Thursday, June 26, 2008

Koh Phangan - Moped Accidents and Monsoons




20 1/2 hours of rail, bus, boat, taxi and tuk tuk we arrived in Koh Phangan tired and sweating like pigs. Have I mentioned how hot it is?...

On the 2nd day here we decided to hire mopeds. It took 3 hours and 4 crashes on my bike before I got the hang of it. My legs are covered in scrapes, burns and bruises. But if you know me, you know what I am like with bikes, and should be very very proud that we rode the whole island yesterday (Even had to keep going when a monsoon hit) without accident!

Yesterday was a fantastic day...
We decided to go and find this 'waterfall' which was easy except it was quite a hike...took us a few hours...and we ended up on top of the island and it was beautiful!! We went for a dip in the water which was perfectly cold mmmmm. Then we decided to bike to the otherside of the island which was a mission but when we got there it was as if we had tumbled on paradise...it was amazing! The beach was more perfect than the pictures. While we were lying on the beach on of the Canadian guys we met in Bangkok found us and he is on a tour and he convinced his tour guide to take us out with them snorkelling. It cost us 50baht which is $2.

So off we went out on this boat and we were watching the clouds because they were growing very very dark very very quickly. Just as we reached the coral you could actuallly see the storm coming our way...it was nuts, you could see the whole thing happening, and before we knew it we were in the storm yelling trying to get our bags under cover! Then they were like 'jump off jump off!!' I jumped in (with my waterproof camera for the first time). And it was nuts. There were these huge waves washing over our snorkels and we were all getting bashed around in the sea. lol. My camera worked fine and Ive got this awesome picture in the water of the storm (will upload eventually).

Anyway as usual after 15 minutes the storm passed and the water cleared and I got heaps of underwater pictures, I was so stoked my camera was working perfectly!!

Once we returned to the beach it was deserted because everyone had taken cover. We then rode back to our side of the island where the storm continued. It was crazy riding in the rain. I was absolutely saturated and we could hardly see where we were going so we took it slow and it took us about an hour to get back.

We gave our washing to the hostel last night and I just saw it hanging on the line...everything that was white or yellow is now pink. Horray. :( Oh well I am trying to forget about the fact I will now have to wear my least favorite colour and looking forward to going to the beach again today, and the half moon party tonight!!!

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