...................................................................I`m speeding through the Bangkok night in a neon pink taxi, feeling detached from my surroundings. The city streets race across the window in a blur, like a scene from a noir film. It`s 4am on a Monday morning, and the metropolis murmurs with life, whether its cranking up for another steamy day or winding down from its last hedonistic night is hard to tell. My chest aches and I avoid conversation with the cabby. I`m being whisked away to another adventure, this one called Tokyo, but I`m leaving my heart in Thailand.
The past three weeks have been surreal. I left the monsoon in Cambodia, only to have it catch me in Phuket. I spent three incredible days scuba diving. One day at Rancha Yai where I met an elderly gentlemen from Napa who talked like Dracula. Then an overnight cruise to the Similan Islands for the best diving of my life. The water was not the clearest, but there were millions of fish and the corral and rock formations were incredible. My diving buddies for the six dives were Ben, a fireman from England, and Bruno, a Rastafarian from Germany. Our guides were great, especially Mary, an Austrian supermodel:) Returning from paradise, I took in a little of the scenery of Patong, mainly consisting of ugly old men being walked around by tiny Thai go go girls, pretty disgusting.
Having enough with that, I booked a ferry to Koh Phi Phi, the island most famous for being decimated by the tsunami. The islands of Phi Phi are scenic, and EXPENSIVE. I booked a room for as cheap as I could find, and happened to grab a rickshaw\cart with two girls from Tokyo. We were quite the site being pushed down the beach side path with all our luggage! I spent two days relaxing and soaking in the sun. The half moon fire shows on the beach were fantastic, and to top it all off, Ryo, my Japanese friend, agreed to give me a much needed hair cut one drunken night, and it turned out pretty nice.
I had two days before I needed to head back up to Bangkok, and I decided to head over to Hat Railay in Krabi off a recommendation from my friend Lin. It was a real scorcher of a day, and after leaving my bag on deck, I searched out a empty seat in the air conditioned cabin. I sat down next to an older farang, and tried to cool down. He ended up changing seats, so when I broke out my book on Shanghai I had been struggling through I had the three seat row to myself, and that`s when I met Alex.
She politely asked if she could get by to the window, and I obliged, not really looking up. When I sat back down I beheld a tall woman with a gorgeous, angular face, big green eyes, and light brown hair with blond highlights, tangled and cute. She was fanning herself off in the heat and I commented on the oven-like conditions, and we fell into conversation. She had the kind of elegant, proper English accent that makes you feel like a barbarian in comparison, and I loved listening to it. We talked intensely for the entire 1-1/2 hour trip, so involved, in fact, that I missed my stop at Railey! So there I was, standing on the Ao Nang pier, debating what to do. So I asked Alex if she wanted to try to hire a long tail boat to accompany me back to Railey, she said yes.
Two weeks of island hoping, full moon party`n, laughing at the zombies being awakened from the safe sleep zone, sharing sunsets, sunrises, tiny $6 huts, 4 star resorts, motorbike adventures(no injuries to report!), sneaking into resort pools, being robbed(my camera with all the pictures!), getting through a bought with the flu(Alex), putting my flight off three times, and many, many Lipton Ice Tea`s later, I found myself hugging good bye to an incredible, tearful girl in front of Suk 11 in the dead of the night. It`s the stuff dreams are made of.
also see some long lost pics from Laos and Vietnam waterproof camera
