Hello!

Time just flies when you're in paradise. But here I am. A break away from it all. Behind me a beach. In front of me a monitor. Life is tough.

I've made my way from the madness on the west coast at Patong beach Phuket to a whole new madness on the east coast: the Full Moon Party. What is the Full Moon Party? Every month there is a full moon and every time there is a full moon at Hat Rin, Koh Phangan.. they party through the night! Well. Now it has become more of a rave party as opposed to the cake, streamers and folk music that we've all grown up with ;)

Before I go on.. in the last email I talked about ladyboys, Mr Rocky the nepalese salesman who sold me two tailored suits, and the jenga/connect 4 fiesta with the Thai working girls. And now...*DRUM ROLL* ... I present to you.. PICTURES:

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I played that lady 549 times.. she beat me once. According to Karina she was letting me win. LETTING ME WIN. How preposterous. Who can let someone that many times. STRAIGHT. In my opinion I think she might have let me win a couple times until she realised that I wasn't as foolsome as some of the middle aged white men that roll up into the bar.. 500 games in she and the other girls banded together to try and beat me. 49 games later. They gave up. C'est la vie. Oh and another thing. I will buy Connect 4 when I get home and I will be happy to challenge anyone. Christian you know this means you. ;)

You must know by now that I simply cannot resist reporting on the local fast food delicacies. At McDonalds I had a Jelly Triage (Jelly, Icecream and chocolate topping), Double Big Mac & Double Fillet'o'Fish. The last two should definitely be a standard on the menu in Australia! The only thing I didn't try was the Triple WHOPPER. Hahaha. Triple.

To top it off though... I found my McDonalds rip off:

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Mr.Goods! I can just see the owners of the restaurants.. resisting with ALL their will power to call it McGoods! Hahahahhahaa. Not only does it resemble McDonalds.. but if you look closely.. an insignia within the burger. THE NIKE TICK. That is pure genius. I am going to take this as an example of great business practice.. My company's logo will be a compilation of the most famous logo's. YES. World domination will soon be mine.

Not all is sleazy or cheap at Patong beach, Phuket.

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The picture isn't complete without a sunset picture or two.

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Goodbye Patong.

"Ladies and Gentlemen.
Welcome to Koh Samui.
Welcome to Chaweng Stadium.
Welcome.. to Muay Thai Boxing Stadium..." the speaker blasts as the van on four old tires rolls down the road. Muay Thai boxers stand on top of this van in hopeful attempt to lure the onlookers to the local Muay Thai exhibition. They are in full dress hitting punching bags and drawing as much attention to the moving advertisement.

Was I drawn in? Not yet.. Bangkok is my destination. Bangkok I will be witness to the brutality and mortality of Muay Thai. For now I am allowing myself to be swallowed up the beauty, serenity and peace of Thailand's east and west coast.

From Patong, Phuket to Chaweng, Koh Samui.. 12 hours! We arrived at our beach destination on the island of Samui at night, 10pm to be exact. We arrived to the familiar tune of human traffic, loud speakers, mobile advertisements, hustling salesmen and the wanting homeless. Getting here so late didn't leave us with much option for accomodation.. so at 1000B we slept soundly to wake up to find this the next morning:

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ANOTHER beautiful beach. One marked difference. Here there aren't many middle aged sleazy white men. Instead the beach is populated with the hoarde of adolescents due to make the trip to Hat Rin Koh Phangan for the full moon party. I agree with most who review Chaweng beach: people go there to show off their bodies and their tans. Ego-tastic! Beach bars here are lively and it was refreshing to hear decent house/dance music (in Patong they have a fascination with the crazy frog! GRRR).

OK OK... here is the Chaweng beach sunset.

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Everyone that we had met suggested that we go to Koh Phangan at least 5 to 6 days before the full moon party to secure accomodation on the island. Karina and I didn't want to stay at Hat Rin (where the party is at) because 1) It would be populated and westernised just like every other 'main' beach; and 2) It would be hard to find accomodation within our price range.

After 2 days at Koh Samui we had decided and purchased tickets to travel to Koh Phangan. As we arrived at the Thong Sala pier on Phangan it was the same scene as it has been: there are tourists who have a place, who have a direction to head.. and there are the tourists who just turn up and are clearly undecided as to where they want to go. This is where the salesmen step in. They smell indecision like a shark smells blood in the water. Within a minute of getting the bags off the ferry we were approached by a number of salesmen. The first salesman: Pubet, was also the first to say the magic word: 300B per night ($12AUD). Pubet had a magazine showcasing his resort, the 'Sea Sunset' resort, but throughout his pitch the price was the only thing that I was to remember. Other salesmen approached and none were able to beat the 300B per night offer. A few minutes later we were on the back of a minibus heading to the Sea Sunset resort.

The sales process is so quick... Karina and I were on the back of this bus and we had both forgotten the name of the beach and the name of the resort. We both knew that the driver had been told to stop at the resort.. but we both secretly hoped that the driver would let us know that it was our stop. At the first stop I saw a sign and my memory was telling that we had arrived... it wasn't until Karina pulled out the business card that she was hastily given that we were reassured that we had arrived at the resort.

Looking down the dirt driveway we were holding our breaths.. not knowing what we had got ourselves into... until:

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........Ao Plai Laem and the Sea Sunset Resort. Karina and I have both agreed that this is the most beautiful place we have EVER been to. To add. This has been the cheapest place we have EVER been to. Paradise.

So..Why is it called the Sea Sunset Resort?

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Wow. A testament to how beautiful this place is... the other night Karina and I were having drinks with the locals. "Locals". They aren't Thai locals. They are travelling locals. They are travellers who came and then decided not to leave. They are travellers who have been here for months on end. One traveller has been here for 10 months. These are people who have fallen in love with this place. Have I fallen in love with this place? :) Yes I have. I will come back to this place. Hopefully some of you will join me.

I must continue to relax. There is a hammock waiting for me.

R to the E to the L to the A to the X

As for you. Yes I mean YOU. Enjoy your working week. :)

I'm so cheeky.

Lopez