Snickers

After my journey home from Ko Samui, I got back to a sleeping room. Apparently Shane and Martina stayed out till 9 am.

It was another rainy and lazy day in our beautiful hotel room. Finally at about 6ish... Nick arrived!!!! I was soooo happy, and relieved that he made it! Snickers and I went to get some yummy thai grub. We had a few Capirinias and had one of our legendary and epic conversations. It was really great to see him again and just talk about life.

I had to call it an early one though I was pooped! We arranged to go to Ko Tau the next day... Snickers, Martina, Stina, Shane, Carolina, Carl and myself.

Our day of departure was yet again a rainy day. We arrived in a full on storm. We stayed in a cute hotel, we had two person wooden bungalows.... nothing extraordinary but they were good enough. They were just across the road from the beach.

On day two of being there Nick, the girls and I rented scooters, Vespa like bikes. It was a funny start. Two people could go per bike and it was tricky finding out who would drive, who would ride with who and who would ride alone. Martina tried and failed, she couldn't get the balance of the bike. I paid attention to the Thai kid with his broken English explanation on how to drive the thing. As he was explaining it again to Stina and Carolina, I decided to just jump on one... and off I was. It's a good thing they don't ask for licences as we all know I don't have one. It turned out Stina was able to drive one as well, Carolina jumped on back of hers and Martina rode with Nick... should I be flattered that they had the confidence in me to drive alone or insulted because they were too scared to ride with me?!

We went on a 45 minute ride to a place I will probably never be able to find again. WE had no direction, we were just going by whim and where the unblocked roads would take us. It rains so much here that a lot of the roads are flooded and please bare in mind these are tiny islands with very few roads! We made it to a path in a rain forest and decided to park the bikes and ride it. It was a steep walk down, narrow and scary! But after about 15 minutes we made it to the beach and it was worth it! No one was there, we had a small sanded beach surrounded by rain forest with wooden bungalows on stilts in them. It was an amazing piece of land that we had all to ourselves! The walk back up was a tough one, man am I out of shape!!!

Ko Tau is my favorite island thus far in Thailand. It was pretty small but well developed at the same time. There is not as much western influence as you find on Ko Pagnan and Phi Phi, but that's what I like about it. The beaches are not as nice as the ones on Phi Phi though. What I love about Ko Tau is the vibe. It reminds me of old school Costa Rica, back in the early 90's. They have bars on the beach that lay out mats and pillows, with tables and candles right on the sand. It is so nice to chill out on the beach; it is a lot more mellow than the other islands, yet it still has a great night life if you want it. Most of the restaurants have flat screen TV's and play movies during the day and at night, so its a nice alternative to going out or perfect for a rainy day.

Martina and Shane left after a couple of days. We of course had a big night out the night before and dined on Pancakes after the bar. All over Thailand you find street vendors making Crepe like pancakes with the most delicious fillings. I have had two so far... a nutella/peanut butter / banana and the one that I had this night, egg and cheese. The man that makes them at this particular stand is extremely impressive, he flips them and is super quick with his spatula. I bet he would be in heaven at Spatula City. This night however he was extremely drunk and barely managed to make the pancakes.

Carolina bumped into a thai, guy friend of hers at the bar. He opted for fried chicken from a street vendor and a bag of rice. I have never laughed so hard in my life a the sight of him feeding Stina and Carolina. He even gave me some of his rice by balling it up in his hands and trying to feed me... it was odd. But let me tell you, that chicken was amazing! The other vendor food that is a culinary delight is street meat. They (you find this all over the place)grill satay skewers of chicken, beef and some other stuff. They cost about 10 baht each, which is about 30 cents.