Malapascua - Why the hell did lonely planet rate this place so high?

Basically, Malapascua is not that cool, maybe if you are an ichthyologist it would be sweet, but I don't really care about fish or coral, sooo pretty boring, just lots of fat which Russians on the beach. It also rained the entire time so that may have skewed my impression to the unfavorable. The thing that bothered me the most though was not the fat people obscuring my view of the ocean, but the complete lack of interaction between resort/tourists and the locals. It was like there were two different worlds on the island. I really hate tourists who come and ignore everything but the beach, so that was they type here, and I don't like them. The beaches were very pretty though, but there are pretty beaches everywhere, so I'd like some atmosphere with my beaches please. Thank you.



I on the other hand, got invited to a birthday party, which was the one good thing about Malapascua... cause I had tonss of fun. There were kids running around underfoot everywhere, the tanduay/sprite shotglass was constantly on the move, Lechon Manok on the fire etc. They even fired up the generator so that we could play music. It was really cool, a big family affair, and I was treated as a member of the family. Once it was announced that dinner was served there was a mad rush for the table, and within literally 45 seconds, I kid you not, there was not a scrap of food on the serving plates. Everyone ate just as fast, they were done before I had even started, and I eat fast usually. After dinner we picked up the pace on the Tanduay glass, which had never ceased to be in motion even during dinner, and watched all the kids dance around, the music was obviously a special occasion treat for them. I tried to upload a video of the kids dancing bc they were REALLY good, but it took too long so I got impatient.


Waiting for the Manok to be done.. meanwhile getting bacoi kaho-ed...I'm sure that's not how you spell it.
This kid had a sweet shirt. The back said: "What? You want try?"

Uness, the really cute daughter of the birthday boy

More cute kids...

I think we're getting a bit Tanduay-ed at this point


This is what happens when you let 6 street kids into your room to play with your guitar, cell phone, ipod and camera......Mostly when I got the camera back there were 500 new pictures on it that all seemed to be very similar and blurry.




Watching the greatest movie ever, Hitman, on the ipod. Don't think it was age appropriate really.

Koh Tao: Diving, Hitmen, and Choppers

We left Koh Phagnan behind and moved the party to Koh Tao, a smaller island about 3 hours north of Koh Phagnan. All of the travelers we had been talking to were saying that Koh tao was the "real"Thailand. Its much smaller than Koh Samui, which tends to be more upmarket, and Koh Phagnan, which tends to be more party, and is supposed to have a much more chilled out vibe than either. It is known for its diving, so the crowd generally flocks here for the cheap certification courses.

The boat ride there was crazy packed and we ended up sitting on top of the bags outside, which ended up being the best seat since we escaped the puking downstairs and the spray along the side of the boat from the waves.

On the boat we made friends with a big group of kids who were teachers in Korea and are taking vacation since their contract expired, and a few travelers who worked in Tahoe... altogether I think it was the most Americans I have hung out with while traveling / even seen while out here.

Got to Koh Tao, which was very chilled out compared to Koh Phagnan, less party and more happy pizzas if you know what I mean. My main complaint was that although the island was very small it was exceedingly difficult to get around because the roads were all washed out - something im sure they fix in Dec when all of the tourists show up. As a result we spent most of our time in the main town area, which although fun, got very boring after 5 days.

The main beach - I can't remember the name, but its where most people, including us, stay.

Awesome sign that is in most restaurants in Thailand

Cool clouds from the beach.. the weather wasn't that perfect

Full Moon: insanely cute puppy that hung out around the ganja shack that was across from our bungalow

We did rent ATVs one day and go for an adventure, which turned out to be much more of an adventure than we were expecting to have because of the deplorable road conditions. I luckily picked the one guy who rides motorcycles so I was relatively safe compared to the others. Verber almost killed himself by going over a cliff and his ATV had to be retrieved from the bushes several times by Owen, our resident ATV expert / farm boy hick who is 28 and does not have email. All of this was worth it because we got to go to two awesome beaches on the island: X and Freedom Beach. Freedom Beach was my favorite and if I ever came back to Koh Tao I would do it right and stay there for two or three nights instead of spending all of my time in the main town.
Cool salt water "pool"we found when we hiked across the island a few days before

ATV crew. From Left: me, Emely (Swedish), Melody (Korea teachers, brit), Tristan (Korea techers, Canuck, Sarah (brit), Tinkerbell (Tahoe), Owen (Tahoe), can't remember name, Verber (US), Sanna (sweden).
Rescuing Verber's ATV from over the cliff. Without Owen, dude in red hat, we would have been screwed, he fixed the chains when they popped, McGyvered ATVs out of ditches, and rode them up the really rough bits when no one else could get them up.
ATV-ing. We swam out to the island in the background and the crazies did some cliff jumping

Freedom beach...mm.. sublime beauty

More freedom beach

Hitmen!

We also unfortunately had a lot of not so fun drama on Koh Tao involving a hitman from bangkok who was on the run from the police.

Apparently the guys were all at choppers (our usual spot) and saw a Thai guy dragging a western girl out by her hair. They went to go stop him as I would hope any decent guy would do, which caused lots of yelling but no punched were thrown. They ended up chasing the guy down the street to the end where he grabbed a butcher knife from a food stand and threatened them with it then ran off - We all assumed it was over after this.

The next day Verber was checking his email by himself in a cafe and the guy stormed in and punched him in the nose then ran away. There was blood everywhere and Verber was in a state of complete shock and shit ton of pain. I ended up taking him to the hospital (which reads: Dengue checkup, malaria checkup, Pregnancy check, HIV check, over the door - gotta love Thailand) at midnight while both of us were drunk so that he could try and get painkillers, although im dubious of whether he needed them since he was so drunk already.
After a lot of questioning, we discovered that everyone knew him but no one would turn him in and everyone said the police were worthless. T he owner of choppers told us that he was a hitman that was wanted by the police in Bangkok, that was why he was in Koh Tao and not to mess with him. Overall it was a really scary / messed up couple of days, especially since the boys hadn't done anything but try and help the girl. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief when we got on the boat back to BKK.

On a lighter note we had a really fun last night and hung out at a little beach hut / bar were a group of Argentine guys were playing. We all danced and sang until the wee hours of the morning and I got to practice my abysmal Spanish a bit, which after all the Spanish guys figured out I could at least understand them I became their pet and they made me take copious jager bombs with them.

Next post: one night in Bangkok and the worlds your oyster, the bars are temples but the pearls aren't free