Down and out in Thailand

Well this is it.

I'm on a bus right now, heading to a city on the coast of the Andaman Sea named Krabi with my friend and company on this trip, Miguel. We've been in Thailand for 20 days now and it feels good to make a narrative of the places we went to and the people we met around here.

So

We arrived at Bangkok on December 9th really tired/jetlagged, but really excited that we felt we should walk by our hostel. That was our first experience with the thai people of that modern, populous, busy, sometimes dirty and bad smelling tricky city.

After refusing some Tuk Tuk rides I was needing some energy and wanted to grab some food And that's how I got scammed for the first time. The owner of an indian restaurant had a special (more expensive) menu for tourists  and I was charged 4 to 6 times for one meal.

Ok for starters i thought in the moment, let it roll and play smart from now on. On the same day we tried to check the big mall of Bangkok, the MBK complex. We even arrived there and took a stroll but i was bad from the jetlag & M suggested that we came back. We slept from 4pm to 9pm, in time to check out the Patpong Market and drink our first beers. That was the moment When we were introduced to our traveling partner to all places, Chang beer, as well as Singha, Leo and f***ing Siamsong a beer that, not to say shitty, I eufemistically would speculate - if i may ( am i allowed to do this, mom?) that it might be directed to the peculiar and very exotic thai taste

On pat pong we passed by the lady boy bars and the Ping pong shows, everyone inviting foreigners to come in, by paying a high price - I did check out one Ping pong show for a minute in a club named SUPER PUSSY. The market was great a lot of shirts of Brazillian players and some HandmAde/handcrafted art (very interesting!). Then we come back to play some pool and sleep.

December 10

We woke up early, talked with some people on breakfast and go visit the Grand Palace, the Emerald Buddha Temple (Wat Pra Kaew), the reclining Buda Temple (Wat Pho), and the Wat Arun. No pretention of describing these marvels of the country, all Very beautiful temples. One of the attractions  that touched us the most was a panel where a long story of the struggle of two cities and how the Buddha, the Gods and the animal spirits took part on it - each part of the panel had so much details and the paintings were really beautiful. A moment later we discover that it was the Ramatien, An illustration of the conflicts beetween 2 cities during King Ranma's rule. We saluted the Emerald Buddha and wished a good trip for us.

At night we finally meet the busy Khao San Road talked to a lot of people. We cold get in touch with Thomas and Ingrid, son and mother from Germany that we had met earlier on a sky train. they were traveling together and we had a nice time with them. We exchanged contact and we'll meet him in Koh Phi Phi for the New Year’s eve. We finished that day with new friends Veronika from Ukraine and Tommy from Finland walking around the city until late. It was very nice.

Dec11
Next day we had to plan our voyage to the north and buy some stuff. At night we go to the Khao San road again with the couple we shared beds, Sanchez and Meabh. They were such a nice and funny couple. I almost puked trying to eat a fried scorpion, Sanchez british accent entertained us during the night. Hello mate! Aye! I'm from derby, mate! We went together to the ping pong show and had the best Tuk Tuk ride of the trip, racing with some motorbikes and listening to some thai punk with a driver full of energy to say the less.

Dec12

We get a 2 hours train and get to know the ruins of the ancient capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. There were a lot of palaces and buddha temples almost burned to the ground by the Burmese Empire on the late nineteenth century. A famous postcard is located there, the Wat Mahatat, a temple that has a Buddha head in the middle of the roots of a tree. We made the city tour with our rastaman guide and a russian guy named Nikolai. On the streets we always were listening to Bob Marley and that was great. At the temple’s ruins there were many bricks upon the other and a warning about not me moving one single stone of the place for any ideas people would eventually have, neither seat or climb the temples or  Buddha statues. Then I realized that where one may only see concrete, clay, rocks and bricks other see historic cultural and sacred symbols. The point is culture strongly remains through time, until there's people to maintain the habits, rituals and beliefs. When I tried to assemble the pieces of the ruins  in my mind I got to imagine how majestic that place once might have been- huge. Wehad some booze on a nice restaurant by the river with Kola and I slept on the train on the way while both of my partners fooled me with some garbage and took a lot of pictures (basterds). When we arrive we get to know the skybar near hostel, same from the movie Hagover 2… And finish the night drinking at patpong again. It is sad that we wouldn't meet Nikolai anymore, neither exchanged contact Information with him, but certainly we had a nice moment - he even taught us How to correctly say Stolichnaya.

Dec 13

We took our time at the hostel and went to the MBK to do some shopping until it's time to get the train To Chiang Mai at 6pm at Hualampong Station. We almost died with that ice cold air conditioning on our faces.

