Quiet day with fire twirlers

Trip Start Jun 11, 2008

Trip End Aug 07, 2008

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Flag of Thailand Ko Tao, Thailand
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

I sleep well in Abby's house: a room of my own, big bed, fan on full speed coming down on me from the ceiling. We wake at 8 am, get ready and moto down to Ban's, the diving resort where she works. It's right on the sea and also has a restaurant, so we sit down with a friend of hers for some breakfast (banana rice pudding for me). It's a big scuba environment and I get asked quite a few times if I'm going to scuba. I tried it in Australia and didn't like it, but the more I learn about it on Koh Tao, I get increasingly interested. I think when I have more time on a future holiday, scuba would be something I'd be open to trying again.

I wander about the beachy street on Koh Tao and spend a bit of time on the computer. Karen and brother Dan find me on facebook, so there's much chatting going on while I'm also trying to recount Full Moon Party for the blog. All of a sudden it's 11:30am and time to meet Abby for lunch.

I go back to Ban's and get a really fantastic Tom Kah soup, recommended by Abby, who used to be a vegetarian (and actually was one of my earliest influences in me becoming a vegetarian in '01). It's great. Milky coconut-y rice soup with this great broth, carrots, tomatoes, onions, lime, chilies, cilantro... and then also things there for flavor that you're not supposed to eat: bay leaves, lemon grass and root.

After lunch I plan all my travel to Chiang Mai with the nice lady who works at Ban's. I'm doing boat, bus and then overnight train, all in a row, from Wednesday 9:30am-Thursday 12:45pm.

Internet cafe

And I wander and look at shops. When I get tired of wandering, I pause a bit and have a coffee shake at an outdoor beach caf� and cozy up with LP. Then I wander more and think of things to get people, and when the sun gets too hot, I sit again in this Australian bar and grill and order cheese fries and a mojito. It's happy hour, so the mojitos are 2 for 1, so I have 2 for 1. Of course I get both.

I write postcards, I journal. I travel around, looking for a good used book I want to read during the Chiang Mai journal, and try to find new shoes that would be both good for walking and appropriate for temples (heels and toes covered). So far unsuccessful in both searches.

As the day winds down, I walk up and down the beach, along the water. I sit down on a beach chair and anticipate a really good sunset: I read Eat Pray Love as I sit. Abby had been scheduled for the night dive, but she calls and says that she got someone to cover it. I head back to Ban's, we take off for a different beach bar to again have sunset drinks. More good conversation, and this time it's an absolutely beautiful sunset! Lots of pictures.

Later, we go back to Ban's and she finishes some scuba paperwork and we hang out with her friends a bit at the bar. I pick up my tickets for my Chiang Mai travel and mail the postcards. Eventually, later in the night, we go to Noori, an Indian restaurant, that's (of course) on the beach just behind Lotus Bar. Lotus Bar has fire twirlers at night, set to some cool music. I take a picture-I take some video. Sometimes they drop the sticks on the sand, which is fine, but sometimes they drop them or get reeeally close to the spectators lounging on the Thai cushions on the sand, and that's scarier!

Her friends Jo (English) and Helena (Bosnian) meet us for dinner, and again it's just a completely normal girl's only dinner that could have been happening anywhere on this Earth. I'm much more aware of the hordes of tourists now that I'm slightly separated from them, only on this one leg of the journey. Dinner didn't end til late... again, went back to Abby's home and to bed!