Hike to high point on island - Khao Ra

Today - Feb 26 - finally accomplished a goal I had been wanting to complete since I arrived on the island, that is hiking to the high point on the island, called Khao Ra. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get around to doing the hike, although i have been busy with yoga, swimming and snorkeling, touring the rest of the island, and doing all others kinds of stuff. Been a while since I had done a long and rather challenging hike, probably since doing the hike to Bottle Beach about a month and half ago. Today's was much more difficult as I was hiking uphill to reach the summit of Khao Ra - 627 meters above sea level. The weather was beautiful starting off and throughout the hike, with lots of sunshine and plenty of time in the trees to keep cool. The weather for the past several days on the island had been lots of rain during the days and nights - not the most favorable weather to be hiking in. The trail was quite slippery in spots from the previous days precipitation, and would have been that much more if it had been pouring during the hike. Wasn't too much of a factor hiking to the summit, but descending I had to be extra careful with my footing to avoid slipping and falling on my ass, which happened a couple of times.

I was able to summit the peak in about 2 hrs, the standard time suggested for the hike too take. The trail was fairly well marked with plastic water bottles, although at the beginning I wound up off trail for a bit until I bumped back into the trail walking through the woods. Wasn't able to see any wildlife save a few lizards along the way. I would imagine most wildlife and reptiles are scared off by hikers and the noise and vibrations they create moving along. I only saw 2 hikers along the way up. I had the summit all to myself when I reached it and was able to get some nice pics of the island from the top with the ocean in the distance. There were alot of misty clouds moving in veru quickly and this had the effect of obscuring much of the vista available at the top. Took me much quicker to get back down the mtn and back to my motorbike, only 1 hr. I didn't have any problems losing the trail on the way back and seemingly had the mtn to myself as I didn't bump into anyone on the descend.

I may have one more hike ahead of me on the east side of the island which I am considering in the next few days. Otherwise my next hikes to come will most likely occur in the northern Thailand and Golden Triangle Area and promise to be quite epic. Northern Thailand is very mountainous and forms the very early foothills of the Himalayas several countries off. In speaking with others who have been in northern Thailand and the Chiang Mai area there are numerous tours, treks, and hikes available in the region. Some can last for upwards of several wks and can include hiking deep into the forest, possibly riding on elephants if I choose, an experience promising to be exciting. Still a faint chance I may take a train down to Malaysia and do some trekking in the jungle down there, the next country south of Thailand. Would be amazing but doesn't fit into my budget and schedule very well at the moment.

Full Moon Party

The full moon party was supposed to have occurred on Friday Jan 22 as was listed on the internet as well as being common word of mouth. The actual lunar full moon was the previous evening, however as it was the Buddha's bday or a Buddhist holiday, depending upon who one listens to, the party was postponed till the following night on Friday. It was then postponed again from Friday evening to Sunday evening for reasons nobody is quite sure about. Possible reasons I have heard include an election on Friday to their having been a recent death in the royal family. At any rate, it was figured that it would still be quite crowded and partylike in Haad Rin, the site of the full moon party, as everybody had been coming into town with the expectations of the party being Friday evening.
Myself and 7 others from yoga class decided to take the journey across the island to Haad Rin to check out the scene. Included in our group was a fun loving and free-spirited black Canadien woman named Beth, short for Bethleham, now living in Australia and finishing up her law degree. She was much fun watching skip down the street as well as sing random songs from all genres of music. She is defintely one of the most unique persons I have met so far. Too bad she only sticking around for 4 days as she was visiting a friend at Agama Yoga and just passing through, kind of like a wind blowing through town. Another girl, Victoria, a beautiful blond from Munich, Germany who recently arrived and is attending yoga class as well. Traveling by herself, she is only 23 yrs old and has already spent extended time traveling through South America, Europe, New Zealand, and Fuji, in addition to being here in Thailand. I have definitely enjoyed getting to know her. The youngest one of our group was Sheila, 20 yrs old and one of the few Americans I have met abroad so far. She is definitely a very mature spirit as she has been traveling by herself for several months now, earlier being in China for several months. Here she is studying yoga while her husband is stationed in Iraq with the army.

The Haad Rin scene was quite crowded although limited partying was happening during the evening. Typically on the beach at Haad Rin, especially during full moon time, their is one party and music set after another on the beach blasting music with everyone dancing and reveling. However on this evening there was no music playing on the beach, nor very little playing in many of the bars and clubs. Apparently some edict had been issued by the government subduing the partying for the evening, in light of whatever issues were postponing the full moon party till Sunday night. Our group still did manage to hit up several establishments and enjoy some of the delicious mushroom shakes common to the town.

