Every around the world trip needs a near death experience, right?

This was the first, and I hope only, near death experience I'll have on my trip. After a week in Kho Tao my friend Adam and I decided we'd head back to Kho Phagnan for the full moon party. We hadn't really intended on going but since we met up with Sam and Fraser and everyone seemed to be going we decided to take part in the chaos.

When we arrived at the pier I was already in one heck of a mood due to a little hangover and generally not feeling too hot. On the cab ride there the weather got really really bad. We had to wait over 2 hours for the boat to arrive and it opened up in the meantime. Honestly, I didn't even think about the weather at sea, I just assumed it would be fine and that if the conditions weren't ideal then the boat would be canceled. No such luck.

It took us nearly an hour just to board the tiny boat that was well over it's capacity for passengers. It was swaying so bad from side to side you had to be very careful with your bags so that you wouldn't fall overboard. While leaving the pier a swell came out of nowhere and shoved us into another boat which normally would be fine because of the tires attached to the side would absorb the hit but somehow we hit the other boat at an angle and the window in our cabin broke. I heard screaming from the back but after seeing what happened I was totally fine with the situation. It didn't break completely and it didn't seem to be a huge problem.

Fast forward 45 minutes and the swells were the highest I've ever been in. Normally, it wouldn't be too bad but since we were in a cabin that was low to the water every swell felt like it was going to tip us over. Adam felt sick (along with 75 percent of the boat) and went upstairs to get some fresh air. I stayed put and did my best to try not get seasick. As I was listening to The Killer's "Read My Mind" I heard hysterical screaming behind me. I looked back to see water rushing into the boat from the previously broken, now nonexistent, window. Water was rushing in everywhere and the women that were sitting next to the window were running upstairs and screaming for their life. Immediately everyone grabbed for their nearest life jacket, which of course, there weren't enough of, and started strategizing on what we were going to do next. No staff person came down which annoyed the hell out of me because people were actually having panic attacks and couldn't think clearly. The nice Canadian couple behind me and I seemed to be the only people that could stay relatively calm in the midst of the craziness - well, at least from the outside. Inside, I was absolutely terrified. I knew we were going down I just didn't know when. I couldn't deal with the thought of getting off that boat with all those people who just couldn't think rationally. After another hour we finally saw land. Whew. I knew within a matter of an hour the swells would die down significantly as we approached the pier. It seemed to take forever but finally we arrived at the port and after an hour of unloading all the people off that darn boat we were on hard, solid ground.

I took a picture of that stupid boat, although I'm not sure why, because I will not forget that experience any time soon.

What better way to recover from a near death experience and celebrate life than attending a full moon party with 25,000 of your closest friends . . . dressed in neon. The party started off pretty slow but by 1 AM the beach was packed and with the tide coming in it was difficult to even walk. I chose to just dance. I mean, what else are you going to do? There are people that are jumping a rope that is on fire and people who are jumping through rings of fire. I'm not sure who thought of these great ideas as every one there is wasted out of their minds but I didn't see any serious injuries occur.

Me and Sam with our buckets (enormous mixed drinks) and water

 Tons of dudes in neon pink:

 The crew

It's hard to tell from the pictures but this shot is all people, thousands of people:

Whoa - I loved the song that was playing:

After a day of recovery it was time to leave Thailand and the islands. I left Adam behind in the pouring rain at the pier and headed to the mainland with Sam and Fraser. I almost had a full on panic attack when I saw that this boat was not the safe, nice boat we took when traveling to the island the first time, but rather the terrifying tiny boat that we almost died in a few days ago. CRAP. Good thing I was with Sam and Fraser and managed to keep my cool.

It was time to say goodbye to Sam and Fraser which was sad for me because they are so damn cool and traveling with them was great. It's pretty amazing to once again meet up with people that I met across the world on similar journeys. I'll just have to go to Scotland to visit them one of these days!

After a brief and uneventful trip back to Bangkok it was time to leave Thailand and move on to Hong Kong. The next post will feature the cold and busy Hong Kong and my lovely friend Mandy from college!

Kho Tao, Thailand and MORE BEACH

Kho Tao in Thailand is known for it's scuba diving as it is one of the cheapest places in the world to get your certification. I, for whatever reason, wasn't dead set on getting my certification but I did go out one day and I have to say it was a pretty cool experience. Although I didn't love the feeling of being under water like so many other people do, it was amazingly beautiful. You truly feel like a visitor down there and the amount of activity is unreal. Everywhere you look there is a different school of fish and something different to see.

Adam was working on getting his open water certification and I took that time to sit around on the beach and read. I managed to finish a few books during my stay at Kho Tao and was so happy to get get some sun. For all of you who are wondering, yes, I did burn a little but I still maintain I'm doing a great job for someone with my skin tone. And I now have a little "tan" which is just the merging of all my freckles but I'll take it!

