Crocodile Dun-Mikey: ko tao

this is a pretty sweet island. supposedly less touristy than ko samui (the perennial tourist fave) and ko pha ngan (home of the full moon parties), we set out from krabi on saturday. we stayed in surat thani saturday night, really just waiting to catch a boat. we could have sailed at night on a cargo ship, but though we'd just chill out for a night. surat thani doesn't have too much to offer other than transportation to other places, but it was ok. got up sunday morning early to catch a taxi to a pier, where instead of boarding a boat, we boarded a bus, rode for an hour to another pier, and got on a boat. about 5 hours of sailing, stopping at samui and phangan along the way. we got to ko tao, which appears to be the most heavily visited spot on the planet. we walked the main beach for three hours or so looking for accomodation with no dice. caught a cab to another spot on the island and the dice were hard to find. we made it to a divey but acceptable spot for about $10 a night. it's good for sleeping, but we'll move on tomorrow night to a sweeter joint up the way.

the island itself is beautiful, hands down clearer water than anywhere we've been. i read that the small island issues the 2nd most SCUBA certifications in the world (maybe Perth is 1st?). every place to stay here is also a dive instruction shop, and they all prefer that you book classes. i think instead we'll rent some fins & snorks tomorrow along with a kayak and head out to "shark island", which i'm sure is completely safe. i've heard that punching a shark square in the nose will make it think twice about the attack. could be a pretty good segue into hunting, which i'm confident is the most logical option (other than vegetarianism).

back to the scooters! that's the little orphan, about two bikes ahead of my slow ass. absolutely crazy traffic. it's kind of like the east coast on crack cocaine. once you realize that 1. everyone is going to cut you off, 2. everyone expects you to cut them off, and 3. single file is for losers, you kind of find a nice harmony to the madness.

anne chillin with a monkey. greedy bastard had 2 apples.

view from the top of Wat Thamm Suea, outside krabi. incredible climb. i think 1,237 stairs, some very steep! i probably lost 1.5 liters o' water on that one.