am saving money by being in Asia :-) While in Ko Samui (an island off the east coast of Thailand) I had some amazing spa treatments (more on that later since they exemplify the health benefits of thai herbs), took a really tough yoga class and then ...