World's Biggest Fish? More Like World's Biggest Jackass!

Dec 8th-Dec 18th

While still in Koh Samui, Josh and I had booked a 12-dive package with Big Blue Divers: the second biggest dive school on the island of Koh Tao.

Upon our arrival, we were picked up by truck and brought to their large complex. We were given an incredibly hot private room as part of our dive package. Alexa was also doing her open water and advanced classes with Big Blue, so we could meet up with her once she had finished her lessons.

Koh Tao is THE place to learn how to scuba dive in Thailand and probably the cheapest place on earth to do so. There are over 50 dive schools on this small 21 sq km island and we heard that there are more divers certified on Koh Tao per year than the entirety of Australia! Pretty ridiculous I know.

With so many divers diving on a daily basis, and a limited amount of dive-sites, do not expect to be diving by yourself, although Big Blue does keep the group sizes small.

While Koh Tao doesn't boast the 40+ meter visibility that we had in the Red Sea, and water pollution has contributed to the degradation of many species of coral, it does still provide you with an amazing opportunity to see the world's largest fish, the whale shark, which frequents these waters.

Most people we had met, including Alexa, had seen one while diving at Chumpon Pinnacle, Koh Tao's best dive site. While not the 15m ones you get at the Galapagos islands, they still frequently see them ranging from 3-5m. Still a humongous fish!

Our first two dives were at Chumpon and we didn't see any. Our awesome dive master, Phil, told us that the best opportunity to see them is following a rain shower because the rain stirs up the plankton, a whale shark's primary food.

While we didn't see the whale shark, I still did see some Cobias for the first time, a large graceful shark-like fish, as well as many other beautiful underwater creatures.

Over the next few days we continued to dive with Big Blue's terrific dive masters like Phil, Tupac and James. Once Alexa was certified, she also came diving with us.

The thing with diving is that we had to be at the boat at 6:15am for the morning dives, and diving hungover is neither fun nor the safest, so Koh Tao actually ended up being quite the detox period.

After several more days of diving, with many trips to Chumpon pinnacle and still no stupid whale shark sightings; Josh, Alexa and I signed up for a trip to sail rock.

Sail rock is closer to Koh Pha-Ngan than to Koh Tao and is considered the best dive site in the gulf of Thailand. Big Blue did not offer a trip there so we went with a company called Rocktopus. Josh, Alexa and I got an amazing dive master from the States named Brit, who was pretty hilarious.

Sail rock was great because of the abundance of fish and their large size. Brit also managed to bring us to a secret pinnacle and we got to swim with schools comprising thousands of fish and even hundreds of giant great barracuda.

The following day, we took a break from diving and went to Koh Tao's southern Shark Bay. Even though this quiet beach belongs to a beautiful private upscale resort, you can still chill and snorkel there.

Shark Bay gets its name from it's resident black tip reef sharks that frequent its waters in the mornings and afternoons. We were hoping to see them so we went in the late afternoon.

What made this feat difficult was that not only was the reef quite far from the beach, but the water was quite murky and visibility was probably only 3m in front of you.

After 40 minutes of fruitless searching, we decided to try one last spot. As we were beginning to lose hope, from out of the murky waters comes a one-meter black tip who swims right in front of me!

As we continue to search the area, we end up seeing them another 3 or 4 times. What makes it amazing is that because of the low visibility, you only see them at the last minute! Although the shark is only one meter long and afraid of bubbles, seeing this little predator up close is still quite exhilarating! Happy we had finally seen a shark, we headed back to Big Blue.

During our stay on Koh Tao, we were fortunate enough to meet up with our Swedish friends Camilla and Fredrika, who we had last seen in Shanghai. After China they had met up with one of their friends from Sweden, Natasha, who was just as nice and just as blonde as the other two. It was great catching up with them and hearing about their adventures in South East Asia.

On my last day on Koh Tao, it was my last chance to see that elusive whale shark, but alas I will now have to wait until the next place I visit and they frequent.

After 14 dives around Koh Tao and many of those at Chumpon, I still didn't see that evasive fish. I still had an amazing time diving with Big Blue and chilling on the wonderful Sairee beach. Koh Tao was probably my favourite island on Thailand's gulf coast.

Even though I didn't see a whale shark considering everyone I knew or met had, I wasn't mad, because I know I'll see one one of these days, whether they want me to or not!

Beaches, Parties and only Two Murders

Nov 28th-Dec 7th

Bryan and Rich were staying at Had Chaophao, while Josh and I were staying at the infamous Had Rin: the beach where the full moon party is held. As a consequence, we would be taking different ferries from Koh Samui to Koh Pha-Ngan.

