It became apparent that if I
didn’t leave Lanta now, I may never end up leaving at all. So I tore myself away from the comforts of my
home and made my way up to ko phangan. I
got an email from my mom that said, “I hope you like it there, I heard it’s supposed
to be paradise”. Hmmm. Well, I think further investigation into the
definition of paradise is required, as it seems that one person’s paradise is
another person’s hell. Ko Phangan is
famous for its full moon parties. This is when about 10 thousand people gather
on a small beach and have a party to end all parties. Luckily I was not there for a full moon, but
that didn’t stop the chaos in paradise.
The atmosphere can be summed up in one example. The beach is lined with vendors selling
drinks, which are only available in bucket form (naturally), and to get
everyone into the party mood there are games put on by the bars. Enter drunken idiots. Drinking games commence, which involves
people drinking as much as they possibly can, as quickly as possible, and as
far as I can see the purpose of the game was to be the first one to puke all
over yourself. This wasn’t the end
though. Next stage in the game involved
skipping with a rope that has been lit on fire and then running and jumping
through a flaming ring of fire. Being a
bystander in all this has got to be one of the most amusing moments of my
life. Sometimes you see people who make
you shake your head and think that god couldn’t have created something more
simple-minded. Then you see them jump through the ring of fire, only to fall on
top of it and burn themselves. Then you
really begin to question the evolutionary process of man. I do have to admit though, that I am so happy
I experienced this, it’s just one of those things that you have to see to
believe. After a few days of this I took
a long tail boat to the real paradise of the island found at Bottle Beach. This is a little cove with perfect white sand
and a bungalow right on the beach. When
the boat pulled up to the beach I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Absolutely nothing. It felt as though I
should be whispering as to not disturb any of the few people that were lying on
the beach. Now this is paradise. I
mastered the art of lying in a hammock and watching the waves, which only took
about 5 days to accomplish. The only
adventure I attempted was to climb through the jungle at a 45 degree angle to
reach a viewpoint that looked over the small beach. I made it halfway there, jumping over snakes
and being attacked by swarms of bugs.
That didn’t stop me. What did
however, was roosters. Stupid roosters.
I swear they are single-handedly trying to ruin my travels! Halfway up this mountain there was what I can
only assume was an orchard full of rooster trees. There is something extremely creepy about a
tree full of roosters, it seems very unnatural. To make it even worse, the base
of the tree was surrounded by vicious looking dogs. Whatever, I’m sure the view from the top was
great, I can also buy the postcard from the store at the hotel.
Well once again my Thai visa is
coming to an end. I found a way to get
an extension by traveling back down to Malaysia. Not exactly how I care to
spend a few days but I figured it’d be worth it. A friend I met was heading up to Bangkok to fly back to England
and I figured I’d join him as flights from Bangkok
to Malaysia
are cheaper than taking the series of buses and ferries. Then I began to wonder, what the hell am I
going to do in Thailand
for another couple months? I have become a true expert in the art of doing
nothing, where does one go from there?
Maybe it’s time to move on. But where?
Now this is the question I have been pondering for the past few weeks. While lying in the hammock on the beach I
came to a beautiful and somewhat terrifying realization. At this point in time, in my life, I can go
absolutely anywhere. I have no
commitments and the freedom to do whatever I want. How often is that going to happen and for how
long will that opportunity last? From what I can tell it’s life expectancy is
determined by my bank account. With that
amount of freedom comes a lot of stress and pressure. If you could go anywhere in the world, where
would you go? I considered coming back
to Canada
to work for a bit, but to be honest, it’s the winter weather that kept me
away. I
just can’t handle the thought of it!
I looked into flights to Taiwan to see Julie and they were actually quite
a lot cheaper than before, but the date I had to leave Thailand coincided with
the dates that she is off work and heading out on holidays. Then as always, there is Liz. She’s more free than the wind and has been
floating around the world for some time and has landed comfortably in Egypt. I asked a travel agent to look into flights
to Egypt, there was only one
left on the date I needed to leave Thailand. Ok, so Egypt it is. I know nothing about Egypt. My
ignorance leads me to believe that I will be greeted by a line of camels
waiting to take me to the pyramids. Yes
this is honestly all I can conjure up on the topic of Egypt. Hopefully in a few days time I’ll be a little
bit more enlightened. If the freedom
I’ve been granted at this point in life leads me to be spit on by camels, I
hope that that won’t be symbolic of life spitting in my face.
