Kho Toa, and Scuba Diving

Heya,

Well we've just finished our Open Water Certification, it was fucking fun, Finished up today with an 18 metre dive. Moray Eels and Angel Fish and stuff, was very fun. I've managed to stay off the piss fairly well here due to the diving, apart from the first night, where I sustained a double "dodgy pork" and "too much beer" injury and spent the day in bed. I spent most of the first night at a Dragon Bar talking to the owner who's an expat who grew up in the Fitzroy area, it was nice to talk about home for a while. It did mean that I was a day behind Roh, but with one of his drinking benders finaly catching up with him, we re-synced fairly quickly. Today a guy with a Video Camera tagged along so we just bought the video of the days activities, It's on DVD, so i prolly wont be able to get a copy of it online until I get to UK, but it was pretty cool. Roy did the happy dance underwater. Tomorrow we start the Advanced Open Water Course, diving past about 25 metres means the Nitrogen in the tank starts to get you high, I'm guessing its quite similar to doing Nangs. But all teh instructors says its a heap of fun. We also do a Night dive, and two specialty dives. We have picked Advanced Buoyancy Control, and Photography. So I'll stick a heap of photos from our adventures underwater online in the next few days.

We ( as expected ) have started to slip on our schedule a little bit, we were planing to go down south a bit more to Malaysia but have officially ditched that idea, and are also considering pushing Sri Lanka Back a little so we get more time here, and less time in Beijing.

For those of you having any issues looking at photos, use teh TAGS option if you go http://photos.willcowan.com/tags/thailand you go all my uploaded Thailand photos use
http://photos.willcowan.com/tags/bangkok for bangkok photoshttp://photos.willcowan.com/tags/khophangan for the full moon party photos and, http://photos.willcowan.com/tags/khotoa for diving photos.

Hope every one is doing really well, congrats to Dave for selling Jerry ( we will miss you Jerry have a safe and happy journey ) speak to you soon

Will Cowan
Mob. +6651141951

Full Moon Shenanigans

Well what a full on couple of days, Kho Pha-Ngan was a blast... Big drunken nights nearly every night, occasionally followed by trippy mornings on magic mushies at the Mellow Mountain Bar. The beach is pretty huge, its got about 5 or 6 main bars, house, hard house,R 'n' B, Drum & Bass and stuff. In front and between all the bars are the Bucket Stalls the prices went up a little on full moon night, from $3 a bucket to $4 . At the water line in front of most of the bars there are fire twirling shows, Some of it a fair bit better than what I saw at Phi Phi, and that was friggen wicked back there. I don't have my memory card with me but I should get some time tomorrow to stick photos online. I know I'll try and work another full moon party into my trip some time soon, It turned out the night before full moon was the most fun ( not so fucking busy )
We shared a place with Deb and Val, and caught up with some other people we had met at Phi Phi, and ofcause in our drunked stupors met a whole bunch of new friends aswell.
Today me Roy and Deb caught a boat to Kho Tao and Val headed back up towards Bangkok. Deb's been here earlier in her trip, and is booking a bungalow for a full month. Me and Roy have booked in to a dive school and they've organised fairly cheap accom for the week for us.
I'm really looking forwards to doing the scuba thing, It really seems like one of those things you can get hooked on, its relatively cheap its costing us 9000 bhat, which is $290 au for a 4 day course. Once you finish you get your Open Water Certificate, so you can dive any where in the world, so that's very cool.
I wish i had an underwater case for my camera, but i spose I'll jsut buy a disposable underwater one, the diving here is ment to be wicked.

any way,
I hope every one is doing well....
cya

Koh pha ngan

My god this place shall now be officially dubbed the land of the hundred bhat bucket. Small hip flask of whisky can of coke and little redbull bottle. For 3 bucks. was a 11 hour journey of multiple buses and boats. But it was worth it. Saturday is full moon party night. Bring it on

We Made It Back

Well we made it back. Val nearly spewed Deb nearly shat herself. And while trying to scale a cliff face to jump off I ripped small chunks of flesh from my hand and foot. The scenery is blissful, beautiful emerald oceans sandy beaches and wicked big cliffs. Although the cuts and bumps are quickly advancing my injury list, I'm having a great time. I've now got sunburnt back of legs, face shoulders, upper and lower arms, I also managed a descent elbow burn a few days ago and today while snorkeling gave my self a scarlet lower back. Roy is finally retired for an early night. But the nearly full bottle of $7 rum coke Redbull and a deck of uno cards say he could be convinced otherwise. The girls are scubaing tomorrow I'm really jealous. But I'm planning to get my scuba license some time in the next few weeks. Hope every ones having at least half as much fun as I am. WillCowan

Little Phi Phi for snorkeling Cliff Jumping and that sort of thing

Well I've realised that the internet is to expensive on this island. And posting from my phone is cheaper. I managed to catch the fire show at hippies again last night. Roy as he is now affectionately known stayed on and stumbled through the door at about 7am. So this morning five becomes four and me Val Deb and a Canadian named Desmond are on a fishing boat on our way to little phi phi for snorkeling cliff jumping and general shenanigans. I'll let you know how it goes.

My god its a tough life

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Originally uploaded by Will Cowan.

