Koh Phangam

We ferried it over to Koh Phangan to meet with Ben and Autumn. We were starting to get tired. It's the usual routine of crowding off the ferry and telling somewhere around 1000 locals that you don't want a taxi. They've got everyone bottle necked on the dock so it resembles the running of a gauntlet. We stopped to have a tea and gather our thoughts, and I decided to try and find a real bike to ride for the week instead of another scooter. To my delight, I found a Kawasaki kxl 250 which ended up being a highlight of our entire trip. It was tricky finding our place but we made it there just at dark and Ben pulled up 5 minutes behind us. 

We ate at this night market in town. To everyone's disapproval, I ate a ton of street vender sushi. Joke's on them though- my stomach's a steel trap. I feel sorry for the sushi. This market had some of the cheapest and most delicious we ate on the entire trip. 

So after a market dinner one nght we went back to our bungalow and celebrated Ben's birthday. We lit some candles atop of some seriously smooshed hostess cupcakes I had carried for nearly a month. They still tasted the same though. 

Arwyn and I watched Thaddeus for a couple days which was a lot of fun. We had been teaching him to be more comfortable in the water and ran him out to a windward beach with some waves. We played in the surf and he got tumbled a few times which shook him up, but he always wanted more. He found another boy about his a age who was Russian, but there were no language issues. They just laughed and defied one wave after another for about an hour and a half until the boy's mom collected him. Thaddeus definitely loved riding with us on the dirt bike too. 

When we were all the that, we enjoyed this beach. It had a resident pig lazing around with chalk writing on its side. 

Thaddeus, Ben and I made this sand castle. It drew a lot of attention toward the end. One guy even took a bunch of pictures and said he was going to put them up on a Thai backpacking site he runs. 

This is where the Seifrieds  and Kaisers parted ways. They left for China about four days betide our departure. We were running late and made a mad dash for there ferry which they made with 7 minutes to spare. We stood on the dock and watched them sail away. Arwyn even borrowed my white bandana and waved them off. Funny thing is, a group of Thai men on the deck directly above them got excited and started yelling and waving back. Big smiles. 

So Arwyn and I were on our own now. We will miss our travel companions.