Day 29 - Sunday, March 13 - Ko Lanta

I'm going to try and make this real short as I need to get to the beach and work on this nice tan I have. The weather here is most excellent and I intend to come home a nice shade of golden brown.

So here goes.......TODAY WAS AWESOME. The end.

Ok, I'll try to elaborate just a bit. I woke up at 8:46A after many many many restful, cool hours of slumber. The air con makes all the difference in the world. I was well rested and felt great. It may have been the best night sleep I've had to date.

Just hung around Miami until 10:30A at which time the adventure began. We (the 5 of us) decided to get on the bikes and drive to Tham Khao Mai Kaew, an intense complex of caves the caves in the middle of the island. Some girls we met yesterday went and gave them a glowing recommendation. The Swedes didn't want to rent their own bikes so I rode Dave on the back of mine, the other Dave rode Carolina, and Katie rode alone. Not realizing how close the caves were to Miami, we decided to drive past the turn-off and I took them on a tour of the island that I had done yesterday. Once again, the drive was great, beautiful, and so peaceful. The roads had not been repaired since yesterday so needless to say, there were times when each of us almost bit it. I really am trying not to come home without a road tatoo from Ko Lanta.
We traversed the island a few times on the east - west roads and made our way back to the caves. We paid admission to a little family run business that run the guided cave tours. It's a good thing they have this nice little operation because there's no way we would have found the caves and there is no way, if we somehow did, would have come out alive.

The walk TO the cave was as strenuous as my trek and lasted about 35 minutes through a thick forest. By the time we got to the "entrance" to the cave, I thought I had lost all fluids in the form of sweat, and was just waiting for my body to shrivel up and collapse. We finally got to the "entrance" of the cave. This entailed climbing through an indistinct hole in the rocks and entered the series of caves.

This cave was much more dangerous that the one I explored on the trek and there were times I thought I was going to be left to die in there. My light that they supplied with my 200 baht admission fee went dead as did 2 others in the group, the guide walked along expecting us to know the way as well as he, and many times, I hit my noggin on a giant stalactite which, if I had a light, I may have seen. There were sections of the cave that were as big as the Staples Center and some that required us to squeeze through (and I mean squeeze) on your stomach as you wiggled like a worm to make your way to the next open space that was large enough to either crawl or if you were lucky, stand. We had a great time, saw some cool animals (i.e. bats, spiders, and even a cobra) and exited the cave a little over an hour later. Back at the motorcycles, we drenched ourselves with the hose that they were using to bathe their elephants and at that point, for the first time in my life, I actually felt like a filthy dirty elephant myself. We were covered head to toe in mud, dirt, and muck.

We got back on the bikes, headed right to Miami, and about 5 minutes into the drive, realized I had a flat tire. Luckily, there was a motorbike repair "shop" not too far away and for 130 baht, they got me back on the road in 10 minutes. The sign at Miami claims they will reimburse half the cost of a flat tire if given a receipt. Therefore, the fix was $1.71 out of my pocket. We got back to Miami and ran right into the ocean. I must find out the temperature of the ocean as it's the warmest yet refrshing body of water I've ever been in.

I found a new little mini - market, this time buying a case of large Chang which brough the price down to 37.50 baht each, filled the "cooler" with new beer and even cheaper ice and brought it back to Miami. We're going to get kicked out soon as they want us to buy alcohol and food from them and not bring any outside refreshments in.

Soon thereafter, happy hour began and then the frisbee throwing until sunset. It really has become quite the routine here at Lanta Miami on Khlong Nin Beach, Ko Lanta, Thailand.

Then it was back to Dave and Katie's porch where the 5 of us just sat, relaxed, and chatted until about 9. We went, as is, to the restaurant on Miami's beach and had a nice, simple, cheap meal.

By 11PM, I had 5 large Chang Beers, 2 Malibu pineapples, and I think the correct term was.......DRUNK! Dave and Carolina headed to bed and soon after so did Katie. Dave and I sat for another few hours shooting the shit and finally headed to our rooms at about 1:30A. I realized I hadn't called home in a while, so I used my trusty world phone, provided yes, by the very generous Mike Gearin, and chatted with my mom for a little bit before going to bed.

Today was really quite an unbelievably spectacular day!