Hello from Paradise

All:
Apologies for the delayed post...the web has been either spotty or too expensive (it's both here on Ko Pha Ngan but I needed to give a quick update). After a whirlwind tour of bangkok and the madness of khao san road, the islands are the perfect refresher. i can already see i'm going to have a difficult time leaving this place. forgive the typos and lack of caps, i'm using a keyboard that has amazingly survived for what could be decades.

as i said, bangkok is wild and i look forward to a repeat visit. i made it in a day late due to an emergency landing following our LAX takeoff. i spent a free night near the toyko narita airport with an incredible room, delicous free food, and a heated seat toilet with cartoon pictures on it. on my flight to bankok i met a lovely thai woman who gave me all sorts of inside advice.

an exciting transport from the airport dropped at the top of khao san road. it should be noted taht khao san comes with a disclaimer in all travel books. it is not thailand. it is more like a cross between bourbon street and disneyland. absolutely chaotic! but great to see if you are mentally prepared. i met up with kyle as planned and got the immediate impression that my trip is going to be incredible. he has traveled through the region for the past five weeks and has made a great goup of friends. in fact, we promtly headed south to the islands wih the intention of meeting his travel group.

fast forward 14 hours through a night bus ride and a speed ferry ride and kyle, his new kiwi friend, rich, and I found ourselves on the southwestern shores of ko pha ngan being enthusiastically greeted by three cheerful slovanians. rich described later that my face beamed like a kid in a candy shop as i realized i had arrived in paradise proper.

in all, the group kyle had ended up meeting had five or six core members and six more peripheral travelers. we spent the next three nights alternating swimmng, lounging in hammocks and eating cuisine taht has henceforth inspired me to learn thai cooking.

the full moon party: tuesday. words carry no description for the most dyonesian gathering of hedonistic revelers i have ever seen. an entire beach packed with dopers, drinkers, and dancers all caught up in the throbbing music cranking from each bar. it didn't stop until 11 in the morning...though once the heat of the day set in, a darker side of the full moon became visible. not the most pleasant place but a great party with good friend nonetheless.

now I'm here, at bottle beach on the northern shore of ko pha ngan. the group will stay here as long as it suits us then move to ko tao for snorkling and diving and more lounging. my only regret is taht my travel hammock didn't make it into my pack.

that's all for now...i will try to make updates on roughly one week intervals.

all systems go

Hello, and welcome to my travel blog! For those of you returning after following me through Europe, I hope to improve on my creativity and frequency of posts. Ideally, I'll even work in photos. For those of you just joining, I appreciate your visit. In my experience, a friend's travel blog can be a delightful way to fill the spirit's sails when caught in the doldrums. I will do my bets to keep this a fun, readable account of my adventures through southeast Asia.

The only fixed plan on at this point is to arrive in Bangkok, Thailand on the 18th of January and depart the Tokyo Narita Airport in Japan on May 30th. In between, I'll see Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, and Japan to varying degrees of depth.

Please, feel free to offer suggestions, post feedback, provide your address for a postcard, anything. Thank you, to all who are supporting me. I will be thinking of you.

Cheers!