Dec 14

We Get To Chiang Mai at 9am walk arround and get to The Living Place1, our hostel. There we were introduced to Aree and her sons/dogs Wee Wee, Rhenna & Mickey. Our trip Was just begining and we felt that maybe we had pushed ourselves too hard with too little sleep and a lot of heavy drinking since we got to Bkk.

So we settled With Aree in that sweet environment. It was confortable and pleasant, The doggies were arround but the place was very clean. We shared the same bed in a kind of romantic couple room - Ok that's What we got, no trouble. We went to Tiger Kingdom on that day with Toby and Adam, two english guys. We went together to a night market and we hit the street food for the first time - thailicious pad thai. Later they invited us to watch Manchester United x Arsenal- Man U won 3x1 Rooney, V Persie, V Persie and They cheered for their team If Was nice to see the english way of watching football. We kept drinking, met some brazillians and finally Get to a party Where there were almost no foreigners. only thai youngsters - it was interesting, ya' know, to See how they enjoy their parties (just like everyone else).

Dec15

We took our time to get to know the Old City within the gates of Chiang Mai, It's temples and Streets. Get our first thai massage - very relaxing, but strong i'd say. Then we went to the fabulous night bazar - with a literally never ending path of things to buy (at least more than 3 km) We hit some food, Have some booze, Watch a show for tourists and Take a looooooong walk arround the streets to conclude that the city Is REALLY BIG. Things i remember from the night bazaar: the soap with the scent of the flowers, some sculptures made out of bamboo strings ( Dragons, tigers, kobras) & buddhist wooden sculptures.

Dec 16
The next day we get to the de temple of Doi Suthep, which has a lot of Buddha, great bells and golden details everywhere. a dragon ladder and a good view of the city. After that we were gone after something to eat and people asked me about my Spain football team shirt and I said that it was because i saw that very good team playing and winning in 2010' World cup and liked it. A spanish couple heard that and cheered- that was nice, they had tears in their eyes J

Dec 17

We Get the night train back to Bangkok, sleepers class this time. So We get some quality rest. We spent the day at the Mbk mall- We even got lost inside of it, because It's huge. We made a friend named Mai who had Just opened his milky products specialized dining  place: Zonta’s Dairy Village. The milk ice cream was great, made with natural milk, not syinthetic. We then get the night train to Chumphon to get to the first Island we visit : Koh Tao.

Dec 18

Lomprayah high speed catamaran on a bad weather with Big 17meter waves, swinging all rround with people gettin' seasick, or Goddamn it or “not the nicest moment of my life”. I couldn’t imagine it. The nausea caused by seasickness is different, you throw up and it keeps bothering your guts. Looking around and noticing that there's still a long way to go Is not very exciting as well. Roughly estimating In our boat a hundred people puked, one after the other, a real chain reaction. That Was awful. A family of parents and little girl was wasted. Miguel Dragon Sinister Guts didn't vomit.

So we arrived at such a special island Koh Tao (turtle island?) we settle at the hostel and go To Sairee beach. There people start telling us that one of best spots to learn to SCUBA dive was right there - this idea stayed in our minds. In the first night we met Elise Gabrielle a dutch mademoiselle that we met at Sairee Beach and told us about diving courses and enjoyed the beach with us. We went to sunset beach bar in a big party with a lot of crazy people jumping into the pool from a trampolin - i jumped it, no doubt about it.

Dec 19

I should mention  that we kept meeting nice people at the hostels and at Koh Tao Central like Moa, An english guy whose name I don't remember that reminded Jeff Goldblum - I told him that and he said that it wasn't the first time - and while passing by the corridors I wondered about the name of the owner of a shiny pair of light green eyes that, which I found out to be Claire. This day we rented the scooters for the first time in here. For me it was the first time of riding it for more than five minutes. Wow! How fun it was to have the wind on my face without using neither helmet nor sneakers!!

 Miguel had some trouble riding his scooter right in the beginning, He had a wound on his toe and therefore he was very careful when riding. By chance or with the help of some of the buddha blessings, after some moments of pain Dragon was still good to roll On Thailand.

At night we went to the Koh Tao Pub Crawl with our friend Rachadee. It was fun except for almost breaking a toe by "kicking a step". It just so happened that i would lose a toenail in a few days but i t wasn't thaaat bad. The walking through 4 different places was good to know the nightlife on the island... We saw a lot of fireshows, lots of booze and a ladyboy show  where I danced a little on the end. They wanted to charge me some bahts for that. C'mon I helped on the show and you still charge me. Get outta here you lady boy wannabe bouncers!

Dec 20

The 6th Street Boys
this was a particular day:

we woke up at about 9 and while going after breakfast I just ask this fella nearby If he wanted to come with us, his name was Stefan from Deustchland. We ate something, Migs took some time to take care of his toe, me and Stefs decided to go snorkeling and ssowe did. After some questions and with the help of two 10 years old thai scouts we finally got to Ao Leuk Bay.

