Headin' South

Hi All,

We've made it to the beach once again- after a three am flight from BKK to somewhere down south, we took a ferry on over to Koh Phangan- a hippie little island that is also home to the infamous full moon party, although I don't think we will be dragging my mom to any parties anytime soon.

Once you get away from the party scene at Hat Rin (Hat or Haad is thai for beach- at least I think so), the island is host to many yoga and detox retreats- might come in handy after some drinking! Anyways, we are staying at Shiralea Backpackers Resort, on Haad Yao.  Shiralea is located a bit off the beach,  comprising of around twenty bungalows set around palm trees and foot paths. The beach of Haad Yao isn't bad, but it isn't great either- it's narrow and for the most part is seriously lacking in space to lay down for the day.

But, alas, it's been pouring rain off and on since we have been here- although you probably read Brian's post, where we headed up to a Phaeng Waterfall while it started pouring. The waterfall is beautiful and I guess only has water when it rains, so in a way, we lucked out. 

We've been exploring the island a bit more now after renting a toy car, which I am none to thrilled about- well, only because I am being thrown in a poor excuse for a backseat. But with this said "death trap," we've managed to check out both Haad Salad and Ko Maa- a deserted little island that you can walk to during low tide.  

Koh Phangan has been our hippie little shangri-la, and to complete the experience, all three of us attempted hatha yoga this morning.  As of now we aren't sore- but i'm sure it's coming- oh and mom has a massive sinus infection, so we are trying to get rid of that- although spicy food or salt water hasn't kicked it yet!

Oh P.S.- I saw a huge, huge snake yesterday slowly making it's way behind our bungalows and we googled it and it seems to be a indo-chinese COBRA!!! These things spit venom at prey up to ten feet away and aim for the head- really glad I was the one to spot it...