Haad Mae Haad

I'm in a resort called Island View Cabanas in Haad Mae Haad in northern Koh Phangan. It's on a bay that's connected by a sand bar to a tiny island called Koh Ma. Nice snorkelling. 

It's weird. The restaurants along the beaches in southern Thailand all seem to have the same menu. It's half western food and half Thai with all the same dishes and prices. It doesn't really matter where you eat, just pick the one with the best view.

I was booking a few things online and my credit card stopped working. I got an email from Mastercard saying to call them. Great. I tried to get my cel phone working and it wouldn't. I tried to make a call from the front desk and they weren't able to help me. Stay calm. Breathe. I walked over to the local village and after about five places I finally found a place that would let me make the call. Damn credit card companies. I notified them before I left and I still ended up having problems. After clearing that up I had a much earned beer in the open air lobby of my sunny resort and booked the rest of my trip. Done!

Seeing as there is no surfing in this country, I have to admit I'm getting a bit bored of beach bumming and I've decided to change things up a bit. I have two more two day stops on Koh Phangan and then I head to Koh Samui for another two days. From there I fly far north to Chaing Mai. I've met several people that rave about it and they all say the food is fantastic. Good enough for me! It's one of the cultural highlights of Thailand. I will spend four nights there and then make a short flight to Bangkok where I will have about two days before I fly home. The plan in Bangkok is to check out a roof top bar, sample some street food, and take an afternoon cooking class where they take you to a local market to buy the goods for the recipes that you prepare.

If you are travelling by yourself I don't recommend coming to Thailand in high season like me as it's expensive. You won't get many deals on rooms and the local transportation is surprisingly expensive when you travel solo, even when you haggle. I have decided to forget and move on from the sticker shock of the local taxis here and get on with the more important matters like admiring the young Russian mothers rocking it in their bikinis on the beach.