King Cobra outside Cosmic EnergyMassage

I stopped in the other day to the massage business I had been learning thai massage at, Cosmic Energy Massage, to practice and was greeted by the owner, Mr. Roeng, with a big smile. He excitably spoke in his broken English of a king cobra in the back. I wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about but I found out soon enough as he lead me out back behind the business. Lying on the ground next to the porch was a large dead king cobra. Apparently that morning he had heard his dogs barking in the back and he went to check it out and saw the beautiful specimen coiled and hooded up, defending itself from the dogs. His dogs didn't know any better as it was probably the first time that they had encountered a cobra snake. According to Mr. Roeng several times the dogs came too close to the snake and the cobra bit them. However it must have been a dry bite as the dogs survived and showed no sickness. In addition, the cobra must have been there since the previous evening as he had heard his dogs barking in the back the night before but was unable to view the snake. May have been disastrous for someone to have walked through that area in the darkness and to be struck on the leg by the cobra. Usually however cobras and most snakes head for cover as they feel the vibration of upcoming footsteps. Also quite amazing that the snake was in the around that it was, so close to the human population and the beach. From what I have been told king cobras are typically to be found in more remote locations away from civilization and the danger it poses for them. Higher up in the mountains and deeper in the jungle are most ideal for them. There there is more food for them to seek out, typically in the form of other snakes from what I have heard. King cobras are one of the few snakes which will eat other snakes.

The snake was a beautiful specimen,around 10 ft long or so, although not in the condition I was seeing it. Mr. Roeng had killed it and it had been decapitated, with its head buried so that no possible accidental post death bites may occur. It is possible there could be a spasm or something along those lines even in its death and it could bite and poison someone. Being that his family, wife and daughters, are often at the business along with much other human traffic, no need for such an accidental biting to occur. In additon to the head being chopped off and buried, the snakes abdomen had been cut open and one of its organs taken out, I believe its gall bladder although i'm not for certain. This organ was placed in some thai whiskey as a special concoction intended to bestoy strength on those taking a shot. Apparently according to either chinese medicine or thai folk medicine, the cobra possesses much strength which can be passed along to anyone portaking in certain of its parts. The gall bladder is one such of this parts which is said to make one strong. After viewing the snake and getting some good photos, I was offered a shot of the whiskey with the gall bladder marinating inside. There was no way I was going to decline such a noble offer, so I happily chugged a shot down. While I got a decent buzz from the whiskey, I can't say that I acquired any additional strength or powers from the gall bladder having been in the whiskey. One probably needs to take continual drinks of the potion over the course of several days for that kind of result to materialize.

2 days later I went back to Cosmic Energy and Mr. Roeng asked where I had been as I had missed out on the feasting of the cobra the day before. He and several other thai massage therapists and friends at his business had eaten the cobra, probably in a barbeque. The eating of the king cobra is also supposed to bestow strength on those eating it. I was very disappointed that I had missed out on such a feast. The eating of the snake also apparently raises your body temperature much as he commented on one of the guys eating it who had taken a shower to cool down. Seconds later he was sweating again, apparently effects derived from the cobra. Mr. Roeng also swore that the snake had made him stronger, both in his muscles as well as sexually. He pointed to his groin with a big smile on his face stating essentially that he was stronger and more virile. I asked his wife who was sitting several feet away if this was true and she laughed and said she didn't notice anything different about him.

It's unlikely that I will have the benefit of seeing another king cobra while on the island of Ko Phangan. However, from what I heard regarding the markets of Chiang Mai and Laos, markets there quite regularly serve up cobra meat and other kinds of Asian delicacies. I was talking with several lovely Australian girls in their early twenties who had spent time up in Chiang Mai and Laos. The one girl, Kaz, said she had drank a concoction containing tiger penis, another bestoyer of strength according to Chinese Medicine.

Snorkeling on Ko Mah

One of my best snorkeling experiences so far has been on the tiny little island of Ko Mah, right off the northwest coast of KoPhangan. It is easily accessible by walking on a sandbar from the mainland. While the snorkeling outside the resort I have been staying at is very cool with beautiful coral reef formations, there is not many fish to be seen. This is the result of large fishing boats cruising up and down the coastline with huge nets pretty much scooping up everything in its reach. Not many fish and other marine life survive. I did see 2 octupuses on separate occasions scurrying along the sea floor, along with a sea snake or eel backing down into a hole in the sea floor. Otherwise u are left with the coral to admire and lots of single fish and few schools of fish to observe.



