Day 40 - 43: Missed the Ferry Again ... On purpose.

I'm combining these 4 days because they are pretty much all the same, the only thing changing are the culprits  involved. 

Day starts out like they all do, 11am, rub my eyes, stretch my limbs, sit up and think, "what's for breakfast?". I grab a friend and head off to a breakfast joint, we have our regulars, D's, Reggae, place next to Pirate Bay.
Sometimes it's a ham & cheese omlette, sometimes it's granola fruit yogurt, sometimes it's just chicken fried rice, but without fail, it involves a banana juice shake with the total running $5usd or less. The days are always hot and humid by this time, so I never wear a shirt, in fact some days a shirt doesn't touch my skin at all, even at night - yep, it's how I picture heaven! 

I then return to The Rock (said in a Sean Connery accent), either use the facilities or just change into my boardies. Head by D's Books to get a quick wifi connection and check immediate emails, then head to the beach. The tide is in, the water is clear and warm, the sun is blazing. I learned my lesson in Bali so I always bring sunscreen and lather up, yeah mom, making ya proud. And then I chill, either in the water with friends or in a chair on the beach beneath an umbrella. And my favorite pasttime ensues... people watching. See all shapes and sizes but as a whole, it's a good looking crowd, lots of  guys trying to impress, lots of girls pretending not to care ... and the mating ritual begins.  

Around 5, I head back to the hostel to shower, the sand finds it's way into the most precarious areas, and clean up in general. Grab a mocha frappé from D's Books and attempt to blog, catch up on the bball scores from the day, and reply to important emails. This usually goes well for about 10 minutes until, without fail, someone from the night before spots me and sits down. Before long I'm holding court, sharing tales from LA, from my company, from my days in youth ministry. People always seem shocked that I'm a Christian, not in a negative way, but apparently in many other countries, their experiences dictate a stiff, legalistic, miserable type of Christian. Unfortunate really. The topic of ignorant Americans, Obama the great, universal healthcare, and the economy soon follow. Always informative, always opiniated, rarely argumentative, it tends to be an enjoyable discussion. Theoretically, many think there is an easy solution, especially those from socialistic countries with universal health care, but explaining economies of scale and the complexities of capitalism oft times opens their eyes, nothings simple about it. Yeah, this is how I chill in the tropics of Thailand ... Shocked?

Let me tell ya about a few cool people I have met at these meetings of the mind. Beyond the usual gang of Swedes that I hang with, I am going to run you through a few others, some met via my hostel, The Rock (said in a Sean Connery accent from the movie), some from the clubs. 

I'll start ya with Greg, a Scotsman with a wicked accent and general likability. He wants to work in the renewable energy field, loves Miley, taught me about the Celtic/Rangers football blood fued, and the nonsmoking policies of Scotland. Reminds me of friends from college who are skinny but athletic with generally a lot of worthy things to say. 

Then there's Matt, a British Musician from a mixed background of half Irish, half Trinidadian, resulting in a sweet fro and constant tan. He's a musician from London, with a sweet style about him and tons of game - the ladies are fans. 

Then there is Mack, the Japenese Canadian. He so wants to be a pimp but has zero game and is better off just being the nice guy enjoying life. We spent at least an hour talking about a girl from the dorms he liked, tifjennlaur... who cares ... who rings him at 3am in the morning when drunk to cuddle and share, but not make out. Yeah, he's been demoted to gay best friend, but will not reconcile, still thinks she'll come around. Great disposition though, just needs to find his balls and not fear rejection.

There's Philly Kate. Met late one night on my way back from the beach clubs with a group of people. From that point on, saw her no less than 5 times a day soon to find out she was in one of the dorms at The Rock (again said with Sean Connery accent). 

Matthieu is the french dude who happened to sit next to me while I was trying to get Mack to poop or get off the pot with the girl. He has a great girl back home, been with her for four years, but you can tell he has game, definitely contributes to the conversation. He ends up hanging out with me and the crew for the next few nights which involved lots of free buckets and on two occassions some skinny dipping at 2am in the ocean. It's actually really cool because 10 meters out there are these planktan in the water that glow at night when you move the water around, so kind of your own personal light show. The Aussie girls showed us the first night of dipping and then we showed the Swedish girls the second time around.      

Melanie and Camille - fiesty young Australian French girls on holiday from Uni. Melanie looks like a cross between Rachel McAdams and Claire Danes, Camille has an exotic Penolope Cruise thing going on. Ran into them one night with Manne and some Brits (Max, Josh, and Will) and one obnoxious Swede named Anton. He kept telling me, "you want me to hook you up with some hot Swedish girls? Here I'll do that for ya. Girls, this is the guy from the Hangover." Dude, first of all, you think I don't have game? Second, I don't need to lie to impress, I'm quite impressive without it, thanks. Fun guy, not so fun drunk. Back to the Camille and Melanie ... We hit it off and literally Ran into them and hung out everyday from that point until they left a few days later ... Great girls!

Polish guy - not sure his name but he has the quote of the night in Phi Phi. He was attempting to hit on these two cute Israeli girls at the beach. His opening line, and I quote, "Auschwitz, the place to go!" Enough said!

Met a ton of other notables, but for the sake of brevity, not one of my gifts, I will wrap this up. My nights always involved dinner at Papaya, largest portions on the island, we are talking American size which is rare. Then it was off to find a bucket, usually free from the flyers handed out by Western promoters on the street. They get 300baht/night ($10usd) plus all you can drink for free. I guess that can be worth it. We would hit Rolling Stones for some great coverband and then it was off to the beach Clubs, notably, Slinky's for firerope jumping, Abiza for chill time, and Apache for the dance party. They all close at 1am right now because the police are punishing the Thai Mafia for killing a kid on Dec 26th. Since they run the bars, which normally close at 4 or 5 am, they lose tons of money ... But the real losers are all of us tourists :(. So at 1, the music cuts off and everyone usually hangs on the beach or wanders back to the Irish Pub showing late night soccer. Then it is off to bed by 4 or 5, either at my place or a friends if they have an extra bed and it's closer. Great times but easily captured in one long blog, right?

Nite nite via the iPhone Blogger!