After Koh Pangan, we headed to Koh Tao, which provided us with incredible snorkeling. Even after going to the US Virgin Islands for a week, the marine life there was indescribable with words. So, we stayed there for a couple days and then left to go to Khao Sok National Park. We took a ferry to Surat Thani and our friend Tom from JGSEE came to meet us. It happened to be some Buddhist Holiday so the normally tranquil town of Surat Thani was bustling with decorations and festive floats. Monks sprayed water for good luck and we ate some food by the river. One of our dishes was fried frog. It tasted like chicken, but a little chewier. If I wasn’t told it was frog, I wouldn’t have noticed a difference.
We went to Khao Sok, it was nice there were some waterfalls and we went on a short hike the first day. We made great friends with the bungalow owners and he took us on a tubing trip for a great discount. We ate all our meals at this restaurant outside the park entrance that was moderately priced compared to the exorbitant prices for food in the tourist area. The only catch was it took the lady about one hour to prepare our food each time, so by the second day we asked for her phone number and we called ahead and placed an order. It was pretty funny, but worth the savings. After Khao Sok we took a bus to Phuket Island, tourist capital of Thailand. The bus was good because only in Thailand can you get some fried chicken served right to you without leaving your seat. Street vendors come on the bus at random stops and sell all sorts of snacks, food, and drinks, which makes your bus ride that much more comfortable. But actually this bus took a long time and we blew a tire in the middle of the ride, which set our arrival back by two hours. I used the bathroom at this nice lady’s house and she gave me two huge pieces of papaya for free. It was delicious.

When we arrived at Phuket we were immediately accosted by all sorts of tourist agents clamoring for our hotel booking. We stayed the first night at a touristy beach, went to some bars for Tom’s birthday, and then the next day Tom and Christina left to go to Singapore. Ricker, Matt, and I went to a less touristy beach, Hat Kata and Ricker surfed while I relaxed and swam a bit. After two days there, I returned back to Bangkok with Matt and finished our travel session. Although JGSEE would pay for us to fly up north the next week.