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.