Mopeds are fun to ride, until your friends see you on one. That's the old saying about fucking fat chicks. But everyone here is doing it, and just like having that extra cushion for the pushin, it is a hell of a good time. Having rented bikes for a couple days, we got to see the entire island. It was difficult getting accustomed to it at first. I ride a Harley Sportster at home and the weight, power, and balance, are completely different. The tires are so skinny it gives you a sketchy feeling leaning hard into turns, and going downhill you constantly feel like you're going to fly head first over the handlebars. This is never the case on a Harley where you have a low center of gravity, wide tires, and endless power for hill climbs.

They sell half liters of gasoline on the street here. There are regular gas stations too, but then there are these full (or mostly full) glass bottles of refilled whiskey. I assume they're full of gasoline. Some of the stations say gasohol on the signs in front of the pump, but when you look at the bottles, they very in color from clear with a tinge of brown, to a dull red. And I mean they vary among a group of bottles liked up together. I never pic gases any street gas, mostly because it was twice the price. I suspect though that it was all straight up gas because when you rented you bike they came almost bone dry. You could also return them bone dry, but I bet 90% of tourists don't. So onto power of the $8/day bike rental, these rental shops were getting a shit ton of free gas off tourists. The bike I got was from a ship next door to the resort, and after seeing the scam (maybe that's too hard of a word), it made sense why every 100 meters thought out the entire island people are renting bikes. The shop we went to was 200 baht, but we saw some advertising 100 baht. I couldn't believe the 100 baht price. Felling it too good to be true. But after seeing the competitiveness of bike rentals, I get how it can be a popular business.

The nice thing about having your own scooter instead of taxi or tuk tuk rides is just how cheap it is. A taxi wanted 200 baht for the two of us. That's the same as a day's rental of a moped! And don't worry about a DUI. There aren't any cops. I was worried about keeping a clear head though, so riding into town and getting blitzed was out of the question. Riding during the day was marvelous though. Secret beaches, luxury resorts, beautiful national parks with waterfall and uncut tropical rainforests. I wish I would've brushed up on my plant and tree identification. The only ones I'm familiar with is teak, Palm, coconut palm, and that's it. Teak wood is everywhere in Thailand and owning a sailboat, I know it's value worldwide. Here you'll see huge beams of teak being used as footpaths. Regular handrails made with the nicest grain and beauty that only teak can provide. Our raft guide had a weathered teak paddle he steered our boat with, and I commented it was worth an easy $500 in the us.

Skipped a rave last night. Didn't feel up to another huge party like the full moon. Looked at some videos of the "waterfall party" on snapchat this morning and remembered that while I enjoy partying, listening to electronic music has never been one of my favorite things.