Beach Bumming...5 Thai Islands in 3 weeks.

As always, I have been incredibly lazy about updating this blog. To be honest, I thought after spending 6 hours online in Bangkok that I had had quite enough of blogging, but a month later, I feel that familiar nagging urge to update... so here it goes!

I arrived in Bangkok at the end of the month of March fulfilled by my numerous experiences, but mentally drained. My dear friend Sarah who lives in Bangkok with her two adorable children kindly let me stay with her, providing a much needed air-conditioned apartment, a comfortable room, and a hot shower! Forty eight hours later, feeling fully recharged, I jumped in cab, traversed an extremely congested Bangkok, and met up with my long lost friend Dominique, her amazing boyfriend Hamish (or Hamster as he quickly became known) and her friend from "uni" India. Little did I know that many new adventures were awaiting!

We took an exhausting overnight bus down to rainy Koh Phangan. My poor friends had come to see the sun shine and I think every single day they were there, we saw at least some rain. This however did not stop us from going out to the Spring-break-on-steroids town called Hat Rin, where the world famous Full Moon parties occur. Been there. Done that. That is exactly how I feel about that place. Glad I saw it while I'm still relatively young, but god did I feel OLD in that place! I can't party like that anymore!! Don't get me wrong, I loved spending time with my friends. I hadn't seen Dominique in years and it was incredible to have some time to reconnect. Meanwhile, some of the people I had met traveling in March were there, so we wound up having quite a large friendly group - so much fun.

When Dominique and co left, my friend Amanda who I know from my Chiang Rai days, her friend from England, and my dear friend Mariel from my Penn days showed up. We were four girls and something in the chemistry that night was just right, and we had an incredible night dancing in the rain!

The next day was the infamous Full Moon Party. Now hold on kids, remember the Tarot card reader? Little Thai man who predicted my motorbike accident?? Right, well he also told me I would be losing a lot of money in the coming month. I didn't think much of this as I would be traveling and obviously be losing money... Cut to Full Moon Party.. Mariel and I are dancing away until one of us decides we should go get a drink. We walk over to the bar and to my dismay - but at this point, I'm feeling pretty jaded to the ridiculous things that are happening to me - I discover that my bag was sliced open and my wallet was stolen!?! At this point, I'm thinking, Ok Clearly I MUST have done something wrong to have all this bad karma coming my way! Then I remembered that I DID eat some dog in Laos.... Oh I see! Ok tangent... Back to the situation at hand - LUCKILY Mariel, an amazing person and friend, was with me and helped me out for the following days...

The next day, Mariel and I sluggishly made our way to Koh Tao. It would be an understatement to say I was a bit of a wreck...'Nough said. Anyway, we didn't give Koh Tao much time, as Mariel needed to be back on Koh Samui to catch her flight back to Hong Kong the next day. So Koh Tao was a resting/recuperating 24 hours for us.

Poor Mariel only had 4 days in Thailand and unfortunately most of them were spent in the rain or traveling... but nevertheless it was incredible to see her again after 2 years. The day before her departure we were standing on the pier waiting for our ferry to Koh Samui when a man with an American accent calls us over ," How about I buy you two a beer?" "umm, I'm recuperating from that, so not a good idea..." I sheepishly reply... "Well I hear water is good for that!" Enter Doctor Dave (AKA life savor), an American doctor from LA who burned out and spur of the moment bought a ticket to Thailand to decompress. We proceeded to spend the journey back enjoying a lovely conversation with him and later that night he generously took my friends and I out on the town.

The next day Mariel left - the first beautiful day in 10 days, of course! After her departure, I emerged only to find out that all the Western Unions were closed for days for the Thai new year. Panic set in... What was I going to do!? I seriously had maybe 50 baht (less than 2 USD) to my name - panniiiiiicccc!!! Dr. Dave somehow got wind of this and offered to take care of me until I figured out how to get money. Now I know what you all might think, I was very hesitant at first, but people, I had no choice! I was lucky to have someone be this generous. For a brief existential moment, I attempted to think about the meaning of trusting strangers, but truth be told, I had little flexibility on the matter and somehow I felt it was OK, so I went for it. The man asked for nothing in return, I believe he just wanted my lovely company - I mean, who wouldn't, right? So... Juliet ended up getting wined and dined in the poshest of resorts in Koh Samui for 4 days. Not bad! So suddenly, my karma was looking up. Dr. Dave and I became good friends and I guess he restored my faith in humanity or something like that :)

Four days later, I traversed the peninsula to meet my Irish friend Darragh who met me in Koh Phi Phi. We decided to go as far away from the noise as possible. So we hiked along a dozen beaches, sweating like I've never sweat before, until we reached a rasta-esque bungallow resort known as "Viking Resort." I couldn't recommend this place more to anyone going to Phi Phi. We had our own private isolated beach in one of the most staggeringly beautiful places I've been to. As if that wasn't enough, we got a private jam session on our second night there by the famous rasta Thai band Job To Do! I had seen them in concert at the Rasta festival in Pai when Liz visited, but this was INCREDIBLE. Anyway, needless to say Darragh and I just loved it there. One of the days we took a boat trip to several islands, and I spent my time desperately attempting to capture paradise...

After a few days, we ventured over to the most relaxed island of all Koh Lanta. Although Koh Lanta was not as spectacular, Darragh and I both agreed that the place somehow had a wild, more freeing quality to it. The beach was long and it was the first time that I swam in waves! I am such a happy person when I swim in waves. It was the PERFECT place to end my Thai journey. My time with Darragh couldn't have been a more ideal way to spend my last days in Thailand. We were both partied out and just wanted to relax and talk.

It was with a heavy heart that I left Koh Lanta and headed on the never-ending voyage back up to Bangkok where I spent several hours back at Sarah's before getting on a plane to Hong Kong. Hong Kong = new adventure = new post - stay tuned!

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