Ko Mah on the other hang is another story. The location is typically loaded with fish and one can see legions of fish in the 1000's and 10,000's and up completely enveloping you. All kinds of fish with different exotic and fluorescent colors and shapes. One school of fish I observed was made up of tens of thousands of black and white zebra striped fish cruising their way around, completely obscuring anything else that may have been in the area. At times it is like being in a virtual video game with all the vivid fluorescent colors and visuals omnipresent. A complete different world than anything I had ever seen before.



As the coral reefs are instantly right off the island of Ko Mah, surrounding it and extending back to the mainland, one doesn't have to swim far at all to reach the reefs. Often on other nearby beaches you have to swim several hundred ft into the ocean before you reach the coral reefs. Apparently large fishing boats have to keep a certain distance between themselves and main land. Or at least this is done as the waters are so shallow that they need to be out a distance to be at a safe enough depth. The condition of the coral reefs and all the fish present at Ko Mah being so close to coastline prevents over fishing and allows huge numbers of fish to thrive at the location, making for incredible snorkeling.



On the main problems with the Ko Mah and it's incredible snorkeling and presence of fish is that many other snorkelers and swimmers are present, making it a necessary for one to be mindful to not bump and swim into other swimmers.

Another Crazy Neighbor

Another interesting and different person moved in beside my unit in the past wk. She is a Belgian women now living in New York City who goes by the name of Boogie. In what appears to be her mid-thirties, Boogie sports dreadlocks and is a practicing witch. As I was talking with her on of the first evenings she moved in, she told me more about her passion of being a witch and some of the practices she gets involved with. I don't really remember precisely what she explained in regards to her witchcraft practice, although she said she is not into black or satanic witchcraft.
Later on in the evening as I was practicing some yoga in my room I could hear her, 2 rooms over, doing some witchcraft in the form of chanting and what sounded like pounding on drums or something. It was all fairly entertaining and made me feel more alive and appreciative for my time and experiences here in Thailand.

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Met my first African American here on the island of Ko Phangan several days ago. It is uncommon enough to meet many Americans, let alone a black one from the states. I was hanging out outside of the 7-11 talking with a friend from yoga school when I heard a bunch of commotion coming from a large black dude about 10 ft away. He was ranting something about water to the clerks in the 7-11 and tossing water all over the place from a collapsable type jug. He seemed a bit out of control and I was just hoping the situation wasn't going to escalate into anything violent. The Thais are very laidback and non-confrontation, but if you cross them I have heard they can get quite vindictive and violent. Apparently the country has one of the higher murder rates by gun in the world.
I just stood back and observed and thought he potentially sounded American byhis accent. As I was heading over to my motorbike he turned out to be heading in the same direction and his bike was parked next to mine. I asked him what was going on and he said something about them giving one price for some fountain water, and then upcharging significantly when he was leaving. Didn't seem like that big of a deal, but miscommunication occurs often with the language differences. I asked him where he was from and he said New York City. That would definetely explain the attitude he possessed, as attitudes in NYC are much more in your face than here in Thailand, where much significance is placed on keeping your cool and saving face. I told him I was from Philadelphia and we talked a bit. He was with a beautiful woman from Taiwan. Didn't get a chance to find out what he was doing here or for how long.

Hike to Haad Khontee from Haad Rin

Did a relatively short yet tricky hike on Sun Feb 3 from Haad Rin, the sunrise side of the town where the full moon party occurs, up the coast to the next beach, named Haad Khontee. In looking at the map of the island there was indicated a trail leading from Haad Rin over to Haad Khontee. I had a hell of a time attempting to locate where the trail begins as the map doesn't go into exquisite detail listing and noting all relevant landmarks. After searching in the area I assumed the trail would begin, I was luckless in finding a definitive trailhead. I decided to try my luck in following a path leading up to and beyond some bars and bungalows along the coastline. The path ran out and I decided to just hike and climb along the huge rocks and boulders along the coastline, many very steep in themselves. This was much fun at the beginning as I had lots of energy and the scenery along the coastline was quite beautiful with the ocean crashing into the rocks below. However, I didn't make the hike as easy as possible for myself as I was wearing flip flops and hadn't brought any food along with me. I have gotten used to wearing flipflops as I have worn them everywhere I have been in the last month and a half, including on some short hikes in the woods to various waterfalls and landmarks. I also assumed their would be somewhere to grab a bite to eat upon making it to my destination. The hike appeared to be very short as one can see a section of the beach of Haad Khontee shortly up the coast and around a bend from Haad Rin. It took me about an hour and a half to to get very close to the beach I was aspiring to reach. Haad Khontee is a very small beach with only one resort present on it. From a near distance away I got a good glimpse of the beach and didn't notice a single person lounging or hanging out on it. The actual beach itself didn't appear to be too pristine or luxurious as lots of debris and fragments of nature looked to be washed ashore. I decided not to travel the last portion to arrive at the beach.

