Next thing I know...

We're on a bus on our way to the rain forest of Khao Sok.

I have a photo of the bus somewhere which I will add later but for now a description will suffice. It was bright orange and looked like a carnival, an appearance which disguised the general "un-fun-ness" of the trip we were about to embark on.

After a couple of stops at various market towns we were dropped off on the side of the road in what looked to be the middle of nowhere in particular. There were three taxi-trucks waiting for the bus and so we just poked about for a minute until there was only one left and we didn't have to make a decision. He brought us to his guest house/bungalow operation and sat with us, silently while we drank our bottles of soda and tried to convey to him as subtly as possible that it was okay for him to go (Us: It's okay for you to go. Him: [Twiddle of thumbs. Silence.]) It was weird.

Our room was cleanish and the bedding was heavy and synthetic, perfect for the tropical heat and humidity.

Then we headed off to the river where, we were promised, there would be monkeys as far as the eye could see.

To be continued...

Kantiang Bay

I run like a cartoon.

It's why I never made it as an athlete. Well, that and I used to smoke like a fish.

We went south which didn't take long because Ko Lanta isn't big and we got ourselves booked into a bamboo hut which was perched on stilts on the side of a hill. At night the whole thing swayed about a foot and a half back and forth. Fun!

We were at the north end of a half-moon bay and every night we got some beers and wathced the sunset over the Andaman Sea. Ahhh.

We met a German couple from Cologne who invited us to live with them rent-free if we would teach them English. They were adamant. So if I ever say, "hey, I'm off to Cologne to teach some elderly Germans English for a few months" and you never hear from me again it's because they actually just wanted to kill us.

The beach put me in this sort of mood:






Oh, that Sally Field!

Naked Man Beach

And there we were, a stones throw from naked man beach.

Though the beach directly outside our bungalow looked nice it was a bit rocky until about 6pm when the tide came in so we were told to make our way over the rocky out-cropping a hundred yards away to a lovely, rock-free beach. We did and found a beautiful bay. The only trouble was, right at the close end of the beach there lived a lonesome naked German in a tarpaulin hut. He was sort of a half hermit as he spent most of his time alone but occassionally would chat up other 50-something year old single men. Everyday we had to pass him and his full-body tan. You try not to look but sometimes your eyes wander, you forget about the strangely-fit-for-his-age hut-dwelling Hun and POW! There he is, squatting over some piece of wood or simple machine he has constructed from rocks and crab shells. Guh-huh-huh-huh-huh!

He's probably still there, philosophizing from time to time with one of his speedo-clad countrymen. So if you're interested let me know and I'll give you directions.

Near "Naked Man" Beach

So our boat pulls up to the pier at the northern end of Ko Lanta and we teeter off onto the dock and are immediately mobbed by, oh, let's say 400 of the islands inhabitants. They all want us to stay at their brother's or mother's or cousin's resort. We are whelmed. They can sense by our blank looks that we're easy marks and hound us for a while until they realize that our blank looks aren't giving way to anything. We just stare off into oblivion, dazed.

When the crowd disperses there's just one man left, the mild-mannered Mr. Shippy.

Mr. Shippy tells us he can take us to a very nice beach and find us a very nice bungalow and we believe him because maybe he hypnotized us, I don't really know, but we load into the back of his truck and he takes us out to a quiet beach.

Standing in front of his truck Mr. Shippy tosses 10 or 12 pills into his mouth and says something about a stomach problem. He looks blissed. We walk up the beach with our backpacks on our backs and we find this place:




So we say "this looks good" and we check in.