Scooter Beach Bungalow Life

Hello, hello, I'm reporting from the beautiful island of Ko Phangan. We've been here for a few days now (don't ask how long, the sense of time has completely disappeared) and we're enjoying the free life under the palm trees. We = Alica, Max, Eileen and me.

So what have we been up to the past few days? After some initial nervousness (the roads are curvy, hilly, sometimes sandy and sometimes not even paved), we rented scooters and cruised around everywhere. Because when we arrived, we realized that 1. our bungalows are somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and 2. the 'restaurant' there has practically nothing to offer. -> just like the bodas in Uganda, it's a lot of fun and reinforces my desire to get a motorcycle license.

In addition, Alica's and Max's 6-euro bungalow was a disaster (holes in the floor, bad air, toilet that couldn't be flushed), but somehow Alica managed to get an upgrade to a better bungalow for 1-2 euros. The people who own it don't seem to have a clue about anything, they didn't even know how long we had booked :D

Well, back to the essentials: one evening at the bar on 'Coconut Beach', we met a super nice German couple (mid-thirties and mid-forties) with a little son (1 year old). They were so cool, and one day they picked us up with their pick-up truck and took us to visit elephants and explore two amazing beaches.

The first one was really awesome, picture this: on the left, a green mountain with small bungalows, on the right and in front of the beach, everything is green with palm trees, and then white, fine sand and clear water! BAM.

But the best part was when we swam around the big rock (enclosing the whole area) to the right, we arrived at a 'secret' beach. There were old, run-down bungalows (apparently there used to be a resort that closed down), full of graffiti. The water was crystal clear and the beach was adorned with a few smaller rocks, on which you could even lay down because they were smooth and rounded. So that was really awesome. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures of the secret beach (I swam there and back), but I took some pictures of the other beach.

The second beach was also wonderfully beautiful, again with crystal clear water and fine sand. From there, we took a taxi boat back to our beach (which was also amazing, I love boating) and then we went to have pizza and visit the night market.

Today (I think it's Sunday), we went to another beach where there was a sandbank. Unfortunately, it was a bit crowded - like having the feeling of being in Mallorca. Overall, the island is quite empty because it's off-season!

After that, Eileen and I went back to our beach and soaked up more sun. After a while, we got bored and wanted to go to another town to eat at a vegan restaurant - but it was closed. Luckily, we stumbled upon a super awesome street food market, where they had everything and everything was cheap: all kinds of curries, grilled fish, meat and tofu skewers, sushi, smoothies, snacks, pizza, sticky rice, smoothies, and more. After trying a few bites, we each got a curry. I had a Massaman curry with tofu (I'm not eating meat right now because apparently factory farming is even worse here than at home) and Eileen had a yellow curry. Boy, was it spicy! I tried some of hers and my whole area between my lip and nose was burning and tingling! I don't think I've ever eaten anything that spicy before, and I love spicy food haha! Well, I guess that's part of the Thailand experience, right? After that, we had a delicious smoothie (blueberry-orange-apple = an amazing combo, btw).

Well, those were our days here so far - I think we've been here for 3 or 4 days now and it feels like an eternity. I haven't stayed in one place for this long since Beirut, but it actually feels really good, I have to say!

How am I doing? I'm doing well, when I arrived here, I was already starting to feel a bit stressed (the weeks before, I was constantly traveling) and pretty tired and exhausted. It took a toll on my mood and energy, but now I'm feeling better! In the nomadic life, not everything is always perfect, but that's part of it too.

I'm still thinking a lot about what's next when I come back - too much! It's fun to be inspired, but it also confuses me - and there's still so much time, who knows what will happen. I've made a resolution to live more in the moment, things will fall into place anyway. I don't even know when I'll come back, mid-March as planned or even earlier? On the one hand, I want to see sooo much more, travel to as many countries as possible and make the most of my budget. On the other hand, there are also many things I want to do in Germany - as you can tell, I think too much about the future in that regard too! And here, the same applies: everything will fall into place and in the end, I can make free decisions.

What's also exciting is how things will be after my meditation retreat. My spot (and Ola's as well) is finally confirmed there, which means: from November 9th to 20th, we will be silent, meditating for 10 hours a day, having our last meal around noon, and waking up at 4 am! It's going to be intense, I'm quite excited!

So, that's it for this blog entry. OH YEAH, one more thing: the Full Moon Party is actually canceled! The Thai king passed away and there will be no parties for 30 days, and for the Thais, a year of mourning begins. The king was in office for 70 years, the successor is unpopular, and no one knows what the future holds. Some fear that there could be uprisings, but for now, everyone is just mourning.

I'm a bit disappointed, but on the other hand, I think it may be fate - who knows what would have happened there!

Okay my friends, sending you lots of Thai love, wherever you are! I'm going to grab a water for my mom and then it's off to bed - we're still going to the beach where the Full Moon usually takes place tomorrow - let's see what's going on there! BYE

ps. The internet is so slow that I can't upload any pictures, but I'll do it as soon as I can.

Stay tuned, (attention insider:) Sky is the limit, Thug life, Living life to the fullest!