A few days after breaking my nose, we headed to Koh Tao, where we spent the majority of the time on the beach, laying around during the day and watching the fire spinners at the beach bar at night. Ashley, Jamie, and I returned to Koh Phangan for one night, going to the Half Moon Party in the jungle, and the next day we parted, as they continued to Bangkok and Cambodia, and I returned to Koh Tao to await my brother and cousins arrivals.
After being away from home for so long, there's a lot to say for seeing a familiar face, and particularly a familial face. It was great to be with my family, my blood again, and we spent 4 days in Koh Tao scuba diving every morning and relaxing on the beach the rest of the day. And of course, the nights were spent at the beach bar watching the fire spinners. We then headed to Koh Phangan, which was all beach, all parties, all the time. We returned to Bangkok, where we had one last night to spend together, as Itamar was flying home the next day, and we continued North to Chiang Mai after reuniting with Benami and Ashley.
Our first day in Chiang Mai we did the Flight of the Gibbons canopy tour, which after the 3rd or 4th zipline began getting a bit repetitive. Our second day, we took a tour that started with ATV riding in the jungle, followed by rafting down 5+ level rapids, which was quite a thrill. From there, we took a bus to Pai, and immediately rented motorcycles as that is the best way to see all of the surrounding villages. If I had to describe Pai in one word, that word would be 'green'. Lush fields and trees as far as the eye can see, and as far as our motorcycles took us on the smooth, winding roads. After two days of exploring all of the villages, waterfalls, and hot springs in the area, we left on a 2-day motorcycle journey. On our first day we rode straight through the morning into the early afternoon, stopping in the Karen Long Neck Village, and then continuing for as far as we could before the nightfall and rain made us stop at the nearest guesthouse. With owners that spoke no English, we resorted to using a children's English-Thai picture dictionary to order our dinner. But not reaching our planned destination left us with over 300km to cover the following day. Without taking any extraneous stops, we made it in time for Tamir to catch his flight to Bangkok, and for us to catch our bus into Laos, which I had been eager for for quite some time as all of my friends only had amazing things to say about it.
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