"Chang Chang Changity Chang Shoo Bop"-- "We go Together", Grease

So today, I went diving… after 2 years it was ridiculously awesome. Thomas and I just did some local dives… nothing too fancy; and it was just me and him, plus our guide. We saw a sea snake, sting ray, some lion fish (my personal favorite) and some sea horses. We also swam through some tunnels under small islands. This was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had. The visibility wasn’t excellent so our dive master turned into just a black silhouette surrounded by this green glow. I am still kicking myself for leaving my under water camera on the boat.

Afterwards we all went out to dinner and the boys all got Chang wife beaters. Now Chang is pure evil. Its Thai beer that is something like 8% alcohol… so its really more like a malt liquor. Chang also promotes fighting… and ridiculousness.

Anywho, we went to go see some Thai Boxing…It was me, Rhys, Matt, Thomas, and Alex… none of the other girls wanted to go. Got incredible seats, on big leather chairs. We started betting on who would win and things. Then we discovered we got there late, so we only got to see a couple of fights. Thai boxing is incredibly brutal. We saw one fight where the guy was knocked out on the first punch… which was a little scary. And then they had kids fighting in the last fight… little kids… like maybe 9 years old. We didn’t bet on that one. But overall, it was pretty incredible. To promote it there is a truck that drives around making announcements on loud speakers… and there is a free bus that comes and picks everyone up. Before we went, we loaded up with all the Chang the hotel had. It all fit in this tote bag I had… and we borrowed a bottle opener from the hotel which I also held on to. Being in complete control of the beer… I became… the Chang Master.

This here picture is of a dog that lived around the hotel that the night before had been following us around, and chasing off other dogs. The boys decided to call the dog Nut Job.

We then decided to take our Chang and mix it with some power drinks called M-150 and play our favorite game… fuck the dealer…

Thomas opted to just go for the wife beater b/c it was hot.

And Matt and Rhys were going at it again…

Which then resulted in Matt’s nakedness...

So they then thought it was a great idea to roll down the concrete hill… which it actually wasn’t

After that didn’t work, they decided to have a worm race down the hill… which resulted in Rhys crushing one of his balls and being in severe pain for the rest of the trip.

Then there was the rest of the night running around and hanging out on the beach... but again no pictures... so no need to tell those stories.

"Welcome to Paradise."-- Green Day

Krabie is a tiny slice of paradise… clear waters, clean beaches, surrounded by millions of little islands. We stayed in Ao Nang….

As you can see here… it really is beautiful... The water is incredibly flat... and rediculously warm... almost to the point of not refreshing.

We did a snorkeling trip around the islands… the boat had I high front that we were all sitting in…. every wave sent us flying… then we realized, you can stand on the seats, actually see the view and up coming waves and balance a lot better.

This here is where people come to steal the nests of some birds that live in the caves… worth lots and lots of money.

We even pulled into Koh Phi Phi, where the movie, “the beach” was filmed…. Actually on the opposite coast from where the island from the beach is supposed to be.. There’s a bit of controversy over the use of the island… the Thai government said the film crew could do whatever they wanted to … so the blew up some rocks, took out some trees, and planted a bunch of palm trees. On the other hand… they cleaned up the island completely as it was totally polluted and full of trash… and the crew cleaned it up… so, good or bad, its all still up for debate.

This is just a glimpse of where we went diving.

And on a closing note, I think you should all read the beach… its actually a really great book, and everything is pretty true… in fact it was weird reading it b/c there were parts in it that I had already written about… which is strange…. So yeah… especially those of you who have similar tastes in books as me… you know who you are…, you should read this one.

"Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun and games."-- Guns and Roses

Khao Sok… rainforest in Thailand… has the biggest flowers in the world… that smell like rotting meat… Thank goodness they weren’t blooming while we were there… Now the jungle was the coolest place ever… it was full of monkeys and we were in cabins…. Mine was a little freaky b/c I was rooming alone… jungle noises at night… terrifying… especially when you’ve been playing drinking games all night… but as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself…

When we first got here, we were gonna go tubing… but then the rain came… wicked storm… so we decided to play some cards… and what do you know… I still had that bottle of rum from my b-day… and to get beer… you just had to pull a rope… and it was only about 2 in the afternoon when the mayhem began.

The Games: Shithead and Fuck the Dealer

Kim, Rhys, and Erst

Matt, Holy, and Thomas, never ever to be called Tom… his co-workers call him Nut Job…. For good reason, oh and Holy is a lawyer my age… who I would just love to meet on opposite sides of the courtroom.

Tara, Laura, and Alex… Tara is also an up and coming British Lawyer.

Aww, a group picture

Now this kind of stuff between Rhys and Matt tends to happen quite often…

Here’s Kim and Hannah

And then the staff found a toad… that poor toad…

Rhys said something about holly that led to matt trying to throw him over the edge of the hut….

Then there was lots of tomfoolery… and then it was the next day, and I awoke to find all sorts of things left in my room... camera, phone, mp3 player, cards, and juggling balls... none of which were mine.

The next morning we headed out on an elephant trek… This is much harder/scarier than you would think… especially when you’re a little bit on the hung over side.

Kim and I were buddies on the trek…. Into the jungle.

We stopped at this here waterfall… small but gorgeous…heehee, and a few of us went for a swim… its actually surprisingly deep… I couldn’t touch the bottom.

Great view of the rainforest on the way back… there was this cool plant… that when you touched it, the leaves would curl up… and a horrible bug that actually screamed in a really high pitched tone.

Later on we did finally go tubing… this time it was just the basic floating down the river… still a good bit of fun though (again those pictures are not digital, but will be posted eventually)

After the tubing, we hit up a monkey temple... full of monkeys... which we got to feed, and the climbed all over everything, and there were baby monkies... yes, i like monkeys... especially if they are freaking out the girly girls.

That night we went to a reggae bar… the only other thing really in the jungle…
This kid was doing cool tricks involving lighting some balls on fire at the end of string and winging them around.

Then the locals showed us this trick where you have to pick up a bottle with your mouth, while holding one leg behind you with both arms… all the boys had a go…. Which was rather amusing

Then Rhys started balancing things on his nose… He has a thing for balancing things and juggling and what not… would have done well w/ the campus fools.

There was more playing of drunken card games that night… did manage to lose my key, and ended up staying in Matt and Holly’s room…. All highly amusing