Still hoping for the best in regards to weather, we sat and waited for our ferry, but it started to rain so hard that you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you.

When the rain did subside, we boarded the ferry already brimming with shirtless guys with backwards caps already drinking their fifth beers, and girls wearing bikini tops and those lovely daisy dukes with the pockets hanging below the shorts themselves.

We were in for a sloppy 5 days!

Our hostel, the conveniently located yet borderline sleazy 'Om Ganesh', was just a few meters from the pier. We checked into our surprisingly well air-conned 14-bed dorm and decided to walk around.

Koh Pha-Ngan, the original backpacker island on the Gulf of Thailand, has been holding full moon parties since the idea was first conceived there. It started off as a small gathering of dread-locked beach-bums and has now become an avenue for 15-50 thousand party-goers (depending on the month) who descend onto sunrise beach and party from moon-rise until the tide washes away the beach. The parties have become legendary on the backpacker circuit of South East Asia and a must for anyone visiting Thailand and wanting to party.

I don't know what Had Rin looked like 10 years ago, but Josh and I were surprised by the level of filth on and around sunrise beach and the full moon party hadn't even happened yet! We even walked down sunset beach and were equally disappointed by its level of decay.

Bryan and Rich caught the surprisingly long tuk tuk ride down from their resort and Alexa, who was staying in Thong Sala, the main town of Koh Pha-Ngan, also came to join the rest of us for dinner.

It was approaching party time so we started sharing buckets of Sang Som and bought some florescent singlets to fit into the crowd. We then went to Om Ganesh to use their body paints to give ourselves some pizzaz.

With the artistic abilities of Bryan and Alexa, we all ended up looking pretty amazing.

To be honest, the preparations for the full moon party, with our dancing and picture taking was probably my favorite part of the night.

I mean common. The pictures speak for themselves!

The streets leading to sunrise beach were lined with tons of stands selling buckets and bottles of beer.

Once on the beach, there were even more stands with touts shouting hilarious things at you to get your business; along with fire-shows, people dancing on elevated stages and thousands of party-goers at various levels of intoxication dancing along the beach.

What was nice was that the beach was long and wide enough that despite the number of people, you could still find ample personal space to enjoy yourself without feeling cramped.

The downsides were that the lighting was really poor so you couldn't see anyone's body paint and there were tons of empty buckets and beer bottles in the sand making the walk dangerous and disgusting at times.

We actually managed to stay together until the wee hours of the night: dancing, drinking and joking around until we all headed back to our respective accommodations.

A great time was had by all!

The next day, Josh and I went to check out the full moon beach and were surprised to see that the tide was so high that all signs that there had been a party or even a beach for that matter had been washed away. Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of the garbage on the beach including glass and buckets gets washed into the sea. So sad.

During the day we had made friends with some guys from our hostel and joined them for a barbecue dinner at Om Ganesh. From there we went to watch a Muay Thai fight where we questioned the authenticity of the fight because the fighters themselves placed bets just before they entered the ring! Talk about rigged!

Once again, Josh made me look like an asshole by kicking my chair out from under me just before I sat down, which sent the crowd of foreigners into hysterics while I sat on the ground.

We then went to Cactus bar, the liveliest bar with arguably the best music. As the music continued to get better and better, it started to rain harder and harder.

At a certain point, and I will never forget this moment for the rest of my life, Million Voices by Otto Knows comes on and people are dancing on picnic tables as the rain is pouring down on them, everything seeming to move in slow motion. Girls in their underwear, guys in board shorts just going ape-shit under this torrential downpour.

I can still see the bodies moving to the pounding bass, hands and faces raised towards the sobbing skies and the sheer, unadulterated energy generated by the crowd. Better than the most surreal music video.

Absolutely mind blowing!

At a certain point I couldn't contain myself and I ran outside to join them, rain and all.

This is what Had Rin was meant to be!

After some ferocious dancing and partying we went to another bar to relax. As we were about to leave, a group of around 30 people started coming up the stairs. We thought awesome, the party is coming to us.

However, it turns out that just shortly after our departure from Cactus, two Thai men got into an argument and ended up shooting each other inside the bar. Not only did both die, but one was shot in the head and it was witnessed by some of the people entering our bar.

From bliss to carnage.

With the mood understandably sombre, we all decided it was a good time to call it a night.

The next day, Muz, Will, two other guys who I don't remember their names, Josh and myself took a boat to Had Yuan beach, which is not accessible by land. We spent the day there and tried to enjoy the mediocre beach despite the cold winds and teeming rain.

Josh and I had grown tired of Had Rin and its dirty beaches and even dirtier people, so we took a 45-minute tuk tuk ride to join Bryan, Rich and Alexa at Had Chaophao, the beach they were staying at.

