Down the shore. (The Thai beaches that is, not the Jersey. Same same but different.)

Well, things are certainly looking a bit better than the last time I blogged, post-bike-wreck. All my wounds, both those physical and those of the pride, seem to be all healed up at this point. Turquoise salt water does wonders for both.

I am writing this from a little internet cafe on the side of the highway full of little Thai boys using their Sunday to play Grand Theft Auto and sniper games and Fifa WorldCup online.  I am outside the Wat Suan Mohk International Retreat Center where tonight I will begin a 10 day silent meditation course.  This center is one of the best known temples in Thailand for teaching and well known to foreigners interested in practicing vipassana (insight) mediation. I recently completed my 1st ten day silent retreat just 2 months ago near Seattle. That course taught the same meditation technique but with a more rigorous daily schedule of nothing but sitting meditation; it also originated in Burma.  This center is a little more friendly and allows for walking mediation as well as yoga and there are even natural hot springs on the campus for soaking in the evenings!  Still, 10 days to be alone with nothing but your thoughts is a challenge.  This retreat is one of the reasons I chose to come to Thailand in the first place, and it feels good to be achieving that goal.  So that is the present. As for the past...

Since my last blog, I finished my Advance Open Water Training in Koh Tao. Had a blast with my group and made a bunch of really good friends. The diving although fun, wasn't great the last few days due to high wind and waves which affected visibility.  The highlights were by far the deep dive (to 90 feet below the surface) in which I was within a few feet of a grey reef shark and saw a scorpionfish and the night dive in which I saw a Great Barracuda bit a rabbitfish in half and swallow it in two bites! We also saw a rare cuttlefish and lots of green flashing phosphoresence. It looks like swirling stars underwater every time you move your hands around quickly distrubing the little critters. No whale sharks or manta rays unfortunately, but I will have another chance when I go on a 3 day/2 night live-aboard cruise with 15 dives to the Similan Islands. I am also hoping to see Leopard Sharks. 

I left Koh Tao, traveling with two friends from my scuba school, Kris from Denmark and Kirsty from Norway. There are loads of Scandanavians here incidentally. Swedes especially. Supposedly 600,000 out of a country of only 9 million come to Thailand every winter. Anyhow, we took the night ferry from the island back to the mainland. On this ferry you are literallt given a space that is half a small mattress to share with a total stranger. Eveyone has to pretty much spoon all night and the entire boat has to roll over at the same time practically. From Surat Thani we went up to Khao Sok National Park, a quiet little area up in the mountains.  The park protects some of the oldest primary lowland rainforest in the world and is home to elephants and tigers and gibbons, oh my.  I saw the gibbon, but no tigers unfortunately. I did however get to see Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world (check my photos on Facebook). It is about 2 feet in diameter, red and fleshy, and smells like sour milk to attract flies as pollinators. The biology nerd in me was loving it! I also ran into some cool folks from Sweden, Pelle and Lina, who shared my interest in the lizards and critters all around us, so that was nice to have others to nerd out with.  My lady traveling companions just couldn't understand why we were so excited about a giant, stinky flower alas.

After 2 peaceful days in the national park, we headed down to Raileh beach where stunning 500 foot limestone cliffs crash straight into the sea.  We spent 3 nights here just bumming on the beach; although one day we did get ambitious and rent kayaks to explore sea caves and we even found a semi-deserted beach to go snorkeling from, a rarity in Thailand.  I also went solo for a day to take a speedboat tour of the Ko Phi-phi Islands which are gorgeous bt totally overrun with Tourists and development. I got to see a German man get attacked by monkeys on the beach, so that was interesting. I also did some of the best snorkeling of my life at an open water site they took us too.  Oh, and we went to the infamous lagoon Maya Bay that was used as the location for the Leo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" that may be responsible for ruining Thailand (in the sense that there are too many tourists).  A good day but I was glad to move on from the crowds. 

Saying goodbye to our friend Kris, Kirsty and I travelled on the sleepy island of Koh Lanta. Here I found my ideal, cheap, ramshackle, family-run beach bungalows with good music and food and hammocks galore.  I had to spend a lot of time out of the sun and the water to let my motor-bike wounds heal, so it was here on Lanta that I finally got some serious loungin done and my first sun-burn, oh yeah.  I also got back on the bike, so to speak, and drove a motorbike all over this large island with Kirsty. We explored the Old Town, which was really quaint and the first place I have seen any wooden homes on the beaches that pre-date the tsunami.  We also got to see a crazy Kenyan Masai band play fun afro-fusion music to celebrate the anniversary of one backpacker-famous resort.  But the best part was just watching the sunset from a hammok with a pineapple shake in one hand.  Good times. 

Oh, I also did a one-day run down to the Malaysia border and crossed at a little outpost in the jungle called Khuadon. You have to do this in order to renew your visa and spend more time in the country.  Then it was another day of traveling all day (yesterday) heading away from the beack and back north.  Now, I am just outside the rural town of Chaiya, and my lazy beach days are over (for 10 days at least). It was great to soak up some serious sun, the first time I have done so since I left Hawaii in 2006. But I am ready to get down to some serious psyche-cleaning that only a long meditation retreat can really provide. I have met loads of great people and made some real friends and eaten lots of amazing thai food.  So several missions accomplished, but many more to come, no doubt.

P.S. Again, sorry for spelling mistakes, I am too cheap to proofread this thing as time is money in internet cafes.