On-board diary 1. 31 January

Today is the last day of the Chinese New Year, and in Phnom Pehn there's a lot of chinese descendents and the full city is awake. We are in the last bus to Poipet, the Cambodian side of the border with Thailand. Sin Town. Finally we could take a bus and so we still have the chance to get in time to Bangkok's airport to fly to the last country of the trip: Myanmar. Now is 8.35 am of 15th of February. In this following 24 hours, we will be in three different countries, leaving the poor Cambodia just to face the even harder reality of Myanmar. There's no joy anymore. While I was looking around when I entered the bus, I took a glimpse at one farang's newspaper just in the right moment: it seems the Junta has freed yesterday Aung San Suu Kyi, putting end to the last home detention this Peace Noble prize winner has suffered. Although this prize has been completely
perverted this year, this woman, the Lady, has been a light to Myanmar over the last decades. And now, after this brief introduction I will keep remembering those far days of the end of january.


After three days of no sleeping, 12 hours of non-stop drinking and dancing in the best party in the world, tons of stories, memorable tunes, a chemical burn in my face thanks to the gloomy paint, my favourite t-shirt redesigned, luckily finding Murat, Ilker and Basar in the middel of a crowded beach and the last Chang of the moment, at about 9 am we started our holy pilgrimage towards my long time desired bed. In that time, I really thought I was fucking cursed. 50 m. before entering the hotel and instantly fall asleep, a grotesque view appears in front of my eyes. I see Nadège leaving the hostel, walking up the uphill road with the most drunk man I've seen in times. I was quite ok by that time, tired but not very drunk, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. As we crossed, I asked her if she is really going with that guy, and she says me yes. No way. She looked pretty counscious. And she was even more than she looked like. The guy had a quite ugly cut in his
elbow, a lot of blood everywhere and an awesome melopea wich made him obey anything said by a beautiful woman. He spent all the luck of his life stumbling into her, and that is what eventually will save his left arm. We will never know. When I saw what was really happening, I felt I couldn't leave her alone dealing alone with such a problem and Murat and me took the motorbike and took him to the clinic. That guy was a fucking moron. He was so drunk that he didn't feel any pain at all, he didn't want to listen to us, nor the doctors, and he was refusing to believe his elbow tendon was completely cut and he could lose his left arm's mobility for the rest of his life if he didn't cooperate. Nothing could be done in Kho Pha-Ngan and he needed to be transferred by to Koh Samui's hospital in order to get the surgery he needed. Murat and me were holding him while the motherfucker only words were cigarreteeee light iiiit while looking dumbly to her, inside a medical clinic. I even asked the doctor to give him B12 and see his reaction to the events that were happening to him while he was almost passed out. This australian asshole didn't even told us his real name till the fourth time we asked threatening him with who knows what. He even jumped out from the taxi that was going to take him to the pier until Nadège entered first. It remind me a lot of my horses and the moment of putting them into the remorque. I hope he doesn't lose his mobility, Nadège doesn't deserve it, and I didn't deserve losing my sleeping time helping such a deaf dumbass.