We start swimming over the bayside and saw a lot of corals and fish, which was really nice. then we meet two guys and Keep snorkeling until i noticed that I was right above a BIG THING. Gosh! I just spotted it for one second and swimmed away in a hurry screaming that I had seen something big and that I didn't know what it might have been! So Comes Axel and says "you're kidding me! What did u see?". Then he swims onto it and comes back also Screaming because he saw it.

It was a blur to me. I just saw a big thing right below me. The size was at about 1,5 meters diameter gray with some dots. Our descriptions of the thing didn't match. Our drawing on the sand happened to be a round happy thing smoking a joint. Whatever…

Apart from what that really was, this situation introduced us to each other. We met Axel and Alexi, dutch and finnish,  talked the whole the afternoon, had a nice time and went to meet Miguel at the hostel to grab some Food. Meanwhile a canadian guy named Sebastien joins us. I told people that we should go to this place because They had the Bestpad thai ever - Ok it might Not be thaaaat amazing but i like to put some enthusiasm on things. We crossed sairee beach to eat and set a time to go out, the six of us.

We go to this first bar and they were giving a drink for anyone who played a song on the stage. I said that Maybe i could play smtg, that I was not sure if people'd like it and the guys just said "go on" no problem. In a few minutes I go up the stage saying I was going to play a popular and famous Brazillian Music for the friends I just met for the same of the good time we were having I played a mix of Você e Gostava Tanto de Você from Tim Maia by the Paralamas do Sucesso. I Have a few doubts about my performance but the great thing is that they supported me and cheered while I was singin' and I really felt comfortable with that.

We passed by all the bars on the beach dancin' like A 6th street group, so we named ourselves the 6th street boys. After a lot of buckets we split and each one made a different way/ adventure back home. It was kind of a blur but we danced a lot, jumped the rope on fire all together and in a few words had a nice time together. I was happy to See a french family that suffered a lot on the Lomprayah nighmare of seasickness, now they were ok and I played with their little girl, a sweet kitty cat named Angelina.

Dec21

We wake up, used To some signs of hangover and little sleep headed to Koh Samui. We get there, set our camp near downtown with the lovely hosts Tikki and Pá. I wanted to See The view On top of the building and left some money on the roof. The wind takes it down in the street and Pá goes into a strait alley to get it for me. I didn't even ask. She Was so sweet.

Meanwhile Stefan just sends me a message on fb: Man, the finnish guy fucked a ladyboy!. WHAT???????? Yeah, Alexei got really drunk and brought a ladyboy to the room. Axel was sleeping there too and didn’t notice his preference until a second moment. The guy left on the early morning ad there were no more news about him. He’ll be fine, cheers for this deep thai adventurer from Finland! Nazdrovia!!

We Get to know the calm and chilled at Chaweng beach and I get my second thai massage overthere, listening to the waves. We Take some time on the sand and meet Jimmy, an australian who was passing by and stood with us for the whole night. We played some pool and talked about diverse issues from football and living in Australia to ways of recognizing yourself deeply, by other perspectives.

We had a nice Thai food dinner and went to the bar on the beach to drink and party. We had fun together until he decided to leave. We were supposed to meet at Koh Phangan But We couldn't. We Like to Think that he might be around and show up when we less wait. He had such a good way with girls. We asked how do you do it in Australia? And he just repplied: invite them to join you. So he did it with some girls passing by while the party, People selling stuff and the fireshows were happening and we danced a lot with some finnish, sweedish and israeli beauties because of his invitations. Cheers to Jimmy! (one fantastic music played and i made my moves dancing, the only problem Is that I don't hAve a clue about the name of it)

Dec 22

Same thing. We rested on the shore to have some fun at night. When I  passed by 7-11 to buy something the service girls are looking at me in a funny way. So I realized That, while having my late night beers, I saw them cleaning the floor and I Just looked at that Wicked broomstick they had and offered my Hands to do the job. I Hope i just cleaned it well.

When We were reaching the nightlife a gentleman asked us for fire and about our destination. Yevo, half russian half israeli guy, joined us and invited EACH AND EVERY girl he saw to dance, always with a friendly face and Lots of positive energy. This guy was a condecorared frontmen. We would still meet him later at the trip. At the end of the night, almost six o'clock I look at Miguel and suggest that maybe we should come home, because we were leaving early and Koh Phangan days were still to come. Wise decision.

Dec 23-28

Koh Phangan, you’re not gonna sleep

We get up and say goodbye to our hosts. Time to Go to Koh Phangan. Miguel talked to some guys on the left and i just said to this guy on my side. Sorry Man! I'm a bit out of energy and I can't talk properly. Maybe I should rest a little in here. He just tells me "you're not gonna sleep. this is koh phangan"-  a good prelude.