After a delicious pizza dinner and a dip in their glorious infinity pool, we made our way to Pirate Bar for a post full moon tribal dance party.

The following day we finally found one of Koh Pha-Ngan's beautiful beaches, Had Yao, and enjoyed our first sunny, cloudless day in Thailand. It was about time!

We enjoyed the tranquility and beauty of Had Yao so much that we returned the following day.

Alexa had left for Koh Tao and Bryan's stomach did not agree with the Korean Barbecue we had for dinner; so Josh, Rich and I went back to Had Rin for some debauchery on our last night. However, it seemed like everyone else had become fed up with Had Rin and the place was a veritable ghost town devoid of any parties. Even our 14-bed dorm room was occupied only by Josh, myself and this British guy John.

It was finally time to head back to Koh Samui, and with the weather finally being in our favor, I couldn't wait to lounge around on the beach all day.

We checked into Bryan and Rich's hotel and immediately made our way to Lamai's beautiful golden beach.

One would think that with all the rain we had been having that there may have been power-outages, but there wasn't. Somehow on our second day back in Lamai, a power cable was cut on mainland Thailand, resulting in the entire island of Koh Samui to be without power for 3 days!

So not only were our rooms hot and dark, but for some odd reason our toilets and showers didn't work either. If it isn't one thing, it's another!

Spending the days on the beach wasn't an issue, but at night it was a challenge to find places that had generators and any sort of ambiance other than that of a candle-lit dinner.

Luckily the outage didn't disrupt our night at Swing Bar, where we witnessed an absolutely incredible dub-step infused fireshow.

After just one night without air conditioning and plumbing, we asked for a refund and returned to ibed which had an arsenal of generators and consequently the amenities which we were paying for, unlike our previous place.

One day we decide to check out Chaweng beach, which is the most popular and developed beach on Koh Samui. After walking down its narrow, dirty beach with fat, old European tourists, we decided it wasn't worth our time and we returned to good old Lamai.

Unfortunately it was already time for Bryan and Rich to fly back to Bangkok before returning home to Montreal. Although the time past incredibly quickly and their trip was wrought with frequent delays, rip-offs, some stomach issues and some minor bad luck; we still had an amazing time with these boys and it was great to hang out and party with some friends from home.

Bryan, being a gifted filmmaker, made a short film about our time together in Thailand. Really superbly done and most of the time I didn't even know he was filming.


Three Weeks in Thailand from Bryan Wilkat on Vimeo.

As their luck would have it, as soon as Bryan and Rich left, the power came back on. Josh and I needed a break from all the partying so we were heading to Koh Tao, the smallest and most laid-back island on Thailand's gulf coast. We welcomed some early nights and it also didn't hurt that Koh Tao is the gulf's premier scuba diving spot.

I couldn't wait to get back into the water!

Thailand: I Gave Them Everything!

Nov 22nd-Nov 27th

I caught a local shuttle bus to Kunming's airport. The prospect of taking a two-hour flight rather than a marathon train ride was pretty exciting.

My original plan had been to exit China by land and continue on to South East Asia, but seeing as though my friends Bryan and Richard were arriving in Bangkok and spending 3 weeks in Thailand, I couldn't resist meeting up with them.

As soon as I arrived at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, the culture shock was immediate: I was so used to seeing slender, homogeneous, cookie-cutter Chinese, that when I saw the rainbow of nationalities and hundreds of white people, it was quite foreign to me.

I caught the airport express and then the skytrain to the Silom district of Bangkok where Josh, Bryan and Richard were staying. The train ride revealed just how attractive Thai people were: thin, dark-skinned and always smiling. A definite contrast to China's pale, flat-faced, featureless population.

As I was turning the corner towards our hostel, WE Bangkok (www.we-bangkok.com), I saw Bryan and Rich walking towards me!

We bear hugged and they told me about their ridiculously drawn-out flight, wrought with delays, added stop-overs and an unforeseen night in Tokyo. They had actually arrived a day later than expected.

I've known Bryan almost my whole life: we were neighbours growing up in Pierrefonds. He's one of my best friends, former band-mate and my photography mentor.

I worked with Bryan and then later with Richard at Royal Montreal Golf Course for several years and that's how I know Rich. They were headed to Glow, their swanky, nearby hotel and we would meet up later that evening.

I approached the hostel and saw Josh sitting in front of the hostel chatting with Alexa, an American girl from California who was fortunately born in Canada.

Josh, Alexa and I went to Bryan and Rich's hotel for some pre-drinking before heading out to the infamous Khao San road.

Although most of Bangkok is touristy (white people everywhere), Khao San road is even more so, but in a good way. This small street is lined with a ton of both proper and makeshift bars selling cheap beer, buckets of Thai whiskey and shisha.