It was getting later in the afternoon and I didn't want to risk traveling back in the dusk and soon to be approaching nightfall. It wasn't a large hike by any means but a bit tricky navigating myself through the boulders and steep slabs of rocks. There were also areas where I had to work my way through thickets of foliage, including some areas with some nasty prickers. Several times while working my way through thickets of bush I managed to acquire numerous less than friendly ants all over my legs. I would frantically work to slap them off myself as I felt them treating me like dinner. After I had hoped and assumed that I had them all off of me I would feel a nasty bite high up in my shorts and work maniacally to smash it. Finally, dead tired, sore, and thirsty, I made it back to where I started. After getting myself something to drink I made a quick trip to the ocean to cool down and clean myself off of all the caked on dirt and grime plastered on myself. The ocean felt wonderful and the surf was much different from on the other side of the island. Lots more waves although not ones large enough to surf on. Upon getting out I noticed lots of scatches and small cuts on my body acquired from navigating through the boulders and folliage.

After cleaning myself up in the ocean resting a bit on a lounge chair, I decided to wander back up to the streets to get myself some food. One of the first places I bumped in was the Cobra Bar, a lovely establishment showcasing nightly snake and scorpion shows, with their cobras as the main event. I was checking out a large poster in the front with pictures of the cobras and of thai women with scorpions crawling all over their bodies when a beautiful thai girl came out with a large python wrapped around her shoulders. We started talking a bit and she noticed all the scratches and nicks all over my body from the earlier hike. She told me to come inside and stay put as she was going to grab some first aid supplies. Minutes later she reappeared with a first aid kit including hydrogen peroxide and other ointments to put on my cuts. She took care of my wounds and I found her name was Ooy. She was down from Bangkok for a short time to help out with the business. I bought her a water and we talked for a while and I showed her all the pics on my camera and I learned more about the business of operating a Cobra bar. While they had some cobras on the premises locked up in some crates, they didn't possess a king cobra as they were apparently quite expensive to acquire. I jokingly offered to go up into the hills to find them one if they would pay me well. After hanging for a while I got Ooy's phone number and promised to come back later in the week to hang out with her and watch one of the shows.

Bad Drivers on Ko Phangan

Lots of horrible drivers here on the island driving their motorbikes around. Seems like everyday I meet or run across another person who is bandaged up or has some nasty wounds from crashing their bikes. I used to think that it was primarly a women thing being bad drivers but increasingly more and more I am coming across guys with bandages and cuts. My first week staying at Jinda Bay Resort on the island I met a French girl who had flipped her motorbike over while driving up a steep hill heading toward Haad Rin on the eastern side of the island. She wound up with a heavily bandaged and stitched up foot and ankle. Another day when I was pulling out onto a road I looked to my left up a small hill and noticed a girl pull out from the other side of the road and fly across the road straight into an enbankment. Fortunately she didn't appear to be injured and got right up. Another girl in my yoga class came into class the other day wearing a cast on her left arm, apparently broken from wrecking her bike. In addition, my friend Samantha from yoga class has crashed her bikes twice and has the scratches, scabs and scars to prove so.



While definitely lesser in number than the women, I have encountered guys here and there who have driven their bikes into the ground. Several days ago I met a man sitting next to me at the computer room from the US with a heavily bandaged up wrist and hand from sliding his bike into the road. He said he tore a nice sized chunk of skin off of his hand. Must have hurt like a bitch I would imagine. I have had a couple of close calls myself , mostly on heavily rutted up dirt roads off the beaten track. Fortunately I have been quite lucky and have good enough strength and balance to control the machine. Most people I would imagine are wrecking their bikes at curves and bends on the main roads when they should be slowing down. This seems to be the main area to show caution when driving on the roads here. At most of the curves there is often alot of gravel and small pebbles that can have a ball bearing type effect if you are going too fast. Easy to lose control on this gravel and go sliding into the street, ripping and scraping up chunks of flesh from all areas off the body. It seems to be pretty common sense to slow down alot when approaching these curve and bends in the road. On the straight aways it is fun to gun the bikes and get them going pretty fast. The speedometers are in kilometers per hour, not miles per hour as in the U.S., and I have gotten mine up to around 80 kph. in certain straight aways.

