The Arrival of Matty D

The original plan when leaving Bangkok for Koh Chang was to stay on the island for only a few days and then head back to BKK to pick up our friend Matthew "the Praying Mantis" DeSantis when he arrived. However, in a rare scientific phenomenon, we had somehow become glued to the beach and were not able to move a muscle until after New Years' Eve. So, in order to cope with this situation, we sent detailed instructions for Matty D to come and meet our trapped minds and bodies in Koh Chang.
We said our prayers, went to bed early and the stars alligned to bring us Matty D the following day. We met him at the ferry station on our motor bikes and told him to hop the hell on. In taking the scenic route back to our five-star villa, he immediately realized why we were unable to meet him at the airport back in Bangkok.

A photograph of our beloved and rather photogenic friend, Matty D can be seen below:

Loungin

I wnat to say that the following pictures came from our third day of stay on the island of Koh Chang but I cannot be 100% sure. Believe or not, the concept of time on an island in the Gulf of Thailand has the innate ability to become quite irrelevant. Also, there wasn't a clock to be seen for miles.....seriously; it was like Vegas.

On our second, third, or fourth day (whichever one it was), we rented a pair of motorscooters to tour the island with. At a heavy price of around two US dollars a day, it was a big set back and our financial woes completely took the wind from out our sails. Thus we decided to just take it easy and recover on a nearby beach. The stress was nearly too much.

Daylight

The following morning, after arriving on the island was definitely exciting. Everything that we had been so thrilled with the night before was now shed in sunlight, which made for a whole new experience. We had truly found paradise (for a group of 22 year old's with no money).

This picture below is a prime example of how we held it down in the Ice Beach Bungalow Resort. Embedded in our recent SF roots was the concept of the stoop session. This is where you post up on the stoop of your home and then proceed to chill, watch people, and basically shoot the shit for hours on end. We did just that....and I'm sure that Ice Beach Bungalow #'s 1 and 3 got the rep for it.







Mikey (the only one of us with an afro, for those who don't know him) is the Thailand local within our group. After studying abroad through the same organization in 2006, Mikey moved back to Thailand once graduating in 2008 to work for a human rights non-profit organization in north-eastern Thailand. Located in Kohn Kaen city, in the Isaan province; Mikey and his organization are doing incredible things for the poorer sect of Thai people that often go unheard. Being the one with the local knowledge, Mikey's first destination for us that morning was to the liqour store to purchase a few bottles of rice whiskey. If there was ever a drink to supposedly put "hair on your chest," it would be rice whiskey. Straight gasoline. However, we all participated in the local flavor while we listened to Mikey's unending and incredible stories.
Below is a snapshot of Mikey indulging himself in some rice whiskey and M150 (Strength, courage, devotion).


Our first sunset. This was taken on lonely beach which happened to be the closest beach to our bungalow (a whole 1 minute walk away). Thailand has some pretty amazing sunsets.









Thanks to the happy shake epidimic of 2008. I saw Carillo (aka the baby) asleep in this position more than not. This one's on the beach, but he fell asleep all over the place.





Our first night, we decided to choose a restaurant for us to frequent the rest of our stay in Koh Chang. This way we figured that we would be able to make good with the staff and eventually learn a lot more about them. This turned out to be the best decision we could possibly make. By the end of out stay, we were straight homies with the owner and waiting staff of the small hut-like eating establishment. And the food was delicious.
I think that the restuarant employees (Kwon especially) ended up liking us so much because of scenes like this one below with Carillo and Freddy.......or it could have been the fact that Mikey speaks nearly fluent Thai.


Kwon (the woman sitting next to Mikey) became an instant homegirl, if not our Thai mother. She was first our waitress at the restaurant that we chose to frequent but then soon became our Koh Chang tour guide. We knew that she was down when she offered to make us a special Thai meal that was off the menu the very first night. One of the days she hopped on the motorbikes that we had rented with us (3 deep) and showed us some spots to check out accross the island. She had said that she knew what was up with us when she saw us walking back to our bungalow with a bag full of rice whiskey. "None of the tourists drink that shit," she said. Thanks Mikey.


Happy shakes took casualties in more ways than one. Freddy suffered an incident here.

Check Out the Diggs

We arrived on the island of Koh Chang on the last ferry under the cover of night. And because we are on an island in the Gulf of Thailand, night is actually night and thus nearly pitch black. Mikey had visited this island nearly two years prior and was leading us to the direction of an establishment called the Treehouse, which is apparently world renowned for their "Happy Shakes." After a sketchy taxi ride up and down some seriously steep terrain we had arrived at our destination of Lonely Beach. We made our way through the small village that happened to be filled with irie bars and coffee shops and ever irier traditional tattoo parlors. We then stumbled upon our future home for the next week; Ice Beach Bungalows. I would say that Ice Beach found us rather than us finding it. Some photos were taken that night of what our set up looked like. Needless to say we were stoked. Minimalism is the wave of the future.

Here is a snapshot of the room. As you can see, all the necessary amenities are included. Bed, fan, light, and mosquito net (photo is actual size of accomodation).


Right behind our hut was a relatively large tide river that flowed in from the sea that was about 150 yeards away. However, because of the combination of darkness and low tide on the first night, we had assumed it was merely a dried up river bed. I believe Mikey's quote was...."Look at this riverbed. This thing has been dry for ages. This wil be the perfect spot for the fire." In the photo below, you can see Mikey setting up the hearth for waht is to become our doomed fire.



The neighbors






Now Carillo's in on the fire action. He didn't know about the tide river either.



Around 15 minutes after starting up the fire, Mikey and I realized that it appeared as if water was rising from the south end of the "dry river bed." After stepping in a few puddles to confirm our suspicions we soon had the obvious epiphany that we were set up in a tide river.
Even though our fire was short lived, it was still worth while. We had to get our primevil cave man on for that night; it just seemed fitting.
In the following nights to come we would make the same fire, in the same spot even though it was extremely futile. It was too fun.

The Road to Koh Chang

Our (Carillo and I) plane arrived into Bangkok on Christmas Day right on schedule. We were greeted at the airport by an already intoxicated group of three friends who had the incredible ability to make us feel that we were right at home. Freddy, Mikey, and an unexpected Robbie Stanley were waiting for us at the gates.
Our first night was spent in a small hotel room off of Kao Sarn Road which is located in the "backpackers district." The area was extremely hectic, debaucherous, and packed to the brim with vacationing foreigners. We had to get out of the area soon. So the next morning we headed over to an air-conditioned (as opposed to the non-airconditioned bus terminal) to find the quickest way out of Bangkok. We then hopped on a charter bus for a relatively inexpensive fee and set off south to the island of Koh Chang. The crew consisted of Freddy, Mikey, Carillo, and myself. Six Hours later we would arrive at our destination.


He's trying to play it off like he's not but the dude in the background is totally saying watsup to the camera.