Koh Phi Phi
So i've been on Koh Phi Phi for 3 days now and I have to say this island is beautiful but at the same time the tsunami devastation is apparent everywhere. It's a shame because I would have liked to have seen this place in all it's glory. The entire landscape still appears to be marred with trash and debris as you walk around to where hotels and bungalows once stood.
Don't get me wrong; It seems the main infustructure of the island has almost been entirely rebuilt. Bars everywhere are open, bungalows are easy enough to find and shops everywhere on the main plaza/strip are all busy with customers almost oblivious to what happened. Development here seems to be continuing at an alarming rate to the point where Phi Phi will surely be overdeveloped to its' previous state.
The first night I got here I found two girls from Holland who had been wondering around for about an hour trying to find their resort and had no idea where they were. They managed to walk in the complete opposite direction to where they were staying and got hopelessly lost. Being the nice guy I am and with my extremely limited geography of the island, I had them describe anything that seemed familiar. Suprisingly, I managed to figure out where they were staying and I walked them back to their place. Crisis averted. Now who says Americans aren't helpful? 
Since this is the monsoon season it has been heavily raining off and on for a few days, only stopping for brief periods and then continuing on with more showers. Today is the first day I've seen the sun out in a while. The weather on the Andaman coast during this time of year is very sporadic with bouts of heavy rain and occasional spots of sunshine.
Because of the amount of my money I spent on accommodations and food on Railay, I decided that I would trim my expenses by finding somewhere cheap to stay. I managed to find a shithole of a place for 250baht (6.50USD)/night. It's pretty much the worst place i've stayed so far but it has a bed, a bathroom and a fan so it will surely suffice for a bit longer. The only major problem is that it is really far away from the main town with all the night life and restaurants so it requires me to walk about 15-20 minutes up a hill to the middle of no where. I've only got 3 days left on this island so i'm debating whether or not it's worth it to find someplace better.
A few other interesting things about this island. There are no cars or motorcycles here. Everybody walks or takes a bicycle. Ironically, where motorcycle traffic on the other islands can be a hazard, the only dangerous thing here is being ran over by a peddling Thai on a bicycle. In effect, not so deadly. Even with the hundreds of bars on the island, night life here seems to be centered on about 3 main bars: Apache Bar, Carlito's and the Reggie Bar. You tend to see the same people over and over again because Phi Phi is small compared to Koh Samui or Koh Phangan. Every backpacker more or less follows the same route so i've met many people that i've seen in Bangkok and at other places. It's really funny. Half the people you don't remember their names or have any idea where you met them but you know at one point you were drinking with them somewhere along the line.
Another strange thing about this island is that there are hundreds of stray cats everywhere which are extremely friendly. Most seems obviously well fed and taken care of. I had one kitten follow me half-way back to my bungalow after I gave it some attention. This is contrast to the other islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao where the problem is not cats, but stray dogs. Dogs seemed to have become such a plague on all the other islands that a dog rescue fund was started. For some reason, Koh Phi Phi appears unaffected. I haven't seen one dog since I got on the island and I much prefer cats.
I did manage to met up with the two English guys, Alex and Chris that I hung out with on Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Since they're sort of doing a similar itinerary i'm going to follow them down to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia for a while. We also briefly and randomly met up with the two Canadian girls, Tiko and Chloe that we met at our bungalow on Koh Phangan at the Apache Bar. I also met up with two other English girls, Lauren and Laura, one of whom I met on a travel website and was supposed to met up with on Koh Phangan but I never got the chance. I knew she was going to be on Phi Phi as well so I called her cellphone and i've sort of been chilling with them off and on. I believe they're also headed to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia so i'll most likely see them again on my trip.
We all sort of drank heavily last night so I haven't been feeling too well. I finally got a bit of sun today to aid my ailing tan and I managed to walk around the island to explore a bit more.
Diving on Koh Tao
3 days ago I moved to the island of Koh Tao which is known for having some of the best scuba diving in Southeast Asia. I am staying at a place called Ban's Dive Resort and so far it's been the nicest and more importantly, the cheapest place I have stayed at. It's only costing me 1.80USD/night (split between 2 guys I met from England). The reason the room is so cheap is because the resort makes all their money on diving packages and from the restaurant. The rooms are suprisingly nice compared to where i've been saying the last 2 1/2 weeks. It's more of a hotel style accomdation however so it's not a bungalow on the beach like before. It also has a really nice pool and a good restaurant.
So far i've only done about 5 dives. 2 afternoon dives and 1 night dive on the 17th and another 2 afternoon dives on the 18th. Today i'm taking a day off from diving to explore the island and rest. The diving here is fanastic compared to what i'm used to in Boston but I still prefer Mexico more based on the reefs that i've dove so far. The big difference here is the marine life. Massive schools of fish on most of the dive sites; much more fish than i've ever seen diving in Mexico. Other than that, nothing really special to report about. The night dive was fairly bland until the end when we starting to see lots of stingrays. On the afternoon dives, I saw a very large and curious sea turtle that seemed to follow our dive party with no fear for about 10-15 minutes. I also saw some other stingrays and a barracuta which are all too common sights in Mexico so perhaps i'm a bit jaded on the quality of the diving here. I would at least rate it on par with Cozumel, Mexico although in my opinion the reefs in Mexico have much more to see with massive swim-thrus and different coral formations. I am going to probably do one or two more days of diving then I am heading to Krabi since I only have 10 days left in Thailand. Going to try to do 5 days in Krabi and spend the rest of my time in Koh Phi Phi before heading to Malaysia.