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Picked up a Thai hitchhiker this past Sunday heading on down to the town of Thongsala. Not too often u see a Thai out hitchhiking for a ride. He was an older man and I figured I would help him out an give him a ride on the way I was heading. I felt a little apprehensive along the way cause u never know if someone has ulterior motives or is trying to be sneaky. I was wearing my backpack and hoping he wasn't trying to stealthily sneak his hands into it and grab stuff. I know it's paranoid thinking but one has to be aware of these kind of possibilities. I haven't been robbed of anything yet nor have I lost anything valuable thus far. All it takes is a momentary lapse in awareness and shit can happen. It was also kind of weird how the gentlemen kept trying to speak Thai to me along the ride. I know some Thai language - just some basic words and phrases - but he was speaking sentences to me as if I possessed some level of fluency in the language. I suppose he was just trying to convey where abouts he wanted to be dropped off at. Eventually I reached his destination and dropped him off. He was quite grateful and smiled appreciately and grandly as the Thai people do so well.

Observations on Ko Phangan

Was riding my motorbike on the mountainous east side of the island on the main dirt road when I decided to check out a dirt road heading off to the side into the jungle. I wasn't sure what to expect but figured it would be interesting side adventure. After driving about 5 minutes up and down a very rutted out dirt road I made it to a cleared out area with about 5 shanty like dwellings and several thai men sitting on the porch toward the center. As I neared the men on the porch one of the thai men punched his fist and pointed in the direction of another thai man walking down another dirt path holding a basket. I wasn't sure if the guy was angry that I had entered his little village area or if he wanted to direct my attention to the guy walking down the path. Something about the tone of him hitting his fist didn't exactly strike me in a very friendly manner, although I could have been misconstruing his intentions. However, as the guy carrying the basket neared me I noticed that out of the basket flowed a large reptilian type tail, either of a lizard or snake. A second later I saw that inside the basket was a large dead monitor lizard with its guts handing out of its torso. It was a pretty impressive site and the first time I had really seen a large monitor lizard on the island as of that point. The man took the basket over to an area to do whatever to the lizard. I would imagine that it was that evenings meal. Would have been interesting to stick around a have a bite of the lizard. I'm sure it would have been quite tasty but I will have to postpone that kind of delicacy till later. However, I didn't like the vibe of the first guy who had punched his fist and felt it was best to take off out of the small village.



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Have had many interesting neighbors thus far in my stay at Jinda Bay Resort. So far I have stayed in the same room for about a month and am itching to get moving along. I have a pretty good deal on the rm at about $6 a night - 180 baht - and it's nice staying put for a bit and not having to worry about packing everything up and moving around, not that I really carry too many belongings in the first place. Also unlikely to find much cheaper than 180 baht a day. One of the first neighbors I had was a guy named Field, a guy from Canada who had created the name for himself. We were neighbors for about a wk till it was his time to move along. He said he was taking off to Bali for about a month to meet up with a friend. In the next several wks I had some neighbors from South Africa. Talked to them briefly but didn't really get a chance to find out much about them.



One of the more interesting characters that moved in during the course of my stay was one of the yogis from Agama Yoga. He called himself Mop-Mop and was staying with his girlfriend, Muff-Muff, also practicing yoga at Agama Yoga. They were never in any of my classes as I was in the first month and they were in their third month. Classes at Agama Yoga start at month one and work all the way up to month twenty and higher as one graduates each progressive month and completes each set of higher spiritual and yogic teachings. Students in their respective months have their classes separately, although I'm not sure exactly how it works as one works their way up the ladder of months. Not too surprising both Mop Mop and Muff Muff were from San Francisco in the states, some of the few students I had met at Agama from the U.S. Mop Mop was a pretty interesting guy but moving out with his girlfriend the following day to rent out a house near the yoga center. He mentioned he had attended the University of Pennsylvania several years ago in Philadelphia.



After Mop Mop and Muff Muff moved out the next day 2 beautiful British girls moved in for a day. I met them the following evening after I had been hanging out with friends from class. They were both 18 yrs old and traveling through SE Asia and India for 5-6 months together. I had a chance to hang out with them for about an hour or so talking and getting to know them. Unfortunately they were taking off the next day to somewhere else on the island. I found it really impressive that such young ladies were traveling together for so long. They mentioned how during there time in Bangkok they visited one of the ping pong shows in Patpong. Funny listening to their story of being at the show and observing a Thai woman, sitting near the stage of the performing women, nonchanlanly eating a plate of noodles during the performance. For most people watching the raunchy performances doesn't exactly inspire hunger for food.


Had a couple of other Americans move in for several days in the past wk. They mentioned how they had been teaching English in China for about a yr and were taking a vacation to Thailand for several wks before heading back to China. I believe they mentioned they were from the New England states. Didn't see them around too much and didn't learn too much about them.