New year, Oympic games and English Party

I still have to write a little more about my trip but I need to add one blog in the middle before I forget how crazy it was. The oher day our program director asked us to if we wanted to go and play some games with some little kids on Monday. So me and a couple of my friends not having class that day though it would be fun so we volunteered. Like most things in China we had no idea what we where getting ourselves into. We show up and there are some college kids who helped to organize this party for some little kids at a local library. The first thing they asked us was if we could sing or dance. Of course none of us could and they asked if we had any skits planned and again our director failed to let us know that we should put something togethere. So we decided what the heck we where going to wing it. So we show up and it is in a little room of library with a small stage and they start telling us the activities that they had planned. Thank god they had enough for us to do or else we would have been dead. Because the only music they had for us that was in English was the Backstreet Boys from when i was in High school. It was Ok though they just had us play a few games and we played with the kids and the audience. It was kind of bizarre to us but someone said that they saw a game show on Chinese TV where they had foreigners on the show and they played pretty much the same games so I guess it did not seem strange to them. We played all kinds of games like Chinese hacky sack,Charades, and this game where we had to see how many marbles we could move from one plate to another with chopsticks. They also wanted us to explain how in the west we use knives and forks as opposed to Chopsticks. That was kind of strange we thought. They tried to teach us some traditional Chinese dances that did not go over too well. Even though it was crazy and for most of it we did not know what was going on we had a great time even though it was a little bizzare but hey that is China

New years and scooter

So since we had found a place to stay we finally got to go to one of the best New Years parties in the world. We had to travel in the back of a pickup truck for about 45 minutes to get to the other side of the island. When we got there we saw a huge beach covered with people. There where an estimated 30,000 people on this beach. It was one of the most ridiculous parties I have ever seen. There where people from all over the world there. We met people from Sweden, Britain, Germany and even some from Michigan. It was a lot of fun. There where bars that lined the beach and they where blaring loud music and people where dancing and acting crazy it was really awesome. You could buy buckets that had liquoe and pop mixed up and you just drank out of straws. Needless to say we got a little too drunk but we had an awesome time it was definately worth going too. After the excitement of the party we took the next day off I spent most of my day sitting in he hammock outside of our bungelow reading. The next day though we decided to do something. We rented these scooters they where really nice and it only cost about 300 Baht($9). So we went driving around the island all day long it was a lot of fun but it had been raining the entire time we where there and the roads of this island where mainly dirt and it had huge hills almost mountains and they went straight up. We where having an awesome time I do not know how we did not kill ourselves. We had just gone over to see the other side of the island and we where almost back to our side and I was going done this hill and my mind started wander. I was thinking about everything but riding. I sure enough fall right on my side and slid for about 5 feet. It hurt but luckily all I did was just scratch my leg and arm it was not too bad and the scooter did not look to bad. Then the next day when we went to turn it inthe lady running the scooter place saw that I scratched it. I ended up paying her 8,000 Baht($242)for th repairs. It really sucked but I had so much fun riding that thing for 2 days that I could not be too angry. It turned out alright I was just alot lighter in the wallet.

Ko Pha-Ngan

We went from one of the most least known tourist spots in Thailand to one of the best. Ko Pha-Ngan is an island about 2 hours off the coast of Thailand. We decided to go there for the new year because it is home to one of the largest beach parties in the world. The only problem was as usual we did not have a plan. We decided about 2 days before we went to maybe try and call to see if we could get a room. We called every place in our budget in the travel guide that we had and there was absolutely no rooms available it seemed. Most of the people acted like we where crazy for calling so late. They said "Do you know how busy we are this time year" They really though we where crazy but we knew we wanted to go. So oddly enough while we where in Bangkok we had a met a random German guy who said that we worked at a bar on the island. We got his number we decided to call him and it turned out he had a place for us to stay it was really awesome you just meet someone randomly and how things worked out we where really lucky. So we show up and he has this awesome bungelow for us that is about 100 yards away from the beach. It was really nice because we where on the other side of the island away from the huge crowds it amazing and when we got there we found out that some of the other people that we had met in Bangkok had done the same thing. So we ended staying with a bunch of people that we already knew it was awesome. One of the best places on this little part of the island was Handsome Sandwitches. It was run by a crazy Thai guy and they had the best hamburgers in Thailand. We would eat these things ever night after we got done drinking and almost every morning when we woke up they where truly awesome. They made them in this tiny shack that was in the middle of this small village it was really cool.

Khao Sok Continued

We where only able to stay there for 2 days but it was an amazing two days. In the morning when you wake up in this place you wake up to a million different birds singing and one of the most remarkable animal calls I have ever heard. It was the mating call of the Gibbon which is one of the largest and most advanced ape species in the world. The sounds that that make are really something and to wake up to them in the morning is really really awesome. It was the most unique wake up call that I had ever had. After we ate breakfast we got into some Kayaks and started down the lake. It was a truly maginifcent trip we paddled for about an hour and a half and came to thi cave that was sitting right there on the water. We where with some people who had been there before so it was not like we where the first people to ever go into this cave but anyway. There we where in this cave that we could paddle into and once you get in about half way it gets almost pitch dark and you can see all kinds of bats flying around and hanging from the ceiling it was really amazing. It was pretty creepy to see all of the bats flying around and we where just sitting there on a Kayak it was awesome. We paddled down a little farther and we decided to turn around and on our way back we decided to go for a swim because the temperature was about 85 degrees. Well we where able to get off the Kayak just fine but getting back on was a totally different story. There where 3 of us on this Kayak and two of us got on just fine and then when the third tried to get on the entire thing capsized. We all started grabbing everything we could and we only ended up losing one bandana. I was pretty impressed considering all of the flip flops and things that we had on the boat. It was just an amazing trip and it some place I wish everyone could go to just see the beauty of he rainforest it was truly awesome.

Khao Sok Natinal Park

Hello all sorry I have not been able to write on my blog lately I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off lately. I have been really busy. I did want to tell you about some of the other places I went to in Thailand because it truly was an amazing trip. After we returned from Thailand I met back up with one of my friends who has traveled in Thailand pretty much his whole life he had a special place that we could go and let me tell you it was one of the most amazing places that I have ever been. Khoa Sok national park is in the middle of a rainforest that is 160 million years old much older than the Amazon. It is located in Souther Thailand and it is truly magnificent. We where able to go to one of the most remote places in this vast national park. My friend knew some people who owned floating bungelows on the massive manmade lake in the middle of this huge nature reserve. This park had huge karst formations peaks that just came out of the lake about 300 feet in the air an there where massive treels growing right out of the rock it was truly breathtaking and amazing to see. To get to these remote floating bungelows we had to take a speed boat for about an hour and half. Then we came to a little hill where we had to hike about 20 minutes in the rainforest. Then we got on another boat that amounted to bamboo being tied together with a motor on the back of it for another 10 miunutes and we where there. As usual I cannot do the beauty of this place justice. There where this simple bungelows floating in the water facing a huge mountain that went at least 300 feet in the air. It was truly phenomenal. The water was the perfect temperature to swim in and it was as calm as glass. I could not believe that I was actually there it still is hard for me to get my head around it was amazing. To be continued.