The other aspect of diving here which I am not really fond of is the size of the dive boats and the number of people diving here. In Mexico, Florida keys, and Boston i'm used to very small dive boats with a maximum of perhaps 8 people. The dive boats here are massive with 60 people on one boat. The divemasters of course will split up the groups into smaller, more managable sizes but it still has a feeling of over crowdedness. Every dive site here is literally filled with divers, way too many. Besides these minor shortcomings, I quite like the diving here and Ban's Diving Resort is fanastic and well run dive operation. Ban's is well more organized than any dive operator i've encountered in Mexico. I am seriously considering coming back here to get my Divemaster certification because Ban's provides you free diving for life is you complete your certification here. I don't think anyone could pass up that offer.
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Full Moon Party
Holy shit. So many people. I woke up this morning at 7AM; I passed out on the beach and slept there. All I remember is sitting down for a little while because I couldn't find any people in the group I was with. When I got up all I saw was empty buckets and bottles everywhere with hundreds of people passed out face down in the sand. I didn't really take anything with me so I wasn't worried about anything getting stolen. I left anything important back in my bungalow and just carried a small amount of cash that I would need for that night. When I woke up I still had all my money in my pocket and I still had my backpack.
The common drink is literally a bucket. It cost 150 baht (3.90 USD) or cheaper if you buy it off the beach and it gives a small bottle of sang som (thai) whiskey, a can of coke and a redbull with ice poured in a small bucket and served with multiple straws. Drink 2 of them and you'll be completely wasted. Hell, just one will do the trick for most people. Hell, you can even buy them pre-packaged at the 7-11 on the beach.
The best way I could describe the Full Moon Party is that it's like springbreak in Cancun but ten times crazier. The beach has mats everywhere where you can sit and drink but most people are dancing. The entire beach is one large dance floor on the sand. In the midst of all this madness there are also fire dancers performing everywhere. Lots of people also get their face or body painted. You see hundreds of people walking around with their countries' flag painted on them so you can tell where you're from. It's pretty wild. Biggest party i've been to. You can easily find girls. Lots of drunk people swimming. Even if you're not a party person it's definitely a must see if you visit Thailand. It happens every month on the full moon but there are also half moon and black moon parties. Since it's started to become really popular, pretty much any phase or alignment of the moon is used as an excuse to have a party. After everything is over, the entire small island of Ko Phangan turns to a ghost town and reverts back to a fishing village. The majority of the people don't even stay on the island too. They hop on one of the many ferries from Ko Samui (2 hours I think) and take the next ferry back in the morning.
Each bar/club on the beach plays different music. If you don't like rap walk in any other direction you'll be immersed in music from another bar completely oblivious to what's going on 50ft away from you. Rock, Reggie, Rap, Trace, House. If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, you can walk out into the water and swim out to one of the many boats that also serve alcohol.
They also had these massive projection screens on the beach that were being used to broadcast the World Cup. Apparently this Full Moon Party was pretty large due to the world cup.
Also, you need to be careful of broken bottles and burning cigarettes. Luckily, me nor any of my friends had any problems but you hear horror stories of people cutting their feet open on broken glass. You will almost certainly lose your sandals and step on at least 5 people passed out so don't bring any expensive clothing. It will either be lost or covered in paint and sand.
Overall, I had a pretty good time. I am still trying to get all the sand out of my hair though. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to bring my camera however some of my friends took plenty. Once they email them to me I will post them.
Going to Ko Phangan tonight
Getting ready to leave Ko Samui and take the ferry over to Ko Phangan for about 4-5 days to see the infamous/famous Full Moon Party that is supposed to be filled with drunken foreigners from all over the world. It was originally something I was going to skip over because I can see drunk people anywhere and 5,000-10,000 people on one beach isn't really my idea of relaxing yet I guess it's something I should experience while I am over here since it's often heralded as "the largest beach party in the world".
Ko Samui is very developed (some would say overdeveloped) and has a very touristy feel to it. The main beach called Hat Chaweng is filled with McDonalds, pushy Tailors, Girlie Bars and anything else of the variety you would find in Bangkok. Instead of dealing with this madness, I opted to stay on Hat Lamai Beach, the island's second largest but less developed beach. Overall, I was only here about 2.5 days but I would definitely return. The beach is extremely nice and clean while the bungalows are pretty cheap. I was paying 18USD/night for a sea front bungalow. Not too bad at all. I spent the 2 days on the beach where I got incredibly sunburned (even with the base tan I had). I have already read three books and need to trade them in at the next bookshop I find. Swapping books is pretty common ove here. You either have the choice of swapping with other backpackers/travelers or going to the many bookstores and "trading it in".
More pictures available at: http://macado.org/thailand3/
Ko Phangan with the exception of the one Full Moon Party every month is suppsed to be very laid back and not as developed. With a population of about 10,000. It's still mainly used a fishing village where the location population relies more on fishing, coconut exports/products than tourism.
