PS: The price of a three week stay in Hat Yuan is
– one lost towel
– one lost Nalgene bottle,
– one water-damaged Nexus One, which fortunately came back to life
– one salt water damaged Lumix LX5, which is still dead. The situation does not look good either with signs of corrosion. :/
Loved it nonetheless.
Where you from is the question you hear most when traveling. A simple enough question, but for me there is no simple answer. Having spent first 13 years of my life in Russia and the rest in Finland, I have no idea where I am from and I lost national identity in process too (i.e. could care less about nationalistic issues, like who wins in an ice-hockey tournament). I don’t feel like Russian, nor Finnish, although I am more up-to-date to the Finnish culture these days. I used to give a half-assed answer like “Finland, kinda Russia”, until I met Ethan in Beijing. Ethan is in the similar boat as me, born and grew up in Boston, but lived a fair share of his life in Israel, feeling neither American nor Israeli (talk about an “evil” combination by the way). Anyways, Ethan’s advice was to say “two places”, followed by a dramatic pause and a brief explanation. Works like a charm and is a great conversation starter. Thank you, Ethan.
It takes roughly one hour to hike from Hat Yuan to Hat Rin on a jungle trail or about little more than by boat if you include waiting time. Very steep uphill and downhill, high humidity, mosquitos, snakes, roots looking like snakes, spikey vegetation, monkeys and wild pigs. Love it. The trail itself is omewhat difficult to find and follow, unless you are familiar with it. It took me three times to get it right and I got somewhat lost in process too. Apart from being eaten by mosquitos for hesitating long enough I suffered no consequences. I heard a story about a guy who got spent five days in the jungle of Ko Phangan trying to find his way to civilization, which sounds a bit mind-blowing considering the small size of the island. Being used to the safety of the Finnish forest (apart from ticks, which are complete assholes), I do not know how dangerous Thai jungle can be. Yes, there are deadly snakes and dengue fever carrying mosquitoes, but whether there are high chances running into those provided common sense is something I have no idea about. Proper shoes and long pants is a good idea, though.
Surprisingly enough it has been raining here on Haad Yuan for the last few days, even though it is technically a dry season. Rainy weather is fine in my book, as it is a perfect excuse to be lazy and concentrate on food and chilling out. Drying clothes is a hassle and there is a chance of getting mold, though
The sea has been very rough to the point that it is scary to swim. I have this “can swim anytime anywhere” mentality, but swimming a couple of times in the rough sea sobered me up (and gave a bruise on a thigh too). A couple of powerful waves gave me a flashback of the tsunami of 2004 bringing the state of panic to surface. Swimming was not a very wise idea, after all. You do not joke with the sea.
Anyways, it is Friday and it is a party at Guy’s Bar tonight. Tonight’s plan is to go to bed early, wake up before the sunrise and head to Guy’s Bar. Early morning to late afternoon is the best time to be there anyway.
End of transmission.
One of the gravest mistakes in my life was buying vanilla black flip flops. Ok, maybe not the gravest, but it is in Top 5 for sure. The reason is everybody second person here wears black flip flops, so finding your pair among dozens of similar flips flops can be from challenging to down right impossible. I had to swap my pair on the second day of purchase, when I noticed that my pair was gone, and have been in the swapping loop since then. Currently I have a pair of black Havaianas, which is a nice upgrade from my no-name vanilla black flip-flops and twice as expensive too (we are talking about the difference of two euros here). Let’s see where this flip-flops game leads me.