Sa Wah Dee Bee Mai Ka!

(Happy New Year!)

So the last few days have been pretty cool. I'm just going to copy and paste from emails I've sent. They are very very very roughly edited. Please don't make fun of me.....

To Danny -
The boat trip um, sucked. We got into the boat, boated(?) for 2 hours, got to a really really scary/windy/rainy/felt deadly area and then went for the closest beach. Hung out there for an hour, got back in the boat went back to Haad Rin. We got no waterfalls, no snokeling and no refund. (Free dinner and bucket still provided.) Also, the Snoop Dogg Boat Tour had to hand off some of their passengers to our boat in the middle of the water. Their boat was about to sink with the combination of the waves and the overcrowding. Luckily my boat company was the underdog in the boat tour world and had plenty of space. The people who got on were 2 angry Isreali girls and their angry Israeli boyfriends. They were not happy being torn for their Israeli group of 30. They all met up at the beach 10 minutes later.

To Beau -
Danny and I split up and I was supposed to meet him in Koh Ma, one of the places the boat trip stops. But the boat trip was canceled half way though and we didn't actually see anything/do anything. Just sat in a boat fearing for our lives. So then i had to come back (totally drenched too) and hit up the internet place to figure out plan B. Anyway, boat trip was um not such a success. The only good thing was Mote was the trip leader so he sat with me and taught me the words for rain, wet, salt water, tree, mountain, ear and eye. And also how to ask how old are you. There were also some Swedish girls on the trip who I spoke Swedish with. They were totally impressed.
What are buckets? Here we go. Wide assortment, usually small bottle of cheap Thai whisky, can of coke, small bottle of red bull and then all poured over ice, served in a kid's sand pail bucket thing and with like 9 straws. Or 4. or however many you want. Danny and I went with whisky (cheap for one bucket, but found out he's allergic to cheap Thai whiskey, which is actually a common thing, so then not cheap for another bucket) but with Sprite instead of Coke and then of course Red Bull. For more expensive you can go for Red Bull and Vodka and other combos. I think there's mango soda too.
...The Turkish Dude - his name's Fabio. He's 40, big, hairy and not into wearing shirts. I'm wearing my Yorktown Track shirt so his pick up line was, "So, you are from Yorktown? That's in America, right?" Yeah, so we introduced ourselves, had a mini awkward conversation, went over our names again and he told me to come back so we could get coffee. I didn't. A couple of hours later I passed him again and he said something about me not coming back for coffee and I told him I had fallen asleep. His friend then asked what my name was he said he didn't remember. I acted really offended and said "I do not drink coffee with people who don't know my name!" and walked away laughing. I'm pretty sure I don't have to talk to him again now.

To my friend Viktor who tried to teach me Swedish-
Sa wah dee bee mai ka! (Happy new year in Thai) Sorry it's taken me so long to write you back. I'm in Kay Pha Ngan! I just wanted you to know that I meet Swedish people all the time and I say to them "yag fustough svenksa mickeh bra!" (I understand Swedish very well!) And then they say"woe, really?" or something else in Swedish and I say, "Ha ha no, just kidding. Yag fushtough svenska inte so bra. Yag fustough engliska mickey bra! Yag ar americanska" (I understand Swedish not so well. I understand English very well! I'm American.") Then they laugh. Then I say "Yag heiter Beth, vod heiter du?" and then I count to ten. It's very very exciting. And then if they're cool we talk about Kent (a Swedish band) and I try to sing Om Du Va Har (a Kent song).

The Swedes love me thanks to you. I'm like the coolest American they've ever met. Thanks!

Email to Mom 1 -
New Year's Eve was fine. Yeah, very crazy, but very fun too I guess. I think I was outside on the beach until about 6:30. There wasn't any countdown, or at least not one that more than 10 people noticed. Danny and I were actually taking pictures only later realizing it was 2006 because the camera told us so. I met some other kids who said they only realized it was 2006 because everyone else seemed to be making out. So because it still feels like July here and because I don't like even numbered years, I think I'm in denial about the whole thing. But anyway.

