One night in Burma

With my lackadasical approach to the last few weeks I found myself out of time on my Thai visa. So even though I had ended up in this situation cause I wasnt going to go to Burma, I had to go to Burma in order to get another 30 days in Thailand. Most people just pop over the border and back again to get their stamp, but I decided if I was going that far I might as well spend a night in Kaw Thuang, or Victoria point as the British christened it. It was a nice enough place with good views of the harbour from the hills, and an interesting little market area with numerous tea shops, though the hotel was pretty crap to be honest.

I was literaly the only tourist in town for the night, so that was kinda fun. The people seemed really nice and friendly, and the monks and kids seemed eager to practise their english. Most of the girls were going around with a little of the traditional face paint, something I'd seen a bit with the Burmese in Thailand. And there was no feeling of tension from the recent events. Eating in the resturants felt a bit weird with all the staff hanging around (I counted 11 girls with nothing to do in one small place) - as soon as I spilt a grain of rice or the water dripped off the beer glass someone was running over to clear it up. But I got used to it eventually. All an all a very enjoyable 24 hours.

Next day I headed back with the new days visa runners, eschewing the boat owners numerous attempts to peddle cheap viagra, and found myself back in Chumpon again, to catch the ferry to Ko Pha Ngan.
Tim from NY met me off the boat and I rented another sonic motorbike and drove off to Hat Rin. I'd been there many moons ago, but I couldnt believe the amount of growth since then. First impressions were not good. Though the beach is still pretty nice. As my arrival coincided with the "black moon" party (gone are the days when one full moon party a month was enough) we hit the beach for the night, and though I was in a bit of a crap mood to start I had a pretty good night in the end.
Yesterday we toured most of the Islands decent roads (and a few of the dirt ones) and found a few nice beaches and fishing villages. I'm thinking of moving out of hat rin to somewhere less manic once the rugby semis are out of the way.