Rock Jocks

On the last post I left off somewhere between Koh Tao and Krabi.

To finish my previous thoughts on Koh Tao, I had a good scuba dive there as well as some world-class snorkeling. The snorkeling took place on a coral reef called ‘Japanese Gardens’. The coral is huge and brain-shaped, and I have never seen such large quantities of fish, all different varieties and colours.

I have now been living on the beaches nearby to Krabi, Thailand for 4 days. There are two beautiful beaches that are very built up for tourists (ie. Large hotels, expensive restaurants, bars, McDonald’s), and then one quiet one nestled right in the middle. I’m in the quiet one, called Ton Sai.

As people here tell me, Ton Sai is rated one of the top 5 rock climbing sites in the world. There are a lot of climbers just living here for weeks or months at a time, climbing every day.

I have done very little rock climbing previously, but I wouldn't miss a chance to participate in the action. I joined a beginner course where we spent a morning testing our mettle on the cliffs.

I am amazed at how much concentration and mental power is required to rock climb. After the course I was both physically and mentally drained, and spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach. I really, really enjoyed myself, however, and am looking forward to my next opportunity to do more climbing.

The other activity that’s popular on Ton Sai is Ocean Kayaking, due to the beautiful cliffs surrounding the beaches. I took the kayak out today and enjoyed the sun, warm water, scenery, and clean sandy beaches.

There are a couple of caves in the sides of the cliffs that you can kayak right through!

I had a great rock climbing experience, largely due to the excellent people at Basecamp Tonsai (whom I took my course with). These guys literally wrote the rock climbing guide book for the area!

Post Full Moon

The full moon party was so good that the event requires some after-discussion.

The guy that I said was the craziest Irish guy of them all actually has a friend that is equally as crazy.

His name is Christian McGettigan, and he lives everyday of his life the way that every man dreams of living. The guy deep throats beer bottles. He parties non-stop around the clock. He has the best social skills of any person I have ever met.

I was lucky enough to spend an hour or two partying with him. Not on full moon night, but the night after. I couldn’t come close to keeping up, but it was just great watching him go.

He told me he’s famous, and I figured it was probably for something crazy he did that someone made a youtube video of. I was wrong. His family owns a butcher shop in Ireland called McGettigan Butchers that has won, as he tells me, a very competitive annual Irish sausage competition an incredible 6 times. The next best butcher shop has only won twice. This year they entered a Europe-wide competition and won. He tells me that German sausages are "shit" compared to the McGettigan sausages. This is a newspaper article on them http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0508/1224315744613.html.

I was trying to use someone's iphone to add Christian on facebook, but he was having trouble using it. I told him I don’t have a smart phone and so I couldn’t help him. He goes “you don’t have a smartphone? What do you have?”. I just said a regular phone. So I asked him if he has a smart phone. He goes “Oh no, I don’t have any phone atall”. Awesome.

Christian says that full moon party for him is really tame. “Like Monday morning back in Ireland”.

The full moon party was full of guys and girls as cool as this guy. Everywhere. It was a real Craics!

The October full moon party is the slowest one of the year. I’d estimate there were maybe 5,000 to 7,000 people. Other people claim they heard 15,000. The best one of the year is in December where the number hits 30,000. It would be really fun to do that one some day.

I was inspired by Kim Spikybombshell to start doing a quick review of places I stay or places I eat when I have a really good experience somewhere. I don’t think most of the people reading this will be too interested in them, but I thought it would be a nice thing to do as a way of saying thank you to the chance that it helps them gain a little bit of exposure.

The place I stayed in Koh Phangan is called Suncliff Resorts. I wouldn’t stay anywhere else. I paid 300 baht a night, which is about $10 and I had my own room and own bathroom. Pretty basic, but it had a mosquito net and the people there are happy to clean your room on request. Besides being the best value rooms, they have the best pool in town (has an unreal view) that is free to use, has fast free wifi, and the breakfast at the pool is extremely cheap and tasty. They serve brown toast and oatmeal which I love. Most people in the big dorm room hostels are paying around 300 baht a night.

You don’t really need to book ahead, because you need to show up at least 3 days before full moon for all the awesome pre-parties, and when I arrived 3 days ahead all the hostels were empty. That being said, I would email them if you’re coming for the huge December party. Rsvn.suncliff@hotmail or suncliff.resort@gmail.com. Prices will be higher for December and you’ll probably have to book for a minimum number of days.

Also, I ate lunch and dinner at the same little restaurant for my entire stay because Donald says it’s the best food in town and the prices are the cheapest. It’s always full of people and service is super speedy. The name of it is My Friend Restaurant.

Excited for Koh Tao!

Back to Thailand

Its been over a week since I’ve written a post, but I don’t have many new pictures to share with you due to my camera not functioning under water.

I spent a few lazy days diving and snorkeling on Pulauh Weh island in Indonesia, and then was lucky enough to squeeze in a day of surfing  before I flew back to the Airasia hub, Kuala Lumpur.

At the surf house I stayed at I met this really cool old Aussie surfer named Greg. The man’s been working and surfing in Asia for over 4 decades so he gave me some suggestions on how to best get to Ko Pha-Ngan, Thailand.

He recommended I take a train to a southern Thai town called Pattalhung. His words “It’s the best train ride you’ll take in Thailand. I guarantee you’ll be the only whoite facker on it.”

Sure enough, I was the “only whoite facker” on the train. The locals were very friendly and excited to learn about Canada. One kid said I was the first person he has ever spoken English to other than in his English classes at school.

I made a stop in the very non-touristed town of Pattalhung. When I got off the train I was pleasantly surprised to see a market selling some very delicious thai food.

I arrived on the island of Koh Pha-Ngan and am counting down the days until the full moon party (October 30). People party REALLY hard here, and the tourists are streaming in by the boatloads.

Today I just relaxed at the beach pictured above.

Traveling alone has mostly been fine so far, but it was a lonely feeling coming to a party town solo. My worry  of course is completely unfounded. It seems like more people travel solo than with groups of friends, so everyone is in the same boat as I am. Plus, I've found that travelers (especially here in Koh Pha-Ngan) are all out to meet new people and are super friendly. Needless to say I've already met lots of really great people!

It’s nice to be back in Thailand. I have about two weeks and then I’ll be flying to the Philippines to finish off the trip.

I keep hearing really good things about the (few) people I’ve met that have been to the Philippines. I can’t wait.