So the day of the 1st I stayed in Haad rin and Danny went back to koh ma. I met him there yesterday but when I got there the woman who runs it was talking about she was leaving the next day because there were too many problems. And she really is the only one who runs it so we were kind of concerned. So we went for dinner but she said they already sent all the food back to the mainland. But we should go to the mainland get dinner, and then come back to finish the rest of the beer. At that point I told her I was going to leave in the morning too. So we walked across (water up to our upper thighs) to get dinner and then went to this reggae bar and got vodka red bulls. The guy there talked to us for a really long time and we learned some Thai with him. Then on the way back we noticed there weren't any lights on in any of the buildings on the island. Ann definitely wasn't there anymore. So since it's an island and in the morning (when Danny was planning on leaving) the tide is really high (like up to your neck in parts) and we weren't sure how reliable anne's "I'll have a boat for you at 10am" was, AND there was no more electricity, we decided to just walk back (midnight, no water, a full sand path) to the mainland I find somewhere to sleep there.

We went back to the reggae bar cause 1) we had already talked to the guy 2) it was the only place open that we could walk to. We asked if he knew anywhere we could sleep and he said we could sleep at the bar. The only other kids there were like 17 year old local kids including his cousin. His cousin slept there but the other kids all went home. So Danny slept on the couch, I slept on the hammock and the guy's cousin slept on a big pile of cushions. The roosters woke me up at like 5am. And by 7 we were all awake. Danny then got a taxi to Thong Sala to get to the ferry back to Ko Samui and the bar guy's cousin and I went to another town where for breakfast. He had a motorbike! It was fun. I didn't die. No places in the other town were open either but his mom (I think) was selling coconut mini-pancakes on the street so we got those.

Then went to like all the pretty spots in the area, then went back to the bar, got bathing suit clothes and then went to a waterfall! It was really cool. He brought his shower stuff which was actually a good idea because the waterfall had a lot more pressure than any shower I've used in Thailand. Then he helped me get a bungalow and I tried to buy him lunch but it didn't work cause he's related to everyone around here so he never has to pay for anything. We just ate at his cousin's restaurant and now I'm at his other cousin's internet cafe.

So I think I'll leave here tomorrow and then go back to samui for a night and then to either Bangkok or Chiang Mai. I'm cool with going to Laos by myself. I actually met up with kids from Madison who I kinda knew and they had just been there and they told me I'd be fine and where to go and who to talk to/believe and who not to. So it'll be fine.

Ok so I think I should go now, it's 4pm and I haven't been to the beach yet! ahhh! The tragedy. I'm in the quiet area with families so I don't hate the beach as much as I did when I was on the "only hot people under 30" beach.

yay! Happy new year's mom!

sa wah dee bee mai ka! (happy new year in Thai!)

Email to Mom 2 (her questions are in italics)

How far is the island from the mainland that you werejust walking back and forth?

My guess is like a ten minute walk when there's no water, and then a lot longer when you're wading through water up to your waist.

So the woman who runs Koh ma just decided to close itup???? What kind of problems were there?

No clue. She (24) along with her boyfriend (26) and her nephew (13, speaks no English) were the only ones in charge. She was the receptionist, cook, cleaning crew. And her boyfriend got stuff to and from the island and the little kid carried heavy things. I think the problems were relying on a generator for power, having power for like at most 3 hours a day (6pm to 9pm), having to bring food from the mainland over everyday, not having refrigeration, having water coming from a pipe from the mainland and having that get messed up sometimes and then the 4 feet of water people have to walk through to get to it during the day. She doesn't own it though, she was just running it, and I think she was having problems with the people who own it, who are never there. Another problem Danny and I noticed was that the website for their hostel was copied and pasted from the website for the other hostel on Koh Pha Ngan, including the phone number. So when Danny thought he was making reservations at Koh Ma he was actually making them somewhere else. Ann, the girl who runs it, said she never got a call. And I emailed the address on the website and never got a response. When we asked Ann she just kept saying "too many problems" so my guess is that the owners didn't care enough to fix the things that she was telling them were wrong with the place.

