Water, Weather, Wildlife

I caught a ferry out to Ko Pha Ngan, an island in the gulf of thailand.  It's best known for the crazy full moon parties that take place every month on the south coast... I went just after the full moon to a little bungalow outfit on the north coast.  Ironically I caught a taxi out there with a guy who's been living in southeast portland for the last three years... he went off on what a great town portland is, and how much he misses stumptown coffee.  In a way that made me realize how long I've been gone, as I haven't heard anybody talk about stumptown coffee in a while....

Coral bay

My bungalow was on a little headland between a couple of small bays.  The bay that my front door faced was full of coral, and I spent large amounts of time in the water chasing tropical fish around.  I could snorkel constantly, but I have to get out of the sun occasionally (it's surprisingly easy to get sunburned even underwater).

Coral bay in the rain!

There was a small tree frog living on my bungalow porch when I checked in.  We had a bit of a disagreement about who got to use the hammock.  I pointed out that as I was paying for the bungalow, I should get to use it.  He thought since he was there first, it was his.  I ended up winning the argument because, well, it was a frog.

One afternoon while laying in my hammock (after I'd evicted the frog), a three foot long monitor lizard wandered down the path by my porch.  Now, lizards really don't bother me (if they did, I would not be doing well in the tropics), but a lizard the size of a dog gave me a pause.  It was a short pause, of course, and I ran and got my camera and followed it out onto the rocks until he got tired of being harrassed.

Monitor lizard

We've had great thunderstorms every night.  One thing I like about the weather here is how punctual it is.  When does the wet season start?  Oh, end of april, beginning of may.  April 29th, it starts raining.  Will we have a storm tonight?  Oh, they roll in between 4 and 6 o'clock every afternoon.  It's a nice change of pace to have weather that you can count on - not like oregon, the land of the perpetual 50% chance of rain.

I'm off on the night ferry this evening, then on a bus to kota bahru in malaysia.  Yeah for 24 hour journeys!

Tree frog