On our third day in Kho Tao while looking out the window of an internet cafe I saw my friends Sam and Fraser drive by in the back of a pick up truck (common means of transport on the islands for us backpackers). I knew they were going to be in the area but thought they'd be arriving a week later. Sam and Fraser are a super funny couple at the end of their trip who I met in Lima, Peru. Although we planned on meeting up at some point in Thailand, I'm still going to call this a small world story.

One day the four of us rented motorbikes to explore the island a bit and head to shark bay, known for it's great snorkeling. After getting lost 7 times over we found the nearly deserted bay and spent the day swimming and laying in the sun. Every night we found ourselves by the water watching the insane fire throwers. At first, I wasn't a fan, as it's a nutso tourist trap and I didn't see why everyone likes it so much. But after a while the fire seems to be almost hypnotic and is very relaxing . . . or perhaps it was all the sun and the beer. Here are some shots of shark bay, fire, and us partying on the beach:

The next post will feature my first near death experience on this trip and the full moon party!

Blame Thailand for the Lack of Posts

Or, I'm going to blame Thai computers. Every time I tried to post in Thailand, or download pictures, I managed to get electrocuted from the computer. NOT KIDDING. The first couple times actually hurt, a lot, and I felt like I was going to puke after. But, no worries, I survived and now have all of my pictures posted on my picasa site (link on the top right).

Thailand was amazing. I arrived in Bangkok and meet up with a high school friend, Adam who has been on the road now for almost 6 months. We just happened to be in the same place at the same time and because of the powers of facebook we were able to find one another. Bangkok is one crazy busy city and we managed to take in the night life in just a couple days and see a couple highlights before deciding to travel some place a bit more laid back.

We decided on the islands! I'm always game to hit the beach and Adam was down to get out of Bangkok. One 15 hour train ride, 1 hour bus ride and a 2.5 hour ferry ride later we found ourselves in Koh Phangan. Koh Phangan is home of the infamous full moon party but since we arrived in between a party the island was tame, to say the least.

One day trip included a boat ride to Haad Yuan, a paradise just 10 minutes away from our hotel. Check out the ridiculously beautiful views:

After a few days in Kho Phangan we were ready for a different island and a slightly different pace. I was okay just hanging out on the beach everyday but Adam was curious about Kho Tao, an island a few hours away which has some of the best diving around. I assumed there would be a beach there and some place I could read and so I was up for another ferry ride.

Next post will feature the very chill Kho Tao and scuba diving!

Eating my way through Malaysia

The one serious area of improvement in my travel life is trying new foods. Many of you know I'm a horribly picky eater. Trust me, I've tried to become more open and experience foods but the fact of the matter is I'm not crazy about food. I receive constant critizism from other travelers so try to resist the urge comment and tell me the food I NEED to eat this kind of food, or try this out - chances are I won't.

Malaysia, somehow, became a place where I couldn't stop eating. Everyday I would go to the "street food" street and wander from stand to stand. I embrassed this part of my trip as the food stop and ate as much chicken rice, nasi lamak and roti as humanly possible.

In between my binges I did mangage to see a couple cool things in KL. The first being Batu Caves which is essentially a temple inside these caves right outside the city. Of course, there were greedly little monkies there which everyone fed but I was more interested in the scenery:

My second day trip was to an elephant "sanctuary" a few hours away from Kuala Lumpur. I asked a million questions before commiting to the trip. Is it truly a sanctuary, do they treat the animals okay? I was assured over and over again that it would be a fun, cool way to see elephants. Which, by the way, I'm not a huge elephant fan but had read the book "Water for Elephants" about circus life in the 1920's or 30's and I grew to like them much more because the elephant understood Polish. Anyway, needless to say parts of the day trip were a total scam and the documentary that they showed us before seeing the elephants explained that they needed the sanctuary because people were getting angry that the elephants were walking through their fields and ruining their crop. My question would be, then why don't you make space for them and spare them of the insane process of tranquilizing the animals and then transporting them to the sanctuary? At some point I needed to just let go and try to have fun. And trust me, riding an elephant was fun but I soon found out by the crazy rash on my hands that I'm probably allergic to those big guys.

Check out the photos:

Next stop Thailand and the islands, ahhhhh.

Hello Singapore

Singapore was my first stop in Asia and it was a good way to ease into the continent. It's a very big city and it is extremely well organized. It seems as though the place was completely planned before even creating it. If you know anything about how I feel about cities, particularly how I feel about planning, you'd know I wasn't a huge fan of the city. I'm more of a Jane Jacobs, organic development of the city kind of gal. But, it was nice to be in such a clean place that was easy to navigate. Nearly every question that I had was answered, in English, on some sign with a picture to help with comprehension. I just couldn't believe how easy it was to get around, go to the airport, and ride the subway (MRT).

My stop in Singapore was fairly uneventful but I did manage to squeeze in a good day or two of museums (a way to stay out of the insane heat and humidity) and learn a ton about the country and how it was developed. I also met some great people at the hostel I was staying at - all just moving through Singapore and en route to some other Asian country.

Next stop: Kuala Lumpur!