We get a tuk tuk to Echo Beach Backpackers, our place at the island. Good music going on the whole time, a bar, the beach right near us, good food, people passing by and having a good time - the cycle of enjoying the island was just begining.

Soon We meet Axel and Stefan again, They were at a walking distance place. We had a barbecue dinner and had a lot if drinks in the lobby - the 6th street boys reassembled and our two german roommates and brothers Phil & --------. The guys also gave us some Christmas gifts: two purses one pink and other with little bears, they were an extravaganza  but helped us carrying our money and cards with confidence in the swimming shorts – thank’s guyz!! Nice night. Except for the fact That a friend of Oliver, a sweedish fellA who showed us a video In which he flew 25m and fell into The water, was badtripping in mushrooms or something And kept asking for his nephew. They had to leave and nobody got hurt.

The next day i had little sleep again and have breakfast with Phill and some dutch girls i had crossed before at koh tao- i asked If it was them, there, yeah it was; later I learned that randomly crossing people you met in other places is a feature of a thai trip, a nice one.

On the 24^th Christmas eve to brazillians, apart from the nostalgia and trying to talk with the parents against the 9 hour difference of time we could really enjoy the beach, play some ball, take a bit of sun (in Brazil we refer to that kind of weather as “mormaço”, the sun pretending won’t burn you but burning a little). In this X-mas we got good gifts, we 4 met. Miguel, Thiago, Stefany and Julien.

Stefy was this pretty german brunette we met at the beach. We said hi, she replied and had a beer and a smoke. She was a good partner to dance, drink and enjoyed our brazillian shit chat and she was always smiling  (or willing to go to 7-11)!

 It didn’t take five minutes and there was Canada too. As a member of our team Julien was always eager to party and face the hangovers friendly. He didn’t let the ball fall on the party, always cheering up “let’s go there” “let’s do it, guys!”. One thing he said to me: Talk in English man! I can’t understand your French!!

We all joined as a group on Jungle Party (big one). That night we also get to know Alex Fisher, english photographer who lives in Burma and party mate, that came along with us on the next days. The same for the French guys Anthony and Thibaut, who were making some nice footages of their experiences in Thailand and Australia and uploading it on their Youtube chanel “OnemoreTRIP”. Also I’ve met Adeline, a nice French beauty. At the end of the night people were looking for me. C’mon guys I was just taking a nap, ‘cause I danced too wild on the jungle. Ah, other thing the bathroom was paid, 20 Bahts for each time, but a lot of guys would just bargain or say they were outta money – charging people to piss in a party, funny stuff.

After the jungle party the 4 of us went to the beach, had a nice swim and had some Chang beers until we get exhausted. We saw the sunrise and enjoyed ourselves and slept on the hammocks – it just felt special and in that time there was no brazillians or Canadian or german it was us enjoying the sea.

The next day was basically a concentration to the long awaited Full Moon Party. After a nice brittish style X-mas lunch we went there. So we went there, it wasn’t the official party – the real one is in the full moon. Stefy cut her foot, it rained A LOT, I met Adeline again by chance. We had a nice time.

The next day was peculiar to me, I couldn’t sleep and took a 7 Km walk along the island, dancing and drinking beer, played some guitar, met some people, even some Muay Thai training. Later I just said bye to Stefs and Axel again. At nigh I met one more nice guy: Samir Arwel, from London who lived in India, he had style and energy, man! I went to a third party in a roll Maya, but without too much energy. We were supposed to leave the island on the 4^th day and we only did it on the 7^th because of all the nice people we met there. I tried to get a haircut, came back with no hair. I was chocked in the beginning. Everybody would say that I looked like a gangster, but in the end I did ok, bald and white headed.

Two friends helped me to smile again after the terrible haircut: Carina from Norway, who recommended me to watch the Waterboy (Ciao, Roberto!) and sang me a song from Norway and Mickey Grant, heavyweight. I went to 7-11 with him buy some Smirnoff and watch him cheer everybody up, we talked to some sweedish guys I don’t remember their names, he drank a whole Siamsong (that beer that nobody could handle) and told us how he bumped some Israeli tough guys in Koh Samui only with his attitude. We maintained contact with him. Cheers to Mickey!

Talking with everybody was so nice. Not to get to know the day by day of each other but things like “hey”, “how’s it going”, “do you have a brother?”, “why Thailand?”, “let’s have a nice time!” and we felt comfortable.

Staying more days we could get to know better the people who worked at Echo like Sarah, she was nice. We were honoured to be invited to work ther for some days, take our time help here and there, enjoy more of the island. But we realy felt like moving, Koh Phangan, you’re not gonna sleep, you’re gonna spend your energies, rest a bit and be willing to see what happens next.

