And so it begins…

Whoa.

I don’t even really know how else to start this. I am sitting in an internet cafe in Koh Pha Ngan and I can’t even believe that life can be this good.  Even though it has only been a few days since being here, it feels like weeks (months even) and I couldn’t be happier.

After a 27 hour long flight in Thailand, the bed in my hostel could not come sooner. I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow only to be woken up at 6:30 am by people leaving the room for a tour of the floating markets. Not cool.  After some moping around the hostel and hanging out with some Australians, I woke Brian up to go see the sights in Bangkok.  Boy were they AMAZING. We caught a boat to the first place. It was called Wat Pho, famous for the reclining Buddha. Here he is…

The thing was HUGE. Afterwards, there were buckets lined up on the side- maybe about 50 of them. You are supposed to drop a coin (which they give you) into each one and make a wish at the end. So, I did and we shall see if it comes true or not.

Wat Pho was really amazing… Here’s another pic!

You can’t really tell in the picture, but these guys stretched like 150 ft into the sky…

Much of the day was spent going to all the different temples and palaces, all of which were amazing, but I would be here forever if I talked about them all. There was one called Wat Arun where you got to climb all the way to the top to get a really sweet view of Bangkok.

Brian and I then ended up getting into a tuk tuk that took us all over the city the whole day. We also ended up buying suits (don’t even ask). What’s a tuk tuk you ask?

Brian and I went to Chinatown which was also amazing (I gotta get a better word). We ate there and the food was soooooo good. That night we went out to a club in the Patpong area. The club was actually on par with a European or American one- 3 floors, DJ booth, giant projector…except the drinks were cheap!!!

So all hungover and with almost no sleep, I had to wake up and go get fitted for my new suit (really, don’t ask) and then catch my plane to Surat Thani. Plane: 1 hour. Boat to Koh Pha Ngan: 3 hours. People I’ve met along the way: countless. Meeting people couldn’t be easier. Most are travelling alone and being in the hostels automatically creates the communal environment. After the boat I got onto the back of a pickup truck or some taxi thing and went to my hostel. The Dancing Elephant..owned by a French guy named David who is INSANE but real cool. Met people in my room and went with them to a “pool party.”

Now I remember having pool parties as a kid, but HOLY SHIT… this was a pool party. Pick up trucks take you there for free and once there its a giant pool inside a night club which is located on a beach with about a thousand other travelers. NUTS NUTS NUTS…I can’t even begin to describe it.

Then this morning I woke up and went with a group of people to a place called Magic Mountain. There I got what was called The Happy Shake which let’s just say made my day REAL interesting. The beach was absolutely gorgeous and the water clear and warm. Everyone here is so awesome and now I am getting ready to go to the beach where there will be people fire dancing, buckets of alcohol (literally), and people from all over the world. Sometimes the realization of being here kicks in, in such a beautiful postcard-like fun place with no worry, makes me feel like I couldn’t be any luckier and my life couldn’t get any better.

Until next time…

Simply put, Thailand is the most incredible place I have ever been.