I’m On A Boat!

A few posts ago I mentioned how Stefan, an old friend from Kyoto and current Bangkok socialite, was more or less responsible for the fantastic time Herb and I had in the big city – thanks to his extensive personal connections and generous willingness to share them.

Time for a concrete example.

Remember Anders, the very-tall-guy who appeared towering over me in one of the Khao San photos? Well as it would happen, Anders and his friend Andy – two Swedish expats who’ve been living in Ko Tao for the better part of a decade – are at this very moment working hard to wrap up an exiting new business venture:

They’re building a yacht. A 4-storey 8-bedroom luxury party yacht.

The plan, once construction is finished sometime next February, is to sail from its current home in a shipyard just outside of Bangkok to its ultimate residence on the tropical island of Ko Tao.

The journey will be a four-day undertaking, punctuated by private parties at every city along the way. It’ll mark the start of a lifetime of dive trips and party cruises in Southern Thailand’s world-renowned crystal clear waters.

And guess who was invited to join when the Spirit of Siam (*patent pending) finally sets sail.

Something tells me I’ll be flying back to Bangkok regardless of where I find myself this February 😉

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For our first Monday afternoon in Thailand – my fourth day in the country – Herb, Stefan and I hopped in a cab out of the city for a small get-together: dinner and drinks onboard the still-under-construction Swedish party vessel. It was us, the two owners, and a few of their visiting friends from Norway.

We spent the afternoon smoking hookah, listening to music, and sharing stories until the time came for Anders to phone downriver:

“Bring out the jetskis!”

Unfortunately the rental company was *totally* not together, and it took them over an hour to get the jetskis to us – so by the time we were wrapping up our hour-long ride the sun had completely set (and not even everyone had gotten chance to ride).

Oh well, it was still LOADS of fun – especially zipping up and down some small canals and seeing the little riverside homes and local fishing boats…

…And taking hundreds of pictures and videos with our waterproof cameras.

Good thing Herb decided to go all-out at MBK! I told ya waterproof is the way to go 😉

Once we returned the jetskis, the owner of the place drove us back to the yacht on a little U-shaped contraption that’s pushed by a single jetski (does anyone know what these are called?)

But they loaded it down so heavily with falang that when they attempted to plow over a small chain of boueys, it took a nosedive and the boueys clotheslined all of us in the face.

Now THAT would be a lawsuit in the US! They didn’t even offer us a discount

Then, once we finished a tasty dinner of Thai chicken & rice back on the yacht, we split a couple of cabs back into town where Herb, Anders and I met up for another night of clubbing. Even on a Monday, Bangkok is packed to the gills.

We started our night at Narcissus (aka Narz) and ended up who-knows where. All I remember (now that I’m writing this 8 weeks late) is that we didn’t make it home until sunrise. As usual.

God I love Bangkok.

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Note: For those of you who didn’t get the “I’m On A Boat” reference, please treat yourself to
one of the greatest videos ever** 😆