Dec 29

Tired as f**k, me and Miguel took a boat and a Bus to finally arrive at Ao Nang Beach in Krabi at 7pm. We were more relaxed about finding a place to stay and it didn’t take long for us to settle on Jinda guesthouse. We were tired both by the Koh Phangan rush and the long journey. We hit some street food and I fell in love with that stir fried spiciest chicken I had on my life. Miguelito and me took a stroll around and hit some funny pictures  - there was this nice restaurant, good for couples, right next to a ladyboy/hookers alley. After some beers Miguel went to sleep and I decided to go out. I had a fun night with two guys from San Diego, California, city of the great Ron Burgundy, whose name I don’t remember. What counts is the nice time we had. Cheers for them!

Dec 30

No Tiger Cave Temple, no Snake Show, let’s maybe see Raylee Beach  - don’t they say it’s nice? We didn’t.

We just started playing ball at Aonang beach. We brought the ball, played some Barcelona style of passing it. Oh, c’mon this deserve a proper, more accurate description:

we bought a ball back in Bangkok, a good one. We really enjoyed this friend of ours.
Let’s make It plain: we are not that good soccer/futebol/football players, but we grew up playing it. More or less we tried to develop at least some of the playing attributes of our childhood heros like Romario, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Pelé, Maradona, Messi… That’s why we know a few tricks. We’re not that god but we can drible quite good, throw the ball between your legs if you come in a rush, make a beautiful shot on the air... 0k, probably you have a counterpoint about the effectivity of this kind of playings versus the tactical feasibility of a complete team that can pass the ball really quickly and dinamically and also the advantages of it. But my point is we, brazillians, not necessarily stunning players, had some fun playing it and maybe impressed some people.  By contrast, came this Japanese guy, asked if he could play, of course he could. He was a little bit too excited and almost knocked out Miguel with a knee to his head. C’mon, we play ball to have fun, not to hit your teammates.

 After that we said, let’s take five here then we go to Raylee, ok? Ok. We had some beers, slept like children on the beach, first quality chill/rest we had in a looong time also we met a French guy that we had met in Koh Phangan. In the end of the afternoon we watched this beautiful sunset onto the Indian Ocean for the first time. We turn our backs and find another hostel acquaintance, Angie a Peruvian raised in London and her friends, we set a time to have a drink later, one of them got sick and we didn’t meet after all. So me and Miguel were busted by the whole day under the sun and from the beers, came home early.

Cool thing is that I met Melissa, from Calgary Canada, we had thai food spring rolls with cockroaches’s condiment (joke mofos) and another round of spicy chicken which she defined so well “Oh my god, this is great, only salt and fat!”.

Dec 31st

We finally get to go to Koh Phi Phi, one of the most awaited destinations of the trip since planning iot in Brazil. Everything went well on the boat and we finally get to Phi Phi Hill resort. Only thing that made us regret a little: 81 steps to climb the hill, but the view and the place was worth it NO DOUBT. After climbing the steps and checking in We met Claire again, she and Thomas would stay with us. So we get to know our bungalow and the view from the restaurant. We go down to the beach bar for a snack and then get ready for the 45 minute walk to get to downtown, where we went to a New Year’s Party. Once again I felt like part of a good team, we had a lot of drinks, danced, somebody I don’t remember exactly who passed naked under the burning rope ring to get a drink, I went up one pole and on the way down almost hurt my balls – GOT REALLY SCARED. So, no secret: We were together there in New year’s Eve and that was good.

Jan 1st

The next day I get to know the beautiful Small Beach with such a good company. It was one of the most memorable moments of the trip, maybe of my life. I got in touch with that clear and blue water, the landscape of the other Phi Phi Island, a few fish, a few crabs and those green eyes. In one word: Idyllic.

After that, I helped Claire to take her luggage down because she had to leave. So again I had to say goodbye.

Back to the hostel it wasn’t bad. We finally get to spend some time with Tommy, he had been on Koh Phi Phi  by himself for two days already. We spent the afternoon in long beach talkin’ and chillin’, he told us that he had seen some sharks in the Shark Bay/point and that we could try to see them in the morning. We witnessed that amazing sunset, both from the restaurant and from the water – the colors changed gradually to a pleasant blue. We had a farewell dinner with Thom, because he felt like leaving to Koh Tao.

It was a nice meal, some kind of smoking barbecue on our table. It was the last time in that amazing place with him – I mean you should go there and check the view by yourself, pal. So we came back and talked until late listening to some music and having a drink on the bungalow with the promise to wake up early and snorkeling after the sharks. Me & Migs, we went downtown again, but it was much more quiet than in the other day and we came back.

Jan 2^nd

We woke up early, hit some food and go after the sharks. Thom was the captain and knew they would probably swim in circles, I ended up loosing him and did some snorkeling by myself and saw some fish while THEY SAW 2 SHARKS!!! I went back to the beach and it was time to say bye to one more friend. We walked until the place to get the boat and that was it.