Phi Phi Island

Well, We've had a really cruisey good few days. Not up to much..
Really getting into the daily list of where to eat drink and sleep. Any thing else and we feel like we have a busy day on our hands ( and normally get to the drinking part and forget to do it ) I really struggle to imagine what this place used to look like pre-tsunami. Patong beach looked pretty normal, allot of construction work and a few shabby streets. This place is still pretty screwed up. Yesterday I volunteered for some clean up work. Sorting all the shit the drivers pull out of the bay. And doing maintains work on a pontoon they have been using. It was good fun met a heap of nice people and got a fucker of a work out. Managed to burn two more parts of my body.. i now have sunburnt calves, and elbows. I lost a layer of skin on my shoulders a few days ago but am trying to keep up with a layer of sunscreen every few minutes. I've stuck few photos onto Flickr but internet is a bit pricey here so haven't put all of them there yet.... ( some day after I've find a good place to eat drink and sleep I'll get around to it ) the beaches are nice here the water is beautiful. We made friends with to other travelers one is Val, from San Francisco a funny 1/2 Chinese 1/2 American who's been traveling by her self for about 5 months, She's a prescription queen and been telling us about all the great opiates of Laos. The other is Deb who's Welsh and also been traveling by her self for a fair while, i think they both met in Malaysia. There is a party for the people who have volunteered on the island on Sunday so we'll go to that and then think about heading to a different island. Tomorrow we actually manage to get off the main phi phi island and do a boat tour of the little island and do some cliff jumping......
One of the main bars on the island is "Hippies Bar" its not overly cheap but its very popular, they had the BEEEEST fire show I've ever seen.. Once i get some proper internet I'll stick some videos such good Poi work has to be seen to be believed.

to check out Thailand Photos

http://flickr.com/photos/willcowan/tags/Thailand/

should get you there, its not complete and not in order but it shows a fair bit of them...
I should have the photos properly set up some time in the next few days, and fill in a few of the blanks from this posting..... cya all then..

Will Cowan

The Phuket Islands

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Originally uploaded by Will Cowan.

damn these looks so beuatiful, Tomorrow we are heading to Phi Phi island.. should be great.

Phuket Town Markets

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Originally uploaded by Will Cowan.

hopefully in a few months when my stomach has toughened up I'll be able to eat some of this, until then sticking to the stuff we see cooked fresh.... it looked and smelt fantastic.

Phuket town, day two

Last night we had dinner with Roh's old man and his partner. A really nice meal at the resort they're staying at around the other side of the island. Damn taxi over there was 300 bhat that's ten bucks. I think that was the clinching moment. Today I payed up the 150 bhat. And hired a motor bike for the day. Zipped around all day. Fucking heap of fun. Rode up a few mountains across the island and back again. Even did a lap of the exercise circuit I found. Few pushup situps and we're heading back to do it again Tomorrow, after that we're thinking about both getting them and circumnavigating the whole island. Also today I got a bit of sun. Enough you can see the straps of my bag and necklace. I doubt it will peel but I'll be nice and careful tomorrow. We'll be based in Patong tomorrow so I'll check my email and chuck a few photos online also if I can post here from something better than my phone it would make it easier. I hope every one is doing well. WillCowan

Stupid farangs

Im sure mel will think this one is the funniest. It's twenty past seven. We're sitting on the airport to khoh shan road bus. Having, in a still drunken stupor managed to sleep through the first hour of our 5am alarm. Today we had planned a flight to phuket. And crashed out around 3 o'clock last night having set the some what unattainable target of a 7am flight. So now we are trying to sober up we're on the bus back to our hotel to pick up the Shit i forgot to bring with me (memory card for camera, and that sorta thing) getting painkillers and then make the trip back out to the airport. The good news in this story is bangkok air (my new favorite airline) were kind enough to let up on the next flight with no extra charge, i was truely expecting to have waxed au$80 for the flight and expecting to have to say an extra 100 or so for the next flight. Last night was another night of drunken fun. Down to phuket for a bit to re roh's old man them up north later on. Cheers will 'farang' cowan

Day two

Well yesterday was a fucking blast. Getting in so early ofcause we could only hold off on drinking til about eleven. i got my phone set up now that i'm able to post this update right from my phone, so expect random updates will i sit in bars or on busses. I've forgotten what i wrote here yesterday but some of the highlights were cowboy's springdale bucket. A jug with two shots each of baileys kaluha tia maria baccardi and topped up with milk, if thats not the correct recipie, hopefuly duncan will correct me in the comment section below. Well we are gonna chill out in bangkok for another day and head up to changmai tomorrow. Should be fun and games. I expect tonight should remain a little more chilled than last night. Catch you later.

Bangkok, Thailand

Fuck we made it, it's actually happened we are currently sitting in a little bar of khe san road in Bangkok. Our 9 and and a half hour flight wasn't to shabby, only disrupted by an incredibly drunk Swedish girl. We got in just before sun-up at around 5ish this morning by the time we had got out through customs and organized a taxi it was getting fairly light and starting to warm up. It's shifted from sorta dry to drizzle and a fair bit of rain and now I think its back to dry. We ended up making friends with Kat ( the drunkard ) her Swedish friend and a cowboy named Duncan, we are sharing a room today as they are catching their Swedish connecting flight at about 1am tonight. I'm already getting accustomed to the hot sticky stench of south east Asia, had a great 30 bhat sweat and sour pork with some sort of poached egg ( maybe poached in oil ) breakfast. My stupid shorts that I got fixed in Brisbane broke already and are getting fixed by a little lady with a sewing machine.

Its hit beer o'clock at around 11am, I'm not really sure how the rest of the day has in plan for us, cowboy has a big bottle of Bundy, and there has been talk of it rearing its ugly head some time soon. Tomorrow I think we catch the train to phuket to catch up with Ro's old man. It sounds like a descent amount of time on the train....... Should be interesting. Any ways I do have a Thai sim card now... I believe the number is +6651141951 so drop me a call or text any time you want to know how hot sweaty stinky drunk lost or wet me and Roh are.

So I hope your all having nearly as much fun as I'm having now, keep me updated with your news and gossip.

I'll try and have some phots online soon.

Over and Out

Will Cowan.