still in wonderfulland...

...well it has been really long since ive done this lately, though it seems i start my blogs frequently with a line like that since i don't update that often, so for that im sorry. last time i wrote i was in koh phangnan and the tour still felt like it was at the beginning, now it is starting to have a wrapping up feeling to is since we are a week away from bangkok already. of course my trip will carry on after but it is still going to be sad to end it. i have been making some good friends now that will be missed. i am considering going up to chang mai for the songkron water festival with some of the people that are staying later but havn't made up my mind yet. i also have to decide when i want to make my return flight ticket home for so some decisions will have to be made soon. but yes, i have been having a wonderful time since i talked last. our stay in koh phangnan was a long one and it was mainly filled with relaxing and eating but i think that can be assumed. i managaed to pace myself on the crepes this time around here which was really hard after i took the first bite of them and remember all the goodness. in the days leading up to the fullmoon party they had a soccer tourney on the beach that me and some of the people in the group played in. i learned it is a lot harder to play on sand that a field and that i make a half decent goalie too. we didn't raise any trophies at the end but i still had a lot of fun. though the soccer cut into my muay thai i was supposed to be doing while i was here which sucked cause i prepayed for it at the beginning to get a better deal so ended up throwing away some money that way. we had a jungle party one night that will probably be one of my favorite memories of thailand cause it was such a fun night. the fullmoon party was just as crazy as i remember it but i only stayed until 2 pm this time. i really love dancing away though as the sun rises even though im sure i looked weird doing so cause most people dance either to dance with other people or to impress other people or just to have fun but i find at a time as beautiful as the sunrise i just dance and jump around overwhelmed in beauty that it probably looks like a crazy guy (probably looking like he's on drugs) flailing away all by himself wearing jean cutoffs and having a mohawk and fumanchu (yes its back again) dyed neon blue (washable) with a nose ring...but i love it. we left there and went to khao sak which i didn't really do any interneting so i began worrying people (probably those reading this) so im sorry for that. we got there and it was different than last time since it was a different time of year and the waters wern't as high. it was still good even though we couldn't do the river tubing that i enjoyed last time. some of us did go to the river farther down though and played on a rope swing jumping into water that was probably too shallow but was too fun to pass up. while we were there it began pissing rain which just added to the fun especially when we began trekking back home. i just waded in the water going up stream with just the top half of my head out of the water. i had my aviators on since it was sunny before so im sure i looked weird (once again) but it was cool seeing the pouring rain fall into the water making huge splashes. we also went on a nice hike while we were there to another river that was nice to swim in. i borrowed someones snorkel and mask and chased fish around a rock and up the current. we went on the lake tour the same as last time but this time we only stopped for lunch at the place we stayed last time and then went on to another set of floating bungelows. the first place (were i stayed last time) was cool cause the contructed a really sketchy diving platform on of the docks made out of bamboo and branches. back home im sure none of us would have trusted it to stand on (it was about 6 feet hight too) but here people were going off two at a time and doing flips off it. another one of those good times im sure you can only have in a third world country. we did the cave hike again but this time we did it the other way through which was weird to me, plus the water wasn't nearly as high or fast moving and there were hardly any big spiders and no leeches so it was a much calmer version of it this time...but it was still fun and probably better that way cause im sure some of the people would have been scared out of there mind if it was the same as last time. i really love the family that runs the bugelows we stay at in khao sok so it is always hard to leave. they make you feel like you are at home and you get to know them pretty good over only being there a few nights. then we went to koh phi phi (which is were im at now but am leaving in a few hours to railey) but was another great experience. we stayed at a place called view point bungelows this time which was way better since it had such a nice view and an eternity pool. i did the viewpoint hike a few times (billions of stairs) which was good to be active again...actually koh phi phi was really active for me. i did those hikes we had a day of snorkelling which is always tiring if you actually snorkel a lot. there was one point on the snorkel trip were i was surrounded by this huge school of parrot fish and others like them that are actually decent sized fish and there were so many of them i couldn't even see through them which was a neat feeling/visual. the next day some of hiked along the island all the way back to the first point of the snorkel trip and then swam out there cause we heard if you go at a certain time there is a chance you can see sharks! there just reef sharks so there is no worries about them but the look exactly like (to an untrained eye) the sharks that you need to worry about so it quite a cool experience. we got lucky and did see a bunch of them swimming around underneath us, the first time is quite an experience cause its so unreal. none of them did the whole swim at the surface thing where you see the fin swimming around all spooky like though (which im not sure is a good thing or bad since it would be cool to see but im sure one of those things that would still be quite freaky). since i loved that so much i had to sign up for scuba the next day with the others (which i was trying to avoid since it cost so much and id hate to fall in love with it and spend all my money away) and absolutely loved it (told you). we saw all the tropical fish you always see in photos and HUGE coral sea walls that just gone on forever, we got to see a reef octopus too which was exciting cause they arn't that common. and since we were being really good and not freaking out at all or instructor let us go a deeper than what our level is allowed to (12m is the limit and we went to 18m) but don't tell anyone. it was truely a magical experience that i will have to try again someday. oh and just as a warning im currently tagging myself in photos on facebook that other people have taken and there was another pink party night, so i apologize to though that might be embarrassed by the photo of me (cough mom cough cough). well this is costly me quite the penny so i think im going to end it there though im sure there is plenty im leaving out. until next time...