We were again really tired and I went for another massage, this time with the oilsport - It was the best one of the whole trip. Meanwhile Miguelito went for some sleep. During the whole afternoon we had some of the highest quality chillaxing again on our peaceful beach, enjoyed the sunset again and left the ride to Koh Phi Phi Le for the other day. Then we went downtown to eat something and we fell in love with the chicken springrolls, we met Mel from Calgary again and went to a bar where people could fight Muay Thai for a drink – we just watched, had a bucket and came back home. There we could meet three guys: Yannick from Germany, his Macedonian friend named Ivana (beautiful) and a Czech friend. We finished our Hong Thong whiskeys with them with no ice at all and had a nice conversation. Wish we could have spent some more time with those guys…

Jan 3^rd

We slept well and went for the tour to the other island. I won’t even try to describe Maya Bay, Monkey beach, the snorkeling there and the swimming we did. After that 4 hours ride we came home ready to say goodbye to Phi Phi downtown. I was with Jamaican pants and thank’s to them we were recommended to know Banana Bar – nice music, nice atmosphere, there we get to know a Dannish girl named Fleur, she got us curious about a city named Christiania. We went back home, settle things to leave early on the next day to Koh Lanta.

Jan 4^th

We had a nice time on the boat to Koh Lanta, got to a bar and watched Jon Jones’ UFC’s Light Middleweight title defense and me Joe Bighead. He recommended us a place to stay “non la Mer Hostel”, a nice place taken care by Ow, Nong and Huan (Siriak) – nice place to chill, free candies, some cakes and even a whistle blower for sex (not really!!). We were just by Klong Beach and we went directly there to play some ball, and swim with Joe. At night we met Stefs and Axel again on the Full Moon Party at Mushroom bar. So good to see those guys again.

In fact there was not much conversation, we just danced had some drinks and finished the night. That was the last time I saw the guys, Axel was more up to Chill on the beach, because he works a lot and has enough fun back in Europe. Someday I’ll see those guys again…

Jan 5^th

Same thing we were used to do after almost a month in Thailand, Chillin’ on the beach, playing football on the broad strip of sand of Koh Lanta. This time we spent the afternoon from 3 to 8 pm at a Reggae Bar. It wasn’t bad at all, playing football, having a beer, eating, swimming, listening to some good reggae and watching that beautiful sunset.

Again we meet a nice guy named Allen, Bosnian born in Sweden. We had a nice conversation about our impressions of Thailand so far and about what to expect from life, whether success, money, walking around the Earth and witnessing the most beautiful places possible, knowing different people, living a satisfied life by taking your kid(s) to play on the beach someday… That was the time I really could see how traveling was good to me, because I wasn’t necessarily drunk or excited about partying or about a new place. It was just me having a chat with some friends watching the sunset; not thinking about enjoying but doing it, no expectations, worthwhile being there, that’s pretty much about it…

He showed us some pictures of his snorkeling on Similan Islands (he saw a big sea turtle) and gave us one of the best advices he could: go back to Koh Tao, do the diving course and take it easy DON’T DRINK AND DIVE to enjoy the most you can. He kept sending us pictures of his rides in Koh Lanta and Koh Lipe, he was on his way to Malaysia last time we talked. Yet, He gave us a few tips about the diving and about the great/massive/shocking/amazing feelings of being able to enjoy the time under the water. All the best for him!

On this day we tried to go out and slept on the lobby. Nice sleep at least.

Jan 6th

We were supposed to leave on this day, but we stayed. Same thing: bar, beach ball, relax. At night we went to the Mushroom bar again to say bye to Lanta in great style. In the end of the night I showed some Brazillian music to the girls on the hostel, sent a video to Axel saying bye, a song for Claire. Very excited. We could even see Allen again.

Jan 7^th- 11^th  

See you Koh Lanta! We spent the whole day travelling. Minivan-Boat. We arrive at Koh Tao, find a place to stay and check in Big Blue Divers to do our Open Water Diving Course. I do not believe I can describe the whole course but it mostly included the safety procedures under the water and how to adequately use the equipment in order not to be in danger and have fun diving. We did it all under the command of Alex Henk and sometimes the aid of Molly. First the theory and then getting prepared for the dives on a pool for a few hours and finally 4 open water dives.

During the course I did a lot of shit. Sometimes I couldn’t understand exactly what to do. I wasn’t sure if I should keep the regulators in my mouth during the exercises, looked around a lot, lost concentration, took too much air and even went up by breathing excessively. But finally I could enjoy the last dive with no worries. And it was worth all the learning process.

