Still Surphin'

Well, I'm not going to win any style awards, but my surfing has been fun. I can stand no prob, but I'm still on the big boards, so turning is a bit of an issue. If you see me surfing - stay outta my way! It's been really good. I met a fellow Canuck on a tour who lives in Las Vegas, Eli, and we drank half the island's supply of alcohol. Fun times - I think. I took some time to do a tour of Koh Phang Nga other wise known as James Bond Island. Roger Moore filmed "The Man with the Golden Gun" there. We also went to a bunch of surrounding islands. Unfortunately my camera battery died early into the trip and I missed out on a lot of great shots. I was pissed. I took my spare out of my pack as when I was surfing all I wanted to bring with me was spare shorts, towel and water. I didn't want to leave valuables on the beach... I took some shots with my waterproof disposable, but I'll have to wait until I process the shots before I can post them... I also met some people from Singapore and Holland who said they would email me some shots too. Crossing my fingers. Anyway, the islands were stunning. Too bad the shots I did get were before the weather improved. Pictures won't do them justice anyway. We canoed through caves located at the bottom of massive shear cliffs. Some were so small we had to lie down in the canoe! Pretty cool. We saw some beautiful lagoons, cliffs on all sides, tall mangroves growing out of the water, and all sorts of neat plants. Heard some monkeys, but I didn't see any. We stopped for a swim on a perfect (but busy) beach in the middle of the sea.
The devastation brought from the Tsunami, (in Phuket - I haven't seen further south or the surrounding areas), while noticeable, wasn't really prominent. The touristy areas have really bounced back quite quickly. There are some resorts that are closed for repairs and such, but if you didn't know there had been a tsunami, you would just think of it as off season renovations. What isn't obvious without talking to locals is the non physical devastation. Tourism is Thailand's number one industry and the number of visitors has seriously dropped. Thus a huge percentage of Thais, especially in the south, are unemployed. Just by visiting you can help bring back their economy. Thailand is perfectly safe to visit and still incredibly beautiful. Before I left I came across a lot of ignorant objections to my going to Thailand based on fear mongering by bullshit media.
My visa was set to run out on the 17th, meaning I had to leave Thailand or at least 24 hours to renew it. I had previously booked a cheap flight out of Bangkok to Malaysia back when I booked my ticket to Thailand from Budapest for the 15th. This meant I had to head back for Bangkok. It came up pretty quick and I was disappointed as I had booked a 2 day 1 night surfing trip around the island that I had to cancel. Two full days of instruction would have helped a lot. Oh well. I wasn't looking forward to Bangkok. It's neat the first time around, but it get tiring pretty quick. It's the hub of transportation in Thailand so you don't really have a choice about going there, and I've been through it too many times.