That's my guess.

How do you get to Laos? When would that be? I guess if you go to Chiang Mai, you'll have a lot of computer access and will bewriting more.

I spent this morning planning it. So either tomorrow or the next day I'll go from Samui to Bangkok (Bangkok Air). I figured if I'm going to be in Thailand for two months I should probably see Bangkok at some point. So then around the 9th fly Bangkok to Luang Prabang (Bangkok Air). Then Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai (not Bangkok Air) around the 13th, then back to the elephant park from the 16th to the 22nd, then Chiang Mai for a couple of days. Then back to Samui (Bangkok Air) and then Samui to Hong Kong on the 30th, have the 31st in case there's a problem somewhere. And then fly back to NY on the 1st!

I decided this this morning. I don't actually have tickets yet but I'm going to get another Discovery Pass with Bangkok Air.

Oh so Ot (the kid) pretty much hung out with me for the rest of the day. After the internet cafe he walked to the beach with me. I read, he played soccer, then volleyball with some French hippies. We went back to his cousin's restaurant for dinner and I got a plate of fried rice with chicken. Which was good, but I thought I had ordered "Creamy Rice with Chicken" from the Soups page. Mai pen rai. We went to the bar and no one was there but the music was on. I was kind of confused cause I had seen the bar guy before. I found him in front of the mini mart sitting around a table with all the other cousins. He said "So you and Ot can run the bar tonight?" I said yeah. I didn't see him again, but no one came to the bar. So I guess we did fine. Then Ot invited himself to stay in my bungalow at night. It had two beds and since I guess he normally sleeps at the bar and he had given me a whole tour of the area on his motorbike I figured it wasn't a big deal. In the morning he woke up, said goodbye and left. I thought it was kind of sudden, but then the whole thing was kind of strange to begin with.

But then came back with breakfast.

It was stuff that looked like meat with stuff that didn't look like meat on a skewers. He told me it was bbq "moo" (which is actually pig, cow is "ooo"). I was hoping the "stuff that didn't look like meat" was pineapple but I'm pretty sure it was just pieces of fat. I ate it. Mai pen rai. He also brought fruit yogurt drink juice boxes. Then he said he was going to his friends house at the top of the mountain and asked if I wanted to come. I said yes. His friend runs a little bar hut thing and then lives in a room on top of it. It's bamboo, a couple of 2x4s with a straw roof and then a huge TV with DVD and really nice stereo system. As soon as we got there, his friend, Tum, put his Scorpions Acoustic, Live in Lisbon DVD in. And then they sang along to Scorpions. They love Scorpions. They asked if liked Scorpions and I said yeah and they said "some people don't like Scorpions, like Germany." I said "Germany blaak" which (maybe) means "Germany is weird."

After that we came back and I went back to my bungalow, figured out what I'm doing for the next month and he went back to the bar. I just passed him on the way to the internet place and he was playing Game Boy. It's kind of raining here. I'm pretty sure I'll leave tomorrow. It's hard to leave cause everything's so easy now. I have people to hang out with if I want, but I never have to. The mosquitoes aren't as bad here as they were in Haad Rin. And Ot barely knows English so there's a lot of Thai learning going on.

But I do want to see Laos and elephants and I should see Bangkok so once I leave I'll probably be fine. Of course none of these people I meet have email so it's harder to say goodbye to them than to like the other volunteers at the elephant park who I've been in touch with since I've left.

That's all for now. It's not raining AND sunny for the first time today at 3:43pm so I'm going to get out of the internet cafe.