Day 38: Fire Rope Jumping and Valentines Day

Woke up after a restless night. The beds are like bricks, uncomfortable at best. Tossed and turned begging for sunrise to come so I could leave it's concrete embrace. On every side my back and hips ached, only one more night before we move to a better solution. 

Spent the morning at the coffee shop working on blog day 35 from my notes. Ordered mocha frappe and omlette breakfast, turn around and run into the 3 Aussie girls, but of course. I sit at the neighboring table intentionally and tell them so. There is no way I will make any headway on the blog if im carried away in conversation, which they are quite gifted at. Not 5 minutes later Joseph shows up, which brings about casual conversation with the three and us for the next 30 ... I need to blog. Eric, Martin, and Manne join us an hour later, about the same time Pru, Madde, and Belle head off to the beach, maybe 12ish. At 2 they will be leaving for a half day snorkeling trip which I quickly warn them about the Sea Urchins and show them my war wounds. We plan out the day  I take a focused hour to finish the day 35 blog, and we set out for the day. 

We decide to head to Long Beach, next to Shark Point, about a 30 minute walk. It's has deeper water closer to shore and less people. I reach for my cameras and realize both are dead. Blurgh! The two outlets in the dorm have really loose holes an the plugs refuse to stay lodged, so up the creek without a paddle. Head out anyhow, feeling a little naked. 

On the way we stop at a shop and buy  the only American football we can find, a minature one. Can you guess the team? The NY Jets. Yeah, I have the same thought, of all the teams ... you'd expect the Cowboys, the Giants, the Saints, the Broncos, even the 49ers, but the Jets? Oh well.  At a small beach half way there we stop and I attempt to show the Swedes how to throw the ball. Ironic since I myself am not that good. Eric gets the trajectory down ok, but the motion is lost him. Manne actually gets the spiral down ok, but not the distance. The water is shallow, maybe 18 inches deep for a good 150 meters out, and mostly sand, so I teach them 500. Eric has a propensity for diving, and though his hands are not that sure, mere odds play out and he wins. Play a few other rounds before we move on down the shore over the rocks around the corner towards Long Beach. 

We finally stop at a little beach resort sporting a private beach within a rocks throw of Long Beach. It seemed to be a fine spot, equivalent to Long Beach but less crowded. We head into the water and it quickly gets 3 to 4 feet deep, such a refreshing change. We do have to avoid the large coral rocks and the spiny Black Sea Urchins, though more for their sake, I have a vendetta against them. 

Joseph and Martin head back to the dorms, so that they can get a run in. It's 90+ with an instant sweat humidity going on, good luck with that. Manne, Eric and I start back the way we came. The tide is out about 100 to 150 meters from the beach, and since the shoreline is curved, we can make a straight line across the sea walking mostly on dry land ... You know I'm all about that. Manne stays the original course as Eric and I venture out, he fears a dead end and is too exhausted to back track. Eric and I get back to the dorms 10 minutes before him. Not often do you get to walk around a long tail boat, seaside, on dry ground. 

 Head to Reggae bar for food and man the burgers were good. Rena, the lady  who runs the joint, spent 7 years in the states and took an immediate liking to me. A portly young German at the table next to us decided to take the Big Burger challenge.  It's an 800g burger, loaded up thick fries, massive amount of onion rings, and a deep bowl of cole slaw. It's free if you can finish it in 30 minutes. I should of taken a picture, it was a large order of heart attack with a side order of stroke! We left with 10 minutes to spare and no chance of him winning. Our burgers were the appropriate amount and quite amazing!

I headed back to D'sBooks for a Mocha Frappe, to charge my camera batteries, and to work on day 36 blog. Finished around 9:30, batteries full, it's time to go out -Valentines Day and Chinese New Year!

Went with the Swedes to the beach. It was free buckets from 10:00 - 10:10 at Ibiza. Sounds like a deal until you meet the buckets, taste like varnish with some cheap Samsong liquor, coke, and redbull type additive. It goes down hard and the after taste lingers, but it's free. We finish our buckets and head back to the street, the beach entrance, where you can buy buckets for cheaper.  I bought an orange juice at the mart, had them remove the can of sprite, and combined the OJ with some type of red bull additive and vodka for 300 baht. Went to Slinky's on the beach where they invited you to join in on the fire fun. They had jump rope,  a diving ring, and a limbo pole. All three are made of fabric and ropes drenched in gasoline, lit on fire. Can you guess which ones I did? Yep, all 3 - I have videos! And every time you limbo or jump, they give you a shot. Yeah, to summarize, they try to inspire you to play in the fire by giving free shots, which then gets you feeling good, making you want to play in the fire more, which then gets you more shots, which then makes you feel good, which then ... Gasoline covered ropes spun by Thai's with no concept of liability + Alcohol = brillant!      

Then we left and headed over to the dance party at Apache Bar, next to Slinky's. Run into the 3 Aussies again - Pru, Madde & Belle - convinced they're stalking us. A group of Swedish girls adopt me, start to grind up on me, so I called over and introduce my boy Manne to them. One fiesty intoxicated Swede, Cassandra, isolates me and before I know it, her tongue is down my throat & her hands start to roam ... Woah, Happy Valentine's Day to you too. Hey, I gotta find my friends, they're looking for me. "Nooo, they don't need you, you need me, stay." I've got to go - literally peeling her hands off of me. "Ok, come back!" Suurree. I make a b-line through the dance floor to the other side of the beach. 

Find Erik who's hanging with a Brit and a South Carolinian, Liza. Shortly after meeting the Brit, he anounces to us he slept with a lady boy in Chang Mai and that he's proud of it, he earned his stripes ... Uh, what stripes would that be? The story goes he had no clue until he got her back to the room, but upon finding out, his hormones took precedent, aka "he was so horny, he just went for it". Post-op or pre-op, I did not ask, but I did mention that his closet door now had a window that was clearly open.  

Liza and I finish up our convo and off I head to find Manne and the crew. I see Martin and Erik close to the Aussie tonsil stealer, so I decide it's time to make my way back towards the hostel, it was past 1 after all. 

I run into a number of people I know, and make friends with a few more. A few new ones of note would be Joe and Mikala, an Irish couple who have been together for 6 years. They were on the street with another couple when I walked up and we all hit it off. The comedy begins to flow, he has a dousey of a lady boy story and I won't ruin it for ya, but he ends up without a stitch of clothing in the back room, though nothing happened. Via that story we all learn he's 9 inches soft, his girlfriend confirms, and in his state jokingly threatens to pull it out. It's all good bro, if I had that, I'd show it off too. They head on their way and that's when Tess and Jules appear outside the Freshmart. Conversation was fun and light and they ended up getting my name though I have yet to see the facebook friend request. Shortly after I meet the Swedes Oscar and Lars, the Americans Kate and Ricky, and an Irish/Singapore couple. 

Finally make it back to the dorm at 5am, exhausted ... Nite nite, iPhone Blogger out.