Bottle Beached

Well, the Black Moon Party in Ko Phangan was fun, but just like a big club on the beach. Thumping music and lots of people, but I wouldn't say I had an especially amazing time. I made the mistake of taking off my sandals and never found them again. Mark and Alison (the nice English couple we've become good friends with) left after 5 minutes because Mark got sick. Aaron and I got separated at some point, and when I got back to our place (after being ripped off by the motorbike driver that took me...grr), he was nowhere to be found. Guess who had the room key?


I tried breaking in without damaging property, but failed miserably (I would be a terrible thief). I woke up a guy I thought was the manager, but he had a hard time understanding my situation and was no help. Finally, I scooped up one of the six puppies lounging near reception to keep me company, who I named Cliff, and we sat outside waiting for Aaron.

He finally showed up after about 45 minutes, and I brought the puppy in to sleep next to me (I'd had a couple drinks okay?). Cliff didn't pee or poop or anything--he was great.


Mark and Alison met us for lunch at our bungalow's restaurant. I was feeling pretty good but tired. Mark and Alison weren't doing so hot. Aaron was so-so. We decided to all recover together at the secluded Bottle Beach, a place I'd been wanting to check out for months now. We took a small longtail boat to the north of the island and were not disappointed.



There are only 4 bungalow "resorts" on Bottle Beach because it's so small, and three of them--Bottle Beach 1, Bottle Beach 2, and Bottle Beach 3--are owned by the same family. They're very creative with the names out here. The four of us got matching bungalows right next to each other, right on the beach, for a whopping 650 Baht/night or $10/person/night. That's Mark talking to Aaron at our bungalow.


There is no A/C on this side of the island because of the cost of electricity, so it got a little uncomfortable at night for sleeping. We were willing to make the sacrifice though. Check out our view:



We stayed here for 3 days, 2 nights and had an amazing and relaxing time. We played frisbee, swam, and drank banana smoothies in the day (SO GOOD! Erik, if you're reading this, I had a PB & Banana shake for you, too). At night, we watched the new Bond movie "Casino Royale" at Bottle Beach 3's restaurant and, at our request, "Blades of Glory" the next night.
We also played a lot of cards. I taught them Spot which was a big hit, a game my family knows. I would guess there were maybe 60 people staying at this beach total, but it felt like 20.

We left Mark and Allison at Bottle Beach this morning and made it to our last island, Ko Tao.

We'll spend two nights here, then head back to Bangkok for a night, and then on to Cambodia.
Ko Tao is known for having some of the best diving in the world. In fact, in the high tourist season, some places won't let you stay there unless you're going diving. Neither Aaron nor I have been diving before, but we figured, "when in Rome..." so we signed up for a one day lesson/40 min. dive tomorrow. We'll be training in this pool like these guys:

We'll be going no more than 12 meters deep since we're not certified, but it should still be fun. They say we might see a whale shark (they're harmless). We had dinner at our hostel about 3 hours ago, so this picture is hot off the presses. Aaron is silhouetted in the bottom left. The sunset was non-existent because of the clouds unfortunately.



Thanks for checking out the blog! Next time I post will be either the 19th when I'm in Bangkok or sometime in Cambodia after that. Hope you're all having a great summer!