Finally, after 4 days without the chance to sleep in a bed, I was about to catch one and have one of my most desired sleeps of my whole life. Again, for the third or fourth time, I was mistaken. The hut was full of european and turkish people and finding a place to rest was impossible. So I tried to sleep in a hammock next to the pool. Too much light, to much water to be able to do that. Instead, I stayed with Alba, Mario, and some turkish wich had already wake up talking about the previous night. By then, I had accepted already that I wasn't going to sleep. And then, one of the most funny and shocking moments of the trip occured. Alba and Mario were with me at the poolside, but the turkish were inside, and nobody but me reacted. A guy was drowning and everybody was looking at him fascinated. Just as in Germany with the tramway ride, me, the wasted one, was the only able to react. In a move the best Mitch Buccanan would have envied, I took of my t-shirt, threw it aside and jumped into the water with all my friend's eyes sring at me. It was so funny, yes, but I saved the guy. Although his answer was surprising even for me. I moved him, took his head out of the water and the reply I get is a what are you doing. What am I doing? WHAT AM I DOING? I'm saving your meaningless life, you bastard. In that moment I wasn't angry, just shocked. I got out the pool and sat again with my fellows, laughing and chatting about what had just happened. And then, two minutes later,  I look at the pool again and I see the same guy going exactly the same way. I exploded. Four days without proper sleeping (maybe just a couple of hours between the bus and ferry to the island), a hell trip, two crazy parties, an australian drunk, desinformation and saving a guy wich was about to make me save him again, I just didn't let him speak. The second he opened his mouth, possibly to thank me, wich I doubt because he was fucking wasted, I let my angry side to take control. I said to him in a very serious way to shut up and keep away from the pool while I was in it or getting a kick in his mouth. I wouldn't have had any problem to do it. I was still out of the water and in a privileged position to kick his face with the perfect angle. And surprisingly, it seems the guy understood that he wasn't in the proper state to move along the pool and he stayed, in complete silence, grabbed to the border for about two of the four hours I spent inside. A good guy. The pool was like heaven. All the hydratation provided allowed me to stay awake and alive for almost half a day more. When I
got out, half of my body was looking like a raisin and my back was burnt. It has been till now the one and only time, after that, I begun to use suncream.

I went to have lunch with the people to the restaurant next to the Cocohut complex, quite cheap and really tasty. A good padthai and red curry. The normal curry was ok. In the end, we ate there like three or four times during our stay in Koh Pha-Ngan.

And finally, after four days of wandering, redbull, ice coffee and possibly wasting the vitality of half a year, I could sleep. While all of the erasmus but Martín were on the rented motorbikes discovering the island, playing with monkeys and watching elephants, I was enjoying the best siesta of my life. 4 to 5 hours of pure and healthy body and brain relax. I could barely believe I was going to finally rest. In a bed. Rest in a bed. Awesome. Fuck, it has been almost 15 days since that day and I still remember that precise moment with extreme happyness. When I woke up I expected to see Mario and the others there with a place for me in the motorbike I paid. They weren't. Later they told me they weren't so far away that coming back to get me was stupid. I agree with them, specially because Martín was there eager to rent a motorbike also. And so we did. We got to Haad Rin and rented our first motorbike of the trip, a good training for the days about to come. We started driving towards the pier and more, we crossed one quarter of the island at night, amazing roads in the middle of a palmtree jungle, far away the extremely touristic spot of Haad Rin and places around to the deep of the island life. We also saw our first elephant of the trip, we couldn't enjoy a ride like the others as we were all the time driving in the dark, but anyway it was a nice evening. Now I would have skipped it, not because I didn't enjoy it, but for the lost day it meant. After doing a circle trip and arriving the town by the right after leaving it by the left, we were fucking hungry. Being fucking hungry has become the second costant of the trip. Fuck, we eat a lot. In the pier there was a scenario with a reggae thai group (pretty bad, but enjoyable), like 20 or 30 different food stands and a lot of locals dining all the family together. That was the place I was looking for since I arrived Thailand, some spot with more thai people than farangs, and trust me, that is not very easy to find. We got a beer and started to look around all the different crazy stuff we were
offered, we ate in a tapas style, taking one thing from one, from another, drinking Chang and enjoying the enviroment.
We weren't brave enough to try insects. We haven't in the whole trip so far. Without any doubt, the roasted squid was the best. Really really nice. And the ice coffee. Ice coffees, ice teas, fruit shakes. That is southeast asia. They are so good that they should deserve a post for themselves. In that place I heared from the first time a thai reggae song, something like du du du duduaaaaa wich in the end, after Chiang Mai, I really like. I will search for it in Eskisehir.

Back in the hostel, quite early, and after having the last Chang of the day laying on a beach wooden bed, I had my first night of proper rest since the 24th. 7 days after my departure, the stars and the planets aligned and let me enjoy the dreaming experience. My brain could finally rest. My body not so much, of all the beds in the hut, mine was the only one wich was as comfortable as a table. Well, you cannot have everything.