Also we got to know more nice people. Our team members were Robin from Canada, Tony from the US, Mia from Sweden and Rony from Germany. We shared some meals together, asked about each other’s life, had a few drinks, some laughs and went under the water. Alex as a Dive Instructor gave us the information in a clear and pleasant style with a lot of movie references (Rambo, James Bond, Shooter…). It was nice to see how he – and I bet that all the dive instructors - have a passion for what they’re doing. He was harsh when he needed, in the end I think we learned a lot and we all were introduced to this addictive/amazing/beautiful sport/activity.

 I was excited like a child, when I finally could relax and enjoy being the most near from neutrally buoyant I could I understood why Allen said that diving was such a hit to the head. On the first dives I felt strange, because being under the water (at least that’s what I felt) was a really strong dose of mixed feelings/emotions that I was confused. I thought I was sad, maybe because of the associations with the mistakes of my performance. I’m glad that in the end I could really enjoy those powerful sensations - literally, it whacks you softly.

The final celebrations were nice to say goodbye to everyone wishing we could stay for the Advanced Diver course, we had some booze and watched a video of the last two dives. It should be mentioned that we left the place jealous of the shirts of the SSI diving instructors  with references fromf the great Anchorman Ron Burgundy and Austin Power’s Sharks with lasers.

Special cheers to our roommates, Elizabeth Elilla and Daniel Hansen, with who we talked, got informed, had a few drinks, some laughs. Elizabeth heard a lot of stories from this talkative person, always with a sense of humor.

In the end the diving course it was the biggest surprise of the trip. I didn’t expect to do it, We even came back to the same place and Koh Tao happened to be the single place where we spent most of the days. Kop Kuhn Kap, Turtle Island!

Jan 12^th

We spent the day on the bus until we get to Bangkok’s Central Bus Station. After some doughnuts and fried chicken with flies sauce - really we have pictures, but to the ones that think about nausea and food infections we say that  it may happen eventually, anyways no regrets whatsoever about hitting hard on the street food - we were on our way to Pattaya. We wanted to check if that was indeed the hell on earth.

We came there and thought that it would be a cool atmosphere to enjoy the nightlife and meet some people, as we did in amost every corner of Thailand. But we were kinda shocked. We knew about the sexual tourism industry and that it would be all around. But we couldn’t enjoy that. It was too much of a trade. Some cheap sum of money for sex/company – a transaction. Cheers to the gentlemen that were having a nice time there, but we couldn’t.

Besides the energy was taken out of us by the long way by boat, bus and mainly the dives – we thought we would drink a lot and party hard but even after a strong dose of Thai Red Bull (that usually made us zombies with almost no sleep) it was like slow motion mode. I had my last Thai massage (no happy ending) and went to have some good sleep. It was good in the end because we could enjoy our last night in Thailand with energy.

13^th

The time we had on Pattaya beach during the day was nice. We reminded the many places we visited, people we met and had a perspective of how much we enjoyed this country, wishing to comeback someday, be it backpacking alone or with girlfriend and/or wife and/or children. Pattaya and the shock of reality about the sex tourism was good to give some contrast to the tour, because we had witnessed it before on other islands but not like that in there.

 It’s frugal, you can see people do it for a living – it wasn’t only a party and beautiful landscapes, it was paid service that sustained people. When you consider this and put it as a curious feature of how society works in Thailand it’s possible to  understand pretty much some of the power $tructure$ in there and from where they come – it’s a matter of political economy, consider the GNP, the importance of foreign investment and assets and you can explain why this thing happens at certain places specifically; just randomly throwing it in the air.

The guy  the Minivan to Bangkok was a nice dude, we had AC, music and beer. While getting the minivan once again we could be warmly treated by the thais, on the first one we asked if the destination was Bangkok and it just so happened that no one could understand shit. However they looked all worried about those two tourists, sooooo sweet J.

We settle now next to the Victory Monument in Bangkok and go buy souvenirs at the MBK Mall. We met Mai, our friend from Zonta Dairy Farm, Miguel had an Ice cream and I tried a Japanese Tea Milkshake, big one. We go after the pashminas and pants for moms, some shirts for the guys. We had a POWERSNACK at The Pizza Company and in the end of the night all the ATM machines weren’t working for both of us with  brazillian cards. Then I made a deal with some greedy Indian taylors and I exchanged an amount of dollars to sustain us on that night –luckily we could do it. We arrived at our place late took a bath and talked to the people on the lobby. At that time we talked to an English couple, Phill and his wife, and exchanged a few words with Donavon, from Alaska – you’re  still gonna hear about this man.

So we went to Khao San Road, graduated in the bargaining with thai taxi drivers. There I could buy a thai ball and we used it the whole night to play on the middle of the road. It was cool that it assembled  brazillians and because of that we were able to see some guys we had met in Koh Tao André and Ronaldinho (with his Brazillian number 10 football team shirt). So after eating some bugs and havin’ a lot of booze, we came back to the hostel.