Add shops selling hilarious or stupid t-shirts and singlets; food stalls and touts for sexy lady massages (aka prostitutes) or regular massages-- and you only have a taste of what Khao San has to offer. The blasting music of competing bars was music to my ears.

After walking around for a while, we settled on a place just in front of the McDonalds because we had bargained a good price on buckets and shisha.

Within a few hours we were all basking in the spirit of Khao San (aka drunk). Even though Sang Som (Thai whiskey) is really sweet and pretty disgusting, it still does the trick. By the end of the night we had all purchased novelty bracelets such as 'I am lady boy' (mine), 'Up bum no baby' (Josh), 'I love dick salad' (Rich) and 'Love you long time' (Alexa). We also somehow playfully angered a little girl selling flowers who then started a hilarious feud with Josh.

To cap the evening, Josh even ate a scorpion!



I also took quite a shining to our waiter, Kumar, an 18-year old from Burma, who was a shisha wizard and a really good kid (I made sure to tell him numerous times during our stay in Bangkok).

The following day Bryan, Rich and I went to Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. We took a delightful ride on the Chao Phraya Express: a public boat taxi taking you to all the sites along Bangkok's main waterway, Mae Nam Chao Phraya.

It took us a while to actually find the entrance to the beautiful complex, but when we did it was well worth it.

The temple of the emerald Buddha or Wat Phra Kaew, while being Bangkok's most popular tourist destination is also the holiest site in Thai Buddhism due to the presence of the aforementioned emerald Buddha contained inside.

Construction started in 1782 during the reign of Rama I. After having seen so many temples in China, I didn't have any expectations, but I was pleasantly blown away.

The temple is one of the most colourful, ornate, and intricate buildings I have ever seen.

The detailed mosaics, interesting yakshas, nagas, human-bird hybrids and shimmering stupas are sights to behold.

Despite being forced to wear pants for modesty reasons in the sweltering heat and humidity, we still spent several hours exploring and taking pictures of this beautiful building.

From there we visited the Grand Palace, the former residence of the Thai monarchy. An opulent building conceptualized by British architects in 1882, now houses an antique gun collection and is flanked by bodhi trees and elephant statues.

After visiting this royal and holy splendor, we returned to WE and had our first 7-eleven beers of the day.

That evening we wanted to check out a professional Muay Thai (Thai boxing) match after a tremendous fried chicken feast at Kai Thort Jay Kee.

Unfortunately the tickets were quite expensive so we just opted to go to Khao San road again to visit Kumar and company.

The night culminated with Josh and Rich arguing on my behalf with a bouncer I had apparently given all my money to and who had kicked me in the stomach, or at least that's what I said.

The more likely story is that I in fact did not give him any money whatsoever and walked into a chair incurring my stomach tenderness.

I kept saying "I gave him everything", when I gave him nothing at all.

I'm an idiot.

The next two days were spent nursing our Khao San-induced hangovers during the day in front of the hostel, cracking open our first 7-eleven Chang beers in the late afternoon and then heading back to Khao San for some more partying.

Living the life indeed!

After the perpetual party that is the BKK, it was time to move south . We were going to Koh Samui for a few beach days before heading to Koh Pha-Ngan, home to the original and debaucherous full moon party.

Josh and I took a night train to Surat Thani, then caught a ferry to Koh Samui. Bryan and Rich would be flying directly to Samui and meeting us there.

Once there, we checked into the fanciest hostel I have ever seen called ibed (www.ibedsamui.com).

As luck would have it, we seemed to have arrived in Thailand at the end of the monsoon season and it rained like crazy for most of the day. I didn't even visit Lamai beach during our two days on the island!

Lamai beach is Koh Samui's second most popular beach, known for its golden sand, relaxing atmosphere and penis-shaped rock (sorry no pictures!)

With the rain not being conducive to beach life, we spent our days avoiding shrill-voiced women and lady-boys shouting massage at us.

Koh Samui, more than other places I visited in Thailand other than Bangkok, has huge amounts of white men parading around with a Thai woman or lady boy.

The lady boys range from regular, slightly hairy, blatantly obvious cross-dressers; to post-op, confusingly attractive women.

I gotta say, Thailand has great plastic surgeons!

While in Lamai, we frequented a nearby pool bar where we really couldn't figure out if our attractive hostess, Enjoy, had formerly been a man.

Her pool skills and connect-4 prowess made us have our doubts, but I'm still not 100% which chromosomes she has.

After 2 short rainy days it was already time to move on to another island. It was the full moon the following night and we were headed to Koh Pha-Ngan for some partying that only the original home of the full moon party could provide.

Bring it on!