Jan 14^th

We couldn’t sleep because we wanted to go to the floating market, but unfortunately there was no way to get there on that day. I spent some time talking to Maria Maran, Italian on her way to Australia. I talked to her about my plans for the future so did her and we wished the best of luck to each other.After lunch we started to talk with:

Donnie This guy was amazing. He told us he was spending some time in Thailand to take care of his leg and that he was liking it, he was a familiar figure around the neighborhood and established a nice friendship with Pai, one of the lobbyboyz, he would help him in anything he needed.

After we came back from the movies we were warmly received by them to have some spicy seafood and lots of booze. I was talking with Claire on the phone and showed his picture for her. She replied that he was Santa Claus – I said: only if it’s Beer Santa.

 In fact he liked being Santa Claus every December and spend some time figuring out the minds of a lot of kids by listening to their wishes. He asked us a lot about Brazil, we asked him about life in Alaska, he told us about his plan to open a Hostel back home and about his niece that was coming to meet him and that they would travel Southeast Asia together. Also he told us about the concerts he’d been (War and Deep Purple on the seventies – WOW!) and that he had some friends who died in ‘Nam. Amidst the conversation LOTS OF CHANG BEER!!! WITH NO SLEEP AT ALL!

One more time we passed by a place and met nice people and we couldn’t stay any longer to enjoy the energy, the style, the talking, the presence, the sensibility and the bullshit of a person we met. It was amazing being there on and enjoying with such nice guys everyday. We just hope they have enjoyed the time with us as we did with them. We thank each and everyone for that, without you guys the whole experience wouldn’t be the same  - maybe SAME SAME, BUT DIFFERENT.

At this point of the text someone may perfectly ask: so you only saw nice people and had a nice time. Where  were you,  on Barney program? On heaven?

I'd just say that it's a matter of

Energy, Karma Fate or whatever you choose to make sense. We were up to have a nice time and we were glad to meet people that wanted to have this kind of experience as well. So we usually got away from boring people knowing that eventually we were boring to talk to others when we were too tired, too straight to the point, too worried and we kindly apologize to whoever felt bad about it.

One thing that made us sure to enjoy the people was that we could talk about a variety of issues and people would really pay attention. Everyone was having a vacation time and seemed to be there listening to our shit/things. With the people we refer to as boring, we hadn’t the chance to talk through with them, even if it was for 10 minutes, it was no real contact or interest about preferences, features, views, things said…And that’s why they don’t show up, don’t appear in these memoirs.

Maybe I could save some details here and put some more there, But these roughly edited and reviewed notes have an aim to capture what’s left from the emotions of this amazing time I could live with all the characters/people mentioned above. The intention is not to make a detailed briefing, but to make a reminder of some of the feelings we had - even the photos aren’t as good as looking, so this may give a good hand thing to remember.So it finally ended.

Well,

meeting people was the nicest thing. The worst: saying goodbye. It was a delicate thing. You get to know the guys, live a lot of things together very intensely and in a short period of time and finally you have to leave.

There were different kinds of goodbye. Some guys would just say it in the end after setting up all the possibilities to see each other again and defining a date to meet them whenever we come near their homes and we were pretty sure about when to visit them and then just see that you don’t have a clue of when it will happen.

And it’s beautiful to see how people differ on this, shows different sensibilities and unique features of each one. Sometimes you just don’t have the opportunity and people are gone. But it was awesome to say bye bye to this little german girl sending us kisses while we were entering a Tuk Tuk, or a sincere hug from another guy, as well as another guy who seemed happy to be in the company of a girl and you feel pleased to see that basterd is happy; yet another man who just said see you tomorrow, but not saying goodbye at all; a bye bye kiss from a sweet company; and Alexi that after his ladyboy experience didn’t say anything; Jimmy, Yevoh, Claire, Thomas. Axel, Stefan, Julien, Allen, Joe. Sanchez, Meabh, Tony, Mia, Robin, Ronny… I consoled me with the thought that I really enjoyed them, they seemed really happy at that time and I’ll ever remember them like that.

After that, there is a special mention I should make for a special prick. Miguel you asshole, thank you, You were a great company, we enjoyed and bored each other, but in the end the sum was of very positive memories! That’s the best I can say now, Dragon.

SO, we had to leave very drunk after having our farewell to Chang beer with Donnie “Alaska Chang Beer Santa Claus 5000” very excited about the talking and worried about the time. We made it to the last train to the airport and after running almost a kilometer we were the last ones to enter the plane with red drunk eyes.

We made it! In the connection we met André again and it was nice to get his contact and he invited us to visit Thailand again, as soon as possible, maybe? And the immediate answer on our minds, that keeps coming back is: why not?